I was at the grocery store today and only 3 people had a mask on out of 100+ :agony-minion:
Masks are literally the most minor inconvenience I can think of, fucking hell people are so dumb
Its getting really bad and literally no one cares I feel like I'm going crazy
I know its obvious, but I need to day it anyway. It's not just you and I feel the same
Same, I had very few friends before COVID to begin with, and I've basically drifted apart from them over the last couple years because their tolerance level to do risky/superspreader-y stuff is much higher than mine (i.e. I don't touch that shit at all). Pretty sure I got phased out of all of their plans (even the less risky get-togethers that I would actually be willing to do) on account of always expressing my aversion to such things.
Such a shitty time to have effectively zero friends :sadness:. At least I still have my family though, and they take this shit seriously like me.
Anyone else in a similar boat with their social life? Trying to figure out the best way to meet people. I'm honestly thinking I should just join a leftist org since I feel like the proportion of leftists who actually still give a shit about the pandemic is probably significantly higher than the average population (just a guess though), and I'd also feel much better about myself by helping those who are downtrodden in this capitalistic hellhole.
I'd like to have friends who at least understand where I'm coming from when I turn down certain events and don't phase me out of all of their future plans.
I'm in a similar boat, but I'm lucky enough that my core group of friends is willing to keep doing stuff online in addition to going to insane superspreader events without me. Don't have any advice, but you're not alone. :meow-hug:
If you ever want to like, watch a movie online or something together, I'm down! I don't really go out a ton or do stuff that isnt band related, and I've definitely been on the "hm yes I should probably get better about seeing people" train myself.
Thanks, I appreciate the invite, might take you up on it at some point. Does this site have, or did it used to have watch parties before or something similar? I could have sworn I saw something like that once, but maybe I'm just making shit up, lol
Oh yeah, there are scheduled movies every weekend. Unfortunately never at a convenient time for me, but they most definitely happen!
I'm in the same place. Last summer, everyone I knew was a little more tolerant of my desire to stay masked and not do risky events, even though they didn't understand it. But this summer they're getting more and more restless about trying to force me to these risky events and stuff. Yeah, definitely feel like I have no friends rn, or at least no friends who respect my desire to stay safe during a pandemic.
Sorry to hear that you're going through something similar :meow-hug:
If you ever want to commiserate together in a world that has lost its fucking mind, my DMs are always open.
You might want to keep an eye on this site, it's very new but has been growing pretty consistently. It's for meeting people who take covid seriously, by choice or by necessity. I'm in pretty much the same boat as you: no in-person friends anymore, I simply can't risk it with long covid. It's awful.
I’m having daily fucking breakdowns it feels like I’m living in a different world from the people around me
In 5 years you'll be flying high winning at life because you won't have Long Covid Brain.
I can't wait to stand in the ruins of the old world, soil completely degraded to the point it won't grow anything, all water sources polluting, wildfires choke the air, our fascist government starting nuclear war China, bodies piling up in the street and my neighbors unable to tie their shoes from contracting covid like 50 times at that point, and say "ha, told you guys you should've worn a mask"
Oh yeah for sure it'll be the thing that unironically comforts you as you rock back and forth in your dugout
Going from a metric that was useful (transmission levels) to one that isn't for the average American (community levels aka hospital beds) wasn't enough for the CDC. They fubar'ed their own map so red will never appear. They made orange the strongest color. Orange used to sanely represent "substantial".
What's the COVID risk in your area? CDC maps leave some people confused | NPR
March 12, 2022
mayos and only caring about what color something is
more iconic duo? 404
Wonder where those new variant specific vaccines are at
Probably stuck on a Tesla semi
Yeah didn't they say they had an omicron specific vaccine like just a few weeks after omicron started popping off?
They had them, but those first attempts were no more effective at preventing Omicron infection than what we already had. Real Omicron infection protection won't be available until the fall
Moderna's Omicron vaccine is available this fall , Pfizer's first Omicron attempt was in ineffective but they're trying again, also aiming for fall availability
I'm sure everyone's willing to get another Fauci ouchi and I'm sure it'll be available worldwide before another resistant variant takes off.
I haven’t been wearing a mask because what’s the point?
Doing the bare minimum to prevent getting and spreading it.
Me wearing a mask in a crowd of dozens, much less hundreds, is going to do literally fuck all.
No, it will do the bare minimum.
except in that case the vaccine would still at least make a difference for me.
So does wearing a mask. And if you do get it (whether symptomatic or not) the mask also helps prevent you from giving to other people. You know, possibly killing someone because you couldn't handle a minor inconvenience.
The point is to stack as many measures as you can, the vaccine was never enough.
Love my P100. It really is comfy. Anxiously awaiting consumer versions that look less insane. Every newer sleeker model I've seen so far completely omits the exhale valve to comply with healthcare or (now defunct) airline standards, making you produce a personal puddle in the mask after only a brief period of wear.
Is there even the faintest of hope that this pandemic could end within, say, the next few years? Cuz obviously this laissez-faire handling of the pandemic isn't going to make it go away, likely not for decades. And that's without even mentioning that variants could get even more contagious or virulent, both of which have already happened before. :doomer:
I thought I heard once that the Army was working on a vaccine (sounds super sketch admittedly lol) that would be able to handle any COVID variant. Have not heard anything in months about that though, which makes me think it was bullshit. And then I recently saw something about how some country wants to pivot to a vaccine that stops spread. But I always get super skeptical about things like that cuz they just sound like silver bullets to me.
