Custodians testing positive at UT. https://thedailytexan.com/2020/05/19/10-ut-austin-custodians-test-positive-for-covid-19
Of course. And that is without students on campus. And some custodians will test positive regardless of working in offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, or anywhere else.
@roycroftmom, I was referring to this line in another individual’s post: “A few volunteered that the whole crisis ‘could have been a hoax’ - not that there isn’t a dangerous disease, but that the danger has been severely oversold down here.”
Agree. Like it or not - the country has reopened in every single state. And the phases are going to come fast and furious. Same in Europe. So everyone will need to make their own decisions on risk, follow local rules and complain to local government if they don’t like the local rules. The Ship has sailed. Hopefully we can stop the hand wringing about who’s wearing masks and who’s not. Who’s going outside and who’s not. Its going to be a very very long ride.
Thank you for your response
Surprise, it’s the business owners who are nervous about the reopening.
“We needed our Thrasher’s,” their mom, Dawn Robertson, explained. “We know an employee at the Wawa who just died of this. So it hits close to home. But we needed this break today.”
“We are happy to have everything go back to normal, of course,” he said, while serving my son a ball of fried ice cream soaked in chocolate syrup. “But we are also scared of it. I’m just curious what’s going to happen in two weeks. And what this means for our summer.”
I asked him what the mask ratio was. I was seeing about half the crowd in masks on Sunday.
“Nah. I’d say it’s 10 and 90,” he said. “Only 10 percent are wearing masks.”
Aksu wasn’t the only business owner I spoke to who was withholding unbridled joy. He’s worried that it may be too soon and a second wave of infection could shut down the summer traffic he’s counting on.”
@Nhatrang ACA plans can be very expensive, especially the older you are. My husband was laid off last fall and we lost our employer provided health insurance.
Continuing our coverage thru cobra and purchasing our state’s unsubsidized ACA coverage would have been roughly the same, $2200 per month, although the ACA coverage could have been eligible for tax subsidies in 2020.
These subsidies would need to be paid back if he got a new job with a salary above subsidy limits, which of course we were hoping for.
In the end, we opted for a private, short term indemnity type plan, allowed by our state for 90 days, perhaps longer in other states. It cost around $300 per month. Pre existing conditions over the last 5 years (we were lucky, nothing serious and expensive on that score) and preventive ACA type care were not covered, it was a just catastrophic type plan to protect our savings and cover expenses in the event of serious illness. We had to buy hubby’s blood pressure medication out of pocket, around $100 for 90 days supply.
We had planned to switch to a more comprehensive type of private indemnity plan after the 90 days was up, costing around $1000 per month, but did not need to, since hubby landed a new job with health coverage.
Your friend’s kids could eligible for low/no cost coverage thru CHIP/Medicaid or subsidized coverage thru the ACA. There are definitely options which may be affordable/subsidized depending on the amount of family income.
Especially with covid 19 circulating, it would seem prudent to at least get some catastrophic coverage.
The ship is definitely on its way and folks can decide to hop aboard or not. We’ll find out in approx a month or a little more if there is a storm (based upon contagious period and how long before things tend to get bad afterward).
Not sure why the hand wringing thing got added to your post TBH. Folks not wanting to get sick will still not want to get sick and speak up. Folks thinking it’s overblown will still think it’s overblown while the seas are calm and will speak up. Nothing will change on the two “teams.”
Yes, I should have quoted the post.
That was my post, recounting what was told to me at the gym today. Is it really so unreasonable to feel that the danger has been “severely oversold” down here in Palm Beach County?
Recall that we were told that this is the worst pandemic in 100 years at least, and in the early stages supposed experts threw around fatality figures of 3-4% with potentially millions dead in the United States alone.
This was a micro comment about what some people are saying down here. I looked at the numbers for our county a few days ago. About 850 hospitalized total over three months, with about 275 deaths, a hundred of which were in nursing homes. Hospitalizations for the general public have therefore been less than 0.06% of the county’s population, and fatalities across all age and risk cohorts so far have been less than 0.02%.
If you exclude the special nursing home situation - and I agree more could and should have been done to protect this obviously vulnerable population - you are looking at practically 0.01% of the county population who have died.
The social pact does not extend to literally stopping normal human life for these sorts of risks. And normal human life has been drastically impacted these past eight weeks or so. No, this has not been a disease that affects everyone equally, and it is pretty clear who face the most severe risks. At the outset, a better strategy in my opinion would have been to protect the vulnerable to the extent we reasonably could, but that is no longer an option. The least the vulnerable can do now is display some gratitude.
Then they can choose not to reopen. The dog groomers, landscapers, cleaning people etc… could all choose not to reopen (since they are not essential businesses) until there is a vaccine and minimum risk. Businesses like mine that have everyone working from home can choose not have us back until 2021 or 2022 when there is a vaccine and little/no risk. But if they choose to reopen, then I’m going to have to make a decision if I want to lose my job or if they risk is low enough for me to personally be comfortable. I’ll have to consider my mortgage too - like others.
@MomofJandL: To be clear-I didn’t accuse any poster of anything. Another poster referenced “people” who believe that NO social distancing at all is needed, and we can just go “back to normal” because we are tired of this. Those are the people who are engaging in magical thinking-that if we just pretend it doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t.
This is where the problem lies. So many won’t have a choice. They’ll be pawns in this game of chance.
In an ideal world they’d have the option of staying on unemployment if they choose to shelter with the requirement that they keep sheltering rather than heading out to enjoy themselves on free money. Same with businesses being able to keep money if they choose to remain closed for safety.
