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

so to speak

Booming post, Neanderthal.

I stocked up on Binax tests at my CVS, where they were, I must say, plentiful.

Do you think animals noticed that humans had retreated?

Don't tell my turkey sandwich.

To add to my earlier anecdotal data, there are tests out there, just definitely getting harder. I walked to the local CVS at lunch and they had some of the Binax tests, but you could only purchase one box per transaction. Bought two boxes, but didn't want to push my luck since I was already getting the stinkeye from people behind me in line for running two.

Anyway, Chicago isn't cleared out just yet, guess it's hit or miss.

my local Walgreens has the FlowFlex tests that are popular overseas for 9.95 a box. I bought two there and I have two coming from CVS on order.

there is also a local lab that does free testing that has kinda been a godsend to me as they never have lines, but I just went there the other day to do a test and while it wasn't a 'huge' wait , I can tell people are more aware of it now and I am betting I can't bank on them being my go-to anymore. it's literally in walking distance from my house.

I'm taking my kid for her booster at Costco in 45 minutes, curious if they have tests there.

costco has the cheapest rapid tests in america if they have stock! fill yer boots!

Id say, now im no expert, that covid restrictions will likely continue until the pandemic thats killed millions upon millions has finished, now im no expert

In light of that, man alive jr can just manage with whatever simply intolerable conditions are being imposed for the moment

Im no expert now

― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Friday, December 17, 2021 1:29 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

There is no "has finished." That's the point.

man alive, for months you've pretended to lie on a fainting couch as you agonize over this COVID development and that imposition it makes on your life. You have made clear what choices you and your family have made. Why you keep posting here when no one wants to hear it convinces me (a) you want a cookie from the rest of us as a reward or (b) you're no different than the conservative trolls on Twitter.

Either way, you have shitty politics and grotesque timing. Go away.

man alive, post another graph of the onset of your brain worms then leave us the fuck alone.

fuck man, yes there is, it’s when covid becomes endemic, most people have covid-fighting t-cells, the average case’s symptoms are much milder, it becomes something closer to a seasonal cold/flu, and there is no longer a constant threat of overwhelming health systems, which negatively effects everyone with a body

it’s maddening that you keep pretending you’ve never heard this when I’ve seen at least 3 people patiently and even-handedly explain this to you in detail

xxp

saving for this thread as it's less "news" and more "OMG" but....not something I've seen immunologist Muge Cevik say before

from this article - https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/17/preliminary-laboratory-data-hint-at-what-makes-omicron-the-most-superspreading-variant-yet/

Çevik isn’t so sure these types of interventions can alter Omicron’s meteoric trajectory at this point. “There’s just not enough time,” she said. That’s why she thinks the best strategy is to get boosted immediately with an additional dose of a Covid vaccine. Studies have shown that Omicron has an easier time than previous variants at infecting vaccinated people, but that booster shots restore immune protection. “We’re all going to get infected with Omicron. At this moment, what’s important is whether you’re vaccinated or not when you’re exposed to the virus.”

threads exploding on Twitter now with scientists msging each other and basically saying "there isn't enough time, these NPIs will probably just slow it down a teeny bit and not much else".

xpost to caek, No covid test here as far as I can tell. online they sell the PCR tests that you take with a witness.

here's some bad news for those of us with under 5s

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/17/world/covid-omicron-vaccines/in-a-trial-pfizer-biontechs-low-dose-shot-did-not-provoke-an-adequate-immune-response-in-2-to-5-year-olds

(it's not actually that bad, they have a plan and it sounds like this delays things by literally a couple of months and turns it into a 3 jab series (which it should always have been))

seeing how contagious it is and then seeing shit like this

SPOILER-FREE: Audience reactions to #SpiderManNoWayHome pic.twitter.com/IBtqguyBfw

— Spider-Man: No Way Home News (@spideysnews) December 17, 2021

Yeah, it was depressing to hear about the sold out screenings everywhere, just so many terrible factors lining up right now.

Thanks nicole

I have the energy tbh but not the desire to coddle man alive on his extended bullshit trip acting like this worldwide epidemic has inconvenienced only him and enough. is. enough.

Not that i love the doomposting but fuck me its actually astonishing to see a person posting here in all earnestness with such appallingly callow self-absorption in these circumstances

Love and cuddles to all, mind you, be kind out there

Omicron seems to be taken hold in my work, one person I work with directly is down with it, and three others I know have it, that's only the ones I know about. They're still expecting us to come into work though.

um can we all take a moment to realise that YOUN just posted???

hi youn!

trader joe's this afternoon was an absolute zoo, hardly anyone was masked, utah mormon family little shits running around everywhere. the first time since late last year i've been freaked out about grocery shopping, and i just got my booster a few days ago.

Shouting argument with my parents (vaccinated and boosted) about my nieces, no hope of getting vaccinated. Dad quoted a quack on a radio station he didn't want to name ("What does it matter -- Republican or Democrat, it's the same!") who said the vaccine causes infertility in girls. Cite the science, I kept saying. Give me data. When I said, well, I work for a Research I institute responsible for releasing the COVID info the community (including him and Mom) depend on, he said, "And that's accurate?" On saying there's a likelihood they'll get COVID he said, fine, better that than being infertile (I'm sure he'd have said the same thing if quackery showed men could be infertile).

