Good morning. Interesting information this morning suggesting that one reason Taiwan was so far ahead of the Covid Crisis was that the deputy director of its CDC found information on the Taiwanese version of Reddit in late December. Some of that information came from doctors within Wuhan, information that was quickly repressed by the Chinese Communist party. Fascinating that even the people in charge need to turn to alternate media to source information these days. Let's continue the conversation.
Comments
I've been taking OTC Vicks-44 and in feeling much better. I'm thinking many are infected but show no symptoms.
My symptoms have lessened. I'm no longer coughing non-stop like I was when I recorded an IGTV/YouTube video a week ago, the coughing is less frequent but harder (as in I can feel my entire lungs rumbling inside & when I cough u literally see "stars" like white spots in my eyes). The back of nose no longer feels stingy/irritated. I've been taking turmeric pills & fizzy vitamin C tablets, etc.
Also, in more good news:
I'm impressed by the foodie community(chefs, etc). Under normal circumstances they can be a bit insufferable (with their pretentious food critic words choices, the elitism) but they've proven to be quite relatable & helpful when times are hard for most people. I won't forget it & I'll put up with their snootiness when this is over because people show their true colours during times like this & they've revealed themselves to be not out-of-touch & decent people at their core. Their industry has been hit pretty hard by this too.
Have a good weekend, everyone!! 💜💜🍹
They have at least been featuring Dr Rupy Aujla on the Red Button Service (that’s under threat but this proves its value) as `Cooking in the Doctor’s Kitchen’.
He’s a great advocate of brightly-coloured spices & vegetables, as well as fermented food. Unfortunately, I can’t follow his recipes exactly as I daren’t touch chilli.
None of the pretentious nonsense, just excellent advice about supporting the immune system.
Vitamin C looks promising, go for it Scandi!
Meanwhile, I’ve been digging out anthologies of Irish & wartime recipes (as Grandma Buggins said of Woolton Pie, `Another disguise for parsnips…’) looking for ideas involving oats and potatoes for when I have to eke out the flour. (My bulk order for more oats is stuck at the delivery depot -it would have arrived on Thursday under normal circumstances but it's there until at least Tuesday, what with the long weekend.
It's time to dig out the old wartime response to `How are you?'-
`Can't complain' (ie anything I have to moan about is so trivial in the scheme of things, we can forget it)
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/union-boss-suspended-saying-throw-151300114.html
TL/DR, a woman who dropped off groceries at her doorstep tested positive for COVID-19. She wore gloves when she got the mail; she didn't wear gloves when she brought in packages off the step.
Wear gloves, open packages outside, leave empty packaging outside in a trash bag, and wipe things down with a disinfectant before bringing inside.
Man was on a ventilator for two weeks, 72 years old, and came out of the hospital alive. The hospital gave him hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin.
Don't look to the BBC (or the media in general).
The BBC & luvvies have been some the worst-behaved members of society during the pandemic (after actual criminals, like people who rob groceries from the elderly).
I'm talking about individual cooks/personalities on social media.
Sometimes it's annoying AF to see people fuss over something so basic & essential to everyday human life.
But then you see how these very people *graciously* adapt to COVID-19 food situations (food shortages, stockpiling, etc), turn out to be relatable.
And not in that *disingenuous* faux-humility actorly "I'm-just-like-you-but-not-really" way.
And I'm pleasantly surprised by it:
- Martha Stewart (who you can argue caters to the more sensible among Goop's income bracket) has a reposted a 2019 cheat sheet on substitute ingredients on her Instagram: https://www.marthastewart.com/1538734/baking-ingredients-substitutions
- Nigella is graceful, self-aware, and sometimes apologetic about the recipes she posts these days. Sometimes comments on the ingredients shortage/stockpiling situation.
- Angry chef types we usually see yelling profanities at adults on TV are posting 10-minute cooking tutorials on IG/YouTube so people (who don't cook for a living) aren't stuck for 4 hours preparing one meal and can get on with their work-from-home jobs & homeschooling.
I used to think it was a pretentious cliché when these snooty chef types say they like working as chefs because it's all about "nurturing" people (BARF spare me the cheese! 🧀). But my cold little Grinchy heart may have grown a little bigger for the food community over the Coronavirus lockdowns... 💚
The thing is, food is such a necessity. People simply die without it, we need it to sustain every day, and it eventually turns into poo in the end.
Most people eat what they can afford (reasonable people who live within their means, that is). So I don't believe in being snobby about food. Or wasting food.
Preparing food is a basic, necessary life skill most people have to learn in order to survive. Only very privileged people don't know how to do it. It's as basic as knowing how to tie your own shoes.
Under normal circumstances, these chef/food critic types can be quite insufferable.
