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

Yup, I think this slogan was posted elsewhere, but driving through Wisconsin a few weeks ago saw a bumper sticker that said something along the lines of, "If you are driving alone in your car with your mask on you don't need to tell me you voted for Biden, I already know". And it's just, I don't know, like THAT is the important message worth slapping on the back of your shitty car?

wait til he sees my bumper sticker that reads "if you have a bumper sticker that says 'if you are driving alone in your car with your mask on you don't need to tell me you voted for biden, i already know,' you don't have to tell me you voted for trump, i already know"

It's all very They Live, which of course is an ott satire and sort of underplays what's become the reality of our situation.

So an interesting thing is that there seems to be some sort of data error in reporting the second shot for Illinois residents. The fully vaccinated number has barely budged in weeks and the gap between the "fully vaccinated" (47.3%) and "at least one dose" (60.6%) keeps growing and is a larger gap than any other state (California's gap is close to ours, but the numbers are still close together).

Anyway, I think I mentioned that I got a letter from IPDH saying that I appear to have missed my second shot, which wasn't the case. In talking to coworkers, one coworker's husband got the same letter, as did another one's daughter. In one of the daily stat update threads on the Illinois Coronavirus subreddit the other day, several people mentioned the same thing, either they or someone they know wrongly got this missed second shot letter. A couple posters over there are theorizing that there might be some error in reporting second shots to the state, which is why that fully vaxxed number keeps lagging further behind.

"numbers are still closer together" that should read

A little slice of life in London, the world's Delta capital.

I had a doctor's appointment arranged at the last minute for late on Friday afternoon, which meant I had to leave work early which my boss wasn't too happy about - because grumbling, but not actually doing anything, is about the only thing left to show that he is in charge. Getting a face-to-face appointment with a GP is, according to my colleagues, a real rarity these days, though I've never had any problems. I decided to walk there, because they don't like you turning up late or early and because public transport,

How it works is you have to buzz reception to let you in - you can't just breeze in like you used to - and, of course, you must wear a mask. Using the buzzer is vital because, this being the NHS, they are, of course, short staffed and there are no reception staff working so the office staff are having to cover.

About half an hour into my wait, in walks an elderly Chinese couple - without having buzzed reception - who proceed to wander around the waiting room, the guy muttering, "Where is reception, is this reception?", the woman obviously can't speak English. Neither of them are wearing masks. After a few minutes of this, rather than explain the situation to them, because I've been waiting for half an hour and I suspect any conversation would be like pulling teeth, I nip outside and press the buzzer for them. When one of the office staff wanders out an interminable conversation begins along the lines of...

Man: Where is reception? There is no reception.
Worker: There's no reception working today.
Man: It's shit, are you reception? Where is reception?
Worker: It's Friday afternoon, the reception staff has gone home, we're having to cover for them.
Man: Where is reception? Is this reception? This is shit.
Worker: We're short staffed today.
Man: Are you reception?

Eventually we get to the point of their visit.

Man: I need appointment for the old lady.
Worker: What, this lady here. (gesturing to his wife)
Man: No, the old lady! Her mother!
Worker: We don't make appointments face to face.
Man: This is shit! I need appointment!
Worker: You have to phone us between 8.30 and 11.00 to make an appointment...
Man: No no no.
Worker: ... or else go online and fill in a form....

This really sets him off.

Man: No no no! Fuck off! That is fucking shit!
Worker: OK, I'll give you a pen and paper and you can write the phone number down.
Man: No! I'm not writing number, you write number. Fuck off! You do your fucking job!
Worker: I'll write it but there's no need to be rude.
Man: I'm not rude! You're fucking rude! Fuck off with this shit!
Worker: If you could just calm down.
Man: You're rude!
Worker: Listen, if you could write the number down.

The man picks up the pen and throws at the office worker.

Worker: I'm going to have to ask you to leave now.
Man: This is fucking shit! You're a fucking idiot!

And off he goes with his wife trying to calm him down, shouting insults as he leaves. Ironically, one of the the few people in the waiting room are a couple who are there to register with the surgery - after just witnessing that scene! Not long after that, another guy wanders in off the street without buzzing and without a mask and just kind of stands in the waiting room for ages until one of the office staff happens to notice him:

Man (pointing to jaw): Dentist?
Worker: I'll get you an address list.

Eventually, about an hour after my appointment was due, so I didn't have to leave work early after all, I see the doctor. Interestingly, he's a very laidback and chatty American who, throughout, refers to my usual doctor by his surname and not by his title.

Just another day in the NHS! But at least it didn't cost me anything!

Yeah in the US that's have cost you $37,811.05, and you'd have had to chase your insurance up for 3 years to get them to cover it. Looking forward to doing the same here in a few years!

And the old Chinese man would have been shot by the surgery security guards.

Yes, some advantages tbf

irl stifled guffaw

My encounters with the human race continue. I'm on a train, London to Crewe. Half the people in the carriage aren't wearing masks. I've taken a particular dislike to this fat ugly wanker and his stupid girlfriend who are sitting across the aisle from me, I hate his tattoos and shaved head/beard combo. Why, in the middle of a pandemic, would you go into an enclosed space where you're going to be confined with a lot of strangers for several hours and not wear a mask? And why wouldn't you bring some headphones so the rest of the carriage doesn't have to listen to whatever crap you happen to be watching on your phone?

Real England

That's exactly what it is.

