outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

My gf and I have been pretty fanatical about our COVID protocols since early 2020. Thanksgiving was the first time I've been unmasked around other people since 4th of July. Everyone in attendance was fully vaxxed and boostered, and everyone had tested negative earlier in the day. And everyone who hadn't already had COVID got COVID. According to the stupid CDC's stupid current guidelines, I would've been totally fine returning to the office and shedding virus all over creation for the couple of days until I tested positive. I'm glad I have more sense than the CDC and opted to spare my coworkers. So yeah, I can totally see why shit might be going pear-shaped.

Also, I have been proactive about trying to report my positive test result to SOME local official or other and I cannot find a goddamn way to do so. My university is using an app to record positive cases and it crashes every time I try to record mine. I'm about done bothering at this point (particularly since I know where where I caught it and have been isolating since). This is from someone who is actively trying to report a case, so just imagine how many cases from indifferent or outright belligerent parties are going unreported.

Crazy and frustrating. I do weekly PCR tests via kits provided by my university available at my hospital -- so it would at least get reported ASAP. But I sure am glad to work where I work at given everything else...

Where I am, cases (or at least reported cases) are so low the total for the entire area is significantly less than some of the weekly numbers the high school alone once reported. Like, maybe around 30 at any given time. Anecdotally, I know far, far more people catching colds and whatnot than I do catching covid right now, assuming testing remains reliable. I picked my daughter up from college a few days before Thanksgiving, since she had a 103 degree fever; we both wore masks on the way home. The next day we got her tested for covid (negative, as had been her two rapid tests), the flu (negative), strep (negative), and RSV (negative). She was just ... sick. And a few days and lots of rest later, she was all better. My mom (who has yet to catch covid, thank goodness) still usually wore a mask around her just to be safe. At this point that seems to be the best strategy. Just keep aware of symptoms and how you are feeling and, when needed and possible, stay away from others, and when not, wear a mask and make sure everyone knows so that they can make their own best decisions. Wash hands, don't touch face, etc. There's a lot of shit in the air these days.

this is coming out next week

https://www.simonandschuster.biz/books/The-Truth-about-Wuhan/Andrew-G-Huff/9781510773882

(i.e. the virus was manmade etc)

We're still rated "low" by the CDC's nonsense standards, but there's a basic principle that still works: the more anecdotal cases I Hear about, the higher the likely numbers. So far we've been good? I've had more students with flues and colds than COVID, according to their medical notes.

biggest lie in history huh (xp)

Somehow most of FL's county wastewater isn't upticking at the same rate as other cities in other states. Maybe it was the extended plateau we had in the summer? Maybe it's coming?

yeah, I read that -- we had a decent sure from summer well into early fall.

*surge

Got the second monkeypox vaccine, feel like shit: mostly chills, mild muscle pain (mostly neck pain). Not COVID -- took a PCR yesterday and home test this morning.

The most cautious member of my family had a "cold" the week leading up to Thanksgiving that turned out to NOT be a cold. It's been long enough that I'm going to say I'm in the clear, but my sister's been testing positive since the Sunday after the holiday.

I've been joking that there's been confusion and you test BEFORE the family dinner, not after.

I'm finally over a pretty nasty cold (actual cold, not covid) after it really took me out last week. There are at least three distinct plagues (nasty version of the common cold, some other garbage that might be a flu, strep) going around the office so I'm hiding out for the time being.

Strep has killed 7 kids in the UK so far this autumn :/

On the Thanksgiving thread I mentioned we delivered dinner to a friend whose son tested positive for covid, stranding them alone for the holidays. Predictably, a day or so later she said that she, too, had just tested positive for covid. But then a few days after that she said that actually, no, she didn't have covid after all. Um, who announces they have covid and then says that they don't? Turns out she did take a test and did test positive, but no worries, only had a faint positive line, so no covid.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t even want to tell the story that caused me to nearly cancel Thanksgiving.

All I will say is that Boomers don’t seem to understand epidemiology at all, nor the risks of Covid.

I had a half frozen sausage hero by myself for thanksgiving. Thanks COVID. I can't blame COVID for my not cooking it fully, that was just my laziness, though I suppose the fatigue I was feeling at the time from COVID did contribute.

Not interested in disuading anyone from getting vaccinations, but I'm fairly certain I now have SIRVA in my left upper arm from my last booster. Unlike my other shots which were entirely painless, this one stung a bit when I got it. The soreness in my arm lingered at a low level for about a month and then started to get progressively worse. Now a lot of arm movements hurt, especially if I have to raise my arm above my head.

yikes!

well, that sucks. hope it gets feeling better, Moodles

thanks, probably need to investigate getting a cortisone shot or something similar

just keep juicing up until it feels better (different juices, same arm)

i'm sorry to hear that. one thing I was always worried about when getting my booster at Walgreens was that they'd be in such a hurry and jab me in the wrong place.

hoping you can get range of motion back soon!

exactly, let's just get that shot on target next time please

and yes, this was at Walgreens. Actually got my previous booster AT Target, and that went great.

they owe you some Walbucks

Free federal COVID tests coming back starting tomorrow

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/14/free-covid-home-test-program-restart-00073962

cool, hope they don’t mail me already expired tests this time— half that i received were expired and not on the ‘extended expiration’ list.

I saw my first tv ad for an otc COVID test!

xp they're almost certainly not expired. IIUC the boxes were printed with the expiration of the emergency authorization, not the physical expiration of the test. that keeps getting extended.

see https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list to confirm.

"that keeps getting extended", meaning the authorization keeps getting extended.

Whoa, thanks for that caek, we were just about to toss out a few of our free fed tests that we had thought were expired! Def timely for that info in our house.

a bunch of ours were not on that list, so we threw them away. thanks

Wellllll ... looks like we hosted a superspreader event. We had a 40th birthday party for my wife last Saturday. Our COVID numbers here have been rising a bit but still relatively low, and we figured you only turn 40 once. Probably 50ish people were there over the course of the evening. And we now know of six of them who have since tested positive. We feel bad about it but also obviously this was a known risk for everyone going in. Everybody vaxxed and probably boosted, so far people seem to be having fairly "normal" cases.

An interesting data point that may or may not mean anything, and of course could change if we hear from more people: All six of the positive cases we know of are people who had never had it before. My wife and I had it in September, and so far neither of us has had any symptoms (we've also tested to be safe). Most of our other friends who were there had had it previously too, but not these six (including my wife's dad, who's in his 70s and obviously in a risk category). Also interestingly, at least as of now, none of the six has passed it on to their significant others. But that could change too, of course.

Anyway. Still glad we had the party, it was a blast, but we may not do largescale indoor events again for a while.

Whoa, man, sorry to hear it. My best friends sent an email yesterday in advance of their own party tomorrow night which, thanks to weather, might have to convert to indoors: please test before coming over, stay home if you're sick, wear a mask if you feel comfortable. They threw an outdoor party last year at the height of omicron and no one got infected. Fingers crossed for you and us.

seems like many of the cases I've heard about recently have been people who've never had it before (my entire family included). Is there science to that or is it just anecdotal...and you're hearing more about those of us who'd never had it.

I mean, it's just inevitable? There aren't many first-timers left to infect. We're all gonna get it.

xpost That's how it worked at Thanksgiving this year. Three of the people present hadn't been hit and all three (and only those three) fell ill.

fortunately I haven't heard about any Paxlovid rebound cases since at least early summer. Friends and relatives prescribed it report feeling better within days and testing negative in a week.

Even testing beforehand obviously is of limited value, because the rapid tests mostly don't show anything if you don't have any symptoms, there's a couple-day lag. In our case, the first positive case I heard from did test before coming to the party, because he had also done something the night before with a big crowd. He was negative, so he came to the party. I don't know for sure that he was our Patient Zero, but he was the first one to have symptoms two days later and report a positive test. So yeah, there's just no real way to know, anything with a group indoors is just gonna be a dice roll.

Yeah, everyone in my case was fully vaxxed + boostered and tested negative earlier in the day. Made no difference.

My biggest takeaway is re: the efficacy of masking. I've been back in the office (with faculty, staff, and students falling ill left and right) for a solid year now but constantly masked around other people and have been fine the whole time. Thanksgiving was one of maybe three times in 2022 when I was unmasked at an indoor gathering.

oh I paxlovid rebounded. I started taking it, was pretty chill for a few days, then a day after I stopped I started getting head cold symptoms, nothing crazy. But I suddenly tested super positive. Like I'd put the drops on the tester and within 15 seconds had two bright red lines. That lasted for like 3 days then I tested negative again and have been feeling ok except for a bit of fatique/tireness.

Old Lunch, that's my takeaway, too— I am constantly the only masked person in the room, and I'm fine with that.

At commencement the other day I was the only person masked in 20. I'm the only customer in this public library now masked too (every employee bar one is).

we used to have a rapid PCR testing site that was fast and used the very accurate Accula system, that I used to use when I wanted to test before some event. and the fuckers have all been shut down now.

like, as of a week ago :/

Our on-campus Curative trailers, my lifeline for two years, I just learned will close next Wednesday. I'm livid. There will still be county sites, but nothing beat the convenience of a rapid/regular PCR test available a building away from mine.

I more or less have not masked for months, and so far so not bad (knock wood), and that includes going to dinners, shopping, movies, lots of concerts, sporting events, etc. I've stayed out of the habit of touching my face and kept up the habit of thoroughly washing my hands a lot, so maybe that helps. For sure doesn't hurt. None (or very few) of my close friends or family seem to be catching covid right now, either, though I do have one friend who just got over a bad case (bad cold bad), who, per the anecdotal above, had never had it before. My daughter up in college, all the kids up there keep getting sick, but they're not testing positive for covid. Afaict it's just colds and the usual close-quarters shit, which, ironically enough, doctors keep saying is a byproduct of limited exposure to the usual cooties for such a prolonged period of time. I do see a good hunk of people still masking, but I suspect (and in some cases know) that it's strategic. That is, stuff like "we're visiting family soon and don't want to get sick."

I have a couple of super long flights coming up to visit family in Australia, and my wife and I at least are planning to wear masks as much as possible, though it definitely gets pretty uncomfortable after several hours, let alone, like, 17 or whatever.

xpost Yeah, they just ended all but symptomatic testing at my university, as well. I expect the next quarter to be filled to the brim with student absences.

Bumped the rona thread yesterday, I finally got it after avoiding it for 33 months. Mostly just congestion and fatigue, doc prescribed Paxlovid during a virtual visit (was supposed to be at my annual physical til I tested positive) so I started that last night.