Pandemic expectations

[Cornflake]

A number of people I've talked to are optimistic about how quickly a vaccine might get us out of this mess. This article about how epidemiologists are conducting their own lives was somewhat sobering. www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/upshot/epidemiologists-virus-survey-.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage It'll use up one of your free monthly views if you don't subscribe.

In a nutshell, a lot of epidemiologists expect that it will take a year to get back to living in a more nearly normal way. They're going to the grocery and visiting with friends outdoors but they're still avoiding most indoor activities.

We can get our hopes up but a lot of patience will still be necessary.

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2020 10:57:09 GMT -5 Cornflake said:

A number of people I've talked to are optimistic about how quickly a vaccine might get us out of this mess. This article about how epidemiologists are conducting their own lives was somewhat sobering. www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/upshot/epidemiologists-virus-survey-.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage It'll use up one of your free monthly views if you don't subscribe.

In a nutshell, a lot of epidemiologists expect that it will take a year to get back to living in a more nearly normal way. They're going to the grocery and visiting with friends outdoors but they're still avoiding most indoor activities.

We can get our hopes up but a lot of patience will still be necessary.

Americans don't do patience....

[Village Idiot]

We don't need patience, David. We're above that.

[brucemacneill]

Joe said he'd fix it.

[gbacklin]

Dec 4, 2020 10:59:15 GMT -5 @dhanners55 said:

Dec 4, 2020 10:57:09 GMT -5 Cornflake said:

A number of people I've talked to are optimistic about how quickly a vaccine might get us out of this mess. This article about how epidemiologists are conducting their own lives was somewhat sobering. www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/upshot/epidemiologists-virus-survey-.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage It'll use up one of your free monthly views if you don't subscribe.

In a nutshell, a lot of epidemiologists expect that it will take a year to get back to living in a more nearly normal way. They're going to the grocery and visiting with friends outdoors but they're still avoiding most indoor activities.

We can get our hopes up but a lot of patience will still be necessary.

Americans don't do patience....

Kinda depends on where you look and how hard you look...

[james]

There is, relative to the shambles so far witnessed under Trump, a conspiracy, lie, stupidity and hydroxyeffingchloroquine deficient timeline of Biden's claimed objectives on the pandemic, at the Biden site. In their scope, the proposals amount to something other than "Joe said he'd fix it".


joebiden.com/covid19/

[Rob Hanesworth]

Heard on NPR today that health experts are very worried that people are letting their guard down because of the promise of a vaccine.

[t-bob]

Gene

“Kinda depends on where you look and how hard you look...“

Is that like when ... where are my keys & glasses ?😂
Even if you never going to find it ....

[gbacklin]

Dec 4, 2020 14:59:47 GMT -5 t-bob said:

Gene

“Kinda depends on where you look and how hard you look...“

Is that like when ... where are my keys & glasses ?😂
Even if you never going to find it ....

Nah, as explained to me a very long time ago ... "How you see things in life, depends on how you look at them"

[t-bob]

Dec 4, 2020 15:05:13 GMT -5 gbacklin said:

Dec 4, 2020 14:59:47 GMT -5 t-bob said:

Gene

“Kinda depends on where you look and how hard you look...“

Is that like when ... where are my keys & glasses ?😂
Even if you never going to find it ....

Nah, as explained to me a very long time ago ... "How you see things in life, depends on how you look at them"

There’s a hell a lot of similes, allegories, and metaphors
I’m not sure it’s the holidays or the pandemic

[gbacklin]

Dec 4, 2020 15:16:30 GMT -5 t-bob said:

Dec 4, 2020 15:05:13 GMT -5 gbacklin said:

Nah, as explained to me a very long time ago ... "How you see things in life, depends on how you look at them"

There’s a hell a lot of similes, allegories, and metaphors
I’m not sure it’s the holidays or the pandemic

Since the time I was born, I have come close to passing away 5 times. I always said neither heaven nor hell wants me, and when I finally pass, they worked out a deal to each have me part time.

I wake up each day, thankful I have been given another day to explore, and grateful for ones that I have been given.

[Jawbone]

My wife and I started feeling flu symptoms two days ago. Stuffy and clogged nasal passages, chills, headache (just above and between the eyes), coughing, fatigue and fevers at about 100.
Most of the symptoms have already left with the exception of fatigue. If this is covid-19 it's a cakewalk compared to a bad flu. But then I heard there are several strains going around. Hopefully even a less aggressive strain will still help now that my immune system has acknowledges the virus.

[Shannon]

My professional guess:

IF there are no significant manufacturing/distribution hurdles with the vaccine and

IF enough of the population will actually get the vaccine

we may be able to start gathering somewhat normally by mid-to-late summer of 2021.

[gbacklin]

Dec 4, 2020 16:10:51 GMT -5 Jawbone said:

My wife and I started feeling flu symptoms two days ago. Stuffy and clogged nasal passages, chills, headache (just above and between the eyes), coughing, fatigue and fevers at about 100.
Most of the symptoms have already left with the exception of fatigue. If this is covid-19 it's a cakewalk compared to a bad flu. But then I heard there are several strains going around. Hopefully even a less aggressive strain will still help now that my immune system has acknowledges the virus.

Hoping you wlll be back to normal soon !

My son has told me that outside of each person's immune system, the intensity of your exposure can also lead to less severe symptoms. He told me as an example that a person who has the virus in a room with you and a friend and has a longer direct contact with your friend, such as speaking directly at him while you are not in a direct line of his speech, may get a more severe exposure than you will. It makes sense to me.

