Americans forced to navigate risks on their own amid confusion around reopening

[turbinetree]

By Associated Press -May 2, 2020 1:00 PM



As some government leaders make moves to reopen businesses and schools, the next decisions made will be personal.

Things were so much clearer when just about everything was locked down.

Now, with states lifting coronavirus restrictions piecemeal and by often arbitrary timetables, Americans are facing bewildering decisions about what they should and should not do to protect their health, their livelihoods, and their neighbors.

Is it safe to join the crowds at the beach or eat at a restaurant? To visit the elderly parents you haven't seen in nearly two months? To reopen a struggling business?

In many cases, the less-than-satisfying answer from the experts is: It depends.

https://americanindependent.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-reopen-country-health-economy-covid-19/

Yeah that's what I want to do, send my kids to school, and then hear reports that the school has an uptick in this virus and then having my other neighbor ranting about why did they open the schools and blaming everyone except themselves, and then go into a restaurant and have bite to eat, and then having to take off my mask to feed my face...........wondering if the filtration system in the place can sorta get the droplets-out of the air, and having cooks standing over my food cooking with mask on or not knowing if they don't have one.....................got it....

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I'm making it easier for myself by just continuing to do what I've been doing.

However, I understand that others might have more difficult decisions to make. Maybe they have children to send back to school or not; maybe they have small businesses that they have to decide whether to open and how. I'm fortunate for being retired and living alone with no kids or elderly parents to worry about. I'll just stay at home and do exactly what I've been doing since early March. My state isn't among the crazy ones that are just flinging the doors open so I'm glad for that.

[turbinetree]

2. Neither is mine at the present moment, and I am going to do what I have been doing...........

protecting my family and myself and calling my siblings to make sure they are safe..........my first priority.............

[agingdem]

3. yesterday

I made a Whole Foods run...masks are mandated...I wore a mask and carried a hand sanitizer in my pocket...the security guard at the door had spray bottles of disinfectant and cleaned the cart before I went into the store...everyone was wearing masks..I did notice that one woman took hers off and was casually stolling the aisles bumping into people as she passed ...she was met by two security guards one of which told her that she had four choices to make...(1) put her mask back on (2) accept the mask they were handing her (3) leave voluntarily (4) if she refused to leave then they would have no choice but to call the police and fines would be imposed and she was told she would never be allowed back into that store...she argued they had no right to keep her out of the store and besides they didn't know her name "so sucks to be you"...the guards pointed to the various cctv cameras around the store...she left

[turbinetree]

4. Wado---------------thank you

At least there is some common sense, since that would be a essential place.............but restaurants..........this is just insane.......

[Newest Reality]

5. No,

It is not safe to do this. Not at all.

It's foolish and driven by ulterior motives that have little concern for the illness and death that will ensue.

The gatherings we see and the premature attempt to reopen will bring us right back to square one and the spike from it looks like it will be far worse. We have a certain percentage of asymptomatic carriers walking around right now and far more available vectors for transmission in the population than we did as this started.

[turbinetree]

6. I agree this is just's insane.............

[ooky]

7. I expect this to be the fly in the RW's ointment.

Over half the country doesn't think this is a good idea. Only the same 40 something percent that always approves of Trump does. Let's wait and see how things play out for them with a severely reduced market for their services. I'm placing my wager on them closing down again when they don't have enough sales revenues to recover their fixed overhead and labor costs. The Republicans might try to throw subsidies at them when that happens.

I haven't been inside a public establishment since March 19th and I'm going to keep doing exactly the same thing until I know it's safe again for me to come out.