[But in a different way than the "luvvie" brand of self-importance. Actors were never "essential workers" during non-pandemic times & I imagine these lockdown days drive their narcissistic selves crazy. The ones who get virtue-signal & preach "Wokeness" are court jesters living in a delusion that they are qualified to be Kings/Queens. They had one job: TO ENTERTAIN US during these difficult times, but they failed & irritated/infuriated us instead.]
This pandemic is truly revealing who people really are at their core. Sometimes it's humbling because I learn that people I was kind of "meh" about aren't as bad as I thought... 🤷🏻♀️🐈
With all the things that infuriate me & drain my energy during the pandemic, at least it feels good to stop disliking *one* group in society.
Also people going out to make sure stray animals & homeless people don't starve to death.
I'll put up with their pretentious "foodie banter" when this is all over because I will never forget how they were decent human beings when things were hard on ALL of us in 2020.
Likewise, I also will never forget which Slebs annoyed the hell out of me.
(I don't "cancel" people because "cancel culture" is just silly, but EFF ME if I'll ever have to endure any of the Slebs in that awful "Imagine" sing-along video for 90 minutes at the cinema/theatre!! God help me, life is short & too precious to spend giving them the time of day! Nope.)
Take care, everyone. Wear those masks, wash your hands, and get some sun!~ ☀️💜💜🍹
If you ever see a message for "Scandinavian", that would be you (grin).
About gloves, this nurse explains how wearing gloves doesn't help if we don't wash our hands: https://youtu.be/dXU6VjjLFsw
We've been opening groceries on the porch too! 📦
And use hand sanitiser as soon as we get in.
The Indonesian equivalent to Amazon's app notification used to just alert us when our packages have arrived. Now it says, "your package has arrived, please wash your purchases/hands, and don't forget to confirm arrival of the package & leave a review."
Yet when s*** gets real she does something useful while the "Woke" celebrities act like nuisances. 🤣
SHE'S GLORIOUS. It's almost like a GIANT global-scale "Justin Trudeau revelation", this pandemic.
🌋 I didn't hear Anak Krakatau erupt last night.
That's only the second volcano eruption during the pandemic (Mount Merapi erupted in late March). It's terrible because people will need masks. Back in March washable/fabric masks were still uncommon (just the disposable surgical ones) and the Merapi people were struggling to find masks. Hopefully more masks will be available this time around.
Evacuation's going to be a nightmare with displaced people cramped up in camps.
Actually 4-6 volcanoes are erupting simultaneously in Indonesia right now:
- Merapi
- Krakatoa
- Kerinci
- Semeru
Don't know what's up with that.
Good morning one and all.
I would love to one day see a YouTube of an Indonesian chef and imagine that it’s you and see what you’re cooking. If you’re ever of a mind, would you describe some appetizers, main dishes, and desserts you enjoy preparing? I would love to imagine them and taste them in my mind. It sounds so delightful.
I'm so glad you are feeling better!!🙏
She said:
“I am reporting my (so far absent) symptoms daily (it takes less than 1 minute) to the Kings college Covid-19 research project which gives interesting and balanced information on how Covid is progressing across the country with informative maps. Interestingly they are finding that anosmia, or the loss of the sense of smell , is the most significant of the symptoms suggestive of Covid-19! They cannot currently can’t give information specifically about people who are 70 + because not enough of us are participating, so they don’t yet have a big enough sample to have statistically significant results. If you feel able and willing to do so, and help and encourage your older friends to take part it would be very good! And the findings might cheer us up more than the daily death rate allegedly associated to Covid-19. Here is the link, it is really easy to use.
https://covid.joinzoe.com/
It contains an interesting Webinar ( my newest word) which explains the basis of what they are doing, and all their data goes daily to the NHS wonks, so here is another very positive way to help the NHS as well as clapping!"
Sadly, I can’t contribute because I’m web-based but I’d urge UK Nutties who can to sign up.
The research shows so far that the lock-down is working.
The NIH wants 10,000 volunteers, people who have not previously tested positive for the Chinese Plague or who currently have symptoms to collect a blood sample at home (finger stick?) to send it to be checked for antibodies so they can see how widespread the antibodies are, looking for asymptomatic spread.
I bet that lots of people that have previously had symptoms but couldn't get tested because of no fever, no tests available unless you were extremely sick, we've reached our limits on tests today, etc. are going to volunteer for that test! "Hey, Donald, we can go ahead and open up the country, all 10,000 of the people that sent in blood samples have antibodies so I guess everybody is immune now...."
They are just so pointless when we're just relieved to get fresh veg in our online orders.
I get really p-ed off when a restaurant menu offers something with a tasty-sounding sauce which turns out to have been dotted around the plate for effect but, short of picking up the plate and licking it, there's no way to consume the jus, dressing, pesto or whatever.
