Coronavirus prep

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  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    mph323 wrote: »
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    mph323 wrote: »
    There was a drive by shooting last night a couple of blocks from us. Same area where there have been several shootings in the past (one just last year). Someone was airlifted to the hospital with a head wound. I know it has to do with just a few houses on that block but I'm still shaken.

    Then I get on Next Door to see what happened, and 5G lady is going on about towers going up secretly overnight without notification and it's very concerning. According to some conspiracy site she posted "the towers transmit waves that cause flu-like symptoms that worsen (just like coronavirus) even to the extent of death".

    Meanwhile my husband and I stopped by a friend's house to drop off a bike wheel that's been in the trunk of his car since he got furloughed. We talked face to face while she sat on the lawn and we sat in the car, and I was so pathetically happy to have an actual in person conversation.

    This is a strange conspiracy theory that has been thoroughly debunked.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-5g-idUSKBN2133TI

    Oh yeah, plenty of reliable sites debunking the insanity, that's a good one. This same person believes that 5G is a conspiracy by the government to monitor the activities of every one in th US (they need the internet capacity to do it). And the government will DELETE the post because they don't want anyone to know what they're doing. All I can say is

    1. Mobile providers can already trace the movements of anyone with an active cell phone. I think it's the CDC that's using the technology to track COVID-19 exposure and infection vectors. They don't need 5G to do that.

    2. What on earth is the government (or any agency) going to do with billions of reports of people going to work, the store, school, whatever most of us do on a daily basis? Who's going to pick through all that data to pinpoint Random Person who who attended last night's rally of people who suspect the government is tracking their every move?

    Not who. What. As in computers and algorithms. No, I'm not a conspiracy nut, but when you throw weak arguments like that at a conspiracy theory, you only make it easier for them to incorporate straw man arguments into their justifications.
  • Unicorn_Bacon
    Unicorn_Bacon Posts: 491 Member
    mph323 wrote: »
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    mph323 wrote: »
    There was a drive by shooting last night a couple of blocks from us. Same area where there have been several shootings in the past (one just last year). Someone was airlifted to the hospital with a head wound. I know it has to do with just a few houses on that block but I'm still shaken.

    Then I get on Next Door to see what happened, and 5G lady is going on about towers going up secretly overnight without notification and it's very concerning. According to some conspiracy site she posted "the towers transmit waves that cause flu-like symptoms that worsen (just like coronavirus) even to the extent of death".

    Meanwhile my husband and I stopped by a friend's house to drop off a bike wheel that's been in the trunk of his car since he got furloughed. We talked face to face while she sat on the lawn and we sat in the car, and I was so pathetically happy to have an actual in person conversation.

    This is a strange conspiracy theory that has been thoroughly debunked.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-5g-idUSKBN2133TI

    Oh yeah, plenty of reliable sites debunking the insanity, that's a good one. This same person believes that 5G is a conspiracy by the government to monitor the activities of every one in th US (they need the internet capacity to do it). And the government will DELETE the post because they don't want anyone to know what they're doing. All I can say is

    1. Mobile providers can already trace the movements of anyone with an active cell phone. I think it's the CDC that's using the technology to track COVID-19 exposure and infection vectors. They don't need 5G to do that.

    2. What on earth is the government (or any agency) going to do with billions of reports of people going to work, the store, school, whatever most of us do on a daily basis? Who's going to pick through all that data to pinpoint Random Person who who attended last night's rally of people who suspect the government is tracking their every move?

    Not who. What. As in computers and algorithms. No, I'm not a conspiracy nut, but when you throw weak arguments like that at a conspiracy theory, you only make it easier for them to incorporate straw man arguments into their justifications.

    Who also still can apply here, computers arent going to just set themselves up In a spot somewhere and decide on their own to sort through it all...

    If we have mobile and free thinking computers already that dont require any human prompting, I highly doubt they're interested in sorting through our boring lives lol
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    Another update from the Emerald Isle, Thursday afternoon we had an update from Taoiseach (Prime Minister) as our lockdown was previously meant to be until Easter Sunday, they've now extended the measures for a further 3 weeks and deferred school leaving exams until Jul/Aug.

    We are still permitted to take exercise within a 2km radius of our homes and essential services remain open including public transport to a very limited degree.

    I expect the measures may be extended again for a least a few weeks, as they are still struggling to get adequate testing/results in place to cope with the numbers. At present we've just over 10500 cases and 365 dead, doesn't seem much when you compare it to the likes of the USA/China/Italy/Spain but we have a population of less than 5 million in the Republic, so it's quite the impact.

    PS I'd like to say thanks to @snowflake954 for the updates out of Italy, I took your advice and ordered a mask, with some filters (not surgical level, I'd prefer to leave them available for the professionals but better than nothing and I'd rather be safe than sorry) just in case we do follow suit, as expected, they'll take some time to get here but hopefully should have them in a couple of weeks.

    That is quite the impact. My US state, Wisconsin, has a similar population although we are twice the size in area. As of yesterday, 3428 cases and 154 deaths. Our governor is taking it seriously (although you may have heard the legislators are not, refusing to allow our election day to be moved).

    Is the virus taking a similar path? Our two largest metropolitan areas have the highest numbers (as a percentage of population) and the rural areas have low numbers, some counties not having any confirmed cases.

    Sorry I thought I'd posted a reply to this yesterday, obviously didn't press the button in the end, anyway....

