It's deciding to treat COVID like any/ most other illnesses and have people rely on their best judgement and their employer's generosity for sick leaves.
Which is why we also have so many flu deaths.
I particularly like the way that food workers have to work with norovirus which is spread via food prepared by people with norovirus. The stomach flu won’t kill most people but it certainly is unpleasant.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
In my friend circle everyone has now caught covid at one point or another during this flu season.
It's kind of impressive actually.
The only good thing is that it's been relatively mild, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.
It's deciding to treat COVID like any/ most other illnesses and have people rely on their best judgement and their employer's generosity for sick leaves.
Which is why we also have so many flu deaths.
I particularly like the way that food workers have to work with norovirus which is spread via food prepared by people with norovirus. The stomach flu won’t kill most people but it certainly is unpleasant.
I have several stomach conditions so when I get norovirus I have to go to the ER and have them pump Zofran into my system via IV because there's literally no other way to deliver it.
So while it won't kill me it's super fucking expensive whenever I contract it.
I work in local government. They just had an art competition for several spots around the city to paint murals. My supervisor, my co-worker, and I were looking at all the submissions. One of the themes was something along the lines of "healing after the pandemic". One of the submissions was pretty good and prominently featured someone wearing a mask. My supervisor, without a trace of recognition in his voice, said that it was a bad choice because nobody wears masks anymore.
I was standing immediately behind him, wearing a mask, just like I always do.
Now whether he meant that a mask in a piece of art would be distressing because it would conjure up trauma, that the necessity for masks has lessened, or that the people who do mask for whatever reason just don't matter.....I don't know. And this is purely anecdotal. But Covid, one of the defining global events of our lifetimes, has been memory-holed and de-emphasized to the point of near total denial.
I work in local government. They just had an art competition for several spots around the city to paint murals. My supervisor, my co-worker, and I were looking at all the submissions. One of the themes was something along the lines of "healing after the pandemic". One of the submissions was pretty good and prominently featured someone wearing a mask. My supervisor, without a trace of recognition in his voice, said that it was a bad choice because nobody wears masks anymore.
I was standing immediately behind him, wearing a mask, just like I always do.
Now whether he meant that a mask in a piece of art would be distressing because it would conjure up trauma, that the necessity for masks has lessened, or that the people who do mask for whatever reason just don't matter.....I don't know. And this is purely anecdotal. But Covid, one of the defining global events of our lifetimes, has been memory-holed and de-emphasized to the point of near total denial.
Which is basically what happened for the Spanish Flu.
I work in local government. They just had an art competition for several spots around the city to paint murals. My supervisor, my co-worker, and I were looking at all the submissions. One of the themes was something along the lines of "healing after the pandemic". One of the submissions was pretty good and prominently featured someone wearing a mask. My supervisor, without a trace of recognition in his voice, said that it was a bad choice because nobody wears masks anymore.
I was standing immediately behind him, wearing a mask, just like I always do.
Now whether he meant that a mask in a piece of art would be distressing because it would conjure up trauma, that the necessity for masks has lessened, or that the people who do mask for whatever reason just don't matter.....I don't know. And this is purely anecdotal. But Covid, one of the defining global events of our lifetimes, has been memory-holed and de-emphasized to the point of near total denial.
Which is basically what happened for the Spanish Flu.
Isn't living through history neat?
It's legitimately really weird being in a position to notice how much society will allow to drift into its blindspot as long as everything is running smoothly enough.
Yeah that's pretty fucking wild. Now is this saying "you CAN return to work" like letting the person choose or does it mean that their place of work can force people to come back in if they tested positive but have no symptoms?
It looks like there's a bunch of 'recommendations', but no guidelines or rules. Like, kids who go back to school while still testing positive are supposed to wear a mask.
You think there's going to be enforcement on that? Not a chance.
I doubt there's a mechanism by which these recommendations can be used to force someone back to work. But that being said, I'm sure any place of employ can simply say "You're out of sick days".
I work in local government. They just had an art competition for several spots around the city to paint murals. My supervisor, my co-worker, and I were looking at all the submissions. One of the themes was something along the lines of "healing after the pandemic". One of the submissions was pretty good and prominently featured someone wearing a mask. My supervisor, without a trace of recognition in his voice, said that it was a bad choice because nobody wears masks anymore.
I was standing immediately behind him, wearing a mask, just like I always do.
