Well yeah you can't both open and also not wear masks or keep your distance, without the obvious consequences. States like Texas messed up. But we can't all hide in our closets either -- the virus doesn't magically disappear. Getting back to some sense of normalcy, while wearing a mask and having distancing guidelines in place is the most logical place to be right now, IMHO. With this in place it would cause an increase in cases, yes, but it would be manageable. Flattening the curve involves the same amount of infections, stretched over a period of time. Time bought is the best shot people have at surviving should they become infected. But, look around, many are not willing to sit around at home doing nothing anymore; that is the reality, whether anyone thinks it makes sense or not.khauser wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 1:32 pmI respectfully disagree with your analysis. I personally know of 3 different people that fought Covid-19. One is no longer with us. Two recovered ... BUT NOT FULLY. Both have long-lasting lung damage. The one who passed was quite old, but the other two are younger than 50 and in generally good health.raisedfist wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:40 pmI like to take things seriously, and am, but also acknowledge that most media outlets are putting these headlines up to cause fear and panic, and increase their ratings. It's unfortunate that younger people succumb to COVID-19, but for the average person reading this, it is incredibly unlikely statistic wise that something like that would happen to you. I played around with the COVID-19 morbitity calculator, and even pretending I was an older person with a lot of health problems, your chances of death are still incredibly low. Even if 1 million people somehow end up dying, that is .003% of the USA population. Wear the damn mask and keep your distance, but COVID-19 should not at this time be causing the world to come to a stand-still, IMHO.
I think the media is doing its best to get word out, but like EVERYTHING in our world today the issue almost instantly becomes politicized, and one side says "the media overstates" while the other says "this is real!" I like listening to science, myself. Science tells me this is a most nasty bug that is far worse than a seasonal flu.
It makes no sense for parts of the country to re-open but they do it anyway, and suffer far increased disease and see their abilities stretched past their abilities to cope. I see people willfully not wearing masks, or wearing them improperly. Some because they feel no threat (and they are ignorant of the fact that the masks are to help protect others), and some because they see it as a challenge to their freedoms. The ones wearing it below their nose REALLY annoy me.
If 1 million people died because of almost any other cause their would be a riot if nothing was done. But this one dares jeopardize your fiscal comfort, if only temporarily, so people are leading with their greed (I am sorry if that offends, but that's how I see it).
Pugsy, I may have borrowed your soap box. I hereby return it.
The media is not informing you out of altruism. It's the same reason why in a 30 minute news segment, 25 of them are dedicated to street level crime. Yet statically, it's nothing the viewer needs to worry about. In fact, turning off the news is probably the best thing one can do for their health. The reality is: children, teens, young adults, even older adults, the mortality rate for COVID-19 is incredibly low. There is a reason the media plasters each and every story of one of those unfortunate cases on the front page, and it isn't to inform you. A lot of the initial deaths were from long term care facilities, in idiotic states like NY who literally forced seniors into harms way instead of protecting them. Cuomo is responsible for thousands of deaths yet people treat him like a hero because he finally got his butt in gear and started doing a good job after the fact.
Notice how the media says nothing as tens of thousands of people gather to protest police brutality. They would rather demonize and do a story on a few hundred people enjoying themselves at the beach or yell at joggers for not wearing a mask.
In my area only very old people in residential facilities have died from COVID-19 since the beginning. And I don't live in the middle of nowhere, a county of over 100,000 people. I'm in Illinois, we have started opening up AND our infection rates and daily deaths continue to decline. So we know it's possible to achieve success.
The majority of businesses are small in America. To trivialize them wanting to re-open so they can feed their family, and their employees can do the same, is not the answer. The average american would be in trouble if at any time they got a surprise $500 bill. A stimulus check from the government is a band-aid. $1200 in a city is pocket change. Once rent freezes go away, thousands of people are going to become homeless. Most of corporate america is working remote so they are hardly exposed. But when smaller businesses shut down and their employees lose their job, or are forced to stay home to watch their kids because school/daycare is closed, the situation gets much worse.
Seniors are lonely. Non covid patients are falling through the cracks. People are having increasing mental health problems. Human Beings are not designed to sit at home.
Going back to stay at home orders is highly unlikely.
This is the current reality, it is what it is, so I wear a mask and go to places where people also tend to wear masks, and avoid places where people don't. But I am done sitting at home and so are many, many people.
