Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

Just returned from the supermarket! Rather empty. As noted, my county requires the wearing of masks in enclosed public places.

Were u wearing a batman mask

in Paris I see a bunch of jokers out pulling down their mask to take a drag off their cig or a swig of beer, as they flaunt the containment order. but most people seem to be wearing masks now. I saw a cop yesterday driving by, wearing a full gas mask.

I saw someone in a full-face gas mask at my grocery store the other day and I was just jealous.

re: wearing masks in february/march -- there is the issue of masks not exactly being a standard household item to keep around, and then seemingly immediately later being scarce

in Paris I see a bunch of jokers out pulling down their mask to take a drag off their cig or a swig of beer, as they flaunt the containment order. but most people seem to be wearing masks now. I saw a cop yesterday driving by, wearing a full gas mask.

yesterday as a walked through a tiny remnant of smoke from someone smoking a cigarette on a bicycle, I began to think about not just whether the virus could be transferred via cigarette smoke but also how much europe's smoking rates were probably responsible for the terrible numbers not just due to lung health but also because smoking often leads to a bunch of people w/ clumped together in a group breathing on each other

I have a red and white bandana thing I got with a Halloween costume years ago. Would I rather spread/contract CV19 than be the old white guy version of this...

https://img.gta5-mods.com/q85-w800/images/blood-gang-bandana-for-franklin/4d92db-side.png

iatee I don't know, I'd seen something similar about China & smokers but since then I think people have been moving away from that connection. def more smokers in France than in the usa (fewer in Paris generally than elsewhere in the country but I live in a poor part of the city where the rate is higher, and where much of the street-level economy is bootleg cig sales)

yeah I could't find too much conclusive evidence on the subject after furious googling

I'm complient. I wear a mask. Never have I argued against wearing them - they can't hurt - just that there is no evidence they are particularly effective. "It doesn't reduce transmission to zero" is one thing, but right now we literally have no idea how much they reduce transmission, if they do at all. I'm not arguing, let alone arguing with any of you. I just wish the experts (in real life) could quickly establish an applicable standard. For example, right now the CDC recommends masks everywhere, all the time. The WHO, afaict, does not. But hell, wear two masks. Wear three! This is the "Rational/Irrational" thread.

Anyway, saw someone wearing a medical grade mask and medical gloves walking down the street this morning. They adjusted their mask twice as I drove by, and then reached up and scratched their eye.

still lots of smokers in China, but mostly older people now.

Speaking of smoking, I heard someone ask on an NPR call-in show whether covid could be transmitted through cigarette smoke. It's a good question! You breath in smoke, smoke goes in your lungs where the Covid lives, smoke and particles come out of your lungs and hang there. The doctor had no conclusive answer, just that smoking is bad for you.

I am a bandanna fan and always had one or two with me even before this. For my first few trips out I had one simply tied in the back. (However unlike whoever that is in onimo's pic, I folded up the bottom bit so that it is a rectangle instead of a triangle.)

As things have gotten more serious and as masking in stores is getting more prominent, I've tucked in a paper-towel layer as well as using rubber bands for a more deliberately mask-like look.

On some trips I have just had it with me while walking, and only put it on for close-quarters indoors use. Not sure I need to have it on from the second I leave the house to the second I get back, but perhaps that will become the norm/official guidance soon enough.

as I'm having a hard time sourcing a decent mask, i think i'm going to try using my keffiyeh – folded and wrapped around my lower face and tucked into my jacket.

"It doesn't reduce transmission to zero" is one thing, but right now we literally have no idea how much they reduce transmission, if they do at all.

^translated: "they're not 100% effective" is one thing, but right now we don't know if they're greater than 0% effective, either

no. we DO know that they reduce transmission. we don't know the exact percentage that they reduce transmission, because everyone is making them out of their pit-stained workout t-shirts and the materials vary greatly. but we know for damn sure that they reduce transmission to a significant degree, because we can use our common sense.

but CDC! but there's no clear direction! we know, we know. it's because our leaders are complete dipshits. we have to use our common sense. that's one consequence of electing the dumbest fucking idiot in the universe

"unlike whoever that is in onimo's pic"

It's Franklin in GTA 5

Grocery store shelves seemed somewhat barer this morning. Which probably has to do with the long weekend, although there was that piece on CNN yesterday about the one processing plant closing down and possible ramifications. (I'm finding shopping more and more stressful--some people just don't seem to be that serious--which is probably good in that I now don't want to be in there more than once every five or six days.)

Speaking-from-privilege warning here. Sorry, I can't alter the facts of my life.

I find potential food shortages/rationing depressing. Not from a sustenance point of view: I'm a soup lover, and would probably do just fine living on soup and salads, outside of the monotony. It's more the idea that there'd be this limited amount of food out there and that we'd be in competition for it.

Speaking-from-privilege warning here. I live in one of the foremost bastions of white privilege in Oregon and of course my neighborhood is plentifully over-served by grocery stores in the mid-to-upscale range. It is the diametric opposite of a food desert here. In any bidding war for shelf stock they will prevail and continue to meet local demand. There are some amazing advantages that accrue to living in a small, deteriorating 90 year old house located amid brand new $2 million behemoths.

