[Mezla PigDog]

Bollocks. My mum took my son for 3 nights for the first time ever over my 40th birthday this week. Now she has caught a bug from his nursery and qualifies for a week of self-isolation by the updated government guidelines.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'"Italy has abandoned us": People are being trapped at home with their loved ones' bodies amid coronavirus lockdown

[...] for more than 36 hours, the Italian actor and mixed martial arts trainer was trapped at home with Teresa Franzese's decaying body, unable to find a funeral home that would bury her.

"I have my sister in bed, dead, I don't know what to do," Franzese said in a Facebook video over the weekend, pleading for help.

[...] several instances where funeral homes reportedly refused to collect the bodies of those infected with the virus.'

Lasciate ogne?...

'Deserted Italian street rings out with song as people lean out of windows to sing together during lockdown

"We shine our best in the darkness."

[...]

A video of people singing out of their windows on a neighbourhood street in Siena, Tuscany, went viral on social media, with many calling it a "beautiful" act of humanity.

"People of my hometown Siena sing a popular song from their houses along an empty street to warm their heart during the Italian Covid-19 lockdown," wrote a Twitter user who posted the video.'




'Hundreds of ravenous wild monkeys terrorise Thai city in search of food after coronavirus drives tourists away'

https://www.thesun.c...virus-tourists/

[Granted, that's The Sun, so the headline's a little over the top; Newsweek has it as, 'THAI CITY OVERRUN BY HUNDREDS OF HUNGRY MONKEYS']

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 13 March 2020 - 10:15 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

I was trying to persuade my elderly father to stop going to the gym and the movies. (He thinks that because he goes to the gym and hasn't had any major medical problems he doesn't count as elderly. Mocks me for being a 'germaphobe' and until very recently insisted on putting his hands all over my clothes when I visited.) Thankfully the governor has directed all gyms and entertainment venues in the area to close.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 13 March 2020 - 10:59 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

We live in the English county with the highest infection rate but we don't know anyone confirmed with the virus. God knows if my mum has it, she doesn't qualify for testing. We permanently have a sniffle with a kid in daycare, most probably a regular cold. Sorry mother! She's fine for now, tired and coughing.

[Kanese S's]

Macros, on 13 March 2020 - 09:04 AM, said:

Why the fuck is trump refusing to be tested.
I mean I know why, he's a paranoid wreck, but surely a fit to rule situation has to be in play here and a doctor should just jab a swab down his fucking throat

Either because he thinks he knows better than doctors (he has a history of believing himself to know more about everything than anyone, despite the opposite usually being true), or he actually has been tested and is lying about it.

King Lear, on 13 March 2020 - 02:44 PM, said:

Silencer, on 13 March 2020 - 02:11 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 13 March 2020 - 12:35 PM, said:

Mezla PigDog, on 13 March 2020 - 09:48 AM, said:

I am going nuts here with all the panic. Healthy people are being such pricks about it. Is it just because I've been exposed to infectious disease research my whole professional life? I feel like some kind of autistic person who can't comprehend the emotion around me.

*snip*

Now, there is something to be said about actual panicking like hoarding TP, and food and goods, ect. But it's kind of unavoidable when many people are told by their gov't not to worry for two months...and then in the space of 24hrs EVERYTHING shuts/suspends/cancels. That's not normal, and that's why people have freaked out a little. You can't expect them not to do so when we are talking about whole communities. An individual can be smart, circumspect, and do the right thing....but the masses are prone to the emotional gut reaction of "What the hell is going on?!" and they react. That's humanity.

------------

Yeah, see, I don't know about elsewhere, but here this bullshit started long before things began getting to the point of shutting down/closing. It started when we had 1 confirmed case and 0 deaths.

That was definitely a panic.

Hell, it's still a panic. Yes, immunocompromised and elderly people need to be protected. Those are the people who should be getting supplies and support. Instead, it's all the *healthy* people cleaning out store shelves and acting like they might die. For most of them, this isn't a serious health risk and a bit of common sense hygiene and self isolation when symptoms present and through sickness are all that is necessary.

