News Worldwide impact of the novel coronavirus (covid-19)

[Anarchy]

Seen on the news the leaders in Scotland and Ireland and banning large gatherings and closing schools but that's not happening in England. ..

Hi B,
Absolutely not going to get into a fight with you

A couple of questions, absolutely no need to answer here. Just thinking about them is more than enough;

Who funded Boris?

What do you guess that Boris and his paymasters crave for the most?

Since before the 1914 -18 war (Mercifully for them, Americans only saw 18 months of butchery in that, and have been living with Woodford Wilson's (he got elected on a ticket of staying out of that war!) Legacy ever since))

control freaks have been looking for the "moral equivalent of war" in order to force through their great ideas, and force them onto the likes of thee and me.

Feck 'em!

None of those feckers has anything that thee and me don't have

Except perhaps the ability to call in a bunch of overly violent goons in blue costumes (yeah cos play fantasists) to beat the shite out of us, murder us, cage us, or rob us.

In fact they probably have less than we have (no conscience, zero empathy, no real friends).

We are each as well qualified (or more!) To make our own decisions of where to go and what to do

Bear in mind that in his younger days, British PM Ted Heath, had to have his cottaging activities (casual gay sex with random strangers in publc toilets)covered up by the Tory whips and MI whatever

A certain person who had amongst others, in no particular order, the names; Liar, B and Anthony. Also has a conviction for gross indecency in a public toilets

Not to denigrate people who have such habits, but...

Is a person who seeks high risk casual sex with strangers, the right person to have control at a whim over the life and death of 60 million humans?
And their fingers on the red button of mutually assured nuclear destruction?

Two British prime ministers within my lifetime were (allegedly) within that category.

Is such a thrill seeker a safe pair of hands for a wheelbarrow full of shit?

There is a rigorous literature examining those questions

I'll suggest Robert Higgs "Crisis and the leviathan" as a starting point for the ratchet effect of the elite minority using crises in order to gain ever more power over the rest of us

I guess that Naomi Klein's "shock therapy" might be similar. But I've still to read my copy.

Please, don't answer, just do some hard thinking.

 

[EveHarrington]

I’m most worried about medications today.

Everyone should stock up if you can! See if you can get three month fills instead of one (not possible with all meds including benzodiazepines). I have a healthy medication stockpile at this point (of all meds...I had to stock up on some at the end of last year as my insurance doesn’t cover it anymore.)

I always did feel a bit 'out there' when I used my hand sanitizer, wiped down the handles on trolleys

I do this everywhere and have never seen anyone else do it. Not everywhere has the wipes so I just use my hand sanitizer much of the time.

——————

I’m off to the grocery store. A friend was there earlier and said people were panic buying. He said the soup aisle is wiped out. (Of all things...) I just want my free spiral ham! They are back in stock for Easter.....I earned the free ham at Christmas time. ?

 

[Deanna]

I’m off to the grocery store. A friend was there earlier and said people were panic buying. He said the soup aisle is wiped out. (Of all things...) I just want my free spiral ham! They are back in stock for Easter.....I earned the free ham at Christmas time.

Good luck. Wal-Mart , Target and Amazon out of toilet paper and I bought 5 fat rolls of paper towels at the Wal-mart store. Canned goods are low.

Also, most of our universities are going online

 

[Friday]

MODERATOR NOTE - PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC

Perfect examples of posts staying on topic, in regards to politics & Covid-19 :tup:

the speech last night was the least reassuring speech by a person "in authority" I've heard since Reagan got shot and Al Haig attempted to reassure the public by saying "don't worry, I'm in charge". (Fortunately, he wasn't.)

Disturbing new story line. With respect to the number of Italian Covid-19 patients it seems premature:

Just no, ok guys?

First of all, there is no “one European system” and it’s very much functional in many European countries- it’s also not at all solely government controlled in many countries.

Italy is not one of those. They’ve cut funding to the health system for years - the results of which we’re seeing now.

Remind you of anyone? The US will suffer severely solely because of their health insurance and sick leave situation.

Seen on the news the leaders in Scotland and Ireland and banning large gatherings and closing schools but that's not happening in England. They said something about "we're in this for the long haul, better not to react yet else everyone will run out of steam to continue dealing with it' kind of saying no point in putting anything in place till we have a peak number of cases.

We all come from nations with very different healthcare and social service platforms... and whilst it’s natural to compare and contrast those systems in the wake of a pandemic? If people would like to get into detailed political discussions/debates about those systems, unrelated to Covid-19, please start another thread.

People who continue to tangent off in unrelated -or thinly related- political discourse will be threadbanned.

