Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

@Th3solution I remember that story actually!

@Tasuki I thought McDonalds did breakfasts all day in America? They trialed it in the UK a couple of years back. I’m not sure what came of it. Likely the pandemic got in the way. I’m not an addict but I do love a Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin. Chicken Legend is my go to from the day time menu and I love an occasional Big Mac - when it’s right it really hits the spot. I had a brilliant one at Disney Land once 😂 Must have been the French flair!

@Th3solution speaking of being grateful, I am happy to not be Ukrainian right now. Must be very worrying.

@kyleforrester87 Yeah, I’ve not been following that situation very closely but I know the basics of it. Like any isolated foreign affair, I’m not clear the whole back story of how we got here. It’s just like how I’ve been trying to understand how the Israeli-Arab complexity got to the point it’s at currently and they say you have to have a doctorate in history to even begin to scratch the surface of understanding it and even then the Western mind can’t wrap their head around it no matter how hard you try.

But see, I propose it’s COVID that has driven the whole world insane and pushed us to the brink! The world was fine before. 😉

But seriously, I do wonder if the pandemic has made tensions rise to precipitate some of these conflicts. Obviously problems existed before, but many of them were held in check. The pandemic definitely has a lot to do with the growing schism in America. We had our problems already, but COVID just threw gas on the fire! The collective sensibility of the human race has all but evaporated!

Maybe the Olympic Games will bring us all together and heal the world. What do you think? 😒

@kyleforrester87 They did have breakfast all day at McDonalds but yeah they stopped it due to the pandemic.

I don't know if people are missed informed, uneducated, or just stupid but why is that people who think they are vaccinated think that they can't be a carrier of the Virus. I mean all that a vaccine does is make it so you don't get hit as hard with it.

I bring this up because 3 times this week people who weren't wearing masks said oh its OK I am vaccinated. I wanted to say you can still be a carrier. I just don't get people at times.

@Tasuki If you think that’s bad, the Scottish government are introducing wee badges that say you want to keep social distancing… that you can’t read unless you’re about 2 foot away.

@Tasuki Neither is true. The vaccine will also lower your chances of getting COVID (read: not prevent) and lower the chances of you spreading it in case you got it anyway.

So my work is having 10 of us come in tomorrow to do first aid training. They're having us all take a lateral flow test beforehand and we will all be wearing masks (and I imagine opening the windows). However it will be impossible for us to maintain 2m physical distancing, the room is too small for that.

Would any of you have issue with this if you're vaccinated (including booster jab)?

@NedStarksGhost I wouldn't mind at all personally. As it stands isolation rules in the UK are due to end next month anyway, at which point people can just walk around infected if they want so unless that changes I think it's just time to get used to being at constant high risk of transmission.

@NedStarksGhost
No, I think it's important to carry on with that sort of training and to do it properly. Seems fair enough to me.

@kyleforrester87 interestingly I don't believe Wales (where this company is from) is doing the same as healthcare is devolved.

@LieutenantFatman agree totally it needs doing. Just wondering if it would make more sense to split the course up into 2 groups instead to make it safer.

I am beginnging to think myself is it just hit the point where we take what mitigations we can (ventilation and masks) but continue and accept the risk exists? It's funny how much you can shift mentally after just a couple of years. I had covid in December and it barely effected me, just had one bad day of feeling ill.

@NedStarksGhost "I am beginning to think myself is it just hit the point where we take what mitigations we can (ventilation and masks) but continue and accept the risk exists? It's funny how much you can shift mentally after just a couple of years."

I mean, in those couple of years we've all had the chance to have multiple vaccines and they've developed other therapies, and in the meantime the dominant strains have become less dangerous so yes I believe we're definitely at the point of continuing and accepting the new risks. The zero Covid policies you hear about in some countries seems wild to me.. this thing isn't going away ever, as unfortunate as that is it's about living with it now.

