SmokinwithWilly

I'm not listening to them but a LOT of people are. I can't get my mom to turn off CNN and FOX. She is so paranoid that its ridiculous. At work I hear "I saw on Facebook...." Trump I can't even watch. That's probably 95% of the country's source of listened to information. It's no wonder people don't believe a damn thing they hear. Unfortunately the truth doesn't get ratings because it's boring. Wash your hands, the virus is airborne and while masks aren't 100% they help, and keep social distance. 10 seconds of boring info that has more truth than an hour of the other 3 out together.

Imo, the real cause of all of the issues with people following guidelines or not is the source of information we are supposed to trust are the biggest group of liars in the country.

Friend of the family was just notified by a "tracer" that he was positive for Covid. The weird part is he was never tested. He was 3 degrees from someone who had tested positive. He was also told 19 other people had been confirmed positive who had also not been tested but had 1 or 2 degrees removed from the one that had. If true, and I have no reason to believe hes lying, that's a very strange way to confirm cases.

Common sense can triumph. Simple truthful information is what people need and understand most. Shutdowns need to be controlled by counties/cities rather than a blanket code for an entire state. Too bad we didn't do this from the beginning.

Here's the thing though. More businesses here have been closed permanently than cases of covid-19. We have been interacting with other people all along, just no one wants to really admit it. After 5 months there has to be more than what's happened. People are over the fearmongering and the sky is falling. If they get sick, they get sick. They have accepted the risks and are willing to take them. They aren't going to exist cowered in their homes waiting for someone to say it's safe now. Covid-19 is not the boogeyman it was made out to be and people aren't scared of it anymore. Maybe they will be at some point, but it isn't right now.

I'm speaking for myself and the more rural area where I live, but people aren't seeing the massive fallout that was promised. We were basically promised an airborne Ebola death wave and ended up with a more contagious and a little more deadly flu that you may or may not get and we wont even test you for it anyway. They aren't being irrational. It's been a lot of "you shut me down and destroyed my business for this?" A lot of response is based on experience and when your experiences and the people you know are next to nil, its not going to generate what you consider to be arational response.

It doesn't all just fall on Trump. Pelosi is one of the leaders of the Democratic party. People will listen to her that wont listen to Trump. She acted foolishly. The point I'm making is that politicians are making political moves without regard for those they are meant to lead. It's not just Trump or Pelosi, its governors, mayors, city councilmen, etc. Lives have been upended and businesses ruined for no need. They were already doing the things necessary to flatten the curve without political grandstanding. People have little reason to trust those with the information after everything that has been said and done. There was no need to create panic. There was no need to lie to people. The truth has been so blatantly obvious since the beginning that a blind man could see it. This is especially in more rural areas where the population isn't as densely compact, things don't really work the way they do in Charlotte and other major metropolitan areas. The mass hysteria and panic created by the media for clicks and the self serving actions of those in leadership for political safety have eroded the faith of the populace at large. People have that they will likely contract covid-19, but they most likely will not even notice, or symptoms will be minor. Covid hasn't lived up to the hype and hysteria and now people aren't going to listen to it anymore. You can't lie for this long and expect people to believe you. And that's especially true for Trump

It's not just Trump that has lied from the beginning. Remember Pelosi advocated for everyone to come join her for the party in Chinatown because it was safe. Politicians from both sides have poo the bed with this and the really sad part is the common sense solutions that normal every day people were using before the shutdowns are now mandatory for reopening. Maybe, just maybe, we aren't as stupid as the media and politicians have made us out to be.

Problem is people have been blatantly lied to by those in power and the media. Their credibility is shot. Politicians went overboard trying to look the part of being concerned about public safety while in truth being only concerned about their political liability. Add in the media sensationalizing their reports just to get clicks instead of actually reporting what was really happening. "Reports" of overflowing US hospitals and a regular person live streaming from the same place and the parking lot was empty. Happened several times out here I saw personally. Then sick people were refused testing, hospitals were caught lying about causes of death, and most people have been sick and it could have been the flu or coronavirus, no way to know. The numbers have never been accurate or even close so there is that also. This has been botched from the beginning, especially in the US where everyone wants to be in the spotlight, truth be damned. Now the same people are screaming believe me, I wouldn't lie to you AGAIN, and this is the result. People refuse to wear masks because they don't believe what they are being told.

To be fair, no one really knows if Trump is making decisions or just his magic 8 ball instead.

Easiest way to make this work is to require businesses to pay a fine if they aren't requiring masks and are proven to be a hot zone for the spread. It's much easier for business to police themselves than for state police to do it. I don't want a fine so you put on a mask.

