Coronavirus pandemic

[NWI_Irish96]

You're still touching everything everyone else has.  You're still going out, and while you're out, you might as well stop at a few other places, again touching what other people have touched.

A church isn't a magical place where everyone is suddenly touching base and no one will get sick. 

The same is true of the grocery store.  I have a fundamental problem with the government excluding religion from a list of "necessary" activities.  I can order my groceries online and have them delivered, yet I am also allowed to go to the grocery store in person if I so choose.  I can watch an online sermon, yet I am not allowed to go to church in person if I so choose.

Not everybody can afford the added cost of having food delivered, especially with so many people out of work.  If you can afford it, then you should absolutely be doing it instead of going to the store, but there's no way to enforce that kind of distinction.

[Max Rockatansky]

You're still touching everything everyone else has.  You're still going out, and while you're out, you might as well stop at a few other places, again touching what other people have touched.

A church isn't a magical place where everyone is suddenly touching base and no one will get sick. 

The same is true of the grocery store.  I have a fundamental problem with the government excluding religion from a list of "necessary" activities.  I can order my groceries online and have them delivered, yet I am also allowed to go to the grocery store in person if I so choose.  I can watch an online sermon, yet I am not allowed to go to church in person if I so choose.

Not everybody can afford the added cost of having food delivered, especially with so many people out of work.  If you can afford it, then you should absolutely be doing it instead of going to the store, but there's no way to enforce that kind of distinction.

I can afford it and I absolutely refuse to pay more for groceries than I have someone to come to my house with them.  Conversely it has been until recently (a larger percentage of restaurants have waived delivery fees) cheaper to order food and go get it rather than relying someone to deliver it.   

[LM117]

In addition to strokes, it seems like this shit can also cause heart damage. As someone who's been taking propranolol and losartan for over a year now, this puts my mind at ease.

https://khn.org/news/mysterious-heart-damage-not-just-lung-troubles-befalling-covid-19-patients/

[SEWIGuy]

So we should do like Walmart and limit the number of people inside at one time?  First 15 parishioners get a free sermon. Everyone after that gets free communion until we run out.

Probably still wading in the shallows of political discussion here, but...  My preference would be to say something like "businesses, places of worship, and the like may re-open but must adopt special measures to ensure social distancing, limited personal contact, etc, etc, etc."  Then leave it up to them to figure out what those measures are, rather than dictating how they should operate.

I just don't get why it's assumed businesses (and churches and others) aren't able to make good decisions on their own.  Some grocery stores around here started implementing good ideas that weren't dictated by government, and that's a great thing.  I personally think some of them should remain after the crisis is over–specifically one-way aisles.  I think businesses (and churches and others) are quite capable of making good decisions like that while remaining open, especially now that were a couple of months in and a lot of good ideas have been percolating.

It's not necessary for churches to be open.  It's necessary for grocery stores to be open.

Eventually churches will need to make the decisions you are talking about anyway, but from what I have seen, many of them won't.

[SEWIGuy]

I think that's an understandable reaction.  It's quite natural to avoid hospitals at a time when you believe them to be full of very contagious people.  One might figure his chances are better just toughing it out.

I got a very intense pain in my heart when the lockdowns began, and it's only started to fade in the past couple days. It's the kind of pain that you usually experience for about a second when you feel fear, except it's lasted 5 weeks. I didn't see a doctor, because I wanted medical resources to be used for coronavirus patients instead.

My days are numbered. The average coronavirus patient has more years ahead.

I don't want society destroyed just to save me. When it's my time to go, and if destroying society is the only way to save me, I'd rather just go.

Dude... what's wrong?

I think the lockdowns destroyed my heart. I seriously thought I wasn't going to make it.

This has been among the roughest 5 weeks of my life.

It clearly sounds like anxiety.  Do you have access / ability to speak to a counselor?  Many are doing virtual visits.  They have helped my wife.

[bandit957]

It clearly sounds like anxiety.  Do you have access / ability to speak to a counselor?  Many are doing virtual visits.  They have helped my wife.

I have a social worker, but I haven't been able to get there since this began.

[US71]

It clearly sounds like anxiety.  Do you have access / ability to speak to a counselor?  Many are doing virtual visits.  They have helped my wife.

I have a social worker, but I haven't been able to get there since this began.

an you do anything on-line like a virtual meeting?

[bandit957]

It clearly sounds like anxiety.  Do you have access / ability to speak to a counselor?  Many are doing virtual visits.  They have helped my wife.

I have a social worker, but I haven't been able to get there since this began.

an you do anything on-line like a virtual meeting?

Maybe. I might be able to do a phone call. I just don't know if it will be effective.

[1995hoo]

I don't want to violate forum policy by discussing religion too much, but there are certain ritual aspects for several denominations that make it more difficult than just "remain six feet apart," especially Eastern denominations (Orthodox, Eastern Catholic) where Communion is distributed under both kinds via a spoon.

[Roadgeekteen]

I don't want to violate forum policy by discussing religion too much, but there are certain ritual aspects for several denominations that make it more difficult than just "remain six feet apart," especially Eastern denominations (Orthodox, Eastern Catholic) where Communion is distributed under both kinds via a spoon.

When the pandemic seemed near my church just skipped communion.

[bandit957]

I think the local Roman Catholic diocese canceled all services. Almost all other churches did too, except maybe a few that had drive-in services.

