Iuz the Evil

Almost certainly.

I would literally rather die than live in that world. We absolutely must recover what we have lost, or as much as we can. Edit: as soon as vaccination or resistance allows us.

That isn't helping me anymore. I started to write how I felt but it was so despondent. Here is a message of hope instead.

I walked down to the local hot dog eatery today, decent foot traffic in the place. Hot dog with kraut & mustard, and a Racer 5. Everything was very weird, plastic barriers and a laminated hot dog placard that said "clean me" to leave on my table after. Masks and gloves all around, and you can only take off your mask when eating. Everyone standing on floor markings, and they'd pulled half the tables out so social distancing was in full effect. Hand sanitizer required before completing your order. The workers were just happy to be at work again. Was a good hot dog. It reminded me of better times than this. I want this to be finished, I miss fear not being a constant element in every human interaction I see around me. This may be the most depressing thing I've ever witnessed, and I want to be able to hug my friends again. And go to parties, and hang out with folks listening to good music. To be able to travel, and not have to constantly track where my mask is before I go out. To be able to see my mom without worrying about her maybe getting sick accidentally. And none of that is going to happen any time soon. This disease is taking so much from us, and this is time we will never get back. The world is on pause, full of terror and danger, and it's appalling, for going on months now... with probably more than a year to go. God, this is awful. Tastes like despair.

I've started raking my hair back with my hands. I'll be up for a pony tail or stylish man bun by end of summer

We are testing dead bodies for Covid-19 through the Coroner's office, and even funeral homes. There isn't under reporting happening there in CA. Edit: realized I was maybe being pretty identifiable on here. Crazy people out there these days Suicide, alcohol related illness, and the like are chronic. You will see those carry over a long time.

Just called around a bit. Most restaurants I'm talking to have reservations only for seating, starting Friday with reduced internal capacity (50%). Staff wear face masks and gloves. 6' distancing for dining. This will be interesting. No stand alone bars, but if you serve alcohol and food you still can.

Um. I'm the government too? That's actually what I'm talking about. I don't understand this place sometimes.

Likely true. Nothing I can personally do about that with the choices I'm having to make now, man. It is a true dilemma here, we cannot create a full public safety net system with local money. I am doing the best I can.

Oh I absolutely agree that would be a HUGE help. Unfortunately we don't have that as a feature of our society. So the choices are extremely grim. I'm not being flippant. The choice is expose yourself to possible infection and risk, or face economic ruin in a society with very limited safety net resources. And local government gets to make the call on which road we hop towards, because the Feds deferred to the State. And the State is deferring to local health officials. Gee, thanks. So you do the best you can. Infection control matters. Suicide, health issues, and abuse matter. Economics matter. It's all important and you just try to be prudent and careful.

That's definitely not the case locally. We are facing considerable community pressure to open up so that business can open. State unemployment at 22% and higher locally. And folks starting to just say "heck with it" more and more. Traffic congestion returning, more folks moving around the community. By moving into "deep stage 2" the hope is it will buy another couple months of time and give people hope. We want to be very careful about this. Nobody's wanting to go too fast. Child abuse emergency report numbers are up over double last year, with half the reporting. Domestic violence through the roof. Nobody getting preventative care or dental care. Had a spike in suicide already. Emergency food assistance up 287%. You can argue it's not related to economic stressors, social isolation, increased liquor sales, and growing frustration at the situation. I don't think I'll believe that though. This is really bad. People are not handling the situation well at all, and there's some hope that this may mitigate the secondary effects of our intervention. I think it'll be some time before we take another step in this process, and we are monitoring like crazy. Testing almost double the State requirement, doing probes of nursing homes, compliance response for business, all that. We will see how it goes.

