May COVID 19 Poll

[David Ayers]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Remainer, remoaner...

Waitrose recently had the long spaghetti in Harpenden. My local Turkish supermarket in North London has plenty of the short...you just need to be in the right place I guess...fariners innit

We found literally one packet since this whole thing started.

 

And I mean, who leaves only one packet? 

[Soulstation1]

I’d had to go to urgent care three times in the past 10 days 

Wearing that mask is totally uncomfortable for me 

[Brad]

1 hour ago, Soulstation1 said:

I’d had to go to urgent care three times in the past 10 days 

Wearing that mask is totally uncomfortable for me 

So is death. 

[medjuck]

Stanley Crouch

is fighting the COVID-19 virus, and has been hospitalized twice (he’s currently at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Hospital).

He is receiving the best hospital care possible, and the doctor I spoke this morning said that Stanley is eating on his own, receiving less oxygen than yesterday, and seems to be rallying. If anyone can do it, he can.

 

Sorry, I can't seem to format this. Got it off of Loren Schoenberg's FB page. 

Edited May 9, 2020 by medjuck

[BERIGAN]

I am sure wearing a mask is uncomfortable for many people, especially for several hours. Not sure what the answer is to that for those that have to work in supermarkets, etc.

I first noticed the supermarket Publix had told their staff to wear them....well, I saw 1 person wearing the mask properly! Even the female pharmacist wasn't wearing it correctly! she had it over her nostrils (unlike 2 women working with her) but the metal part was unbent. Sigh....

when I was in target late one nite (really try to avoid the peak hours anywhere) and a girl in front of me was trying to return....something. Well, there was some issue (Target closes customer service I guess an hour before the store, so you have to go to a register for returns) she had no mask, no gloves on.. .and proceeded to walk back towards me, stop at my basket, looking for someone I guess, and walked further away from the front of the store. sigh....oh, and more staff there wearing masks below their noses. double sigh! So, if you hear of cases increasing eventually in GA, it isn't likely to be hair stylists who have masks on (and keeping folks 6 feet from each other, or outside the store before their haircut)  and plexiglass up for folks getting manicures, it's going to be spreading at the places everyone goes to all along, that 25% of the staff are wearing their masks the way, that you know, work!

 

 

[Soulstation1]

Tucson barbershop / beauty shop opened

yesterday 

Bars / Restaurants opening on Monday 

[Dan Gould]

Out to Sam's yesterday for first time since Florida started opening up - they were still restricting entrance by some mysterious counting system, but maybe 40% of those I saw were wearing masks, and social distancing seemed to be gone almost entirely away at least at the registers.  I almost felt like if I didn't move forward people would think I wasn't on line.  

[Dan Gould]

On 5/8/2020 at 7:49 AM, Matthew said:

I live in a county that has been lightly touched by the virus (70 cases 2 deaths) and we're officially entering stage 2 today. We'll see what happens.

Was looking at that link Matthew and it seems really ridiculous at least in many instances:

 Examples of businesses that can operate curbside retail include: bookstores, jewelry stores, toy stores, clothing stores, shoe stores, home and furnishing stores, sporting goods stores, antique stores, music stores and florists. 

Book stores and antique stores are the very definition of needing to browse to find and decide on a purchase.  Do they expect people to ask the proprietor to bring every bronze antique bookend (but no cast iron) so they can decide which one they like and don't already have?  How about on music stores, bring me every soft rock guitar chord book you got, I'll pick one. (Does anyone buy those anymore in the age of online tabs?)  How about shoe stores? Open toed sandals, size 10, please.

[Matthew]

13 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Was looking at that link Matthew and it seems really ridiculous at least in many instances:

 Examples of businesses that can operate curbside retail include: bookstores, jewelry stores, toy stores, clothing stores, shoe stores, home and furnishing stores, sporting goods stores, antique stores, music stores and florists. 

Book stores and antique stores are the very definition of needing to browse to find and decide on a purchase.  Do they expect people to ask the proprietor to bring every bronze antique bookend (but no cast iron) so they can decide which one they like and don't already have?  How about on music stores, bring me every soft rock guitar chord book you got, I'll pick one. (Does anyone buy those anymore in the age of online tabs?)  How about shoe stores? Open toed sandals, size 10, please.

Yeah, businesses here aren't too happy with how things are going, especially since the Napa area depends on tourism for a lot of its finances. Most businesses, from what I've read, only do about 20% of their normal business curbside. The wineries are supposed to be opening up their tasting rooms, but who is going to go to those?

[Big Beat Steve]

24 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

 How about shoe stores? Open toed sandals, size 10, please.

To add ridicule to the ridiculous (as far as everyday handleablilty and practicability is concerned), requirements over here in the current opening-up of more and more businesses specify e.g. that shoe stores are required to put every pair of shoes tried on by children (as prime undetected transmitters of the virus??) and not bought to be put into a 72-hour "quarantine" before thy can be brought out again for someone else to try on.

