Do you need to vent about things COVID-19?

[Seicher Rae]

@Sylvia Tamalyn  ahahaha  It took me this long to realize you did what you were going to do and add the Taylor gif, so it is in every post. 😄

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

1 hour ago, Seicher Rae said:

@Sylvia Tamalyn  ahahaha  It took me this long to realize you did what you were going to do and add the Taylor gif, so it is in every post. 😄

This is actually the second Taylor sig. The first one showed Taylor blowing a kiss, but this one feels more appropriate for The Forum Wars. 

[Pomeline Pancake]

People won't keep their distance from me at the grocery store. Almost had a panic attack over it today.

[Amina Sopwith]

[Selene Gregoire]

I need to vent about a lot of things but I can't because someone wants me permabanned. 

[Luna Bliss]

PET PEEVE: Somebody wants me permabanned, but I want no participant in this forum permabanned.

[Amina Sopwith]

Sorry guys, I didn't realise how enormous those screenshots are when you're on a computer. They look normal on a phone.

[Gatogateau]

17 hours ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

This is actually the second Taylor sig. The first one showed Taylor blowing a kiss, but this one feels more appropriate for The Forum Wars. 

And now you've taken it out entirely. :::big frowny face:::

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

Just now, Gatogateau said:

And now you've taken it out entirely. :::big frowny face:::

Umm no, I didn't. I still see it. What did you break this time?

[Gatogateau]

7 minutes ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

Umm no, I didn't. I still see it. What did you break this time?

Wut?  :::licks paw in a very obvious attempt to look like "I meant to do that" when I clearly didn't:::

Ooooh. Lookit! Pretty signatures! And look, I get one too! But I'm not at 500 anythings. So confused. :::licks other paw for good measure:::

And I didn't break anything! It was like that when I got here.

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

3 minutes ago, Gatogateau said:

Wut?  :::licks paw in a very obvious attempt to look like "I meant to do that" when I clearly didn't:::

Ooooh. Lookit! Pretty signatures! And look, I get one too! But I'm not at 500 anythings. So confused. :::licks other paw for good measure:::

And I didn't break anything! It was like that when I got here.

I'm not sure, but I think the 500 posts thing is when you get to make yourself a custom forum status label under your name. 

[kali Wylder]

15 minutes ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

I'm not sure, but I think the 500 posts thing is when you get to make yourself a custom forum status label under your name. 

Yes Sylvia, you are correct, it wasn't so long ago for me so I remember.

19 minutes ago, Gatogateau said:

Ooooh. Lookit! Pretty signatures! And look, I get one too! But I'm not at 500 anythings. So confused

I think you could put a custom sig a lot sooner, but I don't remember exactly. I know the 500 post minimum to change from advanced member to whatever you like  because I played the game threads to bump my post count til I got to 500.

Edited May 26, 2020 by kali Wylder
typo

[Gatogateau]

4 minutes ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

I'm not sure, but I think the 500 posts thing is when you get to make yourself a custom forum status label under your name. 

I honestly tried, or thought I had, to make a signature before and could not. Was not given the option to do anything on my profile other than an "about me" thing, which I did, because I realize not everyone is going to get the memo about this being an alt and I don't mean to be intentionally confusing.

I was surprised to see that I now have that option. Dunno. I don't even work here.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Gatogateau said:

I honestly tried, or thought I had, to make a signature before and could not. Was not given the option to do anything on my profile other than an "about me" thing, which I did, because I realize not everyone is going to get the memo about this being an alt and I don't mean to be intentionally confusing.

I was surprised to see that I now have that option. Dunno. I don't even work here.

I just check signature on a couple of alts.  The first alt I checked had never been to the forums before today and she doesn't even have a 'Signature' option when she goes to Account Settings.  Another alt that has been to the forums once long ago does have the Signature option, but when I click it I get a message saying that I have to have made 5 posts before I can change my Signature.

[LittleMe Jewell]

Pretty much every airline / hotel / car rental company is giving refunds on not only reservations for these past few months but also on reservations for the upcoming months - even on pre-paid non-refundable reservations.  Heck, if the state isn't fully open or has some policy about 'incoming folks must quarantine for 14 days', then why the heck would anyone travel there until the restrictions are lifted? 

I had a trip booked for late July - for my stepson's wedding - and we were adding days and going to make a vacation out of it.  Now the wedding is cancelled and all of the areas we were going to stay at are only partially open, and there is that darn '14 day quarantine' thing.  So I've been cancelling the reservations, all of which were pre-paid.  No issue with the airline or 2 of the 3 hotels (we were going to work our way up the east coast, staying a few days in each place).  However, one hotel and the rental car company are currently saying "No Refund".  

I fully understand that I agreed to that when I did the pre-pay.  However, that was taking into account the things that might interrupt the travel due to normal life.  It was not taking into account a pandemic that would put all sorts of restrictions on things.  From everything I read, the vast majority of hotels and such are tossing their normal policy of no refunds on pre-paid reservations -- because it is a damn pandemic causing the problems.  

So, yes, it is my fault for doing the pre-pay and I might not be able to talk the companies into refunds........... but it still pisses me off big time.

[Tolya Ugajin]

Just gonna slide this in here...

U.N. STUDY: GLOBAL EXTREME POVERTY COULD DOUBLE BY NEXT YEAR DUE TO COVID LOCKDOWNS
by Kevin Ryan

The economic fallout of the coronavirus shutdowns could increase global poverty by more than half a billion people, or 8% of the total human population. This would be the first time that poverty has increased globally in thirty years, since 1990.

That according to a study by the research wing of the U.N.

The paper estimates that if household income falls by 20%, which it is projected to do for several months, the number of extremely poor people could increase by 420 million, wiping out a decade of gains in the fight against poverty.

The reason is that the shutdowns are affecting much more than just COVID-19 transmission, and the impact extends much further than the myopic debate on U.S. cable news. The short-sightedness of work closures, both here and abroad, has brought families around the world to economic disaster.

Put simply, there is no demand for labor anymore. The great expansion of market economies that reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty from 36% of the world’s population in 1990 to just 8% in 2018 has been reversed by COVID restrictions.

And now the number of poor is rising.

Very fast.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 $𝟭.𝟵𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲, up to nearly 16%, by next year.

And with that massive increase in poverty will come an equally large increase in non-COVID death rates. For example:

A report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, for example, estimates that 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮, 𝟭𝟰𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗵𝘂𝘁𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻-𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗜𝗗-𝟭𝟵 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱.

In one African country, Malawi, a cost-benefit analysis of continuing relatively moderate restrictions, which include closing schools, curbing travel, and restricting health outreach work, found that it could prevent thousands of deaths from COVID-19, but would lead to lower incomes and increased hunger, making people more vulnerable to tuberculosis and malaria. The total net effect of the shutdown would be a loss of 26,000 years of life and two years worth of GDP growth. Overall, the report estimates that the costs of the lockdown outweigh the benefits by 25 to 1.

In India, it’s not much better. When the country imposed its lockdown on March 24th, 140 million people lost their jobs, including tens of millions of migrant workers who suddenly had no income, no way to pay the rent, and no trains to take them home (those were also cancelled). Millions literally walked hundreds of miles back to their home villages. The county’s economy is now estimated to be shrinking at an annualized rate of 45%. Interruptions of diagnosis and treatment from just a three-month lockdown are projected to cause 500,000 excess deaths from tuberculosis in India.

A team at Johns Hopkins University calculates that 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝟭𝟭𝟴 𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗹𝗲-𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝟭.𝟮 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟱𝟳,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝘅 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀.

In Nepal, men have seen the hours they can work for wages fall by about 75%. In Uzbekistan the number of households where at least one person works has dropped by over 40%. Over 80% of Kenyans and Senegalese reported a loss of income in early April. Colombia’s shutdown has sparked mass protests in working-class barrios.

Worse still, the price of food has also gone up. That’s because the shutdowns have restricted the labor needed to harvest crops.

• In India vegetables that were harvested have been left to rot as they cannot be transported to market.

• In Uganda the prices of most key foods have gone up by over 15% since mid-March and rations for refugees have been shut by 30%.

• In the Philippines an “extreme” quarantine has seen squash, beans, and watermelons wither in the fields.

