Coronavirus prep
Replies
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Last Friday I took my parents to the nearest shelter to adopt a cat. They had to spend an hour inside and were the only ones masked.
Today I went back to curbside adopt a cat for myself. Almost every person coming out of the building wore a mask. At least there is awareness of the rise in cases.
P.S. I picked the cat that had been there the longest. Imagine 7 months in a cage! Now she has my son's old room all to herself until she is socialized with my first cat.25 -
Yet... it feels like I am being punished. Kind of like when you were in school and some kids in the class were being idiots and the whole class lost recess. Because of a bunch of jerks who won't follow the dang rules and who don't care about anyone but themselves, everyone else has to be punished. But instead of losing recess, people are losing their lives.
This, exactly. The rule flouters have gone on with their normal lives to a large extent, other than when completely unavailable because of lockdowns, but gathering and having parties and carrying on like nothing has changed.
My poor father (82) has been almost completely housebound except for medical appointments. I was about to suggest that he might want to try going out a bit more as he's fully vaccinated, but I'm apprehensive about Delta. OTOH, I don't know how much lifespan he has left and it would be pretty sad if his final years end up spent like this.
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I think I am just done. I'm tired of it all.
I have multiple family members who won't get the vaccine and don't believe in mask mandates. They keep posting conspiracy stuff in the family group chat or on Facebook. I have to bite my tongue to keep the peace but it is getting to the point where I dread any interaction with them. I just don't understand how these otherwise intelligent people can fall for anti science nonsense like this. I love my family, but right now I don't like them very much and it is causing me stress and anxiety.
People have just gone stupid. I would have thought kids being hospitalized and dying would wake more people up, but no.
Do you NEED to interact with them? Can you take a mental health break from the group chat and unfollow them on Facebook?
I've taken breaks from family members before.9 -
kshama2001 wrote: »I think I am just done. I'm tired of it all.
I have multiple family members who won't get the vaccine and don't believe in mask mandates. They keep posting conspiracy stuff in the family group chat or on Facebook. I have to bite my tongue to keep the peace but it is getting to the point where I dread any interaction with them. I just don't understand how these otherwise intelligent people can fall for anti science nonsense like this. I love my family, but right now I don't like them very much and it is causing me stress and anxiety.
People have just gone stupid. I would have thought kids being hospitalized and dying would wake more people up, but no.
Do you NEED to interact with them? Can you take a mental health break from the group chat and unfollow them on Facebook?
I've taken breaks from family members before.
I'm on a full-on break from half my family, and have been for a while now. It's just best for everyone. There's a quick check-in text now and then, just to make sure everyone's still alive, but otherwise, I'm out of the loop and better for it. There is a special kind of cult-like fixation that some people seem to have developed over all these conspiracies. All subjects (even ones that start innocently) seem to come back around to the conspiracy weirdness. So you can't even steer the conversation into neutral topics. Because there are no neutral topics anymore. There is literally nothing you can talk about that doesn't trigger them. Not even something previously harmless, like the weather (of course) because that will get them ranting about "the climate change hoax" or the "fake drought in the West." So I just don't talk to them at all. It's been peaceful, though...23 -
DH tried to place his opinions on me the other night; basically he and I feel the same in a lot of ways, pertaining to masking/vax mandates but not this particular opinion. I just said 'then we'll agree to disagree' and that was the end of it.
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kshama2001 wrote: »I think I am just done. I'm tired of it all.
I have multiple family members who won't get the vaccine and don't believe in mask mandates. They keep posting conspiracy stuff in the family group chat or on Facebook. I have to bite my tongue to keep the peace but it is getting to the point where I dread any interaction with them. I just don't understand how these otherwise intelligent people can fall for anti science nonsense like this. I love my family, but right now I don't like them very much and it is causing me stress and anxiety.
People have just gone stupid. I would have thought kids being hospitalized and dying would wake more people up, but no.
Do you NEED to interact with them? Can you take a mental health break from the group chat and unfollow them on Facebook?
I've taken breaks from family members before.
