Coronavirus prep

1437438440442443747

Replies

  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    Just another science article demonstrating how little we actually know about Covid-19 so far.

    https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/study-respiratory-failure-in-covid-19-patients-usually-not-driven-by-cytokine-storm/
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    SModa61 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    SModa61 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I think my work just made a mistake. In order to strongly discourage employees from either traveling out of state or having visitors from out of state for Thanksgiving or Christmas, they are requiring 14 days of quarantine if you travel or have out of state visitors...that's actually nothing new...the new wrinkle is that instead of teleworking for those 2 weeks as has been done previously, you are now required to use your annual leave and get written permission from on high to either travel or have someone out of state travel to you.

    For the most part, from what I've heard around the water cooler and break room is that most people aren't planning on anything big...but so and so's kid will be visiting from Texas or so and so's husband's mom will be visiting from Arizona, etc...but by and large people don't seem to be planning large get togethers.

    The punitive nature of this new mandate is already causing problems, and it's only Monday afternoon. I'm in management and I'm already getting things like, "my husband doesn't care if I have permission or not, he told me that he's not your employee and his mom will be visiting from Texas for Christmas." We also have a lot of employees with grown children who live out of state and while not planning a big tadoo for the holidays, they will be visiting back home. One of those people is our primary IT guy and he's basically said, "fine...I'll use my annual leave, but don't bother calling, because my phone and email will be off if I'm on a forced vacation." Another employee is upset because his sister lives in state, but works in southern Colorado so she commutes out of state daily and as such is considered to be an "out of state" visitor.

    The bigger issue I think is that you're going to basically have a lot of people just lying about it and saying they aren't traveling or hosting out of state visitors when they really are and thus avoiding any quarantine period whatsoever, when in the past they would have complied with the quarantine period and just teleworked. On the other side, you're going to have people comply...and fully comply in that since they are on annual leave, they will not be available and responding to emails or phone calls.

    We also have some new questions on our form that we fill out daily whether we are teleworking or coming to the office. Any yes answer on the form requires the employee to get a covid test and self quarantine for 14 days (can telework if their work can be done by that means)...the two added questions are do you have a runny nose or diarrhea? Fall allergies here are pretty common and just about everyone has a runny nose in the fall...that question alone just put about 70% of our workforce into quarantine starting today. I'm also hearing some chatter of people possibly using this as a work around for having to quarantine for 14 days using vacation time for having out of state visitors in that they see it as a responsible thing to quarantine...but instead of saying it's for visitors, they'll just say they have a runny nose so they can still work at home while responsibly quarantining.

    I think the higher ups made a bigger mess of all of this than it already was...I'm hoping they might walk back some of it.

    I am constantly shocked about how people/companies/government don't always foresee the potential unintended responses they trigger with their edicts.

    Yeah...I talked with my boss yesterday about this as I have more interaction with the rank and file and told him that we went from having a pretty compliant workforce with overall positive morale to a defiant workforce with about zero morale overnight. We already had pretty strict requirements in place...but making people who can otherwise work at home in quarantine use their leave pissed everyone off.

    All around, just such a bad idea.

    In Massachusetts, our Governor instituted a new stricter policy that causes one to question their judgement. He went from masks outside if cannot maintain 6 ft, to masks outside no matter what even if no one is in sight. So, where I live, land lots are 1 acre minimum with tracts of woods interspersed. When I go out walking, even if I see someone, it is very easy to remain a distance of 20 feet away. In that setting it makes no sense, and there are towns even more rural than mine. When one rule is not logically defined and makes no sense, it brings one to also question the well defined rules. Do note that I am not critiquing mask use, I am critiquing requiring them illogically and thus potentially decreasing compliance in all the important scenarios.

    One person critiquing Governor Bakers new mask edict compared it to instructing people to wear a condom when alone so that they will remember to wear one when having sex. (I actually toned down the comparison slightly.)

    Meanwhile, there are parts of the US with no mask requirements at all still or they are not enforced nor followed anyway.

    One of the manufacturing plants I support (remotely) has about 15% of its employees out right now either because they have tested positive, have symptoms, or have recent exposure (this is a small part of the overall group). The plant is not requiring people with exposure to stay away, just if symptomatic or tested positive. There are some who are working still whose work spaces are near other employees who tested positive and are out, for example. This particular community is a small town, but has a larger "regional" hospital in the community. What I've heard is that the hospital is full, as are all other nearby smaller hospitals in other rural cities that are within about 30 miles. That anyone is taking any risk at all there tells me they assume they will not need a hospital bed or that they will be able to travel to another state (2 hr. drive) where there are some spots left. Hopefully they don't wait until their O2 levels are at a dangerous level before leaving to go that far.
  • oocdc2
    oocdc2 Posts: 1,361 Member
    SModa61 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    The last three times i tried to donate blood I was rejected because I was slightly anemic. I gave up. Since then the anemia has gotten worse so I am not even going to try.