In Bangladesh more than 70% of Rohingya refugees say they are now unable to buy food. In towns in Sierra Leone almost 60% of people said they had eaten fewer times than normal in the past week, according to the Yale Research Initiative. Fully 14% have gone a whole day without eating. In El Salvador, people have taken to hanging white flags from their windows to show that they have run out of food.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬, and sees “multiple famines of biblical proportions” within a few months.

Unlike the U.S., poor and even middle-income nations do not have the resources (or ability to take on trillions in new debt) to be able to give out payments to their citizens to offset restrictions on being able to work. Nor can out-of-work laborers turn to family members in wealthy countries to send some extra cash, because there’s no work in wealthy countries either. Remittances are projected to decrease at least 20%.

Experts now say countries should not be imposing lockdowns, but instead should strive to protect the elderly while letting adults go to work.

SOURCES: https://www.economist.com/…/covid-19-is-undoing-years-of-pr…
https://www.wider.unu.edu/…/Publications/…/PDF/wp2020-43.pdf
https://news.yale.edu/…/measuring-effects-lockdowns-india-a…
https://www.economist.com/…/indias-economy-has-suffered-eve…

[FairreLilette]

29 minutes ago, Tolya Ugajin said:

Experts now say countries should not be imposing lockdowns, but instead should strive to protect the elderly while letting adults go to work.

This is what I just said some time before lunch this morning.  Let the elderly stay in and the younger people go back to work.  But, I added, let the elderly shop on their specific days and/or use home delivery but at least let the elderly have their days when they shop with the elderly alone.   The stores must clean down at night of course before the next shopping day opens.  

But, there is still this problem:  How can we get workers back to work if the schools aren't open?  Schools need to open first wouldn't you think?

However, yes...this is what I said exactly hours ago prior to you posting this - let the younger people go back to work; the elderly stay inside and social distance quite a bit away from the younger people.

Also though what age to define as elderly I could not figure out because I am not sure of the statics regarding those in their 40's and 50's but most certainly those 60 and above need to shelter in but, of course, get some sun and exercise but be socially distanced a great piece away from the younger working crowd when they are outside getting sun/exercise and/or shopping for food.    I think the elderly need to shop alone on their shopping days; no younger people allowed.  

Edited May 27, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Mollymews]

28 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

 Let the elderly stay in and the younger people go back to work.  But, I added, let the elderly shop on their specific days and/or use home delivery but at least let the elderly have their days when they shop with the elderly alone.

this is the issue yes

is easy to say let everyone else go back to what they were doing and put safeguards for the elderly.  What does safeguard actually mean in practice

[FairreLilette]

37 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

this is the issue yes

is easy to say let everyone else go back to what they were doing and put safeguards for the elderly.  What does safeguard actually mean in practice

Well, this was my plan, Mollymews but I am not Toyla.  lol  Although I had the exact same plan/thoughts this morning and spoke to friends.  There is also a nurse in my building I questioned about kids going back to school.  She doesn't have any answers for me yet but she has a lot of knowledge.  I will talk with her again asap.

There are two things missing from my plan though.

1)  What is the median age to call "high risk", and

2)  Is it safe to re-open the schools so the "lower risk" people can go back to work?

I know this isn't a perfect plan.  There never is a perfect plan.  The problem is some younger people live with their elderly parents and take care of them, so perhaps they should be called essential home care givers and stay in the high risk category but be given monies so they can continue to take care of their parents at home and shelter in with them.

The other main problem is nursing care facilities.  Some have varied ages; some have mostly elderly.  In regards to nursing homes, what can be done to help here?  Lots of PPE or send private nurses to patients in their home and close the nursing homes perhaps?  

EDIT:  After thinking about this plan with dividing those who are high risk and low risk, if the nurses homes close, they could be thoroughly disinfected and the nursing homes used as additional schooling houses.  This is all I can come up with regarding schools at this time.  But, we need to broaden the schools to keep with social distancing.  We need more buildings to open schools I think.  What buildings?  Any ideas.  Because I need HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WITH this plan.  

The median age for high risk or those with pre-existing conditions I think we could fairly easily figure out.  

