Hacked off as I have been having routine covid tests offered to staff at my workplace (a hospital) and my one from Monday came back as positive. I have no symptoms and no one in my household is ill. Looking at the staff testing information they used a different test this time to the previous ones, and a bit of Googling tells me that the FDA in America did flag up some problems with false positives if this test is not processed correctly. I'm suspicious... not at all convinced I have Covid! However we are all now having to quarantine and I feel like I have to stay in my room mostly , just in case it's genuine. My teenage son is missing his mock GCSE's that he's been studying for and would have been a useful indicator of what he needs to work on for the actual exams next summer ...if they even take place.
I'm glad none of us are ill but all feels like an unnecessary hassle. We'll do what we are required to but I'm still feeling pretty annoyed. Grrrr...
Meanwhile, I can't help wishing our lockdown was a bit stricter, or at least more strictly enforced. I mostly try to follow the rules, and keep my two year-old cooped up indoors like a caged lion as much as possible.
As far as it goes, I understand the necessity of that, but AFAICT I'm the only one. When we go to the playground for our one hour's permitted exercise, there are people who were there before us, and still there after us (so outside for far more than an hour). I suspect they were also there in the morning as well. Quite often they're not wearing a bloody mask either.
So I'm feeling like a right mug for being the only sucker who actually obeys the damn law. Which I'm getting extremely resentful about.
My state is filling its hospital beds, we're dying at new rates, our governor issued lockdown orders for the next 4 weeks, and my idiot friend is going on a vacation and posting pics on social media to communicate with her kids.
Yep. My kid has been unable to access a test of any sort since his illness began, 12 days ago. That's what happens when you're a car-less, out-of-state student in Minnesota--and your school has taken no thought for such issues. (They did finally announce a test-by-mail scheme, but my son signed up for it Friday and has got nothing so far. I think by the time it arrives (IF it arrives), he'll be so far along he'll test negative.)
Florida has surpassed 900,000 COVID-19 cases, and our governor (who is a chief butt kisser of the orange menace) is nowhere to be seen. He signed some executive storm related order before Eta hit (three times) last week. Nothing though, during the storm or after. Nothing about the virus. News reporters are requesting information, both when they see him in person for other press briefings, or by phone, mail, and social media. Nothing. Crickets.
I speculate he's either dying of the virus, or dying because his orange guy Lost.
So DC isn't the only place where no governing is happening.
Meanwhile, I can't help wishing our lockdown was a bit stricter, or at least more strictly enforced. I mostly try to follow the rules, and keep my two year-old cooped up indoors like a caged lion as much as possible.
As far as it goes, I understand the necessity of that, but AFAICT I'm the only one. When we go to the playground for our one hour's permitted exercise, there are people who were there before us, and still there after us (so outside for far more than an hour). I suspect they were also there in the morning as well. Quite often they're not wearing a bloody mask either.
So I'm feeling like a right mug for being the only sucker who actually obeys the damn law. Which I'm getting extremely resentful about.
I’m struggling with resentment and anger too, @la vie en rouge, especially when it’s friends who are being selfish and stupid (though I bet they don’t see it that way). I’m really worrying about how and if I’m going to be able to have the same relationship with them once we’re through this 😢.
My niece is having a big shindig at her house for Thanksgiving. She invited me, but I declined. In addition to herself, her two kids (one home from college), her husband's parents, her brother and his kids, his wife's parents, and my sister and brother-in-law, I wouldn't be surprised if she had a neighbor or two in as well.
What really bothers me about it is that I have dinner at my sister's house every Friday. I will decline the Friday after Thanksgiving, and wait at least a week before resuming the custom, just in case she or my brother-in-law pick up something from it all.
The way it looks right now, I will be spending Thanksgiving alone. It won't be the first time, and I plan on making the best of it, but it's the safest course of action.
Lamb Chopped - the bad jokes stage of any illness is to share the pain. So glad to hear he's on the mend.
Miss Amanda, Lamb Chopped is right about the 14 days. I hope you can obtain some of your favourite goodies and some good books to maintain your solitary splendour -come on the Ship and post your wit if you get bored - stay safe.
Patyds - we haven't had any spread from the quarantine hotels here in Christchurch, but they have in Auckland. There's a false sense of security here. One woman saw me scanning in my QR code for track and trace and said, "I suppose I should be doing that - but it such a bother." I didn't reply - not as much bother as getting COVID in a country that only has 150 ventilators, but the temptation was high.
