Coronavirus

[Sigma_Orionis]

I am sorry if I sound insensitive. But, for the life of me, I can't understand why it's so hard for a lot of people in developed countries to get vaccinated. The US is not alone in that. I've read that both Germany and Austria have a lot of problems getting people to do so. There's world wide pandemic. To me, it's a no brainer.

[pumpkinpi]

I am sorry if I sound insensitive. But, for the life of me, I can't understand why it's so hard for a lot of people in developed countries to get vaccinated. The US is not alone in that. I've read that both Germany and Austria have a lot of problems getting people to do so. There's world wide pandemic. To me, it's a no brainer.

That's not insensitive. Do you mean hard as in actually hard to get one, or hard as in refusing to get one?

It's hard for some people to take time off work, arrange for child care or transportation, etc. to get a vaccine. It also can be hard to get information about where and when the vaccines are available, with limited internet access. Those of us who have access to all of the above don't understand why it's hard for people who don't--that's our privilege.

The people who refuse to--blame Trump, Fox News, and the republicans.

[Rommie]

I think a lot of it has to do with how we were so good at eradicating diseases, that people no longer remember what it's like to deal with them. And there's just so much misinformation out there that sounds scientific and plays to our irrational fears- my cousin up thread apparently got delayed getting vaccinated because she's breastfeeding, so what if she gave something to her baby?! I was thinking about this recently when I heard a lot of people still hesitant are worried about "long term side effects"- which sounds reasonable at its face until you read more and realize it's not actually a thing to worry about.

As sigma said, it's not just a USA thing. That's what's so insidious about it. But it also shows a fraying trust in our public institutions that is not just limited to the USA, no matter how much we seem to almost hope we're an exception.

Btw, just read a staggering statistic that they estimate 1% of all people in Germany have coronavirus right now. That's a pretty shocking number, considering in many regions you need to wear N95 masks just to go grocery shopping.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I am sorry if I sound insensitive. But, for the life of me, I can't understand why it's so hard for a lot of people in developed countries to get vaccinated. The US is not alone in that. I've read that both Germany and Austria have a lot of problems getting people to do so. There's world wide pandemic. To me, it's a no brainer.

That's not insensitive. Do you mean hard as in actually hard to get one, or hard as in refusing to get one?

It's hard for some people to take time off work, arrange for child care or transportation, etc. to get a vaccine. It also can be hard to get information about where and when the vaccines are available, with limited internet access. Those of us who have access to all of the above don't understand why it's hard for people who don't--that's our privilege.

The people who refuse to--blame Trump, Fox News, and the republicans.

Hard as to refusing to get one. Yes, I know exactly who they are. And I know why they're doing it. I have no sympathy for them. However it's not just a US problem.

I (obviously) have major issues with our government, I don't trust the Chinese, much less Chavistas. Yet, I went and got the two doses of the damned Chinese jab as soon as it was available. AND, if they offer boosters, I'll get them too. Virii don't care about who you are, what you are or anything else for that matter. They'll happily infect and kill you anyways.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I think a lot of it has to do with how we were so good at eradicating diseases, that people no longer remember what it's like to deal with them. And there's just so much misinformation out there that sounds scientific and plays to our irrational fears- my cousin up thread apparently got delayed getting vaccinated because she's breastfeeding, so what if she gave something to her baby?! I was thinking about this recently when I heard a lot of people still hesitant are worried about "long term side effects"- which sounds reasonable at its face until you read more and realize it's not actually a thing to worry about.

As sigma said, it's not just a USA thing. That's what's so insidious about it. But it also shows a fraying trust in our public institutions that is not just limited to the USA, no matter how much we seem to almost hope we're an exception.

Btw, just read a staggering statistic that they estimate 1% of all people in Germany have coronavirus right now. That's a pretty shocking number, considering in many regions you need to wear N95 masks just to go grocery shopping.

I think you're right. So: Vaccine refusal will quickly be tagged as #firstworldproblem. Only that this time, it will not be a joke.

[Rommie]

So, Omricon- what do people think?

I confess now that I'm triple boostered, reading everything I have on how quickly it spreads etc I'm just like "yup, sounds like we are all getting this this year, but with so many vaccinations it'll hopefully be ok." Like, even if we go into severe lockdown right now, seems like I would just pick it up at the grocery store anyway... and I'll be honest, with already having the booster, I can't say I feel like really changing much, we already mask etc. So, dunno if that's reckless or not, but no big Christmas parties this year, and we are very excited for the Boston Pops Christmas concert on Friday (where everyone is vaccinated/masked), and traveling over the break with testing before each flight etc. Maybe that's too reckless, but eh, I feel if we follow the guidelines by this point I don't have a personal reason to not keep living my life, provided we're ready to pull back at a moment's notice.

