OT: COVID-19 thread #4

[Dresden]

All three of my kids came down with fevers this past weekend. My wife and I were a little congested. We all had to get tested. My test just came back negative so I assume the rest of the family will too as I am the only one to have left the house in the past 10- 12 days, so you would think I was the carrier. Crazy how you can still get sick even when you are wearing a mask all the time and no one is going out.

True, although they say the number of cases of flu are expected to be way down this year because of mask wearing and other Covid measures. We probably ought to be wearing masks during flu season every year.

[jmajew]

All three of my kids came down with fevers this past weekend. My wife and I were a little congested. We all had to get tested. My test just came back negative so I assume the rest of the family will too as I am the only one to have left the house in the past 10- 12 days, so you would think I was the carrier. Crazy how you can still get sick even when you are wearing a mask all the time and no one is going out.

True, although they say the number of cases of flu are expected to be way down this year because of mask wearing and other Covid measures. We probably ought to be wearing masks during flu season every year.

Interestingly my wife’s test came back positive. Still waiting on kids results. She feels fine, but we did just notice she lost her sense of smell.

[dice]

All three of my kids came down with fevers this past weekend. My wife and I were a little congested. We all had to get tested. My test just came back negative so I assume the rest of the family will too as I am the only one to have left the house in the past 10- 12 days, so you would think I was the carrier. Crazy how you can still get sick even when you are wearing a mask all the time and no one is going out.

True, although they say the number of cases of flu are expected to be way down this year because of mask wearing and other Covid measures. We probably ought to be wearing masks during flu season every year.

i've discovered that a mask beats a scarf in the winter

[dice]

NYT reporting that trump admin. is now trying to decide how to try and convince people to get immunized. seems like that strategy should have been in the works for months now...

[jnrjr79]

Maybe this is part of the strategy, get covid on purpose before season, and get sort of immunity and anti bodies for approximatley 6 months, similar time table as end of regular season. I know some other bball teams in one league outside Nba did excatly that. For sure Vonleh,Sato,Dotson,Kornet are positive cases for now.

Whether it’s intentional or not they are all going to get it and it probably won’t take that long for it to happen. It’s basketball. There’s no bubble. They are young and wealthy. It’s going to tear through the league.

I've read the NBA estimates that over 40% of its players have had it already. We know for sure around 20% have been from the two times they did league wide testing (prebubble and preseason), and its fair to extrapolate how many others had it in the months in between is fairly significant too.

The league might have heard immunity by the all-star break.

Yep. Windhorst on The Jump in the past week or so said he's had sources opine that it's probably something like 40%.

It's going to be a slot for much of the season, I suspect, but yeah, between vaccinations and natural antibody herd immunity, you wonder if things aren't pretty well back to normal by March or April. Certainly by the playoffs.

[bentheredengthat]

After being exceptionally careful, doing zoom meetings all year with clients, my mom decided this is the holiday season to fly my oldest sister and her husband down to FL from the Detroit area. My sister's side of the family apparently doesn't believe in contraceptives, so she has somewhere approaching 20 grandkids (I've lost track lol).

So I was already trying to figure out how to deal with family get togethers with them around. My sister is a teacher in a private religious school.

Last night they decided they want to save money on rental car and the now the family has asked me to pick them up for an hour drive home from the airport.

Meanwhile my best friend and his wife and 2 kids have been preparing all year for a trip down here, they have been isolating, are driving down and staying at the beach safely isolated and we can hang out together mostly outside.

Now I have to figure out how to deal with my family's irresponsibility... I'm not even sure I can safely hang out with my friends while they are here... Last thing I need to do is be part of a vector from Detroit to Florida to my friends school in Iowa (she's a teacher too).

To me the whole episode is glaring example of one group of people carefully planning and openly discussing safe travel plans, and another group of people not even thinking, or asking, or discussing what their actions do to those around them.

