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

Since my mom and stepdad are fully vaxxed up now, we went to go see them for a bit yesterday. Was nice to finally be able to do that, although it was really disheartening to hear how absolutely awful vaccination rates seem to be out there.

My mom is fairly active on a library board and knows most of the town, she said "basically no one" out there is getting vaccinated and there is a lot of public shaming on Facebook for the "sheeple" who are mentioning they've gotten the shots. My stepdad said the company he works for, who employs a couple hundred people, has had maybe about 10% of their staff get vaccinated. They've made vaccination mandatory for the techs who have to enter people homes but, even then, they still haven't even gotten 40% of their techs to get it done so far.

Tempers the success of the vaccination improvements a little when I hear all this talk, coupled with IL's rise in cases again.

Maybe enough people will eventually die for them to get the picture (j/k there’s never enough death for them)

Jab one done, son! Walgreens was kind of a clusterfuck. 1st day of everyone 16+ in IL...but apparently not the first day for that category at Walgreens? I guess they've personally decided to wait to open it up to the rest of us folks a week from now? For reasons unexplained and otherwise unexpressed? So I (and presumably the twenty or so people who shuffled in while I waited) was m/l told to just lie about which other category of higher-risk people I belonged to before they'd give me a shot. So there was basically no point in waiting my turn. But what the goddamn ever, I'm jabbed, hooray.

Saw my parents inside their house for the first time in over a year yesterday. It was lovely, we had a chicken dinner and they met our new pup and it felt really great.

Congrats, that sounds so nice. Cannot wait to see my family again. Their absence from my life has been weighing heavily.

I got to do that last week - went to my parents' house for dinner and actually went inside instead of staying out in the yard. It was very nice but also sort of disorienting; for the first hour I felt a little claustrophobic and kept wanting to go outside and get air. By the end of the night it felt normal.

full-contact hifives for all the newly vaxxed and the reunited families! it's so great to hear. in contrast to the yawning terror invoked by the legions of anti-vax fuckers doing their fucking damndest to fuck things the fuck up for the rest of us. i swan, if they brew up enough resistant variants/outbreaks/lockdowns to wreck my summer then i am going on the most vengeful wedgie spree this nation has ever seen

Still no vax for me but saw family again for the first time since last summer which was really great. (Stayed outdoors, all other adults have had the jab, and kids have been off school for ~10 days, plus we did rapid tests)

I went into a restaurant to pick up takeout, had to wait for 2-3 minutes, I have to admit that despite being 2vax + 5 days (i.e. pretty seriously protected!) I felt some level of stress (the place was full, mostly college students, everybody unmasked.) I think this is irrational in the sense that risk is always duration * susceptibility * other factors and while the other factors were very high (i.e. I would go so far as to say unlikely there wasn't virus in the room) the first two factors were quite low.

But, I mean, I did it, so it's not like the irrational fear was denying me or the kids our food. I think we all gotta be gentle with ourselves about feelings.

I think we all gotta be gentle with ourselves about feelings.

yeah big time. as i wait for my 2nd shot i'm keenly aware that my learning curve of what makes me stressed and anxious is going to lag somewhat behind the curve of what the actual ironclad scientifically-validated risks are and i really dgaf, that's ok with me. the lines will coincide eventually, but until then just let me have my elbow room while i slowly ease back into the putrid bathwater of physical human society.

25% is ... not herd immunity. even rounding up for people who got it, it's going to be disastrous if this is what happens in every trump county. children who cannot be vaccinated are going to die.

Carteret County in coastal North Carolina is discontinuing a mass vaccination clinic because of a decline in appointments scheduled through its call center. Fewer than a quarter of residents have been vaccinated. https://t.co/SRlsmG6Nl6

— Isaac Stanley-Becker (@isaacstanbecker) April 12, 2021

Jesus, this shit is so disheartening.

By and large, no, the people who would die from this set of decisions are older people, not children, and the fact that they could have gotten vaccinated doesn't make me OK with their deaths. Somebody created the information environment that led them to this decision.

I think the only way to vaccinate the reluctant would be to require vaccines for various activities, whether going back to school or going to Disney World or taking a flight. But that seems unlikely, especially in the places with large numbers of people refusing the vaccine.

It seems like every day more and more colleges are moving to require it for this Fall and beyond, but I don't see what else would help much beyond that. Presumably, at some point, most school districts will require it - not a big stretch from what they already require, but we're still several months (at least) away from that even being an issue for the under high school crowd.