Inevitably most of the news stories I read about covid are of America and the UK. Now both our governments are proving deeply incompetent at tackling this, but we are both rich nations and well resourced. How on earth are less developed nations coping, where overcrowding was a problem anyway?
People gamble with others' lives. It's not okay. Some of them will get away with it. Sort of like drinking and driving. You may not crash, you may not get caught. So go ahead.
I have been invited to Thanksgiving at the home of very good friends. We got together for my birthday in June and we all wore masks and had a picnic outdoors at a park near where I live. None of us got sick and two of us (me and my friend, Sarah) have compromised immune systems. We were extremely cautious.
Thanksgiving would involve me, Sarah, her husband, and possibly her nephew and his girlfriend. David is the only one who works outside the home and he's a postal carrier in Seattle. We think it's worth the risk...except...I sometimes visit my idiot next door neighbor and her 24/7 drunk boyfriend. Neither of them wear a mask and I sometimes don't when I visit them. Neither of them ever go out, unless it's to a liquor store and then, by Washington state mandate, they have to wear masks.
I am just wondering if my Seattle friends are safe enough from ME.
I sometimes visit my idiot next door neighbor and her 24/7 drunk boyfriend. Neither of them . . . ever go out, unless it's to a liquor store and then, by Washington state mandate, they have to wear masks.
IANAD, but it sounds unsafe all around. If you do decide to go, make sure you tell them ahead of time everything you just told us. They have a right to know.
Give both you and Sarah have compromised immune systems, sounds like getting together could be a recipe for disaster.
Just a local update.
(And again thank you for the perspective I am incredibly privileged where I live currently).
Our lockdown was entirely due to one person who lied to our contact tracers.
We are aiming for zero community transmission and this individual said he bought a pizza from a shop with an infected staff member. It meant most of our city fell into the cluster of potential exposure and we wondered about a new strain with greater contact virulence.
What was not said was the fact they worked in the pizza shop with the infected person and had done so for some days prior...
We have an incredibly compliant community and largely are following the lock down rules.
And yet one numpty screws us all over.
I appreciate there was likely a fear response driving the lie - and yet it put us all at risk.
And worse, it makes repating harder - We have 8 medihotels for 2 weeks quarantine on OS arrival and all are no longer accepting OS people. And the community is asking for a hard border closure which is just stupidity.
Dam it all to hell.
And I am tired of dealing with the scared and dying* and the lack of contact or visitation by relatives.
Fuck it, people should be able to die well.
* normal deaths - we have had very limited Covid deaths to date.
And I am sick of going back to 1:2 Oncall because my colleagues are (appropriately) isolating themselves from potential exposure.
I sometimes visit my idiot next door neighbor and her 24/7 drunk boyfriend. Neither of them . . . ever go out, unless it's to a liquor store and then, by Washington state mandate, they have to wear masks.
Down around their chins, I'll bet you.
Actually, no. At least my neighbor, Megan, when forced to wear a mask, wears it correctly. And bitches about it non-stop.
Doesn't sound like petulance to me Patyds. Hope the situation improves.
In an effort to encourage people to be kinder to those who are infected the Director General of Health here said that it the virus rather than the people that are problem - which I think is a bit simplistic - it's both. People panicking and lying about their contacts, or here) not making the effort to scan the QR codes that will record where they have been because they "got tired of doing it,"
So, 12:01am Monday and Toronto is back to lockdown for 28 days. Despite the exhortations from above, I've noticed a growing laxity in the public since the Labour Day weekend (beginning of September). Without a change in behaviour, the modelling showed a potential infection rate nationwide of 60,000/day by 31 December. The only thing that surprises me is that the lockdown didn't come sooner.
"We think it's worth the risk" --keep in mind that what you-all are risking is not just COVID, but being stuck in a hallway or tent outside a hospital with inadequate treatment, suffering and death, because we are in a HUGE surge and the hospitals can't cope. Not enough room, not enough people, not enough stuff (like ventilators, masks, etc.)
Is that the way you want to die?
And do you want to do it in December? Because that's roughly when it would be...
--Rachel Maddow is the host of a wildly popular MSNBC show that features news, analysis, and discussion. Someone close to her got very sick with Covid, and Rachel has put out a warning:
--I've heard many news stories of people who didn't take Covid seriously at all, then got it. Some spoke out to warn others, and some died. Reportedly, some denied they had Covid right up until they died.
