Just one example
A family of jerks in Pasadena had a birthday party in early April. Other scum attended and a coughing jerk ended up spreading coved-19 to five diagnosed attendees and other attendees who got sick but were not diagnosed. I wonder how many will die because Contagion McLethal had to have their illegal party? https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/10/us/california-birthday-party-coronavirus/index.html
Pages back, someone posted the unemployment rate & IIRC, concluding a lot of people are still working.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday that was critical of the unemployment numbers.
Something along the lines of many people who were laid off or furloughed are not actively looking for work (and therefore not counted as unemployed — is that right?).
And the guest said it’s important to factor in that for many of those laid off or furloughed, the job they think they will be returning to will not be there.
It stuck with me, because yep, I think I’m one of those people. Laid off. Not really looking for work. Not really expecting my job to be there when we get to near-normal.
Yeah, not technology true, yet. But he did say in his presser yesterday some regions could possibly go to Phase 1 (manufacturing and construction opening) if benchmarks are reached.
Going to listen to his presser in a few minutes and see what he says about it today.
@gwnorth, thanks for posting about that. Here is a link: https://apnews.com/1e7d5980b2429ea7dd4075cefa526555?fbclid=IwAR3H_JcSlHqkMg5g-yIy2GKmJEhpuqf-0A-TyebfwjPd83vV9iOZnunLQXs
I posted this on my Facebook page, primarily for a friend in Massachusetts who is just livid that the Maine governor is not welcoming out-of-state visitors with open arms this summer. Well, gee, maybe if people could follow rules, she could try. But I could see Acadia National Park being overrun just as GSMNP is now. 
Some people throw all caution to the wind. But, while they may increase the spread of the virus, and are certainly among the more visible, they are unlikely to be the majority. Remember that, even before there were governmental orders to tell people to stay home, etc., many people had already stopped eating at restaurants, many businesses with lots of employees who can work remotely told employees to work remotely if they can, etc…
Cuomo will have more tomorrow regarding PAUSE but regions still must have the benchmarks required to go to Phase 1.
@MaineLonghorn - I have a favorite saying about people like your friend in MA, but TOS doesn’t allow for me to post it.
I saw this picture posted on another forum.
Yikes!
Ha, @emilybee! Yeah, I was surprised at him. He was annoyed at ME for saying I was kind of looking forward to a summer without hordes of tourists. He got kind of nasty. Oh, well, at least I know he and his wife won’t be able to come for a visit soon. 
I must admit, I just don’t get it. Yeah, it’s all lousy. Yeah, no one likes SAH, social distancing, or guidelines - everyone wishes we weren’t in the positions we are today.
All I see are lots of people acting worse than a 5 year old. Americans are certainly exceptional, though - in not being able to control their behaviors for the welfare of themselves and particularly for others. We (the collective we) are total failures when it comes to civic responsibilities.
Wow, a sobering story written by a woman with COVID-19. She’s 52 with no underlying medical conditions (although she used to be a smoker, so I guess people will latch onto that as to why it can’t happen to them). It’s been quite awhile for this lady, and she was admitted to the hospital on Thursday.
There’s good evidence that current smokers are less likely to be hospitalized with covid-19.
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202004.0540/v1
The abstract says that “In this scenario, we hypothesise that nicotine, not smoking, could ameliorate the cytokine storm and severe related inflammatory response through the cholinergic-mediated anti-inflammatory pathway.”
Perhaps a comparison with those who vape nicotine (rather than smoke) may be worth looking into for this purpose.
On the other hand, using a highly addictive drug for this purpose is not a particularly attractive prospect.
Here’s my position - which seems to be shared by the majority of people in my community. Open things back up safely where that can be done. Practice hygiene and social distancing. Wear the masks when you will be close to another person- or even potentially close. Don’t go to bars, concerts or sporting events yet. Create office environments with much fewer touchpoints and meetings. Embrace work from home to a large degree. Let people earn a living working with the appropriate safeguards.
It would be a nice touch if we could each take responsibility for ourselves and stop imposing our own personal fears on everyone else.
Edited
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You know your life is boring when your big family outing is to drive to see a fire hydrant painted & decorated to look like Oscar the Grouch (and wormy!) in his trash can. It was seriously cute though!
I am amazed at our city stats. By most accounts, we should be terrible. We are a city of 40-45K with a high percentage on welfare and elderly. Most workers are in manufacturing/farming. Very few can WFH. We are not a bunch to follow rules. At best, I’d say 50% wear masks in Walmart and fewer in other stores. We are in terrible health. I work for the second largest employer and at our wellness screening, they said over 90% were overweight with high blood pressure or diabetes.
And yet, we only have 39 cases and 1 death - a woman in AL who was ~90. Supposedly, there was an outbreak in that AL center, but no further deaths. Last I heard, we only had 4 in ICU. Granted, we are an hour from the nearest interstate and have no commercial airport, but we are on a direct Amtrak line to DC/philly/NYC that is popular with locals. A few weeks ago, we had 20 something cases and I figured it was low due to lack of testing and the figures would explode. But not only has that not happened, still just 1 death?
Not that I’m complaining!!! It’s just a head scratcher.
Of course it will happen here too. Those who think re-opening the economy will somehow get us out of this economic mess will be shocked when we’re repeatedly asked to hunker down under renewed quarantine restrictions. We will never fully re-open until there’s a vaccine. This thing isn’t going anywhere.
A fascinating article from THE CITY, a New York City publication, compares covid-19 rates in two adjacent NYC neighborhoods, Flushing, a majority Asian neighborhood, and Corona, a majority Latino neighborhood. Both are low income, with many residents living in crowded housing. But Corona is one of the worst hit neighborhood in the US, whereas Flushing is much less affected.
The article claims that early in the pandemic, Flushing residents were hearing from their relatives in East Asia that this was serious and they should take precautions. As a result, well before New York closed, people in Flushing were wearing masks and gloves. Stores were handing out masks at the door and requiring people to wear them, using disinfectants, installing plexiglass. Workers started to work from home if they could. In late March some Chinese groceries and other businesses had to close because workers refused to come to work. Flushing has one of the lowest rates of covid+ in the city.
Their neighbors in Corona, not having Asian relatives warning them of the disaster to come, did none of these things. Needing money, they continued to work. Like most other non-Asians in America, they didn’t wear masks. They live in crowded housing that makes the virus spread more easily. The coronavirus hit Flushing like a typhoon.
https://thecity.nyc/2020/05/the-life-and-death-divide-between-flushing-and-corona.html
What an unfortunate name for a community…
One local city with a very large Chinese (American and non-resident immigrant) population cancelled their January Lunar New Year celebration - way before any official steps were undertaken here.
I’m just tired of people not even doing the simplest of things, wearing a mask. I live in an area with a mix of high-rise buildings and single family homes. Our sidewalks are narrow. It’s almost impossible to go for a walk and not pass people. Most of the people I see are not wearing masks, and there are nasty discussions on ND about whether wearing masks is necessary.
In my high-rise apartment building, we’ve been told that employees and vendors must wear masks. Residents have been asked to wear masks in public areas. None of this is happening. I saw 2 package delivery people with their masks under their chins. I saw maintenance workers, including their supervisor, not wearing masks while working in a public area of the building. Residents routinely are not wearing masks in elevators.
If people can’t even do this much, what does that say for what will happen when we open things back up.
People aren’t being very good about wearing masks while out walking on the sidewalks or parks, but they* are* being pretty good about jumping into the street or even crossing over to the other side of the street or stepping off the path. Some people have masks with them that they put on when people approach. I think we’ve got a long way to go to normalizing wearing masks.