Topic: Is the Corona virus the elephant in the room?

[smokester]

I thought this was rather nifty:

[goldshirt*9]

lots going around on making masks, will be the norm for the young ones,
Designer of course  .

[smokester]

I have heard of a lot of people taking the piss out of some of the income support schemes as they are still working as close to usual. It's not really their fault as all the government asked was whether your business had been "adversely affected" by the coronavirus. If your business was down by 10% that would be true, however, the chancellor pays you 80% of your normal earnings so you end up 70% better off in this example.

Surely the solution is just to ask people to submit their downturn and then calculate how to balance that up for them?

If at the end of the next financial year I am up on last year, I'd pay it back voluntarily. I bet I'm alone in that thinking.

[smokester]

All of a sudden it's like the coronavirus doesn't exist. I don't know whether that's through natural boredom of the issue, other, bigger fish to worry about, or that the virus is genuinely less of a threat to us.

It's all a bit confusing to be honest.

[6pairsofshoes]

I think people have short attention spans.  The virus is as prevalent and as dangerous as ever.  It mystifies me that they are relaxing the restrictions on some businesses.  And the recent spate of demonstrations with people using limited PPE and social distancing concerns me.

Our county has 3805 known cases with 101 deaths.  My reaction to this is to stay home as much as I can.

How are London and its surroundings faring?

[8ullfrog]

Mom got in a fight at the market. She was masked up, and a jackass without one kept trying to edge her out of aisles by standing close.

It is a good thing I was not there.

Nothing physical, no laws broken, but she came home very shook up. No hamburger buns or horseradish either, but that's extremely minor compared to her wellbeing.

golly that guy.

[6pairsofshoes]

I am often tasked with pointing to the clearly marked red squares on the floor that people seem oblivious to.  I'm standing in line, waiting my turn to check out and there are BIG BRIGHT RED squares indicating 6 foot distances where you should stand.  Like they have pictures of footprints in them and everything.  How people can ignore those mystifies me, but there's often some oblivious idiot who insists on standing closer than 6 ft from me and I have to request, politely, that they back up.  At least up here, you can't even enter the store without a mask.

The other thing that the stores have attempted to do is to limit passage through the aisles by making them one way.  There are directional signs on the floor at the entrance to the aisles.  Absolutely nobody pays attention to those.  I'll enter the aisle if there's nobody in there, but people just don't heed them in general.

I go as little as possible.  It is hard to know if there will be a second wave, with even worse interruption to the food supply.  Some people act like the whole business is over.  I wish it were.  I'm sure everyone is exhausted by this pandemic.

[smokester]

How are London and its surroundings faring?

Pretty much standing room only in public spaces.

We've been told that it's 1 in 1000 that actually has the virus on the south east, and that the risk is minimal in the open air. Add those 2 facts together and sprinkle on a little Dominic Cummings spite, and no one gives a damn any more.

[Beatrix]

It is exhausting, but I'm still keeping my distance from people and places as much as ever.  In Indiana here people aren't wearing masks anymore and I'm still waiting tables, we the employees still must wear masks, but the boss caught wind that the masks will not be mandatory by July.  That I doubt.

[goldshirt*9]

be safe wear one.
Dont know what to say about England, People think were over it 
Hospital where wife works is solid with covid patients again. 2 weeks after EID and BLM marches then bang.
Looking at the pictures of Bournemouth and I think it will be a 3rd or 4th spike let alone 2nd spike  :'( :'(

[smokester]

I got news today that one of my former workers (painter and decorator) died from the virus a couple of months ago. He was a filipino.

He was especially good at his trade and looked up to by all of his colleagues. He was one of the few guys that worked for me that asked me to teach him my techniques. Most, if not all if the others (I had 12 working for me on that particular contract) thought they knew it all already.

R.I P. Elma.

[6pairsofshoes]

I'm sorry to hear about your coworker, smokes.  That's pretty sad, since he was probably in the prime of his life. 

goldie, I hope your wife can stay safe. I worry about doctors, dentists, nurses, and other health care professionals who have to come into close contact with so many people every day, many of whom are ill.  I shake my head at the number of Americans who refer to people who insist on wearing masks as 'sheep.' 

[8ullfrog]

I believe the hope was that the curve of the virus would drop by July 1st, so long as everyone took precautions.

Since all the idiots decided they were done staying inside and wearing masks May 1st, that's out the window.

[smokester]

We all might just as well write off 2020 completely. To be frank, I would totally sign up to the idea of a do-over.

If we ain't near some kind of normality by 2021, then stop the world I definitely want to get off.

[dweez]

We definitely qualify for a "mercy rule" calling of the game.