I really needed to read that to know that not everyone sucks.
MIL just told me about her best friend’s grandchild getting on a plane to Italy for a (private) school trip on the day after parents and sibling tested positive. Deliberately didn’t test so that “nobody would have to lie.”
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There are very few people I trust in this world, society in general is not on the list.
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Lolla, I presume.
That was a good call, even without the potential exposure.
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Agreed.
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Do Italian authorities not even ask if anyone in your vicinity has recently had COVID when you enter the country?
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totally. and although i think i haven’t gotten it, there’s always asymptomatic cases. it’s possible ive had it and passed it on, which is a humbling thought to say the least
the flip side of this are people like my family who have long since reduced illness to a matter of righteousness - monkey pox even more so, already being weaponized on the right as a non-white disease, or a disease of morals. they have steadfastly refused to get vaccinated because they are “good people” who “eat well” and “take care of themselves”
i don’t know if this is some cultural thing unique to the usa ( see also: american “exceptionalism” ) - or something everyone has a tendency towards
it sucks. getting vaccinated is a choice, getting infected is not
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Needs a “maybe/unsure” response.
For a long while, especially early on getting tested was very difficult and at times outright refused unless you were, say being admitted. Antibody testing was also shown to be pretty much worthless as well. It’s very likely some of us had COVID but couldn’t empirically prove it because of lack of access to testing.
Since testing and vaccines have become widely available I’ve tested negative on many occasions but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have it in the past and just couldn’t prove it.
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Yeah, but I think it was only because of BTS’s J-Hope closing the show.
Her and I have a lot in common in music taste but she’s on her own with the K Pop, country, and a lot of other stuff.
We’ve done Queen, Meatloaf, Styx, Neil Diamond, and everything else from that era, the sympothony, all kinds of musicals but she loses me on the new stuff.
But I still love her because family.
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Knock on wood that it’s the same for me. When COVID was first declared a pandemic I had what felt like an awful cold that lasted for weeks. It might have been COVID, might not - but the timing was suspicious. Mrs. Ficus may have caught COVID early on too but couldn’t get tested for over a month because we were an early epicenter and tests were heavily rationed (if you weren’t being admitted you were basically told to fuck off). If she got it, it’s probably a given I got it too. But since tests were so hard to come by, who knows?
Since then I’ve done a little traveling, gone to a bunch of live concerts, and forced to return to the office at least a few times a week. I’m always masked (KN-95 or N95) and practicing diligent hand washing. Since March of 2020, I’ve had a couple minor scares but it’s nothing I could say I was just more generic upper/lower respiratory funk, seasonal allergies, or something else. I’m well stocked with in-home tests now and test regularly, but nothing has popped yet. I hope it stays that way.
Being infected does not have to be inevitable and I wish people would stop spouting this defeatist bullshit. It’s only inevitable if you do nothing and unfortunately many people have gone this route. Whenever I go out these days, almost nobody is masked, nobody respects personal space by maintaining a reasonable distance, and people will happily sneeze or cough into their hands before touching things just like it was 2019 all over again. I get that COVID fatigue is real, but it’s so easy to take simple precautions that don’t infringe upon your ability to do things, but so many people simply can’t be bothered to do this.
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I would strongly encourage everyone to keep taking simple precautions. But there’s also a ton of evidence that “simple precautions that don’t infringe on your ability to do things” (and by “things” I mean stuff such as travel, socializing with friends at a party or BBQ, or eating at a restaurant) are definitely not enough to guarantee that you won’t get it.
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The results of the poll so far are encouraging. Articles like this one from the Washington Post (gifted) make me feel like a total outlier.
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One of the most disconcerting things for me is that I will simply never know if I had an asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic case of COVID-19 at some point. I have had numerous colds and throat infections over the last 2.5 years, and testing was not widely available during that first year.
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But probably also inaccurate, since so many people are unaware if they’ve been infected. Way back in April, before the latest variants were out there, the CDC estimated that 60% of Americans had already had an infection. The number is no doubt much higher now. The folks on the BBS may be more careful than average but I doubt their infection rate is that much lower.
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At least twice over here. Kids in day care – even though both of us were able to work remotely throughout most of the pandemic, working at all would not have been possible with the kiddos in the house. Day care was definitely where all our risk budget went and, well… paid dividends, I guess?
Both cases were pretty atypical for me – no lower respiratory symptoms, no taste or smell changes, etc. – second time was more like norovirus than anything else – though both times it was pretty awful. I’m the only one in the house who has ever tested positive but we’ve definitely all had it (spouse is still regaining her sense of smell after 2+ years).
Only reason I ever got tested either time – since neither time really presented as COVID-like – is that I’m in a vaccine study and every time I get any cold symptom I have to go in for a PCR test. Course once Spouse stopped being able to smell during the first bout, the jig would have been up anyway…
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Yup, including at two different doctor’s offices I’ve visited recently.
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Double vaxxed. Single boosted. Got it 2 weeks ago. Started with a little cough and then a burning sore throat for 2 days with a low fever and dizziness. Finally got a negative test after about 8 days. But still have tiny bit of chest congestion and occasional cough, but overall feel fine. All that time I never lost my taste or smell at all. I’m guessing the vaccine worked cuz it wasn’t worse, but it still felt like I got the flu. No fun.
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That seems optimistic (that BA variant vaccines will be available by the fall). We’re still waiting on an omicron vaccine 6 months after that hit. Maybe I’m just too impatient and this is just how long it takes but dangit I wish they could find a way to roll these things out faster. I’d gladly join some vaccine trials if they’d let me get that stuff sooner. And like how they only just recently let kids under 5 get the regular vaccine. I know I know you gotta be safe and do thorough testing but man…
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I’ve felt pretty good over the last couple of years, but I did have something around Thanksgiving of 2019 that really laid me out. Still, it didn’t have the same hallmarks as COVID, so it might have been a stomach bug.
Since then, a couple of mild colds, but nothing to write home about. I’m sure that my mostly homebound life (as a single person) is part of the reason I’ve been safe for so long.
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Hasn’t happened yet. Regular masking up until the summer, frequent hand washing (I’m basically undiagnosed with OCD), vaccination, and avoiding large gatherings. Masking let up in the summer largely due to the kids fighting back against it, especially after vaccination. I’m honestly surprised my kids didn’t bring it home from school considering there were multiple outbreaks in both of their schools over the past year – but they were at least masked then.
I consider it inevitable at this point, but I still want my family to get to the point where we’re more vigilant about safety again. I consider us very lucky at this point. My wife has a post-doc under her who just caught her third round of COVID.
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