Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

@Thrillho Tier 4... wow, they’re inventing new tiers to really show the severity of their own making. At least the Scotland rugby’s already done and we won!

What's really remarkable to me about the "herd immunity" people is, even if you had 10x the number of confirmed cases each day in the States as we apparently had yesterday, it'd still take the better part of a year for it to infect enough of the population for transmission of the disease to truly die out.

Herd immunity isn't a strategy to opt for, it's the worst case scenario, and would require a sustained and unprecedented level of failure from all of our social institutions to happen without vaccines. Sadly, for those of us in Freedom Land, that remains a possibility, depending on how things go in the next few weeks.

@zupertramp I was watching Rudy Giuliani utterly lay into some Fox News person who was very mildly pushing back against the conspiracies he's been peddling, pretty much demanding she grovel and beg for his forgiveness in a live interview, when it really struck me how far gone these people are. We've never seen this level of vile, open corruption and disdain for our institutions before. What truly terrifies me is that this minority administration reflects the worldview of a terrifyingly large fraction of the American electorate.

I'm at least grateful I live in a small community where violence is very unlikely to erupt.

@Ralizah yeah on the one hand that 30% seems insignificant, at least electorally speaking*, but then I do the math and realize it's maybe 40-50 million people. All who hang on his every word and don't believe in germs or science or any of that pesky liberal nonsense apparently. That's definitely the most worrying aspect of all this.

Like you I take some comfort in the fact that I'm relatively secluded. Though I do worry, being in a minority majority area, will communities like mine become targets? Sounds paranoid until you remember a guy drove through the night to mow down Hispanics at a Walmart.

*This also ignores the rather ridiculous amount of influence rural America has on our presidential outcomes due to the electoral college but still, 30% does not a coalition make.

Edit: originally, i factored 30 percent of the total population but this is incorrect because the total population doesn't vote. i've corrected for that though it's a lot more of a guesstimate now.

@Ralizah This is the madness of power hungry despots. They pull people along with them with kickbacks - dividing and conquering. A ton of the Trump supporters do benefit from him being in charge, wherever that's through tax breaks, additional support in their areas and more importantly supporting and encouraging their darker beliefs.

It's morally bankrupt of course but the Republicans are too far down that path now. When the likes of Roe Vs Wade is regurgitated as a current day issue America has gone backwards, it's an awful topic and extremely personal to someone seeking assistance.

The weird part of this conservative ethos is they prefer less government intervention and less constraint. Yet want to take away choice (possibly the hardest) from women. Some proper dark age rubbish right there.

Just heard out about this incoming lockdown, you go hard and early Boris. Too late and reactive as always.

I'm in a Tier 3 area and the rules are killing business and not really protecting anybody. As I noted a few weeks ago loads of people are effected here, most of my colleagues now know friends and family who have been effected. It's now got to the point customers are openly coming in to our showroom openly spluttering and visibly ill. Without financial backing on a person by person basis scousers have thrown in the towel and are cracking on with life. Lockdown was inevitable.

@themcnoisy Hard and early Boris might explain all those kids out in the wild.

@themcnoisy couldn't agree more, we have watched cases double every 10 days, hospital admissions and deaths keep pace and sod all happen. In trying to preserve the economy by keeping everything open too long in March and by repeating it again, they harm the economy more. Longer closures in the end coupled with no consumer confidence are killing small businesses. Lool at New Zealand, increadibley strict early border controls, minimum deaths, continuity of other healthcare provision, a service industry that continues to live and breath. Christ I saw pictures of recent rugby match there where there was 40,000 in a stadium jammed in together. If only we lived on an island without Rupert murdoch controlled media. Instead what do we get? A serial liar in charge who couldn't protect himself, 10 billion spaffed up the wall on privatised test and trace staffed by unqualified, untrained kids and a media thats so partisan large sections of it haven't even covered the fact an English centre forward has had to campaign for skint kids to be fed. ***** bleak mate, gutted we are in this sorry state.

It’s almost as if every country that’s come out the other side followed the East Asia SARS model and every country that’s utterly f**ked is following the flu epidemic model.

@nessisonett maybe we can make the split based on which countries politicians had seen contagion 🤦‍♂️

@R1spam Agree on all points.

Fortunately the thinking is this will be the last lockdown. I reckon the challenge trials for the vaccine will be brought forward to December rather than the current date in January. Then we will have mass rollout January 2021.

@themcnoisy Aye, the last lockdown because we’ll all be dead by Christmas 😉

@themcnoisy Don't get your hopes up. And don't forget that not everyone will get the vaccine right away. If done right, the vulnerable will get it first, and it may take a 2 or 3 months until everyone has access to it. Of course, it's not mandatory, so there will be still a bunch of people that won't get it either way.

@Octane The reality is most people under 50 are relatively okay, the reason for the lockdown is old people are now back in hospital. Get the vaccine to the over 50s and covid 19 is less of an issue.

@nessisonett Haha best not I still haven't started FF7 remake.

I'm not expecting a slight return to normalcy until late 2022. I've even heard indications of '23 and '24. Not sure I'm that pessimistic but I think people should probably be prepared for the fact that a vaccine will probably take longer than they think.

Also, from what I understand, immunity by way of vaccine only really works if enough people have the immunity so I'm not sure just rolling it out to old people changes the situation all that much. Until pretty much everyone gets the vaccine it's still gonna be all about the masks and social distancing.

‘Magna Carter’ is trending because of people looking for loopholes in lockdown. They can’t even spell Magna Carta right, they sound like farmer historians.

Kinda off topic but first week of March I was strolling through Walmart, blissfully ignorant of the fact I'd be back a week later hopelessly trying to stock up on dried goods, when I see both an Air Fryer and Pressure Cooker on sale and I bought both on impulse. These were easily the smartest impulse purchases I've ever made. I use these constantly.

@zupertramp That was a wise decision, I got a slow cooker before lockdown and it’s been a godsend. Kitchen appliances are my Achilles heel though, I buy them on a whim far too often.

@nessisonett yeah I'm kind of a sucker for stuff like this too. Griddles, sandwich makers, waffle makers, smoothie machines. I've bought just about everything. Truth be told I do use them but some waay more often than others.

@zupertramp I used to use my George Foreman loads but not as much since I got a proper great pan. I really want a Nutri Ninja though, the lack of a blender or food processor limits some of the stuff I can do, especially baking-wise. Plus smoothies. Mmm.

@nessisonett I have a Ninja Blender which, at one time, I used often but now that I have one of their smoothie blender things I rarely get it out. So I definitely recommend them. The only thing that sucks is the blades are really dull these days. Not sure if you can get replacements or if it's easier to just get the whole thing new.