Should we ever go back to normal?
Staying at home and shuttering society has helped us keep deaths down in Michigan.
Should we ever allow people to leave home again? It's much safer now.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/04/11/michigan-death-down-in-march-despite-coronavirus/5120360002/
April 11th, 2020 at 11:54 PM ^
Yes. Abby Normal.
This can’t be upvoted enough.
Especially when the young and gorgeous Teri Garr immediately came to mind when I saw the name "Abby Normal".
April 12th, 2020 at 10:05 AM ^
Up-votes are a non-essential item.
Classic...
SAID A GIVE?!
I wonder what Frau Blücher thinks about this.
You asked for me?
April 11th, 2020 at 11:54 PM ^
Environment is doing much better, gas prices lower...creepiness higher, no golf, no motorized boats..we need to go back to normal post haste
WGT.com
Virtual golf insures you aren't drinking alone
No golf does not mean no golf maintenance.
Right, generally the lake is full of motorized boats in March and April
April 11th, 2020 at 11:58 PM ^
Shut the fuck up Donny.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:10 AM ^
He's out of his element.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:04 AM ^
Was hoping this wasn’t such a bad faith post. And we could come up with things you’d like to see stick around from all this. Like maybe everyone works from home 1 day a week but everyone is on a different rotation so traffic is better?
April 12th, 2020 at 12:12 AM ^
It's a bad post, but it actually does highlight some of the absurdity of all of this.
For whatever reason, we appear to have come to a consensus that the national death rate is the single most important factor in managing society. I don't remember having this conversation -- it just sort of happened.
However, the unavoidable conclusion is that if you want to optimize for the fewest deaths in any short-term period, we should stay on a permanent lockdown. Traffic deaths, disease deaths, accidental deaths -- everything drops. Now, in the long term, I think we're causing additional deaths by the massive introduction of stress into everybody's life. But in the short term -- if the most important thing is to keep people alive, you force them to stay inside, "for their own good."
April 12th, 2020 at 12:18 AM ^
We’ve had that discussion a thousand times. This isn’t a good post, it’s purposely inflammatory and trolling. There’s other threads to argue in without making your own like your point is so special. There’s even an economics one currently on the board. Plus the 5 separate ones that got started by a drunk guy last night. I was looking for a new, positive spin on all this shit. And I was let down. Like I said plenty of threads to argue in, my idea is better.
I'd just like to be able to work from home forever, or at least as much as I want to.
There is literally nothing to justify me coming to the office every day. I'm actually getting way more done at home.
So you must have access to MGoBlog at the office as well Hatter?
In my industry it's common. I was already WFH 5 days a week before this happened. Definitely couldn't ever go back to having a commute, and the remote work policy is the first thing I ask about any time I get contacted by a recruiter. Hopefully other sectors will catch up.
One of my co-workers, aged 26, killed himself 3 nights ago, so don't discount the added stress of this. He seemed a normal, happy millenial to me, but the added stress of what's going is going to take a toll on people.
Correlation does not imply causation.
Your co-worker may have been considering suicide for quite some time before killing himself. Most people who commit suicide don't do it on a whim.
Wow. This is like saying someone who died with COVID was probably going to die soon anyway as they were old or fat. Are you Bill O'Reilly?
April 12th, 2020 at 10:15 AM ^
That's actually not how suicide and depression work, but whatever. I have two close family members I know of who attempted suicide, another who seriously contemplated it; one died.
Most of the research says that the actual attempt IS on a "whim," as you put it, for most people. In other words, something triggers a depressed person to try to end their life. The seemingly endless bad news regarding this disease, being isolated from people who can help, and the despair of not knowing when it will end, would certainly quality as that trigger.
The vast majority of people who attempt suicide, with proper help, never attempt it again. In my family member's case, her therapist gave her the tools needed to manage the stressors that lead to the triggering events.
April 12th, 2020 at 10:56 AM ^
LA suicide prevention indicated they get about 20 calls a month. that's about what they had in Feb. They rec'd over 1800 in march. take it for what it's worth. i read it on the internet.
Thank you for sharing and I'm sorry that it happened.
Hard to know how the quarantine is affecting stress in this moment and how it will affect stress if it were to continue.
