COVID update - November

[Dave Gray]

So, I went to see my Dad at the memory place.

He was completely detached, as usual.  He asked why I was wearing a mask and there wasn't really much to talk about.  Communicating was hard, because he's just so checked out.  The assistant there insinuated that a lot of families aren't supportive of their strict safety guidelines and give them a hard time about the lack of visitation, but considering how many people have died, I can't fault them.  I'm glad I went -- I don't think the visit even really matters, but we just need to constantly let him know that we haven't left them alone.  Even if he doesn't specifically remember that we visited on a specific day, it's important for him to know that we do come there regularly.

---

COVID is creeping into my life.  There are 2 more cases in my extended group this week.  ...nobody I'm in contact with directly, but both people are not "going out" types.  They got it at work, presumably.  I'm concerned about Thanksgiving being a big spreader.  We're not doing a big gathering, which has created an environment where some other families are also backing out of the big gathering.  We may have smaller, satellite gatherings...we'll see.

[pondwater]

Is he in a nursing home Dave?

[Dave Gray]

It's not a nursing home, per se -- for the purposes of this conversation, yes. -- it's a memory care facility.

It's mostly (but not all) old people that are locked in because they have memory issues -- can't remember enough to live alone.  They aren't specifically in poor health, but when dealing with old people, some certainly are.


Of the two people that have COVID that I know, one was just admitted to the hospital today -- low oxygen levels.  He's young, too.

[Dave Gray]

One other thing: This is just anecdotal, but my daughter's school texts us when there are confirmed COVID cases on campus.  We didn't have any for a long while, then one would trickle in every couple of weeks.  Now, within the last couple of weeks, there have been several per week.

So, this seems to be closing in around this area again.

[Downunder Dolphan]

After 7 months of relative bliss with no community cases and relatively no restrictions, it's all changed here in Adelaide in the space of just 3 days...

Similar to what happened in Melbourne, three people working in a Medi hotel (a hotel used to quarantine repatriated Australians for 14 days) have been infected, followed by a wider part of their large family and associates in the community. There have been 22 infections in 3 days (all which have been traced back to the hotel), but the handbrake has been pulled on full, and in the last 24 hours we have gone from partial lockdown to full lockdown across all of South Australia for the next 6 days.

Apparently this is an extremely infectious strain of the virus which originated from a guest who came from the UK, it's contagious within 24 hours of exposure and none of the infected people have displayed any of the classic symptoms while contagious - it was just pure luck that a related party who checked into hospital for something else was tested and the alarm bells went off.

They are hopeful that the full 6 day full lockdown will allow the authorities to contact trace and contain any potential carriers before it gets out further - if that's successful, restrictions may slightly ease the following 8 days. Just hoping we are very lucky here like New Zealand who went all in like this a few months ago to successfully contain it.  

[Downunder Dolphan]

Oh, and for you who are not familiar with Australia which is a pretty decent sized country...

Adelaide is a population of around 1.5 million. The state of South Australia is the fourth largest in Australia by area, very close to the entire size of Egypt, around 1.5 times the size of Texas, and 5x times the size of the UK.

[Pappy13]

We have cancelled our plans to drive to St. Louis and have thanksgiving with my son. Things are just a little too tense right now to even have a small gathering for Thanksgiving. I'm planning a Zoom meeting instead.

[Dave Gray]

We have cancelled our plans to drive to St. Louis and have thanksgiving with my son. Things are just a little too tense right now to even have a small gathering for Thanksgiving. I'm planning a Zoom meeting instead.

Good for you.  We are doing the same.  Our Thanksgiving will be a total of 6 people who all see each other regularly.

Things are going to be bad around Christmas...really bad.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

After 7 months of relative bliss with no community cases and relatively no restrictions, it's all changed here in Adelaide in the space of just 3 days...

Similar to what happened in Melbourne, three people working in a Medi hotel (a hotel used to quarantine repatriated Australians for 14 days) have been infected, followed by a wider part of their large family and associates in the community. There have been 22 infections in 3 days (all which have been traced back to the hotel), but the handbrake has been pulled on full, and in the last 24 hours we have gone from partial lockdown to full lockdown across all of South Australia for the next 6 days.

Apparently this is an extremely infectious strain of the virus which originated from a guest who came from the UK, it's contagious within 24 hours of exposure and none of the infected people have displayed any of the classic symptoms while contagious - it was just pure luck that a related party who checked into hospital for something else was tested and the alarm bells went off.

They are hopeful that the full 6 day full lockdown will allow the authorities to contact trace and contain any potential carriers before it gets out further - if that's successful, restrictions may slightly ease the following 8 days. Just hoping we are very lucky here like New Zealand who went all in like this a few months ago to successfully contain it.  

Meanwhile in the USA which had more deaths yesterday than Australia and New Zealand have had combined during the entire pandemic, the leading advisor to the president has called for a revolt against the governor of Michigan for doing a partial shutdown.

