CoronaVirus news and updates (and how it's affecting you)

[IndigoErth]

So let the confusion being... "stay at home" order starts Tuesday morning, and have no idea if or how this applies to me. Suppose I aught to message my supervisor.


edit: Supervisor asking if I could cover a couple other Walgreens for someone who had decided to stop working for now. So... uh... yay, more hours? But boo more exposure? Kind of annoys me because if someone calls out then someone else has to pick up the slack and my supervisor is already trying to cover enough. I get that this woman who does those stores is a bit older and maybe worried, but it's not like the rest of us can't get sick from it too or take it home to family members, such as my own mother who is around her age and has an underlying condition... Hoo boy.

If anything it looks like the company is at least being a little generous and is planning to give us two weeks extra pay, no matter if we keep working or not.

[Vicky82]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Thought the McD were switching, like many, to drive through only? Or does your store not have drive through?
Other than that, it could be far worse.

Yeah my store does have a Drive Thru. It was take away only, customers could use the Drive Thru or come into the store to order but they couldn't sit down.

Even with those new rules, we were still busy. The Corona Virus wasn't keeping people away.

[joe-eyeball]

I’m ticked because we now have a stay at home order with only essential businesses allowed to remain going. It sucks because my business is conducted entirely outdoors and I had already arranged for zero face to face interaction with the customers. It is just myself and one employee and we could’ve easily kept interaction with others to almost nothing. But nope no work for me and it’s not like my bills stopped coming in.

[CyberCubed]

So why does Italy now have the highest death toll of the virus? It just recently passed China and it's crazy how many people are dying there. But why Italy of all places? Out of all the European countries people are dropping like flies there...it's very strange.

[lonewarrior20]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

So why does Italy now have the highest death toll of the virus? It just recently passed China and it's crazy how many people are dying there. But why Italy of all places? Out of all the European countries people are dropping like flies there...it's very strange.

if I recall, theres a great deal of elderly in Italy and since its more deadly to them i'd say that's why.

[Coola Yagami]

I also heard that life is almost back to normal in China but now a new strain of bird flu has been discovered there???

[Leo656]

I'm hearing now that businesses in NY state are expected to remain closed, and at least some form of "social lockdown" in place, until the end of 2020. So that pretty much means that it will be similar for most of the rest of the U.S., or at least places like NJ which are densely-populated. Which implies that rather than improving, the situation is instead far worse than anyone was led to believe.

This has been hell on my Bipolar Disorder. Every day, I have a ton of things I plan to do, and in the end I can hardly get out of bed. But the news just gets worse every day, so feeling in any way hopeful or optimistic just feels like a fool's errand.

For one thing, there's the economic factors and the simple fact that a nationwide shutdown of 90% of businesses for the next 9 months simply is not sustainable, and no "bailout" program is going to be able to keep people alive for that long. And regardless of when it eases up, MOST of the affected people will simply not be able to work again, not for years, if ever. "Just go work at Walmart" will NOT be a practical solution for the vast majority of these people, and even then, we're talking 100 or more applicants for every available position. It's not going to work.

All I can see in my head is that people start to snap within the next 2 or 3 months. Desperation is inevitable, whether it's from fear or simply frustration. People can't live like this, and once people realize that infection or not, the economic collapse is literally going to be a death sentence for huge swaths of the population, well... riots, anarchy, mass suicides, etc. etc.

Not trying to be a Doomsayer, it's just... what else CAN happen but all of that? My wife's mother is already pushing me to go out and "just get a new job" when we're barely five minutes into this fiasco, because they're already feeling the pinch. I'm in no position to play super-hero right now, be it physically OR mentally.

This sucks. This really is starting to feel like the end of the world. Or at least the end of most of it. No way we ever go back to the way things were a month ago. It's impossible.

Sigh. My wife wants me to relax but I just can't. She's on disability and rarely goes out anyway, and she gets her "free" check every month, AND she rarely gets sick, so to her this is just a big joke. Whatever happens, happens, as far as she's concerned.

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I also heard that life is almost back to normal in China but now a new strain of bird flu has been discovered there???

I wouldn't believe a single word of anything that comes out relating to China. Yes, it's natural to look there because that's where it started, but they're more concerned with looking good and maintaining their status as the leading global manufacturer than anything. Given the size and typical behavior of their government-run propaganda machine, I would take anything we hear from or about them with a giant shaker of salt.

Italy is who we have to watch now. Their situation is much more transparent and a lot closer to what we have to deal with over here.

[Redeemer]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I also heard that life is almost back to normal in China but now a new strain of bird flu has been discovered there???

Thats it! I am convinced China is just doing some population control. Let just get this over with and Nuke China off the map! That takes care both of the viruses and population issue! jk

[CyberCubed]

Most restaurants, take-outs and privately owned businesses are definitely going to go out of business by the end of this year. Gamestop is done. Most comic book stores are screwed (besides online orders).

I feel bad most of all for the seniors in High School. Imagine the kids who were going to graduate in June 2020. They might not get a graduation ceremony this year, no senior prom, no nothing. Man, the kids graduating in 2020 really have it rough, I wonder if the Colleges will even be open to them in the Fall.

[Leo656]

Not to mention all the people who died and continue to die. Funerals are banned, so instead of getting a dignified farewell they just dig a hole and throw you in, or go right to the cremation. I can't imagine how hard that is on the surviving friends and family. No closure, no dignity.

"Life" as we knew it is over. Might as well accept it. It'll get better than this one day, for sure, but who knows how long, and it's never, ever going to be like it was just three weeks ago. Pretty unbelievable. So many things we took for granted are simply never coming back. And it's STILL going to get a lot worse before it gets even one inch better, as hard as that is to believe.

