The Covid19 thread

[Falcon Horus]

Good news... our infection numbers are going down again.

Bad news... Belgium is still a bright orange country on the European CDC map, leaning towards that one color nobody wants to be -- red.

The Tour de France is about to start next week, and oh boy... if all the riders and teams make it to Paris in one piece, that'll be a miracle. The moment an infection is suspected or someone has been in contact with a person who tested positive, the whole team has to leave the competition -- which would seriously suck if you are riding in the yellow jersey.

I hope they all get through okay, cause I've been looking forward to the excitement of the Tour. Yes, I'm a bit cycling fan and I have a lot of favorites in the tour, who I'm hoping will get their days to shine and show their talents to the fullest.

In the meantime, we have finally decided on a vacation spot, which we postponed as long as there was no guarantee where we would be able to go, but it looks (bar changing of any colors -- red is a no-go zone) like we'll be roadtripping from our hometown to the very southern village of Belgium, towards Reims and Nancy, and from there to the Alsace and the Vosgues area in France -- also light orange on the ECDC map but according to the Belgian government an area as of yet not off-limits.

Of course, I was secretly hoping we would be able to see some of the TdF but that won't happens cause trail leads through the lower part of France this year.

However, I still have two weeks of work to complete, with one half day off to go sign the deed to our new house, at which point we'll be the official owners of our new place. The highlight of 2020 in an otherwise sucky year.

Though, remember when people ask you where you were when John F. Kennedy was shot (1), or where you were when Chernobyl exploded (2), or the war in Ex-Yugoslavia started (3), or the Berlin Wall fell (4), or 9/11 happened (5)? When they're gonna ask where you were in 2020, nobody will have to think long about that cause we were all at home.

(1) November 22, 1963 -- I wasn't born yet. My parents were barely teenagers at that time.
(2) April 26, 1986 -- It was a saturday so out playing in our yard -- I do actually remember that period.
(3) June 26, 1991 -- I remember the period of the war, and seeing the images on TV which resulted in me feeling sad for a dead bird on a bridge once during a news report. I was 10 when that war started, OK.
(4) November 9, 1989 -- I remember seeing the news report but the significance then was lost on me. I was 8 years old.
(5) September 11, 2001 -- the most vivid off all mentioned. I just finished watching The X-Files film at my grandparents' house, when the extra news started. Saw the 2nd plane hit, and I have never ever seen my grandmother that scared before or again after. She was a refugee during WWII so all those memories had come flooding back. And second, I had an online Stargate friend who lived in New York. We didn't hear from her for several days, getting reports she was at the towers at the time of the attack. After 4 days, we got the news she was OK. Her brother and cousin weren't. She told us what she witnessed. I'll never ever forget those images, ever again.

[Annoyed]

Though, remember when people ask you where you were when John F. Kennedy was shot (1), or where you were when Chernobyl exploded (2), or the war in Ex-Yugoslavia started (3), or the Berlin Wall fell (4), or 9/11 happened (5)? When they're gonna ask where you were in 2020, nobody will have to think long about that cause we were all at home.

(1) November 22, 1963 -- I wasn't born yet. My parents were barely teenagers at that time.
(2) April 26, 1986 -- It was a saturday so out playing in our yard -- I do actually remember that period.
(3) June 26, 1991 -- I remember the period of the war, and seeing the images on TV which resulted in me feeling sad for a dead bird on a bridge once during a news report. I was 10 when that war started, OK.
(4) November 9, 1989 -- I remember seeing the news report but the significance then was lost on me. I was 8 years old.
(5) September 11, 2001 -- the most vivid off all mentioned. I just finished watching The X-Files film at my grandparents' house, when the extra news started. Saw the 2nd plane hit, and I have never ever seen my grandmother that scared before or again after. She was a refugee during WWII so all those memories had come flooding back. And second, I had an online Stargate friend who lived in New York. We didn't hear from her for several days, getting reports she was at the towers at the time of the attack. After 4 days, we got the news she was OK. Her brother and cousin weren't. She told us what she witnessed. I'll never ever forget those images, ever again.

