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Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Shelia, I've been sick for going on three weeks now.
I wish I knew what I have, but when I called about getting a test run I was told my city/state here in the good 'ole US of A doesn't have any. (At that time)
Since then, I have recalled and was told unless I traveled recently OR have had direct contact with someone who has already tested positive I don't meet the criteria to get tested.
Since I'm in the very high-risk group, as are 3/4 of my household you'd think they would at least want to see me... NOPE. (They had yet to have a KNOWN case here in town at this point. 2 weeks later we have over 12 in town and more in the towns near us.)
I was told that unless I had trouble breathing to just self-care at home. With my Dad who has end-stage COPD, my three-year-old and a partner with severe asthma who works in the food industry, He can't get excused from work as they are now considered "essential workers" unless I or someone in the house tests positive. So, while he may not have it, or might be Asymptomatic, he's out there making food for people, covered in my germs... >.>

So, I'm fairly sure that we have a lot more cases than we know about, people are sick and people are dying and it's being attributed to just about anything else but what it is. Some experts put the numbers of each at about 10x higher than reported here in the states.

This really raises my hackles.

While it's true 80% of the population will probably contract this, and only a small number will have serious issues from it. I can say, that I have every symptom they tell you to look at for. And I feel like death warmed twice.
My advice is to not be "that guy" and STAY HOME!

I won't get into politics because I can't even pretend to be nice about my views anymore. Charity, in this regard, went out the window last week.

At this point, I just want to feel human again, and I want TP and flour and I want everyone to stay healthy. PLEASE.

XOXO TBL
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I just found out that one of my wife’s coworkers has tested positive and is now feverish. There’s a high chance that my wife was exposed before they started working from home. Some of my kids have very mild coughs, so I’m getting nervous to say the least.
 
I just found out that one of my wife’s coworkers has tested positive and is now feverish. There’s a high chance that my wife was exposed before they started working from home. Some of my kids have very mild coughs, so I’m getting nervous to say the least.
OH NO! I will keep a candle lit for you guys. For all of us really...
These are very trying times. :( Stay safe man.
XOXO TBL
 
Damn Dev. Be well.

Unlike mot y'all, I'm still out and about due to my job. I am spending a lot of time disinfecting restrooms and running all over parks because people still need at least one outlet before stir crazy sets in. I'm also flagged as an Essential Worker, so no matter the emergencies I'm out in some form doing something for the area. Nothing hit in the local area yet, but we're waiting. Expecting lockdown's soon but not sure how much it'll effect me. Depending on what happens I'm likely to still be out there.

Traffic has improved considerably though. Which makes my job easier as a whole.
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
I just found out that one of my wife’s coworkers has tested positive and is now feverish. There’s a high chance that my wife was exposed before they started working from home. Some of my kids have very mild coughs, so I’m getting nervous to say the least.

A mild cough is nothing to be concerned about. At the moment authorities worldwide won't test unless you get a fever. That is the symptom that warns if you have the virus. But do self-isolate just to be safe.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Essential service here - rural mail delivery. Repeated notifications from my bosses - many of whom isolated themselves years ago behind an impenetrable internet bureaucratic firewall - is that I *MUST* show up for work regardless. Several confirmed cases in my general area, several sick people on the route (normal, collectively they get a pharmacy's worth of med's each month (elderly snowbirds). More, about half of them regard the 'delusional fool' running the country as the best leader ever and is doing a fantastic job of handling the crises.

My attitude is...'meh, whatever.' Aches and pains and sniffles are the norm with me anymore, with occasional ventures into more serious ailments. No social life to speak of prior to the plague, though I do miss visiting the library and movie theater (both closed)

My lovely young daughter, though...a couple years ago I brought her on part time because she needed stable, flexible employment, and I'd been doing six days a week non stop for most of a decade and decided I could use a couple days off each week. She gave birth to grandson number two right before the New Year...and came back to work last week, right as things went wonky. She's freaked - needs the money, paranoid about the baby, and, alas, it shows.

Like Skip, I am under no delusions about how this is going to go; various 'entrenched interests' would sooner see...a...'permanent state of emergency' complete with shortages and massive social unrest rather than enact needed social and financial reforms. Said reforms will be a major topic in months and years to come...and a few piecemeal bits and pieces may come to pass, but don't hold your breath.

It's almost like the prequel to one of the big time teen hero dystopian novels, but I can't figure which one...Hunger Games, maybe?
 
Honesty time: If you disagree that's fine, but there's no need to get rude or even comment. It won't change my mind at this point and will cause unneeded tensions.

