Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

My local council is going back into lockdown tomorrow. It’s my birthday tomorrow. I think the world has it in for me, now I can’t see my grandparents, sister or brother.

@Arugula Ditto. I’m not sure I’m going to know how to deal with large social gatherings ever again. I was piss-poor at them before, and now I’ve had 6 months of respite from people and whatever semblance of social decorum I once had is now dead.

@Arugula Cheers, it just feels very much like I’m the unluckiest person in the world 😅

@nessisonett In case I'm unable to post tomorrow, many happy returns!

I'm sorry that 2020 has conspired against you once more, though. Is it a full lockdown where you are, or can you bubble with some of your family, at least?

Really hope you can make the best of it regardless.

@RogerRoger Somewhat hilariously, you can still go to the pub with other households, you just can’t go to each other’s houses. It’s... a complete mess.

@nessisonett That sucks. Do they have computers? Maybe y'all can do a video call together until restrictions lift.

@nessisonett Happy Biffday Nes.

@Th3solution when this is all over we will meet up in ibiza. Just a small joint, maybe Privilege in Ibiza and throw off these social restraints.

OK so now we know opening schools was a bit silly, got more cases than a Mexican drug smuggling operation. No hope of holding out for a vaccine with drip fed occasional cases as wave 2s incoming!

I like how I then went onto an article about the Mario 3D collection being delayed since about March on NLife and the comments are filled with anti-maskers going on about how the virus was invented to control the populace. The public never fail to disappoint 😂😂

@themcnoisy Cheers 🍻. Not sure where Ibiza is but it sounds grand!

@nessisonett I understand we should all wear masks to protect more vulnerable members of the population, however wearing masks is a fudge. Being a minimum of 2 metres away, isolating often with less social contact is more effective.

Bob. Has 2 kids in school, uses public transport, works in a meat processing plant, visits the pub twice a week and lives in Bolton.

Doesn't matter if Bob triples down on masks, he's getting Covid 19.

As for the plandemic - like all Conspiracy theories - if it involves thousands of people in a complex scheme then it's not true. Aspects of the Conspiracy theory are true though, the ridiculous costs involved in medicine - governments giving contracts to friends - the poor being seen off. But that's reactive capatilism rather than a proactive virus scam to control people.

@themcnoisy Ridiculous medical costs and contracts being given to the PM’s friends could be applied to literally any scenario conceivable. It was happening before this, it’ll happen after this. It’s the nutters out protesting that are causing the rest of us to have to go back into isolation.

@themcnoisy The thing with all this bits is that wearing a mask is just one weapon in the arsenal. If you have it and are out and about you limit transmission a bit. If you then social distance and wear a mask, drops more... and so on.

The problem where I am is the younguns just not social distancing, meeting multiple households and acting like normal (then wearing a mask).

I feel sorry for Bob though.

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah, good points. People expect one thing to be the end all solution. Whereas they have to understand that it only decreases the chance of contraction and spreading. The more measures to apply (mask, social distancing, no clubbing, hand washing, etc), the lower the spread of the virus will be.

@Rudy_Manchego @Octane I agree that masks as part of a combined mitigation strategy is sound.

However the reality is it gives folk a false sense of security. So where as 2 months ago when masking up wasn't such a hot potato - we had good social distancing measures with practical solutions. Now it's back to 2019 with added masks. And let's be honest the same masks are used again and again and again.

In my job I come in contact with the public. Most people without masks keep their distance. The ones wearing masks get in your face.

I know it isn't much (especially with you in lockdown again) but I do hope you have yourself a good birthday today @nessisonett!

... Can't really say much for the actual topic beyond teaching in 2020 now is exhausting to say the least 😂

@themcnoisy Maybe - and obviously we live in different places. I think a lot of people wear masks because they are told to now not because they understand their point. I was in a large motorway services at the weekend, arrows on the floor, sanitizer everywhere, clear signage. Everyone masks, half the people just ignoring distancing etc.

I think if people are going to ignore distancing they will do it with or without a mask.

So it sounds like the ‘conspiracy theory’ crowd and ‘don’t tread on my civil liberties’ crowd are even present in the UK. There is a faction of people here in the US that say that COVID will disappear after the Nov elections because the pandemic has been entirely fabricated for political means.

@Th3solution Yeah, we’re not usually fussed about civil liberties here but at least up in Edinburgh, the Brexit/Unionist/anti-mask crowd have morphed into an unholy abomination using slogans like COVID-1984. It’s simultaneously hilarious and deeply deeply sad. Here’s the response from our health official guy, budget Fauci.

“I honestly do not understand it.

I think it is irresponsible - do they think we're making it up? 194 countries are making up a viral pandemic.

I would love to have not lived through the last six months, both in my job and what we have had to do to our country and many others.

I think it is deeply irresponsible."

@nessisonett Yeah, interestingly I hear less and less the last couple months of “this is all overblown by a conspiratorial media” than I did at the outset. I think it’s due to more and more people knowing someone directly who contracted the virus and were either in the hospital or died from it. It’s harder to see the harsh realities of something until it affects one personally. It’s either the first hand experience with effects of COVID or the overall mental fatigue of the whole thing — but something seems to have calmed the naysayers a little bit.

The thing of it is that in the US each region is dealing with the pandemic in different ways and at different times. New York and the Northeast dealt with it in March and April, the South has been ravaged in June and July, and now it seems like the Midwest might be seeing spikes. Once a community has an explosion of cases, the public conscientiousness latches onto the realities and importance of containment. Well, usually. ...Some people will just persist in a voluntary opposition to an idea no matter if it smacks them in the face and the world is burning down around them.

@Th3solution nail on the head.

If someone is ignorant, self absorbed and failed to study history they need to up their game. Viruses have been an ever present in our short history. The UK is a mirrored vortex of the USA these days. Similar values and issues.

As Merseyside has been relatively covid free no one cares. At the school gates one dad said to me '2 deaths, I just don't get it, somethings not right' teetering on covid Conspiracy. I had to remind him we were in LockDown for 3 months and been super cautious post LockDown. Doing a great job buying time. The shackles have come off now leisure and school has reopened, so said ignoramus either massages himself with covid Conspiracy or admits he's going to contract it. He's gone with the first option.