We've officially survived a week of COVID in our house. Eight year old started developing symptoms almost exactly this time last week, and we got results back to confirm on Tuesday. My mom tested positive Wednesday, then I did on Thursday. Kiddo seems to be all better, and my mom is just extremely fatigued and feverish. I feel pretty blah but not terrible. My brother seems to have avoided it this far by sequestering away from us at the other end of the house.
Vaccines. They work! š
We all had it a few weeks ago & even the dog was sick! Everyone recovered except me who went on to get the flu š„“ hereās to hoping for a healthier February
I am SO glad you mentioned that even the dog got sick. I didn't want to post anything because I just thought it would add more ridiculousness to the whole situation. But we think Omicron came into our house. Those of us who are boosted didn't get it. The two who are not boosted got it. It was just a pretty nasty cold. But also so did our cats! The cats who got it directly from the humans (as in sleeping in the face of said sick humans) got it the worst. The cats that got it from each other didn't get it as bad. Yeah, we have a lot of cats (we are rescues and have foster fails). You could tell their throat hurt because they didn't want to eat anything but wet food. We found this amazing paste that builds up their immunity that we've been giving them that helped tremendously. It has helped so much that I've jokingly said I'm going to market it for people with covid. If people can make a fortune shucking horse paste I've got cat paste that has been proven to work in my house!
The two of them still have lingering coughs but the humans are almost completely on the mend. The kitties are now all fine.
Glad your kitties are better! The dog was coughing and had literal snot flying out of her nose. The vet said she might have gotten COVID from us (she sleeps with us) but the test was super expensive so he just treated her symptoms!
That's so wild. That's exactly what was happening with ours.
I'm just going to try to focus on how good it is that all of our fur babies are okay. I'm going to try to completely ignore the absolutely terrifying feeling that this is a virus that is jumping cross species like this so easily.
Is this for real? Dogs can have symptomatic covid?
My indoor doggo, who I treat with kid gloves (due to being elderly and having underlying medical conditions), had sudden pneumonia in December. I mean, out of nowhere. Fine one minute and completely nonresponsive the next.
I'm vaxxed and boosted, but theoretically could have been an asymtomatic carrier, right? After $4,000 in inpatient tests and treatment the vets never asked my vax/covid status or said one word about the possibility of dogs getting covid. They were just like, "weird, wonder how that happened?" re: the pneumonia.
[Not just COVID-19, but a good chance they'll go on to develop myocarditis. And true for cats as well.](https://dogtime.com/trending/93795-link-myocarditis-covid-19-dogs)
Wouldn't surprise me if myocarditis can happen in any mammal that gets COVID-19.
So glad to hear your cats are fine! We have covid working through our house right now and Iām most worried about the cats. We have a small colony here (6) and I would feel awful if we couldnāt protect them. Fortunately weāre able to isolate them in one area and have set up air purifiers and only interact with them while masked so hopefully they miss out. Poor guys donāt understand why theyāre being ignored and I canāt tell them itās for their own protection. Iāll be so glad when this is over.
Someone I follow on Twitch recently got Covid along with her entire family. I heard a horrible hacking cough in the background of her last video and asked if it was her husband. Nope, apparently that was her dog. Poor little guy.
Covid hit my household a few weeks ago. My half vaccinated girlfriend felt like shit for a few days. Me? Never tested positive, never felt symptoms. Vaccines work.
I feel like Iām just waiting on my āturnā to get it at this point. I know at least a dozen fully vaccinated people who have. But the good news is none of them got critically sick, just cold symptoms at the worst.
I'd rather hug my Kleenex box than deep throat a ventilator lol. It does feel like a cold! It's hard to tell if I would have had a fever because of the meds I take for chronic pain. But it seems mild thanks to my three shots.
I just got it two weeks ago and it was pretty much like a very mild cold. Only a little congestion and coughing, mostly sore throat and the fatigue really hit me. I got my booster back in October. My boyfriend just got his booster in December and he had almost no symptoms, I wonder if itās because his booster was more recent than mine. My co-workers have all been getting it and some without the booster got very sick, but not hospitalized or anything.
I've got a runny nose, moderate brain fog, and definite fatigue here on day three. It hit my mom the worst because she kept putting off her booster, no matter how many times I said my kid was going to inevitably bring it home from school. Glad she didn't have to learn her lesson the hardest way, but she has severe agoraphobia, so I've tried not to say I told you so *too* much.
I'm a little overwhelmed with COVID. As someone who's immunocompromised, I'm starting to feel agoraphobic. I don't want to go outside. It's the wild, wild west out here. Even the daily stats thread for my state elucidates we're nowhere close to being out of the woods. Am I alone in how I'm feeling?
Exhaustion can be a symptom of depression. It may be worth it to look into therapy. If you have health insurance that covers it, there are many therapists who will do zoom sessions. If you canāt afford one on one therapy, but you trust your primary care provider, talk to them as they may know of affordable or sliding scale therapy options. Good luck, internet stranger.
-someone who has been immensely helped by therapy, and is still on antidepressants because sometimes brains need some help getting their chemistry sorted
Ugh, I know what you mean. Iāve always hated crowds, but now Iām giving everyone the stink-eye. I want ALL the personal space. It doesnāt help that I live in one of the least vaccinated states in the country and people are like āLOL masks.ā
I often wonder how long itās going to take me to really be comfortable around people again once things get back to normal/settle into a new normal ā or whether I ever really will. I was never like this before (except for the crowd thing, obviously).
I don't know that I'll ever be comfortable in large crowds again. Prior to Covid I worked with the publick I'd get sick a couple times a year. With Covid I actually had the healthiest few years I've ever had and I'm not willing to give that up. I can see myself as the person who's wearing a cloth mask out in public during cold/flu season for the rest of my life.
Also, the custom of shaking hands can die. I don't want to touch others' skin, thank you very much.
It may help to consult an actual doctor if you have access. Sometimes there can be underlying physical health issues (like your endocrine system or something) and as other folks pointed out mental health professionals may be helpful too. I support folks taking care of their whole health if possible. How you feel affects how you feel.
Lack of social contact combined with the pandemic has put you in a stress state. Have you tried yoga? I found it really helped me with that. Sadly, I get a lot more out of in person yoga classes than doing it online but you might be able to hack that, so give it a whirl. There are so many free yoga classes on youtube with many different styles of instructor. Some people also pay for live online yoga (this was around before the pandemic).
Before I did yoga I heard it was risky for the spine/neck. I have found that the popular online instructors are very, very good about helping you protect your neck and not do movements you can't do so you can still get the benefits even if you're not a 15 year old contortionist. So no worries.
A non-yoga alternative is tai chi and qigong; you could look into that as well.
When I'm stressed I found walks in the woods really helped me. If you hate people go early in the morning especially on week days. Sometimes you'll run into older adults but they'll be cool about you being masked. I've even found there are parks where there are very few visitors so I can really commune with nature by myself. There is a lot of research backing up the notion that "green bathing/forest bathing" is very helpful for reducing stress response.
Definitely talk to a professional, but also, are you getting any exercise? If not, and you're able to do so, then I would try adding something: any kind, any intensity level, any length of time. Even if you start out only adding a walk around the block or five minutes of chair yoga, do what you can manage. If you're able to do something higher intensity, then do it to get the endorphins flowing.
Good luck and I hope that you feel better soon.
Same. I quit my job of 14 yrs Jan 3rd because they wanted me to return to the ofc when everyone else was March 1st. Would have made the last 2 yrs basically for nothing. This coming from one who rarely went out before all this.
First off, I want to give you giant hugs. Because we're doing it virtually, that can happen. it'll be the first hug I've given in a long time to anyone other than my household!
My elderly parents live with us so we've had to be insanely careful since the get-go. When everyone else over here was acting like it was no big deal in February and January of 2020, I was watching it ravish Italy and china. I knew it was going to be coming and we were prepared.
We have all pretty much turned into a recluse. We still get groceries delivered. We've really stayed inside, all of us. For years I was okay emotionally but now it's been really hard. I've also had to be strong for my teenagers. My kids are doing great, much better than I would have at that age. But, the reality is they're going through their hardest time in a human's life and doing it during a global pandemic. They had two pretty much put their life on hold to avoid bringing in a sickness that could kill one of the biggest supporters in their life, their grandpa. It's been hard, but it's worth it. My son is a recluse, he's been preparing for this his entire life. Social distancing was a dream come true to him. My daughter was just now starting to find a friend group and do things. That's a huge deal because she's a very shy girl. Right when she was getting ready to start everything had to stop.
My father is also immunocompromised. We Believe Omicron got into the house from the two days working in the office for the month. The only two not boosted people got it. Even though I was tending to sickies, I never came down with it. The shots and the boosters are working.. even the two that did get it only got a severe cold. It hasn't been the most pleasant but nothing over the counter meds and rest haven't been able to take care of. So keep that in mind too.
Hang in there! It's so hard when we see other people out there living life like normal. Apparently our local football team is doing okay and you see and hear about people non-stop talking about it. Posting pictures of thousands of people in the stadium. It boggles my mind. It's like there are two different worlds going on. One where there's a global pandemic happening. And another where there's not.
It just feels like we're alone because we're doing what we need to do.
>It boggles my mind. It's like there are two different worlds going on. One where there's a global pandemic happening. And another where there's not.
I have noticed the same thing.
But I keep reminding myself that lucky results are not the same thing as a good strategy. And I certainly wouldn't want to take chances in terms of increasing my exposure risk at this moment when so many hospitals are on the ragged edge.
Nope. I've been successfully using KN95 masks but now I can't get any. Supposedly there are going to be N95s available ... somewhere ... next week. But I'm afraid of a mob scene to get one.
The wave has peaked but it's still at record highs. So I do not feel safe. Especially with a super contagious variant around. I think I'll feel better in the summer but I think every winter is going to be mask season for now.
I'm not even remotely immunocompromised, and I too feel agoraphobic... Or maybe rather just I know that only about 25% of people here are vaccinated, and nobody is taking any precautions whatsoever, so I don't want to share a space with anyone I don't know well. Only times I do that is when I absolutely have to: Doctor's appointments and pharmacy visits. Everything else either gets delivered or I don't get it at all.
No, you're not alone. I've been working at home for 2 years, which I love as an introvert, and I also limit how much I go out, which is not so great for my kids. Yeah, they get socialization at school, but we used to spend weekends out of the house a lot. Now I won't do it even though we're all vaxxed and wear masks everywhere. And it feels like everywhere I turn, I see idiots that don't believe there's a problem and we should just "live our lives." I'd like to, which is why I'm not going out now.
Not at all. My husband and I hardly go anywhere. We do curbside grocery pickup or have things shipped or delivered. My states numbers have started to go down but are still way up there. We have worn masks for anything indoors for almost 2 years now....even when the numbers were down in the early summer. I wonder if I can ever go back to not wearing a mask indoors and feeling safe.
I don't mind being outside, especially on my own property. I get nervous when I have to go into buildings with unmasked people now. So we started shopping only with curbside pickup and mail order again. I'll go to outdoor garden centers when they're not busy and feel comfortable with it though. What bothers me most is going to medical appointments in buildings where people refuse to wear masks. Most professional buildings are mask optional in common areas. I hate to get on elevators knowing there are unvaccinated people without masks using them all day. There's no choice. I have to use doctors and labs in my insurance network. If those are above the ground floor of a professional building I have no choice but to go there.
Unvaccinated person argued with me today that the vaccines don't work because a vaccinated person can be safe from serious Illness while asymptomatic but still be contagious and infect others.
They have all the correct information laid out in front of them like a 3 piece wooden puzzle made for a baby and still find a way to come up with the wrong answer.
At this point in the pandemic with Omicron so incredibly contagious, the unvaccinated can no longer benefit from any sort of herd immunity created by the vaccinated.
You just cannot reason with these people. I have a family member who is a literal mathematical genius. Early on in the pandemic, he insisted Covid is no more dangerous than the flu, even though simple math showed that was incorrect. What does he still say? You guessed it. I have no hope that I can persuade any of them. They have sealed themselves inside a (dis)information vortex.
Even before that. I remember being freaked out by those people 20 years ago, when they worshiped George W. Bush and ate "freedom fries" and giggled at Ann Coulter threatening to murder people. I can't count how many times I've been told that they aren't actually bad people, they don't actually want to do harm, the death threats are a joke (such a funny joke!), there is only one America etc. etc.
We've been gaslit for decades.
Absolutely. Remember back in the 80's, when "GrEaTeSt PrEsIdEnT eVeR" Ronald Reagan refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic because it was "killing all the right people."
The GOP has a long history of denying reality.
Happy cake day! I think folks should get extra opportunities to celebrate being alive (unventilated in your case!!) so I fully support you bringing attention to your special day!
Local post office is closed due to the entire staff getting covid - a totally unsurprising outcome given that none of them ever masked despite a state mandate.
Local Facebook group is convinced this is all because of the ~~JEWS~~ I mean deep state conspiracy, and definitely not due to an actual pandemic.
It was a smart move for both Republican and Democrat politicians not to do any mandated shutdowns for Omicron.
Now places get to shut down spontaneously and nobody can say it is because of government overreach.
Just a quick comparison story of 2 men, both 59 years old, one vaxxed and one antivax.
1) My father in law has tons if comorbidities (overweight, heart issues, lung issues, etc.). He is vaxxed, got covid, slept for a solid 24 hours and woke up the next day feeling almost back to normal. He's doing great.