Or pretentious characters who proclaim that `Of course, vegetables are so old school' - yes, some pretentious twit did say that to me when I told him how much I'd enjoyed a meal at the local pub because they hadn't stinted on fresh veg.
Now we need to eat as many and as much of the coloured veg as we can.
We had a salad of home-grown Italian chicory leaves with a little feta cheese this lunchtime, plus a sweetened balsamic vinegar dressing. more satisfying than I dared to imagine. Bitter leaves stimulate the jolly old immune system - much needed now.
The CDC has warned that the only way the US can return to normal life is through aggressive contact tracing - but it will need an 'army of healthcare workers' to be able to do this.
CDC Director Robert Redfield said the health agency is working on a plan for the nation to come out the other side of the pandemic and scale back social distancing measures once the outbreak has been brought under control.
This plan involves 'very aggressive' contact tracing, finding people who have tested positive for coronavirus and tracking down everyone they have come into contact with and possibly infected until an entire chain of transmission is traced and eliminated.
It will also require the nation to ramp up testing for the virus, Redfield said.
If this is true, I hope they start with the thousands of spring-breakers who at this very moment are probably continuing to spread the virus all over the country.
**Four-year-old boy with rare form of cancer survives coronavirus**
https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/10/four-year-old-boy-rare-form-cancer-survives-coronavirus-12539405/
...and this English boy's name is - ARCHIE!!!!
AND
Nutley Woman, 106, Recovering From Coronavirus: Report
https://patch.com/new-jersey/belleville/nutley-woman-106-recovering-coronavirus-report
...this New Jersey woman turns 107 today and not only survived coronavirus but also lived through the Spanish Flu pandemic!
😍😍😍
Has there been any talk at your hospital about re-infection possibilities and immunity? That hasn't been clear at all - whether folks are immune once they have had the virus or not. They've talked as if there is an immunity but I'm not sure if they really know.
Hope you continue to be safe whatever you decide to do.
The reports from Sweden are interesting...
1. How densely populated is Sweden? (COVID-19 is more lethal in crowded conditions where it spreads rapidly.)
2. How affluent are Swedish people? (The more stressed and malnourished you are, especially if it is generational, the more compromised your immune system will be, and your immune system is your only defence against the virus.)
3. How healthy are Swedish people? (For example, in these photos I am not seeing the obesity that afflicts many Western countries, and, indeed, my own.)
4. Was there a lockdown for more vulnerable in Sweden, because I am not seeing old people in these photos, nor those who are likely to have compromised immune systems. (Everyone in these photos looks young to middle-aged and very healthy.)
5. What is the long-term effect of a lockdown for the old and frail? Will it make them more marginalised and vulnerable in a future society?
6. Sweden has had some deaths. How much collateral damage are we prepared to accept for the sake of the greater good? What if your beloved child was one of the unlucky ones that was part of the collateral damage?
My understanding is that countries like the USA (in Europe many countries are way beyond this point) are similar to mine (South Africa) in that what we need is far more resources and a co-ordinated and swift plan to test as many as possible as accurately as possible, quarantine those who are not able to safely and effectively self isolate, follow up contacts as quickly and effectively as possible, and increase safety in public spaces in as may innovative ways as possible (limit number of people in public spaces, use social distancing, use PPE, work at home if you can, increase production of PE ...).
My understanding is that the USA (which is more a continetn thatn a country) is a federation of states that each have a lot of autonomy, which I am sure is hampering the co-ordinated, swift and huge plan that needs to be put into action. For my country, South Africa, we have the centralisation (and, indeed, a public health system), but we do not move swiftly because for everything that involves money we need BBBEEE codes (to exclude whites from any benefits), tenders (so that connected people can get inflated contracts), and then projects take ten times as long and cost hundredfold more because of all the corruption and inefficiencies built in to such a system.
Anyway, I thought the Swedish case is an interesting one ...
The death toll rose to 25 on Saturday, as the number of South Africans who tested positive for Covid-19 now stands at 2 028, with 75 053 having been tested to date.
Am I correct that it means that 2.7% of the people being tested are positive?
About 8% of the population has been tested. Death rate is 1.2%.
It is interesting ... maybe the BCG vaccine has given South Africans more protection, maybe the initial swift and thorough tracking of contacts and the relatively quick and comprehensive lockdown has helped ...
I have heard of an antibody (I think) test being piloted in NY to see if people are immune and can return to work. I don't think we have that yet here. Thank you for your well wishes :)
Hm. I've only started learning how to cook a month ago. But my favourite things to make are condiments 😂😂 I like "acar", Indonesian pickles (it's normally cucumber & carrot but lockdown shortages had me replacing the cucumber with caned pineapple. I put a lot of chilli in it & let it sit overnight & then put it in the chopper). It's the best.
