The plight of small businesses has been especially concerning during this pandemic, but I've even seen larger chains closing locations. Many former business locations are now empty with "For lease" signs in their place. Some of the chains may have been going this way anyway as physical retailers have been losing business to online shopping.
The smaller businesses that seem to be surviving are those that have been able to adapt to the current circumstances -- restaurants that offer delivery and take-out, small retailers that have begun to sell things online, and classes and services that have been able to take their lessons and services online.
Also troubling are the workers who end up laid-off and without income as these businesses struggle.
It is my hope that when this pandemic is finally over that many small businesses that were forced to close due to loss of business will be able to restart again if they wish. The costs to start up again may be too much for some. I think it would be especially great after all this is over if there is some kind of stimulus or grant for small businesses that closed during the pandemic to help them start their businesses again.
@michele-b I see it everywhere also. I don’t understand what people are thinking. A co-workers daughter has covid and they live together. That would mean quarantine for most, if you read the guidelines. Some people don’t feel it applies to them. They are out and about. Just because you’re outside doesn’t matter. You still come in contact with others. I can’t believe the way people think. It makes me angry and sad. It also makes me shutdown. I have to go into work but stay in my office and away from everyone. Hang in there. There will be light at the end of this train wreck.
I only heard from her a few days after our session, and she said she was feeling better every day. We have another distance session on the 19th; right after Jupiter and Saturn enter the Aquarian door (oh boy).
Today I walked by a quiet little business corner. Normally in pre pandemic times it is filled with a coffee place, a few restaurants, non chain, service oriented places, an animal day care, small shops and so forth. 8 have closed and 7 remain open of the places I walked by. I am actually the revolving sushi place is opened. I mean, revolving sushi is the point, indoor eating for sure. Their hours have been cut back a lot and I guess people are doing take out but still. I think after Christmas a new huge wave of restaurants and retail shops will be closing.
There will be some who will survive by being creative and I cheer them for their ingenuity. Others will not be as fortunate.
When we all finally re-surface after the Covid Wars to survey our altered surroundings, there will be much to take in. We will have changed and our environment will as well.
I hope we finally deal with the inequities which have stared us down and demanded our attention. We may all be fighting the same war but the battlefield weapons we have at our disposal are different. Some have tanks and others have rocks. Some have armor while others have t-shirts.
And for goodness sakes, fully fund our schools and provide internet access and devices for all students to learn from and do research and assignments on. Technology now must be seen as a basic need in today’s world and going forward, just as a textbook. The gap between the haves and have nots has been blown wide open and we must stop the bleeding!
Just witnessed the best conversation ever in a gas station. 2 guys go in with no masks and guy in line speaks up.
Guy in line-Do you mind wearing a mask around me? Thank you
Maskless guy 1-Aww look. Another liberal communist scared of the flu. Im not letting you take my freedom. F**** your mask.
Guy in line-Actually I'm a pulmonologist.
Maskless guy 2-Just because you're a doctor that looks at a**holes all day you think you can force your communism on everyone.
Guy in line-Im not a proctologist. Im a pulmlnologist. Im the guy that will keep you alive when you get covid
Maskless guy 2-whatever its just a flu and you're in on the hoax
Maskless guys walk out. I bust up laughing behind the doctor in line.
Doctor-I hope those idiots have good insurance. At least I'll get paid when I see them again
Me-Well he was right. You do look at a**holes all day. A**holes that refuse to wear masks and make your life a lot harder.
Doctor laughs and thanks me for having a mask on as we walk out. Before door closes, I hear the gas station attendant bust up laughing.
I had a patient with a toothache. Her mother was with her and going on and on about Covid being fake news, lies, “I hate wearing a mask” - on and on. I was giving discharge instructions to her daughter and said the only way to resolve this problem is to have that tooth pulled. So the mom pipes up and says, “We can’t make an appointment because of Covid.” ????? ???
