It's important to note that we're really not going to be sure of anything till at least mid-April, by most projections I've seen.
The viral cycle is approximately four weeks, so even though China is getting better and places like New York appear to be levelling off, that doesn't mean it can't come back or still get worse.
This is the absolute worst time to get complacent. I mean, there's no sense being terrified, but Trump's idea of trying to relax things by Easter is pure, unadulterated folly.

My perspective has drastically changed since I last posted on this thread. I was far too complacent and didn't do any research/reading into the situation but still made claims as if I did.
Social distancing might sound like a buzz phrase to invoke some hollowed-out ideas about how to handle this pandemic, but considering the high level of consistency among the healthcare community internationally, I'd say this checks out.
While I might not be in any tangible danger of contracting the virus or spreading it to my family, my actions bear significant consequence for others. This is more important than just my family, friends, or even local community. What I do with myself could have a huge impact on folks out of town, state, etc. Is that a stretch? Sure, but the point here is that I'm not risking anything if it can save a hospital bed, ventilator, or life.
Far too many of my friends have remained complacent because they don't believe the spread of COVID19 is as threatening as the effects of shutting down businesses is or even other illnesses themselves. I'm avoiding certain people because they refuse to read and understand the significance of the situation, and I refuse to have an argument over something that is plainly evident to see needs to be taken seriously. That in noway minimizes the effects this has on the economy, declining mental health, or come what may from this pandemic, but people tend to minimize the severity of the spread of the virus when they begin discussing the effects the virus has on huge facets of life, treating them as if they are the only focal point of prioritization.
Maybe I'm being too harsh and erring on the side of caution more than I ought to, but these are just my thoughts at present.

I did too, a little. I was complacent very early on. But when I started hearing things that alarmed me, I did my research and admitted I'd been wrong. Shit started really getting scary for me when sports started shutting down. It sort of snuck up on me before that.

Re: trump:
He wants to try and save the economy before it hits bottom; it hasn't yet. Note that this is an election year, and Trump has long held pride about the American economy. What he doesn't realize is that a second or even third wave will hit even harder than the first did. Loosening our grip now is pretty much the worst thing we can do, except for deliberately spreading the virus I suppose. For all of you who live in America, I fear there are tough times ahead, and I fear even more that if America won't shut others out, we may have to band together to shut you in, for the safety of all. I really, really hope it doesn't come to that.

Trump is saying things will be back to normal by Easter? Good grief, that is foolish to the point of lunacy, and also potentially dangerous too.
We'd heard some of his comments about the economy over here, (you can tell his priorities), but not that little fact.

Here, people are saying we're liable to hit a peak of cases in mid april, however, nobody is making projections after that, indeed a three month lock down is the general estimate and the one that people on the at risk list like my lady and I are expecting.

For the most part though over here, things are going relatively well, there was even a massive national demonstration yesterday with everyone standing in their doorways and applauding in support of the NHS. My lady and I missed it, or maybe it's because newark is such a small town we didn't do it over here, but we'll check if there is another one today.

There have been some morons of course, London apparently has the highest number of cases, partly because people ar disobeying the lockdown order, and the government is just putting in place rules to fine people who don't get moved on when they're told to, and actually arrest anyone deliberately coughing at police officers. Yes, some idiots have apparently done this, though again whilst I'm no fan of draconian governmental measures, in this instance it seems justified.

On the other hand, the volunteer pool has gone up to half a million, so it's not all doom and gloom over here, or at least people seem to be concentrating on getting through things.

In terms of personal thoughts, to be honest, I have surprised myself with just how calm I happen to be feeling about the hole situation. Back at the beginning of March when things in Italy seemed to be going rather badly, I laid in some dried and tinned supplies, I was already isolating even before the official lockdown order came in, and in general I've just thought of this as something to be dealt with. If I can't go out? well I'll have to see what I can get on amazon. If I can't walk my dog to go shopping, I'll have to find a time when I can. If something is delivered, well I'll need to use plastic gloves to unwrap it outside the house. Maybe that is it, maybe it's that there are things I can! do so I am just going to do them.

Maybe it's that I've been having to deal with my lady having cancer for the past eighteen months and primarily I'm just thinking about her, I don't know, but at the moment I'm just taking things as they come, and actually feeling weirdly okay with the situation, or at least, as okay as anyone can be.

Not that I'm not worried about my parents, or really empathetic to all of those who have lost loved ones across the world, since undoubtedly their situation is awful, just that I'm concerned at the moment with just sorting things out and coping with the situation than worrying about it, indeed as I said, I hope this might provide the kick up the arse people need, since things have been getting way too factional and negative over the past decade, indeed things have been sort of sliding downards ever since the fall of the world trade centre, with art becoming stale, increased corporate control, and a general lack of personal power being matched by an increasing number of angry partisan movements.

Hopefully, having to cope with a threat like a virus, horrible as it is might actually wake people up a bit.

But that of course is in the future, for the time being we'll just have to keep on trucking as the saying goes.

