Best Posts in Thread: It is now NOT your fathers Covid... Mask up !!

I voted FOR Brexit. Why? Because when the UK joined what is now the EU it was a Common Market (in name and actuality) - a grouping of countries to allow for easier trading. BUT, after we joined it became political and started making laws which affected the UK. The ruling classes are on big salaries and some are not elected. We were sold a lie and so changed our minds.

Btw, IMO other EU countries will follow and the EU will eventually fail - perhaps the UK had the sense to abandon ship first.

 

look, i am not trying to pick a fight with anyone. we are all entitled to our opinions. with regard to covid it is so difficult because of the inadequacy and inconsistency of information regarding this disease. i will say i will be 78 in september, i spent my while life working in healthcare and retired as a registered nurse when i was 71. i have seen death in every form from trauma to chronic disease. i agree with Rye's position on this as best as i can tell. should we fight back against covid? yes of course we should. but we have to keep an overall perspective on this and all other threats. father time will claim us all and there is nothing to prevent that. if its not covid then it will be something else. its true that those of us who are older are closer to that outcome, most likely, than Rye, but his point of view should be argued on its merits (or lack thereof). for me it is a simple fact that the strength of the US is its economy. that is where the money comes from for defense against all invaders, human or viral. if we shut down and destroy our economy then where do the resources come from to fight the next battle? the US just spent three trillion dollars in the hopes that grandma will die next week and not this week. its insane!! the people who wear masks are not all going to heaven and those who don't are not all going to hell. there are many experts on both sides of that question and many experts who have changed sides. but i know that we will lose if we all dig foxholes and throw grenades at each other. only the next disease will win.

 

I am so sick of all this Covid19 , I could just . I am one of the old folks and the common cold could just as easily kill me as the North Vietnamese in 1966. But at 18 & 19 I was bullet proof. Now at 73 I have chronic coronary heart disease, diabetes and a host of other life threatening elements. On the out side I look quite well. When I get this Covid19 (notice I said WHEN)it will bring all my troubles to a quick END. Would I like to live longer, sure just as long the quality of life, is still in me. Do I fear death, HeII no, why you may ask. Because I have absolutely no control over when or where this old men will no longer get any OLDER. So covid19 can kiss my ey old .
My 5centavos.

 

PLEASE, as an intelligent person, explain to me how using vaccination against smallpox (as just one example) is a "temporary misguided efforts to delay the inevitable". It wiped out whole races when carried around by 'explorers' and is likely to re-appear only if used by terrorists - if it is then the vaccine stockpiles will be used. Or do you really believe it better we allowed such diseases to run rampant and wipe out whole sections of the human race?

 

It's hardly surprising it's still spreading, I was in a line waiting for the bank to open 2 meter distance and women in front of me was facing towards me, she was not wearing a mask then she gave out a loud chesty cough, she just managed to put up her hand to cover her mouth. Then another women stood in between us, I said social distance madam, and some just laughed. until the guard made her go to the back of the line.

 

the point here is that young people are now filling up the ICU beds

 

For many humans it is difficult to look beyond choices that lead to short term gratification, examples:

people who get their priorities wrong and choose to buy a nice car/bike/tv/phone, rather than invest in a safe house or in education;

people who don't consider their future health when deciding to smoke, drink or eat unhealthy;

some politician promising to halt immigrants (who "steal your jobs" and "poison your culture") gets elected even if a country's population is aging and immigration is desperately needed to ensure that tomorrow there will be enough nurses and doctors to care for the old;

politicians, almost without exception, not acknowledging any issues that will likely become manifest after the next election (just look at the halfhearted approach to climate change);

Obviously you can read "voters" where it says "politicians".

And no, in case anyone wonders, I am not immune to temptations myself.

The crises we humans are forced to confront, like the current Covid one, the climate, the limited resources, these are increasingly requiring a planetwide response rather than nation states blaming each other for wrong choices. Unfortunately, while these crises suggest that we are in need of more cooperation, and that the era of the nation states is nearing the end of its useful life, I fear that the current political climate, with opportunistic strongmen/demagogues/populists on the rise, is very detrimental to cooperation; there are plenty examples, just look at Brexit, similar opposition to cooperation in other countries, the US leaving the Paris treaty on climate and WHO, China antagonizing its neighbours with their nine-dash China sea policy, just to name a few.

So, should we just throw the towel and adopt a defeatist idea that nothing will work and we are bound to destroy the planet? No of course not, for the sake of our children and grandchildren we should definitely not give up on finding a balanced way to live on our planet without destroying our habitat.

 

This is exactly what happens every time. You state, or anyone else states, they do not fear COVID and suddenly you don't care about people. It is the absurd reflex emotional response that is such a boring and completely incorrect narrative. If you, or many of the other people that don't fear COVID, heard of one of these 60 plus ladies and gentlemen needing something, you'd be the first to help, whereas they are just going to say "I told you so!" if you catch the disease.

For my part, I really appreciate the material and actual help you've given me as a member and I'll forever more look at the words of a few of the members as meaningless. Thank you @Rye83 .