COVID19

[Buffalobiian]

So how's this all affecting your neck of the woods?

We (Australia) locked down our borders on Friday, and are advocating people to stay home, cancelling gatherings of more than 100 people or something.

Hospitals here are preparing for a large number of patients requiring ventilation, and in my hospital we've also got plans to zone off various parts of the Emergency department as COVID zones pretty much, where one half will have to wear protective equipment and the other part will remain uncontaminated.

Screening criteria keeps changing on a local level.

Personally, my lifestyle hasn't been affected at all. I'd be more sad if you told me the internet had a virus and I needed to remain offline for a few months.

No one I know has died yet.

[David75]

France, Paris suburbs.
We are forced to stay home AND find ways to work at the same time...
My father is an electrician and got a fine for doing his job: helping someone with electrical problems at their home.
Versailles is closing their markets
I still work too, it's incredibly easier to drive and park. But I can get fined if caught, since I have to work but it's forbidden to get out... a tad difficult when your job is visiting people at their place and help them...

[Death BOO Z]

Israel, tel aviv.
(~1300 diagnosed, one dead)
everyone who comes from a different country must stay in quarantine for two weeks, as well as anyone who has been in contact with a known patient.
people were advised to work from home if they can, and not show up at all if they can't and the job is deemed 'unessential'.
schools are closed, public transportation in limited.
I'm not sure about the legal standings, but the guidelines from the health ministry is not to leave home unless it's for one of the accepted reasons. gatherings of people aren't allowed (the number varies).
I can work from home, so other than being bored out of my mind and having to cook for myself, it's ok.

also, we might be going to the 4th election cycle (april, november, march, so maybe july?), because politics.

[Kraco]

Borders are closed. Schools are physically closed with teaching handled remotely. Libraries, theaters, museums, swimming pools, and such are closed. The government is preparing to close bars and restaurants. Seniors over 70 are supposed to stay home, though it's not enforced. In general people are told to stay at home as much as possible or at least avoid other people. There might be further domestic travel restrictions coming.

[Marik]

Here in Augusta, Georgia, The Masters golf tournament got postponed. All the schools here in Richmond County have been closed. Mayor Hardie Davis issued an executive order that limits public and private gatherings to 10 people max. Only essential business are allowed to be open. Pharmacies, grocery stores, laundromats, fast food takeout and gas stations are the only things open.

All 159 counties here in Georgia have been considered a major disaster area by Trump, which allows for federal assistance. Georgia has had 2,651 confirmed cases and 80 deaths. The local hospitals near me currently have...

University Hospital: 16 positive (8 outpatient, 7 inpatient)
AUMC: 64 positive
Doctors Hospital: 4 positive
Charlie Norwood VA: 2 positive (both outpatient)
Aiken Regional Medical Center: 6 positive

[Buffalobiian]

Hospitals here are preparing for a large number of patients requiring ventilation, and in my hospital we've also got plans to zone off various parts of the Emergency department as COVID zones pretty much, where one half will have to wear protective equipment and the other part will remain uncontaminated.



Aaaand we went live with this last week. Our Emergency Department is now separated into dirty and clean zones.

With social distancing in place and shutdowns, I cant go to try out this chair I wanted to buy, but I guess I'll just have to put up with it. Nioh 2 is pretty good in the meanwhile though.

[shinta|hikari]

I died from coronavirus.

[Marik]

The number of confirmed cases here has risen quite a bit since I posted on Sunday.

3/31
COVID-19 Confirmed Cases: 4117 (100%)
Hospitalized 885 (21.5%)
Deaths 125 (3.04%)

Taken from https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report

[Killa-Eyez]

The Netherlands: 27419 confirmed cases of which 2945 are deceased.
The Hague City (where I live): 212 confirmed cases, no deaths yet.

Social distancing laws with fines in effect. Advice is to work at home. I'm a service technician for Whirlpool. My branch is considered a crucial occupation so we're allowed to work. Not happy with that but have some health issues (no corona) which prevents me currently from working.


...
Nioh 2 is pretty good in the meanwhile though.

Awesome game, enjoyed the first one thoroughly. Playing it alongside T7 and Fortnite.

Edit: and The Division 2, just to pass time... Not as into it as I was with 1.

[Buffalobiian]

Australia hasn't been hit as hard as we expected or prepared for. Our hospital is now starting to shrink the dedicated COVID/Possible-COVID beds in the emergency department bit by bit depending on patient load right now. Social distancing laws are still in effect from before, with talks about possibility of reintroducing some stuff like elective surgeries once we work out the right precautions.

Nioh 2 is almost done. This game turned out longer than I expected, but I'm pretty sure I'm about to start the final mission now.

Between that and MW:Warzone, most of my time had been taken up, but with Nioh almost done I think I'll finally be able to catch up on a few of this season's anime before starting another single player game again. Maybe FFVIIR.

[David75]

After a very wet winter/off season, we've have incredibly sunny/beautiful days here in France, starting with the lockdown...
As a golfer, I admit it's a bit hard to cope with the situation: golf isn't hard to play in safe ways against the virus. But I understand that lockdown needs simple rules for all to understand and follow.
Pretty sure weather will turn sour the moment the lockdown is lifted for golf :D

[Shadow Skill]

In my area here in Alberta Canada, they keep saying people in the area have the virus but no confirmed deaths and the people suspected seem healthier than I am lol. So... I think it is just a hoax and the Chinese Flu is just the regular flu under a different name, like H1N1 or Bird Flu. Both were just the regular flu but the media was hyping it up to be a world ender.

