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

[EveHarrington]

My phone therapy has been postponed until the insurance companies officially approve it on paper. I’m ok for now though, although the isolating is taking some getting used to.

I totally understand the guidelines for quarantine, but at the same time, for those of us who were sick well before the virus ever came to our country, the situation is a little different. Don’t get me wrong. I’m only going out once a week for groceries, and even then I wear a mask, aim to socially distance myself, and shop during off hours. I have a lingering cough from bronchitis (diagnosed in January), and at this point it’s mostly gone although I do have croupey coughing fits every few days. I don’t believe I coughed once when I went out a few days ago. I’m on medication and my cough is improving.

I wish they’d stress that it’s a change (worsening) in symptoms that matters for those of us who are already sick with something else. I am on high alert and if anything changes, you bet I’d be going nowhere and doing a full quarantine.

 

[somerandomguy]

So an initial study of 30 people has not shown hydroxychloroquine to be especially effective against COVID-19.
Malaria Drug Chloroquine No Better Than Regular Coronavirus Care, Study Finds
Of course this is a tiny study and more research is needed, but even so, it's clear that hydroxychloroquine is not the powerful cure that some people in authority have claimed it to be.

I found this article about the two very different ways that Americans are reacting to the virus to be quite interesting:
America is living in two different worlds in dealing with coronavirus outbreak

 

[ms spock]

This is interesting probably have read this now.

Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now

We cancelled our specialist appointment at the hospital, and the specialist emailed back and said that was a great idea.

I got B to cancel another hospital appointment a couple of weeks back.

I think I have been in lockdown for about 33? days now. I still have a sore throat and wake up coughing but whatever it is I am not spreading it. B has been out twice in the amount of time. I don't think there is any point going out until they start disinfecting everything. I am cutting down my medication so we don't have to go out. Woollies & Coles are still not delivering but we found another place that deliver tomorrow.

I keep saying to B we don't leave the premises for three months. We are arranging things around the house. Been a phone a friend for a few people. I couldn't get why people weren't getting how serious it is so I started to watch the PMs press briefings where he rambles on and makes no sense, contradicts himself and doubleback back. Then I watched the news. Then I tweeted some journalists about it might be a good idea to read the World Health Organisation's press section so they don't give out incorrect information.

Bit flat and tired. I think we made the right decision cancelling the hospital appointments.

Moving mulch, setting up for a vegetable garden, want to get chickens. Very tired.

I wish I could do more but I can't. My mental was really poor and it means that I didn't get exposure except for the woman who was o/s and really sick. But if I got the Covid19 I am in the 80% that it's not so bad. So all we have to do is not spread or catch.

Rang my lesbian couple friends and told them to be careful and we have named them in our will. So that done.

We need a Universial Basic Income. The top 250 companies in Australia avoid tax, each entity, every 3 months, to fund Centrelink for each individual for 5 years. If one Australian company paid tax for one year would result in an UniversialBasicIncome for 20 years each and every Australian.

Why was Qantus given Welfare & then stood down two thirds of their staff down? Why do companies who don't pay tax get more handouts than the average Australians? It beggars belief.

I look at the Math modeling of transmission for a few countries. It's grim.

Tired but okay. It's a lot to take in. All the organising folks via a phone was really draining. I am so tired.

Sadly we have to wait until 500-1000 Australians die before folks take it seriously. Looking at the Math modeling it will happen 2-4 weeks depending on some moving parts. I have been stunned since reading all that. It's like I am in shock. Folks are not educated. I watched the commerical TV stations for a couple of days to see what folks are being told. I can see why there are problems and misunderstanding.

I just can't come to terms with how many people are going to die. I can't help. I can't do anything. Well I have been isolating since Feb so it's a small contribution but it feels so unreal. All those poor people and I wish I could just do something for them.

Australia is on the same modeling as Italy. I saw American modeling going above Italy and I kind of couldn't move. It was just so overwhelming. I just had to shut down. I will stop watching stuff but I also need to know so we can make calculated decisions.

There are leaders who have given out double messages, and failed to act. I can't stomach the numbers of it all. Those poor people. I felt like I hada body blow. Very reactive today. Wiped down delivered groceries, disinfected everything.

I can't even get vulnerable to change their behaviours. We only need 6 weeks to break the back before all the transmission happened.

The sheer numbers of fatalities. It beggars belief. I am exhausted by it all. I can't believe it but I can belief.