The problem is, that the overreaction we are seeing is not the "we took excessive precautions and flattened the curve", it's borderline doomsday prepping, and it has the potential to cause more harm than good (see above about people who are actually at risk not having the supplies to stay safe, plus economic impacts that are driving the world towards recession - though that could very well happen with lack of a proper reaction too).

It's a bit of a balancing act to get people to treat this seriously while not tipping the balance too far that way.

I think people are pretty primed to act this way right now. I don't remember quite this much level of panic when the swine 'flu rolled around. But I suspect that the accumulation of natural disasters, political upheaval, terror attacks, and fears over outcomes of global warming are pushing an 'every man for himself' panic button in a lot people. Things feel unstable, and I think especially for people who aren't used to much instability in their lives, they're scared and and they would rather bolt and hoard rather than looking at what they can do for not just themselves but their people, their friends, their community. They're controlling the few things they know they can. I don't know how many people read Terry Pratchett but it reminds me of Fred Colon and the sugar lumps.

They're basically the people who aren't rich enough for the bunker crowd who are hoarding not just bog roll but medical personnel and equipment, which I suspect I'm not alone in thinking is far worse, especially because we know precisely who will get first dibs on respirators, never mind the tests mentioned in the article. (it is genuinely funny to me that the 'calm down, it's just a 'flu' crowd are also the same people who will buy themselves top spot in a triage one way or another.)

For many people it has seemed like this world is winding down for a while now. Many developed countries haven't been truly assailed by disasters, especially epidemics, of this magnitude in a long time. There's so much uncertainty. People aren't confident that the system, by which I mean our societal structures and everything that keeps developed, technological society running, can actually weather this.

Then of course, you also always have the grifters, and opportunist kulaks who want to hoard vital resources during a crisis so that they can profit off of human misery.

Malankazooie, on 13 March 2020 - 02:58 PM, said:

People act like toilet paper is the only option to clean your backside and there are no alternatives. For fuck sake, we're really done with common sense aren't we. Has no one ever gone camping and really roughed it? Not talking 'glamping' here, but legit packing in everything on your back and hiking miles to where you set up your tent? And we have to clear the shelves at the nearest grocery store because we have nothing else that can suffice in our houses.

When I've gone backpacking I've always taken toilet paper. It's admittedly been a long time since I've gone backpacking, but last time I did, taking a roll of toilet paper was the norm.

King Lear, on 13 March 2020 - 03:33 PM, said:

Trump administration blocks states from using Medicaid to respond to coronavirus crisis really leaning in hard to that mitigating fear thing I guess

Edit because fuck it, today is Edit Friday and I really had to add this as a counterpoint because it made me laugh:

PornHub Helps Italians Stay Indoors with Free Premium Access

Trump administration as per usual finds a way to be unnecessarily evil. How enraging yet unsurprising.

Also I find PornHub's reaction to be oddly wholesome.

Azath Vitr (D, on 13 March 2020 - 05:53 PM, said:

Abyss, on 13 March 2020 - 02:26 PM, said:

King Lear, on 13 March 2020 - 02:20 PM, said:

Macros, on 13 March 2020 - 09:04 AM, said:

Why the fuck is trump refusing to be tested.
I mean I know why, he's a paranoid wreck, but surely a fit to rule situation has to be in play here and a doctor should just jab a swab down his fucking throat

People are speculating it's because he already has been tested - he's been potentially exposed twice, once through people in his circle who went to CPAC and once through Bolsonaro's guy.

But the guy has always told lies, much as we're encouraged to forget that since he first got the nomination, so it's entirely possible he's just lying about it.

It's also a nasal swab, I believe, so maybe he's uncomfortable with that? He's, again, always been pretty neurotic and that's not aged well either.

He's totally been tested. They're just not admitting it or releasing the results.

...and since we could expect him to brag about negative results, the likely conclusion is he's got it but only mlld or asymptomatic.



Meanwhile in Canada the PM's wife tested positive. PM himself is negative.

