2028

This is recent.

2029

Am I in PR, oh no so… in the words of Adam Goldberg, balls.

I knew it was happening, I just, well I was hoping it was a little more narrowed down this time.

2030

You can say balls in PR too. :)

2031

I don’t understand how its even possible - most places have been limiting paper goods quantities allowed this whole time, and I thought production was up. This is just idiotic.

2032

They said they were ramping up production to avoid empty shelves. Yet here we are.

2033

I went to Costo last month or maybe it was just earlier, and there was just crates and crates of TP and bottled water at the front of the store, Charmin. When I went after that there was none. It was all gone. It’s probably the same idiots running around saying COVID is fake while they stockpile for fake things I guess.

2034

They are limiting to 1 pack at a lot of place, but I’ve seen people just go back in, or a family of 2 adults and 2 late teenage kids, and they just split it up to 4 seperate people buying stuff.

2035

No doubt. Some people just do not learn. This is the cause of many problems.

2036

I think we had better start buying some distilled water before that disappears. I need it for my CPAP machine. Maybe one gallon each trip to the grocery store just to be safe. You couldn’t get any the last time there was a panic.

2037

It really did suck. People sucking up bottled and distilled water like there is something wrong with the tap…

2038

So I’ve got some friends who live here in Europe but with parents in South Africa. Last week SA removed its travel restrictions and now one friend will travel down with his 3 children to visit his 80something year old mom and my other friend is also flying down to visit her 70something parents for christmas.

Am I wrong to find this behaviour reckless? We are pretty much in lockdown here in Europe with the 2nd wave in full effect and they are a) risking themselves on longhaul flights with airports etc & b) risking high-risk individuals. Especially my friend with the 3 children who are still going to school and are thus exposed to lots of potential infection vectors, seems ill considered.

They are saying I’m just exaggerating and “its fine and safe”, but I’m not convinced… Any thoughts?

2039

It seems unwise to me. There are a lot of people traveling safely, but all it takes is one idiot to ruin it for many others. Let’s hope things are better in six months. Winter is going to be a tough time to get Covid under control.

2040

My parents are really keen on going from Finland to France for Christmas. The former is literally the safest place in Europe at the moment. The latter is not quite the most dangerous, but not far off from it either.

It’s such a horrible idea with the vaccines being so close and their age group being the first in line to get it. And there’s very little I can do about this except to try to reduce the incentive for the travel, by saying that I won’t be there this year.

2041

That’s very risky behavior. The airlines are not in trouble because the bulk of the population thinks it’s safe to travel. We’re worse off right now, when it comes to number of cases, than we were in the spring. We’re a bit better at saving lives though, at least until a specific health system is completely overwhelmed.

We’re not doing any gatherings this year unless something miraculous happens between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

2042

Air travel is just about the stupidest thing a person could do right now, it seems to me.

2043

Yeah, air travel in and of itself is risky enough, but 12 hours stuck in a metal tube stuffed with people who will be sleeping and probably WON’T be that good at preventing mask slippage (assuming they all agree to wear them the whole time). And those long haul flights have meals, so you’re crammed into economy seats and everyone takes their mask off to eat, and thats supposed to be safe?

2044

I agree air travel is a luxury to be avoided if possible during pandemic, but I think most of the opinions here are a little extreme. It certainly is not the most dangerous thing to do, or very risky behavior relative to much of what is being done locally without flying. With strict masking it’s apparently very safe, actually.

Note that it may still be a risk escalation from literally never leaving your home, but to describe it as very risky seems to ignore the science. I suspect most of the risk from travel is from being a tourist once you arrive somewhere, which almost certainly means not hunkering down once there.

2045

I’d honestly be more uncomfortable about the time in the airport than the plane itself.

2046

That’s a fair concern, although airports are also very strict about masking these days. You do have to take your mask half off briefly when they check ID, that’s a concern.

2047

I have the impression that modern planes have quite good ventilation and filtering, so the air on the plane may be safer than any in the waiting lounges.