Just got an Emergency Alert message that every county in Utah is now high risk and that COVID is spreading rapidly.
Yes, the folks here in Utah are so smart and compliant.
2200 cases today.
I don’t even want to go in my backyard now.

I saw the article on Trump Trains. They were social distancing and mask wearing about as good as...actually they weren't at all on both counts.

The Utah anti-mask rallies and corresponding biggest spike in the country has been prominent in the news on my side of the Mississippi too. I’m sure my Utah tRump-lovin family members are anti-maskers. I’m so glad it will be gone in three more days.

I have a little experience with Covid. My son in law works at a nursing home that had Covid blow thru. They quit testing residents when all but 15 had tested positive and just assumed that all the residents had contracted it. About 10 residents deaths were attributed to dying from covid. Another 5 deaths were counted as dying with covid since the people were on their death beds prior to catching the disease.

The first nurse that caught Covid wore a surgical mask religiously, washed his hands often, and did not pass the Covid on to anyone (he contracted the virus outside the nursing home). He treated the same patients every day and they tested all his patients with a zero positive test rate.

The second person to get it was a resident who would not follow any rules. His family members would sit outside his window with him inside the window, none of them with masks, and he caught it from one of them. They could not make him wear a mask, they couldn't make him stay in his room, they couldn't kick him out, and he spread it throughout the nursing home. Sadly, he was one of the residents that died from Covid.

75% of the nursing staff caught the virus. Wearing a surgical mask did not appear to keep a person from catching the virus but it appears to keep you from spreading it. My son in law wore an N95 mask, washed his hands regularly, did not touch his face, changed his clothes as soon as his shift ended, and was part of the 25% that did not catch the virus. He also had the most contact with the infected residents because they put him and one other nurse over the Covid wing when they still thought they could contain the virus. Of the nurses that caught the virus, only one had to be hospitalized and she was a heavy smoker and overweight. When she was released from the hospital she had lost her sense of taste, smell, and appetite. She was hoping her appetite would stay gone for a little while to make it easier to lose some weight.

Because of this, we only visit my in-laws once per week, stay 6 feet away, we wear surgical masks and they wear N95 masks. No hugging or touching (they are both very high risk).

I am low risk so I wear a surgical mask in public and social distance. If I catch the virus I am not too concerned. I just want to make sure I don't pass it on during the time I am asymptomatic. I wear a surgical mask at work except when I am alone in my office. Anytime someone comes into my office I don the mask. My wife and I go to restaurants whenever we find one that we can sit and eat. I am not going to change my life radically but I will make sure to protect others that are at risk.

The local Sheriff has stated he can't arrest or cite people that don't wear masks but the local stores that require masks can have people arrested for not wearing a mask in contravention of their published rules. If they are asked to leave because they don't have a mask and refuse to leave, then they are trespassing.

I feel the same way you do, knowing masks don’t prevent you from getting it as much as preventing you from spreading it. I don’t want to get it, but more than that, I don’t want to spread it if I were an asymptotic person. I don’t understand why so many people in Utah and Idaho don’t care whether they give it to someone else. But same here with the Evangelicals. I rarely, if ever now, see a person of color not wearing a mask. The unmasked (and we have a mask mandate) are the rabid White Evans. An office on the same floor in our building is full of them. We called code enforcement once and they won’t come again. It’s a group of lawyers who intimidated the city officials. We don’t interact but do share restrooms, hallways, elevators. So because of them (God’s people) I stay very isolated the rest of the time. Once you know someone who has really suffered with it and probably will for the rest of his life, it changes you.

It sure is. I'm sorry for the stress this is bound to cause. It can take some effort to rein in the anxiety.

I live in the area lately most affected in all of B.C. (Canada). Due to rising numbers of cases they are saying they may have to institute local area shutdowns (rather than province-wide, to avoid shutting down in places that have low to zero spread). But I would certainly be affected if they were to get more stringent in my area. I already try to only shop once a week and avoid all unnecessary contact, even with family. It's a good thing the sun is still shining most days as it's easy to start feeling down, with stress and anxiety pervading the very air, it feels like, not to mention the unavoidable isolation. Our daily counts here went up into the hundreds - we took solace in that due to the much higher numbers we're hearing from elsewhere but that's not how to best interpret the situation. We have to go with where we started and what our numbers have been and they were in the low tens but then started to creep up. The latest spread is far beyond the threshold our public safety officials said they could be comfortable with.

We have comprehensive contact tracing here so they know exactly where a spread originates and in our area it's coming from large gatherings such as weddings, funerals, celebrations of life, birthday parties and even gender reveal parties, all occasions officials have said we should forego or keep to a bare minimum of our "safe six" contacts, or a maximum of 50 if distanced (such as for weddings). But. People want to party and they're not paying attention to the restrictions on numbers of guests. So very unfortunately some of the celebrations have turned into tragedy as party guests have become ill and some have died. Who wants to remember their birthday or other special day as being that time they killed grandma? But if people around here don't listen up fast and good I will likely be under lockdown - the first time that has happened here.

So I'm doing a big shop today and yes TP is on the list. But here's hoping people will be reasonable when it comes to the Hallowe'en festivities. Just for this one time I hope folks can keep it simple and small and quiet but ...

I'm sorry about Utah and all the other locations where the virus is wreaking havoc. There *are* measures we can take to try and stay safe but too bad not everybody (!) is willing to follow the best medical advice known at this time.

It's a lovely fall day here, hoping it stays good for the weekend. Sunny, crisp, pleasant going into November. Hoping we all get through the winter unscathed.