[shinta|hikari]

WTF....?

[Abdula]

In my area here in Alberta Canada, they keep saying people in the area have the virus but no confirmed deaths and the people suspected seem healthier than I am lol. So... I think it is just a hoax and the Chinese Flu is just the regular flu under a different name, like H1N1 or Bird Flu. Both were just the regular flu but the media was hyping it up to be a world ender.

Okay. Well I live in NYC and I happen to know several people who have tested positive. That includes an aunt and a neighbor in my apartment building who died 2 weeks ago. Also happen to know several medical professionals including an ex who is a nurse. So count yourself fortunate that you are afforded such skepticism. I am not amused

[Shadow Skill]

Okay. Well I live in NYC and I happen to know several people who have tested positive. That includes an aunt and a neighbor in my apartment building who died 2 weeks ago. Also happen to know several medical professionals including an ex who is a nurse. So count yourself fortunate that you are afforded such skepticism. I am not amused

Ya well, when Ebola broke out they plastered dead bodies all over the news. With this one, there is zero bodies on the news. Just more hype.

Call it skepticism all you want but I suspect it is just the regular flu and possibly even regular pneumonia for the so-called people who are unfortunate to be deceased. There is a lot and I mean a lot of missing info concerning this pandemic.

When you compare this to other historical pandemics, in which societies have fallen... this one makes absolutely no sense in how it spread. The Black plague killed more people than this pandemic has. The death rate is less than 1 % world wide.... The flu is higher...

Flu cases dropped to zero in most places which should not be possible... but ya, call me a skeptic.

[Buffalobiian]

I think that's to do with modern medicine being a little bit better than the Black Plague days.

[Kraco]

Some nursing homes over here have had up to 10 elders dying one after another. I can't say I'd have ever read about such incidents in normal years when just the regular flus have been going around (though I guess in 1918-1920 it would have been nothing). Some who have got over the disease have described it as nothing like the usual influenza. I'm not particularly worried about myself, but I know that if my dad got this disease, he would most likely die. That's not a nice thought.

One funny thing about the skeptics is that they are only observing the current situation and saying it's nothing, but what we are now living in is a sort of state of emergency, which has worked. So, the disease can't show its full power. It's like saying small pox is nothing. Well, it's nothing because the vaccination eradicated it.

[Abdula]

Ya well, when Ebola broke out they plastered dead bodies all over the news. With this one, there is zero bodies on the news. Just more hype.
I am not sure what you believe you are accomplishing here. Your stance seems to be that you are willfully ignorant and you believe that your ignorance is some kind of shield. Yes your little corner of the world is largely unaffected. That means the same must be true everywhere. People are not so tactless as to plaster images of dead bodies everywhere and so this makes you doubt the severity of the situation. Again being willfully ignorant as there have been such things posted online for months now.



Call it skepticism all you want but I suspect it is just the regular flu and possibly even regular pneumonia for the so-called people who are unfortunate to be deceased. There is a lot and I mean a lot of missing info concerning this pandemic.

Yes there is not a lot of information available about a new strain of corona virus that we have only known existed for less than half a year. The country it first emerged in was also less than forthcoming. So again your argument is that ignorance, a lack of information, makes this disease less of a threat not more. Do you have any idea why the regular flu and regular pneumonia, as you call them, do not kill more people every year? The woman I happen to be in a relationship with just spent 20 days in the hospital with pneumonia in january. Guess why she did not die? Proper medical care, effective treatments and there were not hundreds of thousands of people who needed treatment at the same time.



When you compare this to other historical pandemics, in which societies have fallen... this one makes absolutely no sense in how it spread. The Black plague killed more people than this pandemic has. The death rate is less than 1 % world wide.... The flu is higher...
So what point are you trying to make here. Comparing this situation to something that happened centuries ago when there was no way to quickly disseminate information. When people naturally did not have ready access to soap or clean water much less modern medicine. When things like respirators, ventilators and antivirals did not exist and people could not check for something as simple as hypoxia. Yes things are not as bad as they were in a time when people did not even believe in the existence of micro organisms. You should check out what maternal and infant mortality rates were back then, it might interest you to learn just how much things have changed.

It spread from person to person just like the flu and it had an unknown incubation period. The rate of infection is exactly the issue here. Prion diseases have a mortality rate that I am sure is more appealing to you but you cannot acquire them from someone coughing on you and so there is not any hoopla about them. So yes modern society is better at dealing with pandemics. I live in a country with over 330 million people 1% is a staggering number. Also 98% of the deaths in NYC have been of people who have other underlying medical conditions or some comorbidity. So if 1% is not enough for you think of 98. Also for people 70 and older the mortality rate starts at 4% and only increases. Your utterly fallacious argument is we are doing everything we can to prevent more people from dying and so more people are not dying and thus you think this is a hoax. We should all do nothing and allow millions of people to die so you can feel more comfortable in your ivory tower.



Flu cases dropped to zero in most places which should not be possible... but ya, call me a skeptic.
Your complete lack of understanding of how infectious diseases actually work is amazing. Yes diseases do in fact run their course and then disappear it has happened often throughout history. You know, just like the flu you keep mentioning. You get it and you recover but you can always be reinfected or infect someone else. Thus all the efforts to prevent transmission.

