There will always be people like that, but thankfully we don't have quite the same anti-mask lunatics here at least. They just need to make the messaging as clear as possible, and have policies/enforcement to deal with idiots and lunatics. The nationwide lockdown was largely adhered to and effective the first time, government comms and advisers diluting the message aside.

College students are another ticking timebomb the government has ignored. They are mixing people from many areas and as a result corona is sometimes rife, in Exeter which is in regional lockdown, they were something like 80% of the spike. The problem is that people rightly questioned the value of all online education and why the universities thought it was appropriate to charge exactly the same while effectively providing less resources. Many backtracked promising in person education which they are now stuck with. Their problem is monetary - without a government bailout, they can't afford students not turning up. Of course students may well reconsider now anyway given the situation so higher education is pretty much screwed. Turns out treating education like a business has its drawbacks...

Meanwhile locals blame students for corona. There's always someone to other, isn't there?

God I know. Why open the universities, especially those that don't have their own residential halls / colleges ? They've managed to keep football stadia closed for exactly the same reasons as they shouldn't have re-opened the universities. Money of course - though a lot of the newer universities are going to be stuffed without their large contingent of full-fee foreign students. My mother does admin work at one of them, and they charge students from (say) Kenya around 50% more than they charge home students. Lockdowns & travel restrictions are really going to hurt those places.

On the fees thing - the University of London were trying to charge me nearly 1,200 quid for e-library access, some module guides, and instructions on how to register for exams. Not even an assigned tutor to email. After dropping out of that course, they've sent a nice email offering to waive two years' worth of registration fees. Funny how hitting 'em in the wallet always works.

Yeah, as I understand it they have been fairly crappy about things. First they didn't want people deferring because they would be empty and bankrupt and then oversubscribed next year. Then they wanted to tell people that remote learning was identical and you have to pay the same fees, then they backed down on that as it was repeatedly pointed out it was a ridiculous assertion and promised the standard experience from an educational perspective. Then in doing so they became corona hotspots and run the risk of mass dropouts hitting them in the pocket anyway. It's all so predictable, exactly how things would always pan out in a pandemic where the education system is effectively a business. Meanwhile staff and students are put at risk of corona and possibly jobs later. Government needs to step in and should have done so months ago, assuming they want a higher education system to survive. It'll be another case where someone pointed it out a while back and they did nothing as par for the course.

I also wonder on travel restrictions whether going to uni or home again after its over is a necessary journey. That's gotta be discouraging.

My grandmother, 88, is likely going to die of COVID-19 within the next couple of days. Surprisingly, this would be the better outcome because if by some miracle she survives, she'll have severe, permanent brain damage because of the virus.

jesus dude.. all blessings to her, this is never easy

Thanks . I live only a few miles from her but haven't seen her in a long time. Kicking myself for never going to visit her, but at least my last memories of her will be when she was at her best.

I'm mostly fine but my dad's in pieces. It just happened so suddenly, two weeks ago there were only very early signs, and now she's on her deathbed. It hits even harder for my dad, because if he was to visit her, even if he took every precaution he'd have to be quarantined for two weeks, since he's a high school teacher and college professor.

Damn dude, sorry to hear that. It's crazy how fast this virus hits with hardcore symptoms =/

Sorry to hear that friend - horrible thing to have happen, totally sympathize.

Sorry to hear that darkeningday. I hope you are okay.

Thanks guys. She just passed away an hour ago. I'm fine, my dad is not.

Condolences.

Losing a grandparent is terrible, even worse when it's this evil virus.

When my paternal grandfather passed it was the only time I saw my dad cry. Be strong for your dad, but make sure you take care of yourself too. All this M-A bullshit aside, I honestly hope you and yours the best in this situation. It's awful.

My condolences, DD = (

Damn dude. Sorry. All the best with your dad. So horrible.

Thanks everyone. Kinda messed up that my dad has to keep teaching during the pandemic that just killed his mom while cases in his area continue to skyrocket, but This Is America.

I know it's preaching to the pitch perfect choir to say so here, but please do take the various pandemic guidelines seriously, we'll all more than likely be fine but our elderly are at risk.

Well, my country is apparently in lockdown from now to April. There is a new curfew from 23:00 to 06:00. People has failed in stopping the virus from spreading so will see how this works.