Now whether he meant that a mask in a piece of art would be distressing because it would conjure up trauma, that the necessity for masks has lessened, or that the people who do mask for whatever reason just don't matter.....I don't know. And this is purely anecdotal. But Covid, one of the defining global events of our lifetimes, has been memory-holed and de-emphasized to the point of near total denial.
Which is basically what happened for the Spanish Flu.
Isn't living through history neat?
It's legitimately really weird being in a position to notice how much society will allow to drift into its blindspot as long as everything is running smoothly enough.
Most of grandparents came from a generation where it was routine for people to have siblings die, sometimes years, after childbirth. Like straight up wasn't abnormal.
Most people would talk about losing a child as a life shattering event now and they wouldn't be wrong but a hundred years ago it was just routine in a very sad way.
Yeah that's pretty fucking wild. Now is this saying "you CAN return to work" like letting the person choose or does it mean that their place of work can force people to come back in if they tested positive but have no symptoms?
It looks like there's a bunch of 'recommendations', but no guidelines or rules. Like, kids who go back to school while still testing positive are supposed to wear a mask.
You think there's going to be enforcement on that? Not a chance.
Ah okay yeah I was worried that it was giving businesses power to say "you MUST return to work" though in the end what's going to happen is they'll point to this and say "see you can return to work, you have no symptoms, if you don't come in it's unpaid because the health department said it's okay".
Wonder how the numbers for California are going to be in the next few weeks/months now.
Bad. They're going to be bad.
The same. They're going to be literally exactly the Same. Because other than a fraction of people who still mask in some situations and test, literally noone else is doing anything at all to mitigate anything.
Noone is testing. Noone cares. So policies regarding what to do if you test positive are irrelevant.
It's deciding to treat COVID like any/ most other illnesses and have people rely on their best judgement and their employer's generosity for sick leaves.
Which is why we also have so many flu deaths.
I particularly like the way that food workers have to work with norovirus which is spread via food prepared by people with norovirus. The stomach flu won’t kill most people but it certainly is unpleasant.
Norovirus is spread by basically everything. Droplets, surfaces, the only thing it's not is technically "airborne" in the true, measles sense. Food nothing, if you touched the same doorknob, that's it. That's why it sweeps cruise ships like it does.
I work in local government. They just had an art competition for several spots around the city to paint murals. My supervisor, my co-worker, and I were looking at all the submissions. One of the themes was something along the lines of "healing after the pandemic". One of the submissions was pretty good and prominently featured someone wearing a mask. My supervisor, without a trace of recognition in his voice, said that it was a bad choice because nobody wears masks anymore.
I was standing immediately behind him, wearing a mask, just like I always do.
Now whether he meant that a mask in a piece of art would be distressing because it would conjure up trauma, that the necessity for masks has lessened, or that the people who do mask for whatever reason just don't matter.....I don't know. And this is purely anecdotal. But Covid, one of the defining global events of our lifetimes, has been memory-holed and de-emphasized to the point of near total denial.
Which is basically what happened for the Spanish Flu.
Isn't living through history neat?
It's legitimately really weird being in a position to notice how much society will allow to drift into its blindspot as long as everything is running smoothly enough.
Most of grandparents came from a generation where it was routine for people to have siblings die, sometimes years, after childbirth. Like straight up wasn't abnormal.
Most people would talk about losing a child as a life shattering event now and they wouldn't be wrong but a hundred years ago it was just routine in a very sad way.
I was looking up the historical mortality rates for the flu in the US.
And I am in no way qualified to adequately weigh that particular question. Some years are obviously better than others. But more often than not, there's usually more than 250K hospitalizations a year because of the flu and usually at least 20,000 deaths (that we are aware of). Would getting flu vaccination rates higher help*? Almost certainly, as would implementing more health-forward workplace policies. Would it drastically lower those numbers even further? I don't know. But we've reached a place with the flu where most people view it as little more than an inevitable annoyance and they are more likely to choose not to get a flu shot for a variety of reasons ranging from "I forgot" to "I don't trust vaccines"**. The number of people who do suffer significantly from the flu has gotten low enough that it doesn't personally affect those who do not directly suffer from it. We've gotten comfortable with that. And we're speedrunning the same with Covid.
*They are routinely below 50% among US adults (sorry, I cannot find the source with the exact figures for this at the moment)
**There are always legitimate personal reasons for not being able to receive a vaccine, I'm not lumping those in to this range
One genuinely good thing and aspect of public health that has come out of this is that there are better ASHRAE indoor air quality standards and a brand spanking new one for airborne diseases. It's the kind of thing that is going to be slow moving and take forever to become universal (just think of how many places still aren't really that accessible 33 years on for the ADA), but it is a ratchet that will improve quality of life in ways that are entirely invisible otherwise.
One genuinely good thing and aspect of public health that has come out of this is that there are better ASHRAE indoor air quality standards and a brand spanking new one for airborne diseases. It's the kind of thing that is going to be slow moving and take forever to become universal (just think of how many places still aren't really that accessible 33 years on for the ADA), but it is a ratchet that will improve quality of life in ways that are entirely invisible otherwise.
Yeah as an asthmatic person who suffers from all of the allergies: I can't wait to see this come into play. I'm sure I'll be dead long before it becomes standard but hopefully my kids get to benefit from it.
Interesting conclusions from a study on long COVID - there’s evidence that the immune system isn’t shutting down parts of its response as it should and the ensuing damage might explain the symptoms long COVID patients experience.
One genuinely good thing and aspect of public health that has come out of this is that there are better ASHRAE indoor air quality standards and a brand spanking new one for airborne diseases. It's the kind of thing that is going to be slow moving and take forever to become universal (just think of how many places still aren't really that accessible 33 years on for the ADA), but it is a ratchet that will improve quality of life in ways that are entirely invisible otherwise.
Yeah as an asthmatic person who suffers from all of the allergies: I can't wait to see this come into play. I'm sure I'll be dead long before it becomes standard but hopefully my kids get to benefit from it.
Mechanical systems tend to turn over more quickly than things like adding in an elevator (which is a lot more expensive than you think. No, even more than that) So it should hopefully be quicker to become more ubiquitous
One genuinely good thing and aspect of public health that has come out of this is that there are better ASHRAE indoor air quality standards and a brand spanking new one for airborne diseases. It's the kind of thing that is going to be slow moving and take forever to become universal (just think of how many places still aren't really that accessible 33 years on for the ADA), but it is a ratchet that will improve quality of life in ways that are entirely invisible otherwise.
Yeah as an asthmatic person who suffers from all of the allergies: I can't wait to see this come into play. I'm sure I'll be dead long before it becomes standard but hopefully my kids get to benefit from it.
Mechanical systems tend to turn over more quickly than things like adding in an elevator (which is a lot more expensive than you think. No, even more than that) So it should hopefully be quicker to become more ubiquitous
Also might be one of the few public health things that dipshit parasitic employers realize is better for their bottom line. Given that employees getting sick less because someone brings the plague into the workplace, means less people having to take time off, less lost production because people are showing up sick and possibly less turnover. Granted, also possible they don't adopt it until they are forced to because many of them are assholes that are also incapable of doing good cost to benefit analysis. We do still have the issue where these morons don't get that a lack of sick leave does actually hurt their profits.
HVAC improvements are drastically less difficult to do compared to structural changes like elevators or ramps, yeah. Elevator shafts, like stairwells, go up first as part of a sort foundational aspect to buildings in new construction, at least in my experience working at an architectural firm. I don't have as much knowledge of HVAC but my understanding is that in most cases you'd really be only changing the filters and possibly the air handlers if they're not rated for the level of resistance provided by the higher quality filters- the more difficult cases would be where you need to increase airflow to get the higher air changes per hour for proper ventilation, which I imagine requires additional vents- still nothing that should impact load bearing structures.
Interesting conclusions from a study on long COVID - there’s evidence that the immune system isn’t shutting down parts of its response as it should and the ensuing damage might explain the symptoms long COVID patients experience.
As someone who had to go gluten free due to not-celiacs and is feeling loads better than I have in decades cause I didn't know I had what I had (seriously, I just assumed teenagers just randomly go to the bathroom and shit for 15 minutes while grabbing their cramping guts), a constant immune reaction can affect a crazy amount of stuff.
I've even gone sober with very few issues for like...3-4+ months now? It's friggen crazy.
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Interesting conclusions from a study on long COVID - there’s evidence that the immune system isn’t shutting down parts of its response as it should and the ensuing damage might explain the symptoms long COVID patients experience.
As someone who had to go gluten free due to not-celiacs and is feeling loads better than I have in decades cause I didn't know I had what I had (seriously, I just assumed teenagers just randomly go to the bathroom and shit for 15 minutes while grabbing their cramping guts), a constant immune reaction can affect a crazy amount of stuff.