A new study shows you can get covid 20 feet away in five minutes indoors in a restaurant. South Koreans have a remarkable covid tracing system. Using the tracing data and cameras in a restaurant to determine where people were sitting and who got infected, they found that a person infected some people in a restaurant because the air conditioning system emitted air currents that carried the airborne droplets from that person to everyone sitting along the path of the currents.
A droplet has enough of a viral load to infect you. Anyone not sitting in the path of the air-conditioning current did not get infected.
So five minutes in a restaurant where people have to remove their masks to eat can do it even if you are sitting 20 feet away.
I would never eat in a restaurant these days.
But if anyone wants to see how where you are sitting can infect you, examine this diagram. The red dots were all infected. Person (B) at the top right infected her companion (D) and then two others (C) and (A) even though Person (A) was 20 feet away all because the air conditioner (blue square) sent an air current towards (B) which bounced off the wall and carried Person B's droplets to C and A.
I've gotten some intel on the phases for vaccination in my state from two different sources - it looks like it will shortly be announced that the field of education will be included in the first wave of vaccinations here, which -- if everyone is going to continue to push for in-person instruction, is how it should be.
According to my brother, this means while doctors are still in line ahead of me, I'll be getting my two shots, 21 days apart sometime in January of 2021 assuming the supply projections he's seeing hold (and there's no guarantee there) I'll happily let you all know if I grow an extra head (aside from the other two -- see the Aliens thread if this doesn't make sense to you) and how badly the Bill Gates tracking chip disrupts my home wifi signals.
I jest on the last part - Honestly, I'm kind of excited to be able to stop playing "Is it a cold, or is it COVID?" whenever one of us gets an illness like the one that took us all down briefly this past week.
The interesting part of this is the conversation my wife and I had after I gave her the news. We both recognize that -- in the short term, nothing changes. We get the vaccine, we'll still be wearing masks in public, getting takeout, etc. The twins won't be changing their routine of only going to school and coming home -- we won't be taking them to stores, or dropping them off at Grandma's for the weekend (at least until Grandma gets her vaccinations) The part that's missing is the unease. It'll mean we can work at our schools without wishing we were teaching from home and/or wondering and worrying when we'll be closing down next. After nine months of extreme uncertainty I think that'll be the most welcome part of the relief.
The Washington Post has a great article and video about virus droplet spread. A high tech camera is used to show how the virus can spread through the air with and without masks.
It is pretty interesting.
Weighing in here with some thoughts and tools to help all.
1. Mayo Clinic Online Assessment Tool for COVID - anyone can use this to determine if they should be seeking testing or medical care. Also, if you think you might have had COVID, if you answer the questions as if you are sick right now with your symptoms from back then, it will give you a good indicator.
2. IHME Data - this shows you not only every country, but also every US state. Not a pretty picture for the US... even so, it's a good way to track how quickly resources are being exhausted in your state.
3. Find Your Place in the Vaccine Line - this handy tool from the NY Times has only 3 questions and will tell you how many people are ahead of you to get the vaccine. I found out that even with my high risk status and age there are 23 million Americans ahead of me, and about 300,000 ahead of me in my home county.
4. CDC Flu View - the feared "Twindemic" appears to NOT be happening - a small silver lining. I've long suspected that international travel was the primary driver of flu every winter, and also the factor that here in the US everyone has to work when they're sick (and travel for work when sick too). Looks to me like I was onto something with my theory, as flu levels are below the lowest comparative data for this time of year. This is worth keeping an eye on anyway, as the flu may just be delayed in its arrival.
