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

The company I work for owns our building and so we're all gonna be chained to our desks for the rest of our working lives.

We are at our downstairs friends house right now (today we hit our two weeks after the second jab milestone; our friend just reached the same point) and I am feeling a strange euphoria... super emotional. My brain, my cognition, feels immediately nimbler just being here and sitting at her dining room table. My life experience prepared me unusually well for pandemic life but this has all, nonetheless, been absolutely fucking terrible for my mental health. Painfully obvious observations part 36.

The fire alarm just went off at my daughter's school, so she and her 13 classmates on Zoom have been stuck watching an empty room while the alarm rings, waiting for the 6 in-person kids to return.

My employer's contract with the FAA required us to work in an office within a mile or so of the FAA's DC offices. Before the pandemic working from home was available only under extraordinary circumstances. Our HR people had to negotiate for a couple of weeks, even as the Federal Government was starting to send its workers home, before we finally got clearance to WFH. I assume at some future date the FAA will insist that we return to the office part if not full time.

Oh fuck, I didn't think about that. My employer does a lot of work for the federal government as well. I could definitely see that presenting a problem, although in contrast we got our WFH orders before a lot of federal agencies did.

And another SF vaccination update. The city has now broken the 60% mark for people receiving at least one shot; for completed regimens it's almost at 40%. For 65-and-up, nearly 85% with one shot and 70% completed regimens. In terms of neighborhoods, Excelsior, Portola, Potrero Hill and Bayview-Hunter's Point still among the most vaccinated neighborhoods. All absolutely good signs: https://data.sfgov.org/stories/s/COVID-19-Vaccinations-Progress/7mye-zncy/

Meanwhile in Canada, Ontario specifically has increased police enforcement of people breaking the stay at home order while our hospitals collapse :/

wild how many places had distinctly, aggressively incompetent and corrupt leaders in place at this moment, who all quadrupled-down on their incompetence instead of going "I'll just focus on the corruption for a while and let someone else save a few lives" - Ford, Trump, Bolsonaro, Morrison, Johnson/Cummings/Hancock/Sunak

I just want to congratulate myself on having absorbed so many COVID takes that I now simultaneously feel like I am being shamefully overcautious and shamefully undercautious.

congratulations! you are now free to toss them all out and start afresh

no more card metaphors please

Well, well, well: Jess (Strongo), James (Nnn Oooh) and Trife - I'm making your cards.

I was at my first full-on child birthday party since the pandemic started today. All outdoors of course. I realized I had never met almost any of the parents in my kindergartner's class, and it was simultaneously nice and surreal to finally meet them (I've also never been able to set foot in her school).

Seemed like everyone I spoke with was vaxxed or nearly vaxxed. We all wore masks and no one ate or drank, but it made me wonder what the tipping point will be for when people are comfortable not wearing masks even at an outside party where everyone is vaxxed.

the number of new cases per day in my state is still over 1,000 so i'm not letting my guard down yet. maybe when it drops down to a few dozen.

Yes, it's pretty frustrating that cases have been plateauing or rising most places. Don't know what level of vaccinations we need to see those numbers start ticking down again.

an extremely stable 20-25% of people say they won't get vaccinated.

if *everyone* else gets vaccinated we should be good. that will be the trick.

Seemed like everyone I spoke with was vaxxed or nearly vaxxed. We all wore masks and no one ate or drank, but it made me wonder what the tipping point will be for when people are comfortable not wearing masks even at an outside party where everyone is vaxxed.

for groups of vaccinated adults, probably pretty soon. but it may not happen for parties with unvaccinated kids until we're at israel-like levels of community transmission (which may not happen until 10 year olds can get the shot here).

i think masks are coming off for outdoor life (parks, walking down the street, etc.) pretty soon though, whether we like it or not (i'm fine with it as long as people aren't assholes about it, which i guess means i'm not fine with it).

Got my first dose of Pfizer yesterday, keeping an ear out for when my friends get dosed so I can count down to having them over, hugging them, etc.

I remember in high school when me and all my friends would get dosed together

i think masks are coming off for outdoor life (parks, walking down the street, etc.) pretty soon though

One good thing about a multi- or at least bi-national geographically dispersed board like this is you're constantly reminded of the huge regional variation of "normal" behsvior -- here in the Midwest, the outdoors has been mask-optional from the very beginning. I mean, you see people walking down the street in masks, especially if they're in groups, but more not in masks. Joggers don't wear masks. I carry one in my pocket and put it on if I'm coming to a crowded shopping area with a lot of people on the sidewalk.

Second Pfizer yesterday. Got some fever, chills, and nausea, and spent about 12 hours in bed. Still a little hung over from it but am starting to feel human.

Did you have any reaction to your first Pfizer?

US just crossed 26% fully vaccinated and will probably cross 40% with one dose tomorrow or Tuesday

*25%

Flip side, jfc, India at 275,000 new cases today

Been feeling pretty fluey or something 3 weeks after the jab which was Astrazeneca. Not sure how much to worry about it.

Looks like J&J's gonna be available again this week, albeit with warnings.

groovypanda: on first dose I was just a little sleepy.

