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

Thanks, I am definitely in a much better place mentally. Upon some reflection, I think all of my anxieties and fears from the past year or so got so engrained into the idea of vaccination because it was such a concrete step/process that I could wrap my arms around, while everything else remains to vague and on the periphery. Not an excuse or deflection of course, but I would even be more disappointed in myself if I hadn't taken this as a chance to learn why it manifested in the ways it did.

for whoever said they had a big-brained herd immunity facebook acquaintance promoting the barriongton declaration:

On 11 Jan, Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University (and of the Great Barrington Declaration) wrote that the majority of Indians are already immune and that vaccinating them would be unethical. pic.twitter.com/Q0AQXuPTO3

— אמירות נכונות לשעתן (@nehonotlishatan) April 26, 2021

haha, yes. the specific nature of what starts to turn the members is painfully disheartening though.

please post a spoiler, i can't listen to NPR

Essentially it was Chris Christie joining in with the focus group to talk about how he got it and how sick he had been and that even young, healthy Hope Hicks (who ran 4-5 miles per day) was knocked flat for a long time, but what really seemed to do it was Christie talking about his 64 year old cousin and her 63 year old, longshoreman husband getting it and both passing away.

It's disheartening because this is nothing new. We've been hearing about otherwise strong and healthy people dying from it for a year now, but it apparently takes a politician "on their side" telling his personal story to move the needle.

Is the "long-time Republican focus-group / policy-marketing dude" Frank Luntz?

Yep.

from the transcript of the episode:

David Kestenbaum - Christie was the first person to tell an actual story. I hadn't heard all the details before. This all happened when he was helping prep the first presidential debate.

Chris Christie - And there were seven people in the Map Room at the White House for about 16 hours over four days together. And of those seven people, six of them got COVID. In the place that was the safest, most tested place in America.

I got it, and Hope Hicks got it, and Kellyanne Conway got it, and the president got it. Bill Stepien got it. And Stephen Miller. All of us got it. All of us got it at a bit of a different time. And all of us got it at a bit of a different severity. And by randomness, I mean, I was the sickest of everybody, and had the longest hospitalization.

The next sickest person was the president. But the next sickest person after that was Hope Hicks, who was the youngest and most fit person in that room. Someone who, you know, ran four to five miles every day, in her early 30s, and was the most fit. She was out of it for a good 10 days, and never had to be hospitalized. But called me during it, and told me it was the sickest she'd ever been.

Two other people in my family, a 64-year-old cousin, who was a smoker. And so she had some potential problem, got it. Felt OK in the beginning, wound up hospitalized. Her husband, 63, no preexisting conditions, great shape. In fact, was still working every day as an active longshoreman on the docks in New Jersey. He got sick as well. Caught it presumably from his wife. They both wound up being hospitalized. And two weeks ago, they both passed away.

David Kestenbaum - It wasn't hard to read the room. Everyone was paying attention. One person said, "I wasn't expecting him to say that, that they had passed away." Two were surprised to hear that Hope Hicks ran four miles a day and had still gotten so sick. Christie told them he sympathized with their skepticism about politicians on this issue. Like the presidents in that vaccine PSA, "Listen," he said. "I know all those people. I've met all those people. I'm not asking them whether I should take the vaccine."

Oh yeah, I think I heard about that.

Two were surprised to hear that Hope Hicks ran four miles a day and had still gotten so sick.

I would be surprised, too, if I hadn't read a bunch of similar stories 12 months ago!

Right! Which is why is was so disheartening, this isn't new!

second Moderna yesterday and goddamn these side effects have knocked me flat, haven't been this sick in ages

Especially dispiriting that it's someone from the cast of The Trump Show that gets them to turn, even though it's someone who has been demeaned, derided, and excluded by Trump himself repeatedly. They don't even have an awareness or analysis of who is trustworthy by Trump's lights, apparently vaguely remembering that their names were in the same news report a few times is enough for belief by association. Homeopathic reliability.

sic otm

ums - congrats! Sorry to hear about the side effects. I'm patiently waiting to see what happens to me with Moderna #2. What was your experience after the first dose?

Also the noises of satisfaction and agreement when Christie assures them that "Politicians screw up almost everything we touch. We really do. We just do," and avers that his own personal idiocy and incompetence are the reason that they should listen to him. And they do!

Precisely, even though earlier in the group they had each said that including Trump himself in the president's PSA wouldn't have convinced them either. It's infuriating.