California starting to move into "deep phase 2". County by County posting of variance attestation on the DPH website. Deep phase 2 allows retail, restaurants (with modification such as restricted seating and employee masks), and similar modified activities. Placer and San Luis Obispo are cleared for that, among others. No Bay Area County on that list that I've seen. https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc7news.com/amp/phase-two-california-bay-area-stage-when-can-restaurants-reopen-in/6186330/

Food access is a serious problem in the United States right now. We are as of this week pushing out food assistance to about 10k youth (from 2700 normally) daily through student meals with closed schools. Just to pick one source. It's all connected, parental unemployment is massively increasing the need. For the general population the food bank had to ask for the National Guard to expand their mission for support because of the amount of folks needing assistance. CalFresh applications alone went up 78% in April. We will not be able to maintain that with existing resources. There's a desire to do it obviously, but we're going to hit some hard limitations pretty quick. Don't think that people having no food access is off the table in the United States. It is a matter of resources and timeline, with enough funding and major policy changes maybe... it's hard to say if this could be achieved beyond a month or two. The secondary impacts are starting to stack up in a pretty unnerving way. Rental issues are the next big one. Currently eviction is suspended, but it will drop back into place sometime, maybe the next phase, maybe later. Then we will have huge problems with housing. That stuff is coming in several waves as we move along.

So we have begun reopening in California today. State guidelines are in place, and several Counties are moving forward. It'll be interesting to see how "we are establishing 'guidelines' but not certifying your local plan' works in practice. Deferring to local health officers cuts both ways, they ultimately work for a Board of Supervisors. I'm guessing this will lead to much local variation in response.

We refer to it as "the 'Rona" here in California when I've heard it referenced by folks so inclined. "Frank looks like he got the 'Rona"

Oh it ain't over yet. Pretty predictable modeling we will be having an increase in spread over time given any level of reduction in current measures until we hit a yet unknown level of exposure (unknown because current infection rate is unknown due to asymptomatic and non reported numbers) or get a vaccine. That last option will probably be a while. I get the arguments, we are just picking bad options though. More people die or generational poverty is created. So then you get into arguments about personal preference in response. I think folks are largely doing the best they can. It makes me sad to see the level of vitriol directed at people about the decisions being made. I am living in a very locked down, shelter at home, social distancing enforced and masks required location. I think it's the right choice we are making. I do not think the people who are upset at the impact of those decisions do not have a right to be very angry when we have little local spread and they lose their business, home and all the implications from those impacts. That happened directly from those local and state decisions we made. It was the choice made at the time, and seems like it worked. But being mad at that choice and the people who made it is inevitable. Such is government service. I'm tired. Have been off 3 days in last 50, but I remain grateful for the opportunity. Rambling now, going to bed.

This is happening in California as well. Modoc in particular has had no cases, is more land than humans (totally County population is 8777), and are really getting into it with the State. They've gone so far as to tell the State they won't comply to the governor's order, which I don't believe they can legally follow through on. There's a lot of that going around, and this is month two (in another 10 days). They aren't in an indefensible position to point out they're being impacted when they have not experienced the issue being protected against. And the State isn't wrong to assert their obligation to protect the citizenry. Small, poorer, rural jurisdictions don't have the resources of urban areas - this is going to be terrible for them. I would have preferred more of a jurisdictional, sequential approach based on prevalence and science but the lack of testing resulted in difficult decisions having to be made. In any case, the governor put forward the guidance for 19 business sectors today and targets Counties will need to certify to in order to move forward. I expect California will have limited reopening in more urban areas in the next couple weeks. Rural ones it'll probably happen this week in some cases, if they can possibly pull it off.

This is true. And you should see the crowds at Huntington Beach. Once the shelter at home is lifted, and the weather improves, the public will emerge in significant numbers.

I'm thinking the citizens of Germany follow direction from governmental authority. It's a cultural norm. Very advantageous in the current situation.

You just have to buy all your social skills with "costs END" as part of the package...

The rural and less populous Counties in CA are the ones really fighting this. They actually have a rational argument, although others may differ... hard to justify months (now almost 2) of closure with zero cases. Rolling shelter at home might have impacted them less, but it is what it is.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/california-phased-reopening-plan/index.html

California has large population segments that believe the same thing. There's enough folks they've got their own secession movement.

There is really no option to not ease restrictions from current levels over the next 12 to 18 months. That is literally impossible and will not happen, for many reasons including but not limited to things like current absence of preventative health care and dentistry, lack of political will, public compliance, and ongoing economic impact. A measured approach, with ongoing social distancing, mask requirements and so forth is inevitable. We are already planning for it. It needs to be thoughtful, measured and with ongoing case monitoring and tracking. There may need to be restrictions that ease then later tighten up. This has always been about managing surge and ICU impact, mitigation and not full prevention. California's governor will be providing a press conference at noon on what needs to be in place. (There are 6 factors we need in place and all aren't there yet)