Get ready for grief on a scale unlike anything we have experienced

[ThoughtCriminal]

UP to now, it has been just inconvenience, memes, and politics.

This country - or at least this generation, even its darkest days, has never witnessed the death of friends and loved ones on this scale and in such a short time. It is going to hurt and I'm not sure how we will cope.

Normally, we can at least count on our leaders to inspire courage and hope in situations like this. Now we will have to face it with a President who does not even have the slightest capacity for empathy, ability, or confidence.

[underpants]

1. and possible civil unrest

This is going to be bad

[unblock]

4. mass protests from home?

million man march on washington, 6 feet apart?




i don't disagree that people will get frustrated and want to express that, just not sure how that manifests itself under the circumstances....

[underpants]

13. 1 person is a crime, 10 people are an incident, 20 people can become a riot

and riots grow

[unblock]

14. 50 people? friends, they may think it's a *move*ment!

arlo taught me that!

[mr_lebowski]

34. The Alice's Restaurant Massacree Movement ...

You can get anything you want ...

[unblock]

35. yes indeed!

[IronLionZion]

29. India Migrants Hosed Down with Disinfectant

This is a reactionary right wing state in northern India but it can happen here since Trump is good buddies with Modi and appreciates authoritarian measures

[Newest Reality]

5. Yes...

I have been considering that.

There are so many factors that can contribute to that now. The pot is just simmering with milk, but it may boil over in spots depending on the health care situation, supplies and shortages.

Fear. Uncertainty. Anger. Loss, etc.

[redstatebluegirl]

2. Playing politics with a pandemic is never a good thing.

[leftieNanner]

3. A friend of mine said to me recently

After this is all over, we will ALL know someone who has died.

Terrifying thought. I lost my parents 12 years ago - at ages 90 and 94 - as it should be. But this will be very different.

[lindysalsagal]

6. and we won't be able to comfort the sick or the bereaved.

We won't be able to join together to mourn the lost or comfort each other.

A whole slice of our population will be changed by this, especially children, 7-12.

[woodsprite]

9. I have a friend who took his partner to a local hospital last night.

Due to fever and breathing issues. They said that they will either call him to come pick him up when he's released, or the next time he would see him would be to say his final goodbyes.

[Grasswire2]

10. From what we hear, there will be no saying goodbyes in person.

At the end, the patient must be deeply sedated to provide pain relief. And restrained, we hear.

This is a horrible, horrible death.

Almost unthinkable to us, although other people's in other lands have suffered as much in wars at home.

[Moostache]

7. Things are going from bad to worse already...Trump is just accelerating the process.

If you are in a car and speeding into a collision, the impact speed makes a dramatic difference in the damage incurred...and chances of survival.

Using mathematical formulas and physics experiments, researchers learned that 43 mph is the fastest speed at which you have a fighting chance to survive a head-on collision. If either car in a head-on collision accident is traveling faster than 43 mph, the chances of surviving a head-on crash plummet. At 70 mph, your chances of surviving a head-on collision drop to 25 percent.

https://www.mbennettlaw.com/blog/2018/10/is-it-possible-to-survive-a-head-on-collision.shtml

Now, in America, Trump is behind the metaphorical wheel, high on Adderall and DEFINITELY more interested in speeding up than in slowing down...the impact with reality is going to be painful, severe and far, far worse than it had to be.

[Grasswire2]

11. RIDE IT LIKE A COWBOY!

Who urged him to do that?

I hope someone in the press will ask him.

[Moostache]

12. Oh riding it alone is not his style...

He is going to the whip early and often and running that horse into the ground.

I hate Donald J. Trump with the intensity of a supernova, but he is going so far into the realm of pure evil now that I believe soon we will all be forced to answer to history "why was he allowed to stay in power under such dire circumstances and such obvious lack of ability?"

[Fozzledick]

22. General Jack D. Ripper? Slim Pickens?

[Mr.Bill]

15. You forgot that Trump

fired the people that put airbags in cars.

[Blue_true]

37. He is both incompetent and completely lacks empathy.

He won't torture himself about how his decisions are killing people.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. We lost 405,000 in WWII over a 3+ year period.

If we lose 200,000 in a 1 year period, our society will not recover for generations.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Isn't Our Population 2.5x ...

...what it was in 1942?

[gordianot]

19. The 200,000 is a best case scenario.

World War II there was no shortage equipment need to fight that war by late 1942. No matter your condition everyone who contracts this virus is a casualty who as long as they are infected in spite of condition are a casualty to some degree.

[customerserviceguy]

33. In WWII

we lost young people. In this one, we're more likely to lose older people. That may influence the relative amounts of grief.

[Blue_true]

38. We have a lot more people today.

I am afraid that in five years, this will be a distant memory and people will be back to busily electing idiots across because those idiots touched on their hot buttons. Even now, we have state officials in some states more concerned about shutting down women's clinics than about the CV, and we have people specifically choosing to protest at women's clinics at this time. Unfortunately, a large segment of the population are living in another world, and some of those people are reproducing.

[gibraltar72]

16. No one alive has ever witnessed anything remotely like this.

[Blue_true]

39. True. Even the few people older than 102 would have no recollection. nt

[flying_wahini]

17. I am trying to brace myself for the loss of family and friends.

It’s feels almost like Russian roulette, sooner or later it’s gonna find you.

If you are older or have any health problems it is almost a death sentence. My husband and I
are trying to prepare but this one is gonna hurt.

[Initech]

20. I worry about my brother every freaking day.

He's out on the front lines in the ERs fighting this thing and has hooked people up to ventilators. He'll be on perpetual quarantine until this is over.

[renate]

28. I'm so sorry that your brother has to do this, and so grateful

You must be absolutely desperate with worry. I wish there were some way to communicate to everybody who is out there--delivery people, etc, but especially the health care workers who don't have PPE--just how profoundly grateful we all are. There aren't words for it.

[Initech]

30. Oh yeah.

Thankfully he's off duty for the next two weeks and is in quarantine but I still worry about his safety. He said that the lack of equipment is infuriating and he's also worried about his support staff that they could get exposed too. All I do right now is sit and watch in horror of what is going on.

[Thekaspervote]

21. As a medical professional now retired I couldn't help but tear up when I read this doctor's comment

“We will get through this, but it’s hard for me knowing that we will not all be left standing.”

[uponit7771]

23. 2 more months of this will drive people nuts, testing could end this earlier

[Fritz Walter]

24. OK, so much for getting ANY sleep tonight

Reading your post gave me an immediate flashback to a favorite movie, which I had just watched again last month: The Lathe of Heaven The original.

The crucial scene is at ~8:15. The protagonist’s effective dreams change the world retroactively, and this is what happens when his therapist tells him to solve the problem of overpopulation.

Just previewing this clip raised so many parallels to our current situation. Hence the insomnia.

[Delphinus]

27. I am

interested in this - but not until tomorrow morning.

[barbtries]

25. i'll tell you how we'll get through it.

together. we lean on each other. we are all we've got, and that means we've got a lot.

fuck trump.

[paleotn]

26. We still can't get our heads around the math.

much less the grief and loss.

- 325M Americans

- 25% infected = 81.3 Americans - subject to change depending on what jackasses like DeSantis and Bill Lee do or don't do. Stay the fuck home or the % goes up....

- 1.7% mortality rate overall, but depends on the demographics of those infected = 1.4 million deaths

- That's 28 times a normal flu season of ~ 50K deaths per year

[AtheistCrusader]

31. Seattle is trying man. We're really trying. It's at least moving the needle.

I'm actually shocked how engaged people are in winning this thing.

[nolabear]

32. We are, aren't we? That Seattle Freeze has never been more welcome.

Usually I am not a fan but right now? Nod from a distance and stay inside!

I haven’t seen our numbers in a couple of days. Hope they’re continuing to slow. Quarantine is beginning to bug me but I’m doing it, by golly.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

36. For Asian-Americans like me

There’s an additional level of terror to go with the grief.

[Blue_true]

40. I see where you are coming from. It is sad, but some dark elements in the human character

can be unleashed, and we have a president who stokes those dark urges when it is to his benefit.