NoiseInsideMyHead

Good for heard immunity.

"Temporary." Deja vu all over again. As with lockdowns, maybe it's the indefiniteness that really bothers people. Just as there appeared to be no real end game for lockdowns, there's also no stated or objective criteria for when the masks might come off. Why can't people who choose to wear a mask simply give it a rest on judging those who don't?

-B-Dubs

In addition to having completely failed to address any of my comments about the real world effect of COVID on the much bigger picture of life and death for everyone, you lack perspective. You're in too deep to be objective. In a nation of 328M, 1M is about 0.3%. It doesn't move the needle. If 1M die tomorrow, that leaves 99.7% of the country to pick up the pieces of a shattered economy and figure out some way to undo the trauma of pandemic fear mongering. Sorry, but your cherry picked value of "300% critical care capacity" hardly proves anything. In fact, it may be far more suggestive of a capacity that was too low for a densely populated urban area to begin with, rather than signaling some bellwether moment for public health in the United States for the vast majority of people who aren't even sick, who are unlikely to get sick, and who are extremely unlikely to die.

Daily reporting of COVID statistics is one of the worst things that could have ever happened to mankind.

Let's talk mortality for a second. Does anyone think that life expectancy for a NYC resident has actually shortened due to COVID? Say, one year ago, a 45 year old male had X% likelihood of dying within 12 months from a communicable disease, as opposed to all other causes, or to none at all (i.e, survival). Today, that likelihood is X*Y, wherein Y is a multiple representing an appropriate adjustment for COVID. What is Y? Is it even perceptible? Same exercise for a 55 year old, and a 65 year old. What are their Y values? Does anyone honestly believe that the actual danger of dying has increased in any appreciable way? And then throw wearing a mask into the equation, just for kicks. Perception is a powerful tool, but I like my chances sticking with math.

Wrong, and wrong. I moved nothing. If people in NYC woke up in March, or April, or May thinking that they are somehow more vulnerable to the human condition, then that's their problem. We're all on the same ride. NO - the odds of a human being dying are, and always have been, 100% Period. End of Story. The only part of the story that has yet to be written is the middle. It saddens me that so many people are in complete denial of their own mortality. It really is liberating to realize that nothing else matters. Live your lives, folks. Your COVID could be right around the corner.

Except that, if this was a global killer, there'd be a lot more dead people. Everywhere. I haven't seen anyone characterize this virus as a global killer. Persons who died "from" COVID were going to die. They were susceptible to a virus; some more classically so than others, but I think their deaths are proof. If not this one, then possibly the next one. But to ignore the SURVIVAL rate is to discount human resilience altogether. Not all of us will succumb to this virus, any virus, or any pathogen. It is delusional to think that one susceptible to COVID will miraculously survive merely by delaying infection. Among the sick and infirm, what is the efficacy rate for vaccination going to be? Death has a 100% success rate, COVID does not.

Here's what I can't believe...that people honestly think that life on planet earth is more dangerous to humans today than it was a month ago, 2 months ago, 3 months ago, 4 months ago, 6 months ago, one year ago, two years ago.

Also wasn't much of a fight.

Not Indian, but in today's climate it seems noteworthy for a non-humanoid nickname to be dropped in favor of a humanoid, let alone one with ethnic implications. https://www.stcloudblizzard.com/breaking-the-st-cloud-blizzard-is-proud-to-announce-effective-immediately-its-new-name-change-and-rebrand-to-the-st-cloud-norsemen#.XrMUtBIxayI.link

But within commuting distance of how many millions of people who won't need to adjust to the cost? You can't tell me there isn't plenty of untapped hockey coaching talent, with ACHA, AAA, Tier 1, HS. Just like SoCal, if you're from the area or been there for a while - riding the never-ending housing wave, it's far easier to get by than for a transplant.

Here’s a thought exercise. Let’s say the media never picked up on a “new” virus and it didn’t have a name. And nobody ever invoked the p-word. Instead, they just reported generically on trends, data, and observations about respiratory viruses, illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths in the aggregate. Would 2020 just have gone down as a “really bad flu season”? I mean, who has even even paid attention every other year in modern history when such things have been announced? Who here hasn’t just shrugged at stories of ‘norovirus on a cruise ship’ or ‘Asian flu’? We’re pretty desensitized and resilient, after all. Yet, there are now armies of armchair epidemiologists out there who couldn’t begin to tell you how many died last year, or the year before, or in any year from any cause, but who seem to know for a fact that “this one is bad.” Nearly none of them have witnessed it first hand, mind you. Rather it’s what they’ve heard. Over and over. No panic. No economic upheaval. Some deaths, sure, but mostly in assisted living facilities and tightly packed urban areas. Gentle reminders to wash hands, stay home if you’re sick, see your doctor. Pharma could have quietly worked up a vaccine, and rolled it out in due course with the usual seasonal admonition to ‘get your flu shot.’ Nobody ever reads those labels anyway. “Oh, a bigger needle this year? Okay.” Or, “Two shots this time? Oh, well, what’s my co-pay?” Maybe we can learn something about the perils of too much information in the Information Age. Maybe being human and vulnerable isn’t really the problem. Maybe putting too much information in the hands of those least equipped to deal with it is the real culprit.

Yes, I will literally go out of my way to frequent businesses that do not require masks. And I will withhold patronage from those that do whenever possible. You can't put any of this "in a tube." It's a virus (hardly the only one), we are living organisms, we are social by nature, and some of us will succumb to pathogens. That's literally the way it has always been and will always be. I weep for the future of mankind if this is the best we can do. Scaring people into staying home and wearing a mask in public. Shaming people for living their lives. Life is all about risks and choices.

The very notion of an immunity/health passport is laughable. Exactly which condition(s) - past, present, future - are elevated to passport-level? And how is that decision going to be made? What about genetic predispositions...gonna screen for those, too? Will there be armed checkpoints? Brain scans? Exploding restraint collars? The dystopian future is NOW.

Does this include respecting people who choose not to wear a mask? Because being told to wear a mask is not something I'm prepared to tolerate. It seems like overnight the smug, pompous crowd has shifted from "you stay at home" to "you wear a mask." Yet, nobody is out here telling them they must leave the house, or they cannot wear a mask.

Masks are the respiratory pathogen equivalent of climbing under your desk during a nuclear attack. The government isn't always providing information that will actually save your life, they just want you to feel better about your predicament in the meantime.

"Make that decision." "Don't be that guy." Which is it? Is it my choice, or yours?

The human immune system has been doing its thing quite nicely for thousands of years, and I for one am not going to give up on it. If I am meant to die from this virus, so be it. Masks are a choice I’m not willing to make.

We're inching closer to having two economies: a mask-required one and a mask-free one. People can speak with their wallets, and I have to wonder how long the mask-required businesses will hold out if a sufficient number of people flock to the others. I've seen nothing that would cause me to wear a mask 99% of the time, but if a particular transaction is essential to me, I may bite the bullet. But that thing is coming off the millisecond it is no longer "required." And I will go out of my way to shop mask-free, if that's what it comes to.

Has anybody else noticed that the number of "coronavirus" articles made available to non-subscribers has dwindled from most to almost none?

Can we get a running list of GF area restaurants that have re-opened for dine-in? - Paradiso - Speedway

Hope this was tongue-in-cheek. You can bleed green or whatever color you want all day long, but singling out any AD (or coach) for trying to manage this situation is more than a stretch. So many moving parts it's impossible to track them all.

Closing the golf course will go down as one of UND's bigger blunders. Lost revenue + costs of rehabilitation + loss of good will = HUGE