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

Good and welcome news on your friend tipsy.

Good luck to James R and everyone else fighting this thing.

I finally got confirmation I'm in the "clinically extremely vulnerable" list so I'll be vaccinated with the over 70s. Just need to avoid infection for 6 weeks of daily hospital visits...

You've made it this far, the hospital's resident luck elves are obviously on your side. Fingers crossed for you.

My parents are getting their initial Fauci Ouchies(tm) today

I'd worry more about kids asymptomatically bringing it from home than the faculty tbh

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 25, 2021 2:33 AM (five hours ago)

I very much am!

I don't know where you are, but have the decision-makers been, generally, correct up until now?

― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, January 25, 2021 2:40 AM (five hours ago)

I guess so, yeah. Mostly. They caved to parent pressure before Christmas and set a return date, and then cases spiked and they had to roll it back. So they avoided judgment on that one. Otherwise, they sent the kids home last March and haven't brought them back till now.

They've got the kids more or less in bubbles over there, as far as I can tell. Like I said, I'm hoping for the best. The overarching theme of the past year, imo, has been that I just don't really know anything ... none of us do. I didn't know if sending my kid to a camp was OK, I didn't know if swim lessons were OK, I didn't know if flying was OK, I didn't know if flag (non-tackle) football was OK, and I don't know if going back to school now is OK. My wife and I are just trying to do our best based on the best assumptions we can make, and so far it has worked - no COVID in this family. (We decided yes on swim lessons and flag football, no on a camp. We flew once because we had to.)

Trying hard every day to do your best when you really don't know anything is fuckin' mentally taxing, I guess is what I'm saying.

Avoiding contact with strangers, or with people who you know are associating with other humans, and not sitting indoors for minutes or longer with other humans, is safer than doing any of those things.

that doesn't sound like in-person school to me

https://i.imgur.com/vI9v7sv.jpg

Re: trusting decision-makers, this is probably stating the obvious but I think it's important to keep in mind that their decisions are based on calculations about the population as a whole - how many people can we afford to have get sick at a time, what are the communal costs of keeping schools closed, how can we weigh that against the dangers of opening them up, etc. It doesn't mean they're certain that you and your family specifically won't get sick.

I think the motto of life right now is just, "everything will always get worse". I'm honestly shocked, at this point, by how much worse every consecutive month has been since March of 2020. I mean, I sit here on January 26th, and would give anything to go back to how comparatively well I had it back in December. I am terrified about how awful February will be.

where do you live, jon?

Illinois, which only has five states worse than it, in terms of vaccine administration.

But, it's not just that, just a whole pile of COVID and not COVID related things are conspiring against me and my family right now and I'm nearing a breaking point with my mental health.

Not that a world without COVID would have solved all of these problems, but it would make things considerably easier and less stressful right now. I really could use something to break in a positive direction for once, but sorry to gloom things up.

All I can offer, man, is to keep following your personal safety measures that have worked since March. I expected vaccine distribution to be at best chaotic given the last four years, but I also expect improvement by early summer.

xpost

I wish it were as easy as just waiting it out, tbh. But real life keeps intruding in ways that make that very challenging, to say the least.

hugs

So after 10 months away from school, camps, most sports, etc., my 8- and 10-year-old go back to school tomorrow. The former full time in person, the latter two days a week in person, three remote.

I'm sending them because they want to go and I guess I'm trusting decision-makers and hoping for the best, but inside I just don't understand the timing of this. Our numbers are as bad as they've ever been (or close to it) and our teachers are literally getting their first doses of vaccine this weekend. I understand the desire to get kids back in school, but I don't understand why we don't just wait until a few weeks after the teachers get their second doses.

Granted, that adds 6 weeks to right now ... at which time there'll be two months of school left ... but we've already waited this long, and we're so close to vaccinated teachers. I don't get why we're jumping the gun. To me, this seems like a classic "I've waited this long, I can wait a bit longer" situation.

Am I wrong here? Someone make me feel better about this.

― alpine static, Monday, January 25, 2021 3:56 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Well, my Kindergartner has been full day in person for four months and my 3rd grader half day in person for the same amount of time. There have been cases in their school, and in the middle school, and in the high school. But there has been zero documented spread within the school. And, in fact, it's more frequently staff than students coming to school with the virus. Globally, the stats are pretty good on school transmission, i.e. it's low and doesn't seem to do much if anything to accelerate community spread vs having schools closed. I'm an advocate of having as much in-person school as possible for kids ten and younger.

Also, I mean, if you're worried about your kids, their risk of severe illness is EXTREMELY low unless they have multiple major risk factors, and the risk of them getting it in school and spreading it to you is also low.

As far as timing, I don't believe there was any reason even to wait as long as we have -- in fact we squandered a lot of time when spread was extremely low and kids could have been in school (at least in some parts of the US). And as far as waiting until teachers are vaccinated, I guess the question is what percentage of teachers need to be vaccinated for it to be ok, and how long will that actually take in light of hiccups and shortages?

Thanks Alfred, I just need a positive break for once. Feel like every day is just a ceaseless avalanche of bad news, with absolutely no good swings or positive news.

my partner's charter school just re-closed in-person today on the week before they were supposed to open. The key person who had been training everyone, including my partner, had her husband test positive and now everything's on hold until she gets tested. We're understandably uncomfortable.