Today was nice enough for a bike ride around a nearby pond, and it was the first time in awhile I saw an uptick of people wearing masks just while walking in many months. Still <20%, but it was noticeable. And yesterday my last meeting of the year with my supervisor was on Zoom, because his kids' nanny tested positive so despite all his negative tests since it didn't seem a good idea with what we know about the incubation etc. Guess it's just the world we live in now.

[pumpkinpi]

Yeah, it's seeming to me that we should all count on getting omicron, with all the reports of outbreaks at events even when people are vaccinated and have tested negative. With my household being fully vaccinated and keeping up on our booster schedule, that definitely relieves my worry about getting really sick. But the worry about the inconvenience of quarantine due to close contact, and having to isolate if we do get sick, is still around. Right now both kids don't have to quarantine even if they are a close contact exposure at school, they just have to get tested. But I have a feeling that the school district will change that policy with how transmissible omicron is. So that's going to be a continued stress for who knows how long.

Buster came home feeling crummy Tuesday night. It seemed like his traditional cold symptoms, but we went ahead and got rapid tests. One that evening and one the next morning were both negative, but we still kept him home. On the one hand that's great--it keeps him from spreading a cold. But it's a pain for him to have to miss work that day and for me to have to rearrange my work schedule. But overall I think it's a good idea to stay home even with a cold if your school/work situation allows, and we as a society should do that as a standard.

I just learned that I'll be eligible for a 4th shot in February--my 3rd shot was technically finishing off the recommended course since I'm immunocomprimised so this will be my booster!

[Sigma_Orionis]

Down here, in October, Maduro claimed that we'd get booster shots in 2022. No word on what they plan to do regarding Omicron.

[lady_*nix]

Omicron: for now, for where I'm living, I'm willing to take transit and do errands *with a KN95 mask*, see vaccinated friends in person one-on-one, and visit my parents. But no unmasked anything in public, and no gatherings of more than 3 people. And we'll see how things go as the cases pick up here.

Basically I don't feel like this changes much for me though. I'm still slightly immunocompromised, still doing moderate social distancing, still relying on defense in depth rather than the power of the vaccine alone. Sucks on an isolation level though, which is why I'm not battening down further - that last winter was *brutal*, and touch starvation especially feeds into my chronic pain. Luckily, one of my local friends is vaxxed, fairly healthy, has a car, and hangs out with me every week, so... hopefully we can keep that up.

[pumpkinpi]

Omicron: for now, for where I'm living, I'm willing to take transit and do errands *with a KN95 mask*, see vaccinated friends in person one-on-one, and visit my parents. But no unmasked anything in public, and no gatherings of more than 3 people. And we'll see how things go as the cases pick up here.

I'm waiting to hear if there is anything released about how effective masks are with omicron compared to delta. You hear about these events like weddings where everyone was vaccinated and tested positive, and still omicron spread. Were they wearing masks at all? If my family keeps up our diligent mask wearing, like lady_*nix does, are we as safe as we were before delta? I haven't heard.

[lady_*nix]

If the virus is roughly the same size as before, a properly sealed KN-95 should work, I think. Less clear with surgical masks. [Edit] How good the seal is might matter a lot if it's more transmissible by aerosol.

I do wonder if it might have higher surface/fomite transmission rates?

Also, a thing that keeps coming up in news articles about Omicron - two vaccine doses provide good protection from severe symptoms, but not much against actually getting the disease. For that you need a booster or a third dose.

Edit: glasses or goggles were also recommended earlier in the pandemic, because droplets in the eyes were a known route for infection (esp. more severe cases).

[pumpkinpi]

I thought I posed this already but maybe I closed before I hit submit, or maybe it's in a different thread. Anywhooo....

My brother in law has covid. He's fully vaccinated, but was scheduled to get his booster tomorrow. He works in an elementary school and they have had a lot of cases. Fortunately he's doing well so far. Worse than a bad cold but already getting better.

So now the waiting game begins. My sister and niece are boosted, but my nephew isn't yet because it hasn't been 6 months. They are testing every day. But this could mean that my dad won't get to be with them for Christmas--he'll be all alone. That just breaks my heart. Goddamn pandemic.

[lady_*nix]

Welp, I may have got the 'rona. Was in the ER five days ago for probably unrelated stuff, and now my guts are a mess and I have trouble keeping solid food down.

No respiratory or cardiac symptoms at all though, so that's good at least. I'm gonna order a COVID test and see what it says.

[pumpkinpi]

Whether or not it's 'rona, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you feel better soon.

[pumpkinpi]

I thought I posed this already but maybe I closed before I hit submit, or maybe it's in a different thread. Anywhooo....

My brother in law has covid. He's fully vaccinated, but was scheduled to get his booster tomorrow. He works in an elementary school and they have had a lot of cases. Fortunately he's doing well so far. Worse than a bad cold but already getting better.

So now the waiting game begins. My sister and niece are boosted, but my nephew isn't yet because it hasn't been 6 months. They are testing every day. But this could mean that my dad won't get to be with them for Christmas--he'll be all alone. That just breaks my heart. Goddamn pandemic.

