So. The friend of a friend in Ohio - their kids were in band and dance together - has died of Covid. Fully vaccinated. Positive test on Saturday, hospitalized on Sunday, dead on Tuesday. Late 40s.
This gave me some nightmares last night, I must say.
Mahoning County is not heavily vaccinated, though.
Also, the university dh just retired from is not requiring any masking or testing, and the head of the Covid planning task force has been posting misinformation. So.
Well, fuck. 
Thatās very sad and scary. I had been feeling safe. I just canceled my dining group for tonight as itās 12 people that I donāt know well.
Any tips for improving mask fit when itās got a kind of side pocket thing going on? Iām open to sewing it, I suspect both new masks we got will have this issue despite being kids sized.
The elastic is not loose in the side channel? When you tug on those ear loops it doesnāt form gathers? It looks to me like that anyway.
You might be able to sew a little tuck on that side channel.
I find that elastic that runs behind the head provides a better fit and I only make ear loops for little kids.
Thank you, Iāll give that a shot. Iām not keen enough on sewing to take on sewing up masks from scratch but small hand sewing modifications I can handle.
Two of the masks we got are like that and Iām definitely on the eye out to get more in that style. Plus theyāre like their own lanyards at lunch time.
I donāt know how good compliance is throughout the day, but at drop off three days now everyone has been great at mask compliance regardless of age. Today I saw one dick nose parent and one staff member who had her mask hanging by one ear but she was outside and not physically near anyone else and trying to shout at someone at the far end of the car drop off area, but thatās like all of the questionable masking Iāve seen three days in. The politics is all just ugh but on the ground everyone at our school is just masking and going about our lives.
One of Boyfriendās masks has these little plastic things that you stick the ends of the ear loops in and then pull until the mask fits tighter. They fall off pretty often, though, so maybe not a good choice for a kid.
One of the childrenās hospitals in our state has stopped elective surgery.
Our governor is still not allowing schools to mandate masks or vaccinations. The schools cannot even suggest a mask might be nice, and cannot ask at all about vaccination status. They will not let parents/students know when there is a positive covid test, there will be no contact tracing, absences are absences- and for some unknown reason āperfect attendanceā is still an award we strive for.
My daughter now has 2 other kids in her class wearing masks, so she is wearing one nearly full time indoors. I appreciate that. But also donāt think it does much, since most of the kids arenāt wearing them, the adults are not, and they donāt distance at meals anymore.
My sonās class doesnāt mask at all. And hey, just for fun- they all have hand foot mouth right now.
My husband wonāt cancel on the Mexico dive trip heās co-leading. At least one person going is a known anti-vaxxer. He hasnāt āsoldā all his spots though, so I donāt know if he gets kicked off the trip if it doesnāt fill. I really donāt want him going now that we know vaccinated people can spread covid easily to unvaxxed people. I also really want him to stop teaching without a mask. He is very well informed about communicable disease though, so he needs to make his own decisions, but I am so filled with stress.
I have read a few articles that basically said in other countries Delta came, wrecked havoc, and then kind of died down, so maybe it will just kind of go away? How are India and the UK doing now, for instance?
And didnāt the spanish flu kind of do that too? Kill a ton of people, have an even worse year 2, and then just kind of go away?
Could we get to the go away part?
Iāve been looking at the covid projections for the states weāre traveling to here: https://covid19.healthdata.org/ and it does look like in some places this is going to peak next month and then die down some. Depends on the state.
Whatās disheartening is that it shows projections for if 95 percent of people mask in public, which obviously are much better numbersā¦ but of course no one will do that.
Once again I want a Florida filter for the internet. āWhat are all the projections if about 50% of people mask, on a good day? Also thereās a wanna-be tropical storm something coming this weekend so can you factor in hurricane parties please, in addition to school starting?ā
Yeah, I think maybe they meant 9.5% people masking? Maybe run those numbers again? sighā¦
I was in the grocery store this morning. Only one other person had a mask on. Not even the staff wear them anymore.
Itās really mixed here at the grocery stores. Aldi seems best about masking, though not perfect. Whole Foods is the worst.
Truth.
And I agree with @Cranky. A little tuck and a spot of hand sewing is all you need to fix that gap.
This is my county.
I wonder what the rates are for like MMR? I mean, this seems good- but have I set the bar really low?
Does anyone else feel like they are just NOT as freaked out as everyone else? I know itās probably because I donāt have kids and have a remote job?
But I feel weirdly unaffected compared to the big waves last year when I lost a family member to covid. It just kinda feels like āmask and itās fineā?
My state implemented a mask mandate indoors that even applies to gyms, which I found kinda surprising because last time our state mask mandate had an exception for working out when you can social distance.
For me itās 100% the kids thing.
If I was without them, Iād be just living my life. Iām vaccinated and low risk, I donāt go to restaurants or crowded events anyway.
I was even okay being back in an office until recently when things have gone insane again, and Iām stressed that our governor seems to be actively trying to kill children via covid.
Yea, Iām in the same camp - though I am not as low-risk due to the combo of the J&J vaccine and being immunosupressed- but my life hasnāt really changed a ton due to the recent news. I go to crowded events, but theyāre outside and on bikes so theyāre naturally socially distanced.
I do go to the rink filled with children though, but I was already wearing my mask except for drinking water. No other adults (except employees) were masking while skating until last weekā¦now most of them are.
Yeah you can control your behavior around the kids. My kid still needs reminders to not push his pants down when heās still fifteen feet away from the bathroom and has to shuffle the rest of the way to the toilet. Why did basic logic not tell him that maybe that wouldnāt be a great idea? Today at pick up he wasnāt wearing his mask even though all the kids around him were masked, as were the teachers, who knows how long he wasnāt wearing his mask. Five minutes? Since lunch? Since five minutes after he got dropped off? Who knows. So thatās where a lot of my stress is coming from.
Last year, it was all a big unknown.
This year, I donāt like what I know, but I know it.
Iām headed to the airport in a few hours. Iām taking public transit to get there and then thereās a stopover in Seattle, and will take me 7 hours from leaving home. My sister has two young kids in daycare.
Iāve got my N95, fingers crossed that everything will be fine!