When is it time to panic

In reply to ProDarwin :

I understand their behavior perfectly. They are selfish millennials that have been raised to believe they are owed everything for free, and don’t understand taking personal accountability for their own actions. 

I just glad not the have to be around them.  

03Panther said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

I understand their behavior perfectly. They are selfish millennials that have been raised to believe they are owed everything for free, and don’t understand taking personal accountability for their own actions. 

I just glad not the have to be around them.  

It seems that the people around me most likely to not be wearing a mask are all middle aged. I guess different demographics in different areas might be acting differently.

Yeah, around here it's a pretty solid 3 way split - younger people understand the threat, older people understand the threat.  But middle aged (say, 45 to 65) are most likely to be enthusiastic followers of certain public figures who advocate that the virus is not a threat, is a hoax, does not require a mask, etc.

In SC, it's frickin all ages not doing it. It blows my mind. One grocery store is making all employees wear mask and another grocery right next door is not. Guess which one I am shopping at. Sadly, I was only 1 of 4 customers wearing one and my guess was about 50 of them are not. Well, make that 49 since he was wearing winter gloves it looks like.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) :

Just for the record, I was only referring to the party in the article.

I my area it a total range of those not wearing masks. Most are people that are not getting up close and personal with crowds, and we are blessed that we have enough room to be that way

In reply to RedGT :

I haven't had any public figures call me personally to tell me that its all a hoax, and the media misrepresents SO much, I listen to none of their B.S! But then, there are other forums to get on soap boxes.

I tried not to be political.  Change my phrasing to 'more likely to believe false media' or whatever you like, my point was that in this particular region it is the middle age group being the maskholes, for whatever reason.  Thankfully all major businesses and retail i have been in, are following the state reccommendations of masks all the time when indoors. 

joey48442 said:

And they also believe the deaths are largely inflated by hospitals claiming everything is a covid death, regardless of the cause of death.

I'm trying to proceed a little cautiously here... That one is actually happening, but not in a "conspiracy" kind of "OMG the system is lying to us" kind of way... It's more like "Well, this is simply how it happens as a product of our system of medical coding and federal response". 
 

I don't believe it is changing the nature of the severity of the situation, but it is happening. My company works in hospitals in 4 different states, and has confirmed that.  But it's  not a conspiracy, and it doesn't change that there is a crisis. 

RedGT said:

I tried not to be political.  Change my phrasing to 'more likely to believe false media' or whatever you like, my point was that in this particular region it is the middle age group being the maskholes, for whatever reason.  Thankfully all major businesses and retail i have been in, are following the state reccommendations of masks all the time when indoors. 

I've read numerous reports that show it growing in the younger age brackets right now.  I'm sure there are idiots in all age brackets, and the group that is refusing to wear masks in stores might be more noticeable, but it appears that the young groups going out to parties, bars, etc. are the majors spreaders.

https://apnews.com/753ed7dc88ec5ce8906967f268d78b99

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2020/07/01/young-people-spreading-coronavirus-more-vulnerable-groups-sc/5349005002/

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-06-22/some-states-report-rising-numbers-of-young-people-catching-coronavirus

There have been a ton of cases in Myrtle Beach.  I know some areas around here are watching specifically for people who may have traveled there.

Around here I mostly see younger people and oldish men that go maskless.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

I thought of a decent (I think) analogy for a mask:  It's like a silencer for a gun. It's not going to make it almost silent (like in the movies) but will noticeably reduce the noise.

Sound like Texas is mandating masks in public.... let's see how obeyed that is.....

I'm not reading through 204 pages to see what's been covered so far.

As a self-employed sole provider for a wife and three kids, I'm freaked the berkeley out. If I get sick, the bills don't get paid. I know more than a few of you around here are in the same boat.

In reply to slefain :

I'm sorry to hear that.  

I get it.  Out of 15 adult working aged people in my family (my kids, my siblings, etc), I am the only one still working.  The rest have no income.  It's not fun.

I have people ask me "Why are you working 70 hour weeks for no additional pay?", or "Why would you want to commute 600 miles to work?"...  The answer is no other options- freaked the berkeley out.

Thanks for sharing, man.  Keep it between the lines.  

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

Right right, I get that. But these guys are of the mind that because that's happening, it must all be an exaggeration and therefore all a hoax. Legitimately, they had a family church service outside with a couple families together, and purposely hugged each other, and the other guys responded to the stories about that with "good for you, your are standing up to this false narrative" type comments. It's unreal how some of these extremely smart guys are suddenly... not. 

My wife got into an altercation in the checkout at the store last night.  A berkleytard and wife in their 30s thought it was funny to stand uncomfortably close behind her while she was putting her stuff on the conveyor belt.  She asked him to have some respect and back off 6ft if he wasnt going to wear a mask. 

He then told her to 'shut the f up', which is not smart.  Even my mutant man-bear son isn't stupid enough to do that.  She unleashed what I'm guessing was a rather impressive tapestry of obscenity upon him, to the point where she said the wife looked like she was going to pee herself, turned on the idiot and also started yelling at him.  I hope he had a truly miserable evening.

Sadly, air-wasters like this seem to be a common thing around here.  A local ice cream shop had a thing on the news asking idiots to stop yelling at their teenage employees about the mask policy.  The hospital has definitely ramped up their screeners' assertiveness at the checkpoints this week, and we still ended up with someone who was asymptomatic Covid positive, lied to the screeners, and ended up in a clinic room (same room our immunosuppressed transplant patients use). It was like the 2319 scene out of Monsters, Inc. 

People are literally their own worst enemy.

Yesterday at reactor supply, I got in line for checkout.

There were obviously 2 lines with 2 checkouts running.

A guy in the other line said hey buddy!  The line is back here.  I pointed to myself and the line I was in and said there are 2 lines.

He said, doesn't matter I was here first (still in the other line...).  By this point there were already 3 more people behind me.

I responded thusly " hey shiny happy person, put a mask on and maybe I'll listen to you".

He was the ONLY person in the store not wearing a mask.

Berk him.

Here (S. FL) everyone wears some kind of cough/sneeze guard in any store, even small stores with very little customer traffic like auto paint suppliers, Fastenal, automotive machine shops, etc. . Haven't seen anyone without a droplet catcher in any store in several months. People wear them EVERYWHERE, even when there's no need to. They might be out bike riding, walking, etc. or standing alone at a bus stop and no one within hundreds of feet but they got that mask on.  People wearing masks in cars while driving is very common and I've even seen people wearing masks PLUS clear face shields while driving on I-95 at 75 MPH alone in the vehicle with the windows rolled up. More than half the motorcyclists are wearing a droplet catcher, but no helmet. AND we're right next to the ocean with cubic miles of fresh air blowing in. Better to be overcautious I guess. Have not seen any arguments about droplet catchers, they're just accepted as the current "normal".

I have been across country 2x since this has happened. I have come up with a bit of a theory. I theorize that this pandemic is an urban thing for the most part and has been mishandled pretty poorly. The state governments have pretty much handled the situation thinking that everywhere is crowded with people and locked down everything. IMO the more densely populated areas of states should have been locked, yet the businesses in more rural areas should have stayed open keeping some of the economy going. Masks should be required and campaigned as a "Do it for your neighbor" thing being crystal clear that it minimizes risk but does not completely divest of it. I believe the education of masks has been very very poorly handled.

When it initially became an issue I was stuck in CA for work and home was 3300 miles away physically, psychologically it was infinitely away. I flew home to NH and it was the scariest flight of my life. The two folk in front of me (and a bunch of others on the flight) did not have masks on and both were sneezing and coughing. I was miserable, a hypochondriac in a pandemic. FML.

When I am in CA I am in San Diego, when I am home I am in a larger town that thinks they are a city, but they are not really. Traveling north to go pick up a 914 and an Opel the towns get smaller. There were, and maybe are still, more cases in San Diego County than all of Proper New England (VT, NH, ME).

My second trip across country I drove. There was no berkeleying way I was getting on a plane again. I took a leisurely 5 days to cover the 3300 miles right through the heart of the US. Once again the small towns that I went through were very lax on masks and worry. There are no looks of fear if you and another person come within 6' like I have noticed in the bigger cities.

Back in SD and I am not sure if people are tired of the protections or are listening to too much social media (another addition to the confusion) but there are not enough masks and people are gathering at parties etc. Next thing you know we are spiking in the densely populated areas.

Just my observations and thoughts.

I have been extremely lucky throughout this. My wife is able to work from home only losing 8hrs a week due to a shift in her works funding (she works for a community health care office), and I have been essential and have worked over 400 hours of overtime so far. I do not know anyone that has tested positive and I am very thankful for that.

Please wear your mask.

I wear a mask to make others feel safe.  The reality is they are only moderately effective in very particular circumstances. I have used actual respirators in the past so I have a pretty good idea that a thin piece of paper or cloth is just not going to do much for you if someone sneezes or coughs on you.  If the mask makes others feel safe then that is worthwhile because people are scared out of their wits. 

FYI: I am a 40ish year old capitalist.

preach said:

I theorize that this pandemic is an urban thing for the most part and has been mishandled pretty poorly.

It definitely started as a more urban thing and spread quickly there.  But right now it is spreading rapidly in rural areas.

https://apnews.com/7aa2fcf7955333834e01a7f9217c77d2

Danger, there is mention of political figure in that article, but its objective data.

wvumtnbkr said:

There were obviously 2 lines with 2 checkouts running.

 

It might not work right now, given the physical distancing requirements, but I'd love it if more stores went to one line for all of the checkouts. It works so much better in most cases.
 

tester (Forum Supporter) said:

I wear a mask to make others feel safe.  The reality is they are only moderately effective in very particular circumstances. I have used actual respirators in the past so I have a pretty good idea that a thin piece of paper or cloth is just not going to do much for you if someone sneezes or coughs on you.  If the mask makes others feel safe then that is worthwhile because people are scared out of their wits. 

FYI: I am a 40ish year old capitalist.

Here's the thing.  The mask isn't about protecting the wearer, it's about keeping the wearer from spreading the virus to others.  That's why we need more people to wear them. 

It's not a me issue, it's a community issue.  I guess if people think wearing a mask in public is too much of a price to pay for protecting the health of others, those people should remove themselves from society for.... probably a year, maybe 2, until this thing is handled. 

I've said before, but I'm blessed. I have not been exposed. I'm 99.998% sure I don't have it. Therefore, cannot spread it. I wash my hands a lot and use sanitizer. I don't push my way into others personal space. How would me not having a piece of cloth over my face protect other people? Besides them having to see my ugly mug?

In reply to 03Panther :

Because 80% of people who have COVID-19 are completely asymptomatic. You thinking you don't have it and you actually not having are two very very different things.

Where do I get it from?  Floating on air from 30 feet away? Maybe from a surface that has been cleaned with achohal?