My boosted niece has tested positive.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Sorry to hear that. Hope it's a light case of Covid

[pumpkinpi]

Sorry to hear that. Hope it's a light case of Covid

Thanks. It seems to be for both of them. The vaccine is doing its job!

[Sigma_Orionis]

Good

[lady_*nix]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... l-closures

We're showing a whole generation of kids that adults don't care if they die. What the fuck are we even doing.

Edit: national "we", just to be clear (I don't need to be reassured). Gods though this is fucked.

[Thumper]

It's all over the place. My friend's office, my wife's office, luckily most of the people I know have been vaxed, many boosted and all minor cases. This one seems like it's gonna hit everyone. They've cancelled bowl games, they postponed NHL games including the one I was going to take Dad for Christmas.

[pumpkinpi]

My work is going back to somewhat pre-pandemic levels of operations. Where that impacts me is that there is less flexibility in being able to work from home if I or a family member gets sick. That's stressing me out, especially because we are down one staff member. I'm hoping we cancel some things preemptively in the next month , instead of waiting until the last minute when we don't have enough staff to cover things. I mean, we're a museum, not a hospital. We need to take care of ourselves so that we minimize the spread to essential workers.

[SciFiFisher]

On the plus side they are starting to say it looks like Omicron is less severe and it seems to give you some immunity to Delta. Which implies that perhaps it will also give some immunity to other strains of COVID.

[Rommie]

Back from holidays which were already scheduled before omicron. The big non-surprise is they canceled my first in-person conference that was supposed to happen just a few days before Xmas- sucks, but it really would have been unconscionable to hold it, and they have a less-attended summer meeting every year so everything is just moving to that. It is interesting to think that maybe in the forseeable future we'll just have a summer season where it's easier to hold big events etc, at least until it becomes actually endemic. I had something in March (in Pittsburgh, my hometown!) which I'm still optimistic about though, seeing how the South African wave has already peaked- a girl can dream, right?

The crazy thing though was we were in Florida at my family for new years- everyone there, so it was really special, and easy to do stuff like the beach and eat outside, but I'm still work from home this week because there's just no way you don't potentially expose yourself to a lot of covid in Florida even when as careful as possible. Then yesterday flying home, I finally saw something we've all heard about- someone kicked off a plane for not wearing a mask! Specifically, for some reason the aircon on the plane was spewing out hot air for a bit, so of course they had to figure out why that mechanical failure occurred, and it was a bit hot on the plane but they said stand on the jet bridge if you need some air. And there was a very obnoxious family with two elementary-school aged boys: very loud, stewardess had to tell the kids to mask up when getting on, all middle seats and then trying to get everyone to trade with them so they could sit together, really delaying the boarding process, etc. I didn't see the lead up since I was sitting more forward, but I did see a stewardess beeline towards him with the (male) bursar, idiot not wearing a mask, then he starts yelling how it was hot so he had to take his off, crew having none of it and him walking off to jetbridge while complaining (my favorite was the bursar yelling at him "if you're hot take off your friggin' scarf or jacket!"). Then we heard that he had a "temper tantrum" per another passenger out there and that he wouldn't be joining us... and his wife took his bag out and spoke to him a moment, then flew back with the kids. The sad part was she was 100% normalizing his behavior etc- can you imagine being married to a guy like that?

I mean, a few things to here. First of all, beyond how rude someone has to be to further delay a full plane of people, we are like two years into this thing. Having to wear a mask on a plane sure as heck isn't a new thing, and if you don't want to wear a mask you're welcome to drive the two days from Florida instead. Why throw a temper tantrum? (I find it very telling that right wing likes lingo like calling people snowflakes and how they're triggered, yet this was a grown-ass man who couldn't handle the mildest discomfort everyone else could.) And props to the crew for very clearly no longer giving a shit about such bad behavior- act like that and you're out, at lightning speed. Hope they banned him from the airline too.

Anyway, the things I think about now that I work from home for this week while waiting for my tests to clear- we are basically all-remote for January anyway.

[pumpkinpi]

My cat has an opinion about omicron. We were home for two full weeks over the holidays and she was so happy. I was telling her how much she's going to hate it when we all go back to school/work. Well, I'm back to working at home unless I'm required to be at the museum. So she's not going to be alone after all!

Otherwise, this just sucks. Who here *doesn't* know anyone who is vaccinated and boosted and still had a breakthrough infection?

[lady_*nix]

Hahaha not me, two of my neighbors were just in quarantine due to catching it despite being fully boosted. One of them tried to explain that to me the other day from the opposite side of my (shut, with storm pane) window, and when he got to where he was still contagious I shooed him on, because with a virus like this I don't even trust two panes of glass.

At least word is that serious illness is very rare for boosted folks, and even double vaxxed? But "rare" doesn't mean it never happens.