Coronavirus Updates

[Spirits Rising]

]


Five minutes ago it was a storage problem. Now it’s about abuse of authority?

Are you incapable of following a conversation or are you really that fucking stupid?

 

[Pamela]

Are you incapable of following a conversation or are you really that fucking stupid?

If I was stupid I would be using ad hominem attacks.

 

[Spirits Rising]

If I was stupid I would be using ad hominem attacks.

Or perhaps passing your comments off as good faith responses. Or reducing a person's concerns to a "storage problem".

 

[Salome]

Flat out: When it comes to shit like this, I'm a pessimist.

Good. You should be. We all should be. Giving up any liberty should never be done lightly. But natural disasters don’t care about our pessimism. IMHO, FEMA should already have been activated to set up supply stations in the hardest-hit areas. The Peace Corps could have been utilized to help at-risk elderly/disabled populations with necessary services instead of just recalled and fired. There is so much shit we could have been doing. Soft lockdowns during a pandemic is such a no-brainer.

 

[Spirits Rising]

Good. You should be. We all should be. Giving up any liberty should never be done lightly. But natural disasters don’t care about our pessimism. IMHO, FEMA should already have been activated to set up supply stations in the hardest-hit areas. The Peace Corps could have been utilized to help at-risk elderly/disabled populations with necessary services instead of just recalled and fired. There is so much shit we could have been doing. Soft lockdowns during a pandemic is such a no-brainer.

On this, we're both mostly in agreement.

 

[Spirits Rising]

To make it very clear: My concerns are three fold, two of which are 'personal' (meaning just my situation).

1. Storage - we don't have it.
2. Finance - Two SSI recipients, three people on SNAP and one person actually employed. Between rent and bills (mine and household/shared) we do not have all that much wiggle room, exacerbated by dietary issues. Our food budget is such that under normal circumstances we're living month to month with only a tiny bit of long term staples that are reserved for end of month.
3. (Now somewhat mitigated) Concerns over how the present administration would handle such an order.

Focusing on the first in the list tells me all I need to know about a person's response.

 

[Brenda Archer]

So because you do not have a car, potentially risk millions of lives.

Don’t fucking go there.

A few days ago I went to the pharmacy to get medications - insulin and anticoagulation. Going without either one of these could land me in the ER. In particular, another pulmonary embolism could kill me quicker than the “flu” I have. I have to sign for the medication, so no one can go for me. At least I can use my own car and wash my hands.

I live in a house that is considered transitional housing. 12 disabled people rent rooms and share kitchen and bathrooms. I literally have no way to completely protect these people from my existence. I only have a tiny room to lock up my own stuff. Medical people and guests are coming and going from this place every weekday.

Quarantine in a private residence is a luxury for people who HAVE a private residence.

 

[Pamela]

Don’t fucking go there.

A few days ago I went to the pharmacy to get medications - insulin and anticoagulation. Going without either one of these could land me in the ER. In particular, another pulmonary embolism could kill me quicker than the “flu” I have. I have to sign for the medication, so no one can go for me. At least I can use my own car and wash my hands.

I live in a house that is considered transitional housing. 12 disabled people rent rooms and share kitchen and bathrooms. I literally have no way to completely protect these people from my existence. I only have a tiny room to lock up my own stuff. Medical people and guests are coming and going from this place every weekday.

Quarantine in a private residence is a luxury for people who HAVE a private residence.

I think we all understand lockdown is going to be more than an inconvenience except maybe for wealthy. The alternative, however, is potentially millions of deaths. This is why entire states are now in lockdown. It is a last resort. And that is where we are.

 

[Salome]

1. Storage - we don't have it.

It‘s unlikely that you’d have to go more than a week without being allowed to get supplies. You wouldn’t need to devote a room to it. That said, you’d be surprised what you can get used to when you have to and places you can utilize you never bothered with before. I literally slept on cushions between stacks of canned food and water for a couple weeks. Emergencies means you make do. You’d be surprised how much shit you can stack in your oven if you take out the racks, for example.

2. Finance - Two SSI recipients, three people on SNAP and one person actually employed. Between rent and bills (mine and household/shared) we do not have all that much wiggle room, exacerbated by dietary issues. Our food budget is such that under normal circumstances we're living month to month with only a tiny bit of long term staples that are reserved for end of month.

