Coronavirus Updates, Important Information, and Ancedotal Experience

This whole COVID business has been a hoot. I work for county government in Washington State in the court system, and it's been interesting watching this whole process.

First, my bosses and the county overlords were openly saying Kung Flu was no big deal and they'd be making no changes to office hours or procedures, including contact with the public. Probably not smart to go around chest puffing since most of us anticipated the governor to start declaring emergencies.

Then, after the Governor's emergency stay at home order, everyone scrambled to figure out what to do. Since we're a lower court, we basically followed the guidance of the Supreme court and our local judges and court admin went to emergency schedules, which limited, but not eliminated contact with the public and court hearings. Still had to keep some things going based on laws and the constitution and all, but it was interesting that nobody seemed to have any clue or have ever thought-experimented such an occurrence at any level, so it was a cluster fuck, but eventually everyone who could work from home was told they had to, office hours limited, court and public contact only bare minimum that the law dictated, etc.

At that point, people at high risk or in households with someone high risk were not allowed to come to work. Why not develop some carveout just for those people? Nah, the county shut it all down as far as they could, everyone working limited hours or being told they weren't allowed to come in to work, and because of that the county had to provide admin pay for our full salaries. Alright, cool, very generous for once, and isn't government supposed to be setting the example because we could afford to do it unlike a lot of private businesses?

But then, the county figured out they can get reimbursed by the Federal programs, so we have to apply for the federal leave instead of the county paying admin pay. Still cool, we're getting full pay, for working limited hours, remotely or not coming into the office at all, which makes sense because it was the County's decision to send people home and limit hours.

Welp, federal leave time has a limit, and the county didn't want to keep paying out of their own pockets (tax dollar pockets I mean), So Monday the stay at home order is still in place, we're still told our hours are limited or that we can't be in the office, but now the county won't pay so everyone is told they're required to used their own leave for a day they're being told they aren't allowed to be at work.

Yeah, so some cracks in the logic are starting to show... Under the same stay at home order we were first to get admin pay because we were not allowed to be at work or put on limited schedules, to then being told the federal program would cover some time, to them being told the federal time was up and we'd have to use our own leave for a day we aren't allowed to come to work.

No biggie, just one day, they'll figure it out now that the governor is extending the stay at home order and we still have people at high risk, right? It's still an emergency, right? Nah, county is sick of this shit, so no real reason given, just everyone is back to work on Tuesday like none of it ever happened.

Government in action!

On the personal side, all of this COVAIDS bullshit has sucked. Yeah, models are crap and people over react and we bankrupt the country to virtue signal... but meanwhile having a loved one at high risk isn't fun.

My fiance is high risk (on transplant list, though transplants aren't happening currently unless an emergency). So I got put in the group that wasn't allowed to be at work (like I got told it wasn't negotiable, I couldn't be at work, go home, bye). Which was actually refreshing that they were stepping up to take care of us for once! But now I'm told I can't come to work Monday, but have to use personal leave. And then Tuesday we're back to business, I guess. As if she's suddenly not high risk because the county got sick of being shut down.

We're in the situation where her doctors are basically putting her on complete isolation for the next month, at least, probably through summer, but honestly they've already hinted it's gonna be isolation until this winter or next spring when hopefully she's up for her transplant, because any illness can delay transplant and create complications and COVID could actually disqualify her etc. We were already planning on precautions, but not like this with isolation and lockdowns and shit. And fucking sanitizing anything that comes in the house, like groceries, is a chore.

My boss was awesome and supportive when admin pay was coming in from the county and then federal leave, but now HR and my boss have no real ideas. No furlough. No temp layoff. I can request a leave of absence, but was told it would cause 'issues' if repeated and/or long term. No FMLA because we aren't yet married. I can use personal leave (which buys us two weeks) or come back to work, which her doctors are saying is a bad idea since my office deal with the public and people incarcerated and external documents/mail and all sorts of vectors or whatever.

Sucks for me, but no problem, I'm a big boy, so, I'm looking at unemployment and the expanded COVID unemployment seems to be tailored for people in my situation. It would probably get us through transplant even if I didn't find a job that was less risk or I could do from home. Would take a hit on county retirement and all that, but gotta do what we gotta do, right, no problem, I'm a good sport.

Annnnd the unemployment system is a shit show, to say the least. Of course they can't guarantee anything in advance. You just have to trust you qualify by their gotcha language like "Living in a household with a person at high risk" or "Providing direct care for a high-risk person". You just have to quit your job and hope you aren't burned by bullshit legalese that has screwed us in the past where we don't count as a 'household' because we aren't legally married (despite being together nearly 10 years and me being her financial support and shit). What does household mean? Nobody quite knows exactly, but trust they'll make a fair decision! And am I providing direct care for a high risk person? Like, what does that even mean? I drive her to all her appointments and pay all the bills, but it's not like I'm having to wipe her ass and feed her or she'll die of starvation or anything.

