Coronavirus (Covid-19)

[Daniel]

Blame Punxsutawney Phil!

[Ben]

Yeah...but it’s been Groundhog Day for almost a year now!

[ShyViolet]

Well, it’s happened....half a million COVID deaths in the US.

But I’m still hoping for a light in the tunnel.

[Ben]

What’s really scary, considering that the US is ten times more populated than the UK, is that we are at 150,000 deaths, combining the near 130k official figures and the "excess deaths due to Covid", which is another indicator of just how poorly we have handled this here.

[Randall]

The USA is only 4.88x more populous than the UK, actually, so you're not quite as bad off in comparison as you thought - though still worse off than the USA, per capita.

Canada, however, is half the population of the UK (roughly), and just over one-tenth that of the USA. We have 21,723 deaths so far. We feel good about that, until we compare ourselves to Australia - 2/3 of our population, but only 900 deaths.

Our vaccine rollout is still hampered by a lack of supply, but that's supposed to improve a lot by the end of March. Here in Saskatchewan, we have 43% of our long-term residents fully vaccinated, and they will all get done first before the rest of us get a shot.

[Ben]

If we handled it well, 20,000 was the figure the health people said would be a good outcome. But then we didn’t handle it well: we didn’t close the borders, as per Australia, didn’t go into lockdown fast enough or long enough, came out too quick, were late going back in, opened up for Christmas, missed an opportunity to lockdown again until we really really really had to again, and are now going to be opening up too early and too quick by the end of June, when health people are saying end of July or even the end of August to be completely sure.

So we are looking at another spike in July, even if it’s milder than before, thanks to the vax, but already the travel sector is reporting a 630% rise in bookings for the summer. We had a real shot of going Covid-zero like other islands — you'd think that being an island would help, right? There’s a bit of a built in advantage there! — but it seems greed and wealth is more important. Oh, and the stupid need to sit in the sun somewhere...

[Randall]

Some folks here would say that we didn't have the "island advantage" that Australia or NZ do (or the UK, theoretically), though I would argue that any country that controls its borders should have been able to lock them down, aside from unavoidable illegal traffic. In fact, we did lock down our US border to road traffic... but not to air traffic! And, of course, any freight still moves, and we do a ton of trade with the USA, so naturally the truckers still have to get through.

Overall, our border rules have been somewhat haphazard. The public gets understandably annoyed at all the inconsistencies, though those who argue the most seem to favour opening MORE things up, which is also crazy.

[EricJ]

On the bright side, some sources have reported that we've been so busy wearing masks and staying indoors against the Bad Flu, there are no reported cases of the "Good" Flu this season. So something's working.

Over here, I'm having no problem staying in, since our apartment maintenance's snow-shoveling does a rotten job every Jan-Feb., and a cold snap can mean a week or two of rough ice terrain getting out of the driveway.
This month, we had a snowfall every six days, followed by 20's weather in between, so I locked the door, hired grocery delivery, and declared that apart from trash and mail, I wouldn't set out the door until the weather climbed to 30's-40's thaw...Three weeks later.
Interestingly, the first two symptoms of Cabin Fever are 1) drowsiness and 2) increased appetite, inherited products of mammals' instinct to hibernate. Other mammals, however, like bears and squirrels for ex., have not invented electric blankets and Amazon.

[Randall]

Yeah... In Saskatchewan, too, we've had zero confirmed cases of the flu this year. So yes, what we're doing has got to be working. Yet, somehow I still hear the odd (very odd) person saying that like it's somehow an indictment of how we're fighting covid, like they think that means all the labs must be closed, or... something?

And for all the nuts still claiming that "no more people are dying than normal," even Fox News had to agree that it was the USA's deadliest year ever... by a lot.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/us-death ... er-counted

Me, I still have to go to work, given that I'm a healthcare provider, but I'm still hibernating otherwise. The wife and kids are content staying home, too. The kids have adjusted to online learning. My son has even made a lot of new friends (among his new cyber classmates) to do PC gaming with, so he's actually having a great year at home. Still, we're all looking forward (well, maybe not my son) to spending more time outside as it warms up. After melting a bit last week, it's back well below freezing now, but will be getting back to the freezing point next week.

[Dacey]

Fox News the website is somewhat different from Fox News the network. They tend to do news somewhat more straightforward there. On television, meanwhile, they were mocking people wearing masks and social distancing as recently as this week.

Living in Maryland, it's not as bad as some places. I believe we're actually one of the ten best states as far as cases go. But no vaccine yet for me, and my mom isn't wanting to rush into getting one because she's worried about having to wait in line for it. I've tried telling her that you register for your vaccine online and then show up for it, but she's still hesitant.

We have been extremely careful here. I'm someone who actually wore masks (for allergies) and washed my hands frequently before it was cool, but I am doing both of those things even more often now. It is intense, since my mom is in her 70s, and I have a chronic health condition which makes my immune system weaker than others (granted, this in regards to my legs, so I'm not sure if this makes me more vulnerable to the disease or not). And as some of you have experienced on skype, I already have a raspatory problem which results in a constant cough.

It's so surreal. Next month will officially mark a year of this here in Maryland (I went to Emma instead of Onward during its first week in theaters because I wanted to go the latter with my brother--the cinema was forced to shut its doors the following Monday, making Onward the first Pixar film I didn't go to at the multiplex since A Bug's Life). It's depressing for sure, and being better by July is a best case scenario which is only going to happen if everyone behaves themselves. Fingers crossed.

[Ben]

Well I got jabba-dabba-dood a couple of weeks ago, so feel a bit better about that, but it’s really not safe until well more than half the population is vaxed.

As for Fox News, the Murdoch name is something of a filthy one over here. It’s no coincidence that the playwright Dennis Potter named his cancer "Rupert"...

[ShyViolet]

Hey, how’s everyone been doing?

[Daniel]

Like, you know, whatever.

Nothing really to add, honestly. Although it's kind of eerie you asked on the anniversary of this thread. I remember it like it was yesterday... which means I've been without Taco Bell for over a year now! When things get a little more normal, that's going to be my big treat.

[ShyViolet]

Yeah, that is kinda weird.

That’s cool, I hope you can get to Taco Bell soon!



Oh found this vid by the same guy who did: “Wear a Mask.” It’s awesome!!!!


https://youtu.be/3iqDEWRStyk

[Randall]

With vaccines getting distributed, I've begun to think about what I'll want to do once I feel more comfortable going out, though that could be a few months away. First up is a long browsing session at my favourite bookstore. It also has a great restaurant (with fantastic desserts) that my wife I like to go to before looking at the books and records and movies.