I've even gone sober with very few issues for like...3-4+ months now? It's friggen crazy.
Yeah, as a guy with crohn's....you definitely do not want an overactive immune system.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Interesting conclusions from a study on long COVID - there’s evidence that the immune system isn’t shutting down parts of its response as it should and the ensuing damage might explain the symptoms long COVID patients experience.
As someone who had to go gluten free due to not-celiacs and is feeling loads better than I have in decades cause I didn't know I had what I had (seriously, I just assumed teenagers just randomly go to the bathroom and shit for 15 minutes while grabbing their cramping guts), a constant immune reaction can affect a crazy amount of stuff.
I've even gone sober with very few issues for like...3-4+ months now? It's friggen crazy.
Yeah, as a guy with crohn's....you definitely do not want an overactive immune system.
I had an undiagnosed food allergy for like 30 years. I went from "definitely going to die in the next couple years max" to "lets go climb some fucking rocks" in the span of a few months at most.
Edit to add that basically everything I ate was causing a reaction. I just thought that was what eating was supposed to be like.
Yup, ankylosing spondylitis is also one of those diseases where it's a result of the immune system being over active, specially, the inflammation side of things. Overactive immune systems suck and they do tend to cause other issues to kick in, if not addressed.
I do wonder if that study means you could do like, a short-term course of immunosuppressants or something to treat long COVID? Would that get the immune system to back off and stay backed off, or would it still be trying to destroy COVID in overdrive afterwards? (And who knows if it fixes the symptoms or just stops it getting worse, I'm not a doctor or biologist, so)
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Interesting conclusions from a study on long COVID - there’s evidence that the immune system isn’t shutting down parts of its response as it should and the ensuing damage might explain the symptoms long COVID patients experience.
As someone who had to go gluten free due to not-celiacs and is feeling loads better than I have in decades cause I didn't know I had what I had (seriously, I just assumed teenagers just randomly go to the bathroom and shit for 15 minutes while grabbing their cramping guts), a constant immune reaction can affect a crazy amount of stuff.
I've even gone sober with very few issues for like...3-4+ months now? It's friggen crazy.
Yeah, as a guy with crohn's....you definitely do not want an overactive immune system.
I had an undiagnosed food allergy for like 30 years. I went from "definitely going to die in the next couple years max" to "lets go climb some fucking rocks" in the span of a few months at most.
Edit to add that basically everything I ate was causing a reaction. I just thought that was what eating was supposed to be like.
I have felt healthy for like, exactly one weekend in the past 20 years when some new medication i was on was HYPER effective for me.
The fact that people get to feel like that all the time is frankly unfair. I felt like a super saiyan
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Yup, ankylosing spondylitis is also one of those diseases where it's a result of the immune system being over active, specially, the inflammation side of things. Overactive immune systems suck and they do tend to cause other issues to kick in, if not addressed.
It turned out that every single ache and pain I thought was getting older was this. And I do mean ALL of them.
So yeah the immune system attacking cells with ace2 receptors would explain a lot about long covid. Because that's a lot of cells
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
The good news is there are a LOT of immunosuppresants out there.
The bad news is that because your immune system is normal otherwise it basically means you will be catching every sickness imaginable.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
The good news is there are a LOT of immunosuppresants out there.
The bad news is that because your immune system is normal otherwise it basically means you will be catching every sickness imaginable.
My daughter's got Crohn's and she takes an IV immunosuppressant every 8 weeks, though they're now moving her to every 6 weeks. Works really well for her otherwise awful bowel symptoms but she's constantly got a cold.
I have IBS and there's been no medication that's worked. Best I've been able to do is somewhat regulate but avoiding FODMAPs and trying to stay stress free.
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
The good news is there are a LOT of immunosuppresants out there.
The bad news is that because your immune system is normal otherwise it basically means you will be catching every sickness imaginable.
My daughter's got Crohn's and she takes an IV immunosuppressant every 8 weeks, though they're now moving her to every 6 weeks. Works really well for her otherwise awful bowel symptoms but she's constantly got a cold.
I have IBS and there's been no medication that's worked. Best I've been able to do is somewhat regulate but avoiding FODMAPs and trying to stay stress free.
