Coronavirus on a Personal Basis

[AndyinPA]

[Volkonski]

Our older daughter and her husband have good friends in Ohio whom they visited on the drive up to the North Fork a few weeks ago.

Their friends were vaccinated months ago. Both now have breakthru cases of Covid-19.

This has greatly upset our daughter. She is very worried about returning to the classroom in August with no vaccination requirement and no mask mandate. Damn you Gov Abbott.

We had been planning to go to a restaurant this evening for my birthday but have canceled. Will get takeout instead.

Our daughter flies home tomorrow. She is dreading it.

[filly]

While wearing a mask again has not been the most comfortable thing, I'm glad we started a few weeks ago. Not many cases up here but there will be. We were enjoying dining out again. Glad we did that while we could.

[Foggy]

Happy Birthday, V. I suppose you don't want a separate thread, so there it is.

[bill_g]

The face mask asshole detector worked for me last Saturday at Safeway. It got the attention of a lady who took it upon herself to remind me the mask mandate had been recinded. I know. Thank you very much. Turn and try to keep going down the aisle, but she made a side step to tell me the harm masks caused. I put up my hand in a Stop gesture, slid my glasses down my nose, gave her The Eye, and moved on.

I can hardly wait for the next encounter. I think I'll get a pocket airhorn.

[sugar magnolia]

The face mask asshole detector worked for me last Saturday at Safeway. It got the attention of a lady who took it upon herself to remind me the mask mandate had been recinded. I know. Thank you very much. Turn and try to keep going down the aisle, but she made a side step to tell me the harm masks caused. I put up my hand in a Stop gesture, slid my glasses down my nose, gave her The Eye, and moved on.

I can hardly wait for the next encounter. I think I'll get a pocket airhorn.

Masks don't cause nearly as much harm as strangers telling me about the harm masks cause.

But that's just me.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Started feeling ill at work today. Got home, temp spiked to 100.8^oF. Getting my brain scraped tomorrow morning, working from home the rest of the week. The good news is the fever is backing off. Still 2^oF above normal for this time of day, but I'm feeling better as well.

[sugar magnolia]

Got an email this morning that one of the crew on the set had tested positive yesterday. No 'close contact' notification, just the general one that everybody got. I still freaked me out, and the timing sucked because I had just agreed to babysit the grand baby for a couple of hours this afternoon about 5 minutes before I got the email. I was negative yesterday morning, but worked most of the day. Not working today so no test this morning.

[Estiveo]

I was grocery shopping on Sunday, noticing mask wearing at about 50% and, as I approached the checkouts, I felt a cool breeze on my face and realized...I'd forgotten my mask!

The few times I've forgotten my mask in the last year & a half, I've never made it more than two steps from the car before turning back to get it. This time I made it across the parking lot, into the store, and all the way from the deli at one end to produce at the other, visiting many aisles in between like an oblivious hummingbird flitting about a disease infested flowerbed.

I've been awaiting the inevitable result of my lapse: a case of breakthrough Delta Covid and my tragic, prolonged, and lingering death.

But so far so good.

[Slim Cognito]

Masks don't cause nearly as much harm as strangers telling me about the harm masks cause.

You need to mark that up and sell it on Cafe Press.

I ventured out today, still coughing up crap, but no fever (never had one). I wore a mask into Dollar Tree and I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the store. Had lunch outside in the blazing heat, but better than sitting inside a small cafe. Then off to Aldis where, I'd guess, about 60% of the people were masked, including the workers.

When Hubs and I both came down sick, I figured the chances of us both breaking through were pretty slim, but now maybe not so much.

He's almost over it, I probably still have another week of draining and coughing to go. I was trying to think what the false negative rates were on the quick test, as I recall they were pretty high. That said, I'm not suggesting I have covid, but what I do have is pretty bad as summer colds go.

[p0rtia]

Masks don't cause nearly as much harm as strangers telling me about the harm masks cause.

You need to mark that up and sell it on Cafe Press.

I ventured out today, still coughing up crap, but no fever (never had one). I wore a mask into Dollar Tree and I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the store. Had lunch outside in the blazing heat, but better than sitting inside a small cafe. Then off to Aldis where, I'd guess, about 60% of the people were masked, including the workers.

When Hubs and I both came down sick, I figured the chances of us both breaking through were pretty slim, but now maybe not so much.

