Coronavirus on a Personal Basis

[AndyinPA]

[Volkonski]

[Sunrise]

Such good news about negativity, Kate/Phoenix and Sugar. Hope you’re feeling better now, Sugar. Maybe it was from stress and tension.

[Lani]

OMG! 628 Hawaii Covid cases reported today, all from the latest 24-hour reporting period. That's almost 3 times higher than the worse day we've ever had in this state.

On my island we have a new church cluster. On 2 days, a church took kids/young people on an outing. In a van, no masks. Two have tested positive as of yesterday. Church not cooperating. So DOH released a statement that names the church and the 2 days of the outings. Good for DOH!

[Lani]

Hawaii eviction moratorium expires today. So this happened:
"The temporary eviction ban will continue until a county no longer has substantial or high levels of community transmission for 14 consecutive days or on Oct. 3, whichever comes earlier."

The state has money to pay rent, but for some reason, there are people who aren't taking advantage of it. Maybe now they will.

[Lani]

Well, today's crap continues. Now my island has a new daily high - 26. 3 visitors and 23 residents including 6 children. The kids are almost 24% of the cases. While some of the cases seem to be related to travel, most come from community spread of an unknown source.

[Dave from down under]

NSW today
319 new cases
5 deaths

Greater Sydney, Hunter and Armidale in lock down.

My town had a near miss 2 weeks ago

All of NSW:
Masks continue to be compulsory in shops/businesses etc
Capacity limits 1 per 4m2
ServiceNSW QR code check in/out required

My COVIDSafe app just told me no close contacts last 14 days (it would alter me immediately if any is identified)
I’m booked in for my first jab in a week.

[p0rtia]

[sugar magnolia]

Upholding the famous family legacy of "nothing is ever easy", they sent me off to a covid clinic today for a more sensitive test. Dragged my ass out of bed to go 30 minutes up the road to the clinic, where the fucking receptionist had her mask down around her chin. Yeah, I said something about it. She's sitting there in a clinic that only deals with close contactsor suspected positives and she can't be assed to wear the damn thing correctly. Anyway, I gave them my info and the production name like I was supposed to. They shoved the swab up my nose and asked me what kind of test I was supposed to get. I have no freaking idea. I was sick as a dog when the PA called and all I know is what time and where I'm supposed to be. It's their job to have the info, not mine. So anyway, I reported the woman at the desk one more time before I left because she STILL had the damn thing around her chin. Waited my 15 mins in the parking lot, got my results (negative!) and came home and went back to bed.

4 hours later I get a frantic text from the PA. The clinic gave me the wrong test and can I go 20 minutes in the opposite direction for another test. They close in 30 mins so can I go now? I went in my pajamas and made it before they closed. Results expected by midnight. I have now had 5 tests in 3 days, all negative. I'm assuming tonight's results will also be negative. And I got on the phone and had a "discussion" with the newest (the production is on their 8th one) accountant and told him I wouldn't be back until they got my pay sorted out. 5 minutes later, I got calls from my boss, his boss, and the head of wardrobe who were just "checking on me" and worried about me and to feel better so I could get back to work because they all missed me. Yeah they miss me. I found out yesterday I'm the only one in the entire dept who knows how to sew! We have scenes next week that require 150 people in very well-tailored Marine dress uniforms. Of course they want me back ASAP! Because of all the positive cases, we're dark until Wed but I fully expect they'll call me in before then. I also have 14 men I have to fit for cock socks and cobble together some sort of support system so they can fight in them without losing everything.

[Phoenix520]

Hmmm. How do you measure for cock socks?

[Slim Cognito]

Oh my, Sugar!!!!! sending you good vibes!!

[sugar magnolia]

Hmmm. How do you measure for cock socks?

One way you DON'T do it is to ask them what size they wear. They all wear L or XL according to them.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[Dave from down under]

Hmmm. How do you measure for cock socks?

One way you DON'T do it is to ask them what size they wear. They all wear L or XL according to them.

14 x parkers

I hope you feel better soon.

[Estiveo]

Oh, Sugar!

That's a tale for notalwaysright.com.

[LM K]

My normally smart psychiatrist brother has some concerns about neurological side effects from the vaccines based on what he has seen and read. I don't agree with him, but I'm not nearly medically educated enough to argue with him. I think the main problem is that he's read the data at VAERS and assumed a greater degree of serious side effects than what really happens. Therefore he will not let his 17-year old daughter - who is going off to college in a few weeks - get vaccinated.

