Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

@zupertramp this is one of the best articulated positions I’ve seen on this issue.

@zupertramp Oh we’re well known for being nutters. A city full of them. Sectarianism and psychos are our biggest exports.

@zupertramp You can reason that the unnecessary injuries and deaths from car accidents due to not wearing seat belts also puts more strain on the healthcare. Unless you want to make the point that those people aren't eligible for first aid, or don't get priority, AND also cover the costs themselves, and not the health insurance, then I agree

@zupertramp
A good analogy with the drink driving. I would argue that seat belt and helmet laws do protect children as well though for many parents who wouldn't otherwise bother.
Just look at the number of cyclists who don't bother wearing helmets or get their children to because there's no laws there for that.

@Octane hmmm, I'm not sure I'm sold on that line of reasoning if only because people are allowed to partake in all manner of reckless behavior that still falls within legal limits without being excluded from the healthcare system, or de-prioritized. Actually we don't even exclude those who do engage in illegal activity. But the societal cost, by way of increased strain on the healthcare system, definitely wasn't an angle I was taking into consideration.

Fwiw, I always wear a seatbelt and when I was into scooters I always wore a helmet.

The way I see it life is, among other things, a game of risk management and I don't see anything particularly noble, or macho, or cool about being taken out by some known risk that I neglected to account for. This becomes especially true when you have a family to look after. I admit that I find laws that force you to use PPE (strictly for your own safety) a tad peculiar but it's far from being some kind of crusade of mine.

Masks though, fall more under our duty to not put others in danger. So, social responsibility. And I was just hoping to appeal to that in my comments. It wasn't so much to knock seatbelts.

aaand another wall of text. My apologies.

@Jimmer-jammer well thanks.

@nessisonett lol good to know. But I'm sure it's not all bad.

@LieutenantFatman ah yes, I definitely should have clarified on laws regarding minors. There's really no playing devil's advocate on that imo.

Edit: as an example, in Texas adults aren't required to wear helmets on motorcycles but if you have a passenger under a certain age, they are required to wear one. Similarly adults can ride in the back of a pickup but minors cannot.

There are now a ridiculous amount of fireworks going off a couple of streets over and there are crowds with lots and lots of beer. This is just plain stupid now.

One of my closest friends is now in hospital for a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, maybe multiple sclerosis, and she is just 33.
In the last month we used to have the typical 3 hours long lunch on sundays and today, for the first time, we had to share stupid photos of our lonely lunch via a stupid social network. And because of Covid I can't even make a visit... And mostly important, she is scared of in-hospital infection.
What an obnoxious mess... 😓

@Arugula If you are wearing a man nappy you are good to go!

@andreoni79 Wow that’s rough, hopefully you can find a way through. I think people fail to realise that there are still sick people in hospitals and their care is impacted by Covid even without contracting it themselves.

@Arugula doubles up as mask i guess.

I’m actually going to miss wearing masks when this is all over with. And not because I’m a bank robber or anything — I like being able to skip shaving for a couple days or never worry about a piece of food being stuck in my teeth during a conversation. The time saved on personal hygiene is well worth the inconvenience of wearing it.

@andreoni79 Sorry to hear about your friend. Yeah, it’s a good point about hospital care for non-COVID persons being affected by the pandemic @nessisonett . It’s another aspect of the whole thing that the pro- personal liberty / anti- social precautions segment has failed to realize is that the suffering and death toll of the pandemic far exceeds just the COVID numbers. Any one of us could need hospitalization at any time for any number of random ailments, and if it’s full of COVID patients or understaffed from COVID then it’s going to affect our access to quality care.

So wear your seatbelts and helmets. There may not be a ventilator for you if you wreck.

Currently experiencing another rise in virus numbers (doubled since a month ago) here in Poland and there's still tons of people who think it's all made up somehow...
Also, people will act dumb for the stupidest reasons. I've been working from home from almost a year now (excluding a couple months in the summer when the situation got a little better) but some people at work still need to come to the office daily. They hired a new guy a few months ago and a month later he came to the office coughing like hell, because he was worried that "new guy already on sick leave" wouldn't look good for him. The result: 3 more people infected and several others quarantined for 10 days. Goddammit.

My younger brother starts school back on Monday... for one 50 minute class. The whole week. He’ll spend more time walking to and from school than actually doing work. They’re staggering it so he has one class on Monday this week, one class on Tuesday the next week and follow that pattern. Bizarre and rather pointless to be honest.

@nessisonett Yeah that does seem a bit pointless. We got a homeworking survey to complete for work, and I wonder how many people opt to stay at home either full or part time. Especially those that travel a fair distance.

@JohnnyShoulder I think a lot of businesses have probably realised that it’s a lot more feasible to work from home than was previously thought. It’ll be interesting to see how many companies do actually pivot towards working from home after we’re back to normal.

So, something like 10% of the U.S. adult population has been fully vaccinated against covid now. I imagine that number is going to be way higher in a few months. I just wish people would understand that being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel doesn't mean it still can't cave in on you if you're not careful.

@andreoni79 Really sorry to hear about your friend. Here's hoping everything goes well for her (well given the circumstances, anyway).

@Voltan If I learned anything in 2020, it's that stupid people will be the death of us. Literally.

@nessisonett That is pretty ridiculous for schooling. As for homeworking @JohnnyShoulder some businesses will want people back in ASAP for the classic reason of "but that's how we've always done it" and some managers can't manage unless they're directly standing over people.

I think things will go back to more 50/50 but does that mean everyone in on the same days or random little groups in for the sake of it? I wonder if businesses will also realise paying thousands/millions on office space is a thing of the past but could this have a knock on effect of realising you don't need people even based in the UK if things move online more?

There are still the problems of home/work boundaries being more blurred and I've heard a few people say that's even more so if their business is across different timezones as they're expected to contribute more outside of "office hours" now.

Overall, I think the old status quo will end up prevailing for most.

A PSN friend of mine contracted Covid in January. He was in hospital but died within 4 weeks. He was only 48.
No funeral til March 19th though as there is such a backlog
Three people I knew have died of this thing. It's a shame they weren't in time for the vaccine.

@Thrillho For my work there are starting off with limited capacity so social distancing can be in place. And for my team we have shifted a few things round so all our can can be done remotely. Just that things like being trained on a new system is not ideal trying to be done remotely.