I have struggled with this year's election. Who do I vote for?
IMHO none of the options are fantastic, again... Corporate Cheese, Crackpot or Amnesia man.
However, after seeing medical staff donning cut up trash bags in what can only be described as a desperate act of self-protection, after talking with friends who are still active in the medical field and hearing first hand how they are reusing protective masks, sharing them with patients, and other staff...
I decided to go against everything within my being and selected to "vote blue no matter who."
And as much as it makes me ill to say, Sanders is my first choice. Being he's the only one with anything that resembles a plan to try and correct our current healthcare system. (Yes, it is extremely flawed atm.) But it's a start...

Now, don't go branding me some off the wall socialist, because nothing could be farther from the truth. But dang! We HAVE to do better by our people, by the people who put their lives on the line, and that of their families when the chips are down.

I put countless hours in researching the options, I listened to everything everyone had to say and after everything I have learned, heard, and seen I have to do what I feel is best for everyone. Not just big companies, not just the wealthy, not just the poor, or the slightly disenfranchised, but for every last man woman and child in this and other countries that rely on us to help keep the world safe from the various threats.
Why are we offering help to North Korea when Italy needs our help so much more?

Why are people without health insurance right now when Obama gave us something to work with? So now those who have fallen ill face massive bills they can never hope to pay off.
If our poor are unable to seek medical treatment, because they simply cannot afford it, especially in a crisis such as this, when our leaders are dropping the ball at every turn, ALL of them, when our people are doing their level best and the big wigs get bailouts while they get evicted...
I just cannot abide by that.
The status quo must change, and while Sanders is radical, there are enough NON-radicals to keep him in check. Or so I feel.

I implore everyone to take a very hard look at what is going on and make their own decisions based on cold hard facts as well.
We cannot keep going on like this.
We live in AMERICA, one of the richest countries on the face of the Earth and there are people begging for food on Facebook because their jobs are now gone, and they don't yet qualify for food assistance. They are willing to risk someone spiking the food they will feed their kids with drugs, or worse, they are willing to risk letting someone in who could be a murder, they are willing to risk an infection just to get by.
Families cannot afford medications, basic bills, health insurance, college educations for their children.

People like myself are struggling with which bill to pay, and the stress is killing them.
I wish I lived an extravagant lifestyle, where simply cutting a few extras would solve it.
The only "extra" I have is the internet. Without it, my phone does not work where we live. Changing to another carrier is out of the question as we have the cheapest option available.

I'm not sure HOW we as a nation got here, but here we are.

So I guess I will put off voting for Mickey Mouse this time around.
I hope you do too. Please get out there and vote with your heart and your head. Not based solely upon a set party line. Whomever it is you chose, at least you have a say.
The time for sitting silent has long past, it is time we rise up and try to make the changes TOGETHER that "we the people" need so urgently.
 
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Now, don't go branding my some off the wall socialist,
Being European, I always have to laugh a bit at this US view of politics. From my perspective, in the USA you have a choice between right wing politicians (the democrats) or politicians further to the right (the republicans). There's nothing close to socialist, from a European perspective that is. Sanders I think would be in the political center in the Netherlands.

If you want socialists, two elections ago, here in the Netherlands we had our socialist party propose a 100% tax rate on all income over something like €200k.

As a side note, there's nothing wrong with right wing politics (it's where I tend to vote myself). I was pointing at the difference perspective makes.
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
The status quo must change, and while Sanders is radical, there are enough NON-radicals to keep him in check. Or so I feel.

I truly don't get this narrative. Sanders would be moderate left in nearly all of the West. He's not even a socialist as he claims to be, he's a social democrat, the most internationally mainstream of mainstream left.

But while we're on the topic of politics, I want it to be clear that from our perspective, the USA does not need to be the world's provider, we don't want it to be, and it hasn't been for a long while. Italy has sent help to the US during this Corona crisis in the form of tests, not the other way around. I don't like bi-partisanship, but the only thing the USA has done for us in Europe during all of this is try to hog a vaccine being produced in Germany. It's about time the Western saviour complex should be focused internally. Your country has structural issues needing fixing and I'm entirely with you on that path, but don't use the 'leader of the free world' crap to rally folks, people are through with it over the ocean, because in practice it hasn't lead to any measurable good in more than 20 years. Just a whole lot of economic ups and downs and being dragged into wars.

Excuse me moderators if that's too political, but I feel like a bit of politics should be permissible in response to a political comment, especially on a loaded thread like this. If you don't agree, my apologies.
 
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Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
One of the reasons politics is banned on this site is so that Mythic Scribes can be a sanctuary from the bitterness that comes with it.

There are people who would like to come to this thread and talk about the way Covid19 is affecting them. Some of them may not, now, because the thread has become political, because it’s now reminding them of their political angst, because it’s become unpleasant.

