How has the coronavirus affected your personal life?

[dogofwar]

Appreciate the perspective. Australia is in the place it is because your leaders made the hard decisions to get the virus under control and your people - by and large - adhered to the social contract that we're all in this together.

Digging in one's heels to call out false and misleading information about COVID - which skil47 is spreading - is not the same as digging in one's heels to spread misinformation and false narratives. And we're awash in misinformation and gross misrepresentations of research to promote such false narratives.

That's my point: Helping people find credible information from authoritative sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, is just as important as reducing the spread of misinformation.

Although we're a much larger country, we have lost over 600,000 people to COVID - surely an under count - and, according to scientists, a more concerted, science-based and effective response could have saved countless lives and suffering (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...of-thousands-of-deaths-research-idUSKBN2BH1DK)

here in Melbourne, australia we had a very strict lockdown last year for nearly 3 months. It was not fun but it did get the cases down from 700 per day to zero. The economic and social costs have been huge but we have also been almost Covid free since September last year.Even so there were 800 deaths, mainly in aged care facilities.

There’s been a few outbreaks due to quarantine from international travelers returning being stuffed up and we have had 2 more 2-3 week lockdowns but otherwise it’s been nearly normal here.
The result of being so free is complacency and a very low vaccination rate. I’m personally not in a hurry to get it but will eventually.

theres lots of debate here about whether the lockdown was the right thing to do but when i see what happened in other countries I really wonder what would have happened if we didn’t do it. Other states have had different approaches but all have had a lockdown at some stage.

As for masks, I don’t like them but I don’t think they do any harm and may protect someone more vulnerable so will wear it when required.

without meaning to offend either of you, this debate seems to sum up the rest of the worlds view of the USA these daysTwo very different viewpoints that both make sense in their own way butboth have their heels dug in and won’t concede that there may be some merit in what the other guy is saying.

 

[dogofwar]

Appreciate the perspective. Australia is in the place it is because your leaders made the hard decisions to get the virus under control and your people - by and large - adhered to the social contract that we're all in this together.

Digging in one's heels to call out false and misleading information about COVID - which skil47 is spreading - is not the same as digging in one's heels to spread misinformation and false narratives. And we're awash in misinformation and gross misrepresentations of research to promote such false narratives.

That's my point: Helping people find credible information from authoritative sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, is just as important as reducing the spread of misinformation.

Because there is a concerted effort to spread misinformation and so many weigh random Youtube videos, crap they see on social media and from cable TV commentators equally against the information and recommendations they see from the CDC and other credible sources, way too many people think that there is a legitimate debate as to whether masks work (they do), whether vaccines are safe and effective (they are) and whether just letting the virus spread to achieve herd immunity would have been a better strategy (it wouldn't have been).

Although we're a much larger country, we have lost over 600,000 people to COVID - surely an under count - and, according to scientists, a more concerted, science-based and effective response could have saved countless lives and suffering (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...of-thousands-of-deaths-research-idUSKBN2BH1DK) We're not out of the woods in the US precisely because of misinformation.

here in Melbourne, australia we had a very strict lockdown last year for nearly 3 months. It was not fun but it did get the cases down from 700 per day to zero. The economic and social costs have been huge but we have also been almost Covid free since September last year.Even so there were 800 deaths, mainly in aged care facilities.

There’s been a few outbreaks due to quarantine from international travelers returning being stuffed up and we have had 2 more 2-3 week lockdowns but otherwise it’s been nearly normal here.
The result of being so free is complacency and a very low vaccination rate. I’m personally not in a hurry to get it but will eventually.

theres lots of debate here about whether the lockdown was the right thing to do but when i see what happened in other countries I really wonder what would have happened if we didn’t do it. Other states have had different approaches but all have had a lockdown at some stage.

As for masks, I don’t like them but I don’t think they do any harm and may protect someone more vulnerable so will wear it when required.

without meaning to offend either of you, this debate seems to sum up the rest of the worlds view of the USA these daysTwo very different viewpoints that both make sense in their own way butboth have their heels dug in and won’t concede that there may be some merit in what the other guy is saying.

 

[Hendre]

Went for an antigen test and it came back negative. Looks like I have been struck by a bad flu, my symptoms are already fading. The drive thru testing is quite efficient here.

 

[esoxlucius]

I must say, I have been watching this thread over the past few days and there was a time, due to the touchy subject matter, that a thread like this would have been shut down. I applaud both D dogofwar and S skjl47 for keeping it civil.

 

[dogofwar]

It really comes down to where to get information to guide the daily life decisions that we make for ourselves, our families and our communities, especially as they relate to COVID. That listening to credible science and scientists has somehow become touchy or controversial is beyond me.

I must say, I have been watching this thread over the past few days and there was a time, due to the touchy subject matter, that a thread like this would have been shut down. I applaud both D dogofwar and S skjl47 for keeping it civil.

 

[esoxlucius]

It really comes down to where to get information to guide the daily life decisions that we make for ourselves, our families and our communities, especially as they relate to COVID. That listening to credible science and scientists has somehow become touchy or controversial is beyond me.

I agree, this type of subject matter should be on the table to openly discuss on the forum, it shouldn't be viewed upon as being touchy or controversial in any way whatsoever.

Ironically I believe the main reason why we're usually unable to discuss certain topics in a civil manner on the forum is because of the plethora of misinformation out there, the same misinformation that is causing a stalemate in your conversation with skj.

If someone hears plausible misinformation that they take to be fact then an open and candid discussion can't really prevail.

That's why I applaud the both of you. Your conversation could have got out of hand and the thread closed down a long time ago. You may not agree with one another but you've both set a great example of how to discuss something civily whilst being a million miles apart from agreeing.

 

[dogofwar]

Indeed. We''re each entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts

I agree, this type of subject matter should be on the table to openly discuss on the forum, it shouldn't be viewed upon as being touchy or controversial in any way whatsoever.

Ironically I believe the main reason why we're usually unable to discuss certain topics in a civil manner on the forum is because of the plethora of misinformation out there, the same misinformation that is causing a stalemate in your conversation with skj.

If someone hears plausible misinformation that they take to be fact then an open and candid discussion can't really prevail.

That's why I applaud the both of you. Your conversation could have got out of hand and the thread closed down a long time ago. You may not agree with one another but you've both set a great example of how to discuss something civily whilst being a million miles apart from agreeing.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

They've raised our alert level back up to 2 because an Australian tourist with covid came to Wellington and ran around to a whole bunch of tourist sites. He was staying at the hotel right next to my work.

Not a strict lockdown, it's basically just reinstating social distancing and limiting social gatherings to 100 people. Bit annoying that probably means the show one of my cats was going to be in this weekend is cancelled.

I'm definitely pro lockdown, not doing the US's half assed or non existent lockdowns is probably one of the biggest reasons we've been business as usual, except for a few little speedbumps for the last year.

 

[jaws7777]

I'm definitely pro lockdown, not doing the US's half assed or non existent lockdowns is probably one of the biggest reasons we've been business as usual, except for a few little speedbumps for the last year.

that doesn't surprise me.

 

[Hendre]

Lockdowns are tricky. Very difficult to control this side where a vast number of people live in crowded conditions. I was lucky enough to be able to isolate in my 3x3m room, that's bigger than many of the houses erected in the informal settlements that host a family each and are built very close to one another. Luckily people have sort of behaved, although we're going into a very strong third wave now. I expect more measures to be put into place soon as most of the hospitals here are past capacity with covid patients, and it's worse elsewhere in South Africa.