The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Off Topic => Topic started by: Loa on July 03, 2020, 01:07:51 AM
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Links to old threads will be included.
We are a global community. Let's keep each other posted about the real state of events.
Discussion is welcome.
NO FEAR MONGERING
1. Where do you live?
2. What is the current climate like where you're at?
3. Are news reports coming from your area accurate or no? What is going on?
4. What are your questions and concerns?
5. What has your government / administration done to address this (please try to keep this as politics free as possible, it is fine to state whether you agree/disagree with their actions etc) and, in your opinion, how is it working? Ex: Shelter in place orders, curfews, closures
6. Is your job affected, if so, how?
7. How are you and your family doing??
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This is a new disease, which means that even the experts are learning as we go and the situation is rapidly evolving. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the WHO (World Health Organization) website for information about the coronavirus, and the respiratory illness it causes, COVID-19:
Prevention, health, travel and safety guidance:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
Symptoms:
https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_3
FAQ:
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses
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Yesterday the governor made face coverings mandatory state wide in public unless you qualify for an exemption. Some of the exemptions include children under 10, going to a restaurant to eat, having a medical condition that makes it difficult to wear a face covering.
Public gatherings can be no more than 10 people. Bars are still closed and restaurants are back to 50% capacity.
Ponyfan
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So here is the status in The Netherlands
Our figures are dropping down for those who have died and still are on IC.
Public transport is driving according to their full schedule but everyone has to wear masks.
Gyms, restaurants and every other contact profession is open. Night clubs are still closed
Some events are also allowed to organise again but it has to guarantee the safety. So festivals are likely not allowed but I do have my hopes high for the fleamarket.
Tourists are also allowed to visit the country again as going on holiday too. But most are prepared on a local stay.
Happy with all of this but social distancing of 1,5 m is a must. And I simply don't want be in a very crowded place.
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As I mentioned in the last thread, our state really had a strong stance on this in the beginning. But the moment our health director stepped down, everything hit the fan.
For example, when we started opening up, Dewine was very clear that EVERYONE was to wear a mask and it was a part of his mandate. The day AFTER, he took it all back and said "well, I can't mandate that, but I highly recommend that". There is obviously a lot of disgusting politics going behind the scenes.
So, we've been trending up in cases and it's not just because we are testing more. We've been told friends who do the testing that our percentages of positives are up too. Hospitalizations have been up.
And K-12 schools will be pretty much up to each district. Mine is offering a full time home school option for kids. I wish I could do that, but my critter has an IEP and my dad wouldn't be able to meet her needs.
I'm just gonna stay at home and maybe one day we'll be in a better spot. I have no hope for people when adults scream at teenagers for wearings masks at their job in an icecream shop. Like hot dang, you don't like masks. Whatever. But swearing at kids? That *really* upsets me.
https://www.wlwt.com/article/ohio-ice-cream-shop-asks-customers-to-stop-yelling-at-teenage-employees-for-wearing-masks/33017028
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299 cases today in KY bringing the total to 16,376 x.o My husband and I got brave and ordered out for the first time two nights ago because I was exhausted. We got baked spaghetti since that would've been baked in an oven then put in a metal tin. It came to us rather messy but I just wiped the tins down with a homemade hydrogen peroxide wipe best I could.
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Welp, Florida is leading the US in cases and deaths per day! Nearly 10,000 new cases since yesterday! Terrific.
My sister went out to get some things for my dad's birthday and said it was so crowded and the traffic was terrible. She said they have the usual fireworks tent set up in the Wal-Mart parking lot. People all over, some with masks, some without.
They've made masks mandatory in a few counties but they should do it statewide. Beaches are also closing again here and there since they reopened because people are idiots and not following guidelines. DeSantis is a mini Trump so chances are slim he'll make any decisions.
I also just love how we're hitting a peak and it's been over 100° with the heat wave. But but but I thought the virus couldn't survive in the heat?!?!?! Then again those same people think it's all a hoax anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: The lady that originally made the Florida tracker was fired for refusing to omit information. She made another one that's accurate and includes the stuff that's not displayed on the "official" one. You can find hers here: https://floridacovidaction.com/
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My brother works in Fresno, CA and his hospital is at maximum capacity. They had to dissolve two other wards and move those patients to another hospital to make room for covid patients.
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I think with the US that there never was a peak, it was only a regional one, so everything you can do now to mitigate, even if it's just you staying home, wearing a mask if you are able, using sanitiser, washing hands, wiping down packages (not fruit and veg, obv xD), avoiding crowded spaces, you're going to help make a small contribution to the bigger effort. There are always going to be people who don't care enough about the lives of others to do anything and who will get violent, abusive and disgusting over it, but I feel like that's only a minority of people in most countries. I think the US can and will overcome this, but I do worry what will happen if July 4th carries on as normal. Small sacrifices have big rewards.
The UK is still not out of the woods in the overall picture. But our numbers are way, way, way down. Our peak for what is the first wave (we hope to avoid a second spike overall) was April, but it peaked later in care homes.
But right now I feel like we're still not down the curve as much as we should be.
Pubs and bars and hotels etc can open from today. Hairdressers as well. I think this is a bad idea as they are high risk places. But our testing has shot up since March and they are trying to tackle local outbreaks on a more targeted scale. We'll see what happens. The govt also published a list of countries where quarantining won't be required for people going/coming back into the UK. I am not sure but I think that starts from the 6th if the other country is reciprocal.
A report by the ONS reveals the most impacted group of people by covid and most likely to die are people with disabilities, which is no surprise for me. I'm not going to get political but it also shouldn't take 3 months to bother to write a letter to PIP claimants about what is happening with their benefits if they can take the time to set out plans for other groups. I would love to hope this crisis will open up other diversity and equality questions we can take forward, because right now we have an ugly stat of 2/3 of UK deaths being in the disabled category.
On a regional note:
My nhs area has had no deaths reported from COVID since June 21st in the community or in hospitals.
There has been 1 care home death in the last week in my borough, four in the wider county region.
There has been 1 new case in the wider county including my borough in the last few days.
Test results are now being released more locally for the community/home testing which makes me feel better that we're getting a more accurate picture than we had previously.
Overall the county has seen 1973 confirmed cases. There have been 184 confirmed hospital deaths and 139 confirmed care home deaths to date since March.
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There are always going to be people who don't care enough about the lives of others to do anything and who will get violent, abusive and disgusting over it, but I feel like that's only a minority of people in most countries. I think the US can and will overcome this, but I do worry what will happen if July 4th carries on as normal. Small sacrifices have big rewards.
I think you are wrong on this. I don't think the "minority" of people that don't care in the US, I think it's a solid half if not majority. It really doesn't have much to do about violence, but that's just icing on the cake in this disaster. It's just what I have seen with my two eyes (at a distance).
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There are always going to be people who don't care enough about the lives of others to do anything and who will get violent, abusive and disgusting over it, but I feel like that's only a minority of people in most countries. I think the US can and will overcome this, but I do worry what will happen if July 4th carries on as normal. Small sacrifices have big rewards.
I think you are wrong on this. I don't think the "minority" of people that don't care in the US, I think it's a solid half if not majority. It really doesn't have much to do about violence, but that's just icing on the cake in this disaster. It's just what I have seen with my two eyes (at a distance).
It would definitely be wrong for me as a foreigner to argue with someone who's right there on the ground experiencing it, but I want to believe that the majority of people do care. I also do believe the US will come through this as it's a strong country with a long history of overcoming problems. But for the time being, seriously, stay safe everyone.
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There are always going to be people who don't care enough about the lives of others to do anything and who will get violent, abusive and disgusting over it, but I feel like that's only a minority of people in most countries. I think the US can and will overcome this, but I do worry what will happen if July 4th carries on as normal. Small sacrifices have big rewards.
I think you are wrong on this. I don't think the "minority" of people that don't care in the US, I think it's a solid half if not majority. It really doesn't have much to do about violence, but that's just icing on the cake in this disaster. It's just what I have seen with my two eyes (at a distance).
