What a post-vaccine world looks like for seniors. Or not. (friends, family)

[Mikala43]

Pretty passive list. Telmed? GPS? None of it is any biggie. Sure, we may not travel out of the country for years to come, but there is plenty of travel to do in the US.

I'm pretty flexible. If all you have is XYZ, learn to have fun with XYZ.

[BJW50]

The biggest changes were not going out the casino every Wed, not having my grandsons and my wife not being do her social groups. We go to the grocery store once a week and we have been eating at the deli. It's inside the store and the store is big and dispersed. I don't understand why we can't pour our coffee or get our jelly packets. The CDC says surface transmission is not a big risk.Maybe unless a person licks the coffee pot.

[dav51lin]

lots of things ill never do or wont for a long time if ever do now fly a cruise movie theater concerts go out to dinner bars sports events any crowded confined places

[Zephyr2]

The most annoying thing right now is all the celebrating on social media and in the news about the "opening" of some crowded indoor place that will certainly become a spreader of disease. A few nearby restaurants have already had to reclose after infections spread amongst the staff, but who knows how many patrons were infected? Schools will be the next super spreader sites. I read today about one school that hasn't reopened yet, but already has five confirmed cases among the transportation people who are preparing to open.

[MarisaAnna]

Originally Posted by jrkliny

I am not sure what you are saying about the malls. Some old people used to meet and use the malls for morning walking exercise. Otherwise malls were mainly for vain women to buy clothing and young people to strut. I am not sure I ever understood how the stores survived.

Well I am in Australia and so I suppose there is a cultural difference. Our malls are rarely used for walking exercises as we can generally walk outside all year round. But malls are full of coffee shops and casual restaurants which are perfect for older people to meet and catch up. I met a friend yesterday in the food court of a smaller mall as we could sit for an hour and a half over a coffee. Older people visit malls for the beauty shops, banks, building societies, health fund offices, post offices, dry cleaners, pharmacies, newsagents who also sell lotto and raffle tickets, supermarkets, fruit shops, butchers, fish shops. delis, cake shops, toy shops, book shops, florists. To name a few.

[TakingItEasy]

Gotta wonder how the post-COVID has changed us. Are we going to be less social? More germaphobic? Are we going to produce a new generation of OCDs? Will we trust other nations' ever again?

Will be learn from this and react accordingly as soon as the epidemic warning signs appear rather than being apathetic and pretending the problem doesn't exist and will magically disappear?

I think I'll forever be more reclusive after all of this and keep away from large groups of people. This is significant as I'm an avid attender of live sports of every kind, concerts, etc.

[jrkliny]

Originally Posted by MarisaAnna

Well I am in Australia......

Older people visit malls for the beauty shops, banks, building societies, health fund offices, post offices, dry cleaners, pharmacies, newsagents who also sell lotto and raffle tickets, supermarkets, fruit shops, butchers, fish shops. delis, cake shops, toy shops, book shops, florists. To name a few.

The malls near me are different. No beauty shops, no banks, no post offices, no dry cleaners, no pharmacies, no supermarkets, no fruit shops, no butchers, no fish shops, no florists...to name a few. Mall space has been expensive so these types of stores are located elsewhere. The elsewhere is typically what we call a strip mall which is a line of stores located on a major street. Strip malls are not gathering places. There are no covered walking areas, no food courts, no places to sit or congregate.

The closest mall to my house is about 2 miles away. I have not been inside it for well over a year before Covid, so make that a year and a half at least. The mall was suffering before Covid. The two major stores were Sears and Penneys. The Sears store was closed and vacant before Covid. I have no idea if Penneys is still open but no one shopped there and it was dying a slow death. Most of the stores that remain are clothing stores, more specifically women's clothing stores.

BTW, the strip malls have not been doing well either. Vacancy rates are high.

Personally I think the trend toward online buying will continue, except for probably women's clothing. Even the grocery stores have way less business. For a tip and a small premium, food can be chosen online and delivered within a few hours. I have been doing the same with Home Depot and bulk items from Costco and BJs. We were already big users for Amazon. Prices are typically less even with delivery. In addition the choices are huge and you cannot find most items in local stores.

[Charlie&Rose]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I don't buy it either. People who are younger and healthier will need to get their act together and realize that they need to do a few reasonable things like wearing masks and practice social distancing probably for quite awhile after there is a vaccine in order to protect not only older people but people who have underlying conditions that make them just as vulnerable to the virus as seniors.

60% of all adults have at least one chronic health condition 40% have more than one. 39.6% are obese. That's too many people to keep locked up in their house and have food dropped off on their porch. And if you were to try to you wouldn't have enough doctors for even the healthy younger people because 38% of physicians are over 60 and 10.8% are over 70. Or I guess we could do what Sweden did and if an old person has Covid and has trouble breathing give them a cocktail of morphine, haldol and midazolam and euthanize them At least that way all the young people won't have to worry about not being able to party

Once there is a vaccine....why is there a need for mask??

[TheShadow]

Originally Posted by thinkalot

The FDA and CDC say you most likely won't get it from touching something. So the whole disinfecting thing isn't likely to happen. They do it now so they can say they are doing something.

I doubt if 45% of the people leave the country. Maybe in their lifetime.

I agree. I'd like to know their source for this data point. I found figures stating that 93 million Americans traveled abroad last year, and more than half of that was to Mexico and Canada. Since there are over 325 million people, that's less than 30% international travelers.

[TakingItEasy]

Originally Posted by marcandme

Once there is a vaccine....why is there a need for mask??

heard the vaccine may only be 50% effective --- not sure which media source - but if you look at effectiveness rate of the annual FLU vaccination, wouldn't be surprised.