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

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

Yeah, as a glasses wearer I am def attuned to the "steam up your specs" concern. Gets kind of tiring when I have to consciously exhale my breath in a downward direction to try and reduce the fog, esp in the winter.

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).

thank you very much, and you have a great memory! :) i switched back to contacts a while ago because my glasses were starting to cut into my nose and i wanted to give my skin a break. so most of the winter has been fog-free (although a bit more fuzzy). but i do prefer the clarity i get with glasses, so when i get a better-fitting pair i will definitely complement them with one of those sweet n95s.

what is it about it that helps with the steam? i'd guess because it fits tightly around the top, nose/bridge area? i have a very large, pointy, broken, elbow nose (probably the direct cause of a standard pair of warby parkers cutting into my nose), so i'm not sure a standard n95 can handle my problem

i've had luck with some anti-fog wipes

Yeah it’s the seal at the top xp

n95s I have have a bendy strip which can shape around your nose and stop the air getting out

oh that's supposed to go AROUND my nose

I've had some luck using a bit of tissue folded up and placed over the bridge of my nose, just under the top edge of the mask. Because it mashes down where there is a tight fit and stays slightly fluffed where the fit is looser, it traps some of the moisture that tries to escape up toward my eyeglasses, reducing fogging.

wondering about the bottoms and sides of those N95 masks, not sure they will fit my face. I will try them. I've been using a cloth mask made by a friend that holds two filters and that fits very tightly. So far that is the one I feel most comfortable with

it mashes down where there is a tight fit and stays slightly fluffed where the fit is looser

ooh baby

thank you very much, and you have a great memory! :) i switched back to contacts a while ago because my glasses were starting to cut into my nose and i wanted to give my skin a break. so most of the winter has been fog-free (although a bit more fuzzy). but i do prefer the clarity i get with glasses

I do! Just in my right eye. In fact, against my will, I have a full year’s worth of a daily astigmatism lenses! Pearle Vision smelled some sort of Obamacare deal and made me take them (at no cost to me). They irritate my eye, unfortunately, so I don’t wear them. My right eye is fucked up.

the woman whose husband tested positive at my partner's school came back negative so they're reopening next week.
partner tested negative. partner got her first shot.
this shit is stressful!

this shit is stressful!

damn straight! every single time my body feels a bit weird in any way it sets me wondering about possible covid-19 exposure until it goes away. and that's getting off easy compared to having a known source of exposure and having to test.

one of my close friends (for well over ten years) posted this today:

"I find vaccine-bragging to be incredibly tacky and in poor taste. If you don't like hearing this, just scroll on by please, and let me have my opinion."

On the one hand, she's a teacher, considered essential, and Florida isn't exactly going out of their way to bump teachers or other essentials to the top of the list.

on the other hand, that reaction seems a little...odd? I understand the anxiety of getting vaccinated and that seeing other people getting it can play into that, but I would also think they'd be happy that friends of theirs are getting it.

Even weirder is this friend is married to someone whose parents just publicly posted about their vaccine getting so...idk, obviously since I got it I'm not the best judge of it, but is this actually poor taste?

one side of me thinks it helps promote encouragement of getting vaccines, the other does sympathize. not going to like....confront or anything, just...this was the first person I saw elucidate this.

even more weird is I think what prompted this was another one of her teacher friends and boyfriend posting about how they got it because there were vials of vaccine that would go to waste otherwise that they got at closing time at one of the places, but this friend actually had COVID last year and it laid her out, and is also a teacher, so....

idk....this is why I only read social media an hour or two a day

I think it’s ok to be excited about getting vaccinated and on the margin sharing that excitement probably encourages others to get vaccinated.

I agree that I think it can only be a good thing for people to see their friends and family get the vaccine and have no serious complications, to try to counteract the rest of the crap on social media.

The good: my parents were finally able to schedule a vaccination appointment

The bad: They are currently in FL and the appointment is in MN, meaning they will being flying there and then isolating at their home in the woods until they get their second dose, returning to FL in March

aggravating

oh geez :/. sounds like a logistical nightmare.

I want to know whose idea it was to have FL vaccination appointments done via web registration, like queuing up for Ticketmaster

the 'getting in line' first started with the Unemployment website last year when it was clear that the DEO couldn't handle the volume - they'd make you 'enter the queue' like with Ticketmaster, and sometimes hours later, it was your ten minute window to file your unemployment claim!

I guess based on the ~overwhelming praise~ civilians heaped on the antiquated DEO system, DeSantis directed his web designers to do the same for vaccine pre-registration on the state-sponsored website. it's really dumb.

It's a good thing that people are being vaccinated and can understand the desire to share that but there's certainly something provocative when hearing that some specific people have had theirs without good reason or because of who they are not what they are.