Honestly, after seeing how our local school board decided students don’t need to be notified if they’re around a COVID-19 positive person for only gotten minutes, I don’t really blame them for saying “maybe a second”. (And probably other orgs in this state too, schools is just what came to mind first.)
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If there’s contact tracing capacity, I can see the argument for being very careful and thorough for new variant cases. There’s a lot of benefit to slowing the spread of the more transmissible strains and learning about them at the same time.
One second is a very short amount of time, all the same. I suspect at least slightly longer exposure is needed otherwise these strains would have taken over entirely by now. (Disclaimer: I’m not a professional in any of the relevant fields, just trying to apply some common sense. If I’m incorrect please point it out.)
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Yeah, it’s likely a CYA move. I am glad that there is an actual source for my friend’s posting though, at least.
I want to know if “if individuals were not wearing masks” means both individuals are unmasked, or one or the other. I am STILL seeing so many maskholes. At least I have a few KN95s and N95s now.
I mean, it depends, did that person literally cough or sneeze on you or otherwise spew aerosol in that 1 second? Sharing air for 1 second - like passing someone in the store or something - seems like not enough to get one sick, but like you, not an expert. But then, if that person’s unmasked then even if you don’t pass them the aerosols are hanging around, GAHHHHHH.
I am confused and going to stop speculating about this and finish my cocktail.
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The one second thing kind of makes sense. If these variants don’t need to build up viral load to be infectious, it just takes being exposed…as in, molecule gets into respiratory system. That can be one second of breath.
That isn’t the same as “you will get covid if you are by an unmasked infected person for only one second”. It’s “one second is all it takes.”
Wear masks, protect your respiratory system from invaders, and keep those same invaders out of the air.
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Also our governor has lifted our mask mandate.
Apparently covid is over here.
(Our state house majority leader has recently said he cannot enforce a mask requirement on the house floor. So a democratic lawmaker wore jeans, outside of the dress code. He refused to allow her to speak for not being in proper dress. Weird how he can enforce that …)
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Oh, I lied. It’s not the mask mandate. It is ALL restrictions. Business as usual. Covid is over.
We also have no vaccines and are near worst in the nation for that.
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YAy congrats on being done covid. Please extra isolate and hope people are smart
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Story on how IL is sucking at vaccine distribution:
It doesn’t surprise me that Chicago is working directly with the feds and not with the state health department and thus our supply is completely separate from the rest of the state, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen this stated bluntly. I probably just missed it though.
Ohio seems to have no coordination at all (it’s possible that someone is actually in charge but it’s certainly not apparent.)
Every vaccine provider in my county has its own appointment list - the health department, the grocery store pharmacy, the drugstores, the hospital. Mercy health says don’t call then, but I know someone who got an appointment by calling. You have to be on each separate list, and each provider gets some unknown amount of vaccine.
It’s exhausting and it’s pissing me off.
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Yeah, it’s really confusing because, being a Cook County resident, I signed up for Cook County notifications of eligibility. WRONG, despite Chicago being in Cook County I wasn’t supposed to sign up there. It didn’t SAY suburban Cook so how in fuck was I supposed to know that?
Sigh.
There is now a Chicago site to sign up on, so I did that even though I’m at the end of the line.
It’s very confusing.
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Here there are only the two health departments (one in the county south of us, one north of us - we live on the county line). We actually got shots that were in danger of being thrown out because I spotted a Facebook post from a colleague over in College Town and we dropped everything and drove 80 miles round trip - and still only qualified because we both work in that county.
It’s absolute chaos, but Uncle Joe* is sending in the active duty troops, which I believe will make a big difference over the next couple of weeks.
*Said with deepest affection.
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It turns out that I am indeed eligible for the vaccine due to my job, so I got the first dose of the Moderna series earlier today! Really, really grateful to be offered it. I don’t want to catch this thing again.
So far my arm is mildly sore and I’m very tired, but I also had a busy day before I got the shot, so it could just be that.
ETA: I’m now 5 hours out from the shot. I took my temperature for ~data (I don’t feel feverish or anything), and it’s the same low “fever” I had when I had covid (99.4). Interesting!
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The local school system is going to have to do the bare minimum about Covid! CDC wrote them this week asking why they weren’t following the transportation mandate. It appears that school buses are covered under the public transit mask mandate. So, starting Monday, they have to make the bus drivers and students wear masks on the buses. Of course, they can take them off as soon as they get to school…
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My dad is 72, but still hasn’t gotten an appointment to get his vaccine (in Colorado). We’re moving on to everyone 65+, I think, but his appointment will be through the VA, and they sent out an email saying “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. I hope they get back to him soon.
I found out that everyone at my company is classified as an essential worker (I work at a pharmaceutical company that makes cancer drugs), so we’re theoretically eligible starting in March. I’m way more excited about the prospect of vaccination than I thought I was, now that it’s in the foreseeable future and not just a nebulous “late summer, maybe”.
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Boyfriend and I signed up a while ago on the web page the city set up to sign up for vaccine notifications. We both got texts today telling us that we are in group 2, which we knew, and with a sign up number. The number is long and has a prefix and googling told me nothing about how the number translates into your place in line…
but I compared his number to mine, and all digits/letters are identical except the last ones. It looks like I am 28,212 in line and Boyfriend is… shit, now I forgot but in the 36,000s. (That tracks as he signed up a few days later than I did).
Better than I’d hoped! Of course, this just means I’m allowed to take a turn at trying to get an appointment, whenever the number comes up, which they are saying will be summer. This is also only our place in group 2, groups 1B and 1C have millions and millions of people ahead of us and I’m not sure where we are with 1A, that’s still going on too. And multiple news stories have described the appointment process in IL and Chicago as “Hunger Games.” Now, where is my trident… 
Also, a friend and her husband got vaccinated yesterday because her parents’ memory care in the Bay Area had extra doses so decided to vaccinate family so that family can visit and hopefully prevent the parents’ dementia from worseing any further due to isolation. I should be all “noooooo, you jumped the line, unfair” but I’m really happy for them.
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My sister lives in a suburb of Chicago and just got the vaccine by driving a hour. She is 75 with COPD. Locally they vaccinated teachers before seniors which I am pissed about. Since I am not 70 can’t get one even though I have asthma.
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Vaccine immune response update for those who may be curious
The “fever” went away almost immediately after I last posted, but I gradually got more fatigued and achy as the evening went on. Then I woke up in the middle of the night to pee, and got this wave of dizziness and nausea to the point where my vision went black. I had to sit on the bathroom floor for like 10 minutes waiting for it to pass, but it did. I also got chills and sweated through two different pajama shirts.
Luckily it seemed to be a one-off moment, because now I’m just achy and tired with a mild headache. And my arm hurts like a mofo, worse than a tetanus shot. I can barely move it.
Overall gist is that it feels like my body is going “what the EFF is this again, absolutely NOT”. Anecdotally, definitely feels like there is some credence to the first shot feeling like the second shot if you’ve had covid already.
They scheduled my second shot for a Sunday afternoon, but I may try to change it to a Friday night or Saturday so I have more time to recover before returning to work the following Monday. (I don’t think I’ll be able to take a sick day afterwards, because I’m likely to be in the middle of the culmination of a huge work project.)
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All the local public service announcements are trying to get people not to drive drunk on the way home from their Superbowl parties.
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Oh, FFS.
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