Coronavirus and wearing masks in stores

[klkla]

4012 has been saying this for the last 4 years to try and bring back manufacturing here. The problem is the other elected officials, the ones with those approval ratings in the, like, teens, of both parties, seem to keep doing things that discourage it from happening. I do not know what else it is going to take...

4012 has it in his power to issue an executive order right now, today, using The Wartime Powers Act to order companies to produce these products now. Today. But he hasn't done that. He half-heartedly ordered GM to make some ventilators... a day after they already decided to do it... just so he could take credit for their actions.

He's been talking about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. but has not put forth any actual proposals and the rate of manufacturing job losses as continued on the same trajectory as it was before he became president.

As for congress, those approval ratings are misleading. Virtually all members of Congress and Senators rank very high in approval ratings by the residents in their districts or states. Much higher than 4012. It's the Congress and Senate as a whole that gets low approval ratings.

But to the point of this thread, he should have invoked the Wartime Powers Act months ago and we would already be receiving ventilators, masks and other needed supplies.

[klkla]

If you are in a crowded supermarket, the 6 feet rule will be meaningless if you are in the store for 30 minutes breathing in the virus. It is based on time. If you breath in the virus for 4 minutes, your exposure is much less. People need to get in the store get what they need and leave as soon as possible.

I was listening to an interview with an epidemiologist yesterday on KNX and he mentioned that this particular virus is 'heavy' and as a result gravity tends to pull it down to the ground or on nearby surfaces rather quickly. He said the 6 foot rule is very effective for this particular virus.

[storewanderer]

But to the point of this thread, he should have invoked the Wartime Powers Act months ago and we would already be receiving ventilators, masks and other needed supplies.

I suspect the backlash from the media and both political parties would have stopped that from ever happening. Everyone would have said it was unjustified, abuse of power, war mongering, etc. Frankly no matter what 4012 does there is a very loud syndicate out there that will say it is wrong. But it sure would have been nice if it had happened. It is easy to say it in hindsight but nobody saw this coming 3 months ago. If so, we would have seen grocery and other retailers ramp up the paper product supply, cleaning supply, hand sanitizer/rubbing alcohol supply, etc. and those manufacturers would have geared up production a few months ago too and maybe we would not have these shortages we have now.

Meanwhile we have 3M being told to shift masks here that they make overseas and refusing to do it, noting they are a global company with factories globally, and other countries need the masks that their factories are producing in other countries. I don't think it is right to tell a company to stiff those other countries of the masks they were promised. Production needs to increase of masks on a global scale, for, who knows how long. This may go on for the rest of the year if you listen to the medical community, if not longer.

We really need to ramp things up here. We need to get the raw materials and some sort of suitable equipment and somehow make more masks and other medical equipment here right now. With all the money the medical industry blows through I am sure it can afford the higher cost of these critical supplies that would come with making them here. It would be a lot better to protect the healthcare workers than cut corners and lose qualified people to this virus because they did not have the right protective equipment.



So here we are now. We are told we should wear masks out. In Reno, the mayor has said she wants to order all citizens to wear masks but it is not within her power to make such an order (her words, not mine). But few people have any masks. I have lousy little rectangle masks from the tool aisle of 99 Cents Only that I grabbed a few packages of last year, that I use for dusty house and outside tasks, but really have doubts those masks would do any good to protect from this virus and do not plan to wear one out unless there is a force order that says you must wear a mask to enter the grocery store. If I had some better masks like the round shaped ones, I'd probably wear them.

[Alpha8472]

Some pharmacies have resorted to buying masks online from third party vendors. These masks are straight from China and sadly are the only ones available and are in packs of 50. The prices are outrageous and the pharmacies have pass the cost onto customers. The price was $89 for 50 at a local pharmacy. They were not selling well.

Those Chinese companies are exploiting people in the rest of the world with price gouging.

[klkla]

I suspect the backlash from the media and both political parties would have stopped that from ever happening. Everyone would have said it was unjustified, abuse of power, war mongering, etc. Frankly no matter what 4012 does there is a very loud syndicate out there that will say it is wrong.

Great leaders don't worry about what other people think. They take decisive action and do what is right. That's what congress intended when they passed this law during the Korean War. They assumed we would always have great leaders. Sadly, they were wrong.

[veteran+]

I suspect the backlash from the media and both political parties would have stopped that from ever happening. Everyone would have said it was unjustified, abuse of power, war mongering, etc. Frankly no matter what 4012 does there is a very loud syndicate out there that will say it is wrong.

Great leaders don't worry about what other people think. They take decisive action and do what is right. That's what congress intended when they passed this law during the Korean War. They assumed we would always have great leaders. Sadly, they were wrong.

There were "briefings" in D.C. as early (and some say earlier) as December regarding something pretty damn awful was going on in China. Given the previous knowledge of SARS and other pandemics, including AIDS, MORE expedient measures should have been enacted SOONER rather than later. Better safe than sorry!