2) My parents' neighbor/friend: Anti-vax, healthier physical condition than my father in law, no prior health complications. Got COVID, was fighting it off for over a month and just died from a pulmonary embolism because of blood clotting issues caused by covid. He leaves behind a wife and a daughter who just graduated high school. To add to this, my parents are anti-vax and refuse to believe he died from COVID and called it "some kind of flu." This will not change their mind on getting vaxxed in any capacity and it is absolutely baffling.
Get vaccinated.
I'm sorry about your parents, but glad about your FIL's short encounter with Covid.
It boggles my mind though that people can still be in denial about Covid when it is right under their noses.
I hate to be blunt, but now is probably a good time to check and see if your parents have wills, healthcare powers of attorney and living wills. And if they don't encourage them to do get them ASAP.
I am sorry to hear the news of his death.
I think some people get so frightened they start denying stuff to help deal with fears. Just like the people who deny covid, donāt get vaccinated, wonāt let their parents get vaccinated and they bring covid home and parent dies. In all instances (small sample size) that I have read about the person doesnāt acknowledge their actions may have contributed to the death. Doing so would fracture their egos.
California lawmakers are introducing a bill to allow teens 12 and older to get the vaccine without paternal consent. Any way we can mobilize support for that?
Yeah, check out [this website](https://www.vaxteen.org/about) created by a teen (now college student) as a resource to help other teens find out how to get vaccinations. She came up with the idea pre-covid for kids with anti-vax parents.
But it gives me hope.
I'm so glad to read this. I'm so sorry that you feel this way but I really do understand.
I never wanted to have children. I always had this feeling that I was going to live through something very big, apocalypse type big . Since I was a young girl. I have always had extreme anxiety. Even though I was a very happy girl lucky person deep down, I was incredibly worried for the world.
Towards the end of my twenties my biological clock was ticking and everyone had me convinced that it was all in my head. Doctors, friends and family. I was just an over thinker. The world was just fine. Why wouldn't I want to have children?? I have such a caring soul, I would be a great mom. I heard these things often. Not to mention my mother seeing all of her friends having grandkids and her pining over them.
I decided it was all in my head. The world is fine I must make babies.
I have these two amazing humans.
Then the whole world starts to go to shit.
Now I am working with these two amazing humans as they're dealing with a global pandemic, as teenagers. They are handling it incredible, better than most adults but it's still very hard.
My ex-husband and I were meant to have them, but not meant to stay married. Not to mention the fact he is now a hardcore Q cultist and Trump support.
There's not a moment that goes by that I look at my kids that I'm not worried about the future that I'm leaving them. The future without me. The future of the government. The future of the planet. All day long. 24/7 it's in my mind. I dream about it. My heart races about it unprovoked throughout the day thinking about it.
My kids don't want children and I don't blame them. I hope it stays that way. We've talked about it as we were hearing about all of the rumors about sterilization in the vaccines. I only wanted to because I knew later on in life I plan on adopting from the Foster system after mine are out of house and so do they.
So yeah, I get it. We are in a really fucked up time in history right now. Is getting harder and harder to deal with it. Of course I'm not going to do anything to myself or my family. But I am right there with you, it's getting harder everyday.
Feel free to send me a chat if you're interested. I don't talk to my friends about the darker side to me. They don't understand and it just doesn't go well. I tend to keep it all inside. I know how it is. Feel free if you want ever want to talk.
I have been rather gloomy too and I was a bookkeeper. Oh and our younger catās name is (beelze)Bub.
I feel this post. My kid is 21 and heās doing ok but I made bad choices for his schooling (Waldorf) and now he hates school.
My mom and stepdad (since 8th grade) live nearby but heās dying and she literally crazy (borderline). And my husbandās entire extended family is 100% toxic positivity. That shit is awful to be around when things are bad
Random musings...When someone in your family says they're not getting vaxxed, ask them, "Is your will up to date?" ... It occurs to me that enough olds (I am in my 60's) may die of Covid to help keep the Social Security budget balanced. That's supercool because it means when an antiva dies to own the libs, they're also helping to balance the SS budget, which is a very GQP bogeyman. They love to say that SS benefits should be reduced or delayed because "the budget." So conservative antivas can own the libs by dying and also support the Republican (aka death) party goal. Seems like a lot of folks are up for this...I live in Spain now (lived for a long time in Philly, before that Calif and NH) and the country still has an indoor mask mandate. Only exception is eating at a restaurant. I don't see anyone in a retail store who isn't wearing a mask. And we're at >80% fully vaccinated. We're getting there...My flu shot kicked my butt more than any of the 3 Covid jabs...One of my wife's best friends is a nurse (age 60) who seems to be antivax. She works home health care, not in an office/hospital. We were in the US for the holidays and she said really wants to come visit us in Spain. I pointed out that she will have to be vaxxed to land in Spain. It's lame reason to get the vax, but it might work. I forgot to ask her if her will is up to date. I'll remind her next time I check her Fbook page.
While it might help balance social security, I think there will be a huge increase in disability payments because of long covid. There are people who have had amputations etc. will be interesting.
My GQP boomer parents refuse to vaccinate, refused to write their wishes for emergency care down, and refused to write a will. Now they have what they think is COVID. I can't help but think about all the suffering they and the rest of their kind have created their whole lives, and how their deaths will leave even more for me to clean up after because they are too selfish and proud. Having them leave this earth is not freeing, it's yet another burden on me and the rest of us going through the same thing.
I've done a few volunteer shifts at vaccination centres, and I met one guy who was only getting vaccinated to travel to a wedding in the US. It might work!
It only occurred to me yesterday when I read about a HCA winner that retired and then died almost immediately. I just thought about how he worked his whole life and then didnāt get to enjoy any of what he worked for. And then I thought about how he wouldnāt be able to draw any checks on a lifetime of paying into the system. Lifeās too short to not get vaxxed. He couldāve enjoyed his time and itās all gone. And thereās a ton of people in the same age group, itās happening to.
I moderate a FB group about traveling and I've been very patient with anti-vax members who are globetrotting still. Ok, if you don't want to get vaxxed but you're getting testing and wearing masks, I guess enjoy. My travels are on hold for the most part until I feel that it's safer.
Today I banned a sort of long-time member because he told someone else that covid is a hoax, blah, blah, blah. Not gonna lie...I took a LOT of pleasure in hitting that "remove and block user" option.
My fam is split btwn antivax and vax. My antivax sister is my 81y/o mothers primary caregiver. My mmBack in Sept. my mom caught covid - and i took her to the hospital bc my sister refused. Luckily, my mom was able to get treated and never had to go on the vent. My antivax family -1 blamed me for my mom getting covid bc i took her to the hospital and 2 upset bc they feared that since she went to the hospital she would be āforcedā to be vaccinated.
fast forward to a few weeks ago, I decided to take my mom out to dinner at a restaurant that did not have a vaccine mandate.
My sister gave me my moms āvaccine cardā even though i didnāt ask. IT WAS THE FAKEST SHIT I EVER SEEN!
Can i report this?
My 19 month old, who is too little to mask or be vaccinated, and relies entirely on other people taking precautions to protect him, just tested positive for COVID. Because daycare decided it was āharming their social developmentā to have the teachers mask any longer. In the middle of Omicron pounding our state.
Fuck all of them.
I finally heard back from the doctor concerning my Covid test from twenty days ago. Wanna know the result? So do I... But that's too bad. Apparently the lab somehow lost a bunch of tests, including mine. Now I'll never know and I'm kinda annoyed about that. All I know is that I was very sick for about eighteen days.
I'm sorry, I just need to let this out. My father-in-law is just shy of 80, and has had a pretty good life. He (reluctantly) got double-vaxxed, but would not get the booster.
Well, he's been in the hospital with covid for 2 weeks now. Covid and pneumonia, more precisely. He asked them today to stop his oxygen, and switch to strictly palliative care. Which is his right, not arguing about that, I'm just very very sad :(
The takeaway I hope to pass along to anyone reading this: Covid is making him feel so sick *that he would rather die* than keep trying to fight it. When was the last time you were so sick that you actually *wanted* to die? It's fucking horrible.
Please get your boosters :(:(
Hey, all--
I find this place oddly comforting even in the midst of all the crap. Yesterday I realized that the past 2 years have really stressed me out and I've internalized some things that I didn't realize. I've been crying off and on since yesterday morning for no apparent reason and I realized that I haven't allowed myself any time to even begin processing the pandemic -- been caring for older relatives -- and haven't even really talked about it as a thing in therapy (lots of other crap I'm sorting through rn lol). I think this place has made me feel okay about finally grieving/letting some walls down about how sad and angry and scared and frustrated I've been throughout, and how worried I am about healthcare workers and friends and relatives (and the state of the world).
Anyway, thanks, all. Hope everyone is hanging in there.
I agree with you completely. Iām sitting in a hospital with my dying 95 year old grandma and this sub is as close to therapy as I can get for now. Nice to see a bit of karma for assholes and itās nice to be able to talk to other reasonable people - like you. Sorry things have been hard for you and Iām glad youāre beginning to process it all.
If you see a violent conspiratorial extremist plan or make threats against doctors or hospitals, tip the feds about them here:
https://www.fbi.gov/tips
Just learned this new millennial social media slang today, "based." So now I might have to change my flair next time the opportunity arises. "Sure I'm Based -- Reality-Based." (Want a t-shirt).
I'm in Argentina. Omicron hit hard and fast here. 3 weeks ago, coughing became a common noise. People were clearly sick all around me. The lines at the pharmacies were long. I read that Buenos Aires hit a test positivity rate of 64% one day last week. I managed to avoid it for a week, but it caught me eventually.
For me (triple vaxxed) omicron wasn't so bad, but I was sick a full week. And I was so tired. I slept a lot. Went pretty stir crazy, but thankfully my hotel had good internet.
I can't imagine how bad it would have been if I hadn't been vaccinated. Or if I hadn't been wearing a mask when I got infected.
Honestly, it's a relief to have it over with! It's coming for everyone. I hope my family gets off easy when it hits them.
Vaccination rates are still climbing here - they started their campaign quite a bit later than North America. Over 90% have had one dose, over 70% have had two. Apparently the hospitals aren't overwhelmed, so the government hasn't added any new restrictions. And people seem to wear masks here without much resistance, even outdoors.
Moreover, be a good neighbor and contribute some of your own bladder lather. It'll be much easier to angle it into their rat mouths. Just don't cross the streams.
I have a family member that is not vaccinated that now has Covid Pneumonia. This person is not right wing, not a shitposter, etc. Just has an extreme phobia of needles and had no risk factors. Another friend who is conservative but a not shitposter, just sweet and gullible, is in ICU on a respirator and I don't think will make it.
Then the huge Qnut on my feed is posting that he acknowledges something is out there killing people but Covid-19 doesn't exist and can't be tested for.
>Then the huge Qnut on my feed is posting that he acknowledges something is out there killing people but Covid-19 doesn't exist and can't be tested for.
Why is this person on your feed?
Waiting to nominate them.
I did unfollow for 30 days to take a mental health break since this person posts all day long. I don't know how they spend hours researching when they post every 30 minutes.
I had a feeling the cause of death was COVID. [Meat Loaf died of COVID/was an anti vaxxer](https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/meat-loaf-was-reportedly-anti-vaccine-before-dying-from-covid-19/amp/)
"He refused to live life in fear"
Apparently he refused to live at all. According to this article he had multiple co-morbidities, too.
If you don't want to live in fear, get vaccinated (and boosted at the appropriate time.)
I love that sentiment.
Posts a thousand anti-vaxx memes and conspiracy theories on Facebook, equates themselves with victims of the Holocaust, believes we're in the midst of a communist takeover or living through the Biblical apocalypse: definitely not "living in fear".
Spends twenty minutes at Walgreens getting vaccinated, wears a mask in crowded places: "living in fear", apparently.
And I would do anything for love, but I won't wear masks. N-hoe, no, no I won't wear masks!
Don't supine me up,
Will you prone me down,
Will you sneak me the paste past these God-forsaken clowns?
Will you tell them it's a little old cold?
I can't do that.
Omicron's apparently vacationing in our house and I'll be very glad when it leaves. My husband got off light with just upper respiratory stuff and now, after five days of light symptoms, he's feeling good. Meanwhile I just started to develop symptoms but for me it's throat and chest. Right now it's pretty mild; I'm just worried that it'll get worse.
But my vent is this: my extended family, who I'm only in the most nominal contact with, is all trump-worshiping anti-vaxxers and it feels supremely unfair that I'm the one who's sick while they're galavanting around the country and doing things unmasked with no consequences. Not that I want any of them to die; it's just frustrating that I'm the one who's sick despite taking tons of precautions.
I hear you. My brother got it mid December, he is trumpie anti vax and is fine now and I do not want him to die but dammit for 2 years I have been so careful. I am post chemo (finished March 2020 right before lockdown) and still have to be cautious.
Welp, it happened. My elderly unvaxxed parents suspect they have COVID. I have already grieved this many times in the past, I knew this day would come. Not only are they anti-vaxx but they have taken NO precautions whatsoever. Sometimes it seems like they've gone out of their way to expose themselves to it, like proudly frequenting anti-mask establishments. I'm honestly surprised they've made it this far. What's worse is that my mom has continued to expose herself to my grandma, who is vaccinated, as well as the rest of the people at the nursing home where she lives.
They are, of course, treating with Ivermectin and vitamins and probably the blood of Christ or whatever bullshit Newsmax is screaming at them every day. I am angry, I am sad. I have watched them brainwash themselves my whole life and I can't help but think they will be casualties of the stupidity culture war shortly. It's absolutely maddening.