Similarly for public libraries - books returned to the library have to be quarantined for 48 hours before they can be put back on the shelves for other library users to pick and borrow. A friend working at one the other day sent a pic of the stacks and stacks of returned books stowed away in the quarantine room. Bizarre!

And so on and so on ... Now that shops are slowly being allowed to open again under specific conditions I've wondered about paying a visit to our #1 local used records store again. But I decided to skip it. Even if customer presence was thin and keeping your distance was not an issue, how about this browsingest of all browsing businesses? Do I have to tell the clerk at the counter which records I touched and picked and put back in so he can quarantine them too? And I wouldn't like to be told to leave because I have outstayed my authorized in-shop time.

I am all for being very, very careful at this time and keeping a low profile (and will continue to do so for myself to the extent possible) but if those politickers out there want the restrictions to be observed scrupulously by really everyone they will have to make them so that they actually are feasible in REAL everyday life.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Big Beat Steve

[Brad]

We have a small record store in town and the owner has posted that when they reopen it may be appointment and with limited hours.  I’d imagine that, in addition to masks, I’d wear disposable gloves. 

[ejp626]

There was a story of a used bookstore (in DC I believe) that pre-lockdown was scheduling one customer per hour with mandatory gloves (probably mask as well, but I can't remember).

One grocery chain near me has now begun limiting entrance to only one person per HH and masks are mandatory.  They actually hand out some cheap ones (using BBQ tongs) if you don't have one, though that may change in the days ahead as word gets out.  They didn't mandate thin plastic gloves, but they probably should have taken that extra step.

Outside, however, most people are not getting with the mask program.  I'd say at most 15% of people downtown had masks on. Frustrating.

[Stereojack]

Masks are mandatory here in Eastern Massachusetts, and most people seem to be complying.

As a record store owner myself, I am facing all of these questions regarding when we can reopen. We have been closed since March 17, anticipating at the time that a lockdown would be announced, and it was a couple of days later. Now, after almost two months, I am seriously feeling the financial pinch, and am champing at the bit to get some cash flow coming in. We are carefully watching the news, and are encouraged that the numbers in Massachusetts are coming down. We still haven't figured out the details: do we open limited hours? Do we wear masks? Do we require customers to wear masks? Do we limit the number of customers? We are a small, low-volume store, so the last question is probably not a big issue. 

Like most people in this country, we are impatient with the lockdown, but are willing to comply with the decision our local leaders make.  

 

[Brad]

I had to drive my son on Friday to the doctor and in driving through downtown Morristown, we saw a number of people not wearing masks, probably about a third. At our local Shoprite grocery stores, they had security guards at the entrance making sure you wore masks. However, last week I didn’t see them. Perhaps that’s a sign people are complying.  In addition, you could order groceries online and then reserve a time to pick them up. During March and April it was impossible to get a time as they were all sold out. Now, it’s relatively easy to obtain a time slot. I’m not sure what that means. Perhaps people are more comfortable in going into the store. 

[medjuck]

3 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

 Similarly for public libraries - books returned to the library have to be quarantined for 48 hours before they can be put back on the shelves for other library users to pick and borrow. A friend working at one the other day sent a pic of the stacks and stacks of returned books stowed away in the quarantine room. Bizarre!

 

Doesn't seem like much of a hardship to me. 

[Brad]

For soccer fans: the Bundesliga (German League) is scheduled to return this coming Saturday. 

[Big Beat Steve]

On 10.5.2020 at 5:25 PM, medjuck said:

Doesn't seem like much of a hardship to me. 

Compared to other restrictions it's no actual hardship of course but those working there and those visiting the place are wondering what good this is supposed to be really doing. Now how long IS this virus clinging to non-animate surfaces after all? Considering that we're not at Day 1 of the epidemia, one should think that this should have been tested and analyzed throroughly by now. After all it is an important aspect of how to manage everyday interactions everywhere.

The problem is that all by itself details like this do not mean much and are a nuisance at worst but in the overall picture they add up to those who set the rules and restrictions just scrambling around in rather a headless way. This does not really increase the feeling of security among the citizens and will make it even harder ensuring compliance with the rules and restrictions that REALLY are necessary.

My better half works in the health profession (dentist's assistant) and the way the professional federation has been issuing do's and dont's and caveats on how to run the job at a rate of about three times per day that went one way, then the other, then contradicted each other and explicitly revoked what had been said the day before and above all were wildly impossible to implement when catering to the patients at all (e.g. can YOU imagine a dentist keeping a mandatory 1.5-meter distance from his/her patient during the treatment?) then this does leave you with a not so favorable impression of how these things are being handled. And according to what she hears from doctors and their employees in other medical fields the story isn't much different there.

Now this spills over to other areas of everyday life now that they are trying to reopen everywhere. Remember the list given by another forumist above about businesses that can operate curbside retail? Often you have a conflict of targets that is getting more and more acute there. Example: Clothing shops allowed to open again here have been heard to forbid the customers to try on their garb (strangely enough, not every shop - don't ask me why)! O.K., I perfectly get the reason behind this but can you imagine our better halves falling for that? I guess mine wasn't the only one to say "What's the point, then? If it's so I can order online anyway and won't have to go through the face mask hassle."
This does hurt the business of the shops, of course, and opening up under these circumstances will not enable them to get back to normal for a long time to come.

