How Is Covid-19 Impacting Life in Your City?

[10023]

Originally Posted by someone123

That was a joke but as I said earlier there was at one point (during one of the worst phases of the pandemic) an exception for grandparents to visit their grandkids. Our current social gathering rule is "max 10 or 2 households, only if vaccinated, and keep the group consistent". Probably about what we had in June 2020 when nobody was vaccinated. On paper, if you are eligible but not vaccinated, regardless of your age or whether you had covid already, you are never supposed to visit anybody and cannot go to non-essential businesses. This is in place because we are worried that omicron will hypothetically overwhelm the healthcare system, which like the UK is permanently in shambles. Over 18's are something like 91% vaccinated and over 65 are probably more like 95%+.

I guess you could argue that these restrictions may not be so harmful because people won't follow them but I am not sure that's a good defense of them as public policy.

Back in the spring there was an attitude that the vaccination drive would be the end of the pandemic and if people would get vaccinated (I think the made up number back then was 60-80%) we would go back to normal. With our current approach to hypothesizing about variants and preemptively implementing measures we may never return to normal because there will always be a possibly serious variant and there will be spikes in cases every so often.

Actually, now that you mention it, there were a great number of voices arguing for this over here as well. Can’t let people go to the gym, just mix 3/4 generations in a tiny English house with no open windows in the winter. Jesus Christ the stupidity, but what old people want, old people get.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by C.

Don't worry - you're not going to miss much unless you're into strip clubs.

Well that's missing a lot C because of the social distancing thats required.

Might be hard to slip dollar bills from 6 ft because I am not Plastic Man so my arms don't extend that far.

[SteveD]

I tested positive this morning so I've got Covid. That's 7 of us now from the family holiday party Sunday evening. Someone who tested negative earlier that day obviously became contagious during the gathering.

I have generally mild symptoms right now. Low grade headache, minor body aches, dry cough, nasal congestion...all the classic Omicron symptoms. With first onset of symptoms Tues Dec 21, this means I'm in day 4 of it already. I notified my Doc a few minutes ago of the positive result.

I'm 58 years old, soon to be 59 (in about 10 days), but healthy for my age cohort. 5'6", 156 lbs, non-smoker, daily active, no chronic health conditions. I do drink more than most people tho. For those of you who remember, I did get vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine back on March 11, but I never got any more covid vaccines, because I developed severe tinnitus which continues to this day.

[the urban politician]

^ You are reporting a non-event, FYI

I don’t get tested for Covid because it is a silly exercise, except in a few situations

[dubu]

Youtube is pretty crazy, there's this crazy vaxx person ( I don't care if someone takes it or not, my best friends have taken it) today they are still saying they are going to by a gun for anti vaxx people to shoot ourselves. There is def some weird effects for some people who have had the shot 3 or more times. There's other people that have been acting strange after taking the shots.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by 10023

Actually, now that you mention it, there were a great number of voices arguing for this over here as well. Can’t let people go to the gym, just mix 3/4 generations in a tiny English house with no open windows in the winter. Jesus Christ the stupidity, but what old people want, old people get.

I have friends in their 20's who live in a household together and have no elderly relatives to visit. They have to go to in-person jobs during the pandemic. Some of them also worked with somebody in my household. But we were not supposed to socialize with them. They have no car because they can't afford one. I guess they were supposed to walk home 30 minutes with groceries or take transit. We helped them out by driving them around anyway. Their small house probably has 8 people in it or something like that.

There was a big bias toward "traditional families" in the public health rules (on paper right now you can't gather as 3x20 year olds who live alone, but 2x5-member multi-generational families are OK) which isn't surprising, even though the government tries to be superficially woke. I'm gay and mostly socialize with gay males and we'll get hassled by police much more than normal because whenever we do things it registers as "a group of young guys socializing" which is inherently suspicious (2 men and 2 women = 2 households, 4 men = 4 households).

My building has a gym but it has been closed down since March 2020. They were allowed to open in the summer but they said they'd make some plans for a few months then the public health people told them they had to close again. I'd guess it's made people in my building significantly fatter/less healthy, potentially costing more in QALY than covid since this area is something like 95% vaccinated.