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Lyssa Greymoon]

9 hours ago, Mollymews said:

this is the issue yes

is easy to say let everyone else go back to what they were doing and put safeguards for the elderly.  What does safeguard actually mean in practice

In a country with a third world health care system and a significant percentage of the population who think asking them to wear a damn mask into Trader Joe’s is tantamount to marching them into the gas chambers, it’s basically;

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Lyssa Greymoon

[Amina Sopwith]

[HGJHGJHJJHJG]

On 22/5/2020 at 23:03, Katt Dragoone said:

No leí ningún comentario anterior, así que no puedo decir nada al respecto.

Dado que esta es una publicación de Vent sobre Covid, ahora expresaré algunas cosas. Mi Rl ha estado luchando contra este horrible virus durante aproximadamente una semana, y hoy me sorprendió lo mal que realmente es. He estado llorando por intervalos. Hablamos todos los días, hasta hoy. Tengo miedo, estoy preocupado pero estoy tratando de no perder la esperanza

Fuerza Kat...

Todo va a mejorar. Es solo un bache.

[Gatogateau]

4 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Sad how that can apply to several people in several countries (maybe not three days specifically, but in general).

[Qie Niangao]

Just because up until now we avoided multi-millions dead by instituting social distancing, lockdowns, etc. doesn't mean it won't happen now if folks imagine we've graduated from all those measures. What little data is available from the antibody tests seems to show that there is negligible "herd immunity" at this point -- the population is almost exactly as vulnerable as it was back in January, give or take single-digit percentages. Last I saw (and it's been a while), Sweden wasn't looking all that much better. So without a vaccine, "herd immunity" might well cost millions of American lives.

Thing is, I think governments would just stand idly by as reefer trailers filled with corpses, just like NYC at the worst of it. Seeing those Lake of the Ozarks photos, I honestly think this is more likely than not. How many governors will have the political courage to reimplement life-saving lockdowns, when subsequent waves of infection crisscross the provinces?

And should we be confident that the economy can actually survive another wave without the measures we took last time? The lockdown of non-essential workers may be what made it possible for essential workers to continue. If that protection is removed and suddenly everybody is out and about, spreading the virus, will supply chains that functioned through the first wave fail when the virus becomes so prevalent there aren't enough healthy staff to function?  It is increasingly difficult to find enough healthy workers to keep Midwestern meatpacking plants operational now; what sectors will be affected if the virus spreads unchecked?

[Gatogateau]

2 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

Just because up until now we avoided multi-millions dead by instituting social distancing, lockdowns, etc. doesn't mean it won't happen now if folks imagine we've graduated from all those measures. What little data is available from the antibody tests seems to show that there is negligible "herd immunity" at this point -- the population is almost exactly as vulnerable as it was back in January, give or take single-digit percentages. Last I saw (and it's been a while), Sweden wasn't looking all that much better. So without a vaccine, "herd immunity" might well cost millions of American lives.

Thing is, I think governments would just stand idly by as reefer trailers filled with corpses, just like NYC at the worst of it. Seeing those Lake of the Ozarks photos, I honestly think this is more likely than not. How many governors will have the political courage to reimplement life-saving lockdowns, when subsequent waves of infection crisscross the provinces?

And should we be confident that the economy can actually survive another wave without the measures we took last time? The lockdown of non-essential workers may be what made it possible for essential workers to continue. If that protection is removed and suddenly everybody is out and about, spreading the virus, will supply chains that functioned through the first wave fail when the virus becomes so prevalent there aren't enough healthy staff to function?  It is increasingly difficult to find enough healthy workers to keep Midwestern meatpacking plants operational now; what sectors will be affected if the virus spreads unchecked?

Yes. Exactly. I just quit a local FB page because while it was supposed to be about the history of the area, it had veered into politics, and one poster made the mistake of posting a benign little graphic about the pros of wearing a mask. The stupid, hateful, ignorant comments that followed makes me hope I never meet these people in my relatively new home town. Yick. There were lots of comments along the lines of "ok, we've done the social isolating thing, we're not sick, everything back to normal." We saw pictures of just really incredibly stupid behavior over Memorial Weekend.

More people are going to die, no matter what we do. But will it be millions in a second wave? Time will tell.

I really wish there were ONE best answer. Our economy is reeling. It will already take years to recover. People are going to die. How many? Because of what? Even the best and the brightest leaders are hard pressed to find that one, great solution. Sadly, we and other countries, are stuck with far, far less than best and brightest.