2474: First Time Since Early 2020

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First Time Since Early 2020

Title text: Gotten the Ferris wheel operator's attention

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a FERRIS WHEEL OPERATOR. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This is yet another comic part of the series of comics on the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic|2020-21 pandemic]] caused by the {{w|COVID-29|coronavirus disease 2019]] (COVID-19).

This is a graph comic that orders things based on the level of alarm that would occur if it were revealed that someone had not done a given thing since early 2020.

The title text serves as another graph point, though it isn't given where it is on the graph.

Been to a birthday party

Going to a birthday party was a normal task before the pandemic, and it's normal to say you haven't gone to one since early 2020.

Eaten at a restaurant

Eating at a restaurant without ordering food from it online was also common before the governments instated lockdowns, but it's ranked a little less normal by Randall.

Seen my family

Seeing your family is fairly common before the governments instated lockdowns. However, there were emergency visits during the lockdown.

Been on a plane

Governments around the world cancelled commercial flights during the pandemic. However, businessmen like Bill Gates used private jet during the pandemic.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[Heading:]

"This is actually the first time

I've _____ since early 2020."

[Below showing a vertical arrow with the words "normal" and "alarming" at the top and the bottom of the arrow respectively. At the right side of the arrow showing a long list of text starts with a traingle.]

◀been to a birthday party

◀eaten at a restaurant

◀seen my family

◀been on a plane

◀gone to a movie

◀gone to a store

◀installed software updates

◀eaten a vegetable

◀opened the fridge

◀paid taxes

◀washed my hands

◀seen another person

◀seen a ghost

◀served as a decoy

◀sighted land

◀checked the news

◀checked on the customers in the escape room

◀contracted a novel virus

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Discussion

It's kind of alarming to me that "Seen my family" is apparently more normal than "Gone to a movie". Really that whole section is out of order. From most normal to most alarming it should go "Gone to a movie", "Been on a plane", "Eaten at a restaurant", "Seen my family". 172.69.34.58 02:50, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Not to mention that "checked the news" is farther towards "alarming" than things like "sighted land", "washed my hands", and "opened the fridge", and is only higher than "checked on the customers in the escape room" and "contracted a novel bat virus". Some people just have too much to do, are able to get all the information critically important to their personal lives from people they communicate with personally, live off the grid, and/or are completely fed up with the rampant sensationalism and outrage culture in the media. 172.68.37.32 03:32, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Not to mention how alarming "contracted a novel bat virus" is. While contracting COVID-19 is bad, it's nowhere near as bad as, say, letting people starve in the escape room, subsisting off of MRE's ("ate a vegetable") and being stuck in the ocean ("sighted land")172.69.34.58 04:14, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

I think the joke is that he's contracting a different virus, implying the possibility that he could be patient zero for two different pandemics. At this point, COVID-19 isn't novel anymore. 172.69.71.60 06:26, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

So if you'd been locked up for a year, the first thing you'd do after being freed would be to go to a movie or take a plane, not to see your family? Sad!162.158.90.4 12:31, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Have *you* met my family?141.101.98.244 13:12, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Don't forget that many people don't live anywhere near a family member (indeed, many have no living family at all). (Also this chart is how normal vs alarming cessation of an activity is, so if one activity is significantly less common than another, cessation may be listed as less normal than cessation of a significantly more common activity.)

ProphetZarquon (talk) 20:23, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Several issues here, but I want to discuss before I make any edit, because I don't know what other regions experienced: ProphetZarquon (talk) 20:23, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

1) Explanation gives an unrealistic depiction of CoViD '19 response in the US (& worldwide?): "Governments around the world cancelled commercial flights" Not all governments! Flights continued across the US even with empty planes, throughout the entire pandemic; the US government never cancelled any flights for CoViD. National border crossings were sometimes restricted, but anecdotally I know of multiple people who were allowed to travel, both inter-state (visiting multiple locations) & internationally, at peak "lockdown". Travel within the US was effectively unrestricted with only a handful of local exceptions, & international travel was restricted mostly by bans on travelers from one specific country to another. Most citizens within the US (& around the world?) were restricted only by advisory recommendations, not mandates, much less any actual "lockdown". Many commercial flights were eventually cancelled due to lack of ticket sales, but commercial flights never actually stopped completely even among some of the hardest hit countries. Heck, during the worst of it, airlines in the US & EU were flying planes with crew but no passengers, round the clock, just to keep gate priority. Many epidemiologists expected lockdowns which never came; National governments probably should have halted flights by mandate (& actually defined "essential" a lot less broadly), if containment were desired, but that's not what happened. Could we alter this explanation's phrasing to make it clearer that "air travel was extremely suppressed by travel advisories & restrictions" as opposed to "cancelled by government" which is not at all accurate? ProphetZarquon (talk) 20:23, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

2) "Cinema halls around the world are closed due to the pandemic." Were closed! There are cinemas open again all across the US, & Wuhan China reopened their cinemas many months ago. ProphetZarquon (talk) 20:28, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

3) "Installed Software Updates" 'explanation' seems to include contrary statements from differing contributors. The comic does not explicitly mention CoViD; the chart lists activities for which a prolonged cessation is less or more alarming, in ascending order. Many people rarely ate at restaurants, or never paid taxes, before CoViD '19: Citing how common or uncommon activities such as "updates" were & are, before & after the emergence of CoViD '19, seems a better explanation than contradicting sentences questioning how it relates to the comic (discussion of which belongs here, not in the explanation). ProphetZarquon (talk) 20:23, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

4) "Opened The Fridge" explanation presumes that Randall is the one who hasn't opened the fridge. Certainly Randall is the one rating this as relatively normal but somewhat alarming; however we have no grounds to presume that Randall himself has not opened his fridge: He most certainly has "checked the news", "sighted land", "seen another person", & probably "paid taxes", since early 2020. Better to only explain why someone may not have opened their fridge: Some people never use their kitchens. Supermarkets are a public place with many shared surfaces & generally limited airflow, therefore at-risk or concerned persons may have reason to avoid supermarkets during a pandemic, resulting in reliance on food delivery (lack of leftovers could suggest pets or teenage children). Living creature inside (isn't this the subject of an XKCD comic?)? ProphetZarquon (talk) 20:23, 10 June 2021 (UTC)