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

I saw Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me at an Alamo Drafthouse last week, and I even took off my mask to eat pizza and drink beer. It was good.

also sat at the bar and had dinner at fancy-ish tex-mex restaurant the other day

I've eaten popcorn at the movies in the last six months, but I also went at 11 a.m. and could've sat in the nude without anyone bothering me.

Today at work, no masks for the registered vaxxed, and three weeks more of masks left for the rest. Feels almost uncomfortable not wearing a mask, not just because I've gotten used to singing quietly along with the headphones over the last month. Find myself reaching up and touching my face to adjust the phantom mask a lot.

Are people still being asked to test regularly by their employers? Just a straw poll question

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, February 28, 2022 1:58 PM bookmarkflaglink

Nope. I do 2-3 times a week tho

Florida's COVID wave is bottoming out, less than 3,000 existing COVID hospitalizations and less than 500 existing ICU beds statewide. (Note there is a pretty decent amount of fluctuation if you look at the county level).

Cases also plummeting and test positivity rate just over 5% (from a high of 31.3% last month).

DeSantis will of course take the credit, even though his two year "let her rip" approach once again killed tens of thousands of people.

Miami-Dade's positivity rate hit a bit less than 5 percent for the first time since early December.

At DC for a brief weekend trip, days after vax/mask mandates expired, I was reassured by the number of bars requiring vax passports and shops with "No Mask, No Service" signs.

I've been testing once every other week now, but that's voluntary and not per employer's direction. Since I'm up to date on my booster, I'm only required to test should I be identified as a close contact.

Chicago's positivity rate is at 1.4% daily average this week (statewide we are at 1.87%), which is really nice to see.

Miami-Dade's positivity rate hit a bit less than 5 percent for the first time since early December.

At DC for a brief weekend trip, days after vax/mask mandates expired, I was reassured by the number of bars requiring vax passports and shops with "No Mask, No Service" signs.

if you're vaxxed it doesn't seem to be much of an issue

Thanks to diligent contact tracing, this is correct.

(I’ve gone to multiplex movies in the last few months by checking the seating chart 15 minutes before start time, and walking down if it’s 3% or less full. I’ll eat popcorn if I’m alone.)

Forget covid, people eating popcorn - chewing it, leaving it all over the place, the smell of the fake butter - has always been one of my least favorite things about going to the movies.

You didn't mention spilling it.

Or even stepping on it and tracking it after someone else has spilled it during that lights out time when the announcements and previews have started.

Butter stench as part of communal experience reminds me: I went to a play in early December in a theater with maybe 400-500 in the audience, and it's funny how it felt like being on a crowded bus versus the isolated car-space of watching drama at home. And the stage acting seemed exaggerated after two years of seeing only acting for the camera.

(Also have had a couple of wonderful experiences at movies, in mostly empty theaters.)

I've eaten popcorn at the movies in the last six months, but I also went at 11 a.m. and could've sat in the nude without anyone bothering me.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 28, 2022 11:40 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Why do you tempt us with such delicious thoughts?

i had words with a fella last weekend at the movies, i had the theater all to myself and a minute before showtime dude comes in, and out of 300 seats he plops down directly behind me. horrifying behavior even pre-covid.

(neither of us was nude, sorry to say)

Imagine pulling the popcorn trick on yourself.

Why do you tempt us with such delicious thoughts?

― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Tuesday, March 1, 2022 7:05 AM (two hours ago)

Butter or salt?

Chicago mix please

Imagine pulling the popcorn trick on yourself.

― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Tuesday, March 1, 2022 9:13 AM bookmarkflaglink

lmao

esp given your dn

Imagine pulling tricks with popcorn.

If I was waiting for a screening less than 3% full, I'm fairly certain I might never see a movie again (though that's more down to my normal 9-5 job not giving me a ton of flexibility for early screenings), even the early matinees around here are usually 5-10% full.

Chicago mix please

Popcorn with onions, relish, celery salt, a pickle spear, tomato slice and sport peppers. And only mustard, ketchup on your popcorn is for kids.

I got “Chicago mix” at the candy store in downtown St Paul once, it’s basically every kind of popcorn (caramel, cheese, regular) thrown in a bag together plus other random objects like peanuts etc

I got “Chicago mix” at the candy store in downtown St Paul once, it’s basically every kind of popcorn (caramel, cheese, regular) thrown in a bag together plus other random objects like peanuts etc

Idk if we were talking about the same one, my go to is Candyland which is over by the old science museum

The one which is now a Scientology headquarters lol

Schools are mask optional here now, but if my kids' experience is any indication, kids who don't wear them are liable to be bullied. I have a hunch it would be the opposite in a politically opposite place.