If there is another political post I will be locking this thread and restarting the discussion on Covid19.

Please cooperate with our policies.
 
I have family that I'm terrified for, especially my mom, who's slowly gotten old, smoked half her life, is on blood thinners, and has struggled with other recent health problems. If something happens I can't even go down to see her.

Same here. My mother lives in PA, suffers from COPD and congestive heart failure and is also on blood thinners (lifetime of smoking until she was 60) and recently diagnosed with diabetes. Just saw I could fly home right now, roundtrip from Oregon, for 207$! But I won't risk it. She's holding her own but the fact she can't get groceries is really making her and many other seniors and homebound adults nervous. I'm ordering things for her once a week but even the delivery service is overrun now so her cousin goes and picks them up at the store every sunday. Of course, they don't have everything she wants each week and, as a lifelong virtuoso of impatience, that makes her soooo mad. :) I tell her that anger means she must still be doing ok. She's always been a fighter!

So far our rural county still has 0 confirmed cases after 70 tests. Our city councils have banned all tourists from coming over from the valley, closed all campgrounds, hotels, parks and waysides, Air B&B and short term rentals too. It's not a full lockdown, but close.

Stay strong everyone! :)
 

Incanus

Auror
So far, so good, for me.

My family is OK for now, but most of us work in health care in one way or another. We'll have to be careful.

My work was supposed to go to 4 hour days, with 4 hours telework, but the paperwork got messed up and we haven't started that yet. But we changed our hours, which is messing with my sleep, which means I can't write. I need a clear head to write. I already self-isolate much of the time, so there isn't too much change there.

Anyway, I recommend following the advice of health professionals. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy, everyone!
 
Did anyone else get the postcard this week? Wonder how much that cost to send one of those to every address in the nation?
The upside, Gizmo showed interest in trying to read, we (I) have been working on sight words this week. He managed to remember 3 of the 8 we studied! If, you, & and are the ones he got correct. Also, More and Weekend, though I think he's just remembered that one rather than reading it tbh.
YAY! So I'm a proud mommy atm!
The upside of being stuck at home, is I'm here to really work with him. But I worry I'm pushing him too hard sometimes. he's only three...
What are other people who are now homeschooling their little ones working on?
I'd love to hear from you.
 
Devor, it's times like this when I'm so glad we moved my dad in with us a few years back.

We are looking for a bigger place so we can move my partner's dad in as well.

Having the grandfather's around has been wonderful, they help keep an eye on Gizmo, and teach him things we can't and we get to keep our eyes on them!

Financially, it's a strain, but we make it work.
I now understand why so much of the world choses to live in extended family homes!

We will keep your mom, and everyone else's, in our thoughts.
Hugs.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Honestly, if not for the empty shelves at the stores and all the doomsday hype, I wouldn’t have noticed a thing... hell, if I were single and in my writing cave I might not have even noticed until my next book is done, LOL. With schools closed, the kids at home all day is a reminder that something is up in the outside world.
 

Ned Marcus

Maester
Long long lines where I am (starting 2.5 hours before shops open) for masks. I honestly don't want, and often cannot, spend that much time queuing. Toilet rolls are in short supply too, but otherwise it's fairly normal, apart from everywhere being quieter.
 

Azeroth

Dreamer
I think people are starting to become stir-crazy, I can hear people yelling and carrying on, they sound drunk. Having to stay indoors doesn't bother me all. It's not really much different than what I'd be doing anyway :p it's those obnoxious, social animals that are the most dangerous in spreading the virus, especially if they don't care. Sadly, a lot of people don't unless they are affected or know somebody who can be affected by this. I can't say I have any faith in humanity, when you witness people partying or see footage of people spitting on produce. I don't even have to bring up the political side of it, as its only a symptom of a very messed up world full of messed up people.

In Australia, and across the globe I suspect, many complain of "draconian measures" top stop the spread. Had people had common sense and did the "right thing", those measures wouldn't have to be put in place to begin with. Society hangs itself, the Government merely gives it the rope. I don't mean to be all doom and gloom, I'm just frustrated with humanity. I'm a writer (albeit amateur writer) that does not grasp the stupidity sometimes. I don't understand people, despite writing stories.

I do not understand why the richest countries in the world are not equipped to deal with it. I'm not talking on a medical level, I'm talking every level. The Australian government had a stimulus package ready in case of emergencies, but I'm not sure if simply throwing money at something is enough to fix the problem. In fact, I think this attitude people have is the problem in itself.

But I will stop there, at the risk of bringing this into the realm of politics. :) on a positive note, it has helped to spark some creativity and a desire to begin writing again after a four month lull.
 
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