If there were enough medical masks for everyone, that would obviate the need to socially distance and allow people to ride the subway.
50’s. When a light jacket feels nice.
Ugh, a story from Austin.
<<<“Y’all got your masks?” a man jokingly yelled at a group of college students standing in the water at Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park.
“Yeah, they’re invisible!” the women joked back, and the group laughed together.
No one at the park, including them, was wearing a mask or appeared to be keeping at least 6 feet of distance from others Saturday afternoon.>>>
I have to disagree. These people have really been affected. Economically. To say they are protesting so they can get their hair done is incredibly insensitive and dismissive. Sure, I would prefer to see them all responsibly wearing masks and social distancing while protesting.
I am not in their shoes. I’m in a heavy Covid area and have the good fortune of being financially able to stay home indefinitely. But I can appreciate that not everyone is so privileged.
I live in Central PA (my county is one of those allowed to partially open next Friday). Our two local hospitals have had COVID patients but not overwhelmed at all. One of the hospitals (the smaller) has started doing some elective procedures again, but the larger one has not, though they did announce testing of all women coming in to give birth.
Also, I was quite sick in early March (cough lingered about 5 weeks) and was able to get an antibody test last week. Came back negative.
Interesting article in today’s Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-03/california-mariposa-county-first-coronavirus-infections
One small county at the gateway to Yosemite and how they planned for this and now they quickly jumped into action with their first case. Within hours they had a list of 25 people the infected person had come into contact with. They tested quickly and what was so striking was that half of those 25 people tested positive. If they hadn’t had contact tracing ready to go those 13 people would have infected more people. It shows how quickly a rural community can go from no cases to multiple cases if not prepared.
I am seeing people begin to lighten up. I’m not seeing full on parties but more people meeting up for a walk, bike ride or afternoon at the beach. Both my S and DIL who haven’t been out of the house for over a month met up with a few friends at the beach. Both went to local spots that you can’t reach without a lot of effort so they were fairly empty and sat 6 feet apart. My H who has gone nowhere but work met a friend for tennis yesterday. That friend also had not been out in 6 weeks.
Tomorrow I’m driving my sister to an outpatient surgical center for a procedure. She did the pre-procedure appointment over zoom. It’s something she has had done in the past so it’s with a MD she has an ongoing relationship with.
News reports indicate that San Diegans have been observing the beach rules for the most part - keeping moving (no sitting etc.) and social distancing (including the surfers LOL). My husband is the one out and about - currently on his way to a farmers market. I’m mainly staying home so don’t have personal observations. I do have an order for pick up at the local mini-Target but will wait until tomorrow since it’s in our local beach community and i’m Sure it’s pretty busy there today.
Speaking of testing, when my husband had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital a week ago, several neighbors came outside to offer support. One neighbor gave me a hug. At the time, I knew I should have resisted, but was too upset to have the discipline to do so.
Yesterday she called me and told me she lost sleep worrying about forgetting about social distancing. Coincidentally she had an issue that required a visit to her doctor, and she was able to talk her doctor into giving her a test. She tested negative. She feels guilty about taking a test, but it gave her peace of mind. I actually forgot about it, but it was reassuring to know for sure she is negative.
Now we just have to wait to be sure my husband wasn’t exposed at the hospital.
As far as people protesting to get their hair done–if you haven’t read the signs or heard the complaints, you are not paying attention. Plenty of people made that or similar comments.
Here’s another thing–people whose jobs are closed down for this, can get unemployment. If their jobs open up, they have to go back whether it’s safe or not, and unemployment disappears. Those folks with their guns and Confederate and Nazi flags are not , by and large, the lower level blue collar workers. They are the ones who want those workers back and available to them.
@suteiki77 , the German death rate remains low both in relation to the population, and in comparison to other countries with a similar number of cases. However, it is not low in relation to what the death rate is supposed to be in controlled situations - it’s at 4 percent, much higher than the purported “between 1 and 0,1 percent”.
The answer is probably test, trace and isolate, right from the beginning and NEVER abandoned, even during lockdown. While Germany is probably still undercounting cases, too, other countries are MASSIVELY undercounting. (And no, Germany is not undercounting the dead. Unlike in other countries in Western Europe, the all around death rate is barely moving from the 5 year average. If the death rates were like Italy or the UK, they’d have to hide around 30,000 corpses by now. That is not happening).
There were care home outbreaks, too, despite early lockdowns, though not as many. I believe that was simply because case numbers were never as high as in other countries (again, they look as high, but aren’t) and under better control so fewer staff got infected and brought it in.
Germany also has a culture of generous sick leave, lots of doctor visits and early hospitalisation. A better safe than sorry approach. Since a high proportion of infected people were known to the health authorities before they felt very ill, they could be properly monitored, admitted earlier and put on oxygen. Apparently there is reason to believe that early non invasive oxygen works better than late intubation and ventilation in the ICU.
If you look at the graphs and curves on worldometer, you can see all numbers falling steeply. There will be cautious reopening. Maybe up to Swedish levels even. I believe Germany has some responsibility to jump start Europe’s economy, the only large country that has a fighting chance to do it safely right now.
