Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Springfield, Attleboro: hair salon, frugal, entry level)

[rach5]

There is a story of someone (actually, an American working in a hotel for American military) who violated quarantine in Germany by barhopping while waiting for her test results.. Caused a huge cluster of infections. She is facing a 2000 Euro fine and civil and criminal penalties, including a possible prison sentence (I have no idea if they will take it that far).

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by bohemka

I'm really tired of this term. Perhaps it means something through other economic or financial lenses, but the vast majority of people in this country are barely scraping by. And our social infrastructure is nearly nonexistent and deteriorating by the day. You probably hinted at the same thing and I missed the sarca

True, because we have systematic wealth distribution from the working classes to the very wealthy.

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

Agreed, though I suspect we have different visions of what the end goal looks like.

Just a functional first world nation. That's all I want. Not spending more per capita, for less, as we do with our health care system, legal system, etc. You know, fiscal sanity.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Just a functional first world nation. That's all I want. Not spending more per capita, for less, as we do with our health care system, legal system, etc. You know, fiscal sanity.

I'd be happy with politicians who recognize healthcare is inelastic ... you know ... like Heritage and Romney did back in the early 2000s. Little did I know those would be the 'good ol' days' for moderate fiscal conservatives such as myself. Where we ended up ... just ... sigh.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

I'd be happy with politicians who recognize healthcare is inelastic ... you know ... like Heritage and Romney did back in the early 2000s. Little did I know those would be the 'good ol' days' for moderate fiscal conservatives such as myself. Where we ended up ... just ... sigh.

True. There used to be true fiscal conservatives, including those against wasteful military spending. Long gone.


I used to be a big fan of people like Al Simpson. I worked for him once in a project, would have run through a wall for him.


The pro "conserve" outdoor space and the environment crowd (for the sporting community) part of conservatism is long gone too.

Originally Posted by Bridge781

The kid was in high school. Have parents become so ridiculous that high school kids can’t stay home alone now?

Originally Posted by Bridge781

This shouldn’t have had anything to do with anyone’s PTO time. The high school kid should have stayed home. Throw them on the couch and put a movie on and go to work if you must.

HELLO. Did you not pick up on the fact that this kid had a positive test, SO, his parents were exposed and should have been quarantining? There unwillingness or inability to do so very well may be affected by lack of PTO. Independent of this particular situation, our crap azz system is causing this decision to be made across households across the entire nation.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by timberline742

HELLO. Did you not pick up on the fact that this kid had a positive test, SO, his parents were exposed and should have been quarantining? There unwillingness or inability to do so very well may be affected by lack of PTO. Independent of this particular situation, our crap azz system is causing this decision to be made across households across the entire nation.

There's also just very little protection for workers compared to other first world nations. Even if you have PTO, people are reluctant to use it for fear of it coming back to bite them.



One of the things I hope stays true after the pandemic is employers enforcing a stay-at-home-if-sick rule. The number of times I've had coworkers who had to be heroes and come to work while they had a cold or the flu... And while you might be able to tough through a mild cold, that often turns to bronchitis or pleurisy for me or sends my boss's medically fragile daughter to the ER. We get plenty of time off - far more than the average American - and are encouraged to stay home when sick but so many people are traumatized from past work experiences and think their job is at risk if they take a sick day.


There's no need for people to go to work sick when they could rest, recover faster, and keep their germs to themselves. Yet so many businesses leave no redundancies to cover their employees' workloads or discourage time off or working from home when sick if possible.

[mdovell]

I would argue that most of the country that is being denied state does get by. Granted just because we have a program that does not necessarily mean that it's glamorous. Public housing and homeless shelters are not luxury housing. The basics of what we have is already established. We don't have starvation in this country but we do have a serious obesity problem. I'm not saying that it is easy to lose weight. Everybody has clothes, everybody has access to water and everybody has some food.

Now having said that food can be subjective about whether or not it's junk food and if you live in a food desert. Access of fresh fruits and vegetables is not always the shirt especially more remote areas. With respect to water not all communities have fluoride and that might not sound like much at first but you try telling that to a family of four with two kids have to get prices at $5,000 each. just like everybody has electricity but not everybody has direct access to 220. Why is that important well if you want to drive some type of electric car that's going to certainly help with charging.

we have Romneycare, we have Obamacare so I think I covered might not necessarily be the issue but as we continue to see millions of people that still smoke and millions that still eat junk food and millions that don't exercise.

With Healthcare being part of Health you have to look at the whole thing. I live in Springfield and I can go outside and walk and much of the area with ease. There are sidewalks and Street Lighting and bike Lanes. There are bosses for elderly people as well as fixed-route public transit. There's also farmers markets that go on year round. then add an access to two of some of the largest Healthcare systems in the the state and it adds up.

Didn't someone get predict this with the kid months back?

I'm not condoning the behavior but I think that some of this can be predicted. If you got parents that both have it and they don't have the real means to take care of the kid and work. The vaccine is easily months away and herd immunity isn't viable.

[Bridge781]

We really have no idea what the parents situation is. I cannot fathom anyone getting corona and being afraid of taking time off. It would be illegal for a company to fire someone for needing to take time off. For all we know these parents had jobs where they were working from home. And who cares what the parents situation is? It’s the kid who should have been staying home. A 9th grader is normally 14 or 15, maybe they were even older. They should babe been able to stay home alone. It’s common decency and manners. Stop making excuses for it. None of them gave a damn about exposing hundreds of others.

And yes these situations will make it hard to move anything forward.

[Bridge781]

Zoom nightmare:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bos...tputType%3Damp

[rach5]

The 7 year old who has tested positive, with a single parent who will lose their job if they miss work yet again? It will happen over and over again. It will be even worse when they've tested, but haven't been notified yet.
But this was high school. It was the first day of school, and they probably didn't want the kid to miss it. Super selfish to be willing to potentially start an outbreak and kill people to get your first day of school. But that's where we are at in this country, unfortunately.

[jtolpin]

NE students who got expelled for the semester (Or year?) are getting most of their money back now.

Taunton zoom call is awful.