My easily WfH job has been getting more threatening about going into the office for a majority of the week. There had been some nudges previously, but most everyone had been ignoring it. Recently they announced a new policy that seemed more likely to have teeth to it.

So I started going into the office a few days a week, but just for about half the workday. My boss indicated this was fine. It seems like the point of the policy is to justify keeping the offices open or some other nonsense via forcing everyone to go in more often.

So this Friday, I went in for one of my obligatory days. There was only 4-5 people in the office, and only one coworker that sits adjacent to me. Everyone left by about 4pm, except my adjacent coworker. As I was preparing to leave after 5pm, went to use the bathroom before catching the bus home. When I came back to my desk, my coworker was completely asleep in their chair. I decided to not wake them since no one was around, and they had their middle school kid playing minecraft at one of the empty cubes nearby. My internal debate settled on just letting them get a nap if they needed it, since no one was around to get them in trouble over it.

Caught the bus home, and brought my n95 mask (that I had not worn at work), and wore it the entire long packed bus ride home. Had to walk about a mile from the bus stop to get home. I started to feel pretty exhausted from the day, and took about an hour long nap early Friday evening. Had a nice relaxed evening at home.

Saturday I felt pretty fine, went on a bike ride and short hike. But now, Sunday morning, I got an email from work saying my adjacent coworker has COVID. They started feeling tired Friday morning, and they were completely exhausted by the end of the day. So my sleeping coworker was coming down with the plague. Now I'm pretty worried I probably got it. I'm not feeling bad yet, but I'm very anxious about it. I don't want to spread it to partner or anyone else.

If I catch it, it will be the second time that I know of. I'm really hating this BS, and it's a real reminder that all this forcing things back to normal is totally insane.

Really hoping I got miraculously lucky and don't get it, but also feeling extra :doomer: as well. The at-home tests I have expired like 9 months ago.

Anyone know decent info on how likely I am to have been exposed? I don't recall my coworker coughing or sneezing at all if that means anything.

Taking some vitamins and supplements already, and waiting to see if any symptoms arise today.

Thanks for reading about my corner of :amerikkka: :agony-deep: .

  • MF_BROOM [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The number of times you are infected, and how frequently you are infected, impact your chances of severe health outcome.

    Yup, I believe this is the study you're referring to : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3/figures/5

    • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
      ·
      2 years ago

      That's one of them!

      There are a host of studies out there pointing in this general direction, and it makes sense as a null hypothesis that a disease that has a relatively high chance of severe outcomes will translate into a more severe outcomes with more frequent infection so long as immunity wanes on a timescale that keeps infection levels high (exactly our situation). Throw some other facts on top and it makes sense to continue avoiding infection with the few, individualistic tools left to us by capital. Some of those facts:

      • Higher viral load correlates with worse outcomes.

      • The virus gets into nervous tissue and can hang out for a long time.

      • It seems to fuck with T cells for a long time - months at minimum. Not for every person, but wouldn't want to kedp rolling the dice every 4-6 months.

      • Protections conferred by immunity are waning - vaccine or post-infection.

      • MF_BROOM [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Hmm sounds like some serious shit, almost like we shouldn't be minimizing COVID--in a COVID-conscious community, no less--by saying unhelpful shit like "we're all gonna get it eventually".

        • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yes, I agree.

          The ease with which Western leftists have adopted the liberal status quo on this is worth analyzing. It's something of a structure test that we have all collectively failed. The extent to which we can (1) reject the liberal status quo and (2) do it in unison is absolutely essential to having any sort of long-term success. We can't even get communists to wear masks indoors with one another during a global pandemic because liberals normalized taking them off. Can't even make our spaces accessible to disabled or immune compromised folks because Brandon said, "pandemic is over" and we are just falling in line.

          Basically... we shouldn't underestimate the power of soft peer pressure in our own organizations. Both in handling external sources of it and in crafting our own.