Any biologists here? I have been thinking how covid strikes most notably in densely populated areas like NYC or in dense housing arrangements like nursing homes. Are there parallels with other members of the animal kingdom? Do viruses gain a foothold and rage through a species when that species is overpopulated for its habitat? Hunters thin deer to prevent problems, but no one thins humans. I am not saying anyone should! But maybe viruses do the thinning.
The people in Germany and New Zealand and Australia aren’t hunkering down for 18-24 months. The only reason we will need to hunker that long is the extreme incompetence of everyone in the trump administration.Originally Posted by Yppej
Daily deaths are projected to be 3,000 in a few weeks. How long before they are 6,000? 7,000? 8,000? I suppose eventually we’ll run out of useless old people and people who should have taken better care of themselves and deserve to die and the daily death toll will fall. But there were be a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering in the meantime.
Absolutely. That’s why factory farms feed the animals insane amounts of antibiotics for their whole lives.
I think this is an important point, that those of us who are privileged to stay home are in fact privileged. And it fits in with my idea that we, the privileged, need to exercise our privilege by not increasing the burden on society by getting sick.
+1.
I'm immensely grateful to be able to stay safely at home. I'm sorry for those who are expected to go to work and risk their lives without PPEs and/or medical or societal support.
Seems to me that humans aren't very good at self-regulating. We have all kinds of laws that consider "the other" and that technically "violate" our rights - smoking outside only, driving the speed limit and on and on. Wearing a mask when in public signifies you care. When I do go out, I am struck by the number of males in particular who do not wear masks. I guess it is an act of defiance.
my thinking on this is that if the privileged are able to avoid this, then why should I die just because I'm not rich? F it, and maybe I refuse to go back to work. F work. F capitalism. F wealth. F America. F Trump. Other countries can deal with this problem and we can't even. Not dying for this horrible country. If I'm going to throw away my life shouldn't it be for something I at least believe in? This isn't it. The Tsars can fight their own wars. Me dying doesn't mean the privileged don't escape this, of course they do, it merely means me dying.And for all the people saying, "I work at home or I am retired or I have investments that I can live off of indefinitely, so I will get groceries delivered, cut my own hair, etc. etc." you are especially lucky and protected by your money, and getting things sent by Amazon and having groceries delivered depends upon the work of others who do not have that luxury or that protection.
It's turning out to be a very unequal proposition, the protection of the vulnerable, because anyone who is out working now is more vulnerable than those of us lucky enough to work at home.
And if we are going to get Covid, I'd rather get it with employment and health insurance than laid off. That's my opinion; I understand that decent people can actually hold different opinions from my own, and that does not make them bad people.
This country could: 1) deal with the virus 2) pay people to stay home while it does so, ideally though their jobs so they have one to go back to to, but even if they don't through UBI etc. 3) provide PPE for those few essential workers and try to minimize the amount of essential work 4) rebuild the economy if necessary afterward (but less necessary if you do 1-3) when it's over. It chooses none of this, only to give Wall Street trillions, why should I die for it? And it doesn't have to have healthcare tied to jobs either.
And by the way essential workers actually might want people staying home as it means less community spread and thus less risk to them as well.
I have done my part as much as I can think of for the essential workers by not buying anything but necessities so that they can have as little work as possible. I still eat, omg, you want to make that my crime. I'm not buying anything else. What if they had an economy and nobody came?
Trees don't grow on money
What practical course of action do you plan to take after all the Fing?
What happens to me? Even I don't care, just I know we are being ordered to die. All the experts keep saying "don't open it all up yet", and we pretend that all this expert advice somehow isn't real in what has to be the gaslighting of the century (yea I know climate change, at least that's a truly hard problem). And reopening will happen because they have no plan to actually deal with the virus. What happens to this country, I have no hope for it, although maybe I should have hope in young people. It's not even going to recover economically, not really, it botched everything so badly.
Trees don't grow on money
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