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

well
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/well/live/covid-plastic-barriers.html

I never honestly had any belief that those were anything but props for COVID theater.

I think these plexiglass barriers were a good idea last year when we thought expelled particles were a major factor, honestly haven't really seen them in a long time and didn't know they were still a thing

They're everywhere and people who I would definitely expect to know better still seem to value them. See also those fucking plastic face shields that don't do anything to filter the air you're breathing.

Like, "Clear barriers have sprung up at restaurants, nail salons and school classrooms" is a weird subhed for an August 2021 article about a practice that was more widespread a year ago than now -- why not "Clear barriers still remain at many restaurants, nail salons and school classrooms"

It has definitely been at least a year since I saw anyone wearing a plastic face shield -- masks, on the other hand, both blue paper + KN95-style, remain common

See also the plastic chin mask/shields that are very popular on Japanese TV

there is going to have to be an endpoint where we accept the grim truth that we aren't getting to 90% vaccination ever

In the USA there are plenty of points of leverage to require people to get vaccinated that have not yet been fully exploited. And the strategies I'm thinking of fall short of using the full power of the government to compel compliance, a power has been tested in the courts and is undeniably within its legal remit, if the government chose to do so.

It has definitely been at least a year since I saw anyone wearing a plastic face shield -- masks, on the other hand, both blue paper + KN95-style, remain common

― Guayaquil (eephus!)

lol my dentist wears them and a surgical mask but he did pre-COVID.

tell it to me straight, once you do get vaccinated how much worse is this than the seasonal flu?

it provokes uncontrollable flatulence for one.

I wear a Knight's Mask

tell it to me straight, once you do get vaccinated how much worse is this than the seasonal flu?

― frogbs, Thursday, August 19, 2021 3:10 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've heard of mild cases but admittedly the article above said that several vaccinated teachers got "the sickest they've ever been" although not requiring hospitalization.

nobody can really standardize it. some breakthrough friends were miserable. some were just annoyed with cold symptoms. some said "wow this was brutal and I can't believe it might have been worse if I hadn't been vaxxed".

so like Alfred suggests, anything from rancid farts to basically feeling like you're paralyzed

but so paralyzed you can't crawl away from the blast zone of your rancid farts? please tell me so i'm prepared

lol my dentist wears them and a surgical mask but he did pre-COVID.

I see people wearing the plastic barrier masks on the subway every day.

A friend of mine said she heard a health reporter say the goal line is when we have both a child vaccine wildly available and an effective antiviral treatment. Which I guess makes sense, but are we guaranteed to ever get one? Has there been promising news about such treatments?

The goal line is when everyone in the world gets access to both those things.

That’s why the booster talk is so galling. There’s a whole planet that hasn’t got close to a single dose yet.

I mean the "goal line" in the sense of the point at which we in our respective countries mostly go back to "normal," not the ethical goal line. I don't think the UK or US would maintain capacity restrictions based on vaccination rates or antiviral availability in India

It doesn’t really work like that, now the disease is endemic. Whilst there are people without effective vaccines and treatments (or people refusing them) we are at higher risk of variants that take us all back to square one, wherever we are.

Normal for me is entering a 201st day of lockdown where I can be fined $5000 for travelling more than 5km, because a new variant broke through our (shoddily unimproved defences). Normal for me is not having the choice to see my family in person for 2 years or more.

A different normal involves lowering the risk globally, not just in the US or the UK.

I don't believe that normal is sustainable economically, emotionally, or otherwise.

Not for the length of time it would take to get the entire world to even 70% vaccination, let alone 80 or 90%.

Just go do whatever it is you want to do and stop embarrassing yourself online about it

:( :( stirmonster

ok, but are we grappling with the fact that maybe we just continue to wear masks indoors everywhere for the next year?

what grappling?

yeah kinda used to it by now tbh

stirmonster i'm pretty sure darraghmac was not responding to you but wryly asking if we'd not, collectively, as a species, already taken care of this problem the way you might take care of a pallet of lumber that needs moving from one side of the warehouse to the other

Sorry i misser that

Stirmonster i hopped into the thread with an ilx meme about circularly hopeless discussions and hadn't read yr post, id hoped that my xp after would have made it clear that id subsequently noted yr bad news and hoped the best for you!

ok. i get it. sorry - was particularly out of it when you posted. i think i am perhaps on the mend but have to say it is really, really unpleasant and i am very glad i got super fit over the last year. i can imagine masking for the rest of my days!

thought i'd also post this as it definitely highlights the power of masks and ventilation.

on tuesday, when i was probably unknowingly at my most infectious i spent an hour with my personal trainer. we were in very, very close proximity pretty much the entire time. he wore a mask and we had a door open. he tested negative. on the way out i chatted face to face with his colleague for a little over ten minutes. he has tested positive.

masks and ventilation!!

