Coronavirus prep

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  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    So is it just me or do the new CDC guidelines announced yesterday seem a little like nothing new? I guess they are just making it official that vaccinated people can be safer together. But honestly it's impossible to know if someone has been vaccinated or not anyway.

    That was my take, really nothing new.
  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    edited April 2021
    I hope so! When I was manager of a portrait studio, I had to go in with the flu just in case people wanted to pick up their pictures. My district manager told me to cancel appointments for the day and lay down in the back studio!:/
    jenilla1 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    India's numbers are probably undercounted, though -- I found plenty of articles even from 2020 saying that. And it's clear that many places that were for whatever reason hit less hard early on got hit harder later, and the current situation in India is terrible.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/04/22/989768074/how-india-went-from-a-ray-of-hope-to-a-world-record-for-most-covid-cases-in-a-da

    Older pieces include: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54176375 and https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53510307

    I agree it’s devastating and extremely sad. People are dying because of oxygen shortages.

    Just yesterday, my daughter said her boss thinks she has covid. My daughter told her to get tested. She said no, it’s probably just a cold🤷🏻‍♀️How many people think this way? Her boss won’t get the vaccine either.

    A couple of months ago, my husband's boss had "really bad allergies or something" for over a week, kept getting worse and worse. She didn't want to get tested because she didn't want to be forced to quarantine. She ended up in the hospital with COVID (she's OK now but she was sick enough to stay in the hospital for a week.) Meanwhile, she spread it around work, the health department found out and came in and sent a bunch of people home to quarantine (including my husband who ended up negative.) Three other people at work ended up coming down with COVID shortly after. There are a handful of people at his work who say, "Yeah, we've all already been exposed. We don't need the vaccine now." WTH, people. So yeah, plenty of people "think this way."

    I was telling my mom just last week that I was hoping that COVID would help end the "work through illness" culture that exists in some professions. It was not at all uncommon in my workplace for people to come to work with really bad coughs . . . basically as long as you weren't vomiting or had a high fever, you'd come into work. This wasn't due to economic insecurity (we had the ability to work from home, we had sick days). It was just "how things were."

    But I think the mindset will be hard to change, even with the year we've just had.

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    33gail33 wrote: »
    jenilla1 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    India's numbers are probably undercounted, though -- I found plenty of articles even from 2020 saying that. And it's clear that many places that were for whatever reason hit less hard early on got hit harder later, and the current situation in India is terrible.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/04/22/989768074/how-india-went-from-a-ray-of-hope-to-a-world-record-for-most-covid-cases-in-a-da

    Older pieces include: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54176375 and https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53510307

    I agree it’s devastating and extremely sad. People are dying because of oxygen shortages.

    Just yesterday, my daughter said her boss thinks she has covid. My daughter told her to get tested. She said no, it’s probably just a cold🤷🏻‍♀️How many people think this way? Her boss won’t get the vaccine either.

    A couple of months ago, my husband's boss had "really bad allergies or something" for over a week, kept getting worse and worse. She didn't want to get tested because she didn't want to be forced to quarantine. She ended up in the hospital with COVID (she's OK now but she was sick enough to stay in the hospital for a week.) Meanwhile, she spread it around work, the health department found out and came in and sent a bunch of people home to quarantine (including my husband who ended up negative.) Three other people at work ended up coming down with COVID shortly after. There are a handful of people at his work who say, "Yeah, we've all already been exposed. We don't need the vaccine now." WTH, people. So yeah, plenty of people "think this way."

    I was telling my mom just last week that I was hoping that COVID would help end the "work through illness" culture that exists in some professions. It was not at all uncommon in my workplace for people to come to work with really bad coughs . . . basically as long as you weren't vomiting or had a high fever, you'd come into work. This wasn't due to economic insecurity (we had the ability to work from home, we had sick days). It was just "how things were."

    But I think the mindset will be hard to change, even with the year we've just had.

    But I have experienced "post viral cough" that can last up to 6 weeks. Even a regular cold or flu cough last about 10 days. I can't imagine anyone taking off 10 days for a cold. I don't get sick as much now, but when my kids were small it could happen 3 times a year. Like my work would not allow anyone to take off that much sick time for minor illnesses, I can't imagine most offices would. We get like 3 paid sick days.
    Although I guess those who can work from home could do that, we didn't have that option before, we do now.

