Third Week of Plague

[aggienaut]

4/07 3313 active cases in Australia, 113 new in last 24 hours
4/08 3150 active cases in Australia, 105 new in last 24 hours
4/09 3066 active cases in Australia, 90 new in last 24 hours
4/10 3009 active cases in Australia, 100 new in last 24 hours

   Well it's official, we're over the hump here. I'm still waiting for the day when there's actually hand sanitizer on grocery store shelves.

   Cristina went with her motercycle-taxi-driver today to get him fuel so she can get to work. I think I mentioned her doing this last week, at that point the military controlled the gas stations. She couldn't get any gas at the first one but was finally able to persuade the officers at a second one that she needed and had a right to fuel as a doctor. This morning when she went for fuel the gas stations were controlled by "collectivos" -- pro-government militia, and she was unable to persuade them to give her any fuel.


   I drove into the bigger town of Geelong the other day for the first time in a month. There was a noticeably larger number of people out walking than I've ever seen before. I suppose even if they're limited to one walk per day, most of these people probably did not formerly take one walk a day.
   My purpose was to try to find more places to sell honey since the tourist-driven places have all closed up shop and gone into hibernation. I didn't really have high hopes but I sold honey to both of the small organic/whole foods places I went into. In both of them I asked if they were interested in carrying my local honey (one had no honey, the other hand "organic honey" but it was from somewhere across the state. Its funny the honey they had was crystalized in layers, which to me looks kinda janky, but to the whole/organic food crowd maybe that looks more authentic), and their principal question was just if I really was local. Then, conversationally, I mentioned that I'd been driven into the city because my usual outlets on the Great Ocean Road had dried up, and they both very earnestly said "oh, we definitely want to help you out." Very sweet of them.
   I've been afraid to even venture into the metropolis of Melbourne, but given this reception, I might try to use the google to identify specifically similar small organic/whole-foods places and hit them up. If I can line up a few it might be worth going down there periodically to make deliveries. For the months that remain to me ::sigh::


The United States now has over a third of all deaths (37%). Yes, I know there's probably a lot of deaths going unreported in underdeveloped countries (Apparently at-home-deaths of undetermined cause are up 8x in NYC), but it's not good. A number of countries are either over the hump or flattening the curve (Italy looks like it's nearly there, Spain looks very close to the hump), but the US is still on the same upward trajectory its been on with no sign of flattening.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I do hope Cristina's doctor status helps with that furl issue.

Spain is at the hump...and stabilizing. There is usually a longish period of a plateau and then the downward part starts. We have another month to face of total confinement so we're all hoping that by mid-May they can start lifting some restrictions. But truly? The best thing is not to hope for anything. Expectations are bad during something like this.

There are way more deaths everywhere than are being reported simply because nobody is testing enough to confirm why somebody died.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

The thing about the US is that the hot spots are REALLY hot, and the reporting is concentrated there. NO ONE is testing enough to get accurate numbers, be it before or after death, IMO. Some places do have flattened curves, but there could be other reasons for that. For the state I live in, we are very rural, and with almost no testing in the more rural areas. Our curve looks flattened, but that represents just the populated areas.

[xxmadsenxx.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to hear that the number of cases has gone down in Australia. I sure wish that were the case in the U.S. I'm glad they purchased some honey from you! Why were they not allowing people to get fuel?

[md-meezer.livejournal.com]

It is sad. We have a delusional person in charge who is only interested in his ratings and how many people are watching him on TV. The middle of the US has not been hit really hard and many of the governors of those states are not even closing businesses or taking this very seriously. I live in Baltimore MD and even though our governor has been very pro-active from the beginning and is very concerned for the citizens of MD, some of the people here are going out of their way to do the opposite. Running up to people and hugging them, mask shaming people (seriously, I had someone make fun of my mask and ask me if I was afraid that they may cough on me while stepping closer) and get belligerent when you ask them to stand back from you. Not to mention that those who do wear masks and gloves are throwing them down EVERYWHERE! The Mayor of Baltimore City even asked people to please stop the gun violence but there are people who refuse to give up that "murder capital of the US" title.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Wow that's freaky! The virus is just slower to get there but it will! And then saying "I told you so" will sadly be no real consolation for us.

[cazzicles.livejournal.com]

We may just about be over THIS hump, but I'm not sure how much faith I have in the general public to behave and keep it that way. There's no point in all staying home to get beyond this peak, only to then loosen up and cause a whole new one! Ugh.

I'm glad businesses are trying to support you through this. What did you mean by being afraid of venturing into Melbourne?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah I realize that's a bit unclear. It's not actually about the virus at all. It's because I hate driving in cities/traffic, Melbourne particularly freaks me out with its J-turns and frequently lines of cars parallel parks by the lane you're driving in liable to pull out or open a door at any moment, plus the work turk, a Navarro, is very wide and turns like a boat, so I really really hate driving it in the city. Oh and at least Geelong I'm a bit familiar with but in Melbourne I'll have to be closely following the GPS to get around, and if I want to stop in somewhere then I have to find PARKING. The truck is so big and unmaneouverable I pretty much can't parallel park unless there's three empty slots in a row OR get into a spot in a parking lot unless there's side-by-side empty slots. Sooo yeah I've been afraid to drive into Melbourne on account of these things (: