How things are going in your area?

[Thoramel]

My state is currently seeing the highest number of covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic. The daily average of new cases is just shy of 19,000. That's 19,000 new cases of covid being reported through testing every single day. We're also looking at 104 new deaths on average per day at this point. Several area schools are going back to remote learning due to staff shortages, and a number of local hospitals are at their current maximum capacity. Which, according to a friend who works at one of our biggest local hospitals, is as much to do with the surge in cases as it is with a huge shortage of staff due to people leaving the field in the last year. I lost a cousin to it while we were out of state recently. We weren't close, but it still sucks. And both of my god parents are terribly sick with it right now. They are both in their 80's, so pretty worried about that right now. I was in the process of planning a surprise party for my wife's 50th. We started planning it back when numbers of cases were declining rapidly so we thought we'd be good. But that is now canceled. Both my board game and RPG groups have decided to not meet again anytime soon. Man, I tell y'all, I'm not a super outgoing person at the best of times. But I'm dreading the prospect of needing to isolate again for an extended period of time while this runs it's course. One thing I've learned during this time is how much I need social interactions in my life in order to maintain a positive mood. I'm meeting with my management team later this week to discuss the possibility of restarting our intern program later this year, but given everything that is going on I'm betting we all just decide to wait another year. Stupid covid.

[Inarah]

I could copy and paste much of what Thoramel just wrote.  Our game group was going to meet for NYE, until someone who didn't want to be vaccinated came down with COVID.  Our state governor buried his head in the sand and said there's no emergency, and let that condition expire at midnight on the 31st.  Businesses are going back to curbside or closing on days when they have no workers.   I stocked up on food and milk right after Christmas when the stores were empty, and I think we can hold out at home until around the 15th.  Hopefully that's on the down side of the transmission spike.  

 

 

[Cyradis]

The rock saws are broken (AGAIN) so I may as well work at home until the weather clears up more. At least my workplace is pretty plague-safe overall. Still, no need to risk biking on ice if I can't chop up my rocks.

 

Two cousins got themselves some plague, one on either side of the US. They're doing okay - standard gunky cold sort of stuff and will be better soon enough.

 

Just looking at the numbers in some places, I have to wonder how long this *can* go. Washington DC reported ~9000 cases, and DC proper is ~650,000 in population (surrounding area is in different states). That means they could be getting ~10% population infected per week, if this was linear (it isn't), and just on reported daily cases (which undoubtedly exclude many). That isn't sustainable - for the virus itself. It will have to fizzle eventually as it catches more of the population, because once caught, someone at least won't catch it again for a few weeks or months. The number of possible hosts will dwindle. How much damage can be done during that? Uhh... a lot. But it literally cannot last forever at this pace.

 

 

[VitM]

Saw this on Reddit today: Nurse relates how traumatic it is to take care of even a compliant unvaccinated COVID patient

 

[Brother Jim]

And I'm positive again, called the lab and they verified the results. But they can't tell me which variant it is, they don't check for that.

 

Like last time just a little sinus drainage and a slightly scratchy throat.

 

Vaccinated and Boostered, all Moderna.

[Inarah]

1 hour ago, Brother Jim said:

 

Like last time just a little sinus drainage and a slightly scratchy throat.

 

 

I'm not sure I'd know if I got it, if that was the only symptom.  That's a normal day for me, along with fatigue  and body aches.  Hope you're feeling better soon. 

 

[redambrosia]

Fun fact, I just found out that one of the most common first symptoms for vaccinated folks is a lot of sneezing. Guess who’s been sneezing all this week? And guess who’s babysitter just tested positive for covid??

 

Tomorrow I’m going to go out and get a covid test. Just make sure this cruddy feeling is just a normal sick cruddy feeling and not a covid cruddy feeling.

 

I’m pretty sure, if I am positive, I’ve had it for like a week and I got my babysitter sick 😬

[Jasper_the_2nd]

14 hours ago, Inarah said:

 

I'm not sure I'd know if I got it, if that was the only symptom.  That's a normal day for me, along with fatigue  and body aches.  

 

Same.  Between my asthma and my allergies, I technically meet 3+ symptoms most days.
So my wife just tests if she feels a bit off, since she's normally pretty healthy.

[Evilhalfling]

I need to move my monthly D&D group online.  at least for January. The group has only had one session, and it feels very vulnerable to collapse. 

So I will step up my online engagement efforts with the group and hope. 

I know from experience that when a campaign fails I get pretty depressed.  

 

but positivity rates are about 25% in Colorado,  and due to the mild presentation that must be a terrible undercount. 

 

Sitting at a table with 5 unrelated people for 4-5 hours seems like a risk.  more than I should be willing to take. 

I felt fine about going maskless with them in early December. 

 

there is a convention in late February,  if the surge is still high I will blow that off as well  - I never did sign up to run anything so at least I don't have to cancel my stuff. 

 

I did read a story on NPR saying they expect this wave to peak  and start falling by  late February using similar math to  Cyradis 

 

Quote

(Dr. Bob)  WACHTER: What's happening now is the cases are exploding as we've never seen before, and that really is a manifestation of how extraordinarily infectious omicron is. What we're not seeing is the same relationship between cases and hospitalizations. So the average case of omicron has about a 60% lower chance of landing you in the hospital than the average case of delta.

 

he goes on to say that for the unvaccinated the hospital rate is only 30% lower than for delta.  Although he doesn't  break out unvaccinated people  with previous infections.

 

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by Evilhalfling

[Chaoswolf]

And we have another Covid infection at work.

 

There are rumblings of 'drastic and severe' measures being taken,  but nothing has been announced yet.

 

So far I'm still ok, though.

[Brother Jim]

17 hours ago, Brother Jim said:

And I'm positive again, called the lab and they verified the results. But they can't tell me which variant it is, they don't check for that.

 

Like last time just a little sinus drainage and a slightly scratchy throat.

 

Vaccinated and Boostered, all Moderna.

Today adds all over body aches, worse than the ones I normally have, a slight headache and a slightly more scratchy throat.

Oh, and I'm coughing more.

[Cranky Dog]

Got my appointment for the 3rd dose on Sunday Jan 16 later in the afternoon.

 

It's a shame I couldn't book a space on a Friday at the same as my regular blood test. It would've given me the whole weekend to get over any potential side effects.

[strawhat]

Take care, Jim.

 

Work has reinstated the mask policy.

 

We've been returning a few in our department to our normal seating (technically against policy), because we keep being bumped from area to area in the building.  This doesn't bother me because most of us are fairly risk-averse and fully vaccinated and boostered.

 

Someone brought the crud to the office (non-COVID crud), and managed to pass it around a bit.  I caught that just before Thanksgiving.  I've fought most of it off by now, but I did manage an ear infection which led to a ruptured eardrum.  That was fun.  Lay down for a nap a few days before Christmas and wake up leaking out the side of my head.  I don't know if my current hearing issues are related to the infection not completely going away, or simply waiting for the eardrum to heal.

[redambrosia]

Well, they didn’t have any covid tests at the stores. Apparently everyone has been out for two weeks. Walgreens says they might get some tomorrow, but who knows.

 

I’m still anxiously waiting for them to approve a vaccine for kinder under five. I’m pretty scared about my baby getting sick. I hate her being sick.

[Werkrobotwerk]

One of the people at new years got diagnosed with covid on the 1st. I got sick on the 5th, at this rate I won't even be able to get test results till Monday. Which prevents me from going back to work till I do. Which is putting in jeopardy my ability to get time off in early February for a convention I was supposed to be running games at.