He's almost over it, I probably sti
ll have another week of draining and coughing to go. I was trying to think what the false negative rates were on the quick test, as I recall they were pretty high. That said, I'm not suggesting I have covid, but what I do have is pretty bad as summer colds go.

You are not alone (one of the friends I spent the weekend with has also had the cold from hell):

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/well ... unity.html

Why Everyone Has the Worst Summer Cold Ever

Yes, the summer cold and cough season really is worse than usual.

“I’ve had bad colds, but I’ve never experienced a virus like this,” said Holly Riddel, 55, an entrepreneur in Redondo Beach, Calif., who has been suffering from congestion, clogged ears and a raspy throat for about two weeks. “I want this gone. I haven’t been able to work out. I’m just not feeling like myself.”

Months of pandemic restrictions aimed at Covid-19 had the unintended but welcome effect of stopping flu, cold and other viruses from spreading. But now that masks are off and social gatherings, hugs and handshakes are back, the run-of-the-mill viruses that cause drippy noses, stuffy heads, coughs and sneezes have also returned with a vengeance.

“It was a bad chest cold — chest congestion, a rattling cough,” said Laura Wehrman, 52, a wardrobe supervisor for film and television, who caught a weeklong bug after flying to New York from Austin in late June to visit friends. Although she’s fully vaccinated against Covid-19, she took multiple tests to be sure she wasn’t infected. Eventually a doctor confirmed it was a rhinovirus, a common cold virus. She said several of her other friends also have been sick with colds and coughs as well.

“I was staying with one of my best friends, and it got tense for a minute because she had started a new job, and she didn’t want to be sick,” said Ms. Wehrman. “I actually went and checked into a hotel for the last two days so I could just cough away by myself.”

Infectious disease experts say there are a number of factors fueling this hot, sneezy summer. While pandemic lockdowns protected many people from Covid-19, our immune systems missed the daily workout of being exposed to a multitude of microbes back when we commuted on subways, spent time at the office, gathered with friends and sent children to day care and school.

Although your immune system is likely as strong as it always was, if it hasn’t been alerted to a microbial intruder in a while, it may take a bit longer to get revved up when challenged by a pathogen again, experts say. And while some viral exposures in our past have conferred lasting immunity, other illnesses may have given us only transient immunity that waned as we were isolating at home.

“Frequent exposure to various pathogens primes or jazzes up the immune system to be ready to respond to that pathogen,” said Dr. Paul Skolnik, an immunovirologist and chair of internal medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. “If you’ve not had those exposures, your immune system may be a little slower to respond or doesn’t respond as fully, leading to greater susceptibility to some respiratory infections and sometimes longer or more protracted symptoms.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that cases of common respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (R.S.V.) and human parainfluenza viruses, which cause typical cold and flu symptoms, are on the rise this summer. The spike in R.S.V., which can be especially risky to the very young and very old, is particularly unusual for this time of year, said a spokeswoman at the C.D.C., which plans to release a report this week about the pandemic’s effect on a variety of respiratory viruses. The surge in R.S.V. was most notable in several southern states, but the virus has begun to crop up all over the country. Its spread has been tracked primarily in young children, some of whom have been hospitalized with severe symptoms.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Started feeling ill at work today. Got home, temp spiked to 100.8^oF. Getting my brain scraped tomorrow morning, working from home the rest of the week. The good news is the fever is backing off. Still 2^oF above normal for this time of day, but I'm feeling better as well.

Results came back negative. My temp came back down to top of my normal range yesterday morning, but has been hovering about a degree above normal since yesterday afternoon. Just some sort of GI bug.

[AndyinPA]

Hope you're feeling better soon.

[Phoenix520]

I've been awaiting the inevitable result of my lapse: a case of breakthrough Delta Covid and my tragic, prolonged, and lingering death.

Let me know when you get to the beginning of the prolonged part. I’ll come hold your hand for a while. Not all the way through lingering, though.

[fierceredpanda]

Mrs. FRP and I are heading west for our scheduled vacation in Breckenridge this afternoon. I probably won't be around the Fogbow until we get back next weekend. Y'all behave while I'm gone.

[AndyinPA]

Have a great trip!

[somerset]

Mrs. FRP and I are heading west for our scheduled vacation in Breckenridge this afternoon. I probably won't be around the Fogbow until we get back next weekend. Y'all behave while I'm gone.

