Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic

[OverReactionGuy]

Honestly, this virus pretty much set me back really hard in trying to find a job. My health issues and shit galore plus waiting on a few phone calls from Michigan works(this was the worst part) was what I was originally dealing with.

Now what jobs I can go for are now even more limited with even less odds of me getting them due to the amount of people that want them because every is losing their jobs basically because of the virus closing shit down here. This really sucks. >.>

 

[Ragnarok]

Actually, most of the distribution companies have been trying to get people to buy *less*. Probably because they know in the long run it won't affect their bottom line. People hoarding toilet paper just means it's difficult to distribute toilet paper to keep up, not that people will buy more of the stuff in the long run.

And it's far, far too early in the fiscal season for them to be able to use the artificial sales bump for stock manipulation purposes. That's what Christmas is for.

If anything, the slump in sales later on (due to all the panic buyers sitting on stacks of goods that they'll be using for the next few months) is going to hurt them more overall.


Now... if this demand was a new normal rather than an artificial spike, they'd be shitting themselves in joy, but it's not.

Click to shrink...

Work part-time Freight stocking for a Supermarket. Can confirm.

And most of them are old, which are the people the corona virus kills the most.

Click to shrink...

Fixed

 

[Renko]

So....

My place got put on Total Lockdown status by the government yesterday.

Only one person per household can go out to retrive reliefs and provisions.

And Police are enforcing a strict quarantine in the area too.

Kinda sucks.

 

[Susano]

There's no curfew in effect here (Germany), though increasing demands for one. It's kinda hard if you do keep to all the stay at home advice, and then you see groups of asshole teenagers having barbecue parties in the spring sun, you know?

All shops except pharmacies and food-related shops are closed, though. And the panic buying is still continuing. Nobody has toilet paper, anywhere, and the noodle and rice shelves are at least half-empty as well. Also, everyone is asking to please pay by card instead of cash. This being Germany, everyone loves cash, though. Trains and busses are still running, though on emergency schedules/skeleton crews, but there is officially no checking of tickets anymore.

It's really all so surreal... like stuff that has only ever been in the news, you know, not in your personal life...

 

[Ragnarok]

What's really surreal is that my mom, who normally acts like the sky is falling all the time, isn't worrying about the pandemic all that much.

 

[d.fish]

Anyone with ancestry or connection with Hubei is being treated like utter garbage here right now.

 

[seeing_octarine]

It's really all so surreal... like stuff that has only ever been in the news, you know, not in your personal life...

Click to shrink...

That's not surprising. While epidemics do happen from time to time, it has literally been around a century since the last time there was a pandemic that was this infectious and this deadly. And that was Spanish flu.

 

[Guardian Box]

That's not surprising. While epidemics do happen from time to time, it has literally been around a century since the last time there was a pandemic that was this infectious and this deadly. And that was Spanish flu.

Click to shrink...

And it was completely avoidable. They knew about the disease back in December, but Chinese government ordered all evidence destroyed and information suppressed. They ignored the problem hoping it would go away, and went as far as to intimidate, arrest or simply vanish any doctor who tried to spread the news and save lives.

The chucklefucks just had to be evil idiots about it.

 

[Susano]

And it was completely avoidable. They knew about the disease back in December, but Chinese government ordered all evidence destroyed and information suppressed. They ignored the problem hoping it would go away, and went as far as to intimidate, arrest or simply vanish any doctor who tried to spread the news and save lives.

The chucklefucks just had to be evil idiots about it.

Click to shrink...

Bullshit. That is the easy explanation, the narrative made up to avoid searching any blame with ourselves. The fact of the matter was that even while all of Wuhan was already shut down, Europe and America still smiled and assumed it was far away problems. When the first cases arrived here, everyone from news to governments was saying the most important thing was to not panic, and hey this isn't worse than a flu epidemic. Even when Italy already locked off entire cities, everyone assumed that hey, well, it isn't here at least - when in truth, everyone was just a few days behind Italy on the very same curve.

Meanwhile, Wuhan has no new infections anymore, and South Korea managed to keep everything under complete control. The reality of the matter is that it is we who fucked up. The European countries and the Anglosphere countries. Trying to invent stories so you can lay the blame on China instead is just cheap. Kinda the "western" equivalent to the Chinese net stories that the virus started in the USA.

 

[Guardian Box]

Meanwhile, Wuhan has no new infections anymore

Click to shrink...

Like I'm going to believe anything that comes out of China at his point. They did suppress the evidence of initial outbreak, don't ever try to weasel your way out of it.

The reality of the matter is that it is we who fucked up. The European countries and the Anglosphere countries. Trying to invent stories so you can lay the blame on China instead is just cheap. Kinda the "western" equivalent to the Chinese net stories that the virus started in the USA.

Click to shrink...

The virus came out of China, what the fuck is there to invent? Sure the world's response may not have been the best (and it's important to avoid panic so the calming down of people was justified) but you saying ridiculous shit like it's we who bear responsibility for the whole thing is disingenuous and fucking stupid.

