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

Major hugs to DJP and PBKR.

Seconded

my condolences, DJP... and sympathy for PBKR and everyone else

<3 DJP & PBKR

i'm sorry this is happening, for you both. <3

Thanks everyone for the well wishes.

Covid is complicating things absolutely; just not being able to see him and having to get information over the phone are difficulties. Btw, this is in Eastern PA and we have been hearing that the hospital is basically at capacity (I wonder why). He spent 36 hours in the ER partially because they had no place for him.

Thanks, everyone

on a related note, people are evil and stupid: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/us/los-angeles-super-spreader-party-arrests/index.html

the most evil and stupid person in that article is the LA county sherrif btw, who is refusing to enforce the county and state's public health measures, while calling press conferences about "public safety" in non-white parts of the county.

I'm now on 4 covid tests in 4 days

hopefully I'm doing my bit to keep overall test positivity levels low enough to get the pubs open for Christmas or something

onimo, I'm sorry you're still stuck in COVID limbo. Any progress on getting the scans done so you can get out of there?

By “in that article” do you mean actually quoted, caek? because actually sex trafficking a minor is pretty evil if true. xp

I am pretty skeptical about reports of “sex trafficking” coming out of the la sherrifs department at the exact moment there is finally a push to cut their budget and impeach the sheriff. And honestly there’s a pretty long list of terrible crimes that are less evil than the routine policing work of the most murderous police force in the nation. But sure, if true.

Basically they are killers, and they also lie about specific crimes *all the time* https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-30/police-public-relations

sex trafficking is a real thing but it becomes a right-wing bogeyman at convenient moments - which includes them actually murkying the waters on what trafficking is (as opposed to being kidnapped out of a Target from the Xbox aisle)

Sorry this is a derail. My sympathies to everyone posting their own news on this thread.

This happened in New Orleans: https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the_latest/article_7441a6d4-33f4-11eb-9fc2-c393a2fe67c3.html

Are we allowed to note that this was a really fucking stupid idea or no?

onimo, I'm sorry you're still stuck in COVID limbo. Any progress on getting the scans done so you can get out of there?

I'm past scans etc and heading for surgery in the morning. Repeated covid tests are due to repeated equipment delays.

Details on the Fuck Cancer thread ---

fuck cancer

xp let he who has not had a key party during a global pandemic throw the first etc

key?

another form of swinger's party, where you all put your keys into a bowl and then you pick someone's out at random and whomever's keys you get is whom you ride the baloney pony with that night

I always spell that "bologna pogna"

Update: Bob Hannaford says in his blog that he sent his co-host wife to Mexico this year because she has a compromised immune system.

"As I was writing everyone to try and convince high-risk people not to come, I thought of my own wife (Tess) who has a compromised immune system," he wrote. "How could I ask her to attend when I was telling others in her situation not to come? How could I move forward with the event without Tess? More moral and ethical decisions to make. I decided to send Tess back down to Mexico where it was a lot safer than the U.S."

My Dad got an NHS mask examption card, which is interesting. He only has one lung, which I guess is why.

I'm impressed by, and envious of, some of my friends' fearlessness in the face of this. They're not covid deniers at all, but they are able to live their lives with some semblance of normalcy, even extending to traveling with family and friends to holiday destinations with precautions but without worry. They are younger than me, so I can kind of get it. I would like to join them and feel like I'm missing out, but I can't.

odds are it will turn out fine for them. possibly less so for their servants at holiday destinations. one of their kids might collapse while playing baseketball, but that might have happened anyway

also, fuck off you fucking clown

fuck you

lol

your friends are idiots

I don't think they are though. I don't really understand

that much is clear

wondering how people experience risk differently

hmm

once I was renting a house to a tenant and I provided the bed for him. he called me to tell me the bed was riddled with bedbugs.

this was a challenge - it would not be easy to rid the bed of bedbugs and make the effort to ensure to provide restitution to the tenant as well as alternate bedding. I was stressing out about it.

but then I realized if I just pretended the bed bugs weren't there, I didn't have to fix anything.

stress relieved!

in all seriousness though, it's fairly hard to be largely removed from people and things we care about for 9 months, which is undoubtedly wrecking all of our brains. some people react via denialism - "it won't happen to me", etc.