PSA: people with hearing loss (I'm sure I'm not alone here) have a REALLY difficult time communicating 1) without being able to see anyone's mouth to try to read their lips 2) from 6 ft away due to environmental noise, esp if there is a lot of it or music playing. I need to remember to use the universal "huh?/sorry?" signal of a cupped hand to the ear.

I have my first delivery to someone who actually believes they have COVID, which should be interesting

La Lechera, I have been thinking about that too. I have Deaf friends who lip-read, and will almost certainly need to do some things in writing or via text. My son can hear fine but can't talk; he communicates a lot with signs and gestures and his face. I haven't tried to get a mask on him yet.

It is some shit! Good luck to your son & you & anyone with hearing difficulties trying to interact irl -- I feel like the best thing to do is spread awareness that this is an issue and hope people have it in their hearts to have patience with those who have added communicative issues, both hearing and speaking (and writing too now that I think about it.) One of my students works at a doctor's office throughout this experience, and she has mentioned more than once about how difficult it is to communicate effectively with people while wearing a mask (she is an English learner/I am her English teacher)

One thing I don't recommend is a mask made out of Saran Wrap.

ugh that makes me nauseated to even read the words

https://michaelkelly.artofeurope.com/karl.htm

(i promise i didn't write this. i have no idea why the page is karl.html)

Ulli's Roy Orbison In Clingfilm Website

Hello, and welcome to my homepage. My name is Ulrich Haarbürste and I like to write stories about Roy Orbison being wrapped up in cling-film.

https://michaelkelly.artofeurope.com/karl.htm

Wow, that takes me back

It's a long time since I read that Michael Kelly website, used to go there all the time, looks just the same as it did but with more stuff.

This is an excellent time for Karl to have posted this link as I made some reference to Roy Orbison and clingfilm a week or so back and found that my conversation partner was unaware of this wonder of the bygone internet

I am sure they will be grateful to be enlightened

personally i believe that everyone is aware of it, but some people choose to lie and claim they haven't heard of it. those are the ultimate fans who want to experience the website again for the first time so badly that their memories warp to conform to their desire

I came pretty close to the aforementioned COVID patient when making my delivery today. She was in rough shape and wisely barely opened the door to retrieve the items. But she was pretty decked out (mask, gloves, the works) so I'm not concerned for myself. It was mostly just scary - first time seeing it IRL.

Merely dropping them off on her doorstep wasn't an option?

no, it was in an apartment building and obviously she couldn't leave the apt

also she didn't have a working buzzer so I had to sneak into the building after someone else like a creep which was...privately hilarious to me tbh

I should make clear there was no direct contact of any kind!

Just checking – for your sake more than anything!

I just got a v sweet message from a relative of the recipient

If any of y'all are relatively low risk + live alone I highly recommend seeking out volunteer work, it can be a little risky at times but it's made my quarantine experience 10000% more liveable

nice, hope you are safe Simon, sounds like you are

went to the safeway for the first time in quite a while today. they made me put my cloth bags in a basket outside the door (told me I could take the basket outside and bag them myself outside the store), and made me use hand sanitizer before I went in. the aisles were wide and there were not many people there, which was nice. I got a lot of what I have been needing, but I was disappointed at how low the stock was in produce, and I couldn’t find any of the staples I wanted - flour, rice, beans, pasta

REALLY puts the challenges of 2 metre #PhysicalDistancing into perspective in cities, and shows why we need to create more space. Well done @theurbangeog. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/oS2CWw0Tx2

— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) April 13, 2020

i love how the guy has somehow morphed the challenge of staying 6 feet away from people to a challenge to stay 6 feet away from any object in any direction

of course he's in fuckin toronto

Oh Eamonnpaws...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/13/eamonn-holmes-says-5g-coronavirus-claims-may-not-be-false

He added: “That’s all I would say, as someone with an inquiring mind.”

TEACH THE CONTROVERSY

Fuck me that makes me angry. Instant firing is the only acceptable next step. Our very existence is threatened by people’s without a single braincell, much less any actual knowledge or evidence saying ‘makes you think’ without any evidence of thinking.

Perhaps we can reserve the ventilators for people who deserve it and a course of leeches for these fuckwits.

Firing Eamonn immediately after coming out with that bollocks would feed straight into the conspiracy imo. best hope is related public ridicule

It's fair to say that public ridicule has had no effect on Eamonn Holmes so far in his career.

I ordered a couple of CDs on Amazon - cheap stuff, only like £8 for the pair - which have never arrived and which Amazon have offered to refund me for, however I'd really prefer to have the CDs. Anyway, the original seller suggested I contact Royal Mail because the CDs had definitely been posted on 30th March. Now, whatever you may do in life, do not try to go on the Royal Mail website and make any sort of attempt to find what happened to any lost mail - you will get trapped in a loop which is specially designed to stop you making any attempt to find out what happened to lost mail. I'm currently on my 24th minute of trying to get through to their call centre and about to chuck it.