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Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Insolent Lad

Maester
I've been extremely careful through all this; that's made easier by the fact that I live out in the country and rarely see much of anyone anytime, and only go into town every two or three weeks. That is, I was a hermit before the CV, and will continue to be. I blame my infection on touring musicians who stopped by my place though they deny it! :)
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I miss being at work and my writing is suffering.
I've been in lock-down and working from home for almost two months. I find myself missing the thinking time of my commute, the little breaks from the daily grind, even the "water-cooler" moment with others.
These all gave me time to let my mind wonder aimlessly.
And that is when I would find myself being creative.
Now that I'm working from home, only let out of the house for a short while each day, and chatting with neighbours and friends is all but gone... I'm not as creative mentally. I need to find a new creativity creator...
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
The New Zealand government is relaxing it's lock down on Thursday so we'll be able to do most of the things we could do before the pandemic - except gather in groups of more than ten and travel overseas. First thing to do on Thursday: look for the businesses that don't reopen. Then post some mail.
 

Adela

Minstrel
My state reopened on the 1st and now it's started to spike once again. My mother has been making masks and sending them out to family and friends. I've written in spurts of 5 to 10 minutes once or twice a week (if that) and try not to watch any news. Yeah, creativity has definitely taken a hit.
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
Apart from travelling overseas all Covid-19 restrictions have been removed as of 12.01am Tuesday, 9th June, 2020, because everyone who had Covid-19 in New Zealand has either recovered or died. No new cases had been recorded in almost two weeks. And to celebrate this achievement I'm off to bed.
 
The mental and emotional impact is weird to trace. For my own microcosm, it's been somewhat severe, given how it's affected the workplace. I've been very lucky to keep working throughout. Although hours were cut in half for a couple months, they're back to normal. Unfortunately, I work with the public, and the dichotomy of me-wearing-masks-and-sanitizing vs the vast majority I meet who don't do any of this has reinforced whatever latent misanthropy I already had. So many simply don't seem to care whether they infect others; it's business as usual. I live in that U.S. state that briefly became notorious for weekend pool partiers...in the days before the BLM protests. Then again, perhaps the situation isn't as dire as I have feared....?!?! So I'm overreacting to the negligence I see in others? Here's the rub, and the maddening mental gymnastics. A nearly constant level of stress. (All this added to personal health and financial issues that are purely my own.)
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
My wife and I are in an analogous situation. We're retired, 68 years old with grown children and two grandchildren living in other states. We're very careful about our health, but all around us we see people who are indifferent. Had a person come check out AC unit and he didn't wear a mask. When I had mine, he offered to go put his on--left it in the car, so obviously the company is providing, probably just as a legal move--but said something to the effect that he wasn't so sure he believed all that. Meaning Covid and its dangers.

So, fine. Believe or don't believe. But the behavior of others has an effect on me and mine. It's a bit like saying "I don't really believe in all these traffic signs so I'm going to drive however I please." It's difficult not to be angry at such behavior. I try not to, for anger at the indifferent is a losing game.

Is the situation as dire as we fear? No, not for those not yet affected. Yes, for those who have been. That's how this works. We have three hundred million people here in the U.S. (more, I know, but I'm just using round numbers, because square numbers are clumsy), and a hundred thousand deaths. One in 300, iow. Even counting all the cases of testing positive and all their kinfolk, that still leaves a huge majority of people for whom the only impact of Covid-19 has been the economic consequences of lockdown. People tend to react most to what affects them most immediately.