So I got stuck at a red light for 25+ minutes this weekend because of a car parade of anti-maskers. Since they cannot protest without masks on foot, they decided to do this stunt instead. Not fun missing your appointment because some dumb motherfuckers decide to take a stand against disease prevention. What's worse was that among these superb members of humanity were all kinds of other assorted idiots: Trump supporters (in fucking Quebec! You'd have to be a fucking idiot to support Trump in the US, but in Quebec of all places?), QAnon conspiracists and general anti-government types, as well as separatist "patriots". "Non à la plandémie", "Fin à la dictature", jeez guys, just wear your fucking masks and we'll be better off.

I can't stress how much I hate, viscerally, people who are too selfish to wear a mask for a few minutes when they go out, and who spread associated conspiracies. I usually manage to tolerate, to a degree, stupid people and assholes, but these are stupid assholes.

Yup. Constantly washing and disinfecting my hands leaves me with recurrent eczema outbreaks, yet I still do it. Being around folks wearing masks makes holding a conversation more difficult because I partially depend on lipreading--cookie bite hearing loss right at the frequency of human speech + difficulties filtering simultaneous sounds--yet you don't see me asking, much less demanding, people to take off their masks.

So if I can do it in spite of some actual negative effects, why the fuck can't they?

God I hate anti-maskers! They’ve made it so that politicians have an easy out when responsible people and business owners express legitimate doubts about government policy. Such as restaurant staff, whose businesses have not been linked to one single outbreak of covid yet are forced to shut down - but because the anti-maskers complained first, governments can lump them in together with the assholes and ignore real concerns.

Don't know about around where you are, but in for example Belgium, restaurants have been linked to a whole heap of covid outbreaks, a German restaurant was linked to a 50-people outbreak with at least one death back in May and iirc, here in the Netherlands there have been at least a few cases too.

Here in Ottawa, restaurants and bars have by all accounts done an exemplary job of following every new regulation: limiting capacity, 4 per table, masks on when moving around, even plexiglass between tables where possible. And it worked. With these limits, we had several days of zero cases during the summer, and were generally in single digits for long stretches of time. Other types of private gatherings are far more to blame for the spike in October; yet bars, restaurants and gyms/fitness studios have gotten slapped with the worst restrictions. Just because they are easy targets (“non-essential”) despite minimal if any data suggesting that these businesses are significant contributors to the problem.

I think it's pretty much the same in Quebec. Apart from a few outliers where regulations were not applied properly, contact tracing doesn't point to bars and restaurants as significant spreaders. Restaurants that you can easily "take out" are probably a bit safer, but the ones where dining on site is more important (I don't see myself taking out a steak to eat home...) are probably worse off. Some, I'd never pay the price without the full experience. I really hope the government programs are strong enough to buoy these places, but I'm afraid not.

Here in Italy we have the government making some really, really umpopular decisions, like forcing bars and restaurants to close at 6 pm, shutting down cinemas, theaters, swimming pools, gyms and the like, and having at least 75% of high school and university lessons made exclusively online. People are getting really upset, some rightfully (mainly the workers of the formentioned activities), but many in a very hypocritical way: they are unhappy because they can't have "muh fancy dinner", "muh football match with frens", "muh drink at the bar" and bullshit like that, and now they complain, faking some concern about the lives of those who work in restaurants, theaters, gyms etc. etc.
Those are the same people who never cared to wear their masks properly, who never cared about social distancing and absolutely never gave a single fuck about anything but themselves. Here, in this disgraced nation, last summer looked like Covid was just a joke, something that never really annoyed anyone. People were everywhere, wearing their masks on their elbows, packed like bees inside their hives, in the largest Covid Summer Party ever seen...because, you know, italians do it better. We are the best at being complete idiots. And now we are paying the consequences.
But it's never our fault: it's the government, obviously a commie dictatorship (just to make you aware: the most left member of our government could be sitting in the far right spot of the Democratic party in the U.S.A.), that is depriving us, poor, innocent and ABSOLUTELY TRUSTWORTHY citizens, of our right to do whatever we please! It's not our fault if the government preferred to believe, wrongly, that we have some responsibility and common sense and leave us somewhat free instead of sending the army in and solve the whole problem with brute force!
Not that our government is without faults: it seems completely unable to make the right choices whatsoever. And the most discouraging thing is that this government is literally the best option we have right now...unless someone could think that something good could come from people like Salvini (ex northern separatist, now ultra nationalist, Trump&Putin fanboy), Meloni (a wannabe fascist), and the always cool Berlusconi (I guess some of you heard about him...).

