COVID-19 Issues

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Nov 29, 2020 9:16 pm

How goes life in the pandemic these days? Given the current state of play where I live, I'm honestly surprised none of us has had it. I have forced myself to make rational decisions about reasonable exposure risks, which means occasionally people have to go to work or a medical provider, and thus we cannot eliminate all exposure risks. However, as conditions worsen and we play out the "sky's the limit!" scenario, I struggle with this. Next week we have a needed doctor appt and orthodontist appt., and after that I'm thinking we are just done going anywhere besides outdoor walks until early Jan. Is anyone else living like this? Am I going overboard? I just want to go through December without having to think about it, without having to worry about it. Just want to be done with it and safe in the nest, please.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Nov 30, 2020 6:49 am

Pandemic sucks.

My city finally instituted a mask mandate last week, and thankfully, almost everyone is complying with it in public. My group in my office consists of four of us. One of them had a heart attack many months ago. And now she is back to work, but fragile. I worry for her. Her mom just died of Covid a couple weeks ago, and this coworker has been quarantined for three out of the last four weeks, but isn't worried and doesn't take it too seriously. Yancey had a positive test last week and will be out til the end of this week. Our fourth is actually in a vaccine trial. He's 65 and healthy as a horse. He's being careful, and we don't know if he was in the vaccine group or the control, but he and I are both Covid-free so far.

My wife's grandmother has had Covid for the last two weeks. She's not doing great, but also isn't hospitalized either. My wife's uncle had it as well, but recovered.

School is still open and in-person. The number of kids and/or parents who have tested positive and have caused quarantines is many. A couple of my kids' close friends have tested positive.

We also know many people who have taken three or four days off of work with fever/cough and other symptoms. Most of them say it was probably Covid, but none of them got tested, because they can't afford to take off work and can't afford to have their kids quarantined for two weeks. For too many people in our area, there is simply no support available to help people get by if they choose to do the right thing. It scares me, but I don't judge them and don't blame them.

My wife and I are both essential workers according to the State of Nebraska, so we continue to work. But we mask up at all times, we wash, we sanitize. It all feels inevitable, but maybe we can keep ourselves safe until a safe, effective vaccine is available to us.

And I agree that it is ridiculous that as a nation, we have come to this point at all. If the GOP had been on board with a national mask mandate from the outset... if they had implemented the plan that Jared Kushner had come up with by consulting medical experts (aggressive testing and contact tracing combined with selective quarantines) then we could have saved thousands of lives. And had that alternate reality had come to pass, we would right now be in a panic over holiday season as the death toll approached 50,000 or 100,000, and that would seem like the end of the world, because we would have no basis of comparison. And in that alternate reality, Donald Trump would be coasting into his second term right now, because despite all the horrors of his presidency, showing leadership and taking decisive action on the pandemic would have been enough to put him over the top. But then... it would have required him to be a person he is not.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:17 pm

Wow, that is grim news. SO many people having it. I hope they don't have long-term effects and that they make it through easily!
I do feel bad for the people who cannot afford to lose their jobs so have to keep going even if they suspect they might have it, even though collectively that action is surely leading to more deaths and illnesses. We have given them little choice in the matter, given that they aren't entirely sure their individual actions are directly causing death (all kinds of bs doubts sown at the highest level on down) and they have no economic support to get through a required quarantine. I know many people in this position who were forced to quarantine because their employer forced them to be tested, and that's the only reason they know they were positive. Otherwise they probably would not have found out. The underreporting of cases is pretty intense here too - we have a required reporting system at my employer but people aren't reporting. I can encourage but that's about it, because I also can't disclose private health info.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 9:23 am

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11 ... e-covid-19

This is good news though!

