The Coronavirus Panic Thread

[Ghel]

The coworker I mentioned in my last post has come back with another positive test, and so has her husband. She's freaking out a bit, mostly for her husband who has a slew of health issues. So far he's only having mild symptoms and she's having none, but they'll be quarantining and keeping an eye on their symptoms.

The rest of us got negative results from our tests. :whew: But we decided to close the lobby, anyway. Back to drive-up and appointment only.

Minnesota puts out a report of positive cases by zip code every week on Thursdays. We're waiting for this week's report to see what the results of the local testing were.

[Monterey Jack]

Was surprised going into work today to see the secondary entrance open to the public for the first time in literally a year. This has to be an encouraging sign.

[Ghel]

We're having a little bit of a surge in our small town and the surrounding communities, so the state set up a pop-up testing site (spit collection) at the community center. Their goal was to get 100 people tested each day (yesterday and today), and it sounded like they were set to surpass that. That would be about 10% of our population.

One CW decided to get tested yesterday. She got her results today. Positive. So the rest of us went down to get tested today. CW who tested positive was already home today because of a migraine, so she's quarantining now. She said she feels fine other than the migraine (which she's prone to, anyway). She thinks it's a false positive, so she chose to get a swab test today.

I felt a bit awkward getting tested today. Besides the physical part of it - I was having trouble producing the amount of saliva needed - almost exactly two weeks ago, I was at the community center getting my vaccine. But obviously the vaccine isn't 100% protection and I'd get tested for solidarity even if it was.

I guess we'll see how many of my coworkers test positive and have to quarantine. We only have 5 employees when everybody's here.

[NorthernZel]

Our gov'mint just announced a huge restriction roll-back:

- after Easter, all kids will be allowed back to school on a 50/50 schedule, and hairdressers/beauty clinics are allowed to reopen
- one week after that, small malls may reopen
- April 21st: Larger malls and libraries may reopen + restaurants/bars may open for outdoor service (vaccine attest or negative test required)
- May 6th: Indoor serving in restaurants + attendance for small sports and cultural events is reopen (vaccine attest or negative test required)

All of this is of course conditional on how high or low our cases/admittances get.

[Nunavut Pants]

Tomorrow! Da Boss and I are going to get shot tomorrow!!

[Arcus]

When it comes to masks, I have to look at the very low numbers of the flu this season. It makes me think that countries like Japan got it right and maybe we should be willing to put one on if we feel sick, but still need to go out. We have spent a year with them as a daily part of life. Would it really be so bad to use them again when we are sick so those we care about don't get sick with us?

Just something to think about now that we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Smapti]

I think I'm going to continue wearing masks even after we don't have to anymore - I've grown quite fond of it, and I have a sizeable selection of reusable masks now so I can express myself differently from day to day. (Also I don't have to force myself to smile all the time at work.)

Tomorrow is the first day grocery workers are eligible for the vaccine here, and I managed to snag a reservation at a pop-up site the county is running. It's supposed to be a drive-thru site, but I got in touch with someone from the county who told me I can still go through it on foot.

[Buzzard]

Got some Moderna on tap for tomorrow. No plans to go out amongst the silly humans afterwards, because... silly humans.

[csquared]

I've been stabbed. Pfizer.

Already planning dinner out with friends in mid April.

[Argus]

First thing I want to suggest is that everyone cut the ear loops when disposing of masks.

I fold up my disposable masks, stuff them in a ziplock bag in the back seat of my car, and use hand sanitizer immediately afterwards. (Given the information about how masks work, any contamination is more likely to be me than anyone else.) When that bag starts to look full, I move it directly from my car to the trash compactor at my apartment complex. I also have washable masks, which are stored in a separate bag until the next time I do an appropriate laundry load.

[MadMike]

First thing I want to suggest is that everyone cut the ear loops when disposing of masks.

I see a lot of discarded masks on the ground, so apparently these idiots can't even be bothered to take them to a trash can, let alone cut the loops off. And apparently someone couldn't even wait until they were outside, because I saw one on the floor between the two sets of doors.

In other news, it was one year ago today that I was in the office last. Everyone thought it was only going to be for two weeks, but a year later here we are. I remember shortly after the mask mandate was put in place, I went out to Sheetz for something. I parked away from the other cars and started putting my mask on before I got out of the car, and realized that just a couple months ago that would have looked suspicious.

[Pixelated]

I'm burning all of my masks once I'm no longer required to wear them at work or to enter any businesses/restaurants I frequent. If that makes me a "selfish asshole", so be it. I have had ENOUGH of this shit.

I've had a couple of customers ask me what I plan to do once we no longer need the masks. Since the flu numbers around here are reportedly in the sub-cellar -- and the masks are being largely credited with that -- I'll probably keep wearing them.

The fact I've bought roughly two dozen is, of course, also a factor here ...

[Slave to the Phone]

First thing I want to suggest is that everyone cut the ear loops when disposing of masks. Critters have been getting their heads stuck in them.

Also, I got my second Moderna jab last week. Drink LOTS of water for the next few days.

[Dreamstalker]

Well, got my first jab at 9:30 this morning. They were running a bit behind, but it was super-efficient. Not much of a reaction so far; during work I got a tingling going down into my fingertips on that arm; it subsided only for me to feel it in my toes. In general I felt just a tiny bit high, like I had accidentally dosed myself while making some cannabis gummies.

My arm still hurts (no thanks to some asshole who ran her cart into me as I was in one of SCO lanes trying to clean up a blueberry spill) but that's about it. Now I'm a lot less stressed about the whole situation at work, just knowing that I have some protection and am a lock to get the full round; the lack of social distancing doesn't bug me as much as it did.

A few of us are making plans to visit a 94-year-old relative in Oregon once everyone is fully vaccinated.

I'll keep wearing a mask maybe forever especially on public transit and during flu/ick seasons...besides, I now have too many pretty ones. Our mask 'timeline' is as follows: KN95s from a friend (March 2020), sewn cloth masks from dad and a few friends (March-May 2020), triple-layer antimicrobial masks that clearly work but are too "techie" for mom's taste (April 2020, ordered from one of my sites that makes gear for theater/film), finally a slew of wonderful African-print fabric cotton masks via a small business in Detroit.

[MadMike]

I'm burning all of my masks once I'm no longer required to wear them at work or to enter any businesses/restaurants I frequent.

I would, but my sister-in-law made it herself. Not sure what I'll do with it assuming I'll never wear it again, but I hate to just throw something away if there's nothing wrong with it.

Found out today that they're lifting the extra restrictions on bars in my state in a few weeks. Back in July, when the numbers started to creep up again, they started requiring a food purchase with any alcohol purchase. And then in September they started cutting off sales at 11 PM. A few places started having karaoke shows again, but I usually don't even make it out until 10 or so, and it seemed pointless to get out there and have to leave an hour later. But I might try to ease back into it once those restrictions are lifted. I can deal with the mask thing until that's no longer a requirement.

Our governor expects to have enough vaccines available for everyone in the current group. Hopefully we'll be ready to move onto the next group soon after. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much just yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic. A year ago, I was checking the virus counts every day, and getting frustrated every time they went up. Now I'm checking vaccination counts, which are a lot more encouraging.

In a couple weeks, we're having our first family get-together we've had in months. Just a small one at my mom's house, I guess as an early Easter and also to make up for the holidays we missed. Everyone who's going to be there is fully vaccinated, except for my brother's two kids, one of which is too young, so we should be relatively safe. The older one will be turning 18 that day. Where did the time go?