[jmajew]

All three of my kids came down with fevers this past weekend. My wife and I were a little congested. We all had to get tested. My test just came back negative so I assume the rest of the family will too as I am the only one to have left the house in the past 10- 12 days, so you would think I was the carrier. Crazy how you can still get sick even when you are wearing a mask all the time and no one is going out.

True, although they say the number of cases of flu are expected to be way down this year because of mask wearing and other Covid measures. We probably ought to be wearing masks during flu season every year.

Interestingly my wife’s test came back positive. Still waiting on kids results. She feels fine, but we did just notice she lost her sense of smell.

All three of my kids tested positive to. So 4 out of 5 people in my house tested positive and I'm the only one leaving for work. Kids all feeling perfect now.

Crazy

[jStuNNa]

True, although they say the number of cases of flu are expected to be way down this year because of mask wearing and other Covid measures. We probably ought to be wearing masks during flu season every year.

Interestingly my wife’s test came back positive. Still waiting on kids results. She feels fine, but we did just notice she lost her sense of smell.

All three of my kids tested positive to. So 4 out of 5 people in my house tested positive and I'm the only one leaving for work. Kids all feeling perfect now.

Crazy

You probably had a false negative.

This has been the case at my job. We're mostly remote, but for the few who are required to be in the office, we require at least two negative tests to return to the office due to the chances of a false negative. We apply this to anyone who has been diagnosed, exposed (even possibly) or has had any symptoms that are covid-like, even if very mild.

[Ccwatercraft]

After being exceptionally careful, doing zoom meetings all year with clients, my mom decided this is the holiday season to fly my oldest sister and her husband down to FL from the Detroit area. My sister's side of the family apparently doesn't believe in contraceptives, so she has somewhere approaching 20 grandkids (I've lost track lol).

So I was already trying to figure out how to deal with family get togethers with them around. My sister is a teacher in a private religious school.

Last night they decided they want to save money on rental car and the now the family has asked me to pick them up for an hour drive home from the airport.

Meanwhile my best friend and his wife and 2 kids have been preparing all year for a trip down here, they have been isolating, are driving down and staying at the beach safely isolated and we can hang out together mostly outside.

Now I have to figure out how to deal with my family's irresponsibility... I'm not even sure I can safely hang out with my friends while they are here... Last thing I need to do is be part of a vector from Detroit to Florida to my friends school in Iowa (she's a teacher too).

To me the whole episode is glaring example of one group of people carefully planning and openly discussing safe travel plans, and another group of people not even thinking, or asking, or discussing what their actions do to those around them.

Sounds like you have some tough decisions to make. I personally wouldn't be all fired up about the Airport trip, ugh. Perhaps that is a good day to be "otherwise occupied" and let someone else be voluntold to go pick them up. With that said, I've already been informed and agreed that I'm the designated airport pickup for my kid flying in right before Christmas so I'm not exactly leading by example. I'm sure I've done much worse than that since this started so its nothing new.

When we had visitors from Illinois (and the state seems to be doing terrible with this) we nixed the thanksgiving visit and caught up with them over the weekend for some outdoor dining and a beach walk, it seemed safer for all parties.

[Ccwatercraft]

Interestingly my wife’s test came back positive. Still waiting on kids results. She feels fine, but we did just notice she lost her sense of smell.

All three of my kids tested positive to. So 4 out of 5 people in my house tested positive and I'm the only one leaving for work. Kids all feeling perfect now.

Crazy

You probably had a false negative.

This has been the case at my job. We're mostly remote, but for the few who are required to be in the office, we require at least two negative tests to return to the office due to the chances of a false negative. We apply this to anyone who has been diagnosed, exposed (even possibly) or has had any symptoms that are covid-like, even if very mild.

There is a tremendous amount of inconsistency, my spouses employer requires 2 negatives and 10 days but a friend of mine that works retail for a major company was exposed and one test 3 days later was good enough for them, it was a 3rd hand exposure in his case but the employer didn't really care if it was direct or indirect, one test and your good to go.