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:45 pm

I went to the store, selecting a low-peak morning hour. The parking lot was JAM PACKED WITH PEOPLE. My God, I said. I went to the gas station instead, to consider my options while accomplishing this other needed errand. I discovered - re-discovered - that my car is phenomenally fuel efficient and I was pleased. My credit card did not work. Still no idea why. I fished out another card and while my back was turned the Man approached. He was going to help me use the Card Reader. A fancy new mechanism for tapping the card on the reader has appeared since I was last present. I do not wish to use the tapper. He wishes me to use the tapper. He is so close to me! He is wearing a very gappy, flappy surgical mask. We are outdoors, so I do not need to employ physical self defense, but I find myself unconsciously leaaaaaaaaning backward away from his Large Head. He is gesticulating, instructing me. He is so friendly, he clearly wishes to help. In my mask and sunglasses and my bright silver hair in the sun I look just like the old lady I am. God how badly do these elderly white ladies need help? Clearly I need help - old ladies cannot use the New Card Reader alone through such methods as Trial and Error! How can this Instructioning be a bad idea, offered by this large nice man, so jolly, so flappy and talkative with his mask in the wind, the warmish breezes that carry the faint scent of his person and breaths to me. Ah, the scented breaths of COVID!

This whole time I am frantically jabbing and beeping my card along through the process so that Man will see I am Successful and do not require Instruction, no matter how Friendly and Well-Meaning! Jabbing, jabbing, please go faster! At this point I realize, I have not spoken to him at all. I am a friendly little Chatty Cathy in such situations, I normally would smile at the Man who approaches with Instructions and make Chit Chat and Nod and assess my surroundings Just In Case. But in this situation I am so taken aback that I have not even spoken to him; I am busy trying not to breathe in his natural musk. Please God let it be over soon, I think to myself in the time honored tradition of Woman dealing with Mankind. But this was a mild incident, so no biggie. The problem is, people need to suppress themselves. They need to maintain personal space at all times. Go away, people. Go away from me. I did not go to the grocery store. Back to the internet ordering I go.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 02, 2021 7:30 pm

My predictions for upcoming vaccine news stories:

1. Pockets of lingering virus in America even after most of the vaccination is done. These will be areas with high concentrations of people who refused the vaccine.

2. Developed nations have been hoarding vaccines, and when they are near 100%, there will be many many many nations that have barely started. The health outcome disparity between wealthy and poor nations will be stark.

3. Related to 1 and 2, in places where the virus is persistent, new variants will develop, and eventually 1 or 2 of those will not be so readily prevented by current vaccines. Some variant will start threatening those who thought they were safe. People will blame A. vaccine skeptics or B. vaccine hoarders.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:09 pm

Grim predictions but all too likely.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:15 pm

That's pretty much what I'm hearing from my local experts. At one time they were pretty optimistic about next fall; that has shifted to pessimism for the reasons Mike states above and others. They're desperately trying to vaccinate people enough to get protective benefit before other strains rear up, but it's not clear that's going to work globally. Our citizenry is fundamentally incapable of dealing with this problem. I thought that was a universal human problem but it turns out we are uniquely incapable, because big proportion of dumb/don't care.

Akiva · Post by **Akiva** » Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:17 pm

My sister tested positive.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:34 pm

I'm so sorry.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:55 am

I hope she has only a mild case with no lingering complications.

Akiva · Post by **Akiva** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:07 am

Tahlvin wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:55 am I hope she has only a mild case with no lingering complications.

About 15 years ago she had a rather serious lung problem; I hope that doesn't cause the Covid to be more dangerous.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:40 pm

Akiva wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:17 pm My sister tested positive.

Noooooo, oh I hope she's doing okay and doesn't get a bad case. Let us know how it goes.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Wed Jun 02, 2021 10:53 am

Mike wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 7:30 pm My predictions for upcoming vaccine news stories:

1. Pockets of lingering virus in America even after most of the vaccination is done. These will be areas with high concentrations of people who refused the vaccine.

2. Developed nations have been hoarding vaccines, and when they are near 100%, there will be many many many nations that have barely started. The health outcome disparity between wealthy and poor nations will be stark.

3. Related to 1 and 2, in places where the virus is persistent, new variants will develop, and eventually 1 or 2 of those will not be so readily prevented by current vaccines. Some variant will start threatening those who thought they were safe. People will blame A. vaccine skeptics or B. vaccine hoarders.

Ooof. #1 and #2 pretty much. #3 still a scary potential

Also ooof. March 1, 2020, Fauci thought 500K deaths worst case scenario was "exceptionally high" (we're nearing 600K)

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Fri Jun 04, 2021 4:35 pm

please note the date. what do we know at that time? what models do we have? and so on. it was exceptionally high that time, then what happened in the intervening year?

no, it's not oooof. it's a damning indication of failure in governing.

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:55 pm

FlameBlade wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 4:35 pm no, it's not oooof. it's a damning indication of failure in governing.

Yea, who knew then that part of the government was going to actively impede efforts and encourage millions of others to do the same.

bralbovsky · Post by **bralbovsky** » Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:15 pm

The difficulty was that it really was worse than we expected (especially secret incubation) and we really underestimated the severity of it. Policy, of course, lowballed it, and that helped it explode. It was a serious issue even in places that took it seriously

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:46 pm

I went to the grocery store with my mask on because I was doing things and I had to be at the hospital, and I never think about wearing the mask so it didn't even occur to me I had it on. I forget that it's there even. Also did not know whether the grocery store still required them. So there I am and some guy loudly mocks me because I am wearing a mask. I might add that I have silver hair and I'm not trotting around with my usual alacrity at the moment, so with the mask on I look like an older lady and this guy had to be Max 40. So some a****** out there thinks it's okay to go to Costco and shout at older ladies because they're wearing a mask. And I feel like he needs a punishment for that. How do we accomplish that? I was so taken aback that I didn't even realize what he was saying to me - like I thought he was trying to communicate in some other way about some other topic. It did not even cross my mind what he was talking about until he started walking away with his cart. And then if I had run him down to administer a punishment I don't think a court would have looked upon it favorably. But that's where I am with other people right now. I don't want to have to be around other people. And I might have to leave the state where I live because I'm really sick of the a****** quotient here.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Jul 11, 2021 10:42 am

Pardon me for being that one, but what's going on now? Specifically should I be wearing the mask again? We hit bottom nationally speaking and then started an overall uptick of cases which is now growing at a disturbing rate. Obviously the unvaccinated are still at risk but what about the rest of us? I have a kid still too young for vaccine and I keep reading about situations where vaccinated people were still able to transmit unwittingly or in a rare cases even acquired a serious case or died. I don't want to alter my whole life plan when the risk has fallen that low, but I also don't want to contribute to spread or put my kid at risk when we seem to be going exactly the wrong direction now.
I've been really busy and not in touch with any of my usual sources of the truly good advice. I've got to get on that. We were planning to take a short trip on a plane, and then kids are going back to school, husband is at the office again, and these are the considerations and concerns. For myself it's not difficult to completely avoid close contact with people, especially when it's the preferred state, but I can't do it on a plane and the bottom line is not putting the elderly or other vulnerable family at risk.

It goes without saying, the rage, the exhaustion of living around so many willfully stupid people, so on and so forth, I'm trying to float above the place of such rage like a soft cloud. We cannot do anything much about the crazies at this point except outbreed and outwait them.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Sun Jul 11, 2021 11:47 am

Mostly don't wear masks outdoors. I still wear masks inside most public places. My unvaxed kids wear masks in those places but are rare in those places except for daycare. Would prefer not to spread the delta, for those who can't get vaxed, the dummies that I still prefer alive, and to reduce the chance of another even worse variennt. Also my father in law got vaxed almost a year ago in the trials and as much as it's great it seems he's still protected well, would prefer we not test that theory every month forever.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:21 pm

I leave tomorrow morning for my first work-related trip in almost 18 months. Masks required in airports and planes and other public transportation, and I’ll probably be wearing one in public areas at the hotel. And I’m hoping there are no idiots on any of my flights that try to open a door or bite a flight attendant or anything like that.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Mon Jul 12, 2021 1:41 pm