Hello.
Romania is on lock down as of two days now. I too haven't taken the situation seriously untill I realised that I can't get out of my house without having a paper clearly stating my emergency. Yeah, we can't get out for walks, only necessities such as buying groceries and taking your pet for a walk in the proximity of your home are allowed. The streets are full of military vehicles and police filters. Yesterday I was stopped by the police I had prepared all the papers and everything was well though it was a bit unnerving to be screamed at through a megaphone to stop when you've been just to the grocery store which is 50 m away from the house. I am most concerned about my lady since she is pregnant so she is not leaving the house at all, I am the only one that goes for groceries and stuff and I make sure to wash my hands and wear a mask when in public, though we will have to see about that since I have only one mask left and I couldn't find any at the farmacies closest to my home.
My lady is due to give birth in july and I really hope that this madness ends by then or I'll be extremely worried since hospitals are the best place to catch the virus.
On a more amusing note, here in romania idiots started to rise theyr heads aswell, I heard a lot of funny stories over the news these past days. From old people in their seventies being filmed hiding in the bushes from the police to someone who found a way to get out of the house by claiming that he is taking his pet for a walk. His pet was a fish kept in a bag filled with water.
Stay safe everyone.

South Africa is as of today also under lockdown, very strict measures indeed are being taken, you are only allowed to go out for necessities such as grosery shopping or if you work in an isencial environment such as healthcare. The military has also being deployed to help. There are already people trying to ignore this lockdown, but, they will be in jail for a little while though. Things have gotten serious over here as well.

So this thing is 45 minutes away from where I live.. I did find out that school is closed for the rest of the school year, and on line schooling is being implemented. Many things like physical therapy are no longer being considered essential, and many establishments are being closed down.. I'm 32, but as the kids would say, I'm woke now.
I watched a video where a guy with the virus described what he suffered through, and also have done a lot of reading. I get what I need that I can find, and come home.. Shelves are rather bare in stores, and nothing is at all the same anymore. I haven't seen anything like this since 9/11.

@334, this is exactly why people need to listen to the leading health experts and not politicians about this. Dr. Faucie
says
that the we don't make the timeline, the virus does. As Bill Gates
points out
, the numbers are increasing, not decreasing. So why, then, are we anticipating this to be all said and done in the matter of two weeks?
I'm finding there are words being thrown around (not necessarily here on this thread) interchangeably that may be painting a different picture other than the reality of our situation here in the states. I've heard people use "lockdown," "quarantine," and "isolation" synonymously, and I think that muddies things up a bit. In my view, at least, lockdown and quarantine are pretty similar -- you are constricted to an enclosed area and are not permitted to leave, nor is anyone permitted in. It's the idea that no one gets in, no one gets out. That's what I think of when I hear lockdown. I don't know of any place in the states that is operating on that basis or even plans to. I understand there may be facilities doing so, but no city has made this a reality, although I know New York governor Cuomo was deeply considering making that choice. I feel isolation is far more of an appropriate term to describe our situation. We are distancing ourselves by remaining in our own homes, but we are legally permitted to go outside to exercise and complete necessary tasks like grocery shopping, banking, seeking medical attention, etc.
Sure, isolation can sure feel like quarantine, but I do believe it is very important to define these terms and understand what we can and cannot do as a society, and furthermore, not conflate the two ideas.

I'm not really bothered by this whole social distancing thing. I don't go very many places anyway, and I can talk to all the people I care about over the Internet. I don't like the term social distancing. It should be called physical distancing instead, as all we're doing is reducing physical contact with other people. You can still talk to anyone you want, at any time, anywhere in the world using the power of the Internet. Oh, and let me just say I'm really happy a lot of people are using Zoom. Zoom is awesome!

I find it interesting that businesses are switching to remote work. I have always wanted to do this type of work, so maybe some good will come from this mess after all. Maybe people will realize it's far more effective to have people work remotely because it reduces the overhead cost associated with running a brick and mortar business. If this philosophy becomes more widely accepted in the general public, maybe the situation will improve for someone who is blind. I'm still hopeful Microsoft will improve Narrator support for Remote Desktop at some point.

Places where the number of cases is low seem to think that they are free from the dangers of the virus and should not adhere to social distancing measures. The reason why we are closing so many places is so we can control the spread. In other words, let's make sure those states where there are less than 200 cases remain under 200, which means those areas absolutely must close their businesses. This mindset is precisely how we got to where we are. Everybody wants to make projections on the current numbers and not the projected number of cases as it spreads over time.
I'm also quite frankly tired of the idea that America is invulnerable to this kind of threat. We live so comfortably in our day-to-day lives that we don't believe anything is too much for us to handle. It's a very frustrating thing to observe, especially when adversity has been constantly knocking at our door and we refused to take it seriously. I admit that I'm one of the folks in that crowd, so this in no way is to point fingers at others.

To be fair, even in places where things have shut down like the entire province of British Columbia, transmition is happening and so far in the past week and a half haven't shown any difference. Conversely, countries like Taiwan are managing to keep the spread down and still have a relative amount of normalcy. Something has to explain that and I'm very curious to kow why that is. Even Japan which is just now starting to see their spike in cases is still seeing it slower than everywhere else. Tokyo which has a population of 9 million is only starting to see cases in the1000 mark.