Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

Ha, thanks.

xp
The right, usually, unless I want to mix it up.

kids (2nd) covid test was (also) negative yip yip

my bout of sinusitis is finally over after antibiotics. no more anxiety over OMG IS IT REALLY SINUSITIS

Good for you. That is one of the eternal dichotomies: TS Super-annoying Sinusitis vs. Potentially Fatal or Debilitating Condition

I went with Sinusitis as well this time.

There was a version of the Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme in the spring that was a three-way: one Spiderman was Covid, another was Seasonal Allergies, and the final was Bong Hits.

I found that very relatable, because while my drinking has stayed pretty minimal, especially compared to the past, my weed consumption has gone through the roof during the pandemic. I think mostly because I'm cooped up all day.

Good for you. That is one of the eternal dichotomies: TS Super-annoying Sinusitis vs. Potentially Fatal or Debilitating Condition

― She Thinks I Will Dare (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, October 12, 2020 11:56 AM bookmarkflaglink

I went with Sinusitis as well this time.

― She Thinks I Will Dare (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, October 12, 2020 11:56 AM bookmarkflaglink

?

Checking in here from the red state red zone. We've just had three days in a row in our county of more than 100 new cases, for the first time in a month. And we're at our highest-ever hospitalizations.

Our numbers had come down from a summer peak, but I got a bad feeling two weeks ago when I went downtown on a Saturday evening to pick up some pizza and the whole area was PACKED with cars, most I'd seen in months, and the restaurants were crowded with indoor diners. I thought, "Here we go..."

I feel like we're just going to be in this cycle for the foreseeable future. Too many people just can't take it seriously for long enough.

xp to Neanderthal
I had some annoying symptoms, sore throat, headache, weird itch, I posted over the weekend but seems to be my old friend sinusitus.

ohhhhh gotcha!

you taking anything for it? I made the mistake of thinking mine was viral until I realized it wasn't going away

What I do is take two little red sudafed pills (the kind that last 4 hours) and 2 Benadryl (the kind that last 4-6 hours), and that works pretty well. If I catch it when it's just coming on, I can even cut the dose in half.

Oh never mind, I misread and thought it was viral.

mine usually is. i haven't had one that was bacterial in over a decade. that's what surprised me

the severity of the headaches probably should have been a red flag, as they were much worse than my usual sinus issues.

Imma say it AGAIN... since y’all decided to adapt to COVID instead of defeating it... we are not going back to pre COVID life. At least not for the next couple of years.

— Marshall™️ (@BestOfMarshall) October 11, 2020

dealing with the state unemployment insurance is a continuing bureaucratic nightmare. they initially took three months to process my case. during this time, i qualified for PUA, a program that covers the self-employed who have lost income, only to have my certifications there hang in a pending state until the decision was reversed and the UI office accepted my claim. (reason: i had also been laid off from full-time employment last year.) then, after distributing almost $14,000 dollars of benefits, they cut me off and sent a letter demanding every penny back, due to a technicality that should've prevented me from qualifying in the first place.

after convincing them that the overpayment was not my fault, they said i'd only be liable to pay it back if i qualified *again* for PUA, backdating to march, which would've been fine since i'd have been due more than the amount of the overpayment. but after reapplying, PUA has directed me to apply AGAIN for state unemployment, through the new PUEC program, which extends benefits for a longer term. the auditor who's handling my overpayment case hadn't considered this possiblity and so i am waiting yet again for answers. would it even be worth it to apply for PUEC? will i be liable for overpayment if i qualify, regardless? nobody knows, apparently.

this shit has been going on for seven months and it is likely to continue and it sucks ass. to top it off, tonight my girlfriend came down with a fever and body aches. we are hoping it goes away and trying not to worry, but i'm sure we'll go for a test if it continues into tomorrow.

fuck corona and fuck the unemployment insurance system's many dysfunctions. i'm going to sleep now and hope for better news tomorrow.

i'm afraid to ask what state you're in

Djp and marshall soooo otm.

Anti-virtual parents are staging a school strike next week to get schools to reopen.

Meanwhile, a nearby high school is shutting down because 5 students tested positive.

xxp hawaii

my son's school transport escort has had to go into isolation for a week. Nothing to worry about she says and it is in relation somebody else she has escorted to school in the last few weeks and she isn't showing any symptoms. But worrying is my natural game.

good news, jasmine seems much better this morning and it makes any unemployment concerns feel really unimportant

xp worrywarts can rlly bring their A-game this year!

sorry calzino, that was not meant to be a slight and i hope there is no reason to worry <3

I didn't take it as such at all and it was quite correct!

my son's school transport escort has had to go into isolation for a week

Shouldn't it be two weeks?

she said one week I think and it is half term from friday, which lasts two weeks at his school as they only have 4 weeks in the summer. So it's academic at this point of the term - but I'm sure she said one week.

It was only a short conversation on the phone while I was out and my head was more concerned with PANIC than getting to the bottom of things!

