Interesting opinion piece in the Tribune about Lollapalooza.
(TW: mentions gross dental trauma that happened to a Lolla concertgoer).
1 Like
Boss from job about a decade ago has been in hospital for a few weeks. Breathing on his own now, which is better way to find out. Symptoms showed up the day before he was scheduled for his first shot.
12 Likes
I will get my 1st shot tomorrow, as I am having preconditions I am in one of the prioritized groups. I will receive Moderna. 
Otherwise the situation in Germany is far from good, the government is now talking about taking the prioritization away which will make it even harder for people without connections and knowledge to get an appointment.
18 Likes
I got the results of the spike protein antibody test back and I have antibodies!
Three people from Marmaladeâs brotherâs former workplace died. Marmalade asked me if we could donate a big chunk of money to the orphanage that he regularly donates to, because suddenly there are a lot more orphans 
20 Likes
My husband had his second shot on Saturday. On Sunday he felt low-level sick and his arm was really sore, but by evening he was better. Today, Wednesday, he is having cold symptoms and wonders if itâs vaccine-related. Is that a thingâdelayed reaction after a normal reaction?
5 Likes
Mine was a bit delayed. Shot on Monday afternoon, fine Tuesday, had to take most of Wednesday off because I couldnât function and ended up taking a nap. Even after the nap I was not 100%.
2 Likes
I am relieved to hear that you are getting it, and am so sad about Germanyâs roll out. I had a friend who just arrived from Berlin where she lives to NYC where she was born yesterday and got a vaccine pretty much on arrival. Itâs frustrating :-/
6 Likes
A good friend of mine whoâs been living in Germany for nigh on a decade now came back to the US with her German husband and baby entirely so they could get vaccinated (sheâs medically high risk).
7 Likes
Interesting update on Feelings from grocery store coworkers:
Several hope the mask rule for the store drops at the same time as the county mask mandate will drop (June 2nd) because they are more acutely concerned about worker safety and confrontation from customers (who might go postal) than the Rona.
18 Likes
I know several people who are doing a 2 week quarantine in Cancun or the Caribbean to then come to Florida for the vaccine since you cannot enter the US if youâve been in Brazil within the past 2 weeks. An option only for the wealthy though.
7 Likes
Thatâs so terrible. Especially since where you work is probably one of the least likely places in America for someone to go postal about still needing a mask. Yet the threat is still there. 
3 Likes
(and yet⌠people are wild in all public interaction type jobs. This morning a man was having some sort of manic episode near the Deli and the worker there used to be a bartender and handled it like a boss â i.e. just let him rant and rave for several long and uncomfortable minutes while nodding along and doing their job without actually engaging him further)
7 Likes
Dude, I worked organic grocery and the people most likely to go apocalyptic were usually what we referred to as âwine momsâ. In Ohio, you couldnât sell alcohol before 1PM on Sundays.
MAN did have to deal with some meltdowns from well-heeled folks with $300 worth of food in their cart, upset they canât also buy wine with their post-church grocery shop, and really seemed to think it was a personal failing that I, a 18 year old grocery supervisor making $7.00 per hour, was not capable of changing state law. 
The people that were proud of being rednecks (common brag where I am from) were far more polite to the service workers than the wine momsâŚ
16 Likes
Oh, I totally hear you. I worked in a grocery store for 7 years. People are absolutely insane no matter where you are.
4 Likes
I wasnât too surprised the state dropped the mandate - I might be remembering totally wrong because I havenât paid much attention, but I think Walz was going to drop it anyway in early June.
Minneapolis and St Paul still have mask mandates (which is causing confusion for visitors and therefore more work for service industry employees having to remind people). Hennepin county is less than 50% first vaccine rate, with Black and Latino rates something like 30% so it might be a while we have discordant rules.
So far everywhere Iâve been hasnât had anyone freak out, just confusion from suburb peeps but hopefully as the local media keeps talking about it, it gets a little more straightforward for people to understand who has mandates and who doesnât.
Iâm just glad I wonât have to keep biking by protestors. I mean, I still will, but protesting something else besides âour children need oxygenâ will be nice for a change.
3 Likes
Oh, theyâll still be protesting this probably (unless theyâve dropped masks in schools too?)⌠Our mask mandate ended today, but it was planned for like 3 weeks (and the gov didnât change the date when the CDC made their announcement, though originally I think we might have still had universal indoor masking whereas now itâs only certain circumstances⌠including schools for the rest of the school year, and summer camp). You better believe some people are bitching about that (Iâve only seen this on twitter, but twitter is a trash fire and I only look to see the daily numbers updates).
Itâs been pretty chill here, at least in my little town. But as a state, we are at 60% total population at least first dose and almost 73% adult (over 18) first dose population (61% adult fully vaccinated population over 18!). In fact, we are almost to 70% first dose of 12+ population! There are certainly pockets that are lower, but overall weâre doing so, so well. I had to go out briefly this morning (remember, this is the first day) - I had my mask on - I stopped at the post office to drop my mortgage payment in the inside slot and I only saw one worker changing out the trash bags (and they were masked). Then I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things - my local chain (Stop & Shop) is still requiring masking inside (at least for now) and I only saw one person in the store without a mask on, out of probably 30 people. (This person had no excuse, they still had the posterboard signs up about masking in the store, as well as the signs taped to the door, which would have been easily removed had they changed their requirement.) So like I said, all in all, pretty chill.
7 Likes
(Although Maine is going to freaking beat us to 50% total population fully vaxxed. 
Shakes fist at Maine!)
1 Like
Oh duh. Haha good point!
3 Likes
I mean thatâs just because thereâs what like 200 people that live in Maine. Not hard to get to 50% 
4 Likes
I got curious and looked it up - Minnesota as a state is about 62% vaccinated 16+
My assumption the whole time is that we will never hit herd immunity but we will get to a level where Covid is a similar risk level to other serious diseases. It seemed clear early on that this isnât a disease that is likely to be completely eradicated, even if the entire globe went into simultaneous lockdown for 30 days.
My personal feeling is that mask mandates arenât as helpful under a certain threshold of positive cases, especially given the behavioral piece. In my own bubble Iâm comfortable with no longer masking as long as my friends/neighbors are. The three friend couples I see regularly have multiple kids under 5, and they also are no longer masking among friends or in outdoor gatherings. Two of those couples have kids going to daycare/preschool so Iâm curious what that will look like in coming weeks - I know one daycare is not requiring masks. My friends are keeping daycare/school as is for now. Half of us work in healthcare or healthcare adjacent, half in scientific research, except for one parent friend who is a writer and still WFH so Iâm sure that sways our feelings a bit; weâve each had loads of known/documented exposures by now.
8 Likes