Coronavirus

Good question. We will start with what I feel the FEDERAL government can do.

We'll start with this thing called the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So a lockdown mandated at the federal level shouldn't infringe on this. USA Today agrees with me. ( www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/0...y-column/5095022002/ )

Which brings us to the federal government. During an epidemic, the federal government’s role is cheerleader in chief. Its main responsibilities are coordination and communication. Rather than taking charge, it is supposed to be ensuring that health care providers and state and local officials have the resources and the information they need to treat the sick and make wise decisions. What little direct power the federal government does have is found in the Public Health Service Act. The federal government’s quarantine powers are limited to preventing the spread of a disease across the U.S. border and to preventing its interstate spread.

So that leaves the specifics of the lockdown to the states, as it should be in America. What powers does the state have? Varies per state. An urban area will differ from a rural one even within the same state, so applying a rule state even across an entire state is overly simplistic and reductive IMHO.

We know the type of casual mask use imposed by many states for all people is ineffective, at least according to CNN and the WHO ( www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus...tion-trnd/index.html )

(CNN)World Health Organization officials Monday said they still recommend people not wear face masks unless they are sick with Covid-19 or caring for someone who is sick.

Masks may actually increase your coronavirus risk if worn improperly, surgeon general warns
"There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said at a media briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday.

NPR and the CDC echoed this advice ( www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/0...revisit-the-question )( web.archive.org/web/20200331143006/https...sick/prevention.html )

Wear a facemask if you are sick
If you are sick: You should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) and before you enter a healthcare provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then you should do your best to cover your coughs and sneezes, and people who are caring for you should wear a facemask if they enter your room. Learn what to do if you are sick.
If you are NOT sick: You do not need to wear a facemask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and they are not able to wear a facemask). Facemasks may be in short supply and they should be saved for caregivers.

From the NPR article

Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease researcher and biodefense consultant, is skeptical that healthy members of the public need to start wearing masks regularly — she says people should follow current CDC guidelines. But she emphasizes that if you are going to wear a mask, "you have to wear it appropriately." That means, she says, "you have to discard it when it gets damp or moist. You want to stop touching the front of it. Don't reach under to scratch your nose or mouth."

Otherwise, she warns, wearing masks could give "a false sense of security."

Though there was one guy advocating widespread improvised mask use...
And Tuesday, President Trump weighed in suggesting people may want to wear scarves. "I would say do it," he said, noting that masks are needed for health care workers. "You can use scarves, you can use something else," he said.

So now we are left with physically restricting movement (aka a lockdown). This, in order to be effective, should be pretty strict. Yet when it is unevenly applied, i.e. gyms, theaters, churches, school are closed yet widespread street gatherings of high risk people are not only permitted, but encouraged in some areas, well, then I start to question whether lockdowns are valid at all. Especially for more than the time it takes for medical services to come to grips with an acute surge (I've already posted medical advice from the WHO stating long term lockdowns are ineffective).

So I was all on board for 2-3 week strict lockdown like what my state at least had. But then it turned into 2 months. Many states even longer. Couldn't go out to eat. No theaters. No schools. No gyms, No barber shops. Stores strictly limiting access for shoppers. Protected hours for the elderly. No concerts (unless it was at a street gathering I suppose).

And in my area all of this was far too early, the virus hadn't really come to us. So we wasted months of what could have been productive time assisting more affected areas in lockdown. Then we opened up, our wave hit, and we made it through and are heading to what appears to be somewhat of a steady state with a lot of retail and service places open, full medical services, etc.

The mask data morphed quite a bit as it became a political tool. But I'll take the duke study at face value, as does my place of employment, and restrict casual masks to the ones that seem more effective ( www.cnbc.com/2020/08/11/study-bandanas-a...ical-face-masks.html ) even though I see many many many folks with the ones shown to be minimally effective to actively harmful.

So, TLDR, I would tolerate a mask mandate by an appropriate authority empowered by law to enact it. I would tolerate increased spacing between unrelated groups of people at restaurants, theaters, events, etc. I would tolerate a surcharge for increased cleaning in areas appropriate for it (barber shops for example) so long as it was made clear up front. I don't consider these measures to be draconian. But unilaterally closing retail and service industries, prohibiting gatherings for religious purposes (and I include funerals in this, which is why many places had excess bodies, no one was burying them), and mandating school closures which then has a catastrophic ripple effect disproportionately affecting single parents...that I consider draconian (which Webster, at least until they suddenly change the definition totally unrelated to anything else going on in the world, defines as

Definition of draconian
1law : of, relating to, or characteristic of Draco or the severe code of laws held to have been framed by him
2: CRUEL
also : SEVERE
draconian littering fines

Interesting enough, the Draco mentioned above; "Draco's laws were known for their cruelty and their bias towards the rich landowners as opposed to those who found themselves owing money." ( www.ancient.eu/Dracos_Law_Code/ ) Which dovetails nicely into my "rules for thee, but not for me" comment about Pelosi getting her hair done while the plebes couldn't.

you can delete this thread, it's about something else now.

