I swear to you, this scene runs through my head several times a day as I see the stupidity people are doing.
Kara if you look at our beaches & bars in Fort Lauderdale right now, over the past 2 weeks and going forward our numbers are going to be like S Korea’s except we don’t have the testing to show it for another month. Tens of thousands of spring breakers with YOLO attitudes. pic.twitter.com/3dho8eCM6n
— Jim Hall (@jhall) March 14, 2020
Meanwhile, I’m completely stressed about my aged and at-risk parents’ ability to A: understand the severity of this because FAUX News, B: Survive
Though I did explain Flatten the Curve to them and they seemed to get that – or just didn’t want to argue with me.
ETA: And stressed because I’m far enough away to not be helpful, like being able to drop groceries off on their porch, etc.
Open thread
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor
That’s a great headline.
Mike J
My Fox watching mother was out of town when everything was ramping up, so she didn’t get her daily dose of brainwashing. She is appropriately concerned for a 75 year old who’s had a valve replacement and still has breathing problems from whooping cough in infancy.
TaMara (HFG)
Meanwhile, in Colorado, where MOST of our leaders have been amazing, we have this fine example:
DAVID ANDERSON
Same here. I can not convince my high risk parents to stay home
TaMara (HFG)
And with that, I’m logging off and walking the dogs. And I will stare down anyone who wants to pet my dogs today.
patrick II
I live in the resort city of Virginia Beach. We have a three mile stretch of hotels that fuel our economy. We are one of the cities whose economies will be very hurt, but we have called off the festivals for the near future.
Leto
@DAVID ANDERSON: Same here. They like to brag about how much hand sanitizer they use but ffs it ain’t going to help if you’re surrounded by covfefe-45 virus zombies!
In other news finally went to urgent care today, after being sick for almost a week, and turns out I have bronchitis. Got some low level steroids, good cough syrup, and some immune boosting pills. Hopefully going to feel better here in a few days.
Barbara
@TaMara (HFG): I am not a skeptic about the need to take precautions but there’s a real deficit of information that’s going to lead to a higher level of disruption than should have been necessary. It leads me not to ridicule people like this mayor even if I ignore him.
TaMara (HFG)
@Barbara: There is plenty of information out there. Most of it linked on this blog. But you know, you could just listen to Dr. Fauci on MTP this a.m.
dmsilev
@DAVID ANDERSON: I had some luck with mine. Conversation this morning:”Mom, I know you like to pick out your own produce in the store, but maybe let someone else to that for the time being?”
Mission accomplished; she sent a shopping list to my brother and he managed to find almost everything on it.
Helps that she’s basically diametrically opposite from being a Fox-bot and also just a couple months ago read a history of the Spanish Flu.
Eunicecycle
Ohio Governor DeWine just closed all bars and restaurants, except for carry-out. The pictures of young people cramming bars last night was a factor in the decision. I did not vote for him but I will give him credit for a strong response.
MoCA Ace
What leads any sentient being to believe we will have “testing to show this” in one month? The Trump administration is blinding incompetence layered with aggressive ignorance, topped off with fetid orange narcissism. was just talking to my MAGA sister-in-law and, while taking this seriously, is still defending these fucking monsters… she didn’t come out and say it but in her mind Shillary wouldn’t have handled it any better.
WE ARE SO FUCKED
NotMax
Major tourist destination here (duh). So shall be quite an impact spreading across all business sectors.
County has announced closure of all public restrooms (wtf?) except those at beaches.
Meanwhile, the Met has applied the remainder of Mom in NY’s season subscription as forward credit to next season. Also the concert series she has paid for has already provided full refund.
Leto
@TaMara (HFG): You mean doctors and scientists have been warning us about this oncoming shit show for at least six weeks now? I’m sure if we keep on pretending that the water isn’t full of blood, everything will turn out just fine… /s :P
beth
I ran into an 85 year old church member at the grocery store today who told me that all this virus talk was “fake news media hype”. Nothing I told her could convince her otherwise. Her 50ish daughter and 20 something granddaughter just nodded their heads in agreement. There’s a lot of people that are going to be hurt because of the misinformation floating around. It breaks my heart.
WereBear
@Leto: Yay for bronchitis!
Never thought I’d be saying that.
WereBear
Press Release from Way of Cats:
Mathguy
@MoCA Ace: ” blinding incompetence layered with aggressive ignorance, topped off with fetid orange narcissism”
Perfect characterization.
Leto
@WereBear:
The strange times we live in. YAY for your book! :)
BobS
Fort Lauderdale on spring break is kind of a perfect storm- tons of asymptomatic young carriers converging on several tons of vulnerable oldsters.
khead
@Eunicecycle:
I was stunned at the pics from the St. Patrick’s day events here in my small little town. I know it’s Trump country, but damn. People were crammed into little bars and beer pubs. Young and old.
Brachiator
@Leto:
I guess the bronchitis diagnosis is relatively good news.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Eunicecycle
@khead: I think he was looking ahead to what St. Patrick’s Day was going to look like. I know kids think they are invincible, and nothing short of a government order was going to keep them away. We are on the exponential growth curve now; our first case was last Monday or Tuesday and we are up to 36 now.
NotMax
@khead
Trying to internally achieve the recommended proportion of 60% alcohol?
//
WereBear
@MoCA Ace: I’ve resigned myself to plenty of MAGAts blaming the carnage on the Usual Suspects. Because that’s the only they know how to think.