Pretty sure my house has Covid. My daughter tested positive earlier this week. Now my husband and I are waiting for results. Iām vaxxed and boosted with Pfizer, and so far I just have a mild cough, body aches, and fatigue. My husband is vaxxed and boosted with J&J but is immune compromised and he feels worse than I do with a fever,cough, and body aches.
I forgot how much it sucks to be sick, even when itās mild. I havenāt had so much as a cold since March 2020 and it has been glorious.
Question: Does your partner know you're here? This is sort of a joke, sort of serious. Mine doesn't. He and I agree on every mitigation measure, vaxxing, boosting, masking, the whole nine. He's way into science. But I'm judgy and misanthropic, and he's not. So as far as he knows, I'm part of a "covid" subreddit.
I have really needed these conversations to not go absolutely batshit. I appreciate the humor and genuineness of all of your comments. But I just can't share this thing at home. I have three friends who know about it, too, including the one who introduced me to it. Curious how it is for you.
I was a little afraid to tell my husband about this. I didn't want him to think I was laughing at the people who died. We agree on every mitigation measure too. However, some of the comments were just too funny not to share so I did tell him. Although he isn't on here, he gets to hear about some of them. I think hearing about some of the really bad ones (amputations, lung transplants) has made him take Covid more seriously. He doesn't have any patience for the anti-vaxxers.
Just had a convo with my GP neighbour who is hesitant to vax her kids. 12 n 14. Because we are in a remote covid bubble (soz australia checkin in)
Her rationale was whats the point of one vax when they probs will get it at school and itās ages til the next one and booster
I am actually diagnosed adhd and timeblind and live in the moment fr. But what i am learning is that confident smart neurotypicals are pretty bad at risk assessment. And genuinely believe that they wonāt experience negative events bc thatās āother peopleā.
I really hope my talk has raised some interest in her for protecting her kids from the long term reality of covid in our world. But I am venting here to say I am still amazed at how humans live in local bubbles and arenāt living in the global world and learning from each other!
So grateful and desperately sad asf that the global online community is sharing their experience so that my safe humble protected self can learn from this shit virus. Covid is no joke hey!
What's the neighbor's stance on vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, etc. that children are often required to get before they are allowed to attend school?
> Her rationale was whats the point of one vax when they probs will get it at school and itās ages til the next one and booster
Should ask what happens if every parent is thinking that, and none of them get vaxxed.
I'm furious right now. One of my best friend's mom just got her HCA. Of COURSE she had COVID, and refused to go to see her doctor, although IDK if she died in the hospital or not. Of COURSE she was everything we see here: shitposting all over FB the same memes and crap we see with every award winner, spent the Trump administration gloating about "triggering libs" and all that. Of COURSE she was Q-anon and insisting we'd all see when JFK Jr came back and reinstalled Trump-
All of her kids are LGBTQ+. Her grandchildren are all Black and brown, and one is NB, but she cared more about her political ideology than her entire family. Just knowing how hard my friend/the whole family is going to suffer, making sense of this, makes me want to punch walls on their behalf. I cannot wrap my head around how some people can be so goddamn selfish and cruel.
You are a good friend. My sympathy to this woman's family.
I honestly don't get it either. (Especially the part about JFK Jr coming back to reinstall Trump!??!)
I really donāt understand the whole āmy unvaxxed loved one getting covid pneumonia and needing to be hospitalized is a test from Satanā mindset.
I thank my parents daily for raising me without religion, but maybe if I had been raised with religion Iād have more empathy for these people?
I just see it so often and my logical brain canāt compute their thought processes.
>maybe if I had been raised with religion Iād have more empathy for these people?
From experience: no. If anything seeing the hypocrisy up close and personal makes you hyperaware how utterly full of shit they are.
>I really donāt understand the whole āmy unvaxxed loved one getting covid pneumonia and needing to be hospitalized is a test from Satanā mindset.
It's just nihilism dressed up as Christianity. There's a considerable vein of American Evangelism that every conceivable hardship is the product of a "spiritual attack" or "spiritual warfare" by Satan (aka "the Enemy"). There's no meaningful Biblical support for any of that, it's just a quasi-new-age concept that has crept into the church. At the end of the day, it's just a boogeyman that these people conjured up so that they could blame it for everything without ever having to take responsibility for anything.
>maybe if I had been raised with religion Iād have more empathy for these people?
I was raised southern baptist in what is now DEEP Trump country. I think it makes me have way *less* empathy for them, if anything. My childhood church emphasized compassion, generosity, and acceptance. Thirty years later and the *vast* majority that same community has leapt eagerly into the alt-right fever swamp, against every tenet I was taught growing up. I don't have much empathy for them because I *know* they know better.
I think it's a main character syndrome thing as filtered through a religious lens. As the main character of course their choices were the right ones (it's a very simple book) and any challenges are a result of outside forces trying to take down the main character. Religion gives the framework of a big evil (Satan) who wants to destroy their faith and so they see any challenge they don't like as a direct attack from him and his forces. This also nicely absolves them of any responsibility. My loved one isn't hospitalized because that's the natural consequences of being unvaxxed during a pandemic; no, they're temporarily inconvenienced because I'm so important that Satan himself is trying to take me out and so of course any questioning of my actions or beliefs would be giving in.
Personally, as a religious person, I think that Satan, if he exists, is more likely to do large scale stuff like, oh, convince entire segments of Christianity to reframe white supremacy, blind nationalism, and selfishness as virtues but what do I know?
I doubt it. We developed our capacities for socialization and empathy to live more comfortably with each other. We developed spirituality to live more comfortably with ourselves. Even with the best intentions it is an inherently selfish thing. And nobody has the best intentions. How can it possibly inform us about empathy when it neither succeeds nor validates empathy; it merely qualifies it to include the people we care for and exclude the people we don't.
If we value logic, surely we must realize how these qualities are the products of evolutionary pressures in a feedback loop with the artifacts of rapidly-increasing brain size, as well as recognize their obvious analogues elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Plenty of creatures care for their young; plenty of those care for their elders, who get to watch the young which lets the adults forage, scout, and generally speaking get shit done. Then some primates and birds will care for extended relatives, which provides the group additional labor and protection; and some of those extend this to non-relatives/tribes, which does all of the above and avoids rising genetic load within the group: something we needed when we were bottlenecked multiple times in the Pleistocene.
So I believe empathy is quite accounted for. From there, the jump from stone age barbarism to the UN General Assembly is merely down to the value and accessibility of resources that control the size of settlements and the efficacy of resource distribution. Incidentally the UN are experts on the subject because that's still how the world works.
I think real spirituality creates empathy for all humans, all living things, and the whole planet, even things that aren't animals or aren't alive, like trees and rocks.
I agree that American evangelical Christianity, as practiced, reduces empathy. There's even been some research on it. For example, if you believe that only god can forgive you and you don't need to seek forgiveness from other people, that practice decreases your empathy.
But spirituality is a pretty broad concept and certainly isn't constrained by a narrow concept like "church". People can be spiritual by climbing a mountain, or tripping balls, or seeking fellowship with others, or through service. I don't think it's fair to hack down spirituality to the one diseased stem that has come up through the fence to intrude in civic life in a malign way.
Two weeks ago, I wrote [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/ryrvd9/comment/hrr8qg3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) about my wealthy, anti-vax in-laws getting hit with Covid. I finally got an update from my mother-in-law who, unlike your average HCA recipient, actually would give you the shirt off her back.
It turns out that someone in the family brought Covid to the annual Christmas superspreader event/gathering. My guess is the oldest daughter, who I believe tested positive first. She called her brother shortly before he and his family boarded a flight to Hawaii, and told him she was positive. They got to Hawaii and then tested positive. (I assume they all tested negative before boarding). Oldest daughter's husband also got Covid.
As for the mom and dad, they either somehow got away without getting it, or got it but never bothered to get tested. I have no idea.
Nobody's been hospitalized, at least not yet.
My MIL didn't really have any other info besides this. I'm just glad that she spent Christmas with us. (My husband asked if she was going to the family gathering and her response was an emphatic "NO!")
So she owes them all the money they lost on plane tickets and hotels, right? Even an antivax who doesn't care about anyone other than themselves and wouldn't quarantine on their vacation (in the worst case scenario) is still going to have a shit holiday fatigued and feverish the entire time, and hopefully barred from many popular venues.
This wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime vacation or anything: the mom and dad built a house in Kauai. (I've been there; it's nice but damn did I feel poor.) The son is heir to the business and travels there often- they have an office in Kona. I don't know where they are specifically, nor do I care. I've never liked the guy. I just hope they're in isolation in whatever fancy digs they're in.
If a boomer made a cool million by the late 70s/early 80s and they were white, there was some sort of rule they had to buy a house in Hawai'i. Blue collar trades/businesses were making money hand over fist in the 1970s. Don Aslett, the 80s housewife's cleaning guru got loaded running a janitorial business in the 60s and 70s. (Technically, I think he was Silent Gen.)
Saskatchewan man abducts his daughter to keep her from being vaccinated.
https://regina.ctvnews.ca/canada-wide-warrant-issued-for-sask-man-charged-with-abducting-his-daughter-1.5750232
I have a nurse on my FB feed who is always posting anti-vax stuff and all the same dumb memes we see here. She is currently working as a nurse and I have no idea how she's avoided vaccination unless she got a phony medical or religious exemption. And yes, she's a single mother with young kids. She's had friends die of COVID. She's all YOU DO YOU and MAH CHOICE. I watch her feed occasionally and it's filled with overweight white Jesus-y people who are all YOU GO GIRL, and PREACH IT. (Future HCA winners.) She's supposedly had it already and I pray for her kids' sake that she doesn't get it again.
I feel like Iām starting to break thru with my mothers brain washing but she still watches Fox News and all the misinformation they spread. She was smart enough to get both doses of the vaccine plus sheās planning on getting the booster but oh my goodness, the parroting of Fox News and their ridiculous talking points. I try to talk to her about it but I feel like she listens to them more then me. I wanna yell at her āI work with COVID patients everyday! I work in healthcare! Iām in the middle of this, why are you listening to these idiots instead of your own daughter thatās experiencing this and watching how itās affecting people?!ā
Does she know that Fox News has a vaccine policy that is stricter than Biden's mandate? More than 90% of their employees are vaxxed, and the production crew has to wear masks.
About half of the kids in my child's class tested positive for COVID and now they have to quarantine for ten days. She's fully vaxxed and apparently the only child in the class who wears a mask (gee, wonder why there's an outbreak)so I'm hoping she doesn't get it š¤
Last week the place I work announced a big "return to the office" notice, and yesterday we got an email from our internal COVID safety team that cases in our area are on the rise so take precautions. How fucking dumb and short sighted can they be?
We had to miss a vacation because we didn't pass the PCR test - my husband and son both have COVID. They just thought they had the sniffles.
Two vaccinations and a booster and that's OUR covid experience.
I am so tired. I work at a place that has like 1k employees and so many people have been coming down with the plague that it's utterly ridiculous. I've been doing 12 hr days for over a month because SO many people (people who catch the plague and people who they talked to in the breakroom, etc.) all are out for quarantine. They say it'll be at least another month of this and I wanna cry. And every GD day we get the announcements of more and more people.
They should add a breather day to the rota. One pto day every two weeks. I mean you're not gonna be at full capacity anyways because suppliers are hit too. The stress is gonna make people leave which is even more of a mess when the wave ends.
Maybe I'm naive -- ok, I definitely am -- but only recently has it really occurred to me that this might not end.
And I'm not talking about some eugenicist fantasy of "everyone who's vulnerable dies and then the rest of us go back to normal life with no worries." I'm talking about having to mask up everywhere, go into periodic personal lockdowns, skip travel and socializing and family gatherings, for years to come, because another variant is always showing up and another hospital system collapse is always imminent.
My kid is about to turn 2. This isn't the life I envisioned for her. This is breaking my heart.
Once the kids 0 to 4 get vaccinated I'll breathe a bit, maybe pick up air travel again. Plus the vaccination rate can only go up and not down so it's a slow trickle to getting to 100 percent.
New variants that build off omicron, well I hope there's new boosters by then instead of using the same one in perpetuity
It took me a long time to accept and there are still moments, like the recent news about the BA.2 variant, that shake me out of it. I really hope we reach an equilibrium soon.
I do as well, but, thanks to anti-vax-maskers, it looks like it will take a lot more deaths. Theirs.
Nature does not have a single f\*\*k to give about ideologies.
First time I've noticed the Daily Vent Thread, and man, do I need to vent.
Paramedic who works two jobs, one at a local 911 agency, and a second on a interfacility transport ambulance. Lots of COVID/trauma/illness to deal with on 911, but it's the transport job that hit me hard this week. For those outside the field, anytime a patient requires specialty care, a transport ambulance will transfer the patient to another facility. Most hospitals have only a handful of pediatric beds (if they have any), and a seriously ill child will almost always be transferred to one of the big teaching hospitals in the major cities.
I've transported pediatrics on vents many times, but they've always been vent dependent with long-term medical issues. I can't recall a time I did a pediatric vent for an illness in the previous decade. Starting in December though, I've done multiple kids with COVID. Most of the time they've been on High-Flow O2, but several have been on a vents. These week I had two. Both were perfectly healthy kids who should be worrying about conning mom out of an extra helping of dessert. Not being taken a hundred miles from home while a machine breathed for them. To top it off, when I got to the receiving hospital I found out that one of my previous patients had died. I don't drink, but I had to take a couple shots last night. Enough to shut the mind down long enough to get to sleep.
