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

no one wants to know, no one wants to deal with the repercussions, easier to let it get out of hand, god will sort it all out

my concerned friend is starting to send me videos daily of new info from scientists on TikTok and often times in these bite-sized videos they're not really doing a great job of providing context, so she'll freak out if they say there's a new strain of COVID (which happens...all the time, and they're not always significant), or if there's a new study out.

she also sent me a text from someone who is supposed to have a doctorate in epidemiology who said "I'm worried about Lamda cos they say the vaccines don't work" (????? - there's like two pre-prints, and both of them showed about the same efficiency as our current vaccines are doing against Delta).

entertaining it for now but really testing my patience. if I share any positive news (like hospitalizations decreasing), as i mentioned upthread, she thinks they're bullshit and comes down very aggro on me. to her credit, she told me to tell her if she's sending too much, but for now I just don't watch but 1 or 2 out of every 10 vids sent.

at least Twitter has tweet threads, where you can explain things further. these videos are often condensed to the point of diluting the content.

Lol. Eric Feigl-Ding just published an alarmist 20 tweet thread on Friday about the C.1.2 strain that is being investigated and one of the *authors of the pre-print* that Eric was using as a source basically tweeted at him to stick to facts and knock off the alarmism. Probably the sharpest rebuke to date.

Ready for some bonus fun? Since reopening at full capacity there's been a cold floating around our high school. So we have a whole bunch of kids and parents freaking out because everyone has the sniffles, either staying home out of caution until the negative test comes back (and all the stories I've heard so far have ended in negative tests) or staying home because stuffy nose and sneezing makes wearing a mask pretty intolerable. I expect after last year's (relative) caution and isolation, we're going to get more of this on a broader scale, colds and flus all over the place.

my single mother friend says she has more sympathy for parents than before because her whole household had a bad case of the 'ick' and everybody was negative for COVID but she said now it has her not trusting any sniffle at all and it's hard to determine what's allergies or what's COVID.

COVICK-19

heh

Coronambiguous

i was genuinely worried and nearly canceled a vacation this month that my friends and i normally do annually, which is rent a house in ocean city, md, for 4-7 days and basically live on the beach. we just got back and i tested myself and it's negative baby!!!

Real q:

I had plans with a childhood friend, one whom I haven't seen in 20 years, to meet up at the show of one of our favorite childhood bands tomorrow night. Outdoor, masks required, no neg test or vaccine requirement. I'm much more nervous than I was about it when he asked...what say y'all?

Fwiw, I don't care about these bands anymore, and know that it's not like this will blossom into a beautiful friendship again.

and outdoor show with masks required seems fine to me

again i survived phish in atlantic city

You must be indestructible then.

I'm going to an indoor King Crimson show tomorrow, no test requirements but it's a seated show and I'll be wearing a mask. Apparently this theater has installed a state-of-the-art filtration system, dunno what difference that makes. Plus I think the crowd will skew older & more vaccinated. I'm not sure if this is a smart idea but it's gonna be my last chance to see them so I kinda feel like I have to go

I've still got tickets to see Dead & Co. in just under three weeks. Our tickets are on the field, where all ticketholders must be vaccinated (otherwise everyone must show proof of vax or negative test result (though they have not yet confirmed 48 or 72 hours)). I'm still planning to go, though I struggle with guilt about whether I should or not.

I saw Wilco a week ago, outdoor venue/vax required, maybe 15% wore masks on top of that. Seemed fine. I'm going to a Michigan football game in two weeks, also outdoors of course but no vax reqt. as of yet so I am a bit more concerned about that one but will probably still go.

If it helps, Washtenaw County seems to be doing really well and when I was in Ann Arbor a few weeks ago, masking was very good. Not sure how that translates to a football game though.

Big 10 football crowd is gonna skew a lot more unvaxxed than Wilco

Yankee Hotel Vaxx Not

Maybe all they need is a shot in the arm.

Home football game days are frequently shitshows under the best of circumstances but assuming everyone is spraying covid around makes it so much more terrifying.

Josh in Chicago, excellent dad joke.

Wilco began their set with that song, which makes them an excellent dad band.

Getting some panicked texts from my daughter at school. She's got what appears to be a cold, just stuffy nose and sneezing, which are not generally symptoms of covid ... but sometimes *are* symptoms of covid among the vaccinated, so she's not sure if she needs to go home. Certainly if the standard for going home is snuffy and sneezing then in a couple of months *no one* is going to be at school. Meanwhile, just the threat of potentially missing two weeks of school to quarantine is adding significantly to her (and her sister's) stress level. This is pretty aggravating.

the stress of "do I have it?" is a thing in itself

I almost visited a vaxxed friend this weekend and he cancelled on me thrice. today, he and his wife think they have COVID.

might not be, but.....boy, bullet dodged.

My vaccinated father has reported what sound like cold symptoms -- mild sore throat, stuffy nose -- which he attributes to entering the air conditioned house after working up a heavy sweat during yard work. Oy vey.

I mean, maybe! Or maybe allergies. Or maybe a cold. Or maybe nothing. Or maybe covid. It's maddening.

Getting some panicked texts from my daughter at school. She's got what appears to be a cold, just stuffy nose and sneezing, which are not generally symptoms of covid ... but sometimes *are* symptoms of covid among the vaccinated, so she's not sure if she needs to go home. Certainly if the standard for going home is snuffy and sneezing then in a couple of months *no one* is going to be at school. Meanwhile, just the threat of potentially missing two weeks of school to quarantine is adding significantly to her (and her sister's) stress level. This is pretty aggravating.

