outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

it was a funny moment to scoop up all the masks at the front door that i hadn't worn in like a month and put them into a tote bag and hang that bag up in the back of the closet. "hope i never see you again"

the drying up of data has been the most frustrating. a lot of the sites I depended on shut down, I'm left with the flawed CovidActNow.org and a few other sites. and the one person I counted on to constantly give realistic "state of the state" analysis of Florida and other states, regularly for a year, abruptly stopped posting about COVID altogether, and now posts mostly about crypto. I've had to start piecing together my own data and I'm not cut out for it.

though some of the fact that he stopped was also because ELECTED FL HEALTH OFFICIALS were harassing him every time he talked about Florida. People that were high ranking officials within the FL Dept of Health, not like...low level employees.

xxxpost

I'm doing an antibody test to see if I've had it. on about two occasions, I've had what seemed like symptoms showing up, only to disappear a day later. the latter scenario, 5+ tests showed up negative. the prior scenario was the one that I laid out here, where I tested positive one day, only to test negative on 11 tests of combined PCR/antigen nature over 5 days.

maybe I'm one of those people with the crazy T-cells, one could hope

I just really appreciated the hyper local stats our work shared on their dashboard and there is really no reason for them to have stopped, because they still provide the on-site free testing and no other factors have changed. Guess the message just came down from above that it is time to stop caring. But, yeah, when asked we got the, "well no one else is tracking anything" excuse.

i guess you guys are going to hate me but where i live case numbers are low, i've had three shots, i've had actual coronavirus twice, and i have no vulnerable people in my life i need to worry about so i don't really gaf anymore

If I hated you for that I would hate most people where I live, including my friends, and my friends are nice.

can't wait to see what we're posting about itt 7 years from now

"got COVID for the 713th time, this time the new Voltron variant. have to sell my tix to Ozzy, which I've had since 2019, and it was finally going to happen and now I can't go."

I mean I am in no way acting the way I would act if I thought it would be a serious problem for me to get COVID. I'm just eating at outdoor tables and wearing a mask in stores. But I'm not hiding. I guess I just feel like the minimal protective measures I'm taking are pretty much commensurate with the acceptable but not fully negligible consequences of getting COVID (long-term elevated risk of cardiovascular disease / diabetes / stroke, short-term risk of being knocked out of commission for a week.)

I've pretty much given up on judging people for navigating this right now. The notable exception being the previously mentioned coworker that had COVID, has been cagey about the timeline, came back to work seemingly early based on all shared evidence and still didn't wear a mask. Judging the fuck out of that person.

can't wait to see what we're posting about itt 7 years from now

"got COVID for the 713th time, this time the new Voltron variant. have to sell my tix to Ozzy, which I've had since 2019, and it was finally going to happen and now I can't go."

― Gymnopédie Pablo (Neanderthal), Wednesday, June 1, 2022 2:22 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol I hope so, imagine the pent-up Ozzy demand

I feel bad for my more outgoing friends - they're still generally limiting risky behavior but they're starting to crack hard. I struggle with making myself go out to meet them for a barbecue or sitting on a patio since getting a little high and droning on a guitar alone for two hours became a completely normal way to spend Friday nights for a while there.

Xxpost

One of the shows at my festival had an outbreak in the cast. They decided to trot the two infected performers out on day 5 or 6 of infection, still testing positive, wearing those flimsy tiny plastic facemasks that don't do shit to block droplets or coughs or anything.

And didn't tell the audience. I reported them but nothing was done because lol festival had no coherent "your performers are sick" policy this year.

Another acquaintance got COVID and attended shows maskless in the middle of his infection.... without telling anybody.

All of those fuckers can burn in hell

Gah, that's maddening. Though I guess a natural outcome of the "welp, who cares" attitude from the top on down, no incentive for people to give a shit or do the right thing.

I'm in a similar spot as Tracer, levels have been pretty low here for a while, so I only ever wear a mask if I go to a business that requires it. My personal policy is that I'm going to follow the local risk level, if it remains low, I won't wear a mask, if goes up, I will adjust according to the city's recommendations.

I'm wearing everywhere mostly cos Florida is popping off now, but we seem near a peak/plateau. hopefully.

(basing that on Orange County wastewater dropping)

To me COVID gets back to the broader issue of systemic injustice, like with environmental issues. Am I carbon neutral? No. Am I an easier target than the people who are the major drivers of climate change? Yes. At this point I am complying with safety precautions largely performatively, to be honest, and so my compliance wavers with my ability and willingness to perform. The people I hang out with are more likely to shame non-compliance than they are to shame compliance. I have immunocompromised friends who are immensely frustrated about the whole situation and my willingness to wear a mask in public (if i'm not outside or eating, which is most of the time I'm in public) does, in fact, make them one whole iota safer, but I really _don't_ want to comply with the idea that public shaming is a substitute for actual justice. I have to work to control my desire to express hostility towards folks who treat this whole thing like it's a result of poor individual decisions rather than a deliberate and normative culture of narcissism and abuse.

on that last note, John Burn-Murdoch reacted to an emotional, fact-free response to one of his well-researched tweets pointing out that views on COVID have started to be gripped tightly like religious beliefs now, and he's not wrong.

My take on where the current stage of the pandemic is in the USA.

On the good side: The virulence of the symptoms people commonly experience is clearly not as bad as with earlier variants. The infection fatality rate is way down compared to the start of the pandemic. Anti-virals seem to help a lot, if you get on them immediately after the first positive test. The knowledge base about the disease has grown tremendously since 2020 and we have vaccines, which is huge.

On the bad side: I've seen one virologist compare the R(0) of latest variant of omicron as being 'getting up around the level of the measles', which is just about the most contagious disease out there. The incubation period is so rapid that as the antibodies from a vaccine or a recent infection decline after a few months, re-infection is likely to become common, especially because NPIs like masks and distancing have been discarded by a large majority of people. Case numbers are still extremely high, and home testing occludes any clear view into the true numbers. And while the medical system here isn't in acute crisis mode any more, there is chronic burnout among caregivers. Long covid is still a mystery we probably won't know much about for several years.

I'll be masking up in public places for some time to come.

Fwiw it looks like the current wave has just peaked nationally in the US

Until the next one, etc.

And while the medical system here isn't in acute crisis mode any more, there is chronic burnout among caregivers.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless)

welp, time for corporate to send out another email calling everybody "heroes" and providing links to more online resources to webinars about burnout

the mention of zero COVID made me go look up new Zealand's stats and it went from double figures to 1.5 thousand deaths IN TOTAL only very recently. UK was getting that every single day during the worst and is still around that every week.

lol

NEW: @WhiteHouse COVID Coordinator Dr. @ashishkjha expects #COVID19 vaccines will become available for youngest kids starting June 21, and that every family who wants a vaccine for their children should be able to get one in the weeks that follow

— Kayla Tausche (@kaylatausche) June 2, 2022

don't worry everyone; florida is now open for business

SCOOP: The State or Florida threatened the Special Olympics with $27.5 MILLION in fines because the organization had a vaccine requirement at its games in Orlando this weekend.

Late yesterday, the Special Olympics pulled the requirement. 1/3

— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) June 3, 2022

to think the Jeb Bush years are now the salad days in comparison.

fuck I hate this place.

I suppose the international participants required to get jabbed in their home countries will be safest.

Unless DeSantis threatens to suck the vaccine out of them.

Keeping an eye on local rates (reported always lower than actual, as state public health officials have repeatedly mentioned), I waited 'til my county went back into deep red, got second booster on May 31rst (first booster was in Oct.): efficacy est. 4 months, so that'll get me to this Oct., when there may be another vax or update of this one or booster or something, according to CDC (right?) I continue to mask, especially indoors, outdoors if in crowd, which hardly ever happens. Not a crowd fan anymore anywhere, because of gunplay (not nec. mass shootings) as much as Covid, or almost as much.

Got the second booster this morning, gang! I can feel the magnetism!

that's because the heavy presence of magnets is highly correlated with good health and wellbeing. that's why i skip the pseudoscience vaccines and instead apply heavy magnets around my 3rd chakra

Tanning my balls just in case, but I do that anyway.

i'm sexy and i know it

Omicron thrashing Austin right now, I know half a dozen people who caught it in the last week not including myself. Ditched my cloth masks and I'm going 100% N95 going forward.

Florida's growth continuing to slow, hoping the plateau and then fall is forthcoming. wager we're only a little bit behind the NE.

I have maybe two other friends who have never (knowingly) had the VID. so many of the rest that had lasted this long went down finally.

fortunately don't know any that got BA.2 after BA.1.

i have just about every therapeutic treatment on speed dial in case it finally happens. thinking I might want to do the Paxlovid if I get it as my blood pressure is already hypertensive even when I'm well, and will likely shoot up when I get sick.

my BP, i'm not planning to do heroin

and right on time, my brother just got it. (he doesn't live with us, don't worry). really thought he had magical capabilities considering how many people he's around at the theme parks/theatre.

guess it's better he gets it out of the way now so he'll be recovered by mom's surgery/recovery from

he is the fittest of all of us so he will probably beat it easily

Hope it's mild for him. My daughter (a teacher) is mostly recovered after 2 weeks - double boosted with Moderna, tested positive on Tuesday 5/24. Terrible headaches, nausea, head congestion

he, weirdly, has the same symptoms I did when I had my weird COVID-not-COVID episode - scratchy throat. suppose it'd be asking too much for that to happen for him too. he's losing a $500 gig due to this.

glad to hear your daughter is mostly recovered. it's still not fuckin' around :/

a friend posted the following. I had to explain who he was.

