Coronavirus prep

paperpudding wrote: »

As far as I know, we do not have Amish communities in Australia so I am unaware of their ideology on this.
As well as not being obese, they are probably at less risk, and are less risk to others, by virtue of living in tightly closed communities?

There is a seventh day adventist church in my town and we have certainly vaccinated, and given other medical treatments, to members of the church, including the leader ( pastor, minister, ?? Not sure which term they use)

I have family that are Seventh Day Adventists (grandparents and uncle/aunt), and they all got vaccinated and have never had religious objections to getting medical care.

rheddmobile wrote: »

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Seventh Day Adventists don't allow medical care, IIRC. Locally, I have heard that the Amish are very unwilling to seek medical treatment and have not been widely vaccinated. I don't know whether they have had serious Covid issues or not. Very few are obese, which makes a difference in the likelihood of serious illness.

As far as I know the Seventh Day Adventists don’t allow blood transfusions (they take this from the commandment to ‘abstain from blood’) but are fine with other medical care.

Some religious people object on the grounds that the vaccines were tested using cell lines from aborted tissue, but so were many other drugs, so unless the person is consistent in refusing all those drugs (which include Tylenol) the objection is likely to be denied.

I think you mean Jehovahs witnesses.

Jehovah witnesses don't allow blood transfusions but do not object to medical treatment in general.

I certainly don't want anyone to get Covid but I do believe if you are not vaccinated it is just a matter of time until you get the virus. I am vaccinated and got the virus. Very mild and I had NO idea I had it so I could have spread it to others, which i feel badly about. I believe I got it from someone who was vaccinated. Personally i think it is awful not to get vaccinated as this continues to spread and kill.

I'm liking this cocoon thing you speak of.

Yeh, I've known both vaccinated and unvaccinated that have both gotten Covid. And their symptoms still vary so much; it's so hard to make sense of it all. But my good sense still is telling me to do as much as I can to protect myself and others. Even if it means I get stared at being one of the very few masked shoppers anymore.

In my little state of Tasmania, we have reached 90% fully vaccinated rate for 12+, borders were fully opened on 15 December (with some stipulations regarding vaccinations, pcr tests plus isolation if travelling from hotspots as well international arrivals). Since then we have seven cases (not a lot, but a lot for a state that has had relatively few cases in the past year or so), three are omicron, the rest still being determined.

Mask mandate now in place to commence 12.01am Tueday for indoor settings plus public transport, taxis and rideshare. It is was good to see though over the weekend before the mask mandate commences that a few people were already wearing masks while out shopping or at hospitality venues.

Booster vaccinations opened up about a month ago for those at the six months (now five months) out from being fully vaccinated.

Since covid first hit our state we have had 245 cases, of those 13 died, a lot of the those who passed were associated with the Ruby Princess cruise ship (approx 700 cases, 28 deaths).

I work at an airport, in the main office so not out and about in the terminal all that often, I chose to be fully vaccinated and have had my booster shot. With Christmas next week, it is planned to be a very busy week at the airport, lots of extra flights since the borders opened and school holidays/holiday season. We are expecting a lot of interstate arrivals from NSW and VIC where new cases numbers are continuing to rise. Good time to be fully vaccinated / boostered I think.

All of a sudden, the rapid tests are in short supply. I'm glad I got some a few weeks ago, because most pharmacies are out of them now. Hopefully, they get more before Christmas.

Half my husband's family is not coming to my house because they refuse to take the rapid tests that we purchased. They "don't believe in testing mandates". Okay, stay home then.

SuzySunshine99 wrote: »

All of a sudden, the rapid tests are in short supply. I'm glad I got some a few weeks ago, because most pharmacies are out of them now. Hopefully, they get more before Christmas.

Half my husband's family is not coming to my house because they refuse to take the rapid tests that we purchased. They "don't believe in testing mandates". Okay, stay home then.

