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

how did the apolitical covid thread become another thread about American politics?

Fair point, but, especially right now, it's really hard to not mix the two, given how much the vaccine hesitancy and general COVID denial overlaps very specifically with American politics.

FYI I engaged in my own brand of COVID denial by getting vax #2 jammed into my arm this morning. DENIED!

First roomie has her shots booked for June/Oct - her folks are in a hotpot postal code. So I'm guessing I'm looking at July/October. Other roomie (essential worker) has a cough and we're a titch spooked.

*hotspot, lol. most likely not a lot of hotpot out in the burbs.

My wife said some of her conservative relatives have really been sharing the hell out of that n0jabf0rme (dot) info site in recent days. It's a whole load of misinformation and conspiracy theory crap, but my "favorite" part is the disclaimers:

Statements in this site are substantiated with facts that will stand in a court of law. Informed Consent requires a flow of information. Click on the hyperlinked sections to direct you to primary sources such as CDC, WHO, FDA documents.

Anyone trying to take down this site will be named as codefendant in Nuremberg 2.0 for being an accomplice to crimes against humanity. That includes social media. Lawyers are standing by.

They forgot to add that they are all Navy SEALs who will come break your arm if you try to take down the site.

Fair point, but, especially right now, it's really hard to not mix the two, given how much the vaccine hesitancy and general COVID denial overlaps very specifically with American politics.

As of January 2020, Kelly's Facebook page had higher levels of engagement than either the Prime Minister or the Opposition Leader, leading the Sydney Morning Herald to call Kelly "one of Australia's most influential politicians" on the platform. Kelly has had more engagement on Facebook when posting his messages on health than NSW Health, Victoria's Department of Health and the national health minister.

people are wild....

The most deranged yet delightful thing I read today is that some anti-maskers/vaxxers are now wearing masks out of fear that a vaccinated person will “shed” vaccine side effects onto them

— paige dzenis (@paiiige) May 2, 2021

where

Cases are currently at the peak of the pandemic so far btw. Infections have doubled in the last two months.

where

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Monday, May 3, 2021 6:31 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

probly read it in a tweet somewhere

Yeah, that is sobering to see sic.

Cases are currently at the peak of the pandemic so far btw. Infections have doubled in the last two months.

You mean globally?

Yes.

How much of that is just ("just") India and Brazil, though?

Those countries are a big part of “the world” Joshua

Also - Argentina, Turkey. Uruguay, Sweden and Mongolia are doing pretty badly now as well.

xpost Absolutely! That's why I put "just" in quotes. But those two alone are doing a ton of the heavy lifting in terms of total number of new cases, aren't they? I did notice, when I was googling travel policies just a few days ago (just because) that Costa Rica was extremely lax. Like, not so much as a negative test required for entry. I told my wife, since it seemed odd, and just in the couple of days between reading about it and telling her the policy had switched to a limited lockdown due to an outbreak. It's almost as though no restrictions in a pandemic might lead to more cases.

Speaking of which, anyone else see the WaPo piece about the world turning its back on Bolsonaro, because he's just been that big of a counter-productive asshole?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/30/brazil-coronavirus-bolsonaro-india-vaccine/

I don’t think we need a new apolitical thread but we may need a USA thread shortly as our experience with covid is rapidly becoming one that isn’t even close to reflective of the global moment

Every country's experience with Covid is different. Do I really have to point that out?

'Every US state's experience with Covid is different.' Yep, gotcha.

Worth noting that, while Sweden's case count is high, its deaths remain very low.

Wait, so what pom is suggesting is that we should have a unique thread for each of the 50 US states to discuss the political and apolitical impacts of COVID?

Mongolia, fwiw, looks like a country that basically was entirely untouched by the pandemic until very recently. Things don't actually look all that bad there yet, it's just that there's an explosion compared to the near zero the had before.

Sweden: 1,365.81 deaths per million.

Compared to Denmark (427.77), Finland (165.75) and Norway (141.55), that's not exactly stellar.

Wait, so what pom is suggesting is that we should have a unique thread for each of the 50 US states to discuss the political and apolitical impacts of COVID?

Ideally, we should have one for each neighbourhood.

Sweden's had 14,000 deaths. It's a similar death rate to Scotland. Norway's had 750 deaths. Finland 900

I was responding to this:

Also - Argentina, Turkey. Uruguay, Sweden and Mongolia are doing pretty badly now as well.

Just pointing out that Sweden "doing pretty badly now" is not amounting to high death rates ATM, not speaking cumulatively.

Yeah, I was just pointing out the other countries besides Brazil and India that had really high case counts at the moment.

I did notice, when I was googling travel policies just a few days ago (just because) that Costa Rica was extremely lax. Like, not so much as a negative test required for entry.

The US did not require a negative test for entry until a year after the WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern.

Just pointing out that Sweden "doing pretty badly now" is not amounting to high death rates ATM, not speaking cumulatively.

Got you. Sweden is a touchy subject because it constantly gets brought up by anti-lockdown clowns despite the fact that its death rate is horrifically higher than comparable countries.

xpost Weird, I wonder what changed. Regardless, has little bearing on last week.