Nobody knows a fucking thing. But don't worry, just trust the government to help you when it takes 15 minutes on their website to get their form to accept my address. Sure, no problem, I'm prepare to trust the government fully!

It was easier when I was young and single and would just say fuck it, worst case scenario I live in my car and get by donating plasma. But now I have a mortgage and a fiance on a transplant list so was hoping for a little more reassurance from our esteemed government overlords. And nobody seems to know anything or have any idea what could happen with their billion dollar promises. And my fear/luck is I'll personally know a dozen people scamming the expanded unemployment system with no issues and I'll get the shakedown and denied based on some semantics technicality.

Yeah, woe is me, blah blah, nobody cares, I just wish I had a clear path what to do and that it didn't involve the government on any level.

popsicledeath said:

No FMLA because we aren't yet married.

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You work in a courthouse, and you are having an issue you can fix with a couple forms and signatures?

Miguex said:

it will not in this case. mark it.

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Within states reopening results are going to vary significantly between states. I’m not expecting people’s behavior to change much in Texas for the next couple of weeks.

Collin county is still under 1k cases total and on average 6% of the tests are coming back positive. So I’m not expecting a massive spike.

The scary thing is our biggest hotspots are at areas with meat packing plants. Meat supply chains are going to go to shit.

Ishad said:

Within states reopening results are going to vary significantly between states. I’m not expecting people’s behavior to change much in Texas for the next couple of weeks.

Collin county is still under 1k cases total and on average 6% of the tests are coming back positive. So I’m not expecting a massive spike.

The scary thing is our biggest hotspots are at areas with meat packing plants. Meat supply chains are going to go to shit.

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MA only had 50000+ cases and 4000+ deaths. If we reopened we might kill the world

moonarchia said:

You work in a courthouse, and you are having an issue you can fix with a couple forms and signatures?

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I'll go ask the felony dept if they have the forms and can appoint a public defender. Hey, do you live in the Northern Hemisphere? I know a guy there you probably know too.

Yeah, marriage would solve one issue and cause a handful of others. In part because of many of the same broken government systems that can't work with each other. It's a shit sandwich for another time, while I try to figure out this current Covid shit sando. Which I'm more than willing to eat, because reality dictates it, but nobody seems to know how to serve up even their own shit. Covid is an infection of government making them even dumber and more inneffective.

slippery said:

What's the sample size on those tests?

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3,300 in Santa Clara and 900 in LA County. Similar results.

Indiana is opening up today, despite reported case numbers being on the rise. It's a fucking mistake. My family will be continuing quarantine for quite a while. I'm actually fearful that this opening up right now is going to prevent schools from reopening in the fall. And if that's true, I'll be might disappointed. And I'm going to not be shy telling the people I know who are champing at the bit to open everything that they were wrong, and I blame them.

Locnar said:

1. Why are you leaving so much money on the table by NOT getting married after 10 years of being financially responsible for your "fiance" (I love it how people call their old lady "Fiance" to make it sound less childish as "girlfriend"). Married people save on taxes, benefits, etc.

2. Washington state has the highest unemployment benefit in the country, and it stacks with the extra 600 a week covid bucks. If she is so at risk, quit your job and collect for the next six months to a year.

3. FMLA is trivial to get for yourself if you need that route.

On a broader note, industry across the country are dumping their payrolls onto covid bucks. We've never been closer to universal minimum income.

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1. Well, my life story: At one point we were going to get married. We both had good jobs and it made sense and was inevitable anyhow. Then the open heart surgery she got a few years before meeting me wasn't having the results they'd hoped and she kept passing out and having heart rhythm issues and large insurance company she worked for basically told her to take short term disability the second time they had to call an ambulance after a coworker found her face planted in her own blood in the bathroom. Then they denied the short term disability they suggested she take and fired her. We were going through enough and she didn't want to fight it, so she was just out of a job with increasing complications and looking at a third heart surgery (one as a baby, then one in 20s before we met). At that point we almost got married before we were completely ready for the benefits after I found out there was 6 months she was trying to manage her own blood thinning with aspirin because she no longer had insurance and couldn't afford her warfairin/coumadin. We were ready enough for marriage, but doctors said they'd prefer we not get married so she could apply for disability because that would be more stable than my insurance at the time. I took a huge pay cut to go to a job with better benefits, but then we learned the swing in cost from her being on disability to being married would cost us like $600 a month, which we couldn't afford at the time. Took another pay cut to move closer to her family so she/we would have more support in what was looking like needing another heart surgery or transplant. I have even better insurance now, but there is still a financial cost with her losing disability, and her transplant team at University of Washington wasn't sure she'd be in network and didn't want to get everything re-pre-approved, etc, and highly encouraged us to just keep things as they were. Then everything takes longer than it should. Then her main surgeon tried to retire last year, pushing her back on the transplant list, and the new doctor was being slow to get to here from Europe. And then COVAIDS happens and he's not been allowed to even enter the country anyhow, and they aren't doing any non-emergency transplants. So, yeah, marriage continues to actually cost us, not save, and heart transplants are apparently complicated and annoying to deal with.