WATCH: “That was in no way a threat.” 🙄

Rod Lunn, the childless man who threatened a dad at the WILCO board meeting, attempts to defend his actions 🤐 says the dad almost hit a kid 🤥 and claims he’s received “powder” in the mail👌🏻

FULL WSMV STORY: https://t.co/E28ctj695r pic.twitter.com/KMyCBq37nn

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) August 20, 2021

that was just his monthly coke shipment

the thing that drives me nuts about this booster thing is again, Walensky's messaging. she believes the booster might make people less likely to transmit the virus if they get infected. epidemiologists are tut-tutting and saying "does...does the data actually show that?".

but I got the impression boosters were more to ensure protection against severe disease doesn't wane, and possibly to prevent some symptomatic transmission, and I feel like her messaging is going to make people think after they get a third shot, they're invincible again.

Misread that as "invisible" and thought I had another awesome super power to look forward to.

they will be compared to the millions and millions of people who haven’t even had their first shot yet!

i know a lot of you guys are bored of this but crossing borders is going to be unbelievably difficult until the world gets more vaccinated, but EVEN SO spreading events are going to keep happening until the world gets more vaccinated so maybe we should think about a better way to, like, get the world more vaccinated instead of boosting the already pretty great immunity of the wealthiest people on earth

that is the general gist of the booster naysayers. and honestly the booster supporters don't seem to be doing as good a job making their case right now. only about 30% of the globe is vaxxed, but even THAT stat is misleading because the biggest countries/continents are the majority of that 30%. lots of countries in single digits.

people are already pretending to be immunocompromised and getting thirds.

I only got my third cos of how long ago I had my second and being in a house with olds (sorry mom and dad but u are), and being elderly, I see a case for them getting a third, but idk that my middle-aged non-immunocomp friends are necessarily going to need them.

This might be a weird personal thing, but I really, really like wearing a mask when I go to Target or the supermarket or gas station etc.

Feels really liberating in some way to be anonymous

I have a black KN95 and it makes me look like Bane so I like it too.

a few times the cashier screamed and opened the register and ran away.

made 10k this week

I was complimented on my mask (which has a big Baphomet pentagram on it) by a teenaged grocery clerk the other week. And some other dude said "Hail Satan" to me at the bagel shop.

I like wearing a mask. I hate wearing my mask for prolonged periods of time.

My first cloth mask (sigh ...) had sugar skulls on it, and that used to get a lot of compliments. The other day I told my kids I was surprised that there have been no trendy masks, and they looked at me like I was stupid (I mean ... ) before telling me the brand and material and colors that carry the most cachet.

Not a lot new to add but yes I also vote to normalize wearing masks, I'm fine with it. A very slight inconvenience for most of us who go in and out of places. I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks of it except for people who work in, for ex, service jobs and have to wear a mask for a whole shift/many hours.

Jesus christ why do people pretend it's so impossible to do a small thing to take care of each other? Fuck.

I have no issue with wearing a mask when I run into a store to get groceries or coffee or whatever. I have a problem with expecting kids to wear them in school forever. I also think it would become a problem in the office, in meetings, in court, in depositions, etc. I already as it is find it harder to understand people on a daily basis, and facial expressions actually do matter to human interaction. I find it frustrating that people act like we can simply give up on having facial expression as part of our interaction forever.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/VigorousResponsibleLark-max-1mb.gif

what is this 'forever' thing

https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780881031836-us.jpg

In response to Laurel saying "normalize masks"

And if not forever, then until what?

Caek already addressed the pretend fatalism when he said, until certain metrics are met. It's in the fold somewhere, I'm not loading 12,523 posts.

The question is not really "how long should people wear masks indoors," because indeed wearing a mask is pretty easy for most people, it's "how long should K-12 schools be held online," which is not pretty easy for most people.

It seems to me that in-person K-12 schooling is going to cause spread of COVID-19 among children, and presumably then from children to others, *whether children and teachers wear masks or not*. Masks slow spread to some extent. Much less than vaccines do, surely. They do not make you COVID-proof.

It also doesn't seem clear to me how big of a *difference* in-person schooling makes to spread of COVID-19 when people are in general no longer working at home, restaurants and bars are open, etc.

I got depressed falling into a Twitter rabbit hole of people nominally on the left who see the push to vaccinate as part of (and the most successful part of) some kind of techno-takeover of our bodies which also includes baby formula and the general high prestige of "data" as opposed to "natural knowledge" and via this route also includes social media generally -- I feel like in five years all these people will be home-birthing Republicans who see Josh Hawley as their last bulwark against the number-slinging elite

I got depressed falling into a Twitter rabbit hole of people nominally on the left who see the push to vaccinate as part of (and the most successful part of) some kind of techno-takeover of our bodies which also includes baby formula and the general high prestige of "data" as opposed to "natural knowledge" and via this route also includes social media generally -- I feel like in five years all these people will be home-birthing Republicans who see Josh Hawley as their last bulwark against the number-slinging elite

oops sorry, I only fell into the rabbit hole once