@NedStarksGhost That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I'm actually impressed they're really doing all they can to minimize the risk. Over here most people wouldn't care that much.

@NedStarksGhost And yes, sorry I meant in England not the UK

@kyleforrester87 yeah I guess that's true. Actually catching it and having to self-isolate for 10 days has made me go more cautious again to be honest. Before that I'd stopped caring about the risk and just followed the guidance. And no worries on the England/UK thing, it's confusing when England healthcare choices are made by the UK government but not the same for Scotland/Wales!

@Voltan interesting to hear that, especially how impressed you are with the measures being taken

Thanks for all of your perspectives! That's why I posted really, to gauge how people generally view it, and whether I'm perhaps thinking overly cautious

@NedStarksGhost Yes the isolation thing is a real pain, I have had it twice and it dawns on you pretty quickly how long 10 days is when you have to just sit on your sofa. It's 5 days in England now with 2 negative lateral flow results on each day prior which makes sense.

@NedStarksGhost In the U.S., it’s all over the map with how companies are limiting employee and customer exposure. Some places are doing what you’re describing and not even requiring masking, where others are still not allowing in person meetings even one-on-one. Isolation is now only 5 days from first day of symptoms, which by the time most people actually test they’ve had it for 2-3 days so effectively it’s only a couple days off work. And if you’re an essential employee like a hospital employee, apparently they tell you to just keep coming to work while you’re sick anyways and there is no quarantine. I’m reading about hospitals where nurses with active symptomatic COVID are told to come in and are working around patients, and only required to wear N95s.

So yeah, what you’re going to be doing sounds fairly reasonable.

Whether it’s right or wrong, I think the world is learning to go on and live with this thing. All this relaxation of restrictions, despite death numbers from COVID in the U.S. are really still just as high or higher than at any other time in the last 2 years, as far as I’ve read. Of course with vaccines, therapies, and the weaker strain, the probability of being that person who dies is now much less if you catch it. In the game of “COVID Russian roulette” there are fewer bullets in the cylinder each time you spin it and pull the trigger, but you have to pull the trigger more times, if that makes sense. So statistically, you still have the same chance of dying, just in a different way. (Kind of an over-simplification probably, but that’s how I see it. Obviously a given individual’s risk is lower if they are vaccinated, etc. But as a society, people are still dying in droves)

@Th3solution Interesting to read how things are in the states. Crazy that nurses with Covid have to continue to come in, that isn't right... I'm starting to view it that all things considered, risk and vaccines and measures taken into place, it's totally reasonable.

@NedStarksGhost "Crazy that nurses with Covid have to continue to come in, that isn't right..."

I'm not sure it isn't right exactly by default, it depends if the risk of spreading covid and associated deaths is higher than the disadvantage of not having adequate staff in a hospital to take care of other sick and dying people.

@NedStarksGhost The thing is that most people are scared of the consequences of testing positive, i.e. being forced to isolate, not the actual effects of the virus itself. I have always been on the extreme of feeling comfortable with the risk. At the very start I wanted more evidence before we took any drastic action. When we found out that kids weren't really affected I assumed that we would do everything reasonable to protect the vulnerable. I was shocked that people were talking about sacrificing our lives to maybe slow the spread of a virus that clearly was coming anyway and basically meant we'd have to effectively lock down until a vaccine was developed and we found time to distribute it. I was convinced that it would be more harmful to lock down, and it shook me to my core to find out that the liberal West turns pretty totalitarian at the drop of a hat and just followed China's lead. You can't really go far wrong by trusting people to make their own risk assesments. It is really bad that the government is training us to leave all the decisions to them. We should be responsible for our own safety and taking health measures voluntarily. Like gaming seems to be moving in a foreign and bad direction lately with all the GaaS and subscription talk, I have felt at times like I don't belong anymore and there are plenty of people who are willing to rat their neighbour out to the authorities. It does seem like the public mood has changed now, so I hope that we can move forward now.