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

Hope the monuments and all were appropriately spat upon.

I have to go to the big supermarket today, having lived of things from the local mini supermarkets exclusively for the last 6 months. I plan on going in the last hour of trading when it'll be least busy, I guess.

It's 20 minutes away rather than 10. And that'll also be the first time I've been outside whilst it's been dark since march.

Yesterday my younger son got to be the first person in our family to get a COVID test. I don't really think he's sick, but he woke up throwing up yesterday and ran a temperature right at 100 all day, so erring on side of caution I took him in. (Gastrointestinal issues can be COVID symptoms.) He feels better today, but I have to keep him out of school until we get the test result, which will hopefully be tomorrow. Both of our kids are going to school in-person, so I'm just sort of assuming one or the other will get infected or have to quarantine because of exposure at some point. Fun.

yikes, good luck tipsy.

Tipsy - we were in an almost identical situation about a month ago - we had been quarantining to go to a beach house with family and the morning we were scheduled to leave, my 6-year-old son woke up looking pale and threw up. Incredibly, we got a pediatrician appointment before noon and had a negative result in hand by the next morning(!), so we were able to go on the trip missing only one day. That was the only test anyone in my family has gotten. My wife and I have planned to get them a couple of times but both times the anticipated wait time for results rendered their usefulness to us moot. Our pediatrician seemed to have the inside track though, thankfully. Wishing you the best with your kids.

good luck, tipsy

Since we're utterly absent any other symptoms and it both came on for us at exactly the same time, we think it's just food related, but lordy if my husband and I have not had just awful awful GI problems the past few days. Normally this would be merely annoying and gross, but since I have an end colostomy, it also makes me utilize more rather expensive supplies than I normally would.

But we also are both really worried about Covid.

We have the grandmoms over right now (my mom had been staying with us), and watching them interact - leaning over one another, laughing loudly at each other, loudly conversing next to one another - makes me wonder if they actually think they *are* social distancing and this is how they do things in their daily lives, if they're just not worried, if they're just happy to have novel company/socialization, or if each is confident enough that they and the other are not sick (which is possible/likely). Maybe all of those things. Of course, each traveled here by plane, too, but were as careful as they could be, by all indications, in the air/airport. Still, makes me uneasy, but that could also just be because these are our only living parents and of course we also haven't really had guests in months either and it's a little weird, no matter who it is. And it's not really my place to hector them, given how smart and generally responsible they both are. I want them to be healthy, but I also want them to be happy, and who knows when we will see them next.

JIC, that's exactly how I felt when my parents visited as the first guests we'd had a couple of months ago. Had to stop myself inwardly wincing when they hauled my (school-attending) kid onto their knees and read books, heads together.

RIP my future condolences to all involved

As I expected, my son's test came back negative. So we're in the clear for now. Which means he gets to go back to school tomorrow ...

What a time.

Just got tested for the first time. They go deep! No symptoms, but my employer offered tests on campus today, one of these mobile testing units. Waited 20 minutes, now have to wait 24 to 48 hours for results.

In a shop yesterday queuing for the cashier. They have markings on the ground and I'm keeping distance from the person ahead. A woman starts edging into the space ahead of me before I catch her eye and she deigns to ask if I'm in the que. No I just like standing around in the middle of fuxking shops for no reason you stupid xunt. Anyway, that cleared up she proceeds to stand behind me, like up my arse behind me, and the next bloke does the same behind her. We are all wearing masks and these people seem to have no idea why. Jesus fucking Christ bring on the second wave man let's end it.

That happens to me every time I'm in a store or other public space.

When you have a GP appointment here you have to wait outside and they supposedly send someone out to tell you where to go. I was the only person waiting for ages, then this older lady walks up the path behind me and stands about 4 inches from me. I try and do the polite 'lean and amble' but she kept following me!

my cousin is having a small (~20 people) wedding today but I’m kind of pissed about it because people are still flying in from all over and she said she’s going to have a bigger one with more people in June anyway (wtf).

I just spent a night in hospital sharing a room and a toilet with a bunch of older folk who didn't seem so clued in on the old hygiene measures and were mad into coughing (and in one case streaking).

14 days ahead of holing up at home and hoping none of us had the virus.

hope you're ok, onimo!

yes, nobody is distancing here, and for some reason in this country hardly anyone bothered wearing masks outside to begin with, and half the people who are wearing masks have them under their noses if not their chins, and customers are supposed to wear them in shops but staff are exempt and most of them don't bother (at least in my local shops), and it drives me mad.

I went to the GP a while ago and it wasn't clear whether I was supposed to phone reception (which was repeatedly engaged) or press the doorbell. Whichever method I finally managed to get hold of them with, the receptionist seemed quite grumpy, like I'd done it wrong. I finally got let in about 30 seconds before my appointment time, after waiting for 15 minutes getting increasingly worried that the receptionist might not answer until after my given time and then tell me to go away because I was late.

My rona test was negative. I'll probably keep on getting them every time the mobile testing caravan is on campus, which isn't gonna be very often, but I'm teaching university students in person and taking trains to/fro work one day a week, so I want to keep up with this.

Anyone else been having recurring covid dreams? I keep having dreams where I am in a public space (record store, bus, train, etc.) and not wearing a mask or those near me are not wearing a mask. There is a rush of panic in trying to then find my mask/get away from the non-mask wearers/distance myself.

