Yes, I will see you via telemedicine. Yes, that means we can connect via audio and video on your phone. No, it does NOT mean that you can actually be driving during our appointment! You are a grown-ass person. Pull over and park or this appointment ends now and you will NOT be getting your refills!
After stents n’ stuff last year, cardio doc says I need a stress test and something called a carotid Doppler test. After quizzing the office, they say it’s essential and shouldn’t be rescheduled. One test is held offsite at their testing clinic. One test is held in the main office where the cardiologists themselves have their offices. For both tests I get emailed instructions to stay in car, phone in, and I will be escorted inside at the appropriate time, etc.
Arriving for the first test, I’m told over the phone to ignore the distancing/stay-in-car stuff “we’re not doing that” so come on inside. No distancing at all, waited in a line to get “screened” before entering main waiting room. Screening was (I’m not making this up) some doofus who didn’t understand the remote thermometer and pressed it up against everyone’s neck – no cleaning between patients, no nothing. On the questionnaire I noted I had been in contact with a sick person recently arrived from Singapore. He said as long as I wasn’t sick it was OK and changed the answer to “No” on the form. Then I was placed in a small waiting room crowded with other patients so closely our knees almost touched. Each went in for their testing and each returned, via crowded hallways, to sit in the group again. One was visibly ill and coughing. Then to checkout, stand in line, and hand debit card back and forth, etc. Finally over after 3 hours and back home.
Next day, next test. Arrive, call from parking lot, and a fully gowned/masked tech walks out and checks me in, staying six feet from my truck. When my time arrives, I’m escorted through an empty waiting room, empty halls to the lab area. Test is done, and I’m offered cleaning solution for my hands again. Then escorted all the way back to my truck and told we can settle the bill by phone/email. With the exception of the actual test specialist, I never got within 6 feet of anyone.
I’ll let you guess which location had the actual cardiologists working onsite.
TPTB recommend shopping in grocery stores as a last resort, and that the best option is to do either delivery or pick-up. The Wal-Mart by me has done the pickup method for about a year or more now, and has like 8 slots earmarked specifically for it. And a free app to browse groceries and other stuff, and buy them for pickup, and schedule a time.
So during this whole lockdown time, I’ve gone by there 3-4 times to pick up groceries. Only ONE time has there been more than 2 of the 8 slots taken. But every time the parking lot is 2/3 to 3/4 full. Part of it I’m sure, is that the pickup people take a good while to come out once you check-in on line.
But even at that, you’d think there would be at least 8 people at any given time wanting to pick up. Nope… apparently people would rather go in and take that risk than the less risky pickup method. :rolleyes:
there was the sign that a guy was holding that said “give me libety not tranny”
Not terribly surprising. You’d need to:
- Own a computer or other internet-capable device
- Plan ahead enough to order online
- Have sufficient computer literacy skills to navigate the online shopping site
Heck, my wife has a STEM-field PhD and is plenty tech-savvy, but even she gets frustrated at online grocery shopping.
My own contribution: Picked up a coffee order today; masks required to enter the restaurant. The other three people and myself were all dutifully complying with the mask requirement. However, the other three had their masks covering their mouths only, leaving their noses exposed. Was tempted to open my mouth and start explaining; the whole mask thing is new to most folks, so stuff like this is bound to happen. But nobody wants a lecture generally, and certainly not before they’ve had their coffee.
One reaction I’ve had to this whole lockdown thing is that my brain just doesn’t seem to be working as well as it used to.
So maybe it’s me, but what the hell did this guy mean? I’m sure the first part was supposed to be Give Me Liberty, but does he think staying inside will make him a transexual?
He terribly misspelled ‘tyranny’.
He is quite correct. I would certainly rather have a libety than, say, an advanced9G-Tronic Mercedes-Benz nine-speed automatic transmission in my new car. Who wouldn’t? 
That does make more sense.
I can’t tell you how many patients I have had to instruct on the correct use of masks. First, the elastic that goes around your ears should be attached on the outside of the mask so that it holds it closer to the face rather than increasing the gap. Second, the section with the embedded metal goes at the top, not under your chin. Finally, the purpose of the metal is to bend it to fit your nose. Luckily, as their doctor I allowed to gently offer corrections on thing that may benefit my patients’ health and keep them from driving me insane. I blame the public schools. There is a serious mask education deficit in this country. Maybe they should come with instructions.
