Covid-19 Discussion (moderated)

   THAT story of the WW2 vet made our National news yesterday.

I work as a cashier in a grocery store currently. I don't understand the lack of PPE in some places, particularly hospitals. Every day I work I take a fresh new surgical-grade mask to wear all day, provided by my employer. We also have endless boxes of gloves and huge supplies of hand sanitizer (despite not selling it at all).

I really don't buy into conspiracy theories that treat this whole thing as intentional or caused by 5G or whatever. But something has and continues to feel wrong about the media narrative and information we are being fed. I sometimes wonder if the public is being manipulated and lied to, to control their behavior and get them to stay inside, but for altruistic reasons. Like maybe the threat is more nuanced and uncertain. but the general public is too irresponsible to react productively to information like that, and so to save people from themselves, they get manipulated. That's sort of my middle-ground conspiracy theory. Yes, they are lying, but also, this is a real threat and they are trying to save society. I also wonder if what we are doing now with social distancing has more to do with preventing mutations and new strains as much as possible, more than it being about the overrun hospitals. Everyone keeps saying "when this ends." Damn, like, I'm thinking "IF this ends." colds, flus, etc. mutate every year and can't be eradicated. This coronavirus has the potential to permanently alter society if it becomes seasonal and reoccuring, which it very well could.

sorry for the lack of formatting in that long post. the chess.com android app eats line breaks. i swear i know how to use paragraphs.

Humans are too dumb, unorganized, and selfish to fool that many people with something like this.

That's my counter offer

As for 5G... good God is that a conspiracy? That the virus is linked to 5G? It takes an enormous level of ignorance about that technology to believe that even for a second.

Yes, there are actual conspiracies gaining popularity on the internet saying that this is caused by 5G, and blaming it on the virus is a coverup. It is profoundly ignorant and ill-informed. Be careful what you read and believe, everyone.

Number 5 it is impossible to forecast, isn´t it?

A sad effect of the covid-19 crisis: doctors, nurses and ill people are being bullyied by their neighbours, who ask them in a bad way to move. I´ve read about several cases in Spain and Argentina. Is this happening also in your countries?

The capacity for human stupidity is enormous.

I think those cases of stupidity that make the news, are very few, and only make the news because it is so shocking how moronic and selfish people can be. In the USA there is overwhelming support and admiration for literally every essential worker right now. Even me, a lowly cashier.

Yeah ok, that's a good point. The media is always interested in selling more commercials.

    Don't get me started on commercials.  2 mins of news and then 19 commercials that you just saw 7 mins ago. Its ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong. I waste tons of time online doing mindless BS.

But at the same time, I don't own a TV. I haven't watched the news years. (I'll read it though.)

   You can get the same news on your computer.

Exactly.

Sometimes when I visit my elderly parents, they have the news on. My mom has the good sense to mute it during commercials though, heh.

My dad is deaf, so he just turns it up louder.

Good symptom progression in this article if you are worried about symptoms you experience:

https://news.yahoo.com/wide-misconception-mild-case-covid-113200667.html

Yeah a few instances in UK of landlords asking their tenants who are 'high risk' to find new accommodation (This is not legal I believe and the government have said as much).

Point 5 of the checklist for coming out of lockdown states 'not risk a second wave of infection', I paraphrased slightly. A bit of wriggle room in that statement.

Over 500,000 people have signed a petition for Captain Tom Moore, the 99 year old veteran who has raised the £18 million, to receive a knighthood. Downing Street states that the prime minister will 'recognise' his efforts. 

Yes, it's just a modern day version of the old "radio waves cause cancer" idea.  If it's "invisible" and moves through your body, you can bet there are a percentage of ignorant/gullible people that are sure it is the cause of all their maladies.

It's not just griping, either:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/coronavirus-5g-uk.html 

Wow, that's amazing.

I'm not even going to say the things this makes me think lol.

Same in Canada! we are really grateful and amazed about the awesome work they do mainly for the elderly in their horrible situation in many senior's residences (more than 2000 doctors are going to help there because most of the staff left after so many elderly were infected and died.