Yeah I was on remicade too until my quack doctor took me off it for spurious reasons and I immediately developed an allergic reaction to it.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
I'm thankful that I didn't develop an allergic reaction when I was off remicade for a few years as a result of my insurance being lost from unemployment. Then again, depending on the condition, some people have really bad outcomes when they have the slightest lapse in treatment, while others are far less at risk. I want to say I saw somewhere with Crohn's disease, it's not uncommon for medications to slowly lose effectiveness over time.
Then again, I had a reaction to Avsola the second time I had it and no one is sure if that was an election reaction or not. Leaning towards no given that my potassium levels tanked and it possible that my potassium was just too low that day, that the fluid from the infusion was just enough to tip things to being too low. Probably the scariest incident in my life in quite some time.
Anyways, I'm hoping as more research is done on long covid, they find effective ways to treat it that end up being effective without needing to put someone a lifetime medicine regiment.
So, start of school after winter break, youngest daughter came back with a cough/etc, and so we did masks and eventually isolated (I work from home so whatever), but she never once tested positive. They go to their mom's for the weekend, all come back wearing masks and their mom looks like death walking. While in my apartment, they all take off the masks (I mean the kids whatever, they live here) but so does my ex. Next day she calls to tell me she has COVID.. JOY. This was 1/16. Daughter gets a little worse the next day, but we test over a couple days and still no positives. (I also think she might be allergic to my ex's cats). We get to the end of the week and by friday I feel like I'm coming down with something. I spend most of the weekend progressively coughing more and more and with a bit of shortness of breath and with what feels like a fever, but no temperature (It was 45 outside last night and I had my bedroom window and fan on). STILL no positive COVID tests. Going to test a couple more times but... at this point it almost certainly has to be something else right? My son has still managed to not get sick, so small mercies.
Even my daughters ongoing cough is mostly "worse in the morning and better throughout the week/day, and she otherwise feels fine, especially middle/later day. I wouldn't even be surprised if it's just a lingering cough.
There's a LOT going around right now. Between flu, RSV, covid, and general nasal bugs it's insane out right now. So yeah it might just be COVID but it definitely could be viral. Stay safe!
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TetraNitroCubaneThe DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered Userregular
Yeah, there's an unfortunate confluence of circumstances right now in that the at-home rapid tests are getting way worse at catching COVID until late into the course of an infection, AND there are a ton of different respiratory bugs floating around at the same time.
The unfortunate reality is that it's basically anyone's guess, even if you're getting a negative result.
Yeah, wife had a fever and felt pretty bad last weekend. Isolated just in case, but no one popped a positive test. At this point she feels fine, daughter and I both have mild head cold symptoms, and son is (and has been) fine.
Fun
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
4 weeks ago, I came down with the nastiest cold I've had since covid. Tested myself for covid on three different days, including the worst one, and never had a positive.
This past Friday I woke up with a sore throat and congestion. I appear to have come down with yet another cold! I've taken two tests and so far it's not covid. It's definitely not worse than what I had last month, although I thought I was getting better on Saturday but then my voice dropped an octave yesterday. I'll probably give my nose the ol swab again tonight.
Meanwhile, I learned today that ten people at the shelter near where I work tested positive for covid this morning.
With my recent bout of COVID I never popped a positive test, even on the day where I had my strongest symptoms. My wife popped a positive test the moment she started feeling the worst of the symptoms. We even used tests from the same box for this. It feels like the tests are YMMV at this point.
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If you're really trying to get a confirmation on COVID, either go out to get a PCR test or use one of the fancy at-home molecular tests rather than a rapid antigen test. Generally I've kept a few of these on hand whenever I need a good deal of confidence in going somewhere without bringing something with me or checking on symptoms I'm experiencing that might just be allergies or what have you: https://shop.aptitudemedical.com/products/metrix-covid-19-test-reader-mini-bundle
Molecular tests usually require a reader. Metrix are the cheapest I know of, other than I guess some old unexpired Lucira tests that might still be floating around after Pfizer bought them, discontinued the COVID one, and replaced it with a more expensive COVID + Flu one. The only other one I know of out there is Cue, which is hella expensive at $350 for the reader and three tests, and the tests themselves are $50 a pop thereafter.
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TetraNitroCubaneThe DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered Userregular
edited February 7
New article via Scientific American is rather interesting. It's mostly an interview with interim Director of the WHO, Maria Van Kerkhove.
How would you describe the overall state of COVID at this point in the pandemic?