[james]

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html

[Cornflake]

To Gene's point, a lot of us have been frustrated by behavior that we think is irresponsible. But I was commenting to my wife yesterday that most people have been careful and patient through all this. A large majority in my experience.

[theevan]

Dec 4, 2020 15:33:32 GMT -5 gbacklin said:

Dec 4, 2020 15:16:30 GMT -5 t-bob said:

There’s a hell a lot of similes, allegories, and metaphors
I’m not sure it’s the holidays or the pandemic

Since the time I was born, I have come close to passing away 5 times. I always said neither heaven nor hell wants me, and when I finally pass, they worked out a deal to each have me part time.

I wake up each day, thankful I have been given another day to explore, and grateful for ones that I have been given.

That is beautiful. I hope to remember it and to live by it. The rest of this is not nearly as big a deal as people make it out to be compared to the truly important things.

[fauxmaha]

This is long, but it's worth a read. It's the text of an email sent by guy who, along with his wife, has a secure government job, describing how his covid experience is different from his brother's:

I grew up in a working class Brooklyn neighborhood in the 1990s. Everyone I knew went to public schools, played in the local parks, and had parents that worked either city jobs or union jobs. My parents, my brother and his family, my extended family, and my childhood friends all still live there. I moved out in 2007 and am now settled with my wife and daughter in Northern Virginia (NOVA).



For me, the reality of two different and distinct pandemic experience is apparent within my own family. We are NOT “all in this together” and I can see this by viewing my pandemic experience against my brother’s pandemic experience.



My wife and I are two government lawyers living in the NOVA suburbs. My brother and his wife are a cook and a hairdresser living in Brooklyn, NY.



My wife and I have been working from home since mid-March; our jobs don’t even talk about when/if we’re going back anymore. For the past 9 months, we’re not commuting into the District during rush hour and we’re not worried about missing a paycheck, in fact, since the start of the pandemic, federal employees have been authorized to paid COVID related “Administrative Leave” on a weekly basis.



My wife roll out of bed, go to our separate home offices, and review our emails while watching the morning news. If we have zoom calls, we get dressed from the waist up. When NYC went into lockdown, my brother was laid off and his wife was forced to close her hair salon in downtown Brooklyn - her hair studio is a one chair salon. My brother and his wife were immediately and unexpectedly without paychecks. While I’m working from home in sweatpants, my brother and his wife are forced to wait in endless lines, or on hold, in an attempt to navigate unemployment benefits and lost health insurance.



When NYC closed schools, my brother had to figure out how to help my nephew finish Kindergarten through zoom. When NOVA dayacares closed, I arranged for full time help. As the pandemic dragged on, my brother’s family was stuck in a 610 square foot apartment with a 5 year old. My wife and I are “stuck” in a 5,700 square foot house in the NOVA suburbs.



If my brother wanted to relieve some stress through recreation, or get outside during the summer months, too bad - the City closed playgrounds, shuttered parks, and patrolled the boardwalk in Coney Island. If I wanted to go outside, all I had to do was put on a mask and walk into my cul-de-sac where there are kids riding bikes, swimming in backyard pools, and sitting around fire pits set-up in driveways at night.



Or maybe my brother wanted to relieve some stress and anxiety by working out - he enjoyed that - too bad again!!! NYC closed gyms. NOVA closed gyms too, but I saw my neighbor across the street building a garage gym over the summer and, after getting some tips, I just finished my own complete with a bench, full set of weights, dumbbells and Peloton.



My brother and his family were planning a vacation to Disneyland - cancelled. Our vacation plans were uninterrupted since we rented a house on the Outer Banks. When the markets tanked, I invested a bunch of savings and watched my portfolio explode. My brother took his savings and spent it on rent and bills. I could go on and on with examples.



I know how this reads, and I understand that I sound like an AHole. But I’m willing to paint myself as an AHole if it helps people understand that this IS THE REALITY. And not just for me and my brother - but for millions of Americans. Many people that I know who live and work in the NOVA suburbs have a pandemic experience similar to mine. And many of my relatives and childhood friends in Brooklyn have an experience similar to my brother. At the end of the day, I know that my brother and his family will be fine, not only because he’s resilient, but also because my wife and I are capable of being a financial backstop for his family.



But I don’t want to hear “we’re all in this together” or that it's “up to us” because I know that is a lie. These lies are spoken because those in power want working class people to believe that everyone is suffering just like them, and the suburban Karens repeat these lies to feel like they’re suffering in solidarity with their blue collar brethren. Most of my neighborhood Karens aren’t suffering, they’re being inconvenienced. There’s a HUGE difference between suffering and being inconvenienced. And, as we’ve seen countless times already, bureaucrats, politicians, and your local Karens, talk the talk but won’t walk the walk if it’s “like, totally inconvenient” or would mess up something I was REALLY looking forward to - like Thanksgiving with family or dinner at a fancy restaurant or a planned family vacation. When living like this, no wonder so many people aren’t worried about being inconvenienced for “two more weeks” - they’re not going to miss a paycheck.



Whether it’s because of your wealth, social status, job, or connections, there are rules for THEE and not for ME across the spectrum. So, the next time someone says “we’re all in this together”, you should start to think about what their pandemic experience really looks like.

I remember sharing this video months ago:

[theevan]

I wish everybody on this board would watch that video. I'd be interested to hear comments.

[theevan]

I wonder if I will be required to have the vaccine even though I have had the virus.