News about the coronavirus goes in this thread. News about politicians goes in other threads.
Yep. And, instead, a lot of the messaging slack has been taken up by random people on the Internet, who are NOT trained public health communicators and are terrible at framing messages in ways that don’t come across as scolding or us-vs.-them tribalism.
Who needs Death Panels when you have a daughter?
That sure seems to be a pretty nakedly selfish and entitled thing to say, IMO.
The way she framed it does seem selfish, but there’s a good chance her father agrees with her, and he should get the deciding vote. At 96, with dementia, her father doesn’t have long left and chances are good he’d rather spend time with his daughter than live a little longer. This has been a dilemma for grown children caring for elderly parents long before COVID. Do you force them to live a very safe, dull, and in this case, lonely, existence, or let them live as they please knowing they may die as a result. For one thing, you may not be able to stop them, for another, why do you (their child) get to make this decision for them. Just because they’ve become frail, physically or mentally, do they lose the right to make their own decisions? As their child, are you looking at their best interests, or your need to keep them around? Elderly people are a lot more comfortable with dying than most of us. Especially when it comes to giving up certain aspects of their lives to live longer. A very individual question with no easy answers.
I agree. It’s arguably just as selfish to insist parents hang onto life, because you don’t want to lose them, instead of letting them make the call themselves.
PR campaigns are harder these days. Back when these other campaigns - other than smoking that is on-going - were at their heights, people watched a lot of TV. These days, if I don’t feel like watching TV shows with ads, I can avoid them by watching the shows on Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, all ad free. I can pay to get an ad-free version of Spotify too, and Amazon will let me listen to hundreds of thousands of songs ad-free as part of Prime. And if I don’t feel like seeing ads online, there are blockers to choose from by the dozen. Pretty much the only thing I can’t avoid is ads showing up in my mailbox.
Obviously, it would be done through different media. But people still watch media. A coherent strategy could have done a lot to educate people, to set the narrative.
My mother died in a nursing home in mid-August. She had advanced Parkinsons.
We tried to do virtual visits and visits through the window but it didn’t work well, in order to get through to her you had to be able to hold her hand and whisper in her ear.
She was in extreme physical discomfort and unable to adjust her body position without assistance. She had paranoid hallucinations and screamed in terror during most of her waking hours.
The nursing home was a good one, but it didn’t matter. The one she “thought” she was in was a snake pit, she thought everyone was out to hurt her.
No matter how many times she was told, she didn’t understand why weren’t coming to see her anymore. She thought we decided we didn’t love her anymore and had abandoned her.
She did not want to suffer like this, we had discussed it. I cursed the fact that we did not have an assisted suicide option available. When she died, I grieved but I also felt a deep sense of relief.
I had to respect the law and rules of the nursing home in order to protect other patients and staff. But if I had been given to option to visit regularly, I would’ve done it without hesitation, even though it increased her risk of illness.
I’m so sorry to hear that. The silent horror of so many dying alone is one of the worst parts of this pandemic. I’ve no idea what the right thing to do is, or was.
Just curious: why would you wear a mask if you’re by yourself all day?
Same thing happens at the school where I work. The students are good at wearing masks in the halls, but off come the masks as soon as they walk out the doors.
Sorry, it looks like I didn’t finish my thought. That should be:
“I basically barricade myself in my office all day, and wear a mask if I have to leave for any reason.”
To expand on this, I wear a mask if I have to leave my office for whatever reason (like to use the restroom). I don’t wear a mask if I’m alone in my office (though I do worry about the ventilation system). I also got a HEPA air purifier sized for a large room that I run all day because the windows in my office don’t open.
[quote=“robby, post:5495, topic:847758, full:true”]
Well that makes sense.
A heartbreaking ordeal, for you and your mother. And a reminder that COVID is not the worst thing we can face. I hope that the next lockdowns will find us with some solutions to this particular problem, but can’t imagine what they might be.
Yeah. For a lot of very old people, like my grandmother during the last few years of her life, visits from family and friends are literally the only pleasure left to them – the only thing they feel is worth staying alive for. I don’t see anything particularly selfish in the daughter’s choices or in the way she framed them.
I would agree with that. If contact with his daughter is the only thing left in the dad’s life that gives him pleasure, why take that away from him unless absolutely required by health regs?
Sure, assuming he then stays home and doesn’t go out and infect others. But, if he does go out, then it’s no longer just about him. Same if he’s in a nursing home, unfortunately—it puts the other residents at risk, so it’s no longer his decision.
@Snowboarder_Bo’s article includes not only people like these two, who can definitely be non-selfish, but also old people going out shopping without wearing a mask and avoiding social distancing, Those people are making it unsafe for anyone else to shop.
This idea that people decide their own risk while ignoring their risk to others was exactly why going on Spring Break was such a bad thing. It was one of the earliest superspreader events, with so many initial outbreaks being traced back to certain beaches in Florida.
But this woman and her father? It just sounds like they decided to form a bubble. And there’s nothing wrong with that–as long as they otherwise follow social distancing guidelines, and they’re both aware of the risks.
The U.S. added more than 184,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, the fourth day in a row that the country has set a record for daily infections, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
It has been about four weeks since the U.S. overtook India to see the most daily cases of any country in the world. While India’s case numbers spiked in September, they have largely been on a downward path since then. But cases in the U.S. continue to surge. For the first time, the country’s seven-day moving average of new cases has surpassed 150,000.
America is also the world leader in coronavirus fatalities, with over 244,000 COVID-19 related deaths. More than 1,400 people died from the virus in the U.S. on Friday — the most deaths that day of any country.
…
My bold.
More holiday projections. According to a survey out of Ohio State University Wexnar Medical Center, 2 out of 5 people will attend a large holiday gathering. A third will not be asking guests to wear masks.
54,328,752 total cases
1,318,278 dead
37,871,087 recovered
In the US:
11,226,038 total cases
251,256 dead
6,891,015 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: