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

I think the degree of risk is so small as to negligible in that scenario

I cannot agree. I do it, but I don't think the risk is negligible. Why would it be? Wearing a mask cuts the risk of transmission by, what? This study in the Lancet

https://www.ucdavis.edu/coronavirus/news/your-mask-cuts-own-risk-65-percent

estimates about a 65% cut in risk. From a public health perspective that is HUGE. It's why we made all these rules, which were the right ones to make! But it's nothing like getting your risk cut down to near zero. In my circles, people wear masks when they go indoors always. Some of them still got COVID! If they didn't wear masks, more of them would! That's why masks are good!

But if everyone is wearing a mask, how much does that cut down transmission? Is that 65% assuming exposure to droplets?

I'm sorry about your friends, I haven't heard of anyone getting COVID from indoor scenarios where everyone was wearing masks and distancing. My wife was working closely with COVID-positive patients for months, both wearing masks, and did not get it.

It's pretty wacky. I know lots of stories of people not getting it from or giving it to their family, for example. Or having no idea how they got it, for that matter. I think I told the story of our friend who drove her daughter home from school in Michigan. 4 1/2 hours in the car, both masked, windows cracked, but still a cramped space for hours. Her daughter tested positive the next day, she didn't. And over the course of the next two weeks at home no one else in their family ever tested positive, either.

but there's always the things people choose to tell us and what they don't.

For sure. I also knows lots of people who fall into the category of "we're not going anywhere or doing anywhere, except this trip here and this visit there and this other thing and ... "

(doing anything, not doing anywhere, though that would be pretty reckless, too)

Currently getting vaccine envy esp bc our state is still not receiving enough doses to fulfill weekly requests and our current projection still has us inching through phase 1B tiers 2, 3, and 4 through the end of April, which almost takes us to when frack em in the leg Joe says everyone can get vaccinated, so I just don’t know what’s meant to happen between now and then, if phases 2-4 are going to go out the window, or what

That’d be fine and all but just make the call imo.

I'm somewhat surprised, given everything we've heard in recent weeks, that there are still states claiming a supply problem. That just seems, unlikely? Are there still that many wrinkles in how the feds are getting doses to the states? Seems like that would have ramped up by now. Or, hell, maybe the states are blowing smoke to cover up the fact that they still haven't figured out the distribution issues on their end, so it's easier to just say "sorry, we don't have enough".

Well, huh, I wander away from ilx for a few minutes and see that Illinois just now announced they'll be opening up for everyone 16 and over on April 12th.

Huge news, let's just hope they've got some new distribution plans to go along with it, or its going to turn Hunger Games really fast around here.

State DoH posted this about this week’s shipments

Wondering how much #COVID19 vaccine we get in Washington? Demand is still higher than supply. We are not getting any Johnson & Johnson #COVIDvaccine next week. Keep trying for your appt & help seniors in your life get theirs! More of us get vaccinated every day. pic.twitter.com/7JFEIgASxX

— WA Dept. of Health (@WADeptHealth) March 17, 2021

"I'm somewhat surprised, given everything we've heard in recent weeks, that there are still states claiming a supply problem. That just seems, unlikely?"

but you have been talking about supply/distribution problems and difficulty with access to the vaccine in your city for several weeks now

Just made an appointment for a first shot Saturday afternoon...

but you have been talking about supply/distribution problems and difficulty with access to the vaccine in your city for several weeks now

Right, but I’ve been repeatedly assured in this very thread that supply is not the issue. So I was expressing surprise to see two examples from just today that, turns out, the supply side is also still a challenge. That’s all.

I knew it was mistake to post itt again, though I was really trying to avoid any doomposting. Instead just people waiting to jump on me for any perceived inconsistency. I really don’t understand why certain posters get singled out and targeted more than others.

This thread is, almost entirely by design, a thread for people to essentially vent their spleens with fears, worries, obsessions and anxieties about COVID. For some reason I’m the only one that gets continually called out for it. It’s obnoxious as fuck.

sorry. your comment was just confusing to me. I have been worried about access to the vaccine too, not just the supply but the ethics of the distribution. I want all of my family to be protected, but California is still in the 65+ tier. I hope they move out of that in the next couple of weeks

I keep telling myself that the more vaccines go into arms the more it protects everyone... it sucks to be stuck at home, but as the percentage vaccinated of your country's population goes steadily up, our risk goes steadily down.

I feel like the number of infections will start decreasing more (it's really just held steady/plateaued the last few weeks) when the people doing most of the spreading (younger people) get vaccinated.

death rate/hospitalization for elder people is plummeting to all-time lows, though, which is great

And like that, IL Gov says everyone here 16+ eligible by April ... 12?

make sure he didn't say April 1st

the end of April, which almost takes us to when frack em in the leg Joe says everyone can get vaccinated

This misunderstands what Biden actually said, but tbh what he said was almost designed to be misunderstood. His announcement was that by May the supply of vaccine would be reliable enough and plentiful enough for states to open eligibility for vaccination to their entire adult (over 16) population, without any restrictions. At which point every adult who hadn't already fit into a recognizable category through age, medical condition, or type of employment would join the pool of people who could seek a vaccination.

still bothered by the idea of having to seek a vaccination

keep seeking vaccination, looking learning moving on

so they aren’t going to just give it to me, I have to work for it!

fuck off, I don't even give a shit now

still bothered by the idea of having to seek a vaccination

by this time next year they'll be giving away free vaccine samples at Costco

not going to wait until this time next year to live my life

best of luck

maybe vaccines will be given away through game shows, and you land on a space and you either get a shot of COVID vaccine or drain cleaner depending on which space you land on

xp just stay away from me, seriously

kinda pissed to learn i've been a total sucker, avoiding grocery stores, avoiding shit.. just fuck everything, man.

fuck off

"live your life", congratulations

does killfile remove the poster's name and also all the posts responding to them? also, fuck everything!