Having said that though, on the bus into town, the only people not wearing masks were two sets of tourists.

Crewe to Glasgow train. Social distancing? You're having a laugh, people are packed in like sardines.

If I don't have COVID by the end of this week it'll be a miracle.

Right now if I go anywhere inside I'm expecting to be told to isolate after :(

And what is it with couples not wearing masks? They're so wrapped in themselves they don't care who they infect?

They've probably "done their own research", which astonishingly turned out to be more accurate than that of highly-trained medical professionals with near-infinite strings of qualifications to their names.

for your on the fence friends who think they're protected because "millions of other people are vaccinated": https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-vaccines-herd-immunity-variants-1.6104364

I imagine there are hundreds of millions of people in the world today who have "done their own research" and as a result are overwhelmingly eager to be vaccinated, but they can't be because their nation has so little access to vaccines that they are restricted to a selected few. Meanwhile, in the US of A...

I am fully vaxxed. Am I mad for flying next month if I wear a cloth mask the whole time (in airport, on plane)?

No

I thought airports and planes are all requiring masks? We were just in airports and planes, and ours both did (and everyone complied).

Thanks, reassuring.

If you're mad, I'm mad, I've already done it several times.

get ready for Freedom Day

https://i.imgur.com/8TItR2P.jpg

now imagine the same graph done per capita...

No need to imagine it: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases

Just under the all time record today

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases

it's coming home, it's coming home

it's also coming 2 america

our daycare just announced the first breakthrough case among parents

now imagine the same graph done per capita...

― koogs, Sunday, July 18, 2021 5:20 PM (yesterday)

No need to imagine it: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases

― mike t-diva, Sunday, July 18, 2021 8:27 PM (yesterday)

for non-clickers: looks like Botswana is the only one left to beat. let's check back a fortnight from Tuesday!

(UK on 631 per million, Botswana on 653. USA has 95, Canada has 9, Australia has 5. (based on testing and published data obv))

Toppermost of the poppermost.

kinda just assumed everyone in the u.k had just accepted that we'll all get covid multiple times and hopefully it will be mild

The U.K. is running about 1.2m to 1.5m tests a day, I think. I don’t know who else is testing that intensively.

i think this thread is pretty close to the conventional wisdom among epidimiologists at this point

I don't think leaders here have wrapped their heads around the impact of Delta in the US. This is a new era: A) A bad phase of the pandemic for unvaccinated adults and B) The beginning of the endemic reality for vaccinated people. Policy responses require a new paradigm. 1/n

— Will Hoenig (@WilliamBHoenig) July 17, 2021

"NPI" is non-pharmacological interventions, i.e. lockdowns, masks, capacity limits, closed schools, etc.

So basically your choices are to get vaccinated or to get COVID. https://t.co/LbK4sNmeQn

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 15, 2021

The (a) real shame of it all is that so many states are sitting on so many unused shots, but bureaucracy means there's a better chance of them getting tossed than being put to use elsewhere.

I am absolutely expecting to get COVID now, if I don't have it already from the train journey(s) from London to Glasgow. Thank you, Tories.

I don't mind if I get it myself but I don't want to give it to my sister, who I'm staying with from tomorrow.

Tbh I’m expecting to get covid eventually and I’m vaccinated

How is this a "sort-of" exception? Surely this is a full-stop exception. I diminished by quite a lot the extent I spent in crowded indoor spaces between March 2020 and April 2021, which decreased the likelihood I'd get COVID before I got vaccinated. I don't understand any argument that doesn't count that as "helpful." Most of the world is unvaccinated. Hell yes those countries should try to delay the wave until they can get the shots in the arms.

The sad reality here is that, even if the endemic steady state is okay, there are dark days ahead for the world. The sadder reality is that NPIs aren't very helpful tools, and come at a real cost. The sort-of exception is if you can buy time to higher vaccination with them. 27/n

— Will Hoenig (@WilliamBHoenig) July 17, 2021

XxXpost so is he saying NPIs should be used more judiciously?

Xpost I think he means lockdowns and things like that. And is speaking more collectively.

Lockdowns flatten the curve and prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed. They don't stop transmission. Made sense to do them en masse pre-vaccine, and to do them when caseloads get into mega-dangerous territory, but there's a real world cost to these actions (psychological, financial, etc).

I think he's saying at this stage they really often just delay the inevitable.

He’s saying that NPIs made sense when they were literally our only option, and vaccines were months away or in the process of being distributed, because the goal was to slow the spread so more people can get vaccinated.

If as now seems likely we’re going to be dealing with years/multiple more waves that spread among everyone (including the vaccinated) until everyone has a sufficient response that they’re like colds, and pretty much every adult who wants to be vaccinated is, the goal of NPIs is both less relevant and an extremely hard sell. Hard sell to vaccinated people because who wants to go into lock down for months/years to avoid an all but inevitable eventual mild case? And hard sell to the unvaccinated deniers for obvious reasons.

vaccinated Texas state senators hiding out in DC just announced they got it btw.

Hard sell to vaccinated people because who wants to go into lock down for months/years to avoid an all but inevitable eventual mild case?

My interpretation too.

Current case rates almost certainly an undercount by a bigger factor than on winter because a other fraction of them are mild or asymptomatic. Like if the counts back then we’re off by 2-3x, they might be off by 10x now.

Unvaccinated, immuno-compromised and underage people still exist iirc.