 

[Guardian Box]

Since we touched upon Italy and how it's all our fault apparently, here's a bit of propaganda directly funded by China





Yes, during the outbreak, in part of the country that soon will turn out to be the most affected, as the virus was ravaging Wuhan, Chinese government funded a propaganda operation like this.

A month later, Italy has the highest amount of people infected in Europe, with hundreds of people dying daily.

Thanks China.

 

[Susano]

The virus came out of China, what the fuck is there to invent?

Click to shrink...

And how exactly is that China's fault? Epidemics happen. The matter of fact is that the European countries dropped the ball on dealing with ut.. That's all there is to it. Trying to blame the Chinese when we should be looking at our own faults is just cheap.

 

[TheLastNanaya]

No, China has known that Coronavirus is ravaging in Wuhan for near a month before reports or news coming from Chinese citizens themselves.

And what did the government of China do?

It's just a flu, bro~

And they never shut down their own borders. When Chinese New Year comes, the point where most likely the traffic towards China Tourism is the highest, they just let it happen, invite the people towards their country for annual festive holiday.

Then after that, cases of Coronavirus started to surge across the world.

To say that China is completely faultless is complete bullshit.

Trying to blame the Chinese when we should be looking at our own faults is just cheap.

Click to shrink...

Yes, it's not like it didn't come from China. I wonder why it's called Wuhan Flu before they change into more scientific names like Novel Coronavirus before settling to COVID-19 /s

So yes, it came from Wuhan in China. It is China's fault for, you know, not closing border and informing people way too late.

 

[Lykaia]

I wonder how long the quarantine is going to last for? Well, at least the US Gov intends on sending all citizens a $1000+ payment to help with the costs. It's the best option to keep people from going homeless or starving but, sigh, with this being an election year... (Can't really say any more due to Rule 8.)

 

[aquinas]

The dictatorial regime in China is at fault, no doubt, although how they try to conflate themselves with Chinese People in general is extra super special horrible and the fact that it apparently works is mind bendingly stupid.

But then, on the analyst side of things, the response up top was so bad in the US that family was telling me to overstock food at the end of January.

...and here i sit on a mountain of kidney beans and Tang.

 

[Renko]

Trying to blame the Chinese when we should be looking at our own faults is just cheap.

Click to shrink...

Don't be a CCP apologist please.

That's exactly what the chinese government want people to think so they can get away scott free from whatever bad stuff that they did that further worsen the problem.

The fact that they tried to stop information from getting out and were actively persecuting those who leaked information should really raise some red flags already

We could have been prepared months earlier but the Chinese chose to save face instead....as usual!

 

[aquinas]

We could have been prepared months earlier but the Chinese chose to save face instead....as usual!

Click to shrink...

Pointing this out again. Not defending the chinese government, but analysts in completely different areas of research (rail, power reliability) in the US knew this was going to be huge by mid-January.

We lost a month realistically due to China's screwup. The rest is ours.

 

[TheLastNanaya]

Which one is better?

A. Told people to calm down and not taking COVID-19 seriously and let people travel back and forth before announcing lockdown

or

B. Told people to prepare, take things seriously and set up lockdown to slow down the spread and contain.

Because I assure you, one of these is better than the other in long run for safety of overall people:

 

[Jiven]

I am tired and I want the French people to die in a fire.

 

[Aleh]

And they never shut down their own borders. When Chinese New Year comes, the point where most likely the traffic towards China Tourism is the highest, they just let it happen, invite the people towards their country for annual festive holiday.

Click to shrink...

So yes, it came from Wuhan in China. It is China's fault for, you know, not closing border and informing people way too late.

Click to shrink...

Okay. No. It doesn't work this way.

There are, perhaps predictably, a shitton of treaties and legal doctrines relating to the borders between countries. One of the more fundamental principles of them is that countries are not allowed to stop people from leaving.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which was signed in 1948) puts it like this:

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Click to shrink...

Ironically, perhaps, China is known for ignoring this, and this sort of thing in general. Still.

It's easy to point fingers in this epidemic. Much of the stuff I can't say, I can't say because it gets into political figures and how they've reacted. That said, while you can blame the Chinese government for suppressing information, don't blame them for not closing the borders of the country.

 

[TheLastNanaya]

don't blame them for not closing the borders of the country.

Click to shrink...

You are right, I blame them for ignoring the problem before it's too late and let it spread into other countries. Instead of closing border, they have to initiate lockdown. Because that is what they inevitably did.

Rinse and repeat for other countries as well since they are now racing on who gets the most case.

 

[OverMaster]

At this point I really think we should loosen Rule 8 up. To discuss the outbreak's ramifications and the reasons behind the spread political statements have to be made and debated. These aren't the happy go lucky times where we could freely spend most of our time here just discussing fictional lewds and walking on eggshells around real world issues was an option, not anymore. The real world is slapping us on the face hard so we wake up at last or die. Not a figure of speech either. Fucking actual die. No matter where you live, you and all your loved ones are in actual danger of death now, either because of the virus itself or the complications it may wreck upon society, and while nothing we talk about here is going to spread out and change the politics of those controlling the world, it's still clear the whole of reality has changed and issues that seemed adamant in the past, like not hurting others' feelings on touchy subjects, are pretty much irrelevant now in the face of the big picture.