Who can say these days? I'm encouraged by the fact that all of the doctor's office and dentists and veterinarians we visit with excessive frequency still require masks and have no plan to change their policy, which means if I feel like wearing a mask in a public place, so be it. We had to take a trip by plane and it was fine and everyone wore masks and was very compliant. Most people did not wear them in the airport, which I found strange, but many did. Just seems like basic common sense that we would still want masks when we're in a big crowd of people known for passing the illnesses around.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:32 pm

There are four people in the evening grocery store wearing masks: two of the younger employees, a guy who looks to be Indian or Southeast Asian, and me. I surprise myself by not actually feeling any urge to sneeze or cough upon the people who stare at me with hostility, even though examining other people this way in the grocery store is rude anyway. Leave me to my reverie about what needs to be purchased and cooked this weekend! I don't want to have to glance over and see you smirking at me for no reason. I'm not smirking at you! On the other hand it could be that I am just so filthy, I find it hard to believe I went to the grocery store in this state after being in the garden. There was a policeman at the front of the store chatting with the assistant manager and until I was safely out of there I felt there was a good 15 to 20% chance he was there to politely ask me not to return to the grocery store in this condition again, due to complaints received, public morals, etc.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:27 pm

Did shopping always feel like a gauntlet of fears and annoyances, it's just the pandemic has supercharged it? Pre-covid it still seemed half the people, including me sometimes, would rather be anywhere else.

Thanks for the effort you do to keep you and others safe!

bralbovsky · Post by **bralbovsky** » Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:46 pm

Here in my part of the world, things seem to be closing in on normal. Graduation parties, etc.
Front line folk still masked: 60%
regular: 10%
I'm glad I don't have an under 12 in my immediate circle of responsibility because I do feel that the danger is hiding, but the distance thing seems to have stuck a little. So fake sensible people at least keep away.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:56 pm

Our son's HS band had band camp this week, and were prepping for a local parade on Sunday. Today they found out that one of the kids that has been there all week tested positive for COVID. So band camp for today was canceled, and they now will not be allowed to march in the parade on Sunday. And our son will be a senior, so that was his last opportunity to march in that parade with the band.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:55 am

They did contact tracing with the infected person and decided few enough people were exposed that the rest of the band can still march in the parade on Sunday.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:59 am

GOOD!

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:35 pm

Prescient.

Mike wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 7:30 pm My predictions for upcoming vaccine news stories:

1. Pockets of lingering virus in America even after most of the vaccination is done. These will be areas with high concentrations of people who refused the vaccine.

2. Developed nations have been hoarding vaccines, and when they are near 100%, there will be many many many nations that have barely started. The health outcome disparity between wealthy and poor nations will be stark.

3. Related to 1 and 2, in places where the virus is persistent, new variants will develop, and eventually 1 or 2 of those will not be so readily prevented by current vaccines. Some variant will start threatening those who thought they were safe. People will blame A. vaccine skeptics or B. vaccine hoarders.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:39 pm

I want to take a trip and I'm terrified to take my unvaccinated child on a plane without placing him in a bubble and I don't know if I'm insane for even thinking of doing this under the circumstances. When infection rates were the low ebb, it made sense but now they're going the other way. I feel sorry for people who struggle with access to medical care and vaccines, or truly have received misinformation they don't know what to do with. The ones who are doing it to own the libs fill me with a rage that is difficult to describe. I have cut off numerous branches of my family tree and it feels bad because they are branches that were the closest to me, and I have very little family as it is. If you have sane family please give them a hug for me.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:06 pm

I have comforted myself over the years by noting that one gets along with many politically and intellectually incompatible people, one even appreciates them at times, and people are more diverse in opinion and habit than the outcomes of this or that election might indicate.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Fri Aug 06, 2021 5:26 am

My 18 year old daughter got the J&J shot in May. She now has COVID and has been running a fever but is otherwise okay. Her doctor said it will be mild and to just stay in bed and stay hydrated. She’s one of the only one of our family that didn’t have COVID before getting vaccinated.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Tue Aug 10, 2021 8:17 pm

Here's something new:
My husband became fully disgusted by the massive number of people standing right next to each other in line unmasked at a takeout place. He usually doesn't complain about it.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:54 am

Kyle wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 5:26 am My 18 year old daughter got the J&J shot in May. She now has COVID and has been running a fever but is otherwise okay. Her doctor said it will be mild and to just stay in bed and stay hydrated. She’s one of the only one of our family that didn’t have COVID before getting vaccinated.

