Senate Pandemics in the Age of Globalization: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion: See OP Warning

I think that was entirely intentional on Guy's part

 

My old band is getting back together to play a show next week so we'll be spending two days crammed together in a practice space for hours on end rehearsing our songs. So in other words I'm very possibly getting COVID again even though I just had it in June. I'm sort of resigned to the inevitability of it.

I've basically put my social life on hold for the last two plus years. When everybody else started pretending like COVID was over I kept avoiding indoor activities. I've only started to do some indoor activities within the last few months.

I can't keep putting my life on hold especially if I'm still going to get sick no matter how cautious I am.

 

Update on Mom and Grandma: Both met with the PA at their doctor's office this morning by telehealth. Mom was told to discontinue the Paxlovid because it was causing severe diarrhea (as in the "three accidents in 20 minutes" variety). Grandma is still on Paxlovid.

I called Mom this evening and she sounded slightly better, although still coughing every few minutes. She was able to function better today than previous days, at least able to perform very simple food prep (like microwaving soup or making a sandwich) so she isn't going a full day with nothing to eat (like she did yesterday; that's why I brought a KFC meal over to them). She was told by the PA to wait until Monday morning to take a home test to see if she can go back to work masked, so as not to waste tests (I was only able to provide them with six tests, and access to more is unlikely for them right now).

Mom thinks Grandma caught it first and gave it to her, although both developed symptoms at about the same time, so I'm not sure about that.

 

I just tested positive for the first time. I guess 15th or 16th time is the charm. Feels like the flu. My natural antisocial tendencies really protected me for a very long time, but I knew it would happen eventually.

 

Wow, the ranks of the covid virgins shrink by one more...do you have any idea of how you were exposed @Rylo Ken ?

Edit @jcgoble3 --hope your mom & gma are back to normal soon!

 

I have a teenage son who works at a pizza place, and I had dinner with friends on Sunday night. I haven't been in the office yet this week, so potentially office contacts, although we have a hallway mask mandate still in place at work. I wear a mask in public, so it was likely my son or friends. I have not done the most recent booster, so that's on me.

 

well, I hope you feel better soon, Ken

also, I just discovered a new pandemic term--"Novids"

"Novids"...."Is it Luck or Something Else? How Never-COVID 'Novids' Have Avoided COVID-19"

I do think I prefer the term "Novid" to "COVID virgin"...though I still wonder if I did have covid in late December. My only symptom was a mild-to-moderate sore throat that lasted less than 48 hours but I didn't have access to a rapid test then.

 

No one else in my immediate family has ever tested positive. And overall we do a fair amount of testing. Not as much as healthcare workers, but whenever we travel/fly, do large group events, someone we were in close contact tested positive, etc.

 

So whatever happened to vaccinating the world? I haven't been paying much attention to this, but I'm assuming not much progress has been made?

 

Wednesday update: My mom is doing much better. She was able to shower and wash her hair this morning (but pulled a hip muscle while drying off!) and generally function. Her boss has been trying to keep up with Mom's work in the office, so she's had a few text message conversations with her boss about how to do certain ordering and processing procedures. Unfortunately, she can't work from home because her job is acquisitions for a public library -- ordering books and processing incoming shipments to be cataloged, labeled, and sent to branches -- and so all of this will be charged to sick leave. Thankfully Mom has a union job with 26 years of seniority (not to mention that she is the union president) so there's no danger there.

A friend of hers from church volunteered to do a grocery run for Mom, so she asked for four simple things. The church friend brought six full bags of groceries and refused to take any money for it all. So she's well stocked for a while.

She's been sleeping in her recliner for a few days now because laying flat makes it hard for her to breathe, but she isn't getting full nights of sleep that way because of lack of comfort. She's going to try to sleep on the couch tonight (the A/C hasn't worked well upstairs where her bedroom is for years and Grandma -- who owns the house -- doesn't want to spend the money to fix it, so it's usually too hot to sleep in her bedroom in the summertime, so she often sleeps on the couch in the summer).

 

That was awesome of your mom's friend to do that for her.

 

I think it's dropped as a focus when the interest became more towards new vaccine strains to reinvigorate that.

 

COVID is like the worst flu I’ve ever had- easily the worst I’ve felt in my adult life. I much prefer norovirus. Two nights of crazy fever dreams, coughing so hard I made myself puke. My wife is in Austria, which is probably a good thing. The dog comes over and licks my face to make sure I’m still,alive. He might have been doing it for a half hour before I noticed. Silver lining; he did not eat my face. I cant sit in a chair, too much effort. But I haven’t had any problems breathing other than I can only breathe through my mouth. Fun times.

