Coronavirus

[Knight of Time]

Congrats dude! Mr Becki put a baby in me also (sounds creepier this way around?! XD)

I am due in early March. I hope Mrs Heald is doing okay. I know I’m totally done with hormones and I’ve got so long to go.

lol, is it baby season here on TPM? Congratulations to you too ChobiChibi!

[Mr.E]

meanwhile, it is physically impossible for me to even find a woman willing to spend 30 minutes over coffee getting to know me

[Drago]

this thread is now about babies and/or dating

[ChobiChibi]

Has anyone tried lockdown dating?! That must be a pain in the ass. “Sorry, can’t kiss you goodnight, 2m rule.”

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Here in Finland, we're experiencing some difficulties with keeping the 2 meters of distance; we're accustomed to keeping 4 meters of distance.

[Number1ChanseyFan]

this thread is now about babies and/or dating

LOL I guess that is only appropriate considering that I started the Coronavirus thread, and it somehow ended up going to babies/dating, since that is pretty much how my crazy mind works... where I start a sentence and where it ends up are usually 2 very different things and I never know how it got there in the first place... and it just seems to get worse the older I get...

Congrats, Heald and Becki!! ^_^ TPM is growing up

[Knight of Time]

I have an announcement that may surprise some of you...Donald Trump has coronavirus.

So what do you guys think? I honestly don't know what to say about his diagnosis, but I hope this comes as a huge wake-up call to him to stop being the idiot that he is.

[Fett One]

I have an announcement that may surprise some of you...Donald Trump has coronavirus.

So what do you guys think? I honestly don't know what to say about his diagnosis, but I hope this comes as a huge wake-up call to him to stop being the idiot that he is.

Part of me is hoping he gets it bad as karma for claiming it's a hoax and not dangerous and all of the lives that have been lost because of his stupidity in handling this situation.

One thing is for certain, him making fun of Biden for wearing masks at the debate is not going to age well.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

LOL I guess that is only appropriate considering that I started the Coronavirus thread, and it somehow ended up going to babies/dating, since that is pretty much how my crazy mind works... where I start a sentence and where it ends up are usually 2 very different things and I never know how it got there in the first place... and it just seems to get worse the older I get...

I can relate to that. You just don't have mental problems to use as a pretext, like I do

About Donald Trump, it was just a matter of time for him to get infected.

[Lady Vulpix]

First of all... Congratulations, Becki!

I am without a date too. Can't say the situation makes it easy to find one. And I'm not even talking about touching, how do you even find someone to talk to? Even if it's in the open and 2m apart.

Anyway... The number of active cases in my city appears to be decreasing, but the lethality rate is increasing, and that worries me. It's up to 3.1% now. And some people close to me have caught the virus. Most of them are better now, and one was terribly sick for days but is now slowly getting better. I hope she gets well.

And I agree with Mikachu, Trump was being reckless, so it made sense that he would catch the virus sooner or later. I would like to hope this experience will cause him to have some compassion for other people who are suffering from it, but this is Donald Trump we're talking about. He doesn't know the meaning of the word 'compassion'.

And Mikachu... Good one about the 4 meters.

[Zak]

Lockdown dating has been fine, it just added another layer of pre-date vetting.

Well, not really lockdown, more like pandemic dating. Lockdown here was back in March-June. Now just some bars and clubs are waiting for the vaccine.


So I'll probably get shit for this, but this is how I see it.
It's mainly large crowds and gatherings that seem to be a Covid hazard, and the way I see it, dating is one on one, not a group orgy. So the risk is the same as the risk of herpes and chlamydia. Of course, a conversation to take their word for it that they've been laying low and stuff, and them mine, and good to go. I don't care if they've been on other dates, not my business, just as long as they haven't been reckless.

