Adaptation to COVID world

Understood. OTOH, it might become very damn obvious that staying in your house for fear of death motivates people to deal with being stir crazy. What really scares me is what happens when numbers of people start to run out of money to stay home on, as well as how bad the food supply chain might become. That's a huge factor in how the reaction runs.

I suspect that it will be bad for a while, and then let up a bit as it warms up. Then the focus turns to new med development and prepping for the fall. Cough and cold season is going to be damned scary this year.

 

FINALLY GOT MY WISH!

 

This might sound horrible, but if you go with Trumps’s thought that this is war, then you start to look at acceptable losses.

We can go a couple months of this. I just don’t know if our country can survive longer than June knowing how our economic system works.

I know our economic system can survive if we get back to normal by mid June. We just might lose 200,000 people, but that’s not as bad as a total crash of the economy like the 1930s.

 

In The Big Short Brad Pitt’s character, in a fantastic chiding of his fellow millionaires, said for every 1% unemployment goes up, 50,000 people die.

We go from 3.5% to 20% that’s 825,000 people.

 

What I'm watching right now is how people are reacting when their "levels of comfort" -- work/school habits, ample supplies of goods, and freedom to move about socially -- are suddenly cut off. We're nowhere near a third-world situation here. We have adequate electricity and water. But what's happening in California is not much different than "house arrest," and I can tell even the slightest of restrictions is creating a lot of uncomfortable situations. The people here in this RV park can't sit still, and I imagine it's no different at every trailer park, condo and apartment complex up and down the coast.

If the shortages continue, that uncomfortableness will slowly turn to anger, especially if the supply chain doesn't repair itself and rural areas are left without basic necessities. We've got no reason to return to Georgia because the supermarket there hasn't been restocked in a week. They'll send trucks to the suburbs long before they get one to the sticks.

That's when I worry about this turning from a pandemic into pandemonium. Hungry people with plenty of guns may do anything to survive.

 

The pharmacy called and said my prescription was ready this afternoon, so I drove over. This was a good decision, because they had packages of paper towels! One package per customer, but better six rolls of Bounty than a bottle of Oban at this point. We're using them up faster than TP with all the cleaning of surfaces. One thing I noticed was a lot of family groups out walking on a chilly (38) but sunny day, including families with one or two teenagers in their prime sullen years. If teens are willing to hang with Mom and Dad for human contact, behaviors are changing.

 

Or maybe they just ignore the entire thing:

‘A complete zoo’: Malibu officials issue reminder, Santa Monica closes beach parking lots to deter crowds

 

I have a better understanding of what I thought was a germaphobe before,.

I went to pickup a takeout pizza last night and these clowns just continue to crowd right into the obviously full waiting area; then later I had to come back (they screwed my order up so I was able to bail out thankfully) and its just me and another guy comes in and ignores the 6' distance so he can sit in a chair instead of standing to the other side (there's a chair over there too!)

Then today, regional parks are open so my boy and I go to take our dog (off leash is allowed) and its looking like Disneyland with the lot jammed and people all over the place. We go off the main trails onto secondary trails and it feels much better.

I was never this way a couple of weeks ago.

 

@qtlaw I know what you’re talking about. I had to run out for milk today. I went to Target at 8 am. I wore gloves (TNF, not rubber) inside the store. When I got back to my Jeep, I used hand sanitizer on my hands - which were in gloves - and a Clorox Wipe on the milk cartons.

 

You've got sanitizer AND Chlorox Wipes?

HOARDER!!!

 

The public libraries are closed here. If you have kids or a shameless love of kid lit and classics, Audible is offering streaming titles for free.