[CF DolFan]

Meanwhile in the USA which had more deaths yesterday than Australia and New Zealand have had combined during the entire pandemic, the leading advisor to the president has called for a revolt against the governor of Michigan for doing a partial shutdown.

That's really hard to believe seeing as how those two countries combined account for about 30 million people while the US of A only has about 315 million people. Yes ... that was a very silly comparison. Obviously some people hold freedom at a much higher standard than others.

We are doing the same thing for Thanksgiving as we have been in recent years. We've cut way back so that it's typically my family, my daughter's boyfriends, and my in-laws. Probably around 10 people. We used to do much larger family gatherings and multiple stops but I like the scaled back version better. Other parts of our family will meet over the holidays and we will see them then.

[Fau Teixeira]

Obviously some people hold freedom at a much higher standard than others.

Too bad this view doesn't generally hold true outside of self interest. So this sentiment ends up being just pure selfishness. It's boo bad.

[Spider-Dan]

That's really hard to believe seeing as how those two countries combined account for about 30 million people while the US of A only has about 315 million people. Yes ... that was a very silly comparison.

To be clear: while NZ+Aus has about 1/11th of the population of the US, during the month of November there have been 12 days (so far) in which the US has had more COVID deaths in a single day than NZ+Aus has had during this entire year combined.

So yes, the comparison is more than just "silly"; it's laughable.  Hilariously pathetic, even.  These countries have nowhere near our resources or wealth, and yet we are so monumentally stupid that we insist on dying just to prove some sort of arcane point about "freedom."  Speaking of which:

Obviously some people hold freedom at a much higher standard than others.

Just to be clear: even if we stipulate that abortion is murder, you're not in favor of freedom when that particular choice causes a person to die.

This isn't about "freedom" in any meaningful sense of the word.  It's about proving that the libs can't tell you what to do, which is not the same thing.  Conservatives were perfectly OK with giving up all sorts of "freedom" after 3,000 people died in 9/11; we'll be over a hundred times that number of COVID deaths by the end of this, and you all are talking about if you die, you die.

[CF DolFan]

My freedom to go out and hang with my friends won't kill you if you are taking necessary precautions. It all about "personal" responsibility. And that "selfishness you claim is why you're free to claim it. The simple fact alpha males put freedom higher than self preservation is why we won our freedom. In fact ... many of those men lost all of their riches in order to fight the cause so selfishness is a poor word to use for a person who sees freedom as the most important right any of us could have.

As far as abortion ... that isn't a freedom. That's a consequence of a poor decision made from the freedom a woman has. I say woman because we all know the man has no freaking say in whether he pays child support or if she kills his kid. 

[Spider-Dan]

My freedom to go out and hang with my friends won't kill you if you are taking necessary precautions.

That's not how infectious diseases work.

When you exercise your freedom to catch COVID, you still visit the grocery stores and spread your infection, exposing thousands of other people who don't get a say.  And if you wind up needing medical care, you needlessly expose medical workers, who didn't sign up to treat people that are choosing to get infected.

If all of the freedom worshipers were segregating themselves from sane society, this would be less of a problem.  But no: you all insist that you must be allowed to visit public hair salons and bars and golf courses to spread your infections, as you refuse to wear your masks.  So just like your freedom to swing your arm ends at my face, your freedom to get infected ends at visiting the public spaces the rest of society uses.

The simple fact alpha males put freedom higher than self preservation is why we won our freedom.

Yeah, the people who refuse to wear masks and/or stay home are the real heroes in this crisis.
They should put up a monument with the names of everyone who died from COVID and call it the Donald J. Trump Freedom Memorial.

As far as abortion ... that isn't a freedom. That's a consequence of a poor decision made from the freedom a woman has.

Convenient how only the things you agree with are important "freedoms" to be preserved, even if they involve the death of unwilling others.

[Fau Teixeira]

As far as abortion ... that isn't a freedom. That's a consequence of a poor decision made from the freedom a woman has. I say woman because we all know the man has no freaking say in whether he pays child support or if she kills his kid. 

As someone who values "freedom" so highly, that's a particularly bad take.

Why someone has arrived at wanting or needing an abortion is inconsequential. It could have been incest, it could have been rape, it could have been because she decided to have unprotected sex with a football team. The reason for it is irrelevant.

The core question in Roe v Wade is whether the government has the right to tell you what to do with your own body. It either does, or does not. And if it does, it better have a compelling interest in doing so.
That's what choice has to do with freedom.

Does the government get to mandate that you must donate a kidney? Do they get to detain you, take you to a hospital and remove a kidney against your will so that someone else can live?  Roe v Wade prevents that and says that you CF, have a right to privacy in your own body. That in essence the government cannot make or prohibit you from making decisions that affect your body. This right isn't absolute, which is why states can ban abortions after a certain time.

From the decision:

It is reasonable and appropriate for a State to decide that at some point in time another interest, that of health of the mother or that of potential human life, becomes significantly involved

Which is why mask mandates are reasonable and appropriate. The health of everyone else becomes significantly involved with your selfish freedom. And why abortion is legal, because it's none of your damn business, since abortion isn't contagious.