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

Yeah, when we bought ours (an electric one) a lot of the forums I read while researching noted it's not a coincidence that patio heaters sell the most in places like Arizona and the least in places like Minnesota. Our heater turned out fine, though. We had couple of winter get togethers outside on the absolute coldest of days. We just dug out the snow, arranged some chairs by the fire pit, and plugged in the electric heater as a sort of satellite where you could go and warm your hands or, in one particularly cold instance, thaw your frozen food.

One thing I kind of miss is that our block used to have a more or less weekly neighbor night, with everyone getting together at the end of the block for beers. Between the pandemic and a crew of our kids getting too old, that more or less stopped summer 2020 and never quite sparked up again this summer. We have, however, managed to stay relatively social, one way or another, and of our various other crews of good friends, no one has gotten sick, at least not from local transmission. Iirc one friend's daughter brought covid back from college, but didn't make anyone else sick in her family (who quarantined until they got a couple of negative tests). Another family we know all got sick (mild symptoms) when the Trumpy mother from Texas came to visit and brought covid with her. But locally, fingers crossed, everyone we know and hang out with has been reasonable and safe. I don't think anyone is looking forward to another winter of this, either, but at least I think we're all pretty comfortable with our limits and which of them can be pushed more than others.

In better news we all tested negative and none of the seven people (SIL plus in-laws and my family) who spent time together feel sick, so she probably wasn't contagious.

In some weird ways I find winter slightly easier to cope with because I don't have the distinct feeling that I'm missing as much anyway. Our social stuff really slows down in winter anyway and I don't have the added pandemic vibe of missing concerts and festivals and stuff nearly as much. That said, I sure hope this winter is easier than last.

The social isolation thing is real, I get it. When we first moved to the neighborhood we were excited because it was a really nice mix of long established families and young families like ours, unfortunately most of the latter have moved away for one reason or another. And the last three houses that sold in our immediate neighborhood sold to children of some of the older families already here, which is nice, but it also reinforces this very weird dynamic of a handful of families who have lived on the block for generations and they socialize constantly with each other but don't really let "new" people into the circle. Which never really bothered me before COVID and I still don't really feel like I'm missing much, but it would be nice to have that local social element/outlet.

xp - great news man alive!

good posts everyone.

Some professional venting: As a reporter covering local/state government, this wave is really exhausting and enervating to me. I'm so so tired of writing about COVID, of listening to people shout at the school board or whoever about having masks/not having masks, of tracking every bumbling incompetent step our local and state leaders are taking in their continuing refusal to deal with reality. I honest to god would rather write about zoning disputes or transportation planning. But I know this is actually all important and it all has to be documented and questions need to be asked and assumptions challenged etc. It's just draining for me at this point. (I realize this is not even a tiny smidge of the exhaustion experienced by healthcare workers in dealing with all of this, I can't imagine how they keep going.)

I feel that, tipsy, I get tired just reading the things people like you get tired writing -- but know that your readers are out there reading it and glad you're doing the work!

I imagine tipsy just using a MadLibs-style template at this point and filling in the unique details:

At a contentious town-hall meeting on DAY OF THE WEEKday in suburban NAME OF COUNTY County, tempers flared as irate anti-mask advocate Karen LAST NAME unleashed a NUMBER-minute tirade against the school system's latest anti-COVID measures.

Ms. LAST NAME's speech was rambling at times, but hinted at a dark conspiracy involving "alien lizard people from the planet NAME OF FICTIONAL PLANET, local council member FIRST NAME LAST NAME, Vice President Kamala Harris, County School Board chair FIRST NAME LAST NAME, Stacey Abrams, George Soros, FIRST NAME LAST NAME," and "the gays." Supporters of Ms. LAST NAME held signs reading "INSERT SOMETHING BATSHIT CRAZY HERE" and "WE WANT HEN FAP."

Desperate to restore order to the fractious meeting, Mr. LAST NAME repeatedly rapped his gavel and begged the capacity crowd of NUMBER to settle down, adding that there was "no evidence" the county's government was infiltrated by "reptilian aliens from the planet NAME OF FICTIONAL PLANET, GAYS/JEWS/MARXISTS/FEMINISTS (PICK TWO), or SENTIENT TYPE OF CHEESE PRODUCT."

omg, YMP.

