Worked through this myself. Not as a nurse or care assistant, but as an NHS binman. Still saw lots of shit I basically cant talk about (not due to emotion but due to Trust policy as its a bit too specific). Saw doctors, nurses, care assistants walking around like zombies after having worked 18 hours straight. Saw morons walk in and film them thinking there was some major conspiracy. Heard the lungs of patients rattling as they struggled to breath. Two workers I knew died. Heard from colleagues how some other morons had “served legal papers” on the staff (thats not how you get “served” here btw) and then saw it on the BBC 6 oclock news. I also saw the hard work of every delivery driver, supermarket worker.
What did I learn? That some people will fight to save your life, even if you’ve not taken heed of all the advice.
I have a two year old niece now. I’m reminded of when I was a kid in the early 80s and war veterans would come and talk to us about WW2 and Korea. I am thinking it would be good if some of us did the same for these kids in a few years. If we went and talked about what we saw, not the scary/nasty stuff, but the stuff that makes people hopeful for humanity.
I currently live in a province in Canada, that is currently ruled by a government that is governing under what’s basically an MO of Covid and vaccine revenge.
There’s no hope for humanity. Absolutely none. That’s my lesson from Covid. The majority of the people around me, my neighbours, etc, are basically all incapable of logical thought and highly susceptible to disinformation and rogue actors.
Ya that’s the lesson I took from the pandemic as well. At any given moment ~30% of the population is actively acting against the best interests of the whole, merely to be contrarian. We don’t have any hope as a species.
I can’t believe people are falling for Trump’s “Four years ago you were better off” bullshit
I can’t believe people still adore T@&#! after he has repeatedly grifted them, lied to them, demonstrated time and again he has no empathy and is a horrible human all around.
He grifted us over medical supplies during a pandemic. He damn near ended our democracy and became a dictator. His list of retributions he has declared if he gets elected is terrifying. Racist and classiest as hell.
And they ignore everything and just parrot the " hE iS pRo LIfE!" BS
April, 2020 unemployment was almost 14%
Even if I wasn’t better off financially now, not having that shitstain as president would make be much better off overall.
I mean I’m better off financially, but to be fair that’s because of the labor shortage Covid created being so bad that the local power plant started hiring part-time entry level.
I mean… yeah… I say “Labor Shortage”, but I mean “The Labor Force Realizing That They’re Working For Too Little For It To Be Worth It!”
But hey I’m poor as fuck, I’ll take what I can get… I’m just grateful I finally escaped retail.
During all that time all I could think of was the shareholders.
This pretty well sums it up. It’s hard to believe it’s been four years. It used to feel like it’d been ongoing for forever. Now it feels like a dream. What a fucked up thing we went through and how fucked is it that my brain can just sort of “forget”. I guess that’s how we cope. It isn’t evolutionarily advantageous to dwell on the real threats. Only on the stupid social fuckups that happened that embarrassed me.
I truly think there is a component of unprecedented, shared psychological distress (everyone needing to stay inside like solitary confinement) and post-COVID cognitive distortion that makes the entire pandemic feel like some sort of fugue state. I was working in healthcare during it and when I look back at those years it feel like someone that was a dream. I’m in my 30s and no other part of my life feels like that.
It’s amazing how quickly we adapt and forget. But when I stop and think about it life was so different before Covid and it’s just never been the same. My workplace has just never been able to adjust to the staffing shortages and it’s hell.
Why are you talking about it like it’s over? Roughly 30000 people are getting long covid per day, right now. That shit is disabling. We’re still in a pandemic and we’re not taking it seriously, at all.
Just to say, as a hospital worker, that Covid is still very much around. Its not killing in the same numbers but it does kill many. Many who will be missed by their loved ones. Covid still leads to long covid in some.
Are we still pretending the measures they took actually worked? I mean really guys, if you think that we needed more intervention to stop the covid then I dont really know what to tell you.
The measures worked much better on the countries that applied them more throughly. As far as European countries go, Italy got struck the earliest without taking measures and their healthcare system collapsed; Spain took note of the situation, applied extremely harsh measures, and while some regions went through severe problems, we got through it far better than Italy.
You are comparing apples to oranges, why not compare america to america to see what worked instead?
I’m comparing very similar countries in terms of culture, economics, geographical region, climate, education and technology, which are in the same market and have freedom of movement towards each other, except during the lockdowns.
Sounds good, but they compared america to america and found zero benefit to the lockdowns. Literally we knew this in spring of 2020.
hey dumfuck, America isn’t the only country in the world. we actually can look at what worked elsewhere.
America didn’t work because Americans like you refused to cooperate.
I love how you start with “hey dumfuck” and expect me to actually read the rest. @fosho@lemmy.ca I hope the hilarity of spelling it dumb as “dum” is not lost on you.
What America needed to do was lock down interstate travel but we didn’t do that. We had no real quarantine, and people only broadly respected the mask mandate for a few months.
Because we have rights and if mini-lockdowns dont work, I dont think crazy lockdowns would be justified. Why should I a healthy person not be able to do anything because other people might get sick? Why dont they stay in their house and let the other 90% of the population keep working?
