Stay at home lifted?

@mike808 well said!

@mike808 Copy that for my state too (also deep south) only around here I have also heard multiple people say it is all a democratic conspiracy to win the election, it isn’t as bad as they said, no worse than the regular flu and after the election is over there will be no more mention of covid-19. And we haven’t even met any criteria for opening yet but we have. Sounds like a good idea to me. Not.

@Kidsandliz @mike808 yep. South Arkansas here. Same leftist plot/conspiracy theory stuff here. I am seeing more people in public in masks lately. I’ve got to go back to work tomorrow.

@ivannabc @mike808 I lived in SE Arkansas for a year recently - I would have guessed that based on what went on while I was there. Not all that different than here with respect to that kind of crap. My sympathies. Here there are now even fewer people wearing masks (not that there were many to begin with though), including employees who have them hanging from their necks. Good luck staying safe from this when you are back to work.

@ivannabc @Kidsandliz @mike808 I’m in Alabama and I haven’t heard anyone say it’s a leftist conspiracy theory.
But I haven’t really been wandering around discussing it with people.

@ivannabc @Limewater @mike808 I live in an apartment building and while I am not “hanging out” with folks there are a handful who spend the entire day immediately outside the building and this is the “usual” topic of conversation. A couple of times I stopped briefly on the way to or from my car and tried to reason with them. Doesn’t work.

In case you weren’t aware of it all scientists are democratic and part of the conspiracy, peer review of science is influenced by democratic money blah blah blah. Oh there is the China piece of this too. Sigh. They’ve gone off the deep end. I have a friend who is otherwise normal who talks the same way. Fortunately we’ve agreed not to talk politics and she and her husband are honoring the shutdown unlike the bunch congregating outside our building.

We now have someone pos who lives here and is in quarantine in their apt although since we don’t know who I have no idea if they are actually staying in their apt. I stay away from the lot of them to the extent possible.

@mike808 I don’t understand the jokes about Darwin taking out “covidiots.”
Given the estimated mortality rates, very few of the people not taking any precautions are likely to remove themselves from the gene pool. They have a much higher probability of increasing the transmission rates, potentially making the situation worse for people infected further down the road after them.

@Limewater @mike808 The problem with the literal gene pool Darwinism arguments in this case is many of the stupid have already procreated. If we are talking about Darwinism as decisions worthy of a Darwin award (eg really stupid) then… well now it starts to make sense. Those we have plenty of.

@spoiledbon Henrico? I live in Henrico.

I’m in Norfolk right now, and people have been ignoring the “stay at home” for a while. I ventured out more at the beginning because there were almost no people out, but I’m staying away from places like Walmart, because it’s like there’s no pandemic there. No masks on most people, and distance is ignored too. It’s frustrating, especially as I’m from Queens, NY, and folks in Hampton Roads don’t seem to understand that they’re damn lucky we didn’t have a huge outbreak there.

I’m pretty sure I had it in late February/early March after being in NYC, but until I can get antibody tested, can’t be certain. What I do know is what I had was worse than any flu I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot as an asthmatic. But what this thing hit was mostly my digestive system, not my lungs. Couldn’t taste anything, was nauseated all the time, and really really painful and swollen in the abdomen. I had bloodwork just before the outbreak started in NYC, and my liver numbers were off (don’t drink, no tylenol either) with no clear explanation, but I haven’t been able to get back to see my doc again because he’s in Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. I’m still not fully well, either. My stamina is shot, and I tire quite easily.

@macromeh well maybe it has. Do you think the homeless have been tested?

@macromeh
if anyone had a real clue what the actual risk factors were, we might have an idea. Everything is really just a best guess still, no matter what any one says.
Read an article today about blood type having an impact and I had to blink.
But VA is crap at testing right now and crap at telling its vendors if someone is positive. At least around here, a lot of homeless are walking wounded. So who knows who is positive and who is not?

We actually have pretty much open testing by appointment, no symptoms required. If you are a healthcare provider, testing is supposed to be easy, ROFL! (unless you go to a county/state run testing center, ain’t true.) and you can get a serology (antibody) test for like 25 bucks, how accurate, dunno, cause don’t know which one they are using to read up on it.

Keep the faith

@macromeh I think @tinamarie1974 is right - few have been tested - at least in this state. Testing rules here means you already have to be actively pretty sick and have transportation to even get to a testing site (along with a phone to make the apt as you can’t just walk in). Cripes around here most people have not been tested homeless or not.

To be tested here you have to have a phone to call or the app to fill out and pass the screening test to even get an apt (which is dry cough, short of breath - excludes all the other covid symptoms - and be actively running a fever and know what that temperature is to clear the testing hurdle, then if you show up at, say 8am with a temp that is not high enough you are refused a test - that is really stupid as we all know someone’s temp, if they have one, rises during the day). Then one needs to get to one of the few testing sites in this city (2 of the 3 counties that make up this city have no public transportation so good luck with that if you are homeless), …

To my knowledge they aren’t testing at shelters around here either although they are giving masks to people who show up there and have set the cots up 6’ apart. On the other hand it has been and continues to be warm out so many are not in shelters.

Not to mention the wooded lots, over grown abandoned lots, broken into abandoned buildings downtown and elsewhere, over grown areas around the streams and rivers, etc. where many of them sleep around here it could be days before any dead are found because the police don’t go to those places. Ever. And the homeless aren’t about ready to tell as then with the ensuing sweep the encampments would be cleared of everything and they’d come “home” that evening to find they now have nothing.

@Cerridwyn sounds like, at least superficially, your state is doing more than mine. Here no antibody tests, testing is at only a few sites in some cities and in others there is only mobile testing where they go once a week to those cities (but someone easily could have their temp come and go by then so no testing), have to be actively sick with a high enough temp and the “right” (limited number of that exclude many of the now known) symptoms at the actual time of the test (even if you previously passed the screening test) or you aren’t tested. No other way to get tested that I know of unless you show up at the ER with the same symptoms that would get you a testing apt through the app. As a result only a small percent of the population here has been tested, including none with mild or no symptoms. Only about 1/4 of the sick (last I read) here who are tested are coming up positive.

And I forgot in my other answer - they then have to have a way to reach you several days later to tell you the results of the test (and so need a phone of which only some homeless have).

@Cerridwyn The thing with the blood type (eg type A is more likely to get it and be sicker and die) though is that it is just a correlation and they didn’t have the blood type on many of the patients. And correlation does not a causation make. That needs to be examined proactively looking at all patients who test pos, get their blood type, follow them to see the outcome, etc. to see if that is still holds “true”. Then, of course, there also needs to be some sort of reasonable explanation for why this is so. Science isn’t even close to being at that point yet.

The kind of correlation “fishing” (like the blood test stuff) that is being done right now is what happens in early stages of research when people don’t know a lot about something and so essentially data mine and then try to work backwards from that for things that might make sense, then test those theories in a targeted way proactively. Once science has a better understanding about what the deal is then research can be more targeted. We are still at the “data mining” and “what if” stage right now. (as I am sure you know based on your post I am responding to, I am just explaining it to those who don’t know the details about how stuff like this works).

@Kidsandliz
well said
and exactamundo

@macromeh @tinamarie1974 @Cerridwyn San Francisco and Oakland already had active homeless housing programs and both have done targeted testing of homeless, and found enough that they’ve instituted housing and tent programs to get people off the streets and into some manageable conditions where they can keep safe and be kept track of. As mentioned above, there’s a lot of hidden encampments and not everyone has been cooperative in getting tested.
Testing is still limited to those judged at-risk enough by medical personnel - you don’t have to have symptoms but if you’re in an at-risk situation (health care, first response, homeless, nursing homes, prisons, bad work conditions, old and not very healthy, known exposure, etc.) you can get a test. I could get a test just based on age, but I’ve been too good in keeping myself protected and the doctor and I agreed it would be a waste of a test for now.

@macromeh I don’t know if you’ve seen the exponential increase in Potter’s Field burials in NYC because of COVID-19? There’s been a huge number of homeless deaths, and people get buried out there because they’ve either got no one to claim them or no one can afford to pay funeral expenses. But most people buried out there are sadly unclaimed bodies. The death rate spike in NY has completely overwhelmed the funeral service industry, as well.

@unksol
California girl here, but some communities find a way. Think it depends on the size of the homeless population and the outreach.

@Cerridwyn @unksol I also think it makes a difference if the state/city actually cares about all the people who live there. Deep south here and this state, or at least locally, doesn’t give two hoots about the homeless (or anyone who is poor, even the working poor). On the other hand they don’t round them up either. They just run them off panhandling on busy roads and if people complain too much they empty out their encampments.

@mike808 you are evil LOL.