Your entire point is that this is a hoax and people should just ignore the obvious facts because there are not enough facts to satisfy you. Just possibly allow millions of people, that insignificant 1%, to die. Which, by the way, would in fact make this one of the deadliest pandemics ever. Forget being a skeptic. You are either being an idiot, being deliberately obtuse or incredibly immature. In any case, this is not a good faith argument but it has certainly been entertaining.

Just as an aside, stop saying the death rate for the flu is higher. That is false, just some misinformation you have heard or read and decided to regurgitate without even verifying. For example the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that over 48 million people in the U.S got the flu in the 2017-2018 flu season. That only resulted in 79,000 confirmed deaths. Not the 480,000 which would constitute 1%. Compare that to the 291,000 confirmed cases of Covid in New York that has resulted in over 17,000 deaths and you see the disparity. We peaked at over 700 deaths a day. Come on just think of how many people you have heard dying of the flu throughout your life. If 1% of the people who got the flu died every flu season, just think of what high school would have been. If you are simply going to deny anything that is not inline with your prejudices then do not bother.

[Shadow Skill]

I am not sure what you believe you are accomplishing here. Your stance seems to be that you are willfully ignorant and you believe that your ignorance is some kind of shield. Yes your little corner of the world is largely unaffected. That means the same must be true everywhere. People are not so tactless as to plaster images of dead bodies everywhere and so this makes you doubt the severity of the situation. Again being willfully ignorant as there have been such things posted online for months now.


Yes there is not a lot of information available about a new strain of corona virus that we have only known existed for less than half a year. The country it first emerged in was also less than forthcoming. So again your argument is that ignorance, a lack of information, makes this disease less of a threat not more. Do you have any idea why the regular flu and regular pneumonia, as you call them, do not kill more people every year? The woman I happen to be in a relationship with just spent 20 days in the hospital with pneumonia in january. Guess why she did not die? Proper medical care, effective treatments and there were not hundreds of thousands of people who needed treatment at the same time.


So what point are you trying to make here. Comparing this situation to something that happened centuries ago when there was no way to quickly disseminate information. When people naturally did not have ready access to soap or clean water much less modern medicine. When things like respirators, ventilators and antivirals did not exist and people could not check for something as simple as hypoxia. Yes things are not as bad as they were in a time when people did not even believe in the existence of micro organisms. You should check out what maternal and infant mortality rates were back then, it might interest you to learn just how much things have changed.

It spread from person to person just like the flu and it had an unknown incubation period. The rate of infection is exactly the issue here. Prion diseases have a mortality rate that I am sure is more appealing to you but you cannot acquire them from someone coughing on you and so there is not any hoopla about them. So yes modern society is better at dealing with pandemics. I live in a country with over 330 million people 1% is a staggering number. Also 98% of the deaths in NYC have been of people who have other underlying medical conditions or some comorbidity. So if 1% is not enough for you think of 98. Also for people 70 and older the mortality rate starts at 4% and only increases. Your utterly fallacious argument is we are doing everything we can to prevent more people from dying and so more people are not dying and thus you think this is a hoax. We should all do nothing and allow millions of people to die so you can feel more comfortable in your ivory tower.


Your complete lack of understanding of how infectious diseases actually work is amazing. Yes diseases do in fact run their course and then disappear it has happened often throughout history. You know, just like the flu you keep mentioning. You get it and you recover but you can always be reinfected or infect someone else. Thus all the efforts to prevent transmission.

Your entire point is that this is a hoax and people should just ignore the obvious facts because there are not enough facts to satisfy you. Just possibly allow millions of people, that insignificant 1%, to die. Which, by the way, would in fact make this one of the deadliest pandemics ever. Forget being a skeptic. You are either being an idiot, being deliberately obtuse or incredibly immature. In any case, this is not a good faith argument but it has certainly been entertaining.

Just as an aside, stop saying the death rate for the flu is higher. That is false, just some misinformation you have heard or read and decided to regurgitate without even verifying. For example the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that over 48 million people in the U.S got the flu in the 2017-2018 flu season. That only resulted in 79,000 confirmed deaths. Not the 480,000 which would constitute 1%. Compare that to the 291,000 confirmed cases of Covid in New York that has resulted in over 17,000 deaths and you see the disparity. We peaked at over 700 deaths a day. Come on just think of how many people you have heard dying of the flu throughout your life. If 1% of the people who got the flu died every flu season, just think of what high school would have been. If you are simply going to deny anything that is not inline with your prejudices then do not bother.

My point is and has been proven in the news, more since the CDC has changed their infected and dead numbers three times (Lowered each time).

Now they won't lower the numbers to where they need to be. Most people around the world are noticing irregularities to this so-called virus, that they are now calling a bacterial infection.

It seems like they don't know what to call it when questioned why it is not behaving like other viruses which share the same traits and ways of replication. Under a microscope many doctors are calling it a bacteria and not a virus.

It has a 99.98 survivability. The flu kills between 3-4 % yearly. I am sure even you can see the point being made here. If you like fear mongering based on lies, then that is your problem. You sound like Pelosi who was mad there are 50,000 dead in the US compared to the predicted 1-2 million (Can never happen) for the 3 month time frame given by that fake doctor.

