Thread: Really Random thread

We're fine, just quite worried. I've returned to Bogor since before my campus gives all students day off. My hometown, along with Jakarta and several other surrounding cities will implement "large scale social distancing", so not total lockdown but everyone must stay inside unless they have urgent business and there will be no large gatherings. I'm worried for the healthcare workers, there's a PPE crisis and there are hospitals that rely on donations to get enough PPE for their staff. Thankfully so far we have no food shortages in stores. How's everyone else?

It's essentially the same story here. Don't leave your house unless it's an absolute necessity, no visitors allowed in care homes, fines of €390 per person when you're too large a group and you're not family...

Hospitals are running out of gear here too, so they've started using substances that can function as a replacement to sterilize their equipment. They also re-use their masks now (after cleaning, of course). Very worrisome, indeed. But no food shortage as of yet either. 

Personally I'm not seeing much of the crisis. I live pretty secluded so I still have most of my weekly routine left. Thankfully I also still have my job. Each of us has taken their PCs home and hopefully this remote working won't become an obstacle before the crisis has been averted. But a lot of people aren't as lucky and I really wonder how many families won't make it financially. 

Meanwhile here some healthcare workers have used raincoats to substitute hazmat suits. There are already some doctors and nurses who lost their lives to the disease, and what's worrying is that some of those doctors were specialists and seniors. We already have people irresponsibly hoarding on masks and hand sanitizers and there are some who used hazmat suits when they don't even work in the medical or scientific field or any job that require hazmat suits. Java is the first island to confirm a case and now we have more and more people gettimg infected. What's worse is that our island has the highest population density in Indonesia (and maybe the whole world).

Aw, man. Yeah, that "hoarding" is the real problem. I mean, I understand their fear, but hazmat suits? Really? Supply isn't the problem, it's demand...

Living so close together does make it easier to spread. They're currently trying for mass immunity here; getting many people infected so it will be more difficult to spread to ones who are at risk. 

Oh, maybe herd immunity would work in countries with lesser population density. I've read about a Swedish epidemiologist who stated that Sweden will adopt herd immunity. Here, I've seen some doctors and some of my lecturers criticizing the tactic because too many people live here and if we really want to achieve herd immunity, we'd see too many people getting infected and probably even dying. That's why we're mainly just staying indoors to at least cut off the infection chain.

I know right, hoarding on foods is still pretty understandable. But hazmat suits, that's way beyond the limit.

I'd assume this "herd immunity" only works when all surrounding countries do the same, yes? That's your expertise, of course! But when you live so closely together, you end up getting too many people infected too fast? 

I'm not entirely sure what is going on right now as of death count and etc. The media has become an unreliable source, so I've stopped following the news. All that speculation doesn't help anyone, so I'm sticking to the official press conferences. 

From what I learnt, the point of herd immunity is to get as many people immune to a disease to cut off the infection chain. But a critcism for this tactic is that it is only safe if the said disease has a vaccine. Vaccination is a safe and reliable way to trigger your body's immune response and thus it helps in preventing further spread of a disease. But for this outbreak, there are no vaccines yet and getting people infected with this newly emerging virus isn't just worth it. A virologist mentioned that there's no official reports yet if those who got infected by the virus and survived developed a lasting immunity. That's why medical professionals and scientists are generally against herd immunity here. Using the tactic is extremely risky and for the worst case scenario we might see thousands of deaths. That's why we're focusing on not getting more people infected. Our hospitals are overloaded and we have lost too many healthcare workers.

They'd announced it during a press conference, scared a whole bunch of people. Counter arguments are what you're saying now, about there not being a vaccine and no one really knows exactly how corona operates and what it will do once you've had it. 

Yesterday I went to do some groceries. We have tape on the floors to indicate what space you may occupy when at the counter. But there were these two women... not a care in the world. They'd forgotten several items and kept going back and forth. I think they bumped into me at least four times. People are starting to stop caring. "It's taken long enough, time to get back to work". A very Dutch attitude. But then I read your stories and think: Yeah, this is going to take much longer than we think. 

Yeah, we can't be sure when this will end. Everyone wants it to end soon but there are still places where the number of cases are rising. 

Sometimes I really miss this forum you know... It used to be way more active, I spend sooo much time on here 

Yeah, it's truly the end of an era, isn't it? December 2012 for me, almost a decade of bolt-blasting fun. 

Maybe there will be new life once Ratchet & Clank: Future 5 comes out. (One can hope, right?)

I joined six months later, in 2013. Feels like so long ago...

Maybe a new game will indeed bring some more activity to the forum. We shall see

I'm really hoping we get some R&C news in the next month...

I joined six months later, in 2013. Feels like so long ago...

Maybe a new game will indeed bring some more activity to the forum. We shall see

I'm really hoping we get some R&C news in the next month...

 Got some doubt about that timeframe, but it would be very cool if Ratchet and Clank were taken to the next generation of gaming! 

There are rumors that it would be announced alongside the PS5 announcement, and other rumors say that the PS5 will be announced in June so I got high hopes for that timeframe

I really think that anyone who is hoping for a pre-November release of the PS5, especially what with the COVID19 thing throwing a wrench into the whole thing (if you'll pardon the expression...lol) is not being realistic.

Most of the gaming companies have traditionally released their new gaming platforms in mid to late November, as a lead-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events.

As indicated in this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2020/05/12/sony-denies-october-release-date-for-ps5/#2451568065b5

It may very well be that the new Ratchet & Clank game, which I believe we all know IS coming, will be part of a new bundle with the PS5.  Or at least available sometime between mid November and Christmas.  It's obvious that Sony doesn't want the new R&C game to come out before the PS5 (and they've been ridiculously tight-lipped about it...not even allowing production information to appear on the Internet Movie Database for the voice actors).  But it's also obvious, at this point, that they want it to be for the new system, and not the PS4.