But, with certain ideologies, commerce comes first rather than life. That changes only when the consequences affects THOSE very same ideologues in THEIR home. By then, so many lives are gone. History is ignored and often rewritten, so we go through it again..............

[Super S]

I am going to say that I am a little creeped out by seeing customers wandering aimlessly around a store wearing a mask that just seem to be browsing the aisles. I get the point of the masks, but at the same time, feel that stores need to be enforcing a limit on how long people can remain in a store. Some of the larger stores that aren't enforcing things are a wide open door for shoplifting and/or other crime. The masks are a perfect opportunity for criminals, and stores at least need to step up their security operations.

[BillyGr]

I am going to say that I am a little creeped out by seeing customers wandering aimlessly around a store wearing a mask that just seem to be browsing the aisles. I get the point of the masks, but at the same time, feel that stores need to be enforcing a limit on how long people can remain in a store. Some of the larger stores that aren't enforcing things are a wide open door for shoplifting and/or other crime. The masks are a perfect opportunity for criminals, and stores at least need to step up their security operations.

One part of what may seem to be aimless wandering is more bring thorough. For instance, this area has stores close enough that going to one isn't difficult, so normally I might not care if I forget to grab something (not like being in, say the Adirondacks where your closest store might be an hour+ round trip).

With this going on now, though, and trying to limit the number of trips to the store, it seems more important to "double check" by going through most aisles, as perhaps seeing an item on the shelf will remind me that I should get some of that while I'm there, rather than have to run out again in a couple days when it runs out, or that I used the last of it last week and wanted to replace that.

Also, to some extent, thinking that you might not be able to go next week (if, for example, you should somehow acquire the virus), you also may be taking a bit longer time to think if you need an extra (not 100 extra, but one or two) of something to be sure you'd not run out.

[storewanderer]

I'm wondering a little about these masks. I went into a CVS yesterday with a probably useless mask on, noticed 5 people in line waiting to pay stretched halfway back the store in the middle of the store and one of them was coughing pretty badly and it was a dry cough, so I immediately exited the store. In this store the majority of the customers were wearing masks but the one employee I saw wasn't.

I got into my car and took off the mask. I used hand sanitizer - AFTER taking off the mask, though I did not actually touch anything inside CVS.

I then went to the next CVS 3 minutes away and put the mask back on and walked in. While in there, I got to thinking if that contact with my mask taking it on/off could have contaminated it. In this store, nobody else had masks on.

I didn't go anywhere else after where I felt the need to wear the mask, but I guess the mask just needs to stay on once you put it on as handling of the mask may cause contamination.

[storewanderer]

I suspect the backlash from the media and both political parties would have stopped that from ever happening. Everyone would have said it was unjustified, abuse of power, war mongering, etc. Frankly no matter what 4012 does there is a very loud syndicate out there that will say it is wrong.

Great leaders don't worry about what other people think. They take decisive action and do what is right. That's what congress intended when they passed this law during the Korean War. They assumed we would always have great leaders. Sadly, they were wrong.

There were "briefings" in D.C. as early (and some say earlier) as December regarding something pretty damn awful was going on in China. Given the previous knowledge of SARS and other pandemics, including AIDS, MORE expedient measures should have been enacted SOONER rather than later. Better safe than sorry!

But, with certain ideologies, commerce comes first rather than life. That changes only when the consequences affects THOSE very same ideologues in THEIR home. By then, so many lives are gone. History is ignored and often rewritten, so we go through it again..............

Well a lot of people in politics on both sides must have missed those briefings given there was pushback from all political parties in the US on restricting travel to certain countries (not going to name names, but it is the county where some say the virus broke out... until the media started saying it was racist to call out the city where the virus came from). I think all parties involved here dropped the ball and have been for quite some time (about the last 11 years), they are completely dysfunctional, and we are all paying now for the spoiled baby mentality. But hey, we can still ban foam containers and plastic bags. We can still do a big "tax cut" package. But we can't get enough masks or medical equipment to medical professionals. Failure.

I have some family and coworkers who were sick in December with something that seemed awfully similar to this Coronavirus here in Nevada. Unfortunately thinking they "already got it" seems to be making them not take it so seriously this time.

We will see what happens next.

Grocery is in a tough spot here as one of the few businesses open and so critical. Stores this past weekend do not seem to be stocked well (they were better a week ago) and you can tell employees have, for lack of better words, had it with what is going on. Numerous customers are not taking this virus seriously. From the people who show up in groups of 6 to shop with small kids running around, to these people who are all masked up and in gloves and using reusable bags (at least their bags looked clean...), to people who are going in like nothing is going on... the best one was, I had one idiot in his early 20's running around the store getting within about 3 feet of everyone holding his phone (was probably recording it), laughing and saying "Coronavirus personal space violation." It appeared he was in the store with 4 of his "friends" who each had a couple items in their hands and they were just screwing around. Multiple employees were watching and just looked defeated and disgusted, but did not stop him.