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

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).

Most people don't wear a mask outdoors here, it's taken long enough to get them to wear one indoors.

oof

Absolutely staggering. The world just had its worst week ever for covid infections https://t.co/RJAGo6u6Tx pic.twitter.com/c3mkc5SFuT

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) April 19, 2021

Covid is going to kill more people in 2021 than in 2020, and I'm not sure it's even going to be all that close.

— David Fickling (@davidfickling) April 19, 2021

I'm not sure it's even going to be all that close.

There's plenty of evidence this is an accurate prediction. The biggest unknown is how accurately covid deaths were tracked globally last year and whether or not they'll be accurately counted this year.

lord i know better but don't read the damn tweeted comments. so many morons think he's talking about "in the US" as if we're the only country that exists and India and Brazil aren't on fire right now.

There was a long piece in the New Yorker about the fact that there seems to have already been a pretty huge wave of cases in the developing world which just didn't develop into serious illness and death and there is no good understanding why. So there might already be substantial immunity in places we think of as "not hit yet."

Just to move on to other people's irrational fears

Well hundreds of women on this page say they are having bleeding/ clotting after vaccination or that they bleed oddly being AROUND vaccinated women. Unconfirmed, needs more investigation. But lots of reports. COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects https://t.co/HyyI4WkaC1

— Dr Naomi Wolf (@naomirwolf) April 19, 2021

"being AROUND vaccinated women" jfc how does she still even have a public outlet

I mean, this is straight up Trumpian "many people are saying" bullshit and she should have her Twitter account suspended immediately.

Naomi Wolf is an Exhibit A for when liberals claim we don't have our own kooks

her evidence is a link to a Facebook Group

“huge if true”

She is also on a tear that making children wear masks is "child abuse", boy do I regret clicking on that.

I went into a store yesterday and there were lots of women there, I was wearing a mask but didn't realize my Moderna radiation would be clotting everyone, sorry ladies

Naomi Wolf is an Exhibit A for when liberals claim we don't have our own kooks

On the one hand, yes, on the other hand, when ours tip into unhinged kookiness they rapidly cease being liberals

Looks like someone just got spooked after rewatching The Andromeda Strain.

her link to "facebook.com/groups/allvaccinesarefake" appears to be broken, cancel culture run amok

Yeah, in the comments someone says FB already killed the group she was trying to link to as her "evidence".