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News Coronavirus Pandemic Information and Support Group

The numbers of people who say that they don't believe that Cordero's amputation has anything to do with COVID-19 is sad but not surprising. Lots of Internet comments are portraying the coronavirus death toll as artificially inflated to make it seem worse than it is. There's always some plot to push the virus so they can scare and control the population.

Until they have a loved one directly affected by the virus they'll still believe the tinfoil nutters and think they're being lied to.
 
I've been hearing a lot of discussion elsewhere about people with second homes/cottages complaining that they should be allowed to freely travel to them, and in the case of cottages, start getting them ready for spring/summer use. To that, I shake my head and emphatically say no! I know how hard it must be for some people, but we're all in a situation together, and we must stick to isolation, that and means staying hunkered down wherever you are. It shouldn't be so hard to grasp.

I read an interesting article about a small town in Oregon, where a lot of people have vacation homes, and residents were becoming nervous of people travelling into the town. If a town is small enough to only have exactly what they need, shipments maybe once a week, with a small hospital several miles away, anyone coming from outside, even if owning a second home ,becomes a possible vector to that town, putting stress on the system and its community. If multiple people from outside do this in a town, the towns are going to quickly feel overwhelmed. Staying hunkered down where we are not only helps curb the infection, but helps researchers pin down where the virus is most active, something which they can't reasonably do if people feel the need to access their second homes/cottages.
 
Too late for that in the Hamptons. From the crowds in the supermarket, looks like a lot of the city folks decided they'd rather be locked up here than there.
 
Some good news coming out of my home province today. Our curve appears to be flattening, and trending towards our best-case scenario.

But after climbing steadily through the first week of April, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in ICUs across the province peaked on April 9 at 264. That number has since levelled off, averaging 249 daily for the past week.

"The implication is that our public health measures are working, and we need to keep them working," said Matt Anderson, chief executive of Ontario Health, the recently created provincial agency that co-ordinates the health system.

Anderson said actions by the people of Ontario in complying with physical distancing measures are key to the success so far.
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Fortunately, it sounds like they're going to be taking a very cautious approach to opening things back up, eventually. (Mixed metaphors aside.)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-modelling-ontario-update-deaths-cases-1.5538234
 
Avro Arrow said:
Some good news coming out of my home province today. Our curve appears to be flattening, and trending towards our best-case scenario.
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Yeah, saw that earlier. It's promising, though we still need to be vigilant and patient. One other thing that's recently been said about the province is that it seems our community transmissions are peaking, while most of the cases seem to be via international travel. Although there's one local case that was peculiar as they said it wasn't international travel and wasn't community transmission. As far as I know, there are only two categories, so which is it? :shrug:

"This individual is not believed to have contracted the virus through international travel or close contact with a confirmed case."
 
Owain Taggart said:
I've been hearing a lot of discussion elsewhere about people with second homes/cottages complaining that they should be allowed to freely travel to them, and in the case of cottages, start getting them ready for spring/summer use. To that, I shake my head and emphatically say no! I know how hard it must be for some people, but we're all in a situation together, and we must stick to isolation, that and means staying hunkered down wherever you are. It shouldn't be so hard to grasp.

I read an interesting article about a small town in Oregon, where a lot of people have vacation homes, and residents were becoming nervous of people travelling into the town. If a town is small enough to only have exactly what they need, shipments maybe once a week, with a small hospital several miles away, anyone coming from outside, even if owning a second home ,becomes a possible vector to that town, putting stress on the system and its community. If multiple people from outside do this in a town, the towns are going to quickly feel overwhelmed. Staying hunkered down where we are not only helps curb the infection, but helps researchers pin down where the virus is most active, something which they can't reasonably do if people feel the need to access their second homes/cottages.
Click to expand...

What if they don't have any contact with anyone else on the way to their cottages? What if they just drive straight there, do their business and come straight back home?
 
After Saxony, as well as several cities, already made masks mandatory for public transport and shops, several other states are following suit. Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hamburg, Hesse, as well as my home state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, have declared mask mandatory in shops and public transport, starting Monday next week. Again, they don't need to be actual surgical masks, as there's still a shortage. The masks that common people are supposed to wear can be make-shift, even scarfs. But mouth and nose need to be covered when you go on a bus, train, or into a shop.

Good, too. When I go out to work, or shopping, I still see only a minority of people wearing masks.
 
Kai "the spy" said:
After Saxony, as well as several cities, already made masks mandatory for public transport and shops, several other states are following suit. Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hamburg, Hesse, as well as my home state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, have declared mask mandatory in shops and public transport, starting Monday next week. Again, they don't need to be actual surgical masks, as there's still a shortage. The masks that common people are supposed to wear can be make-shift, even scarfs. But mouth and nose need to be covered when you go on a bus, train, or into a shop.

Good, too. When I go out to work, or shopping, I still see only a minority of people wearing masks.
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I'm just worried no one's gonna properly enforce this. I'm a member of a risk group, all it takes is ONE infected person who thinks the rules don't apply to them and... yeah.
 
Nenya said:
What if they don't have any contact with anyone else on the way to their cottages? What if they just drive straight there, do their business and come straight back home?
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Some people might be more responsible like that, but the general idea behind traveling to one's second summer home or to making it ready for someone else to occupy is to either encourage tourism or to give yourself a little vacation to get out and explore. Both fine and noble ideas at any other time, but not critical right now and potentially risky to yourself and others during the pandemic. It's better to be safe than sorry under the circumstances. It's nice to assume everyone will be on their best and wisest behavior, but it's not a good emergency plan.

Plus, there are people losing their livelihoods and their lives right now, so the status of someone's second summer home —someone who can probably weather this crisis financially better than most— is not really a top priority right now.
 
MrPicard said:
I'm just worried no one's gonna properly enforce this. I'm a member of a risk group, all it takes is ONE infected person who thinks the rules don't apply to them and... yeah.
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That is, of course, always a risk. Although I've already seen doorkeepers at a supermarket, so they might just as well be bouncers to people without masks. I work in retail, and I know I'm going to enforce this in my shop.

As for public transport, I think there'll be a few days of flexibility on busses, where the driver will only give a warning to people without masks, as they might not have heard yet, but as time goes on, they'll grow less tolerant.

Members of high risk groups should probably still err on the side of caution, even with everybody wearing masks. While surgical masks worn in hospitals are close to 100 % effective against letting virusses out, the make-shift masks people are wearing still have some remaining risk.
 
I really wish Walmart would hand out N95 masks to customers as they enter. If Walmart of all companies can't find a way to cost out free masks for their supposedly valuable customers during a global pandemic then the next time they get into a dispute over wages and employee treatment and benefits the already shaky public sympathy for the company is going to go even lower.
 
Kai "the spy" said:
Members of high risk groups should probably still err on the side of caution, even with everybody wearing masks. While surgical masks worn in hospitals are close to 100 % effective against letting virusses out, the make-shift masks people are wearing still have some remaining risk.
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I really hope my boss will view it the same way (I agree with you, high risk groups are still high risk groups). I'm really scared that I'll be told "no more home office because now everyone wears masks on your bus/rtram". :( And I also agree that enforcing the rules in grocery stores will probably happen, there are indeed already people outside telling customers to get a shopping cart because that creates a good amount of distance already. But buses/trams... I'm not so sure.
 
Locutus of Bored said:
Some people might be more responsible like that, but the general idea behind traveling to one's second summer home or to making it ready for someone else to occupy is to either encourage tourism or to give yourself a little vacation to get out and explore. Both fine and noble ideas at any other time, but not critical right now and potentially risky to yourself and others during the pandemic.
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That's it, exactly. I mean, it's potentially fine if it's still local. But when you're talking traveling to other towns or even crossing provincial or state lines to get to it, the risk expands exponentially. I find it frustrating to hear many express the wanting, as if it were an emergency for them to get there. It's not. Their second-homes/cottages will still be there waiting for them when this is over. Think of it this way: Potentially a person traveling could be fine, but to any citizens of a town, they don't know that. All they see is a person traveling that could potentially have the virus. I've heard of some states and provinces closing their borders to travel, and I think more of them should be doing so. Even if a person doesn't have it, by traveling, they could then pick it up, not know it and bring it back with them to their point of origin.
 
Nenya said:
What if they don't have any contact with anyone else on the way to their cottages? What if they just drive straight there, do their business and come straight back home?
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The concern is that they'll be a drain on limited supplies, resources, if they get sick tax a small medical infrastructure, etc.

And that's fully understandable, and I largely agree but if I could afford a second home in an isolated community I'd be inclined to go there too. If I'm paying property taxes... well, it's mine.
 
Winterwind said:
If I'm paying property taxes... well, it's mine.
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What if property taxes were paused during the duration of the pandemic? I think some locations are considering this or have already have started doing so. If it's in an isolated community, you wouldn't be doing them many favours while this is going on. Best focus on doing what's right here and now than worry about another property. There are worse things to think about, like as been pointed out, the many who are dying due to virus.
 
Owain Taggart said:
What if property taxes were paused during the duration of the pandemic? I think some locations are considering this or have already have started doing so. If it's in an isolated community, you wouldn't be doing them many favours while this is going on. Best focus on doing what's right here and now than worry about another property. There are worse things to think about, like as been pointed out, the many who are dying due to virus.
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Like I said in my post, well aware of both sides of the issue, and largely agree with the position of the rural communities.

In fact, in my post I already covered what you just said since I was explaining the reasoning to someone who asked about their stance.

Now, for the sake of discussion/debate... If someone just bought the property, and the municipality was suspending property taxes, that's one thing but if someone had owned the property for 20 years and lived there six month of the year but had been paying taxes 12 months a year for 20 years, yeah, I'd say they have every right to go there if they decide that's where they want to wait it out.
 
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