I had those back in March and April, not much since.

saw a viral tweet along the lines of "new yorkers are so great, they put their mask up whenever they see a stranger!" and the one person who pointed out that they should have their mask up all the time was swarmed in the replies like "but you can stay six feet away, you must not actually live in new york." which, no, you actually can't, I can't even walk up my block without coming within like 6 *inches* of people; and also this doesn't account for the MANY people who just don't wear masks at all

also the "but I just can't wear a mask in the heat/get fresh air/talk on the phone in a mask!" excuses are all bullshit. I don't have a particularly loud speaking voice and I have never had any problems talking on the phone in a mask; I also have the worst heat tolerance of anyone I know and not once have I ever thought "man, if only my mouth and chin weren't covered, then I wouldn't pass out."

so, no, I haven't had those dreams, I just live them instead

which, no, you actually can't, I can't even walk up my block without coming within like 6 *inches* of people

This sounds right to me. I walk around outside without a mask but that's because I live in an un-dense city where if somebody is coming towards me on the sidewalk I can just step off and walk in the street, not an option for Manhattanites.

I mean, I can walk in the street, just not if there are cars coming

I do love football players who wear Michelin suits and helmets complaining about how suffocating masks are

Broadly im with you but come on theres a dif between a facehugger xenomorph and like, a squirrel

Which.... one's...which

got my second injection for Moderna's trial today. from here on out it's follow-ups. another 8 vials of blood, a nose swab that somehow managed to be the worst one yet.

i get a little annoyed about how disorganized the people running this trial seem to be (not with the handling of materials, but they all still aren't on the same page with best practices, run ridiculously behind schedule), but....it did also give me an extra $400, which is going to come in handy as I'm moving in for the next year to help my mother take care of my dad so she can work again.

yay America! (I'm actually not bothered about it - it needs to happen).

right about the time you'd expect it (12 hours or so), side effects showed up. sore arm and elevated temp (99.5).

not uncommon for any vaxx including this one, and they swabbed me beforehand, so if I have it I'd known in about 2 days anyway.

man if I can get out of work tomorrow that would be booooss

I’m super glad you’re doing this, Neanderthal. Even if it is a paid gig. I hope it works! Feel better tomorrow and save our economy with your enchanted blood!

shall! tis a small price to pay.

unless I grow a third arm, but good luck stopping me in basketball if that happens.

Had my 2nd vid test on Sunday. Went a lot easier tahn the first one. This time a female medic. She talked me through the process better.
I guess they've had like several months more experience anyway or maybe it was just her being more patient friendly. or whatever the correct word for a person having the test performed. Testee sounds genital.
Swab is still a very unpleasant experience but she talked me through how long it was going to take at the time, counted to 5 and removed but I don't think that's an orifice that should have things shoved into it. Oh & she explained why they used the same swab for back of throat and nostril and exactly where she was trying to access.

GOt results back negative yesterday morning.

but I'm still feeling pretty lousy. So I assume that means that flu season is upon us. I think this si normally the time that people are returning to Universities etc which tends to be when all the pathogens congregate and distribute.
head been feeling muzzy, limbs aching etc

rather than do my usual 7 paragraphs, let's just say my mental state is hanging on by a thread, so I suspect many of you are also with me there, so....just please be good to yourselves.

back atcha

indeed.

As if things weren't bad enough, yesterday I learned there is something called "zoom bombing," wherein anonymous strangers crash Zoom classrooms with profane or racist interruptions and post passwords and stuff. One of my kids said a teacher confessed she found even the threat of it the most stressful part of the day.

a friend of a friend attended a zoom wedding that got bombed. there was a deluge of naked people yelling racial slurs in the middle of the ceremony. password protect your meetings, everyone.

JIC, a poet friend was giving a Zoom reading at the beginning of the pandemic and it was Zoom-bombed with child pornography. I can never unsee the vileness of that image. Pw protect or use the webinar feature, otherwise it's a gamble.

Our first online trivia game (hosted by a pub) got zoom bombed that first week we all went into lockdown back in March. Thankfully none since!

we use MS Teams at work and fortunately it prohibits those outside our organization from joining - that said at this point I can't even feel confident that some of the seasonable people we hire wouldn't do it, considering the terrible screening processes of our third-party partner site

already gotten several stereo pee sessions from people pissing unmuted

FPed Neanderthal for kinkshaming

FPed table for not respecting the kinkshaming fetish

FPed an actual table.

We have been getting warnings about the Zoom bombing too (in our case, Teams bombing, from people who wait in the lobby and accidentally get admitted b/c the teacher is distracted.) It feels like presiding over a seance that's constantly at risk of being invaded by malicious spirits.

I just shared this at work cos we have a buncha learners who "never figure out" how to join MS Teams via the app and keep joining as a Guest and that requires us either setting it up so everybody bypasses the Lobby (which we definitely cannot do) or admitting them individually via Lobby (which due to this example, now we definitely don't want to).

thanks!

Not to change the subject, but man, my son is struggling with school this week. It's hard to watch and harder to help him. It's tough to parse out what is so hard for him, but from the pieces we are pulling from him, it sounds like the performative anxiety of being on Zoom calls all day is wearing on him. All week he's been great through the morning and really happy through lunch time, but by 3:00 his brain is totally wiped and he doesn't really know how to deal with it. It's so hard to help him through something I never had to even imagine when I was in school.

Just venting, really, but this damn virus is breaking us all in so many tiny, unforeseen ways on a near daily basis.

I'm not sure how old your son is, but I think that's pretty common with kids in the best of circumstances. They spend so much time at school keeping everything under control, then the second they get home they fall apart. It was certainly true for both of my kids when they were younger, and I presume the same would hold true for online learning.

Yeah, that's true, he was similar when he first started going to school full time, but this seems much more intense than I've seen it before.