    Attempting to donate blood is how I learned I was anemic. Over the decades, it has gotten much much worse for me. Here's a thread with some of my and others' tips on getting more iron via diet:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10802837/good-sources-of-iron

    I'm being followed for low iron for the past couple years. Hoping numbers are better in December, finally. Going to check out your link @kshama2001. One of the things I am trying in my diary is daily iron. Hoping to improve through my diet.

    I began donating blood regularly at the beginning of the pandemic, and there were a couple of times I was turned away for an inadequate iron count. I chose to start taking extended release iron tablets, and my "power" food is hemp protein: it's delicious sand, but it has 44% of RDA of iron for a 3T serving. I put it in pancakes and protein shakes. And, I take all iron with a 1,000 mg Vitamin C chaser, which supposedly helps with absorbtion. Since then, I haven't had a problem donating blood every two months.

    Bonus: free COVID-19 blood test with every donation!
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    Eldest Son is quarantining in his end of my mom's big house because he goes to welding school with people who don't believe in masks.



    ggiyy1d70n72.png



    Alex, how many times do I have to tell you to pull that mask down?! Do you want to burn your retinas? Or get covid?

    Nah, welders don't need masks... That's just big government forcing people to stay alive and not injured! (sarcasm)

    0dhx7nm4r6hp.jpg

    ETA: I realize this guy is cutting, not welding... still probably should be wearing some safety goggles and probably doing this in a location slightly further from the propane.

    Yup. I was wondering if he lost the key to the padlock and felt this was his only option. I'm risk averse. I'd pony up for a locksmith.

    I don't think that is it. It looks like he is cutting this piece of metal and didn't have a bench to set it on while he cut it, so opted to set it down on top of this propane cabinet. I don't think it is attached to anything presently.

    Ah. Went back and looked again and finally noticed the end of the piece of metal that shows that it's hollow, and that made the perspective flip on me, like an Escher print. I had been seeing it as parallel to the metal mesh door to the propane cabinet.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    zamphir66 wrote: »
    kushiel1 wrote: »
    My congressman just posted on Facebook that there's a lottery opening soon for tickets to the Inauguration in January...so I'm supposed to give up the holidays with family (who very well might not be here next year) and "stay home" but miraculously by Jan 21st all will be well to have a large scale gathering? And we wonder why people find Covid so political and polarizing right now - because apparently if you are on the correct end of the spectrum Covid will miraculously not infect you. If it's as bad as "they" are making it out to be currently the Inauguration should be televised/streamed only. Then I'll be more likely to believe that this the correct course of action - but if we can get tons of people together (even if it's outside and masked) for this then other activities with social distancing should be allowed (such as more than 50 people at a football game).

    Give me a break.

    I don't know how inaugurations normally work, but watching on TV it's always looked like: if you want to be there, you just go. Full stop.

    Having a lottery sort of implies there will be a limit to the number of in-person attendees. Much like how the state of Minnesota was willing to host the president's rallies, but only if there were no more 250 present.

    I guess I don't see the issue.

    The lottery is for tickets to the enclosed area on the Capitol grounds, where you can actually see the participants with your naked eyes. If you just go, you're farther away and will have to be content to what you can make out possibly with binoculars but more likely on a screen.
  • kushiel1
    kushiel1 Posts: 95 Member
    zamphir66 wrote: »
    kushiel1 wrote: »
    My congressman just posted on Facebook that there's a lottery opening soon for tickets to the Inauguration in January...so I'm supposed to give up the holidays with family (who very well might not be here next year) and "stay home" but miraculously by Jan 21st all will be well to have a large scale gathering? And we wonder why people find Covid so political and polarizing right now - because apparently if you are on the correct end of the spectrum Covid will miraculously not infect you. If it's as bad as "they" are making it out to be currently the Inauguration should be televised/streamed only. Then I'll be more likely to believe that this the correct course of action - but if we can get tons of people together (even if it's outside and masked) for this then other activities with social distancing should be allowed (such as more than 50 people at a football game).

    Give me a break.

    I don't know how inaugurations normally work, but watching on TV it's always looked like: if you want to be there, you just go. Full stop.

    Having a lottery sort of implies there will be a limit to the number of in-person attendees. Much like how the state of Minnesota was willing to host the president's rallies, but only if there were no more 250 present.

    I guess I don't see the issue.

    His post says historically that each Congressional office gets a limited number of tickets which he will be offering in a lottery...so at least as of now that appear to be how it's been done in the past and no Covid related changes have been implemented so far at least. My point is though that if Covid is so bad and we all need to stay away from each other as much as possible (to the degree that you shouldn't even walk within 6ft of someone outside without a mask) then hosting a large scale event even if it's outside is problematic at best. There is no way that a vaccine will be ready and widely given by then so the responsible thing to do is to not host the event other than streaming/tv other than those who have to be present to do the swearing in. Either gatherings are acceptable or they are not regardless of the reasoning (even outside large scale gatherings are prohibited in my area).