It would definitely be wrong for me as a foreigner to argue with someone who's right there on the ground experiencing it, but I want to believe that the majority of people do care. I also do believe the US will come through this as it's a strong country with a long history of overcoming problems. But for the time being, seriously, stay safe everyone.
Most people in my area are wearing masks inside stores and staying inside. But then there are those mask less individuals that pop up while shopping and make us feel even more miserable. They're arguing with employees, ignoring social distance and a few have been aggressive to other patrons. Plus, I regularly see larger groups of people mask less and close together. I guess because they're so visible, it seems like there are more of them. But even so, they've become another reason why I won't go out to stores or do pick up at restaurants. :(
And its crazy because it looks like we're heading into another lock down.
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I forgot to mention in my post that there are a lot protests at the moment. People against social distancing, racism (because of George Floyd), farmers. Some are very peaceful with masks and some are making a mess.
Even though we have freedom of speech it already happened a couple of times a protest was not allowed to set place because a lot of people are expected and with social distancing safety was not guaranteed. It pisses people off and play the constitution card.
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I forgot to mention in my post that there are a lot protests at the moment. People against social distancing, racism (because of George Floyd), farmers. Some are very peaceful with masks and some are making a mess.
Even though we have freedom of speech it already happened a couple of times a protest was not allowed to set place because a lot of people are expected and with social distancing safety was not guaranteed. It pisses people off and play the constitution card.
We've had some of those too, albeit they were mostly over the one space of time and not so much at the moment.
I have no issue with (peaceful) protest but the attitude that it's ok to put lives of people potentially vulnerable at risk by ignoring distancing etc during them bothers me.
As a historian, also, I think it's better to hold up the ugly bits of history for scrutiny and challenge, rather than trying to remove them through vandalism. If it's being removed, it's harder to talk about, and we need to talk about these issues, not just hide them away because they don't fit with modern society.
Mind you a whole bunch of people were in pubs last night...in comparison the protests are probably not such a big deal. No way we're going to have social distancing in pubs.
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I live in North Carolina. Last Friday, June 26th, our (Democratic) governor made face coverings mandatory, whereas before it was only advised. As soon as that happened, a lot more people started wearing them, almost everyone. Before, it seemed like it was about half and half.
It's STILL hard to find toilet paper, paper towels, certain cleaning products and antibacterial soap and wipes around here. The toilet paper and paper towels are easier to find now that there is less hoarding going on, but the shelves where the antibacterial wipes should be are always bare when I go to Target or the grocery store.
A lot of stores have installed plexiglass shields in between the cashier and the customer at the checkout lane or customer service counter. There are no buffet/self-serve type areas in grocery stores, except for soup.
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I went with my sister while she ran some errands and to pick up my prescriptions. I'd say people not wearing masks were a little more than half of those with. My sister included in the not wearing group *sigh* She says it's too hard to breathe.
Look, I have both COPD and asthma. My lungs function at only 65% capacity. My oxygen usually reads 96 at rest, it can drop to 93 sometimes for no apparent reason. I wear a mask. It's uncomfortable and sweaty and breathing in makes it stick to my mouth (I can't breathe through my nose no matter what) but I manage somehow. Sometimes I have to step aside and pull it away from my nose for a minute but I mean, I've yet to collapse. So... wear a damn mask.
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Returned from my week-long vacation in NC! We stayed at the Outer Banks. There's a voluntary 14-day quarantine suggested for those from PA/NJ who travelled to a few different states. I don't feel as if I could keep home from work considering I'm not symptomatic and work in a small department, but I'll keep home from everything else.
Here's what I saw:
-No one wears masks at the beach which is understandable, but this beach is usually quite spread out. I worry for those visiting the NJ beaches or others where there are a higher volume of 1-day visitors/much more public access.
-We did not eat at any restaurants or bars (my Celiac disease helps us avoid in that regard) but they were certainly open, quite a few were advertising indoor seating. Can't speak for much else of the restauranting experience but I wonder if the increase of cases is linked to that specifically since that is something you need your mask off for.
-We did do a little bit of shopping. People were masked for the most part (some people had their nose hanging out) but people seemed to not regard the 6-foot guideline so much. Masks were mandatory at this point, I believe.