 

[DharmaGirl]

I don't take back anything I have said.

Didn't you say earlier in this thread that this was "just a f*cking cold"? Are you an RN? Our jobs as RNs are to teach, not attack. I know everyone is stressed, but let's show a little respect here.

 

[Chris-duck]

Didn't you say earlier in this thread that this was "just a f*cking cold"? Are you an RN? Our jobs as RNs are to teach, not attack. I know everyone is stressed, but let's show a little respect here.

It is for most people. And my point still stands that people should just have washed their hands regularly *anyway*. And I am, but you're not my patients.

 

[DharmaGirl]

I just can't come to terms with how many people are going to die. I can't help. I can't do anything. Well I have been isolating since Feb so it's a small contribution but it feels so unreal. All those poor people and I wish I could just do something for them.

Australia is on the same modeling as Italy. I saw American modeling going above Italy and I kind of couldn't move. It was just so overwhelming. I just had to shut down. I will stop watching stuff but I also need to know so we can make calculated decisions.

I am shocked too. Who's going to die? My mom and stepdad. Maybe my stepsister. My egg customers keep coming. They are not sick. Yet. I really think most people will get it and the thinking is that whoever dies has lived a long life anyway, and it will boost social security if they die.

 

[Neverthesame]

I'll be honest, I found the last few pages of this thread disturbing.
It's really easy to call out "stupidity" from a keyboard. Suggesting someone should quit a job for the greater good. A medical professional handing out medical advice as fact without physical assessment. Acting as though this one one person and their employer having an unusual lack of due care about the Covid threat.

Many people have lost their jobs in the US, many weren't even sick. When the lockdowns end and businesses start reopening, they will be doing so in a diminished economy. There won't suddenly be as many available jobs as before. As of right now, you can't get a Covid test and without that, you have no protection against unfair dismissal.

Yeah, this disease is bad. It's highly contagious. It has a roughly 2 week period of incubation in which the infected person is highly contagious. If (and that's a big if) she's infected. It's already been scattered all over that call center. It's also entirely possible she caught it there. No one can know that. Especially from an internet forum.

If you think that's the only business that doesn't take this seriously?
Been to your local grocery store lately? Notice the nice selection of goods available?
You know what companies are still operating at full production, packaging, delivery and merchandising? Most of them.
Think about it for a second. How "essential" is alot of what you see around you when standing in a grocery store?
No one needs Coca-Cola. No one needs ice cream, potato chips, cookies.
No one needs deodorant.
No one needs hair dye.
No one needs a person to brings trolleys in from the carpark.
Why are these things still happening? Your convenience, and your money.

Should these people try to get out of their "essential" job out of fear of infection? They join the unemployment line. These might not be prestigious career jobs, but they pay the bills. Good luck finding another one later when the market is saturated with the unemployed non-essentials trying to pay their bills.

You want to jump on someone for trying to keep a roof over their head? You can jump on me.
We'll call it the justification for my $2 per hour "danger pay". Just try to think about who you're shitting on when sitting at home eating the junk food people like me risk our health and the health of our loved ones to keep your grocery store supplied with.
If businesses and governments were really taking this shit seriously, your grocery store would look like a Red Cross distribution facility. Just basic necessities, not Hagen Daas and Pepsi. Or 40 varieties of toilet paper to choose from.

I didn't want to talk about this. Especially not like this, I'm not going to go into specifics about it. I'll just say someone close to me has taken ill and can't work anymore. Part to my pay goes to help them keep a roof over their head. I need my job. They need my job.

If I get sick, I'll self quarantine like I'm supposed to. But I'm going to be goddamn sure I'm sick before I throw out my paycheque. Even then there's no guarantee I'll still have a job to go back too after I recover. It's a f*cking scary place to be in.
Being a responsible adult sucks sometimes doesn't it? Sometimes a sneeze is just a sneeze.

 

[Ronin]

@Neverthesame My concern, personally, was the underlying assumptions. The idea one can't end a job no matter what even if a risk to health & life on many angles. Or even call in sick. Or request any accomodations.

It wasn't from the spot of judgmentality and I apologize to @lostforgottensoul it came out that way.

But sympathy / emphasizing with.
Because the whole sense of powerless / others always are right just because power / authority backed?

That is a veeery typical abused person issue, presenting more markantly with a new crisis at hand.