You know this already and has been proven, the normal flu death rate is still higher than this so-called Chinese Flu. If you don't believe me, you better check the CDC numbers. The CDC revised these numbers 3 times because everyone keeps asking them why their numbers were wrong.

-Edit-

Also many are noticing that if you take the Chinese Flu deaths and add them to the Flu deaths, they are surprisingly close to the previous years real Flu deaths. Anyone with a brain can see they hyped a fake virus and just relabeled 1 quarter of the real Flu deaths as the Chinese Flu.

[Buffalobiian]

I can assure you the Sars-Cov2 is a virus which shares 80% of its genome with Sars-Cov1.

[Y]

My point is and has been proven in the news, more since the CDC has changed their infected and dead numbers three times (Lowered each time).

Now they won't lower the numbers to where they need to be. Most people around the world are noticing irregularities to this so-called virus, that they are now calling a bacterial infection.

It seems like they don't know what to call it when questioned why it is not behaving like other viruses which share the same traits and ways of replication. Under a microscope many doctors are calling it a bacteria and not a virus.

It has a 99.98 survivability. The flu kills between 3-4 % yearly. I am sure even you can see the point being made here. If you like fear mongering based on lies, then that is your problem. You sound like Pelosi who was mad there are 50,000 dead in the US compared to the predicted 1-2 million (Can never happen) for the 3 month time frame given by that fake doctor.

You know this already and has been proven, the normal flu death rate is still higher than this so-called Chinese Flu. If you don't believe me, you better check the CDC numbers. The CDC revised these numbers 3 times because everyone keeps asking them why their numbers were wrong.

-Edit-

Also many are noticing that if you take the Chinese Flu deaths and add them to the Flu deaths, they are surprisingly close to the previous years real Flu deaths. Anyone with a brain can see they hyped a fake virus and just relabeled 1 quarter of the real Flu deaths as the Chinese Flu.

You're a ******* ******

(Be nice. -Buff)

[Sapphire]

It's literally the apocalypse right now. I'm so over 2020!

[Buffalobiian]

We've managed to be really under the curve, so now it's about gradual economic recovery. I expect that we'll get spikes in the next few weeks, but it's just about making sure that it's at a level that our hospitals can handle. At most I expect that we might have delays to our easing restriction plans as opposed to actually going backwards and having to reinstate any restrictions that have relaxed.

Long term immunity would be tricky since SARS-COV1 hasn't even gotten a vaccine yet after 5+ years. That said, that virus never had the same drive to develop a vaccine like this one.

USA has bigger fish to fry but.

[Kraco]

Long term immunity would be tricky since SARS-COV1 hasn't even gotten a vaccine yet after 5+ years. That said, that virus never had the same drive to develop a vaccine like this one.

There're apparently many huge efforts to develop Covid-19 vaccines all over the world. I've no idea if anyone seriously bothered to try with the old SARS in the first place.

[Ryllharu]

If I recall correctly, SARS initial trials on mice found the particular issue where the one implementation resulted in occasionally worse symptoms, and then SARS was largely eradicated in 2004, so all the funding dried up and vaccine development was abandoned.

[KrayZ33]

snip

lel - in what 5th world country does the flu kill 3-4% of the infected yearly?

Either way, you will probably not understand this, but a 3-4% deathtoll of such an infectious virus in any modern country would be devastating to the economy.
Not to mention that the sheer amount of patients itself is/would already cripple everything.

"just a flu" - he says.

alongside other factors that are quite dangerous, such as incubation time - 1-2 days (normal flu) vs 1-2 weeks (corona)
the lack of immunities.
the lack of medication
calling it "just a flu" is simply not true.

[Buffalobiian]

The following was a facebook post by an intensivist in our country whom I had the pleasure of learning from as a medical student. Great guy. He puts this really well:


I’m an intensive care specialist in a small city.

Coronavirus isn’t just like the flu, but it’s only really very dangerous to the elderly or the already unwell. Quite a lot of people in their 80s will die, but most of the rest of us will probably be okay.

If you’re in your 70s and you get Coronavirus, you’ve got a really good chance of survival. If I’ve got a bed for you.

If you’re in your 60s and you have a heart attack, you’ve got a really good chance of survival. If I’ve got a bed for you.

If you’re in your 50s and need bowel cancer surgery, you’ve got a really good chance of survival. If I’ve got a bed for you.

If you’re in your 40s and have a bad car accident, you’ve got a really good chance of survival. If I’ve got a bed for you.

If you’re in your 30s and have terrible pre-eclampsia as a complication of pregnancy, you’ve got a really good chance of survival. If I’ve got a bed for you.

If you’re in your 20s and have a bad reaction to a party drug, you’ve got a really good chance of survival. If I’ve got a bed for you.

I have 7 beds equipped with life support machines. We have a plan to increase to about 25. Getting more isn’t a matter or more equipment or more money, that bit is easy. There are not enough skilled staff, even if we all work double shifts every day for six months (and we probably will).

If 50% of my city gets infected, that’s 75,000 people. If 5% of them need life support (which is the estimate), that’s 3750 people. For 25 beds.

And then I might not have a bed for you.

So it’s up to you to flatten the curve. Wash your hands. Stay home.

[Buffalobiian]

Stop spreading COVID already people. My gundams are being delayed because Australia won't let people ship stuff in yet :(

[Kraco]

Stop spreading COVID already people. My gundams are being delayed because Australia won't let people ship stuff in yet :(

You just had to order the Gundam Vector model, didn't you?

