This Corona Virus Mania is Just Too Much, We All Need to Chill!

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PeterA

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Peter, the EU has no say in matters like that. We are individual nations with separate constitutions and laws.
I have lived many year in different European countries and also in 4 different states in the US. America is much more homogeneous in culture and mindset than European countries ever where. We have separate languages, politics , upbringing, education heroes and celebrities every time you cross a boarder.
Americans are much more alike from state to state.

Lagonda, I'm not familiar with the legal authority governing the EU. We have individual state constitutions also, plus many restrictions about the authority of the Federal government. I just think that comparing the US response to the EU is more analogous than comparing it to a small country like Sweden, Italy, or South Korea. This is more of an observation than a comment on the national government structure.

There also seems to be much resistance to the notion of declaring English as the official language in this country. The local town in which I work has 30+ languages in the school system, and material is printed in at least five different languages, and this town only has 80K+ people. I regularly see multiple national flags hanging in tenant's windows all over this town, with only moderate efforts at assimilation. Other regions are more homogenous, but it varies greatly, IME.

The idea of the US being one homogenous country with one shared culture is not accurate, IMO. As a sailor, I see it as more weather related with sunny days, cloudy days, and tumultuous storms ever brewing, only occasionally becoming a nice melting pot with a beautiful rainbow of colors on the horizon.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.
 
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rando

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I believe thanks for posting this previously go to @howiebrou. Multiple family members have attested to the usability of this washable + IRONABLE mask with replaceable filters.

https://diymask.site/

Personally, I found an alternative design requiring delicate sewing skills made out of small cup bras the most attractive and challenging to social distancing efforts. :D




Boiling tends to loosen natural fibers. Weakening them and leaving gaps in the material. Washing in very warm water combined with ironing at material appropriate temperatures is a timely and costly procedure compared to industrial manufacturing of single use PPE in a sterile environment for fast paced medical environments. Hardly the same use case as leaving once a week to go to the grocery store.
 
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Al M.

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Lagonda, I'm not familiar with the legal authority governing the EU. We have individual state constitutions also, plus many restrictions about the authority of the Federal government. I just think that comparing the US response to the EU is more analogous than comparing it to a small country like Sweden, Italy, or South Korea. This is more of an observation than a comment on the national government structure.

There also seems to be much resistance to the notion of declaring English as the official language in this country. The local town in which I work has 30+ languages in the school system, and material is printed in at least five different languages, and this town only has 80K+ people. I regularly see multiple national flags hanging in tenant's windows all over this town, with only moderate efforts at assimilation. Other regions are more homogenous, but it varies greatly, IME.

The idea of the US being one homogenous country with one shared culture is not accurate, IMO. As a sailor, I see it as more weather related with sunny days, cloudy days, and tumultuous storms ever brewing, only occasionally becoming a nice melting pot with a beautiful rainbow of colors on the horizon.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.

Nobody says that the US is one homogenous country with one shared culture -- it is not. What Lagonda said is that Americans are much more alike from state to state than Europeans. I agree with this, having lived in Europe until 1997.

Also, the self-identification of Americans as "Americans" is much stronger than the self-identification of members of individual European nations as "Europeans".

The legal authority governing the EU is much, much weaker than the authority of the US federal government.
 
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PeterA

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"Incredible pressure" is no excuse for failings that could have been easily avoided had early warnings been taken seriously.

Yes, and we can all compare how we acted as individuals after we became aware of the situation, knowing roughly the same reports. You and I for instance, based on the same or very similar knowledge, chose to respond differently concerning the stay at home recommendations. One of us responded sooner, the other later, but we both responded. And I know people who acted sooner than either of us. Should we both criticize each other because others acted sooner than we did?

I'm just saying people are making different choices, and on a large scale, they are more difficult choices. Our leaders are people, and their advisers are people. And people certainly know more with the benefit of hindsight, and they then pass judgement differently with that hindsight.

I'm with Folsom. Do we think of our response and ask what if? Do we focus on the origin and ask what if? How far back to we go, and what does it accomplish? I think we should focus on where we are, and how we should proceed.
 
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Gregadd

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There were clearly catastrophic errors made at the outset. Nothing we can do about it now. It is a foolish egotistical consistency that is dangerous.
South Korea sent 150k this morning.
Doctors have to decide who does not get life support support.
We still have no commitment to produce what we need.
China has a meteoric decline.
 
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DaveC

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Yes, and we can all compare how we acted as individuals after we became aware of the situation, knowing roughly the same reports. You and I for instance, based on the same or very similar knowledge, chose to respond differently concerning the stay at home recommendations. One of us responded sooner, the other later, but we both responded. And I know people who acted sooner than either of us.

I'm just saying people are making different choices. Our leaders are people, and their advisers are people. And people certainly know more with the benefit of hindsight, and they then pass judgement differently with that hindsight.

I'm with Folsom. Do we think of our response and ask what if? Do we focus on the origin and ask what if? How far back to we go, and what does it accomplish? I think we should focus on where we are, and how we should proceed.


That's a false equivalent. I as an individual, and speaking for most of us here, are NOT experts on infectious disease and pandemics. However, many people are, and they gave A LOT of warning to those who lead us (not just the USA). Trump said this was unexpected and came out of nowhere at one point, but this is absolutely not true. It's expected, and warnings have been vehement and have come from many sources. Previously, I posted a vid that gave 8 specific warnings to the US Federal Government since Trump took office in 2016, it was removed for being political but this is the truth, the response from our government as well as others has been nothing but massively negligent and incompetent.

