Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

The point of flattening the curve is keeping the curve flat. No one anywhere has eradicated the virus, but through the strict initial lockdown plus constant vigilance on part of both the government and the individuals they can keep the curve flat and stop it from going exponential.

The problem is that once we flattened the curve, we decided to go hogwild, masks off, open up everything and now we get to pay the price for that.

Texas is a great example of that where our state government behaved like absolute jackoffs and now we're seeing a massive amount of new cases and increased pressure on hospitals. But people assumed that 'we're far below capacity! the lockdown is pointless!' as if the lockdown wasn't the reason for that in the first place.

The lockdowns in China were indeed brutal, and involved a use of force that simply would not be acceptable in the U.S. But even there, there's evidence it was much more severe than the officials let on, and there was a rebound after reopening. They are very secretive about it though.

> I'm sure suicide rates and alcohol consumption are going up as well.

Many of these overdoses surely are suicides.

Deaths are down in GA, but cases are on the rise which means that deaths will probably start rising again over the next 2 weeks. They've had 3500 new cases just today.

> I remember thinking at the time how sometimes building an app isn't the solution to a problem.

> Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest...

I agreed with your reasoning and logic but not your conclusion.

And while I'm a proponent of UBI, and to an extent Andrew Yang's platform, simply voting someone in doesn't solve the many pitfalls of the Human Condition. Which includes, but is not limited to, finding value and self-wroth from one's achievements and work in Society and in Daily Life.

Nothing stops you from going and planting a community garden, or if that's not available in your area guerilla gardening, or volunteering in several capacities. Even taking up hobbies you may have put off is a very good use of time. Or launching a side gig that can teach you new skills in a otherwise neglected facet of your Life.

I personally went back to school in Jan as a plan B to my pursuit to go to SpaceX, as I have been out of Supply Chain since 2017 when I left BMW and VW, and that has kept me pretty engaged. On top of that I also have neglected off-road project I needed to do some much needed maintenance on after driving through the 3ft+ of snow, so while my normal social-life has completely gone away (and I feel it, although they did temporarily open the clubs last week for 2 nights, only to re-close this weeks events) I'm still pretty engaged with my old team as well as have school and cars to keep me engaged--honestly, this feels too much like HS for my taste.

In short: Public Policy can and should address many things, like de-funding and de-militarizing the police to focus on community outreach, but it cannot overcome the many perils of being Human. We need to feel engaged in our Community and within ourselves, and I think very few people have adjusted to that well, as most of Civilization has been built on overcoming the (in)convenience of Life and left very little room for self-reflection.

Sidenote: I've been chef for the past years after leaving Tech, and the way restaurants operate now is completely odd and not at all appealing to me for in-room dining; I went with some friends and it's not at all pleasant, and they let us take off our masks at the table/bar area we were sat at. I don't foresee myself going on dinner dates at a resteraunt anytime soon. Its good for a take out deal and walk somewhere or go home, but I can cook, so the ambiance is really the only thing I pay for.

> That's a hilarious sort of tech delusion that people make fun of

Honestly, that seemed like something Mike Judge wrote if we had a new season of COVID based Silicon Valley, I can see the main character pitching something like:

Pied Piper now has a mood optimizer attached to your VR headset and relies on real-time data acquisition gathered from your fitbit to adjust the visuals to fit your Lifestyle!

I'm glad I left the Valley when I did. The collective mind-set there is not just delusional, its outright absurd and perhaps even dangerous. Having so many people unable to do even basic tasks outside of their controlled environment/World is a disaster waiting to happen.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to the crazy twisted things coming out of Charlie Brooker's head right now for Black Mirror. I have a fan-art script I have been working on/off for years that probably would go really well in this social distancing era as it was about the emergence of people like this, and oddly enough I started writing it only months before this article came out in 2014:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eating-in-front-of-webcam-sou...