More inconsistence discovered when Christmas shopping, you can try on clothes at Bealls outlet, but dressing rooms are off limits at Bealls. Makes zero sense.

[Dresden]

It's tough when the exposure is second or third hand. I had an employee's wife test positive yesterday. Now I need to get him tested, as well as the rest of his crew. And we need to put those jobs on hold until we get the results back. Luckily, we can now get a company to come to the site to test, and results are available in 15 minutes. But it's tough to gauge how much exposure is meaningful. Was a carpenter who was on the job site, in the same room, for 10 minutes exposed? A lot of judgement calls are made.

[Dresden]

In Sweden, Infections and Calls for a Lockdown Are Rising

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/world/europe/sweden-coronavirus-restrictions.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

"...Infection numbers and deaths have been rising steadily since October. By Tuesday, Sweden had reached a total of 320,098 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, while its neighbor Finland, with a population about half of Sweden’s, has 31,110 cases, less than 10 percent of Sweden’s.

Sweden’s total death toll reached 7,667 as of Tuesday. The country now has 74 deaths per 100,000 cases, less than the United Kingdom, with 97, but far more than its neighbor Norway, with seven.
...

Some are upset that face masks aren’t used in Sweden.

“We are the only democracy in the world that does not recommend the use of face masks. There are more than 170 countries in the world that recommend using masks. But here they are saying there is not enough science behind that. That is nonsense,” said Mr. Elgh, the virology professor."

[Ccwatercraft]

In Sweden, Infections and Calls for a Lockdown Are Rising

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/world/europe/sweden-coronavirus-restrictions.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

"...Infection numbers and deaths have been rising steadily since October. By Tuesday, Sweden had reached a total of 320,098 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, while its neighbor Finland, with a population about half of Sweden’s, has 31,110 cases, less than 10 percent of Sweden’s.

Sweden’s total death toll reached 7,667 as of Tuesday. The country now has 74 deaths per 100,000 cases, less than the United Kingdom, with 97, but far more than its neighbor Norway, with seven.
...

Some are upset that face masks aren’t used in Sweden.

“We are the only democracy in the world that does not recommend the use of face masks. There are more than 170 countries in the world that recommend using masks. But here they are saying there is not enough science behind that. That is nonsense,” said Mr. Elgh, the virology professor."

Is there a logical explanation as to why Sweden is doing so much better than Illinois? (not to pick on the state but populations are similar and we are on a bulls board)

[Dresden]

In Sweden, Infections and Calls for a Lockdown Are Rising

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/world/europe/sweden-coronavirus-restrictions.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

"...Infection numbers and deaths have been rising steadily since October. By Tuesday, Sweden had reached a total of 320,098 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, while its neighbor Finland, with a population about half of Sweden’s, has 31,110 cases, less than 10 percent of Sweden’s.

Sweden’s total death toll reached 7,667 as of Tuesday. The country now has 74 deaths per 100,000 cases, less than the United Kingdom, with 97, but far more than its neighbor Norway, with seven.
...

Some are upset that face masks aren’t used in Sweden.

“We are the only democracy in the world that does not recommend the use of face masks. There are more than 170 countries in the world that recommend using masks. But here they are saying there is not enough science behind that. That is nonsense,” said Mr. Elgh, the virology professor."

Is there a logical explanation as to why Sweden is doing so much better than Illinois? (not to pick on the state but populations are similar and we are on a bulls board)

Not sure, but it might have to do economic/ethnic factors. Minority communities have been hit much harder in general than white communities, and Sweden is much whiter than IL is I'm guessing. Standard of living is also higher, with much less economic disparity, and it's also known that poorer communities are hit harder than wealthier ones (because of housing density, and the kind of work poorer people do).

[jmajew]

All three of my kids tested positive to. So 4 out of 5 people in my house tested positive and I'm the only one leaving for work. Kids all feeling perfect now.

Crazy

You probably had a false negative.