Man, it hadn't even occurred to me before but it totally makes sense now that SENTIENT TYPE OF CHEESE PRODUCT is responsible for my Morgellons.

Well, you can't prove to me they're *not* responsible.

Lol thx YMP that will make my life easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePaHG6g7uFw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbYtgGmenY

Can I post this Mad Lib to FB? I will keep your user name on it if you want, and tag you if I can.

Aw, use as you like, no need to credit. There are plenty more lazy zings where that came from

This article seems to have used the above 'mad-libs' template: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/maskless-group-disrupts-wenatchee-school-board-meeting/

done!

Our high school does not mandate vaccines or saliva tests. In fact, providing proof of vaccination and opting in to saliva testing is *optional.* That's stupid. If they cared they'd be testing everyone weekly, especially if they're allowing unvaccinated kids in.

This is all an equity issue, as I understand it, but while I can twist logic to see why they might not require vaccines, I cannot for the life of me see why they can't test everyone.

That's odd.

My son's elementary school mandates vaccines for staff and is doing weekly saliva testing for all students starting in a few weeks. Parents have to opt out of the testing, otherwise it is automatic. Kind of bonkers to me that the school wouldn't be testing everyone.

I think the middle schools and under might be testing every student here, or at least it is opt out. I have no idea why the high school (a different district) is not. The biggest difference I can see is that everyone grades 9-12 is eligible for a vaccine, but the majority of kids k-8 are not, so maybe because so many don't even have the option of the vaccine it's even more imperative that any spread is checked. Still, even if the entirety of the high school from staff to student were all vaccinated it still seems prudent to test everyone, or at least do random tests.

Vaccinated friend of mine got covid, a few days after we hung out for the first time in over a year. Fever, chills, but doing better after a few days. She works in health care and got vaccinated pretty early on. My test came back negative.

I just saw this linked on Twitter and I feel like I should warn people, it’s fucking bleak: https://www.reddit.com/r/nursing/comments/pbvcdu/uhh_are_any_of_these_unvaccinated_patients_in/

that thread is a fucking horror show

this one hits me pretty hard

Dude, all these young patients now. It’s so alarming. We just had a 30 yr old die last week too. Both his dad and grandfather (or uncle, I can’t remember) died from covid in the first two waves. Despite that neither the patient or any of his family got the vaccine. His entire family caught it. Told me he didn’t know what was going in his body if he got the vaccine, but didn’t have any qualms with the medications we were giving in the hospital even though I know he doesn’t understand what are in those. On a particularly bad night, sating low to mid 80s laying prone on high flow, he begged me near tears that there has to be a medicine to make him feel better. Keep in mind that he’s been randomly refusing things; Intubation - no. NRB on top of his high flow for more oxygenation - no. Zithromax and cefepime - no. Tylenol for fever and headache - no. RT for breathing treatment - no. Even getting him to prone was a fight. I told him he chose not to get the very thing that could probably have prevented him getting covid, or feeling this sick with covid, by refusing the vaccine. A few days later he told a different nurse that he regretted not getting the vaccine. He died three days after. He had changed his mind about intubation but he didn’t even make it through the code I guess. Left behind a wife and two kids under 12.

god, this could be so many people I know

i remember the day after trump got elected, a friend of mine scoffed at my take that this could lead to a world war or a massive international disaster, saying "how do you think this guy could possibly cause that much trouble by himself." I dearly hope history holds him and his administration directly accountable for every unvaccinated covid death of this and next year.

i think that’s a good point. maybe obvious to some but antivaxers aren’t just a natural phenomenon that bloomed by itself. there always would have been some. but trump kind of weaponized it.

omg in that thread, about the unvaccinated pregnant mothers.

This antivax shit has been simmering and close to boiling over for years. The tragedy is that it's blown up during a fucking pandemic, when vaccines are at their absolute most essential, rather than in the occasional pockets of resurgent measles or whatever.

right - trump blew it up. specifically.

btw the local mall - westfield - used to be 95% masked. i’d say it’s down to 20% now.

Wow at that reddit thread. All these idiots think they're smarter than doctors and nurses, and apparently believe themselves able to fend off a deadly virus even after a year and a half of witnessing its destructiveness.

Harrowing read but I needed to read it. Easy to become detached from that side of things when it’s not in your face.

