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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 3:31:05 GMT 1
Degenerates.
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 4:48:48 GMT 1
I fear this might lead to some kind of a Germanic tribal chauvinism/racism toward "Latins", but this is absolutely striking. German-speaking people doing much better re: Covid-19 than French/Italian-speaking ones across nations. France is cut off on the left side, but it says "27,9" per 100k. Germany, German-speaking Switzerland, and Austria have almost identical per capita numbers, and so do France and French-speaking Switzerland. I doubt cultural/geographical proximity alone can explain this. These are not subtle differences or rough uniformity.  |
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 5:10:09 GMT 1
I stopped paying attention to the BBC a while ago. I never thought I would ever come to the point where I prefer NHK to BBC. Crap reporting on the pandemic since Day One too.  |
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 16:35:03 GMT 1
So, Donald Trump finally realized, after getting Covid himself, that he had treated senior citizens - even the wealthy ones - like shit.
Too late.
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 17:03:25 GMT 1
New York has been pretty impressive so far in that the state has pretty much gone solo, and is basically doing South Korea plus New Zealand plus Australia plus a bit of Japan inside an absolutely Covid-fucked country. They do shit tons of tests every day, and actually do have plans for the positive cases. They do rigorous contact tracing, and cluster busting. Plus strict mask and ventilation mandates. Their policies and implementations are specific and targeted. Highly, highly organized.
There is some enforcement problem, and Cuomo and de Blasio keep having cat fights as always, but overall, it has been working so far.
I half expected the whole thing to collapse at some point, and new cases and hospitalizations to shoot back up, especially since quite a few international examples showed that it's not wise to have faith in (alleged) partial immunity (e.g. Indian cities, Madrid, etc.). But that hasn't happened, and they are running things as if there was no such thing as herd immunity, full or partial.
Very wise.
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rictor
Intermediate Member
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Post by rictor on Oct 11, 2020 17:19:11 GMT 1
Around May I started getting some mild cold symptoms, random muscle cramps and chest pains. I got tested and it was negative, but now it's October and every now and then the same symptoms pop up. So maybe I got infected at some point and I'm a long hauler, maybe I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, maybe my body is weakening from lack of exercise. Haven't been to the gym since February. It actually opened up again about two months ago, but I told my trainer I'm not comfortable taking classes right now; we're allowed to punch each other in the face for 90 minutes, but as soon as we walk out the gym we have to maintain our 1.5m/5ft distance again. That's the most backward bullshit I've ever heard. So what I'm missing is that I haven't really worked out, seen most of my friends and haven't been to a restaurant or movie theater since at least February. I live with relatives so I'm around people every day, but things can get a bit boring even for an introvert like me who enjoys being at home. Since I'm currently only part-time working remotely I also regularly see my colleagues at the office, but I don't consider any of them friends so I could do without seeing them lol. There are at least two people I know that passed away from COVID-19; an elderly man (relative of close friends) and a middle aged one (somewhat of a loose acquaintance). The first one actually got infected in a hospital in Belgium, I'm not sure about the second one. A bunch of people I know have gotten sick with symptoms varying from very mild flu-like symptoms to being hospitalized with more serious issues like having trouble breathing. It's not mandatory here, but I do wear a mask when doing things like grocery shopping or getting some take-out, basically any situation where I'm in a public building. I'll be happy when there's a vaccine that allows us all to be more comfortable with the idea of roaming around more freely, but at the same time I won't be first in line to get it since there's always that sense of feeling a bit like a labrat. Not that I'm on some anti-vaxxer bullshit, but this situation is unlike any other we've been through in what I consider 'modern' history. For me on the contrary. My colleagues are like the only good thing about my job (well, the work I currently do ain't that bad but I apparently love to complain). We still work normally like nothing happened and since I live with my family I'm among people 7 days a week. Guess it helps. Would probably be tougher not being able to talk to anyone. Fortunately, nobody I know passed away from COVID. I hope it stays that way. Masks will be now mandatory everywhere outside and I hope everybody will comply. But there already were protests against introducing any restrictions in regards to covid pandemic :/ Feels like I already heard it before. Some people can only learn the hard way. Not that I believe masks will protect you with 100% probability, maybe not even with 50%. But if they prevent spreading the virus with even at least 1% then I'll wear them. And it's not that I fear for myself. Wouldn't want to infect anyone if I can help it. Hope everyone of us, our families and friends will get through it. Stay safe friends. |
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 17:31:57 GMT 1
I don't know how many times I've had to say, "Deaths are a lagging indicator," in the last few weeks.
It's astonishing that there are TONS of people out there who still don't get it. I really don't know how that's possible.