I've found myself reflecting on this post over the past day. It's hard to understand family members -- family! -- unwilling to keep each other safe during a pandemic. Taking a rapid test someone else went through the effort and expense to procure is a pretty minimal level of effort. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around it. My knee jerk response (which is a jerk response) is why would anyone want to be around people this uncaring on any holiday anyway? Better not to have to feed/entertain people this dismissive (or perhaps unmoored).

You seem to have a really good disposition about it, @SuzySunshine99. I hope your holiday celebration is nice.

SummerSkier wrote: »

It' absolutely crazy to me that we are still in this pandemic 2 years later and it is surging yet again. It is quite discouraging because I think we all believed that the vaccines being approved would be the end of it. And it looked that way last spring and early summer until Delta. Just my opinion but it seems like we are fighting a losing battle with the variants vs vaccines.

I think it's easy to get disheartened in this situation. And the reality is that the omicron wave is going to have huge numbers - in part because of effective methods for reducing spread in 2020 and 2021 means fewer people were exposed, fewer people died etc. But the numbers of deaths/the case fatality rate is going to be much less. The immunity in the population is much greater in quality and quantity than it has ever been. And, after omicron burns through the population, the immunity will be even stronger and the next wave will have even fewer deaths.

The increasing restrictions and caution about the coming weeks and months is about reducing mortality and (I think mainly) reducing the risk of healthcare systems going over capacity during the worst of this wave.

In my view: this was always going to be a long haul. Several years of waves until the vast majority are seeing the virus (through vaccination or natural exposure) every few months until we reach a stable state - which is likely to be seasonal spread in years with new variants and annual (or so) vaccination indefinitely.

It is more like a siege than a battle: and we are making steady but slow progress in breaking the siege.

SuzySunshine99 wrote: »

ahoy_m8 wrote: »

SuzySunshine99 wrote: »

All of a sudden, the rapid tests are in short supply. I'm glad I got some a few weeks ago, because most pharmacies are out of them now. Hopefully, they get more before Christmas.

Half my husband's family is not coming to my house because they refuse to take the rapid tests that we purchased. They "don't believe in testing mandates". Okay, stay home then.

I've found myself reflecting on this post over the past day. It's hard to understand family members -- family! -- unwilling to keep each other safe during a pandemic. Taking a rapid test someone else went through the effort and expense to procure is a pretty minimal level of effort. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around it. My knee jerk response (which is a jerk response) is why would anyone want to be around people this uncaring on any holiday anyway? Better not to have to feed/entertain people this dismissive (or perhaps unmoored).

You seem to have a really good disposition about it, @SuzySunshine99. I hope your holiday celebration is nice.

Thanks. Families can be challenging sometimes. We did our best to give everyone the opportunity to celebrate with us this year.

I would think that even if they thought we were over-reacting, even if they though we were being stupid, hysterical, whatever, that they would humor us and do this one simple thing to be with the family for Christmas. Just take the rapid test that we have provided. We asked everyone to do this...vaccinated or not, so not singling anyone out.

But, these are family members who are not vaccinated and will never be. They carry fake vaccination cards so they can work, get into events, and travel. Their reasons range from political (i.e. It's all a hoax), to religious (i.e. The vaccines are made out of aborted babies).

The patriarch of that part of the family has health issues that make him very vulnerable to severe illness or death if he gets COVID. I wanted to do this testing not just to protect us, but to protect the unvaccinated family members as well.

They may be acting stupidly, but that doesn't mean I want them to die. They are still my family, and I love them. It makes me sad to think that this may cause a rift that will be difficult to heal.

Dealing with family is hard sometimes. When my husband was going through cancer treatment and even after I had strict rules about being in contact with him at our home. Not super harsh, but stuff like wear a mask, if you aren't vaccinated take a home test before coming over - just common sense stuff. The members of the family who weren't/aren't vaccinated were mostly good about it and understood the concern. A few pushed back - "but he's vaccinated" "it's just like having a cold", etc., etc.

So I did what you did and told them not to come to our home. It was hard to do but necessary.

I've relaxed a lot since then, but I'm still careful. It just makes sense.