You’re actually comparing haircuts and watching sorts in person to protests against killing by cops and speaking out against racism?? I’d put the latter more in an essential category, not haircuts and being a sports spectator.
The reality is that unfortunately all will be vectors for spreading Covid-19.
There are a lot of activities I’d like to do but am currently unable to legally do because of covid-19. I’d place the importance of all of these activities ahead of mass looting, burning and rioting. I’d also place them ahead of blocking roadways with marches or with vehicles to purposely block others.
I’m all for peaceful protests at the appropriate location without violence and illegal activity.
Either way the clock is ticking. Either this widespread social activity will cause a drastic uptick in cases and deaths or we should be able to open up for all other legal activities. We should know soon.
My friends in health care are encouraging me to schedule any elective procedures or screening now- no waiting, no crowds, open schedules for most providers.
This makes sense. If things go south, it won’t look pretty in oodles of places. If not, no harm done.
As I noted on the May thread, I had a dental appointment (routine cleaning) last week. My original appointment was scheduled for the first or second day the clinic was closed because of the pandemic, and the rescheduled appointment was on the day after the clinic reopened. I’m glad to be done with the cleaning, and I didn’t mind being a “guinea pig” for the new process.
Northern New England.
My mother ran out of some basics, so I did a grocery run for her this morning. Lots of items in stock with limit of one per shopper/household group: flour, yeast, tissues, toilet paper, paper towels. Not optimal but nice selection of fresh meats, did not see limits. Store was quiet this Monday morning around 8:30 am, most aisles empty, occasionally shared one-way aisle with another shopper. Only one person without a mask – staff member stocking.
My mother’s apartment building is still restricted to emergency non-resident entry only. She comes down to the entry to meet me with her shopping cart, I fill it up from my car while she stands back, we shout “love you!” and off I go. She occasionally sees a physical therapist she remembers from VNA coming to see other residents, building staff pretty much daily and very scrupulous about distancing, but very very low overall movement.
Traffic on roads has picked up in the last couple of weeks. Both husband on work commute and I around town noticed. Local stores have done some phased reopening, including curbside pickup and shop-by-appointment options.
Husband had it. He tested positive at the start of April and tested positive for antibodies a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t been tested for either disease or antibody and would love to find a reliable antibody test. And I’m really looking forward to see the longer-term data about immunity, reinfection, possible damage. Am I immune? If I am, can I still spread it around? I’m confident that someone here will post something that leads me to an answer if there is one.
This tells me that Tennessee is doing a fine job testing. Or maybe they’re not testing nursing homes and prisons where there are a lot of as-yet-unidentified cases. In any case, it makes no sense to compare fatality rates of identified cases as if there were no unidentified cases.
Covid, by anyone’s reckoning, has infected a lot more than 1.7 million Americans.
Lol the thought of anyone cheating under these circumstances…
Regarding why plumbers might be more susceptible, my dh has always said that to be a plumber, you have to have a fairly high tolerance for yuck. Maybe there’s less hand washing or other hygiene concern in a public-health-relevant way.
@MomofJandL am I reading this correctly? Your mom can’t start rehab until she has a “positive” Covid test? Around here, if you have a positive Covid test, you are isolated until you have a negative test.
@OneMoreToGo2021, I see what Levitt’s model is, but I don’t see what his theory is. Does he think that shutdowns make no difference?
An honest question. How many people do you honestly feel would have died in the U.S. if we did nothing and went about our business as usual?
For comparison purposes we currently have 106,000 deaths in 3 months WITH extreme social distancing, SAH orders, non-essential businesses stopped, mask wearing, hand sanitizing, etc…
@rosered55 - I feel your pain. My friend died of the coronavirus almost two months ago now. The SIP orders have prevented me from visiting my new grandson. And I lost my job (temporary furlough - just hoping that the “temporary” part is true!)
I don’t know if my coping skills are that great - but I am doing better now. I’ve always been a hypochondriac, and to be honest, that’s been the hardest part for me, especially since my friend’s death was pretty awful.
This is what helps me:
-zooming with my work friends and my extended family. I’ve seen more of my brother and sister in the past few months than I ever have.
I remember a huge push for rubella vaccinations when I was a kid. The Rubella Umbrella, they called it. There were tons of ads.
Back then they only pushed to vaccinate people who were at risk for bad results. Nowadays, vaccine experts and epidemiologists prefer the approach of vaccinating everyone who could spread the dangerous disease, even if they themselves are not at big risk.
I’m not so sure we will see much of a link from the protesters and the spread of CV-19. All of the protests are outside, 90% of the people are wearing masks, and they are not touching things used by other protesters.
If the protests were indoors and people didn’t wear masks, might be a different issue.
Thank you for this suggestion! We love playing games in our family and have been trying to figure out how to play Code Names or other games with extended family online. Will try this out.
I agree. We haven’t seen huge outbreaks from beaches being open, and the beachgoers weren’t even wearing masks, so I don’t expect huge outbreaks from this.
Friends of mine are protesting. They’re wearing masks, and trying to stay far from others. If you look at videos of protesters (not the violent ones, but the majority of the people, who are just expressing their anger, grief and desire for justice) they’re mostly standing six feet apart or more.
People who were arrested are likely to get covid, though, because it’s rampant in jails. Plus jails are indoors, and people are packed close.
You must be seeing different pictures then me because I’m seeing lots of people without masks. Also remember masks don’t stop the transmission 100%. They are supposed to be used in conjunction with social distancing and that is not happening in the protests. I fully expect to see outbreaks, not just in the U.S. but in cities in other countries where the protests have spread. The pictures coming out of Quebec, the province with the highest case numbers in Canada, are particularly worrisome to me (though not loving the images in Toronto either).
Don’t forget medical care advances now vs the late 60s. How many would be dead now (or alive then) if medical care were similar?
And yes, back then people didn’t get as “shy” when people died. My grandmother told me it was common for people to lose babies and youngsters - it was rare to have a family who didn’t have at least one life lost before their “time.” Since that era, life has changed and we know it doesn’t have to be common. Why would we want to revert back?
Picking just one topic, many people say, “I don’t know why we need car seats (or seat belts) - I survived without them and so did all of my friends!” Well, yeah, you’re here to say that. What about those born the same year as you who aren’t here to speak up for themselves? They’d probably like to be alive enjoying life too.
One big difference between protests and riots vs beaches? In the former people tend to be speaking loudly or shouting - sending more of the virus into the air. I haven’t seen that happening in beaches.
Masks help, but mainly if the wearer has the virus - not if someone else unmasked has it. Many shouting have even pulled theirs down to shout. Uh, that doesn’t help.
Time will tell. The “experiment” is in progress with many data points whether we like it or not.