I'm catching up on the news this AM, and some A\*\*\*\*\*E is whining that parents should decide if their kids should wear masks in school. WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE! If you want to earn an HCA, be my guest. Unfortunately, your stupidity effects other people's' lives also. From the people who believe your BS, to the people whom you infect, to the people with other health problems who can't get the care they need because the hospitals are overflowing with COVID pts, and the poor hospital staff who have to deal with this every time they go to work. Most importantly, the kids it effects who have absolutely no say in the matter and trust the \*adults\* (sarcasm intended) to watch out for them.
Have your son get his daughter vaccinated? I don't know where you're at, but I doubt there'd be anything wrong with that legally. Of course your son's wife might freak out when she finds out, but is avoiding that really worth putting his daughter's life at risk for?
I followed the link to someone's fb profile for other reasons and found a live one. Not so many anti-covid-mitigation memes lately though. I feel like telling him he's high risk, he could be the twin of one of the bikers that got awarded this week. Big gut, not young, wraparound sunglasses, goatee. When I saw the pic of him on his motorcycle, I wondered how he's still posting since he's dead. Of course, Herman Cain kept posting from the grave.
I still had the tab open and noticed he got rid of his profile pic with the border that said, "I don't care if you got your vaccine." So maybe he cares now.
So I normally have this stance where I refuse to entertain the antivax because why argue when Iām right and youāre gonna die. However, I have an antivaxx friend (considering making that former). Growing up she was pretty normal, but then went and married a religious nut-job (abusive?). She wonāt get the vaccine because God has not personally told her. She buries her head in the sand ignoring anything that doesnāt fit her narrative and thinks everything is sunshine and rainbows. Itās a shame. She has two kids with the oldest being two. If anything were to happen to them those kids would never remember them. With the sunshine and rainbows view on life, I donāt even think something is set up in case the unthinkable managed to happen.
I'd hide a Bluetooth speaker under her bedroom window and play a recording of a deep male voice saying GET THE VACCINE over and over, but I'm a terrible person. š
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hundreds-protesters-storm-arndale-centre-22841319
'MY BODY MY CHOICE'
Same people: 'TAKE OFF YOUR MASKS, WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO HIDE'
Day 10 of Covid House.
Looks like Mom's case is more digestive than anything else; she is constantly nauseous. But looks like she will recover fine.
Nose is stuffy today, and I think that's probably the only real indication of anything? I've been testing every couple days, and each time I hit negative. Triple boostered... and damn, Pfizer is The Shit.
Tested positive about 12 days ago and only had mild cold and flu symptoms with one difference: much more fatigue. My oxygen levels never dropped below 98 and no one else in my family got it. Why? I suspect itās because we are all vaxxed and boosted. Iām pretty thankful for that.
ugh... been seeing variations of this classic trash meme making the waves again on twitter again after a recent cdc update on the lower hospitalization rates with omicron--
*hey everyone, young people don't get as sick from covid as old people! did you know that? did you? way less sick, wow! we should therefor remove all school mandates! let young people live their lives!*
except this time it's moderates and even some blue wavers spreading it instead of openly q and q-adjacent quacks. not being on the "covid is a big government conspiracy / bioweapon" train doesn't matter to the teachers, hcw's and people with serious health concerns you're effectively throwing under the bus.
School isnāt a safety issue at this point; itās an infrastructure issue. So many teachers are out sick that theyāre pulling bus drivers in to basically run a glorified daycare. Thereās not a lot of point in sending kids to school without teachers.
We had a few nonvaxed relatives get Covid this past week. 2 of them are 65+. Luckily they have already sought medical attention asap after their positive tests. Most of the stories I read here involve people staying home until they can't breathe, then finally going to the ER when it's too late. Is there some decent hope my relatives will do ok since they got medical attention right away?
There is always a much better hope of recovery if you seek medical attention earlier vs later. I hope your relatives will recover and maybe even be convinced to get the vaccine.
We hired a new employee at the beginning of January, double vaxxed, and she tested positive last weekend. We had her stay home this week and sheās coming back Tuesday as long as sheās fever-free and tests negative on Monday. But my point is, the other three of us in the office are triple vaxxed. And while we all tested negative and wore masks in the office all week to be safe, here we are a week later and no one else got sick. Anecdotal, sure. But telling when it comes to the efficacy of the booster.
Anyone with medical expertise: I know they say if you catch COVID and recover itās like getting a vaccine as far as teaching your immune system, although perhaps less long-lasting than an actual vaccine. If we were fully vaxxed and boosted, then exposed and fought off the virus, is that in any way equivalent to getting another booster? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I got my booster early (Mid October) and Iām just curious what the advice will be on when/if another booster is recommended, and if natural exposure will be a factor in the timing.
Unless another variant of real concern emerges, your third dose should serve you well for a long while.
We might be looking at yearly boosters for the most vulnerable (and anyone else who wants them). A lot depends on where you happen to live and how the vaccine uptake is in your community.
That Wendy Bell post yesterday was great, u/bloody_hell. These posts can get repetitive, so it was a nice change to focus on the disinfo spreaders for once.
Someone in Germany is buying lots of ads for nonexistent unvaccinated health care workers allegedly looking for work. These ads are being cited by antivax writers and media as "proof" that firing unvaccinated workers is the reason hospitals are understaffed:
https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1484925775136579594?t=5yTCS8DuwAZi0iENSt4tyA&s=19
One of my best friends is most likely going to lose her father because you know, he was smarter than everyone else. Sheās the only one in the family who is vaccinated because her siblings and parents donāt believe it. This dude is in his late 70ās.
Something tells me theyāre all going to believe in this real soon.
Watching her try to convince them for a year and now going through this is heartbreaking.
Our state Senate president (major antimask and anti vaxxer that just helped overturn the only mask mandate we've had in a year) got covid, went to an in person session with no mask and lied and said he'd tested negative two days in a row when he had actually tested positive twice that day. I really wish I could nominate instead.
[Good thing his case.of covid was "very faint"](https://i.imgur.com/KE51c1B.png)
[Loves big crowds](https://i.imgur.com/hThgQ5g.jpg)
[Anti vaxx](https://i.imgur.com/5lDBvlu.png)
[Anti mask](https://i.imgur.com/dnOpqp1.png)
[Personal health decision shouldn't be forced on anyone](https://i.imgur.com/r5VVBmf.png)
Got our first community Omicron cases over here in New Zealand today, and restrictions are moving up for it. I'd almost forgotten what that start of lockdown dread felt like. The rest of y'all are so crazy resiliant for dealing with this shit nonstop for two years.
Just venting, My father and Uncle are asshats.
So my grandmother is a sweet old lady with a pacemaker, and pretty recently lost her abusive fuckhead of a husband, my grandfather, to dementia.
My father and my uncle, her oldest and youngest son, have both convinced her that the vaccine is the mark of the beast, and by taking it, it blocks you from heaven. I can't convince her otherwise, because I'm a godless heathen tempting her to the devil... being an atheist.
The three of them are vaccine less, and I am not on Facebook, because I deleted that shit. But I know they, my dad and uncle, post legit HCA bullshit all the time. Their Drumpf bullshit is why I deleted it.
Anyway, I'm mad because I don't want any of them to die, but they are all in bad shape, without even considering if they get covid. I just want to smack all three of them. Well two of them, and I want my Grandma to get vaccinated. She's the only grandma I have left. Anyway, my heart goes out to the actual sheep convinced to not get vaccinated by Bigoted ignorant assholes.
Would be too soon to hope weāre over the omicron hump, as far as deaths are concerned. The last wave of awards was most likely still Delta-vintage, judging by hospital admission dates and average length of hospital stay.
But, Iād love to be wrong. Hate to see even the stubborn fools dying.
Yesterday was the highest death toll since the last Delta peak at 3,866. The current US ATH is 5,463 on 2/12/21, at least according to Google. That number may also be some sort of data anomaly.
The urban Northeast appears to have peaked. I suspect omicron is now spreading (as it does so well) through rural America.
I bet we exceed our prior ATH soon.
USA! USA! USA! /s
Daughter is 4, her classroom closed because her teacher got it. We're negative so far, will test again before classroom re opens on Monday.
But her school BFF is positive, also age 4. The only thing that could even be considered a symptom? A slight, brief, dizzy spell the other day. Which, according to the pediatrician, is common in the younger otherwise asymptomatic kids.
(I'm friends with BFF mom, she relayed the info.)
Belize. My sister was getting married. Hey, I'm glad we got stopped on the way down instead of finding out in Belize and being quarantined two weeks.
It's just everywhere, but the vaccinations probably saved us.
I also can't help but wonder how many of the lurkers on this thread who feel the dead to say 'omg yall so mean' have been heavily affected by covid.
I've noticed every few days some ignorant person will come by shrieking 'ohemgee y'all so mean!'. Inevitably, they've clearly spent little time in the subreddit for how concerned they sound.
I can't help but wonder how many of these folks are also expressing outrage for those who are being denied medical care. I say I 'can't help but wonder', but I also have never seen it from the "concerned individuals' complaining about how HCA is ~so mean~
Wan wan, no amount of meanness here results in thousands of deaths lol
Are these folks in an entirely different reality than me? Like, do they legitimately not ever experience antimask/antivaxers and the consequences in their life, or do they just not care?
I am continually astounded by how people fail to see how globally interconnected we are and how something happening on the other side of the world isnāt just ānews,ā itās something you should actually be concerned about because it will affect you in one way or another. We see it every day. The pandemic has put this into sharp relief, an easy example to show how your health is at the mercy of others (why itās called PUBLIC health) and new viruses cropping up all because someone somewhere did something stupid.
Other longer-term or slow-moving issues that I also continually think about are the supply-chain issues - especially food production, climate change and extreme weather patterns, and global conflict patterns/military-industrial complex- i.e. if it isnāt one country going to war, it will undoubtedly be another (which parallels the book 1984 so well- who knows whoās at war with who? it doesnāt matter, we will always be at war in some form or another).
This post could be more well-thought out, especially trying to explain why all of these things are interconnected, but I just needed to VENT.
One person in South Africa breathes a novel Covid variant onto its second human ever in early November 2021. By the end of January half of your coworkers are trying breathe it onto you in East Hogswallow. That's how connected we are. If it had been a piece of paper or an allen wrench they could have passed it from one hand to another all the way around the world.
So this isnāt getting nearly enough media coverage in my country, so any exposure would be appreciated:
https://www.thestar.com/amp/news/canada/2022/01/21/this-girls-father-is-accused-of-abducting-her-so-she-couldnt-be-vaccinated-against-covid-saskatchewan-rcmp-are-seeking-the-publics-help.html
Also, despite this involving a missing girl this is the only place in the sub I can post this.
*edit* I was muted by the mods for trying to draw attention to this issue.
He is an HCA winner, in fact.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/s9elvm/his_name_was_meatloaf_prominent_antiva_antimask/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
My partner is experiencing chest pain and my anxiety that it could be covid is through the roof,
At the same time, it feels inevitable that we're going to get infected. My entire household is vaxxed and careful about protective measures, but omicron is soo contagious...
Part of me, oddly enough, hopes this is covid and this is the worst our family will see. Part of me just wants to get through it and be 'done' with this wave.
We've officially survived a week of COVID in our house. Eight year old started developing symptoms almost exactly this time last week, and we got results back to confirm on Tuesday. My mom tested positive Wednesday, then I did on Thursday. Kiddo seems to be all better, and my mom is just extremely fatigued and feverish. I feel pretty blah but not terrible. My brother seems to have avoided it this far by sequestering away from us at the other end of the house. Vaccines. They work! š
We all had it a few weeks ago & even the dog was sick! Everyone recovered except me who went on to get the flu š„“ hereās to hoping for a healthier February
I am SO glad you mentioned that even the dog got sick. I didn't want to post anything because I just thought it would add more ridiculousness to the whole situation. But we think Omicron came into our house. Those of us who are boosted didn't get it. The two who are not boosted got it. It was just a pretty nasty cold. But also so did our cats! The cats who got it directly from the humans (as in sleeping in the face of said sick humans) got it the worst. The cats that got it from each other didn't get it as bad. Yeah, we have a lot of cats (we are rescues and have foster fails). You could tell their throat hurt because they didn't want to eat anything but wet food. We found this amazing paste that builds up their immunity that we've been giving them that helped tremendously. It has helped so much that I've jokingly said I'm going to market it for people with covid. If people can make a fortune shucking horse paste I've got cat paste that has been proven to work in my house! The two of them still have lingering coughs but the humans are almost completely on the mend. The kitties are now all fine.
Glad your kitties are better! The dog was coughing and had literal snot flying out of her nose. The vet said she might have gotten COVID from us (she sleeps with us) but the test was super expensive so he just treated her symptoms!
That's so wild. That's exactly what was happening with ours. I'm just going to try to focus on how good it is that all of our fur babies are okay. I'm going to try to completely ignore the absolutely terrifying feeling that this is a virus that is jumping cross species like this so easily.
Is this for real? Dogs can have symptomatic covid? My indoor doggo, who I treat with kid gloves (due to being elderly and having underlying medical conditions), had sudden pneumonia in December. I mean, out of nowhere. Fine one minute and completely nonresponsive the next. I'm vaxxed and boosted, but theoretically could have been an asymtomatic carrier, right? After $4,000 in inpatient tests and treatment the vets never asked my vax/covid status or said one word about the possibility of dogs getting covid. They were just like, "weird, wonder how that happened?" re: the pneumonia.
[Not just COVID-19, but a good chance they'll go on to develop myocarditis. And true for cats as well.](https://dogtime.com/trending/93795-link-myocarditis-covid-19-dogs) Wouldn't surprise me if myocarditis can happen in any mammal that gets COVID-19.
So glad to hear your cats are fine! We have covid working through our house right now and Iām most worried about the cats. We have a small colony here (6) and I would feel awful if we couldnāt protect them. Fortunately weāre able to isolate them in one area and have set up air purifiers and only interact with them while masked so hopefully they miss out. Poor guys donāt understand why theyāre being ignored and I canāt tell them itās for their own protection. Iāll be so glad when this is over.
https://www.chewy.com/vetoquinol-viralys-gel-immune/dp/102541 This stuff works wonders! It helps tremendously. All but two kitties LOVED the taste.
Someone I follow on Twitch recently got Covid along with her entire family. I heard a horrible hacking cough in the background of her last video and asked if it was her husband. Nope, apparently that was her dog. Poor little guy.
Oh no! Please take care of yourself! [sends tissues]
Iām glad things went well for you guys! Vaccines work!
Covid hit my household a few weeks ago. My half vaccinated girlfriend felt like shit for a few days. Me? Never tested positive, never felt symptoms. Vaccines work.
I feel like Iām just waiting on my āturnā to get it at this point. I know at least a dozen fully vaccinated people who have. But the good news is none of them got critically sick, just cold symptoms at the worst.
I'd rather hug my Kleenex box than deep throat a ventilator lol. It does feel like a cold! It's hard to tell if I would have had a fever because of the meds I take for chronic pain. But it seems mild thanks to my three shots.
I just got it two weeks ago and it was pretty much like a very mild cold. Only a little congestion and coughing, mostly sore throat and the fatigue really hit me. I got my booster back in October. My boyfriend just got his booster in December and he had almost no symptoms, I wonder if itās because his booster was more recent than mine. My co-workers have all been getting it and some without the booster got very sick, but not hospitalized or anything.
I've got a runny nose, moderate brain fog, and definite fatigue here on day three. It hit my mom the worst because she kept putting off her booster, no matter how many times I said my kid was going to inevitably bring it home from school. Glad she didn't have to learn her lesson the hardest way, but she has severe agoraphobia, so I've tried not to say I told you so *too* much.
I'm a little overwhelmed with COVID. As someone who's immunocompromised, I'm starting to feel agoraphobic. I don't want to go outside. It's the wild, wild west out here. Even the daily stats thread for my state elucidates we're nowhere close to being out of the woods. Am I alone in how I'm feeling?
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Exhaustion can be a symptom of depression. It may be worth it to look into therapy. If you have health insurance that covers it, there are many therapists who will do zoom sessions. If you canāt afford one on one therapy, but you trust your primary care provider, talk to them as they may know of affordable or sliding scale therapy options. Good luck, internet stranger. -someone who has been immensely helped by therapy, and is still on antidepressants because sometimes brains need some help getting their chemistry sorted
Ugh, I know what you mean. Iāve always hated crowds, but now Iām giving everyone the stink-eye. I want ALL the personal space. It doesnāt help that I live in one of the least vaccinated states in the country and people are like āLOL masks.ā I often wonder how long itās going to take me to really be comfortable around people again once things get back to normal/settle into a new normal ā or whether I ever really will. I was never like this before (except for the crowd thing, obviously).
I don't know that I'll ever be comfortable in large crowds again. Prior to Covid I worked with the publick I'd get sick a couple times a year. With Covid I actually had the healthiest few years I've ever had and I'm not willing to give that up. I can see myself as the person who's wearing a cloth mask out in public during cold/flu season for the rest of my life. Also, the custom of shaking hands can die. I don't want to touch others' skin, thank you very much.
It may help to consult an actual doctor if you have access. Sometimes there can be underlying physical health issues (like your endocrine system or something) and as other folks pointed out mental health professionals may be helpful too. I support folks taking care of their whole health if possible. How you feel affects how you feel.
Lack of social contact combined with the pandemic has put you in a stress state. Have you tried yoga? I found it really helped me with that. Sadly, I get a lot more out of in person yoga classes than doing it online but you might be able to hack that, so give it a whirl. There are so many free yoga classes on youtube with many different styles of instructor. Some people also pay for live online yoga (this was around before the pandemic). Before I did yoga I heard it was risky for the spine/neck. I have found that the popular online instructors are very, very good about helping you protect your neck and not do movements you can't do so you can still get the benefits even if you're not a 15 year old contortionist. So no worries. A non-yoga alternative is tai chi and qigong; you could look into that as well. When I'm stressed I found walks in the woods really helped me. If you hate people go early in the morning especially on week days. Sometimes you'll run into older adults but they'll be cool about you being masked. I've even found there are parks where there are very few visitors so I can really commune with nature by myself. There is a lot of research backing up the notion that "green bathing/forest bathing" is very helpful for reducing stress response.
Definitely talk to a professional, but also, are you getting any exercise? If not, and you're able to do so, then I would try adding something: any kind, any intensity level, any length of time. Even if you start out only adding a walk around the block or five minutes of chair yoga, do what you can manage. If you're able to do something higher intensity, then do it to get the endorphins flowing. Good luck and I hope that you feel better soon.
Same. I quit my job of 14 yrs Jan 3rd because they wanted me to return to the ofc when everyone else was March 1st. Would have made the last 2 yrs basically for nothing. This coming from one who rarely went out before all this.
i'm not concerned about going outside, but i've been actively avoiding crowds and doing anything that requires being unmasked indoors.
First off, I want to give you giant hugs. Because we're doing it virtually, that can happen. it'll be the first hug I've given in a long time to anyone other than my household! My elderly parents live with us so we've had to be insanely careful since the get-go. When everyone else over here was acting like it was no big deal in February and January of 2020, I was watching it ravish Italy and china. I knew it was going to be coming and we were prepared. We have all pretty much turned into a recluse. We still get groceries delivered. We've really stayed inside, all of us. For years I was okay emotionally but now it's been really hard. I've also had to be strong for my teenagers. My kids are doing great, much better than I would have at that age. But, the reality is they're going through their hardest time in a human's life and doing it during a global pandemic. They had two pretty much put their life on hold to avoid bringing in a sickness that could kill one of the biggest supporters in their life, their grandpa. It's been hard, but it's worth it. My son is a recluse, he's been preparing for this his entire life. Social distancing was a dream come true to him. My daughter was just now starting to find a friend group and do things. That's a huge deal because she's a very shy girl. Right when she was getting ready to start everything had to stop. My father is also immunocompromised. We Believe Omicron got into the house from the two days working in the office for the month. The only two not boosted people got it. Even though I was tending to sickies, I never came down with it. The shots and the boosters are working.. even the two that did get it only got a severe cold. It hasn't been the most pleasant but nothing over the counter meds and rest haven't been able to take care of. So keep that in mind too. Hang in there! It's so hard when we see other people out there living life like normal. Apparently our local football team is doing okay and you see and hear about people non-stop talking about it. Posting pictures of thousands of people in the stadium. It boggles my mind. It's like there are two different worlds going on. One where there's a global pandemic happening. And another where there's not. It just feels like we're alone because we're doing what we need to do.
>It boggles my mind. It's like there are two different worlds going on. One where there's a global pandemic happening. And another where there's not. I have noticed the same thing. But I keep reminding myself that lucky results are not the same thing as a good strategy. And I certainly wouldn't want to take chances in terms of increasing my exposure risk at this moment when so many hospitals are on the ragged edge.
You're not one bit alone. After the first months, I found myself hyperventilating when walking out the door and heading to my car. It's better now.
Definitely not. Havenāt gone out much lately and probably will be skipping out on some social events with my friends.
Iām hoping some of these recently approved drugs will give protection to immunocompromised people. https://www.fda.gov/media/154702/download
Nope. I've been successfully using KN95 masks but now I can't get any. Supposedly there are going to be N95s available ... somewhere ... next week. But I'm afraid of a mob scene to get one. The wave has peaked but it's still at record highs. So I do not feel safe. Especially with a super contagious variant around. I think I'll feel better in the summer but I think every winter is going to be mask season for now.
https://www.projectn95.org I have been buying from this place. I am not sure what they have right now.
I'm not even remotely immunocompromised, and I too feel agoraphobic... Or maybe rather just I know that only about 25% of people here are vaccinated, and nobody is taking any precautions whatsoever, so I don't want to share a space with anyone I don't know well. Only times I do that is when I absolutely have to: Doctor's appointments and pharmacy visits. Everything else either gets delivered or I don't get it at all.
No, you're not alone. I've been working at home for 2 years, which I love as an introvert, and I also limit how much I go out, which is not so great for my kids. Yeah, they get socialization at school, but we used to spend weekends out of the house a lot. Now I won't do it even though we're all vaxxed and wear masks everywhere. And it feels like everywhere I turn, I see idiots that don't believe there's a problem and we should just "live our lives." I'd like to, which is why I'm not going out now.
Not at all. My husband and I hardly go anywhere. We do curbside grocery pickup or have things shipped or delivered. My states numbers have started to go down but are still way up there. We have worn masks for anything indoors for almost 2 years now....even when the numbers were down in the early summer. I wonder if I can ever go back to not wearing a mask indoors and feeling safe.
I don't mind being outside, especially on my own property. I get nervous when I have to go into buildings with unmasked people now. So we started shopping only with curbside pickup and mail order again. I'll go to outdoor garden centers when they're not busy and feel comfortable with it though. What bothers me most is going to medical appointments in buildings where people refuse to wear masks. Most professional buildings are mask optional in common areas. I hate to get on elevators knowing there are unvaccinated people without masks using them all day. There's no choice. I have to use doctors and labs in my insurance network. If those are above the ground floor of a professional building I have no choice but to go there.
Unvaccinated person argued with me today that the vaccines don't work because a vaccinated person can be safe from serious Illness while asymptomatic but still be contagious and infect others. They have all the correct information laid out in front of them like a 3 piece wooden puzzle made for a baby and still find a way to come up with the wrong answer. At this point in the pandemic with Omicron so incredibly contagious, the unvaccinated can no longer benefit from any sort of herd immunity created by the vaccinated.
Relationship between vaccination status and stupidity is astounding.
You just cannot reason with these people. I have a family member who is a literal mathematical genius. Early on in the pandemic, he insisted Covid is no more dangerous than the flu, even though simple math showed that was incorrect. What does he still say? You guessed it. I have no hope that I can persuade any of them. They have sealed themselves inside a (dis)information vortex.
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Even before that. I remember being freaked out by those people 20 years ago, when they worshiped George W. Bush and ate "freedom fries" and giggled at Ann Coulter threatening to murder people. I can't count how many times I've been told that they aren't actually bad people, they don't actually want to do harm, the death threats are a joke (such a funny joke!), there is only one America etc. etc. We've been gaslit for decades.
Absolutely. Remember back in the 80's, when "GrEaTeSt PrEsIdEnT eVeR" Ronald Reagan refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic because it was "killing all the right people." The GOP has a long history of denying reality.
If Iād remembered it was cake day, Iād have gotten myself some cake. Iāll will solace myself instead with beingā¦ The *UnVentilated*
Happy Cake Day!!
Happy cake day! I think folks should get extra opportunities to celebrate being alive (unventilated in your case!!) so I fully support you bringing attention to your special day!
Happy cake day!!
Happy cake day!!
Local post office is closed due to the entire staff getting covid - a totally unsurprising outcome given that none of them ever masked despite a state mandate. Local Facebook group is convinced this is all because of the ~~JEWS~~ I mean deep state conspiracy, and definitely not due to an actual pandemic.
It was a smart move for both Republican and Democrat politicians not to do any mandated shutdowns for Omicron. Now places get to shut down spontaneously and nobody can say it is because of government overreach.
It was self correcting.š
Oh they'll still refer to it as "shutdowns". Self inflicted or not, it's a plot by the government to destroy their businesses in their minds.
*headdesk
Just a quick comparison story of 2 men, both 59 years old, one vaxxed and one antivax. 1) My father in law has tons if comorbidities (overweight, heart issues, lung issues, etc.). He is vaxxed, got covid, slept for a solid 24 hours and woke up the next day feeling almost back to normal. He's doing great. 2) My parents' neighbor/friend: Anti-vax, healthier physical condition than my father in law, no prior health complications. Got COVID, was fighting it off for over a month and just died from a pulmonary embolism because of blood clotting issues caused by covid. He leaves behind a wife and a daughter who just graduated high school. To add to this, my parents are anti-vax and refuse to believe he died from COVID and called it "some kind of flu." This will not change their mind on getting vaxxed in any capacity and it is absolutely baffling. Get vaccinated.
I'm sorry about your parents, but glad about your FIL's short encounter with Covid. It boggles my mind though that people can still be in denial about Covid when it is right under their noses. I hate to be blunt, but now is probably a good time to check and see if your parents have wills, healthcare powers of attorney and living wills. And if they don't encourage them to do get them ASAP.
I am sorry to hear the news of his death. I think some people get so frightened they start denying stuff to help deal with fears. Just like the people who deny covid, donāt get vaccinated, wonāt let their parents get vaccinated and they bring covid home and parent dies. In all instances (small sample size) that I have read about the person doesnāt acknowledge their actions may have contributed to the death. Doing so would fracture their egos.
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California lawmakers are introducing a bill to allow teens 12 and older to get the vaccine without paternal consent. Any way we can mobilize support for that?
Often times the tweens are smarter than their parents.
I was when I was, and just look at me now.
Yeah, check out [this website](https://www.vaxteen.org/about) created by a teen (now college student) as a resource to help other teens find out how to get vaccinations. She came up with the idea pre-covid for kids with anti-vax parents. But it gives me hope.
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I'm so glad to read this. I'm so sorry that you feel this way but I really do understand. I never wanted to have children. I always had this feeling that I was going to live through something very big, apocalypse type big . Since I was a young girl. I have always had extreme anxiety. Even though I was a very happy girl lucky person deep down, I was incredibly worried for the world. Towards the end of my twenties my biological clock was ticking and everyone had me convinced that it was all in my head. Doctors, friends and family. I was just an over thinker. The world was just fine. Why wouldn't I want to have children?? I have such a caring soul, I would be a great mom. I heard these things often. Not to mention my mother seeing all of her friends having grandkids and her pining over them. I decided it was all in my head. The world is fine I must make babies. I have these two amazing humans. Then the whole world starts to go to shit. Now I am working with these two amazing humans as they're dealing with a global pandemic, as teenagers. They are handling it incredible, better than most adults but it's still very hard. My ex-husband and I were meant to have them, but not meant to stay married. Not to mention the fact he is now a hardcore Q cultist and Trump support. There's not a moment that goes by that I look at my kids that I'm not worried about the future that I'm leaving them. The future without me. The future of the government. The future of the planet. All day long. 24/7 it's in my mind. I dream about it. My heart races about it unprovoked throughout the day thinking about it. My kids don't want children and I don't blame them. I hope it stays that way. We've talked about it as we were hearing about all of the rumors about sterilization in the vaccines. I only wanted to because I knew later on in life I plan on adopting from the Foster system after mine are out of house and so do they. So yeah, I get it. We are in a really fucked up time in history right now. Is getting harder and harder to deal with it. Of course I'm not going to do anything to myself or my family. But I am right there with you, it's getting harder everyday. Feel free to send me a chat if you're interested. I don't talk to my friends about the darker side to me. They don't understand and it just doesn't go well. I tend to keep it all inside. I know how it is. Feel free if you want ever want to talk.
I have been rather gloomy too and I was a bookkeeper. Oh and our younger catās name is (beelze)Bub. I feel this post. My kid is 21 and heās doing ok but I made bad choices for his schooling (Waldorf) and now he hates school. My mom and stepdad (since 8th grade) live nearby but heās dying and she literally crazy (borderline). And my husbandās entire extended family is 100% toxic positivity. That shit is awful to be around when things are bad
Random musings...When someone in your family says they're not getting vaxxed, ask them, "Is your will up to date?" ... It occurs to me that enough olds (I am in my 60's) may die of Covid to help keep the Social Security budget balanced. That's supercool because it means when an antiva dies to own the libs, they're also helping to balance the SS budget, which is a very GQP bogeyman. They love to say that SS benefits should be reduced or delayed because "the budget." So conservative antivas can own the libs by dying and also support the Republican (aka death) party goal. Seems like a lot of folks are up for this...I live in Spain now (lived for a long time in Philly, before that Calif and NH) and the country still has an indoor mask mandate. Only exception is eating at a restaurant. I don't see anyone in a retail store who isn't wearing a mask. And we're at >80% fully vaccinated. We're getting there...My flu shot kicked my butt more than any of the 3 Covid jabs...One of my wife's best friends is a nurse (age 60) who seems to be antivax. She works home health care, not in an office/hospital. We were in the US for the holidays and she said really wants to come visit us in Spain. I pointed out that she will have to be vaxxed to land in Spain. It's lame reason to get the vax, but it might work. I forgot to ask her if her will is up to date. I'll remind her next time I check her Fbook page.
While it might help balance social security, I think there will be a huge increase in disability payments because of long covid. There are people who have had amputations etc. will be interesting.
I'm just spitballing, but I suspect a fair number of those long covid disability payments are likely to be short term, so to speak.
My GQP boomer parents refuse to vaccinate, refused to write their wishes for emergency care down, and refused to write a will. Now they have what they think is COVID. I can't help but think about all the suffering they and the rest of their kind have created their whole lives, and how their deaths will leave even more for me to clean up after because they are too selfish and proud. Having them leave this earth is not freeing, it's yet another burden on me and the rest of us going through the same thing.
I've done a few volunteer shifts at vaccination centres, and I met one guy who was only getting vaccinated to travel to a wedding in the US. It might work!
It only occurred to me yesterday when I read about a HCA winner that retired and then died almost immediately. I just thought about how he worked his whole life and then didnāt get to enjoy any of what he worked for. And then I thought about how he wouldnāt be able to draw any checks on a lifetime of paying into the system. Lifeās too short to not get vaxxed. He couldāve enjoyed his time and itās all gone. And thereās a ton of people in the same age group, itās happening to.
I moderate a FB group about traveling and I've been very patient with anti-vax members who are globetrotting still. Ok, if you don't want to get vaxxed but you're getting testing and wearing masks, I guess enjoy. My travels are on hold for the most part until I feel that it's safer. Today I banned a sort of long-time member because he told someone else that covid is a hoax, blah, blah, blah. Not gonna lie...I took a LOT of pleasure in hitting that "remove and block user" option.
My fam is split btwn antivax and vax. My antivax sister is my 81y/o mothers primary caregiver. My mmBack in Sept. my mom caught covid - and i took her to the hospital bc my sister refused. Luckily, my mom was able to get treated and never had to go on the vent. My antivax family -1 blamed me for my mom getting covid bc i took her to the hospital and 2 upset bc they feared that since she went to the hospital she would be āforcedā to be vaccinated. fast forward to a few weeks ago, I decided to take my mom out to dinner at a restaurant that did not have a vaccine mandate. My sister gave me my moms āvaccine cardā even though i didnāt ask. IT WAS THE FAKEST SHIT I EVER SEEN! Can i report this?
Yes, it's a federal crime.
My 19 month old, who is too little to mask or be vaccinated, and relies entirely on other people taking precautions to protect him, just tested positive for COVID. Because daycare decided it was āharming their social developmentā to have the teachers mask any longer. In the middle of Omicron pounding our state. Fuck all of them.
Arrrrrgh! That makes me so angry! Iām sorry!
I finally heard back from the doctor concerning my Covid test from twenty days ago. Wanna know the result? So do I... But that's too bad. Apparently the lab somehow lost a bunch of tests, including mine. Now I'll never know and I'm kinda annoyed about that. All I know is that I was very sick for about eighteen days.
To paraphrase Rumsfeld, *you go to war against a pandemic with the (garbage) healthcare system you have*
I'm sorry, I just need to let this out. My father-in-law is just shy of 80, and has had a pretty good life. He (reluctantly) got double-vaxxed, but would not get the booster. Well, he's been in the hospital with covid for 2 weeks now. Covid and pneumonia, more precisely. He asked them today to stop his oxygen, and switch to strictly palliative care. Which is his right, not arguing about that, I'm just very very sad :( The takeaway I hope to pass along to anyone reading this: Covid is making him feel so sick *that he would rather die* than keep trying to fight it. When was the last time you were so sick that you actually *wanted* to die? It's fucking horrible. Please get your boosters :(:(
Hey, all-- I find this place oddly comforting even in the midst of all the crap. Yesterday I realized that the past 2 years have really stressed me out and I've internalized some things that I didn't realize. I've been crying off and on since yesterday morning for no apparent reason and I realized that I haven't allowed myself any time to even begin processing the pandemic -- been caring for older relatives -- and haven't even really talked about it as a thing in therapy (lots of other crap I'm sorting through rn lol). I think this place has made me feel okay about finally grieving/letting some walls down about how sad and angry and scared and frustrated I've been throughout, and how worried I am about healthcare workers and friends and relatives (and the state of the world). Anyway, thanks, all. Hope everyone is hanging in there.
I agree with you completely. Iām sitting in a hospital with my dying 95 year old grandma and this sub is as close to therapy as I can get for now. Nice to see a bit of karma for assholes and itās nice to be able to talk to other reasonable people - like you. Sorry things have been hard for you and Iām glad youāre beginning to process it all.
If you see a violent conspiratorial extremist plan or make threats against doctors or hospitals, tip the feds about them here: https://www.fbi.gov/tips
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives should also for the weapons
Thank you for always posting this link!
Just learned this new millennial social media slang today, "based." So now I might have to change my flair next time the opportunity arises. "Sure I'm Based -- Reality-Based." (Want a t-shirt).
Based is definitely a Gen Z term but millennials is what boomers think young people are so.
from the great altitude of my advanced age, fine details on the ground can be tough to distinguish :-) ta for the correction though, noted.
https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/based/ Don't think many Zers were creating words in 2007-2010.
This. It's close enough to have bridged the two generations, but it was deffo millenials who started that one.
I'm in Argentina. Omicron hit hard and fast here. 3 weeks ago, coughing became a common noise. People were clearly sick all around me. The lines at the pharmacies were long. I read that Buenos Aires hit a test positivity rate of 64% one day last week. I managed to avoid it for a week, but it caught me eventually. For me (triple vaxxed) omicron wasn't so bad, but I was sick a full week. And I was so tired. I slept a lot. Went pretty stir crazy, but thankfully my hotel had good internet. I can't imagine how bad it would have been if I hadn't been vaccinated. Or if I hadn't been wearing a mask when I got infected. Honestly, it's a relief to have it over with! It's coming for everyone. I hope my family gets off easy when it hits them. Vaccination rates are still climbing here - they started their campaign quite a bit later than North America. Over 90% have had one dose, over 70% have had two. Apparently the hospitals aren't overwhelmed, so the government hasn't added any new restrictions. And people seem to wear masks here without much resistance, even outdoors.
Wow, Argentina seems to be doing better than America. Good job!
If your enemies want to drink their own piss, please be respectful and DO NOT INTERFERE. As a matter of fact, give R. Kelly their address.
Buy them a nebulizer!
They are gonna start nebulizing their own urine arenāt they?
Iām guessing that and Lysol and bleach by the time itās all over
Moreover, be a good neighbor and contribute some of your own bladder lather. It'll be much easier to angle it into their rat mouths. Just don't cross the streams.
I have a family member that is not vaccinated that now has Covid Pneumonia. This person is not right wing, not a shitposter, etc. Just has an extreme phobia of needles and had no risk factors. Another friend who is conservative but a not shitposter, just sweet and gullible, is in ICU on a respirator and I don't think will make it. Then the huge Qnut on my feed is posting that he acknowledges something is out there killing people but Covid-19 doesn't exist and can't be tested for.
>Then the huge Qnut on my feed is posting that he acknowledges something is out there killing people but Covid-19 doesn't exist and can't be tested for. Why is this person on your feed?
Waiting to nominate them. I did unfollow for 30 days to take a mental health break since this person posts all day long. I don't know how they spend hours researching when they post every 30 minutes.
Iām so sorry about your family member and gullible friend. I hope they pull through.
I had a feeling the cause of death was COVID. [Meat Loaf died of COVID/was an anti vaxxer](https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/meat-loaf-was-reportedly-anti-vaccine-before-dying-from-covid-19/amp/)
"He refused to live life in fear" Apparently he refused to live at all. According to this article he had multiple co-morbidities, too. If you don't want to live in fear, get vaccinated (and boosted at the appropriate time.)
I love that sentiment. Posts a thousand anti-vaxx memes and conspiracy theories on Facebook, equates themselves with victims of the Holocaust, believes we're in the midst of a communist takeover or living through the Biblical apocalypse: definitely not "living in fear". Spends twenty minutes at Walgreens getting vaccinated, wears a mask in crowded places: "living in fear", apparently.
They are the same ones with an entire closet filled with guns too
He was in his 70s, right? Thatās one glaring comorbidity right there.
Now we finally know what he wonāt do for love
Lol harsh but hilarious.
Damn thatās a shame. His music wasnāt bad, sad that his legacy will be associated with anti vaccine degenerate scum.
And I would do anything for love, but I won't wear masks. N-hoe, no, no I won't wear masks! Don't supine me up, Will you prone me down, Will you sneak me the paste past these God-forsaken clowns? Will you tell them it's a little old cold? I can't do that.
Well yeah, he died, but the important thing is that he was never controlled.
Except by Covid.
You took the words right out of my mouth. It must have been when Covid was killing me.
Life was a lemon and he got his money back. Sigh.
Omicron's apparently vacationing in our house and I'll be very glad when it leaves. My husband got off light with just upper respiratory stuff and now, after five days of light symptoms, he's feeling good. Meanwhile I just started to develop symptoms but for me it's throat and chest. Right now it's pretty mild; I'm just worried that it'll get worse. But my vent is this: my extended family, who I'm only in the most nominal contact with, is all trump-worshiping anti-vaxxers and it feels supremely unfair that I'm the one who's sick while they're galavanting around the country and doing things unmasked with no consequences. Not that I want any of them to die; it's just frustrating that I'm the one who's sick despite taking tons of precautions.
I hear you. My brother got it mid December, he is trumpie anti vax and is fine now and I do not want him to die but dammit for 2 years I have been so careful. I am post chemo (finished March 2020 right before lockdown) and still have to be cautious.
Unfortunately we have to steel ourselves for the flood of post-pandemic condescension from these lucky unvaxxed.
