How is the corona virus affecting you?

[Wyshiepoo]

Smaller and/or less populated islands seem to fair so much better. I'm really pleased for you. The tough travel restrictions are the key, I think.
Do you get a lot of imported produce or is the island fairly self sufficient. I'm wondering if that is a factor too.

We rely a hell of a lot on imported produce. Yes, we do have our own produce but our population of approx 67,000 is artificially boosted by imports. We'd probably be ok with dairy products and fish but I think anything else we'd struggle with.
Back during the occupation during WW2 from 30th June 1940 to 9th May 1945 islanders almost starved due to a blockade. The Red Cross ship, the SS Vega was allowed to land with much needed supplies.

 

[TastyReuben]

I don't have a clip, but in my hometown (not where I live now), the police broke up a frat party...hosted by someone who knowingly had a positive COVID test seven days earlier.

When the news reporter asked him, "Aren't you supposed to be quarantining?" the young man replied (without hint of sarcasm), "Yeah, well it's my house, I can't go out, so that's why the party's here."

Paraphrased, of course, but that's the gist of it.

 

[LissaC]

This was yesterday at one of the biggest sanctuaries in Portugal, there's a pilgrimage there every year around this time of the year. They were forced to stop accepting pilgrims or else it would get even more crowded. Irony is most of this people probably went there to ask for good health.

 

[LissaC]

Israel became the first country to impose a second lockdown, that will start this friday, news here. I'm really afraid that we will have a second lockdown here in Portugal, I understand the government doesn't that because the economy will surely collapse. The first lockdown wasn't too hard because I was convinced we'd only be staying home for 1 month or so, a second lockdown will be desperating.

 

[epicuric]

Read this article mate. It may help you understand how the great british unwashed form their economic idea's. Sum dummies: Half of adults have the maths skills of an 11-year-old

It's a bit condescending, but as the old saying goes "You know how stupid the average man on the street is? Well 50% of the population is even more stupid"

 

[epicuric]

Israel became the first country to impose a second lockdown, that will start this friday, news here. I'm really afraid that we will have a second lockdown here in Portugal, I understand the government doesn't that because the economy will surely collapse. The first lockdown wasn't too hard because I was convinced we'd only be staying home for 1 month or so, a second lockdown will be desperating.

I am convinced that our first lockdown should have been sooner, harder and lasted longer. We might have been free by now.

 

[LissaC]

I am convinced that our first lockdown should have been sooner, harder and lasted longer. We might have been free by now.

I wish I could agree with you. Some of the countries where the situation was under control started having new cases as soon as they opened borders. Maybe if the world had been in lockdown at the same time and until no country registered new cases, maybe in that case we'd be rid of this by now...but in a world that's so closely connected and where economies depend on each other, closing borders completely is difficult and has a massive toll on the economy. Not to mention the challenge of effectively closing and patrolling land borders. I'm hoping nature will do its trick and the virus will mysteriously disappear (this has happened in the past, no reason to believe it won't happen again), I'm not betting my money on a vaccine that will be developed in a couple of months. My only consolation is that unless me or someone I love gets sick, I believe 10 years from now I will barely remember all of this.

 

[epicuric]

I wish I could agree with you. Some of the countries where the situation was under control started having new cases as soon as they opened borders. Maybe if the world had been in lockdown at the same time and until no country registered new cases, maybe in that case we'd be rid of this by now...but in a world that's so closely connected and where economies depend on each other, closing borders completely is difficult and has a massive toll on the economy. Not to mention the challenge of effectively closing and patrolling land borders. I'm hoping nature will do its trick and the virus will mysteriously disappear (this has happened in the past, no reason to believe it won't happen again), I'm not betting my money on a vaccine that will be developed in a couple of months. My only consolation is that unless me or someone I love gets sick, I believe 10 years from now I will barely remember all of this.

Darling girl you are young and optimistic. Please hang on to that. I am slightly older (OK, worth a shot) and I see million dying worldwide, often unnecessarily. The thing that really gets me is people dying in hospital without their loved ones to hold their hands. That rips my heart out. This will not easily be forgotten, but keep hold of your optimism and positivity - I think we will need it

 

[LissaC]

I was very sentimental this afternoon after reading about the second lockdown in Israel. Then someone on instagram was complaining about women no longer being allowed to have someone with them during labor. But to lighten up our mood, one resort in the Maldives are offering a package tailored for remote workers. The $23k per week don't deter me but my company is asking employees not to change countries while we're working remotely, so I guess I can't make it.

