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

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.

Central London today not that crowded and pretty good on mask wearing (as an aside, traditional retail models, esp. department stores, are even more doomed than I'd thought). 100% masking or near enough on the tube too. Still not going anywhere near a crowd again for as long as I can manage, I know/know of several fully-vaxxed people who've come down with the 'rona in the last week or two. Fortunately all with v. mild symptoms, but still.

Definitely some absent minded dick-nosing here though.

got some ffp2 masks for the first time, mainly for any unavoidable busy shops. Relatives have got some for train travel.

Admittedly I went too far with my graph and I've been insensitive at times, but a lot of what I've been pilloried ITT for people have come around on. First I was said to be advocating teacher genocide because I thought schools should be open. Now schools have been open a long time and it hasn't led to mass death of teachers. Then it was me saying in summer that we're all eventually going to get COVID and it was time to come to terms with the fact that as long as you are vaccinated, you'll likely be ok. Now with Omicron that is becoming the standard line. I'm not saying I have any special insight, I just ignore scare stories and read credible experts who aren't twitter jockeying. There were plenty of experts saying COVID is never going away well before I came to accept that was the case. There were also plenty of liberal, developed countries that didn't shut down schools, and there are plenty of liberal countries who don't mask young children in school. I think the hyperregulation of child behavior for COVID reasons is just a function of power dynamics, culture, and anxiety. Closing bars is politically hard, making kids eat snack six feet apart on a cold blacktop is easy. Adults can say no, kids can't, so we force bullshit on kids that doesn't even make a difference, just to feel like we are doing something and being appropriately reverent of the pandemic.

Flag my posts all you want. I really don't care if a handful of people here only want to hear the opinions of people who agree with them.

Okay, I fp'd u

why are you here?

Now schools have been open a long time and it hasn't led to mass death of teachers.

Bullshit and bullshit. No one mentioned "mass death" of teachers. As we're seeing now, and have kept seeing for months now, the kids bring it home, sending someone to the hospital or -- best case scenario -- to get tested. Do you realize how taxed our system is, how weary our public health employees are?

Forget doctors and nurses for a sec. Do you give not one damn about the Curative lab workers putting up with the stupendous willful sociopathy of Americans?

Man alive is sick of his children, what a surprise. Wonder if they’re as sick of their dad as we are. Also, as the sister of a teacher who did get covid and who got it pretty bad despite being fit and healthy, fuck you.

best case scenario -- to get tested. Do you realize how taxed our system is, how weary our public health employees are?

Remember he doesn’t believe in testing, let alone public health even having the data from testing.

Too bad they don’t have the kind of jobs that allow them tons of time to bitch on here and make occasional trips to the office bathroom for a bit of light relief.

It was when man alive's posts became indistinguishable from the bad faith "my freedom" trolls repeating the same talking points on fourteen different reddit threads a day that I quit paying attention.

"COVID is never going away" does not equal "We shouldn't even try to slow it down for as long as possible to give healthcare systems/scientific advancements enough time to mitigate the harm to all people, not just those for whom the current protections are sufficient."

also everyone i know in healthcare or education, who are most certainly tremendous assets to their field, have noped out over the past year. institutional knowledge and skill is being attacked by this pandemic

which leads to further mass death, missed learning, etc etc

on another note, a good recent argument for boosters:

guys if we do not get covid under control the celebrities are gonna start singing imagine again

— matt (@mattxiv) December 18, 2021

I cannot fucking believe man alive has not been permanently banned yet, dude go fuck yourself

everybody please please ban this guy forever

fuck you

also, fp eligible for this parting shot:

only want to hear the opinions of people who agree with them

which shows he didn't even read beyond his own posts

I cannot fucking believe man alive has not been permanently banned yet, dude go fuck yourself

everybody please please ban this guy forever

fuck you

― chaos goblin line cook (sleeve), Monday, December 20, 2021 11:03 AM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
^^^