As of 14 hours ago, 'Because he has no symptoms, Mr. Trudeau will not be tested for now'. I haven't been able to find any reference to him having been tested. Maybe they think it would be a political liability? Did he not have any contact with his wife?...

https://www.nytimes....oronavirus.html

'Trump's budget director stands by plan to cut CDC budget by 15 percent


The acting director of the OMB seemed unperturbed when asked about if it was wise to cut the CDC during a pandemic'

https://www.salon.co...8-HLC-BU8556v98

'The Trump Administration Will Move Ahead With Its Plan To Kick People Off Of Food Stamps Despite The Coronavirus Outbreak

Should you go to work and risk contact with sick people, or stay home and risk losing your SNAP benefits? Many people may face this choice as the White House refuses to postpone its controversial rule change.'

https://www.buzzfeed...qo-Xmm2XL2_Hv-Y

We are governed by a bunch of fucking ghouls. Like... as long as disease exist, why would you ever cut the CDC?

Azath Vitr (D, on 13 March 2020 - 06:29 PM, said:

'Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with several U.S. officials including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during an official visit over the weekend, has denied that he tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus.

Brazilian news outlet Jornal O Dia and Fox News, citing Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, reported Friday that Bolsonaro had the flu-like virus.'

https://www.thedaily...eports?ref=home

Fascists lie.

Mezla PigDog, on 13 March 2020 - 08:24 PM, said:

I'm watching a Ch4 coronavirus "Are we doing enough?" special. They have a Professor of Infectious Disease from LSE (I think) debating with a Silicon Valley Tech Executive who wrote some alarmist blog post. The first dude is saying this is here all year, slow and steady is the way to deal with, make big moves at the right time. And the Tech Exec literally said that everyone who gets it is going to die and we have to beat it by the weekend. The Guardian has a headline "Fear Trudeau's wife caught it in London" - I'm not afraid! This show ran with "The news from Italy is terrifying" - I'm not terrified. This is what I mean about being annoyed by the "panic". Close schools! We're not doing the same as Ireland! Ban mass gatherings! Fuck off - it's politics. Any country with less percent infection rate than the UK who has taken those measures is playing politics and optics with the public. They are not watching the science.

Oh how I hate silicon valley and the tech plutocrats.

[Kanese S's]

The school district where I work announced last night that all schools will be closed for at least three weeks.

I still have to go to work because my job is at the district office and so I'm apparently considered essential staff.

[QuickTidal]

An Italian (originally disbeliever in how bad it might get) posted this on reddit:

https://www.reddit.c...tm_medium=web2x

And it mirrors what someone from Asia posted a mere month before about China...the timelines are eerily similar.

https://www.reddit.c...tm_medium=web2x

This is why flattening the curve is so important now. So we can save lives.

[Slow Ben]

Kanese S, on 13 March 2020 - 11:35 PM, said:

The school district where I work announced last night that all schools will be closed for at least three weeks.

I still have to go to work because my job is at the district office and so I'm apparently considered essential staff.

They just shut down our whole state today.

Luckily the wife’s and I jobs are pretty flexible.

[QuickTidal]

Slow Ben, on 14 March 2020 - 12:39 AM, said:

Kanese S, on 13 March 2020 - 11:35 PM, said:

The school district where I work announced last night that all schools will be closed for at least three weeks.

I still have to go to work because my job is at the district office and so I'm apparently considered essential staff.

They just shut down our whole state today.

Luckily the wife’s and I jobs are pretty flexible.

Our schools and daycares are closed for the next three weeks too...wife can work from home, but the kids don’t get along well so that will be interesting, I can probably do every other day at work. We will sort it out, and yeah it’s more flexible than it could be for us, so I’m not really upset about it. If it helps stop the virus from spreading too fast, I’m down.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'If the pandemic gets so severe that we cannot responsibly hold in-person elections, Congress should require states to allow no-excuse absentee balloting. But if Trump does not want to risk a loss at the polls, he can exploit a constitutional shortcut around free and fair elections. The president can ask Republican-controlled state legislatures to assign their electoral votes to him—without allowing any citizen to cast a ballot for president. This maneuver would constitute an appalling assault on democracy. But it would be legal.

