New Zealand

[ikarasu]

And just to point out... Every state can make their own covid rules. California went into lockdown early... They had mandatory masks as early as June... But they're still getting big uptick in cases.

And the schooling thing... Our province is doing the same. I think during a pandemic grouping kids in 30-100 people per room is dumb. But look at the alternative - a lot of people can't goto work because they're watching their kid. What do they do? Put their kid in daycare? They'd get full and you're back at the same situation. Private daycare?.... No one afford that in most salaries. So do people give up their jobs, or businesses shut down because they have no employees?

It's very easy to criticize and point out what's wrong. But there isn't an easy solution to every problem covid is causing.


It's a very crappy situation everyone is in. I'm not directing this at S101, or this thread... It's at leaders in general, but We should all be working together instead of bickering who's doing better.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

And just to point out... Every state can make their own covid rules. California went into lockdown early... They had mandatory masks as early as June... But they're still getting big uptick in cases.

And the schooling thing... Our province is doing the same. I think during a pandemic grouping kids in 30-100 people per room is dumb. But look at the alternative - a lot of people can't goto work because they're watching their kid. What do they do? Put their kid in daycare? They'd get full and you're back at the same situation. Private daycare?.... No one afford that in most salaries. So do people give up their jobs, or businesses shut down because they have no employees?

It's very easy to criticize and point out what's wrong. But there isn't an easy solution to every problem covid is causing.


It's a very crappy situation everyone is in. I'm not directing this at S101, or this thread... It's at leaders in general, but We should all be working together instead of bickering who's doing better.

You're forgetting counties and cities.



To our core we are not in an authoritative nation. Trump tried to take "total control" but the media said he doesn't have it. So how can they blame him if he never had the control to begin with?

USA isn't going to handle pandemics well because the power of decision making is focused on local governments. It's this way of thinking that has made us the world's best super power. If the trade-off of being #1 in the world means we can't do pandemics well... I'd take that over being New Zealand or Canada any day.

 

[Johnny Best]

Mothra could take a big plane and crush it.

 

[Bly]

Forget about the stupid virus and get back to your civil war recreation guys - it's keeping the rest of the world amused.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

You're forgetting counties and cities.



To our core we are not in an authoritative nation. Trump tried to take "total control" but the media said he doesn't have it. So how can they blame him if he never had the control to begin with?

USA isn't going to handle pandemics well because the power of decision making is focused on local governments. It's this way of thinking that has made us the world's best super power. If the trade-off of being #1 in the world means we can't do pandemics well... I'd take that over being New Zealand or Canada any day.

Against my best judgement Ill say this: the world and the United States have dealt with multiple pandemics and potential pandemics all through history. This is not unprecedented. Part of being a leader is accepting blame, even if you dont feel it is your fault. The saying “the buck stops here” is as true today as it was years ago.

 

[GAC05]

The saying “the buck stops here” is as true today as it was years ago.

They don't use bucks down there. They have metric money called New Zealand dollar(s).

 

[Notarealsignguy]

They don't use bucks down there. They have metric money called New Zealand dollar(s).

Fair enough “the metric money stops here” don't tell the French canadians

 

[ikarasu]

If the trade-off of being #1 in the world means we can't do pandemics well... I'd take that over being New Zealand or Canada any day.

Hey now. USA is Canadas Mexico, if anything Canada is #1!

 

[Johnny Best]

The Toronto Blue Jays had to come to Buffalo to play their home games. Only the cut outs are allowed in to watch.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Here is some things that I can't help reconcile:

When Trump tried to stop plains from China early on over this, he was called a Xenophobe. In fact, some politicians were more involved with his impeachment compared to this virus early on. Later on, it was said he didn't do enough when impeachment fell through. How can anyone try to do anything more when you have very load voices saying how horrible everything is that just comes out of that person's mouth? And it's been that way since pretty much day 1 of his term.