 

[TastyReuben]

I remember being a kid in school, and we'd learn about some long-term crises, like The Great Depression, or The Hundred Years War, and it was so easy to read it, but so hard to comprehend it, if that makes sense.

It's easy to read, "The stock market crashed in 1929, plunging the US, and then the world, into a horrible economic depression, lasting through the 1930's," but it was as if it really only existed while I was reading it, and impossible to really fathom what 10+ years of chronic unemployment was like, or how something that spanned a couple of lifetimes in scope could really be appreciated.

Imagine being born, living to a typical old age, and dying, all during a single catastrophe, or string of catastrophes. Imagine being a slave, born in, say, South Carolina, in 1740, living your entire life as property, and dying in, oh, 1805, with no end to that condition. That's what's hard to get across in history books. It's easy to read, "The first slaves arrived in such-and-such, and slavery was eventually abolished in such-and-such," and think, "Oh, that must have been tough, but we got there in the end. All's well that ends well!" It ignores centuries of people being born, living, and dying, knowing only that tragedy.

Being an optimist myself (though not that youthful anymore), I have to believe that This Too Shall Pass, even if it means some kind of long-term adjustment to the way we live (maybe it becomes standard to get a battery of tests completed before being allowed to enter another country).

I can't, however, accept that eating carefree in a restaurant or having a drink in a bar is gone for good. I can't believe that, at 54, I'll need to mask up when I go out, for the rest of my life (assuming I make it to 60), it just isn't fathomable.

I could be wrong, though. Maybe in 200 years' time, kids will be reading about The Massive COVID Pandemic, which lasted from late-2019 through the end of 2055, and they'll think, "Wow, they couldn't even eat in a McDonald's," and then unhook their Brain-O-Teach and forget about the whole thing minutes later.

 

[LissaC]

TastyReuben just like you I refuse to let go of hope. I do think the situation is different for people who are in the end of life or for new families, not being able to be with a loved on during their final moments or not being able to witness your child being born. But no one close to me is in that situation, although a couple I'm really good friends with had their second child 2 months ago and I haven't met her yet and she will never be this small again, but it is what it is. Of course anything can happen and this pandemic can last decades but I refuse to believe in that.

I find it's really hard to have empathy for "the people". When you hear about concentration camps, you know, morally, it was something wrong and people were suffering, but if you meet a Holocaust survival face to face, suddenly it's not the people, it's something that happened to someone very real.

 

[Duck59]

I had been looking forward to seeing a friend whom I've known since we we fifteen. I met her not long after my parents had died and she became like a sister to me. She would never admit it, but she probably saved my life. I was in a very dark place.

We have always kept in touch, but of course the present situation means we cannot meet (she lives in County Durham).

The other day, she sent me an email and quoted from Phil Chevron's lovely song, Faithful Departed:

"Close our eyes and we'll pretend
It could somehow be the same again."

I'm not ashamed to say that I cried.

 

[Morning Glory]

I am convinced that our first lockdown should have been sooner, harder and lasted longer. We might have been free by now.

I don't think its possible to be free until a vaccine is found. Not in the UK at any rate. On small islands with rigid travel sanctions then maybe.

 

[caseydog]

I don't think its possible to be free until a vaccine is found. Not in the UK at any rate. On small islands with rigid travel sanctions then maybe.

I don't think its possible to be free until a vaccine is found. Not in the UK at any rate. On small islands with rigid travel sanctions then maybe.

I've been reading that, even after an approved vaccine is available, Covid-19 is not going to go away for a while. First, they have to produce it in HUGE quantities, and then, everyone has to get it.

So, even once the vaccine is readily available to people who want them, we'll still have anti-vaxers and the same idiots who refuse to wear a mask walking among us.

But, if the vaccine is readily available, and people choose not to get vaccinated, I say let them get the virus, and if they die, they die.

The big challenge will be producing enough of the vaccine, fast enough, for everyone who wants to be vaccinated to get it.

CD

 

[epicuric]

Herd mentality. That's what you need. Then it goes away all on its own.