5. Harm Reduction vs. Total Lockdown - this is more of an opinion piece from the LA Times, but there is some social science to back it up. Here in SoCal we are supposed to be back to shelter in place. Only essential workers and those on essential out of home trips are supposed to be out and about, and maintain social distance and masking. I can tell you that it's BS - malls are open and no one is complying. My county has issued some cease and desist orders to businesses, but it looks to me like they get circular filed. This article is interesting because it describes how this type of backlash works. The more you try to suppress personal decisions the more backlash you will encounter. There is an interesting argument to be made for harm reduction - basically education on HOW to do what you want to do more safely. Unfortunately our state government is not willing to consider this idea. All it means is more of the populace disobeying more of the rules. There should be a higher level of public education instead of all this wrist-slapping nonsense.
On a personal note, we cannot see our daughter and her BF on Christmas (or eve) because his family is being rigid and inflexible and are anti-maskers. I offered several solutions, all were rebuked. My daughter is sad about this, but I reminded her that by this time next year things should be returning to normal. Instead we are focusing on Chanukkah this year (we celebrate everything anyway). Tomorrow we'll have a socially distant meal in our garage studio space with the barn doors open and the space heater blasting. Brisket and latkes for all, and we'll do our family gift exchange. Then the kids are free to go with his family for Christmas, and we won't reconvene til January some time.
Note that our gathering in a semi-outdoor space is technically illegal under the current mandate because they don't live in our house anymore, but again, the two ways of working on problems that never have good results are: patchwork and inflexibility.
Chag Sameach, y'all! And Feliz Chrismakwanzakkah!
Thanks for those helpful links. I'm 250,000th in line at my County vaccination center ;) And I liked your attitude about your family's holidays. We do what makes sense for our own situations.
I saw an interesting article about COVID reducing blood flow for long enough to induce tooth loss https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/health/covid-teeth-falling-out.html and https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/covid-19-and-tooth-loss/
Even more concerning were reports that COVID blood flow reduction was increasing erectile dysfunction. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/yes-covid-19-can-cause-erectile-dysfunction-in-men/ and https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/covid-erectile-dysfunction
Maybe that will be enough to convince some to wear a mask.
@jeanne-mayell This is absolutely true and played out for an acquaintance of mine who's ONLY exposure was from a health aid that lowered his mask for 5 minutes to eat at a 10 foot distance. And my friend has a super expensive fancy medical grade Hepa filter in her home AND was wearing a mask when the aid was eating. She also has the humidity in her home set to 40%. She & her hubby care for his 94 yo Mom, his 53 yr old Downs syndrome sister and their adult Autistic son who has a very serious seizure disorder. Very scary!
This is seriously the weirdest infection I've ever experienced.
I was infected sometime between Tuesday and Friday of last week.
Saturday I woke up and my eyes were so watery I actually thought I cried in my sleep. Then they never watered again
Sunday I felt perfectly fine but sneezed a couple times, which is strange for me but paid no attention to it
Monday I woke up fine then in the afternoon I had horrible aches and pains in my back and legs. That evening I ran a fever of about 101 and had chills
Tuesday I woke up feeling exhausted with no fever and it never came back. By noon I felt perfectly fine. Headache started off and on that evening
Wednesday I felt perfectly fine but would get bad sinus congestion for a half hour then it would go away out of nowhere and come back a few hours later just to repeat that.
Thursday my far peripheral vision was a little foggy off and on but felt fine unless I talked loud-that would make me slightly out of breath. Also my 2 year old lightly bumped me in the shin with a toy and it felt like he hit me with a hammer.
If I didnt know I was exposed to it, I never would've attributed this to covid. It feels like a completely random set of very short lived symptoms that have no pattern to them and nothing lasts more than a few hours. Also, whenever I get any kind of viral infection(cold, flu, etc) I start getting tiny pimples on face for a day or two before I get symptoms. Ive gotten nothing with this one.
I hear you Mas ... it is a seriously weird virus and like nothing else.
It seems to be an 'engineered' entity, though just my humble opinion ... I've read so many reports and 'reputable' scientific articles that want us to believe otherwise however.
Maybe an alien ship crashed in Wuhan and accidentally unloaded a s**tload of infected bats, or was it even earlier in the sewers of Spain? So much focus diversion. Lols.
Anyway ... we the ordinary unsuspecting global public will probably never know just how the demonseed was unleashed in reality ?
I hope you are taking good care, and your family recovers quickly! Sending you all light & love ?
I'm positive its not at all engineered. The bits of info I have gotten on the gene sequencing of it leads me to strongly believe that it is a mutated version of SARS that hid out in animals for a few years and jumped back to people in a weakened state.
Dont think that was manually engineered from SARS either. It is significantly weaker and less fatal than SARS so there would be no sense at all in making a weaker version, even in a lab for research purposes. The changes are simple and common mutations that would naturally occur over the almost 2 decades since SARS was found.
As to whether the original SARS was engineered, that is a different story and I dont have enough info to make any assumption either way because of how different it is from other known human coronaviruses at the time and the fact that I have little knowledge of the genetics of coronaviruses in non human mammals.
@stargazer Not really engineered it's an animal virus that jumped into humans, when it jumped into mink it mutated then jumped back into humans a different virus then it was originally. Coronaviruses when they are in animals try to find a way to live in it optimally and it evolves. The problem happens when it jumps back into humans armed with new tricks. There are so many viruses out there we don't know about because we are normally not in contact with the animal that harbors them. Bats have coronaviruses, many different kinds they don't harm the bats because they have evolved together. In the bats they have different coronaviruses that mix together and make whole new viruses like virus babies. The probabilities that this virus was created in a bat in such a way that it's super infectious and virulent (deadly) for humans and jumps species, spreads to the entire world, is beyond human ability with all our technology. Even though our scientists know the entire genome of the virus and they know what some of the proteins do, ex: spike, envelope. They don't know to this day what all the proteins do and are still trying to figure it out. So not engineering, just extremely bad luck, and it seemed we were do, since it happens every 100 years.
@jsr78 & Mas
Yes, it's all been discussed ad nauseum, and though I do appreciate your erudite replies, forgive me my cynicism (sinacism)?
The virus is so strange and multi-layered, and in theory may be a mutant Sars, but then again it is not (a Sars)....
I don't know about you guys, but speaking personally the pandemic has altered my life so drastically that I barely recognise myself after months & months of isolation. My state is just coming out a bit from this last lockdown and it's still just pathetic actually. Just so weary of the battle and it's endless complications, and however 'honed' we may be it's still no way for sentient beings to live is it?
I got a new t shirt with the slogan " I hate Covid! " in Chinese lettering the other day... it has a bat on the back?
I remain the eternal optimystic.
Oh I'm right there with you being sick of this. It cost me my business and my wife her job, and with it our insurance. It pushed the twins trial out 8 months and caused them more anguish and now their covid infections, as well as mine. Ive spent the last 9 months killing myself to keep my wife and kids sane and safe only to get the damn virus and have it ruin Xmas for everyone. I probably should rant more but because of covid I dont have the damn energy anymore. To put it bluntly, covid and 2020, as a whole, can take a long walk off a short pier.
Now, with all that said, looking forward, this will end as everything does. I dont know your living situation but it has brought my immediate family a lot closer and helped find new ways to interact with extended family when we cant be face to face. When this ends, it will make everyone cherish personal contact more than they ever have or ever would without having lived thru this. This made us, and our relationships, all stronger. It helped weed out the toxic relationships we wouldnt otherwise have broken off. It showed us what is really important that, in the fast paced rat race we call life, we have overlooked. When we look back on this, we will all see the torture we went thru but we will also see the new outlook and prioritization we have and be grateful that we made those personal changes when we did. And, if absolutely nothing else, it will show all of us that we can conquer anything because we are conquering the overwhelming right now.
If a year ago, I told you that you would've lived thru what you have the past 9 months and are still laughing at a stupid t-shirt with a bat on it(no offense at all, just putting it into perspective), you would've said you went crazy long ago. But you didn't. You're still strong as ever, weary as you may be.