Just been chatting about this with my friends and family, and came on here to note it. Ponder was actually shopping with Duckling for clothes and he said the shops were fine and empty when they got there, and huge lines to get in when they left. We have a couple of masks but I’d rather just not leave the house.
I don’t expect to go into labour for a couple more weeks, but… Uh, they better sort themselves out because I might not make the most “sensible” voices in favour of my mental health depending on what they recommend here. OTOH I’m planning on cancelling, delaying or having via telehealth as many of my medical appointments as I can. Since we don’t have someone to leave Duckling with and I can’t drive myself, we have limited options.
I am up on site, so its a bit weird as we have been told we might not be able to go home, because they dont want to bring people to work in case they have the virus and it causes work to have to shutdown if we have an outbreak here, so we may be here until Friday. Who knows?
edit: Manager just called, probably be here until Saturday evening at this stage
We met my in-laws (parents, sister, her husband, nephew) for a bonfire today so they could meet the baby for the first time. Everyone was masked – grandparents in KN95s – except our nephew. I love him dearly but am extremely annoyed about it. He’s twelve, and took the baby for a walk around the yard which was really sweet except no mask (cases are pretty damn high in our area, like pretty much all of the US). I got caught up in other conversations and neither my husband or I caught it in time. I’m annoyed at both his parents and him. Twelve is old enough to keep a mask on, right? I’m also pretty sure if I’d just said “put on your mask before you hold him” it would have been fine, so I’m also annoyed at myself. Need to remember to be extra clear when we see them again, hopefully sooner than 5 months.
It’s required here but people don’t follow it, including bus drivers and el operators. A friend got refused boarding when she asked a bus driver to please pull up his mask so it covered something other than his chin.
Maybe since it is now a federal requirement it’ll have more teeth? She complained about the driver to the CTA but they totally blew her off.
StepMIL got her first shot (over 75, multiple high risk conditions). Boyfriend’s trying to get FIL one now - his county’s website seems to be fairly obtuse, though as far as how to sign up for an appointment.
(ETA: Apparently SMIL uses the Internet and is pretty decent with a smartphone? She got her own appointment. Why did she not also try and get one for FIL, who is 80 and a cancer survivor and diabetic? I swear, I do not understand their marriage at all. There is, like, no collaboration whatsoever between the two of them. Sigh. None of my business.)
I finally saw a pulmonologist for my mild but lingering lung issues (chest congestion, exercise intolerance) since covid. She suspects I’ve always had underlying asthma (turns out it’s not normal to get bronchitis once or twice a year?) and that the covid irritated it.
Anyway, among the other tests she ran, she tested me for antibodies. Negative. I’m not surprised; it’s been almost 11 months now since my symptoms started (how??). And of course, lack of antibodies doesn’t necessarily mean lack of immunity. But I thought it was interesting.
Antibody Timeline
Mar 6th - symptoms started
Apr 28th - positive for antibodies
May 7th - donated plasma, it was positive for antibodies
May 29th - donated plasma, it was positive for antibodies
Jan 29th - negative for antibodies
I’m confused by quarantine length. Kid-4’s girlfriend (who is staying with her) tested positive and got symptoms on Friday (1/29). So kid had already been exposed through GF’s whole incubation period. Kid tested that night, negative. She tested again last night, negative. Still no symptoms. But her exposure has been continuous. Does she need to be quarantined until GF tests negative?
I don’t know the official recommendation for continuous exposure, but FWIW, my wife didn’t show symptoms until 15 days after me. (We live in a 1 bed/1 bath apartment so she was definitely heavily exposed all that time.)
Yeah, active covid tests weren’t available at the time. We only got antibody tests after the fact. Very possible she would have tested positive earlier than that.
My mom will get her first vaccination this week (yay!), but my dad hasn’t been offered an appointment yet. I’m a bit perplexed because while they both have various health issues and are the same age (both are over 65) my dad has lung issues. I hope he will get an appointment soon! ETA they are married and are in the same ‘health system’ as one another.
The recommended quarantine is 14 days since last contact with +covid person. A few months ago, the CDC started saying that people also have the option of quarantining for 10 days, or even 7 days if there’s a negative test on day 5 or later:
