Self isolation, social distancing, sheltering in place, whatever else you call it

[MT 900]

California is apparently ahead of the curve with vaccine rollouts, as everyone over 50 can get the vaccine April 1st, and everyone over 16 can get it on the 15th. I still wish it were sooner, but oh well.

[h2ojunkie 87]

Yesterday Arizona started allowing anyone 16 and over to get the vaccine. 

[Anelle 784]

My parents got their second shot today so butthole is preparing to unclench a lil more 

 

They've been traveling to see my brother and his family though so ???????? hopefully they lay low long enough for it to fully take effect before they do that again but i doubt it

 

Dad straight up asked me what they should do after they got it (ie masking and the like) and I was like I'm more than happy to tell you but uhhhh this information should be available/you should know also you're not going to listen to me anyway so

 

I DUNNO I'M JUST SO FUCKING TIRED

 

i hope everyone here is able to get theirs soon

[h2ojunkie 87]

My wife is done telling people "what they should do" if they want to be around us. It's not our job. 

[Anelle 784]

like, on the one hand i'm more than happy to repeat guidelines to my parents if they'll follow them, and my mom generally actually listens (mostly.) because they live in such a godawful misinformation bubble that if they genuinely want to hear, ok

 

but also it's not like they're totally blocked from this information. I dunno.

 

I ain't gotta deal with them in person though, I live too far for that so it's whatever. People in my actual realistic social circles seem to accept that our stance on coming to parties and shit is "absolutely not"

 

we got people inviting us to weddings this year tho and i'm just like fuck off with this shit

 

i latched onto "the pandemic isn't over just because you're over it" meme but it's so fucking true

[h2ojunkie 87]

First shot of the Pfizer in. Process was super easy at CVS. 

[dr. b 486]

The province of Ontario is getting pretty COVID-y again

 

The seven-day average of new daily cases climbed to 2,316, its highest point since January 26.

 

We apparently also hit a new record for number of people in intensive care.

 

Ontario was doing better late Feb. / early March, but that didn't last very long... now the Premier of Ontario is telling people not to make plans for Easter (I wasn't anyways, so who cares) and that there will be an announcement tomorrow. Probably another lockdown of some sort. Work has been a major headache lately. I know lockdowns are supposed to be bad for business, but I really wouldn't mind if some of my customers had to shutdown for a few weeks, sales numbers be damned...  

 

A little tidbit from a CBC News article:

 

Quote

Meanwhile, hospital officials are expecting that the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU will continue to surge past today's record, as the daily number of new cases has grown steeply in recent days.  

 

"The situation is the most serious that it's ever been," said Anthony Dale, president of the Ontario Hospital Association. "Our critical care system in Ontario is not built for a mass-casualty event like this." 

 

Dale likened the situation in the province's hospitals to an airplane about to crash land.

 

"Right now, the air crew is out instructing the passengers on the best way to protect themselves and prepare for impact," he said in an interview.

 

"That is what our health care system is trying to do right now: prepare for impact and make sure that there's the maximum probability that people who need access to life-saving care can get it."

 

Lovely.

[Anelle 784]

It just continues to break my mind seeing these numbers over and over and have places open and trying to pretend nothing is going on. 

 

I feel like that article leaves out the part where this metaphorical plane wreck is gonna crash into the still smoldering remains of another wreck. Oof.

[dr. b 486]

They're calling this the third wave. You'd think we would have learned more by now. I guess the plane needs a new pilot! That's no surprise to me though. I don't have a very high opinion of Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario).

[Anelle 784]

We ain't learned shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit we all gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie *fart noises*

 

I don't really have a high opinion of anyone in any sort of leadership position anywhere right now because of this shit. Just line up politicians and let us all queue up to spit in their mouths.

 

I don't think I mentioned it here yet but a cousin of mine has covid and i'm about to just rupture with anxiety. Dude lives alone in an area where he doesn't really have a bunch of close neighbors and isn't doing too hot right now. He's close enough to my parents to where they were able to drop off some supplies on his doorstep today but he can't keep anything down and has awful fever and shit like that. Hoping this is the worst of it.

