Coronavirus

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

One thing I still find extremely frustrating is the complete dearth of testing. Not just diagnostic testing but also antigen testing.

I don't know about everywhere else, but a couple weeks ago when all this started coming out, they did screening before giving a test for the virus. That screening was as follows: 3 questions:
1. Do you have a fever and cough?
2. Have you been exposed to anyone with the virus?
3. Have you traveled to Wuhan, China or anywhere with an outbreak?

Back then, there weren't all that many known outbreaks in the USA despite there being many outbreaks in the USA. Regardless, you had to answer yes to both parts of 1 and yes to 2 or 3 to get tested.

So, I say that to say this. My wife's friend visited the weekend after Mardi Gras. She lives in Baton Rouge. She did not go to NOLA for Mardis Gras, but undoubtedly tons of people from Baton Rouge did. She also, despite not going to NOLA, did go to Seattle a couple weeks previously. So, she had been to Washington and she lives in LA. She's now volunteering to help FEMA and has moved to NOLA, not that its relevant just an aside.

Was it wise for her to come here? Well, obviously not, but [expletive] at that time we didn't know that. Neither LA nor AR had a confirmed case. She wasn't sick. My daughter had a fever and a cough, but AR didn't have a confirmed case and she always has a fever, seemingly.

Fast forward a couple weeks to mid March. [expletive] starts to hit the fan. LA and AR now both have confirmed cases. The world is panicking. My wife has a cough to beat hell and I've got a chest that's tighter than a witch's butthole. Neither one of us have fevers above 100 though. Every now and then I can get the forehead reader to get up to 99.6 which is odd because typically it reads 97.5-98.0 for me.

Remember the screening questions. Never does it ask if someone has visited from an area with an outbreak which is a pretty big loophole. What if I hosted a party for everyone that had visited Wuhan, China in the past month but never left the confines of my property? Am I not at risk? **shrugs** Guess not. My wife never got tested despite having a cough because she didn't have a fever and hadn't been to China or anywhere with an outbreak despite her raising concerns that she was seeing patients and could have come into contact with someone who had. Guess she wasn't at risk, either.

In the end, we didn't get tested though we wanted to due to a lack of test/tight screening/incompetency by the U S of A. And, that's not to say we did or even likely had it, just that it would have been nice to get tested. It's more likely we caught whatever our daughter had.

Now that we undoubtedly don't have it, it would be nice to know if we did though so we could donate plasma, but I'm not holding my breath for that either.

[mikechamp]

Although there are some good tips in this article, there's also some much-needed humor.

'The phone slipped into the bath': Conference call tales

Teleconferencing apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet are reporting dramatic user increases. For many of us, this means getting to grips with a whole new way of working.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52032849

[Radbird]

I’m not doing all that great. I hesitate discussing it because we are in good shape so far. Also because it comes across as being self-centered (which it is...)

This is my first year of retirement and we had big plans. A couple trips overseas, some road trips including a baseball weekend in STL. But that’s all on hold, likely postponed until 2021. So I’m bummed, not staying active and becoming a big tub of goo from sitting around all day. There are plenty of outdoor projects to focus on once the weather improves and that should help me get my act together.

We are doing what we need to do - staying at home since we’re in our 60s. I did go out for groceries today during “senior hours” from 6-7AM which was great because the store was basically empty. But then the kid called and chewed me out for leaving the house

[Freed Roger]

Thanks for saying what many of us are thinking Rad.

It is a sense of loss. Definitely some stages of Grief going on with me. My grandkid stuck in NICU has made it worse. I feel bad not so much for me -hell I am exercising being outside more than I ever would this time of year. - but I feel bad for a lot of people in my life - and this is even without anyone sick

Mrs Freed was in between career jobs, about to get a new one likely when this hit. She is putting herself more in the mix for getting it as night shift manager at Lowes. She is incredible person - and her co-employees also all at the low end of the pay scale - count on her/ respect her

My kids and grandkid will likely have more pollution, less equality, less freedom, opportunity than I have/had. This isn't nature's way -which is depressing

[Jocephus]

[sparks]

I work at an "essential" plant that is having an shutdown that started last night. The plant has about 650 employees and have brought in about 600 - 700 supplemental employees. A lot of these supplemental employees have just left another plant that just finished their shutdown. The company has brought in extra contractors to continously wipe things down (hand rails, door handles, phones etc.). They have medical professionals staffed around the clock to do pre-access checks on everybody that comes through the gate. They have sent people home for a minimum of 14 days if they have family members with unconfirmed symptoms. So on one hand they are doing everything that they shouldn't be doing with regards to social distancing and on the other hand having a presence performing preventative measures with cleaning and isolating potential carriers. I am "lucky" to be isolated in an office with 11 other people and have people sitting about 5 feet from me on both sides.

All that being said I am pretty anxious about the situation to say the least. I am not over 60 but the fatality reports seem to be getting closer to my age. The area I live in is far from being a hot spot but my perspective is that it is a disaster waiting to happen. Nobody has had a Covid test that I am aware of. The Gen Xers and Millennials seem to be handling it like it is no big deal. Their attitude is, without a doubt, elevating my anxiousness.

They told us yesterday that there are 2 unconfirmed cases reported on site and one of the people had been in my office area. Today they told us one of them was confirmed and if you had been in "close contact" with the individual then Occupational Health Services would have already notified you. I knew it would show up and am not the least bit surprised how soon.

[heyzeus]

I just want to say that I care about you guys, I feel what you're feeling, and I hope we all do as well as possible. If you feel like you're going insane, send me a pm and let's chat. I think it helps. In the meantime, let's just do what we have to do (which is hard!) staying home as much as possible, and we'll see this thing through.

[ghostrunner]

It would suck but is there any discussion of working in protective suits in these kinds of places?

[tlombard]

We've had one confirmed case here in St. Louis at my company but the person works in a different building than me and also hadn't been physically in the building for work since the last day of February and didn't show any symptoms or test positive until after March 15 so I'm definitely OK as far as that person is concerned and most likely all of my coworkers in that building.

[mikechamp]

I just want to say that I care about you guys, I feel what you're feeling, and I hope we all do as well as possible. If you feel like you're going insane, send me a pm and let's chat. I think it helps. In the meantime, let's just do what we have to do (which is hard!) staying home as much as possible, and we'll see this thing through.

You heard the man! Free legal advice!! Amirite?



No, in all seriousness, this is a cool thing to do, heyzeus. Hat tip to you!