On the second, I felt fine for a few hours - did some housework, worked on the garden - but then definitely felt like I needed to lie down about six hours after the shot. As the night wore on I was feverish and shivering and thirsty (but when I drank water I threw up). So, a rough night. But I feel fine now.

One good thing about a multi- or at least bi-national geographically dispersed board like this is you're constantly reminded of the huge regional variation of "normal" behsvior -- here in the Midwest, the outdoors has been mask-optional from the very beginning. I mean, you see people walking down the street in masks, especially if they're in groups, but more not in masks. Joggers don't wear masks. I carry one in my pocket and put it on if I'm coming to a crowded shopping area with a lot of people on the sidewalk.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, April 18, 2021 11:39 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

joggers almost never wear masks here (new york)

i certainly don't

One more reason joggers should be avoided.

And one more reason joggers should avoid you! I certainly do.

I guess it's stuff like this:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/are-outdoor-mask-mandates-still-necessary/618626/

and I'm like... there are outdoor mask mandates??

In my neighborhood, very few people wear masks walking down the street. It's so rare that I know specifically who does. I went to visit my parents half an hour away (for the first time since last March), and we went on a walk around the neighborhood. Every single person was masked and I felt like a dope when I had to fumble around in my pocket to don mine.

I don't mask up outside, generally, because you have to draw the line somewhere. Though despite it being outside and me being fully vaccinated, I still wear one at the drive through vaccine clinic I've been volunteering at, mostly to set a good example. I dunno, perhaps it's policy, I'm mostly just following everyone else's example.

If I leave my apartment on foot it's because I'm going somewhere specific — the post office or to pick up food, generally — so I walk out the door masked. It's just my own weird brain, but I feel like keeping a mask in your pocket until you get to your destination is kinda unsanitary, honestly; you might as well tuck it into your shoe.

I almost never wear a mask outside including when I'm, *gasp*, running around the park, because I deliberately circumvent passersby when at all possible (95% of the time) and merely zipping through for a split-second isn't exactly the likeliest means of catching covid or transmitting it as far as I can tell.

Obviously the situation varies a great deal from country to country and city to city but Irish data on outdoors transmission is very comforting in this regard:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/number-of-covid-19-cases-from-outdoor-transmission-is-extremely-low-hpsc-1.4538776

I mean it sounds like in Massachusetts the rule is... you have to wear a mask outside even when you're by yourself? And you can be fined for not doing it? That just seems like a weird rule to me.

Don't roughly half the states still have a mask mandate? Any kind in mandate has to have some threat of a fine/penalty attached to it, but I haven't heard of anybody here in Mass. getting pinched, and if it happened it would probably be a pretty big story.

I live in a bigger city in the state, so pretty much everybody outdoors, including solitary runners, are masked. I even see single people in cars wearing them!

Florida didn't even have a mask mandate - it's county by county, and some counties flat out don't give a shit. and then Governor Desantis passed an executive order preventing counties from fining violators.

most people mask where I live, but because they give a shit, not cos they feel pressured to. more conservative cities, I've sometimes see nobody wearing them in convenience stores. even with signs on the door that says "mask required". even employees not wearing.

We have a mask mandate in Quebec but only indoors. I haven't seen anyone without a mask at the grocery store since it first came into effect almost a year ago now.

I started running on the (crowded) city trails again, so I've been wearing my mask for most of those runs... it gets kind of gross because it turns into a sweatband covering your mouth but whatever

i don't wear one outdoors if I'm out there alone with nobody in sight for miles. it's very low probability that if you walk/run by someone for a split second that you'd contract it unless they a) sneezed directly on you or b) made out with you (https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/24/21233226/coronavirus-runners-cyclists-airborne-infectious-dose)

but if i'm in an area where other people will feasibly be, it goes on.

I mean it sounds like in Massachusetts the rule is... you have to wear a mask outside even when you're by yourself? And you can be fined for not doing it? That just seems like a weird rule to me.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, April 19, 2021 9:57 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's extremely dumb but where i am in mass (suburban) no one really feels the need to do this.

If I was chilling in the park and it got so crowded that I couldn't maintain a 2m distance from strangers I'd put on a mask, but that has yet to happen – there's always a secluded spot somewhere.

I figure it's low risk but I can't pretend I'm not breathing hard when I'm running so it seems like the way to go, I'm definitely passing within 2m of other people on the trails

weird question, but how reliable is the data in Our World in Data re: new cases? I've kinda unthinkingly used them for over a year, but I noticed their numbers are very different than what the CDC or even NYT publishes.

CDC doesn't post intra-day data which is why I think I wound up using it from the beginning, but last night's stats seem to have a count that is missing several states' data (including Michigan).

Tbf I almost never leave the house to begin with. If I was doing in-person customer service on a daily basis then I'd think twice about running maskless.

There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to mask wearing outdoors around here. Some days it seems everyone is walking around outside, masked. Others, it seems like no one is. Even when I'm just walking around my neighborhood, it's really inconsistent, even among the same neighbors I see. Lately the move seems to be rapidly pulling the mask out of the pocket when someone approached on the walk (which seems more annoying to me than just wearing it in the first place, but that's just me).