 

I just tested positive Monday morning, and yeah, I'd say it's by far the worst flu I've had. 103 fever, tight throat, a constant jackhammer to the head.

 

Feel better soon! Yeah the headaches have been intense here too.

 

It's only cats who eat your face if they think you aren't alive. Dogs will just continue to lick it and nudge you to make sure you're okay.

 

That’s good news, but not true. There are plenty of stories, including the woman now deceased who had the first face transplant. Since I’m breathing with my mouth wide open like a corpse, I’m pretty sure the dog got his tongue in deep enough to tickle my tonsils.

 

Oh my. Hope you both feel better soon. PM me if you want to talk.

 

Thank you, Vaderize. Four days in, and I'm still wiped out. Plus, I just heard through the grapevine that seven of us in the overnight crew are out with COVID! (That's half the crew!)

They'll be desperate to have us back after those five days expire, but I'm not returning until I feel well.

 

Mom managed to get a full, good night of sleep on the couch last night, but is feeling slightly worse overall today. Grandma is still doing better than Mom but also regressed a tick today. Still, both are better than on Monday or Tuesday, so hopefully they'll feel fine in a few days and not have any long-term symptoms.

They are the kind of people that leave the TV on most of the day, watching either classic movies on TCM and such, or reality shows like Dr. Pimple Popper, Property Brothers, and North Woods Law. Today I had to laugh when Mom said that after five straight days of doing nothing but watching TV, they've scraped the bottom of the barrel and were watching BattleBots. That is completely not their style but I guess when you're bored of the same stuff non-stop, you resort to extremes for the sake of variety.

 

****....good luck @A Chorus of Disapproval. Hope she recovers and no one else gets it.

My coworker just got covid Monday and he's been out since. Usually a just tough if out kind of guy. But nope. He's totally called in all week.

 

@Rylo Ken Teenager anywhere is a walking time bomb for COVID but particularly at something like a pizza place. Regrettably he more then likely brought it home with him instead of a extra free pizza (though maybe he did!). Sorry to hear that, hope you are feeling better.

@jcgoble3 I was only home for a few days (Saturday-Wednesday) and I felt like I watch everything I could at one point even though I was grading/prepping for finals a bit has well so I totally get where they are coming from. That said, no way I would watch any of those shows except maybe BattleBots since one of my kids is starting to get into it a little.

So was on a conference Zoom call with our superintendent this morning. Went over several things for the upcoming school year. COVID? Basically not one of them so again this all should be really interesting. I check our boards and there hasn't been a case reported in the building for over a month but keep in mind summer school has been out for a few weeks so only the 12 month staffers have been in the building regularly and even they been in and out as people due to various things including vacation. So I don't know what will happen. Our area cases are like the state's steady this past month so it remains to be seen what happens once we all go back into the building. Last year cases went up obviously when we were all brought back in but then dropped to a relatively low number (10 or less per week which considering about 3000 people are in our building per day that is not a huge number at all) for most of the winter semester before it went bananas once the holidays hit and stayed high until February then it started dropping like a rock.

It could possibly be the same pattern but keep in mind last year masks were mandatory when we return to school and then tons of other COVID protocols in place including limiting the number of people in the cafe as students ate all over the school including the gym so they could spread out more. None of that this year so again will see what happens and the fact there isn't at least fall back contingency plans makes me even more nervous. I guess the thought process is they could just dust off last year's playbook but we don't even know if that is the case. Last year the school supplied masks to everyone and there was contract tracing in place along with several other safety plans. This year we have no idea if they even order masks. The feeling among a couple of colleagues I talk with said they were being told they order enough to give them out to a student/staffer who comes up and requests one at like the main office or something but it won't be like last year where the hall moderators had a box of them in their hands to give students if they did not have one up to February and then it was seen as a sign of "encouragement"/give one to a student who asks. Heck I had a box at all times in my desk drawer in case one broke for a student which happen quite a few times and even happen to me once. Now this year? I get the feeling unless I bring it from home I might not have them. And if that is the case I will order a box of surgical masks and bring them to school. Rather have that then some student coughing their brains out and then having their mask break.

So again will see what happens including our staff reacts. Many of them are like me and are at least a bit concerned there seems to not even a thought of about what to do if things go sideways in the building while some others are kinda like "yeah this is kinda over with". One good thing we did find out is that COVID sick time still applies long as you are vaccinated so if we do get COVID, we don't have to eat into our regular sick time at least that is how I took it. I honestly hope it stays that way until they finally change the rules about needing to stay out for so many days even if you are not really sick and I don't see that happening for quite a long time...or some a-hole Republican gets in and puts a quack in charge of CDC who then encourage people to go into work and school with it for "herd immunity". Like to kick them all in the nads but that is for another time.

 

so I guess I've gotten as close as one can get to COVID-19 is when my parents both got it about 3 weeks ago and we live in the same house, they are in their mid 70s and have had 4 vax shots already (all Pfizer). My mom tested positive first and it was a little under 48 hours from when they both went to a (crowded) funeral service, no masking, entire place packed. I think they went to a dinner for the funeral the next day too. (My sister and I went to the same service hours later where it was like 20% full and masked the whole time and I kept sanitizing my hands the entire time)

It's a little fast to test positive less than 48 hours later but my mom doesn't really go anywhere and apparently not impossible. I told my mom to call up the doctor and ask for Paxlovid, big thanks to Doctor @Vaderize03 for mentioning it so much in the thread. My folks didn't know what it was (it had been mentioned on the news cycle months ago when nobody could get it and then again when Biden got it about a week after my parents were positive). But it's only available for 70+ people in Ontario Canada which my mom qualified. (there was an annoying 12 hours where the pharmacy said "no we don't have a prescription for you" but it was there for her the next day about 24 hours after testing positive)

My dad wasn't positive but he was also not separate from my mom at all (still made meals, slept in the same bed) so it was only about 4 days later when he tested positive. He couldn't get Paxlovid because the doctors told him no because he's on blood thinners. We're all overweight, my dad and I both smoke and drink, he has diabetes. Neither of them had any fun and a whole lot of coughing but they said they never had difficulty breathing or fever or sweats or couldn't walk up the stairs etc. My mom seemed to rebound faster than my dad, maybe the Paxlovid. He took about 11 days to get a negative COVID test. As it stands right now, they're both fine and recovered and not positive. It was "mild" for them inasmuch nobody had to go to the hospital nor it was an extreme medical emergency. So I'm very happy about that.

Which brings it to me. I didn't test positive. Not even once, not even a little bit. I've taken like 7 tests over 2 weeks. (I kinda suck at the mixing part the solution it always comes out bubbly). But yah I'm very grateful but also kind of befuddled.

So we all live in the same house but spend most of the time on separate floors. I didn't mask in the house because it just seemed futile. I didn't make contact with either of them at any time. Sort of kept my distance, treating it like a cold (you don't get huggy when someone has a cold y'know). Only ate about 1 meal a day with them and I'd be at the opposite end of the table. Whole lot of hand washing and sanitizing the remote after they were done.

So just trying to figure it out, they had mild cases was it so weak it didn't affect me? I've had 3 shots all different vaccines - #1 AstraZenica, #2 Pfizer, #3 Moderna. They've had 4 Pfizer. Is it really mixing and matching that does it? Is it the magic combo? Am I naturally immune (which is not impossible just very very improbable). At 6 foot 6 are the COVID-19 particles just bouncing off my chest and then hand washing does the rest?

It's a mystery, a happy one which I'm totally okay with. I'm guessing the 3 different vaxs did it, hopefully. It's actually stopping transmission instead of just making it mild. Or just naturally immune. I'm O positive blood type but I believe it was mentioned that O negative blood types have more immunity it seems. I have no idea. As I said, befuddled but grateful. My cousin said his grade school age daughter tested positive and nobody in his house ever tested positive (all vaxed) either so it does happen.

I'm still masking all over the place, only place where I don't is (finally) a gym in my location has 24 hours (the place I went to for years stopped 24 hours at the start of March 2020 and never went back). So extreme physical exertion while masked isn't working. I'm there at 2 AM, twice a week, including me there's like 5 people max, most of the time like 3, and I stay like 10+ feet away from everyone at the opposite ends of the gym, very large space lots of ventilation. Other times, always (double) masking still as much as I can even when other people aren't. Unless something crazy like I was asymptomatic, transmitted it to my mom, then she tests positive while I tested negative. That seems unlikely and, as I said, crowded unmasked funeral.

Anyway, yah, weird few weeks but nobody is doing bad and like I said, I was always negative and never felt a thing. Conundrum, it is!