Sorry for the rant, but...all this thing is becoming somewhat unsustainable for my nerves. I still have hope that somewhere on this planet things are going slightly better than this.

I haven't really been following this particular thread, but has anyone on here caught the virus recently? I was unfortunate enough to been tested positive for it yesterday. It's insane. It's one of those things that despite affecting millions worldwide including even in your own backyard, you just don't think it'll happen to you. I know everyone says this, but they're right: please stay safe, and take every precaution possible. In short, this thing really sucks. It's like a flu that doesn't quite wanna go away. Chills, fever, and one the shittiest headaches I ever had. Most of my symptoms seem to have passed since I've experienced them for a bit over a week. But a lot of folks have also experienced the symptoms still returning anyway, so I'm on high alert regarding that. In conclusion, again, please keep safe out there folks.

I've heard Quebec referred to as the "Texas of Canada" multiple times before.

This solidifies it for me.

Metal Jaw-

Do you have any idea where you could've contracted it, or is that anyones guess?

Now now, that's Alberta.

Quebec is the other weirdly racist province. Let's call it the Boston of Canada.

I'm sure I got it at work. We had a few cases there months ago, then 2 in a row roughly 2 weeks ago. I may have caught it from someone carrying it or touched an infected surface and then touched my face, but I truly am not sure at this point.

Now the pubs and restaurants are putting propane heaters out to keep their patios habitable in the cold weather... and the Committee of Public Safety is getting all screwy about it because carbon monoxide Somebody needs to watch some King of the Hill. Propane is efficient and clean-burning I tell you what!

Beginning with 2nd November four weeks partial lockdown aka circuit breaker in Germany ... yay ...

My partner tested positive for it way back in March (one of the first in the country). Was mildly ill for a few days, usual flu symptoms. I got tested 2 days later and despite being in as close proximity to her as you could imagine, subsequently tested negative. Go figure.

Suffice to say, we have both experienced far more severe cases of the flu in years previous.

Committee of Public Safety you say ? Can't help but think that the French approach might actually focus a few minds on the matter at hand

Glad somebody picked up on that reference! To be honest though, in hindsight, what I would have done about the covid is an odd mix of free hand and iron fist. On one side, minimal restrictions against law-abiding folks and businesses. Just keep your mask on indoors when moving around, and only congregate with 6 or fewer people closer than 2m. But I’d like to really open a can on anyone breaking the rules. Don’t mind troops in streets, peering in windows, and if the house is overcrowded nobody leaves until a medical team is sent in and everyone tests negative. And if you test positive you’re escorted home under armed guard.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/31/us/c ... tw-nytimes

It's so bad now that it's impossible to even trace where it's coming from.

I had a scare when I fell ill a few days back - my roommate and his son also did very close to us. But we all tested negative. It's just still so precarious.

Why? What would it mean if you had tested positive?

Well I'd recently seen some family members without knowing I was getting sick.

But you still felt ill. Were you not concerned you might have passed something else on to them that you didn't get tested for?

I was arguing with some EXTREMELY stupid anti-maskers the other day on a certain facebook page who were continuously arguing that masks don't help at all and that there's all this evidence that they do nothing.

These people are BEYOND infuriating!

I seriously wanted to break some jaws, i mean I can't believe these selfish freaking idiots.

And I'm basically telling them that I've watched footage on the news of nurses and doctors in hospitals treating covid patients with masks and visors on and asking them "if masks don't work, why are these doctors wearing them?"

What is their rationale?

I mean, does anyone with ANY amount of intelligence actually have a logical reason as for why masks wouldn't help prevent the spread of covid when all the legit doctors and scientists out there say that they do?

See, that's the problem. No Facebook, no problems .

We had a builder visit yesterday to scope some repair work (I now have water coming through the bedroom ceiling via the chimney, yaaaay) - He had a mask on the whole time, a big bottle of hand sanitiser, gloves, boot-covers, the works.

Meanwhile in London, a lot of conspiracy wankers are staging protests about wearing masks.

I'm glad that practical people are being practical about the whole thing - if only we could shunt the crazies off to an island somewhere.

So the builder was wearing PPE to ensure the chimney doesn't get a nosocomial infection?