Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

Earlier in the week our power company instituted rolling blackouts, however with the worst of the cold gone, I think they've stopped them. Luckily, our home never lost power, but I've heard others say they had their power shut off for 1.5, 2, & even 7 hours at a time (the power company said it'd be half hour to 1 hour slots, but that didn't seem to be the case).

In brighter news, I was also able to get my first dose of the vaccine this week, so hopefully a step to normalcy.

@Octane As a proud oil and gas man, I generally shy away from these types of discussions over the internet, but your balanced approach is refreshing. Thank you.

Your main point is 100% correct. It really boils down to unpreparedness. When the polar vortex cruised through my neck of the woods, it was miserable and insanely busy but basically business as usual for this time of year. Our infrastructure is built to deal with this type of weather, and our people are trained to work tirelessly to ensure things keep running. On the flip side, an extreme and prolonged heat wave would surely present us with a slew of unique problems that a state like Texas wouldn’t bat an eye at.

As for the general topic of energy, without getting into the nitty gritty, I feel it’s worth offering a simple statement that I think nicely sums up the overarching infrastructural conundrum that we face: you can’t build a wind turbine with a wind turbine. Cheers!

@Ralizah thing is, I'm at the absolute southern tip of Texas so while it was cold, it does appear from what I've scanned in the news, many people had and have it much worse. it got down to the 20s for a few stretches but not long enough to bring the temperature too far down indoors (at least in my home). Biggest hurdle was being forced to prepare food outdoors on a charcoal grill. That and the fact that fridge and freezer were out long enough that they were no longer keeping things cold.

According to city the water is safe but we're being careful anyway. I'm not so trusting sometimes.

It's honestly a dream of mine to own a bookstore. Have a name for it and everything.

@RogerRoger sorry it has taken me a while to get back to this. Haven't been in the mood to, idk, converse. Anyway, name of book shop would be Asbestos Books. Someone once told me I'd be better off opening an asbestos store than a book store, which is both amusing and probably sadly accurate, so I figure why not just lean into it. It's dumb i know but it's funny to me.

Wow how did we get here from Corona?

@RogerRoger lol. Though unless you are a corporation or a car dealership, i don't think a tagline is necessary.

So we've apparently completely vanquished covid here in Texas. So that's good. I can't remember, is the UK still in lockdown or did they finally lift that?

@zupertramp Still in lockdown in England, other parts of the UK like Wales and England have their own set of restrictions. Lockdown restrictions are due to be relaxed slightly on Monday. Working from home will still continue until April 12th I believe, and where I work that will be only limited capacity for those that want to.

@zupertramp I heard that Texas has at least one case of every major variant. It’s like Pokemon at this point 😬

So went to Taco Bell for lunch today and I couldn't believe it a worker who was handling food had his mask down around his chin the whole time while making my food.

I gave the guy credit maybe he just got back from break and forgot to pull it up after a cigarette or something but still. What even shocked me more is when I asked the manger if they would remake my food she looked at me odd and asked what was wrong. I told her politely that the whole time when preparing my food that employees didn't have his mask up (which he still didn't btw). The manger asked me again like she was confused what was wrong with my order. I finally told her, that the employee didn't have a mask on when preparing my food so either have someone else remake it or give me my money back.

They remade it but I was shocked that they were giving me such a hard time about it. Looks like I won't be going back to that Taco Bell anytime soon.

@Tasuki You absolutely did the right thing insisting for them to put the mask on and redo the food, it’s baffling that restaurants aren’t sticking to the regulations. What’s especially worrying is that restaurants already have a list of regulations to adhere to in terms of health and safety, which means that Taco Bell is possibly unhygienic as well if they’re willing to completely flout the rules.

@Tasuki yeah I'm too much of a pushover to do something like that so I applaud you (and envy you).

One thing I would note is I was under the impression you'd basically need someone to sneeze directly on your food to put you at all that much of a risk. Then of course you'd have to get up close and breath it in so idk, obviously you want people to be as hygienic as possible but just thought I'd point out the relative safety of eating food prepared at an eatery, in case that eases anyone's anxiety.

@JohnnyShoulder @RogerRoger ah well, it's good to have checkpoints. Even if they are arbitrary because really, that's all they can be I suppose. It's funny I didn't even consider how different areas of the UK might have varying approaches and so when you pointed it out my first thought was - man, how complicated - before realizing the irony, me being in the united states.

Hope everyone is staying safe and getting by mentally, physically, emotionally, financially, etc. I'm not sure how it's going with the vaccinations over there. I know there was some controversy over mixing and matching shots along with some disagreement over when to get the booster but I assume that's been settled and all is moving along at a slow but steady pace.

Point is I'm sure we'll get there eventually. Most of us anyhow. I'm beginning to think many aren't going to fully comprehend the devastation until this is all in our rearview. Because boy did we get a lot of people killed since last March.

But it's fine. Everything's fine. Off to catch Pokemon! Cheers!

@zupertramp Yep, just to emphasise the difference in Covid policy across the UK, I’ve been under essentially completely different rules and lockdowns in Scotland compared to those on here who’re from England. It’s not too dissimilar to the way different states in the US can have wildly different policy although we’re still reliant on the central UK government for certain issues and things like the annual budget. What’s pretty interesting though is that despite each country within the UK having distinct strategies in dealing with the virus, the pandemic’s taken a roughly similar toll on each of us.

@nessisonett Right that's the thing that has me concerned if they we looking the other way while that employee had his mask off what other health/sanitary things do they over look? Just thinking about it makes me not want to go there anymore 🤮

@zupertramp From my understanding, and let me be clear I am not a doctor or anything along those lines it's spread through airborne particles so just by him speaking there's a chance that something could go onto my food as they make it and then of course I ingest it cause well it's food.

@Tasuki yes, sorry... I used sneezing as and example but, true, it could be anything that produces droplets. But my understanding is that the risk of transmission through food is low to non-existent. Because yes you're ingesting it, but not breathing it in. I had this article that explained it really well and now of course I can't find it. I'll keep looking.

Also I'm not a health professional of any kind so, you know, grain of salt. Until I can produce sources anyway.

@nessisonett hmm, interesting. Kinda get the feeling that if any country botches their response, we all end facing the consequences. Well, except New Zealand maybe.

This isn't the one I was looking for but it works. It's a .edu at the very least. https://health.ucdavis.edu/good-food/blog/eating-takeout-amid...

Still, I'd want the person preparing my food to wear a mask. So I totally get it. Maybe that's something that we should stick to even after this is all over.

@zupertramp Even though lockdown restrictions still apply, that didn't stop streams of people heading to the beach last weekend because of the nice weather. Drives me up the wall when I see and hear things like that.

I have to admit it has felt more of a struggle since after Christmas. Things are starting to feel a bit better, with a new project in work which has forced us to talk to each other lol.

But, yeah there have been some pretty dark days at times which is probably the same for the majority of people, and partly my own fault with a reluctance to join in at stuff like House Party (I shudder just thinking of that). Fingers crossed, the new easing of lockdown restrictions do feel there is a light at the end of the tunnel and not the never ending of darkness like there was before.

@JohnnyShoulder I agree, since Christmas I’ve felt it to be a real slog. The closer we get to opening back up, the more I notice people openly breaking the rules and setting us back. This semester’s been so hard on a lot of people on my course that they’re introducing voluntary suspension, for people who are struggling with the course due to Covid and would rather defer a year and resume next January.

Mask off, teaching in the classroom. Someone better come and arrest me before I set us back and we're forced to mask up for another year!

Something I can say with absolute certainty is, if you're found to be breaching covid legislation and your excuse is, "Some dude on a Playstation forum said it was ok," that excuse isn't going to fly. Shocking, I know. There's a lot of misinformation on the Internet, be sure to do your own research.

Can we just ban the troll spreading genuinely harmful disinformation and boasting about endangering other people?

@nessisonett They won't be a problem anymore.