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

Made me think of this sketch (the end), xp:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1srp0

it's a movement
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-28/chickens-millennials-weisenthal-odd-lots

Incidentally, Odd Lots = great podcast

Yeah, that second Moderna shot knocked me on my ass. I was fine all day yesterday, popped a couple of Tylenol before I went to bed - just in case. Woke up a little after 1 with waves of nausea and a wicked headache. I don't know that I ever had chills or a fever, but I tossed and turned all night and couldn't shake the headache or the nausea. Finally fell asleep for a decent chunk of time around 7:30 this morning, very glad I took today off. Was mostly better as today went on, but then a second wave of nausea hit me earlier this afternoon. It's mostly subsided now, but it came on quick. I've definitely felt worse and been for more sick, but I was surprised by how quickly it all came on.

eh, have a Jäger shot.

this mfer is NEVER happy about his vaccine access!

;)

the speed it comes on with is wild, i agree. you'll be okay by Monday, i promise.

what I really think ISN'T helpful is vaccinated people constantly telling others "remember, you can still catch and spread the virus!", as if there is no reduced risk at all of doing so by being vaccinated. one of my friends has been doing this for two months, and it's completely understandable why he wants his friends to wear a mask, but him constantly misappropriating what we actually do know (that it seems to reduce transmission, even if it doesn't 100% eliminate it, which practically no vaccine does) isn't helping.

to be clear, I don't care about masking, and I will always do what my host wants me to do. if my host is vaccinated, we're outside, and wants me to mask, I will (I probably will already out of habit). if a business wants me to (and most of ours still do), I will as well. it's probably not a habit I'm breaking any time soon as people don't know I'm vaccinated.

but y'know, constantly saying that nonsense doesn't prevent transmission isn't going to help some of the more gullible, on the fence folk see the value in getting a vaccine.

(Not to mention it infuriates me how people can't see the difference between the statements "It's possible that you might be able to transmit the disease after being vaccinated, we're evaluating" and "You can definitely spread it, this is established bedrock!"

(also, it probably matters what vaccine you got, too)

otm

how do you convince someone who has a legit fear of needles? other than telling them "you can barely feel it" , which doesn't work

"You will barely feel this needle that will keep you from dying hooked up to a ventilator.

lol Alfred

I think they just have to bite the bullet (as it were). I was talking to someone the other day whose older daughter faints after shots. Like, a few minutes after shots. So they have to be prepared for her to pass out on the way to the car, or in the car, or in the office, just when everyone has let their guard down.

needle fear is unknowably weird to me and among the most frustrating of phobias in that you are not going to be able to avoid hypodermics if you live in the western world. you gotta teach your children early they're not dangerous. when i was a kid my mom would use my arm on rare occasions to practice for her RN training.

I have a bit of that (mostly like an involuntary shock reaction to injury) and got my shot a few days ago no problems, but in the lead up, really, really did not appreciate the constant news coverage showing needles literally going into arms. Like that is not helpful!!

My needle phobia is 100% irrational and deeply ingrained but it has thankfully never prevented me from getting shots as needed.

Four days in, roughy start but feeling good except my arm still feels like it took a punch.

COVID arm is a thing! My partner's shot swole up to the size of a deck of cards and she had a bad general allergic reaction. It passed entirely in about a week and a half but it's understandably scary in the moment. Benadryl helps.

i know i keep repeating my experiences here (and elsewhere on board) but i hope it's helpful for anyone just checking in to be reassured of the realities of this stuff rather than fall prey to dumbass misinformation

Yeah my arm is still pretty puffy around the injection site, though thankfully no redness or a rash.

it was like i grew a muscle from my first shot lol

I know "just don't think about needles" is easier said than done. But every time I get a shot or get blood drawn, I just look off into the distance in the opposite direction, and focus on something else for a while. I barely notice shots.

But if I were to stare at the needle and watch it happening and ask for a countdown and tense up and stress over it, I probably would be pretty anxious.

it's ok to go up and say "I need you to do all your cleverest kid tricks with me even though I am an adult"

one of my besties literally faints after every shot. when his wife got the epidural shot he practically went into a coma.

i'ma keep strong-arming him tho

yes, he fainted after a shot he DIDN'T EVEN GET

There's covid arm, the immediately swelling (like a bee sting, which afaict is not unique to this vaccine), and then there is covid arm, the splotchy rash, which arrives about 8 days later in some people, including my wife.

I just look off into the distance in the opposite direction, and focus on something else for a while. I barely notice shots.

This is my move. In fact, at my first shot, I didn't feel a thing and when I looked back she was already putting the band-aid on my arm.

Back at work, a colleague informs me she's not getting the vaccine because if she does get the 'rona she'd rather get over it naturally.

I cannot stand seeing needles go into flesh. Never could. Especially if it's a big veiny vein.
I'm fine with having jabs though, just look straight ahead. Had loads of blood taken the other day and barely felt it at all.

I'm jealous of all of you who got COVID arm.

xxpost So trying to pull oxygen into your rapidly-disintegrating lungs without the aid of a ventilator, then.

I didn't want to get into it tbh.

Back at work, a colleague informs me she's not getting the vaccine because if she does get the 'rona she'd rather get over it naturally.

Yeah, don't know why more people don't try this. If I got Covid I would simply not die.

I think because she's young ... ish ... she thinks she'll be fine. She was quizzing another colleague if they knew anyone who had Covid and was disappointed to hear that two of the people he knew with long term problems were in their 20s.

yeah i've never understood people who decided to get sick, rather than decide to just like....... not get sick. it's not complicated, people!!

It's a pity, I like her but this is nuts.

I suspect her of being a hippy tbh.

something something Big Pharma something something your immune system needs to get sick to get strong something something essential oils something something

Like vinyl, the virus just sounds warmer and has more tonal nuances than the vaccine.

if you join VRUS you get one virus per month for 14.95

"Aw, shingles again this month?"

Rather die naturally than live unnaturally. Stupid fucking hippies.

I might understand the mentality of "I'll just take my chances with the virus" if it were truly like the flu. But I've read of too many cases of otherwise young/healthy people who have been unexpectedly afflicted, or people who have had symptoms that last for months or cause long-term damage, that it really doesn't seem worth the risk!

It's weird: people who are suspicious about what the vaccine might do to them don't seem to be at all concerned with what the virus itself might do!

I've been stuck so many times in my life that I don't even think about it, never really understood this fear tbh but I guess that's what makes it an irrational fear.

any remaining queasiness I had about shots completely went away the first time I got a shoulder tattoo

I'd be more chill regarding the people who want to take their chances w/ the virus if it wasn't contagious, is the thing

Wouldn't have an issue if those folk sunk by themselves, but it's dragging down the collateral folk that now have to help that gets me. Dumb attitudes never extend to taking 100% of the consequences.

I'd be more chill regarding the people who want to take their chances w/ the virus if it wasn't contagious, is the thing