Yikes. So my daughter had to go to the ER twice because her COVID is severe. She’s been unable to eat or drink anything and is severely dehydrated. They gave her four bags of fluids via IV and sent her home. If she was here, I’m sure we’d be dealing with the stress better, but she’s alone in Colorado.

It’s interesting to me that she’s one of the only one of us who is vaccinated but never had COVID (she was traveling in her van across the East coast when we all had it). I wonder how severe this would have been if she hadn’t been vaccinated a few months ago- would she be one of the ones on a ventilator?

Another reminder to people- she has this severe case and she’s a healthy 18 year old who goes on weeks-long hikes and is extremely active. This isn’t just a disease that’s affecting old and sick people.

Tahlvin · Post by **Tahlvin** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:52 am

Oof. Hope she gets better soon and doesn't end up with long COVID.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Aug 11, 2021 8:46 pm

Oh I'm so sorry, that poor child and also poor parents having to deal with it from afar! That would be losing my mind having to hear about this over the phone. I hope she's past the worst part and gets back to you quickly.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:50 am

Been thinking about you and your family. Sounds scary and I would be a total mess too.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:55 am

Thanks y’all. Like a typical 18 year old, she turned a corner yesterday afternoon and is feeling much better. Now she’s acting like there’s no reason to worry and is irritated that we’re calling and checking in so often. Which is fine- I’ll take her acting like a tool as long as she’s better.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:13 pm

She should be calling you every hour on the hour! Oh my God I'm so sorry you all had to go through this.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:21 pm

Hell yeah! Glad to hear. There's the theory that Covid + Vaccine = lifetime immunity, I wonder if it might be true for the opposite too.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Thu Sep 09, 2021 5:37 pm

We seem to be at a point where on the one hand, more companies will be issuing vaccine mandates, but on the other hand people are getting much more free and loose for different reasons - partly because they're vaccinated and thus unwilling to give up a return to in-person work and dining and shopping and events, and partly because we've got that hardcore set of crazies among us. I am super pissed about the fact that the crazies have so infected leadership and normal decision making where I live that even places where you would 100% expect vaccine mandates or serious compliance measures undertaken, nothing of the sort exists. I don't really understand what's happening with this hundred plus employee, vaccine mandate, via federal government requirement? I'm just running around like a headless chicken and now I have to go off again into the breach.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:32 am

I had to delete this because it was about a funeral and too depressing

Eliahad · Post by **Eliahad** » Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:11 am

That sucks, Phoebe, I'm sorry. It sounds like that the funeral is for a family member that the children knew? Which, of course makes the decision harder. Otherwise, do you need to bring them at all? If you are at said funeral and masked up, is it going to cause an unnecessary level of conflict. (The unnecessary part is from the people who will get on your case for doing something that doesn't affect them one tiny little bit, except maybe for the fact that you aren't exposing them to your germs.)

Like you said, it doesn't sound like there's a win in this scenario, just a 'what do you want to do?'

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:49 am

Yes, that's about the size of it. I don't think it's important for our youngest to be there on any level. I like to dither and second guess myself but this really is a time to be decisive and trust four decades of experience with messy funeral and family situations to know what's right and needed, regardless of the gale-force mixed opinions I receive from others.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Mon Sep 20, 2021 3:40 pm

It hurts every time a news article says something like good news hospitalizations are down 10 but also sadly 12 people died. And I'm like, were there 12 discharges or 2?

Last week an acquaintance died of covid, so now I'm part of the "know at least one person" club.