Half-measures are often far less than half-as-effective. Mini-lockdown didn’t work because it wasn’t a real quarantine, isolation was not achieved. Did you know the word quarantine comes from Latin meaning forty days? Because that’s how long ships were kept out of Venice in the late 1300s to make sure nobody on board had the plague. That’s the kind of harsh policy required for success, but the world decided that the immediate economy is worth more than permanent eradication of dangerous pathogens.
Well, we took a ton of half measures and performed a lot of safety theater. Big shocker, it didn’t work well. Either way, the point wasn’t to stop the disease entirely, but spread out the cases to “flatten the curve” and reduce load on hospitals, which it did do.
The thing is, even now we could totally wipe out COVID and other airborne diseases if we just handed out N95 masks to everyone and they actually wore the fucking things. But counting on voluntary participation is a pipe dream, since people will inevitably take their masks off at home and whatnot.
No, it didnt work at all. We literally knew lockdowns didnt work in spring of 2020, it was all a steaming pile of bullshit including flattening the curve.
Strange, because the countries where they did implement those measures came out better than the ones that didn’t.
I’m sorry, but you can’t argue with history.
Apples and oranges. There was a study in spring of 2020 by JP morgan chase that showed the exact thing that anyone that was looking at the data would see, the lockdowns did absolutely nothing. Literally nothing.
Man, a massive corporation whose bottom line would be hugely impacted from a proper lock down said a proper lockdown wouldn’t work? That’s craaaaaaaaazy 🙄
Gotcha, we are just going to do science denial now.
What is it you people say, “follow the money” or something?
Bruh you’re the science denier
Would it be funny if the race/gender was reversed? Would that cause outrage?
No, it would just not change anything about the comic.
I don’t really think this comic is “haha funny”, but I think the comic would still have the same effect.
Comics rely on stereotypes a lot to provide context. It’d be less statistically likely to be set up the other way, so that’d be an artistic choice that needs some justification.
Sure, I could draw a black nazi instead of a white one, but it would need more explaining. Probably too much for a comic.
It’d be less statistically likely to be set up the other way
Would it though? Just a quick googling got me this https://www.livescience.com/61305-most-online-anti-vaxxers-are-women.html
Published December 2017
And speaking of nazis, they certainly like their stereotypes too. It’s an interesting parallel that you raise.
Everyone likes stereotypes. Human beings are just pattern matching machines with legs.
Hey, stop being ableist! Some of us don’t have legs, or are able to do pattern matching!
Yeah no a lot of people actively avoid stereotyping. Playing into negative stereotypes isn’t a good thing
Sure. But in short form content where it’s relevant to the point? It’s hard.
I don’t think so, if a comic is actually trying to make a point rather than appeal to ideological tribalism
I guess it’s possible they’re just being lazy or tribal. But since white guys in suits are also part of that tribe, I’m not sure how that works. To me it just seems they are simply drawing a likely scenario rather than an unlikely one.
It’s why Garfield is a cat and not a hyena. Because who has a hyena?
Ah, so everybody is like nazis? Possibly.
Tribal, reactionary, conforming, oblivious, obedient nazis.
*gestures vaguely at imagined hypocrisy*
But… you know… liberals are just like Nazis…
“The real Nazis are the guys unjustly stereotyping the Nazis.”
Oof
Turns out conservatism was the real plague all along.
Covid awareness? On Lemmy? Getting over a thousand points? It feels like I’m in a dream.
Reminder to everyone that wearing a well fitting n95 mask in public takes very little effort but helps others (who may be immunocompromised, already battling long covid or other conditions, or otherwise vulnerable) and yourself avoid getting sick which can save people from chronic pain, disability, death, and more. Please do what you can to take precautions and prevent the spread of disease!
Covid was the most terrifying time of my life (i know covid itself is still here). I have a severe health anxiety disorder and a single ache of spot on my body can instantly convince me i have a terminal cancer or illness and i WILL die. After about a year i finally build up all courage to go to the supermarket with my partner, wearing a good fitting mask. We stood at the checkout and this guy asked another guy who wasn’t wearing a mask, and standing waaaay to close to them, to please keep his distance and to please wear a mask. The guy instantly got aggressive and knocked the man out for asking him to please keep distance and wear a mask. I didn’t go anywhere again.
I still struggle with all of this. After 2016 it felt like people got a free pass for conspiracy and fascist shit. I’m from europe but the trump presidency had a big influence here too. So many conspiracies that trump shouted got popular over here and fascist parties got A LOT more popular. Hell, a fascist party won the election here less than a year ago.
I lost a lot of hope and love for humanity. But i also see smart and beautiful humans fight for us every day. Whether its with climate and antifascist protests or through videos i find on social media or the news. And i cant give up hope or stop fighting for them. I cant let those people down. Because if people like that exist, there is hope.
I felt the same way as you. I actually left America because of the crazies. During early covid, during the Delta phase. I had someone yell at me while I walked to my car because I was wearing a mask. Scariest shit I have ever felt.
I have to admit, before Covid i didn’t think people would be joining the war on disease on the side of disease in any meaningful numbers and yet here we are. I think we may be in decline as a civilization, not sure how that kind of brain rot is survivable.
