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

Sunday overnight my aunt passed (don't know if it was COVID or her other health issues). The friend of hers who gave me the news says that she saw Donna earlier that weekend--she wasn't terribly coherent but seemed to be at peace.

my condolences

My condolences too

Sorry to hear that j.lu, sending good thoughts you way.

Today is day 7 from my exposure, took a PCR test yesterday and it came back negative, thankfully. So it's on to dodging the next one. Unfortunately now my sister and both her kids seem to be positive as well, with symptoms ranging from a minor cough and runny noses (kids) to sore throat, coughing, congestion and fatigue (the parents). I say "seems to be" because only her husband and the younger kid tested positive, the other two tested negative on rapid tests but have symptoms that seem pretty certain based on exposure to the rest of the family (can't get PCR tests until Saturday where they live).

This may assuage you.

The Abbott BinaxNOW, a widely used at-home coronavirus test, can detect most people who are infected with the new Omicron variant and are carrying high levels of the virus, according to a new, real-world study of more than 700 people who visited a walk-up testing site in San Francisco.

Like all rapid antigen tests, BinaxNOW is less sensitive than P.C.R. tests, which can find even very small traces of the virus, and federal health officials have recently sent mixed messages about the usefulness of such antigen tests. But they have generally been good at catching people who have high viral loads and are most likely to be infectious.

The new study, which has not yet been reviewed by experts, found that overall the BinaxNOW detected 65 percent of the infections identified via P.C.R. testing, but 95 percent of people who had the highest viral loads. Among those with high levels of the virus, the tests caught 98 percent of those with symptoms and 90 percent of those without symptoms, the researchers found.

The test’s performance was roughly on par with what the scientists had observed in real-world studies before Omicron emerged, they said.

“It’s working as it was designed,” said Joseph DeRisi, a biochemist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is a president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and an author of the paper. “There does not seem to be any performance deficit with Omicron.”

This “Center for Covid Control” is the closest testing place to me, in what used to be a convenience story. They were especially busy around the New Year’s, with a line down the sidewalk. I’ve been there once, had a negative test within an hour or two.

This report below is from Florida, but there have been others. Disappointing if true, because otherwise the place is convenient and fast.

A company called, ‘Center for Covid Control,’ with testing sites around the country, is allegedly administering fake covid tests with all negative results. This ‘Wink News’ investigation began in FL. The AG of FL has been notified but has not yet responded to request for comment. pic.twitter.com/FMIUeUcOQ4

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 11, 2022

*convenience store (damn autocorrect)

Yeah, they shut down one of those in our city last week. Crazy how easy it is to get one of those scam sites up and running.

I took one of those tests and it said I didn't have COVID but that I was pregnant from marijuana

congratulations on your weed baby

I will name her Ganja Forksclove Tofu in your honor

I have been to one of those testing sites, too.

My mild COVID symptoms have mostly subsided. I took a rapid test on Monday, and was still positive, but took another one last night and am now negative. I'll take another one tomorrow, but I'm going to assume that I can stop quarantining. (I'm not really planning to do anything beyond maybe going to Walgreens with a mask on.)

Oops, I forgot this wasn't the "rona moved in" thread.

No hire started on our floor and I'm alarmed by how they somehow can't even get a KN95 mask to stay over their nose. Constantly an exposed nose, all day. It almost seems like you have to want to suffer additional discomfort to wear a KN95 like that.

"New" hire, wtf autocorrect?

No fun
Omicron and done

boy, I'm wearing my first N95 ever, and, wow, it does shut off smell. I can't smell a single thing in here.

This may be TMI, but you don't detect any ambient smell from your own nose?

take it to the gay thread, sailor

Lol

I'm just as God made me,sir, despite an appreciation for Fassbinder, Sirk and The Great American Songbook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbaq_qxjmPw

boy, I'm wearing my first N95 ever, and, wow, it does shut off smell. I can't smell a single thing in here.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 13, 2022 2:44 PM (fifty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I bought a pack of n95s this week too. Whereas cloth mask burps were moderately unpleasant, N95 mask burps are a distressing event. Gotta watch what I eat before I go out into the world, I guess.

boosted this morning, Moderna after two lots of AZ. 5 minutes in and out.

been twelve hours now and it's just kicking in. time for paracetamol and bed...

nice going koogs

Alice in Chains (2022): Here we come to get the booster

— KKUURRTT (@wwwkurtcom) January 14, 2022

t/s

some kind of booster

vs.

when the world is a booster
bad to swallow you whole

try to see it once my way

hit me with your boost shot

inject away

don’t stop
doin what you’re doin
don’t stop, baby
get your shot

Don't bring me down.

Boost!

booster jab as bad as the first two.

went to bed with paracetamol about 10, 12 hours after jab when I'd started shivering and aching, woke up at 3 with the worst of it gone, but didn't get back to sleep.

went to bed before 9 the second night, woke up several times sweating, but i guess I gained back some of the sleep. another day of taking it easy, i guess.