Last month, many experts were smugly confident that #monkeypox epidemic can be contained, and dismissed notions otherwise. ➡️Now, @WHO is no longer sure if monkeypox outbreak can be contained. WHO needs to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) asap! https://t.co/b0yQ36rM9F

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) June 3, 2022

Bob Wachter's new thread just now is, well, disconcerting.

Covid (@UCSF) Chronicles, Day 848
It’s been a few weeks since my last update – the flow of Covid news & research has slowed a bit. But there’s still plenty of questions that come up, so in this🧵I’ll answer a few that I get asked commonly, including how my wife is doing. (1/25)

— Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) June 13, 2022

Ugh

"I’m living a fairly full life (no hesitation to travel, for example), but it’s with a KN95 in place in most indoor settings" is pretty much where I've been.

Same. Yesterday in the supermarket it was down to me and one other person ( worker) with a mask. As recently as a couple weeks ago, there would always be at least a dozen

Ned, how's your dad?

Thankfully recovered and there doesn't seem to be any continuing ill effects; just chatted with him the other day. We'll be on vacation in mid-July and I'll take the chance to see how he's doing then; being 81 he's naturally slower and has been for some time so I don't want to mistake one thing for the other. But again, I won't know in full until I have a chance to hang with him for a while.

As for masking, always still, and I'm holding off on concerts until at least late August. Movies, only if I am substantially away from everyone in a crowd. Said vacation I mentioned is for the world track and field championships in Eugene, and since they're outdoors that's a relief, but we could be sitting near enough people for a stretch each day that I will likely mask there too.

Movies have (at last!) resumed late morning screenings, so I'm often the only person in the damn theatre -- as was the case with Crimes of the Future, which, you know, of course.

I've mentioned it to a number of ilxors but not on ilx proper:

I tested positive on 5/26, finally negative on 6/5. I didn't regularly check my temperature, but as far as I can tell, I never had a fever. Had the booster way back at the end of November last year, right before Thanksgiving. Not eligible for a second booster as, despite my bad habits in the last year, I'm still relatively young and relatively healthy.

I'm a strong proponent of doing whatever you can to avoid this crap. I have no clue when or where I picked it up. My suspicion is that I probably had an asymptomatic infection that wasn't even detectable, was an idiot and drank too much, and the virus took the opportunity to rear its head. I'd already felt kind of crappy for weeks (thanks, allergy season) and my protocol of working from home for the first part of the week -- I'm basically on a limited time-in-office schedule -- if I was anywhere around people over the weekend didn't work out. I was in the office helping a couple coworkers do some pretty heavy troubleshooting and, of the handful of people I was near, I managed to infect one. I feel terrible about that!

Luckily, a couple of kind friends urged me to contact everyone I'd been around ASAP. Sent an email to coworkers, texted a friend, and people adjusted their behavior accordingly. My coworker had a worse time, but he credits the quick warning with his successful effort to keep his pregnant wife uninfected and he's been vocal in the past about enjoying working in the office and has said he knows he's been balancing that with the risk.

I think the thing I'm left with is this stupid thing that every ding-dong has said for several years running where "it's just like the flu." I think this is wrong, in that we've got this new virus with a changing profile, it's more infectious, and the average number of days it runs and the possible severity and affects are worse. But on the other hand, this is influenza:

Other possible serious complications triggered by flu can include inflammation of the heart (myocarditis), brain (encephalitis) or muscle tissues (myositis, rhabdomyolysis), and multi-organ failure (for example, respiratory and kidney failure). Flu virus infection of the respiratory tract can trigger an extreme inflammatory response in the body and can lead to sepsis, the body’s life-threatening response to infection. Flu also can make chronic medical problems worse. For example, people with asthma may experience asthma attacks while they have flu, and people with chronic heart disease may experience a worsening of this condition triggered by flu.

I know a number of people who had weird long-term affects from the flu, and this was when they were in their 20s. We've got this standing culture, at least in the US, where we don't properly let people isolate, recover, and receive ongoing care. On the other hand, we've got a completely voluntary system of flu shots, where strains that are predicted to hit are inoculated against one or twice per year. Right now, the funding and interest in researching vaccinations targeting new strains seems somewhat minimized, and it's mind-boggling to me.

I think an ongoing effort to normalize the creation, production, and distribution of targeted vaccines, and the infrastructure to get those to as many people as possible, is the best route, along with keeping public awareness high and encouraging masking when possible. I feel like flu shots are unevenly distributed, and it follows the broken health system and capitalization of health among employers. I started getting a seasonal flu vaccine years ago when my employer had them for a small fee, and once they realized a vaccinated workforce pays off, they made it free. I literally would just walk into a meeting room and get a vaccine between meetings. I got a flu vaccine at my local health department last year with my covid booster, free of charge. Make it easy, make it standard, and keep it rolling.

Maybe it's just my brain fog talking, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

have you had any long COVID symptoms, mh?

I appreciate the honesty.