But then there's also the other question of whether they have the same approach or mentality as me. Which is basically the above, but also, I'm not an "anti mask" person by any means - but if someone insists on a "socially distant/masked date" then no thanks, pass. For me that's a waste of time and kind of defeats the purpose. I know ChobiChibi probably meant it as a joke but there's really people who actually want to do that and somehow expect it to take off.
Luckily most people around here are realistic. I'll mask and distance at work (I work with the public), public establishments, public transportation and all - but if I'm meeting someone where the purpose is to hopefully connect and possibly become a 'bubble', then yes I'll take that risk. The biggest issue is that with those factors thrown in, it's a bit hard to have a clear idea of whether there's chemistry or not. It would just be one of those awkward "interview" dates.

[Lady Vulpix]

Mass gatherings are a high risk because it's statistically more likely that one or more people will have the virus, and if they do, they will spread it on to a large amount of people. But sharing a meal with one person who has the virus is very likely to get you infected, and then you'd pass it on to all the people with whom you have close contact.

[Zak]

Key word, has the virus. If both parties have been staying with the people they have close contact with and no one else, where does it come from? A ghost?

Well considering the whole purpose is to be someone they are considering the possibility of becoming one that they would have close contact with hopefully beyond "sharing a meal"... yeah.

I seriously feel bad for people who are overthinking this.

[Drago]

I seriously feel bad for the 1.14 million people who have died, but what do I know

[Lady Vulpix]

I agree with Drago. Especially since my brother and his wife have been as careful as they could and she still caught the virus at work - not sure whether or not my brother caught it because he was never tested - and two of my friends caught it too, and neither of them had attended any mass gatherings.

[Mr.E]

What many people of the take-every-precaution-and-then-some persuasion are not considering is that being starved of social interaction and intimacy is itself harmful to people. Universal masking is good. Shut down mass entertainment gatherings. Telling people they can't go out to eat, chill in their hole-in-the-wall dive bar that peaks at maybe 25 concurrent patrons on a good night, or date normally arguably puts people's mental health at risk as much as CV threatens one's physical health. CV isn't so threatening that I think it's worth some of the harder isolation/lockdown strategies.

[Drago]

With the high transmission rate though, dude?

If everyone adopts the same mindset of 'I probably don't have it', that's where the issues arise.

This shit would have been wiped out over half a year ago if people had just knuckled down for a short span of time, but no, people take liberties, and it keeps going.

[Heald]

Congrats dude! Mr Becki put a baby in me also (sounds creepier this way around?! XD)

I am due in early March. I hope Mrs Heald is doing okay. I know I’m totally done with hormones and I’ve got so long to go.

Aww congrats!

Mrs Heald is due just after Christmas. Getting real now!

[Zak]

What many people of the take-every-precaution-and-then-some persuasion are not considering is that being starved of social interaction and intimacy is itself harmful to people. Universal masking is good. Shut down mass entertainment gatherings. Telling people they can't go out to eat, chill in their hole-in-the-wall dive bar that peaks at maybe 25 concurrent patrons on a good night, or date normally arguably puts people's mental health at risk as much as CV threatens one's physical health. CV isn't so threatening that I think it's worth some of the harder isolation/lockdown strategies.

...And BOOM goes the dynamite.

With the high transmission rate though, dude?

If everyone adopts the same mindset of 'I probably don't have it', that's where the issues arise.

This shit would have been wiped out over half a year ago if people had just knuckled down for a short span of time, but no, people take liberties, and it keeps going.

The reason this is still going is because too many people are hosting and attending large gatherings, and not masking in public. Even with the high transmission rate - if everyone collectively stopped doing that, then we wouldn't have to worry about low-key one on one activities as much. I'm sure they would still find a way to blame them, but the rate of cases would already be low enough.

There are countries which have had the virus and now have 0 new cases and are still maintaining that.

[Drago]

Yes, and how do you think they got to those 0 cases? Through implementing lockdowns, as they did in New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan and most of Australia (it also worked in Victoria up until a state government faux pas triggered a second wave).

The likelihood of you, as an individual, catching COVID by going to your favourite bar or continued dating is low, however this virus is still contagious before any symptoms are shown. What seemed like 25 healthy people in a public space can easily turn to 5 people with COVID if one of them was unaware they were a carrier. So on, so forth.