While response has been horrid, now this is just my opinion, it's mainly due to how different areas have dealt with it. Some have done A, some have done B and some have just done whatever. Some areas have done better compared to others. And then you have the majority of the media (some are calling the legacy media) with TDS focusing on something else until they can't get what they are hoping with that and try something else. While I may or may not be a fan of everything that the current president has done, I'm certainly not a fan of that happening since 2016. That isn't a way to unify a nation and to have a unifying response to combat something that is affecting the nation. No president can combat that. And I have to tell you, since 2016, the news organizations have since not been about news anymore (hence why some people say "legacy"). One also has to remember, that the states are up to how they want to respond to this individually. The president doesn't have all power in that regard without enacting certain "powers".

I can promise you that with TDS as vocal as it is, imagine what would happen if he were to do that? It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. I can promise you that there are people that are waiting to pounce on him if he were to enact said powers on this or for something like the unrest going on in certain areas.

If anything this should show just how well state and local jurisdiction's policies that are in place. If there are any. And that is really were one is going to get the more rapid response time in combating something, the state and local areas, not the federal. Federal moves to slow in good times to actually be dependent for something like that.

SARS-CoV-2 is prevalent in far more American places than just big cities with "blue" governments and black lives matter protesters.

There are other issues in blue cities and ones with protesting. I don't necessarily think the original post that you were responding to was trying to say that rioters were the reason for the uptick in cases, but something else that is also going on at the same time.

Some areas, the local jurisdictions have sided with protestors and allowed them to go on, but for everything else, there is lock down. That is no bueno for combating something like this, it sends a mixed message, how can everything but rioting be bad for combating something like this when businesses and other endeavors are following CDC guidelines, while the rioters are not?

That doesn't help with combating this is.

Now, I do think that it does depend on the inclinations of the town as to if the protesting takes hold or not. There was an attempt at a chaz/chop here and that didn't last long. We had small amounts of protesters in the town that I am in, but didn't last long at all and nothing like how it was in other places.

It's the hypocrisy of it all that's the problem, at least for me. And that does not help with combating something like this. That's the problem.

 

[MI Bearcat]

It's just plain dumb to try to compare the United States to New Zealand, a small island no matter what metric you want to compare. Due to it's size, New Zealand can easily shut down it's borders and the people will most likely unite to do what they can to keep it out of their tiny island. You can't just shut down the US economy for an extended period of time.

The US is huge with open borders and due to it's immigration policies, is not the "United States" anymore. We could have world war 3 and the US would not be "united". As mentioned, no president could get this country to unite to fight the pandemic. Trump certainly isn't helping but wouldn't make much of a difference if someone else was in the White House.

 

[Bobby H]

While usa is one country... Remember it's "United States" as in many many different states. If you went from California to say Mississippi it's like a whole other country in certain aspects. People have different priorities.... Different beliefs. It's impossible to unite everyone in such a large, diverse country against a particular cause on a normal, perfect day. Let alone with so much going on right now.

Which is why I brought up my local county as an isolated example. Comanche County isn't a dense, high population center. It's not a tourist mecca (although the Wichita Mountains area has some interesting attractions). The most mobile group of people moving in and out of the area is the US Army. This is a very "red" political territory. Our overall SARS-CoV-2 case load and case fatality rate is very mild compared to many other parts of the US. Nevertheless, our 120,000 person county has fully half the number of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths as New Zealand's 4.8 million people.

On a personal level the list of people I know who've had COVID-19 is growing. I have an Aunt nearby in Temple who had it for a month and finally tested negative last week. She's lucky she didn't end up in the hospital. She said it was worse than any flu she ever had.

When Trump tried to stop plains from China early on over this, he was called a Xenophobe.

Trump deserves no credit for his Chinese "travel ban." It was a Swiss cheese, fake travel ban. It only prevented Chinese nationals from entering the US. Any American or other foreigner traveling to the US from China was able to enter the country just fine.

