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brakeman

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Posts posted by brakeman

  1. 2 hours ago, Eastwood said:

    Here's what is dangerous about society and the virus, at this point. There is a segment that is doing their absolute best to social distance, mask up, and exercise general caution in all things. Then there are those who don't think this is a big deal, at all, and no harm will come from this. This has led to people outright ignoring guidelines because they see no harm in their actions and there are real consequences to this.  

    A concern in my own family, which has a large number of people not taking this seriously, is that family members will lie to get us to visit. We are comfortable visiting with a small number of people that we absolutely trust in. We are beyond comfortable when they assure us that they have been staying home and masking up when it is absolutely necessary to go out. Then there is the contingent in our family that don't think this is a big deal. If they strongly believe that there isn't any real danger in COVID, what's to keep them from telling what would be, to them, a little white lie to get us to come over? In their mind, no harm will come from telling us what we want to hear. This has led to uncomfortable conversations between us and certain family members that my wife and I have identified as possible offenders of this.

    Unfortunately, the majority of these possible offenders interact closely with the obviously at-risk members of the family. And those at-risk in my family are less educated and from a time and place where technology and general science was unnecessary to their survival. They see no value in it. So they get their information from sources they trust, begrudgingly do the bare minimum, and don't verify that others are doing the same before seeing them. I unfortunately find myself, in a morbid and selfish fashion, hoping that someone close enough to our family, but outside of it, gets real sick with this so that my family will finally take this seriously and protect themselves. I've said it before in this thread that some people won't listen until they get a newspaper on the snout. I said that out of personal experience. 

    i'm currently  in the same predicament with my family. luckly/unluckly, I live in DC.

    i'm sorry Texas.

  2. 5 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

    The Texas med center (Houston area) has been posting lots of data on their hospitalizations, ICU occupancy, etc that we've all probably seen.  Here's a not great looking trend:

    9a-TMC-covid-19-icu-occupancy-trend-6-23-2020.png

    They also give you a snapshot in time at what total (covid and non-covid) ICU occupancy looks like:

    9-TMC-total-icu-bed-occupancy-6-23-2020.png 

    However, one thing they don't indicate (or at least I couldn't find) was what total ICU occupancy has looked like over time.  So I went to the wayback machine and pulled snapshots  of the 2nd picture at 5/5, 5/13, 5/31, 6/7, and 6/19 (the only dates I could find).  Here's the total occupancy on those dates:

    5/5: 1056

    5/13: 1070

    5/31: 1152

    6/7: 1268

    6/19: 1235

    6/22: 1207

    Interestingly, despite covid patients increasing from about 15% of ICU patients around 6/7 to about 25% now, the total number of people in the ICU has actually fallen by about 60 patients.   What does this all mean?  I have no idea.  An artifact of more testing/classification of sick people as covid cases? Or, we are pushing out non-covid pateints to accommodate more covid patients? Or, the Russians?  

    hockey stick. i'm sorry my texas family and friends.

  3. 1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

    No.   What's really surprising, is how many of the anti-mask folks look like they might have underlying conditions, and how much the anti-mask people bitch, when, from what I can tell, most of them are not in jobs that require them to wear masks all day.  Or they are in jobs where they can easily take time off to go bitch about masks.

    And for fuck's sake, we've got a pretty loose definition of the term "mask", since I've seen everything from N95s down to paper-thin t-shirts being used for them.  So it's not like a "OH MY GOD THIS FANCY MASK IS MAKING IT HARD ON ME", it's like "wrap the thin-ass t-shirt once around your nose and mouth and you're good."  

    And don't get me started on folks who don't even cover their noses.

    I wear a 3m n95 respirator at work all day. I have been since 3/13 when DC declared a state of emergency and nba season was postponed at multiple outpatient clinics in northern VA.

    When the patients bitch and moan about wearing a mask; I like to point out that it's much easier to breathe through provided 

    surgical masks then through a ventilator. I mostly acheive compliance.

     

    • Like 4
  4. 4 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

    Unfortunately, people need to be motivated, and a lot of that starts at home.  So many kids have zero shot because their parents' either do not have the time or want/ability to invest the time with helping their children.  That is why programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters and nonprofit in school/after school programs are so vital.  

    Idiocracy is real.  It is WAY too fucking easy for some inbred idiot with zero means to have a passel full of kids, and yet, look at how difficult it is for well educated, well off families (either hetero or same sex) to adopt.  It is fucking bullshit.

    yep, it's systemic.

     

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