It’s very survivable, the same way we’ve always survived - if you see a moron saying that sort of shit, punch them in the face.
Their heads are like rocks. You’ll just break your hand.
I still see “heroes work here” banners outside of healthcare facilities and nursing homes. I imagine a number of the low-paid and overworked staff say “fuck you, pay me more” every time they drive by too.
What was really annoying was other industries saying the same thing. There was a laundry that had “heros work here” on their sign, as if they were anywhere near the same level.
No. This is the wrong thinking imo.
I worked/work for a hospital Trust here in the UK. Any job that brings you within close proximity to other people had a quantifiable risk. Hindsight is great and all that, but in the early days of any pandemic you dont know what you can touch safely, where you can breath safely. Our Government tried to bail some out, but not everyone can get help or close shop. Anyone who was afraid and still struggled through it gets my respect.
That’s the thing everyone who had to stay at work in public took a considerable risk, liki the employees at the grocery store. They deserve a lot of praise, and no one cares.
They deserve praise and a living wage
Imagine having to go to work every day knowing you’re risking your life and making at best just above minimum wage.
I asked someone in the industry once that exact same thing, and the answer I got back was basically you don’t do this job for the money, you do it for the people.
Now granted, being able to pay your mortgage would take some stress off you, especially when you get so much stress at work, but still, a lot of people do it for non-income reasons.
And for the record, them (and teachers, while we are at it) should be paid a lot more than they do get paid.
Just the extra money on top of the standard unemployment was significantly more income than they made by saying at work too.
I created an extremely awkward silence at work when someone was like “are you all clapping at 7pm?” (Because there was a thing where people could clap and cheer for workers at 7pm?), and I said “if you really care, you could give them money. They need that more than claps”.
Silence.
These were all software developers working safely from home making six figures.
They’ll all be there with thoughts and prayers… and apparently claps. I mean, I know that’s what “I” do whenever someone wants money from me… I’ll think about them, pray I’m never in that circumstance, and clap for them. Seems to help.
That’s sarcasm… for anyone instantly seething and spitting foam.
The awkward silence is because they know that clapping is not doing anything useful.
It’s got to be pretty god damn insulting for sure.
both sides, and I truly mean it
Did you know that there was a specific pandemic response team established as part of the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit by the Obama administration in 2015? And that that team was eliminated and its staff reassigned by the Trump administration in 2018?
It’s thus true that the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic and did not replace it, eliminating Ziemer’s position and reassigning others, although Bolton was the executive at the top of the National Security Council chain of command at the time.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/
In May 2018, the team was disbanded and its head Timothy Ziemer, top White House official in the NSC for leading U.S. response against a pandemic, left the Trump administration, the Washington Post reported ( here ). Some members of the global health and security team were merged into other units within the NSC, the article said.
[…]
There is disagreement over how to describe the changes at the NSC’s Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense in 2018. The departure of some members due to “streamlining” efforts under John Bolton is documented. The “pandemic response team” as a unit was largely disbanded.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN21C32C/
Since COVID-19 exploded in the states, both Vice President Mike Pence as head of the coronavirus task force, and Jared Kushner, have somewhat stepped into the role. But there has yet to be a whole-of-government mobilization, as Monaco described. Instead, the response has been ad hoc, shifting day to day depending on the mood of the president who has refused to accept that the buck stops with him.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/trump-obama-coronavirus-pandemic-response
The Democratic party established a team specifically intended to respond to crises such as COVID-19. The Republican party removed it to cut costs.
Sorry, what I mean is you’re all insufferable arseholes, and being right doesn’t change that. Just hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils without the smugness. Not to single you out especially, mind.
I’d rather vote for the candidate/party that has a demonstrated track record of trying to improve the functioning of the government and plan ahead for problems, rather than the candidate/party with a track record of obstructionism and no plans to improve anything.
And you should go ahead and do that, of course. Without the self-congratulatory webcomics. They aren’t helping matters.
So… does that mean you’re abandoning your original “both sides” position, or what?
The goalposts are moving a bit too fast for me to keep up.
They aren’t helping matters.
Neither is the Republican party.
I genuinely find “both sides” as annoying as each other. It pains me to technically be on one of those sides.
Don’t. They’ll just dogpile you. These are not deep thinkers here.
No, we just want to stop people from believing in witchcraft. There’s a difference.
That’s what every witchburner ever says. Every single one.
You think people who killed those accused of being witches didn’t believe in witchcraft? Really?
I think you need to read about the Malleus Maleficarum, the official witch-finding manual. It it says witches are able to do magic because they are in league with the devil.
Christ, you people will grasp at any straw, no matter how slim. You are shameless.
The official manual for finding and burning witches saying magic is real is grasping at straws when you claim that witch burners don’t believe in witchcraft? That’s a very strange claim.
Sir you are being the idiot from the comic
This would be funny if it wasn’t so fucking true.
Hurts too much to make me laugh.
I agree with it, of course, but this oddly feels like a blatant internet friendly propaganda piece, it makes me a little uncomfortable.
The truth is uncomfortable
