DC was one of the last major school districts to suspend classes, but we got word last night that they are shutting down for the next two weeks at least. I understand. I also would have been fine with them continuing classes. Kids don't seem to be bothered as much as adults by Covid-19 for some reason (although they can still get sick and they can be asymptomatic carriers). And closing schools can be counterproductive. We still need certain people to leave the house for work everyday -- food still needs to be produced and delivered, utilities need to run, and of course healthcare providers need to be there for us. If these people have to stay home to watch their children then that's bad. So, I'm not totally down with closing schools. Then again, I'm also not an epidemiologist, so... take that for what it's worth.
I guess we are just going to have to hunker down for a while. It sucks, and it seems extreme -- cancelling everything -- but it's probably not. The problem is that there are no real compromises or effective half-measures to take. We either shut everything down, or the disease will run roughshod over us. Millions of people will get sick and thousands will die. This isn't freaking out or fear-mongering; this is just the harsh reality. Getting sick wouldn't be disastrous for everybody; it wouldn't even be disastrous for most people. If you are a hale, young(ish) person with decent work benefits, like myself, you would probably be down for the count for a few days and then you would get better and carry on with you life. But if before that you were at, say, a basketball game with 20,000 other people, well, now you probably passed it on to a bunch of other people, and they might not be as fit as you and missing work might not be as easy for them. It's incumbent on the strong to help the vulnerable by not acting as vectors.
The fucked up thing is that it might not even work -- we might get hit hard in spite of this. But I still think it's worth trying. And there are degrees of success. My understanding is that a lot of these measures are being done to slow the spread of infection. Overloading our health system is a major worry right now, and so anything we can do to slow things down is a plus. We don't want to turn into Italy where healthcare professionals are essentially triaging patients like they're trench-warfare soldiers. If you think people are freaking out now, wait until we start hearing stories of grandpas dying while in line to see a doctor.
Part of the problem is that we don't know how to freak out right. Like, if we would have freaked out to this degree a month ago, we would be better off now. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone. Covid-19 wasn't even really on my radar until about two days ago. Then everything started getting cancelled (including the ACPT, at which I was supposed to be an official), and it was like, "Oh, shit, this is no joke." But I should have been saying that a long time ago. Of course, it would help if we didn't have, literally, the worst possible person to deal with this type of thing in the White House at the moment. I mean, I doubt any president could have totally handled this correctly, but at least we could have had one who didn't actively make things worse by being a disingenuous moron -- excuse me, a disingenuous fucking moron (h/t Rex Tillerson). Oh well, at least the Libetards are so totally owned right now.
Also, what's with all the damn hoarding? This isn't a natural disaster that is wiping out roads and infrastructure. I don't see any reason why the supply chain of toilet paper is suddenly going to be halted. I think at least one person will be healthy enough to drive the Charmin truck to Safeway. People are putting up pics of their local supermarkets, and they look like something out of an anti-Communism pamphlet. It's like the Soviet Union in 1982. Even S got in on it a little bit. She did an Instacart order a few days ago (before things really went nuts, thankfully), and she got three bags of bread, even though we already have one. I asked her why, and she said "stocking up." (The apocalypse will have toast!) That doesn't even make sense, because bread goes bad pretty quickly. I mean, we can freeze it, sure, but even then it gets freezer burn. Why wouldn't you at least get canned food if you want to hoard? We are out of black beans, anyway.
Alright, that's all I got for today. Be safe, be sensible, don't hoard, watch some Netflix (I recommend Cheer), try not to murder your family members.
Until next time...
I guess we are just going to have to hunker down for a while. It sucks, and it seems extreme -- cancelling everything -- but it's probably not. The problem is that there are no real compromises or effective half-measures to take. We either shut everything down, or the disease will run roughshod over us. Millions of people will get sick and thousands will die. This isn't freaking out or fear-mongering; this is just the harsh reality. Getting sick wouldn't be disastrous for everybody; it wouldn't even be disastrous for most people. If you are a hale, young(ish) person with decent work benefits, like myself, you would probably be down for the count for a few days and then you would get better and carry on with you life. But if before that you were at, say, a basketball game with 20,000 other people, well, now you probably passed it on to a bunch of other people, and they might not be as fit as you and missing work might not be as easy for them. It's incumbent on the strong to help the vulnerable by not acting as vectors.
The fucked up thing is that it might not even work -- we might get hit hard in spite of this. But I still think it's worth trying. And there are degrees of success. My understanding is that a lot of these measures are being done to slow the spread of infection. Overloading our health system is a major worry right now, and so anything we can do to slow things down is a plus. We don't want to turn into Italy where healthcare professionals are essentially triaging patients like they're trench-warfare soldiers. If you think people are freaking out now, wait until we start hearing stories of grandpas dying while in line to see a doctor.
Part of the problem is that we don't know how to freak out right. Like, if we would have freaked out to this degree a month ago, we would be better off now. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone. Covid-19 wasn't even really on my radar until about two days ago. Then everything started getting cancelled (including the ACPT, at which I was supposed to be an official), and it was like, "Oh, shit, this is no joke." But I should have been saying that a long time ago. Of course, it would help if we didn't have, literally, the worst possible person to deal with this type of thing in the White House at the moment. I mean, I doubt any president could have totally handled this correctly, but at least we could have had one who didn't actively make things worse by being a disingenuous moron -- excuse me, a disingenuous fucking moron (h/t Rex Tillerson). Oh well, at least the Libetards are so totally owned right now.
Also, what's with all the damn hoarding? This isn't a natural disaster that is wiping out roads and infrastructure. I don't see any reason why the supply chain of toilet paper is suddenly going to be halted. I think at least one person will be healthy enough to drive the Charmin truck to Safeway. People are putting up pics of their local supermarkets, and they look like something out of an anti-Communism pamphlet. It's like the Soviet Union in 1982. Even S got in on it a little bit. She did an Instacart order a few days ago (before things really went nuts, thankfully), and she got three bags of bread, even though we already have one. I asked her why, and she said "stocking up." (The apocalypse will have toast!) That doesn't even make sense, because bread goes bad pretty quickly. I mean, we can freeze it, sure, but even then it gets freezer burn. Why wouldn't you at least get canned food if you want to hoard? We are out of black beans, anyway.
Alright, that's all I got for today. Be safe, be sensible, don't hoard, watch some Netflix (I recommend Cheer), try not to murder your family members.
Until next time...
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