[shinta|hikari]

I'm living in the US. Nuff said.

[Buffalobiian]

You just had to order the Gundam Vector model, didn't you?

As long as I wear a mask I'm good.

https://i.imgur.com/DN7W01Y.png

[shinta|hikari]

1873
You fucken penis noser.

https://preview.redd.it/unngw9n7pbx41.jpg?auto=webp&d727244bhttps://preview.redd.it/unngw9n7pbx41.jpg?auto=webp&d727244b

[shinta|hikari]

Has anyone here caught it? Has anyone you know?

My best friend caught it and got sick for 3 weeks or so. His coughing was intense, and fever was pretty bad. He lost his sense of taste as well, but eventually made a full recovery. He lives in the Netherlands.

My friends here in the US have caught it but developed milder symptoms, just a fever and coughing. All have made full recoveries except one whose sense of taste is still a bit off. None of my friends in the Philippines have caught it.

Fortunately, no one I know has died yet.

[David75]

A young client has had it, fairly quick and easy recovery.
An older one died from it, living in the east of France in the beginning of the outbreak that was pretty severe in that region. He was a cardiologist, but at the time nobody knew how to deal with it.
It seems the protocols are getting better at handling patients partly explaining why with so many positive cases we do not get the surge in ICU patients we had last spring.
Another explanation might be that positive people are younger, after all most exposed summer jobs are for the younger generation...

[Assertn]

Has anyone here caught it? Has anyone you know?

My best friend caught it and got sick for 3 weeks or so. His coughing was intense, and fever was pretty bad. He lost his sense of taste as well, but eventually made a full recovery. He lives in the Netherlands.

My friends here in the US have caught it but developed milder symptoms, just a fever and coughing. All have made full recoveries except one whose sense of taste is still a bit off. None of my friends in the Philippines have caught it.

Fortunately, no one I know has died yet.

Just one cousin that had it. She had flu-like symptoms for a few days, then couldn't taste or smell for a few months after.

[shinta|hikari]

then couldn't taste or smell for a few months after.

This is absolutely terrifying to me. My biggest interest outside of moe~ is food. I love to cook, but I love to eat far more than that.

[Marik]

My next door neighbor died from it. I have another neighbor two houses down that's currently in the hospital with it and pneumonia.

[shinta|hikari]

How seriously are people treating the pandemic in your area?

Here, there is a mask mandate, but a lot of people don't wear them outdoors, and wear them improperly indoors. People still travel and congregate in large numbers. Some restaurants and bars are full capacity, even though stores have "limited" capacity.

How are you dealing with the restrictions in your daily life? Particularly going out and/or vacationing?

[Marik]

I live in Augusta, Georgia. The mask mandate here only requires you to wear them inside buildings and businesses. Most people I see don't have a mask on unless they're really old. If a young person has on a mask, they usually have their nose out. Whenever I go get groceries at Walmart, I see a lot of unmasked people. Even the employees are unmasked or have only their mouths covered. Walmart doesn't even enforce their mask policy to avoid fights.

Three counties here in Georgia rank in the top 20 for new COVID cases. (https://www.wabe.org/3-georgia-counties-rank-high-in-national-covid-19-rates) As of 3 p.m. today, there have been 5,604 deaths in Georgia, an increase of 28 since the previous day. Over the last 14 days (8/17-8/30), the average daily increase in newly reported deaths was 64.43 deaths each day. Over the previous 14-day period (8/3-8/16), the average daily increase in newly reported deaths was 61.57.

There have been 268,973 cases confirmed in Georgia, an increase of 1,215 since the previous day. Over the last 14 days, the average daily increase in newly confirmed cases was 2,281.64 new cases a day. Over the previous 14-day period, the average daily increase in newly confirmed cases was 3,132.

Personally, my life hasn't changed much. I just stay in my room all day like I always have. I only leave my house for groceries. Most of the time I'm ordering McDonald's or Captain D's through Uber Eats.

[Buffalobiian]

Social distancing is still a thing in my state. Masks are not mandatory but recommended especially in areas where social distancing isn't feesible like some public transport. Masks are mandatory within hospitals. Nursing homes and hospitals allow no visitors.

Research from outbreaks in Australia found that healthcare workers mostly didn't get infected by patients (one or two did), but then gave the rest of it amongst each other in cafeterias etc - so in my hospital now all medical staff wear goggles and masks as a minimum at all times aside from eating. Even some of us don't do it properly, let alone patients.

We're now getting some community cases, but new cases are all less than 10 per day, probably even less than 5 per day (in my state).

Overall the general population is taking this more seriously than before. At the start, it was believed to be a mild flu-like illness without much consequence. Then when lockdown was in place hardcore, people reluctantly complied.

Because we were lucky and also had a low population density in general in my state with good backywards and big homes we didn't have a large outbreak.

People then thought we overreacted and went about their daily business. This was roughly when the Black Lives Matter situation happened.

The Southern state of Victoria then had an outbreak shortly afterwards. It's much worse there than the rest of the country and we've essentially locked them out. As such, the general population has realised how badly this can actually effect us and nobody wants to go back to full lockdown - thus people now take this seriously.

No one I am close to has had COVID.