[...] Due in part to partisan gerrymandering, Republicans control the legislatures of 28 states. Collectively, these states have 294 electoral votes. Trump himself could not cancel the entire presidential election. But he could ask these GOP-dominated legislatures to cancel their statewide presidential elections and assign their electors to him.'

https://slate.com/ne...oronavirus.html

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 14 March 2020 - 12:58 AM

[Macros]

I'm kind of with Mez on the whole panic thing.

Assholes clearing the shops need to fuck off. Last? Or 2 winters ago a big storm hit Ireland
Qué panic, no bread, water, TP etc left anywhere. We had to leave work early as the foreman was scared he would be stuck down on site for the weekend. We drove the length of the country home, no problems, then promptly jumped in a load of vans a drove half way back down for a stag do, snow didn't slow is at all.

But a load of sane people got stuck with no bread because wankers had bought it all. And subsequently dumped it a week later when it went out of date and they still had not eaten it.

My travel plans being disrupted I can hack, I don't want to be the one spreading it via the airport to elsewhere.

But me having to steal toilet roll from work on my way home because every supermarket at home is fucking sold out.

Fuck thats

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Macros, on 14 March 2020 - 02:03 AM, said:

I'm kind of with Mez on the whole panic thing.

Assholes clearing the shops need to fuck off. Last? Or 2 winters ago a big storm hit Ireland
Qué panic, no bread, water, TP etc left anywhere. We had to leave work early as the foreman was scared he would be stuck down on site for the weekend. We drove the length of the country home, no problems, then promptly jumped in a load of vans a drove half way back down for a stag do, snow didn't slow is at all.

But a load of sane people got stuck with no bread because wankers had bought it all. And subsequently dumped it a week later when it went out of date and they still had not eaten it.

My travel plans being disrupted I can hack, I don't want to be the one spreading it via the airport to elsewhere.

But me having to steal toilet roll from work on my way home because every supermarket at home is fucking sold out.

Fuck thats

Stockpiling perishable goods (more than you'll consume before they expire) is bad. And stockpiling nonperishable items is not necessary, or should not be necessary.

However, people should have a stockpile of nonperishable, relatively essential goods in case of an emergency, and many (most?) did not. So I expect the net effect to be a positive societal good, and to partly offset the decreases in spending in numerous other areas. (In a way, it's a transfer of funds from luxuries or arguably 'wasteful', even harmful, expenditures to substantial goods necessary for subsistence, sanitation, investment in future security against disasters, and hopefully in more efficient methods of addressing shortages and delivering goods in the event of a more serious disaster, particularly since the 'free market' capitalist ideology has again proven out of touch with reality.)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 14 March 2020 - 02:12 AM

[Cause]

I feel like a war profiteer but the stock market was too high to buy and now it’s not.

Also I keep thinking that the early survivors assuming they are immune from reinfection which is generally likely may be able to make a killing of their services as delivery men or caregivers becomes in high demand

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 14 March 2020 - 02:40 AM, said:

I feel like a war profiteer but the stock market was too high to buy and now it's not.

Also I keep thinking that the early survivors assuming they are immune from reinfection which is generally likely may be able to make a killing of their services as delivery men or caregivers becomes in high demand

Some people are advising that this could just be a 'dead cat bounce'---that the world was already teetering on the brink of a recession and this will push it over into a downward spiral. 'Don't try to catch a falling knife' is being bandied about. But I'm using this as an opportunity to buy SPYX (S&P500 without fossil fuels) and VGT (global technology ETF, low expense ratio) and diversify my portfolio, and transfer some of my bad long-term investments into better seeming long-term investments with substantially lower capital gains tax. (Unfortunately some of what I want to sell has done worse than the ETF's I'd like to buy, with the major exception of my theoretically more recession-resistant stocks... a dilemma.)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 14 March 2020 - 03:04 AM

[Cause]

I have cash that I wanted to invest. Not really sure what don’t try catch a falling knife means but I figure the stock market will reach and exceed current levels eventually. The fact that is down 20 percent today is better than yesterday. I’m not gonna try time the absolute bottom but any discount is better than no discount.

And yes I mean to buy an sp500 index, if the index crashes and never recovers well then we are fucked anyway

This post has been edited by Cause: 14 March 2020 - 03:22 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 14 March 2020 - 03:19 AM, said:

I have cash that I wanted to invest. Not really sure what don't try catch a falling knife means but I figure the stock market will reach and exceed current levels eventually. The fact that is down 20 percent today is better than yesterday. I'm not gonna try time the absolute bottom but any discount is better than no discount.

And yes I mean to buy an sp500 index, if the index crashes and never recovers well then we are fucked anyway

In the long term, I'm optimistic about technology stocks (and, to a lesser extent, China). However, climate change could be very hard on the rest of the economy, even after the possible recession is over (and futures markets have become very pessimistic about the near to long term...).

(But of course, I'm not suggesting just buying tech stocks... a diversified portfolio is important.)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 14 March 2020 - 03:29 AM

[Cause]

Dont be pessimistic! When Corona virus is done with the old people and social security is saved we can all drink Margarita's at the sunny beach resorts of Quebec.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'The coronavirus has turned the UK into an outlier. The rest of the world has seemingly gone into lockdown, shutting schools and public transport in a desperate bid to quell the pandemic. But Boris Johnson has gone in a different direction. According to him, the UK is business as usual.

But what prompted such a policy? Is he privy to more advanced scientific knowledge than all the other countries? Is he really such a vocal proponent of herd immunity? Or is there something else going on? Perhaps to find out, we should travel back to 2006, when Johnson told an audience that “the real hero of Jaws is the mayor”.

Ah, Mayor Larry Vaughn, Amity’s foolhardy leader who orders the beach to remain open despite overwhelming evidence that there’s a massive shark in the water determined to eat everyone. Now everything suddenly makes sense.

But still, at least Vaughn is finally getting his dues. Without him, Jaws would simply be a film about a policeman who spots a shark, imposes a stringent set of beachside social distancing rules and then kills the shark. But Vaughn is the necessary sand in the ointment. He can only see the potential economic losses caused by a beach closure, and pushes on against all arguments. “As you can see, it’s a beautiful day,” he tells the media at one point. “The beaches are opened, and people are having a wonderful time.” Vaughn is the entire reason why Jaws became an enduring classic.'

https://www.theguard...cblp3AzM-BYnKfk

[Primateus]

Macros, on 14 March 2020 - 02:03 AM, said:

I'm kind of with Mez on the whole panic thing.

Assholes clearing the shops need to fuck off. Last? Or 2 winters ago a big storm hit Ireland
Qué panic, no bread, water, TP etc left anywhere. We had to leave work early as the foreman was scared he would be stuck down on site for the weekend. We drove the length of the country home, no problems, then promptly jumped in a load of vans a drove half way back down for a stag do, snow didn't slow is at all.

But a load of sane people got stuck with no bread because wankers had bought it all. And subsequently dumped it a week later when it went out of date and they still had not eaten it.

My travel plans being disrupted I can hack, I don't want to be the one spreading it via the airport to elsewhere.

But me having to steal toilet roll from work on my way home because every supermarket at home is fucking sold out.

Fuck thats

There were some statements from the various supermarkets here in Denmark, I think, that it was a little disparaging seeing people stockpiling perishables. Especially because in the last couple of years the same businesses have worked to minimize food waste. And then people stockpile perishables, and all that work goes down the drain.

[Cause]

https://www.rawstory...oronavirus/amp/

WTF! This is the most nonsensical thing I have ever read!

I also saw a post on Facebook asking people who had tickets for cancelled shows donate the ticket price rather than ask for a refund to help support the actors and crew who are now out of work! Why should the customer have to support the actors and not the producers? Who I’m gonna guess have some kind of insurance for this excavation eventuality.