The Official Coronavirus Discussion

[EBK]

If I were any good at Photoshop, I'd turn that pic into and L.L. Bean catalog cover parody, perhaps making the logo "ΛΛ. Bean"

I'm actually at a crossroads in personal grooming.  I feel like I no longer have enough hair at the front of my head to justify spending money on a nice haircut, and it will be a VERY long time before I would be comfortable going somewhere for a professional to cut my hair anyway.  I don't really fancy the idea of a buzz cut or a shaved head though. Guess that leaves me with the Keith Flint Prodigy hairdo as my only option.   

[midwayfair]

Totally agree, I just trim mine up about every 6 months.

Before the pandemic, I used to get a haircut every 5-6 weeks.   

Wow man. That's so often. I may have had mine trimmed 5 or six times in the last 5 years.

Not to play the 1-up game but I haven't had a haircut in 25 years probably. These days I just shave it all off every couple of months.
Back in the early 90's I had long curly locks and was a marginally handsome bastid. I've become peaceful with the ugliness of middle-age!

Man, it is QUITE the downhill slide to your profile pic.

[madbean]

Man, it is QUITE the downhill slide to your profile pic.

hahaha

[mjg]

I'm actually at a crossroads in personal grooming.  I feel like I no longer have enough hair at the front of my head to justify spending money on a nice haircut, and it will be a VERY long time before I would be comfortable going somewhere for a professional to cut my hair anyway.  I don't really fancy the idea of a buzz cut or a shaved head though. Guess that leaves me with the Keith Flint Prodigy hairdo as my only option.   

I've been rocking the hairstyle of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons for years.  "Worst hairstyle ever".

Putting on a hat is always an option. 

[Willybomb]

If we're playing the "I used to have hair" game, I'm up for a round...  One pic from 2006, one from 2015....

[matmosphere]

I believe at this point so few people see me from day to day that I have some how been transferred to some paradoxical sub-universe where hair may or may not even exist.


In all seriousness though, our failure to respond to this is becoming quite alarming.

[aion]

In all seriousness though, our failure to respond to this is becoming quite alarming.

Yeah, I mean - failure IN responding to this is one thing, trying something and in retrospect it turned out to be the wrong thing. But failure TO respond is entirely another, and every day it's more and more appalling.

He's obviously in over his head and needs to resign. I think he knows by now he's not going to get reelected, but instead of doing the honorable thing, he's just going to go into smash-and-grab mode and try to do as much as he can for himself & his friends to best position himself for post-presidency life. One that he desperately hopes does not include prison time, and ideally would involve running his own Fox News alternative network so he can continue spouting nonsense.

I feel like we've already had enough happen in the first 3 years to keep our country's authors, filmmakers and showrunners busy for decades to come, but 2020 has been a whole new level. Previously it was just content for comedy or crime drama, but now it's like serious psychology stuff where it'll take years for us to come to terms socially and scientifically with what was wrong with us. It's weird to see it happen in real-time, knowing how people in the future will look back on us and think we had to be insane.

[EBK]

[Removed]

[TheDude]

So I work two jobs, one in elementary education, the other at a university, and the idea of reopening the schools is terrifying to me. Between brash self-centered college kids (through no fault of their own I might add), and children too young to understand the gravity of the situation, I'm almost guaranteed to get it. Especially considering this is in rural NW Ohio...

I'm strongly considering quitting the elementary job if they plan to open following the current guidelines that only suggest face masks for grades 3+. Over half of my day is working with kindergartners. Why on earth would I subject myself to 60 kindergartners without face masks in a community where over half the population is anti-science pandemic deniers??

I understand the fear people have of not being able to put food on the table. But having sacrificing one's health just to do so is a gross injustice. That conundrum should not exist in this situation. The system is broken. I'm not going to put my life and the life of those I value at risk just to return to playing a game that we have little say in.

Screw this. None of us should be put in this position. At this point student loans are the only thing preventing me from moving to a shack in the middle of nowhere along a river where I can be self-sustainable.


The dude does not abide...

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[matmosphere]

So I work two jobs, one in elementary education, the other at a university, and the idea of reopening the schools is terrifying to me. Between brash self-centered college kids (through no fault of their own I might add), and children too young to understand the gravity of the situation, I'm almost guaranteed to get it. Especially considering this is in rural NW Ohio...

I'm strongly considering quitting the elementary job if they plan to open following the current guidelines that only suggest face masks for grades 3+. Over half of my day is working with kindergartners. Why on earth would I subject myself to 60 kindergartners without face masks in a community where over half the population is anti-science pandemic deniers??