I will agree with Steve's previous assertion in green that we don't go down this road as far as blame, but your post is so wrong it required a response. I also don't agree with the "we need to concentrate on X and not Y". The truth is we can do more than one thing at once. While I agree it's not a good idea to assign blame here in this thread, blame needs to be assigned for this so we can plan on never going through anything like this again.
 

Al M.

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That's a false equivalent. I as an individual, and speaking for most of us here, are NOT experts on infectious disease and pandemics. However, many people are, and they gave A LOT of warning to those who lead us (not just the USA). Trump said this was unexpected and came out of nowhere at one point, but this is absolutely not true. It's expected, and warnings have been vehement and have come from many sources. Previously, I posted a vid that gave 8 specific warnings to the US Federal Government since Trump took office in 2016, it was removed for being political but this is the truth, the response from our government as well as others has been nothing but massively negligent and incompetent.

Correct, but this has now become a political discussion, initiated here. We probably should stop, as we have made our points anyway.

PS: just saw your edit (addition of second paragraph), agreed.
 

Al M.

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Yes, and we can all compare how we acted as individuals after we became aware of the situation, knowing roughly the same reports. You and I for instance, based on the same or very similar knowledge, chose to respond differently concerning the stay at home recommendations. One of us responded sooner, the other later, but we both responded. And I know people who acted sooner than either of us.

While as individuals we acted differently, we made our decision from the same framework of risk assessment of something that was known by then to the general public, and we acted at the same time, though not in the same manner. This is different from ignoring knowledge of the risk by others prior to knowledge by the general public, and not acting on the risk at all. As Dave said, false equivalency.
 
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Folsom

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I would like to point out that expert worry-worts "that we all should have listened to" are the same type that will push a vaccine out 2 years. Sometimes you need something in-between or an outside perspective that encompasses more things.
 

Al M.

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I would like to point out that expert worry-worts "that we all should have listened to" are the same type that will push a vaccine out 2 years.

Not going to happen, the public pressure will be too great.
 

DaveC

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I would like to point out that expert worry-worts "that we all should have listened to" are the same type that will push a vaccine out 2 years. Sometimes you need something in-between or an outside perspective that encompasses more things.

Sometimes we need qualified opinions and not emotional reactions by people who have no idea WTF they are saying while casting aspersions on folks who have studied the subject for their lifetimes and refer to them in ridiculous terms like "expert worry-worts(sic)".
 

dminches

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I would like to point out that expert worry-worts "that we all should have listened to" are the same type that will push a vaccine out 2 years. Sometimes you need something in-between or an outside perspective that encompasses more things.

To whom are you referring? There is a process for creating a vaccine and making sure it is safe. Are you saying some people want to extend that period beyond what is necessary?
 

Steve Williams

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Sometimes we need qualified opinions and not emotional reactions by people who have no idea WTF they are saying while casting aspersions on folks who have studied the subject for their lifetimes and refer to them in ridiculous terms like "expert worry-worts(sic)".
as I've said before, you don't come to an audiophile forum searching out medical opinions or even worse audiophiles giving medical opinions when they have zero medical knowledge

As a physician I find that this virus and the pathophysiology which it creates is above my pay grade and I never offer any medical opinions. I too am learning but the news comes from higher ups and/or those healthcare professionals in the front lines . What is important for everyone to remember is that it isn't the virus which will kill you but rather the pathophysiology that is caused in the target organs.

My only way to rationalize is that hopefully we are successful at lowering the curve and reducing the number of new infections such that in the next few months there comes to exist a stock pile of meds such as IL-6 inhibitors which can be used to to hopefully reduce the Cytokine Storm severity. It seems old people have depleted T cells and are immunosenescent
 

djsina2

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That approach could work in less dense portions of the US. Sweden's population density is 64 ppl/sq mile. NYC's is 66,940, or 1000 times greater.

We also don't know their ultimate outcome will be. Hopefully it will stay low.

So you’re comparing density of a country to a city? Stockholm seems to be 13000 per square mile.
 
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PeterA

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Also, the self-identification of Americans as "Americans" is much stronger than the self-identification of members of individual European nations as "Europeans".

I don't understand this Al. Why are you comparing individuals in one case identifying with as members of their country to nations identifying as individuals in a larger group made up of separate countries? "Europeans" is referring to individuals, right?

Do you mean to contrast Americans (meaning individuals) identifying as "Americans" and Europeans (meaning individuals) identifying as "Europeans"? Or something else?
 

Al M.

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I don't understand this Al. Why are you comparing individuals in one case identifying with as members of their country to nations identifying as individuals in a larger group made up of separate countries? "Europeans" is referring to individuals, right?

Do you mean to contrast Americans (meaning individuals) identifying as "Americans" and Europeans (meaning individuals) identifying as "Europeans"? Or something else?

A German will self-identify as German first and foremost, only to a lesser degree as European. A person from Massachusetts will self-identify as American, and only secondarily as resident of Massachusetts.
 
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bonzo75

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That approach could work in less dense portions of the US. Sweden's population density is 64 ppl/sq mile. NYC's is 66,940, or 1000 times greater.

We also don't know their ultimate outcome will be. Hopefully it will stay low.

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