Enjoy and ride safe!!

[ZinWhit]

Douglas Cty, OR has its highest covid numbers of the pandemic, actual, positivity rate and hospitalizations. It's one of the lowest vaccinated in Oregon and the delta is dominant.

Many Evergreen Family Medicine doctors (the county's largest) aren't vaccinated, Mercy hospital board member Powell (owns EFM with his brother) is anti-mask and for "natural" herd immunity since the beginning of the pandemic, all doing harm to the community.

I left my former Dr. yesterday during an appointment, disgusted.

This was the first in-person visit in 20 months and I asked for telemedicine (declined). I'm immuno-compromised, he's not vaccinated, and never was I told such, putting me at risk. Furthermore, at no point was I asked about my vaccination status. At least he was masked - a state mandate for health care providers.

This major community health network is helping to drive the spread of covid, violating their hippocratic oath. People go away saying their doctor is cool with natural herd immunity, screw vaccination.

As I left, I told my doctor he's going to be damn busy over the next month, what I thought about their moral and ethical accountability.

Now I must find a new doctor in Eugene.

[AndyinPA]

Baby steps.

My faux noise watching brother-in-law got the J&J. Up until today, he had absolutely refused to ever get it.

[Phoenix520]

Mrs. FRP and I are heading west for our scheduled vacation in Breckenridge this afternoon.

Y’all come back now, ya hear?

Andy: That’s wonderful!! What changed his mind?

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Breckenridge in the summer! NIIIIICE! Have fun, FRP!

[p0rtia]

Douglas Cty, OR has its highest covid numbers of the pandemic, actual, positivity rate and hospitalizations. It's one of the lowest vaccinated in Oregon and the delta is dominant.

Many Evergreen Family Medicine doctors (the county's largest) aren't vaccinated, Mercy hospital board member Powell (owns EFM with his brother) is anti-mask and for "natural" herd immunity since the beginning of the pandemic, all doing harm to the community.

I left my former Dr. yesterday during an appointment, disgusted.

This was the first in-person visit in 20 months and I asked for telemedicine (declined). I'm immuno-compromised, he's not vaccinated, and never was I told such, putting me at risk. Furthermore, at no point was I asked about my vaccination status. At least he was masked - a state mandate for health care providers.

This major community health network is helping to drive the spread of covid, violating their hippocratic oath. People go away saying their doctor is cool with natural herd immunity, screw vaccination.

As I left, I told my doctor he's going to be damn busy over the next month, what I thought about their moral and ethical accountability.

Now I must find a new doctor in Eugene.

Crikey. Good on ya for walking out.

This is a story I haven't heard before. I wonder how many more such insane medical institutions are out there?

Be safe.

[Phoenix520]

ZinWhit, mr520’s cousin is a surgical nurse in Grants Pass. I was horrified to hear she’s not vaccinated. At the time we were there, 2 months ago, it wasn’t mandated for staff.

My sister also lives in Grants Pass. Their family is on the sane side of the political spectrum. My niece had ACL surgery last month and they had to look long and hard to find someone who suited them.

(We invited the cousin to bbq at the sister’s motel because we only see them once every 10 years. Thank goodness everyone there was sharp enough to recognize the quicksand and avoid it. I keep telling my niece ‘This is how you change hearts and minds. Friendship, not confrontation.’ She wants to change the world. Now. )

[AndyinPA]

Mrs. FRP and I are heading west for our scheduled vacation in Breckenridge this afternoon.

Y’all come back now, ya hear?

Andy: That’s wonderful!! What changed his mind?

My sister isn't sure, but she thinks some of his other republican friends may have gotten it, too.

[Lani]

Many Evergreen Family Medicine doctors (the county's largest) aren't vaccinated, Mercy hospital board member Powell (owns EFM with his brother) is anti-mask and for "natural" herd immunity since the beginning of the pandemic, all doing harm to the community.


This major community health network is helping to drive the spread of covid, violating their hippocratic oath. People go away saying their doctor is cool with natural herd immunity, screw vaccination.

I guess he overlooked the lack of herd immunity in Sweden. It was minimal, and people died because of that failed attempt to reach herd immunity.

And now there are reports that people who had covid are falling ill with the delta variant.