I expect more of the same. I could sit here and nod and say sure go ahead. More deaths, more life-altering illness, y'all believe as you please. But this whole business has meant delaying memorial services for my father-in-law. It's meant not seeing one of my grandchildren this summer. It's meant having to cancel travel to Europe at an age when "oh well we'll get there eventually" has an increasingly hollow ring to it. I'm fine with dealing with Covid-19. I'm less fine dealing with people who are being wilfully ignorant about how disease works, and being wilfully reckless with the lives of others.
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
The mental and emotional impact is weird to trace. For my own microcosm, it's been somewhat severe, given how it's affected the workplace. I've been very lucky to keep working throughout. Although hours were cut in half for a couple months, they're back to normal. Unfortunately, I work with the public, and the dichotomy of me-wearing-masks-and-sanitizing vs the vast majority I meet who don't do any of this has reinforced whatever latent misanthropy I already had. So many simply don't seem to care whether they infect others; it's business as usual. I live in that U.S. state that briefly became notorious for weekend pool partiers...in the days before the BLM protests. Then again, perhaps the situation isn't as dire as I have feared....?!?! So I'm overreacting to the negligence I see in others? Here's the rub, and the maddening mental gymnastics. A nearly constant level of stress. (All this added to personal health and financial issues that are purely my own.)

You are certainly not overreacting. As of today, more people have now officially died of Covid19 in the US than the amount of deaths the US suffered in world war 1. Now sure, we can talk about percentages and such, but at the end of the day that's 117.000 people who did not need to die and do not need to continue dying in gruesome fashion.
 
As someone who wen through the tests lately and fortunately came out negative. I've been working through it since the beginning due to being essential, it does kind of scare me a little. Just because the U.S. is reopening doesn't mean it's gone. And I work in the public quarter, so when I got symptoms, I pretty much got testing as soon as possible. I see too many people in one day to not be serious about it.
 
You are certainly not overreacting. As of today, more people have now officially died of Covid19 in the US than the amount of deaths the US suffered in world war 1. Now sure, we can talk about percentages and such, but at the end of the day that's 117.000 people who did not need to die and do not need to continue dying in gruesome fashion.

I had a gentleman, wearing a cap with a certain political slogan displayed prominently, tell me that no, it's all a hoax. When I said that over 100K people have died he just laughed and said that many people die all the time, from the flu for instance, and the "hoaxers" have just conflated flu and other deaths with Covid19 stats.

So this sort of thing—wasn't the first time I've been told about this supposed "hoax"—and others already mentioned have only added to my general doubt about our society's ability to function well.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
>doubt about our society's ability to function well.
Don't worry too much. Stupidity is by no means a modern invention, nor is ignorance. Somehow we survive. ... although, that modifier "well" is looking a bit problematic these days.
 
My state reopened on the 1st and now it's started to spike once again. My mother has been making masks and sending them out to family and friends.

Rather amazing that society is too cheap to produce paper masks that literally saves people's lives, while there plenty of resources to plaster TV monitors everywhere in public just to convince people to buy an energy drink or whatever.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I meant "we" in the sense of "society" from your previous.

The endpoint business is problematic. What was the endpoint for MERS? Or even the flu? There appears to be a kind of hierarchy in which diseases exist. At the highest level we get government action. A step down from that would be the disease is in the news and the medical community is still working on responses, mainly because it's a new disease. Then there are diseases that kill plenty of people but don't make headlines, except occasionally. Then there are the ones where the medical community has its responses, people still sicken and die, but it's at a level that doesn't make the news and doesn't elicit new responses from the medical community. It's sort of a case of known problem, best people working on it.

You'll note none of those have an endpoint. They just have levels of response and levels of consequences (of which dying is but one). This is why I don't talk about returning to normal or getting past this disease. That won't happen. It'll simply fade into the background or, more likely, will be superseded by some new, more urgent crisis. And Covid-19 will be this thing you read about, unless and until it happens to one of your own.

Sometimes that's a discouraging attitude, but then I remember that this is how humanity has always lived. It's harder for my generation in the West because we grew up with a rhetoric about "conquering" or "ending" this or that disease, and it led us to thinking that any disease could be conquered. Very much an artifact of wartime rhetoric.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
For exactly 2 hours I went in to work for the first time since March. There were two of us in a room that can hold 90 and a building that can hold 1000+ during teaching. It was strange to see al the safety measures that have been put in place [signs, guides etc]. A lot of people have been busy while I've been away.
 
on thing is it forced me to stay home and take up writing as I can't do my other hobbies. I wonder if I will stop writing once I can leave the house again? but by then it will be 2022 and I'll have gotten quite a bit done.
 
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