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

My parents' neighbours are currently averaging a party a week, with a revolving cast of characters, in a context (Quebec) where such get-togethers have been illegal since the start of October and Xmas is basically cancelled, so while none of us advocate for calling the cops on them, witnessing this shit is immensely frustrating.

People have been sending their COVID positive kids into our school because they believe in “living without fear”

Hope they burn in hell along with some people mentioned here yesterday

People have been sending their COVID positive kids into our school because they believe in “living without fear”

Hope they burn in hell along with some people mentioned here yesterday

my son's teacher just phoned, some pupil who shares a corridor with him has the rona so school is out till next year. I've become so blasé recently my first thought was: ffs I thought I had a free day next week to get my eyes tested rather than Yikes!

I think the basic thing for me is that everyone should minimize risk as much as they can, given their circumstances. I have friends who have to go to work and be in relatively close proximity with others, I have coworkers who have small kids that absolutely need some level of social interaction outside of their immediate family, and nearly everyone has had some sort of mitigating circumstance this year where they’ve had to do less-safe things. I had to interact with a lot more people in closer proximity when part of a tree fell on my house and the sewer backed up the same week (august was a wild one) than I really felt comfortable with, but it had to be done.

I can’t blame people for being anxious and acting out in small ways but people who proclaim that they’re going to start acting like “things are normal” just because they’ve decided their choice between caution and comfort is just to throw out all caution, fuck that.

I really should stop making the one indoor place I leave the house to wander briefly the liquor store, though! I’ll probably hit up Costco this week, maybe Trader Joe’s. I feel less like I’m going to spread my imaginary latent germs now that I’ve been living off a fully stocked freezer and the occasional food delivery for weeks.

and sending some love PBKR’s way, that is definitely a trip that sounds work taking, even with the anxiety

m I an idiot for going to the grocery store once or twice a week?

No more than idiots like me who have to go to work twice a week.

I think the basic thing for me is that everyone should minimize risk as much as they can, given their circumstances.

This. There are no magic threshold numbers (six feet apart comes to mind) through which one can control risk and predict outcomes. It is all on a spectrum that revolves around fuzzy clouds of probability.

The best approach imo is to push oneself as close to the low risk end as you can tolerate, but to recognize that your limit will necessarily be somewhat elastic as the required effort is carried on for months upon months. It's a bit analogous to dietary discipline. One avoids excess for long stretches, but allows for the possibility of an occasional brief 'splurge' before going back to strict discipline. But the fewer these lapses are, the better off your overall health.

I'm almost reluctant to link this because it seems *too* reassuring, missing a critical varaiable—the number of already-infected in a given room. Also doesn't account for level of contagiousness in the given infected person, using an average instead. Still, interesting:

Transmission calculator

and sending some love PBKR’s way, that is definitely a trip that sounds work taking, even with the anxiety

― mh, Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:13 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks! We'll (probably) be ok, just feeling like uncharted territory.

So a mutant strain, 70% more transmittable, is running rampant through London and the SE of England, such that the government have had to invent a new higher tier of local restrictions to place everyone in... yet, I've just been to my local (mini) Tesco and literally half the customers and one of the staff were not wearing masks, much the same story in a couple of barber shops and a fast food place I passed on my way back home. They're not being jolly careful, Boris.

They mightn't've seen the news, being as it was only unveiled at 4 on a Saturday afternoon.

They knew we were already in the highest tier I assume.

the virus being tranmissible is not new news tbf

(yeah perhaps that was a generous reading from me)

"We're closing all the non-essential shops from tomorrow" seems like an invitation to panic buying.

The Spanish and Italian people I work with, who are unfortunately stuck here with the rest of us, are dumbstruck by all this.

Idk what they expected when they made a point of stressing CHRISTMAS WILL BE GOING AHEAD on Wednesday and then did this at 4pm the weekend before, when people who have understandably thought they’d be seeing family wouldn’t have had anything in.

And also when restrictions come into effect at midnight and trains are still running, obviously this kind of thing will happen.

Last train out of Saigon. Queue at St Pancras as we wait to board the Leeds bound train. pic.twitter.com/cFDBDNnYFC

— Harriet Clugston (@HarrietClugston) December 19, 2020

The sheer murderous incompetence of it… absolutely staggering stuff.

The Mutants Train, coming to your town soon.

I mean, just look at the amount of deaths per 100,000 pop. in the UK:

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

I don’t hate or judge these people for it, is the thing. It’s been almost a year since I saw my parents, nine months since I hugged any member of my family, three since I saw the nearest one to me. Lots of people, myself included, have been putting up with shit and thinking “at least I’ll see them at Christmas” and it has been keeping people going for a while. It’s not just incompetent and irresponsible, it’s incredibly cruel.

