Coronavirus...post your thoughts here...

[FishGuest5123]

Politics is always two sided...dems vs republican...I wish there were 10 parties or NO parties to makes voting decisions fairer.

But let's not get too political here...this is mainly about the Coronavirus and how it is affecting you and your location. Let's try to stay on topic.

You can’t talk about the virus and not talk about the Government. It is the decision making party in all of this. I do agree that we should have one party or no parties. No one trusts each other and that is sad. I’m getting ready to go back out and live my life. This whole thing is too confusing.

 

[threecharacters]

That’s one parties side and what Is known to many as “fake news”. They actually are the ones holding back relief checks. Both sides are nuts. The medical advisory team are dems and want Trump out. They blame him yet they make the recommendations on what to do. It leaves the citizens not knowing what to believe. I am one who is questioning a lot of this from the medical side. I told ya’ll early on when I was working in a hospital that the numbers being reported aren’t what I was seeing on paper. Allegedly, Medicare is telling all hospitals and doctors to post deaths as COVID-19 If they have it even though they may have been terminally ill with cancer and given a month to live and they will be paid $30,000 for each such case. Even more if patient is put on vent. A lot of it is a scam. Taking advantage of the dying to make money. I Could talk on and on about what little I know. Dems are going to blame Trump on everything to get him out. Dr. Falkui is the biggest crook of all. I have reason to believe they have had a cure for cancer for some years but won’t approve it because too much financial loss if they do. I shudder to think of what my grandchildren will experience in their lives. The entire Government s corrupt in ne way or the other.

"Fake news" is subjective. Conservative media is itself highly biased. Perhaps your worldview has been so bent by your own party's media that some of your "fake news" is real news and you're blind to it. Misinformation is everywhere, just because you're not a "dem" doesn't mean you're immune to it. In fact, your bravado likely makes you more susceptible to manipulation.

As far as hospitals making money off the pandemic, I've heard exactly the opposite. According to this (https://www.beckershospitalreview.c...loughing-workers-in-response-to-covid-19.html) and other sources (just google for it) many hospitals have had to furlough employees because they're losing revenue due to the pandemic. This is because hospitals have had to suspend elective procedures which is apparently a large portion of their annual income. I've also heard that caring for COVID patients is quite costly. I imagine the $30,000 hospitals are getting for COVID patients is to help alleviate this financial pressure.

There is definitely evidence that the current administration was aware of the threat that SARS-COV-2 presented quite a while ago. A good example is senators that had inside information on virus sold stocks back in February before the pandemic really got going (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...-but-do-insider-trading-laws-apply-2020-03-20 and https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/coronavirus-trading-house-senate-140260). This crossed party lines (i.e. both Democratic and Republican congresspeople sold stocks). These people quite literally made money off pandemic. If you look at Trump's tweets around this time, you can see he is clearly playing the coronavirus down. I would be very surprised if he knew less than the senators accused of insider trading. Thus, I'd say there's a good chance he deliberately withheld information from the US public. Perhaps this was by design, the government had been caught flat-footed with barely any testing capability and a lack of protective gear. The stock market had been artificially inflated for years and a bubble-burst was probably inevitable even without COVID. Trump probably wanted to avoid a significant stock market crash right before the Presidential election. However, you can't just tweet away a pandemic.

Overall, the current administration has done a really poor job of handling the pandemic, which really isn't a big surprise to me. In my opinion, Trump has fostered an environment of fear in his White House, and this has lead to a weakened administration. I can't remember a President so willing to fire and heap blame on his own employees at the drop of a hat.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I don’t think I ever voiced what Party, if any, that I support. That is what we need to stay away from here. I was only commenting as a healthcare worker and RN, just what I’ve seen and heard. I was also part of Hospital Administration for the last 25 years of my healthcare career.

 

[threecharacters]

I don’t think I ever voiced what Party, if any, that I support. That is what we need to stay away from here. I was only commenting as a healthcare worker and RN, just what I’ve seen and heard. I was also part of Hospital Administration for the last 25 years of my healthcare career.

That's true, I did assume. I guess I wanted my point to be that "fake news" can be used to describe manipulative news from either party not just the Democratic party while you had specifically used to describe news with a Democratic bent.

You also seemed to think that hospitals and the government are corrupt and making money off the coronavirus in some way. I had heard just the opposite and wanted to voice that. That doesn't mean that hospitals and the government aren't corrupt or capable of corruption. It's just that most of them probably aren't unfairly making money in this case.

You dismissed the thing that Colin_T brought up as "fake news", while I think there really is a good chance that the US government understood the threat of SARS-COV-2 early on and withheld information from the public for various reasons, one of which was likely for personal gain. Leaders on both sides of party lines are culpable here. Trump himself is almost certainly guilty of this to some extent, yet you and PheonixKingZ both seemed soft on him, which I think is unfair.

 

[FishGuest5123]

That's true, I did assume. I guess I wanted my point to be that "fake news" can be used to describe manipulative news from either party not just the Democratic party while you had specifically used to describe news with a Democratic bent.

You also seemed to think that hospitals and the government are corrupt and making money off the coronavirus in some way. I had heard just the opposite and wanted to voice that. That doesn't mean that hospitals and the government aren't corrupt or capable of corruption. It's just that most of them probably aren't unfairly making money in this case.

You dismissed the thing that Colin_T brought up as "fake news", while I think there really is a good chance that the US government understood the threat of SARS-COV-2 early on and withheld information from the public for various reasons, one of which was likely for personal gain. Leaders on both sides of party lines are culpable here. Trump himself is almost certainly guilty of this to some extent, yet you and PheonixKingZ both seemed soft on him, which I think is unfair.

