Coronavirus prep

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  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
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    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Seems like the tut tutting is in full force, so you are not right about that.

    Personally, I'm okay with anyone having outdoor events with (I would hope) vaxxed people, but it seems like there is going to be (unhelpful) tut tutting of anyone one disapproves of politically no matter what the event.

    My neighborhood is planning a block party, so come tut tut us.

    It's possible to approve of someone politically and disapprove of their holding a party with hundreds of people during a pandemic, even if it's outside, even if in theory they're all supposed to be vaccinated (IMO, if you get together a group that large, you're going to have at least a couple of dozen who are lying about being vaccinated).

    While his estate may be big enough that hundreds of people could theoretically wander the grounds at a safe distance from each other, I doubt that was the prevailing behavior at an occasion with music, dancing, food, drink, and the opportunity to get within elbow-rubbing distance of Beyonce.

    Given the evidence that vaccinated people can still transmit it, odds are a large number of people are going to go back to their lives (a few may even fly commercial -- gasp!! -- back to their lives) and create new transmissions chains that will end up reaching folks who are unvaccinated because they can't get vaccinated. I just think throwing an extravagant birthday party under pandemic conditions is a really bad look. If somebody wants to act like a narcissist, they shouldn't be surprised when other people call them on it.

    I think the only people who can claim consistency on this one is (1) habitual opponents of mask-wearing and other pandemic-control measures who shrug their shoulders at Obama's party and (2) habitual supporters of mask-wearing and other pandemic-control measures who tut-tut over Obama's party.

    Some of us have been consistent that outdoor events are low risk, and have been consistent with that despite the political leanings of any particular event. The exception, of course, is when an outdoor event has a whole lot of indoor gatherings along with it... one in particular comes to mind where many profile government officials became infected as a result. In short, consistency is consistency whether they fall under your categories or not.

    If hundreds of people are under a couple of tents dancing with each other, I think the distinction between indoor and outdoor becomes fairly academic.

    Tents have walls and ceilings, so I would agree there. If it's just a conopy (without walls), I don't see it as "inside."
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
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    33gail33 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Seems like the tut tutting is in full force, so you are not right about that.

    Personally, I'm okay with anyone having outdoor events with (I would hope) vaxxed people, but it seems like there is going to be (unhelpful) tut tutting of anyone one disapproves of politically no matter what the event.

    My neighborhood is planning a block party, so come tut tut us.

    It's possible to approve of someone politically and disapprove of their holding a party with hundreds of people during a pandemic, even if it's outside, even if in theory they're all supposed to be vaccinated (IMO, if you get together a group that large, you're going to have at least a couple of dozen who are lying about being vaccinated).

    While his estate may be big enough that hundreds of people could theoretically wander the grounds at a safe distance from each other, I doubt that was the prevailing behavior at an occasion with music, dancing, food, drink, and the opportunity to get within elbow-rubbing distance of Beyonce.

    Given the evidence that vaccinated people can still transmit it, odds are a large number of people are going to go back to their lives (a few may even fly commercial -- gasp!! -- back to their lives) and create new transmissions chains that will end up reaching folks who are unvaccinated because they can't get vaccinated. I just think throwing an extravagant birthday party under pandemic conditions is a really bad look. If somebody wants to act like a narcissist, they shouldn't be surprised when other people call them on it.

    I think the only people who can claim consistency on this one is (1) habitual opponents of mask-wearing and other pandemic-control measures who shrug their shoulders at Obama's party and (2) habitual supporters of mask-wearing and other pandemic-control measures who tut-tut over Obama's party.

    I think that the people who can claim consistency on this are those that consistently adhere to whatever the current public health guidelines are in effect in their area at a given time.

    My family are holding two gatherings (weddings) over the next several weeks - both of which will follow or exceed the guidelines that our public health department has set out. I wouldn't say we are narcissists.

    Unfortunately, public health guidelines have tended to be extremely reactive and based on trailing indicators. After cases and hospitalizations spiked in 2020 after Easter, and after Memorial Day cookouts, and after July 4 cookouts, I didn't need to wait until late September for local public health guidance to be tweaked to know that anybody I encountered a few days after Labor Day was statistically more likely to be infected than they were a few days before. We haven't got this under control and public health guidelines that repeatedly have encouraged loosening up as though we have it under control only to be followed by new surges haven't really helped matters.

    And the remark about acting like a narcissist was aimed at extremely wealthy and famous people who largely have far more ability than the rest of us to control their risk from things like shopping or public transit and nevertheless choose to create a publicized spectacle of hundreds of people in close quarters, outside or not.

    I've been feeling guilty that I attended a couple of funerals during the recent brief period of very low transmission/incidence rates locally, even though I was vaccinated and everyone I knew who was going was vaccinated and I and most other people wore masks for the indoor portion in spaces that were definitely well below 50% capacity. And now things are spiking again.

    So I just don't have any patience left for people who apparently think that after 600,000+ deaths in this country alone, you can't be happy with a nice meal or cookout and cake and ice cream with immediate family and maybe a few close friends who don't have to jet across the country to get there -- speaking of which, I could go live in a cave for the rest of my life eating only what I could forage and go naked when my current clothing wears out and the reduction in my carbon footprint might make up half of the carbon emissions generated by people just flying to this party, if I lived to 110!

    Not sure where you are in the US - I looked at a few of the stats for states down there and given the abysmal vaccination rates you seem to be in a much different situation than we are up here. Also I believe from everything I have heard that our public health measures have been much more restrictive than yours, we have never come out of indoor masking and capacity limits for events.

    Tbh I have paid only peripheral attention to what is going on in the US, but a lot of it seems pretty negative.

    I expect our divergent opinions are influenced by the different ways we have experienced the pandemic based on our location, and given what I have heard about the US situation I understand your frustration.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    Stephen Colbert was originally invited to the Obama birthday party but was cut in the scaling back. However, he and his wife still went to Martha's Vineyard for the weekend, and was spotted by photographers at the airport, leading the media to think he still went to the party.

    https://youtu.be/tYz7OgTaIo8
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,454 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Stephen Colbert was originally invited to the Obama birthday party but was cut in the scaling back. However, he and his wife still went to Martha's Vineyard for the weekend, and was spotted by photographers at the airport, leading the media to think he still went to the party.

    https://youtu.be/tYz7OgTaIo8

    Bet Stephen is PO'ed he didn't make the cut.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
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    On the subject of less recently vaxxed folks, my mother keeps bothering me to get her an appointment for a booster shot. I tell her that isn’t a thing yet, and she can’t get it through her head, and ten minutes later tells me to make an appointment with her doctor to discuss getting her a booster shot. It’s because her news feed is full of discussion of people needing booster shots, she just can’t wrap her head around the fact that it’s not happening.

    But it is happening but I don't know how!