    Dublin and Cork (Where I am) have the most cases), these are the 2 most populated cities in the country and also where the 2 busiest airports are. Stats up to the 12th April had 5438 cases in County Dublin and 780 in County Cork. County Cork is pretty rural with the exception of the city and a small number of commuter towns, it is nothing like the built-up areas of Dublin and surrounding counties, so we're quite lucky in that respect down here. All counties have some cases, the lowest being County Sligo & County Roscommon but they are both quite small and are pretty rural counties.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    Given the discussion about Operation Gridlock, I found it somewhat ironic that due to weather conditions (at least in part), there was a 50 car pile up on the Kennedy Expressway here this morning, leading to much of the Kennedy getting temporarily shut down and 14 people being transported to the hospital. And that was super early, at a time when even in normal times traffic is moving pretty well (but then moving pretty well contributes more to skidding on ice). (This does not make me more sympathetic to screwing with traffic and preventing other cars from getting through as a protest, no matter who does it.)
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    Athijade wrote: »
    Now, personally, I am not doing well. My mental health has for sure been in a decline. Anxiety has been okay in most situations though I do find I am hyper aware of people around me when I do have to go out. Grocery shopping is hell right now. However, it is my depression that really has me worried. I am in a dark place with now. Last night was really bad. I kept having to remind myself that people do care about me and that my cats needed me. I am the worst I have been since my dad passed away 1.5 years ago. Somedays I just wonder why I even keep trying. It's been rough. My mood is all over the place. I am snapping way to easily at little slights. So I apologize if I have come off harsh at times. No excuses because I should be able to handle myself. I'm just not in a good place right now.

    That's tough, I'm sorry. I have some darker days too, and am finding that I feel best when I have specific projects (including work, but also in addition to work) that I plan to do and complete, no matter how small. Among other things, it keeps me from obsessing about everything I'm worried about but can do nothing about right now. Interaction of some sort helps too -- this online German class I'm taking is helpful, and just signing up for Zoom discussions or webinars has helped me feel connected, and a friend group is planning a get together that way. Going outside when it's nice helps too, although I get the tradeoff if that makes you feel anxious. Little things like reading books and having my rooms be as bright as possible (I am probably going to have higher electrical bills than usual, but it makes a difference, as does opening the windows when it's light out).

    I know some are able to do a virtual therapy session too, if you think that might help.
    Females seem to be showing as positive more, but males are dying at a much larger rate (37.7% female to 59.7% male). Will be interesting to see the science that comes out of this statistic to explain it.

    We (Chicago) have a similar stat, but not as extreme: woman are 48.5% of known cases, but only 41.5% of deaths.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
    edited April 2020
    mph323 wrote: »
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    mph323 wrote: »
    There was a drive by shooting last night a couple of blocks from us. Same area where there have been several shootings in the past (one just last year). Someone was airlifted to the hospital with a head wound. I know it has to do with just a few houses on that block but I'm still shaken.

    Then I get on Next Door to see what happened, and 5G lady is going on about towers going up secretly overnight without notification and it's very concerning. According to some conspiracy site she posted "the towers transmit waves that cause flu-like symptoms that worsen (just like coronavirus) even to the extent of death".

    Meanwhile my husband and I stopped by a friend's house to drop off a bike wheel that's been in the trunk of his car since he got furloughed. We talked face to face while she sat on the lawn and we sat in the car, and I was so pathetically happy to have an actual in person conversation.

    This is a strange conspiracy theory that has been thoroughly debunked.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-5g-idUSKBN2133TI

    Oh yeah, plenty of reliable sites debunking the insanity, that's a good one. This same person believes that 5G is a conspiracy by the government to monitor the activities of every one in th US (they need the internet capacity to do it). And the government will DELETE the post because they don't want anyone to know what they're doing. All I can say is

    1. Mobile providers can already trace the movements of anyone with an active cell phone. I think it's the CDC that's using the technology to track COVID-19 exposure and infection vectors. They don't need 5G to do that.

    2. What on earth is the government (or any agency) going to do with billions of reports of people going to work, the store, school, whatever most of us do on a daily basis? Who's going to pick through all that data to pinpoint Random Person who who attended last night's rally of people who suspect the government is tracking their every move?

    Not who. What. As in computers and algorithms. No, I'm not a conspiracy nut, but when you throw weak arguments like that at a conspiracy theory, you only make it easier for them to incorporate straw man arguments into their justifications.

    Yes ultimately computers will do the work but we are really far from having the capability to sort through billions upon billions of data bits to identify and track whatever info is considered a threat. We absolutely have the capability to target and capture communications that fall into specific threat categories but human analysts (themselves a scarce resource) are still required to determine how limited resources will be allocated.

    I don't agree it's a weak argument but I do agree it's unlikely to convince anyone who already believes [insert agency name] is hell-bent on tracking their every move that it's just not possible with the technology we have today or will have in the foreseeable future.

    I do believe that the type of targeted tracking we are capable of doing already feeds the fear some people have that someone is always looking over their shoulder. I also believe that that kind of tracking raises huge privacy red flags, even when used for what would be considered a good cause such as tracing tracking virus exposure.

    ETA I'm not a conspiracy theorist either 😄 My career has given me some insight into how tracking communications works, though I'm absolutely not claiming expert status or asserting my view as ground truth 😊