The5thMary, figure out the wisest thing, then do that. You don't want to get sick, especially with your health problems, right? And you don't want to make anyone else sick, particularly Sarah, right?
How would you feel if either of those happened? Could you live with it? Could they?
We usually spend one day at Christmas with the in-laws, but this year, no way. I find it incredible that people want to mix, esp with a vaccine on the way.
I expect that meeting family at Christmas wouldn't be possible anyway (we're currently in Scottish tier 4, and there's a chance of going to tier 3 mid December ... but both tier 3 and 4 include ban on non-essential travel outside beyond the local area, so 350 miles drive to my mum isn't going to be possible). But, even if it was possible I'd be very careful what we do - in mid August I took the children down, but we only visited mum (so not my sister and her family who are near by) and we'd arranged that there would be a 2 week gap between any of us visiting (my sister was down a couple of weeks before us, my brother a couple of weeks later). But that was summer when transmission rate was lower, winter is a different circumstance (even if the rate of new cases was the same now as it was in August the risks would still be higher). I'm planning on a small Christmas with just my children here, I might push out the boat and see if my brother (lives alone and is local to me) wants to come over.
Hoping that we can manage a family get together at Easter, but not planning on that just yet ... we'll see how things go.
Christmas will be just me and my boyfriend, as will Thanksgiving. If I get lucky, sometime around Christmas I'll get a socially distanced visit for 45 minutes with my mom, supervised by an aide in the place she lives to make sure I don't hug her. But even that may not be possible - her community may close up again, as things are getting bad again.
Situation in England is a bit uncertain (no surprise there), but it looks as though tougher-than-before Tier restrictions will be applied when Lockdown the Second officially ends.
We await our Glorious Lord Protector's latest decree, to be promulgated (with accompanying fanfares, and troupes of dancing unicorns) later this week.
His *Fantasy Christmas*, where all loyal subjects gather together for festive family feasting, is, however, unlikely to be a reality for many. Not a few are feeling somewhat less than festive, having lost relations/friends to Ye Pestilence, and many more don't even have a family to feast with...
Indeed, and it affects all of Scotland as most families have people in different levels of lockdown. I am in the lightest level, which is nice, and there is half the country (the top half) that I can travel to, but I can no more go to the central belt than they are supposed to come to me.
Comments
Keep up the social disobedience, @NOprophet_NØprofit.
I'm glad none of us are ill but all feels like an unnecessary hassle. We'll do what we are required to but I'm still feeling pretty annoyed. Grrrr...
Meanwhile, I can't help wishing our lockdown was a bit stricter, or at least more strictly enforced. I mostly try to follow the rules, and keep my two year-old cooped up indoors like a caged lion as much as possible.
As far as it goes, I understand the necessity of that, but AFAICT I'm the only one. When we go to the playground for our one hour's permitted exercise, there are people who were there before us, and still there after us (so outside for far more than an hour). I suspect they were also there in the morning as well. Quite often they're not wearing a bloody mask either.
So I'm feeling like a right mug for being the only sucker who actually obeys the damn law. Which I'm getting extremely resentful about.
Stupid knows no bounds. We're screwed.
I speculate he's either dying of the virus, or dying because his orange guy Lost.
So DC isn't the only place where no governing is happening.
I’m struggling with resentment and anger too, @la vie en rouge, especially when it’s friends who are being selfish and stupid (though I bet they don’t see it that way). I’m really worrying about how and if I’m going to be able to have the same relationship with them once we’re through this 😢.
What really bothers me about it is that I have dinner at my sister's house every Friday. I will decline the Friday after Thanksgiving, and wait at least a week before resuming the custom, just in case she or my brother-in-law pick up something from it all.
The way it looks right now, I will be spending Thanksgiving alone. It won't be the first time, and I plan on making the best of it, but it's the safest course of action.
Miss Amanda, Lamb Chopped is right about the 14 days. I hope you can obtain some of your favourite goodies and some good books to maintain your solitary splendour -come on the Ship and post your wit if you get bored - stay safe.
Patyds - we haven't had any spread from the quarantine hotels here in Christchurch, but they have in Auckland. There's a false sense of security here. One woman saw me scanning in my QR code for track and trace and said, "I suppose I should be doing that - but it such a bother." I didn't reply - not as much bother as getting COVID in a country that only has 150 ventilators, but the temptation was high.
Thanksgiving would involve me, Sarah, her husband, and possibly her nephew and his girlfriend. David is the only one who works outside the home and he's a postal carrier in Seattle. We think it's worth the risk...except...I sometimes visit my idiot next door neighbor and her 24/7 drunk boyfriend. Neither of them wear a mask and I sometimes don't when I visit them. Neither of them ever go out, unless it's to a liquor store and then, by Washington state mandate, they have to wear masks.
I am just wondering if my Seattle friends are safe enough from ME.
Down around their chins, I'll bet you.
You like to play with fire, don't you?
IANAD, but it sounds unsafe all around. If you do decide to go, make sure you tell them ahead of time everything you just told us. They have a right to know.
Give both you and Sarah have compromised immune systems, sounds like getting together could be a recipe for disaster.
FWIW.
(And again thank you for the perspective I am incredibly privileged where I live currently).
Our lockdown was entirely due to one person who lied to our contact tracers.
We are aiming for zero community transmission and this individual said he bought a pizza from a shop with an infected staff member. It meant most of our city fell into the cluster of potential exposure and we wondered about a new strain with greater contact virulence.
What was not said was the fact they worked in the pizza shop with the infected person and had done so for some days prior...
We have an incredibly compliant community and largely are following the lock down rules.
And yet one numpty screws us all over.
I appreciate there was likely a fear response driving the lie - and yet it put us all at risk.
And worse, it makes repating harder - We have 8 medihotels for 2 weeks quarantine on OS arrival and all are no longer accepting OS people. And the community is asking for a hard border closure which is just stupidity.
Dam it all to hell.
And I am tired of dealing with the scared and dying* and the lack of contact or visitation by relatives.
Fuck it, people should be able to die well.
* normal deaths - we have had very limited Covid deaths to date.
And I am sick of going back to 1:2 Oncall because my colleagues are (appropriately) isolating themselves from potential exposure.
End of petulance.
"OS" = ?
Yes. Very.
Actually, no. At least my neighbor, Megan, when forced to wear a mask, wears it correctly. And bitches about it non-stop.
In an effort to encourage people to be kinder to those who are infected the Director General of Health here said that it the virus rather than the people that are problem - which I think is a bit simplistic - it's both. People panicking and lying about their contacts, or here) not making the effort to scan the QR codes that will record where they have been because they "got tired of doing it,"
.Y. .E. .S.
And yes from me!
Good to hear you have a little rant, @Patdys, it means I don’t feel so guilty about my big rants 😊!
"We think it's worth the risk" --keep in mind that what you-all are risking is not just COVID, but being stuck in a hallway or tent outside a hospital with inadequate treatment, suffering and death, because we are in a HUGE surge and the hospitals can't cope. Not enough room, not enough people, not enough stuff (like ventilators, masks, etc.)
Is that the way you want to die?
And do you want to do it in December? Because that's roughly when it would be...
This may help.
--Rachel Maddow is the host of a wildly popular MSNBC show that features news, analysis, and discussion. Someone close to her got very sick with Covid, and Rachel has put out a warning:
"Rachel Maddow's story about partner's bout with COVID-19 convinces people to cancel travel plans: 'Brought me to my senses'" (Yahoo).
(There's a video with the article, but I haven't watched it.)
--"Dr. Fauci: 'My Thanksgiving is going to look very different this year'" (CBS News).
--I've heard many news stories of people who didn't take Covid seriously at all, then got it. Some spoke out to warn others, and some died. Reportedly, some denied they had Covid right up until they died.
The5thMary, figure out the wisest thing, then do that. You don't want to get sick, especially with your health problems, right? And you don't want to make anyone else sick, particularly Sarah, right?
How would you feel if either of those happened? Could you live with it? Could they?
Hoping that we can manage a family get together at Easter, but not planning on that just yet ... we'll see how things go.
We await our Glorious Lord Protector's latest decree, to be promulgated (with accompanying fanfares, and troupes of dancing unicorns) later this week.
His *Fantasy Christmas*, where all loyal subjects gather together for festive family feasting, is, however, unlikely to be a reality for many. Not a few are feeling somewhat less than festive, having lost relations/friends to Ye Pestilence, and many more don't even have a family to feast with...
ABC's "America This Morning" is now reporting "one viral death almost every minute" in the US.
:votive:
Lock him up.
Arseholes, Trump supporters, that venn diagram may not be a circle but the intersection is pretty damn big.