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

thanks kinder, I am sure everything will work out somehow.

I'm sorry YMP, how stressful.

My booster is tomorrow; I've kept putting it off because I don't want to lose the next day and have to get a sub when we don't have any. Hope I haven't left it too long. Lots of my students are out sick, but hopefully that's just colds.

YMP, that is very stressful.

As in, I feel for ya.

Aussie family in Sydney says the simultaneous rise in cases and reduction of restrictions (a la the US, UK, etc.) has led to massive hours-long lines to get tested. My SiL says she's eligible for a booster but the soonest appointment she can get is end of January.

thanks so much, table et al. we're all variously shotted and boosted and tested now; I'm sure all will be well and if it isn't? We will figure out a way to cope.

The childcare implications will ripple outward for a while. Obviously I don't want anyone to be put in danger just so I can sit in some stupid Teams work meeting. But. It will take some doing. Also I can't help but think of those less fortunate than us.

Working parents of grade school-aged children were already mad stressed, y'all. If the only childcare solution is for people* who are already stretched thin to simply stretch themselves even thinner, that is NOT a fucking solution.

(* = mostly moms, let's be real)

Yeah, that point about the (mostly moms) thing is correct and one of the many things I'm concerned about. I've already been back in the office full-time since the start of August, so my wife has already had to take on the bulk of his before and after school time and full days when he has off. Obviously I help when and as I can by taking him in in the morning, taking the load off her immediately when I get home, etc etc. But if he goes remote again, given my bosses' repeated insistences that remote will "never" happen again, I worry about that additional weight on her shoulders alone while she also tries to do her job. It's just frustrating all around.

My gf's niece (a university student) just tested positive despite full vaccination + booster and being, by all accounts, very cautious (always wearing a mask indoors around others, etc.).

I guess at this point we just need to accept that we're probably all gonna get this shit eventually, huh.

as long as the symptoms resemble a cold's

I guess at this point we just need to accept that we're probably all gonna get this shit eventually, huh.

The point at which we needed to accept that was at least three months ago tbh!

What's more, we need to accept that we very well may have already had it and not known.

as long as the symptoms resemble a cold's

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, December 16, 2021 9:46 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sounds like that's about where she's at. She had a mild fever but I guess it went down pretty quickly.

I'm honestly about at the point where, when I next see any of our known anti-vaxxers neighbors once again wandering around the building maskless (as they do alllll the time), I'm just gonna tell them flat-out, 'I don't want to see you die, but you stand a very good chance of dying if you keep this up.'

My closest co-worker -- she and I got the booster on campus together -- told us Tuesday she's positive, likely from her unboostered mom on Sunday. What impressed me was the jump from infection to symptoms: two days! Delta don't fuck around.

She has a cough and sore throat but no fever.

xp to eephus - that's not wrong, but with such a large percentage of stubborn babies in the U.S. right now, they can hardly start messaging to people, "you're probably going to get it anyway, so do whatever" without overloading hospitals even more, esp in rural areas. Now if that messaging was backed up with some vaccine mandates with actual bite behind them, it might be a different story.

Sadly, yet again, the whole trajectory of this pandemic in the U.S. has to be shifted around, and cater to, the dipshit holdouts. It's infuriating.

Thought the short incubation period was Omnicron? Delta is like five days on average? I know two people who almost certainly have Omnicron based on symptoms and the exposure to symptoms period was super short as well, cold like symptoms.

Nearly 90k new cases today, lol. However, hospitalisations and deaths slowing and/or falling?

10k cases reported in IL yesterday. My soon-to-be ex-workplace is still basically all 'lol, what's a pandemic even' (everyone but stubborn 'no fucking way' people like me are back in the office, on a Zoom call last week re: handing off my responsibilities not a single person was wearing a mask, and there still hasn't been a single word about vaccine mandates at a huge company with multiple offices across the US). Quitting that place before I was ultimately forced to come back is one of the like three smart things I've ever done, as I assume they're heading for Superspreader City in short order.

