Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.

[Ganymede]

When I hear things like “only the young, old, and compromised are in danger,” I think to myself: “that means the healthy have a responsibility to protect them from the effects of this disease.”

Sweet Jesus, when did people cower from adversity?

[GreenFlashlight]

@Ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Sweet Jesus, when did people cower from adversity?

When have they not?

[RightMeow]

I'm old. My immune system is shot (thanks incurable illness). So if I'm going to die from cheapbeerflu, I better figure out how to contour. It's on my list to learn how to do it and not look like a badly drawn tiger.

[Ganymede]

@GreenFlashlight said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

When have they not?

The most demoralizing thing to learn as you grow up is how cowardly people really are when they really have nothing to lose.

[mietze]

I know 4 people now who are quarantined due to exposure to a confirmed case (not all the same ones), including one of the first responders. Almost all the deaths have occured at the hospital where my kids were born and is less than a 10 minute drive from me unless there is super shitty traffic.

It is a surreal experience to walk around and see shelves empty. I mean I do find the TP and hand sanitizer and fresh food shortages kind of funny, but it is disturbing when you see things bare. (I now go early AM if I need to because things look more normal as night stockers are putting the store back together.) I do not really have the option to bury my head in a blanket and not speak to my kids about social distancing because they already know that fbe district is prepping for this. (And this will be a disruption. My senior doesn't care about my elementary kiddo is oblivious, but my juniors do.) Neither hubby nor myself are in the lowest risk categories, and it's not like the kids arent talking about it, so I have adapted my usual pantry (we always try to keep at least 2 months of non perishables because earthquakes/windstorms) to include easy to prep meals in case they need to take care of little one plus us if we parents get very ill--and this was their idea.

I understand why people are making fun of things, I think it's a normal human response, ect. I do wish people had a little more consideration about when/where because really you dont know who lives with an elderly/frail/immunocompromised/high risk category person.

Oh and by the way, some of the new cases of people needing to be hospitalized for their infection now include 2 people in their 20s.

I mean we know its been in my community for probably a month and a half plus, so that means we as a community are prepping for an influx of symptomatic folks as well as people who need hospitalization. While theres also a huge influenza A outbreak locally that has hospitalized people, and triggered other's asthma, including my youngest, who was almost hospitalized for that not long ago.

It does not do any good to panic, but I hope people also understand why some of the "cheer up, it only kills people who are old and already sick" can be a little irritating as well. Mostly because that's actually not true even now, we do not really know how things will shift in the future, it doesn't help kids much if they are stuck at home effectively alone as their older parents or caregiver grandma is seriously ill, and a significantly higher portion of people need significant treatment for the pneumonia that develops even if they do not die--and we all know how lovely that giant ass medical and hospital bill is going to affect those folks.

[L. B. Heuschkel]

@Sunny said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@silverfox

I mean, as long as you're not saying it in the earshot of kids who are immuno-compromised, I don't really see an issue? I mean, unless you're saying it in front of the high-risk kids (or the kids whose parents have cancer, or -- so on), but I don't think that's something you'd do.

Seconded. Putting children's minds at ease and helping them not live in existential terror. This is not at all the same as people happily arguing on Twitter that there is no reason to worry, only the weak will die. It's not in the same street, it's not even in the same city.

Keep on being the voice of reason in your kidlets' lives. They need somebody to be.

[Testament]

I've had the flu for the last couple of days. I also work in a laboratory, where we receive biological samples from people that generally tend to be in the 55+ range. And they come in from all states.

I'm sure people can put those two things together. As far as I'm concerned, it's the flu. Same as any other flu.

This does however give me commentary in regards to the idea that we don't have any kind of federally mandated sick leave. Especially for people who want(and should)quarantine themselves just in case. Because I'm fairly sure I got this from a co worker who came into work twice last week looking and sounding like death.

So I'm taking two days in hopes that by tomorrow, I'll no longer be infectious. I have no fever at this point, today is just mainly an extra precaution in case I go to work, and being active makes my illness relaspse and I do this song and dance all over again, but worse.

Also, as a side note, I hate coughing a lot. I hate how it makes your lower back hurt after awhile.

[Warma Sheen]

The coronapocalypse is real. Not as bad as a zombie apocalypse, but real enough to have a definite effect.

The coronavirus is thought to have a higher mortality rate than the flu. Because we can't trust all the numbers coming from different countries, there's no real consensus. Still, the yearly flu we see are deadly. I'm not why people overlook that so easily.

But the perception surrounding the coronavirus is the real effect. Its sending economies crashing and people fearing for their lives. Its inspiring racial hatred (like that needed any more help). It is affecting businesses from meeting financial targets and causing political upheavals.

You know something is really bad when it can affect the untouchable 1%.

The coronavirus has really bad PR and it just goes to show that perception is reality.

[Testament]

No kidding. My SO went Target last night to get my go to Pedialyte, which is what I exclusively drink when I'm sick. They sent me a picture of the aisle where the Lysol and cleaning products were kept. It was pretty much empty. That's nuts.

And while I live in a state that's only had one confirmed case, it does make me think about how many cases are unrecorded. How many are just mild cases that people will simply sleep off and not report. Hell, the CDC even states to not bother going to an ER unless you've got legit pneumonia symptoms.

Also, don't buy masks. They're not going to work. And you're taking them away from hospitals who actually needs. Wild that we're having a mask shortage, but people are losing their minds. Plenty of people die by the normal flu every year, but that's something most don't think about. But when we give it a new name and produce mortality numbers, people start freaking out.

