Noticing that distancing is being observed in a multitude of ways and interpretations. And not always in good ways.
The fact that people self-distance gives me some hope that maybe – just maybe – when the lockdown regulations are relaxed, we might survive a rekindling that’ll sweep us off our feet. It means that in some way, people are aware that lives may very well depend on it.
Then I noticed that people’s interpretation of that distancing is subject to location, location, location. It’s heartening to see that in front of medical facilities, people’s idea of 1.5m suddenly becomes 2m – 3m… Not kidding, in front of the pathology centre, people would rather stand two crosses apart rather than get closer to people who might be infected.
It makes sense, people standing around a medical facility might just be sick, y’know? And while it might not be COVID19, you also just didn’t want someone’s flu or hep C or whatever, so stay a bit farther apart.
And then I noticed that the same people who stood 3m apart outside pathology, eyeing one another with distrust, walked over to Coles and almost rubbed shoulders going into the shopping centre..
(Look, part of the distrust might have been due to the slightly dishevelled and suss looking dude who was wearing not one but TWO GPS ANKLE MONITORS. Seriously? What do you have to do to get two monitors? Anyway – I noticed that a few days later when I did my follow-up pathology, “medical distance” was a little bit closer. And then a week later when I had my last tests, people were back to pretty much ignoring the crosses. So uh – yeah, hubris and complacency people, hubris and complacency…)
The first few weeks, I noticed people were making an effort to distance. There was confusion about it because the government wasn’t terrible clear about the rules it was seemingly making up by pulling random numbers out of a hat, so that was understandable.
Then another week passed, and people knew the numbers involved and many people actually followed the guidelines. Another week later and they were already invulnerable, impermeable, and screw the rules I know what I’m doing and it’s fine to stand right beside you and push into the gap between crosses.
And now we want to ease restrictions…
Every place that has lightened restrictions has had a bad time of it. Many have had to go right back into lockdown, and a few have even had to go into a more restrictive lockdown.
It stands to reason. There are only two ways that a pandemic goes away, it mutates itself out of existence or it dies due to lack of hosts… That latter one, that can be achieved in quite a few ways, and most of those ways are not good for the hosts…
Virus material WILL become unviable if it isn’t transferred to a host somehow. We’ve seen that SARS-COV-2 has a definite half life that depends on the nature of the surface it finds itself on. The half life also depends on the rest of the environment – if there’s a lot of bleach about, the virus has a much shorter half life than if it’s just on a surface. If it encounters temperatures a few degrees under the boiling point of water, that inactivates it. Strong alcohol hastens the half-life “use by” date.
So just leaving things the hell alone for a few weeks means the virus load around us goes down. Don’t want that apple at the supermarket? DON’T PICK IT UP TO EXAMINE IT. And if you do pick it up – buy it. Don’t put it back. And the best way to leave things alone is to stay home. Stands to reason doesn’t it?
What we *started* to do was good. What we’re thinking of doing now, is madness. Putting people out there – putting KIDS back into schools, people into situations where the little they still do social distancing will go out the window – is stupid. Stupid stupid stupid, okay?
Just one thing to think on: A meat processing facility here recently caused an outbreak that’s currently up to 80 cases among the workers and people they associated with. Bear in mind – our restrictions have NOT been eased yet, and are applicable even if you DO work in an essential job like food worker. Sanitise, self-isolate if you feel unwell, maintain a safe distance and hygiene practices. Them’s the rules people.
And yet just two people have caused the state’s largest single outbreak to date, during lockdown, with all the current recommendations seemingly either misapplied or ignored, because idiots still abound.
Oh not just the two workers who (apparently KNOWINGLY) went to work when infected with coronavirus. But the managers at the plant KNEW the two workers were infected and did nothing about it for two days.
They didn’t inform the other workers who the virus vectors were so they could go home and self-isolate if they’d been in contact with either of them, they didn’t tell the original two to go straight home and isolate.
All so they could keep making their economy tick over. And hasn’t that proven to be a winning strategy for them, with the plant now shut down and in the public eye as a sloppy outfit that spread coronavirus and who knows what other unsanitary things they do with their product, let’s just not buy anything processed at Cedar Meats okay?
If they claim they were doing it to keep supply going, that’s bullshit f the highest order, because it would have made more sense to lose a few of the employees for a week or two than have the whole plant shut down and all staff quarantined, plus the cost of now disinfecting and sanitising. And yes, I’ve named them because the TV has already outed them.
So DURING lockdown restrictions, KNOWING they were doing the wrong thing, and MONEY-GRUBBING like crazy – we had our largest outbreak to date. Three people at least showed that they didn’t give a shit about their employees, their fellow workers, and the customers.
Who now have the unique problem of wondering if the meat they already have is clean or is it going to infect their staff who have to handle it to cook it? And yes – everyone involved is SAYING that the product if safe, but they don’t exactly have a good track record for honesty and scruples, do they?
This is going to be repeated x1000% all over Australia once restrictions ease, and x10000% when Stage 3 begins.
All to save “the economy.” Economy isn’t going to matter worth a damn if we get a second wave.