[dr. b 486]

Yikes, that sounds rough. Do you know if he tested positive for one of the variants? I keep hearing that the "variants of concern" can make people more sick. Kinda scary.

[Anelle 784]

No idea on the variant thing. From what my parents say, it sounds like when Lee's aunt had it, but the difference is he's tested positive for it and she tested negative 3 times but they were like "ok but this is clearly covid so uhhhhhh"

 

She had a hell of a time for about a week and she had my mother in law around to take care of her, so I'm super worried about my cousin being alone. But I mean, he's checking in with family and if he stops checking in we know to break down his door i guess! ....or use a key, i think my parents have a spare key. That's less dramatic tho.

[Tassifox 413]

2 hours ago, Anelle said:

We ain't learned shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit we all gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie *fart noises*

I echo this pretty much. Not to mention you have all the anti-everything covid relates idjits who have been pushing and being a good chunk of why those numbers keep shooting up. WA is no different with case numbers going up. While I see less people at work coming in without a mask on purpose, Seattle's been rising wince beginning of March. Hell we had over 1k in new cases cases on the 8th. And it's probably 9nly going to get worse as we re-open and Easter around the corner. 

I really hope your cousin pulls through it Nelle, that seriously sucks. 

[h2ojunkie 87]

Arizona's 7 day average was above 2000 cases from mid Nov. through the start of Feb. We are down to 370's right now though which is promising, but then again they just lifted the mask mandate...

[webhead 518]

Best defense we have now is a good offense.  Vaccinate as quickly as fucking possible which we are doing a pretty good job at.  Maybe we'll get lucky and outrun the stupidity.

[MT 900]

Put my info into whatever app/website California uses a few weeks ago and still haven't heard anything. Tonight, I called up my pharmacy to refill a prescription, when the automated message mentioned something about the vaccine, so I checked their website and I now have an appointment for this Friday at 11AM for my first shot. I also set up the second shot for the 30th. Not sure which one i'm getting yet, but i'm going to have to pretty much rush to work afterwards so I won't be late. It'll be worth it if I can finally get it done, though.

[Tassifox 413]

This is what we're looking atm on vaccines. And I see more and more of my friends posting about being able to arrange appointments or share info on how to get one. It really gripes me that there's a couple of my coworkers who have said they are opting out of getting a vaccine for no reason other than allergies of certain vaccine ingredients. 

[dr. b 486]

In Canada we're not doing too great, but I think it is mostly due to simply not having enough vaccine to go around yet. Only 1.76% of the population has received two doses of a vaccine (11.91% of the population has received at least one dose). But the percentages are much higher specifically for people in priority groups (health care workers and seniors in group home settings). The rest of us just have to wait our turn. I understand why they're vaccinating the old folks first, because they're more likely to die if they contract the virus... but they're not necessarily the people most likely to come into contact with the virus if we do a better job of protecting long-term care homes, not allowing the virus in, etc. I think they may pivot soon to targeting more essential workers, not just front-line healthcare workers, to stop the spread in workplaces, factories, warehouses, etc. But who knows what the dummies who run the province of Ontario might do next...

[Anelle 784]

We had a small family gathering for Easter (most of us are fully vaccinated, but we held it distanced outside anyway) and our uhhhhhh fuck it i'll just call her step sister in law even though she isn't (complicated lol) came and she told me she was too scared to get the vaccine because she heard it had super scary side effects and I was just like NOOOOOOO PLEASE GET IT so hopefully she takes that to heart instead of whatever rumors she's hearing...

 

It really sounds like y'all are on the same rollout schedule we're on but got a way slower start and that fucking sucks. It's been sounding that way for a while but I guess I assumed y'all would catch up, but doing some reading I guess it sounds like Canada chose to invest in European factories for vaccines instead of US ones which I mean.... I don't blame them for being wary of all that since it got started under Trump but god it sucks that it's all so backed up. What a mess. I really hope things start to pick up pace wise for y'all soon.

[Tassifox 413]

Yea the way they were rolling out stuff was badly paced after the old folks and Healthcare workers. Now I'm happily seeing more and more peeps posting that they've either got 1st shots or have appointments made. (I have a feeling it's because they felt pressured for reopening and vaccines not lining up but idc as long as we're fucking getting them now. )

[MT 900]

3 hours ago, Tassifox said:

Yea the way they were rolling out stuff was badly paced after the old folks and Healthcare workers.