I'm on a full-on break from half my family, and have been for a while now. It's just best for everyone. There's a quick check-in text now and then, just to make sure everyone's still alive, but otherwise, I'm out of the loop and better for it. There is a special kind of cult-like fixation that some people seem to have developed over all these conspiracies. All subjects (even ones that start innocently) seem to come back around to the conspiracy weirdness. So you can't even steer the conversation into neutral topics. Because there are no neutral topics anymore. There is literally nothing you can talk about that doesn't trigger them. Not even something previously harmless, like the weather (of course) because that will get them ranting about "the climate change hoax" or the "fake drought in the West." So I just don't talk to them at all. It's been peaceful, though...
Yep. No matter how careful I am picking topics when I visit my parents, there is nothing that can't be tied into the conspiracy. And they will ask me questions about something they heard about the virus, and they seem to be listening and agreeing with me. And then one of them will go, "it's hard for people to trust what these scientists are saying though after they faked all those supposed deaths last year" and I just melt under the table. It's exhausting.
Last week my dad slipped into conversation that the flu kills as many people as covid-19 and I think he was genuinely shocked by the emotion in my "What?! Are you KIDDING me???" The moment of shock gave my mom room to ask me if I'd watched last night's Yankee game and we moved on lol.
I see a lot of masks around here again (central Virginia) and I've noticed a lot of the stores now have signs saying "we strongly recommend wearing a mask on our property" or "we would appreciate you wearing a mask inside to protect our employees". I guess they're trying to find the right way to say - we know you don't want us to force you. But, pretty please? As a super nice favor to us?
UVA announced all students must be vaccinated and have a copy of their card on file (along with all their other vaccine records) and promptly dis-enrolled a small group of students who refused (and I assume had no medical reason for the delay, I didn't read the article carefully). My employer (a national tv broadcasting company) just announced that all employees must be vaccinated by Oct 1. I am starting a new job after Labor Day and the new place is an apartment complex management company, which is much smaller but all the employees got together and decided to go with whatever the most cautious person in the room is comfortable with. All unvaxxed wear masks and several of the vaxxed employees with small children or elderly parents also wear masks in common areas. I feel so fortunate to live in an area where even though there are dramatic political differences from town to town, even the skeptical folks are generally being considerate.18 -
baconslave wrote: »We've bent over backward to do OUR part since March 2020; all we can do now is hope.
Yet... it feels like I am being punished. Kind of like when you were in school and some kids in the class were being idiots and the whole class lost recess. Because of a bunch of jerks who won't follow the dang rules and who don't care about anyone but themselves, everyone else has to be punished. But instead of losing recess, people are losing their lives.
It does feel like that. More than a bit.
My whole community has been like this (semi-rural TN).
Yet... it feels like I am being punished. Kind of like when you were in school and some kids in the class were being idiots and the whole class lost recess. Because of a bunch of jerks who won't follow the dang rules and who don't care about anyone but themselves, everyone else has to be punished. But instead of losing recess, people are losing their lives.
This, exactly. The rule flouters have gone on with their normal lives to a large extent, other than when completely unavailable because of lockdowns, but gathering and having parties and carrying on like nothing has changed.
My poor father (82) has been almost completely housebound except for medical appointments. I was about to suggest that he might want to try going out a bit more as he's fully vaccinated, but I'm apprehensive about Delta. OTOH, I don't know how much lifespan he has left and it would be pretty sad if his final years end up spent like this.
I feel for your Dad.
This has been hard on my teens. Watching everyone on Instagram posting all their parties and fun or hearing them talking on Discord about them in the case of my son. While they're at home for a year and a half. My oldest's senior year and first year of college were spent at home on a computer. She lost an internship working in her chosen field that had to be cancelled since viral spread didn't get handled. That opportunity is gone forever. My daughter is at college orientation, a special one for the sophomores who had theirs cancelled last year. I had to let her do it for her mental health. She needs to socialize and network. She is masking. But I'm waiting for her to bring home the Delta variant to my ineligible kid. My teen son has nothing still. His dual enrollment class is unfortunately an online class. All his friends were at church. But the church gave up on mitigation efforts awhile ago. His friends never masked or distanced. He is pretty chill but he's on the verge of crisis himself, I think.
My younger 2 (10 &12) spend their free time watching video game YouTubes and playing Roblox or Minecraft. That's all they have had for 1.5 years. Their public schooled friends got bored with Discord in the spring when they went back to school fulltime.
It's just like every stupid group project I had to work on in school. I ended up doing the work, while others messed around, did the bare minimum they had to (usually shoddy quality) or nothing at all, and I was working my butt off on it and up the night before the deadline making an A out of it.
