COVID-19 Megathread 5: The Trumps catch COVID-19

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I am not an expert here obviously but people on this board have opinions all the time on issues they are not experts on.

I say mid to late June for the below reasons:

1) Keeping up isolated and social distanced for two more months should really hinder the virus from spreading and the curve would be essentially flat.

2) It gives business more time to create procedures for operating during this pandemic. It could be as simple as airlines taking temperatures prior to board and not using middle seats except for families.

3) The unemployment stimulus boosts go until July 31st. Ending the lock downs sometime in June gives a 4 to 6 week adjustment period.

4) If we are really locked up and unemployed well into the fall and next year we will end up with mass foreclosures, evictions, people living on 300 a week from unemployment, depression, suicides, obesity, and various other medical calamities that will be far worse than the virus itself.

5) And let's be honest the coronavirus will be around for a while. Some spread of it will create more immunity and we will have to get used to wearing masks and gloves in public.

The needs of many override the needs of a few. Right now the economic cost is absolutely worth it but that opinion has a shelf life of only two more months.

Ending lockdowns on May 1st would be a horrible idea and it would absolutely lead to a massive depression. We just need more time.

Opening up the economy with restrictions can happen sooner than June. Mid-late May would be safest but parts of the country could open up earlier provided there is enough testing to catch outbreaks, and enough PPE for the additional employees that would be exposed to the virus. That is the biggest roadblock right now.

Only some states should open in may, I'm thinking of Washington, Vermont, Idaho, Montana, Louisiana, and Hawaii. The rest should wait until June 1st.

It will depend on the daily case rate as well as the positivity rate. If a community of 100,000 is barely getting any cases and its positivity rate is getting below 5%, it should be opened up with a continuation of social distancing protocols. Re-open stores at 20% of the certificate of occupancy level etc. Increase that level if cases don't surge and you have access to plenty of tests and PPE. Schools should be cancelled for the rest of the school year though. Really feel bad for seniors.

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Immigration is shut down anyways, and likely would have been for at least a year in any case. The executive order basically does nothing except stop doctors from immigrating here when we need them the most. Good job Trump!

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https://twitter.com/TimOBrien/status/1253501765644963845

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/lysol-manufacturer-warns-against-internal-use-after-trump-comments-n1191586?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

"WASHINGTON — The manufacturer of Lysol, a disinfectant spray and cleaning product, and the EPA both issued statements warning against any internal use after President Donald Trump suggested that people could get an "injection" of "the disinfectant that knocks (coronavirus) out in a minute."

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)," said a spokesperson for Reckitt Benckiser, the United Kingdom-based owner of Lysol, in a statement to NBC News."

Dubya got a bad rap. This guy is obviously the dumbest President in US history.

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When I first saw Trump's allies in the media saying "Fake news, he never said 'inject yourself with bleach!'" I first wrote it off as the usual lying and gaslighting they do. But I thought more about it, and I realized this was their way of protecting their lives of their viewers, who uncritically follow Trump's advice... their was no ideologically approved space for them to contradict the President or allege he could possibly be wrong, but they knew people would die if they said nothing, so pinning it on the media was their way of helping their viewers without appearing to disrespect Trump.

How about he literally never told people to inject themselves with bleach - Why isn't that enough?  He said injecting with disinfectant was something doctors should look into.  It was a confused statement from him but he wasn't instructing people to do something dangerous.

It's almost as if some people want to spread the idea that Trump told people to drink bleach in hopes that some Trump fan will actually do it and it will make Trump look bad.

Perhaps this is why he needs to stop giving medical advice? Hopefully this is the end of these ridiculous press conferences. Just let the competent people like Dr. Fauci and VP Pence speak.

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I'm sorry, but if there is no hope of a vaccine happening anytime soon by this time next year, I'm just not going to care about any "social distancing" or whatever.

I have a less than 0.1% chance of dying if I even contract this disease, why the hell should I have to waste nearly my entire 20s being afraid of this? And I'm certainly not alone in this either.

If we keep getting data that suggests the actual number of cases are 10-15x the number of confirmed cases, with the vast majority of those cases being people who had a mild upper respiratory tract infection or did not show any symptoms whatsoever, I would have to agree with you. That being said we cannot ignore what happened in Italy, Spain and New York. We can't let this disease rip through the vulnerable population. How do we keep them separate from the rest of the population?