My life itself hasn't changed. I've been going to work as usual for the past 8 months (plus extra precautions), social distancing is not possible at work. When I'm not working I don't really go out anyway. I stay home and play games + chat with friends online when I do. Occasional dinners and stuff outside. Groceries when necessary.

There was a particular day when the entire orthopedic department was being tested for COVID so there were only 2 surgeons doing things in the whole hospital. That was an issue for our emergency department for some time because patients needed their input.

[David75]

Social distancing, masks, we have that with a myriad of exceptions, laws that end too soon and your usual politicians/journalists fake news/opinions making things over complicated...
When basically it's simple:
-social distancing is the first basic rule, avoid all unecessary social activities and try to minimise the unavoidable ones. That includes shopping and all activities where you meet people even from your friends or familly circles when you don't live under the same roof.
-wear a mask whenever social distancing is impossible.
-wash hands a lot more frequently, yes even after going to the bathroom. Strange idea isn't it ?
-wear a mask whenever you're away from home is a good practice too, especially in dense cities/places even if social distancing is easy but you cross paths with lots of people.
-if you are out but in non populated places like walks in the forest/treks/empty beach, do as you please if you're sure to never cross paths with anyone.

But the problem here like everywhere on earth, is that we have a massive pandemic that kills a lot: idiocracy and idiocy...

[Kraco]

I don't personally know anyone who would have had Covid-19, let alone died because of it. Finland went pretty hardcore on it early on and it really helped. There have only been mask recommendations here and there, aside from airplanes with obligatory masks, and most people don't wear one. I only wear one on a bus. I most certainly wear gloves a lot more, though, and use hand sanitisers in stores.

[Death BOO Z]

by brothers' girlfriend has mild disease, and her father was hospitalized in a critical condition. both recovered since then.

masks are mandated here, not everybody wears them properly (even i sometimes wear it below the nose), bars and restaurants are somehow packed, and it doesn't feel like they are limiting the number of people.
the number of new cases did skyrocket in the past few weeks, but it's hard to say how much of it is actual new cases (due to school re-openning at some form) compared to more testing (specifically, politically motivated testing). we might be going into "lock-down" next week (the jewish new year holiday), but it's still not clear whether it's going to be just the cities with high rates, all the country, and what restrictions will be set.
it's all in the hands of the prime minister, so things can change without a moments' notice.

[Buffalobiian]

I broke out a set of masks I had stocked up back in 2018 or something because I had a respiratory infection then. The quality difference is very apparent compared to what I'm using at work right now. The older stuff was thick and comfortable. The Quilton of masks if you will. Current stuff is thin toilet paper and it hurts to wear.

But you know, if they work to the same protection standards and cheaper means we have enough to use then I'm okay with that.

[shinta|hikari]

My American friends still keep doubting the seriousness of the pandemic, to the point that they say they are tired of dealing with it, despite having basically done nothing to actually deal with it... The terrifying thing is my wife likes hanging out with these people for her mental health (gets lonely easily), despite them being an infection risk. I'm basically given a choice of depressing my wife or possibly getting infected by reckless Americans.

I've tried convincing them to be more careful, but that doesn't really work when they think they are invulnerable and don't "truly" give a shit about others. It is a bit shocking how propaganda can affect even generally reasonable people. They buy into Facebook posts with no context or source and won't listen to me even though I go through several articles a day to keep up with covid developments nationally and globally. When I send links to articles, they treat them with the same level of trustworthiness as some rando posting on their feed.

[Buffalobiian]

On a side note, I've kept following/friending old highschool aquantenances on facebook who have quite bogan/objectionable opinions about some stuff in general just to keep my perspective broad.

Annoyingly, my google feed decides that all I want to know about these days are COVID,watches and gaming/PC hardware. All those topics are cool, but it's stuff I already subscribe to on facebook and actively seek out. I'd rather now about other news from a Google feed. Back to actual news outlets we go.

[Death BOO Z]

actually, i think that's kind of a problem, the whole echo chamber thing.
most of the people in my facebook feed are either friends or people who become friends. it's mostly people with similar backgrounds and political opinions. and the facebook algorithem hides away the few people who don't share my views. it's getting tough to see whats going on outside the small sphere.

[shinta|hikari]

I actually visit Reddit regularly for that. I don't have any other social media, and I don't even have a reddit account. I just go to the front page and scroll to see what pops up. The top voted comments usually have a good trail of sources, including opposing views. The r/Conservative and similar subreddits really give me a glimpse into the other perspectives, although I have to say it makes me understand where they are coming from even less. The most evident thing is how they have very narrow sources of information and basically reject everything else.

[Buffalobiian]

So how is the rest of the world doing right now (meaning you guys)?

For some time now, it's felt like "COVID exists" and I'm just living life while responding every now and again to an outbreak (like how bad weather would keep me indoors on certain days and make me take an umbrella etc).

One or two of our (Australian) states are wanting to open up, the rest less keen I think. Mine in particular hasn't had much COVID at all and is taking a zero-COVID policy essentially. I'm used to it, but my job security and pay is unaffected by all of this. I can see other people getting hit hard by flash lockdowns and apparently overseas you guys find our practice strange.

So what's actually happening abroad?

[Death BOO Z]

we had a delta resurgance for a month or two, which seems to going down as more and more people either got it or recieved the booster.
restuarents are open, small events are allowed (weddings, parties), sports are also back,but some massive events aren't.

people who didn't get the shots are supposed to be tested 'daily', and there are all sorts of test scehduales in the education system, but I'm not close enoguh to know the details.

