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

I kinda want the J&J vaccine now because it's one and done.

In about three weeks my mother, father, and the inlaws we see most often will all have had their second shots. Based on my mother-in-law's ancestry my spouse and i are both eligible for vaccinations via a tribal medical clinic (and she double checked to make sure we weren't depriving anyone more in need if we did this), possibly in two weeks or so.

Assuming all this works out, can we actually be in contact with our family members some time in the next two months? Is there any hard data on this yet? Do we have to wait until my aunt and uncle - who live next to my parents - get their two shots as well, since my parents are incapable of being in contact with them?

I've been living under such a sense of dread and fear for so long that I don't want to blow it now, but how much more vaccinating would we need?

Vaccinated people can hang out with other vaccinates with reasonable certainty. They shouldn't feel frightened.

i think you should be fine.

congrats btw!

Yay!

Yay!

I posted on the KIP thread that I became eligible for the vaccine yesterday, and I was briefly stoked, but today I've been trying to book an appointment and there is no availability anywhere and I am bummed. Kicking myself for not having gotten a new primary care doctor as soon as mine retired, because that seems to be the only way anyone is getting the shot here.

Following some electrical safety check (is this a new UK thing?) that determined that the fuse box and some other unspecified things need replacing / fixing I've had the contractors trying to arrange a day in the next week to do the work.

Now... I live in a small one room apartment ('studio') and I don't g to an office. There is barely room for one person and the power will be off so I can't be in the flat while that's going on.

Why is this relevant here? Nothing is open, not even (and especially not even) public toilets, and it's still not warm outside. What the fuck am I supposed to do for a day, hang around in the park shivering, pissing up trees and hoping the police don't catch me? They've also suggested two people could do the work in half a day which until I've had the vaccine I'm even less enthusiastic about.

This is fucking ridiculous timing isn't it? The electrics have worked fine for the last ten years. This is causing me a lot of anxiety and they really are going to have to come up with an alternative, mainly when the fucking lockdown is over and I can actually go somewhere.

Teacher friend drove four hours to a small town CVS that had a vaccine appointment this morning.

xp

If you are just getting a mains board change and some minor works done it shouldn't more take more than a few hours, unless you get a slow sparky!

i had my fuse box changed and a *lot* of other things (socket replaced, two unused switches changed for blanking plates, bathroom light replaced, kitchen light replaced, carbon monoxide alarm fitted) and that took him ~6 hours including the trip to the shop to buy everything he needed

(and yeah, i think the regs have changed for rental properties, hence needing all that. he did mine ~2 years ago though)

blimey, when I used to do house-bashing we could finish a full rewire of a 2 bedroom flat by 12.30.

but that was price-work, when people are on hourly rates they are often motivated to eke jobs out.

I'm so out of the loop now, it was 16th Edition of the Regs when I qualified and can barely remember anything. My main philosophy was: try not to cause any electrocutions or electrical fault based fires and you'll be reet!

We're going to start seeing ad campaigns for a post-vaccine world. Suit Supply just sent this out under the heading, "The New Normal is Coming."

Too soon? Not soon enough? Thoughts? (And let's keep it clean, folks.) pic.twitter.com/rHuA9iZ42x

— Andrew Ross Sorkin (@andrewrsorkin) March 4, 2021

Can't wait till someone licks my nose again

It seems like years since it's been here

that is full-on DISGUSTING and I want to throw that company into the sun

Less disgusting and more funny if you imagine the lead up. "OK, now close your eyes and hold still ... "

The “sloppy head” note scribbled idly in the margin was taken too seriously.

turning into Mary Whitehouse/my pensioner mum voice: it's repulsive, it's nothing more than cheap pornography

the creators of that ad know how to get free attention. the problem is attaching the attention to the brand or the product, where they seem to have missed the memo.

oh they have another one with the product attached:

If this Suit Supply ad my husband just received is any indication, things are about to get wild. pic.twitter.com/Ijf112vG7P

— Jana G. Pruden (@jana_pruden) March 4, 2021

https://i.redd.it/m9vjizbmsug31.jpg

Is it called Suit Supply because it supplies the people being groped with grounds for lawsuits?

https://static0.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/jabba-the-hutt-licking-princess-leia.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&h=416

My spouse is vaccinated, I am not (and won't be soon), spouse feels it's still too dangerous to be out and about even once vaccinated so I continue to be the one to do the errands.