We're a forum of trauma survivors...
So to suggest people have options, I would think, is topical.

However, I understand if my posts made people feel backed into a corner, and that wasn't my intention.

//

As to pay issues - I'm aware you are in Canada, so possible differences, but I understand that US health care people are tired. Not sure if it's just health 1st responders or the whole sector, assuming whole, but they get *no* danger pay whatsoever.

I would weight these structural issues in when thinking of why some might be bit snappier than usual.

 

[Mee]

i strongly agree with neverthesame. It was a point I was clumsily trying to make around a comparison with victim blaming yesterday.

What ever difference in opinion - inviting shame or defensiveness upon someone is usually counterproductive. We have most of us experienced this and it has not often lead to positive life choices for us. Inviting compassionate reasoning might - but that is very much kinder.
I was hurt by something addressed to me yesterday and found solace in the lesson in being able to step back and not turning something already ugly into a bun fight.

 

[RubyBlue]

I don’t know where you get your information from @Neverthesame but no one I know is sitting around eating all the junk and talking crap on the keyboard. We’re all in this boat. Everyone in my house is laid off. It’s temporary, the jobs *will* still be there afterwards. The junk in the stores doesn’t just disappear overnight when there is a back stock of it all. Plus, the more people buy the junk the more real food is available for those who need it. Truckers and manufacturers are still operating because yes they are essential to keep your ass from starving. I don’t know how you can sit there and accuse someone who is on the frontline right now, watching people die, having to choose who to help when several people are dying, and having to bar family of the deceased from seeing their loved ones one last time. Very few places are open and what ones are are being heavily monitored by police, so again- don’t know where you’re getting your information. In the UK stores are limiting how many people can go in at a time and there are lines packed around the building- so ya, very much like a Red Cross center. I get money is necessary for survival, I really do. But that’s why countries are issuing assistance in sooooo many different forms (stimulus packages/reduced utility bills/grocery assistance if not free groceries/free school lunches/assistance on all sorts of bills and mortgages). So before you sit there and act like a jackass towards someone who is literally killing themselves to save your ass, get your facts straight and maybe just maybe understand why right at this very moment we can’t afford as a f*cking world to trust that a sneeze is in fact just a sneeze. Personal f*cking responsibility. Care about your fellow person before acting selfishly.

 

[siniang]

But that’s why countries are issuing assistance in sooooo many different forms (stimulus packages/reduced utility bills/grocery assistance if not free groceries/free school lunches/assistance on all sorts of bills and mortgages).

Yeah, which is really awesome if you’re not f*cking eligible... :banghead:

As I said before, we’re all in this together and neither attacking and even shaming other persons you don’t even know nor acting in a holier-than-thou way will get us anywhere.

I went for a walk yesterday. It was quite crowded at appropriate distances. Every single person smiled at everyone and greeted everyone. Total strangers. That’s how it’s supposed to be.

As I said before. Be angry at those throwing coronavirus parties. Be angry at Churches STILL doing large gatherings. People STILL traveling. Be angry at all the non-essential workers who still don’t abide by any of the regulations and are out and about. Be angry at the various governments for not acting fast enough and not taking it serious. But stop bashing down on one individual person who’s been told in this very thread “it’s probably nothing”, who has all the reasons to think it’s not Corona for all kinds of reasons, who’s taking ALL possible precautions bar from staying home and who’s job is considered “essential”. In a PTSD-forum of all places, we continue calling people selfish, dense, accuse them of killing their family and tell them they’re acting just out of pride? And that’s somehow considered ok?!

Kindness and understanding goes long ways.

 

[Mee]

I am going to take conversation in a different direction but leading from this if that’s ok?

I read coverage from India this morning in response to the lockdown with a quote I’ll paraphrase of -starvation is more urgent a risk than corona with no access to work.

Though DH has no income right now and we too are ineligible for benefits I remain grateful for geography and innate privilege - I’ve been able to go without heating without risk to health , I have access to a garden and hedgerows for food foraging (I make a really delicious nettle soup). And while I actively worked on being less of a prepper I still have a bountiful freezer - this is a privilege afforded by choice many don’t have- I’m not pretending otherwise. That said - we also made choices - not had those things as well as other stuff Many others take for granted. Shrug. Still have opportunity of that choice. I am glad fortune had me born somewhere we could build choices - especially before I got ill.