[David75]

France:
-it feels like the pandemic is receding, maybe still a little high in the southeast.
Social distancing and masks are still the rule, but nobody seems to really care anymore.

Delta did scare us for a while.

I just hope we won't get another wave.

[Ryllharu]

Northeast Corridor at least:

Even more moderate people are sliding past exhaustion and slipping to apathy. We have a high vaccination rate, but the media and political onslaught doesn't let up anyway. The rules seem to change arbitrarily, and there's also a undertone of shame and guilt when the fully vaccinated aren't wearing masks even when they're not required by corporate or local mandate. There's a lot of skepticism with the boosters in this group. How many, how often? Because they don't seem to make any difference. So similar to France it sounds like.

There's also zealots on both sides. Masks, vaccines and boosters forever, and they're still screeching at others to comply because they've been whipped up into a state of hysteria. Even if we were at 100%, these people would still permanently isolate themselves out of fear, even though they'd be fine if they did catch it. But they are going to make "the other side" comply by whatever means necessary. They fully support making the other side pariahs.
The other side of course is anti-vaccines for themselves for all manner or reasons, definitely against forcing kids to get unapproved vaccines, anti-masking, and usually flipping out at local school boards and teacher's unions (who are in the other camp).

So even in regions that were hit really hard by both variants, and have very high compliance with all medical recommendations, there's a growing sentiment of acceptance that the virus is here to stay, and growing resentment at the relentless hysteria.

There's a mixed bag of "returning to normal." I don't think a lot of people really want to go back to indoor events and businesses even though they're allowed to, and there's a big shift towards take out and home cooking instead of eating at sit-down restaurants. But at the same time, people are very much done with the masking and social distancing that don't seem to many any difference at all in the infection rates.

I'm in the moderate-turning-into-apathy crowd.

So we have a mix of everything.

[Kraco]

Things are returning towards normal over here, although the restrictions in Finland never were as strict as in some other European countries. All services are running. Vaccination percentage is pretty decent. Masks aren't even recommended anymore by the officials for other than really crowded events, although various businesses might still have their own opinions. Most people don't use masks anymore in stores. Yesterday I visited a few stores; in one I didn't wear it because the staff wasn't either, in the others I did, but about half of the staff didn't.

[shinta|hikari]

Upper midwest US here.

Practically no restrictions anymore. My wife and I went on a rave with thousands of people clumped together. There were no vaccine card check or any mask recommendations. A very small percent of people wore masks, but that's about it. This is in the urban areas. Rural areas never really followed any restrictions or lockdowns at all.

I personally know 2 antivaxxers who have not taken the vaccine yet. One of them has a husband who is NOT an antivaxxer, but she threatens him with divorce if he ever got vaxxed. Many people in their group are vaccine-hesitant but eventually got it. Me and my wife took the vaccine as soon as we can and followed all reasonable guidelines. We never got covid before or after getting the vaccine, even with our fairly frequent traveling. In contrast, the group with the antivaxxers ALL got covid at some point, family and friends.

We went on a over 2 week vacation to Mexico in 3 areas, the Yucatan, Oaxaca, and Mexico City.

The people there are more serious about the restrictions. You wear masks even in huge outdoor locations such as ruins. They spray your hands and body with disinfectants whenever you enter any building. The beach areas were more lax, while the urban areas were more strict. That said, people were still eating in restaurants and drinking in bars everywhere.

In the Philippines, where a lot of my friends and family still live, a lot of people are dying. My aunt died of covid, and my wife's family suffered a few deaths as well. Almost everyone I know is related to someone who died of it. Restrictions are still strict there, but it can only do so much in densely populated areas with bad healthcare.

[Kraco]

I personally know 2 antivaxxers who have not taken the vaccine yet. One of them has a husband who is NOT an antivaxxer, but she threatens him with divorce if he ever got vaxxed.

Truly a marriage founded on love. They must be living a joyous life full of bliss every day. When I hear about people like that, I can't help but wonder why they even bother to stay together.

[KrayZ33]

Germany:

I honestly don't know, feels like everyone got the vaccine. Roughly76% of the 18-100 range got it
My mother is thinking about getting a "booster shot".

Kids at the age of 12+ can now get the shot and I think they should.
Give it less room to breed and change, you know.

This whole thing has proven how important family doctors are for us.
As soon as they started working on it, the "injections per day" rate went up so freaking much.
I was too lazy to go to a vaccination hub myself. I was glad when I could call my doctor to get the shot.

[shinta|hikari]

Truly a marriage founded on love. They must be living a joyous life full of bliss every day. When I hear about people like that, I can't help but wonder why they even bother to stay together.

They have two kids, and I guess the husband has issues with ever giving up on his marriage due to his parents' divorce and the fall out of that on his family.

The wife is not only an antivaxxer. She is also a trump-supporting conspiracy theorist. She believes the vaccine shedding thing, and is also against ALL vaccines, not just the covid one. Never mind that her husband is an ex-marine and had tons of shots for that.

But she is generally a nice person. Just goes to show how effective social media "news" and "info" are at brainwashing people.

[MFauli]

They have two kids, and I guess the husband has issues with ever giving up on his marriage due to his parents' divorce and the fall out of that on his family.

