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

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".

FB or blood clots, who can say for sure

its cool that her superpower of publishing stuff that immediately gets withdrawn and pulped also extends to social media

lol literally the first thing on her wiki:

Naomi Rebekah Wolf (born November 12, 1962) is an American author and journalist. Since around 2014, Wolf has been considered a conspiracy theorist by multiple media sources. Wolf has rejected claims she disseminates conspiracy theories.

I actually hadn't known this started with her pre-COVID.

clots recorded

if the Naomi is Wolf,
you've sailed into a gulf
if the Naomi is Klein,
you're doing just fine

lol

I'm p sure I let Naomi Wolf coast in my mind for like 2-3 years because I had her mixed up with Naomi Klein. Could not be more different.

Naomi kleins Twitter bio says “Not that Naomi”

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

She got suspended last week: here's the guy who debunked her last book on-air to her (leading to pulping) again doing nine seconds of research and describing it to her:

I can answer this one. The study is not a peer reviewed or from a major university. It’s a textbook example of a dodgy source. Let me explain. https://t.co/i6Rbos5jJw

— Matthew Sweet (@DrMatthewSweet) April 17, 2021

Considering she's back to tweeting the exact same bullshit as of a few hours ago, seems like maybe more than a brief "pause" from twitter is warranted.

xpost She just wasn't prepared for the ugly truth.

someone I knew as an acquaintance a decade ago died suddenly, shocking everybody. He had posted about being sick, with a 102 fever, and having a cough, that he said was improving. he had said he was going to get COVID tested, and then the next day, I guess he didn't show up to something and the cops did a welfare check, and he was gone.

I don't know if it was COVID, but this scared the shit out of me. I didn't know him well, but quite a few of my friends did, and they're in shock. he was in his 50s. his husband died suddenly about a decade ago, in equally eerie circumstances.

on plus side, cases decreased by 3.5% and hospitalizations by about 2.8% from the previous week to last week in the US. not exactly monumental declines and remains to see if it sticks but it does seem like the vaccination is preventing this 'fourth wave' from being much worse.

Not that Matthew Sweet

Sick Of Myself (And Also Covid)

Too late to the Matthew Sweet jokes

I don't think I've ever thought about the two Matthew Sweets in connection, maybe because one of them has such bouyantly fluffy curls, and the other so defiantly straight hair curtains

There is no excuse for what you do. Stringing together words “double mutant” “schools” 5X blah blah to scare people baselessly. It took me five minutes to provide context. 103 cases, vast majority travel-linked, oversampled in genomic database because travel-linked. Just stop.

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) April 20, 2021

feigl-ding is a crook and a fraud

Lol someone in Union Square Park who looks like the mayor of marijuana is handing out free joints to people who show their completed vaccine card for 4/20

NYC is undefeated pic.twitter.com/bdXTM3O6nq

— Mike Murphy (@mcwm) April 20, 2021

my man

Here for it

hell yes