Put it on Salisbury steak (a recipe I got off a Nintendo game called "Cooking Mama" 🤣). And then put the leftovers in pasta I boiled in salt.
I don't really know how to bake yet. So the only make puddings. Mango pudding, caffeine jello shots. Lolololol. That's all I know. But I just like to prettify them & make them look fancy but really they're just basic pudding.
My fave Indonesian food is soto & a street food called Mie ayam. But I've never made soto properly (I've only made a soto-inspired soup one time & I didnt stir enough so it smelled burned although it tasted fine).
I made mie ayam the other day and it took me 4 hours trying to make it like the real thing without MSG 😭😭 good thing I made enough to last us days... I mean if you're going to spend 4 hours on a real you better make it worth your time by making enough to store in the fridge!
Take care & stay healthy! 🍹💜💜
I think some/many of us here have had symptoms. Nutty had a flu in the beginning too right?
Where's Hikari?
That salad you described sounds delicious.🥗
I had a ton of celery (1kg) left from making stock. Been craving that stuff for years now. Went to order some Italian dressing & Caesar salad dressing for the dip but the latter was out. Sobsssss 😭😭
Saw a separate store sell blue cheese dressing but can't justify the shipping cost if that's all I'm going to buy from that shop.
Buying groceries online sucks. I miss the days when I'd take a nice leisurely 30-minute walk to get milk. 🥛🌸🍃
Part 1
The Costly Toll of Not Shutting Down Spring Break Earlier
People got sick — and some died — after attending crowded parties and theme parks in Florida as the coronavirus spread.
MIAMI — You could find Beatriz Diaz at this spring’s Winter Party Festival in Miami Beach, giving out hand sanitizer.
It was early March. She knew the coronavirus was beginning to make its way around the world, but she figured if she kept her hands clean and avoided sweaty people, she would be safe.
“I was thinking, ‘OK, well, hold on, the government did not cancel it, so it should be fine,’” she said.
Within days, reports started popping up on Facebook about a D.J. and several partygoers who were suddenly terribly ill. By the end of the month, two people who attended the festival had died.
As of last week, 38 people had reported that they were symptomatic or had tested positive for the coronavirus in the weeks following the event, according to the organizer, the National L.G.B.T.Q. Task Force. Ms. Diaz was among them.
Weeks before Florida ordered people to stay at home, the coronavirus was well into its insidious spread in the state, infecting residents and visitors who days earlier had danced at beach parties and reveled in theme parks. Only now, as people have gotten sick and recovered from — or succumbed to — Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has the costly toll of keeping Florida open during the spring break season started to become apparent.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has blamed travelers from New York, Europe and other places for seeding the virus in the state. But the reverse was also true: People got sick in Florida and took the infection back home.
The exact number of people who returned from leisure trips to Florida with the coronavirus may never be known. Cases as far away as California and Massachusetts have been linked to the Winter Party Festival, a beachside dance party and fund-raiser for the L.G.B.T.Q. community held March 4-10. Another California man died after going to Orlando for a conference and then to a packed Disney World. Two people went to Disney and later got relatives sick in Florida and Georgia.
Slow action by Florida’s governor left local leaders scrambling to make their own closure decisions during one of the busiest and most profitable times of the year for a state with an $86 billion tourism economy. The result was that rules were often in conflict, with one city canceling a major event while a neighboring city allowed another event to continue.
The governor, who did not order people to stay home until April 1, has said the state supported local governments that ordered event cancellations and beach closures, but that it was not his role to step in first.
“Let’s have tailored approaches, surgical approaches, that are going to work best for those regions,” Mr. DeSantis said at a news conference on March 24. “These blunt measures — you wouldn’t want to do them on a community where the virus hasn’t spread.”
With little testing available, local officials made decisions blindly. Data that suggested looming trouble, such as rising fever readings from internet-connected thermometers, were ignored, a spokeswoman for Kinsa Health, the company that produces the thermometers, has said.
Only later did the effects become apparent.
Florida has confirmed more than 17,500 coronavirus cases and nearly 400 deaths, with the epidemic still expanding in the state.
A video by the data analytics and visualization company Tectonix showed how cellphones that were on one Fort Lauderdale beach at the beginning of March spread across the country — up the Eastern Seaboard and further West — over the next two weeks.
“At the time, there was still this debate: Should we close public beaches? Should we shut down these big public events?” said Mike DiMarco, the company’s chief marketing officer. “When you actually see it visually on a map like that, it brings a ton of awareness to what that really looks like.”
The first festivalgoer to die was Israel Carrera, a 40-year-old Lyft and Uber driver who spent several days in the hospital in Miami Beach before his death on March 26. His boyfriend, who also attended, got mildly sick and is now making plans to deliver Mr. Carrera’s ashes to his surviving family in Cuba.