The wife is not only an antivaxxer. She is also a trump-supporting conspiracy theorist. She believes the vaccine shedding thing, and is also against ALL vaccines, not just the covid one. Never mind that her husband is an ex-marine and had tons of shots for that.

But she is generally a nice person. Just goes to show how effective social media "news" and "info" are at brainwashing people.

If you're anti-vax and pro-trump, you're not 'generally a nice person'. It's called fake-politeness.

[David75]

France again: law has been prolonged for the pass needed for restaurants and other activities where deemed necessary by the decree.
We're still officially having special measures against the pandemy.
Stats for covid are on a low plateau of approximately 1000 people in ER for a national nominal capacity of 5000 nationwide.
It's a kind of in beetween. The previous wave is behind and with that plateau we can't know if next we get the end of covid... or a new wave.
Technically, with the presidential elections coming May 2022, prolonging the law was only possible now or at the end of summer 2022...

[shinta|hikari]

What do you guys think about this subreddit?

https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/

[Buffalobiian]

What do you guys think about this subreddit?

https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/

I'm largely indifferent.

I don't know how privacy stuff works in USA.

From an educational perspective, I don't think it changes anything.

From a venting/entertainment perspective, some may find this useful.

It's the other side of the commonly-touted "echo chambers". There's bias there. They're just on the correct side of science right now.



My personal view on this is that:

1) I'm vaccinated so my chances of dying or having severe disease are as low as feasible right now.

2) Others can do whatever they want. They're not my concern.

3) Other people's actions may increase or decrease my family members' chances of catching COVID, but that's not something I can control so I leave that issue aside.

4) If shit hits the fans and I consider my workplace unsafe then I just have to decide on whether or not I resign - that's all I can do anyway.

[shinta|hikari]

I like it from an entertainment perspective, but it looks like the sub has changed some people's minds about the vaccine. If it saves even just a few lives, it's probably a good thing to have.

The people that say that the cruelty of that sub makes them dig their heels deeper wouldn't get the vaccine for any reason anyway.

[Buffalobiian]

.
I've been trained to not find amusement in patients' misfortunes, even if it's their own fault.









... or so I'd like to say, but triages like "Drunk last night. Now can't find vibrator. Anus tender. ?foreign body" still have me laughing my ass off before seeing them.

[Kraco]

2) Others can do whatever they want. They're not my concern.


If Australia had been hit worse, it would be your concern because it would burden the whole healthcare system. Many places have been running out of ICU space because Covid patients have filled them up. Finland wasn't affected that catastrophically either, but because of Covid, folks did get their less urgent treatments postponed regularly. The more people refuse vaccination, the slower things return to normal. It's also a problem in public healthcare countries that a vaccination costs nothing compared to having a person live in a hospital for a while, let alone in the ICU. In the USA a person pays it themselves (good luck with that) or their insurance company pays it, but over here, and many other European countries, the taxpayers pay the thousands of euros just because some blistering idiot doesn't want to get vaccinated on principle.

[Buffalobiian]

It has trickle down effects on me in the same way trickle down economics is supposed to. They could use the last ventilator in my state and screw me over if I ever needed one after a motor vehicle accident for example, but the causation is removed enough that I can't directly sue the unvaccinated chap over there for using up my ventilator so that's what I mean by "not my concern".

I guess people being negligent about their health isn't a new thing for me, and there's an abundance of people doing stupid shit and costing healthcare dollars all the time. It'd be similar to a poorly controlled diabetic using that bed due to septic necrotising fasciitis that they might have been able to prevent, or an intubated COPD exacerbation who should have stopped smoking years beforehand.

I'm disillusioned by it all and look at the bright side of this behavior - they keep me in a job. Unless I fuck up really badly, no one's firing me anytime soon. If I instead consider my risk exposure to be too high I can make a personal decision to quit my job, but the ball is outside my court for everything else.

Australia being democratic and a public healthcare system means we just have to deal with the consequences of it. If our borders are closed but vaccination rates are low, we just shut up shop while vaccinations rates rise (and suffer the economic consequences of that). On the other hand, if we decided we've had enough and we're going to open up despite poor vaccination rates and just overwhelm the healthcare resources then collectively we deal with that as well.

[Kraco]

Since you actually work in the healthcare sector, I'll have to accept your word for it. For someone working in the field, things will always look different compared to an outsider looking at it from a distance.

[Buffalobiian]

Since you actually work in the healthcare sector, I'll have to accept your word for it. For someone working in the field, things will always look different compared to an outsider looking at it from a distance.

I should say that this would be a personal opinion, colleagues' may vary.

One thing is certain though, in the Australian public health system wait times are pretty abysmal for non urgent matters as is, ICU beds can be scarce, and it's not uncommon for patients at my hospital who are admitted in Emergency to be waiting hours (if not days) to be moved to the hospital ward (because they're full, so the patient is stuck in Emergency). Someone waited 7hrs to get their ankle sutured up the other day.

Any extra pressure is unwelcome. No doctor would dispute this.

I'm in no position to stop people doing undesirable things, so it ends up going into the "I don't care / it doesn't bother me" basket.

Now, if I was in a position to order mandatory vaccinations for employees of my hospital etc... that'd be a very different question... thankfully I'm not in that position and someone else called the shots.

Anyway, in Australia now some states are opening up to each other, masks aren't mandatory where I live currently (for the general public that is), and international travel is slated to begin around Christmas.