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do when my nieces, sis, and bro-in-law return from Ohio visiting the other grandparents. I can't so much as suggest, "Hey, get an antigen test before we get together to exchange gifts." What am I supposed to do? I'm fucked.

And my parents are people, let me add, who mask everywhere.

anti-lockdown protests in london today. i wonder if the surge in cases it results in will cause an actual lockdown?

pub owner on tv this morning saying she'd made sure all her staff were in last night because she expected it was going to be busy. also wasn't compensating people who had booked and then cancelled in the light of omicron. it was quite o_O

"'Major incident' declared in London over Omicron variant"

twitter is saying, already

Given the test backlog that 90k positive tests is probably, what, 10, 20% of the actual amount?

I know several people who have now tested positive. All mild or no symptoms a week in. When I say mild, I mean like runny nose, bit of a cough. Kind of thing you’d come into work for. How many people think they just have colds?

I have had a runny nose today, I think it is just a histamine assault from my wine consumption & being in glasshouses with various plants but obv extra paranoid since I was contacted by test & trace as a close contact of a +ve case. The daily rapid tests I have to do keep coming up -ve which is good because I still have to go to work

Alfred, I have it on good authority that there is no covid in Ohio. It's so safe that my friend on her way back right now says no one even wears masks.

Got tested yesterday — new free site near where I live, no crush or wait possibly reflecting SF’s generally good state but likely other factors as well — and already got results back, negative, so yay. Wasn’t expecting to have it but with plans on to see my parents next weekend I’m not taking chances, even if we’re all boosted. Will do one more test on Wednesday; until then I have a few last social things on my plate — haircut today, hanging with a visiting friend tomorrow and the MST3K live show Monday — but will be N95ing it the whole time. Figured Spider-man Thursday afternoon was the last movie I’d see but I’ve had luck being the only person at some screenings and will look to see if I can’t make that happen a bit. After I’m back from Xmas at my folks I’ll just play everything by ear cautiously.

I've noted with some relief that most theaters have returned to pre-noon screenings. During pre-pandemic days I'd often have the place to myself at, say, 10:45 or 11 a.m. I went to only my fourth in-person screening on Black Friday and at 1 p.m. I counted four other stragglers.

Morning screenings are the best.

Irrationally afraid one of us is going to test positive in the next few days and wipe out or at least radically shorten planned visit to my parents; I don't even know HOW irrational that is, I mean, the kids have been at school, I've been at work, masks are what they are and none of us has symptoms but I can't say it's impossible.

I live with someone who (by necessity of the nature of the job) works in close, unmasked contact with the public, so if it’s evading boosters I’m pretty resigned to getting it, and relatively soon. I’m just gonna test a lot and really really hope it happens after I visit family.

Boost, mask, distance as much as you feel is appropriate, test if you can - this all sounds suspiciously like a workable, even sane, vision of how to live.

Some of the rhetoric seems to be structured such that the only two options eight now are NO RESTRICTIONS BECAUSE FREEDUM or HOW DARE YOU EVEN ENTER A BUILDING, YOU MANIAC

A couple of times this week I felt sort of off or tired and then I remembered, oh yeah, I'm drinking a big beer or glass of bourbon.

right now I'm trying to finesse the line between being cautious and being a hypochondriac, it's hard for me to see where it falls since I've always been a hypochondriac

teacher friend treated positive on the Saturday after the last day of term, which has got to suck.

^ has been testing daily all term and was fine up to now

Text from a friend:

At Ohare this morning, seeing the number of dopes who couldn't be bothered to keep a mask up over their nose in an always busy airport on a busy travel day during a new variant spike, it made me feel slightly better that maybe those of us who aren't complete morons may still make it through this without catching it, even with travel, etc. I don't think we're the problem here.

Per their observation, I've noticed an uptick in dick-nosing as well, especially among vulnerable people who should know better by now, like the elderly.

Irrationally afraid one of us is going to test positive in the next few days and wipe out or at least radically shorten planned visit to my parents;

all negative and away we go!

goddamn this variant for bringing back dick-nosing discourse

I'm at the airport too, seeing near-total proper mask wearing, only one person (college-age-looking dude) with mask down on chin of the 50 or so I can see at this gate. Oh no, wait, as I write this, one more (also college-age-looking dude) walks in with nose exposed.

Clearly the problem here is college dudes.

I'm flying on Christmas day, have done this once before and the airport + flights were practically empty. Hoping for same.

^ great strategy! it should work for you.

We generally like to travel on Christmas day, too, and it has in the past been quieter, but not radically so. The best strategy if you want to avoid lines, crowds and delays is always just to travel as early in the day as possible. That said, we flew on Thanksgiving morning this year and it was indeed a lot quieter than when my wife flew out ahead of us a few days earlier

Yeah we're flying out at like 7am, that's the plan, Stan.

A ton of Chicago bars and restaurants are closing until the new year either because staff has tested positive or “out of an abundance of caution.” I was in a few slightly risky situations yesterday and today (no crowds, but eating indoors) and am feeling paranoid. Lots of positive cases this week from friends and friends of friends.

Airport this morning was fast and masked. Where we're going required us to upload vax cards (or recent negative test), which got us a health survey and QR code, which was scanned at the gate for a bracelet. Just like going to a concert.