Elizabelle
Know we joke about it, but wonder if we are at Peak Wingnut.
Because if this virus breaks as bad as feared, the evidence that neither Trump nor Sean Hannity or Rush or anyone on Fox News told the truth or cared about their voters/viewers might open a lot of eyes.
The Wingnut Rapture ensues, but takes a lot of innocent folks too.
WereBear
@Leto: Thanks, I’ve been racking up the five star reviews and each one makes me so happy :)
BobS
@Leto: You didn’t specify what “sick’ was, and it probably is only bronchitis (people will continue to fall ill from the usual things that afflict us), but regardless of your other symptoms and test results (chest x-ray, flu swab, etc), I think if we had a proper functioning health system we’d be swabbing anyone with respiratory symptoms and/or fever for COVID-19, if only for epidemiological data.
JanieM
@Elizabelle:
Nah, they’ll just screech about how China or the Democrats or HRC engineered the whole mess on purpose to discredit Clickbait and his enablers. Their fans will keep their eyes closed and swallow the swill as always.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Restaurants and bars to close in Illinois. Governor and Mayor Lightfoot and head of restaurant association on TV now
Jay
Jinchi
I heard that New Rochelle had set up a drive-thru testing facility, which is presumably checking anyone with symptoms. Does anyone know what the results from that testing shows? It would help a lot if people knew that having having symptoms = a 10% chance of having Corvid-19 vs a 90% chance.
Skepticat
The first confirmed case in the Bahamas is a 61-year-old in Nassau who had not been traveling outside the country. A lot of the people who fly into our island come out of the Lauderdale area, but they’re our lifeline for supplies at this point. As I’m wearing work gloves almost all the time now anyway, I’m keeping them on to pick up anything they bring, and the pilots are getting a happy wave from a distance rather than the usual warm greeting with a hug.
My favorite cartoon of the week is from Steve Breen.
Skepticat
@WereBear: Because that’s the only way they know
how to think.Thinking doesn’t seem to be a factor here.
Martin
@Elizabelle: I’ve been saying, if you were to weaponize the ‘ok boomer’ meme, this would be it.
Jay
Jinchi
This will be the headline on Tucker Carlson’s show, eventually. Proof that the virus is just a plot by enemies of Trump.
WereBear
See, that’s one of the great benefits of being an Authoritarian Follower. It might kill ya, but it won’t be your fault. You don’t have to take responsibility at all!
Can I sign you up today? Right now? Here is the line that is dotted.
BobS
@Martin: I was just saying this to my wife- why shouldn’t their attitude be ‘fuck-you’ to the the ‘socialism for me, but not for thee’ Medicare & Social Security drawing population who were young when college and mortgages were affordable.
mrmoshpotato
@TaMara (HFG): Aurora mayor: We’ll ride out this virus by ignoring it.
Virus: Oh yeah?
MoCA Ace
@Elizabelle: “Peak Wingnut” is a myth! Wingnut is like a black hole swallowing everything approaching it (see “Wingularity”). We are approaching the event horizon. Everything beyond is sweet nothingness.
mrmoshpotato
@MoCA Ace: Let’s all vote 3rd party in November! /S
MoCA Ace
@MoCA Ace:
yes I am in a Fucking Mood today! I’m at that fork in the road where it’s scream or cry.
I need to step away… heading out to the workshop to finish some projects for the woodworking show that was just canceled.
tomtofa
Our daughter and DiL are having ongoing email/text conversations about how best to protect my wife and me from ourselves. Sometimes we’re included. Looks like our grandchild care is out for a while, and visits; video chats instead. We already don’t do movies or restaurants, even without a pandemic.
When they got into delivering food to us I had to remind them that we are currently living 1/2 mile from Whole Foods, and I have Prime 2-hour delivery. A little pricy, but shopping the sales (extra 10% off sale price and 5% cash back) it kind of works out.
It’s good to be cared about, and to have people around who worry; irritating to have to accept the designation of elderly. Can’t argue with it, though . . .
Omnes Omnibus
We could focus on the people who are continuing to be stupid and spiral into depression or we could look at the people who are make efforts to make this work – the people choosing to sing from their balconies in Italy, this blog with its efforts to share distance teaching tips, the people like my 16 y/o niece who has volunteered to do my parents’ grocery shopping, and all the other people who are doing little everyday things to make things better or at least workable. I know which I think is healthier.
Starfish
The three people in this county just south of your county who have just been presumed to have COVID-19 were all in their twenties.
That graph in your post that shows the distributions is something that I also posted, but it is being taken out of context. Here is the Medium post that it was taken from.
Basically a couple of things are going on in that graph. The population of Italy is the second oldest population in the world next to Japan so a lot of old people in Italy are catching it.
A lot of the people in South Korea that caught it was a bunch of people affiliated with this Christian cult in Daegu. That population is fairly young.
The difference in the population that caught the disease is why it is so bad in Italy and less bad in South Korea.
Whether they are testing well enough or not, who actually caught the thing may vary in different countries.
Elizabelle
@Martin: There are some definite upsides to this virus. No denying that. Along with the downsides.
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I wish they’d postpone the primary, says the woman who will be working as an election judge.
Barbara
@TaMara (HFG): There’s an information deficit that requires us to assume the worst. I am hunkered down as much as I can be so I am going along with it but what I am saying is that we could have been much further along in terms of knowing where, how and how fast the virus is spreading. China did not shut down in the entirety because it realized sooner than we did that it needed to test and contain. Even now no one not even Fauci knows.