At least here Christmas was cancelled several weeks ago…

I'm only judging people who saunter about Tesco's with no mask on tbh.

Meanwhile, in Brazil:

https://www.businessinsider.com/bolsonaro-claims-covid-19-vaccines-could-turn-people-into-crocodiles-2020-12

that... is a take.

ever since hearing that 90's Dr Octagon album I always wanted to be a mutant croc anyway.

Remember when Sweden was held up as a model by the anti-mask brigade? pic.twitter.com/bXeqFIrDWp

— Phil BC (@philbc3) December 19, 2020

all those knaves that were bigging up Sweden's response should be forced to eat more than their own duplicitous words.

It's a transnational cover-up attempt, according to my father-in-law. Based Sweden has buckled under the pressure after heroically resisting for almost a full year. Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos are forcing governments to artificially inflate their covid numbers so the Amazon lockdown can continue, for the benefit of Big Pharma, whose would-be vaccines are simultaneously ineffective and fatal.

my mum is slowly coming around to the idea of the vaccine, despite making anti-vaccine noises a couple of weeks backs and parroting lots of right-wing press rinse for the first 6 months of the lockdown. She's in her late 70's and is a recent breast cancer survivor and her twin sis is dying of multiple inoperable cancers. Me and my older brother keep telling her that the Rona is the real danger and I think the message is hitting home, thank god.

The scientists behind the bullshit Sweden strategy were opposed by other level-headed Swedish scientists is the worst part

We're not hearing much about Sweden from the save-the-economy-first ghouls these days but, as the graph demonstrates, the Swedish approach was obviously bullshit all along and it didn't stop them bigging it up before.

So, little update on my friend (and a reminder of what this can do to people): She’s now been on a ventilator for more than two weeks. She is conscious and responsive, which is good, and her oxygen levels are semi-stable though still weak. They had to do a tracheostomy to put in a feeding tube. Per her husband, the doctors are moderately hopeful she’ll pull through although they’re understandably cautious about predicting anything. Christ almighty.

Ugh, sorry about your friend, my friend

Thanks. I feel terrible for her, her husband and their son. What a Christmas.

If a little Hillbilly singer like my big sister Dolly can invest in the vaccine then why the hell can’t some of you old moldy politicians pitch in a few million yourselves? I noticed you started getting vaccinated right away while people are starving and dying you Aholes.

— Stella Parton (@StellaParton) December 19, 2020

yup

tipsy, I'm really sorry to hear that. everything crossed for a good outcome.

If the vaccine has to be kept at -80 does your arm go cold when it's stuck in you.

Are there any alternative means of delivery for those squeamish about needles?

My brother shared a story about people not turning up for their jabs meaning people further down the waitlist being offered the jab with little notice . seemed to be happening quite a bit at the moment. I know I'd rather have something more tried and tested injected in me so would probably wait a while given the choice. So can see that being a factor for others. That and fear of being used as a guinea pig. Pfizer ve a reputation for having made tests in the past in dodgy ways.

while my other brother apparently tested positive but hasn't been feeling that bad. Has to take a lot of tests while doing extra work.

sorry about your friend, tipsy. hoping for the best.

The way I see it, there is more evidence of ham by getting the virus than ham from the vaccine. I mean harm.

Partner got the jab Friday. Other than his arm being very very sore, he's felt fine.

Is it reasonable for me to think that, 9 months into this pandemic, grown adults should perhaps be familiar with the list of three symptoms that are printed EVERYWHERE that are the basis for getting tested for COVID? And maybe even have looked into the process for getting tested when you're 'really ill' with one of them and no it isn't book an appointment with your GP?

I get that I'm probably living in somewhat of a bubble of responsible friends who isolate and test at symptoms and actually know what the guidelines are for our areas re mixing households, travel etc but am I really unusual in knowing the basics?

I really bloody despair at the passivity and ignorance displayed by my family who make all the noises about "being careful" and "really worrying" about getting it after seeing what it's done to poor old Sue and yet don't do anything differently whatsoever.

Is it reasonable for me to think that, 9 months into this pandemic, grown adults should perhaps be familiar with the list of three symptoms that are printed EVERYWHERE that are the basis for getting tested for COVID?

Yes

But it was ok, you see, because it was a high temperature due to "flu" not fever due to Covid, they decided but will never actually know

I see today The Discourse has whiplashed yet again from "stop shaming people for their individual decisions, it's the government's fault that the pandemic is this bad and individual decisions don't matter" to "stop traveling, your individual decisions matter and you are putting things at risk," I just wish that it would make up its fucking mind one way or the other so I know what the correct thing to believe is

maybe different people are saying different things?

it's the same people

(and no, I'm not traveling, I am just attempting to do the right thing, but that's hard when "the right thing" changes every 2 hours and yet you are expected to have always known and been doing it all along, or else be mocked forever)