Next week will be one month of this "stay at home" order for the pandemic. Wednesday to be exact. While I'm not opposed to staying at home, I am opposed to losing a job, being bored, worrying as to when this will all end, if I'm going to get sick because sometimes I have no choice but to go out and last but not least, dealing with the shitty system that is unemployment insurance.
While the suggestions of "closing businesses" and "staying at home" did begin around the middle of March but with the closing of all schools soon after the mandatory closures came, and the job loss.
Today they said it was 22 million people lost jobs, either furloughed or laid off. Me being one of them. I have been waiting for a month on the 22nd for my UI claim to come out of pending. After I wrote to my reps & senator, I did get some phone calls but all anyone can say is, you just have to wait. Waiting isn't too bad yet for me, I've been preparing for this, or worst to happen for a while now. But many people were not prepared for this to happen. I feel for them. Hopefully, the Trump Bucks will be here soon.
Many people are clamoring for the government to allow businesses to open back up. I do understand what they are asking and truth be told, who and what was shut down was so arbitrarily assigned that it does leave me scratching my head. However, I don't think they should do anything just yet. They need to make a plan on opening businesses little by little until everything is open. I think if they just flipped the switch, it could prove really really bad.
So now it's just a waiting game. After this is over, they say things will never be the same. But I don't really know about that. Americans have very short memories. They said that things wouldn't be the same after 911 either, but within a year, they were right back to where they were before. Sure they made some new laws and agencies but the people, nope, they went right back to ignoring everything around them. Right back to the "in your face" attitude that got us to where we were on that faithful day.
The same will be true for this pandemic. We already have the deniers that think this is the flu because they are too wrapped up in Facebook memes to actually look up the information. That's why they want to march on Harrisburg because they really don't think this any big deal. The truth is out there, you have to actively go look for it though.
This is a threat to humanity and this country. Whether or not we are doing what should/could be done is beyond me, but I do know this, if we did nothing, this would have been far worst. Last I looked there were over 25000 people dead from this since March 1st, that's 6 weeks, that's almost 4200 people a week. That's a lot of people. Compared to the 2017-2018 flu season (one of the worst on record) 2175 people were dying a week. It's not the flu no matter how much people say it is doesn't make it true.
Anyway, I digress, we are still in a world of shit and it doesn't look like the light will be out for at least a few more weeks. Hopefully, my Unemployment will come through by then.
Be safe & stay at home!