I really don't know what the solution is, but as eephus seems to be hinting towards, a better country would start with Trump answering for all the deaths he's caused already.

I don't mean just one somebody.

By and large, no, the people who would die from this set of decisions are older people, not children, and the fact that they could have gotten vaccinated doesn't make me OK with their deaths. Somebody created the information environment that led them to this decision.

I don't mean just one somebody.

Of course, it's a long list. But I want to start at the top.

of all the things he did in response to covid, this was the worst

Donald Trump put out a video of himself, with the White House as a backdrop, promising to distribute this drug free of charge to every “vulnerable senior” in America.

Six months later, no one has ever asked him why that never happened, even though 350,000 Americans died waiting. https://t.co/run5HrvMPr

— David Waldman-1, of Yorktown LLC™ (@KagroX) April 12, 2021

tbf, I'm not aware of Biden taking any steps to do this either, assuming it would be helpful

atm, the Biden administration, guided by the CDC and expert advice is rightly concentrating on mass vaccination, which has far greater potential benefits than mass distribution of a drug that reduces the severity of symptoms.

trump personally experienced regeneron, and promised it would be widely available. even grading him on a curve because he's a sociopath, his behavior around regeneron is shameful.

it's a very very good drug btw! you should absolutely ask the doctor about it if you get covid (and especially encourage any older people you know who are exposed to covid to ask about it): https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/12/regeneron-antibody-cocktail-covid-simple-injection/

Man I do not have covid and you’re making me want Regeneron! I mean check out that name it sounds awesome.

I think we all gotta be gentle with ourselves about feelings.

it'd be much easier to be gentle with myself about feelings if seemingly the entire world did not spew an avalanche of scolding and judgment at seemingly every possible caution level one can possible take with regard to the virus.

Don’t know why people went apeshit asking for hydroxychloroquine when they could’ve been getting REGENERON

Hydroxychloroquine is funner to say, once you've learned how to say it. Plus, I makes one sound like something of an authority.

I like to imagine "hydroxychloroquine" in a Wire song

First shot done.

I had mine on Saturday. Got a pretty good case of noodle arm, but OK now.

https://i.imgur.com/J5mq1bL.jpg

Second dose scheduled, not on 4/20 unfortunately

up in smoke those plans

xp Mine was more like a tube sock filled with Jell-o and taped to my shoulder. No way I was throwing a tight spiral on Sunday.

Gov Whitmer's begging for more doses to fight the ongoing surge is really the wrong way of attacking it, right? Increased vaccinations is a long game where a short game is badly needed. would think it'd just be better to dip into more of existing supply since they're currently just using 79% (and New York using about 83%?).

I mean more vaccinated people is good but Whitmer seems to be saying that's the way she wants to fight their surge. they have ~1,300 more cases a day than Florida does despite less than half our population. the benefits would take more than a month to materialize...and might not at all if exponential growth outpaces vaccinations.

re: vaccine denial, ima go ahead and recommend my mass wedgie protocol

Neando!!

Feeling like super, super low-grade flu-ish after jab one this morning. Sleepy, hazy, a little achy. Side effects thus far not nearly as bad as my arm, which feels like I got a 'two fer flinchin' from a fullback.

That DeSantis would be yelling for the same thing is the most depressing part.

tube sock filled with Jell-o

i.e. 'If people are dying, it's Biden's fault for not giving us jabs, not because I won't close indoor dining."

Whitmer seems to be saying that's the way she wants to fight their surge.

It's the most politically acceptable tool because it requires least personal sacrifice. Governors in general are dealing with populations that have used up their patience for all the approaches that limit opportunities for transmission.

btw, welcome back neanderthal

I can imagine whitmer being tired of fighting her state from the citizens to the legislature bc they shd just go back into lockdown

I mean she got death threats and was the target of a terror plot last year, I *definitely* can understand skittishness of walking headfirst back into that

Urgh uk NHS website unclear and I'm not sure if it accepted my 1st dose appointment as the 2nd dose appointment just threw up a failed page. Now if I go back to the start page the place I want to go is no longer there. Should i just turn up anyway?

i'll just ring em

are you booking via your GP or via the central NHS website?

The website, thought it might be quick and easy but I'm now a bit unsure so I'll probably end up just ringing my GP instead now.

Ugh that’s annoying. I just did it this morning and I booked both appointments as part of the same process.

If you go here there's a "manage my appointments" button. Anything show up there?

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/