There Won’t Be a Clear End to the Pandemic

[BeachOrCity]

It was a good article.

What surprised me about this thread is how much peoples views varied and a few who were somewhat hostile to it. The article really was more of an subjective piece since it was less about the science and more about the human reaction to our covid predicament.

To me, while the overall point of the article in retrospect is somewhat obvious, it was a good reminder to us that there is not a real "end date" on this situation, and for each of us the time and circumstances of that ending will be quite different.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeachOrCity It was a good article. What surprised me about this thread is how much peoples views varied and a few who were somewhat hostile to it. The article really was more of an subjective piece since it was less about the science and more about the human reaction to our covid predicament. To me, while the overall point of the article in retrospect is somewhat obvious, it was a good reminder to us that there is not a real "end date" on this situation, and for each of us the time and circumstances of that ending will be quite different.

Yes I would say the fact that the only two outside links from NPR and WSJ were links to about the current administration and they included nothing from the other party makes it pretty darn subjective. But apparently it's OK for modern journalists to write opinion pieces as "news".

[Markola]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan Yes I would say the fact that the only two outside links from NPR and WSJ were links to about the current administration and they included nothing from the other party makes it pretty darn subjective. But apparently it's OK for modern journalists to write opinion pieces as "news".

And where do you go for accurate, non-political pandemic information?

[ivinsfan]

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Originally Posted by Markola And where do you go for accurate, non-political pandemic information?

There are one or two threads floating around on this subject, if you care to search for them.

[eytonxav]

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Originally Posted by audreyh1 I haven’t been expecting a sudden sharp end to the pandemic simply because of the enormous logistics involved in getting one or more viable vaccines out there and/or a very safe and effective new treatment.

Getting a viable and effective vaccine is first, but as I understand it the gov't has contracted with the pharm companies and they are manufacturing the doses in parallel with testing, so the logistics of delivering the vaccine may not be so monumental compared to distributing the standard flu vaccine, particularly if military logistics is involved in the distribution process. Of course, then the public will have to be willing to be vaccinated.

[Gumby]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan Yes I would say the fact that the only two outside links from NPR and WSJ were links to about the current administration and they included nothing from the other party makes it pretty darn subjective. But apparently it's OK for modern journalists to write opinion pieces as "news".

I don't know why you would expect "news" from The Atlantic, since it is a monthly that has always published long form essays, literature and the like. These things necessarily have a point of view. The magazine has never made any pretense of being "the news". If you just want to know what happened (i.e. the news), I'd recommend one of the actual news sites. AP, NYT, Washington Post, BBC, AFP, Al Jazeera, CNN, MSNBC etc.

[Markola]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan There are one or two threads floating around on this subject, if you care to search for them.

You mean the CDC website? Sadly, I don’t think so.

[Badger]

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Originally Posted by audreyh1 Agreed, the basic precautions are very minor inconveniences and make everybody so much safer. Spread would drop significantly if people would just get with the program. International travel is out of the question for us right now, for various reasons including Europe won’t let us in and generally too much public exposure. I don’t mind postponing that. But we can still travel domestically, rent cabins/lodges/housing, go hiking, enjoy nature photography, etc. Restaurants aren’t that important to us right now. We have been enjoying making our own meals and picnics. I feel safe grocery shopping in uncrowded stores with high mask compliance. We visit with family all the time via phone and FaceTime, emails. Group settings aren’t that important to me. I don’t feel deprived by not sharing spaces with strangers. I know many folks really miss the group socializing. We mostly avoided that pre-Covid except for the standard holiday family gatherings. Maybe at some point it will get where people can reliably test before socializing.

+1
I agree with everything you said. You saved me the time to write the same post.

[ivinsfan]

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Originally Posted by Gumby I don't know why you would expect "news" from The Atlantic, since it is a monthly that has always published long form essays, literature and the like. These things necessarily have a point of view. The magazine has never made any pretense of being "the news". If you just want to know what happened (i.e. the news), I'd recommend one of the actual news sites. AP, NYT, Washington Post, BBC, AFP, Al Jazeera, CNN, MSNBC etc.

Ok and that's completely true yet I always thought "articles" with political slants were frowned upon here, so one wonders, where is the line? Linking to a 6 month and 3 month old article to throw shade on one group or party seems pretty political. Most certainly you could find others from different parties and public health making the same misstatements.

AP might be a true news source the others you mentioned not so much.

We're kind of OT here so I'll just move on.

[karen1972]

I think i was more disappointed when I heard the vaccine was only going to be 50% effective. My concern has never been about myself, but the thought of ever giving it to someone who could die of it. So whether it is vaccine or ability to test, etc, I"d like to make sure when I go visit my mother I have no chance of getting her sick...only then will I feel this thing is over.

