Coronavirus

[Radbird]

I’ve gone from knowing only a few people with COVID to seemingly everyone I know testing positive. Our daughter’s school is ravaged by it, as well as the school Mrs Rad volunteers at, our church, our neighbors, many of our friends and both of our extended families.

Both of the kid’s roommates tested positive but she is still expected to report to work because she is still rapid testing negative where a year ago she would’ve had to quarantine. It’s placing massive stress & anxiety on her because she is living with 2 active cases and worried about possibly infecting her students and coworkers. The school did pool PCR testing yesterday and she’s waiting on those results. At this point she says her life would be easier if she just tested positive.

I guess if you’re going to eventually get it, catch it while omicron is raging with its milder symptoms. Who knows what characteristics future variants will have.

[heyzeus]

My firm’s receptionist has been on a ventilator for a week now. She’s about my age or younger (let’s say, 40). I learned today she’s unvaccinated. She was afraid to get it. She’s a good person and a valued part of our firm and we’re all trying to find hopeful signs.

[IMADreamer]

The entire staff at my wife's job has covid, including my wife. She has a small fever and that's it though. Apparently one of the dumbasses she works with came to work sick, didn't bother to tell anyone, used like half the workout equipment, several items in the kitchen, etc. This is the first time I've ever seen my wife really pissed. Who knows how many of the customers, most whom are elderly, got it. Even though we are vaccinated we are staying away from each other. She's staying upstairs and I'm staying downstairs. The health department says we are good to "live" together again Saturday. I figure if I'm getting it I should already have it considering we spent the whole weekend together and have slept in the same bed until tonight. What a freaking mess.

[heyzeus]

The entire staff at my wife's job has covid, including my wife. She has a small fever and that's it though. Apparently one of the dumbasses she works with came to work sick, didn't bother to tell anyone, used like half the workout equipment, several items in the kitchen, etc. This is the first time I've ever seen my wife really pissed. Who knows how many of the customers, most whom are elderly, got it. Even though we are vaccinated we are staying away from each other. She's staying upstairs and I'm staying downstairs. The health department says we are good to "live" together again Saturday. I figure if I'm getting it I should already have it considering we spent the whole weekend together and have slept in the same bed until tonight. What a freaking mess.

My son had it the week before Christmas; it was a mild cold for him. We are all vaccinated. None of the rest of us ended up getting it (at least according to our at home rapid tests) despite pretty much living in the same space 24/7. Ironically, a few days later, the same thing happened to my brother's family in Houston (one kid got it, but nobody else in their family did. And the kid only had mild cold symptoms for a few days)

The vaccines are not foolproof, but they absolutely work.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Nate Silver predicted exactly one (1) election and has just been spewing nonsense since:

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Nate Silver predicted exactly one (1) election and has just been spewing nonsense since:

I don't understand his point.

Who thinks school closures are meaningful as the invasion of iraq and why does this non-sensical comparison mean further reflection is warranted? 1. There's plenty of 'reflection' and 2. .... wtf?

Maybe I'm a simpleton but his tweet makes no sense.

[MrCrowesGarden]

You didn't get anything wrong, he quite literally thinks the Iraq invasion and remote learning are on par. Like, I get that remote learning sucks for many valid reasons, but these two things aren't close.

[heyzeus]

Even if you are only considering US interests in that calculation of the cost of the Iraq war (money spent, loss of only U.S. lives, effect on political conditions for the U.S.) that is an insane comparison. And to be clear, I'm sure Silver is not considering the insanely worse costs of the war for Iraqi civilians.

[G. Keenan]

Not to get too far off track for the theme here -- but are we still believing that pollsters like Silver know what they are doing? I'm pretty sure at this point that Nate Silver is snorting his own product a bit too much. How many cycles do we need to observe these pollsters getting it quite badly wrong before we ask if the whole industry's model is broken? And I'm not just talking about elections, but also issue polling. I'm convinced that issue polling is even less accurate than elections polling.

[ghostrunner]

I haven't found the source on this data (ACGIH - American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists apparently) but re: our earlier mask discussion. Interesting note at the bottom on the even longer times for tightly sealed N95s, which means this estimates 25 hours for 2 people wearing them with a more typical fit.

I've gone back to masking more regularly, and ordered some of these N95s which I've seen highly recommended for effectiveness and comfort. Also supposed to not fog up your glasses. Hospitals are in a bad way here. Don't know if it helps but it doesn't bother me.