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

no posting occurs in a vacuum

Well maybe we should establish the correct number of posts per thread per user each day to give us a baseline about what is acceptable or not.

Dyson with death tbh

xp
lol r u trolling deems

But I heard a meteor just pierced the thread and may have let the protomolecule in so better put on vac suits, pronto! #onethread #xp

Dyson
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/A_Dyson_Swarm_Superstructure_%2821983905140%29.png

Well maybe we should establish the correct number of posts per thread per user each day to give us a baseline about what is acceptable or not.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 7 January 2022 19:28 (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Id happily set a maximum target per poster if that was in any way the actual point or i thought yed fuckin abide by it, but alas

Perhaps not the entire point, but it sure seems like given posters' logorrhea is the crux of the issue here.

diarrhea is in fact the word

there is a group that thinks posting in bulk about covid is healthy in a "let those frustrations out, mate" sense. another group thinks posting in bulk about covid is annoying. gyac thinks the former group is wrong because, actually, posting in bulk about covid is both unhealthy and annoying. Private Hudson says "game over, man" while picking up debris from the explosion.

I love this. Note the timestamps.

Literally read the initial post I made, if any of you are capable.

― mardheamac (gyac)... 10:46 AM

I've been in your corner, babycakes.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)... 10:48 AM

(gyac quotes lagoon:) ive said it before and ill say it again, if youre going to be condescending you gotta be smart, being condescending is such an affront that you really have to bring your A game...

― mardheamac (gyac)... 10:50 AM

Oh, the irony!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mh3oxxuoC0

I must admit I haven’t really seen the problem with one or two of the posts that dmac, gyac & others have singled out with this complaint - eg taken in isolation reposting commentary on news from health experts seems to me a straightforwardly benign & on-topic use of these threads tbh (& stuff posted with the explicit purpose of countering “doomposting” being folded into “doomposting” idk)

But that’s in isolation - I def can see the argument that some posters could stand to chill a bit & not be constantly set to Transmit, & if enough ppl are saying it…

For me these threads are fine because I tend to skim over a lot of the longer posts & mainly use it for updates as I don’t follow this stuff anywhere else anymore

I am uncomfortable with “oh, we’re all virology experts now?” type scoffing because it’s a bit too close to the “hipster analysis” thing, ordinary ppl are allowed opinions on public health policy that affects them, this is a discussion board ppl discuss things, we are gonna discuss the ongoing catastrophe we are all living thru — but if a number of posters are finding it hard to use the threads for that purpose because of a sense some ppl are monologising rather than discussing that is worth considering

Also j.lu I’m so sorry to hear about your aunt Donna, fuck covid indeed

That's a reasonable post wins, maybe the answer might be gently suggesting something directly to the specific poster(s) in question instead of hoping to accomplish the result via oblique swipes?

That's a reasonable post wins, maybe the answer might be gently suggesting something directly to the specific poster(s) in question instead of hoping to accomplish the result via oblique swipes?

gyac, I apologize with every breath in me. I did read your posts. I just couldn't understand implicitly or explicitly casting shade on other posters for whom data, testing updates, and other detritus form their own ways of coping. Certainly I'm with you: sometimes I roll my eyes and don't click on the thread for a couple days, especially when I've got a WhatsApp thread with a buddy who doomposts every hour.

In any event, accept my apologies.

xpost - Fwiw the "oblique swipes" wasn't aimed at you or any other specific poster, just a general comment on how there seems to be a lot of times where someone makes a (maybe valid, maybe not) complaint about behavior in a thread in an oblique, rather than direct, way. I get that you can't always control how the other person responds to the request (ime, a problem irl too!), but it seems like if you don't address the specific behavior by any certain specific poster you are even less likely so see a change.

likely "to" see a change

i think part of gyac's concern is not the anxiety posting itself but the enabling of it from people who should know better (which applies to me, and is duly noted).

I made my point, I thought, pretty clearly and I’ve had Alfred and someone old enough to be my actual dad come up and start scoffing at me as though my point was not made in seriousness

The reference to me is plain enough. Rather than scoffing, I was chuckling. You aimed to poke Alfred in the eye and managed to poke your own at the same time.

lol, just correcting the record, inevitably my daughter was totally wrong. More like 200 or so kids sick at the school not close to 700.

This is pretty great as a short piece of covid fiction:

https://hinionge.substack.com/p/parosmia-journal-2021-?

And yes, sorry to hear j.lu.

Burnt chemical smell becoming more metallic, like fingers which have been fondling a set of keys

hard identify with this. in the ilxors with the r0na thread i said something similar. it's a weird burnt chocolate / metallic taste/smell, like burnt hair and chicory or something

brb going to patent "eau de SARS"

Took a PCR test on Thursday, got my negative results back yesterday around noon. Got an email from a coworker at 10 last night, on my work account so I didn’t even see it until this morning, that she tested positive. Of course it was the coworker that still wears a shitty cloth mask. I was in an open plan office with her for eight hours Tuesday through Thursday, but thankfully not yesterday. Trying to figure out how to isolate from the wife and kid now. So fucking angry that my boss refused to allow remote working or even a staggered schedule.

