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Time for Some Real Pandemic Talk
5 years ago
General
In eternity, where there is no time, nothing can grow. Nothing can become. Nothing changes. So death created time to grow the things that it would kill and you are reborn but into the same life that you've always been born into.
I've mostly been making jokes about "the plague" and the "end times", but with how crazy everything is getting with armed protests and such, I really need to get real with all of you about how serious this virus really is. I know it's been said several times, but the last time we had anything like this, anything that got THIS bad was the Spanish Flu which...there are some old people here in this community, but I'm not sure any of them are THAT old. And that particular pandemic was very different because people didn't travel as far or as frequently as we can now. It's pretty bad here with the outbreaks, but it's been MUCH worse in Italy and that's what a lot of people want to avoid.
Getting more personal on the issue, and to try and help give others and idea of how serious this is, I need to tell you about one of my friends. She is in her 30's, not very old at all, but she has a compromised immune system. She caught the virus and had to go to the hospital. While she was there, her breathing got worse and being put on oxygen wasn't helping enough, so they sedated her and put her on a ventilator. She was in the hospital for two weeks and when she was released, she had been put on oxygen. They don't know when or if she'll be able to come off of oxygen, as doctors don't know what the long term and permanent damage caused by COVID-19 is yet. Again, she is in her 30's. All kinds of health conditions compromise your immune system, some worse than others.
That's why people are making such a big deal about social distancing, closing places down, and all of that. My friend was lucky, she was able to 1) Get tested for it, and 2) was able to get the medical care she needed when she was hospitalized. Not everyone who needs it is able to be put on a ventilator or even get tested for it, even now.
I'm pinching pennies, I don't know when I'm going to be able to work again, and I don't know when this shit is going to stop. I'm also not worried about catching the virus myself, as I'm pretty healthy and I don't have any immunity problems. But I'm not the only person in the world and I also have close family members who are at risk of complications from this thing. It is incredibly distressing to see elected officials going on national T.V. and saying that the elderly and immunocompromised should be willing to die "for the economy". I'm also really tired of hearing about how "the cure can't be worse than the disease". If our government had taken precautions when everyone first became aware of this fucking thing, we would have the ability to test people as needed, and we wouldn't be in such a bad situation like we're in now.
This fucking sucks. It does. It really fucking does. I need to save up money, I need to earn more money. I need to move elsewhere and get a better job and get my life going in a better direction. But I am not going to be responsible for getting people fatally ill to do that.
Getting more personal on the issue, and to try and help give others and idea of how serious this is, I need to tell you about one of my friends. She is in her 30's, not very old at all, but she has a compromised immune system. She caught the virus and had to go to the hospital. While she was there, her breathing got worse and being put on oxygen wasn't helping enough, so they sedated her and put her on a ventilator. She was in the hospital for two weeks and when she was released, she had been put on oxygen. They don't know when or if she'll be able to come off of oxygen, as doctors don't know what the long term and permanent damage caused by COVID-19 is yet. Again, she is in her 30's. All kinds of health conditions compromise your immune system, some worse than others.
That's why people are making such a big deal about social distancing, closing places down, and all of that. My friend was lucky, she was able to 1) Get tested for it, and 2) was able to get the medical care she needed when she was hospitalized. Not everyone who needs it is able to be put on a ventilator or even get tested for it, even now.
I'm pinching pennies, I don't know when I'm going to be able to work again, and I don't know when this shit is going to stop. I'm also not worried about catching the virus myself, as I'm pretty healthy and I don't have any immunity problems. But I'm not the only person in the world and I also have close family members who are at risk of complications from this thing. It is incredibly distressing to see elected officials going on national T.V. and saying that the elderly and immunocompromised should be willing to die "for the economy". I'm also really tired of hearing about how "the cure can't be worse than the disease". If our government had taken precautions when everyone first became aware of this fucking thing, we would have the ability to test people as needed, and we wouldn't be in such a bad situation like we're in now.
This fucking sucks. It does. It really fucking does. I need to save up money, I need to earn more money. I need to move elsewhere and get a better job and get my life going in a better direction. But I am not going to be responsible for getting people fatally ill to do that.
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