That was one of the things about the rollout here that bugged me. I had friends who still had the option to work from home for a few more months getting it before me, who works for a company that has to have face to face interactions with dozens of people every day. It's kind of ridiculous, but at least now there's an end in sight for me.

[Anelle 784]

We got ours ridiculously early only because I put our names on the list like... minutes after our city put the sign ups page live. I really thought that would just mean we'd get in the front of the line during a later phase but apparently they had doses to use and not enough people signing up so I guess they were just like fuck it, we'll pull from other phases. I still feel guilty about it, but they had doses they needed to use and we were eligible so we took it.

[webhead 518]

5 hours ago, Anelle said:

she heard it had super scary side effects

This shit is never going to die is it?  I feel like my entire life there are always people that have to be contrarians and everything is a plot or "they heard" what the REAL story is or whatever and it's like...please just...stop okay.  Be normal.  LISTEN TO ME.

 

50 minutes ago, Anelle said:

I still feel guilty about it, but they had doses they needed to use and we were eligible so we took it.

Yeah definitely don't feel guilty.  Chances are they'd have thrown that shit out.  That's why I got mine.  They had twice as many doses as appointments and started calling in everyone.  Went right at the end of the day.  As long as SOMEONE gets it, that's what matters.

[dr. b 486]

12 hours ago, Anelle said:

It really sounds like y'all are on the same rollout schedule we're on but got a way slower start and that fucking sucks. It's been sounding that way for a while but I guess I assumed y'all would catch up, but doing some reading I guess it sounds like Canada chose to invest in European factories for vaccines instead of US ones which I mean.... I don't blame them for being wary of all that since it got started under Trump but god it sucks that it's all so backed up. What a mess. I really hope things start to pick up pace wise for y'all soon.

It seems like the pace is going to start picking up now. We'll see if vaccine shipments keep coming regularly, as that seems to be the big question mark still. The EU can withhold vaccine shipments to other countries if they deem it necessary to do so, but apparently Canada has been assured that we will still get our vaccines. I choose to remain hopeful! Because the situation here is getting ugly again. I think another stay-at-home order will soon be announced. Looking back, the first wave from last Spring seems so small compared to what we have been dealing with more recently. And we really seemed to get the situation under control by the summer (August)... that didn't last for long!  

 

[Tassifox 413]

Got my 2nd Pfizer today during work. Right now I just feel a little light headed and my arm hurt for a bit but it's almost gone now with no tenderness. All I wanna do is soak in a tub right now, but my tub ain't big enough. 😭

[Tassifox 413]

Onto day 2 of after 2nd shot. Woof they are not kidding about the 2nd shot packing the bigger punch. Yesterday I woke up feeling like a huge weight was sitting on me all day and making it hard to move efficiently but at first no fever. (The body temp kiosk had cleared be when I went to work at 5am) While I was able to get most of my work done since I was doing Scan and not being in the checkstand, I felt like I was dragging ass as the day went on and went home a little early (this was around 9:15am). I also made sure to sanitize anything I touched at work and washed hands every chance I got. I took my temperature after changing and making tea and boom, had 101.5 which grew to 102.8 by the time I went to get around 7pmish. I pretty much stayed glued to the couch binging shows, drinking tea, and wrapped up in blankets and pj's all day, stood in the shower just before bed and promptly passed out.

Today, fever broke. Don't feel the heavy weight anymore and moving fine enough to do small chores like laundry and what not, but I did wake up with a mild headache and bad tickle in the back of my throat. More tea and fluids today. Thankfully this hasn't effected my stomach that much so I had Pho ordered last night and had leftovers this morning for breakfast. I have tomorrow off so I'm hoping I'll be back close to 90-100% by work Tuesday.

[dr. b 486]

The 'vid situation is really getting out of control now in Ontario. They announced a bunch of new restrictions today:

• Checkpoints will be setup at the interprovincial borders with Quebec and Manitoba to limit access
• Stay-at-home order is being extended to May 20, residents must remain at home at all times unless going out for groceries, health care services, or essential work
• Anybody who can work from home must work from home
• Stricter limitations on outdoor social gatherings
• All outdoor recreational amenities such as golf courses, basketball courts and playgrounds, will be closed -- this truly sucks for us, we live in a 7th floor apartment with a 10 year old and a 2 year old... we will probably still go to the playground near our building anyways, the kids don't have anywhere else to play
• Retail capacity at essential stores is going to be cut
• For the first time in Ontario since the pandemic started, starting Saturday, police officers will have the authority to require people to provide their home address and purpose for not being at their residence. Police can also have the authority to stop a vehicle to inquire about an individual’s reason for leaving their residence (!!!)

There are other things but these are the ones that can / will affect us the most. I don't mind working from home, but my kids will drive me nuts eventually. Closing playgrounds is bullshit. The new police measures are bullshit.

 

It's gonna get ugly at hospitals over the next few weeks... 

[Tassifox 413]

So basically turned the dial back to 11 (if not worse) from 2020. Dude that sucks. 

 

I'm legit wondering if we're gonna have something similar since cases are still rising here and we're only at about 30% of vaccines process between 1st shots and 2nd shots especially now with J&J shots put on hold. 

[Anelle 784]

Jesus, that's bleak. So much of this could have been avoided but no sense dwelling on that (even though it's really hard not to be bitter)

[dr. b 486]

The government decided to walk back the new police measures, and reopen parks/playgrounds. I guess there was a lot of pushback! I was mad about it but I'm far too apathetic to actually do anything  I figured I could just drink more everyday and things would somehow be OK eventually. I'm thankful for all the angry and proactive people out there who actually complained, made phone calls, etc. to get this stuff reverted. 

[Vic Boss 610]

I heard it was the police who more or less said "Yeah, we're not doing that" and Ford had to walk it all back to save what little face he had left from it.

[webhead 518]

Some of these anti COVID measures have gotten stupid tbh.  They've studied how the virus propagates and know all kinds of shit yet continue to try to do completely stupid ass shit like close things like parks.  How the fuck are you gonna get covid at the park?  Mouth kissing strangers?  It's not a fucking concert venue where you're all slammed in together.  Use your fucking heads.  "Better safe than sorry" isn't a policy you can keep following after a year of information has come out about what to do lol.  Shit like this just causes people to start opposing the shit that actually does make sense because they've rightly surmised that you're an idiot.

 

I saw in Michigan they want to make the emergency orders permanent (what?) and that they still have shit like forcing places to do extra cleaning even though we've pretty much learned that surface spread is a complete non-factor.  It's shit like that where I get really frustrated because I've been careful but I try to actually pay attention to the shit that matters, you know?

[dr. b 486]

Yeah, it's truly pathetic what the government in Ontario is doing. After the new measures were announced last week, the science director of the Ontario's COVID-19 advisory table was interviewed on radio and he said, "the new restrictions show that more than a year into the pandemic the province doesn't understand how the virus spreads." Can't be more blunt than that. The province has scientists and doctors giving them recommendations on what needs to be done, and I guess they are just ignoring them. The government still doesn't have a clue, or a plan to make things better. Ugh. Just listen to the experts, guys.

[dr. b 486]

 

 

[Anelle 784]

what in the absolute fuck are people supposed to do? So fucking stupid

[dr. b 486]

43 minutes ago, Anelle said:

what in the absolute fuck are people supposed to do?

Try not to get sick. Keep going to work. Try not to get sick at work. Keep going to work even if you do get sick (or stay home and I guess just stop paying rent or stop eating???).

[webhead 518]

On 4/19/2021 at 10:56 AM, little birdy said:

Try not to get sick. Keep going to work. Try not to get sick at work. Keep going to work even if you do get sick (or stay home and I guess just stop paying rent or stop eating???).

Ah, the American way!

[h2ojunkie 87]

Get my second shot after work today. 

[dr. b 486]

14 hours ago, webhead said:

Ah, the American way!

Rather than learning from the mistakes made in the U.S. and other places, we decided in Ontario that it would be best to just repeat all the same mistakes  

[Anelle 784]

USA! USA! USA!

