I have not checked the site for a few days and I red through this thread with astonishment and a bit of shame...
For those of you "plandemic" folks... How about you read the BBC news or ANYTHING not biased one way or another... How about you look at the ENTIRE world and not stuck in your "USA" frame of mind. Be logical... Do you REALLY think that the ENTIRE WORLD has conspired against the president to take him down? To ruin EVERY economy in the ENTIRE WORLD? Have you ever known that many nations to agree on ANYTHING? We can't even get agreement in this forum... now throw in entire world views. I read the BBC news constantly as I just can't handle the news here. They have no agenda to further ANY political view in this country. I've read their criticisms of how things are done in their own country... But I don't see the divide there that is here. But I also don't read anything there saying this is all a made up hoax. They have taken it seriously... and even so, their death rate in the UK is EXTREMELY high. Regardless of your political leanings, this is a worldwide problem. It is NOT made up. And the death rate on closed cases worldwide is 17%. While it is a lagging indicator from time of diagnosis until outcome (3-4 weeks), it says this is a real problem. The US death rate by closed cases is something like 26%. Both numbers have dropped considerably in the last 2 weeks as more people have recovered thankfully.
I came back from the UK on March 22 and then was in health dept. quarantine - not allowed to leave my house or be around people - for 2 weeks. I am an essential employee and have been working. My company has about 20 people so my exposure has been limited to about 10 trips to drive throughs, 3 Walmart visits and a grocery store visit since that time frame. Missouri just reopened most everything and Springfield, where I currently live, just decided to open bars as well with a maximum of 25 people. I am a musician in a band here and most weeks I would be in a bar 3-5 nights a week. But I won't be going for awhile. I don't feel safe. My choice. If people feel comfortable, more power to them. I have NOT been good about wearing a mask or gloves the few times I have gone out. Hence why I have limited my exposure.
I am lucky in that I am an engineer and an essential employee for my business in the automotive sector. And our overall company - which employs something like 1500 people - has been lucky as well in that there have been no cases within the organization. While someone said they are a machinist and still working, I wonder how many outsiders are you exposed to every day? How many people do you work with? And for those who are saying it is majorly effecting the average worker, with the extra $600 the federal is kicking in, I don't know of anyone on unemployment who is not making MORE money now than by working! Missouri's unemployment is awful but that extra money makes it very livable for anyone making $75k or less - which is a HUGE amount of people. I don't know about other states, but in MO it is hard for places to open when their employees can triple their monthly income by staying home.
The real losers in all of this are the small businesses. My friends own a bar here and they decided to not reopen after having to be closed for 2 months. And I am sure that will be the norm across the country and across the world.
I implore all of the people who have posted in here - no matter your political leaning - to look at news NOT in the US and see what is really going on. Get outside your "USA IS BEST" mindset and look at the world. Yes, many other countries have handled this differently and better... You can't compare Sweden to the US. You can't compare country to country. Most of Europe and the UK are MUCH more active than we are in the US. And we are considerably less healthy and more obese than the rest of the world. There are so many cultural factors that come into play. You have to stop being so "America" centric and be WORLD centric. We are a global economy. We need to start acting like it
Would I go back to SDC this year? Well, I thought I would be moved to the UK by now but this pandemic has slowed that down... But would I go should they open? No... It is my choice. I won't be going much of anywhere for the foreseeable future. Because I have seen and heard too much and I don't trust others. If you feel comfortable, go. It is your life. BUT as others said, how would you feel if you were asymptomatic and spread it to others and they died?
I read somewhere in here someone saying that hospitals are being subsidized to diagnose as COVID-19. PLease post your sources and don't spread false "facts"... But again, look at the entire world. The UK for example is government funded health care. They are not operating their hospitals like a corporation for profit. Do you really think they are making up their numbers to get paid? You all have to stop focusing on America and look at what is going on in the world...
And quite honestly, we are a laughingstock in most of the world. They just shake their heads. I talk to people on a regular basis in the UK and they just laugh at us... To make America great again we have to be respected. We aren't. They laugh at our divide. They laugh at decisions made by people in charge. They use us as an example of WHAT NOT TO DO. How about we set about changing that... regardless of your political party. How about we start listening to each other? Caring about each other? How about we be able to have discussions again about topics and we listen and learn and maybe research and change our mind? How about we admit we're wrong and not hold so tightly to things on principle and not on facts and data?