But I'm curious to see what happens this week. My 37-year old very smart prosthodontist niece will be in town for our family reunion. She is over-the-top 100% pro-vaccine and very vocal about it. I can't imagine her NOT challenging my brother and she has the chops to do the research and intelligently refute him. I sure hope she does because I really, really want all of my relatives to be vaccinated.

The neurological effects of covid are horrific. Your brother knows better. He understands stats. He's also a father worried about his daughter. As a scientist, he needs to put his big boy pants on. Many of the medications he prescribed are significantly more likely to cause dangerous side effects. Those drugs are necessary and the benefits outweigh the risk.

Your brother knows that, too.

Is he vaccinated?

Do you know what college your niece is attending? More and more colleges and universities are mandating covid vaccination. Now that delta and delta+ are running around slaughtering children and young adults, more and more colleges/universities will begin vaccine mandates.

I encouraged my 18 year old nice to get vaccinated in June. She wasn't sure if she was going to start community college in Reno (home) or Eugene (my college). I explained to her that many schools would be mandating vaccinations this fall and that it was best that she just get it over with. I was right; my college announced a vaccine mandate a few weeks ago.

[LM K]

This one hurts. A lot. Lee was my first Sgt after I got out of the academy, and we remained friends all these years.


Yesterday, there were 6 ICU beds open in the entire state of MS.

Fuck these people. Fuck all these people.

I'm so sorry, my friend.

[LM K]

Too bad we don't have any such thing as public service announcements where there could be messaging that vaccines are the way back to normal life. I'm disappointed that Biden didn't anticipate that Republicans would do everything they can to make him fail at getting the virus under control and hit the airwaves hard with vaccination messaging. This has turned into a shit show.

There's a limit to Biden's control. I think his team has been working intensely with all US state and US territories' health authority to market vaccines.

The repubs started these messages last summer, way before the election. At that time it was a war on masks.

Every English speaking resident has had access to plenty of accurate info about masking, social distancing, and vaccination.

We must remember that a lot of Repub politicians are pandering to conspiracy theorists. But it's not just politicians manipulating conspiracy theorists; it's anti-science leaders, evangelical leaders (not all), morons with local radio shows, anti-vax athletes and entertainers, etc.

[slq]

Hope you feel better soon, Sugar, and hope it's not COVID.

[Slim Cognito]

does anyone know if the quick covid tests have improved their accuracy?

[LM K]

Commissioner Freeman,

I apologize for missing yesterday's board meeting. I forgot about an engagement.

Today, I canceled an appointment with my now former dentist in Sutherlin to place a crown. Two weeks ago they prepared the tooth and I currently have a temporary. I asked about covid protocol and was told they wear no masks because there is no mandate, later the receptionist saying she is "on the opposite end of the spectrum" than me.

Now, I must find a doctor and dentist.

It's really sad and you commissioners can do more to help fix this imminent crisis.

Thank you.

Chris

WTAF?! Dentist's offices have been one of the most dangerous places to be during the pandemic. Many dentists have installed the highest grade air filtration systems available, and use impeccable covid protocol. You're safer in airports and bars than a dentist's office that isn't following appropriate covid protocol.

I'm stunned that your now ex-dentist isn't requiring masks. Esp since OR law still has a mask mandate for all medical facilities.

[scirreeve]

Commissioner Freeman,

I apologize for missing yesterday's board meeting. I forgot about an engagement.

Today, I canceled an appointment with my now former dentist in Sutherlin to place a crown. Two weeks ago they prepared the tooth and I currently have a temporary. I asked about covid protocol and was told they wear no masks because there is no mandate, later the receptionist saying she is "on the opposite end of the spectrum" than me.

Now, I must find a doctor and dentist.

It's really sad and you commissioners can do more to help fix this imminent crisis.

Thank you.

Chris

WTAF?! Dentist's offices have been one of the most dangerous places to be during the pandemic. Many dentists have installed the highest grade air filtration systems available, and use impeccable covid protocol. You're safer in airports and bars than a dentist's office that isn't following appropriate covid protocol.

I'm stunned that your now ex-dentist isn't requiring masks. Esp since OR law still has a mask mandate for all medical facilities.

My dentist wore a mask before COVID.

[LM K]

You're exempt from the mask "while you're eating" so people "eat" for the entire plane trip, nibbling crackers or whatever. When my (step)daughter told me she did that when she came to visit last April, I coulda slapped her. Except she's 30 and she'da have slapped me back.

The last time I flew, last October, I was double-masked. I'm hoping to fly to Philly in Sep, if things don't get worse. I will be double masked again. This is when the masks with straps come in handy. Less friction on the ears and the under-mask is held in place by the stringed over-mask. The under-mask will be an N-95, or whatever the good ones are. They're easily available these days.