Wait really? Bullied?

My kids school also goes optional tomorrow.

Wait really? Bullied?

My kids school also goes optional tomorrow.

Yes, bullied, for being perceived as conservatives, for being reckless, for being inconsiderate of the immunocompromised, for being too ugly to go maskless. Kids are mean, but these are typically kids of self righteous liberal parents who have been loudly complaining about the same things at home for the past two years. Like many of us have been here.

Yo mama so dumb she voted for Trump... TWICE.

Essentially!

My kid's school board voted on monday to keep their mask mandate, at least until after spring break when they will reevaluate based on current cases and such.

My wife is on some facebook group for school parents and there's essentially one mom yelling about freedom and her rights and other bullshit while every other self-righteous liberal parent tells them to fuck off and move their kids to the adjacent rednecky school district if they don't like it, which I'm fully on board with.

Idk if we were talking about the same one, my go to is Candyland which is over by the old science museum

a bit annoyed that the main dude I used to read (Howard Forman) regarding daily updates for COVID on Florida and other states has basically ceased posting about COVID at all, all of his tweets now being his amateur analysis on the unfolding Ukraine scenario. He's no Ukraine or foreign policy expert, and some of his takes are complete cringe, and just about nobody is going to this guy for news on this stuff. but as a result of his shift in focus, now I can't get my bite-sized updates in 5 minutes and get the fuck off Twitter (until I find another source).

obviously dont' want to tell the dude what to tweet about but the pandemic is still ongoing and all, and there is no shortage of resources I would gladly read about the Ukraine long before him.

(also can't tell him what to tweet about, as all 15 of my accounts are suspended)

data point: my generally very remote friendly and "woke" (sorry) employer just announced all offices that are legally allowed to be open are "fully" open from march 15. this means any employee can go to any office, no more day passes or 25% capacity limits. proof of vax required where allowed by local law. no mask required, except where required by local law. desks will be unassigned. international business travel allowed effective immediately (had been suspended except for c-suite and on case-by-case). no requirement to return to the office for people who want to stay remote, but reading between the lines some senior people seem to be pushing for it.

key stats in the Austin area have dropped pretty rapidly over the past 1-2 weeks, so I'm diving into activities like dining out, going to a bar, etc. Hopefully will get back to yoga classes in the next week. Would be really nice if we get some kind of extended respite from these endless waves.

It looks like it? At least for two to three months. That BA.2 variant didn't really take.

one-fifth of all infections globally, increasing from 4% of US infections to 30% during February, and the dominant variant in fifty countries, is a pretty good effort

That's true -- I should've checked the rates.

Lifting of vax and mask restrictions this month should give the plucky little underdog a boost.

Yes, bullied, for being perceived as conservatives, for being reckless, for being inconsiderate of the immunocompromised, for being too ugly to go maskless. Kids are mean, but these are typically kids of self righteous liberal parents who have been loudly complaining about the same things at home for the past two years. Like many of us have been here.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, March 1, 2022 9:15 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

No bullying on day 1 for my kids, and small minority were reportedly masked. Of course, my town is SO liberal feel-goody that I think any animosity toward unmasked kids would be seen as "uninclusive" or something

Doomposting and a doozy man alive post in the last half hour, this thread is such a gift.

will u stop threadpolicing and bullying pls

Important to remember that although reinfections (BA1 to BA2) have happened and been documented, but were fairly rare, consensus is BA1 infection should mostly prevent reinfection for the great majority of people, and vaccine efficiency against infection and hospitalization and death is comparable with BA1. so it's expected to perhaps lengthen the 'tail' of a wave for countries that had a BA1 outbreak first, but not necessarily create a new wave. and real world data from UK and SA contradict the (as yet not peer reviewed) Japan hamster lab study that BA2 is more pathogenic.

In South Africa, BA2 is dominant as of 2/10, but cases have continued declining since then (caveat that they had high rates of infection there PRIOR to their BA1 wave, at levels other countries didn't have). Rate of decline may have slowed (I don't know), but suffice to say, while BA2 isn't a 'nothingburger', nor should all restrictions be dropped, there are reasons for optimism here that there weren't when Omicron was brand new.

Denmark's also finally on the other side of theirs, and they were dealing with BA2 a bit earlier than most countries (albeit their situation was weird and not analogous to what was happening in other countries, where for a period of two weeks, cases were see-sawing before they finally started dropping.