Ron Rich, a 65-year-old festival volunteer, died over the weekend of March 28.
The decision to hold the festival five weeks ago came at a different point in the crisis, before a single person had tested positive in Miami-Dade County, said Rea Carey, executive director of the National L.G.B.T.Q. Task Force. The event ended the day before the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic.
“It points to what we didn’t know at the time,” she said. “If we had had the information that is available now, the information that has become available after Winter Party as this pandemic has played out, we would have made a different decision.”
Photos of the festival show hundreds of people crammed in front of a stage under neon lights, dancing, hugging and practicing little social distancing.
Ms. Diaz, 42, got a fever on March 15. The next day her girlfriend was also sick. By the time Ms. Diaz was confirmed positive for Covid-19, she had been grocery shopping, gone to the pharmacy and spent time with her employer’s 80-year-old father and 14-year-old daughter.
“I understand that was my choice to be there — I take full responsibility for that,” Ms. Diaz, who lives in Wilton Manors, Fla., said of the Winter Party Festival, which drew about 5,500 people and has been a fixture in the L.G.B.T.Q. community for more than 25 years.
“I am really upset for the way it was handled,” she said.
Loc Nguyen, a software developer, felt exhausted from the time he returned home to Los Angeles from the festival on March 9. He went to work the next day but had to call in sick after that, feeling shortness of breath and such terrible shivers that he wrapped himself in three winter jackets to go to the doctor.
“You’re coughing and gasping for air,” Mr. Nguyen said. “You are scared. You can’t breathe.”
His friend who went to the festival with him also tested positive. A third friend got sick but was unable to get a test.
Mr. Nguyen knew the risk of attending, but said he did not want to lose the money he had spent on tickets. He did not blame organizers for holding the festival, and pointed to mixed messages from local officials.
“If one city closes and one city is open, it’s not consistent,” he said. “And therefore you can’t stop this pandemic.”
On March 6, the city of Miami, which is separate from Miami Beach, canceled the Ultra Music Festival, a marquee electronic dance music event that draws tens thousands of people. Other local leaders criticized the action as too drastic: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not yet recommending mass closures. Florida announced its first confirmed coronavirus case on March 1, but it was in the Tampa area.
“We should live our lives normally,” with public-health safeguards in place, Mayor Carlos Gimenez of Miami-Dade County said on March 5.
By March 12, he had reversed course and canceled the Miami Open tennis tournament and the county youth fair. The fairgrounds now house a field hospital.
“We did what we thought — and I’m sure all cities did what they thought — was the right thing to do at the right time,” Mr. Gimenez said last week. “It’s called novel coronavirus for a reason. We don’t really know how it acts.”
Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, one of the first elected officials in the country to test positive for the coronavirus, said other jurisdictions’ decisions to keep events going proved costly.
“That ended up as a national embarrassment, when you saw what happened with the spring breakers and what happened unfortunately, tragically, with the music festival,” he said, referring to the Winter Party.
Further north, near Orlando, people streamed into the six Disney World theme parks before they closed on March 15. Courtney Sheard recalled that the weather was beautiful and that a new ride at Hollywood Studios, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, was especially crowded.
After she got back home to Naples, Fla., on March 12, she awoke with a terrible headache and a sore throat. Her 3-year-old daughter, Journey, ran a fever and vomited.
By the time she received a positive test result, Ms. Sheard, 30, had been around her sister, her sister’s children, a friend, her parents, beachgoers and diners at a Bonefish Grill.
When Ms. Sheard learned that Jeffrey Ghazarian, 34, had died on March 19 in California after visiting the theme park, she figured that the coronavirus had been circulating in Disney while he, and then she, were there.
“Think of all the people from around the world, from around the country, that were in Disney and then went home,” she said.
Officials at Walt Disney World did not respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Jerry L. Demings of Orange County, home to Orlando, said local officials had insufficient guidance to act consistently to slow the spread.
“We were left to our own devices to come up with strategies ourselves because of the lack of direction from the federal government and governor’s office,” he said.
Nicholas Hickman, 20, spent five days at Disney with friends who were on spring break in early March. He became ill upon arriving home.
Back home, Mr. Hickman came down with a fever, chills and chest pains, but struggled to get tested because no one else in his county had received a coronavirus diagnosis.
Mr. Hickman has since recovered, but only after getting his mother, and likely his father, sick. He does not blame Disney for his infection.
“If we would have been told not to go to Disney and just avoid going, we would not have gone,” he said. “There’s no way we would have gone.”
@Unknown, I too have an immune disorder that flits between lupus symptoms, Sjogren’s, and the horrible body pain of fibromyalgia. I run a low grade fever pretty much every night and have for years. I feel ya.
