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

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/

Thanks, it puts me in a queue at the minute. I'll see if it changes.

hmm, it's telling me that i need to book both my appointments again so I guess it didn't go through. Unfortunately now the place close to me doesn't show up on the list.

Rats.

yay sorted. just kept trying, managed to get 1st dose for next friday just down the road. 2nd dose in July a bit of travelling on that day though. but happy now that's arranged. Big win.

nice!

Goddammit

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-call-pause-johnson-johnsons-110642224.html

The feds are now saying that Michigan should go back into lockdown. Not sure if holding out for more vaccines instead is Whitmer's way of giving her detractors enough rope to hang themselves, but "you were right, I was wrong" is not something republicans will ever admit. They organized to pressure her to open up school sports and when she did, Covid exploded in families with school age kids. But to hear republicans explain it, her previous lockdowns actually caused this surge somehow because Texas and Florida aren't surging as much as Michigan right now and they didn't lock down their sports, so obviously opening up was the right thing to do and she just did it the wrong way. It's so dumb.

I certainly don't envy her. As noted above, being the target of a very real terror plot probably makes one hesitant to piss off their constituents. But I think the Feds are right on this one, to a point, vaccines are going to take at least a month to change the trajectory even assuming very, very good distribution and almost no hesitancy. Shutting things down will presumably have a more immediate impact.

What worries me is what the Minnesota and Illinois numbers are starting to look like, the Peoria area is doing particularly awful.

There's no way any Governor anywhere is going to implement new shutdowns, let alone right before summer. It's just not going to happen, for a myriad of reasons. And yeah, Whitmer without a doubt is playing the send us more vaccine card for that very reason, as if lack of vaccines is why any state is still seeing outbreaks and not the contrary. Namely, people refusing vaccines, refusing masks, refusing crowd avoidance. Which at this point, I dunno, what can you really do?

Assuming it's still largely the elderly dying of covid, it's terrible someone at risk could have made it this far without getting sick only to get struck down with the (possible) end in sight. What percentage of those 60 or over are now vaccinated in the US? 75% or so?

I mean, yes, agreed, it's extremely unlikely that any governor is going to shutdown now, but that doesn't mean they might not be a good idea in some areas to help slow the spread again. But, well, that's kinda why we are where we are anyway, we never had a plan for how to make any of these shutdowns feasible by supporting people.

Problem is, at least in the recent Illinois numbers, the ages of the new cases are trending downwards, but it's hard to say what it all means just yet. Deaths are down, but hospitalizations are up again. Even if fewer people die, it's still irresponsible to just *shrug* and move on, but that's essentially what we've been doing since last summer.

Yeah. But also, strict number of cases has always been a kinda unhelpful metric. It's all about deaths and serious hospitalizations, and even that basically boils down to an ethical argument of how many of each we are willing to accept. Just to bring up the flu again, it's much less deadly than covid, of course, and yet there are still some 30k that typically die a year (and more small kids than die of covid), hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and millions of cases. And that's *with* a generally effective vaccine readily available. This year (more or less) without flu has shown that all those numbers *can* be reduced almost down to nil, but there's never been a will or demand to do so. And I doubt there will be once we've moved on from covid.

Right, I was just pointing out that the numbers are particularly hard to parse right now as the vaccination rates increase. Are we reaching a peak? Have we peaked again? It's really hard to say, the rate of hospitalization is the one metric I really pay attention to right now, so the increase concerns me.

I don't think we're disagreeing, I just think writing off the ideas of targeted shutdowns completely is short-sighted (but, we've been short-sighted throughout the entire pandemic, why stop now?). Looking at the Illinois data, it seems to me that a targeted stay-at-home order for Peoria County for two weeks would do more good than harm. Would is solve everything? Of course not, but I don't know why we haven't really tried that approach - particularly now when we can very much point to a specific single county with an outbreak.

Oh, we're definitely not disagreeing. The idea of shutdowns makes perfect sense, as does quarantine, contact tracing, all this stuff. It's just been happening half-assed and piecemeal at best, so putting any hopes into it happening now seem like a stretch (not on your part, just generally). I said it's become an ethical or moral issue here, and I think that's exactly where we stand. How many deaths will this country accept from covid? Dunno, but we're clearly not there yet.

it's still irresponsible to just *shrug* and move on, but that's essentially what we've been doing since last summer.

Who’s this “we”?? Name names!

Ha, that "we" was referring to the majority of federal and state government officials in the U.S., but I'd assume that applies to several other countries just as easily.

Xpost C-Murder

That's a name

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

Okay well I’d prefer not to be lumped in with these callous monsters tyvm

xposta

Other (political) thread for this one?

Is that Bradley Cooper?

about to use Sith lightning, yes.

Fitting, because I assume the governor of Florida is voiced by a raccoon.

"mostly" apolitical

It's pretty hard to completely divorce the pandemic from politics.

true that

There's no way any Governor anywhere is going to implement new shutdowns, let alone right before summer. It's just not going to happen, for a myriad of reasons.