At this point I think the restrictions are practically entirely garbage and should be thrown out. The risk to most vaccinated people is very low and other people can take their own measures that they want to to protect themselves if they feel it's dangerous. The specter of hospitals being overwhelmed has never materialized here and anyway I don't think it is a good reason to indefinitely suspend normal freedoms (you must have this service from us but we're not administering it properly so we will manipulate your life so you need less of it). If they want to actually fix our healthcare system, including scaling up ICU capacity to normal levels in other first-world countries, I'd be supportive of that, but I don't think we can wait because it's been deteriorating for 30+ years.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ You are reporting a non-event, FYI

I don’t get tested for Covid because it is a silly exercise, except in a few situations

I have a husband who has a compromized immune system, he just tested negative. I have to travel the country for the work that I do. The fucking instructions on the tests say to notify your healthcare provider. You're entitled to voice your childish "silly exercise" pronouncements, but it tells me how dense you are.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by SteveD

I have a husband who has a compromized immune system, he just tested negative. I have to travel the country for the work that I do. The fucking instructions on the tests say to notify your healthcare provider. You're entitled to voice your childish "silly exercise" pronouncements, but it tells me how dense you are.

Hope you get well soon and don't listen to "I'm a doctor but I don't give a fuck about potentially infecting my patients." (I take voluntarily weekly surveillance tests at work... it's not a big deal...)

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by SteveD

I have a husband who has a compromized immune system, he just tested negative. I have to travel the country for the work
that I do. The fucking instructions on the tests say to notify your healthcare provider. You're entitled to voice your childish "silly exercise" pronouncements, but it tells me how dense you are.

That’s where my part about “except in a few situations” comes in. You didn’t mention the immunocompromised husband part. So spare me the false outrage.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Hope you get well soon and don't listen to "I'm a doctor but I don't give a fuck about potentially infecting my patients." (I take voluntarily weekly surveillance tests at work... it's not a big deal...)

Cute, but you are the outlier here, not me.

I don’t know a single colleague who is doing voluntary weekly tests. That’s not necessary or normal behavior. Go find a new religion.

Vaccine, boosting, masks, and gloves on examining patients more than suffice. I don’t feel the need to do irrational things beyond that point. I actually believe in science (as opposed to using “science” in buzzword form)

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Cute, but you are the outlier here, not me.

I don’t know a single colleague who is doing voluntary weekly tests. That’s not necessary or normal behavior. Go find a new religion.

Vaccine, boosting, masks, and gloves on examining patients more than suffice. I don’t feel the need to do irrational things beyond that point. I actually believe in science (as opposed to using “science” in buzzword form)

Chiropractors aren't required to get tested? What about the safety of your customers??

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Cute, but you are the outlier here, not me.

I don’t know a single colleague who is doing voluntary weekly tests. That’s not necessary or normal behavior. Go find a new religion.

Plenty of people do, if it's easy (as it is for me). Since COVID is associated with a quadrupling of stillbirth risk and my wife is pregnant, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to spend ten minutes a week getting a test on my way into the office.

Vaccine, boosting, masks, and gloves on examining patients more than suffice. I don’t feel the need to do irrational things beyond that point. I actually believe in science (as opposed to using “science” in buzzword form)

CDC guidelines indicate you should isolate and get tested if you have any potential symptoms, not just "except in a few situations": https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...endations.html

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

That’s where my part about “except in a few situations” comes in. You didn’t mention the immunocompromised husband part. So spare me the false outrage.

My husband isn't the only individual who could have a drastically altered response to this so spare me your after-the-fact qualifications. It's about caring for your fellow friends, neighbors, acquaintences and passers-by. Get it?

There's nothing "silly" about being aware of your Covid status and then upon finding out about it taking common sense precautions.

[the urban politician]

I guess I’m just forever a skeptic then. There is nothing “common sense” about healthy and asymptomatic (or mildly symptomatic) people testing themselves for a virus that is spreading like wildfire.

This is utter futility and nonsense. I don’t believe in this and I will never support it.

The way out of this is through immunity. Not avoidance. It’s not convincing and I don’t find it rational.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

I guess I’m just forever a skeptic then. There is nothing “common sense” about healthy and asymptomatic (or mildly symptomatic) people testing themselves for a virus that is spreading like wildfire.

This is utter futility and nonsense. I don’t believe in this and I will never support it.

The way out of this is through immunity. Not avoidance. It’s not convincing and I don’t find it rational.