Take care, all. And good luck with everything, wherever you are.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2020 05:12PM by Nightingale.

I couldn't help notice you talking about Toilet Paper and then Halloween right after. Is someones house in danger of being TP'd?

Don't get caught.

I believe that is a good preventative measure for COVID.

Taiwan went 200 days without a single community-based case until one the other day. By contrast, the US is now registering 83,000 infections per day. I'm not great with math, but by my reckoning that means the US is doing 83,000 times worse.

That fact says all one needs to know about the American willingness to wear masks and socially distance. Go America!

Merica. You spelled it wrongly.

I ain't good with book learnin' 'n such.

As long as you can handle a firearm correctly, you're good.

The American way. . .

I own a little 5-round .38 pistol. For a few years, I took out a concealed carry permit. I had a specially made leather bag that made for quick access (I once used that bag to bluff my way out of potentially nasty situation. I wasn't carrying my gun at the time, but the road rage freak that followed me into the Subway parking lot didn't know that.) Another story for another day.

While I'm a fairly good shot at the firing range, my DH has made the point that I wouldn't stand a chance against somebody with, say, an AK-47 with a scope.

It's pretty scary all around.

Yeah. Utah. Enough said.

Our clients are many international and we talk with people around the world constantly. Everywhere is getting bad again but China. Communism does have an upside. Did you see the video of the guy with the fever trying to cross a border and getting caught by guards with a butterfly net? Would I be upset if the police here were furnished Giant Butterly Nets? Has possibilities. No?

Our friends in Belgium* said it's going bad quickly. We already know about Italy and France. Another friend was given 24 hours to get out of Switzerland before no one would be allowed to leave. Have some friends stuck in Denmark for a long time now.

Everyone we talk to in China is verifying that things are good there and its not just propaganda cuz the
ALL wear masks. The ones I talk to in Dubai said there was a $1000 dollar fine for not wearing a mask so I assume things are good since they want the stuff we make right away.

Me. I'm scared. I love my mask. And the bonus? It hides my jowls. Win win. We Boomers need to stay alive. We're not done ruining everybody's lives yet. :)

So the other day we were being crowded while on a walk by some not wearing masks. We ask them to put them on and the response was, "Trump 2020." I'm not trying to be political it's just that this really happened. Some Americans!


*My autocorrect changed Belgium to Belgious. Luckily I caught it but I miss most of autocorrects mischief.

Taiwan is close to zero, New Zealand is close to zero, SK and Japan are doing well. It is absolutely about obeying simple rules and Europeans and especially Americans are terrible at that.

We need our Boomers. I am critical of the intergenerational transfer of wealth but that is a macro phenomenon and on a micro level everybody needs their uncles and aunts and grandparents and employers and friends and mentors. Every time one of my older friends gets sick or loses their memory or dies, a part of me dies as well.

As a baby boomer with some underlying conditions (severe anemia which required blood transfusions in the ER) and blood clot issues, I’m not too willing to gamble and see if I’m going to be in the lucky 99%.
I was never good at gambling: the most I ever won was a case of canned tuna fish at Lagoon on an Employee’s Day.

I'm glad that I live in a state with a mask mandate. Even so, "winter is coming."

Masks are "supposed" to be mandatory where I live, except for infants and people who have written notice from their physicians that wearing a mask would harm them in a given way.

Problem? A fair number of people are not willing to comply, and most of the police can't be bothered to cite them. The police say (and this seems reasonable to me) that they need to concentrate their efforts on REAL criminals - like thieves and murderers and such.

Could ticket-writing for non-mask wearers be sub-contracted out? A group of people could be hired specifically for the purpose of writing citations to non-mask wearers. And there would be penalties for ignoring the citations. Say, $1,000 each? I bet that would slow resistance down. A thousand bucks would give most people pause, and they might just decide that they are more afraid of the fee/penalty than they are of the virus.

I don't really care what they are most afraid of. The end objective is to get them wearing masks.

It bothers me that some people feel that their right to not be bothered with a mask is more important than the well-being of the community they live in.

What am I missing here?

Agree Catnip, after all, we can ticket parked cars....

But Captain Moroni will save us!!!!!

Today, my daughter texted and said the numbers are 2800.
Governor Herbert had a little press conference, and re-emphasized the need for masks and social distancing, and that this is not a game; needs to be taken seriously. Tell us something new, Herbert.
When we were headed home after a senior hours shopping at the grocery store, we saw six or seven large trailers parked in the Expo Center parking lot. On all of them it read COVID Vaccination Clinical Trials Clinic.
The governor hasn't mentioned anything about those, that Im aware of...

I just had my annual wellness visit with my primary care doc. I am in decent shape. Here are a couple of tidbits that took me back: All the doctors and nurses in private practice have been alerted that they might be pressed into service at the hospitals if things gets overwhelmed. My doc said she is happy to help but feels unprepared to work in an ICU unit.

She pressed me on getting an updated advance directive in the system. My attorney drew up what was called a living will back in the day and a general durable power of attorney. This was in the 90's as I was going through my divorce. Well, now days the advance directive is much more robust. Example: If necessary, do I want to be on a ventilator? So, I need to have a conversation with my oldest son about the realities of our current reality.

My Advance Directive calls for my body to be dissolved in acid, so that no trace of DNA remains and my Social Security back account continues to grow until the situation makes the evening news, in 50 years, when my heirs finally move to declare me dead so they can split all that money that has piled up!

I think it's doable!