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https://www.yourbasin.com/news/ector-county-swat-team-raids-local-bar-for-protesting-to-reopen/

Texas shows how to deal with protesters.

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A Broadband Engineer Was Spat on by a 5G Conspiracy Theorist. Then He Got Coronavirus: In UK the attacks on network workers are getting more frequent, brazen, and violent.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4ayg8g/a-broadband-engineer-was-spat-on-by-a-5g-conspiracy-theorist-now-he-has-coronavirus?utm_source=reddit.com

These people need to be arrested and brought up on terrorism charges.

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(Warning: NSFW - bad language) - This is what happens when you make masks mandatory. Not that we should let that stop us.

There is a very simple way to deal with these people. Call the police on them and let them deal with it. And if they assault the employees in any sort of way they should be charged with terrorism.

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We need a better system for getting a single message out to people during a pandemic in a non-political way.

Not having a president like Trump, who can't resist scoring political points, would help a lot with that as well. I don't remember either Obama or Christie grandstand when Hurricane Sandy was pounding the NYC area. Indeed, they worked together and helped out the people of that area and were rewarded for it. I hope Trump gets shellacked.

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I'm very encouraged to start seeing a semblance of normality resume in the Jackson suburbs.  Crowded streets/shops, restaurants seem relatively busy (still at 50% though), and less people choosing to wear face masks.

Meanwhile, King Emperor Chokwe A. Lumumba has decided that restaurants/gyms in the City of Jackson can go ahead and reopen tomorrow, but he's implementing a new citywide curfew as well as a mask mandate to go into effect over the weekend.  If he believes this to be the right course of action, where were these mandates 2-4 weeks ago?  In a press conference announcing the end of the city's SAHO, he said he was only allowing reopening so the city wouldn't become an "island".  So the mayor is opening the city while simultaneously chastising the Republican suburbs for doing the same; a nakedly cowardly move to have his political cake and eat it too.  His motivations appear misplaced.

Moreover, I've been increasingly discouraged by the continuing/escalation of rhetoric (mostly on local social media, but also parroted in the media) that any relaxation of social distancing or a personal decision by individuals to not wear PPE is "going to kill grandma" or whatever.  That was never the point of social distancing.  The point was never to stop new cases, but to prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed (which now seems like an extinct possibility).  Under both curves, grandma still probably gets COVID-19 and may die.  The hospital system is as ready as its ever going to be, so for that reason it's time to end the lockdown.

The point of the lockdowns was to prevent the medical care system from being overwhelmed. The point of social distancing is the prevent infections and save lives.

So fine, end the forced lockdowns, but please stay home anyway as much as possible, wear masks, and maintain 6 feet. 😳

Thank you! The lockdowns should end in most places but social distancing must continue. Otherwise we will have another outbreak and end up in the same place. Wearing masks indoors, washing your hands before touching your mouth, eyes and nose and trying to stay 6 feet apart are common sense steps to take.

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I certainly hope that mask wearing will not be the norm for that long.

I don't even think it's as common as it was a few weeks ago.

When I went out on Tuesday in public outdoor spaces, unmasked people outnumbered masked people 79 to 1.

Although it is debatable how much benefit masks provide outdoors, they are certainly effective indoors in achieving source control. Having to wear a mask indoors is a small price to pay to be able to get back to a more normal life. And once we have a vaccine or have achieved herd immunity, we won't have to wear masks anymore. That being said, wearing masks would help stop the spread of the flu and common cold as well. What exactly does it cost you to wear a mask?

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bruh some of my friends on facebook were sharing this thing that said that 90% of ppl who got covid infections got it in their own damn house.

now why tf was lockdown a thing then?? that's messed up brah.

it's times like this i am glad i live in a red state where the gov won't shut us down again.

i'd actually rather die than live through quarantine a second time, and i think a lot of ppl feel the same way.

Just wear a damn mask tho

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Yeah I'm not effing around with this crap until there's vaccine. Teleworking as much as possible. Trips to get groceries are about all I'm planning to do. Maybe some more family visits but we all wear masks. Still wash my hands after handling the mail.

And we have people, even on this forum,  seriously advocating for deliberate infection camps. You can't make this up.

Those people are just absolutely out of touch with reality.