For all the stress this is causing, there is plenty of stress reduction going on as well. Hard to say what the net impact has been. Here's an interesting article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/well/live/coronavirus-doctors-hospitals-emergency-care-heart-attack-stroke.html
To the trolling OP: the health and happiness of our society should be considered. Your commentary argues that we could further ensure our health by restricting our freedoms to absurdity, therefore all restrictions on freedom are absurd. Most people here understand it's a sill argument. We all know hundreds of thousands of additional deaths are avoided by these temporary restrictions.
The level of economic devastation and pain from social isolation required to match hundreds of thousands of avoidable additional deaths seems far off at this time.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
I'm not trolling -- I'm 100% serious. I do think that most (not all) restrictions on freedom are absurd. Certainly, the health and happiness of the society can (and should) be considered, but the national death rate has never been the primary, overriding consideration until now. There has always been an implicit understanding that people will choose to engage in dangerous pursuits, and that's part of the price that we pay for our freedom. As far as I'm concerned, the role of the federal government is to protect us from other humans (e.g., invading armies), not to protect us from viral infection.
I don't "know" that "hundreds of thousands of additional deaths are avoided." Some people's computer models have projected that. Other computer models have projected fewer. Nobody "knows" what the effects are, including you. Unless you've run your own simulations -- I have not -- you're simply picking between other people's guesses.
Speed limits, mandatory vaccinations, evacuation orders during various emergencies, osha - avoiding death and debilitation is a major driving factor behind many of our laws. Your first paragraph demonstrates your libertarian views on government; these are not views accepted by the majority.
Your second paragraph - ‘we can’t know the future’ - sounds like you distrust experts and scientists. You overstate the uncertainty they and their models predicted, which all had low ends in the hundreds of thousands.
The conversation about the coronavirus tolls in the headlines being the single most important thing was done by politicians. There is little incentive for them to look at anything deeper than that.
Well you kind of need living people to have a society. Arguably the vast majority of government spending goes towards keeping people safe and alive when you look at what the US spends on health care and the military. LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness rings a bell.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:15 AM ^
The next step:
Soylent Green.
Read that ingredient list slowly and carefully.
Yes, your worst nightmare realized. It has high fructose corn syrup.
(wipes forehead in relief) Whew...I thought you were going to say (type, actually) that it had MSG.
I explain the MSG and aspartame myths to my students and they think I'm nuts. Diet pop is healthier than tea is the line in particular that gets to them.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:20 PM ^
STOP TOUCHING YOUR FACE!!!
Mass humanity=Soylent Green. Are we there yet?
April 12th, 2020 at 12:36 AM ^
Le sigh
April 12th, 2020 at 11:11 AM ^
Le pant.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:48 AM ^
Coronavirus does not pass human to human. No need to worry
That is so February.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
We don’t believe you China.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:58 AM ^
Are yoo stupid er sumthin?
Things that might stick:
- More people telecommuting
- Less handshaking
- People wearing masks in public
- Social distancing while waiting in line
Some of the younger posters on here might not remember how things were before AIDS. I remember going to the dentist and he would stick his bare fingers in my mouth. Now, dentists wear gloves, masks and face shields. In sports, guys would just bleed. Now, they’ll stop the game and take care of that right away.
I do wonder about restaurants. That seems like it could be done safely, but maybe there’ll be some rules put in concerning how close tables can be.
It’s going to be a while before air travel, sporting events, concerts and movie theaters return to normal. I used to wish LA where I live had better public transportation. Now, seems like everybody driving in their own car isn’t so bad.
April 12th, 2020 at 11:02 AM ^
#1 should be to wash your frickin hands. finally, society has likely woken up to this. but you still may have not. washing hands more will prevent a vast majority of the spread of viruses.
April 12th, 2020 at 11:59 AM ^
exactly. the number of dudes who leave the bathroom at resturants without even the cursory rinse under the water is disgusting.
I also think there will need to be more federal regulations about the amount of soap available in public restrooms. I hate when when stores and restaurants don't have soap in their dispensers. so nasty.
April 12th, 2020 at 12:09 PM ^
my unscientific observation over time places that near 50%
April 12th, 2020 at 10:22 PM ^
Case in point today at meijer. I walked in to wash my hands and was met by the nauseating smell of death meet sewer gas. As I’m washing a portly fellow finishes sawing what I can only assume was the biggest log of his life and walked right out. Fugging really?! At that point I realized how screwed we are.
What a shitty troll thread. Ugghh
happy Easter
The numbers are pretty stark:
Preliminary statistics from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services record 5,929 deaths in March 2020. On average, the month of March has seen 8,542 deaths between 2015 and 2019.