That thread needs to be shared with every voluntarily unvaccinated adult. I mean, they'll mostly just pooh-pooh it and say it was ghostwritten by Soros or some shit but I'd like to think seeing the cold hard scary facts laid out before them like that would put the fear of god into at least some of them.

good morning!

If you've made it this far with no desire to get the vaccine, then godspeed to you.

Just that one nurse alone who was like 'yeah, as soon as I know they have to go on the ventilator, I feel like I should start discussing end-of-life care with their families'. It sounds like no vax + COVID infection requiring intubation basically = a death sentence at this point, with a shortened lifespan and really poor quality of life as the consolation prize for the few who do survive.

It sounds like no vax + COVID infection requiring intubation basically = a death sentence at this point, with a shortened lifespan and really poor quality of life as the consolation prize for the few who do survive.

This has been the case since March 2020, except then there was no vaccine.

I honestly didn't realize that intubation was basically just a matter of kicking the mortality can down the road re: COVID. And I've been paying attention/taking this very seriously. All the more reason for that discussion to be widely disseminated.

Yeah, my wife's 18-year colleague was intubated sometime in March 2020 and his wife never saw him in person again.

it's not a death sentence, but it is very bad. I have a friend who was in the hospital for a month on a vent and with a tracheotomy, and he's out now and doing much better.

aren't they not intubating people as much except when really necessary, now?

United Kingdom update:

Cases rising in Wales & Scotland. Stable/down in Northern Ireland & England.

Hospitalizations rising in all nations except Northern Ireland.

Deaths are up, but >90% below prior peak. Vaccines holding up better in UK than most peer nations. pic.twitter.com/rORpmZvbPQ

— (((Howard Forman))) (@thehowie) August 27, 2021

BREAKING Florida

Better news as we head into weekend.

Hospitalizations substantially ⬇️.

ICU COVID ⬇️meaningfully for 1st time this wave.

We are losing close to 300 Floridians every day, right now. We can still save lives: mask, vaccinate, test, avoid high risk events. https://t.co/M8ufk9jxR5 pic.twitter.com/BvLd7pYkyb

— (((Howard Forman))) (@thehowie) August 27, 2021

fwiw the only person i know who was intubated is now back at work (trucking) and not 100% but continues to improve.

i still think, on balance, it's better to get vaccinated than intubated though. that's just my opinion.

I dunno, a brief prick in the arm versus getting something traumatically jammed down or possibly even through my throat? It's a tough call.

that's what's getting frustrating to me in this "natural infection v immunity" debate after that controversial report yesterday. whether or not infection provides better immunity, it also provides the opportunity to get sick, maybe hospitalized, maybe intubated, maybe DIE, or spread to someone who will do one of those things.

when it comes to vaccine passports, I get that they're having this convo because of deciding whether to include 'infected plus vaxed once' as 'immune' on a vaccine passport b ut that's a hell of a lot harder to track as well. do you self-report the infection? do you have to have a lab diagnosis in paper form? it's just easier to do them for vaxxed people and to get vaxxed, ffs.

Last week, I made the decision (not lightly) to refuse a contract that would have required me to teach in-person, mostly because my husband told me that the mid-acuity ICU at his hospital is full of Covid patients, which is as bad as its been. And we live in a city and general area with a pretty high vax rate. All the nurses and other healthcare workers I know are telling horrorshow stories.

xpost to Neanderthal - I've noticed a big uptick in random redditors and twitter folks pushing for "proof of recovery" option in lieu of "proof of vaccination", not sure why the sudden uptick in (I'm guessing) folks who had it once but are still anti-vaxx, afaict?

Looks like I'm going to be traveling into NYC this coming Thursday for the first time since February 2020. I will be double masking and staying well the fuck away from people to whatever degree possible. I wouldn't be doing it if I wasn't being paid.

went back to work last week for the first time since march 2020. would guess that in the shop I work in at the airport around 10% of passengers have no mask, another 10% have mask around their neck, and 20% have mask covering mouth only, with 60% properly masked. was expecting a bit better considering it's an airport tbh. not exactly thrilled to be stuck in a shop for 8 hours a day in these circumstances. just hope when I get it it is mild I guess.

nyc feels pretty safe if one is not being a jag @ unperson (mass transit feels 98% safe all the time tbh)