I have family who won't let anyone in the door. I myself have decided I will let one friend into my life for dinners but otherwise no. My friends I mentioned above are willing to travel with precautions. I have other friends who are convinced they have already been exposed and are taking no precautions

are they so convinced that they got positive antibody tests?

wondering how people experience risk differently

yeah because you don't give a shit about the risks the people who service you or your crazy friends take

might even be sadder that that you regret doing the right thing while the cool kids are raging. did they call you a pussy?

(this is a deep sock, right?)

your friends are idiots

― call all destroyer, Saturday, December 12, 2020 7:14 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Dan S

Deep Sock

lol

just to make it crystal clear to you, since i don't think anything less would work, even if someone cares so little about the lives of others that they're willing to undertake unnecessary travel to "holiday destinations" because it makes them feel good, the densest members of our population should be concerned about covid-19 morbidity if they value their quality of life or have responsibilities involving taking care of others.

ok you made it crystal clear

I’ve not mentioned it before and likely never will again, but my friend’s sister-in-law felt similarly “won’t happen here” and that and my friend is now missing her 38 year old brother who pretty much died on the way to the hospital when he woke up with shallow breathing, low heart rate and his system just shut down

No prior conditions, no nothing

she “experienced risk differently” and now she’s raising two kids, including an infant, differently without my friend’s brother

despite nikki haley's connections, her sister-in-law died of it at age 53

I'm sorry to hear that, mh. Just horrible.

But I'm also glad you brought it up because it's all too easy to forget what's at stake here. With all due respect, Dan, your friends sound like narcissistic idiots.

sorry to hear that mh, really

I think Dan S does bring up something I've been thinking about.

Am I an idiot for going to the grocery store once or twice a week? What about the few occasions where I've eaten food and drank a few beers with friends, at a distance? The other day, I took a hike with my oldest friend. We had a nice time, but certainly weren't six feet apart the whole while.

My friends hung an art show this weekend in NY. They had strict capacity and time limits in the gallery. Are they stupid? I'm not totally sure!

On top of what Neanderthal mentions, you also have to remember that there are millions of people who don't have any money, who don't have a way to make money, and who aren't being given any money for relief, which would describe those particular artist friends pretty accurately.

I personally feel like I'm taking every precaution I can. But I have a friend who hasn't gone to a grocery store since March, and gets absolutely freaked picking up inventory from his very large storage space, which itself is in an enormous and nearly empty building. He makes me feel like I'm living on the edge!

Of course, rich people taking vacations should be excoriated. Should I for going backpacking with some friends in October?

My father in law has needed of heart valve surgery for the last year, but it was delayed due to other health issues and then covid in March. His health deteriorated further and he just went to the ER because of how bad he was feeling and it ends up what he thought was a hernia is likely a sarcoma the size of a grapefruit. We're three hours away and my wife couldn't get in the hospital to see him anyway and he is too weak from the heart/other health issues to have chemo/surgery so things aren't looking good. So he's probably going to die soon, alone, and my wife won't be able to see him or give him a hug and it won't be listed as covid, but fuck this shit.

― Joe Biden Shot My Dog - Vols. I-XL (PBKR), Tuesday, December 8, 2020 9:31 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Update: my father-in-law indeed has an untreatable sarcoma and is being released from the hospital to home hospice with my wife's sister. All things considered, this is good in that he won't be stuck living by himself like he has for the last nine months, but will be around kids, grandkids, and dogs for the last months of his life (and that is all there is going to be).

No definitive plans yet, but we will likely make at least one trip to my wife's sister (about a five hour drive each way) to see her dad before he dies. We have been extremely locked down, wfh, and safe, so exposing ourselves inside to a bunch of other family is certainly going to be anxiety-inducing.

I think we may rent an airbnb nearby for an entire week due to the distance involved, so we have our own place to sleep, and so we can spend more time with him, but this all certainly makes our previous precautions feel pointless on some level. Ugh.