[Hyper]

DW and I rarely ever get sick. We also live in extreme north conditions. The only worry Covid has caused us is the fact they we have many very young grand babies and would kill us if we were ever the cause of giving them something that would hurt them. The horrible weather self quarantees us many times of the yr so we've not been effected, besides having to wear a mask in certain places and of course tp shortages. We're still waiting for that fantasy earthan rise in ambient to come to our area!

[BeachOrCity]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan Yes I would say the fact that the only two outside links from NPR and WSJ were links to about the current administration and they included nothing from the other party makes it pretty darn subjective. But apparently it's OK for modern journalists to write opinion pieces as "news".

If you looked, you would have seen that it was under the section "family". It was not meant to be a science based article.

The author linked to sources that are generally both veiwed as conservative and liberal to illustrate how people are reacting differently.

What about the author saying people will react to the wind down of the virus differently and at different points in time bothered you so much?

[Markola]

I think Dr. Fauci remains the trusted voice of authority in all this and he said, in some interview I saw, “It’s important that people know that this will eventually end.” Therefore, I’m going to stay optimistic.

[ivinsfan]

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Originally Posted by Markola I think Dr. Fauci remains the trusted voice of authority in all this and he said, in some interview I saw, “It’s important that people know that this will eventually end.” Therefore, I’m going to stay optimistic.

People are starting to realize that ending and being over are not the same thing. The pandemic part will begin to wind down with some time and an effective vaccine but COVID itself will remain an issue for a long long time. People in high risk groups will still have to be on guard.

[Markola]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan People are starting to realize that ending and being over are not the same thing. The pandemic part will begin to wind down with some time and an effective vaccine but COVID itself will remain an issue for a long long time. People in high risk groups will still have to be on guard.

Yes, I agree. He said last spring that “this will end” but, in my search to find the clip, I see he is more nuanced this week: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/healt...021/index.html

[ivinsfan]

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Originally Posted by karen1972 I think i was more disappointed when I heard the vaccine was only going to be 50% effective. My concern has never been about myself, but the thought of ever giving it to someone who could die of it. So whether it is vaccine or ability to test, etc, I"d like to make sure when I go visit my mother I have no chance of getting her sick...only then will I feel this thing is over.

I've seen some numbers higher then 50 so that might be coming. But yes if only 70% will get the vaccine and it's doesn't offer full protection that's a huge concern for nursing home situations and such.

I have a neighbor that doesn't do vaccines, yet every year she gets the flu and is always sicker then sick. As a matter of fact I make it a point to never see her in person between Jan and April. So maybe that's what coming, if you know people that won't vaccinate for COVID maybe you will need to end those relationships. If they are family that's another problem.

[Montecfo]

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Originally Posted by Aerides One of the things I'm doing to adapt, that I expect to continue, post vaccine, is I'm kitting out a home gym. I never really liked the extra 20+ mins of time commitment to "go to" the gym, nor the whole waiting around for that sweaty dude to move off the machine I want. So I've bought a few things and found it's much easier to make my own routine and schedule in my garage. Not terribly easy to find gear as everything sold out at the start of the stay-at-home, but slowly building up enough for some decent strength training. Similarly, I always preferred sitting outside for dining, and having done so weekly in south florida for an entire summer now, I will never say "ooh too hot and humid" again. And I'm putting in a pool - I love the beach but this will be closer, never closed, never require parking, I'll never have some smoking shouting family plonk down next to me, and I'll never get a jellyfish sting. I think individually we'll all find our ways to adapt, and in many cases we might prefer the substitute to whatever it was before.

You make a very strong case!

[Montecfo]

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Originally Posted by Gumby I The magazine has never made any pretense of being "the news". If you just want to know what happened (i.e. the news), I'd recommend one of the actual news sites. AP, NYT, Washington Post, BBC, AFP, Al Jazeera, CNN, MSNBC etc.

Other than BBC, AP and AFP these carry a left or far left slant according to ALLSides.com which studies such things. These days I think being well informed of the "actual news" requires using multiple sources and understanding their political slants, in my view.

[Montecfo]

I think the pandemic is ending a little bit every single day. We now have far better treatments better understanding of the virus, better compliance with safety precautions and more places to go, safely, then we did at the start of the pandemic.

The trend reflects fewer infections, fewer hospitalizations, and fewer deaths.

The vaccines should be another large step forward and it sounds like we may have multiple vaccines which, combined with normal antibodies may allow us to reach herd immunity.

And better vaccines will likely be coming.

[MichaelB]

Am I the only one here that is tired of the unending harping on mainstream medía? It’s become a crutch to blame partisan bias as an excuse for not considering the merits a specific article or reference and declaring the source objectionable.

There’s plenty of qualified and professional media all around, including specialized journalism by people who truly do know what they are talking about and give us diligent reporting and thoughtful analysis.