Fwiw, no symptoms. The only reason I took the PCR test on Thursday was because I have free and easy access to them via work, so why not?

Hope for an all clear for you quickly man, that sucks

Thanks. Still no symptoms, trying to decide if I want to burn a precious rapid test or if I should just hold out another day or two, Tuesday would be day five.

Got a call from my sister this morning that her husband tested positive. Doesn’t feel awful, but coughing, runny nose and body aches for a couple of days. Kind of amazed that we made it to Jan 2022 before someone in our family caught it.

Our tally:

Kid 1 - vaxxed, two positive tests four days apart, mild symptoms
Kid 2 - vaxxed, boosted, two negative tests four days apart, no symptoms
Wife: vaxxed, boosted, one positive test, two negative tests, no symptoms
Me: vaxxed, boosted, two negative tests, extremely mild sore throat for three days, no other symptoms
All of us: ¯\_(ツ)_/

Today was day four. Still no symptoms but decided to take a rapid test anyway, negative. Assuming I still have no symptoms before then, I'll just take another PCR test at work on Wednesday and, hopefully, go back to dodging my next exposure.

The Pufflets went to school today, first time since December 15. We're testing frequently and have been spared so far.

Meanwhile my wife's father died last week (sad but not unexpected, heart not vid). She had to fly to South Carolina to deal with the aftermath, but the Pufflets and I stayed home.

Mercifully, it looks like they're not trying to do a funeral immediately. Rather, some kind of commemorative thing in spring or summer when travel is less fraught. I am relieved not to be trying to get four people through airports and such at this time. Not least because we literally JUST got back to something approaching routine after COVID exposure, holidays, and weather troubles.

Oof, sorry to hear that YMP. Sending thoughts your way. My son heads back tomorrow.

Sunday overnight my aunt passed (don't know if it was COVID or her other health issues). The friend of hers who gave me the news says that she saw Donna earlier that weekend--she wasn't terribly coherent but seemed to be at peace.

my condolences

My condolences too

Sorry to hear that j.lu, sending good thoughts you way.

Today is day 7 from my exposure, took a PCR test yesterday and it came back negative, thankfully. So it's on to dodging the next one. Unfortunately now my sister and both her kids seem to be positive as well, with symptoms ranging from a minor cough and runny noses (kids) to sore throat, coughing, congestion and fatigue (the parents). I say "seems to be" because only her husband and the younger kid tested positive, the other two tested negative on rapid tests but have symptoms that seem pretty certain based on exposure to the rest of the family (can't get PCR tests until Saturday where they live).

This may assuage you.

The Abbott BinaxNOW, a widely used at-home coronavirus test, can detect most people who are infected with the new Omicron variant and are carrying high levels of the virus, according to a new, real-world study of more than 700 people who visited a walk-up testing site in San Francisco.

Like all rapid antigen tests, BinaxNOW is less sensitive than P.C.R. tests, which can find even very small traces of the virus, and federal health officials have recently sent mixed messages about the usefulness of such antigen tests. But they have generally been good at catching people who have high viral loads and are most likely to be infectious.

The new study, which has not yet been reviewed by experts, found that overall the BinaxNOW detected 65 percent of the infections identified via P.C.R. testing, but 95 percent of people who had the highest viral loads. Among those with high levels of the virus, the tests caught 98 percent of those with symptoms and 90 percent of those without symptoms, the researchers found.

The test’s performance was roughly on par with what the scientists had observed in real-world studies before Omicron emerged, they said.

“It’s working as it was designed,” said Joseph DeRisi, a biochemist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is a president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and an author of the paper. “There does not seem to be any performance deficit with Omicron.”

This “Center for Covid Control” is the closest testing place to me, in what used to be a convenience story. They were especially busy around the New Year’s, with a line down the sidewalk. I’ve been there once, had a negative test within an hour or two.

This report below is from Florida, but there have been others. Disappointing if true, because otherwise the place is convenient and fast.

A company called, ‘Center for Covid Control,’ with testing sites around the country, is allegedly administering fake covid tests with all negative results. This ‘Wink News’ investigation began in FL. The AG of FL has been notified but has not yet responded to request for comment. pic.twitter.com/FMIUeUcOQ4

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 11, 2022

*convenience store (damn autocorrect)

Yeah, they shut down one of those in our city last week. Crazy how easy it is to get one of those scam sites up and running.

I took one of those tests and it said I didn't have COVID but that I was pregnant from marijuana

congratulations on your weed baby

I will name her Ganja Forksclove Tofu in your honor

I have been to one of those testing sites, too.

My mild COVID symptoms have mostly subsided. I took a rapid test on Monday, and was still positive, but took another one last night and am now negative. I'll take another one tomorrow, but I'm going to assume that I can stop quarantining. (I'm not really planning to do anything beyond maybe going to Walgreens with a mask on.)

Oops, I forgot this wasn't the "rona moved in" thread.

No hire started on our floor and I'm alarmed by how they somehow can't even get a KN95 mask to stay over their nose. Constantly an exposed nose, all day. It almost seems like you have to want to suffer additional discomfort to wear a KN95 like that.

"New" hire, wtf autocorrect?

No fun
Omicron and done