Here we are, some people doing all the work to try to help this awfulness be over, and a large group doing nothing besides spreading the virus faster. Last night all over the local news I got treated to images of full stands at high school football games. Zero masks and all sitting close enough to touch. Mask mandates have been hamstrung here. First, they threatened the schools if they put them in place. Then, when schools felt they needed to do it anyway, the Governor intervened. You can mandate them in schools, but parents get to opt their kids out thanks to an Executive Order. Covid had a great time with a hoarde of folks at football games all over the region last night. We were at home. Doing the same thing we've done, trying to get the best result for our family, community, and country, and finally make this all be over, while everyone else messes around, with some sabotaging the results. Will this ever be over? All hands definitely aren't on deck so we'll continue to limp along. As our pediatrician commiserated with us as we despaired over the low vaccination rate here and the beginning of the surge we are in, "this could have all been over by now."
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A hug does not say enough.11
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OK - I know I am going to get my normal 3 disagrees but here is my unpopular opinion.
I think requiring proof of vax or negative covid test to attend large events is useless in halting the spread of covid here in Tx.
Esp if the vax is >6 months old. Right now it's blooming like algae here and a lot of the vax are >6 months. The latest studies out of Israel seem to point to Pfizer protection dropping off radically after that time period. My guess is the others are similar. Why the CDC is coming out with 8 months seems a too conservative to me.
I understand that if you are vaxxed you are less likely to get seriously ill or hospitalized but with so many not vaccinated the spread continues. Esp with kids back in school this week.
Just today on my next door a poor gal was saying her kid was sick and she was unable to NOT go to work (to feed hundreds of people). She was having trouble getting him tested. Her situation is horrific for her. She has no insurance and can't afford to miss work. So will she be a spreader? most likely. Most of the stories I am seeing are younger kids getting the "stomach" virus. The ones that do get tested are mostly positive. Our positivity rate here is thru the roof. Usually after the kids get it the rest of the family does also. Because I mean what parent can isolate from a sick young child?
Will this never end?21 -
SummerSkier wrote: »OK - I know I am going to get my normal 3 disagrees but here is my unpopular opinion.
I think requiring proof of vax or negative covid test to attend large events is useless in halting the spread of covid here in Tx.
Esp if the vax is >6 months old. Right now it's blooming like algae here and a lot of the vax are >6 months. The latest studies out of Israel seem to point to Pfizer protection dropping off radically after that time period. My guess is the others are similar. Why the CDC is coming out with 8 months seems a too conservative to me.
I understand that if you are vaxxed you are less likely to get seriously ill or hospitalized but with so many not vaccinated the spread continues. Esp with kids back in school this week.
Just today on my next door a poor gal was saying her kid was sick and she was unable to NOT go to work (to feed hundreds of people). She was having trouble getting him tested. Her situation is horrific for her. She has no insurance and can't afford to miss work. So will she be a spreader? most likely. Most of the stories I am seeing are younger kids getting the "stomach" virus. The ones that do get tested are mostly positive. Our positivity rate here is thru the roof. Usually after the kids get it the rest of the family does also. Because I mean what parent can isolate from a sick young child?
Will this never end?
Remember that each report that comes out is not yet peer reviewed like we normally expect them to be. While the numbers coming out of Israel suggest a drop off, data coming from other countries is very different. The difficulty for public health officials is they know the data can be misleading but they can't wait til it's thoroughly vetted because in the meantime people could get sick and die. They also have to balance in the unequal distribution of vaccine and healthcare access and keeping records on who's been vaccinated with what and how many times and who gets which side effects where.
Looking at previous pandemics, it takes several years to study the new virus, work through the data, and come up with the most effective prevention, treatment, and return to a new normal. It doesn't make it easier to get through in the moment, but we have actually learned a lot about this virus and created baseline vaccines and treatment protocols in a stunningly fast manner.
Your neighbor is in an unfairly tough situation. It's awful that in this day and age people don't have paid time off to care for family and access to affordable wellness care and testing. I'm sure it's a big contributor to a lot of the spread and vaccine hesitancy in working class communities. I read somewhere that many people w/o health insurance hear that the vaccine is free but assume that's only for people with insurance. And some of the chain pharmacies ask for your insurance card even though it's not necessary and scare uninsured people away.