This has been the case at my job. We're mostly remote, but for the few who are required to be in the office, we require at least two negative tests to return to the office due to the chances of a false negative. We apply this to anyone who has been diagnosed, exposed (even possibly) or has had any symptoms that are covid-like, even if very mild.

There is a tremendous amount of inconsistency, my spouses employer requires 2 negatives and 10 days but a friend of mine that works retail for a major company was exposed and one test 3 days later was good enough for them, it was a 3rd hand exposure in his case but the employer didn't really care if it was direct or indirect, one test and your good to go.

More inconsistence discovered when Christmas shopping, you can try on clothes at Bealls outlet, but dressing rooms are off limits at Bealls. Makes zero sense.

I actually tested negative twice. Which makes my case even odder. The CDC recommends that you can come to work 7 days after exposure with a negative day taken 5 days after exposure or after 10 days with no symptoms. The CDC also says you can come back to work after 10 days, after a positive test, if you have been fever free for more than 24 hours and all your other symptoms are improving.

[jStuNNa]

You probably had a false negative.

This has been the case at my job. We're mostly remote, but for the few who are required to be in the office, we require at least two negative tests to return to the office due to the chances of a false negative. We apply this to anyone who has been diagnosed, exposed (even possibly) or has had any symptoms that are covid-like, even if very mild.

There is a tremendous amount of inconsistency, my spouses employer requires 2 negatives and 10 days but a friend of mine that works retail for a major company was exposed and one test 3 days later was good enough for them, it was a 3rd hand exposure in his case but the employer didn't really care if it was direct or indirect, one test and your good to go.

More inconsistence discovered when Christmas shopping, you can try on clothes at Bealls outlet, but dressing rooms are off limits at Bealls. Makes zero sense.

I actually tested negative twice. Which makes my case even odder. The CDC recommends that you can come to work 7 days after exposure with a negative day taken 5 days after exposure or after 10 days with no symptoms. The CDC also says you can come back to work after 10 days, after a positive test, if you have been fever free for more than 24 hours and all your other symptoms are improving.

That is odd! But a co-worker's son tested positive, and they live in a small apartment together, and she never got it either (tested negative twice as well). There is some research into T cells and some part of the population being naturally immune. Or it was just pure luck you didn't contract it.

In any event, I'm glad you avoided it and hope your family is feeling better!

[Chi town]

It's tough when the exposure is second or third hand. I had an employee's wife test positive yesterday. Now I need to get him tested, as well as the rest of his crew. And we need to put those jobs on hold until we get the results back. Luckily, we can now get a company to come to the site to test, and results are available in 15 minutes. But it's tough to gauge how much exposure is meaningful. Was a carpenter who was on the job site, in the same room, for 10 minutes exposed? A lot of judgement calls are made.

Yep. Its super tough to know how safe is safe. No exact science to it either.

[step]

Is there a logical explanation as to why Sweden is doing so much better than Illinois? (not to pick on the state but populations are similar and we are on a bulls board)

What's terrible is in one context here I am thinking how terrible Sweden has handled things in comparison to their neighbouring countries, yet it's better than Illinois.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-expects-immunized-100-million-143335710.html

U.S. expects to have immunized 100 million against COVID-19 by end of March -Slaoui

"...The United States expects to have immunized 100 million people with the coronavirus vaccine by the end of March, the chief adviser for the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program said on Sunday.

...

For the United States to get "herd immunity," which would halt transmission of the deadly virus, the country would need to have immunized about 75% or 80% of the population, he said, adding that he hoped to reach that point between May and June."

So what's the plan for the conspiracy theorists, hippies, people screaming that their rights are being infringed now... the likely ones who won't take the vaccine? I feel the percentage they represent is far higher than 20/25%... basing this on how many people voted for Trump.

[step]

I also am wondering if we will see a John Oliver video on COVID19 safety precautions and the amount of people that think Australia is a made up country?

[logical_art]

Not clear to me why there's such renewed panic when excess deaths are below summer levels.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm