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The effects and handling of covid are so bad right now that cops are substitute teaching in Oklahoma https://www.mic.com/impact/police-substitute-teachers-oklah

The effects and handling of covid are so bad right now that cops are substitute teaching in Oklahoma https://www.mic.com/impact/police-substitute-teachers-oklahoma-schools-covid https://www.mic.com/impact/police-substitute-teachers-oklaho... A shortage of truck drivers means the legal age for commercial truck drivers is being lowered from 21 to 18, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/business/apprentice-program-truck-drivers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/business/apprentice-progr... There is no getting back to the way things were right now and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional

nomel 5y ago
> cops are substitute teaching in Oklahoma Yes, this was covered in the documentary South Park, The Pandemic Special (season 24, episode 1).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Arainach 5y ago
> A shortage of truck drivers A shortage of trucking companies willing to pay the market rate for labor, rather.
- guyzero 5y ago
  There have been articles about truck driver shortages running for years, decades even. https://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/economy/truck_driver_shortage/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/economy/truck_driver_s... https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6769594 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6769594 - "A 1997 study by the American Trucking Association concluded that 82,000 new truckers were needed ... This shortage is making it more difficult for trucking companies to grow and contributing to higher costs for shippers." Maybe it's not about trucker supply.
  - massysett 5y ago
    Indeed it is not about trucker supply. The current industry is structured to allow shippers to ship a truckload of goods from random point A to random point B, on-demand and cheaply. This requires a large, relatively low-paid workforce that is subject to miserable work conditions of long stretches away from home sleeping in a truck cab and eating miserable food. The industry does not have to be structured this way. Most obviously, trucker pay could increase, but this would increase rates. Or, working conditions could improve. For example, have drivers work a fixed route and ferry trailers back and forth. Indeed a lot of less-than-truckload travels this way. This would dramatically improve working conditions, but increase costs and transit time. So I’ve concluded the trucking industry is just fine. There is no trucker shortage. Shippers want shipping on the cheap, and this is the marketplace that results. Shippers who want to, and can, fix this, do so by setting up their own in-house shipping or otherwise set up their business to not rely on rock-bottom shipping practices. Shippers who cannot or will not fix this for themselves, as well as trucking companies that make their business in this marketplace, sit around and whine about the “trucker shortage” they have created.
    - gurumeditations 5y ago
      If they paid decent and made it so you could drive one way for four hours and drive back to base the next four hours and go home for the night, the shortage would end like that.
clutchdude 5y ago
According to everyone else here, if we just dropped the mask requirements and social distancing, we'd have teachers lined up around the block to teach. The level of disconnect among Ms. Lance & commenters here is astounding - as if this pandemic was an exercise in to see how they were damaged in their lifestyles. Not because COVID and pandemics in general really suck for everyone.
- sharken 5y ago
  Why shouldn't mask requirements, social distancing, Corona passport and all the other restrictions be a thing of the past. We're well past the first vaccine shot, this is as good as it gets. It's time to realize that.
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    Because many hospitals are being stretched to the brink right now. Which would not be the case if most people were vaccinated. But that ship has sailed, so we have to deal with it. Luckily, this recent wave may be on the downslope and will have naturally immunized quite a few people so that maybe the next wave will be more minor.
    - sharken 5y ago
      They were also stretched to the brink under the big flu seasons of the past. But back then we didn't have many tests, which meant hospital personnel would work even when they were a little sick. Not having those people around, means that capacity has to be increased, which is very hard when almost everybody gets infected with Omicron.
      - jjeaff 5y ago
        I don't think flu has ever stretched this many hospitals this badly for so long. Flu is more seasonal and more regional in scope. Assuming COVID hospitalizations follow the same curve as COVID deaths (hospitalizations curve is actually steeper) then we are looking at an order of magnitude worse situation than flu. In other words, for the 100th time, COVID ain't the flu.

nomel 5y ago

> cops are substitute teaching in Oklahoma Yes, this was covered in the documentary South Park, The Pandemic Special (season 24, episode 1).

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Arainach 5y ago

> A shortage of truck drivers A shortage of trucking companies willing to pay the market rate for labor, rather.

guyzero 5y ago
There have been articles about truck driver shortages running for years, decades even. https://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/economy/truck_driver_shortage/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/economy/truck_driver_s... https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6769594 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6769594 - "A 1997 study by the American Trucking Association concluded that 82,000 new truckers were needed ... This shortage is making it more difficult for trucking companies to grow and contributing to higher costs for shippers." Maybe it's not about trucker supply.
- massysett 5y ago
  Indeed it is not about trucker supply. The current industry is structured to allow shippers to ship a truckload of goods from random point A to random point B, on-demand and cheaply. This requires a large, relatively low-paid workforce that is subject to miserable work conditions of long stretches away from home sleeping in a truck cab and eating miserable food. The industry does not have to be structured this way. Most obviously, trucker pay could increase, but this would increase rates. Or, working conditions could improve. For example, have drivers work a fixed route and ferry trailers back and forth. Indeed a lot of less-than-truckload travels this way. This would dramatically improve working conditions, but increase costs and transit time. So I’ve concluded the trucking industry is just fine. There is no trucker shortage. Shippers want shipping on the cheap, and this is the marketplace that results. Shippers who want to, and can, fix this, do so by setting up their own in-house shipping or otherwise set up their business to not rely on rock-bottom shipping practices. Shippers who cannot or will not fix this for themselves, as well as trucking companies that make their business in this marketplace, sit around and whine about the “trucker shortage” they have created.
  - gurumeditations 5y ago
    If they paid decent and made it so you could drive one way for four hours and drive back to base the next four hours and go home for the night, the shortage would end like that.

clutchdude 5y ago

According to everyone else here, if we just dropped the mask requirements and social distancing, we'd have teachers lined up around the block to teach. The level of disconnect among Ms. Lance & commenters here is astounding - as if this pandemic was an exercise in to see how they were damaged in their lifestyles. Not because COVID and pandemics in general really suck for everyone.

sharken 5y ago
Why shouldn't mask requirements, social distancing, Corona passport and all the other restrictions be a thing of the past. We're well past the first vaccine shot, this is as good as it gets. It's time to realize that.
- jjeaff 5y ago
  Because many hospitals are being stretched to the brink right now. Which would not be the case if most people were vaccinated. But that ship has sailed, so we have to deal with it. Luckily, this recent wave may be on the downslope and will have naturally immunized quite a few people so that maybe the next wave will be more minor.
  - sharken 5y ago
    They were also stretched to the brink under the big flu seasons of the past. But back then we didn't have many tests, which meant hospital personnel would work even when they were a little sick. Not having those people around, means that capacity has to be increased, which is very hard when almost everybody gets infected with Omicron.
    - jjeaff 5y ago
      I don't think flu has ever stretched this many hospitals this badly for so long. Flu is more seasonal and more regional in scope. Assuming COVID hospitalizations follow the same curve as COVID deaths (hospitalizations curve is actually steeper) then we are looking at an order of magnitude worse situation than flu. In other words, for the 100th time, COVID ain't the flu.