    I understand that taking ten days off is out of scope for the majority of people, but I'm talking about a culture where people take no time off and assume whatever they have won't be communicated to others (or that it doesn't matter if it is). The point is that people often assume that what they have is no big deal and stories like the one above show that it sometimes IS a big deal.

    Again, this is in the context of people being able to work from home, which I know is an option that wasn't freely available in the past and still isn't available for many workers now. I'm not at all judging people who need to go to work in order to keep their job or don't have sufficient sick days available.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    mockchoc wrote: »
    jenilla1 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    I'm actually somewhat more worried about any slight sniffle or cough (which could be for lots of reasons or just happen out of nowhere) being stigmatized if one is out in public. I do think most jobs that can be done from home will be a lot more flexible/open to people just working from home for a few days when contagious or for lots of other reasons.

    Oh, I know about the stigma and I get why there is one. I don't want to be around sick people, either! Still, it's so awkward for people like me. I run on trails where there is tons of room to distance - wide trails, lots of lightly used ones where I'm usually alone.

    I often have exercise-induced asthmatic spasms at the end of my runs (I'm fine during the activity, but if I don't allow enough cool down transition and stop too abruptly, the coughing begins, and if there's cold weather I'm gonna for sure cough at the end, and maybe a bit during the activity.)

    The trails are easy to distance on, but the main parking area is busy, and when I get back to the parking area after my runs I try so hard not to cough, but sometimes it just breaks through. I know it's skeeving everybody out - I get lots of horrified stares, but it is what it is. I'm not going to not go for my runs.

    I stay as far away from people as I can. I won't run at the gym anymore - imagine how freaked out people would be if I had an attack in there on the treadmill - so I gotta run somewhere. I feel awkward when I cough in public. I feel bad for the people who are truly terrified of or disgusted by me. I don't blame them.

    My lungs love to run in warm weather. Hardly any spasms at all. The weather is warming up lately, so the coughing should calm down a bit and I don't have to scare people as much... B) I imagine the allergy sufferers out there must be feeling self-conscious, too!

    We have so many Frequent Flyer mile points to travel around the world and I'm worried we won't be allowed on a plane now. We have no Covid here but we do have bad sinus and allergy issues plus DH is a smoker so we are always coughing, sneezing etc.. but not sick. We also get our flu vax now days too and will get the Covid one if the darn government ever gives it to us.

    Tell your husband he has the perfect excuse to quit smoking now. The stigma of coughing in public. (Obviously, there are even better reasons not to smoke - but maybe this will work on him?)
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    I will try that for sure jenilla. Still the sinus/allergy thing we have is an issue. I have always been working out where we are going next overseas mostly since we were teenagers so I really hope it's not an issue. Maybe a doctor certificate will get us on planes but still worried if others don't know it's just allergies etc.. By the way he did just get some medication to help stop smoking so that is a great first step.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    So is it just me or do the new CDC guidelines announced yesterday seem a little like nothing new? I guess they are just making it official that vaccinated people can be safer together. But honestly it's impossible to know if someone has been vaccinated or not anyway.

    That was my take, really nothing new.

    The only difference is before it was recommended (and state law here, although not enforced) to mask outside if you could not maintain a 6 ft distance (which at least many here in Chicago were taking very literally, perhaps that wasn't the case elsewhere in the state). Now, the recommendations at least clarify that if vaccinated, you can be unmasked outside unless in a crowd. But yeah, hardly a huge difference. I doubt it will make people on NextDoor stop complaining about every last person outside without a mask (and plenty of other people were already drawing the conclusion that it was okay pre CDC).

    Here, too (California), that you must wear a mask outdoors if you cannot maintain at least six feet of physical distancing, so this is different for us. And, as others have pointed out, there's no way to know who hasn't been vaccinated.

    It was campus policy (University of California) long before the state announced it as well, and we have not changed direction. Things are more complicated for us as CDPH often has more stringent guidelines than the CDC, so we're constantly comparing the two. That's not a bad thing, it just makes it more difficult when the CDC announces "relaxed guidelines" and CDPH hasn't changed anything. People get easily confused, including those of us enforcing campus policy.

    Best example: beds in a room. CDC guidance says heads of the beds must be at least eight feet apart. CDPH says six feet apart at the closest point of the beds. After rearranging furniture for weeks (and making sure we don't violate Title XIX (fire code) by blocking windows with furniture), I can tell you the CDC guideline is MUCH easier to meet. And we have to buy lofting kits to meet the CDPH requirements in order to increase occupancy (as of now and we ahve to place the furniture order now in order to ensure delivery by fall).