A friend of mine is the first person I know to get a breakthrough infection despite being triple-vaxxed. He said his home test was negative, but a pro PCR test (I guess he felt off enough to get a PCR test?) found it. To be fair, he might have been triple-vaxxed and masked, but he gets out and about quite a lot, so it's not like he's been sitting around at home and just got sick. He thinks he caught it from a colleague who was covering the same news story.

Thought the short incubation period was Omnicron? Delta is like five days on average? I know two people who almost certainly have Omnicron based on symptoms and the exposure to symptoms period was super short as well, cold like symptoms.

Pretty sure I currently have Omicron. Had a xmas party last weekend with my running club and so far about 10 of us have tested positive. (We all took LFTs before going but there were other people in the pub). I had symptoms within 48 hours of exposure but so far it's literally just been mild muscle ache and a runny nose. No headaches, no fever etc. Double jabbed and was supposed to be having my booster next week.

One friend also tested positive despite having booster about 2 months ago but so far everyone has pretty mild symptoms.

Get well soon, fella!

My workplace is all in on coming back February no matter what.

Nearly 90k new cases today, lol. However, hospitalisations and deaths slowing and/or falling?

UK, right? admissions are up 10% on a week ago, which is neither slowing or falling relative to the week before that, but it isn't growing as fast as cases (up 30% on a week ago). deaths are down 6% fwiw.

update, kids and I have all tested negative, still waiting for my wife's results. We'll keep an eye on potential symptoms anyway (tho I feel like death on toast because I got both a booster and flu shot yesterday)

_Nearly 90k new cases today, lol. However, hospitalisations and deaths slowing and/or falling?_


UK, right? admissions are up 10% on a week ago, which is neither slowing or falling relative to the week before that, but it isn't growing as fast as cases (up 30% on a week ago). deaths are down 6% fwiw.

Now that both my kids are fully vaxxed and my wife and I are both boosted (as is everyone else in my family) I said fuck everything and went to my firm's holiday party at a hotel/casino. It was a sea of humanity like I have not experienced in two years. I don't really know what else to wait for, it's just not going away, at least not for a very long time.

fair enough. if you're not mixing about with vulnerable people for the next week or so it's hard to see the harm.

i mean i am kind of surprised that a workplace is hosting a 'sea of humanity' party at this point but hey

and i am assuming you are doing rapid tests

Went to a work holiday party last night. Stayed outside most of the time, and when I went into the house to get food or whatever I masked up. There were only three other people masking inside and everybody there works in an art museum and are normally careful. Seeing all those people maskless indoors made me realize how bad Omicron is going to hit. Careful people are tired of being careful.

Careful people are tired of being careful because it's not clear what we are being careful for/until anymore. First it was until we flatten the curve, then it was until vaccines are available to the vunerable, then it was until they were available to all adults, then it was until they were available to teenagers, then younger kids, then boosters, so now what? Just be careful forever? What outcome is it that people are waiting for? What is the end goal?

Rapid tests are super hard to come by in the US or at least my area.

I’ve canceled any social events this week because I travel Wednesday to see my parents and I don’t particularly want to catch/give them omicron, seeing as how it has landed in DC and cases are the highest they’ve been in early a year. I don’t care if it’s “mild” they’re old and I don’t know what will happen. After my Christmas visit I’ll go back to normal social activities.

The goal of being careful is to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed.

Careful people are tired of being careful because it's not clear what we are being careful for/until anymore.

yeah i mean we’re all gonna die eventually anyway!

well, not me, but most people

I think it's perfectly fair to say that even people of robust good will and respectable amounts of empathy can get tired of hearing "just a little while longer."

Like, everyone has heard "for a little while longer" so many times in the last two years

This very thread can trace the journey from

Why does any building except a hospital need to get built right now?

to

I am not *bleaching* my fucking *vegetables*.

And back again.

Like, if you're still leaving your groceries outside for two days and then wiping them down with Clorox, or microwaving your mail, um, okay. Different people will make different risk calculations.