Reintroducing social norms in a measured, staggered approach is plausible when the situation is under control, and for most countries, this is not the case. Put pessimistically, if you put the onus on the public to be more responsible and limit their activities, it will not work.

There are some exceptions, such as in Japan, but on a global scale, it's predominantly an outlier.

[shazza]

Yes, and how do you think they got to those 0 cases? Through implementing lockdowns, as they did in New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan and most of Australia (it also worked in Victoria up until a state government faux pas triggered a second wave).

You likely already know this, however it is worth noting that Melbourne's lockdown worked to bring the second wave down from a peak of 725 cases a day down to 0-1.

Lockdowns work. They stop the spread.

[ChobiChibi]

I have no problem with people wanting to be social but be careful about it. I’ve pretty much seen the same group of people distanced for the entire time where we’ve been allowed the “rule of 6” thing, and always respected the fact that they don’t wanna hug me, or they wanna sit further away, or that we wash our hands more. I work in a hospital. I see patients. I’m not giving covid to my friends because I’ve not been careful at work/out and about.

Small gatherings are enough to spread it. Someone I work with went out with friends, one of which was asymptomatic at the time, now has symptoms, so all of them have to isolate. That’s 5 respiratory trained physios no longer able to work because they weren’t careful when they were out.

Boris is apparently doing an announcement today (Saturday), so I expect he’ll be announcing a proper lockdown today. I’ll be a lot happier if he does, this week has been school holidays and getting into work has been a nightmare (I work in a city centre hospital). Parents, you don’t need to take your kids shopping just because it’s half term, and please, if you are, go home before the essential workers have to commute, thanks.

[Laalakyuo]

if we trace the trend of growth in the number of morbidity, then we can conclude that this pandemic will be for a long time and may not even end by itself

[Heald]

The problem here in the UK is the first lockdown was abandoned without ever bringing the infection rate below a meaningful level, and now the second lockdown is basically being ignored, no one in my area seems to really be paying attention to the fact we should not be going out unless strictly necessary. I have a letter from my boss that is allowing me to travel into London (as I am a regulated professional worker and therefore classed as key) but this is not being enforced at all. Police are breaking up groups of youths who meet up to party but doing absolutely nothing about anyone else clearly breaking the rules. A lack of enforcement and the fact that members of the government and the elite class in this country are all flouting the rules with zero consequences means the rest of the population is ignoring it too.

Basically, life here won't be going back to normal at all until a vaccine is rolled out, since the government has failed on every level to attempt to bring the infection rate down to a manageable level.

[Gary Oak]

Well, lucky for me coronavirus hasn't even come to Pallet Town, but if it does, I hope Ash catches it and not me!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Gary, that actually might make sense. Or not, how would I know. Is coronavirus a Pokemon? We all remember how, according to Showdown at the Po-ké Corral, you had caught more than 200 Pokemon from 60 different species.

My town has like 12 cases now.

[ChobiChibi]

The problem here in the UK is the first lockdown was abandoned without ever bringing the infection rate below a meaningful level, and now the second lockdown is basically being ignored, no one in my area seems to really be paying attention to the fact we should not be going out unless strictly necessary. I have a letter from my boss that is allowing me to travel into London (as I am a regulated professional worker and therefore classed as key) but this is not being enforced at all. Police are breaking up groups of youths who meet up to party but doing absolutely nothing about anyone else clearly breaking the rules. A lack of enforcement and the fact that members of the government and the elite class in this country are all flouting the rules with zero consequences means the rest of the population is ignoring it too.

Basically, life here won't be going back to normal at all until a vaccine is rolled out, since the government has failed on every level to attempt to bring the infection rate down to a manageable level.