As is typical in life, the wealthy have choices. Those not wealthy are often expendable/replaceable pawns.
I don’t know why the thought, “landlords should charge less rent” or the NYS governor giving a blanket “rent free” holiday is considered a good thing. What about the landlord? My mother is 87 years old. She and my late father were self employed throughout their lives. They acquired a few rentals over the years to give them an income during retirement since they had no private pension or NYS taxpayer funded pension. Now her tenants have been told they don’t have to pay. What about the landlord who relies on this for income? What about the insurance on the home due? The maintenance expenses? The property taxes? Mortgages? Why is the landlord assumed to be some wealthy lord who can give up their income? This policy leaves an 87 year old is without income and many, many others just like her who rely on this income.
The New York State nursing home debacle is finally improving. Hospitals are keeping Covid patients until they test negative. It has been heartbreaking to hear the continued news of people left in nursing homes with Covid19 or being returned there once diagnosed, but not needing hospital care at that time. This NYS failure has not been reported to the extent it should be.
We own 3 commercial rental properties. Two are paying (one is essential business and open, the other closed but has continued to pay). The third is one of a large restaurant chain and they sent us a rent check of only 30% of what they are obligated to pay, along with a letter that essentially said “they would let us know” when they decide to pay the full amount. They have been open for take out, and now can open according to the local regulations. I don’t have high hopes they will make it, but nevertheless am crossing my fingers.
We are taking a hit, but can manage. I know other people who depend on those rents to pay their bills. I can understand both sides of this bad situation.
@Nrdsb4 , I know you didn’t (although it wasn’t clear at first, which started the discussion), but other posters have on this thread, and I’m not going to drag that back up. Just wanted to clarify that it is a TOS violation to make that accusation at another poster - comment on the post, not the poster.
BTW my hand-wringing comment was about the multiple observations upthread about, in general, (deliberately not calling any one poster out) “if only xx% of people are going to go to restaurants/bars/salons opening them won’t keep them in business” as though that were a reason not to open them. It’s hard to predict what people will do. Many businesses have PPP forgivable loans to help get them through, maybe a slow trickle in the early days of recovery will get stronger once people see the sky is not falling. Or maybe the sky will fall, we’ll see.
These are shops on the boardwalk in Ocean City. Not dog groomers or cleaning people, or landscapers, etc.
They understand that by opening up now , that if they have to close down again in the height of the tourist season, they will be royalty screwed. There will be no survival for them if that happens.
I’m sure seeing little social distancing and little mask wearing they think their fears are likely to be realized.
The whole country is being penny wise pound foolish with their health and economically.
The virus has not gone away. The virus is still spreading. There is still no therapeutic remedy, there is still no vaccine. It will spread in other places, just like it did the North East.
In the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, places that did not have bad outbreaks in the first smaller wave, were the places that got walloped in the second, much bigger wave.
@OneMoreToGo2021 , I appreciate reading about what you hear and observe in Florida, just as I hope other folks appreciate reading about what I hear and observe in Wisconsin. At the least, reading this forum is interesting; optimally, it helps me make decisions about how careful to continue to be when going out in public and traveling. Spoiler: I will continue to be very careful because there are lots of people not wearing masks or thinking that they can dispense with precautions because they believe their risk of getting infected is or might be low.
I could be wrong, but I think most people understand that we cannot stay home forever. That at some point, we have to gradually test the waters. I’m lucky-I can decide to be really cautious and never leave my house, or I can venture out to my comfort level. It’s true that there are people who would prefer to stay home because they are vulnerable or live with someone vulnerable, but they cannot. I feel for those people.
Had we known COVID was coming, we would not have bought a fixer upper, at least not without selling our current house first. As it is, we can’t change history. We have to finish the remodel so that it is at least habitable and get our current house ready for sale. I’ve been able to do a fair amount of stuff online, but there comes a time when you have to go look at stuff in person before you commit your money to it. Therefore we took a day trip to Houston to look at counter top material (and never really had to come within 20 feet of another person). I’ve ventured out quite a bit more this week to make selections. I wear my mask and steer clear from people who apparently don’t believe or care that getting too close to other people can put either of them at risk.
I’m sure there are those who think I’m putting my safety at risk just to avoid financial pain. Others who see me in my mask probably think I’m being a “sheep” by believing in those idiot scientists and acting on their advice. Meh. I get that we have to consider our geographic locations and personal circumstances when we make our choices.
I think MOST people care about their own safety and that of others, and act accordingly, though not identically. But let’s also admit there are a fair amount of people who are behaving in ways that could put a lot of other people at extreme risk, simply because the reality of COVID is very inconvenient to them. I’m not talking about the people who have no choice but to go back to work. Some just decide that they are willing to take a calculated risk to do x, y, or z. Still others have decided that the whole thing is baloney and there is nothing to risk. If the cost was borne only by them, it would be one thing. The problem is that they will take others down with them.
Everyone is saying my state will pay dearly for opening up the way we have. I fear they are right, but I’d really be happy if it turned out that the worriers got it all wrong.
Had to do a target run. Everyone is wearing masks for the most part. Was pretty crowded though. They STILL dont have toilet paper. What is more pressing for me right now is finding household /kitchen cleaner. Not sure when I will see that again. There were selling packets of masks though. In the same shopping center TJ Maxx waS now open . It seemed somewhat busy. One of the restaurants that did an OK business before this (mexican) is able to put tons of tables in their parking lot. They are offering live music and are probably doing better now than before. I feel bad for those places in crowded cities that wont be able to offer outdoor seating.