As noted, we had an exposure scare a couple days ago. We took it seriously and (I believe) acted appropriately. So it's not like the only options are total dicknosing vs. absolute sequestration forever.

Yeah, rapid tests are disappearing quick around here too. We had a few left at home, but figured we should try and stock up on some more for the holidays. I didn’t go super nuts looking so this is no exhaustive survey, but I hit up five pharmacies yesterday and they were all out at every one of them. My wife hit up another three before she found some at a nearby CVS, but there you were limited to 1 box/2 tests per customer. I went back later to grab another one for us but, but, uh they are hard to find.

We have a local independent pharmacy* with curbside rapid tests - you schedule online, you text them when you get there, they come out to the car. Very convenient

* = You know, the indie pharmacies are so much REALer than the major pharmacies. CVS sold out long ago, but the indies remember when it was about the MUSIC, maaan

man alive - now that Cow_Art has answered the question you've been asking is it possible that you will stop asking it?

My wife's "hope" is that we inevitably catch it on our trip next week and then have the rest of our handful of days off to recover once we get home. I know a few parents who are getting their kids boosted *on* vacation because they didn't want to risk doing it in the days right before finals. In fact, I know a few people who strategically scheduled doses, which shows how things have changed, from a mad scramble to get vaxxed in spring of 2021 to a more selective search of convenience.

If there's any positive to covid becoming a regular/annual thing it's that maybe going forward we'll hit a rhythm and more people feeling sick and especially testing positive will be able/allowed to stay home and not spread it as much as sick people have spread colds and flus around each season.

I bought BinaxNOW and iHealth home tests. They any good?

it really does seem like there's a chance that boosted/vaxxed individuals might experience omicron as something milder than the flu which would just be a stupendous outcome. the problem is the sheer number of people all getting it at once, and even a tiny percentage of such a vast number needing care overwhelming health "systems" (lol). Not to mention long covid of course, which is unknown w omicron at this point but you'd hope that a milder disease would result in less of it. All speculation of course but i find a perverse satisfaction in exploring the facets of this shit (much to my wife's chagrin. she never wants to hear about covid again)

xpost not tried them; give us your tasting notes once you've jotted them down

I’ve used Binax Now before, seems to be reliable.

If they taste anything like Ramazzotti, I'm buying stock.

Binax is for sure. I don't know how accurate compared to a pro PCR, but they're easy to use. The one time I had any concerns I used a Binax for immediate results (negative) and then went in for a PCR for more rigorous confirmation (negative). My friend who tested positive did the same thing, immediate at home test in advance of a PCR test, which caught a positive even though the at-home results were negative.

Seems like an understatement to say "it really does seem like there's a chance" -- that's the most likely outcome and we don't have reason yet to believe otherwise.

I'm also at the point where I think placing an neverending burden on the populace and especially on children to avoid "overwhelming health systems" is invalid. How about we stop running health systems with just barely enough capacity instead? How about we come up with some real plans for surge capacity when needed?

Alfred, yes. If you get a negative result, test again in 2 days (because false negative rate is high). If you get a positive, go get a PCR test (because false positive rate is very low but not zero).

How about we stop running health systems with just barely enough capacity instead? How about we come up with some real plans for surge capacity when needed?

This is what you after the pandemic.

Thanks, Jaq!

i would like to be less flippant than man alive about this but i am also struggling to see how meaningful our private decisions are toward public health when the new variant is this transmissible

don’t worry my plans were canceled this weekend and i’m gonna try to take a test before i travel to see my parents (testing is a hot mess in nyc, afaict they scaled it back bc there was little demand after the dawn of the vaccines and now they’re overloaded)

I’ve canceled any social events this week because I travel Wednesday to see my parents and I don’t particularly want to catch/give them omicron, seeing as how it has landed in DC and cases are the highest they’ve been in early a year. I don’t care if it’s “mild” they’re old and I don’t know what will happen. After my Christmas visit I’ll go back to normal social activities.