Now, I'm not saying I have the coronavirus, I don't actually know since the symptoms are almost exactly the same as any other variation of flu virus, but considering the work I do, I also wouldn't be shocked if I did.

[Arkandel]

I am just so disappointed in people. It brings the worst in me. I was watching a video (one of many) from Greece where refugees on a boat were being 'welcomed' by the local racist brigade.

I get it. It's hard when you are already facing financial hardships to see illegal immigrants arrive by any and all means to put even more stress on the country it's easy to react badly. And on the other hand it's easy for me as a (legal...) immigrant to sympathize with one group while not having to face the music of that massive financial collapse taking place in southern Europe.

But god fucking dammit it's women and children on a fishing boat. Like twenty of them, that whole thing seemed about to topple over. They just crossed a pretty stormy sea (this was in February after all) to get there; they are wet, tired, and as vulnerable as someone can be - they have no legal status, don't speak the language of the country they're in, and have no certainty about their future in the long or short term and probably scared as hell.

So guy who's standing there glaring at them from the safety of the shore when they're just rocking away on that tiny boat, when someone points out there are children involved maybe your immediate reaction should not be to yell "well we didn't get those sluts pregnant, just get them the fuck away from here", if for no other reason than that I really don't like deeply hating anyone, yet I really fucking hate you.

[mietze]

My big kids' former elementary school is now shutting down after a very active parent volunteer is now hospitalized and tested positive for the virus, they volunteered at several large events last week and in classrooms on monday.

It is truly devastating to me because this particular school is the hub school where all the medically fragile kids are sent for the district because they have the proper care facilities and 2 full time nurses. When I served in the PTA there it was not unusual for about 1 child from the school to pass away about every/every other year due to complications from their disabilities or other issues, or to be seriously hospitalized.

That school is closing, all students that were in the classes where the volunteer was were isolated on arrival and sent home...

It's just really sad. Yeah wont make a difference to most kids, but if there are kids that it might--a lot of our most vulnerable kids go to that school.

So yep, I think the "hey dont worry, only the elderly and frail will die" feels like a real gut punch today.

[Wretched]

I work in a drug store, weve been out of masks, hand sanatizers for weeks, gloves are gone now too, hand soap and paper products dwindling, leaving shelves faster than we get them in.

We had a 1 package per family rule for the masks (50 pack) and had people coming in WEARING DIFFERENT OUTFITS. to buy again.

[Sunny]

I am officially on work from home until further notice, as a medically frail person. My office takes care of their people. I am so, so, so sad for my compatriots in other places whose employers do not care. I hate that this pandemic is going to devastate lives and families because of the stupid lack of paid sick leave. If people weren’t so fucking ignorant and selfish in this country we would have solved this problem 20 years ago and the virus would STOP here, rather than being the nation that ducking explodes it (which is what is about to happen because of our minimum wage workers and their relationship to healthcare).

This is what “socialism is a bad word” gets us.

Folks, if you are in Washington and get sick, look into the new family leave stuff. It will not help in an immediate sense, the wait is already like MONTHS, but they are working through the backlog and the aim is to get it down to two weeks. It is there, at least. Idk what you poor fuckers who live elsewhere will do.

[Warma Sheen]

@Wretched That would be hilarious if it weren't so sad/scary.

[Macha]

My boss and I were discussing this today. We don't have any confirmed cases in our county yet, but we have them in the next town over, and we all know people don't isolate themselves.

He's terrified I am going to catch it, as one of the 'compromised'. He thinks it might kill me, after seeing how bronchitis took over my body from a simple cold.

[silverfox]

I got to spend 45 minutes today discussing how we're going to teach children when they aren't allowed to come to school just in case they shut us down.

[mietze]

Our district shut down for a day yesterday for staff to prepare and get stuff up and running just in case. Looks like the just in case is here faster than we thought. Pretty much all my kids from the kindergartener to the senior spent the day today learning how to log in to the various doodads and talking about it.

Now they are working to figure out how to get special services to the kids that need it as well as how they can address the feeding program for kids who rely on getting breakfast and lunch at school.

[reimesu]

So, my company is being pretty proactive about cleaning EVERYTHING, multiple times a day. (Seriously, we got a huge shipment of Clorox wipes today, on top of the shipment of Lysol wipes we got, and everything's getting wiped down a lot. There's also reminders everywhere to wash your hands, sneeze/cough into your elbow, don't touch people, stay home if you're sick, etc.)

I found out today that one person went to a big banquet who may have been exposed to the virus. And I don't know who it was, or who they came in contact with. All of this may be for nothing because one person was a selfish douchebag.

And this means I probably won't see my sister for a few weeks because she's a home health care nurse and I canNOT expose her, it could mean her patient's death. Because one guy couldn't skip a banquet.

I'm not panicking. But I'm /furious/. Especially since some of the people at my company think this is a big to-do over nothing.

[mietze]

I guess this is a taste of what people actually need to do during outbreaks of potentially serious illness, like in the days before vaccines. You'd think that the anti vax people would be actually paying attention (so that they can make plans for their family if we see further outbreaks from those diseases in the future too), and I hope some are. But the ones in my life are busy putting out posts about what blend of essential oils kill this bug (and cancer and everything else) as well as happy thoughts being the best preventative.

I am shocked that none of them are having covid-19 parties yet but knowing some of my relatives I am sure that's coming!

[Sunny]

Ugh.