One group of people who did need to get the fuck back to work.
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I know, it’s shocking, SHOCKING, I say, that the White House lied about testing capacity.
Reading between the lines: Oregon Dept. of Health knows they have vastly more testing capacity than the Feds give them credit for, and don’t want to have their tests confiscated. So ixnay on the estingtay, OK?
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So, I’ll provide you with a ground-level view of how things are developing in San Ysidro, CA next to the border, under governor Newsom’s proposed stage two re-opening guidelines.
According to the proposal, certain non-essential businesses like florists, sporting goods stores, clothing stores, etc. could open up to curbside service or delivery if they met the state’s criteria.
I needed to go to my post office box on Thursday, a week into stage 2, to pick up my debit card issued for my unemployment benefits, and hopefully get some shipping materials, art supplies, and perhaps a couple of pairs of shorts for the summer.
The first thing I noticed is that chain clothing stores like Ross and Marshall’s remained closed. In fact, pretty much everything that wasn’t a restaurant, grocer or convenience store remained closed. The only boutique I saw open was a perfume retailer, and there were no customers.
So, no art supplies, no clothes. I managed to buy some shipping boxes from my mailbox rental company, but could find no bubble wrap.
I needed to activate my debit card, and since I don’t carry cellphone service (I never have enough phone conversations to justify a plan), Bank of America was helpful in allowing me to use an office phone. The lobbies of banks are open, but with strict social distancing and, at BoA, a security guard tasked with sanitizing surfaces at the teller point of contact after each and every customer.
The line at BoA stretched halfway around the building, and the ATMs were seeing heavy usage.
It seems that despite the governor’s wish to re-open California, the part of California I frequent does not feel the same.
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I’m guessing Newsom is under a lot of pressure to say “re-opening”, but put in place rules to make it a non-issue.
We’ll see how it goes here: technically we’re “re-opened” too, but not much interested in venturing out to find out how it’s going or who is involved.
At the end of the day, between the number of people like us who are going to continue to take maximal precautions (my parents are both high-risk, and we are doing shopping and chores for them, so we’re trying to be as safe as possible) and the people who are unemployed or frightened about their employment, or just highly wary of economic conditions, I think very few are going to be rushing out to spend money on non-essentials. It’s going to make things worse for us, since businesses will now be filled with aggressive maskless mouthbreathers.
At the end of the day, “Re-opening Fever!” is about one thing, and one thing only. The Republicans have bailed out the rich, now they’re done. Once things have been “re-opened”, when small-businesses go bankrupt and people lose their jobs, it will be their fault, because hey, we “re-opened”.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/new-orleans-begins-easing-coronavirus-restrictions
but officials warned a spike in cases or deaths could lead to putting restrictions back in place.
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So much of this while I was out there. At least 10% of the people in public had no mask, a further 30% were masks intermittently or improperly, with the rest properly masked. In Tijuana, you could bump up the percentages another 10% for incorrect usage of a mask.
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The best mask usage I’ve seen on my infrequent outings have been at the local dispensary; pretty much everyone wears a mask or face covering (correctly), keeps their distance and uses the hand sanitizers that are strategically placed throughout the facility.
Stupid stereotypes be damned; where I’m at, the stoners are responsible a/f.
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Stoners could be wildly irresponsible, and still look good compared to the Trumpies.
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Tl;dr United is the worst
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Something similar here…
…but slightly funnier, because the person who caught them in the violation has the person who gives them permission to fly on speed dial.
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Bless me father for I am parched.
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I wonder if water balloons would work for an entire family? 
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“My child, receive this blessing. Receive it right in your f****n face.”
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Oh, FFS. Swabs that are not individually wrapped are fucking useless for coronavirus testing. Or I should say, the first swab is good-to-go; then you have to toss the rest of the box.
The test amplifies RNA from the virus. If there’s contamination with ribonuclease, the viral RNA gets chopped up into unrecognizable bits. Worse, if someone is performing swabs and just keeps reaching for new ones out of an open box while interacting with people getting tested, odds are pretty good the whole box could be contaminated by viral particles, yielding sporadic false positives.
This just makes my head explode with rage.
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Ohio’s reopened the restaurant patios (crowded, according to news photos), but a lot of small businesses in my area are taking their time to figure out how to open safely, and getting mostly support on social media. The confectioner on our block is open only for carryout one day a week, and is getting slammed with questions about when the store will be open. (Not for while).
I can’t see being comfortable around strangers anytime soon.
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Of the couple of dispensaries I use, I went with the one that had less selection but has had for a while now clear directions on their website about parking lot pickup; I figured they had their shit together to be as contactless as possible (considering that they only take cash). My plan was to put the envelope of cash in the very back and pop the hatchback so I wouldn’t even need to come face to face. I pull up to the designated parking spaces… where a security guard is sitting right there at the front of the spaces, so it’s impossible to get out without being 3 feet away and he’s got his damn mask pulled down on his chin. SMH.
I’ve done some sort of curbside pickup I think 3 times now and none of them have thought things through enough and I always leave feeling like it was unnecessarily risky and disappointed in humanity.
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Bummer, dude: my local dispensary also takes plastic.
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Well, this is not particularly encouraging.
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Also potentially infecting people coming in to get tested.
Not that they’d know, since the test would be borked in any case.
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