(fixed typo)

Airplanes are one of the safest public spaces to be in.

So it’s a surprise to find that the air inside a plane is cleaner than you might think. Thanks to HEPA filters and efficient circulation on commercial aircrafts, the air you breathe in flight—though not necessarily entirely virus-free—is much cleaner than the air in restaurants, bars, stores, or your best friend’s living room. Here’s why you don’t need to fear the air up there.

How airplane air gets cleaned
Most, but not all, commercial aircraft are equipped with HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters. That means that, on HEPA-equipped planes, the airflow “mirrors the laminar airflow of an operating room with no or minimal crossover of air streams,” says Dr. Bjoern Becker of the Lufthansa Group of airlines. “Air is pumped from the ceiling into the cabin at a speed of about a yard per second and sucked out again below the window seats.” About 40 percent of a cabin’s air gets filtered through this HEPA system; the remaining 60 percent is fresh and piped in from outside the plane. “Cabin air is completely changed every three minutes, on average, while the aircraft is cruising,” says Becker. (Lufthansa has a video showing how HEPA filters work.)

Officially, certified HEPA filters “block and capture 99.97 percent of airborne particles over 0.3 micron in size,” says Tony Julian, an air-purifying expert with RGF Environmental Group. The efficiency of these filters, perhaps counterintuitively, increases for even smaller particles. So while the exhaled globs that carry SARS-CoV-2 can be quite small, HEPA filters effectively remove the vast majority from the air.

“Typically the number of particles in the air are [sic] really low, the plane is almost a clean room, because there’s so much ventilation, and very few sources of particulate generation within a plane,” says Liam Bates, CEO and co-founder of Kaiterra, an air-quality monitor manufacturer. “[Planes] are actually safer than virtually any other confined space.”

I feel safer on a plane than my classroom.

[RTH10260]

► Show Spoiler

Commissioner Freeman,

I apologize for missing yesterday's board meeting. I forgot about an engagement.

Today, I canceled an appointment with my now former dentist in Sutherlin to place a crown. Two weeks ago they prepared the tooth and I currently have a temporary. I asked about covid protocol and was told they wear no masks because there is no mandate, later the receptionist saying she is "on the opposite end of the spectrum" than me.

Now, I must find a doctor and dentist.

It's really sad and you commissioners can do more to help fix this imminent crisis.

Thank you.

Chris

WTAF?! Dentist's offices have been one of the most dangerous places to be during the pandemic. Many dentists have installed the highest grade air filtration systems available, and use impeccable covid protocol. You're safer in airports and bars than a dentist's office that isn't following appropriate covid protocol.

I'm stunned that your now ex-dentist isn't requiring masks. Esp since OR law still has a mask mandate for all medical facilities.

My dentist wore a mask before COVID.

Wearing mask in pre-covid times has become a standard to protect against especially HIV and other blood transmission deseases.Working on teeth can become a bloody affair.

[LM K]

ETA: Trip was just cancelled so dilemma over.
________________________________________________
I'm sorry for hogging most of this page!

I have a dilemma.

On Sept 15th I'm scheduled to fly to Reno. The delta variant wasn't an issue when the trip was scheduled.

I'll stay at my mom's for a few days and then she, my sister, and I are driving to Monterey, CA to spread my father's ashes. We'll be in Monterey for a few days, return to Reno, and I'll fly home 2 days later.

My entire family is vaccinated except for 3 nieces. Livi gave birth just last weekend and Zoey and Evee are too young to be vaccinated. Mom is 72.

Mom and I are sharing a room while in Monterey.

Last week my mom asked if we should consider rescheduling the trip. I told her that I would keep track of each county's risk level for a few weeks per CDC recommendations for traveling when vaccinated.

Today I read that 80% of US counties are very high risk or higher.

County risk levels and vaccination rates:
Lane county (me): Very high risk
Washoe county (family): Very high risk
Monterey county: High risk

Vaccination rates range from 51-56% amongst counties.

I'll have my mom ask my sister about this. Lori's a critical care nurse ... so she's a bit jaded about covid. Basically, "live your life for tomorrow we die.".

Ultimately, it seems like I'm the decision maker about this trip because I'll be in 3 counties rather than 2 counties and I'm going through airports.

I'm not sure if I should just say yep, "let's reschedule" or "let's decide in 2 weeks".

(I should add that today I spent too long reading too many NYT articles about delta, so I've freaked myself out.)