What I think is unfair is that you accuse me of insinuating hospitals are corrupt institutions. I never did that. I said Government Is pushing them. I have a 32 year career in Healthcare Administration. I am not corrupt nor would I sink my entire career in such a place. I worked for not-for-profit hospitals so they depend a LOT on Government funding/Medicare. It’s difficult for them to push back at times and stay alive. I know. I lived it!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Trump himself is almost certainly guilty of this to some extent, yet you and PheonixKingZ both seemed soft on him, which I think is unfair.

A lot of people are saying that Trump is to blame for this... he’s not. Should he crack down more on closing the borders and such? Yes. But he is not 100% to blame for all of this. The media portrays him as a cruel and harsh leader. He’s really not. They give him no credit for anything that he’s done for the country and they smack down on him for the little things he’s messed up on. It’s no fair..

 

[Fishmanic]

We're getting too political here...politics always brings up controversies with people having differing opinions depending on what party they favor. We try to avoid controversies on this site.

 

[snailaquarium]

Think the headlines being bandied about are misleading. They all say you MUST return to work. What was actually said was people who are unable to work form home and needed to work can now return to work. Specifically mentioned food production, manufacturing and construction. London is not known as being a centre for food production or manufacturing and construction is by a long way not the main thing that people who work in London do. Those that are to return to work should do so from Wednesday - and there has not been enough time for companies to respond to yesterday's announcement and tell all their employees to show up today. As an aside the retention relief (furlough payment) scheme is to continue until further notice. So I suspect there is a lot of P-taking going on and we should not blame the government or assume that all those people are commuters

FWIW my company - which is in the industry for which London is best known - has said it will not open the London office till September at the earliest. This applies to most of our offices around the world (including the US) and the only people who will be allowed into the offices are those who have a business critical need to be on-site. This will be decided on a case by case basis and to be allowed into the office you would have to have your security pass re-enabled, which will only ever be done for a single day.

SEPTEMBER??? I don't get it, please tell me you are not working in the financial industry?

 

[snailaquarium]

We're getting too political here...politics always brings up controversies with people having differing opinions depending on what party they favor. We try to avoid controversies on this site.

Why not make a subsections of politics? The reality is we all live via politics, even the practices of asking people to avoid speaking about politics is in itself a policy.

I think its a bit counterproductive if people get to meet each other across the world thanks to the wonders of the internet only to find they have to prat about finding another site to discuss certain issues just because they are of a political nature.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Why not make a subsections of politics? The reality is we all live via politics, even the practices of asking people to avoid speaking about politics is in itself a policy.

I think its a bit counterproductive if people get to meet each other across the world thanks to the wonders of the internet only to find they have to prat about finding another site to discuss certain issues just because they are of a political nature.

Because, it will turn into a big argument and then people will get mad at each other. Then they will get all offended at the smallest things and then the Moderators will have to lock down this thread. It’s best just to not to.

 

[snailaquarium]

A lot of people are saying that Trump is to blame for this... he’s not. Should he crack down more on closing the borders and such? Yes. But he is not 100% to blame for all of this. The media portrays him as a cruel and harsh leader. He’s really not. They give him no credit for anything that he’s done for the country and they smack down on him for the little things he’s messed up on. It’s no fair..

I don't understand Trump, he didn't close the place down soon enough and now he is looking to open the place up, and the other week he announced shutting off funding to the WHO.

Because, it will turn into a big argument and then people will get mad at each other. Then they will get all offended at the smallest things and then the Moderators will have to lock down this thread. It’s best just to not to.

Well if some people get stressed over it, then they shouldn't enter it..

 

[Fishmanic]

As PheonixKingZ stated, political discussions can get too controversial and turn into a tit for tat. There are other sites where you can discuss politics if you wish but we at TFF prefer to stay away from discussions that get too political.

 

[seangee]

SEPTEMBER??? I don't get it, please tell me you are not working in the financial industry?

Yes I am. We are working from home just fine. We decided that where it is not business critical to be in the office (e.g. deploy new software into a secure datacentre) there was no point.

• We would have to limit how many people can use a meeting room - no limits for online meetings
• We couldn't walk over and look at a colleague's screen - we can do that from home
• Restricted access to kitchens and no coffee shops open - unlimited access at home
• Would need screens between desks
• Masks and need to disinfect any shared equipment
• Can't use lifts
• People need to use loos
• We would not be allowed to travel between sites, my regular offices are in Farnborough, London and 2 in brussels - so not having to travel between them is actually more productive and something we will start doing more (or even less ) once this is all over
• Not traveling also reduces air / train fares and hotel bills
• Many of our staff are business critical so reducing the risk of illness is in the company's interests
• And last, but not least - my fish have fewer weeks of not being fed

Once you add it all up its just not worth it. This affects around 5000 people all around the world, and we are predicting the way we work will change dramatically for good. I really hope a lot of other companies follow suit - then we may actually make a real difference to the amount of needless fossil fuels we burn.

 

[Fishmanic]

You have a luxury that many people don't have. People working in service industries like restaurant workers, fast food places, meat production, and grocery store workers don't have an option to work from home . And their services are very valuable too...especially now.

 

[seangee]

You have a luxury that many people don't have. People working in service industries like restaurant workers, fast food places, meat production, and grocery store workers don't have an option to work from home . And their services are very valuable too...especially now.

Not disputing that (I just answered a question), but there is a lot we can do collectively to look after our planet - and I really hope we do.