Masks are now mandatory in PA for outdoor events where social distancing isn't possible.
Edit:
I wear a mask. It's uncomfortable and sweaty and breathing in makes it stick to my mouth (I can't breathe through my nose no matter what) but I manage somehow. Sometimes I have to step aside and pull it away from my nose for a minute but I mean, I've yet to collapse. So... wear a damn mask.
I'm not sure how widespread Faceshields are (my work was able to get 50 of them in) but that may be a better alternative if masks are uncomfortable! When it was hot the mask got pretty tough to bear.
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1. Upstate New York
2. What is the current climate like where you're at?
In terms of weather, hot. It's like 93 degrees Fahrenheit. In terms of COVID, we're okay. Cases have dropped significantly in my county.
3. Our news in this county is as accurate as can be. Tests were and likely still are very limited, so the actual number of those who have had COVID is likely much, much greater than reported. However, county public health officials have been vigilant with daily updates on the number of active cases, current hospitalizations, and the death toll. Also, unlike a lot of netighboring counties, our health department publicly list the businesses and other public places confirmed positive individuals visited along with the dates and approximate times of those visits. This is good info for those who may have been exposed and are around vulnerable populations.
4. My questions and concerns are ones that can only be answered as scientists learn more about this virus.
5. Social distancing and masks are mandatory within all business establishments and public transit. Businesses deemed nonessential were closed in March and have begun to slowly reopen in the past few weeks with strict guidelines.
6. I have not been severely affected at work. Working in an animal shelter, I'm deemed part of an essential business and we've remained in operation this whole time. The changes we have had have been a mix of positive and negative. On the negative side, and these are very minor: needing to revamp a major fundraiser to make it virtual, the temporary loss of 2 employees that work for us through a county senior employment program when the county halted the program to protect the seniors it serves, and the temporary loss of all nonessential personnel (the latter two things have put a greater strain on the rest of us). We've also had to temporarily shut down our gift shop. But like I said, very minor inconveniences.
On the plus side, adoptions have increased, and not just where I work, but across the country. Also, with not having to oversee the gift shop and restricted visitors (we are doing things by appointment only due to COVID), I can get more work done with fewer interruptions.
7. My family and I are fine. As far as I know, none of us have been infected. However, my mother has a heart condition and works in our local hospital's Intensive Care Unit, which means she's at risk of both exposure and complications. If she gets infected, my father would also be at risk of complications due to his COPD. But so far everyone has been healthy.
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@TRTL
I don't know what the regs are where you are about self-isolation, but I know here they would consider the 2 weeks quarantine to include work. Maybe something to discuss with your employer?
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@TRTL
I don't know what the regs are where you are about self-isolation, but I know here they would consider the 2 weeks quarantine to include work. Maybe something to discuss with your employer?
They're not mandatory but I may throw it out there to see what happens. I'm not sure how afraid everyone is now, especially since my department has minimal interaction with customers.
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My county is at 3,051 cases and 56 deaths.
Masks are still required in public unless you are eating or drinking, attending a house of worship, or have a medical condition that makes it difficult to wear a mask. In theory you can be fined for not wearing a mask. The first time is a verbal warning and then you can face a fine the 2nd time. So far I don’t think anyone was been fined but an employee at the mall said several people were asked to leave because they were not wearing masks.
Schools will most likely require masks for staff members. One theater is open but patrons have to wear a mask at all times unless they are wrong or drinkin.
Ponyfan
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Scotland has made wearing masks mandatory in shops & other public buildings. I needed to go for electricity the other day & had to get help buying a washable mask from the pharmacy before I could get it, due to not being allowed to enter a shop without one on.
Outside they can come off, so long as you social distance.
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One of the bigger cities near me made wearing masks mandatory. This morning for my weekly toy search, Target store was doing a good job enforcing the rule. But at Walmart and Sam's Club several people were breaking the rule and management was doing nothing about it.
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One of the bigger cities near me made wearing masks mandatory. This morning for my weekly toy search, Target store was doing a good job enforcing the rule. But at Walmart and Sam's Club several people were breaking the rule and management was doing nothing about it.