Understandably so.

xxpost, thanks man alive. that helps.

i'm of course worried about my kids (always) but in this particular case, i'm more worried about them bringing it home to me (who could be healthier) and/or my wife (who has a very manageable but chronic disease and has been on immunosuppressants in the past, but i'm not 100% sure if she's taking them right now).

it's gonna be fine. i'm just a worrier.

best of luck to everyone else.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/cdc-school-virus-spread/2021/01/26/bf949222-5fe6-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html

Obviously that said you have to assess your personal risk. “Could be healthier” = still not likely a massively increased risk from what I have read (don’t take my word for it). The immunosuppressants thing maybe makes it worth talking to a dr. You might also want to get a home portable air purifier, they’re not expensive.

To provide a happier note, perhaps -- I have been lucky enough to get my second COVID vaccine shot just now. I am deeply aware of my good fortune, always. Please get it at your soonest chance; of course it should be quicker for us all. Hope to see every one us of on the other side of this, sooner rather than later.

<3

you are an essential person

I have nothing bad to say about anyone getting their twin vaccinations. I'm just supremely happy that vaccines are available and I don't have to decide who gets priority. Glad to know you're that far down the road to relative safety, Ned. I hope to join you before summer solstice.

Too kind.

huzzah!!

After a good night’s sleep the only reaction I’m feeling is typical upper arm soreness so I’ll take that as a good sign.

Quick trip to the local supermarket, which now has signs up saying you will be refused entry if you are not wearing a mask (medical exemptions aside) - 9 months too late. Of course the rules don't seem to apply to children who just don't wear masks in the UK, not sure how that works in other countries. I saw an entire family traipsing round the aisles with no masks on - mother, two children, one (old) teenager and grandfather(?). This how it is in vaccine wonderland.

I have actually noticed that women with children are a group that seems especially prone to avoid wearing masks.

I guess in the UK, there's an oddity about face coverings in that they were actively discouraged at first, presumably due to the shortage of PPE. There has also been lots of mixed messaging including "they only protect other people" (as if you wouldn't want to do that). I guess for small children, might risk be introduced if they were to fidget/play with their faces more? (I don't claim to know the actual answer to that).

I'm actually quite forgiving of people who don't (by which I mean can't) wear masks, as sometimes there are very good reasons not to (often traumatic ones) but, yeah, the who family thing is just odd, at this point.

tbf women with children represent a fairly large proportion of the people shopping in supermarkets

There was a small study last year about anti-mask attitudes in Canada and I seem to recall men being likelier not to wear one, on average. I've also heard that women are generally more receptive to anti-vaxxer brainworms.

Men are also far, far more likely to be dicknosers.

This is totally anecdotal and hence worthless but 80% of dicknosers I've seen at the grocery store here have been women.

Haven't seen a bias either way, in terms of gender, but the olds are definitely more like to be dicknosers and chinstrappers.

^^^ that I can definitely confirm. Seems universal.

Time to double mask!.

By the way, the data presented confirms what we've learned since late last fall: masks do protect wearers from other people.

I've been double masking on one of the few times I've had to use a ride share app, so it's no problem.

whatever works is good, but ime it's much easier/better to use a n95 or kn94 than two cloth masks. n95s are widely available for ~$5/mask now. and kn94s are $1-2. they work better than cloth. they're *way* more comfortable (like night and day!). and they steam up your specs way less. i've thrown all my cloth masks out tbh and replaced them with a rotating set of these https://www.protectly.co/products/5-3pe-n95-mask.

I don't wear cloth at all: I wear those blue surgical masks, and when in tight spaces I double mask with the cloth mask as outer shield.

Bandannas upset me.

double mask with a surgical mask is great! but n95 or kf94 is better in terms of safety and comfort imo.

i am officially urging everyone on ilxor.com to upgrade to n95 or kf94.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/26/n95-masks-safest-next-best-options/

When I double mask, which we started about a month ago, it's the blue surgical mask underneath with a cloth mask on top. Definitely not ideal, but it works for us.

The issue I have is that, on the rare occasions I have to go into work, it's for extended periods and I was under the (perhaps incorrect) impression that it wasn't safe to reuse n95s after you've worn them for a long time.

it's no more dangerous to reuse an n95 than any other mask. the difficulty is you can't wash them as easily as a cloth mask and it feels weird to toss them in a way it doesn't feel weird to throw out a surgical mask. (although if you spent $5/day on coffee before covid then it's not more expensive than that).

i have five n95s right now and i rotate through them every five days and air them (in the sun if possible) on the other days. i'll probably do this until the they stop keeping a seal or look/feel gross, which i'm guessing is going to be after ... 10ish? wears each.

if money is an issue then kf94s are basically just as good as n95s and 1/3 the price.

Thanks! Just locked into the cloth mask paradigm early on (especially since my mom sewed a bunch and sent them to us) and never really pursued the n95 option again.

yeah me too. i had some nice-looking cloth masks! my wife spent hours sewing them. but they are unfomfortable and they work half as well as something that's comfortable :(

karl malone if you are still suffering with glasses steaming up, get these https://www.protectly.co/products/5-3pe-n95-mask (or whatever other n95 or kf94 looks good to you).

#n95streetteam