So I have a question. I have owned and fostered many cats, cats carry feline Coronavirus and my current kitty Moo lost her eye to this disease. I have also been a horse person all my life, horses get equine Coronavirus. I wonder if that makes us immune, being exposed to a different strain of it? It would be an interesting study.
My work today was crazy busy. Tons of people in, but most very aware of distancing.
I am half convinced, though, that hubby and I had it end of February. Hubby went to visit his son in Mississippi, who had weird high fevers with flu, strep, etc negative. Hubby brought it home and we had it.
I guess I am just trying to convince myself it’s a possibility that I have had it lol. But what do we really know? Nothing.
Thanks! I wonder about Hikari, too. Although I must admit I'm not as interested in the Harkles much any more. Other than I find them crazy to keep trying to stay relevant with their attention seeking nonsense during the worst global crisis in a hundred years.
You stay safe as well my friend.
As for street reporting, SO and I drove to the beach today and it looked like Central Park with all the walkers, joggers, cyclists, etc. Gonna wait to see our numbers jump up. At this rate we will be joining the other hotspots. Big ole sigh.
Sigh
You have poked at NJ/NY constantly over the last few weeks and appear to have resentment towards me due to my state of residence! I notice you make snide comments about NJ/NY folks living in Florida and I can't help but feel there is some resentment towards a certain demo. Would it help if I assure you that I am not and will never be a snowbird, and that I am British and Catholic?
I had no problem with YOU, and have always enjoyed your posts - until recently. I do have a big problem with some of the circumstances that happened in Florida that have affected all of the rest of us! And I am NOT the only one by far. As I have stated before, the whole country has complained about Florida. And there are a lot of articles on problems with Florida and this pandemic.
I agree it was wrong for people from NJ/NY or from anywhere for that matter to travel to other areas and possibly spread the virus. I don't know why you can't admit that circumstances in your state caused potential harm for the rest of us.
Sorry to disappoint you, but you are WRONG about NY and NJ politicians and our hospitals.
First of all, it is to be expected that an outbreak would start in a city like New York.
Although I don't think NYC's MAYOR has done the greatest job handling this pandemic and has made mistakes, I do believe Governor Cuomo has been a great leader during this crisis and as the national face of the pandemic. And apparently many people agree as there are MANY calls for him to run for president.
As far as New Jersey goes, I can't find any fault whatsoever with our governor Phil Murphy. He has been absolutely terrific - taking charge and inspiring confidence, making all the calls when needed, keeping everyone together and invested. I think he is a genuinely good person and I really respect how he has handled this crisis.
Regarding our hospitals, I don't know what you expected in NY with the huge numbers of sick. Who would ever think we would need so many ventilators? As far as New Jersey goes, they have been absolutely well organized and have established new spaces including utilizing hotels when necessary. I believe the fault for the lack of enough PPE lies elsewhere.
The only problem I have seen here is the late call for the general population to wear masks - AND that was not the fault of the states (and my family and I were already wearing them well before). Once they said we should wear masks (which was called earlier than most everywhere else) they pushed for it AND the governor and his team set a good example by also wearing them at all briefings. Actually, all of our store employees are required to wear masks and gloves as well as the customers!
One of the biggest signs that NY and NJ governors are doing a great job in this pandemic is the fact they are democrats and yet are getting along with President Trump.
It really doesn't matter to me what political party a government leader is a part of - only that he does a good job. IMO too many people are stuck in partisan frames of mind and I'm afraid that can be very destructive during this crisis.
BTW, I watched a couple of your governor's briefings and I find his constant blaming of northern folks for the virus in Florida to be bizarre especially in light of the springbreak fiasco. It smacks of deflection.
Do you like Italian dressing? I have a recipe for a salad dressing called Garlic Expressions. You can buy it here but it’s plenty easy to make
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp. Stevia liquid or to taste
1/2 cup onion, chopped fine
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. Onion salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
Combine
I put all in the food processor to combine all very well. The store boughten Garlic Expressions comes with some large garlic pieces inside.
I don’t know if Stevia (a sugar substitute) is common in your country, if not, omit it. Also the onion salt, you could use regular salt and it would still be good.
One thing I have found, if I continually see a troll when I walk by a bridge, I eventually stop walking by, or reading that particular person’s comments. Please don’t waste your knowledge and skill even acknowledging aforementioned commenter, it is a waste of your precious time.
Hmmmm - what happened to your sheepish attitude of last night when you said "I just wanted to clarify as the comment had been made on here about the virus weeding out the old and sick and I can’t go for that."
What a phony some folks are.
SwampWoman doesn't need your immature attempts to "stick up for her"! How old are we now?
I have the right to express my opinion without getting attacked whether it happens to be about the state in which you currently dwell or not.
And I also have the right to defend myself.
What happened in Florida is a national issue. How does posting my opinion about how the pandemic is being handled make me a troll?
Read your own posts directed at me if you want to see an example of trolling.
SwampWoman said...
Ahhh, Unknown, back to the Florida bashing, I see. Why aren't they covering how absolutely abysmally the politicians of New York and New Jersey have performed, how the filthy public transportation system spread the virus all over, and how woefully unprepared the hospitals were? Because that's the real story.
April 12, 2020 at 5:11 AM
Seems you haven't been reading again....
@Unknown with Fibromyalgia: Thank you, I hope you don’t have Coronavirus. I thought my flu-like symptoms were just an autoimmune flare-up too but then Sjögren’s causes lung damage (I couldn’t even climb the stairs to my room without my ears popping before I started taking turmeric pills). IDK if Fibro affects the lungs but I’d watch out! Take care!
Meowwww: LOL I follow Snoop on Instagram & enjoy how politically-incorrect he is!! 😂😂 he’s hilarious.
I hope all our cats stay safe & healthy. Heard 7 tigers at the Bronx Zoo in New York tested positive. Didn’t even know a “Feline Coronavirus” strain even existed until Unknown @ 5:56AM mentioned it. I hope it hasn’t made its way to Indonesia!
MiamiVice: Thank you for the Italian “Garlic Expressions” recipe!! Garlic makes *everything* better, doesn’t it?
I add tons of garlic in my chilli sauces~ 🔥🔥
I agree the only thing that has my turning my head at celebrities these days is just their incessant thirst, it’s been quite off-putting, hasn’t it?
It’s not just Meghan & Harry who don’t have the decency to respect that we’re in the midst of a pandemic & no time for narcissism.
So I have had this Sleb crush on Laurence Fox & he’s supposed to be on an upcoming Netflix show that’s coming out in May.
He retweets one of his castmates on the show one day & since I’m excited about the show, I add the castmate to my reading list on Twitter in hopes that I would get updates on the show (or maybe a trailer with Lozza-san on it).
The friend turned out to be one of those insufferable luvvies who are super precious about their craft. Taking one’s craft seriously is admirable, but some people just take themselves way too seriously. So during the lockdown he goes on what I can only describe as a “narcissistic self-glorification binge” posting old photos of himself in all manners of luvviedom as if to reminisce the good old glories of the stage, the screen, TEH CRAFT! Before the war...
And I just found it so off-putting. And then as if to make up for it, a dramatic declaration of love to the frontlines that just feels hollow. Sprinkled with the occasional Woke poetry.
Now I live in Indonesia where the only stable-enough-for-streaming is from the partially-state-owned Internet/mobile telecom company (since the government bans Netflix, it’s blocked). Meaning if I ever want to watch Netflix, I’ll either have to use a VPN/get a second internet provider on top of subscribing.
I finally decided after all the insufferable, actorly, narcissistic tweets that it wasn’t worth it. I’m never going to bother getting Netflix. (And GREAT FOR ME because that’s one less expense on my budget!)
It’s not me “cancelling” him, it’s anger at a human-to-human level.
“Cancel culture” is when we make a conscious decision to boycott someone because we disagree with their politics... This is different, this is me not being able to stand him—feeling so resentful/irritated I can’t even look at him (unfollowed the actor on Twitter), let alone pay money to see it. It’s not “entertainment” anymore when I’m that irritated at seeing it.
Netflix isn’t worth the trouble & I can’t stand the thought of even £00.000001 of my money going to him.
No matter how big my crush on Lozza-san was, I CAN’T BEAR the thought of even if pence of my hard-earned cash going to insufferable luvvies (who didn’t even support him with his own Union cancelled him) who can’t bear to not be the centre of attention & indulge in self-importance during times like this.
I’ve been struggling finically for at least 1.5 years (due to limited funding in my field—to the point that I keep forgetting the COVID-19 lockdown is financially-shattering for most people because this has been my reality for nearly 2 years now, it’s just a continuation for me).
My Father sent me to cooking school & cooking is my only “highlight” in my life right now (the only reason I have ingredients is because it’s on the family’s household budget).
It really, really “hurts” me (for lack of better word) to see actors like that, because I tried to be one once, and it feels like a reflection of me, but it’s SO DAMN UGLY.
I thought about it and just started crying this morning. It’s been upsetting. But maybe it’s just PMS.
That was a longass rant about not wanting to get a Netflix account I can't afford lololol
Stay safe & healthy everyone 💜💜🍹
Here are the black masks I've been seeing everywhere in CA.
I agree about the actors. They need to go away unless making a huge donation.