I've seen this with Walmart as well. I live in NY where masks in public settings is mandatory. Yet when I was at Walmart, I counted 4 adults walking around without masks. This is despite signs reiterating that masks are mandatory. A volunteer at work said she was there a few days ago, and a man without a mask was violently coughing all over the place. She brought it to staff's attention only to be told there's nothing they can do about it (a blatant lie).
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Masks mandatory in stores in England too from 24 July. Joy. Not that I don't get why, but still.
It's harder to track down the stats here now the briefings stopped but the website figures suggest we're still going down.
Media scaremongering about the winter...
Not much else to report. Quarantine ended for some countries entering the UK, but I'm not sure it was that robust when it was active tbh. And Nicola Sturgeon is threatening to quarantine people from England crossing the border, which imo is more of a political stunt than anything meaningful since the hotspot up there is on the Scots side of the border. Although it may also be a reaction to someone in Berwick saying that 80% of his clientele at his pub on 4th July when English pubs opened were from Scotland. I think pubs in Scotland are still shut.
Death/case rate dropping faster in Scotland than England but that's probably because there are more people in England, generally, and the problem with this virus is that more people = harder to eradicate. Our numbers are still a lot better though not perfect yet.
There are some UK hotspots. I think Leicester is still in lockdown, sort of. There have been some factory or farm outbreaks too, but there's a sense that it's less panicky than it was in MArch when nobody had a clue what was happening.
Food supplies almost entirely back to normal.
Can even buy flour and eggs now.
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I have entered the phase where I am trying to ignore it and pretend like we are living in the first part of a Dallas-esque cliffhanger and will wake up to something normal.
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Here's something incredibly stupid and dangerous - Disney has reopened!
This is not only bad for the employees but it will bring tourists to Florida. That is of course the reason for the reopening; Florida needs money, doncha know? Then those tourists will go back home. From one of the most infected states.
I mean this is like setting yourself on fire and walking through a library while wanting to check out books.
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Here's something incredibly stupid and dangerous - Disney has reopened!
This is not only bad for the employees but it will bring tourists to Florida. That is of course the reason for the reopening; Florida needs money, doncha know? Then those tourists will go back home. From one of the most infected states.
I mean this is like setting yourself on fire and walking through a library while wanting to check out books.
I saw that. I kind of blinked. Stay safe ><
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Up here not a lot going on.
There is sort of discussion what to do in case there is a peek in just one city or region. As in partial lockdown.
It's summer holiday and luckily most people decided to stay home or in the country with their tent/caravan. Some are taking the risk to go abroad mostly Germany, France and Spain. There is a warning for those who go with schoolgoing children to an orange code country. Back here you need to go in quarantine for 2 weeks. And the school police said to be back on time you will get a fine.
Street artists are not allowed to perform in the city center of Amsterdam until the end of October. This is to keep control of the crowd since a lot of tourists are expected.
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Here's something incredibly stupid and dangerous - Disney has reopened!
This is not only bad for the employees but it will bring tourists to Florida. That is of course the reason for the reopening; Florida needs money, doncha know? Then those tourists will go back home. From one of the most infected states.
I mean this is like setting yourself on fire and walking through a library while wanting to check out books.
Our country is acting so foolish I can't even believe what I'm seeing anymore.
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I thought this was an interesting comparison of rates across different countries and the US and why some of the states are still having a bad time.
It's very much on fact and data, not on opinion.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-53423637/coronavirus-us-v-other-countries-did-it-mess-up-its-reopening
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I thought this was an interesting comparison of rates across different countries and the US and why some of the states are still having a bad time.
It's very much on fact and data, not on opinion.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-53423637/coronavirus-us-v-other-countries-did-it-mess-up-its-reopening
"Can the US learn from other countries?" LOL only the bad things!
That's a great video though.
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I thought this was an interesting comparison of rates across different countries and the US and why some of the states are still having a bad time.
It's very much on fact and data, not on opinion.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-53423637/coronavirus-us-v-other-countries-did-it-mess-up-its-reopening
It's pretty simple. The US is having a bad time because of people lack respect for others + politics.