They've been telling us it's going to be just like the flu because it's not going away. It's too infectious and is mutating too fast due to how many people it's infecting. They're hoping reinfections will be more mild as our bodies learn to fight it, so we won't have waves of hospitals getting overrun, but that's not panning out. The whole world needed zero covid measures and a worldwide vaccination program with the mrna vaccines tuned to new mutations, but thanks to capitalist greed, we get neither. If you're up to date on vaccinations and take precautions in public areas, you've substantially lowered your risk of getting a severe case and any long term complications from it if you get a breakthrough infection.
But, uh, there is a shit ton of people getting long covid, sometimes those are minor symptoms, sometimes they are life altering. I don't think any good will come from what's looking like repeated infections for the rest of our lives.
Not a virologist, obviously, but I don't see a path for COVID itself to spontaneously stop spreading or become cold-like. It would need to get stuck in an evolutionary trough of causing far more mild disease, while also providing lasting immunity after infection that is effective against variants, and so far it's doing the opposite of both those things.
Here's what I'm thinking so far about the future. Paxlovid works really well. Maybe once it gets real bad (most people on infection #15 or so, and thus most people now at non-negligible risk of death upon infection thanks to covid-caused conditions) everyone who can afford it will be on paxlovid most of the time. Of course, there is a concern then about the evolutionary pressure on covid to escape antivirals. There's also nasal vaccines that boost antibodies locally to prevent spread, but I saw something about them causing anosmia in trials, so might not pan out. There's also some nasal rinses that may prevent infection. Upgrading ventilation will cut indoor cases by maybe ~80% once people finally start demanding it, and there's some UV light stuff that may help indoors as well (don't know as much about that though).
A vaccine that stops transmission would be a blessing, but I'm not sure if that's even possible for covid. IIRC it isn't possible for all diseases. Personally, since I already have long covid, I am hoping to eventually live in a small community that is insular and committed to local zero-covid. I have seen multiple people float this idea already online - someone has got to start it eventually, and when they do, I'm there.
Very informative post, thank you for putting all of that together!
Upgrading ventilation will cut indoor cases by maybe ~80% once people finally start demanding it, and there’s some UV light stuff that may help indoors as well (don’t know as much about that though).
It feels like the ventilation and UV stuff (both of which I've heard brought up before) should be no-brainers, but I'm honestly not confident it will happen broadly since, as the US's shitty infrastructure indicates, upgrading and equipping buildings with things costs money and there's no profit to be made. I'd love to be wrong, though.
Personally, since I already have long covid, I am hoping to eventually live in a small community that is insular and committed to local zero-covid. I have seen multiple people float this idea already online - someone has got to start it eventually, and when they do, I’m there
I'm so sorry you are dealing with long COVID. :meow-hug: I hope as more time has passed from infection that you've been able to recover at least partially from your symptoms. As for the zero-covid community, seems like a good idea as this pandemic lingers on, just tell me where to sign up when it happens and I'm there!
I agree with you on the ventilation. Honestly, at this point, I'm not confident this country could successfully initiate a nationwide campaign to upgrade infrastructure like that if it tried. What I do expect to see is private businesses taking the initiative to suppress indoor transmission, to reduce frequency of illness among employees (it can't all be suppressed by refusing sick days as some covid infections are just too brutal to work through, and visibly sick service workers can be upsetting to customers) and to advertise to people who would otherwise be reluctant to consume due to having some level of anxiety about covid (this population I expect to gradually and surreptitiously increase as direct health consequences of infection reverberate among social circles). The inequity of the pandemic will continue with richer schools and fancier offices getting better ventilation, UV lights, and other gadgets - a trend we're already seeing.
Thank you for the condolences. I am thankfully doing a lot better than I was two years ago, though definitely not the same as before my infection. I hope you make it through this as healthy as possible :meow-hug:
I got boosted on Monday because people at work traveled out of the country. Airports are obviously thunderdomes for the immune system. So Friday, naturally, I started showing symptoms. Sore throat which went away but turned into a burning cough and chest/nasal congestion yesterday. Today is more of the same. Low-grade fever Saturday night but normal temps since. If this is as worse as it gets, it's a lot better than the last time I had it. I took two home test and they were negative, so I assume this is BA2.1 or whatever the fuck it is now.
Get boosted folks.
Airports are obviously thunderdomes for the immune system.
I had to fly for work last year, and even being vaccinated, I got sicker than I had been in years. I had to conduct interviews with hundreds of people for my job. They weren't job interviews either. They were statistical interviews with random pedestrians. Shit sucked. I wore and sunglasses but it didn't matter. Still got sick. Been thinking about visiting my extended family. Might drive instead of fly.
My partner got corona last week and tested positive on our home antigen tests twice. Fast forward to today and I feel pretty shitty, but I'm still testing negative all this time. Don't really know what to make of it. I assume I have corona, but why wouldn't it appear on 3 tests?
Try swabbing your throat , that's where the newer variants concentrate.
Thanks comrade! That was it, now it's coming back positive. Only a minute of dry gagging for this result :sicko-yes:
From the loved one of an immunocompromised, I wish you and your family a very happy choke to death.