Family-wise, my daughter in in quarantine because she sits next to a boy who tested positive last week. She's half way through, she's had one test that was negative and going to have another tomorrow but everyone's without symptoms so we're hoping for the best. But it's part of my issue when they moved from six feet to three feet, which was fine before Delta, but we now have a variant that's three to a dozen times more contagious and no one felt the need to readjust the rules again. But then again, it's very possible she was closer than that and did not catch it so maybe three is safe and/or... maybe masks work?

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Sep 20, 2021 3:45 pm

I know a guy- mid 30s father of four kids under the age of 7. Big time corona hoaxer. Antivaxxer. Thought it was just a cold. He got it so bad that he couldn't get out of bed under his own power for two weeks and was coughing up blood for three. He was too proud to go see a doctor until after the third week when he was convinced he was going to die.

He's now recovered and back to espousing his old beliefs.

Our world has become a polarized hot plate of garbage where we're letting political operatives effect us to the point where I know people who almost died from this bullshit. Ridiculous.

Phoebe · Post by **Phoebe** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 8:26 pm

It's overwhelming, honestly. People are going fully nuts, in the specific sense of having a set of COVID beliefs looking like this: A & ~A, B & ~B, C & ~C...
It's harmless and we should all run free and maskless like the day we were born, but it is ALSO a deadly bioweapon.
It's the same as the flu, yet it is also nothing like the flu which has been completely eliminated from our lives somehow magically due to COVID but NOT AT ALL due to any efforts to stop the spread of COVID.
Vaccines are unnecessary and remaining unvaccinated is no possible threat to anyone, yet how dare anyone suggest that the vaccinated be given priority treatment when emergency or ICU care must be rationed, because we know the vaccinated are more likely to survive and thus make the application of these resources worthwhile?
Masks are a face diaper that have no effect whatsoever, but of course they also poison you with your own exhalations which are clearly a danger.
What THEEEEE hell is going on with people?
I have a special love for all those "my body my choice" antivaxxer folks who used to pretend (and probably still do!) to be "pro-life". Satan get thee behind me.

Last time I was on a plane I was sitting with my middle child as the flight attendant (that poor man) had to ask the dipshit behind us to put her mask ON HER FACE PLEASE again and again. I think she was a hair away from being removed from the flight before takeoff because he told her to put it on, she did, and then he suddenly backed up about ten seconds later to surprise check her and she had already taken it off again. That's the point at which she needs to be off the plane, because this continued through the whole flight. This also happened after she spent fifteen minutes talking about how terrible it is to live in California because EVERYONE there EXCEPT the people in SF (of course) are basically moderate conservative Republicans, just NORMAL people you know, and unfortunately by some magic the government remains controlled by the SF libs and other hollywood libs and such despite the masses of voters clearly preferring a Republican alternative. She was talking about how much she hoped Newsom would be recalled, with Elder probably having the best chance of anyone in the field to beat him, and I didn't know whether to giggle or despair, realizing that election already happened and she has no clue that it did. I feel sorry for her, nevertheless, because what she doesn't know is that I'm the one very likely carrying germs along to her bare nostrils and flapping jaw due to regular daily exposure to people who are testing positive. All I can say is the vaccine works, or maybe the masks and the vaccine both work, because it's not my shining stress-free and vitamin-supplement-healthy immune system doing any good here. It's a known betrayer! I hope I didn't inadvertently kill her through her own stupidity.

Akiva · Post by **Akiva** » Thu Sep 23, 2021 5:08 pm

Some of my students wear masks such that they don't cover their noses. I tell them that they need to keep their noses covered, and they'll do it, and then 5 minutes later it's uncovered later.

To make matters worse, there's a guidance counselor who does the same thing. I wonder if he' thinks masks don't work. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt but for an incident a few years ago. I walked in to the teachers' lounge just as he was saying "And you know they control all the media!" I wish I'd walked in 30 seconds earlier so I could know who controls the media, but I have my suspicions.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Sep 30, 2021 9:40 am

Just took my first Covid test. I'm currently Covid-free.

poorpete · Post by **poorpete** » Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:01 am

Yay! I got my first test last week. Anyone here left untested?