CAN WE AUDIOPHILES DO OUR PART?


So we're all tired of hearing about nothing but Covid-19 (or, as I term it, the C-Plague). What can we do, as audiophiles, to help with all this.
I was amazed, and delighted, when I went to the Cardas website to see that they are doing their part. Go to their website and you'll see their director, Angela Cardas, wearing a mask. If you click on the Cardas Nautilus logo in the upper left corner, you'll see pictures of people there in the factory making masks with sewing machines. I called the company to congratulate them, and spoke with a woman named Darla, who said it was their way, during this economic slump, to keep their employees working and also their way of trying to "do our part."
I'm not writing all this to advertise Cardas products. They are a very good company, but trust your ears, not anything I write, when it comes to buying their products. They do get credit, however, for helping me come to a realization that pushed me in the right direction. I called a woman I am friends with, who is 85 years old and is a good seamstress, to suggest she start making masks. She already was--and is. By phone she has organized several other women to do the same, and right now they are needing more material and elastic. I managed to gather about 50 pounds of material and am starting to gather elastic while also getting more material. But I don't sew. I can't help out with that. Any ideas as to what we--all of us who are good with our ears and focused with our budgets--can do to help out in other ways?

I realize this is an odd topic to bring to an audio forum, but it was a very socially responsible audio company that got me to thinking about it, and frankly I believe I should be socially responsible enough to do what I can to get other people to thinking about it. While also being open to other people's ideas about ways someone like me who is "just an audiophile" can help.

Thank you, in advance, for any and all ideas on this.



baumli
Then instead of whinging about this decades later you should have taken advantage of the avenues available to you to force them to keep their promise. Actually we are a real audio store and I know I shouldnt post such things because this can cost us business but sometimes something must be said. I would hope that our brands and our level of competence would be the deciding factors.
@audition_audio,

you attacked me for no reason other than to get into the conversation because I don’t agree with your you and your buddy’s. Like I said I will tell everyone I am friends with in Audio how you reacted and let them be the judge. As for myself, it’s a losing battle arguing with your type, ie, mc, ozzy62, and the rest of you very arrogant uninformed people. life is too short and you guys have pushed my blood pressure higher than it has ever been. Happy? I hope so.
@n80: I’ve already expressed that delayed care is an issue. A significant issue. I am not downplaying it. I don’t pretend to have the answers. I will not advocate any particular plan with steadfast conviction because I don’t have the answers. I’ll give the same response, again, about the empty hospitals. It’s a real and serious problem. People will die from the virus and people will die from the response to the virus in various numbers with any plan that is implemented. If you claim, again, that I don’t think that the negative effects of having empty hospitals is another issue, I’ll know we aren’t having a good faith discussion. I don’t know what the proper balance is. I am not downplaying it. What I can tell you from first hand experience, and plenty of second hand experience(my fiancee is a pulm/crit physician at a another larger hospital and between the two of us we have a reasonably large network of physicians to collect regional information) is that by the time you see the tip of the iceberg, assuming you haven’t been taking aggressive local measures, in many cases you are going to find out you’ve already lost. You’re going to have a really bad few months even if you lock everything down completely at that point.

It seemed pretty obvious from the beginning that any adequate response in regards to the virus would later be met with significant push back as people made claims like: "See! The numbers aren’t even that bad!" Right, they aren’t that bad in the setting of dramatic measures taken to stop the further spread of the virus. That is not the same as saying they never would have been that bad. I suppose this is my biggest point. Don’t use the fact that things didn’t explode in the setting of drastic measures being taken to downplay the seriousness of the situation.

Btw, the response to the pandemic is not central and general. There are guidelines and some central programs etc, but the states are the ones imposing the shelter in place orders etc. Did I miss something? Seriously, if I did let me know. Maybe you mean central in terms of California state making a "central" decision? That’s not really the proper terminology in this context, but ok. Maybe that means California is too big? It is bigger and more heavily population that most countries. Sure. I don’t know. I’m not very knowledgeable about California. For the record, I agree we need to worry about erosion of liberty. We always do. It’s a very real and obvious concern. That concern needs to be discussed in the setting of proper information, though. This is addressed more generally(as in not really at you N80, others are making the next claim I’m about to address), but this is not the flu. This is significantly more deadly and causes significantly more morbidity. True, we don’t know EXACTLY how deadly yet...but I’ve never seen a relatively healthy sub 40 year old(zero or one well controlled comorbidity) die of hypoxic respiratory failure. I’ve seen more than a few already in that group die from Covid-19 pnuemonia. I’ve seen a lot more of them stuck in the hospital for weeks or even more than a month on varying levels of oxygen support. Many go home on home oxygen(at least they did, it takes like a week to get it now because supply is low). Never seen that with the flu. It’s not the flu. I’ve never seen refrigerator trucks behind the hospital because the morgue is full during flu season. At least one hospital I know of in the area needed a second truck because the first was full.

I’m done though. I can’t waste any more of my day off on this. Have fun all. Enjoy your music. Stay safe(whatever that means to you). For those of you hurting with businesses. I wish you the best of luck. I’m sorry you have to go through this. I hope we can get everyone back to work as soon as possible in an intelligent way. My vote would be for reliable antibody testing(we just need to work on that reliable part first), but I’m open to whatever works.
I hope you all go out and enjoy yourself, just don’t come crying around here if you get sick
If I get sick, I get sick. It's all about common sense, which is definitely not so common anymore. You stay in your house and wait until nothing bad ever happens again. At that time, you can ride off into the sunset on your unicorn. 

As for me, I will continue to live my life and do the same things I always do during flu season. I wash my hands, try not to touch anything I don't need to and don't allow anyone to cough on me. But damn to hell the government telling people they must shelter in place or risk being arrested. Quarantine the sick and the "at risk" demographic (if they want to) and let everyone else go about their business. What could be more simple?


Quarantine the sick and the "at risk" demographic

That would be....everyone.