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

Got you. Sweden is a touchy subject because it constantly gets brought up by anti-lockdown clowns despite the fact that its death rate is horrifically higher than comparable countries.

― Authoritarian Steaks (Tom D.), Tuesday, May 4, 2021 4:00 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's also doing no better economically, which was the supposed advantage of the do it/be legends approach.

So! Several good friends, all Dems, have reverted to normal since getting jabbed between February and late March, i.e. eating indoors at restaurants. None, some of whom with serious chronic conditions pre-COVID, have gotten sick. Yet here I am starting to quietly boil in the heat of outdoor Florida restaurant seating areas because I'm scared. Aren't vaccines supposed to handle the worst-case scenarios? I mean, if you get new brakes for your car, you won't test them driving to the corner Publix: you test them on the interstate going 65 mph, then brake suddenly when you see stopped cars in front of you. Obv you avoid dangerous scenarios, but, again, that's what they're for.

I suppose this is a long-ish justification for wanting to try indoor dining soon.

idk do what u feel man we can't stop you, I wouldn't

I would maybe get a hat

one thing to look at is what different restaurants are doing to accommodate indoor seating. A lot of restaurants here have limited capacity and put plexiglass barriers between tables. I think those measures plus vaccines are pretty good.

You're probably not at much risk dining indoors if you're vaxxed. The bigger danger is poorly ventilated restaurants that don't require masks and don't put barriers between tables causing superspreader events.

Given the low number of breakthrough cases, and the likelihood that others in your party and the restaurant are also vaxxed, I'd say you'll probably be fine.

I generally won't go to places that don't enforce masks or mush everyone together without distancing because I assume they are terrible people and that the people going there probably didn't get vaccinated.

idk plexiglass is hygiene theatre. We know how it spreads, and plexiglass will barely stop aerosolized particles.

Yeah, that was my issue with the "safety protocols" flyer they included with my jury summons. Like, great, plexiglass and wiping down surfaces. Okay, but what are you actually doing about the real problems?

Btw US 7-day case average dipped to it's lowest since Oct 6, 26% reduction from 14 days ago.

Still way higher than our first wave, but hoping the trend continues.

Hyper cleaning and wiping down surfaces is good for cleanliness, but are otherwise just theatre. Temp checks too.

Masks, good ventilation, and distance, as well as capacity limits are the real shit. Restaurants should open doors/windows where possible.

I should note: every one of my favorite restaurants here still requires staff to mask and guests to mask in waiting areas. I don't know what it's like in the rest of Florida. Back in July during our Sanibel beach vacation, we ran out of a restaurant when the friendly staff answered the door with smiles and no masks. It was like David Lynch politeness porn.

If the case numbers are low I’d be totally fine with eating indoors totally vaxxed up.

haven't really seen much what Florida has done since DeSantis's recent edict, but my county still seems to be mostly masking, to where it's jarring if I see people without one anywhere. but we're a blue-er area.

Melbourne was good about masks when my folks and I went to the beach there for a few days. but other beaches (Cocoa) are fuckin terrible and people were moved on as if the pandemic was over in April....of 2020.

I'm not prepared to alter much of what I've been doing for the past year+ but that's mostly due to the fact that Cook County alone still has a daily infection rate that's the same as/higher than every state surrounding Illinois. I keep hoping that data like this will factor into my workplace altering its plans to stupidly throw everyone back into the office on 6/1 but I'll maybe wait to hold my breath until I'm crammed into a closed space with unvaccinated coworkers for 8 hrs./day.

Yeah, Cook County's numbers are quite obnoxious, I hope we start to see a dip given some more encouraging vaxx numbers. My work has set up some committees to discuss "return" protocols, so I'm guessing things aren't quite imminent. However, been getting conflicting information about what it will look like in my department. One superior said some sort of hybrid remote thing would be encouraged, but another gave a dispiriting "butts in seats, every day, soon" type conversation last week that was hard to hear.

I ate a full meal indoors for the first time last weekend, in Manhattan. It was a week after my second dose so not fully immunized but felt close enough, and rates are low here. Pretty full restaurant. I'd reconsider if a variant that the Pfizer vaccine wasn't good at handling was gaining ground locally, but for now it felt fine.

I don't want to link directly to the absolute eyesore of the NBC 5 website, but this could be interesting if they continue to target neighborhoods with high rates of hesitancy:

Chicago is launching a new concert series exclusively for residents who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the city announced Tuesday.

The Protect Chicago Music Series will be a monthly series of events across the city as an "incentive and benefit" for Chicagoans who receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office said in a statement announcing the program.

Attendees must have received their second of two doses or their single-dose shot at least two weeks prior to be eligible to attend that event, according to the city.

Events will be ticketed and attendees must bring their Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination card as proof of vaccination, as well as a matching photo ID, officials said.

The first event will be held on May 22 in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood, with DJ Ron Trent and Duane Powell performing, officials said. Based on that date, anyone who receives their final dose of the vaccine by May 8 will be eligible to attend.

Tickets can be found on Eventbrite, at vaccination sites and at will call. The city said for the first event, tickets will be made available first to people who attend a vaccination event at Apostolic Faith Church, located at 3823 S. Indiana Ave., between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on May 8. Residents can register for a vaccination appointment here, though walk-ins will also be accepted.

I generally won't go to places that don't enforce masks or mush everyone together without distancing because I assume they are terrible people and that the people going there probably didn't get vaccinated.

This is the thing. I've sat outside or in street tents with vaxxed or part-vaxxed friends a couple of times (and once in a "window" where the entire wall was absent), but seeing crowded, maskless bar patios or full restaurants is just a signal to avoid those places and people for the rest of the year.

(Outside of the city, seeing IF YOU ENTER WTHOUT A MASK WE WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE A MEDICAL CONDITION AND SHALL SAY NOTHING ABOUT IT signs on bars and restaurants without open windows, let alone outdoor seating, makes my heart ache for the sensible people who happen to live in those towns.)

my god that's a thing?

Yes indeed, saw a differently worded version of such when I stopped at a Casey's for gas last time I drove out to see my mom. Thankfully I had no reason/need to enter.

on the plus side: it looks like Michigan's cases are finally leveling off.

Yeah, that's been good to see.

Pfizer, Biontech, Novavax, Moderna shares plunge to session lows after U.S. backs waiving patent protections on Covid vaccines https://t.co/Wq9i3OsP1j pic.twitter.com/gEPwFw4yOg

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) May 5, 2021

You hate to see it lol

xpost Florida's have also declined more than 30% (!!!) in the past two weeks, despite all efforts to fuck things up indefinitely by DeSantis. It's not him, though, that deserves credit - we are doing better than the rest of the South at vaccinating (though really more around average nationally), and some counties (Seminole/Orange/etc) were upholding their own mask mandates since last summer. DeSantis just defanged their ability to do that, though, which worries me a lot, as it leaves it up to the store owners. but most of the people here in Seminole just do it anyway.

Miami-Dade and Broward business leaders, as per stories in the last couple days, have said they're keeping their mask mandates, including the big box stores.

So! Several good friends, all Dems, have reverted to normal since getting jabbed between February and late March, i.e. eating indoors at restaurants. None, some of whom with serious chronic conditions pre-COVID, have gotten sick. Yet here I am starting to quietly boil in the heat of outdoor Florida restaurant seating areas because I'm scared. Aren't vaccines supposed to handle the worst-case scenarios? I mean, if you get new brakes for your car, you won't test them driving to the corner Publix: you test them on the interstate going 65 mph, then brake suddenly when you see stopped cars in front of you. Obv you avoid dangerous scenarios, but, again, that's what they're for.

I suppose this is a long-ish justification for wanting to try indoor dining soon.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, May 5, 2021 1:23 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Alfred, I definitely feel you. Our friends' band is playing indoors at a local cafe owned by other friends - the first such real event since this all started. When I saw it announced, I got real pangs to go because it would be an amazing scene to see everyone.

I feel like we're living an OK compromise here. Vaccine is there for anyone that wants it. Masks still mandated inside for most (all?) places, but just anecdotally some of the fear and stress seems to have dissipated (though it hasn't been particularly discernible for months, tbh). We're going to a ticketed museum entry this weekend (mask required inside). We're going to the soft reopening of a friend's restaurant next week (masks required when not dining). Stuff closed or canceled for a year (movie theaters, conventions, concerts) is creeping back in the coming months. One kid is, as of yesterday, back in school full time for the remainder of the year, the other alternates two days in-person, two days home.

I'm not particularly worried about safety or rising cases. I think we're at the stage (here, at least) where number of cases doesn't mean too much, because vaccine is there if you want it, and vaccine prevents serious illness and death (which are the scary metrics imo). I feel safe, my family and friends (all vaxxed) feel safe, and there's no reason to believe otherwise. Either the vaccines work (and there's every reason to believe and trust that they do), or they don't (and there's no reason to believe that they don't).

At this stage, I'm not even worried about the Great Unvaxxed. If they want to blow it off, that's their problem. So far, any place I've seen that's been packed with mask-free people is not a place I'd want to be, anyway; crowds and places packed with people were unpleasant well before they could get you killed. Even proof of vaccination wouldn't get me into a theatre for a sold out 7pm screening of whatever, because people are rude, gross, loud and inconsiderate in the best of circumstances. That goes for bars and the like, too. If that's really what people desperately missed, well, good for them, I guess.