NONE of that should be an obstacle for pretty much anyone who can walk and chew gum at the same time. Nearly everyone these days, especially in my part of town, has a smartphone and knows how to use it, and planning ahead shouldn’t be that hard if you’re in this pandemic situation.
The app itself is trivially easy- you just search by category or keyword, and then add the quantity to the cart, or tap on it to see more information. Once there, it’s swipe right/left to delete from the cart, or tap to change the quantity.
It’s sheer laziness on most people’s part. Or something equally dumb like “I can’t get the brand I want” (at Wal-Mart, no less). None of that stuff trumps the idea that you can easily spread or catch the virus grocery shopping in person.
I see the same thing: the pickup spots only 1/4 full, yet when I try to shop online there are no spots available for the next 5 to 6 days. I always used the pickup service before the outbreak.
My DIL is doing grocery pick-up for both our houses. Our online Wal-Mart order has yet to be right. Dozens of orders. She invariably has to go in a grocery store.
She said the largest grocery store has one door in and the other side of the building is out. All the people park on the ‘In’ side of the building. The ‘out’ side there is a traffic jam of carts and people waiting for their SO to bring the car to that end of the building. She says everyone, bar none, pull their masks down as soon as they get out the door. And many light up cigarettes. :smack:
As an IT guy, I think you’re seriously overestimating the computer literacy of the populace and/or underestimating the complexity of technology. The fact that you’re posting on this message board already implies you have above-average computer proficiency.
As a data point, the OECD adult skills assessment done some years back found that only 31% of people in the US are capable of performing computer-based tasks where “… Some navigation across pages and applications is required to solve the problem. The use of tools (e.g. a sort function) can facilitate the resolution of the problem. The task may involve multiple steps and operators…” For a random sampling of the population, it’s just not that easy.
That’s said, many of the grocery stores in my area are trying to ramp up staffing to handle the influx of curbside/online orders, and perhaps that’s the case in your area too; no idea.
The biggest problem is getting a delivery or pickup slot booked AT ALL. Availability is a serious problem in some areas. There’s also the issue of minimum order size vs. available funds for the customer. If you just need some salad (for example) and have $15 in the checking account until payday, racking up $35 of groceries to meet the minimum isn’t going to work, even if you can get a slot any time in the next week.
Delivery services are also having problems even filling orders. Before mid-March, I was doing very well with Instacart at a specific local store. Since then, of the five orders I’ve placed at that store, two yielded NO groceries at all due to stock issues and/or shopper problems (Shipt was able to shop that very store with no trouble in the same time period), ONE was actually correct (one out-of-stock that wasn’t that big a surprise at that point), one had six items charged that did not make it to me (I did get those refunded), and the last screwed up a product substitution (when the customer specifies diet cola, DO NOT substitute regular, especially without communication about a preferred alternate that I already had on file anyway. This is a problem for a household that includes a diabetic).
Between dubious shoppers, cashflow, and just not needing much, I find that I have to do some in-person shopping anyway.
At the grocery, I saw someone wearing a tie-on mask rotated 90 degrees, so the space intended for the nose was on the side of the mouth.
At my neighborhood Ralphs this morning when I saw a newsvan from local TV station KTLA5. Neither the camaraman nor the reporter were masked.
Given that definition of “libety”, it’s entirely possible that his sign meant exactly what he intended it to mean.
Why he’d bring up his own transphobia at a time like this is still an open question, of course.
My work would be a lot easier if people knew how to do this kind of thing. I assumed the problem was relying on smartphones rather than computers. I guess I was optimistic.
The news last night featured a dimwit in some town on the Washington side. He owns a barbershop and has opened it in defiance of the governor’s edicts, after surreptitiously giving haircuts in his home prior to that. He’s your typical MAGA hat wearing fat fuck whose only comments were that “people need to grow some balls and take charge”, and how he “was a Marine for a few years, so. . .” He didn’t finish the sentence, so I guess we’re supposed to fill in the blank. And yes, he was actually wearing a MAGA hat for the interview. No masks for either him or his visible customers.
“I was a Marine for a few years, so. . .”
“. . .that explains why I’m now as dumb as a bag of hammers.”
Feel free to fill in your own thoughts.