[conspire] Because people suck (or: Now Is the Winter of Our Discount Tent)

[Rick Moen]

Because people suck, lots more innocents are soon going to avoidably die
horribly, many people avoidably bankrupted by avoidable medical costs,
and many others avoidably have their health ruined for the rest of their
lives.  Avoidably, avoidably, avoidably.

Here's an excerpt from a forlorn plea from my county public health
officer, Dr. Scott Morrow:

  Right now, enough people are acting like they are individuals,
  carelessly, thoughtlessly, and I would add quite selfishly, whether by
  intent or not, resulting in a surge in new cases.  Because of these
  actions, everyone's lives are disrupted, schools will not function
  properly, and your favorite businesses will close, likely forever. 

  The holidays are going to be a super critical time. Unless you happen
  to live under a rock, you are bombarded constantly with messages on
  the actions you need to take.  I know many of you would like me, or the
  government, or some external entity to provide some magical remedy to
  make it all better.  It doesn't work that way. 

Here's a thing to note about what Dr. Morrow sorrowfully said:  The
'surge' he's talking about is the huge case explosion that has already
hit the USA and California based on infection events that happened weeks
before that.  _But_ that calamity is about to be dwarfed by a larger
one, called people being psychopathically stupid over the holiday
season.

How do we know this?  For one thing, TSA just reported that 2 million
airline passengers passed through their checkpoints, last Friday and
Saturday.

Everyone had been told:  No, sorry, in-person Thanksgiving is cancelled,
except enjoying a festive meal at home with your immediate household.
Greet your friends via telephone, Zoom, Jitsi Meet, _anything except_
travel and multi-household gatherings.  So, result is:  Counting _just_
domestic air travel, not "driving to Grandma's the way we do every
year", 2 million Americans, on two days alone, decided the best expert
advice doesn't apply to them.

(Two million deluded psychopathic idiots is, of course, an undercount.)


Because people suck, what comes next is what's already starting to
happen:

  Hospitals Know What’s Coming
  “We are on an absolutely catastrophic path,” said a COVID-19 doctor at
  America’s best-prepared hospital.
  [...]

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/americas-best-prepared-hospital-nearly-overwhelmed/617156/

The most-critical resource on that front is not actually ICU beds but
rather health-care staff.  As of a week ago, 20% of hospitals nationwide
were predicting staff shortage, and Mayo Clinic reported that 900 of
_its_ workers had tested positive in the past two weeks.  And, again,
the real tsunami hasn't even hit, yet.

For pretty much _every_ kind of health care, the question (for the next
couple of months) is not whether the standard of care will decline:  It
will.  The question is whether that health care will exist at all.

If (like me) you have surgery planned for December 2020, you might be
SOL:  Our health system is starting to break from the strain, and the
tsunami hasn't even hit, yet.  We're headed right for the March 2020 
nightmare scenario and worse.  _Unfortunately_, we cannot just step aside 
and rely on the deluded psychopathic idiots killing and ruining the
lives of only themselves;  They are going to take countless others down
with them, because that's the way pandemics work.  


What to do?


I find myself triaging people and situations.  I assume indoor
situations are a bit dangerous, and crowded indoor situations -- like in
stores during the holiday season -- are perilous.  The more crowded and 
the longer periods of proximity, the more perilous.  Individual people
get a similar sort of assessment:  Certain things people say are fairly
reliable indicators that they're deluded psychopathic idiots.  The top
of my list might surprise some readers:  It's when the person says
something like 'Well, we'll have vaccines soon.'  This isn't a
_conclusive_ indicator, but puts me on alert for additional signs.  Why? 
Because, for many, it's shorthand for 'I refuse to think or act in a 
cautious way today, and am instead fixing my sight on the distant
horizon of mid-2021 when this whole spot of bother will magically
disappear.'

Here in November 2020, I assume people like that are probable real
menaces to me and everyone around me.  In a pandemic-affected world, I
wish people who are _that_ oblivious to be happy, but far, far from me
and my household.


Thanksgiving dinner will be produced by Chef Rick, and consist of
homemade Shepherd's Pie (which has always been among my favourite pub
food, but I've never made it before), a cranberry sauce, and fresh-baked
sourdough French bread.  By ourselves.  If it's a dry evening, a
couple of our friends from a nearby house might join us for an outdoor
dinner and socialising around the outdoor wood-fired heater.

And apparently we need to all spend the next few months _not_ spending
time indoors with people from outside our households, and be very wary
of sharing air with deluded psychopathic idiots who do.


Around the virus's first peak here in San Mateo County, I somewhat
jokingly responded to a woman complaining that people passing her on
trails weren't maintaining adequate social distancing.  (The risk from a
passing outdoor encounter was then widely overestimated and not well
understood, but she nonetheless had a point.)  I said it's time to start
carrying an approximately 4'-long, stout walking staff -- because you
could where necessary wield it thrust outwards on-end like Little John, 
to indicate necessary clearance to passing idiots.  I'm not sure I
won't start taking my suggestion seriously.  I've already, months ago,
waiting in a checkout line ahead of an idiot who kept crowding behind
me, stepped ahead of my shopping cart and used it to force the idiot to
keep his distance.


And as to people behaving _more_ dangerously, like the maniacs who think
the right to be in stores without face coverings is a First Amendment
right?  I can only suggest:  Walk briskly away, holding your breath
until you're at a significant distance.  (I haven't seen one of these in
the Bay Area since February.)


To sum:

I see people starting to slack off, because y'all are suffering
'pandemic fatigue'.  Wrong.  Time to get super-serious about this
thread, as if you hadn't until now.  And, don't forget:  The deluded
psychopathic idiots will _not_, and we live among them and breathe their
exhalations.

This is the time to take precautions to not get ill and not risk making
other people ill.  For one thing, the medical care normally helping
people in need may no longer be available.