 

[Susano]

N
And they never shut down their own borders.

Click to shrink...

Wait, you mean like closing the own borders to the own people going outwards?

Literally nobody else has done that, either. Closing the borders has always meant closing them to without. To foreigners coming in. Literally nobody has closed the borders to prevent the own people from leaving. None. To expect that from China is just flat out unreasonable. Besides, how long has it taken for even just those border closures to happen in Europe, and that with China as a warning example? China didn't really act any slower than European or American countries there, and they literally had no prior data on how the epidemic would unfold, no warning examples.

And the Chinese government has been pretty open about COVID19, all things being told. In fact, I very much remember how in the west their measures were seen as overreaction induced by hypercorrecting their mistakes during the SARS outbreak, where they had in fact obfuscated the situation. But that wasn't really the case here. As far as can be told, they always reported their numbers to the WHO correctly and in time. If other countries don't react to that, that's on them.

Really, all that remains is that yes, the epidemic came from China. But that's not China's fault. Once again: Epidemics simply happen. They are literally natural disasters. Blaming China is just very blatantly looking for an outlet, looking for anything external to blame.

Instead of, you know, looking at the state of our own healthcare systems, the state of our own emergency reactions, the state of government competence (*cough*Trump*cough). What happened is simply that there was a natural disaster and everyone in Europe and America to some degree just utterly fucked up the response to that. Some more (USA under Trump) than others (Italy, France).

 

[Lykaia]

Meh, it's not China's fault but let's not brush under the rug that they did hide the existence of the Wuhan Flu for a good month and a half. Not that it matters now as the cat's out of the bag and there's no putting it back in.


Other than that I'm doing pretty good myself since I still have a job. Going to go on vacation for 5-7 days since I'm not letting this get in the way of those particular plans. Yes, I'll be staying at home but at least I'll get to sleep in. I'd say things are looking pretty good for me actually.

 

[aquinas]

At this point I really think we should loosen Rule 8 up. To discuss the outbreak's ramifications and the reasons behind the spread political statements have to be made and debated.

Click to shrink...

That's a hard one, because, the consequences of the pandemic are tied with the systemic failures of various groups, which ties into current politics.

But having a place that just wallows in smut is kind of nice too, and if you open up that flood gate, the fact that it feels nice to try to talk about things in this community really quickly leads to this community become "that community over there" too.

So, I suppose: "Bwahaha, I have all the brassicas in my cold frame I have vegetables for years!"

 

[TheLastNanaya]

And the Chinese government has been pretty open about COVID19, all things being told.

Click to shrink...

Yes, they are open about it after they can't hide it anymore. Are you just going to ignore everything else people have told you about China's handling of the situation before they finally admit that yes, COVID-19 is serious business?

I would like to respond to other points but at this point, we should agree to disagree because you seem very keen to defend China to a fault.

BTW, I'm not American so I can't say anything else about your country's system.

 

[Megaolix]

At this point I really think we should loosen Rule 8 up.

Click to shrink...

Not a fucking chance. The political stuff still go on others forums, not here.

On my own beliefs, I would rather have places that allow me to not think about that all the goddamn time.

And guys, while I'm not too happy about the blame game, it's not by itself political. But it can easily derail to it. It's just a suggestion, but maybe keep things to current events?

 

[Susano]

Yes, they are open about it after they can't hide it anymore. Are you just going to ignore everything else people have told you about China?

I would like to respond to other points but at this point, we should agree to disagree because you seem very keen to defend China to a fault.

Click to shrink...

Dude, pointing out how epidemics are just a natural disaster is hardly "defending China to a fault".

And they have in fact been pretty open about information ever since the central government yanked away all responsibility for the matter from the Wuhan regional government. And even at that point, everyone in Europe and America was dismissing the threat. So it isn't like earlier warning about "yeah seems like there is a new virus in some backwater province in China few people will even have heard about" would have affected anything. China's open information policy predates the virus coming to Europe by weeks. This is still in fact all the fault of Europe and America not having taken the threat serious.

South Korea managed to entirely contain the virus. Meanwhile, the Trump government flat out refused WHO testing kits due to fear of bad news. Things like that, that is the issue at hand here.

 

[ANGRY PUFFBALL]

Meanwhile, the Trump government flat out refused WHO testing kits due to fear of bad news. Things like that, that is the issue at hand here.

Click to shrink...

This is flat out not true. The WHO did not offer to sell the US their test. The US opted to develop their own, as did several other major countries.

 

[Susano]

This is flat out not true. The WHO did not offer to sell the US their test. The US opted to develop their own, as did several other major countries.

Click to shrink...

Of which they managed to produce a whopping...

...6,000. And even just that far too late.

They declined getting the WHO kits and then proceeded to fuck up producing their own. There was no testing for several weeks after the virus had already entered the USA.

And there is in fact indication that the Trump government went all Three Monkeys on the issue in order to not produce bad news for the administration.