# 1 I have a vague memory of watching the motorcade on the console style TV that was in the living room at the time.
# 2, 3 No specific event related memory, just that it was on the news.
# 4 I remember this on the news, and a great deal of political discussion in the media.
# 5 I was playing Everquest that morning.

I would like to add one event, the flight of Apollo 11, July 16 - 24, 1969. I have clear memories of watching this in a 19" GE Black & White TV out on the porch.

[Falcon Horus]

My roadtrip to the north of France goes down the Covid-19 drain... back to square one on the planning board.

And also, Belgium is readjusting its death numbers. 121 deaths were miscalculated as double or wrongfully attributed to Covid-19, so instead of 9996 deaths, we'll have a few less. However, we will reach 10K as people are still dying though only a handful the past weeks.

[Annoyed]

My roadtrip to the north of France goes down the Covid-19 drain... back to square one on the planning board.

You forget that we're never letting you back out again?

[Falcon Horus]

You forget that we're never letting you back out again?

Could have solved a lot of problems...

22% of infections in August were people getting infected on holiday, according to one of the scientist in the Covid-team over here.

And the province where I work has lifted the mandatory face mask rule. You still need to have it with you to be able to put it on when social distance cannot be guaranteed or there are too many people around, and they've ended the curfew.

Working from home is still mandatory so I'm not going back to the office for the foreseeable future, which I wasn't planning on doing anyway since my vacation starts a week from now.

My sister is less fortunate when it comes to working. Her company, the company that runs the main airport in Belgium, has decided that all employees are reduced to working a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 4 days a week, with one day economic unemployment.

The department within the company I work for is being hit hard too, and I have a sneaking suspicion we're barely keeping ourselves afloat at the moment. I think they will have to cut costs and that means letting people go. Thing is, at the moment, I'm being protected from being fired as I am a candidate in the social elections this year to represent the workers, which means that I have a guarantee of 1 year protection from getting fired, and should I get elected to the work council, I'll be protected for another 2 years.

Yet, I'll do everything in my power to protect my colleagues from the worst case scenario.

[Annoyed]

22% of infections in August were people getting infected on holiday, according to one of the scientist in the Covid-team over here.

We're starting to see another resurgence over here as colleges resume. Those that are trying the in-person route are rapidly discovering that young skulls full of mush don't pay a great deal of attention to CV rules, such as no large gatherings. Many schools are reporting busting kids for these and increasing infection rates as well.

Who could have foreseen that happening?

And the province where I work has lifted the mandatory face mask rule. You still need to have it with you to be able to put it on when social distance cannot be guaranteed or there are too many people around, and they've ended the curfew.

Mask requirements are getting stricter over here, for all the good it will do. There is mounting evidence that this spreads by aerosol as well as the little droplets.

Working from home is still mandatory so I'm not going back to the office for the foreseeable future, which I wasn't planning on doing anyway since my vacation starts a week from now.

My sister is less fortunate when it comes to working. Her company, the company that runs the main airport in Belgium, has decided that all employees are reduced to working a minimum of 2 to a maximum of 4 days a week, with one day economic unemployment.

The department within the company I work for is being hit hard too, and I have a sneaking suspicion we're barely keeping ourselves afloat at the moment. I think they will have to cut costs and that means letting people go. Thing is, at the moment, I'm being protected from being fired as I am a candidate in the social elections this year to represent the workers, which means that I have a guarantee of 1 year protection from getting fired, and should I get elected to the work council, I'll be protected for another 2 years.

Yet, I'll do everything in my power to protect my colleagues from the worst case scenario.

Well, it's good that your nest is feathered. But I don't think many people yet realize that businesses are going to use this as a cover for massive re-evaluation of their employee structures. Many jobs won't return at all, and many others will be filled by workers other than those who were "laid off". Many older folks will be forced into retirement years before they were ready to go.

[Falcon Horus]

Well, it's good that your nest is feathered. But I don't think many people yet realize that businesses are going to use this as a cover for massive re-evaluation of their employee structures. Many jobs won't return at all, and many others will be filled by workers other than those who were "laid off". Many older folks will be forced into retirement years before they were ready to go.

Several of my colleagues seem to be stuck in this illusion that all will be well, and I try telling them that it's not all rose-colored as they think it is, but as long as our company isn't making any statements that don't look like we're having the best year in ages, they're just going to go on believing, I guess.