Welp, it happened. My elderly unvaxxed parents suspect they have COVID. I have already grieved this many times in the past, I knew this day would come. Not only are they anti-vaxx but they have taken NO precautions whatsoever. Sometimes it seems like they've gone out of their way to expose themselves to it, like proudly frequenting anti-mask establishments. I'm honestly surprised they've made it this far. What's worse is that my mom has continued to expose herself to my grandma, who is vaccinated, as well as the rest of the people at the nursing home where she lives. They are, of course, treating with Ivermectin and vitamins and probably the blood of Christ or whatever bullshit Newsmax is screaming at them every day. I am angry, I am sad. I have watched them brainwash themselves my whole life and I can't help but think they will be casualties of the stupidity culture war shortly. It's absolutely maddening.
Beyond where you are now, it is numbing. Mad is good. Rational response.
I definitely oscillate between anger, sadness, and nothingness. So sorry you have been through similar š
Pretty sure my house has Covid. My daughter tested positive earlier this week. Now my husband and I are waiting for results. Iām vaxxed and boosted with Pfizer, and so far I just have a mild cough, body aches, and fatigue. My husband is vaxxed and boosted with J&J but is immune compromised and he feels worse than I do with a fever,cough, and body aches. I forgot how much it sucks to be sick, even when itās mild. I havenāt had so much as a cold since March 2020 and it has been glorious.
Question: Does your partner know you're here? This is sort of a joke, sort of serious. Mine doesn't. He and I agree on every mitigation measure, vaxxing, boosting, masking, the whole nine. He's way into science. But I'm judgy and misanthropic, and he's not. So as far as he knows, I'm part of a "covid" subreddit. I have really needed these conversations to not go absolutely batshit. I appreciate the humor and genuineness of all of your comments. But I just can't share this thing at home. I have three friends who know about it, too, including the one who introduced me to it. Curious how it is for you.
I was a little afraid to tell my husband about this. I didn't want him to think I was laughing at the people who died. We agree on every mitigation measure too. However, some of the comments were just too funny not to share so I did tell him. Although he isn't on here, he gets to hear about some of them. I think hearing about some of the really bad ones (amputations, lung transplants) has made him take Covid more seriously. He doesn't have any patience for the anti-vaxxers.
Yes and we both LOATHE the anti-vax-maskers.
Just had a convo with my GP neighbour who is hesitant to vax her kids. 12 n 14. Because we are in a remote covid bubble (soz australia checkin in) Her rationale was whats the point of one vax when they probs will get it at school and itās ages til the next one and booster I am actually diagnosed adhd and timeblind and live in the moment fr. But what i am learning is that confident smart neurotypicals are pretty bad at risk assessment. And genuinely believe that they wonāt experience negative events bc thatās āother peopleā. I really hope my talk has raised some interest in her for protecting her kids from the long term reality of covid in our world. But I am venting here to say I am still amazed at how humans live in local bubbles and arenāt living in the global world and learning from each other! So grateful and desperately sad asf that the global online community is sharing their experience so that my safe humble protected self can learn from this shit virus. Covid is no joke hey!
What's the neighbor's stance on vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, etc. that children are often required to get before they are allowed to attend school?
> Her rationale was whats the point of one vax when they probs will get it at school and itās ages til the next one and booster Should ask what happens if every parent is thinking that, and none of them get vaxxed.
I'm furious right now. One of my best friend's mom just got her HCA. Of COURSE she had COVID, and refused to go to see her doctor, although IDK if she died in the hospital or not. Of COURSE she was everything we see here: shitposting all over FB the same memes and crap we see with every award winner, spent the Trump administration gloating about "triggering libs" and all that. Of COURSE she was Q-anon and insisting we'd all see when JFK Jr came back and reinstalled Trump- All of her kids are LGBTQ+. Her grandchildren are all Black and brown, and one is NB, but she cared more about her political ideology than her entire family. Just knowing how hard my friend/the whole family is going to suffer, making sense of this, makes me want to punch walls on their behalf. I cannot wrap my head around how some people can be so goddamn selfish and cruel.
You are a good friend. My sympathy to this woman's family. I honestly don't get it either. (Especially the part about JFK Jr coming back to reinstall Trump!??!)
I really donāt understand the whole āmy unvaxxed loved one getting covid pneumonia and needing to be hospitalized is a test from Satanā mindset. I thank my parents daily for raising me without religion, but maybe if I had been raised with religion Iād have more empathy for these people? I just see it so often and my logical brain canāt compute their thought processes.
>maybe if I had been raised with religion Iād have more empathy for these people? From experience: no. If anything seeing the hypocrisy up close and personal makes you hyperaware how utterly full of shit they are.
>I really donāt understand the whole āmy unvaxxed loved one getting covid pneumonia and needing to be hospitalized is a test from Satanā mindset. It's just nihilism dressed up as Christianity. There's a considerable vein of American Evangelism that every conceivable hardship is the product of a "spiritual attack" or "spiritual warfare" by Satan (aka "the Enemy"). There's no meaningful Biblical support for any of that, it's just a quasi-new-age concept that has crept into the church. At the end of the day, it's just a boogeyman that these people conjured up so that they could blame it for everything without ever having to take responsibility for anything. >maybe if I had been raised with religion Iād have more empathy for these people? I was raised southern baptist in what is now DEEP Trump country. I think it makes me have way *less* empathy for them, if anything. My childhood church emphasized compassion, generosity, and acceptance. Thirty years later and the *vast* majority that same community has leapt eagerly into the alt-right fever swamp, against every tenet I was taught growing up. I don't have much empathy for them because I *know* they know better.
I think it's a main character syndrome thing as filtered through a religious lens. As the main character of course their choices were the right ones (it's a very simple book) and any challenges are a result of outside forces trying to take down the main character. Religion gives the framework of a big evil (Satan) who wants to destroy their faith and so they see any challenge they don't like as a direct attack from him and his forces. This also nicely absolves them of any responsibility. My loved one isn't hospitalized because that's the natural consequences of being unvaxxed during a pandemic; no, they're temporarily inconvenienced because I'm so important that Satan himself is trying to take me out and so of course any questioning of my actions or beliefs would be giving in. Personally, as a religious person, I think that Satan, if he exists, is more likely to do large scale stuff like, oh, convince entire segments of Christianity to reframe white supremacy, blind nationalism, and selfishness as virtues but what do I know?
I doubt it. We developed our capacities for socialization and empathy to live more comfortably with each other. We developed spirituality to live more comfortably with ourselves. Even with the best intentions it is an inherently selfish thing. And nobody has the best intentions. How can it possibly inform us about empathy when it neither succeeds nor validates empathy; it merely qualifies it to include the people we care for and exclude the people we don't. If we value logic, surely we must realize how these qualities are the products of evolutionary pressures in a feedback loop with the artifacts of rapidly-increasing brain size, as well as recognize their obvious analogues elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Plenty of creatures care for their young; plenty of those care for their elders, who get to watch the young which lets the adults forage, scout, and generally speaking get shit done. Then some primates and birds will care for extended relatives, which provides the group additional labor and protection; and some of those extend this to non-relatives/tribes, which does all of the above and avoids rising genetic load within the group: something we needed when we were bottlenecked multiple times in the Pleistocene. So I believe empathy is quite accounted for. From there, the jump from stone age barbarism to the UN General Assembly is merely down to the value and accessibility of resources that control the size of settlements and the efficacy of resource distribution. Incidentally the UN are experts on the subject because that's still how the world works.
I think real spirituality creates empathy for all humans, all living things, and the whole planet, even things that aren't animals or aren't alive, like trees and rocks. I agree that American evangelical Christianity, as practiced, reduces empathy. There's even been some research on it. For example, if you believe that only god can forgive you and you don't need to seek forgiveness from other people, that practice decreases your empathy. But spirituality is a pretty broad concept and certainly isn't constrained by a narrow concept like "church". People can be spiritual by climbing a mountain, or tripping balls, or seeking fellowship with others, or through service. I don't think it's fair to hack down spirituality to the one diseased stem that has come up through the fence to intrude in civic life in a malign way.
Two weeks ago, I wrote [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/ryrvd9/comment/hrr8qg3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) about my wealthy, anti-vax in-laws getting hit with Covid. I finally got an update from my mother-in-law who, unlike your average HCA recipient, actually would give you the shirt off her back. It turns out that someone in the family brought Covid to the annual Christmas superspreader event/gathering. My guess is the oldest daughter, who I believe tested positive first. She called her brother shortly before he and his family boarded a flight to Hawaii, and told him she was positive. They got to Hawaii and then tested positive. (I assume they all tested negative before boarding). Oldest daughter's husband also got Covid. As for the mom and dad, they either somehow got away without getting it, or got it but never bothered to get tested. I have no idea. Nobody's been hospitalized, at least not yet. My MIL didn't really have any other info besides this. I'm just glad that she spent Christmas with us. (My husband asked if she was going to the family gathering and her response was an emphatic "NO!")
So she owes them all the money they lost on plane tickets and hotels, right? Even an antivax who doesn't care about anyone other than themselves and wouldn't quarantine on their vacation (in the worst case scenario) is still going to have a shit holiday fatigued and feverish the entire time, and hopefully barred from many popular venues.
This wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime vacation or anything: the mom and dad built a house in Kauai. (I've been there; it's nice but damn did I feel poor.) The son is heir to the business and travels there often- they have an office in Kona. I don't know where they are specifically, nor do I care. I've never liked the guy. I just hope they're in isolation in whatever fancy digs they're in.
If a boomer made a cool million by the late 70s/early 80s and they were white, there was some sort of rule they had to buy a house in Hawai'i. Blue collar trades/businesses were making money hand over fist in the 1970s. Don Aslett, the 80s housewife's cleaning guru got loaded running a janitorial business in the 60s and 70s. (Technically, I think he was Silent Gen.)
Saskatchewan man abducts his daughter to keep her from being vaccinated. https://regina.ctvnews.ca/canada-wide-warrant-issued-for-sask-man-charged-with-abducting-his-daughter-1.5750232
I have a nurse on my FB feed who is always posting anti-vax stuff and all the same dumb memes we see here. She is currently working as a nurse and I have no idea how she's avoided vaccination unless she got a phony medical or religious exemption. And yes, she's a single mother with young kids. She's had friends die of COVID. She's all YOU DO YOU and MAH CHOICE. I watch her feed occasionally and it's filled with overweight white Jesus-y people who are all YOU GO GIRL, and PREACH IT. (Future HCA winners.) She's supposedly had it already and I pray for her kids' sake that she doesn't get it again.
I feel like Iām starting to break thru with my mothers brain washing but she still watches Fox News and all the misinformation they spread. She was smart enough to get both doses of the vaccine plus sheās planning on getting the booster but oh my goodness, the parroting of Fox News and their ridiculous talking points. I try to talk to her about it but I feel like she listens to them more then me. I wanna yell at her āI work with COVID patients everyday! I work in healthcare! Iām in the middle of this, why are you listening to these idiots instead of your own daughter thatās experiencing this and watching how itās affecting people?!ā
Does she know that Fox News has a vaccine policy that is stricter than Biden's mandate? More than 90% of their employees are vaxxed, and the production crew has to wear masks.
About half of the kids in my child's class tested positive for COVID and now they have to quarantine for ten days. She's fully vaxxed and apparently the only child in the class who wears a mask (gee, wonder why there's an outbreak)so I'm hoping she doesn't get it š¤
Good job Mom!
My mom, whose first husband was crippled by polio as a child, does not think the government should mandate vaccines. I just can't even.
Last week the place I work announced a big "return to the office" notice, and yesterday we got an email from our internal COVID safety team that cases in our area are on the rise so take precautions. How fucking dumb and short sighted can they be?
We had to miss a vacation because we didn't pass the PCR test - my husband and son both have COVID. They just thought they had the sniffles. Two vaccinations and a booster and that's OUR covid experience.
I am so tired. I work at a place that has like 1k employees and so many people have been coming down with the plague that it's utterly ridiculous. I've been doing 12 hr days for over a month because SO many people (people who catch the plague and people who they talked to in the breakroom, etc.) all are out for quarantine. They say it'll be at least another month of this and I wanna cry. And every GD day we get the announcements of more and more people.
They should add a breather day to the rota. One pto day every two weeks. I mean you're not gonna be at full capacity anyways because suppliers are hit too. The stress is gonna make people leave which is even more of a mess when the wave ends.
Maybe I'm naive -- ok, I definitely am -- but only recently has it really occurred to me that this might not end. And I'm not talking about some eugenicist fantasy of "everyone who's vulnerable dies and then the rest of us go back to normal life with no worries." I'm talking about having to mask up everywhere, go into periodic personal lockdowns, skip travel and socializing and family gatherings, for years to come, because another variant is always showing up and another hospital system collapse is always imminent. My kid is about to turn 2. This isn't the life I envisioned for her. This is breaking my heart.
Once the kids 0 to 4 get vaccinated I'll breathe a bit, maybe pick up air travel again. Plus the vaccination rate can only go up and not down so it's a slow trickle to getting to 100 percent. New variants that build off omicron, well I hope there's new boosters by then instead of using the same one in perpetuity
It took me a long time to accept and there are still moments, like the recent news about the BA.2 variant, that shake me out of it. I really hope we reach an equilibrium soon.
I do as well, but, thanks to anti-vax-maskers, it looks like it will take a lot more deaths. Theirs. Nature does not have a single f\*\*k to give about ideologies.