Re Old thread: I've been lucky to be able to work from home. The first few months turned my home office into a personal sweatshop of unhealthy overwork, full of all nighters that I am too old to handle. Things have stabilized, thankfully, and I can do things for fun (currently re-reading Dune). The pandemic has revealed to me how very much dependent I am on moving from space to space, commuting, mixing with people in coffee shops and subway stations, being in different hallways, rooms, streets, buildings. Squeezing all of that into the online world has stunted my thinking, weakened my memory and made me dumber. I need to incorporate more movement through different spaces into daily life, to the extent possible within the boundaries of responsible public health. I miss seeing people around. I'm not the best at keeping in touch with friends, and this pandemic has made that worse. I have to change that.

Re New thread: Reminds me of highschool AD&D, when some who weren't able to face losing a cool sword, ring, familiar or character found a way to bend the story into a Monty Haul campaign, and the rules lawyer was born.

I'm mulling over what to do with this thread and how to handle it direction wise. I'll post again later this afternoon with guidance and let you know what my moderation will look like.

Personally I would appreciate, if this thread survives in some form, because it has been informative for me and an outlet in stressful times.

Ok, my moderator hat is on. I've had a think on this thread.

The focus of this thread is to talk about personal experiences or how it's going through this crisis. Inevitably, this will touch on the political because of the nature of this virus. That is fine, but be kind. My moderation, if I need to do it, is going to be oriented around keeping this thread focused on personal elements/venting steam/etc that is helpful to some people.

When a subthread starts out of this that is solely about the meta-politics and information/misinformation of the virus, I will consider moderating it. If you do not agree with what someone posted, that is also fine to include as part of a post---I want to avoid locking threads that are of use to people because of disagreements. But extended, persuasion-oriented back and forth jags unrelated to personal experiences are going to be moderated. They aren't what I find helpful about the thread.

This moderation will, by necessity, be subjective. Such are the rules of our forums and so it goes. Note that *I* have not held to these new standards in this thread, so consider this part of the thread and onwards to hold to new moderation standards.

For most of my life, I have rarely remembered my dreams. When I do, it's often odd fragments, and nearly all of them take place inside unfamiliar buildings. Like maybe I will wake from a bit of a dream that supposedly is taking place in high school, but the corridors and rooms bear zero resemblance to any actual locations in my old school. Since March, I have been dreaming a lot more, or at least remembering more of my dreams after I wake. The content is normally banal scenes from daily pre-pandemic life, but somehow the tone is usually dark and threatening. I suppose this is my subconscious reaction to the pandemic.

You know, that's interesting. The last like month I have had just way more nightmares (normal nightmares, not anything extreme) than I have ever had before. The timing is sort of interesting, I have a job, my emotional state is pretty steady, and things are going ok for me. But there's just some aspect of our current era. I don't know whether it's coronavirus, politics, or the shadow of our climate change future, but it is just giving me multiple times a night restless nightmares.

I had an odd nightmare last week... well, the end of it was odd. Was hanging out with a girl I knew in high school and her mom and they were reconciling (they had a falling out after she divorced but I digress). We stepped outside and cuthulu was grabbing trains off of some local tracks while surrounded by an eerie green glow. My reaction was "Welp. It's cuthulu, guess we had better head to the basement." The normal reaction when a tornado hits or an elder god shows up.

My most recent nightmare was about being alienated from my mother. Which was completely bizarre because my mother was a wonderful person that everybody liked. She was warm, kind, and friendly, always bringing out the best in people. She was sometimes difficult in her twilight years, after the dementia set in, but even then she was usually happy and smiling. But dream logic informed me that we were on the outs, and then there was that general background sensation of doom pervading all my recent dreams. She died three years ago, so there is no particular reason that I would associate her with the pandemic.

I live walking distance to the county line and have the same effect. Prince George's County has the highest infection rate in the state, but of course it's about proximity to Washington DC on its west, not proximity to my one-stoplight town on its east.

Interesting analysis out of Vandy on mask use — www.vumc.org/health-policy/sites/default...0Report-Oct%2027.pdf