Common sense. If you refuse to allow people to be tested or havent tested everyone to determine if they are actually asymptomatic, you can't give an accurate accounting of the number of infected, how it moves through different populated areas, mortality rates, etc. At best it's an educated guess. Eastern Washington

The scientific data is flawed. It's based on those that were tested. But how many people were refused testing that were sick and how many people got covid and never knew it because they were asymptomatic yet still contagious? I know at least 10 people who were told they weren't sick enough to be tested, myself being one of them. So why on earth would I believe the scientific data is accurate when I and others I knew weren't allowed to be part of it? How many pictures and videos of the media sensationalizing or fabricating stories have been shown? Dozens. Hundreds. We have been given plenty of reason not to trust the media and that goes for Fox, CNN, MSNBC and others. Its all about ratings, accuracy be damned. People are acting based on what they have actually experienced. In a lot of areas, especially less population dense ones, people have been interacting with other people for months without any problems. Now they realize that a lot of businesses have to open now or they never will. Businesses can dictate how they operate, like Costco requires everyone to have a mask to enter. Restaurants and stores here had already implemented distancing, more sanitary practices, gloves and masks before it became a requirement and the government shut them down. I had implemented policies for safety and distancing before it was required. We had a handle on how to deal with this long before the "experts" and did a much better job. If a business wants to operate outside of the recommended minimum safety standards, then they shouldn't be allowed to receive government assistance. Regulations and restrictions should really be locally controlled. They have a much better understanding of what the community needs and can handle vs a politician whose only worry is getting re-elected. If locals can't handle it, then call for help from the state and national level. It doesn't seem that hard. It's been working here just fine.

It's not just the flu but in non heavily concentrated areas like NYC, it hasn't been the firestorm that was predicted or even close. The "numbers" have been bullshit from the start and hospitals have manipulated them to get government funding. Just happened to a friend of mine yesterday that was put into a room with a positive covid-19 patient and now she has to be quarantined in the hospital for 5 days because she may have contracted it. The hospital didnt know even though she had a high fever and was coughing like mad. People are going to die from this. No way around it. I may be one of them and I've accepted that. But the policies put forth have for the most part been completely ignored where I live. Parks were still being used. People still at stores in masses. Handing food back and forth through drive throughs. Kids were still hanging out together. You have to weigh the bad vs the bad and make a decision. The problems aren't the same in NYC that they are in podunk Iowa and shouldn't be treated the same. The problem has always been among the politicians and no one wants to admit that they didnt do enough so they have gone totally overboard. Covid-19 isn't the flu but it isn't Ebola either. Instead of bailouts that did virtually nothing, the money should have been spent to aid those at risk, the populace should have kept working within reasonable limits, and we deal with the harsh reality mother nature and something one billionth our size can kick the poo out of us.

The problem is out here the people have been lied to about covid numbers, testing has been flat out denied, and people haven't gotten sick in the numbers we were told to expect despite it being pretty much a shoulder to shoulder convention in Walmart, home depot, lowes and grocery stores. It's basically been the flu with the destruction of small businesses in mass. People have gotten wind that politicians never waste a good crisis and they are over the bullshit with this one.

Where I live still refuses to test anyone who has not had a 103 fever for 5 days. I take the numbers with a grain of salt because of this.

Mine was in the 600s for a long time. I paid cash for everything and refused to buy anything on credit. I was actually turned down for loans because I didn't have enough debt or payment history even with a great income to would be debt ratio. I had to get a $500 credit card and charge it up a couple hundred bucks and pay it off at the end of the month. I'm low 700's but completely debt free and still pay cash for almost everything. If I can't pay cash, I don't need it.

I'm out in the Pacific northwest. Prices here are overinflated as is right now.

I'm sitting back waiting as well to purchase property. If and when the market falls, it will be a great time for investing.

Of course there will be a second wave. There's no way to stop it. Quarantine can't last forever and if it's anything there like it is here, social distancing is an absolute joke. Without a vaccine, nearly everyone in the world is going to be exposed and to think otherwise is foolish IMO. Just try and even the spread so hospitals aren't overwhelmed.

I think all we have really done through this shutdown is slow the spread so our medical system doesnt get overwhelmed. That's it. This is going to circle the globe several times over. We can't stop it other than a vaccine. This is a reality we need to accept, even though its difficult. I view the world as a giant forest waiting for a lightning strike. Covid 19 is one of those. Higher concentrations of population like NYC are prime ready to burn. Plenty of fuel, lots of heat, and pretty much unstoppable by the time you realize what's happening. Less concentrated areas still burn, but with far less devastating effects. Essential people are the embers that fly into the air. They drift on the wind and eventually light somewhere and set off a new fire. We as a civilization have created the perfect means to wipe ourselves off the planet because we are so close yet so far away. One can be halfway around the world in less than 24 hours and carry who knows what with them without ever knowing. If politicians/leaders had been honest from the beginning about what was really going to happen from the very beginning instead of trying to make everyone feel comfortable, maybe people would have listened more. That truth, everyone is likely to get this, we are just trying to slow it down to give as many of the infected a chance, and slow down the spread until we can possibly create a vaccine to give as many as we can a chance to survive.

But I need my mullet.

Nyah, just keep politics out of this one.There's already a corona thread in TB. This one should be about sharing information and discussing how it affects us rather than all the political BS.

So would it be morally responsible to start making moonshine?