We've already lost one colleague, who was fired in May during her sick-leave no less (burn-out), and we've been swamped with so much work that we had to do with just 2 people (which otherwise we'd been able to do with 3) as 1 is on vacation (on rotation too cause when she comes back next week, I'll be the one taking 3 weeks off).

[VampyreWraith]

My daughter goes to a NYC public school. As of right now, when schools start after Labor Day, she's going to be going to school in person, one day a week, the rest of the school week is going to be online. This is going to be her first year of high school. I'm a bit nervous. She needs to take a city bus to get to school, that's my main concern. On a normal school day, in a normal school year, those busses are packed with kids (there is no room to even move, they're so packed). I'm hoping there's enough busses with enough space to safely accommodate the kids going back. I'm hoping since there will be a lot less kids going in at once it won't be a problem, but we'll see. I'm hoping it all works out and people don't start getting sick again. For the past few week NY has had less than 1% of tests come back positive (for the past few weeks, the state has also been cracking down and suspending the liquor lisenses of bars and restaurants that have repeated safety violations, so that may have helped bring the numbers down). We'll see how long that lasts once kids are back in school catching who knows what (because you know a lot of them won't be careful the whole day, especially during the times they are unsupervised, the little ones might forget and the older ones might not care), and spreading it to their families when they get home.

I work full time at a clothing store, so far we've been doing better business wise this year, than last year. Everything is pretty much the same as it usually is, the only difference is that everyone is wearing masks, not standing as close, and we clean more. I found a mask that's really breathable on Amazon. I've tried a few, including the ones that my store sells, but this one particular kind of mask feels like I'm barely wearing one. I basically run around all day at work (I don't sit in an office or stand behind a register), and we're required to wear masks, so wearing one that is breathable is a big thing for me.

[Annoyed]

Yeah, we know enough about this to justify re-opening everything... BS.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/coron...-tissue-report

https://www.foxnews.com/health/coron...et-pipes-study

So, we're learning that it damages people's hearts, and there might be far more paths to spread this than we suspected. How's that mask going to protect you sitting on the can?

[Falcon Horus]

You're supposed to wash your hands afterwards.

[Annoyed]

You're supposed to wash your hands afterwards.

I think you misunderstand the direction the attack is coming from.

[Who Knows]

I see FH's logic. After sitting on the can you have to wash your hands to stop the spread of germs.
And invariably some little darling has smashed the hand-dryer or shoved all the hand towels down the can, so you use your mask to dry your hands.

HTH

[Annoyed]

I see FH's logic. After sitting on the can you have to wash your hands to stop the spread of germs.
And invariably some little darling has smashed the hand-dryer or shoved all the hand towels down the can, so you use your mask to dry your hands.

HTH

According to the article I referenced, It seems that CV can spread via the sewer pipes..

“The possibility of aerosol transport through sewage pipe after flushing the toilet at the 15th-floor restroom was confirmed by an onsite tracer simulation experiment showing that aerosols were found in the restroom of apartments on the 25th floor and 27th floor," the study authors stated in the published report.

So, you're sitting there taking a dump, or even a leak if you're female, and it is spreading from the bowl and the pipes which service the fixture. What are they going to require next? Masks on our rear ends?

My point is that I don't think we know half of what there is to know about how CV is transmitted or what effects it can have. Yet, we are assuming that we know enough about it to relax restrictions, open non-essential businesses and such.

What was Mr. T's favorite insult?

Fool!

[Who Knows]

According to the article I referenced, It seems that CV can spread via the sewer pipes..



So, you're sitting there taking a dump, or even a leak if you're female, and it is spreading from the bowl and the pipes which service the fixture. What are they going to require next? Masks on our rear ends?

By jove! I think you have the answer. You do not have to sit there taking a dump, or whatever, you just get mummy to change your diaper on the change table & throw the thing in the can. Problem solved.

[Annoyed]

By jove! I think you have the answer. You do not have to sit there taking a dump, or whatever, you just get mummy to change your diaper on the change table & throw the thing in the can. Problem solved.

Don't give the govt. any ideas, let we all be required to wear diapers when outside the house.