YEAAAAAAAAAH NO. 1 BABY

WE'RE SO AWESOME THAT PEOPLE COPY OUR DEADLY MISTAKES YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

FREEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

[dr. b 486]

49 minutes ago, Anelle said:

YEAAAAAAAAAH NO. 1 BABY

I dunno, I think Brazil is botching their COVID response pretty badly, so I don't think US and A gets to be No. 1 at failing-to-control-COVID

[h2ojunkie 87]

On 4/21/2021 at 4:49 AM, h2ojunkie said:

Get my second shot after work today. 

Arm is a little sore today and I feel like I didn't sleep the best, but good so far. 

[h2ojunkie 87]

6 hours ago, h2ojunkie said:

Arm is a little sore today and I feel like I didn't sleep the best, but good so far. 

Feeling very tired and muscles are sore, I laid down for 2 hours and I'm a bit better. 

[Tassifox 413]

Make sure to keep up with fluids! And perhaps just standing in the shower for a bit and let the water help with the aches. I did that a couple times especially when I was sweating out the fever and it helped some. 

[dr. b 486]

Get a some OJ and a bottle of sparkling wine, mimosas are what I would prescribe in this case. Also a shot of scotch before bedtime won't hurt.

[h2ojunkie 87]

20 minutes ago, little birdy said:

Get a some OJ and a bottle of sparkling wine, mimosas are what I would prescribe in this case. Also a shot of scotch before bedtime won't hurt.

I stopped drinking a year ago with my wife, but OJ sounds really good. Feeling pretty good today, just a bit tired. 

[h2ojunkie 87]

Got my boss to bring some OJ on his way into the office for us. 

[Tassifox 413]

So yesterday 2 friends and I braved going to the movie theater for the first time since before Covid. I can't remember the last movie I saw out but I know it was a couple months before lockdown. We did it because 

1. It was Demon Slayer Mugen Train

2. The theater we went to is a fairly dead one even before Covid so we guessed it would be safe enough. 

It was weird being there but I really really missed it. People were good about their masks, seating was tricky since it was picking your seats and with blocking out others for social distancing made it tricky for more than 2 seats so we did a later showing but I felt it was worth it. Probably won't do it for some big hits that are coming out but not bad experience. 

[Tassifox 413]

So this is happening now. Idk what data they're looking at but we still have cases rising on the west coast. Oregon just announced that 15 of their counties are now moved back to "Extreme Risk" and will be under evaluation weekly for the next few weeks. WA had over 2k in new cases today and one of our counties is getting pushed back to Phase 1. But sure tell people that whether you're vaxxed or not you don't need to wear masks outside anymore. The dumbasses will skip over the details about big or small groups and all that because "IT'S OKAY, WE'RE OUTSIDE"...........

 

https://www.king5.com/mobile/article/news/nation-world/covid-cdc-mask-guidance/507-dbfc5eb6-b262-4825-a1a7-d154b39311e6

[Mera'din 306]

On 4/25/2021 at 12:56 PM, Tassifox said:

So yesterday 2 friends and I braved going to the movie theater for the first time since before Covid. I can't remember the last movie I saw out but I know it was a couple months before lockdown. We did it because 

1. It was Demon Slayer Mugen Train

2. The theater we went to is a fairly dead one even before Covid so we guessed it would be safe enough. 

It was weird being there but I really really missed it. People were good about their masks, seating was tricky since it was picking your seats and with blocking out others for social distancing made it tricky for more than 2 seats so we did a later showing but I felt it was worth it. Probably won't do it for some big hits that are coming out but not bad experience. 

 

Just did this tonight. Same movie.  

 

My friend and I figured it would be fine because it was the middle of the week, and it was a subbed anime movie so figured there wouldn't be too many other people around to worry about. Definitely felt weird being in a theater, but there were only like 8 other people there and picking the seats cleared out all the seats around what you picked with ours as well so didn't have to worry too much. Was really fun though. Have definitely missed going to the theater. 

 

It was in South Dakota so I was worried they would half ass some of the typical protections, but the theaters there are doing a good job at least. Figure it's probably mostly the businesses that are nationwide that actually bother doing anything. Most of the stuff local to that state not so much from what I saw. 😕