(I am not upset about this, I've been doing these errands the whole time, I have a mask with a fitter and most of this stuff is at the level of "curbside food pickup" where I see the risk as objectively quite minimal -- it's just causing me to reflect on what we treat as rational in our responses to this stuff)

I think it's actually a good discussion to have, since there has been (afaict) so little guidance on what vaccination should or can allow. For example, many will be in my (one assumes) future position, with my wife and I vaccinated, but my kids not. Or like a friend of mine, with one kid possibly vaccinated and two kids not. How should that dictate our behavior? Or what about a couple that is vaccinated hanging out with someone that is not? Still masks all around, right? There's going to be a lot to consider for some time to come.

Those Suit Supply ads remind me of this but from Medical Police

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVe6fYJNP_c

At the big vax site where I'm currently waiting in line, they're playing the Beatles. It's almost enough to make me leave and come back.

My wife and I drove six hours yesterday, stayed in a hotel (for the first time since 2019), another hour this morning to the tribal medical clinic, got our first shots and are now driving 7 hours back home.

So all things considered, having to stomach the fucking Beatles for 40 minutes more of my life is pretty small potatoes

in your life, you stomached them all

spouse feels it's still too dangerous to be out and about even once vaccinated

Is that for their own safety, or concern about transmitting to you? I know everyone has their own personal level of fear & comfort these days, but that just feels sad to me.

i know the statements from epidemiologists and physicians are that the precautions once you're vaccinated are more for other people, as even if you contract COVID, you're likely to get a much milder case. they think that transmission might be greatly reduced or reduced somewhat for vaccinated people, but nothing approximating definitive proof yet (other than that non-peer reviewed Israeli study).

i didn't exactly go back to my old routine after I got the shots so I can understand. what I do worry about is reluctance to resume activities once we get to herd immunity as we're so used to being cautious and staying in now, our brains will initially feel weird about any resumption of the 'old times' - even though I suspect mask-wearing is going to stick around us a lot longer, like seen in Asian countries.

Okay, it seems like they just have a generic playlist on cuz now it's been Nuggets Vol 1 for the past four tracks, which is great tbh.

First dose, done!

At the big vax site where I'm currently waiting in line, they're playing the Beatles. It's almost enough to make me leave and come back.

I Want to Stab Your Arm

what I do worry about is reluctance to resume activities once we get to herd immunity as we're so used to being cautious and staying in now, our brains will initially feel weird about any resumption of the 'old times'

Another way to read this behavior is that by being kicked out of the usual equilibrium a lot of people have come to realize they don't need or want to leave their house as much as they thought they did. (I don't think this is true of me, by the way, I just think it's gotta be the case for a fair number of people.)

a year of doing anything, even if it's stupid and horrible, starts to feel normal is how i break it down to an extent
learning how to go out on a nightly basis again is going to require training.

Another way to read this behavior is that by being kicked out of the usual equilibrium a lot of people have come to realize they don't need or want to leave their house as much as they thought they did. (I don't think this is true of me, by the way, I just think it's gotta be the case for a fair number of people.)

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, March 4, 2021 6:51 PM bookmarkflaglink

I do think that's true for a lot of people. it actually would have been true for me in my 20s, when I was somewhat of a severe introvert. i had a bit of an extrovert streak in my 30s which makes me get cabin fever a lot easier.

learning how to go out on a nightly basis again is going to require training.

I agree!

I never went out on a nightly basis when I was at my peak, and as some people on ILX can confirm, I knew how to boogie. I am simply exciter about being able to maybe see a concert again.

A trusted friend invited us to a brief backyard thing on Tuesday night in honor of a buddy who died a year ago; I panicked cuz it was at 8 p.m. and at this point in my life I've stopped drinking, had dinner, am drinking coffee, and am winding down before bed.

Wait you drink coffee...before bed... I'm so confused

Yup! Not before bed, usually a couple hours before bed.

And you... stopped drinking?

Sorry I'm just trying to get a handle on the Modern Alfred

lol I suppose I framed it clumsily. I meant: by 8 p.m. I've had my cocktail and wine, so no more drinking. During normal times on a Friday or Saturday if I weren't meeting a friend for dinner/drinks I'd do both at home and have no trouble meeting him or her someplace at 8 or 9 p.m.

Here's me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu66EDMxAbI