This is all super stressful and scary, I'm sure moreso for people who have children or are at very high risk. I think we're going to have to get thru a tough fall and winter before the medical, public health, and research communities can really put all the pieces together and also get enough people properly vaccinated.
I don't mean to be a pollyanna, but I know the news is always focused on the bad stuff and I hope I'm reminding people that there are a lot of people working really hard behind the scenes to get us through this and it's a messy process that rarely gets reported accurately. Hang in there.14 -
https://youtu.be/20DxL8KhvgA
Starting at 23:40 is a detailed report from MS (USA).
In the first part Dr. Campbell covers the research of extra long term protection for those that get Covid-19 before or after being fully vaccinated. The pandemic should be moving to endemic mode when all are vaccinated and/or actually have Covid-19.3 -
kshama2001 wrote: »I think I am just done. I'm tired of it all.
I have multiple family members who won't get the vaccine and don't believe in mask mandates. They keep posting conspiracy stuff in the family group chat or on Facebook. I have to bite my tongue to keep the peace but it is getting to the point where I dread any interaction with them. I just don't understand how these otherwise intelligent people can fall for anti science nonsense like this. I love my family, but right now I don't like them very much and it is causing me stress and anxiety.
People have just gone stupid. I would have thought kids being hospitalized and dying would wake more people up, but no.
Do you NEED to interact with them? Can you take a mental health break from the group chat and unfollow them on Facebook?
I've taken breaks from family members before.
I am not friends with some family on Facebook because they are conspiracy theorists. I hear from other family that describes the stuff they post. That's enough.12 -
SummerSkier wrote: »OK - I know I am going to get my normal 3 disagrees but here is my unpopular opinion.
I think requiring proof of vax or negative covid test to attend large events is useless in halting the spread of covid here in Tx.
It seemed to work pretty well in Chicago.
I am at this point strongly in favor of all possible vax mandates. I think people who haven't been vaxxed are responsible for this not being over and I have no more sympathy for them.
Boosters are great if recommended, but a much bigger issue is people refusing to get vaxxed.
Our numbers still show that vaxxed people aren't needing to be hospitalized or dying other than in tiny numbers.
Also, here, anyone who wants to be tested can be, it's open to all. It's not nearly as bad as it was in 2020, despite the ridiculous irresponsible people not vaxxing, but we were pretty bad (due to density) in 2020.
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Also, to show how different locations or social circles are different, I know only one person who is refusing the vax, whereas the vast majority of my friends/acquaintances/family members were rushing to get vaxxed, including the Rs.9
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I worry mostly about the children who haven't reached the right age yet to be vaccinated. And about the children whose parents are making choices for them that might not be making the best choice.
Children pretty much have very little say.
If adults don't want to vaccinate, then that's on them if things turn out badly. But I loathe thinking of all the ones whom they may infect along the way.
A question about Texas and schools reopening.....I have a nephew whose 2 children are back in school and masks haven't been mandated yet the Numbers are climbing terribly. Why no mandates? Last year, their school didn't require masks either; in fact, my nephew's 2 children were the only 2 children in their class picture, wearing masks.
Here, I know they're at least going into the year masking up and seeing how it goes.7 -
SummerSkier wrote: »OK - I know I am going to get my normal 3 disagrees but here is my unpopular opinion.
I think requiring proof of vax or negative covid test to attend large events is useless in halting the spread of covid here in Tx.
Esp if the vax is >6 months old. Right now it's blooming like algae here and a lot of the vax are >6 months. The latest studies out of Israel seem to point to Pfizer protection dropping off radically after that time period. My guess is the others are similar. Why the CDC is coming out with 8 months seems a too conservative to me.
I understand that if you are vaxxed you are less likely to get seriously ill or hospitalized but with so many not vaccinated the spread continues. Esp with kids back in school this week.
Just today on my next door a poor gal was saying her kid was sick and she was unable to NOT go to work (to feed hundreds of people). She was having trouble getting him tested. Her situation is horrific for her. She has no insurance and can't afford to miss work. So will she be a spreader? most likely. Most of the stories I am seeing are younger kids getting the "stomach" virus. The ones that do get tested are mostly positive. Our positivity rate here is thru the roof. Usually after the kids get it the rest of the family does also. Because I mean what parent can isolate from a sick young child?
