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

the other problem is people fundamentally misunderstand the purpose of NPIs. NPIs do not eradicate disease. Sterilizing vaccines combined with these measures do, but our vaccines don't provide sterilizing immunity. they reduce transmission, severe illness, and death (which, frankly, is great, but not enough on its own to eradicate).

Lockdowns spread out infection over time to prevent overwhelming healthcare systems and keep transmission low (or at zero for a temporary period oftime), as well as reducing deaths. masks reduce transmission and death. distancing reduces transmission and death. capacity limits reduce transition and death. they can't eradicate a disease - esp since more than likely when you get to 'zero', you're probably not really at 'zero' (just zero 'known' cases).

the R-factor for the Delta variant pretty much makes eradication seem like a pipe dream. that doesn't mean we should let it spread uncontrolled though, either.

the problem is people immediately pivot from "COVID zero is probably not possible" to "and therefore we should just re-open without any restrictions", like our only two choices are to completely go underground forever or just spread the disease uncontrolled all we want. so acknowledging that COVID zero is not possible or that mitigation/transmission reduction are the way to go often is something public officials are likely to want to avoid because people then abandon all caution altogether.

Eradication is hard but I think absent delta we might have gotten to "COVID minimal" in highly vaccinated regions and all be in class without masks right now. It was in no way inevitable a much more contagious variant would spring up, but it did, and that's the reality we have to deal with.

Yea Delta was very much a game changer. Alpha was too but vaccines and natural infection were crushing it.

this is why it makes me so mad to see people post bullshit on Facebook like "ok Fauci, masks in social distancing didn't work the first time, and now we're trying it again, definition of insanity, heh heh heh", its such an idiotic bad faith argument. same as when they post nonstop about how much they don't wanna wear masks but flip the fuck out whenever they see a prominent Dem photographed without one. and yet these are the people we have to count on to slow the spread. it's so stupid.

like these dimwits were not willing to sacrifice a single thing to protect their families and now are acting all smug because the rest of us are reaching that breaking point of "we can't punt MULTIPLE years of our lives, we have to do something". like half the people I considered friends in March 2020 are people who I feel I may not ever see again at this point

My bro-in-law, until this moment a person about whom I wouldn't say a word of unkindness, has stopped wearing masks since May. According to my mom, he said when asked, "Fauci said I didn't have to wear them after I've been vaccinated." I want to grab him by the balls and shout, "If 'Fauci' was good enough in May, why isn't his word good enough in July? You have two children!"

I am going to admit something:
we went to one of my husband's coworker's birthday parties last week— and when we arrived, what we thought was going to be an outdoor thing turned out to be an indoor banquet style thing. Granted, *every single person* who was there was vaccinated, some with boosters because they're all healthcare workers at the same hospital and were required to get vaxxed.

Still, I was nervous enough about it that I took a PCR and it came back negative.

But it also brought up another issue— even the people who have been seeing this happen, witnessing the worst of it— they're throwing caution to the wind occasionally. I mean, it was the guy's 50th birthday! I would want to have a rager with lots of excellent Jamaican food, too!

I know what you mean! I've had fully jabbed leftist friends participated in similar behavior. I trust them! I mean, if they've been mitigating risk for a year and a half, why not?

*participate

My wife and I were informed two days ago that one of the care home staff with whom we interacted with back on Sept. 13 was covid positive and symptomatic. We're getting tested today, along with our daughter and everyone who lives and works at her group home. We are still asymptomatic and, according to report, so is our daughter. Meanwhile, we are hunkered down.

Sorry to hear that, Aimless.

If the outbreak goes no further, I think we'll all be fine in the end. But quashing delta is no easy task in this kind of a care facility.

aw shit. hoping for the best, Aimless.

I know what you mean! I've had fully jabbed leftist friends participated in similar behavior. I trust them! I mean, if they've been mitigating risk for a year and a half, why not?

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, September 23, 2021 10:10 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I guess the thing is that in these situations where you can't totally control what's going on, you have to make quick decisions about how you're going to handle your own safety and well-being. But then the decision you make can then sort of creep into other parts of your life— I'm helping host an outdoor poetry reading tomorrow, and am meeting up with a few of the out-of-towners for dinner beforehand...nearly every restaurant worth going to nearby doesn't have outdoor seating, and those that do were all booked up...except one or two, which are less-than-stellar options. Part of me was like, "well, we could always eat indoors...but..." and then I very quickly rejected my line of thinking, and booked an outdoor table at a middle-of-the-road gastropub.

And there's still a part of me that wants to take them to the astounding Mexican sit-down place that serves specialties from Monterrey, but doesn't have outdoor seating.

No place in Aus has been hit harder by Covid than Wilcannia, a small outback town, a 10hr drive away from Sydney. In only two weeks, more than 1/10 of the town of 600 people had been infected with the virus. Soon, the number would approach 150, 90% being Aboriginal people. 1/12 pic.twitter.com/8TyP9CYo3h

— matthew abbott 🔥🌏 (@mattabbottphoto) September 28, 2021

I got my booster yesterday!

