What did we learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?

That by the time when the government says that everything is fine, and contagion Is “low” that we are screwed.

Also to wash your hands with soap or sanitizer for 20 seconds under running water.

Also to keep up with all of your families shots.

Also to pre train students not to oppose wearing disposable face masks. For when later as adults that when a face making is needed.

Also to stock up on emergency food and stuffs needed in an emergency.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is mysterious and brutal bug. Extremely contagious and killed so many people world wide. Many more people have been crippled by it in many different ways.

Also flimsy face masks worn with huge gaps fool only the foolish. Even the best face masks (like N95 protects against particles as small as 0.3 microns) properly worn can’t guarantee protection as this virus is so tiny (about 0.1 microns).

Also the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 virus are problematic and don’t completely stop this virus from causing harm and death.

The pathogenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been weakening over the last few years which I understand is typical viral evolution.

Also there’s a lot of evidence that indicates the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

Wash your hands, avoid public crowds, maintain a safe distance from people , get the shots, wear the mask while in public all combined is a good start as to not contract it.

I already knew some of this, but what was reinforced to me:

-Most people cannot do math!
-People will blindly follow the people they trust without a second thought.
-Most people don’t worry at all about getting other people sick.
-Just how many people don’t understand how to try to avoid getting sick.
-That no one takes seriously that someone can be high risk even if they aren’t over 65.
-That the US sucks at quarantining a specific area or city.
-That people don’t understand that slow the spread or reduce spread does not mean eliminate it.
-That the Christian fanatics (fanatics! Not all Christians) are as paranoid as ever that the US government is trying to eliminate Christianity from the US. That is ridiculous!
-That People who like to drink alcohol out will be the first to return to restaurants and bars when things open up again.
-That countries and terrorist groups that hate the US will jump on the chance to divide America during a pandemic.
-That people don’t understand that it takes the CDC a few weeks to prepare recommendations when information comes out.

^ Exactly!

I’ll add one more. A few naysayers with incorrect information will get more followers than all the scientists in the world.

I second the above two posts!

Additionally that people forget way to easily in their effort to try to say everything is OK. Recall what you learned from it. Never Forget!

That there was NO reason to hoard toilet paper.

The government needs to shut things down because otherwise, businesses will still expect people to come in to work and people will still want to go out for entertainment, despite the warnings. I had coworkers who were going to still go to Broadway plays, before they were shut down, despite the warnings, and friends wanted to take me out for a birthday dinner, despite the warnings, until the government shut the restaurants.

Workplaces could bend the rules to work from home and virtual, and should have done this years ago, since we had the technology.

@chyna Amen.

I learned that:

Many of the rituals we adopted were performative and had no real effect on stopping the spread of the disease. But I also think we need some performance to make the situation seem less hopeless.

We can say “we’re in this together” all we want, but it’s a lie and we all know it. This won’t be such an illusion if there’s a “next time”.

While initial school closures were inevitable given what we didn’t know about this disease, schools should’ve reopened in the fall of 2020 and should not have remained closed for as long as they were. We should not sacrifice the young to protect the old. Distance learning is a sham.

@jca2 I agree with the government shutting things down and mask orders. I just think regarding covid they should have shut down NYC and the surrounding suburbs, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, L.A., Orlando weeks before the shut down happened. Probably the whole country should not have been shut down. No traveling in or out for two weeks with some exceptions.

Any travelers going in and out of those cities masked. Actually that needed to be in force for all travelers everywhere in the country for much more than a few weeks. All flights masks. All restaurants along interstates masks except while sitting at your table to eat. People who cross state lines wear a mask for a week indoors if they go to public places.

People in those cities would have complied.

The problem is enforcement, @JLeslie, as you know. Governors, like DeSantis, would not enforce it if the Federal government put those rules in, so it would be kind of fruitless. Lots of people in NY and around the country did not like Cuomo but I think his shutdowns were the best for the state. Thankfully, I worked in a County (for the County) at the time that shut down all restaurants and everything, so only essential personnel had to be at work. What was able to be done virtually was done virtually.

I think @gondwanalon pretty well nailed it. Good job!

@jca2 For well over a year DeSantis stood behind Mayors who put in Mask rules and curfews. He did all sorts of things the first year to keep people safer. He made separate long term care regional facilities for covid patients. During hurricanes instead of shelters with large rooms and lots of people together he put a lot of people in hotels who needed shelter so people were not crowded together.

He didn’t have any rules about people traveling here to mandatorily wear masks, and if the federal government had put it in place I think it would have helped. It would not have been 100% compliance, but I think it would have helped save lives in Florida and all over the country.

Most people comply even if there is no punishment or penalty.

At the beginning DeSantis worked with UF to do random testing in The Villages to see how much asymptomatic cases there were.

I don’t think the whole state should have been shut down for months, I do think Orlando should have had mask orders for well over a year, and it did. I also think a lot of the panhandle counties should have had mask orders more than once, and they didn’t, and the mayors and DeSantis failed there. Sometimes those counties were up at 32% positivity rate. It was bad.

The problem is the President and Governors don’t want to shut down the economy.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is mysterious and brutal bug. Extremely contagious and killed so many people world wide. Many more people have been crippled by it in many different ways.

True

Also flimsy face masks worn with huge gaps fool only the foolish. Even the best face masks (like N95 protects against particles as small as 0.3 microns) properly worn can’t guarantee protection as this virus is so tiny (about 0.1 microns).

False

Also the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 virus are problematic and don’t completely stop this virus from causing harm and death.

Midleading

The pathogenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been weakening over the last few years which I understand is typical viral evolution.

Sort of true

Also there’s a lot of evidence that indicates the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

Probably false.

How much a small thing can lead to a catastrophe. It all started with a “strange virus” in China, then it quickly spread and became a global problem. It became a problem not just for healhcare but for other unexpected things like economy, politics, socialization… Just to show how unpredictable life actually is.

I think we learned how stupid people can be.

@janbb Yeah, I re-learn that one a lot.

I think we also learned that “do it for others” and “protect other people” aren’t effective motivators at all. We don’t care about our fellow man, not as a society. Masking wasn’t really for your benefit, it was for the benefit of those around you. And you can’t get people to care about that.

We learned that even a virus or illness can become political, nowadays.

@Demosthenes If a mask isn’t going to protect you (it wasn’t really for your benefit), how can it protect others (it was for the benefit of those around you)? If it isn’t keeping the virus from you, that means the virus can get through the mask which means you aren’t protecting anyone.

The mask situation has been gone over and over and over and over and over here and on other websites and social media. I don’t think the two sides (pro mask vs con mask) will ever come to an agreement.

@jca2 The con mask group is wrong.

@Caravanfan I agree, but it’s just endless (as demonstrated above). It’s like a discussion that never ends.

That when there is an actual zombie outbreak, humanity is done.

flimsy face masks worn with huge gaps fool only the foolish. Even the best face masks (like N95 protects against particles as small as 0.3 microns) properly worn can’t guarantee protection as this virus is so tiny

False argument.

Face masks are not to protect us FROM infection. They prevent us from SPREADING infection. My mask protects you and your mask protects me.

Particle size is not the measure of efficacy it seems . People sneezing and coughing will emit infected large droplets, which even simple cloth masks will stop.

But as I wrote early in the pandemic, good luck persuading people to work for the public benefit.

The pandemic taught us that a huge part of the population cannot grasp the idea of the golden rule – thinking of others is not something they can do.