So Colorado is basically open again and here are my impressions.
First, the amount of traffic is basically back to normal. Sadly. Most everything is open, though most businesses have maintained some safety rules. Costco actually added a requirement that you wear a mask now -- that wasn't true here last week. They also limit meat purchases to 3 items total (got some pork belly for the smoker! Yum!) to prevent hoarding with the coming meat shortage.
This tells me two things...
(1) The idea that the economy is going to turn back on and skyrocket back to near where it had been may be valid. I was expecting something much more tepid this week and we basically got full speed ahead. Just try getting into Home Depot, for example! This likely means that most people will get their jobs back and most smaller businesses will survive.
On that point, I saw an estimate that 60% of restaurants might close. That would be a huge victory actually, since 90%+ are doomed in the best of times. Airlines are doomed though.
(2) Some of the safety precautions will stay with us until this thing is cured and then some. Businesses clearly are worried about getting sued (and presumably their employees' health). So look for the easy stuff to continue. Costco actually took out a huge section of junk food so they could do social distancing at the checkout lines.
Secondly, the dipsh*ts are back. Up to now, most of the people who have been out have been pretty smart. They've worn masks and didn't touch their eyes or noses and have been polite but cautious. Even if they weren't personally concerned, they were being courteous to others. In the last two days, though, I've seen a different sort emerge. These are people going around without masks, touching everything, and bumping into people. They are whining about the old folks hours set up by various stores and bragging about how they ain't no scared of no virus. Their behavior suggests the spike in cases will be higher than expected. On the plus side, the people most likely to get it at this point deserve it. Stay cautious folks until these people are out of the way.
Speaking of idiots, some Republican Congressman is refusing to wear a mask for religious grounds. What a tard. God does not suffer fools, so why do fools always use God as their excuse for their own stupidity? Does the Bible really have a catchall in it somewhere that says "insert your idiocy here?" No... it doesn't. For the record, nowhere does the Bible (or any other religious book) ever say that you cannot wear a mask or protect yourself from a plague.
Finally, as an interesting aside, I have a cousin in Germany who gets news on the US. It's interesting to hear what he's been told. Apparently, the Germans have been told that things in the US are a real mess, with vast numbers dead, empty grocery store shelves, everyone unemployed, and all around chaos. We have the worst infection rate, worst death rates, whites killing blacks, doctors killing themselves, and our government is fiddling as New York burns. That's the picture the media paints of us in its purest form. Liars.
First, the amount of traffic is basically back to normal. Sadly. Most everything is open, though most businesses have maintained some safety rules. Costco actually added a requirement that you wear a mask now -- that wasn't true here last week. They also limit meat purchases to 3 items total (got some pork belly for the smoker! Yum!) to prevent hoarding with the coming meat shortage.
This tells me two things...
(1) The idea that the economy is going to turn back on and skyrocket back to near where it had been may be valid. I was expecting something much more tepid this week and we basically got full speed ahead. Just try getting into Home Depot, for example! This likely means that most people will get their jobs back and most smaller businesses will survive.
On that point, I saw an estimate that 60% of restaurants might close. That would be a huge victory actually, since 90%+ are doomed in the best of times. Airlines are doomed though.
(2) Some of the safety precautions will stay with us until this thing is cured and then some. Businesses clearly are worried about getting sued (and presumably their employees' health). So look for the easy stuff to continue. Costco actually took out a huge section of junk food so they could do social distancing at the checkout lines.
Secondly, the dipsh*ts are back. Up to now, most of the people who have been out have been pretty smart. They've worn masks and didn't touch their eyes or noses and have been polite but cautious. Even if they weren't personally concerned, they were being courteous to others. In the last two days, though, I've seen a different sort emerge. These are people going around without masks, touching everything, and bumping into people. They are whining about the old folks hours set up by various stores and bragging about how they ain't no scared of no virus. Their behavior suggests the spike in cases will be higher than expected. On the plus side, the people most likely to get it at this point deserve it. Stay cautious folks until these people are out of the way.
Speaking of idiots, some Republican Congressman is refusing to wear a mask for religious grounds. What a tard. God does not suffer fools, so why do fools always use God as their excuse for their own stupidity? Does the Bible really have a catchall in it somewhere that says "insert your idiocy here?" No... it doesn't. For the record, nowhere does the Bible (or any other religious book) ever say that you cannot wear a mask or protect yourself from a plague.
Finally, as an interesting aside, I have a cousin in Germany who gets news on the US. It's interesting to hear what he's been told. Apparently, the Germans have been told that things in the US are a real mess, with vast numbers dead, empty grocery store shelves, everyone unemployed, and all around chaos. We have the worst infection rate, worst death rates, whites killing blacks, doctors killing themselves, and our government is fiddling as New York burns. That's the picture the media paints of us in its purest form. Liars.
7 comments:
The biggest thing I'm afraid of right now is lingering pessimism. Pessimism may be equated to hopelessness, and too much of that leads to dumb going on dangerous things.
For those of you whose states have opened up, let us know what you're seeing.
I saw something rather funny today. After being blasted over and over by the media because those crazy red states are opening up and they're going to have a bazillion dead, it turns out that the states with the worst increases are all blue states:
Minnesota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Washington, New Mexico, Virginia all top the list of worst increases. Then come some red and purple states. But that goes against the narrative, of course.
tryanmax, I think there will be pessimism, but it will be among groups who already sell themselves a pessimistic narrative -- lower income and minorities and other victim wannabes. I don't see it among the general public. So I don't think it will have a widespread effect, but it could cause some groups to become even more wards-of-the-state-ish and it could bring out some crazies... who've been remarkably quite of late.
Here's an interesting article suggesting that the Sundance Festival may have been a hotbed of coronavirus in January. This would be consistent with my theory that this spread through the celebrity world first. It actually would explain how so many got it on both coasts so fast.
LINK
> Up to now, most of the people who have been out have been pretty smart. They've worn masks and didn't touch their eyes or noses and have been polite but cautious. Even if they weren't personally concerned, they were being courteous to others.
And that is a great way to build anitbodies as well.
LA Times: How the coronavirus began as a disease of the rich
tryanmax, I saw that and I'm actually going to write about it. :)
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