Believe it or not, those of us on SSD/SSI/SNAP, etc may end up luckier than people living paycheck to paycheck who get canned. Unless the entire system breaks down (which isn’t off the table), we have our cards and direct deposits to use right away. Start grabbing some extra beans, rice, and canned tomatoes to supplement whatever else you’re getting. Protein and vitamin C. It’s boring but cheap and better than ramen.

Please remember most people that have to go through natural disasters do so after infrastructure has been destroyed by storms/fire/etc. We will still have intact roads, power, etc.

It’s fine to worry about your liberty and your comfort and your finances, but people like me are literally dead if we get this thing. So understand my priorities are not yours.

 

[Pamela]

It’s fine to worry about your liberty and your comfort and your finances, but people like me are literally dead if we get this thing. So understand my priorities are not yours.

Amen. I have been in isolation for three weeks now, in the hopes of keeping my diabetic husband with COPD alive through the next 18 months, regardless of how painful it is, for me or for anyone else. I just want him and everyone else who likely would die on our current trajectory, to live.

And I want to protect medical workers from dying as they are in Italy now. Because WE ARE ON ITALYS PATH TO DISASTER NOW.

 

[Spirits Rising]

Comfort? Who the fuck said anything about comfort? Beyond having a roof over my head and not having to go to a shelter, that's not even in the bloody running.

I don't have a choice as far as financial worry goes - if shit hits the fan, I (and pretty much everyone living here) will be shit out of luck with little chance once this is done with to recover. Meaning a shelter if we're at all 'lucky'.

 

[Brenda Archer]

I think we all understand lockdown is going to be more than an inconvenience except maybe for wealthy. The alternative, however, is potentially millions of deaths. This is why entire states are now in lockdown. It is a last resort. And that is where we are.

I don’t seem to be getting through to you. Staying in your own home is only possible if you HAVE your own home.

Poor people in shared residences literally have no such thing, even if they wanted to.

Blaming them makes no sense.

 

[Salome]

This is why I don’t bother taking you off ignore more than once in a blue moon. Your priority is always just to act like you’re the only one in the world coping with hardships because you think it gives you a license to asshole. jfc

 

[Pamela]

I don’t seem to be getting through to you. Staying in your own home is only possible if you HAVE your own home.

Poor people in shared residences literally have no such thing, even if they wanted to.

Blaming them makes no sense.

Staying home doesn’t mean staying your own house.

Who is blaming whom for what?

So shall we just leave poor people to their own devices while everyone else shelters in place? Just let the virus have poor people?

i don’t see your point, but it doesn’t matter.

 

[Brenda Archer]

Comfort? Who the fuck said anything about comfort? Beyond having a roof over my head and not having to go to a shelter, that's not even in the bloody running.

I don't have a choice as far as financial worry goes - if shit hits the fan, I (and pretty much everyone living here) will be shit out of luck with little chance once this is done with to recover. Meaning a shelter if we're at all 'lucky'.

They don’t get it. They don’t understand what it means to live as poor people in shared housing and on the razor edge of financial survival. They think it’s the same as their inconvenience when they had their lowest wages, which is actually a number of steps higher.

Nobody who has not been through poverty and precarity will listen, and they will not stop scolding.

I’ve learned I can’t trust them. I tried.

 

[Sid]

This is why I don’t bother taking you off ignore more than once in a blue moon. Your priority is always just to act like you’re the only one in the world coping with hardships because you think it gives you a license to asshole. jfc

And where did you get your license?
Or are you entitled by birth?

 

[Brenda Archer]

This is why I don’t bother taking you off ignore more than once in a blue moon. Your priority is always just to act like you’re the only one in the world coping with hardships because you think it gives you a license to asshole. jfc

I don’t think reminding people some of us live in shared housing is being an asshole. What the fuck is wrong with you?

 

[Brenda Archer]

Staying home doesn’t mean staying your own house.

Who is blaming whom for what?

So shall we just leave poor people to their own devices while everyone else shelters in place? Just let the virus have poor people?

i don’t see your point, but it doesn’t matter.

I literally cannot isolate myself from the other people in the shared house, at the pharmacy and the doctor’s office, or the grocery. That doesn’t make me, or other people in communal living situations, responsible for the pandemic.

 

[Salome]

And where did you get your license?
Or are you entitled by birth?

Pretty much, yes.

 

[Kara Spengler]

I was thinking we needed a statement like that. After donnie recklessly said it was a cure before a doctor evaluated the relative risks (or if it would cause a shortage for onlabel use). Then there is his rah rahing drugs that have not even had phase 1 trials (safety), much less phase 2 ones (efficacey).