Understandable. As I understand it symptomatic & positive cases need to isolate for 10 days from first symptoms or test and their contacts for 14. Never heard of a week applying to either.

her husband has diabetes so maybe she just decided fuck this last week before half term and has done a sickie, and I wouldn't blame her tbh.

Damn, Calz. Best to you, your son, and his escort.

well he has no school today because the replacement escort has dropped out now was well!

Ugh.

apparently they are five escorts down who are self-isolating and few more haven't turned up for work - and I don't blame them tbf - getting this strong sense of the Rona is back in town and batten up the hatches if you can.

Yeah, it's been pretty obvious we were heading in this direction given the re-openings and possible seasonal effects.

My sister is getting married (again) at the end of the month and she is about 3 hours away. It is going to be outdoors and distanced afaik, but still getting nervous about it and trying to figure out logistics of the down and back in the same day.

And just like that, however many months down the line it's been, my wife and I now each have an acquaintance with covid, each a very different situation. Her friend was feeling under the weather, kind of like a cold though I guess annoying enough to get tested. She came up positive, and so did her youngest. Because she had been behaving as carefully as could be, she assumes she got it from her child, who must have got it from daycare/pre-school (no one else in the family tested positive). Right now they are locked up in an Air BnB, bouncing off the walls while they wait it out.

My friend had a much more serious case that begin relatively mild but soon sent her to the hospital, perhaps relating to a pre-existing heart condition. She's a newspaper columnist, and recently posted this (repeat emphasis on "this is not the flu" I assume is for the benefit of any dubious readers who follow her):

I took a turn for the worse midweek, COVID-wise, and ended up in the hospital. If all goes as planned, I should be leaving later today. It’s been a crazy stay: Two EKGs, an echocardiogram, a CT scan, an MRI, blood thinner shots, a lumbar puncture to check for white blood cells and protein in my spinal fluid, blah, blah, blah. They found some injury to my heart.

One of the doctors (a COVID survivor) told me “COVID goes where your blood vessels go.” (Which is to say, everywhere.) It’s not the flu.

Again, I’m so lucky. I’m getting phenomenal medical care. I have insurance to help me pay for it. I get to go home. X and my kids and our friends and family are being so incredibly supportive and wonderful. Y and I have been pretending I’m at a really disappointing resort and texting each other yelp reviews.

But also again, it’s not the flu.

Thank you so much for all of your kindness and well wishes. It has meant so much to me. I’m not sure I can even process yet how truly healing it has been to hear from so many of you.
I’m going to take some time to take care of my heart. Might be a little while before I’m up and at ‘em again.

“COVID goes where your blood vessels go.”

This, because the receptor the virus uses to enter a host cell are one of the most common receptors around, the disease seems like it can enter and affect almost any part of your body.

one of the guys who's been working on a project in part of my house for weeks (masked, separated, very careful on contact and washing) now has covid. he's a bit immunocompromised. and a super kind dude, i'm worried about him.

I’m starting to become unhealthily obsessed with non mask-wearers in this country... it’s upsetting me. I just can’t get over it.

and people who can’t resist eating out... wtf

I’m sorry. I’m generally a very optimistic person & have fought to keep positive these last few months. But today is hard. We are heading into a massive Covid spike & the people who are supposed to protect us are doing nothing & blaming us for being concerned.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) October 25, 2020

That whole thread really sums up where we are with shit leadership.

What I can't figure out is people who can't resist eating out ... at just generic Greek diners or whatever. Like, how badly do you need that?

yesterday I had to listen to a conversation between two people who were claiming it's all a conspiracy theory, "it's 1984 on steroids" and openly admitting that they had got themselves false mask exemptions because they didn't believe it was real. Fuck these people.

I feel you, brimstead. I was out and about in my building for maybe a sum total of five minutes yesterday and encountered about seven people (almost literally running into two of them as we simultaneously opened the stairwell door) and not one of them was wearing a mask. I'm finding it more difficult to be pleasant the more I encounter this shit. We aren't outside, this is a building where 100+ people live, a number of whom are older and/or infirm, you selfish fucks.

I’m really struggling today, it’s hard to feel anything but hopeless between the surging numbers, the administration admitting publicly that they’ve just given up and our state’s health official breaking down in tears during a recent briefing because the numbers are so bleak. I feel like we are so doomed and I’m having a hard time finding a glimmer of hope to focus on.

My Chicago-adjacent town has thus far managed to keep the daily cases in the single and low double digits but we broke our record along with the rest of the state yesterday. Given how cavalier an increasing majority of people are behaving, it's just a matter of when at this point.

Looking at the past month's trends, the next five or six months are going to be very grim.

yes. :( most of the time i feel angry about it, to be honest, not sad. probably because i haven't lost anyone close to me, yet. but the last week, as others here (and elsewhere) seem to be noting, it just feels worse. it is grim. for a lot of people (particularly those with seasonal affective disorder), the leaves turning and falling and the gray skies reinforces the feeling.

i don't know. hold on for dear life, i guess.