I assure you it’s not food, or general health - Germans eat as much junk as other Europeans, certainly more than people in France, Spain and Italy, are as obese and diabetic as the British and their vitamin D levels as low.
It’s dumb luck that some aspects of German health care (which are often criticised) have helped combat the epidemic. I am so glad German hospitals could help out admitting Italian and French patients, too.
I can assure you though, no one is feeling smug or safe yet. Like every one else in Europe and North America, Germans are wiping down their kitchen counters, washing their cracked hands, wrestling with their kids homeschooling, staring at the news and waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Garland, many, many people don’t qualify for unemployment. Independent contractors. Some types of immigrants. Self-employed. I bet 99% of the people advocating for continued shut-down are getting paid regularly right now, or have another steady source of income. Millions do not, so maybe you could show a little more concern for them? If you seriously think “unemployment disappears” soon with 35 million people unemployed this week, you aren’t paying attention.
Except that it never happened. The WaPo reporter apologized for misrepresentation after the WaPo’s own fact-checker gave her tweet pinnochios.
A better response is that there is no consensus on what to change it to.
I would submit that its closer to 2/3rds, 1/3 on the left and 1/3 on the right. 
The getting the hair done thing wasn’t a guess or conjecture. I live in Michigan and you literally had protesters on camera telling people to reopen so they can get their hair done.
This isn’t a matter of opinion and I didn’t say they were all protesting for that reason. But there is a sizable portion of our citizens who find the lock down inconvenient, not detrimental to their livelihood, and are pushing to reopen because they’re inconvenienced.
You had people on this very thread talk about how people can’t mow their lawns or get seeds - neither of which are true by the way - and that they want the state to reopen so they can get these things.
THIS…THIS…THIS…
Take my hair dresser for example. She has run her own business for 35 years. The last 10 years she has her own shop with no other stylists. She has one customer at a time. If she is running late or the next appointment is early there would be someone waiting…and that area is at least 10 feet from the work station. She has been unable to get a single, solitary cent from the SBA. She’s in the queue - you know like "we are taking applications in the order received, you are # 100,998…we are now serving #15’.
This person simply can not survive without restarting her income string. So yes, I would protest for her right to open.
If you are sitting at home and getting paid, AND you argue your spouse shouldn’t have to go back to work because of your health issues - but should instead continue to receive UI then I can’t roll my eyes hard enough to match the level of privilege you claim.
Some people are protesting because they want to be able to provide services and earn money. Some people are protesting because they want to be able to receive services. Some people are protesting because they don’t think anyone should receive unemployment benefits. Some people are protesting because they want the opportunity to openly carry weapons. I’m sure there are additional reasons.
If you’re at a protest holding a sign saying “I want a haircut” then I am justified that you are protesting because you want your hair done. I have seen pictures of numerous different people holding signs saying just that.
Then it sounds like the answer is expanding unemployment and who can receive it…
Oh, wait, that’s too difficult. So is testing, So is giving people paid sick leave and health insurance. So let’s pretend the problem is the shutdown…not the virus…and get everyone arguing about that. Also protests featuring treason flags and guns are a great look. Maybe the people who don’t respect our laws…should leave?
“Everyone must eat ice cream” - leads to protests.
“No one can eat ice cream” - leads to protests.
Some will have legit reasons on both sides (health, jobs).
Then there will be those who protest just because they hate having their “rights” infringed upon and their brains start coming up with how awful it is to have to or not be able to indulge.
Seems to be a human trait. I’m still undecided if the US has a higher amount of that trait or not.
ps Ice cream was chosen at random. One can insert something else benign if they are appalled at that choice!
pps I’ll still make judgment calls for the ______ folks who choose to bring guns, swastikas, or similar to either side of the protest. If I know whose business they are with, that company has lost my business. Protest if you feel you must - that’s a right I can support. The “he man,” “start a war” mentality I will never support - not even in peace time.
We are in Chicagoland.
None of the hospitals in the county have been overwhelmed.
One hospital I’m aware of has a field tent set up in order to separate C19 triage from the regular ER.
The newspaper article said the tent is to help the general public feel more comfortable about coming to the hospital for non-C19 emergencies & other non-C19 care.
My eye doctor is seeing a limited number of patients. His wife helps with the office work & called me last week to ask if I wanted to schedule an appointment.
Does anyone have info on whether there have been cases or deaths from the religious gatherings - church services, etc - that some insisted must be done in person? The story made the news back when the shut down started.
I’m not quite sure how to google search for info or even if anyone collected info.
I’ve been directed to this one:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/us/bishop-gerald-glenn-coronavirus.html
“A Virginia pastor who defied warnings about the danger of religious gatherings during the pandemic and vowed to keep preaching “unless I’m in jail or the hospital” died over the weekend after contracting Covid-19, his church said.”
Are there others?
(This one is near where my FIL lives. He’s very actively trying to avoid the virus being 91 and with significant health issues.)