We've come out of our 4th lockdown . . . anyone else?

[petra4]

Melbourne, a State of Australia has had more lockdowns compared to any other states. Wondering if any other States &/or other Countries are experiencing the same . . . ?

 

[Snorrie]

In the U.S. lockdowns, have produced a new work mode, i.e.: work from home. Many folks do not want to return to the daily commute and the office "nonsense, stupid meetings, and management aggravations". The result has been an increase in the sundry non urban housing market and an influx of money, job skills and businesses into suburban areas. Of course the 2020 summer riots, the increase in criminal activity, lack of law enforcement, and political turmoil hastened the process. New York City and other cities are now neither places to visit, nor to live, nor to do business and definitely not places to raise a family for average people.

 

[petra4]

In the U.S. lockdowns, have produced a new work mode, i.e.: work from home. Many folks do not want to return to the daily commute and the office "nonsense, stupid meetings, and management aggravations". The result has been an increase in the sundry non urban housing market and an influx of money, job skills and businesses into suburban areas. Of course the 2020 summer riots, the increase in criminal activity, lack of law enforcement, and political turmoil hastened the process. New York City and other cities are now neither places to visit, nor to live, nor to do business and definitely not places to raise a family for average people.

Yes, lockdowns have affected the way we now live . . . unsure if in the long term, it will be better or worse?

 

[petra4]

The country's rail, road and air services were suspended in March to stop infections into the country's interior, but the case numbers have risen daily. Officials say the spread of the disease would be worse if without the stringent restrictions.
Deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, have reached 2,293 while the number of cases crossed 70,000, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday. A fifth of India's cases come from the densely populated cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune, which are also major centres of economic activity.

Yes, I've been taking note of what countries and its numbers. The worst being India and Brazil.

 

[petra4]

It is not an easy time, uncertainty may keep you up longer than usual at night, but it is useful to meet yourself for real, to understand you are lonely but not alone. And to be sure that when everything is over, we will take care of the things that matter with greater consciousness.

You'd hope that it will shed light into a different perspective.

 

[Roj5]

Melbourne, a State of Australia has had more lockdowns compared to any other states. Wondering if any other States &/or other Countries are experiencing the same . . . ?

Hard to quantify numbers as have 4no. lockdowns of days-weeks cannot really be compared to parts of the UK that have been in a single lockdown for neigh on 300 days for a single stretch.

 

[petra4]

Hard to quantify numbers as have 4no. lockdowns of days-weeks cannot really be compared to parts of the UK that have been in a single lockdown for neigh on 300 days for a single stretch.

300 days for a single stretch . . . you must ALL be going through hell

 

[SamHerren9]

In Texas here. We had a half-lockdown here, in that people were encouraged to work from home if possible and restaurants and bars were very limited capacity for many months. After roughly (not sure the real number) 6-8 months of bars being shut down and restaurants limited to carry out only, the restrictions began to ease. for a couple months restaurants were at 25% capacity, then 50%, etc. gyms and movie theatres were closed for the same period. Everything has been back open for several months now and is back to normal. You still occasionally see someone wearing a mask. You still find that rare holdout store somewhere that has a sign requiring people to mask up, but people inside that store mostly don't have masks. I think here in Texas the general attitude is that we are done destroying our lives and economy for a virus whose mortality rate is less than 1%. My job, in particular is delivering materials to the big hospitals in Houston, and I can tell you that all through the Pandemic it was super creepy walking through a mostly empty building that used to be so busy!! Very few staff, even fewer patients. OR empty, Recovery empty, Intensive Care empty! It was very strange. But about the time everything else opened back up, the hospitals have begun to be a bit more busy. Nothing like pre-covid though. I never had a day off and my job can't be done from home, so I was there to see the hospitals empty out and now slowly start to fill back up. During the middle of the pandemic I could drive the 45 miles from my side of Houston to the far north area (The Woodlands) in 40 minutes!! Now with traffic back to high levels it takes 1 hour 15 minutes again, depending on time of day. There are SOME things that I miss about the pandemic (having the streets almost empty)! It's hard for employers to find employees after the lockdown because some lazy people liked sucking up the government pay to sit at home. There's STILL a lot of restaurants looking for workers here. I can't imagine a 300 day lockdown. I think we would be rioting!

