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

I’m really struggling today, it’s hard to feel anything but hopeless between the surging numbers, the administration admitting publicly that they’ve just given up and our state’s health official breaking down in tears during a recent briefing because the numbers are so bleak. I feel like we are so doomed and I’m having a hard time finding a glimmer of hope to focus on.

My Chicago-adjacent town has thus far managed to keep the daily cases in the single and low double digits but we broke our record along with the rest of the state yesterday. Given how cavalier an increasing majority of people are behaving, it's just a matter of when at this point.

Looking at the past month's trends, the next five or six months are going to be very grim.

yes. :( most of the time i feel angry about it, to be honest, not sad. probably because i haven't lost anyone close to me, yet. but the last week, as others here (and elsewhere) seem to be noting, it just feels worse. it is grim. for a lot of people (particularly those with seasonal affective disorder), the leaves turning and falling and the gray skies reinforces the feeling.

i don't know. hold on for dear life, i guess.

Like, how badly do you need that?

I live alone and I gotta say, I need that kind of diner moment having breakfast with a friend on some random Saturday very badly. Seven months of spending 2-3 weeks at a stretch not seeing anyone at all in person is breaking my brain. I can believe that beyond some threshold of loneliness that going to a diner with a couple friends is like jumping out of a high window when the building's on fire... your body simply does it without asking your brain first.

In San Francisco we're just starting to get back to some form of "normalcy". Places are reopening, restrictions are being lifted, my work is ramping up on site and I'm making a full paycheck again for the first time in months. For a few days I let myself get optimistic that we'd turned a corner and I might get to hug friends and family again within the next year but it's pretty hard to imagine the spikes all over the rest of the country not making their way to us, especially the way I see people getting more and more cavalier about mask use and social distancing.

The fact that we are no better positioned, at all, than we were in March is what stings the most. Did I think we’d have a vaccine or be back to normal by November? No. But I did think we be much better positioned than everyone standing around essentially saying, “well... fuck, I dunno.”

I’m starting to become unhealthily obsessed with non mask-wearers in this country... it’s upsetting me. I just can’t get over it.

― brimstead

yeah, honestly 90% of my anger is directed at regular people because i never had any reason to believe that trump would do anything useful, and with him at the top there wasn't a lot of reason to expect much out of other political leadership. regular people at least have some things they have control over to protect themselves and others, but so many of them just can't be bothered. every time i have to walk by a crowded break room at work or maskless yuppies in the lobby of my apartment building it's like, clearly i can't trust any of you.

we just set a new record for daily case increases, in a couple days the asshole is coming for a rally, then the two big state universities (both with significant recent student case numbers) are playing football here on halloween which for added bonus is time change night so one extra hour of partying (at least this is how we used to treat it, not sure about kids these days). plus rumour has it that lots of students aren't bothering to even get tested anymore so they won't have to hassle with contact tracing and are perfecting ways route around the local anti-gathering ordinances

i imagine it's going to be really shitty in the next month

To be honest, all of this feels like a version of the Onion school shooting article, "'No Way to Prevent This' Says Only Nation..."
etc.

Weird experience just now. I called up Walgreens to get a prescription refilled, but before I got to that point the automated voice announced (and I paraphrase, but this is very close) "we at Walgreens are pleased to announce that we are one of two approved locations to get your Covid-19 vaccine. Be aware that at this time there *is* no Covid-19 vaccine, but we will keep you informed of when one becomes available." I thought that was so strange. One of two? What's the other one? Are there places preapproved to give the vaccine (that doesn't exist)? Is this a thing? If so, why only two, why not a lot more? And why even announce that you will have a vaccine that doesn't exist available if and when it ever exists?

probably means there are two approved *right now*. there will be more.

we don't have any vaccines yet, but have a Snickers!

CVS and Walgreens apparently:
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/10/16/trump-aministration-partners-cvs-walgreens-provide-covid-19-vaccine-protect-vulnerable-americans-long-term-care-facilities-nationwide.html

most 2021 image will be a pic of a Walgreens coupon for COVID-19 vaccine plus 1lb bag of Starburst for $29.99

guess someone in the administration work with aetna, legally or otherwise

*works

i am correct that aetna owns cvs, or cvs owns aetna, or whatever? they're all fucking rich

guessing someone wants to make it sound like a vaccine is imminent before the election

shouldn't be hardees be distributing these as well, as an apology note to Andrew Puzder?

I just found it weird that it said one of two. Why not say they're "*one* of the approved locations?" Because yeah, there will be more, just as, uh, there will eventually be a vaccine. So why assert something temporary but irrelevant - one of two places you can get something that doesn't exist - when by the time it *does* exist it will be instantly transformed into "one of many places you can get something that *does* exist." Which, yeah, is as useless as proclaiming "we have Snickers!!!!"

Pick up your 2021 Travis $cott Value Meal, now with COVID vaccine!

how many people would be hospitalized for eating the needles

~ 10%?

"fuckin vaccine didn't work, i still went to the hospital"

ugh, my partner just tested positive. she had just gone out of town for a family emergency. i last saw her on wednesday morning, she took the test wednesday evening, and got the test result this morning. i'll be going to get my first test today, i guess.

i have about 4 hours until she gets back. one share a small one-bathroom apartment, but we do have a side-room that we use as an office. So I think she'll set up shop in there, I'll stay in the back, and we'll try to be as safe as we can with sharing the bathrooms.

sorry to hear that Karl.

my wife has been sick since Monday the 19th, she took a test on Sunday and it came back negative but it does really feel like it is COVID. she has a smorgasbord of the symptoms that have been reported in the media - headache, fever, aches, fatigued almost all the time, dry cough, sore throat, stomach problems, altered sense of taste, getting out of breath when walking (when she was still leaving the apartment last week) - and will feel better for a spell of like half a day before feeling worse that evening, or when she wakes up in the morning. I haven't been ill.

Aw, jeez, Karl. Best of luck to both of you.

:(, i'm sorry to hear that. one frustrating thing, in this first 30 minute or so of knowing, is that multiple people at work have expressed the thought that she'll be fine because she is young. also that after informing them of the situation, i was given more tasks to finish for today.

thinking of you Karl and jim.

i’m sure they think they’re being reassuring KM.

yeah, i don't blame them or anything, i know they're thinking positive things.

but yeah, it feels a little like playing roulette where 30% of the tiles are bad and 1% kills you, and everyone's like "you'll be fine, look at the 70% that's no big deal"

Crap, all manner of good thoughts to the Malones

Best to you both, KM and Jim <3

sorry to hear zs. she is asymptomatic?

best to your wife as well Jim

so far asymptomatic, yes

sorry to hear Jim and Karl, hope it turns out OK

yeah all the best karl and jim, hang in there

Sending good thoughts to you both KM and jim.

best wishes jim and karl

Good thoughts your way, Jim and Karl

best to y'all <3

<3 y’all

Sorry to hear, both of you.
Can Mrs Jim get tested again? Friend of a friend has had multiple negative tests but is similar.

oh man, hang in there guys

Just been down to the local supermarket and count me amazed that there is no sign whatsoever of panic buying ... yet. I can only assume people have given up following the news.

yeah, i got a delivery slot for tomorrow a.m. no probs

Panic because of covid or because of politics? I think by now a lot of people have got a system figured out, or at least calculated the risks they're willing to take, and the stores in turn have massively upped their capacity for stuff like curbside, delivery, etc.

Because there's been another 'leak' that we're due a full lockdown soon.
Massive queue outside my supermarket when I only wanted bread and milk.
You're probably right though, most people will be fine going to shops in lockdown for 'essentials', less so Christmas shopping I guess but I mostly do all mine online anyway.

I expect there to be new lockdowns in the U.S., finally...on November 4th

Lockdown meaning ... what?