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 17:37:27 GMT 1
Around May I started getting some mild cold symptoms, random muscle cramps and chest pains. I got tested and it was negative, but now it's October and every now and then the same symptoms pop up. So maybe I got infected at some point and I'm a long hauler, maybe I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, maybe my body is weakening from lack of exercise. Haven't been to the gym since February. It actually opened up again about two months ago, but I told my trainer I'm not comfortable taking classes right now; we're allowed to punch each other in the face for 90 minutes, but as soon as we walk out the gym we have to maintain our 1.5m/5ft distance again. That's the most backward bullshit I've ever heard. So what I'm missing is that I haven't really worked out, seen most of my friends and haven't been to a restaurant or movie theater since at least February. I live with relatives so I'm around people every day, but things can get a bit boring even for an introvert like me who enjoys being at home. Since I'm currently only part-time working remotely I also regularly see my colleagues at the office, but I don't consider any of them friends so I could do without seeing them lol. There are at least two people I know that passed away from COVID-19; an elderly man (relative of close friends) and a middle aged one (somewhat of a loose acquaintance). The first one actually got infected in a hospital in Belgium, I'm not sure about the second one. A bunch of people I know have gotten sick with symptoms varying from very mild flu-like symptoms to being hospitalized with more serious issues like having trouble breathing. It's not mandatory here, but I do wear a mask when doing things like grocery shopping or getting some take-out, basically any situation where I'm in a public building. I'll be happy when there's a vaccine that allows us all to be more comfortable with the idea of roaming around more freely, but at the same time I won't be first in line to get it since there's always that sense of feeling a bit like a labrat. Not that I'm on some anti-vaxxer bullshit, but this situation is unlike any other we've been through in what I consider 'modern' history. For me on the contrary. My colleagues are like the only good thing about my job (well, the work I currently do ain't that bad but I apparently love to complain). We still work normally like nothing happened and since I live with my family I'm among people 7 days a week. Guess it helps. Would probably be tougher not being able to talk to anyone. Fortunately, nobody I know passed away from COVID. I hope it stays that way. Masks will be now mandatory everywhere outside and I hope everybody will comply. But there already were protests against introducing any restrictions in regards to covid pandemic :/ Feels like I already heard it before. Some people can only learn the hard way. Not that I believe masks will protect you with 100% probability, maybe not even with 50%. But if they prevent spreading the virus with even at least 1% then I'll wear them. And it's not that I fear for myself. Wouldn't want to infect anyone if I can help it. Hope everyone of us, our families and friends will get through it. Stay safe friends. Masks work. The evidence is overwhelming at this point. Ignore the contrarians. They work better than you think. Most people in Europe don't seem to understand how much ambiguity has been removed from the question of masks' efficacy already. And like I said a couple of times, yes, masks are akin to vaccines; Their efficacy depends a lot on the percentage of mask wearing in your community. So wear them, and encourage others to do so. I'm not a "believer" in masks. Faith has nothing to do with it. It's plain common sense at this point. Masks should be semi-permanently mandatory. They aren't 100%, of course. Nothing is. That's where social distancing, ventilation, and hand washing come into it. We need multiple filters, and masks are the first defense. Stay safe. Oh, and don't talk with friends/colleagues while eating. People should just stop doing it altogether. |
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 17:42:44 GMT 1
This is a good picture, but ventilation is missing. Most of the countries that are having a hard time now seem to have largely missed the importance of ventilation/fresh air. Japanese cluster analyses indicate that it's very, very, very important. A vast majority of clusters occurred at poorly ventilated/non-ventilated places.  |
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rictor
Intermediate Member
Posts: 396
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Post by rictor on Oct 11, 2020 17:57:51 GMT 1
Oh, I don't eat at work. In fact I eat very little, so that I lost like 2kg in 2 months not doing any exercise other than some push-ups. But will remember to tell others to do so, just like I regularly give this one guy that doesn't want to wear masks a hard time over it. Thanks misc.
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 18:03:44 GMT 1
Poorly ventilated office space is a major cluster factory too. The problem is that at office you stay at one spot for a long time. If some super-spreader type brought SARS-CoV-2 into the office, you can not only get infected but also get sick too due to the relatively high viral load.
Viral load does seem to matter a lot. Yours truly practically drank SARS-CoV-2 juice, so I was bound to get sick. VERY high viral load.
Nonetheless, the one who (probably) infected me infected several others, and I seem to be the mildest case in the infected-by-her group.
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 11, 2020 18:13:51 GMT 1
Oh, I don't eat at work. In fact I eat very little, so that I lost like 2kg in 2 months not doing any exercise other than some push-ups. But will remember to tell others to do so, just like I regularly give this one guy that doesn't want to wear masks a hard time over it. Thanks misc. Sure thing, man. No Talking While Eating/Drinking is really my pet peeve. More than half of the most Covid-19-dangerous events involve eating and drinking (and sometimes singing) in a group. Talking in proximity is bad enough, but doing so while eating makes the lives of the viruses in saliva a lot easier. People spray out a lot more saliva when talking while eating than when just talking, and much of it does land on other people's dishes too. Indoor restaurants, bars and pubs wouldn't be much of a problem if the customers only talked, with masks on or at least at a good distance, BEFORE and AFTER eating/drinking. But much of the fan (and point) of dining lies in chatting WHILE eating and drinking, unfortunately. |
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 12, 2020 0:54:25 GMT 1
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bol
Novice Member
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Post by bol on Oct 12, 2020 6:09:22 GMT 1
I tested which idiom comes close to my school/tourist English as a German (few things I had to guess though based on what sounds good) and I had a similar result. New York, Newark, Yonkers.
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Post by miscmisc on Oct 12, 2020 11:59:01 GMT 1
I tested which idiom comes close to my school/tourist English as a German (few things I had to guess though based on what sounds good) and I had a similar result. New York, Newark, Yonkers. That's pretty weird actually, lol. The dialects in the Northeast in general are far from standard American English. Even urban Texan English (DFW/Houston/San Antonio) is a lot closer to the standard. The so-called "BBC English" of America is a Midwestern dialect. But I suppose that has something to do with Hollywood movies/TV shows (many take place in New York, although they often don't speak like New Yorkers at all). Non-Americans tend to learn a substantial part of their colloquial English words/idioms from them. |
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