[SEWIGuy]

I don't want to violate forum policy by discussing religion too much, but there are certain ritual aspects for several denominations that make it more difficult than just "remain six feet apart," especially Eastern denominations (Orthodox, Eastern Catholic) where Communion is distributed under both kinds via a spoon.

St. Sava, the big Serbian Orthodox church in Milwaukee, closed early and is live streaming their services.

The venn diagram of those churches that want to (or are) defying these orders, and those churches who are made up of science denying creationist types, are pretty well overlapped.

[02 Park Ave]

Has a vaccine ever been approved for any Coronavirus?

[bandit957]

I don't think the United States is coming back after this. Other countries might have a fighting chance. But I think America is broken forever.

[SEWIGuy]

I don't think the United States is coming back after this. Other countries might have a fighting chance. But I think America is broken forever.

Oh come now.  Don't be fatalistic. 

[Roadgeekteen]

I don't think the United States is coming back after this. Other countries might have a fighting chance. But I think America is broken forever.

When I said American exceptionalism was to much sometimes, I didn't mean go so far the other way! 

[SEWIGuy]

Has a vaccine ever been approved for any Coronavirus?

No.  Mostly because they ethier kill people quickly (SARS) so mitigation issues are more effective, or it isn't worth the effort because symptoms are mild and the strains are constantly changing (common cold.)

There is debate whether or not a vaccine will even be effective.

[jeffandnicole]

I don't think the United States is coming back after this. Other countries might have a fighting chance. But I think America is broken forever.

American isn't broken yet.  But it's gonna be a while before it fully comes back. If anything, this just moved up an inevitable recession by a few years.

[Roadgeekteen]

I don't think the United States is coming back after this. Other countries might have a fighting chance. But I think America is broken forever.

American isn't broken yet.  But it's gonna be a while before it fully comes back. If anything, this just moved up an inevitable recession by a few years.

At least I'm not entering the job market anytime soon. (probably entering it in about 5 years)

[kalvado]

Has a vaccine ever been approved for any Coronavirus?

No.  Mostly because they ethier kill people quickly (SARS) so mitigation issues are more effective, or it isn't worth the effort because symptoms are mild and the strains are constantly changing (common cold.)

There is debate whether or not a vaccine will even be effective.

There is a vaccine for FeCV - feline coronavirus; naturally, it is not approved for humans as there is no risk of infection. There is a vaccine for dog coronavirus, which is again not applicable to humans. I believe - but not sure - there is something for cattle as well.

[doorknob60]

Interestingly here in California one of the largest rural outbreaks was in Mono County at Mammoth.  The outbreak was caused by non-locals from the Los Angeles Area trying to hunker down at second homes and ski resorts.  As if Mono County needed another reason to despise the Los Angeles Basin after the L.A. Aqueduct.   One of the reasons Mariposa County doesn’t have any cases out in the western Sierras was local pressure to close Yosemite which kept tourists away.

The same reason is why Blaine County Idaho got hit hardest. It's a resort area with a fairly small permanent population, but is home to the Sun Valley Resort and many people from out of state have second homes there.

The numbers:
Blaine County
Population: 23,021
Confirmed Cases: 483
2.1%

Compared to Idaho's most populated and urban county,
Ada County
Population: 481,587
Confirmed Cases: 615
0.13%

Blaine County has nearly the same number of confirmed cases as Ada County (where Boise and Meridian are), despite Ada having 20x the population.

[LM117]

One of the leading protesters in NC tested positive. Wouldn't you know who won the pony?

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article242317346.html

[hbelkins]

My irony meter has been broken several times during this whole thing. This is one example.

Kentucky's hospitals are mostly empty, to the point where they are furloughing or laying off staff members. Meanwhile, two field hospitals were built. One at the fairgrounds in Louisville, and one at the UK football practice facility in Lexington. Odds are pretty good that neither will ever host one patient. The whole idea of "flattening the curve" was to avoid overwhelming the health care system, but there's no likelihood of that happening, even if we get a spike in cases requiring hospitalization, because there are so many beds empty at existing permanent facilities.

[hotdogPi]

My irony meter has been broken several times during this whole thing. This is one example.

Kentucky's hospitals are mostly empty, to the point where they are furloughing or laying off staff members. Meanwhile, two field hospitals were built. One at the fairgrounds in Louisville, and one at the UK football practice facility in Lexington. Odds are pretty good that neither will ever host one patient. The whole idea of "flattening the curve" was to avoid overwhelming the health care system, but there's no likelihood of that happening, even if we get a spike in cases requiring hospitalization, because there are so many beds empty at existing permanent facilities.

That means it's working. If we continued life as usual, the system would be overwhelmed.

[kalvado]

My irony meter has been broken several times during this whole thing. This is one example.

Kentucky's hospitals are mostly empty, to the point where they are furloughing or laying off staff members. Meanwhile, two field hospitals were built. One at the fairgrounds in Louisville, and one at the UK football practice facility in Lexington. Odds are pretty good that neither will ever host one patient. The whole idea of "flattening the curve" was to avoid overwhelming the health care system, but there's no likelihood of that happening, even if we get a spike in cases requiring hospitalization, because there are so many beds empty at existing permanent facilities.

never say never. I expect worst is still to come.