Pierce County (containing the city of Tacoma, 40 minutes south of Seattle) went back into Phase 2 restrictions yesterday. (Here in King County, hospitalisations are up 50% in two weeks, and positive cases up 80% in two months, but they outpaced us.)

Huh, well there you go.

BREAKING NEWS: Poloncarz announces full return to @BuffaloBills stadium for in-person attendance at Bills games but ONLY if you have been FULLY VACCINATED. No Vaccine = No Entry.

— Sandra Tan (@SandraTanBN) April 13, 2021

In states where governors put data-driven restrictions in place, based on rates of positive tests, new cases and hospitalizations, they can let those restrictions happen automatically, without injecting themselves directly into the process. Not all governors can resist injecting themselves when they feel public resistance.

It's pretty hard to completely divorce the pandemic from politics.

Apparently so if it's US politics.

There's no way any Governor anywhere is going to implement new shutdowns, let alone right before summer. It's just not going to happen, for a myriad of reasons.

Pierce County (containing the city of Tacoma, 40 minutes south of Seattle) went back into Phase 2 restrictions yesterday. (Here in King County, hospitalisations are up 50% in two weeks, and positive cases up 80% in two months, but they outpaced us.)

Was this a statewide decision made by the governor, or a local decision? I can totally see local governments and municipalities coming to similar conclusions.

The governor announced the restrictions for Pierce and two other rural counties, under existing statewide metrics. 200 cases per 100,000 residents is the cutoff.

Pierce County's case rate was 268 per 100,000 people between March 20 and April 2, with a hospitalization rate of 6.4 between March 24 and March 30. Cowlitz' case rate was 332.1 and its hospitalization rate 11.8 over the same period. Whitman County saw a case rate of 416 and a hospitalization rate of 5.9.

“These metric trends are driven by the virus and we must continue to do everything we can to sharpen our focus and keep COVID-19 activity down. We are so close to the end of the tunnel here — we have made tremendous progress and we must keep our focus,” Inslee said. “It’s like a football game; we have done 95 yards on a 99 yard-drive. We can’t let up now. These are not punitive actions; they are to save lives and protect public health.”

(still wish he'd been the compromise "tall white WASP" choice that the primaries were pushed to)

so our stupid news had Floridians both rejoicing and freaking out on back to back days.

pretty obviously, the nasty 60-mph stormy weather fucked testing results on Sunday. only 24,169 test results were returned yesterday, whereas 111,942 were returned today.

so yesterday, a ridiculously low 1,572 cases were reported, lowest since October 12th. obvious bullshit, we are averaging 6000/day right now and while Mondays tend to report less, that's a pretty dramatic drop. Then today, 9,068 new cases were reported, and the news is freaking out about how that's the worst total since February 5th. When fairly obviously what happened is due to delays in test processing due to storms, a bunch of cases that should have been reported yesterday got bumped to today. The two day average of was 5,320, which is in line with the amount we're seeing here, especially on a Sunday/Monday.

our numbers are bad and nobody should be like OH SEE,WE'RE FINE AFTER ALL but how does our local news see us go from "lowest since 10/12" to "highest since 2/5" and not think to themselves "wow this sounds like bullshit"

The last like five years have seriously upended my notions of how stupid people can be, I don't think there's any rebottling that genie

I found this piece about treating blood clots both fascinating and reassuring.

Blood thinners are needed but not heparin. Platelet transfusions aggravate the clots, so they are out. There is an urgent need to damp down the immune system, so it does not produce the PF4 antibodies. Intravenous immunoglobulin, in short supply, has been authorised by the NHS for all these cases. With appropriate treatment and earlier diagnosis as people have become aware of the symptoms, lives are being saved.

Yesterday, I stopped at a gas station. While I was fueling up, I waltzed into the convenience store, bought a soda, and waltzed out. It wasn't until I was driving away that I realized that I was unmasked the whole time. Just totally fuckin' forgot. No one mentioned it to me. I think the clerk might have been giving me a weird look, but didn't say anything. It's a gas station - they often dispense weird looks there. I have forgotten my mask twice previously at the grocery store - both times once I realized I ran the fuck back out to the car to get my mask. This time I just totally forgot. Felt like shit about it, of course. Surprised that no one brought it up to me.

there's totally a gas station employee blowing up your spot on Facebook right now, sharing your pic and asking people to identify you for max public shaming

WHO WAS THAT UNMASKED MAN?

We went out to dinner last night for the first time in a year, basically. Originally the meal (with about 18 guests) was supposed to be outside, spaced. But the temp last night dropped into the 40s, maybe even cooler, which was too cold, and with the added threat of rain it was moved inside, still spaced, with the windows opened but the heat on. The temperature was kind of an ordeal, and about a third of the people there put on their coats before the owner (masked, like everyone working) came out and asked if it was ok if they closed the windows. Everyone seemed OK with it, but by the end of the night, while the owner made the rounds from table to table (unmasked, after asking; she was double vaxxed) it seemed like everyone there had had at least one shot already, if not both. Def. a bit weird, but pretty smooth evening, all things considered. Food kind of sucked, but that had nothing to do with covid.

