So we look like the standoff-ish pricks
DH got stopped by some of our neighbors today and asked if we were upset with them. They are an older couple (just younger than our parents ages) who think that because we keep backing away from them (they keep coming way too close) that we are upset.
DH explained that we are trying to do the social distancing thing with everyone, it's not that we are trying to stay away from just them. Then DH went on to tell me that he was chatting (an appropriate distance) from another neighbor who mentioned that in three houses around us they were letting their kids play together regularly because the one doctor in one of the houses said it was okay. Um, and that neighbor's wife takes the wife of the older couple for a walk to give the husband a break (the wife has early onset Alzheimers), and another neighbor and her daughter were in the older couple's yard doing yardwork. Great! But then the couple came out and they all talked way too close together.
Plus the older couple has never been the cleanest and now with the wife having Alzheimers I think they are able to get her to bathe once a week and I'm doubting she washes her hands.
DH and I aren't going to change what we are doing other than maybe not show up to the nightly neighbor checkin as much. I think he's been trying to make that happen by suggesting we take the dog out around that time.
- ITB2012's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Comments
Omg... I honestly don’t
Omg... I honestly don’t understand this. The older neighbour with Alzheimer’s is one thing, but how can that many other fully functioning adults simply not grasp what’s happening right now? The United States has 337,000 confirmed cases already, a 200,000 lead on any other country in the world. And people still think it’s a hoax?
Can I ask what the media has been saying about COVID in America? Are they downplaying it? Or are people just buying into what Trump has been saying? I don’t understand that mentality, I really don’t.
I’m so glad you & your DH are smarter than your neighbours are being at the moment. Thank you for doing your part & further distancing from these people.
President Trump
has not been saying this is to be taken lightly. Quite the opposite. Unlike San Fran Nan, who was encouraging people as late as February to go to Chinatown and mingle for the Chinese New Year just to go contrary to the White House. Now she and her party have changed their tune.
The fact is that Covid is highly contageous, yet not a death sentence EXCEPT for those with underlying conditions, usually the elderly. For most it is 2 weeks of being ill with the flu but then recovering.
Countries with a high population of elderly, rationed healthcare, and leaders who were telling people to fight "xenophobia" by not practicing social distancing early on are now counting practically all deaths as "Covid related" so as to get more funding from agencies like the WHO.
The doom and gloom Western media are whipping people up into hysteria, not prudence.
Not all elderly folks stay glued to Cable News nor read the newspaper other than to do the crossword puzzle. And why haven't the elderly couple's family been reinforcing social distancing? I'm sure they have a telephone.
Was trump not just saying he
Was trump not just saying he wanted the country open by Easter? I don’t wish to make this political, if my information is incorrect I’m happy to admit that.
I don’t agree, however, that this is all doom & gloom perpetrated by the media. As for countries counting nearly all deaths as covid related for more funding from WHO, can you provide a credible source for that information?
I have no idea why the elderly’s family haven’t been practicing social distancing, I’m honestly gobsmacked by anyone who’s choosing to put themselves & others at risk right now. I’m not buying into fear mongering BS, I choose to get information from credible sources. It helps that my husband works with epidemiologists & is surrounded by COVID information from real, credible sources, not media sources who always have a bias or an angle & can misrepresent facts to sell a story.
A quick Google search
Provides plenty of articles on all the ways Trump and his minions have spread disinformation about this virus. Not to mention cutting safety nets, spreading disinformation and then inexplicably putting Kushner into a role where he is literally taking key health care leaders away from the fight to brainstorm based on his half baked uninformed ideas.
From a few days ago: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/22/politics/fact-ch...
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5e89201ac5b6cc1e4776a857
Its not political. It's facts. There are idiots of all political persuasions.
Some people are just selfish, uneducated people happy to think they know more than epidemiologists do.
I have close family in healthcare fighting on the front lines so this is personal for me.
For anyone who cannot figure out stay home? It's unconscionable. Those people are putting lives at risk.
I genuinely don’t understand
I genuinely don’t understand how people can believe they know more than scientists who study infectious disease for a living. Ignoring their advice is absolutely unconscionable, I completely agree.
I have friends on the front line, and know several people who’ve tested positive already, one who ended up in hospital next to an individual who sadly passed away from the virus. Another friend’s 5 month old baby tested positive, she recovered thankfully but it was a horribly scary time for their family. Another bloke who tested positive has been self isolating for weeks with his family, save for his trips to the supermarket, and still managed to catch it.
Another man I grew up with is a microbiologist & is working with his team to find a way to test for antibodies for this, it’s largely personal for me as well. Also a large reason I refuse to use any news source for information & stick to credible sources instead. ‘News’ can always be manipulated, their job is to make money above all else & will sell a story however they see fit.
I don’t understand why people think they are smarter than the experts, I really don’t. If they were only affecting themselves that would be one thing, but they’re putting everyone else in harms way with their actions. It’s horrifically selfish, and sad.
Hope and optimism would be
Hope and optimism would be great. But we aren't getting that. We are getting arrogance and ignorance. And the confusing, contradictory messages coming from the White House certainly don't help with the like minded who are more than happy to take his false claims and run with them.
He wants the ECONOMY opened by Easter and he doesn't care how many of the sheeple have to die to get there.
Wow, that went sideways ;)
This has nothing to do with politics or who is/is not panicked.
DH and I are not panicked. I actually went over with him what we are doing because I was curious, with so many immediate neighbors not doing what we are doing, if we are overboard. I don't think so. We do not have a stockpile of anything other than dishsoap and that's only because we truly ran out and the only thing I could get that didn't take two months of waiting was a case of it off Amazon. We are rarely going to the store, try to buy food for two weeks at a time, we go out for walks, and we have had multiple web meetings with family and friends. We have homemade masks if we need them, and we move to be away from people. Our family and friends are doing the same---except for some of the elderly members.
DH had to have a talk with his parents and I had to yell at my mother since they were not doing any of it initially. They have gotten better now that all their kids have jumped on them.
And not all the neighbors are doing what I explained. We have a very close group on our block, and further down other neighbors are doing the same as we are. I think it's because DH and I are directly across from this couple and they don't see us during the day (we both WFH) and they can see us being extra careful to move away from all these neighbors, including them, that we now realize are interacting more than is recommended, that they (well, he, the husband) thinks that we were mad at them.
DH said he had to hold his hand up when the husband did come over to talk to stop the guy from coming closer. I don't think the other neighbors are doing that, which we also find bothersome.
We don't work directly in the medical field but we are adjacent to it, both of us, so we see things that are going on and have information from sources most people do not.
My hope after all this
Is we, collectively, realize what a small world this is and are more careful. We slow down.
AND that we realize who has the important jobs in the world and pay those people accordingly. Maybe we also discover that the highest paid people don't need that high of pay anymore.
This is my hope as well. I’d
This is my hope as well. I’d love to see a world where the truly important jobs are recognized, people are paid genuinely livable wages, and healthcare receives the funding & support it needs.
And I apologize for mentioning your president at all, I had no intention of making things political or derailing your post.