COVID’s not in the news every day, but it’s still a global health risk. If we look at wastewater estimates, the actual circulation [of SARS-CoV-2] is somewhere between two and 20 times higher than what’s actually being reported by countries. The virus is rampant. We’re still in a pandemic. There’s a lot of complacency at the individual level, and more concerning to me is that at the government level.
Lack of access to lifesaving tools such as diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines is still a problem. Demand for vaccination is very low around the world. The misinformation and disinformation that’s out there is hampering the ability to mount an effective response. So we feel there’s a lot more work to do, in the context of everything else—[we no longer have a] COVID lens only, of course, but using masks for respiratory pathogens that transmit through the air is a no-brainer—plus vaccination, plus distancing, plus improving ventilation. People are living their life; we’re not trying to stop anyone from doing anything, but we’re trying to work with governments to make sure they do that as safely as possible.
Are there any other things you’d like people to know about COVID right now?
I think it’s important that we continue to talk about it. We understand you don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to talk about it. But we need to because there’s more we can do. We cannot prevent all infections. We cannot prevent all deaths. But there’s a hell of a lot more that we can do to really keep people safe and save them from losing a loved one.
It does seem like the biggest challenge right now is complacency, but I doubt that will ever be unwound. The world at large has decided that some people just deserve to die and/or become permanently disabled for the sake of "normal".
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I particularly like the way that food workers have to work with norovirus which is spread via food prepared by people with norovirus. The stomach flu won’t kill most people but it certainly is unpleasant.
It's kind of impressive actually.
The only good thing is that it's been relatively mild, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.
I have several stomach conditions so when I get norovirus I have to go to the ER and have them pump Zofran into my system via IV because there's literally no other way to deliver it.
So while it won't kill me it's super fucking expensive whenever I contract it.
I was standing immediately behind him, wearing a mask, just like I always do.
Now whether he meant that a mask in a piece of art would be distressing because it would conjure up trauma, that the necessity for masks has lessened, or that the people who do mask for whatever reason just don't matter.....I don't know. And this is purely anecdotal. But Covid, one of the defining global events of our lifetimes, has been memory-holed and de-emphasized to the point of near total denial.
Which is basically what happened for the Spanish Flu.
Isn't living through history neat?
It's legitimately really weird being in a position to notice how much society will allow to drift into its blindspot as long as everything is running smoothly enough.
Economic violence is all the force you need.
Most of grandparents came from a generation where it was routine for people to have siblings die, sometimes years, after childbirth. Like straight up wasn't abnormal.
Most people would talk about losing a child as a life shattering event now and they wouldn't be wrong but a hundred years ago it was just routine in a very sad way.
The same. They're going to be literally exactly the Same. Because other than a fraction of people who still mask in some situations and test, literally noone else is doing anything at all to mitigate anything.
Noone is testing. Noone cares. So policies regarding what to do if you test positive are irrelevant.
Norovirus is spread by basically everything. Droplets, surfaces, the only thing it's not is technically "airborne" in the true, measles sense. Food nothing, if you touched the same doorknob, that's it. That's why it sweeps cruise ships like it does.
I was looking up the historical mortality rates for the flu in the US.
In 1918-1919, there's obviously a gigantic spike, but before and after World War 2 the rates drop immensely, to the point where two latter pandemics are less deadly than earlier non-pandemic years.
For the last quarter of the 20th century the rates stay pretty flat. This is obviously a huge public health accomplishment.
Then you look at the last 13 years and you might wonder "Well, are these numbers good or bad?"
And I am in no way qualified to adequately weigh that particular question. Some years are obviously better than others. But more often than not, there's usually more than 250K hospitalizations a year because of the flu and usually at least 20,000 deaths (that we are aware of). Would getting flu vaccination rates higher help*? Almost certainly, as would implementing more health-forward workplace policies. Would it drastically lower those numbers even further? I don't know. But we've reached a place with the flu where most people view it as little more than an inevitable annoyance and they are more likely to choose not to get a flu shot for a variety of reasons ranging from "I forgot" to "I don't trust vaccines"**. The number of people who do suffer significantly from the flu has gotten low enough that it doesn't personally affect those who do not directly suffer from it. We've gotten comfortable with that. And we're speedrunning the same with Covid.