The train of logic is so fluid, it's depressing. There's no solid bedrock of thought, just situational responses.

Logical trains of thought are for crybaby libs.

I also got my second Moderna yesterday and yeah it's been no joke.

honestly they just need to inject fuckin Frosted Mini Wheats and Fruity Pebbles with mRNA and just not tell anybody

thanks! feels weird to think that I made it


first dose was ok, felt a little tired (but frankly I spent 8 hours in the car driving from Mpls to Fargo/Moorhead and back in one day so I think that had a lot to do with it)

this time I have it all, aches, chills, fatigue, bad digestion, the whole works

basically it's just like a pretty bad flu, had to call in to work

Any advice or ways to prepare for the onslaught? Or just ride it out? The nurse giving me the jab said it would peak about 12 hours later, so I should drink plenty of water and take a Tylenol before bed.

I took tomorrow off in preparation, just in case, glad I did so.

that's really all I did, was just wait it out. I didn't know what was coming so I was late on the Tylenol, but you can be more proactive with it. taking the day off a smart idea. everyone's reaction is diff but for many people it just kinda.....abruptly backs off all of a sudden.

I've also heard screaming "death to false metal!" helps but maybe that was just me

Haha, I'll try that. I do need to give the new Cannibal Corpse a spin yet. Yeah, the one consistent thing I've heard is that it just seems to end really abruptly.

My wife got her second Moderna on Monday afternoon, and was generally fine until the next afternoon, when she got really achy and tired. A nap aside, though, it was manageable with acetaminophen, and she was pretty much all better by this morning. Super psyched to hang out in small mask-free gatherings outside.

My email from CVS said to drink 16 oz of water an hour before which I did. And I drank a lot of water after. I did get a Pfizer shot though.

Anything I felt was so mild it was hard to determine if it was a side effect or just how I usually feel much of the time.

Don't take Tylenol before the jab. Indulge freely afterwards.

2nd Pfizer dose next week. Was very impressed with the efficiency and friendliness of med staff, coordinators, and recipients at the Microsoft campus getting shot 1. Working to keep that happy relief dominant over the fearmongering re: variant spreads, WA resurgence, and effectiveness. One nice thing living here is that developing this protocol will help speed future inoculations. I'd expect this to roll into the regularly scheduled flu vaccinations at work.

Chris Christie:

I mean, I was the sickest of everybody

Debatable

I'm about 24 hours post Pfizer dose 2 and so far so good. Felt a little "weird" this morning when I woke up but that could have just been pre-coffee reverie.

My Pfizer dose 2 side effects mostly felt like a hangover, tbh. Tired, achy, bad headache. Took a few days to feel back to 100%, but the worst was pretty manageable.

felt a little fatigue about 24 hours after pfizer dose 2 for me, but other than that, nothing

there's no dodging the side effects if you get them as far as i can tell. but i haven't met ANYONE who has had them last beyond a few days.

this is a thing:
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-mark-of-the-beast-victorian-britains-anti-vaxxer-movement

http://the-public-domain-review.imgix.net/essays/the-mark-of-the-beast-victorian-britains-anti-vaxxer-movement/the-cow-pock.jpg

sounds like christie was using the same trick he used here to pull aged bigots a tiny tiny bit toward the center on a specific issue while agreeing with their basic worldview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdYMx7sycW4

reminds me of this moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvCtA-8nf2k

a reminder: as of April 28, everyone in america over the age of 16 is eligible for a vaccine and many states and cities (nyc for one) allow walk-ups for anyone.

If I had seen that sentence posted in February, I would've cried. there has been some improvement in the US!

On the other hand, meet Tennessee
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/27/us/tennessee-governor-bill-lee-covid-no-longer-emergency/
https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/2021/04/24/concerts-coming-back-and-nashville-leading-charge/7318105002/

first astrazeneca has ended me although presumably not as much as covid itself would have

hope you buck up soon lj

ty!

drink some booze to thin yr blud & avoid claats

is that a thing

it's a wonder that the Australian government withdrew AZ really

Only side-effect I had was endlessly playing slap bass for a week. Then again I did get the Pfleazer shot.

I hate how much I laughed at that

I'm here all week! Year, really.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/chicken-rentals-spike-during-pandemic

Made me think of this sketch (the end), xp:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1srp0

it's a movement
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-28/chickens-millennials-weisenthal-odd-lots

Incidentally, Odd Lots = great podcast