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So it looks like the US lockdowns at best gave us a plateau of Covid-19. We’ve got opening up going on, Covid-19 spiking, and pretty much we were on hold. Now we’re not, and the virus is surging again.
I think we’re going to see increased cases, obviously. We will likely see increases of deaths to come (hopefully less as we know more). There’s almost certainly under-reported deaths and under-measured infections. Basically, here we go again.
This means inevitably, we’re going to see more lockdowns and returns of lockdowns. Even places that won’t lockdown are gonna see a lot of people locking themselves down to be safe. This also means more disconnection, lonliness, and sadness.
Sorry to be a downer. But also, there’s something I am finding helps – I spelled this out in my post on ruggedizing geekdom, but wanted to go into detail.
Simply, I started a video channel on Discord so some of us could watch TV and movies and videos together. I invited some friends and folks from writing groups – and it worked.
We quickly got a rythm going of one “known film” and one weird/odd/obscure/unappreciated movie. One night it’s “Knives Out,” next Friday it’s something like “The Man Who Stole The Sun.” This was a lot of fun, and people from various groups, areas of the country, etc. started coming together to watch and chat.
People who’d never have met otherwise, reaching across the world and from their various clubs and groups to connect.
This kept growing. We’ve now got someone streaming a forgotten TV series. I’m hosting virtual fireworks on the 4th. I’ve started posting this meeting in writing groups and social groups, and more people keep meeting each other.
And watching people connect is amazing. People with 15 year age gaps finding they have similar interests. People living alone during this mess connecting with people. Folks in other countries meeting each other.
So right now things are awful. But if you have that one social group, that one social thing, you can use it to bring people together. A Discord channel, a Zoom, a Blog, something. Use it.
We’re gonna lock down again. We’ve got months of being cautious, and months upon months until we have preventatives and vaccines. We need each other.
But you probably already have the tools to do it.
Steven Savage