 

[petra4]

In Texas here. We had a half-lockdown here, in that people were encouraged to work from home if possible and restaurants and bars were very limited capacity for many months. After roughly (not sure the real number) 6-8 months of bars being shut down and restaurants limited to carry out only, the restrictions began to ease. for a couple months restaurants were at 25% capacity, then 50%, etc. gyms and movie theatres were closed for the same period. Everything has been back open for several months now and is back to normal. You still occasionally see someone wearing a mask. You still find that rare holdout store somewhere that has a sign requiring people to mask up, but people inside that store mostly don't have masks. I think here in Texas the general attitude is that we are done destroying our lives and economy for a virus whose mortality rate is less than 1%. My job, in particular is delivering materials to the big hospitals in Houston, and I can tell you that all through the Pandemic it was super creepy walking through a mostly empty building that used to be so busy!! Very few staff, even fewer patients. OR empty, Recovery empty, Intensive Care empty! It was very strange. But about the time everything else opened back up, the hospitals have begun to be a bit more busy. Nothing like pre-covid though. I never had a day off and my job can't be done from home, so I was there to see the hospitals empty out and now slowly start to fill back up. During the middle of the pandemic I could drive the 45 miles from my side of Houston to the far north area (The Woodlands) in 40 minutes!! Now with traffic back to high levels it takes 1 hour 15 minutes again, depending on time of day. There are SOME things that I miss about the pandemic (having the streets almost empty)! It's hard for employers to find employees after the lockdown because some lazy people liked sucking up the government pay to sit at home. There's STILL a lot of restaurants looking for workers here. I can't imagine a 300 day lockdown. I think we would be rioting!

Most of Australia are in lockdowns again . . . here in Melbourne, around 75% of office workers are still working from home. It's not back to normal as pre-COVID days .

 

[SamHerren9]

Why are y'all getting locked down again? Are there not vaccines available now over there? I'm sorry to be so ignorant of the issues there, but I'd like your perspective rather than what I hear on the news.

 

[petra4]

Why are y'all getting locked down again? Are there not vaccines available now over there? I'm sorry to be so ignorant of the issues there, but I'd like your perspective rather than what I hear on the news.

Here in Australia, regardless of what State you're living in (ie: NSW, VIC, SA etc), the AstraZeneca has caused people to get "blood clots". This is a "known" side affect which "some" people have had a reaction to . . . hence why people are reluctant to get the jab. Then the "other" vaccine is Pfizer which has a high success rate & few side affects . . . there is the problem!

Do I blame them? NO! Definitely not. I won't be having the COVID-19 jab regardless of AstraZeneca &/or Pfizer. I have my own personal reasons for this . . .

 

[neilb]

It's hard for employers to find employees after the lockdown because some lazy people liked sucking up the government pay to sit at home.

There was and has been a threat of resurgence, so people have not seen a large enough reason to put themselves at that risk. The government pay is nowhere near enough to drive people to stay home on its own. If a single point needs to be marked as responsible, blame the antivax/antimask crowd for continuing to devalue human life and encouraging the spread of the virus instead of helping the country become an island of health where people would feel more comfortable with going out and working again.

 

[petra4]

There was and has been a threat of resurgence, so people have not seen a large enough reason to put themselves at that risk. The government pay is nowhere near enough to drive people to stay home on its own. If a single point needs to be marked as responsible, blame the antivax/antimask crowd for continuing to devalue human life and encouraging the spread of the virus instead of helping the country become an island of health where people would feel more comfortable with going out and working again.

You do have a valid point . . . BUT, then people are complaining of not earning any form of income. It's already starting here

 

[petra4]

Lockdowns will continue as long as vaccination programs are lagging. We got out of our 3rd lockdown but a 4th one is being felt as likely in a few weeks partly because the vaccination program has been losing steam. I wish people cared more about each other. There's really no other way to end the pandemic and iterative lockdowns than vaccines. They have been shown to be effective by themselves, and more recently when mixed up. Side effects are scarce (although highly covered by media for some reason).
I fear that we will stuck at 50% vaccination nationally and will keep getting lockdowns for years.
NB: there is no chip in the vaccines and Bill Gates couldn't care less about watching other people lol please relax about vaccine side effects. 💌

Victoria, Australia will be easing restrictions on Friday, 9 July 2021. States such as NSW have gone into further lockdown (harsher restrictions). It's a yo-yo for everyone.

