Week of April 13: COVID-19 info, facts & updates

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I don't want people to start going back to work or open up stores until we have a proper treatment plan in place. Or a vaccine.
There's so much uncertainty, and I really don't like the idea that people keep having of, "Well, let's just risk it.  If the high risk people die, oh well.  If the seniors die, oh well.  At least I can work my minimum wage job and sneeze on bus seats, and think of myself first!  YAY!" 

Now I am stressing over that... I don't want to be forced back into society or the workplace.  I don't want my husband to die and I certainly don't want to leave my child motherless.  But people just "have to have their normal lives back".  It's so alienating, knowing that most of my neighbours would happily take a Starbucks run over my health and well-being.   

[Koudoawaia]

I 100% agree with  you lovesbabysquirmy. I just unfollowed a church friend I grew up with for being yet another conspiracist doing things like referring to the non compliance line as a 'snitch line' It's like 'Um why? Are you doing something that's against the guidelines or something??" I doubt she is but I have no time for conspiracies about the meanie government trying to control us  in my feed when in reality they're trying to save lives.

[Taffeta]

Today the UK compiled and released death data from care homes, homes, other settings to combine with the hospital data (so if you see a UK stat jump this is why) in an attempt to be more transparent more quickly over what is happening where. Like everywhere, the UK's carehomes have been blitzed by this horrible thing, so they're also now opening testing up to everyone staff and residents in care homes whether they have symptoms or not (hopefully it will help).

Our testing is going up day by day, but the number of positives are still fairly stable so it feels like we're still on the right track.

Like a lot of other people, I'm also uncertain about what comes next. There's no clear get out strategy even if the govt were ready to share one, which they aren't. At the start the scientists estimated 13 weeks. I want them to go the 13 weeks, but that requires the govt to continue to subsidise a lot of businesses through furlough and right now this is only happening till end June.

Rant within spoiler...

Spoiler

I'm also sick of people who think they are more important than the rest of the nation and that regulations don't apply to them. And especially people who have the following two attitudes:

"The vulnerable people can just stay shielded and we can get back to normal life."

"This only really affects old people so our businesses are being ruined by the old people".

I saw some other more upsetting things said about older people by such folk but this isn't the place to share them.

As for the first one, vulnerable people are people. They're people who already got dealt a cruddy hand, by having to deal with some health issue probably for no reason of their own. They didn't choose to be old. Disabled. Ill. They didn't ask to have cancer, asthma, or any other condition. Even if some of them had lifestyle choices that weren't wise, who hasn't made silly health related decisions at SOME point in their life? That doesn't stop those people being PEOPLE. They shouldn't have to give up their 'life' in either context - not just stay locked up like hermits forever so that Johnny Young Guy can go to the pub and get hammered and then arrested for drink driving. Nor should they have to die because Johnny Young Guy didn't observe distancing, gave COVID to the police officer who then accidentally gave it to his vulnerable relative.

As for the second one, COVID took away people's jobs. Lives. Freedoms. Everything. Not any group. Not any race. Age. Gender. Anything of people. COVID did. And the only way we can beat COVID is by starving it out. And that's why we're all staying home.

So yeah.

And I don't get the attitudes either. I mean, there's some dissonance between generations here because of Brexit but most of them have just gone away because of the reality of HUMAN BEINGS NEED EACH OTHER. The UK is actually more united in a lot of ways than it has been for the last 3 years, amazingly...but there are just those few who you want to just shake. Like the family of 5 who decided to drive to the beach last weekend. Why? What are you teaching your kids, to not respect rules? To put others at risk? To do as you like?

For me, I'm only meant to be stopping with my parents temporarily. My intention was to get an academic post for September and then move back down south or wherever.

Lockdown means there are no jobs. There may not be any university departments to apply to after this happens. Nobody knows yet.
Lockdown means shielding my mother and protecting my father, who is also over 70. That means physically going out shopping is not possible, let alone travelling for an interview or moving or anything like that.

When all this happened, I made the decision that so long as I needed to, I would lock down with them as best I could. If that means I don't get a job till next year, that's what it means. If it means living on my savings till then, then it does.

Because my parents are people and they matter more than my bank balance. And it really annoys me that there are people out there who think my parents are disposable commodities in their "let's go out and party!" rhetoric. So yeah. I am totally with you guys on this subject.

I am not a fan of informing on people breaking the lockdown, but I support the enforcement of our lockdown. The UK lockdown is not as severe as some places. I actually think it's not that different to what has happened in the Netherlands. There have been many stores which closed that didn't technically need to, but have since begun to reopen with distancing measures. Some people think it's not strict enough. Some people think it's too much. It's a hard balance to strike. I think that if we can keep things going down at the current level of economic activity, there's some hope at the end of the tunnel. A lot of companies have diversified, and one local one to us is now trading internationally thanks to lockdown and people taking up baking. So I think some good things can come out of this as well. But I think our economy will change, and it's unknown what will happen yet with Brexit or the EU at the moment. It could be a double dip effect.

[Wardah]

I don't want people to start going back to work or open up stores until we have a proper treatment plan in place. Or a vaccine.
There's so much uncertainty, and I really don't like the idea that people keep having of, "Well, let's just risk it.  If the high risk people die, oh well.  If the seniors die, oh well.  At least I can work my minimum wage job and sneeze on bus seats, and think of myself first!  YAY!" 

Now I am stressing over that... I don't want to be forced back into society or the workplace.  I don't want my husband to die and I certainly don't want to leave my child motherless.  But people just "have to have their normal lives back".  It's so alienating, knowing that most of my neighbours would happily take a Starbucks run over my health and well-being.   

I agree but the problem is at least in the US the government is doing jack about it. They say they are giving more unemployment but it takes forever to get on it because the states aren't used to dealing with such a high volume. They say they are helping small businesses but only a small percentage are getting that help. For people that lived paycheck to paycheck and businesses that were low margin it's devastating.

[Ponybookworm]

I agree with you lot. I apologised, yep, APOLOGISED. to the Co-op the fortnight including my bd for going outside more than once in that two-week period, because I know what's at stake, & that we have to stay in as much as possible to avoid excessive contamination. So people who feel the "need" to resume normal life too early are acting very selfishly in my book. I go out to the Co-op because 1/ I need to get my electric & I have to go out for that, 2/ I can take out my recycling, particularly glass, on the way, 3/ I can't take a bus due to the pandemic, & most importantly, 4/ to leave delivery slots free for households like Taffeta's where there are high-risk residents so they can't go outside AT ALL.

By setting my alarm on messages day & supplementing wi eBay, Amazon & the like, I can avoid the crowds & at least get what I need. It's not perfect but my life never was anyway. it's just what we have to do.