"kinda pissed to learn i've been a total sucker, avoiding grocery stores, avoiding shit"

I've been doing that too! I was just responding to Aimless's post about things being better next year. I don't want to wait that long

I don't want to wait that long

you won't have to wait that long, unless I'm mistaken and you live in a country that is near the back of the line for vaccines.

fwiw I had a really good talk with my friend that I bumped this about, the one who didn't want me walking into her house, and it turns out that her precautions predate COVID and are based on her auto-immune issues (which are super weird tbh, and rough). so now we understand each other and I will continue to bring her dinner every Friday.

UK govt just announced that under-50s will have to wait until May. it was going to be April. problems with supply apparently.

We spend a couple of hours outside every day walking/playing with the dog but we don’t go indoors anywhere at all. That’s just been the approach we’ve taken the whole time. Testimony about person x going to the grocery store a few times a week and never getting covid is not very persuasive to me; yeah, it’s not a huge risk if you and others are masked and distanced but it’s not a vanishingly small risk either and with my chronic autoimmune shit I choose not to take it (and I pay others to do so for me, which is kind of weird yes).
The conflation of “doesn’t go shopping” with “does not leave one’s home” is annoying to me and feels pejorative.

shopping is fine, I think. to me eating at restaurants/bars are far less excusable
i DO want to shame others for holiday get-togethers though, but ya know... it wouldn't be nice.

if outdoor seating at restaurants/bars is available and tables are properly separated 6 feet or more, masks required, I don't see the harm tbh.

indoor is the concern because places with shitty a/c units could wind up carrying aerosolized disease throughout the restaurant and of course your mask is down when you eat/drink

likewise if nobody eats there and it's not a chain that could weather the storm, given how the Trump admin allowed these businesses to completely falter last year, they'll close, so....it's a tough sitch

holiday get-togethers a much bigger problem as a) throwing a bunch of people into crowded airports and train stations, b) they arrive to visit friends/family they haven't seen in a while and probably nobody wears masks, they hug, kiss, are all in each others' space, and c) one family member is sick and now they're all sick.

i don't really believe in shame-reaction as a default because I don't presume to know what protocols were followed (did everybody get COVID tested, did they distance/mask, how many people were there), but people taking selfies of 20-25 some odd maskless people mushed up against each other can fuck off obv.

As someone who has traveled a lot (by car, staying outdoors, after testing & isolating, blah blah) for family reasons over the last year, I'm uncomfortable weighing in too much on this. Probably everyone thinks whatever they're doing is "safe." My boyfriend is deffo less careful than I am and he feels fine about it, and it gives me agita.

I don't post about it on soc meeds much though, bc people are inevitably going to have feelings about it. Lots of people haven't hugged their elderly parents in a year. They're not wrong to choose that. My parents were already somewhat compromised by their own choices, so I make my standards more cautious than theirs and at least I'm not adding any new factors into their situation. (They're vaccinated now and my mom literally asked someone to take his mask off yesterday so she could hear him better--jesus christ these people.)

agree, with social media I've tended to not post what I'm up to or doing if I'm out and about, for the reasons implied.

i've been less on social media in general as it's turned into "I'm Doing COVID right, and you're not!"-book - definitely better for the mental health.

(frankly, though, I'm not really about tags anymore - even prior to COVID, if I want to tell the world where I am, I'll do it. don't do it for me unless you ask).

A thoughtful read

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/what-will-pandemic-nostalgia-feel-like/618304/

i've been less on social media in general as it's turned into "I'm Doing COVID right, and you're not!"-book - definitely better for the mental health.

― "Salvation Army FUCK!" (Neanderthal), Thursday, March 18, 2021 8:04 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah i think i hit a certain point where i just didn't want my mind occupied by "oh my god fuck this person for [x]" thoughts and i am now on instagram as little as possible

the problem is that there IS a right and wrong way to have handled this and some of us are wrong and some of us are right and all of us THINK we're right but none of us can know until several years in the future at which point checking back in on this thread is going to be very yikes for most of us. but it is important that future yikes people understand that we didn't know! we couldn't know! smart people didn't know! dumb people didn't know! we were left to make it up as we went along and were constantly terrified! there was a complete idiot driving the car! we didn't know whether to buckle up or kick open the door and tuck and roll. most of us lost a year. be kind to us future people.

I don't see a scenario where I look back and regret doing volunteer work, going for a walk/jog, or buying essentials, aka the only things I've left the house for in a year