Not only was my state one of the first to close (with 3 confirmed cases, to boot).. it was decreasing with a low dip about a 1.5 months after the first openings (we did a sort of slow, but then opened the flood gate type opening -- mostly due to lawsuits against the state). It is veeeery clear that there is some sort of politics behind it on all levels. Things would be tighter here if our governor could make it so, but not really that much can be done it seems. Example -- We have mask mandates in counties with increasing cases (+other concerning criteria) and the police said they will not enforce them.
We pretty much didn't do too much wrong according to that video... but here we are 2.5 months later with record highs... and it didn't have to be this way if people would just continue with social distancing + masks.
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My county has not been affected too harshly by this yet. We just had our first Coronavirus death a couple weeks ago, and not sure on the current numbers, but maybe just over a hundred cases overall. Groceries were never hard to find here, cleaning supping maybe a little.
I hardly go out, as I'm on an extended maternity leave, but I'd say about 75% of people seem to wear masks when I do. It's not required, although our neighboring county (which includes the capital city) does require them and has started locking things back down. Testing is free to anyone here. We had a guy get arrested at our small local grocery store last week for threatening to come back with his gun because an employee's mask slipped down, and wanted the employee charged with 'attempted homicide'. That was big news for my tiny hamlet. Just shaking my head at how crazy this is making people.
I don't personally have a problem wearing a mask; I was used to it at work, as I worked with toxic chemicals and flying particles, some of a biological nature. But I worry for my son, who is 5 and autistic, if he has to wear one once school starts. We were at the clinic a couple days ago for my daughters' well checks for 2 hours and he had to wear one; he did better than I expected keeping it on his face, but he kept touching it and messing with it and his nose...I'm not convinced that a bunch of kindergartners doing that is more hygienic than just not wearing them.
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finally we have mandatory public indoor masks. about three months too late.
oh but exemptions that pretty much can include anyone, at any time, for any reason.
schools are set to open in-person, as normal. daycares are filling up. employers are demanding return to in-person work.
protests in the streets about hoaxes and violations of rights.
this is not a good thing. >.<
my household is still pretty much on lockdown and not planning to break out anytime soon. especially since the local hospital just declared they are in outbreak mode, having filled 4 of their 6 ICU beds.
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Small update from here.
The past days more people become sick and most them are locally from cities where there was this indoor party or in one situation in a bar.
It's also getting very busy in my city center where they advice to come throughout the week instead of weekends. One way directions, no alcohol sale and that kind of thing to prevent crowded places.
I was supposed to go to a fleamarket tomorrow. The first one since corona. But decided not to go. The last one was right before our intelligent lockdown and I was lucky not getting sick then. New attempt in a few weeks.
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Cases keep skyrocketing in KY lately. This past Sunday was 979 cases x.x Yesterday was 711 which is our second highest number. The other numbers ranged from the 500s to 600s with an over 200 number this past Monday. Our governor just asked churches to hold off on in person services again for two weeks since the numbers aren't coming down. I know people won't be happy about that. And we also had a mask mandate put in place recently where people are required to wear masks outdoors or in public spaces where social distancing is less of an option. Again. Why wait til now? He's done a great job overall in my opinion still.
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A small outbreak in this region relating to a local school. So that's I think 15 cases in the borough overall but all linked to this school. Our schools are only open in slow gear (actually they mightve done for the summer now) but this is still a worry as the govt wants them to be back in September as normal.
Otherwise cases low in the county and in the country overall. But there are some concerns about the Black Country, esp. Dudley and Smethwick where there have been some cases. Also Blackburn and Luton the gyms are not allowed to open due to case numbers being higher.
Masks became mandatory in stores yesterday, although shop staff are not expected to enforce it harshly.
Most people apparently compliant.
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As always (pandemic or not), Florida is a mess!
The Governor finally started wearing a mask (because Trump did) but he's all aboard the open schools train. Masks are mandatory in several counties including this one, but individual stores made second announcements about it. I was in Wal-Mart a few days ago and some people were not wearing masks and over the PA they said they were mandatory. So they must not be confronting people, I don't blame them. Three anti-mask people have gone viral from Florida. The latest one pulled a gun on a dude!