As for vaccine side effects, sorry but I can relate to people having concerns. Yes, although it may be rare BUT what happens if you were "that 1 person" that it did happen to? How would you feel?

 

[petra4]

Unless Australia gets its vaccination programme sorted you will keep getting lock down after lockdown. The UK will hopefully say goodbye to lockdowns after 19th July. There are over 80% of adults vaccinated already

Yes, I've heard this on our news reports a couple of days ago . . . well done to the UK

 

[Herman]

I live in Michigan and honestly we only had one lockdown that lasted maybe 6 months.I am sorry for you folks the politicians here have decided there's no advantages of lockdowns

 

[Snorrie]

The "unintended consequences", at least in my part of the NY, of politically motivated lockdowns, vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination/restriction protocols, have been a demand for increased wages, better working conditions, a shortage of workers, the re-location of small/medium sized businesses out of cities, and in general, political and social animosity. ....... All for controlling a laboratory made pandemic virus with a mortality between 1% to 2% on average. 2022 should be an interesting year.

 

[Hayseed]

The "unintended consequences", at least in my part of the NY, of politically motivated lockdowns, vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination/restriction protocols, have been a demand for increased wages, better working conditions, a shortage of workers, the re-location of small/medium sized businesses out of cities, and in general, political and social animosity. ....... All for controlling a laboratory made pandemic virus with a mortality between 1% to 2% on average. 2022 should be an interesting year.

Roger on 2022 being an interesting year. I think the media here in the states, will divert from reporting so much on the virus. I'm thinking the 2022 story will be inflation. The media likes to hype the virus, but I believe the inflation will cause much more damage. And not just economic damage, probably a lot of political damage. November will be interesting.

Another year of flame, blame and shame. It's quite something to witness.

There is a bright spot. If everything goes alright, by June, we should have new IR images from Webb, which should provide a delightful diversion. And of lot of scientific squabble. I love the explanations. 2022 will also have many space launches for many experiments and programs. Hundreds, if not thousands of shoe box sats too. I wonder how many and how long, we can go with all these objects, before we get a collision. Or possibly a chain collision.

We should also get some court decisions for the mandates. This might help getting back to work. And we might get more accurate numbers about the virus, and hopefully change some of these current strategies.

But, I'm afraid we're about to see some terribly high inflation rates. And they have not spent all the emergency virus money yet. Some might even want to ease the coming crunch, with more government emergency handouts.

Hang on. And I have not mentioned foreign affairs. Much of the world is tied to us.

It will be a cluster, for sure.

 

[Roj5]

But, I'm afraid we're about to see some terribly high inflation rates.

Which developed countries aren't? ... The impact to science could be a bad one indeed further than 2022.

 

[Snorrie]

The perspective on the covid-19 pandemic seems to be a pervasive fear by governments that the virus will mutate into a variant which has marked increased morbidity and mortality. It is best to talk candidly with one's health care provider about the virus and taking the vaccine and boosters. There are adjunct issues, economic, social and political, which are unique to specific nations, and which may have global consequences, e.g.: supply chain trade issues. IMO, protection of self and family from any untoward effects of the covid-19 virus/variants should be the paramount priority. The sundry issues of the American political circus as well as that of other nations should be the concerns of those directly involved. If economic impact issues including inflation and goods shortages are a concern, I recommend "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell and "Making Poor Nations Rich" by. Stanford Economics and Finance which may explain why some Americans figuratively want to "Brass Knuckle" some of their politicians.

 

[Roj5]

I'm sorry to be so ignorant of the issues there, but I'd like your perspective rather than what I hear on the news.

The poor and poorly educated have been hit disproportionately hard with groups demanding more help and support. However, these groups push back on the help and support believing there to be a conspiracy against them....
I would take the news over conspiracy theory sites.... I assume you already have your position regardless?