I understand the fear people have of not being able to put food on the table. But having sacrificing one's health just to do so is a gross injustice. That conundrum should not exist in this situation. The system is broken. I'm not going to put my life and the life of those I value at risk just to return to playing a game that we have little say in.

Screw this. None of us should be put in this position. At this point student loans are the only thing preventing me from moving to a shack in the middle of nowhere along a river where I can be self-sustainable.


The dude does not abide...

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Yeah, I was reading something that suggested that the downsides of interrupting children's education and development outweigh the chance they could spread Covid. It read like propaganda. It strikes me as ridiculous, What happens to that kid If they bring home this shit then one of their parents dies or a classmate dies.

I was amazed my first year teaching at just how much ninth grade boys need to touch each other. Some children might Understand the gravity of this and have self control, but certainly not the majority. .

There is no way schools should open unless we take some serious steps to curve this now.


I will say though, it is telling that the week businesses (by asking for a national mask mandate) and financial institutions (I think it was Goldman Sacs that said mask were the only thing that could save the economy) start to step up and demand change it seems like we might actually see some movement.

[EBK]

Yeah, I was reading something that suggested that the downsides of interrupting children's education and development outweigh the chance they could spread Covid. It read like propaganda.

My understanding is that that is connected to the need for support services like nutrition (for some students, school lunch is their only substantial meal) and detecting abuse that could go unspotted if children are keep at home.  As long as schools put plans in place to continue suppprting vulnerable students, then there really isn't a need to open schools for other unnamed "health benefits".

[TheDude]

Yeah, I was reading something that suggested that the downsides of interrupting children's education and development outweigh the chance they could spread Covid. It read like propaganda.

My understanding is that that is connected to the need for support services like nutrition (for some students, school lunch is their only substantial meal) and detecting abuse that could go unspotted if children are keep at home.  As long as schools put plans in place to continue suppprting vulnerable students, then there really isn't a need to open schools for other unnamed "health benefits".

This is so spot on. Yes, domestic abuse and other similar issues have been on the rise, and that is terrible. However, claiming that returning kids to school to prevent is like putting a bandaid on a 4 inch hatchet wound, you're barely minimizing anything.

But, its in lock step with the anti-lockdown folks' playbook. I can't tell you how many people I know who were keen to shout out about how Hilary deserves to have Trump grab her by the p****, how illegal families deserved to be separated because they shouldn't have come here illegally, and now they're waiving the flag against domestic abuse??? C'mon now, no body's buying that, especially when people who have devoted their lives to combating domestic abuse don't agree with using it as a reason to open schools back up.

With all this time off, you'd think some of these sudden fighters against domestic violence could've leant a hand to the organizations that try to snuff out the root causes of it.

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[matmosphere]

Yeah, I was reading something that suggested that the downsides of interrupting children's education and development outweigh the chance they could spread Covid. It read like propaganda.

My understanding is that that is connected to the need for support services like nutrition (for some students, school lunch is their only substantial meal) and detecting abuse that could go unspotted if children are keep at home.  As long as schools put plans in place to continue suppprting vulnerable students, then there really isn't a need to open schools for other unnamed "health benefits".

Yeah, but as you point out a lot of those vital programs can be continued safely. It was great to see nutrition services extended over the summer this year, because that is generally not what happens.

The article I read also talked about the fact that children are typically not the vector which through which covid is brought into homes, and they use that day to say it should be safe to open schools. But that data was collected at a time when schools were closed. It ignores the fact that Schools being closed make most kids worlds pretty small, giving them far fewer chances to become infected. So yeah, it's not surprising that kids aren't bringing the illness home, because they aren't even leaving home.  It is naive to think that would remain the same if schools open though.

That kind of manipulation of data is why I was saying it reads like propaganda.

Schools do so much more for kids than they get credit for, but one thing they can't do is keep airborne disease from spreading like wildfire once it comes through the door.

[EBK]

Yeah, but as you point out a lot of those vital programs can be continued safely.

Definitely.
I can't actually think of any support service that would require or justify opening a school and packing it full of students and teachers.
My children's emotional and social well-being (the buzzwords of hurry-up-and-open) is better served by avoiding exposure to a deadly virus.  I'm ranting again.  Sorry.

[jimilee]

I feel like getting sick and possibly a slow painful death would be worse than anything, but that's just me. As a nation, the leaders are hoping it just goes away and expects everyone to be onboard. That's just how I see it though.


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