for me is that this is 2020, NOT 1917-1918 and we should be much better prepared as a country for these sorts of things and we should not be in such a panic/crisis as we are. I'm not saying that, even under the best of circumstances, that there wouldn't a lot of people catching this or some people dying but, because we have piss poor leadership in this country, because we've had years and years of electing people to government to hobble it, deconstruct it, and diminish its importance, to diminish and scoff at the importance of facts and knowledge and....gulp....SCIENCE, we now find ourselves in this kind of predicament. And now lots of people will be paying for this with their lives. Once this is all over, we CANNOT go back to the way we used to be. We have to push back against HARD against people who want to tear government down, who refuse to consider facts, whom refuse to acknowledge, well, REALITY and FACTS. Willful ignorance and "Know-Nothingism" KILLS people. This- what we are going through right now- is the culmination of years of George W. Bushes, Sarah Palins, Mitch McConnells, Tea Parties, and, of course, Donald Trumps.

THIS is what you get. Oh yeah, having dismantled and hollowed out government is all fun and games until something like this happens and now we have secondary and tertiary crises and likely additional waves of crises unfolding from it.

Been monitoring self obsessively

Had a co-worker who sits (moderate distance) next to me at the office get sick but later tested positive for Flu. Was really worried though because his husband had just been in China around January/February. His husband smartly voluntarily self-isolated immediately when he got back.

1. Trump can't cancel the election, only individual states can and even Trumplicking states won't want to cancel them because then they'd be disenfranchised if other non-Trumplicking states don't cancel theirs.
2. Calling for cancelling elections because of COVID-19 would contradict the idea that things are or will get better before November (not that Trump doesn't always contradict himself anyway but still)
3. We have means to conduct elections even if we're not all going to polling places. There's still time to work out logistical issues or concerns if we even have still have to worry about COVID-19, which we may or may not have to by then.
4. People, by and large, won't stand for this. We've held elections during other times of crisis. While this is a public health crisis, there would have to be something dramatically awful about this one that would necessitate the cancellation of elections and I can't think of it at the moment.

In short, this isn't going to happen.

If he were some random Fox News pundit or old crank on the street (or on the interwebs), he would not command the same level of attention as he does right now- as POTUS. Most sane and rational folk I've seen so far have rejected and/or condemned his non-CDC-endorsed remarks and suggestions about setting an arbitrary deadline for "re-opening" the economy, which is good, but for every person who refuses to listen to Trump, there are at least one or two people whom hang on this idiot's every word and will literally ingest hazardous chemicals because the President said something promising about them as a *possible* unproven/untested treatment for COVID-19. Once Easter happens, those same people will think that that "all clear" has been sounded and it's time to go back to old habits and activities and states and localities may find it increasingly difficult to maintain quarantines even if they're still in place. There's obviously got to be *some* end to this or loosening of restrictions but there has to be some demonstrable progress to warrant it (ie. increased testing, approved treatments, vaccines, declining case/mortality rates). Trump doesn't decide when this happens and he's not demonstrated that we've made the kind of progress that warrants loosening restrictions and it remains to be seem if something significant will be accomplished by Easter.

I was debating politics with an avowed Bernie supporter (who is prepared to refuse to vote if Bernie is not the nominee) and one of her friends jumped in and claimed that Biden may be anti-choice and would not nominate pro-choice justices when I tried to argue the importance of voting for the Supreme Court in November. I've seen a few random articles circulating among the Bernie fandom crowd on my social media feeds about stuff that Biden may or may not have done or said about Abortion decades ago, but, as far as his current campaign website goes, he purports to want to defend a woman's constitutional right to an abortion in his discussion of ACA.

https://joebiden.com/healthcare/

Biden is, admittedly, not my first choice in this primary but with Warren gone, he's the one I'm settling with (not here to debate) but I could never imagine him nominating anti-choice Judges, esp. to the Supreme Court. Anybody got any sourcing or exposition on his position on abortion rights? And I'm not interested in going back 30-40 years either. I want to know where he stands TODAY.

somebody would address how he should so totally NOT hold any kind of position of authority in or around the WH on matters that are supposed to be designated to duly appointed AND confirmed individuals

1. Trump is only NOW starting to do a (minimally) responsible job as President
2. This all isn't over by a long shot and it's not going to be over in April either

Let's make sure that people just don't decide that we need to pin a medal on him once this thing blows over (he will expect everybody to kiss his *ss) because he sure as hell won't ever deserve it. And there shouldn't be any way for him to spin dry his inaction and other blunders.

With the cascade of closures and cancellations happening across the country (and in my own backyard), I have some understanding and awareness of why it's happening, however I would like to better understand what the overall long-term strategy is? Like who decides what closes and how long? This crisis may not abate for awhile. Do we keep schools or businesses closed for 1 week? 2 weeks? Is there some kind of uniform guideline for how long to keep things shut down to help slow down the rate of infection? Here in Indiana, an entire school system got shut down when a single person tested positive for CV19. I get the concern, but if that's the standard being used, then, sooner or later, just about everything will be shut down and with so few people getting tested, there really isn't any way to tell whether or not it's spreading. I'm just sort of spitballing here. I have no real answers and, unfortunately, I'm feeling like our leaders are just ad-libbing right now in the absence of strong and unifying leadership at the top.

Has anybody else got or considering getting Pneumonia shots because of Covid-19? I haven't had many respiratory issues since I was in Middle-School (I used to get Bronchitis and Pneumonia about once a year for awhile) but since Covid-19 can cause Pneumonia, I reckoned that it might be a good idea to get a Pneumonia shot in the event that I do get it to, hopefully, avoid having it go into Pneumonia. It's covered by my insurance as a preventative, as it may likely be under the ACA in general, so I'm figuring that it couldn't hurt. Have there been any discussions about more people- outside of the elderly whom are normally recommended to get it- getting it or thinking about getting it (I'm in my early 40's for context)?