I really braced myself for my booster (five days ago) because it was my first Moderna shot, and so many people I know were knocked out by that. (First two were Pfizer.) My arm was a tiny bit sorer, otherwise nothing.

I heard a rumor that one factor in how badly the MRNA vaccines laid you low was one's testosterone levels. btw, all three of my Pfizer shots were uneventful. Figures.

I still got hard after exposures to Jamie Dornan photos!

koogs i also had bad side effects for all three shots, cool club we belong to!

2 and 3 kicked my ass, 3 less than 2

Cool. My work just sent out an email that essentially boils down to "wow, contact tracing with this many cases is hard, so we're not gonna do it anymore, make sure you guys notify all of your contacts yourself, good luck!"

thought this was good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFRvOgqsTUQ

I can say that being in SF right now is a combination of

1) car horns, cheers and fireworks

2) my entire Twitter timeline dunking the fuck out of Aaron Rodgers with every COVID/vax joke known to humanity.

:)

been playing pretty much by lockdown 1 rules since this started, wfh, not seeing friends, no pubs or gigs, 2 tube journeys, one bus ride total. but had a family funeral on Friday that meant 90 miles on a train and it was fine, Paddington booking hall was empty, concourse fine, carriages ditto. and pretty much 100% masks apart from all 8 people who got off at kemble, strangely.

nobody at service was wearing masks, but it was an abbey so plenty of ventilation. crematorium less so, but a 20th of the people. but the wake, fuck me. 200 people, no chance of distancing, no sign of increased ventilation, nobody masked. did eventually find a quiet spot and kept with family. the only plus side was that nobody there was young, very much a 45+ crowd and hopefully they were all vaxxed up.

I took a series of COVID-19 tests at a next door facility last year. I stopped going to this place because I didn't feel like the way they were taking proper scrapes of my nose (and this was a pop-up facility which made me nervous), but nonetheless, I went.

Previously, my insurance company actually reimbursed the entire amount charged for a same-day PCR, which kind of surprised me as most won't. But this test, a rapid antigen, was only covered at $77 of $138. I've been fighting them for months, and their response, even after I filed a complaint with the Department of Insurance, is always the same: we paid 100% of the allowed amount, but you went out of network, so they charged more than the allowed amount. I.E. "reasonable and customary charges".

I've read the CARES act multiple times and it specifically states that the carrier can't do this, that it must reimburse up to the amount of the provider's advertised price of the test if there is no negotiated rate. Additionally, the carrier's website (United) claims all tests, in or out of network, will have a $0 cost share until April 2022. This is under the assumption that you're testing for reasons of exposure or symptoms, and not like to get secured for travel. But I was testing due to exposure! and they didn't ask me this question.

So today my claim with the Department of Insurance in Illinois was closed with them once again repeating this to me, and denying they ever paid a previous claim. I found the claim in 5 minutes, and reattached the CARES act section that goes over out of network charges, as well as their own website screenshots.

this much effort spanning over a month and a half to get them to pay 61 fucking dollars. what a racket.

how's testing in Sanford, Neaderthal ? I can go whenever I want now.

It's much easier to do now. And finding at home tests is much easier

I saw them stacked at my Walgreens on Wednesday.

> but the wake, fuck me. 200 people, no chance of distancing, no sign of increased ventilation, nobody masked.

news from home a week later and cousin, uncle and brother i'd shared a table with have all tested positive, with minor symptoms luckily. mother and father ok so far.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/02/08/carolyn-hax-couple-productive-pandemic-relationship/

Dear Carolyn: Before the pandemic, my wife and I — early 30s, both lawyers — had long working hours and frequent business travel, with weekends spent largely on family events and cultural activities. Once our respective firms sent us to work at home, we calculated we would gain 30-plus hours a week, even while still working full-time, due to not commuting, traveling or socializing in person. We promised each other we would use that time to be productive in ways our prior schedules did not permit.

I kept up my end of the bargain: In six months I read 25 biographies, developed decent conversational skills in two foreign languages, upped my running program to the point that I am marathon-ready, and started volunteering for voter registration advocacy, all while continuing to work full-time. My wife has done … not so much. She has been reading fantasy novels, occasionally watching a History Channel documentary, and has generally used the time to “unwind.”

I have confronted her several times, and she tells me she is “rejecting productivity culture” and doesn't feel like improving herself right now. We share housework, cooking, and other practical matters, and she does exercise, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated — disgusted, even — that she would waste this gift of free time just to watch TV and read books better suited for children.

I have asked her to get counseling and a depression evaluation, but she has refused and thinks she is conducting herself “fine.” Do you have any suggestions, other than divorce?

— Productive

the first lines of the response:

Divorce might be her best option, so do I have to leave it out?

Wow.

Christ, what an asshole

wife otm