By the time Trump put the "travel ban" into effect on January 31 the SARS-CoV-2 virus had already been spreading in Washington State. The first US case was confirmed 10 days earlier. And then the first really big wave of cases in the Northeast US were seeded from Europe. The CDC screwed around for much of February going into March with defective tests they were trying to force everyone else to use. The first US cases were confirmed using tests custom made in defiance of the CDC. Then our "leadership" spent much of March selling SARS-CoV-2 as a mild flu that would just go away.

There are other issues in blue cities and ones with protesting. I don't necessarily think the original post that you were responding to was trying to say that rioters were the reason for the uptick in cases, but something else that is also going on at the same time.

People on the political far right are spinning it to say its all BLM protesters doing it. The truth is there are irresponsible idiots in all camps on the left and right spreading this virus out of their own selfish behavior. I'm 100% certain some cases were spread in those urban protests. But I'm also 100% certain bikers up in Sturgis, SD were doing the same thing. There are many many possibilities. Here locally we have a mask mandate, but I see people out in public in various stages of no-mask or fake-mask (mask down under the nose, mask as a chin-strap). People are demanding in-person school classes, despite the extreme obvious risk of spread. It goes on and on.

The gist of it is we have a LOT of hard-headed Americans vengefully demanding that life return to normal immediately. They're throwing any argument they can at taking down restrictions. But the SARS-CoV-2 virus is like the honey badger. It doesn't give a f###.

The virus is going to do what it wants to do despite any of our lifestyle demands. The only proper recourse is to starve the virus by preventing its spread to more people. This PITA pandemic is just going to keep going on and on and on as long as we keep half-a$$ing our response to it.

One of my coworkers is working from home now because it's likely her husband has COVID-19. He's had one negative rapid antigen test 2 days ago. But he has been running a 102° fever for the past few days. Yesterday he got a very thorough test from the health dept. But it will be a few days to get the results. If I had to guess I think he either picked it up from church or possibly at the Lawton Rangers Rodeo nearly a couple weeks ago. If my coworker turns up positive then everyone here at work will need to get tested and even quarantine for a couple weeks.

 

[Johnny Best]

Up here in Buffalo the Covid is not really bad. Everything shut down and everyone went into panic mood because New York City was getting hit so bad. Everyone still wears masks and social distances up here.
Bowling allies just opened back up on Monday. Schools are going to open up soon.
If you come in from most states you have to quarantine for 14 days. All of you stay safe.

 

[WYLDGFI]

Hey Bobby....hope you're co-worker and everyone there is safe and OK.

I had a guy here who went to a protest in Newark NJ over a weekend and was sick a couple days later. I required him to stay home, get a test...and come back negative on it.
1) He put himself in harms way...pissed me off in that respect as his boss.
2) Didnt come into work and risk infecting anyone else thankfully.
3) Ultimately test came back negative and I welcomed him back. He did receive 80% pay for the week and half from me as it was my decision to tell him to stay home.
So yea...its hard all around. Just want everyone to be safe and keep at it.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Trump deserves no credit for his Chinese "travel ban." It was a Swiss cheese, fake travel ban. It only prevented Chinese nationals from entering the US. Any American or other foreigner traveling to the US from China was able to enter the country just fine.

That's not the point. He did that little bit and was then called racist/xenophobic. Imagine what he would have been called if he did something far more restrictive. That's the point. No matter what he would have done, especially if it was stricter would have been accepted. That's the issue.

People on the political far right are spinning it to say its all BLM protesters doing it. The truth is there are irresponsible idiots in all camps on the left and right spreading this virus out of their own selfish behavior.

That may be true with the far right (and I have no reason to doubt it, nor do I), but that doesn't mean that everyone that mentions BLM as ancillary "activities" going on is saying that the hike in covid cases is directly and only related to that. The hypocrisy going around is so much that it's hard to have a grasp over what is really going on versus what is just political fluff. This is why I blame people in government that take their positions on a political one and hold steadfast there. It does no one any good. It turns people off and it does actually lessen what people think of it.

Don't think I'm one of those that doesn't think that disease is a serious thing, one of my friends lost their mother to it. It's not of of those "imagine if it happened to someone you know" type of situations for me. But I certainly don't like the political hypocrisy that is going along with it and causing far more damage.

 

[Gino]

Around my area, they just made schools online teaching til January. However, a letter went out to each and every citizen, whether you had kids in school or not. They didn't wanna miss anyone. Letter states that with this school year going online teaching in the beginning, all students who do not have access to internet or have laptops at home, they will be given to them at no cost. How is that fairness ??

 

[Stacey K]

First outbreak over 2 people in my city since this began. There was a wedding a couple weeks ago, then another one the following week in which many of the same people attended. Pretty decent sized outbreak. Nobody with any symptoms worse than a cold. I did not attend either of the weddings.

 

[WYLDGFI]

Around my area, they just made schools online teaching til January. However, a letter went out to each and every citizen, whether you had kids in school or not. They didn't wanna miss anyone. Letter states that with this school year going online teaching in the beginning, all students who do not have access to internet or have laptops at home, they will be given to them at no cost. How is that fairness ??

You could call that inclusive if nothing else...otherwise inefficient for mailing out that many more letters to residents in the area who didn't need that information. MY daughter is staring out online this year for the first month...and then 2 week evaluations from there.

 

[ikarasu]

All of you guys complaining that theres been very few cases and everything is locked down / people are wearing masks and distancing because of it....

Look at the cities that arent doing that. The cities that dont do face masks / shut downs are the ones getting lots of cases. be thankful your city is... because those inconveniences are whats causing there to be 1 or 2 cases with little symptoms (Wearing a mask decreases the viral load... so your symptoms are less when you wear a mask).

My city was in a decent lockdown... we went by with single digit cases. We decided to open up... We're not back into the triple digit cases every day and climbing. I don't think a full lockdown is needed, but I do think mandatory masks as well as social distancing should be required... If people followed that, cases would continue to be low.

 

[Bobby H]

That's not the point. He did that little bit and was then called racist/xenophobic. Imagine what he would have been called if he did something far more restrictive. That's the point. No matter what he would have done, especially if it was stricter would have been accepted. That's the issue.

I remember some people tossing out charges of racism and xenophobia. But most of the criticism about Trump's so-called travel ban was that it was pointless. The virus was already here. Plus it was a selective ban only directed at Chinese nationals. That's actually what made a bunch of people shout "racism."

The hypocrisy going around is so much that it's hard to have a grasp over what is really going on versus what is just political fluff. This is why I blame people in government that take their positions on a political one and hold steadfast there. It does no one any good. It turns people off and it does actually lessen what people think of it.

Politicians and the press are playing their own games of manipulating the general public. Any idiot can figure it out if he's willing to get his head and @$$ situation wired correctly instead of stuffed into an ignorant $#!tty knot. Politicians are about saying and doing anything they can to acquire power. Much of the press is driven to sell advertising, especially the 24 hour cable news channels. Anger pornography gets big ratings.

Instead of blaming the government or the media the only people we have to blame is ourselves. We are the ones enabling this garbage by tuning into it. The misinformation and conspiracy theories circulating on social media wouldn't get any wind in its sails if the general public wasn't so pathetically gullible. At some point personal responsibility has to come into play here.

Hey Bobby....hope you're co-worker and everyone there is safe and OK.

They just got back the test results from the health dept.: negative. That's excellent news in one respect. At least we know the whole office doesn't have to immediately go get really long Q-tips stuck up behind our eye-balls! On the other hand we still don't know what's wrong with my co-worker's husband. It's not normal for a middle aged adult to be running a high grade fever for 4-5 days straight. He doesn't have any respiratory systems, but does have terrible body aches, chills and other issues. They did a blood draw for some other tests yesterday. I'm wondering if the guy contracted meningitis or something.