Sure she's unlikely to die, but who knows about effects on the future baby. Even the flu, which is generally less severe, is linked to poor infant outcomes: https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/n...rm-unborn-baby

Especially since the weather is generally nice outside right now and every restaurant worth its salt has outdoor seating...

It's interesting how this varies by neighborhood. A fancyish restaurant right next to UChicago is full on the patio with nobody or just one table filled inside.

If you're wife or girlfriend were pregnant, would you take that risk? Fuck no you wouldn't. It's only nine months (less by the time you realize you're pregnant). Not a lifetime so I think you can manage and make a few sacrifices. My brother and his wife had twins last year and stayed home the entire time she was pregnant and they managed.

^
But then the baby will be a baby for 2 years and then a toddler. The same argument could be used. I’m too afraid to get a mild illness that im vaccinated against because my wife is pregnant. Then it will be im afraid to have my toddler get covid, which they have a near zero chance of getting sick from or dying from but why take the risk?

Why take the risk to drive in a car, a toddler has a good chance of getting injured or killed if you get in a severe car accident so why go out at all? The world is a scary place and you could die from anything at anytime. Sometimes people just minding their own business get squished by ice falling off of roofs in the winter. Sometimes you could be standing on a sidewalk and a tire can come out of nowhere flying off of a car and kill you. A pitbull could come out of nowhere and rip your face off, etc.

Covid has made half of the population lose their minds and governments as well. It’s as if half of all people stopped being able to think rationally and stopped them from assessing risks rationally. I see dummies in cars driving with masks on by themselves and texting and driving. They think they’re being safe by wearing a mask and then take their eyes off of the road texting.

Because we don't know what long-term effects of COVID-19 there might be on fetal development. We DO know that pregnant people are obviously immunocompromised and that other diseases that are mild in most people can have bad effects on fetal development. It's the same reason people avoid eating many foods while pregnant, but getting COVID is much more likely than getting Salmonella or Listeriosis.
Well, I don't typically drive so there's that (I agree, driving is extremely dangerous and most are too reliant on it).
It has made clear what we've always known, that people are terrible at assessing high-impact low-probability events. Nearly 650,000 people have died so far in the US, and many more have been hospitalized and put through serious pain.
those are probably Uber drivers who are probably required to always wear a mask while working. But I agree, anyone who texts while driving should immediately lose their license.

It is? :shrug:

Yes, millions of Americans are mangled every year from motor vehicle collisions.

3 million per year in the US are injured from car accidents and there’s roughly 6 million car accidents per year in the US; so you have a much greater percent chance of getting injured or killed by driving than from covid. But nobody worries about that.

Well, ~40k people die in a year from car accidents, vs 500k + in a year from COVID so different orders of magnitude.

But you're wrong that nobody worries about driving. I dislike driving because it is stressful to be in operation of a dangerous weapon that can injure me or others. Much less stressful to take the train...

There’s also this.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news...eath_in_the_us

My point is, stop worrying about COVID, there’s a million other things that could fuck you up. Live your life and stop worrying about COVID.

Right and most of the time when you cross the street without looking, nothing bad happens. Why bother?

The problem is the quarantine rules, not Covid. England finally did away with the requirement to quarantine if you’re “exposed” to Covid as long as you’re vaccinated. You still have to if you have symptoms but that should just be common sense now for Covid, flu, whatever.

Pregnancies are only 9 months. Why take the risk when there are still unknowns about Covid and pregnancies? I get the hysteria over masks, lockdowns and other shit but not sure why we should care about a couple taking a few extra precautions while they are pregnant. It's not as if women don't curtail their lifestyles already during pregnancy.

Buy a Tesla and use autopilot, problem solved! :D

Regardless of the rules from the city, there are the rules from my employer and the hospital.

I love to drive and most of us do as well compared to the alternative reality in America.

I own 2 cars, depending on a few things, I'll probably own a third in a year or so.

Honestly, I'm never stressed about driving, it's relaxing. Put on some jams, or a podcast or AM Talk Radio, veg out, enjoy the scenery, adjust the temperature to the perfect comfort level, make a few phone calls if you want. Take a last minute detour somewhere, it's great!

I'm not a wound up person that stresses out on stupid stuff. Traffic jam, no worries, nothing I can do about it. Open freeway, yeah I'm going 75 mph, nothing to stress on.

Your point? If you cross the street without looking, you’re prob going to get hit. If you go out in public you might get covid and it’s incredibly rare you’ll die or end up in the hospital; especially if you’re vaccinated. I had COVID back in October, and also got vaccinated in February and early March. I got more sick from the rona vaccine than covid.

But we should keep masking indefinitely and social distancing forever. Pittsburgh just mandated that all of those in public school have to wear masks. That’s going to be 3 school years where kids don’t get social cues from faces. That’s going to fuck kids up way more than the tiny tiny percentage that get sick and die.

Seriously, when will we stop with these pointless mask mandates and social distancing? 2027? Luckily I live in Carnegie, just outside the Pittsburgh city limits so businesses around here don’t require masks again yet but still lots of scared morons wear them everywhere and outside. However, my favorite sushi place is downtown and you have to wear a stupid mask in there and I couldn’t understand anything the waiter was saying. It’s not normal human interaction to not see faces, in fact it’s incredibly abnormal, and here we are, almost 2 fucking years later of it. It will never end.

I couldn't do mass transit on a regular basis. Not with the nuts and weirdos or people making a scene/ fighting. At least not the subway or L.

If I lived in a city that had good public light/heavy rail transport that went pretty much anywhere than I’d much rather take that than have to drive everywhere. Buses are disgusting, but I love light rail. Pittsburgh’s T is completely useless and only goes out one way to generic suburbia; it goes really nowhere in the city proper.

Yeah but one moment of lack of focus or attention and you could crash into another vehicle or hit a cyclist or pedestrian. I got hit by a speeding car I didn't see while turning left with poor visibility when I was 17. Only minor injuries, and it was technically my fault for failing to yield, but it could have been bad. Or someone else might fuck up. I've been rear ended by someone not paying attention to a traffic jam and, when I was young, in a car that was hit by a drink driver running a red light. And I got rid of my car 10 years ago in my early 20's.

Anyway because driving is dangerous we do things to try to make it safer (seat belts, air bags, crumple zones, speed limits, traffic enforcement). And it helps, but you have no illusions that driving is perfectly safe.