Coronavirus 2019

I really don’t like the term virtue signalling because of its association with Trumpies, but it’s kinda something I see here. I also do think it’s security theater in some situations, and after the TSA, I feel security theater needs to be resisted. The renewal of the Patriot Act and its strengthening this week shows the need for resistance. I’m scared of quarantine leading to a new set of control over citizenry.

Another factor- each restriction placed on the populace reduces the quality of life. For many folks, especially in rural areas, boredom sets in, and if their economic situation is terrible, well - it gets to the point where their QoL is so low that they’d rather be defiant and chance the virus. If anything, they consider everyone else to be inconsiderate of them. To me, this is a failure of society and late stage capitalism as well, they don’t see that.

I hear this perspective from the right-wingers at work. Both the deplorable and non-deplorable.

There was in NH: Fear the nipple (to be fair, I’m a bit of a prude and would not want to see topless women at the beach, but I also realize that’s a me issue. Maybe I can blame that on being raised Catholic.)

Other than WFH, and putting on a mask for 10 minutes when I trek to a store, I’ve not really been negatively impacted by the pandemic [edit: and yes, I realize that makes me lucky.] I guess being virulently anti-social finally pays off. (I always figured I’d have been the perfect candidate for going on a deep space mission - doesn’t bother me in the slightest to be alone.) Strange that people can feel bored though, don’t rural areas still have broadband? Let’s google that:

In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population —14.5 million people—lack access to this service. In tribal areas, nearly one-third of the population lacks access. Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe.

Apparently not. There you go, another economic stimulus idea. At any rate,

In one brief sentence this describes exactly the zeitgeist of the right.

Thing with internet is that you eventually reach the end of the internet.

I’m antisocial but I have my limits myself. And broadband “expansion” is in the stimulus bill, but due to ISPs, and Ajit Pai, it won’t do anything good.

If I was in charge I’d be nationalizing the ISPs then giving them to local communities to run as municipal networks.

Please don’t ever change @John_Many_Jars. I’ve lost count over the decade how many posts of yours I’ve read that brought a smile to my face or made me laugh out loud, especially in threads like this one where I desperately need to laugh out loud every so often. Thank you my friend.

On the subject of masks, I am pretty much in the same boat as most of the folks here it seems. I believe people should be wearing them in public spaces where contact with others is expected, like public transit, stores, and the common areas of offices. I don’t wear one when my wife and I go for walks in the evenings because we live in a suburban neighborhood with sidewalks and front yards, which means there is plenty of room to stay 6+ feet from other walkers when we cross paths. I do catch myself doing little subconscious things like turning my head away from others as we pass by and not saying “hello” as often as I would have before…all to minimize risk. At my office building they have mandated wearing masks in the common spaces, and thankfully my firm has everyone in their own hard office, which means we can unmask when working in our own offices. I will wear a mask when heading out to pick up coffee, lunch or run an errand, even though I can mostly stay 6 feet apart from people on the street, that isn’t always possible when I reach the coffee place, lunch place, bank, or wherever, and I am protecting the employees of those places, many of whom I have known for many years, as much as I am protecting myself.

On my way in to the office today I drove by a large group (20 people) of joggers downtown. NONE were wearing masks, which I wouldn’t have had an issue with (because trying to run in a mask is difficult at best), except for the fact that they were ALL running as a group, nowhere near 6 feet from one another. My first thought was, with all the heavy inhaling and exhaling that comes with running, if even one person in that group is an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier, they are all fucked. That is what really annoys me about the entire mask/groups/open everything up debate…COVID-19 is asymptomatic in a decent percentage of the people who contract it. That means that folks can tell you “I am fine! Not sick! No temperature, no cough, no fever…let’s run!” and it does NOT mean they are safe, it just means they themselves got lucky. They can still shed viral load to others, who in turn may not get so lucky, and could even DIE.

All of these precautions we are asking people to take are to protect the people around them more than anything. So what if you feel fine? You can still have COVID-19 and feel perfectly fine. Shouting about “MAH FREEDOMS!” and calling masks, distancing and stay-at-home orders Fascism and a violation of rights just makes people look like assholes who don’t care about other people. It is so easy to not be that person…just wear the damn mask when you’re at the store, the office or in public.

Also on the subject of masks:

That thread is more about hoarding masks then anything else.

Ah, I see. Best not to derail it, then.

USA Today has picked up on the AAU Volleyball Nationals event in June I was talking about upthread. I also vastly underestimated the draw, I said 50,000 people, it’s actually over 100,000 people each year.

It seems that many volleyball clubs have come to their senses on this, as over 50% of the clubs that were registered for the event have withdrawn their teams already, including many of the top tier clubs in the nation. The NCAA is also not playing around with this nonsense, and earlier this week issued an extension to their in-person recruiting dead period that was supposed to end May 31st and will now end June 30th. Most people seem to think that extension was a direct result of situations like this, where event organizers were trying to host large events in June. AAU Volleyball Nationals is one of the top three NCAA Volleyball recruiting events of the year, 2800 teams playing over two weeks with most of the best players in the country on display. For the NCAA to declare the event off-limits is a very big deal and hopefully sends a message to clubs who were only still registered because of the recruiting exposure.

I disagree the linked thread is mostly about hoarding masks - it shared lots of useful science and other links on why masks are useful for general use, not just N95 by medical professionals.

I live in the UK, south coast, yesterday shopping in one of our major supermarkets there was probably 10% wearing face masks. I am not defending or supporting either side but here in the UK the only recommendation to using face masks has been traveling on public transport.

Currently no push to wear one at all outside of that. Now lock down is being relaxed it will be interesting to see if we get a spike in 2 weeks or not or whether mask wearing will come in if we get a spike.

Well to be fair, the original debate the sparked the mask thread was more focused on N95 masks and whether people should leave them to medical professionals vs ordering them for personal use. The current mask debate is more “Useful” vs “Empty Virtue Signalling” so different debate. That being said I would agree that the mask thread isn’t a bad place to have that debate.

But hey, this thread had a lengthy Subway sandwich derail, so I’m not going to even try to threadcop this mess.

Oh god that is fucking amazing ad

So it did sorta turn out to be like an infomercial, because the damn thing doesn’t work very well.

A study released this week indicated that the test could be missing as many as 48% of infections.

Maybe Donny will have a comment.

“I’ve never met this Coronavirus that everyone is talking about,” said Trump. “But from what I hear he’s just a disgruntled Never Trumper who had lots of problems.”

Should be noted that daily testing has also been at record highs.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31140-5/fulltext

The Administration is obsessed with magic bullets—vaccines, new medicines, or a hope that the virus will simply disappear. But only a steadfast reliance on basic public health principles, like test, trace, and isolate, will see the emergency brought to an end, and this requires an effective national public health agency. The CDC needs a director who can provide leadership without the threat of being silenced and who has the technical capacity to lead today’s complicated effort.

The Trump administration’s further erosion of the CDC will harm global cooperation in science and public health, as it is trying to do by defunding WHO. A strong CDC is needed to respond to public health threats, both domestic and international, and to help prevent the next inevitable pandemic. Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.

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