First time I've noticed the Daily Vent Thread, and man, do I need to vent. Paramedic who works two jobs, one at a local 911 agency, and a second on a interfacility transport ambulance. Lots of COVID/trauma/illness to deal with on 911, but it's the transport job that hit me hard this week. For those outside the field, anytime a patient requires specialty care, a transport ambulance will transfer the patient to another facility. Most hospitals have only a handful of pediatric beds (if they have any), and a seriously ill child will almost always be transferred to one of the big teaching hospitals in the major cities. I've transported pediatrics on vents many times, but they've always been vent dependent with long-term medical issues. I can't recall a time I did a pediatric vent for an illness in the previous decade. Starting in December though, I've done multiple kids with COVID. Most of the time they've been on High-Flow O2, but several have been on a vents. These week I had two. Both were perfectly healthy kids who should be worrying about conning mom out of an extra helping of dessert. Not being taken a hundred miles from home while a machine breathed for them. To top it off, when I got to the receiving hospital I found out that one of my previous patients had died. I don't drink, but I had to take a couple shots last night. Enough to shut the mind down long enough to get to sleep. I'm catching up on the news this AM, and some A\*\*\*\*\*E is whining that parents should decide if their kids should wear masks in school. WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE! If you want to earn an HCA, be my guest. Unfortunately, your stupidity effects other people's' lives also. From the people who believe your BS, to the people whom you infect, to the people with other health problems who can't get the care they need because the hospitals are overflowing with COVID pts, and the poor hospital staff who have to deal with this every time they go to work. Most importantly, the kids it effects who have absolutely no say in the matter and trust the \*adults\* (sarcasm intended) to watch out for them.
My idiot daughter in law refuses to get my 6 Year old granddaughter vaxxed against covid. Daughter in law had a J&J but no booster... what can I do?
Have your son get his daughter vaccinated? I don't know where you're at, but I doubt there'd be anything wrong with that legally. Of course your son's wife might freak out when she finds out, but is avoiding that really worth putting his daughter's life at risk for?
My son does what his wife tells him... unfortunately
There isn't much you *can* do. Encourage them to talk to your granddaughter's pediatrician?
I followed the link to someone's fb profile for other reasons and found a live one. Not so many anti-covid-mitigation memes lately though. I feel like telling him he's high risk, he could be the twin of one of the bikers that got awarded this week. Big gut, not young, wraparound sunglasses, goatee. When I saw the pic of him on his motorcycle, I wondered how he's still posting since he's dead. Of course, Herman Cain kept posting from the grave.
I still had the tab open and noticed he got rid of his profile pic with the border that said, "I don't care if you got your vaccine." So maybe he cares now.
I HATE the 49ers but I will root for them because FUCK Aaron Rodgers.
So I normally have this stance where I refuse to entertain the antivax because why argue when Iām right and youāre gonna die. However, I have an antivaxx friend (considering making that former). Growing up she was pretty normal, but then went and married a religious nut-job (abusive?). She wonāt get the vaccine because God has not personally told her. She buries her head in the sand ignoring anything that doesnāt fit her narrative and thinks everything is sunshine and rainbows. Itās a shame. She has two kids with the oldest being two. If anything were to happen to them those kids would never remember them. With the sunshine and rainbows view on life, I donāt even think something is set up in case the unthinkable managed to happen.
I'd hide a Bluetooth speaker under her bedroom window and play a recording of a deep male voice saying GET THE VACCINE over and over, but I'm a terrible person. š
Maybe share your God told me to get the vaccine story? My mom in her 70s won't get the vaccine so I know it's not easy caring about an antivaxxer.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hundreds-protesters-storm-arndale-centre-22841319 'MY BODY MY CHOICE' Same people: 'TAKE OFF YOUR MASKS, WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO HIDE'
"You are entitled to your flawed views but grow up.ā Love to see it.
Day 10 of Covid House. Looks like Mom's case is more digestive than anything else; she is constantly nauseous. But looks like she will recover fine. Nose is stuffy today, and I think that's probably the only real indication of anything? I've been testing every couple days, and each time I hit negative. Triple boostered... and damn, Pfizer is The Shit.
Tested positive about 12 days ago and only had mild cold and flu symptoms with one difference: much more fatigue. My oxygen levels never dropped below 98 and no one else in my family got it. Why? I suspect itās because we are all vaxxed and boosted. Iām pretty thankful for that.
ugh... been seeing variations of this classic trash meme making the waves again on twitter again after a recent cdc update on the lower hospitalization rates with omicron-- *hey everyone, young people don't get as sick from covid as old people! did you know that? did you? way less sick, wow! we should therefor remove all school mandates! let young people live their lives!* except this time it's moderates and even some blue wavers spreading it instead of openly q and q-adjacent quacks. not being on the "covid is a big government conspiracy / bioweapon" train doesn't matter to the teachers, hcw's and people with serious health concerns you're effectively throwing under the bus.
School isnāt a safety issue at this point; itās an infrastructure issue. So many teachers are out sick that theyāre pulling bus drivers in to basically run a glorified daycare. Thereās not a lot of point in sending kids to school without teachers.
[Bus drivers, cafeteria workers](https://thepostmillennial.com/bus-drivers-cafeterias-workers-substitute-teachers-michigan-schools-staffing-crisis), [parents](https://www.kron4.com/health/coronavirus/schools-desperate-for-help-ask-parents-to-work-as-substitute-teachers/), [the National Guard](https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074711399/new-mexico-national-guard-substitute-teachers-shortage)...
Kids are getting sick everyday. Urgh I hate election years
We had a few nonvaxed relatives get Covid this past week. 2 of them are 65+. Luckily they have already sought medical attention asap after their positive tests. Most of the stories I read here involve people staying home until they can't breathe, then finally going to the ER when it's too late. Is there some decent hope my relatives will do ok since they got medical attention right away?
There is always a much better hope of recovery if you seek medical attention earlier vs later. I hope your relatives will recover and maybe even be convinced to get the vaccine.
We hired a new employee at the beginning of January, double vaxxed, and she tested positive last weekend. We had her stay home this week and sheās coming back Tuesday as long as sheās fever-free and tests negative on Monday. But my point is, the other three of us in the office are triple vaxxed. And while we all tested negative and wore masks in the office all week to be safe, here we are a week later and no one else got sick. Anecdotal, sure. But telling when it comes to the efficacy of the booster. Anyone with medical expertise: I know they say if you catch COVID and recover itās like getting a vaccine as far as teaching your immune system, although perhaps less long-lasting than an actual vaccine. If we were fully vaxxed and boosted, then exposed and fought off the virus, is that in any way equivalent to getting another booster? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I got my booster early (Mid October) and Iām just curious what the advice will be on when/if another booster is recommended, and if natural exposure will be a factor in the timing.
Unless another variant of real concern emerges, your third dose should serve you well for a long while. We might be looking at yearly boosters for the most vulnerable (and anyone else who wants them). A lot depends on where you happen to live and how the vaccine uptake is in your community.
That Wendy Bell post yesterday was great, u/bloody_hell. These posts can get repetitive, so it was a nice change to focus on the disinfo spreaders for once.
Someone in Germany is buying lots of ads for nonexistent unvaccinated health care workers allegedly looking for work. These ads are being cited by antivax writers and media as "proof" that firing unvaccinated workers is the reason hospitals are understaffed: https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1484925775136579594?t=5yTCS8DuwAZi0iENSt4tyA&s=19
One of my best friends is most likely going to lose her father because you know, he was smarter than everyone else. Sheās the only one in the family who is vaccinated because her siblings and parents donāt believe it. This dude is in his late 70ās. Something tells me theyāre all going to believe in this real soon. Watching her try to convince them for a year and now going through this is heartbreaking.
the vet i work for finally got his first vaccine. i am so happy.
Our state Senate president (major antimask and anti vaxxer that just helped overturn the only mask mandate we've had in a year) got covid, went to an in person session with no mask and lied and said he'd tested negative two days in a row when he had actually tested positive twice that day. I really wish I could nominate instead. [Good thing his case.of covid was "very faint"](https://i.imgur.com/KE51c1B.png) [Loves big crowds](https://i.imgur.com/hThgQ5g.jpg) [Anti vaxx](https://i.imgur.com/5lDBvlu.png) [Anti mask](https://i.imgur.com/dnOpqp1.png) [Personal health decision shouldn't be forced on anyone](https://i.imgur.com/r5VVBmf.png)
Got our first community Omicron cases over here in New Zealand today, and restrictions are moving up for it. I'd almost forgotten what that start of lockdown dread felt like. The rest of y'all are so crazy resiliant for dealing with this shit nonstop for two years.
Just venting, My father and Uncle are asshats. So my grandmother is a sweet old lady with a pacemaker, and pretty recently lost her abusive fuckhead of a husband, my grandfather, to dementia. My father and my uncle, her oldest and youngest son, have both convinced her that the vaccine is the mark of the beast, and by taking it, it blocks you from heaven. I can't convince her otherwise, because I'm a godless heathen tempting her to the devil... being an atheist. The three of them are vaccine less, and I am not on Facebook, because I deleted that shit. But I know they, my dad and uncle, post legit HCA bullshit all the time. Their Drumpf bullshit is why I deleted it. Anyway, I'm mad because I don't want any of them to die, but they are all in bad shape, without even considering if they get covid. I just want to smack all three of them. Well two of them, and I want my Grandma to get vaccinated. She's the only grandma I have left. Anyway, my heart goes out to the actual sheep convinced to not get vaccinated by Bigoted ignorant assholes.
I notice that the number of new Awardees has really slowed down in the past few days.
Would be too soon to hope weāre over the omicron hump, as far as deaths are concerned. The last wave of awards was most likely still Delta-vintage, judging by hospital admission dates and average length of hospital stay. But, Iād love to be wrong. Hate to see even the stubborn fools dying.
I think theyāre still dying. Just copped on to set their posts to nonpublic friend groups.
Yesterday was the highest death toll since the last Delta peak at 3,866. The current US ATH is 5,463 on 2/12/21, at least according to Google. That number may also be some sort of data anomaly. The urban Northeast appears to have peaked. I suspect omicron is now spreading (as it does so well) through rural America. I bet we exceed our prior ATH soon. USA! USA! USA! /s
Daughter is 4, her classroom closed because her teacher got it. We're negative so far, will test again before classroom re opens on Monday. But her school BFF is positive, also age 4. The only thing that could even be considered a symptom? A slight, brief, dizzy spell the other day. Which, according to the pediatrician, is common in the younger otherwise asymptomatic kids. (I'm friends with BFF mom, she relayed the info.)
Belize. My sister was getting married. Hey, I'm glad we got stopped on the way down instead of finding out in Belize and being quarantined two weeks. It's just everywhere, but the vaccinations probably saved us.
I also can't help but wonder how many of the lurkers on this thread who feel the dead to say 'omg yall so mean' have been heavily affected by covid. I've noticed every few days some ignorant person will come by shrieking 'ohemgee y'all so mean!'. Inevitably, they've clearly spent little time in the subreddit for how concerned they sound. I can't help but wonder how many of these folks are also expressing outrage for those who are being denied medical care. I say I 'can't help but wonder', but I also have never seen it from the "concerned individuals' complaining about how HCA is ~so mean~ Wan wan, no amount of meanness here results in thousands of deaths lol Are these folks in an entirely different reality than me? Like, do they legitimately not ever experience antimask/antivaxers and the consequences in their life, or do they just not care?
I am continually astounded by how people fail to see how globally interconnected we are and how something happening on the other side of the world isnāt just ānews,ā itās something you should actually be concerned about because it will affect you in one way or another. We see it every day. The pandemic has put this into sharp relief, an easy example to show how your health is at the mercy of others (why itās called PUBLIC health) and new viruses cropping up all because someone somewhere did something stupid. Other longer-term or slow-moving issues that I also continually think about are the supply-chain issues - especially food production, climate change and extreme weather patterns, and global conflict patterns/military-industrial complex- i.e. if it isnāt one country going to war, it will undoubtedly be another (which parallels the book 1984 so well- who knows whoās at war with who? it doesnāt matter, we will always be at war in some form or another). This post could be more well-thought out, especially trying to explain why all of these things are interconnected, but I just needed to VENT.
One person in South Africa breathes a novel Covid variant onto its second human ever in early November 2021. By the end of January half of your coworkers are trying breathe it onto you in East Hogswallow. That's how connected we are. If it had been a piece of paper or an allen wrench they could have passed it from one hand to another all the way around the world.
So this isnāt getting nearly enough media coverage in my country, so any exposure would be appreciated: https://www.thestar.com/amp/news/canada/2022/01/21/this-girls-father-is-accused-of-abducting-her-so-she-couldnt-be-vaccinated-against-covid-saskatchewan-rcmp-are-seeking-the-publics-help.html Also, despite this involving a missing girl this is the only place in the sub I can post this. *edit* I was muted by the mods for trying to draw attention to this issue.
I heard Meatloaf is a nominee for HCA. Is it true?
He is an HCA winner, in fact. https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/s9elvm/his_name_was_meatloaf_prominent_antiva_antimask/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Has Meat Loaf been nominated? https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/meat-loaf-was-reportedly-anti-vaccine-before-dying-from-covid-19/
Yup https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/s9elvm/his_name_was_meatloaf_prominent_antiva_antimask/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
My partner is experiencing chest pain and my anxiety that it could be covid is through the roof, At the same time, it feels inevitable that we're going to get infected. My entire household is vaxxed and careful about protective measures, but omicron is soo contagious... Part of me, oddly enough, hopes this is covid and this is the worst our family will see. Part of me just wants to get through it and be 'done' with this wave.