 

[Strangelongtrip]

I wasn't worried at first, but being in an incubator of news is getting to me. I can't hear anymore about it. I'm going to go back off of social media for a bit. I had a complete breakdown over the whole thing because its' affected my business bc no one is traveling and my family is messed up and they're basically poor and I live with them and I'm terrified of not having enough money for food or not being able to get food. I'm also terrified everything will collapse and I'll die from withdrawing from my meds (or wish I was dead). I know logically that's just paranoia but it's sooo bad. So I break down every paranoia like oh if I make no money I have enough in savings for this months and I can taper off my meds for this long. It just gets worse and worse throughout the day. I've been essentially having a panic attack since 7pm and it's 10:30pm now. I want to move out and I don't want to be stuck here but everything is just terrible.

 

[Freida]

My sister just called...tomorrow is last day of school for nieces. They live near Seattle and all the schools in that area are closed till end of April.
She is so not ready for them to be home all day :laugh:

 

[scout86]

I can't hear anymore about it. I'm going to go back off of social media for a bit.

That's probably a good idea. While it's true that this is serious on a global scale, I think it's also true that it won't be more than a blip for a lot people. There's a lot that's unknown. That's scary. But ruminating on all that could go wrong isn't really helpful. It's good to think ahead and all that, but there's time enough to worry about a problem after it's clearly a real problem. A couple weeks ago, my T told me that the difference between ruminating on something and pondering something that pondering has an off ramp. Give yourself an off ramp.

And, just because it seemed odd, on my way home tonight I noticed that the small towns i drove through seemed extra quiet. The first one, maybe one car on the street & a couple at the gas station. The second one, which is a little bigger, a few cars at the bar, just me the gas station. So, maybe folks around here already stocked up on toilet paper?

 

[LuckiLee]

We had 2 cases here yesterday. 12 today. All with recent history of traveling. All K-12 schools are closed for 3 weeks starting Monday. All sports and concerts cancelled. Most stores are cleaned out.

70,000 people have recovered from covid-19.

 

[somerandomguy]

Most schools here are closing effective Monday with no reopening date established. The big city district, however, is not closing. They don't think they can since they provide a huge number of kids with the only two meals they'll get every weekday. Tough call.

 

[mamachick]

I have been following information for weeks and staying cautious but calm. The past couple of days I feel the anxiety building. I have a 2 month old grandson and while they say its effects are minimal with kids, he just started daycare today. Im also over 60 and have health problems. For years I have had that sense of foreshortened future. Since he was born, I have been excited about watching him grow up. Now I am feeling like that isn't going to happen. Also, the hospital where my husband worked closed and he has been unemployed for 6 weeks awaiting SS, but too young for medicare, so we have no insurance. All of our savings is in the stock market and lost about 20k in past week. We have no cases locally yet but businesses are slowing down. Worried for those that will loose all income, worried for the world. And I didn't mention politics. lol

 

[Friday]

My sister just called...tomorrow is last day of school for nieces.

This is soooo my kid’s life :facepalm:

He missed the first half of the year due to illness/depression (right after kicking so much ass in the spring/summer that he was invited onto the football team, and AP honors classes for the fall... even though he hasn’t been in school for 2 years / he returned with a vengeance! ), and now the 2nd half of the year is scuttled.

Can’t. Win. For. Losing.

Out of school for 2 years, back for 6mo, our for another year. f*ck. f*ckity f*ck f*ck.

 

[Justmehere]

Things got really real in my neighborhood today. Positive cases a few blocks away. Everywhere is closing down fast. My insurance freaked on my filling an asthma med and I sounded so bad on the phone they threatened on email to have me detained by state police to get tested for covid 19. Not sure how far they got in the process of doing that. Oh and they were denying the routine medication they have covered for years... Until we pointed out the irony of this. My docs got involved and stopped them from forcibly taking me to the hospital for asthma - told them all I’m an asthmatic with a rare disease best treated at home not the ER, it’s best for all of they handle my care, not a hospital or forced care. I don’t think they would have had time to do this if this was a week from now. Scared the crap out of me. It was all stupid panic and once everyone took a breath and started to think it through better, the insurance approved the med and I got to stay at home. Docs are treating my flare up aggressively, and admitted now actually expressing they are worried about me but also think the real danger for me is stupid hysteria and panic and strong arm actions. Now I’m locking down my life for a few weeks to stay at home as much as possible.

The general panic got really spooky today. My advice? If coronavirus PANIC hasn’t hit your area yet, get what you need for a bit now. It’s not the virus so much as it is the stupid fear. It’s going to be weird for awhile. It’s going to be hard. I don’t know how to make all of my life work and survive through this with work and all just yet... but neither do a lot of people and in time, I think systems and people will calm and adjust and things will steady a bit into a new normal and then eventually this will pass. The swine flu, H1N1, Spanish flu - all were rough to varying degrees, but passed. They eventually ended. This will eventually shift and change and improve too.

I did get the asthma med in the end. Last two boxes in the city. I’m set for two months. Working on sourcing more now. Working on staying grounded and calm...ish... weird times. Life feels a little surreal.