Sorry to hear that, hopefully it's just a cold. This uncertainty is going to make this a torturous school year, to be certain. I'm dreading the first email about a positive case at my son's school and figuring out how we're going to handle any quarantine period. I'm guessing it's a matter of when it happens, not if.

Oh yeah -- my nieces are home after exposure to a couple cases last Friday.

There have definitely been a few positive cases at our high school, but that's a few out of 3,500 kids. The rule right now is that if you are vaccinated and asymptomatic you do not need to quarantine, even if you are exposed. However, as I'm dealing with, it's hard to say what is or is not a symptom.

As a teacher, I'd be happy if parents started keeping their kids home from school for normal colds more often. I realize that's not always possible/convenient for the parents, but from my POV it's not that hard to catch the students up after they've been out, and I could do without the the whole twice-yearly ritual of catching an awful cold from dozens of sick students, struggling to teach through it, and then giving up, getting a sub, and spending the next few weeks scrambling to get the class back on track.

Yeah, we definitely try to keep our son home when he's clearly got a cold, even when we get pressure from the school. I wish elementary schools would stop focusing on "perfect attendance" and rewarding it, because I think that really reinforces this idea that you should send your kid to school NO MATTER WHAT.

I have a beverage cooler that my brother regifted me, that he got as a reward for Perfect Attendance at the company he worked for. It says "hot or cold - you can count on me", which basically means, "whether I have a cold or the flu, no matter, I will be in the office passing it around like a hot potato."

fuck, the first thing I say when I teach a class at work is "take care of yourself if you're sick, we will find a way to get you caught up". now granted most of my learners are virtual but fuck the "come in unless you're dying" attitude

Runny or blocked nose & sneezing are common symptoms of delta iirc, basically if you think you have a cold I would not call that “asymptomatic”

If one tiny shred of good comes out of this, perhaps it will be that the normalization of remote work / remote learning allows people with a cold to stay the fuck at home and still get (at least some) stuff done.

My children will have to miss a couple days of school for a family function soon, and instead of angsting about it we're just like "eh, treat it like we treated the last two school years." They can get the homework online and attend classes while traveling.

It is also hay fever season tho. I remember when Covid first hit, there was a Spiderman meme with three Spidermen— one labelled Covid, one labelled Seasonal Allergies, and the other labelled Bong Rips. That is almost certainly the trifecta for me, too— a few weeks ago my allergies started acting up and I was deathly afraid I had gotten the 'Vid...but then it turned out that I just needed to take an Allegra.

and also do a bong rip

well, yeah.

I wish elementary schools would stop focusing on "perfect attendance" and rewarding it, because I think that really reinforces this idea that you should send your kid to school NO MATTER WHAT.

It was literally my job to do this for 5 years, to incentivize kids toward perfect attendance and give them prizes for coming to school sick basically. Not great.

Before you @ me, we had a big grant that was mandated for that purpose which we got for political/borderline fraudulent reasons because our daily attendance was already extremely high, it was just a resource grab by the principal. So I had to spend a lot of money and then show how it had "helped" but the thing I was supposed to spend it on was not needed or wanted, ie nobody has 100% attendance unless they came to school sick and their families never went anywhere.

Rapid test came back negative. Sometimes cold symptoms are just cold symptoms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WxDTEszGJQ

Our high school has a weekly dashboard with covid stats. Just for your proxy fun:

Aug. 13-19 there was one positive student, 11 students in quarantine (due to close contact), 1 positive employee, 1 employee in quarantine
Aug. 20-26 there were 2 positive students, 87 in quarantine (due to close contact), 4 positive employees, 5 in quarantine (due to close contact)

For reference, this is in a school of about 3600 kids, with approximately 73% having provided proof of vax. There is no vax requirement as of yet, but that's already been announced for staff and teachers, who are largely vaxxed but required by the state to be vaxxed by October. Kids and teachers who are vaxxed and have no symptoms do not need to quarantine, even if they've been exposed or in close contact with a positive case. We did some back of the envelope math and figure about 8 kids in each class of say 30 may not be vaccinated, or have not provided proof of vaccination, so if one kid tests positive and makes it through a day of classes, that could be 8 kids per period that would need to quarantine, barring additional vaxxed kids with symptoms who then test positive (and clearly there have not been many/any of them yet). The school, afaict, is keeping track of those that have not yet provided proof of vax, so it's less likely any of them are slipping through the cracks after covid exposure.

If one tiny shred of good comes out of this, perhaps it will be that the normalization of remote work / remote learning allows people with a cold to stay the fuck at home and still get (at least some) stuff done.

If my workplace is any indication, it isn't changing one iota. In fact, there seems to be a bizarre and even greater importance on "butts in seats" now than I've ever seen. In fact, in one of our "return to the office" Zooms, a high up essentially said "now that you've all had your 18 month vacation, there really is no excuse to not be in the office every day".

The capitalistic drive back to """"""normal""""" is in full force.

The “normal” is not sustainable environmentally or mentally. There has to be greater amount of telework in the future. Companies that insist on butts in seats five days a week should lose out to more flexible ones. I think states should also pass laws requiring reasonable accommodations for telework.

I'm with you. It's maddening to watch this from within.

Companies that insist on butts in seats five days a week should lose out to more flexible ones.

This is mos def happening in my work world, but I am well aware it's a privilege bubble. Companies hereabouts are desperate to attract and retain people, and are recruiting for almost all positions as fully remote, anywhere in the US.