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Originally Posted by biggerboat
There are so many levels of suck with this. This is one of the worst. I completely get where you are coming from on all of this.
At the facility my wife works at, it is almost total shutdown. The residents aren't allowed family to visit them, and all of the community areas are shut. So, they are basically confined to their rooms 24/7. Sometimes I wonder if that is worse than the possibility of getting it - which some are anyway since the staff is still bringing it in.
I've actually given this quite a bit of thought, probably because of reading your blog. It's certainly not productive but for some reason fairly fascinating to think of what an awful situation assisted living folk are in. I believe in some (maybe even many) individual cases, much more freedom is probably better for specific individuals.
However, if regulations are not as strict as possible, the risk of death within the next year skyrockets. I haven't tried to look at data specific to this group but I wouldn't be shocked if it's some kind of sick coinflip whether people in assisted living can even survive COVID. Still, if someone is in assisted living, the life duration and quality of future life they are risking is fairly finite. So throwing the dice is not only tempting but may actually be better. Especially if euthanasia was an option that could be baked into the equation. COVID sounds like a bottom tier way to go.
And that doesn't even get into the completely untenable legal ramifications for the places themselves.
None of our parents are at this stage yet, another way we are very lucky, but I still can't stop thinking about it sometimes.
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Originally Posted by biggerboat
There is such a huge spectrum of opinions with this pandemic, from "hoax" to "nobody should leave their home". As with almost everything political I'm somewhere in the middle. I understand the arguments for shutting everything down, but I also understand the arguments for not doing so.
Hoax is so far away from reality it is hard to keep in mind that a very significant amount of people think this.
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Being in the middle brings heat from both extremes. I've been chastised for not doing enough, and I can't count how many times I've been mask-shamed. I get it from both sides.
What kind of situations are you being masked-shamed? That is completely ridiculous yet I understand psychologically people can't help themselves.
I do feel some awkwardness sometimes where I am involving wearing a mask or asking people to set curbside pickup stuff down rather than hand it to me. However, I just feel sorry for the people who haven't been able to simply change their automatic habit to something different but clearly more beneficial for themselves and society.
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The work situation is really causing a lot of anxiety. I don't feel good about staying and I don't feel good about leaving.
What are the benefits you get from working there? I don't mean this in a "there are no benefits what are you doing?!?!" I really want to know what you derive from it and how beneficial you view it being for you.
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My sister owns a condo in my complex, which she is getting remodeled. However, she lives in Austin. She's having issues with the contractor and decided she needed to fly here. Two of the worst hotspots in the country right now are Austin and St. Pete. Add that to her being in a plane. We told her that she cannot come into our condo. Any socialization would be on the patio. She completely understood and has been really good about it.
Good for you guys. She seems to very likely be making a bad decision. However, you don't have any control over it so hopefully it doesn't affect your relationship too much.
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Another anecdote- we are going to attend a birthday party for my wife's sister. There are a ton of back stories with her family, but it is really important that we try to make this happen. My wife told her mother that under no circumstance will we go inside her house. My wife's sister agreed since her husband is in a high risk group. Her mother is not onboard with any of this. It isn't because she's against stuff like this. She's just super impulsive and is completely incapable of sorting out consequences of her actions.
Yeah. As fate would have it, the portion of society least equipped to protect themselves and deal with the pandemic (psychologically, skill-wise) are the ones effected the most. Yay!
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I mention these because what ultimately led to my decision to leave the bait shop was the fact that I would be a huge hypocrite demanding other people to take precautions when I wasn't willing to do the same.
I applaud this decision. I have a hard time imagining you won't be able to go back at some point. If for no other reason it could be helpful to have some time not going and see how much it does or doesn't affect you. It may be revealing that you can sustain a decent life without that kind of job indefinitely. Or, it may become clear it's completely unsustainable for you and you need to either go back there or find something "half way" where the precautions are better and you are getting enough benefit.