Ultimately, re: restaurants, the real test of normalcy will be when everyone is comfortable enough to have the *servers* mask free. Who knows when that day will come.

the real test of normalcy will be when everyone is comfortable enough to have the *servers* mask free.

*chills*

Either the vaccines work (and there's every reason to believe and trust that they do), or they don't (and there's no reason to believe that they don't).

I'm coming around to this position.

Seemingly every Pret employee in London appears to have an 'exception' to the requirement to mask.

Anecdotal tales from the drive-through vaccine clinic front: they've cut down the number of days from about three a week to just two, and the daily schedules have been a little lighter as well. However, I'm still seeing people who have been eligible for a long time now (elderly, front line workers like fireman) coming in, and while granted, today was a second shot day, that still means people at the front of the line are only just now just getting to the finish line. Which implies there may be a hunk of more recently eligible people still waiting their turn, or at least just ... waiting.

My wife and I are both fully vaccinated but we won’t be ready to even start going back to a more normal life until our young daughter is able to get the vaccine.

^^ Agreed. It's a tremendous relief to have both of us with both doses and about a week from being fully vaxxed, but other than feeling less stress when we shop or around other people, our routines aren't going to change all that much until cases drop significantly further, or our son gets vaccinated.

I’ve eaten inside a couple of restaurants but it’s going to be a while before I feel comfortable inside a bar I think. No physical fear, just learning how to be around strangers in tight confines again.

I feel like my body doesn't fit in my body anymore.

I've sat at a restaurant bar if it's outside (in Miami there are plenty) or, last week, at a restaurant whose bar is by open doors and windows and uncrowded at lunch. I'm not ready to go to a free-standing bar yet. Just last night a careful friend posted photos from inside a newly opened gay bar on the beach; the combination of masked and unmasked patrons in a tight space mingling gave me the willies.

I went to a bar last night to play music. Even outside and mostly masked, it felt weird. I'm fully vaccinated (and so are my bandmates) but it's still odd.

So much of this seems to be about modeling and courtesy. A vaccinated person who still wears one or two masks - even when outside - is simply signaling care, and willingness to be inconvenienced for the safety of, others.

I double mask and have gotten bemused "Why? You're fully jabbed" from relatives.

Ha, I was going to ask if those of you that were fully vaccinated are still double masking. For the near future, I plan to still do it when I am in a shop or store.

Lots of people on the right are screeching about how Biden still double-masks even outdoors.

I see it as "if I can do it, so can you" and "I'm not exempt."

i still wear mine, but it's habit by now. I barely notice

Lots of caveats, of course, but:

Public health experts remain cautious, but said that while they still expect significant local and regional surges in the coming weeks, they do not think they will be as widespread or reach past peaks.

“We’re clearly turning the corner,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Across the country, the outlook for the pandemic has indeed improved, putting the United States in its best position against the virus yet. The nation is recording about 49,000 new cases a day, the lowest number since early October, and hospitalizations have plateaued at around 40,000, a similar level as the early fall. Nationwide, deaths are hovering around 700 a day, down from a peak of more than 3,000 in January.

In the past, lulls in the pandemic were short-lived, giving way to the surge across the Sun Belt last summer, and the painful outbreak that stretched across the United States this winter.

But now, there is one crucial difference: More than half of American adults — 148 million people — have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, perhaps the biggest reason experts are optimistic that the improved outlook may last. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have also fallen at a time when the weather is getting warmer, which, in many places, will allow people to spend more time outdoors, where the virus spreads less easily.

the good thing is that when cases did go up for about a month, after the 'burn-in' month or so (since it's a trailing statistic), deaths didn't increase in tandem. i'm hoping this means they'll decrease in about 2-3 weeks .

My wife has a half-vaxxed co-worker whose father was refusing to get vaccinated, so the co-worker flew down to Florida to try and convince him. She not only failed but caught covid on the trip.

Oops

The nation is recording about 49,000 new cases a day

I guess? this is good, or better.. but it still sounds bad

It IS too high to be comfortable, but was 71,000 a day three weeks ago. Decreases are usually a gradual thing, but a decrease like this is promising, as we were going the other way not that long ago and suggests the vaccinating is starting to bend things a little.

Governors saying COOL, NO MORE NEED TO WEAR MASKS was the wrong response entirely.

Vaccination is definitely slowing but we just hit 45% of the population with at least 1 shot. 50% nearby.

Also looks like the number of cases is going to drop more this week, as the 49,000 average included last Thursday and Friday which both had nearly 60,000 cases, and today, we're finishing somewhat around 45,000.

I pay way too much attention to this shit lately

https://thenib.com/pandemic-archive/

http://thenib.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/A-Chapin-1200x1461.jpg

Fascinated that the artist felt necessary to write in “voices from above” with an arrow to make this cartoon legible to the audience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7fLvmi1hFs