I was going to reply that Bristol seems to be generally obeying the rules, but then people do stupid shit like protest against lockdown, walking past the very hospital that would end up treating them if they were seriously unwell (where I work). There was also a rave that look place that had around 700 people attend, one of which was a patient in my department who lied to my face about whether he’d had any contact with anyone with symptoms. How would he know? He waited until most of the way through his appointment to tell us this, we wouldn’t have treated him if he’d said at the beginning.

It’s been very bad. They’ve started pulling staff from outpatient physio to assist on wards. The hospital is completely full. There have been queues of ambulances at A&E because there’s nowhere for the patients to go. It is so much worse than last time. So much. I don’t even work with Covid patients and I’m exhausted, can’t imagine what it’s like for those that do.

[Lady Vulpix]

I'm really sorry to hear that, Becki. I hope this wave ends soon.

In the meantime, my country is relaxing its restrictions... Probably because there's not enough money to keep us going otherwise, but I still find it scary.

[Heald]

Aww congrats!

Mrs Heald is due just after Christmas. Getting real now!

Baby Heald born at the weekend, all safe & happy, not sure whether to get him a Pokemon or MLP baby-gro first. Hope your pregnancy is going well Becki!

[Knight of Time]

Heald, allow me to be the first to say congratulations on the birth of your son! You gonna post some pics of him for us to see?

[Fett One]

Baby Heald born at the weekend, all safe & happy, not sure whether to get him a Pokemon or MLP baby-gro first. Hope your pregnancy is going well Becki!

Congrats!!!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Congratulations! That's exactly the kind of relief we need at times like these.

[Drago]

Baby Heald born at the weekend, all safe & happy, not sure whether to get him a Pokemon or MLP baby-gro first. Hope your pregnancy is going well Becki!

Sappy stuff first: congratulations, dude. You're a fucking fighter and a legend, and I'm so happy for you.

Important stuff now: please tell me Baby Heald will be undertaking the 'pick your starter challenge'. If he chooses anything other than Bulbasaur, know that I do not approve.

[ChobiChibi]

Congrats! Glad to hear everything went well! I already have a Pikachu and Charmander grow, nerdy friends bought as a gift a while ago! He needs something Rainbowdash. End of. No discussion needed.

Everything going smoothly so far, finished work yesterday for Maternity Leave, I’m 35 weeks now, so not long to go! Seeing a consultant at 38 weeks to see how I’m doing, they might induce me because of the arthritis I have (effects lower back and pelvis).

Tony, I definitely have Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle plushies already... Will let you know the results of this.

[Lady Vulpix]

Congratulations, Heald and family!!

And ChobiChibi, I hope everything goes well.

[Heald]

Thank you all!

And yes, the starter choice is gonna definitely be crucial...gotta be Bulbasaur though, boy is basically a weed plant on dinosaur legs.

[Shadow Wolf]

Ah.. covid, friends and babies. I did miss TPM after all.

Don't let fear stop you guys from doing what you have to do, but of course, take the necessary precautions to stay safe.

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Speaking of babies, mine is going on 6 months already. Time is flying for me.

[Number1ChanseyFan]

Heald: Congrats on your new baby!!

Louis: Congrats to you too, great picture too, your baby is beautiful!! <3 Good to see you back!! ^_^

Becki: Congrats, and hopefully everything goes easy for you down the home stretch!!

TPM is growing up!! I am feeling both nostalgic and kinda old LOL

[Shadow Wolf]

Heald: Congrats on your new baby!!

Louis: Congrats to you too, great picture too, your baby is beautiful!! <3 Good to see you back!! ^_^

Becki: Congrats, and hopefully everything goes easy for you down the home stretch!!

TPM is growing up!! I am feeling both nostalgic and kinda old LOL

Thank you Christen. Just trying to be a bit active again. And how have you been?

[Number1ChanseyFan]

Thank you Christen. Just trying to be a bit active again. And how have you been?

I am doing ok, personally i am kinda glad to be able to put the year 2020 behind me, it was definitely an up and down year, not just counting the virus lol. But yeah i am definitely trying to be more active again too... it is so good to see you again, i definitely miss the old days when we were all here!!