It is spreading now in the homeless shelters and that makes me cry. I volunteer and I love those people. Had to quit in Jan. due to illness and taking care of parents.
And then the virus came.
We are blessed in that we both work from home and in some capacity for the govt which is usually recession proof. I have noticed us really getting on each other's last nerve and just picking at each other which we don't normally do. Tomorrow we will go on hike and have a little picnic in the car. We have such beautiful scenery here so that's nice.
I'm glad you are enjoying your talent with cooking and after this maybe you can supplement your income with it. Catering is huge here and they get the big bucks.
It is 330 am here and I now have this bad habit of waking up around now . guess it's stress or the weather. Or hormones. Big sigh😔
In Turkey the government has taken over feeding stray animals (cats mostly but dogs Too). Hopefully the government's taking over the homeless in your town too. 💜💜
I'd rather actors go away too & I've a mistrust for their motivations for any do-goodery that if/when they make donations, I prefer they keep it private with no PR so the recipients of their donations don't feel used.
(Sorry I took time to respond, Reddit is blocked too by the Indonesian government so I have to switch phones and use VPN 😂😂 just to see the link!)
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/485513-uk-government-covid-lockdown/
In South Africa, the scientists advising government are being more honest ... the true purpose of lockdown is to slow the spread so that government has more time to prepare for the number of people needing hospitalisation and ICU at one time, and for the number of people dying in a short period of time. The projections are that this extended and strict lockdown has delayed the peak to September.
I am feeling very despondent that not only is the threat of COVID-29 here to stay, but there will be a lot more risk when the lockdown ends.
However, the government is continuing with the strategy of testing, quarantining those who test positive (as well as those who have had contact with them), removing people from overcrowded conditions where self isolating is not possible, and just doing everything to try to stop the spread.
We are blessed to have this little space to talk😊 thanks to Nutty.
May everyone on this Earth stay safe, healthy, and happy. May we get peace on Earth soon.
@Scandi Your posts are such a joy to read. I am having a hard time getting out of bed lately but your posts always make me smile and laugh. The last 2 years have been filled with a chronic illness, financial problems, and a stalking/harassment situation. Things are getting to me...
Get well soon lovely girl :) You've found a special place in my heart and I can't let you go. Small world but my favorite cuisine is Indonesian and if I could, I would live off Bakwan Campur forever.
Lockdown IS the only way to stop the spread of the virus (until there is a vaccine or an effective treatment).
However, governments have no plan to deal with the economic consequences of extended lockdown, so the reality is that lockdown is actually being used to delay and slow down the spread to give health systems a chance to cope with the sheer number of people who are going to be very ill and who are going to die.
There are a lot of people beating the drum to the tune of 'save the economy or save lives'.
Thank you for the kind words & i hope you get some bakwan campur soon~💜💜
@Portcitygirl: anyway, i haven't heard much about how the Indonesian government is helping the homeless.
However, the Indonesian ecommerce companies now are directing donations to small street vendors Too (previously was just for medical workers, to make sure they all had hazmat suits/masks/gloves).
I'm glad they're focusing on street vendors now. I was worried about them. Larger food businesses (the ones with an address) have been able to take care of themselves by delivery, but I bet the street vendors have been losing lots of sales. They don't make much profit to begin with.
But street food vendors don't have an address so no delivery service can help them. They're mobile but the way they sell food requires close human contact. It gets complicated & I'm sure some gated communities' security have been forced to limit access.
Not that I think healthcare staff shouldn't get donations for safety gear anymore, I just think street food vendors are vulnerable too. Even if they do have a roof over their heads.
I feel for street vender, too.
Charade
Happy Easter and I'm sending prayers your way🙏
That's what I heard on the quiet from a friend with a relative in a caring profession (UK).
We over-70s are being kept out of circulation to stop us overwhelming the NHS - there's sense in this. Immune systems become less effective with age - we are more likely to be serious ill & need even more care than the younger patients. It also save us from suffering.
That is, it's the same reason that underlies the vaccination against 'flu being given to the over 60s.
If we can ever achieve a situation where there are no case of a viral disease - it's gone for good. The particles can only proliferate in living cells, out of cells, they are non-living. The chances of this happening with covid 19 are remote in the extreme, given it's probable origin in a wild animal usd for food. IMO.
Have I already posted that I've seen a report on Ceefax that the `Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic' (often given the horrible acronym BAME) communities of UK are over-represented among the dead? Apparently they account for one third of the mortality.
The Labour Party immediately started shouting about `health inequalities', when there are likely to be other factors as well.
Brian Dutton
Owner
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When thousands of people are dying, and there seems to be no end to COVID right now, is this ad "compassionate, professional or dignified"? Thoughts?
Thank you so much @Scandi :)
Thank you to @Nutty and all the awesome @Nutties here :)