Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: LennG on January 12, 2022, 07:34:19 PM
I have thought that Gold would be a better option as money will never increase in value, but from what I have been hearing, if such a catastrophe occurred, and gold is the money, who do you sell it to, and what do you do with it?

Exactly. While I get the point about holding gold as a physical asset versus actual cash, I'm not talking about an amount of money that is substantial enough that I'm especially concerned about it from an investment/future value point of view. It's more for peace of mind that if I could not access my accounts for some period of time, I would have enough cash on hand to not have to worry about basic needs for myself and my family for a period of time. I thought that's all you meant. I'm not really envisioning a scenario where physical US Dollars would be worthless.

Quote from: MightyGiants on January 12, 2022, 06:56:31 PM
Certainly, excessive worry is never a good thing.  However, if you were to ask, "why avoid it"?   I would say two things:

1)  To the unvaccinated Omicron is not nearly as mild

2)  We can't afford to have everyone sick at once, we need to spread things out or everything could come to a crashing halt as we run out of critical workers and healthcare workers and resources

Solid points.

I do think it's safe to say though that it does not deserve the level of fear (at least not among the vaccinated) that we have had of other strains. And while I agree with your points, they're not enough to convince me that this strain is a reason to say never go to a restaurant, a sporting event, or on a trip somewhere. I'm not currently at that extreme of a level of worry/caution, personally. Moreover the government clearly is not recommending such a level.

I do, yes. I certainly don't keep a major amount outside of our accounts, but having some physical cash that is readily accessible has always seemed like a good idea to me.

If everyone is going to get it then why worry excessively about it?

Quote from: MightyGiants on January 09, 2022, 02:32:06 PM
One thing I have noticed is that kids do more communication via text and social media than they do face to face.   Still, beyond that, it seems to me, that much of what you cite is more speculative or intuitive rather than factual.    I do keep an open mind though, so if you have a peer review studied (or a pre-review that sounds like it's quality) I would be willing to listen in terms of the detriment of masks for kids.    I will qualify that any study will be scrutinized because we both know that people have made the masks in school a political issue and when it comes to politics misinformation is way too common.

That's true that masks in school (and masks in general for that matter) have been highly politicized. To be perfectly frank, I'm not even saying they definitely should be eliminated in schools. I'm merely disputing the notion that there is zero cost (or a very negligible one) associated with students having to have them on all the time. It may well still be the right thing to do given all considerations. Having said that, at the very least, I feel policy makers should be very dynamic around this issue and consider cost/benefits analysis at every turn. Just having an indefinite, blanket policy that masks need to be on at all times moving forward, no questions asked, is not one that I am supportive of.

I would respectfully disagree that masks are only a 2 cost. I think that would be a fair rating if we were only accounting for physical comfort considerations, but the cost extends to social considerations as well. There is no question (and I don't need an official study to believe this) that masks inhibit human communication to some degree. Facial expressions, changes in facial expressions mid-sentence, etc absolutely matter. So when human beings do not communicate as well as they otherwise would, I believe costs come with that, and they are not negligible.

I think the "cost" of wearing a mask to say a supermarket or doctors' office is at most a 2, and probably more like a 1 or 0.5. That really doesn't bother me at all. If however I were a kid trying to make friends at a new school that had a strict "masks on at all times policy", I think the cost would be worse than a 2, and that is just one example.

Quote from: chiller99 on January 08, 2022, 09:54:51 AM
This has been so trying personally with losing almost 3 years of time being locked down due to lack of immunity. Its both physically and mentally trying in being safe during these extensive outbreaks and being a chemo patient has me suffering more than I can put into words.

I am very sorry to hear about this. While this has been challenging for almost everyone, very few can claim anywhere near the struggles you have clearly had to endure. I hope you recover both quickly and with as little discomfort as possible.