Surprised there’s not a single anti-vax holdout even in my extended social circle. Even the people I know usually vote Republican ran to CVS.

Yeah, I'm so glad to not have any holdouts (or hesitant, even) in my family or social circle. Everyone has already gotten it, or plans to get it, so I haven't had to do any convincing. I do have some extended family that is very likely anti-COVID vax (no signs of them having been anti-vax before now), but I don't see or speak to them ever and I'm 99.999% certain that any convincing I did would be roundly ignored.

Looks like they're not keeping a good record of who has been given the jab here. I got a phonecall from my health centre this morning about a month after i go the jab. I was offered a vaccination because somebody wasn't going to turn up or something. You'd think there would be a note somewhere. Since i had to show i.d. to get into the centre and had my name taken and confirmed .
Somebody who got theirs on the smae day as me lives a few doors away from me and said she's also been contacted weeks after her shot.
Seems to be a bad system if they're doing that with 2 people wonder how many others have had similar. Oh yeah we were through 2 different health centres or doctors though the vaccination centre covers all of the area. So surprised if that's just a coincidence that I know the only other person that's happened with.

Got you. Sweden is a touchy subject because it constantly gets brought up by anti-lockdown clowns despite the fact that its death rate is horrifically higher than comparable countries.

― Authoritarian Steaks (Tom D.), Tuesday, May 4, 2021 4:00 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's also doing no better economically, which was the supposed advantage of the do it/be legends approach.

So! Several good friends, all Dems, have reverted to normal since getting jabbed between February and late March, i.e. eating indoors at restaurants. None, some of whom with serious chronic conditions pre-COVID, have gotten sick. Yet here I am starting to quietly boil in the heat of outdoor Florida restaurant seating areas because I'm scared. Aren't vaccines supposed to handle the worst-case scenarios? I mean, if you get new brakes for your car, you won't test them driving to the corner Publix: you test them on the interstate going 65 mph, then brake suddenly when you see stopped cars in front of you. Obv you avoid dangerous scenarios, but, again, that's what they're for.

I suppose this is a long-ish justification for wanting to try indoor dining soon.

idk do what u feel man we can't stop you, I wouldn't

I would maybe get a hat

one thing to look at is what different restaurants are doing to accommodate indoor seating. A lot of restaurants here have limited capacity and put plexiglass barriers between tables. I think those measures plus vaccines are pretty good.

You're probably not at much risk dining indoors if you're vaxxed. The bigger danger is poorly ventilated restaurants that don't require masks and don't put barriers between tables causing superspreader events.

Given the low number of breakthrough cases, and the likelihood that others in your party and the restaurant are also vaxxed, I'd say you'll probably be fine.

I generally won't go to places that don't enforce masks or mush everyone together without distancing because I assume they are terrible people and that the people going there probably didn't get vaccinated.

idk plexiglass is hygiene theatre. We know how it spreads, and plexiglass will barely stop aerosolized particles.

Yeah, that was my issue with the "safety protocols" flyer they included with my jury summons. Like, great, plexiglass and wiping down surfaces. Okay, but what are you actually doing about the real problems?

Btw US 7-day case average dipped to it's lowest since Oct 6, 26% reduction from 14 days ago.

Still way higher than our first wave, but hoping the trend continues.

Hyper cleaning and wiping down surfaces is good for cleanliness, but are otherwise just theatre. Temp checks too.

Masks, good ventilation, and distance, as well as capacity limits are the real shit. Restaurants should open doors/windows where possible.

I should note: every one of my favorite restaurants here still requires staff to mask and guests to mask in waiting areas. I don't know what it's like in the rest of Florida. Back in July during our Sanibel beach vacation, we ran out of a restaurant when the friendly staff answered the door with smiles and no masks. It was like David Lynch politeness porn.

If the case numbers are low I’d be totally fine with eating indoors totally vaxxed up.

haven't really seen much what Florida has done since DeSantis's recent edict, but my county still seems to be mostly masking, to where it's jarring if I see people without one anywhere. but we're a blue-er area.

Melbourne was good about masks when my folks and I went to the beach there for a few days. but other beaches (Cocoa) are fuckin terrible and people were moved on as if the pandemic was over in April....of 2020.

I'm not prepared to alter much of what I've been doing for the past year+ but that's mostly due to the fact that Cook County alone still has a daily infection rate that's the same as/higher than every state surrounding Illinois. I keep hoping that data like this will factor into my workplace altering its plans to stupidly throw everyone back into the office on 6/1 but I'll maybe wait to hold my breath until I'm crammed into a closed space with unvaccinated coworkers for 8 hrs./day.

Yeah, Cook County's numbers are quite obnoxious, I hope we start to see a dip given some more encouraging vaxx numbers. My work has set up some committees to discuss "return" protocols, so I'm guessing things aren't quite imminent. However, been getting conflicting information about what it will look like in my department. One superior said some sort of hybrid remote thing would be encouraged, but another gave a dispiriting "butts in seats, every day, soon" type conversation last week that was hard to hear.