Related: I saw an act I like announce some upcoming Chicago shows, so I looked into buying a ticket. There was the ticket price, plus I assume a few taxes and fees, and the audience was limited and spaced, so you more or less had to buy a pair of tickets to get a little two-top table. Masks required away from your table. But I noticed that in addition to the ticket price they were asking guests to spend an additional $40 a person on food and drink, which I totally understand, but which kept me from pulling the trigger. The tix themselves were $45 each, so that would have about around $100 for me and a friend, but then essentially close to another $100 on food and drink, which suddenly would have made it a $100 evening per person, which was ... I dunno, it felt a bit much. Plus the food there sucks, too. Still, I assume we will start to see similar additional fees as things re-open. Just as the dentist charges extra for PPE, I bet other places may start doing the same, or at least tacking on or incorporating other charges in the check, more than the couple of bucks I've seen added to take out bills.

We went out to dinner last night for the first time in a year, basically. Originally the meal (with about 18 guests) was supposed to be outside, spaced. But the temp last night dropped into the 40s, maybe even cooler, which was too cold, and with the added threat of rain it was moved inside, still spaced, with the windows opened but the heat on. The temperature was kind of an ordeal, and about a third of the people there put on their coats before the owner (masked, like everyone working) came out and asked if it was ok if they closed the windows. Everyone seemed OK with it, but by the end of the night, while the owner made the rounds from table to table (unmasked, after asking; she was double vaxxed) it seemed like everyone there had had at least one shot already, if not both. Def

I can see myself accepting this situation in Miami come July when the heat is brutal. I mean, that's what the jabs are for, right? If the windows are open, staff is masked, and maybe most of the other diners are jabbed too, it looks like minimal risk.

yeah, summer heat (and mosquitoes) are going to test even people who are totally on board with all the social distancing measures.

I hadn't even thought about additional fees being added to concert tickets, but I'm still anticipating that pent up demand is going to make it extremely difficult to get tickets for things for some time.

I know this isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison for most touring bands, but Dead & Company announced a destination weekend set of shows in Mexico in early 2022, as they've be doing for the past few years pre-COVID. As I understand it, the entire weekend (every ticket, every single package, every option) sold out in something like four minutes during one of the exclusive credit card pre-sales. Didn't even make it to the advertised general pre-sale, much less a public sale. Now, obviously, the world of rich Deadheads traveling for a destination weekend is it's own weird little ecosystem and can't be mapped on to every other touring artist, but I do think it speaks to how absolutely insane demand is going to be.

They're apparently cramming us back into our sardine can of an office on 6/1. No slow transition from a year of WFH, no staggering of WFH with in-office days to help maintain some social distance, just...absolutely everyone back at their desks all at once. And regardless of whether you've been vaccinated or not, which is the real kicker. I cannot stretch my arms out to my sides at my widdle workstation without hitting a coworker. There is no physical way to maintain distance with the way our shit is laid out (they mashed two floors worth of people into one a couple years back). The managers (who have their own offices, natch) insist that everything will be juuuuust fiiiiiine. I'd been so impressed with the out-of-character common sense measures they'd taken over the past year so it figures they'd so something real fucken dumb in the homestretch to completely undermine their actions.

i am having nightmares more or less every night about being surrounded by unmasked people and i've forgotten my mask. it's gonna be a transition.

That sounds annoying OL, I'm really surprised when I hear stories about workplaces throwing things open like that but, sadly, they are becoming more and more common. It doesn't make sense to me at all why places are so ready to just immediately launch back into business as usual, as if nothing as been learned over the last year. But.. capitalism, I suppose.

My stepdad's company demanded him back in the office full-time exactly two weeks after his second shot. They were pressuring him, daily, even before that, but he held firm due to some underlying health conditions.

That sucks, OL. Our return date has been pushed back to October, but I don't want to go back at all. In a meeting last week, the head of my department reported that "full-time telework will not be an option when we return." I wrote a long letter to our Covid-19 committee in HR outlining my thoughts on the matter and have encouraged others to do the same. I can't go back to the commute, I truly can't.

I asked my wife when she thought her office might go back to work, and she really had no idea, saying no one had even raised the subject. She was, however, pretty certain it would not be before October at the earliest.

It just makes no sense at all. AFAICT our business hasn't been impacted one iota by the sudden shift to WFH, so really all they're doing is a) increasing the odds of unvaccinated people getting sick and b) increasing the anxiety of anxiety-prone people (like moi) who will now be focused more on the travails of a two-hour commute on a packed train and an eight-hour stint in a packed office than on, y'know, my goddamn work.

I've been sick as hell of this place for years so, yeah, this might be the time to cut the commuting cord by whatever means necessary.