Will this never end?
It will end when a large % of the population is vaccinated...or at least be very much under control.
In NM we have a high % of vaxed people...around 70% of eligible. We are surging in cases and hospitalizations, the vast majority of which are unvaxed people. When I look at the county by county data, it's pockets of the usual suspects who lean a certain way politically and have fought against masks and the vaccine since the beginning.
As long as there are a bunch of unvaxed people out there running around and doing stuff, this thing will just keep going.12 -
So, the two big Memphis hospital chains, Baptist and Methodist, are calling for National Guard to help out with staffing shortages due to a large number of Covid patients plus staff sick with Covid. It’s starting to get real.13
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What I’m hearing regarding the 8 months is that they believe longer delays creates more lasting immunity due to the immune system “maturing” after the first two shots.SummerSkier wrote: »OK - I know I am going to get my normal 3 disagrees but here is my unpopular opinion.
I think requiring proof of vax or negative covid test to attend large events is useless in halting the spread of covid here in Tx.
Esp if the vax is >6 months old. Right now it's blooming like algae here and a lot of the vax are >6 months. The latest studies out of Israel seem to point to Pfizer protection dropping off radically after that time period. My guess is the others are similar. Why the CDC is coming out with 8 months seems a too conservative to me.
I understand that if you are vaxxed you are less likely to get seriously ill or hospitalized but with so many not vaccinated the spread continues. Esp with kids back in school this week.
Just today on my next door a poor gal was saying her kid was sick and she was unable to NOT go to work (to feed hundreds of people). She was having trouble getting him tested. Her situation is horrific for her. She has no insurance and can't afford to miss work. So will she be a spreader? most likely. Most of the stories I am seeing are younger kids getting the "stomach" virus. The ones that do get tested are mostly positive. Our positivity rate here is thru the roof. Usually after the kids get it the rest of the family does also. Because I mean what parent can isolate from a sick young child?
Will this never end?
However, I also have this sinking sensation that it’s mainly to give them time to get the system ready for a third wave of shots.
Unfortunately after the early days of the pandemic when the CDC admitted they lied about the effectiveness of masks in order to prevent a civilian run on masks, I don’t fully trust them not to be trying to manipulate public behavior by saying what they think we need to hear. My check for this is generally to look at news and research from other parts of the world, but in this case, there’s not really enough information coming out of other parts of the world to form an opinion. We know from Israel that they are seeing increased hospitalizations in people who were vaxxed five months ago, which contradicts the “after six months it’s still very effective against hospitalization” we’re being told here.
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Just reporting for info: One of my friends, seriously immunocompromised from a combo of multiple health conditions complicated by the drug regimens to treat them, got the 3rd shot (booster) in the last few days.
Because the staffs, systems, and procedures haven't caught up with the recent recommendation for this, it was a pretty significant hassle finding someplace to schedule the 3rd shot, and then (once there) to actually get it. She had to try more than one vax site to find one willing. Fortunately, like many people with complex health conditions, she's a very good bureaucracy wrangler.
So she got it. Aftereffects: Sore arm, maybe a little fatigue, overall not as severe symptoms as the 2nd shot, for her. N= 1.
I presume (hope) the vax sites will be better prepared, handle it more smoothly, once regular folks are eligible for the 3rd shot 8 months after the second.
Unless they modify the rules, I won't be eligible until sometime in November, I think.
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I worry mostly about the children who haven't reached the right age yet to be vaccinated. And about the children whose parents are making choices for them that might not be making the best choice. Children pretty much have very little say.
If adults don't want to vaccinate, then that's on them if things turn out badly. But I loathe thinking of all the ones whom they may infect along the way.
A question about Texas and schools reopening.....I have a nephew whose 2 children are back in school and masks haven't been mandated yet the Numbers are climbing terribly. Why no mandates? Last year, their school didn't require masks either; in fact, my nephew's 2 children were the only 2 children in their class picture, wearing masks.
Here, I know they're at least going into the year masking up and seeing how it goes.
In Texas, there are legal battles because the Governor has said schools cannot require masks, and some school districts have required masks. It then comes to a question of whose authority holds more weight. Last I heard, the Texas Supreme Court is allowing school districts to make mask mandates if they want, but only until the cases are decided. Wasn't this a similar legal issue in the Des Moines, Iowa public schools last year?0
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