As for the masks, remember I mentioned my wife works in a medical profession, i.e. she has been wearing those masks in her daily job for years and therefore knows what these masks do but above all don't. (BTW, she and her boss - the doctor - do find the FFP3 ones do choke them, so no way of wearing them for longer periods at a time) In her view what they are supposed to accomplish currently by everyone wearing them (including all those home-made ones) is getting treacherously close to what you call a "placebo". We do wear them anyhow in all those places where they are mandatory (shops, public transport) but it would be nice if what the public is being told to do would make sense even to those with insider's experience (such as those working in the medical field).

@Brad: Yes the Bundesliga is supposed to start up again but this is not the best role model or signal to everyone else out there. Apart from the fact that it is a very slippery slope (one 2nd league team will be out already for the next 2 matches because the entire team and staff have just been quarantined again for 14 days after 3 positive cases detected) it will make others in the entertainment field wonder "why them, why not us?" Let's face it, their monetary clout with the "deciders" was decisive in enabling them to get back (even if playing to crowds of zero). Ill feelings are bound to come up even inside the sport: On Saturday I caught a lengthy discussion on French radio where a soccer representative complained bitterly about why they had to shut down (as one of only 5 countries in Europe) whereas others such as Germany etc. were able to start up again, leaving French clubs in a weakened position  etc. etc. This does NOT bode well overall.

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Big Beat Steve

[bigbandrecord]

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2020 at 8:50 AM, jcam_44 said:

I do wonder what the anger is about wearing a mask. It is to just be defiant or is it just people privilege showing.

  Masks are unhealthy to wear......your breathing in your own carbon dioxide over and over again..... oxygen deprivation, .....also corona measures .12 microns......the best N95 masks only keep out particles larger than .3 microns.  I am not a health care worker, therefore I'm not responsible for other peoples health.

Edited May 13, 2020 by bigbandrecord

[medjuck]

51 minutes ago, bigbandrecord said:

  Masks are unhealthy to wear......your breathing in your own carbon dioxide over and over again..... oxygen deprivation, .....also corona measures .12 microns......the best N95 masks only keep out particles larger than .3 microns.  I am not a health care worker, therefore I'm not responsible for other peoples health.

They're not to protect you, they're to protect the people you might infect.  Oh, but you're the guy who thinks it's all a hoax.

[Brad]

Ignore him, he’s probably one of those complaining about “mah rights.”

[Justin V]

I don't wear a mask when I am walking the dog around the neighborhood.  However, that is because it is easy enough to cross the street or turn a corner to avoid people.  Considering my dog is a butthead whenever he sees another dog being walked, I am experienced in avoiding people.

I mask up on the exceedingly rare occasions I enter a place of business.  Considering I have made such excursions twice in two months, wearing a mask is a small price to pay for some human interaction.

I am dreading this summer.  I have an adorable toddler whom everyone wants to see, but not everyone has been practicing social distancing adequately.  

[bigbandrecord]

10 hours ago, medjuck said:

They're not to protect you, they're to protect the people you might infect.  Oh, but you're the guy who thinks it's all a hoax.

 Yes, I believe and know it's all a hoax.    But even if you believe that viruses are transferable that way.....the corona measures .12 microns and the best N95 mask only blocks/filters out particles as small as .3 microns.   What part of that don't you understand..  Even the surgeon general said that healthy people should not be wearing masks.  Masks are to be worn during certain medical procedures and in some food service settings, not by people unloading trucks at Wal mart.

  I see 2 basic demographics of people voluntarily wearing masks at the grocery store......old/retirement age 62 and over people and black folks of all ages.  Old folks making their grandkids wearing masks.....bro that is sick !!!

[JSngry]

11 hours ago, bigbandrecord said:

  Masks are unhealthy to wear......your breathing in your own carbon dioxide over and over again..... oxygen deprivation, .....

Please cite your sources (yes, plural) for this claim.

[bigbandrecord]

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2020 at 2:37 PM, BillF said:

Who are all these people I see around nowadays?

They can't all be robbing banks, can they?

 You know In the south where I live there are ANTI-MASK wearing laws on the books stemming from the civil rights days.  Every time I go to the grocery stores and see all these people(mostly old people) wearing masks it looks like a KKK rally.

1 hour ago, Brad said:

Ignore him, he’s probably one of those complaining about “mah rights.”

  If it ever came to that here in NC,  I would go get a medical exemption/doctors note and then I will not have to wear a mask in order to get into the grocery stores......problem solved.

[medjuck]

18 minutes ago, bigbandrecord said:

    I see 2 basic demographics of people voluntarily wearing masks at the grocery store......old/retirement age 62 and over people and black folks of all ages.  Old folks making their grandkids wearing masks.....bro that is sick !!!

Yeh, gotta watch out for those old people and black people.