I posted about this in the CE, but I think folks don't understand some of the ramifications of the "If someone tests positive, isolate for 10 days" policy you see being implemented right now. Given the nature of Omicron, a ton of people are testing positive for this, even if their illness is non-existent or very mild. Yet, these people are being sent home. Today we saw over 2,000 flights cancelled. That wasn't due to weather, and it most likely wasn't due to staff being sick enough they couldn't do their job. If I am wrong about that, feel free to show some data on how many absent airline workers are actually too sick to work, and it's not them being told to stay home because of positive test results.

This is happening in the service industry now too with restaurants/bars closing down.

[10023]

Originally Posted by twister244

I posted about this in the CE, but I think folks don't understand some of the ramifications of the "If someone tests positive, isolate for 10 days" policy you see being implemented right now. Given the nature of Omicron, a ton of people are testing positive for this, even if their illness is non-existent or very mild. Yet, these people are being sent home. Today we saw over 2,000 flights cancelled. That wasn't due to weather, and it most likely wasn't due to staff being sick enough they couldn't do their job. If I am wrong about that, feel free to show some data on how many absent airline workers are actually too sick to work, and it's not them being told to stay home because of positive test results.

This is happening in the service industry now too with restaurants/bars closing down.

This has been going on for a while over here. They called it the “pingdemic” (referring to the “ping” or text you get from the NHS informing you that you need to self-isolate).

That was just due to contact tracing, which was absurd. Fortunately they got rid of that for vaccinated people. I had always ignored the texts anyway, but restaurants and businesses were always short of people because some co-worker’s kid had a case at their school. It was ridiculous.

Two weeks or 10 days or 7 days has always been a guesstimate. Obviously people who get very sick can have virus in their system for months. Even those with weaker immune systems that aren’t hospitalized might have it for longer before their body can fully clear it. But it’s perfectly possible for people to have the virus for just a couple of days and then the immune system kills it. I have.

[the urban politician]

^ Just don’t get tested for Covid. It’s a worthless exercise, bordering on something akin to a religion. Don’t do it. It’s a form of manipulating the public, and so many people are buying into it because they don’t know better.

There are some situations where testing is reasonable. But way too many people are doing it and I am unconvinced as to why we are subjecting our society to this nonsense. The focus should be on vaccination and immunity, above all else

[10023]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Just don’t get tested for Covid. It’s a worthless exercise, bordering on something akin to a religion. Don’t do it. It’s a form of manipulating the public, and so many people are buying into it because they don’t know better.

There are some situations where testing is reasonable. But way too many people are doing it and I am unconvinced as to why we are subjecting our society to this nonsense. The focus should be on vaccination and immunity, above all else

This needs to be treated like flu now (and flu should be treated like this). I think the days of people going to the office anyway despite a fever and bad cough because they’ve got a lot on their plate are and should be over.

But you’ve never “had flu” just because the virus is present in your nasal passages despite not feeling sick (or at least, you never would have known), and this should be the same.

We are no longer in a pandemic, vaccines are widely available to anyone that wants them, and the situation is totally different from 2020 when it was something that you could be fine with but had a reasonable chance of killing someone else. That’s now a tail risk, like it is for flu.

People already fake the tests that you have to do for travel (unless they’re idiots). Not worth having to cancel a trip if you have zero symptoms. Again, if you actually get sick then it’s not a great idea to get on a long flight, but I’m not cancelling travel because of a lateral flow test result when I feel perfectly fine.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by 10023

This needs to be treated like flu now ///

People already fake the tests that you have to do for travel (unless they’re idiots). Not worth having to cancel a trip if you have zero symptoms. Again, if you actually get sick then it’s not a great idea to get on a long flight, but I’m not cancelling travel because of a lateral flow test result when I feel perfectly fine.

That’s if your flight hasn’t been cancelled, of course. I sincerely hope you can fly should you wish.

[10023]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

That’s if your flight hasn’t been cancelled, of course. I sincerely hope you can fly should you wish.

Again, the flight cancellations are because of airline/airport staff testing positive. They’re perfectly fine, no illness or symptoms, but can’t go to work because a test picks up trace amounts of virus.

The problem now is not the virus but the insane overreaction to it and a silly focus on cases in a post-vaccine world.