1. b. Fiance is what she is, even though it's dumb. It's also dumb that I could go to Vegas and marry a hooker and have more legal rights than someone I've been with for nearly a decade and trying to marry for half that time and crazy story the government being involved in marriage fucks it up. I blame gay marriage. Domestic partnerships and common law rights were far stronger before gays decided that wasn't good enough for them and all those laws and protections got axed so they could feel special about the word marriage. So, now, people can take FMLA for their in-laws spouse if they're married, or FMLA for grandchildren, but a person you live with and are in a long term relationship with? Better get married, even in one of the most liberal states where we're bend over backwards virtue signalling about how anything traditional is bad, teach non-traditional gender roles and that transgender is normal in Kindergarden, but if you want to be recognized at all legally by the state you better get a traditional marriage, but remember traditional marriage is bad if you're Christian!

2. My dilemma is that the expanded unemployment benefits are good and seem to be made for people in my situation, but I don't trust their language and am worried terms like 'household' or 'taking care of' will burn me on the back end and nobody seems to know what the fuck their own guidelines means and just say they can't say anything until after you quit and have applied.

3. FMLA is harder to get if you're trying to be legit about it, sure, and far easier than when I was in the VA system and they'd reject anything and everything that wasn't a few prescriptions. Private insurance, though, my own doctors have been talking for years about just doing FMLA for myself before COVID came along and disability and shit. So, yeah, it's an option, but I'm just trying hard to not be the broke-dick in the relationship, because I'm a hypocrite and will encourage my girlfriend to take government handouts but will resist them myself at all costs.

On that broader note, Washington state has made several national podcasts and news reports because of the fights between employers and employees fighting for COVID bucks. Places that are trying to re-open, but can't because their employees are refusing to come back to work. So the business runs the risk of losing out on funds that require them to employ people who are making more money on unemployment, and if they don't get those funds to re-open they'll probably not be able to stay in business, and the employees won't have jobs to go back to when their handouts. Nothing to do but vote Democrat at that point and hope for more saving by the government!

Big government: not even once!

I've been trying not to get in the weeds with this issue... but what the fuck is the COVID truthers movement and why am I supposed to believe that was a sick burn?

This whole COVID thing is like government overreach meets misery loves company. Well, shit, if we have to suffer in my family or our city, then it's only fair the entire global economy be tanked in solidarity!

People can't grasp any of this, though, so doesn't surprise me. My family will be in isolation for the long haul at this point, because that's what our health needs dictate happen, but my girlfiance still has friends saying they can't wait to meet her for lunch when the stay at home order is lifted in a few weeks since that will mean they no longer have to worry about COVID, right? Umm, what? No, sorry, COVID was probably never a threat to you, despite the panic from the media and government, but will continue to be a threat for us. No, doesn't make sense? And that's why we can't have nice things.

I guess some people think it was government emergency orders keeping them safe and not their own individual actions based on their own individual needs? And yeah, there is some community accountability. If you're sick, don't be a dick because some of the people wearing masks and avoiding you like the literal plague aren't sheeple, but doing what they feel is needed to keep their family safe.

popsicledeath said:

I'll go ask the felony dept if they have the forms and can appoint a public defender. Hey, do you live in the Northern Hemisphere? I know a guy there you probably know too.

Yeah, marriage would solve one issue and cause a handful of others. In part because of many of the same broken government systems that can't work with each other. It's a shit sandwich for another time, while I try to figure out this current Covid shit sando. Which I'm more than willing to eat, because reality dictates it, but nobody seems to know how to serve up even their own shit. Covid is an infection of government making them even dumber and more inneffective.

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Well, you do what you have to do sometimes. Good luck whatever you end up doing, though.

Oblio said:

Hey Guys,

In an effort to keep this thread GU Friendly we moved some posts to the Corona Thread in the General Forums. No other moderation actions were taken.

Thanks for understanding and please let us know if we missed anything.

The Amod Team

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Typical fascism