I'm not afraid of getting sick or dying from the virus, but a big part of me wonders what the hell the point of anything is anymore.

[Andrew NDB]

You can be sure this will speed up Best Buy's departure, too. Along with most/all malls.

[Leo656]

So a year from now, when the "smoke" clears, we'll still only be leaving the house to buy groceries, and absolutely everything else will be internet-only.

"Fun". I never wanted to live to see that kind of a world.

[Andrew NDB]

I think it'll burn out by mid-summer at the latest.

[Leo656]

We'll see. But again, what'll be left to go back to?

My job is "done". Gyms and personal trainers/fitness instructors are not going to be considered essential in a world where people can barely afford to feed themselves. I'm not qualified to do anything else and my back is shot, so manual labor and stocking shelves isn't in my future. Unemployment checks don't last forever.

I'm f*cked and so are a ton of other people. And a few weeks ago, everything was "fine". I knew our lease was up soon, but if we shut down there was another gym five minutes away where I almost certainly would have been hired. Now that's no longer on the table. It's gonna be "Walmart or Nothing", for most of us, and I can't haul boxes around because of my back, so it's "Or Nothing".

Not a lot to look forward to, from where I sit.

Kinda wish someone would just drop a bomb and get it over with already.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I think it'll burn out by mid-summer at the latest.

Part of me wants to believe that too. It just has to. I mean it's 2020, modern science has to be good for ****ing something.

I mean honestly, Leo cannot be the only one that foresees mass riots, they have to do whatever they possibly can before that happens cause they better believe we'll be going after the fat cats first.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I mean honestly, Leo cannot be the only one that foresees mass riots, they have to do whatever they possibly can before that happens cause they better believe we'll be going after the fat cats first.

If anything good comes of this, as things get hairier and hairier I hope it is a renewed realization of the importance of the 2nd amendment. If there are riots and looting going on everywhere, do you really want to bet your family's life on police respond times?

[Leo656]

As I already mentioned the other day, we called 911 when I had a knife pulled on me by my father-in-law and the cops who showed up couldn't possibly have cared less. Not that they ever did before, any of the countless other times we've had to call them, but right now? Oh yeah, right now "the authorities" only exist on paper. They're not going to respond to anything short of a riot.

It's going to hit the big cities the hardest, because there's already tons of violence and crime there on a good day, but we're far from a good day. There's going to be actual martial law enacted soon enough in places like NYC, with actual soldiers and riot police forcing everyone to stay indoors, at gunpoint no less. They've already deployed the National Guard to help set up temporary hospital tents and such, but that's just Step One. The fact that they're being deployed at all gives you some idea of where all this is heading. And it's nothing good.

We're on our own. Once people come to realize it in large numbers, it's going to be anarchy. I'm not rooting for it, but it's inevitable. Once enough people realize, "Wait, I can do whatever I want, and they're not going to punish me for it because it's too much hassle," well... As I've said many times, most people only behave themselves because they're afraid of punishment. Now that the threat of punishment has been removed, well... Anything Goes.

Good luck.

[Andrew NDB]

I think my biggest concern is what this means for the future. For future viruses that emerge. Will this be the go to response now? Shut down everything and stay home? Ehh... doesn't seem like a sustainable thing.

Something like Ebola? F*** yeah, I'm staying home, you don't need any National Guard telling me to. I don't want my organs liquifying. But just another random flu? Ehh...

[Leo656]

Could be. How this plays out will inevitably set precedents for all areas of life going forward.

If anything, though, this proves how tenuous all things already were to begin with. As bad as this is going to get, if it ever happens again, well, it just may more than society can take. This has the whole world on figurative life support, but a similar or worse disaster might just be the "knockout punch". If this fiasco proves nothing else, it's that life as we know it is never more than a balancing act on the tip of a pin. Nothing is "safe" or sustainable, and we really are just One Bad Day away from complete and total disaster. Some people will take comfort in that and choose to "live in the moment", while others may simply choose to end it all rather than face the fact that nothing in life is certain. Knowing for a FACT that it's all meaningless, random chance might be too much for a lot of people to bear.
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It's funny what you think of in times like this. For example, in reading about the scramble of various governments to deal with this fiasco, and how woefully unprepared everyone really is/was, I couldn't help but think back to a few years ago when "Godzilla" came out. And I remember reading some news article, where they asked some high-ranking military official, like, "What if this kind of thing happened for real? Like what if Godzilla was real, and he attacked us, would it be the end of the world or would there be a plan in place?" And the military guy played along, naturally, and he was like "It definitely would not be the end of the world, we have contingency plans in place, strategies in place, and if it were ever to happen we'd have it taken care of in a very short period of time and then everything would be fine," basically implying they'd just drop a few bombs and we'd all go on with our lives.

This sh*t has me thinking back to reading that and I can't help but laugh. Like, "Y'all can't even figure out a plan to keep things running when a bunch of people start coughing on each other. A relatively-mild viral infection has all of society on its knees, y'all know goddamn well that if Godzilla showed up we'd all be dead in two days. Quit frontin'."

Like I said, it's funny what goes through your mind at times like these.

Frankly, Godzilla would be a much better way to go out and I'd take That Sh*t over This Sh*t any day, gladly.

[Cure]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Sorry, but what is going on the world right now and everyone needing as much news and information as it occurs, we need this thread open regardless of personal biases and whatnot.

Yo, let's be real. I don't have anything against this thread, but people should absolutley not be coming to a website like this for their ****ing global news.