Isn’t this an issue for most gatherings of large crowds, though? People perceive things that’re close to them to be the “real deal” and assume it’s like that farther away -even if it’s just an illusion. This is a common problem in concerts and rallies unless they have drones etc. I’d be interested in seeing photos of this, too, but…
Well. First things first: can I ask why you decided to be a part of this?
Like yeah, social distancing is inconvenient and business being put on ice are really frustrating -but if you ask NC to stop trying to contain COVID while it’s getting worse, aren’t you just demanding that people risk death for the sake of the economy?
(note: I’m trying really hard not to jump to conclusions or be judgmental, and I just want to understand how this isn’t just dangerous and reckless, at best.)
It is my opinion that this virus has been blown way out of proportion - mostly driven by the media’s 24/7 circus of fear porn and death counts - and that here in NC the “cure” is now causing more damage than the actual disease.
IMO - there was no diversity of thought within the administration’s medical, epidemiology and virology experts - if not aware there are hundreds of similarly credentialed experts with the same degrees from the same universities and with their own decades of experience who not only find the “lock down” approach inappropriate but are keenly aware of the devastating toll from the economic fallout of this approach.
I wonder if those counties would have zero cases if people were continuing to go about business as usual around the state and the country for the past few weeks.
I wonder how many people have actually been tested in those seven counties because they don’t have the capabilities to test. After all, they are all Tier 1 or Tier 2 counties.
I wonder what would happen if the state reopens and people continue to socially distance for their own health precautions, thus not really helping the business that would then be open (and whose employees will not be allowed to collect unemployment if they voluntarily stay home to protect themselves).
These are legitimate questions I don’t know the answers to, but for which answers would give us a lot more factual information to go on.
Well, to be fair, with regard to zero reported cases, it’s likely that there’s more cases in every county than is officially logged. I know several people who had all the symptoms and went through Hell with this disease and never got tested because they couldn’t get one in the early days of the spread.
I went to Lowes this past weekend and there were hundreds of people indoors and in much tighter quarters than the protests. It is more difficult to spread a virus outdoors than in indoors.
I’ve tried to choose off-peak times to go and do things without ordering Amazon. I can say the sketchiest of all outings was Lowe’s followed by grocery stores AFTER folks decided masks were the trick. Getting buzzed by mask wearers on the grocery aisles is truly a weird situation…and, this is from someone observant of people’s patterns and generally wary of getting touchy feely in the norm
I think every governor should by now have an endgame they should be sharing. What it will look like, what metrics will be involved, who will be involved in the decision-making, the hierarchy of businesses to be opened, etc. Fighting the coming depression is an important part of fighting Covid. Lives will be lost to both, but knowing there is the beginnings of a plan would be helpful.
There’s nowhere near enough testing available yet, and cases are not declining in NC or the US. Even Trump has said there needs to be a 2 week decline and adequate testing before any limited reopening should take place. It is absolutely absurd to be gathered into large groups to be protesting “your rights being violated” when reopening now puts other people’s lives at risk. This isn’t about “stay home if you’re scared, I’ll risk it” when many many people are working in essential jobs that can’t just stay home. Obviously we can’t have everything shut down until an effective vaccine is widely available, best case 12-18 months from now. But opening everything up in the next couple of weeks because we’re tired of being at home or being on unemployment is problematic and is going to cause a huge surge at this point.
Also, the media does hype stuff, but it isn’t like this is the flu. We’ve had more than a whole year’s worth of flu cases in a month in NC, and we haven’t even peaked yet. There’s 800,000 people who have TESTED positive just in the US, and by some estimates there may be many million positive cases who can’t get tested, and it hasn’t peaked. And this is with everything basically shut down. Imagine if everyone was out and about as normal. Even when it does peak, this is just the first wave. Subsequent waves could be even worse, like the 1918 pandemic, and that will absolutely destroy our economy for a long time. We can determine how bad it will be, and gathering in a large group to protest what the vast majority are in favor of and understand is not going to help.
Let’s broaden the topic to protests in general. Hate it or not, we are the capital of the state and these things happen here.
To be clear, let’s not protest here but rather talk about the events and their impact.
Personally, I feel state politics are a stretch to downtown issues or at most relative on very specific topics, Dix being the biggest in recent history.
I don’t have an opinion here one way or the other because I feel like no one knows enough facts or has answers to definitively say we need to do anything.
But I’m curious, what if we open up retail with the same guidelines we have for grocery? Only allow so many in a store at a time, must wear a face covering, shields for cash registers (or must pay by card through phone), tape on floor to insure distancing, etc.
Not sure about a solution with restaurants except spreading the tables to be further apart, wait staff to wear masks, etc. A lot of the restrooms in Raleigh restaurants are single use, so as long as you wash your hands (as you should regardless) and grab handle with something, that could work. But then curious if at that point it would even be worth it to a small local restaurant vs. just continuing to do take out.
How about the city loosening restrictions and allowing restaurants to set seating outside in the sidewalk ROW temporarily. Close those streets down to bike/ped/delivery only so the blocked sidewalks don’t harm mobility. We could be like Europe…