Quote from: MightyGiants on January 08, 2022, 08:39:37 AM
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ICNARC have updated their analysis of COVID patients in critical care in England, Wales and NI. They now show boosted patients as well.

They are shown in green.

Yes, I've put them on the chart.

You have to squint. pic.twitter.com/51nVHbxl6s</p>

Quote from: MightyGiants on January 05, 2022, 10:07:24 AM
I will add I have heard some school districts are taking the "first 2 weeks remote" so that the holiday surge from the holidays doesn't blow up the schools in terms of outbreaks.   I have to say there is merit in the idea, even with the negatives.   One of the other issues not mentioned in the article is how a school or classroom can be completely disrupted by an outbreak.    You get a bunch of kids infected and exposed they will have to stay home and if you don't have remote learning options they fall behind even worse.  Remote learning may not be as good as in-person but no learning is certainly the worst.

For sure these are very valid points. While I think virtual learning is not a good substitute, it is clearly dramatically better than nothing at all. Protecting against the latter is a worthwhile objective indeed. Not to mention if a critical number of teachers in a school catch it, then it's hard for the school to do much of anything (plus older ones or less healthy ones could be in real danger).

It's not an easy problem to solve or an easy set of issues/priorities to juggle. I just know that requiring kids to wear masks every second of the day in school (even during sports in my daughter's school's case) brings with it a real price to pay for kids, and I hope they are not overly conservative around this policy in the future, especially if this strain continues to prove to be very mild.

I do get the point about the impact of a huge outbreak in a single school though. With that said though, if everyone in the school gets it at the same time and they have to shut down for say 10 days, while that won't feel ideal at the time, that might not be so horrible once that event has passed.

Quote from: Bob In PA on January 04, 2022, 10:50:16 PM
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/briefing/american-children-crisis-pandemic.html

I am glad the Times ran this. The toll this whole crisis has taken on children (on many levels) has been exorbitant. While I appreciate an support the need for caution, forcing young kids to wear masks every second of the day in schools where there are already vax mandates presents an enormous cost both to learning and social development. And of course, this is all on the heels of what was basically a lost year for many children who had to stay at home and "learn" and "develop" watching a screen on a laptop by themselves. I'm not saying that that should not have happened. I am simply pointing out that the costs are immense. A single missed (or very insufficient) year alone is a huge deal for a child. And this is continuing. I cannot imagine what the after-effects will be on many of these kids later in life.

I don't know what the perfect answer is for all of this, both presently and moving forward, but I am not sure that enough balanced thought or holistic consideration is put into this issue in this part of the country. I have no issue with masks in general and wear mine all the time. In fact I probably wear mine more than most of my peers. However I am a middle aged adult and am long since removed from my formative years. I just hope public policy makers remain extremely nimble around ongoing developments and that relaxing of various restrictions is as thoughtful as the imposition of them has been.

Quote from: brownelvis54 on January 04, 2022, 08:46:19 PM

I get it. But without hope...what else do we got?

Our football team?

Interesting, thanks. Will take a look.

If you like Dean Winters, and you have not ever watched the series "Oz", I thoroughly recommend it. In fact I recommend it even if you don't particularly care about Dean Winters. Even though it's about 20 years old, I think it's one of the best TV series ever made. It's absolutely gripping. It's very violent but it is extremely engaging, smartly done, and superbly acted.

I think "cautiously optimistic" on a relative basis is a reasonable stance to have at this point. That does not mean anyone is popping corks, or saying this is "over", or suggesting that there won't be more difficult periods in the future. Nor is it drawing any "conclusion", preliminary or otherwise. It's a merely an acknowledgment that omicron seems significantly less virulent than other strains (as demonstrated by numerous other countries) combined with some initial hope that this strain may help with immunity against others'. I don't think it's jumping to conclusions nor is it a green light to go out and take silly risks.

I have seen much of this, and I will say that I am cautiously optimistic about the medium to longer term trajectory of this whole crisis from where we are today.