*They are routinely below 50% among US adults (sorry, I cannot find the source with the exact figures for this at the moment)
**There are always legitimate personal reasons for not being able to receive a vaccine, I'm not lumping those in to this range
Yeah as an asthmatic person who suffers from all of the allergies: I can't wait to see this come into play. I'm sure I'll be dead long before it becomes standard but hopefully my kids get to benefit from it.
NBC Summary:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/long-covid-cause-study-immune-system-complement-response-rcna134530
More detailed version from Science:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg7942
Mechanical systems tend to turn over more quickly than things like adding in an elevator (which is a lot more expensive than you think. No, even more than that) So it should hopefully be quicker to become more ubiquitous
Also might be one of the few public health things that dipshit parasitic employers realize is better for their bottom line. Given that employees getting sick less because someone brings the plague into the workplace, means less people having to take time off, less lost production because people are showing up sick and possibly less turnover. Granted, also possible they don't adopt it until they are forced to because many of them are assholes that are also incapable of doing good cost to benefit analysis. We do still have the issue where these morons don't get that a lack of sick leave does actually hurt their profits.
As someone who had to go gluten free due to not-celiacs and is feeling loads better than I have in decades cause I didn't know I had what I had (seriously, I just assumed teenagers just randomly go to the bathroom and shit for 15 minutes while grabbing their cramping guts), a constant immune reaction can affect a crazy amount of stuff.
I've even gone sober with very few issues for like...3-4+ months now? It's friggen crazy.
Yeah, as a guy with crohn's....you definitely do not want an overactive immune system.
I had an undiagnosed food allergy for like 30 years. I went from "definitely going to die in the next couple years max" to "lets go climb some fucking rocks" in the span of a few months at most.
Edit to add that basically everything I ate was causing a reaction. I just thought that was what eating was supposed to be like.
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I have felt healthy for like, exactly one weekend in the past 20 years when some new medication i was on was HYPER effective for me.
The fact that people get to feel like that all the time is frankly unfair. I felt like a super saiyan
It turned out that every single ache and pain I thought was getting older was this. And I do mean ALL of them.
So yeah the immune system attacking cells with ace2 receptors would explain a lot about long covid. Because that's a lot of cells
The bad news is that because your immune system is normal otherwise it basically means you will be catching every sickness imaginable.
My daughter's got Crohn's and she takes an IV immunosuppressant every 8 weeks, though they're now moving her to every 6 weeks. Works really well for her otherwise awful bowel symptoms but she's constantly got a cold.
I have IBS and there's been no medication that's worked. Best I've been able to do is somewhat regulate but avoiding FODMAPs and trying to stay stress free.
Yeah I was on remicade too until my quack doctor took me off it for spurious reasons and I immediately developed an allergic reaction to it.
Then again, I had a reaction to Avsola the second time I had it and no one is sure if that was an election reaction or not. Leaning towards no given that my potassium levels tanked and it possible that my potassium was just too low that day, that the fluid from the infusion was just enough to tip things to being too low. Probably the scariest incident in my life in quite some time.
Anyways, I'm hoping as more research is done on long covid, they find effective ways to treat it that end up being effective without needing to put someone a lifetime medicine regiment.
Even my daughters ongoing cough is mostly "worse in the morning and better throughout the week/day, and she otherwise feels fine, especially middle/later day. I wouldn't even be surprised if it's just a lingering cough.
The unfortunate reality is that it's basically anyone's guess, even if you're getting a negative result.
Fun
This past Friday I woke up with a sore throat and congestion. I appear to have come down with yet another cold! I've taken two tests and so far it's not covid. It's definitely not worse than what I had last month, although I thought I was getting better on Saturday but then my voice dropped an octave yesterday. I'll probably give my nose the ol swab again tonight.
Meanwhile, I learned today that ten people at the shelter near where I work tested positive for covid this morning.
My Backloggery
I mean, I'll continue testing through the 10 day period CDC recommends like we have been, it's just frustrating and not sure what else to do.
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Molecular tests usually require a reader. Metrix are the cheapest I know of, other than I guess some old unexpired Lucira tests that might still be floating around after Pfizer bought them, discontinued the COVID one, and replaced it with a more expensive COVID + Flu one. The only other one I know of out there is Cue, which is hella expensive at $350 for the reader and three tests, and the tests themselves are $50 a pop thereafter.
It does seem like the biggest challenge right now is complacency, but I doubt that will ever be unwound. The world at large has decided that some people just deserve to die and/or become permanently disabled for the sake of "normal".