Coronavirus Updates

[Beebo Brink]

I interpreted the comments to mean that everybody is able to do a food storage, and then Spirits and I tried to explain why we can’t.

Every single person on this thread who is giving out good advice, is fully aware that not everyone can necessarily take it. NO ONE is assuming that there is a single solution for everyone. But every attempt to help is being viewed as some kind of scolding or nagging. Attempts to say, hey, this worked for me MAYBE YOU CAN USE THIS is instead being turned into some kind of insult.

What the ever loving, fuck, Brenda?

You're in a difficult situation, we know that. No one is judging you for being poor, so for fuck's sake stop lashing out at us. We're not responsible for the fix you're in, and we're not rejoicing in your difficulties.

 

[Brenda Archer]

Brenda, I'm being called an asshole because I am often known to post very bluntly/without filters.

Something I've tried to not do as much these days.

For what it’s worth, I haven’t seen you say anything lately that struck me as being too unfiltered.

 

[Beebo Brink]

The entire fucking point was that the cost of extra food and storage space was not likely to be something you’d have to worry about because no one is going to keep you from going out to resupply for weeks at a time.

Fear really does seem to short-circuit critical faculties. The word "lockdown" seems to have triggered people into thinking they will be nailed into their residence and not allowed to emerge, like a modern equivalent of the plague houses.

I personally have found your posts about what martial law and a lockdown really look like to be very informative. Thank you for that.

 

[bubblesort]

I just joined a facebook group called Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies. A friend from the 3D printing community asked me to join. She said my Blender skills might be useful, even though I don't actually have a 3D printer. It's a massive international group, with people making stuff for ventilators, and lots of people making masks. I've seen threads where medical professionals in NYC are scrambling to get their hands on simple cotton face masks sewn by locals, and those cotton masks aren't normally considered medical grade, so every little bit helps.

If you want to make masks to donate or for personal use, here's a site that might help you.

Also, I found this chart in the FB group's organizing document. It's the most detailed breakdown of symptoms and corona virus progression I've seen so far.

 

[Pamela]

Thank you. I thought I was taking crazy pills.

Me too. We will never know.

Back to the derailed point:

Due in very large part to our criminal president, containment came far too late. While he blathered on about what a fucking genius he is about all this science stuff, mitigation was tried, far too late. Businesses closed, some didn’t. Some schools closed, some didn’t. Some people stayed home, some didn’t.

And like Italy, doctors and medical ppl ran out of supplies and protection and people. (Italy had to just let older patients die, and had to call in the military to remove bodies..)

Now we have a last option to avoid millions of deaths: suppression. Which is basically mandated mitigation: everyone shelters where they usually shelter, and stays in except for supply trips. This is what several states have been forced to go to, and what experts say is our only option. (In the article I posted there is a link to a petition to ask for it to be implemented nationwide ASAP.)

This disaster and the economic issues together are the biggest catastrophe the human race has ever faced (we thought it would be climate change). If it takes suppression to save lives, no matter how painful, we have to do it.

 

[Brenda Archer]

Every single person on this thread who is giving out good advice, is fully aware that not everyone can necessarily take it. NO ONE is assuming that there is a single solution for everyone. But every attempt to help is being viewed as some kind of scolding or nagging. Attempts to say, hey, this worked for me MAYBE YOU CAN USE THIS is instead being turned into some kind of insult.

What the ever loving, fuck, Brenda?

You're in a difficult situation, we know that. No one is judging you for being poor, so for fuck's sake stop lashing out at us. We're not responsible for the fix you're in, and we're not rejoicing in your difficulties.

I don’t mean to say you’re responsible for anything.

But when people say “I can’t use this advice because X” it does no good to try to talk them out of X. We are all in different cities and can’t see each other’s situations.

So if someone says “I can’t do X” and people insist they can, that’s not coming off as an attempt to be helpful. It just feels invalidating. And for some reason trying to explain why someone can’t do X is getting interpreted as rude, or something.

Every single person on this thread who is giving out good advice, is fully aware that not everyone can necessarily take it. NO ONE is assuming that there is a single solution for everyone. But every attempt to help is being viewed as some kind of scolding or nagging. Attempts to say, hey, this worked for me MAYBE YOU CAN USE THIS is instead being turned into some kind of insult.

What the ever loving, fuck, Brenda?

You're in a difficult situation, we know that. No one is judging you for being poor, so for fuck's sake stop lashing out at us. We're not responsible for the fix you're in, and we're not rejoicing in your difficulties.

What?! I have never said anyone else is responsible for my situation. I'm disabled for bad health, like a lot of people.

This has nothing to do with lashing out. However, I do not deserve to be thread psychoanalyzed. I don't deserve to be told something is wrong with my head when I'm trying to explain why someone in my situation can't use certain advice.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Brenda, I'm being called an asshole because I am often known to post very bluntly/without filters.

And that's exactly what Salome does, too, although with more filters tbh. Which is why I appreciate both of your voices on this forum. A dash of cold water in the face can be very bracing at times.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Now we have a last option to avoid millions of deaths: suppression. Which is basically mandated mitigation: everyone shelters where they usually shelter, and stays in except for supply trips.

I'm bolding the "supply trips" part because this is evidently a key point that is being overlooked. No one is expected to stock enough supplies in their household to live through a lockdown of days, weeks or months. It helps, but -- fingers crossed -- it is not required. You can leave your house to get food, just not to go to the bar or a movie theater. It won't be pleasant or fun but it's not about starving you to death in your home because you don't have room for cases of soup.

As for martial law, vulnerable people need this more than the rest of us. People like Brenda and Spirit have more to gain than to lose, because martial law will work to prevent a Mad Max world in which roving gangs of leather-clad thugs bust through your door and take what you have. Martial law maintains order so you can leave your house for that trip to the grocery store.

If you don't like martial law, believe me, you're not going like the alternative either.

 

[Kara Spengler]

That covers living, not shopping. Either way, total cost is going to vary by region - which you don't seem to be factoring in.

That particular diet though, would at least be doable for everyone living here.

As for medication, as long as there are no hiccups you'll be right.

Yes, even a modest diet in places where the cost of living of high is almost 10 usd a day. Meds are a biggie ... I can not use generics and that is what insurance companies like to send. What is more I take stuff I can not stock up on so if they send me generics I am royally screwed.

 

[bubblesort]

Also, here's a list of medical centers who are accepting donations, and what kinds of donations they accept, if you want to donate masks for face visors or anything like that. Many people are donating home made visors and masks.


EDIT: Oh cool! I didn't know it would embed the document like that.

 

[Kara Spengler]

The entire fucking point was that the cost of extra food and storage space was not likely to be something you’d have to worry about because no one is going to keep you from going out to resupply for weeks at a time. I mentioned the bare-bones foodstuffs and alternate storage accommodations simply to highlight that it’s something not to rule out in your head in an emergency situation. Why you chose to take offense to that who the fuck knows.


It wasn‘t meant to be the only option. It was an example of emergency rations that meets some minimum nutrition standards. You’d be surprised how many people think they can live on nothing but pasta for weeks and still have a digestive system.


Once again, if there are shortages and hiccups of that nature, you’re better off with that happening in an organized setting. Free movement isn’t going to do you any good if the drug store is being mobbed while you’re trying to get them.

Medication deliveries were already messed up well before the current situation.

 

[Kara Spengler]

I'm bolding the "supply trips" part because this is evidently a key point that is being overlooked. No one is expected to stock enough supplies in their household to live through a lockdown of days, weeks or months. It helps, but -- fingers crossed -- it is not required. You can leave your house to get food, just not to go to the bar or a movie theater. It won't be pleasant or fun but it's not about starving you to death in your home because you don't have room for cases of soup.

As for martial law, vulnerable people need this more than the rest of us. People like Brenda and Spirit have more to gain than to lose, because martial law will work to prevent a Mad Max world in which roving gangs of leather-clad thugs bust through your door and take what you have. Martial law maintains order so you can leave your house for that trip to the grocery store.

If you don't like martial law, believe me, you're not going like the alternative either.

The problem with external supplies after isolation is you do not know if they are free of the virus or not.

 

[Beebo Brink]

The problem with external supplies after isolation is you do not know if they are free of the virus or not.

Yes, I'm sure we're all well aware of that, which is why those of us who have the luxury of spare cash and spare room are busy stocking up. But if you don't have enough money to buy large stocks of food, and/or you don't have room to store extra food, then there really isn't any other alternative. At some point, there aren't any good options, just choices.

 

[Pamela]

U.S. COVID Risk & Vaccine Tracker

Covid Act Now has real-time tracking of your community's COVID risk level. Explore how your community is doing.

covidactnow.org

 

[Pancake]

Bullshit. You don’t like my posts, that doesn’t mean I have something wrong with my head.

Brenda, I get that we all have unique situations and the general advice won’t fit us all, but you can’t take it personally. You are going to give yourself a stroke if you get this upset every time you hear someone online or on TV or on the radio tell people to stock up and stay home.

I mean this from a sincere and caring place. Some bitch tried to chew me out today at the convenience store for buying a bunch of pop and chocolate. Shaming me as she was paying for gas that some people don’t seem to understand what necessities are.

I didn’t bother to correct her, didn’t need to, the cashier knows me and where I work. The cashier tossed in some candies and told me to share with those at work and thanked me for going to work today.

See that’s the thing, the advice about staying home is good advice, unless it doesn’t apply like in my case where I work an essential service. If I got twisted up ever time I read advice for people to stay home, took it personally and insisted on injecting my unique circumstances in until everyone validated my exception, I would spend all my time doing that and it still wouldn’t invalidate the general advice that was given in the first place.

It just doesn’t apply to me, and that’s fine.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

It's not just old people, guys.


39 - she was a millennial.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Yes, I'm sure we're all well aware of that, which is why those of us who have the luxury of spare cash and spare room are busy stocking up. But if you don't have enough money to buy large stocks of food, and/or you don't have room to store extra food, then there really isn't any other alternative. At some point, there aren't any good options, just choices.

Actually, not everyone seems to recognise it. There are a lot of comments that you can just nip out to the shoppes to stock up in the middle of a pandemic.

 

[Salome]

 

[Pancake]

I was taking a nap when this all started, so I read thru several pages all at one sitting, and I STILL don't understand why Brenda and Spirit went off the rails. They were fighting phantoms, picking fights with something NO ONE SAID. I guess the emotional pressures of this pandemic are lowering reading comprehension. It's too easy to interject defensiveness into the general conversation and take people's comments in the most twisted way possible. But it's really weird to watch that unfold.

You know it was fucked if it made me log in and reply.

I have no explanation for why it went the way it did other than this was an example, on a microscopic scale, of how this is effecting us all differently. Some will navel gaze, some will chew their stress like cud as a way to self soothe, others will be curt and direct and factual which gets perceived as monstrous, some become empathetic to the extreme and live what they perceive as insult or injury to others as their own pain, others shut down and withdraw.

We’re not all aware of how we will react or behave in a crisis, and a sustained crisis like this, where the grooves of routines imprinted on our brains aren’t being followed can cause significant PTSD like reactions. No reactions are wrong, nor are any right, but we should all watch for them in ourselves and others.

 

[Salome]