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What I feared would happen with masks today happened in Scotland with an incident where an autistic guy was challenged and discriminated against because he wasn't wearing a mask. This kind of ableism is apparently endemic, even though the govt said that disabled people were exempted from the rule.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-53530819
The moment I heard about the mask rule but that the govt had no real guidance to protect disabled people from abuse, I knew this would happen. But I don't like being proven right. Although this is how autistic people are generally treated with most things, so nothing new really.
The positive is that it's apparently triggered a lot more stuff about awareness, retraining staff, etc in one location. But that's the thing that worries me most. I know I can't wear a mask for longer than maybe an hour and a half and that's in my room, so I am already trying to come up with strategies to manage this. I know that if I don't wear a mask I will either be stared at/challenged or I will have to disclose my disability to random strangers (even though there are meant to be rules protecting the need for a disabled person to do that).
Yet one more barrier.
It's not that I don't agree with the mask law. But I have serious problems with all the "if you don't wear a mask you are lazy/rude/selfish/a terrorist' rhetoric both online and in person. You hear a lot of people hardlining on masks without realising that there are and need to be some exemptions.
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As always (pandemic or not), Florida is a mess!
The Governor finally started wearing a mask (because Trump did) but he's all aboard the open schools train. Masks are mandatory in several counties including this one, but individual stores made second announcements about it. I was in Wal-Mart a few days ago and some people were not wearing masks and over the PA they said they were mandatory. So they must not be confronting people, I don't blame them. Three anti-mask people have gone viral from Florida. The latest one pulled a gun on a dude!
I'm not surprised if WalMart workers aren't allowed to confront people to wear masks and can only make announcements about it. I just stopped working there and was frustrated because we weren't allowed to enforce any rules. The one I worked at, people weren't even allowed to announce things like no running, no riding bikes in the store etc. Why have rules in the first place then if customers can get away with breaking them anyway? Anyway, thought I'd give an bit of an insider's explanation about why workers may not be confronting those who aren't wearing masks.
Also that's terrible that someone pulled a gun on someone else x.o
We have a new second highest number of cases in KY today....836.
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What I feared would happen with masks today happened in Scotland with an incident where an autistic guy was challenged and discriminated against because he wasn't wearing a mask. This kind of ableism is apparently endemic, even though the govt said that disabled people were exempted from the rule.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-53530819
The moment I heard about the mask rule but that the govt had no real guidance to protect disabled people from abuse, I knew this would happen. But I don't like being proven right. Although this is how autistic people are generally treated with most things, so nothing new really.
The positive is that it's apparently triggered a lot more stuff about awareness, retraining staff, etc in one location. But that's the thing that worries me most. I know I can't wear a mask for longer than maybe an hour and a half and that's in my room, so I am already trying to come up with strategies to manage this. I know that if I don't wear a mask I will either be stared at/challenged or I will have to disclose my disability to random strangers (even though there are meant to be rules protecting the need for a disabled person to do that).
Yet one more barrier.
It's not that I don't agree with the mask law. But I have serious problems with all the "if you don't wear a mask you are lazy/rude/selfish/a terrorist' rhetoric both online and in person. You hear a lot of people hardlining on masks without realising that there are and need to be some exemptions.
It makes me really said that someone was discriminated against and challenged for not wearing a mask. when they have a valid reason for not wearing one. :sad:
Just over 5,000 cases where I live and 68 deaths.
A very distant cousin that I've never met has died from conorvirus.
Everyone 10 and over is required to wear a mask unless you have a valid reasons for not wearing one. Schools are planning on in person instruction when classes start but will give parents the choice of remote learning also.
I've seen several people wear masks to enter a store, then remove or lower their masks once inside to sniff candles or do other things. Many people are also going around/under barriers instead of walking the proper way around them.
My job will be requiring me to wear a mask for most of the working day. I can wear one for a few hours but sometimes it really aggravates my asthma especially in hot weather.
Ponyfan