I did not expect the knockout blow (I felt nothing but the mildest fatigue and a slight headache after my second shot in March). First, I couldn’t find a way to sleep on my left side because I had, foolishly, requested the jab in that arm. Then around midnight I awoke shivering enough for me to pull the comforter over my head. I could take an Advil, I realized, after forgetting to the last thirteen hours. It helped. Four hours later my damp thighs and neck made me hurl the comforter away from me — my mild fever had broken.

I'm yawning a lot and had chills this afternoon before class until I popped my second Advil.

You should have just gotten Covid, it's apparently nowhere near that bad.

If I'd have died, no symptoms -- presto changeo!

was the booster a different type from the previous? i think they said a while ago that mixing them up is better but things might've changed

Pfizer uses same dosage.

Exhausted, I went to bed at 9:15 last night at the same moment the chills returned in full fury. I took another Advil and slept blissfully until my usual awakening before dawn. I finally feel fine.

mom got her third which is a blessing.

awesome!

my folks are gonna get theirs but stagger the days they get them.

Genuinely no shade at any folks getting their well deserved boosters but I'm going to say it stings a tiny bit while we're still waiting for under 12s to get their first one.

Less than half the population has had a first dose. (My mother is due for the second jab this month.)

I know. I have nieces.

Def not faulting you! Or anyone else, get it when you are eligible, absolutely! Just more bemoaning the stress of watching cases fly around schools (my son's grade had 3 cases last month) while we wait and wait for EUA.

My kids' high school of 3500 has had about 1 or 2 reported cases a week.

Well my sons grade at his school is significantly less than 3500, probably closer to 90, also.. all of them unvaccinated. I will say they did a good job of clearing out the exposed "pods" in a timely fashion and credit them for doing what they could to limit the impacts. Still nerve wracking when it hits that close.

my 12yo is getting vaccinated in a couple of weeks, finally. (this is in the UK.) i'm pretty sure he's already been exposed about a million times but it will be a relief.

via justine, a thread about NZ’s response to their NSW-sourced outbreak:

In real terms, we have saved lives. We have sadly had 1 death in this delta outbreak, bringing our total to 27 deaths from covid. This means that currently, our hospitals are able to operate without overwhelm. We would like to prevent this /4

— Jin Russell (@DrJinRussell) October 5, 2021

I've been wearing KN95s since I've had to go back into the office and I quite like them, for several reasons, but my latest package seems to be varying in size or something. Like every third mask I take out is uncomfortably tight, but it's not even consistent throughout the package. Just odd since I've been using the same kind/brand for several months now and hadn't run into any comfort issues just yet.

Mine fits fine and works really well with Ivermectin
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/F3IAAOSwqShexVeZ/s-l400.jpg

From the NY Times:

The agency has promised to move quickly on the request and has tentatively scheduled a meeting at the end of the month to consider it.

Maybe this is just bad reporting or summarizing, but it's things like this loaded with "tentatively scheduled" and "consider" that makes it feel to me like there is just no sense of urgency.

It's a matter of time. We can expect the EUA by the holidays.

Sure it's coming, but it keeps pushing back. I mean, as of mid-September it was still being said that shots would be going in arms by Halloween. Right.

Hang on, man.

I like to wear the Kimberly-Clark N95 masks that make me look like a duck.

Nothing else to be done at this point, it just feels so much less urgent when the 12-16 year old approval was going through. Maybe it's just the reporting that has changed, I don't know. I just know I'm not the only parent feeling frustrated that everything is blazing forward as if the world is wide open again while this process drags on.

I think it's taking just as long as previous authorizations? The dosage will likely change, so there's that to study. Anyway, know it's coming.

look jon you could just trying writing to Disney to get them to move up those streaming premieres

What the actual fuck is your problem with me?

Posting about my frustration with the process is exactly in line with the spirit and intention of this thread.

I mean, look I get it, I'm probably one of the most despised ilxors on the entire board. I'm not dumb. But it's really weird that you seem to have some sort of obsession with bringing up old shit from completely unrelated threads to throw at me.

lol sorry cheap shot.

which is what we don't have enough of amirite

i really do sincerely doubt that the FDA is like, folding paper airplanes in their offices right now tho? it's pretty easy to assume other people are incompetent idiots and maybe it feels good to think it but it comes across a little bit 'i want to speak to the manager of the FDA'

I have an 11-year-old, I get it. But honestly -- it's OK! She's going to school, she sees her friends, she's gonna go to Thanksgiving -- it is just not the same situation it was last year. The major material difference in her life is we get takeout instead of us eating at a restaurant and I think I mind that more than she does. We can wait a few more months.

My six year has been back in school for four weeks and has caught two different colds--out 4 days so far. We've had to get two negative Covid tests for return to school.

I was kind of hoping that masking and distancing would prevent some of other kinds of illness, but no.

The quarantine on our daughter's group home was lifted late Tuesday. The outbreak topped out with two caregivers testing positive. Yesterday we visited her for the first time since Sept 12. It felt great!

Of the two caregivers, one had symptoms similar to a mild cold, but the other was "so weak I couldn't get out of bed" and her doctor advised her to go to the ER for more complete evaluation, though she chose not to go. She was vaccinated, too.

Good news re visit

A local Catholic university, Dominican, required vaccines and has hit 100% vaccination among students. A neighboring Lutheran university, Concordia, did not, and is hovering around 42% student vaccination. Why the fuck people won't get vaccinated baffles me.