So like, if it is going to become endemic, which a lot of people are predicting (as in, zero covid is not happening at this point), that’s never going to happen, right? Like, there will be low level cases, seasonally, probably undiagnosed, forever. 
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When I was teaching, I felt like I used up all the winter disease risk I was willing to take by being in the classroom - and I washed my hands a LOT, and I bleached the desks and door knobs and stuff twice/week. I got a flu shot every year, and was just pretty darned choosy about what I was willing to do in a crowd, which was not all that much. I feel like that’s where I’ll be from here on in.
All the Meet the Teacher stuff here has been outside, and conferences and PTO meetings have been online.
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Yeah part of my struggle is that we DID limit activities in winter when reasonable and it was a bad flu season. But that was a fixed period of time, not indefinite lol.
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There is an insane amount of information about the flu available if you really want to waste some time figuring this out.
https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/fluportaldashboard.html
I’d also say that during the height of flu season I typically did avoid crowds or taking my kids to crowded spaces. But we also always got vaccinated.
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Thanks!
And I feel like that’s where I’m at. There’s always going to be Covid. I’m always going to avoid crowds in the winter. I’m probably always going to wear a mask into the grocery store in the winter.
I’ve had 3 shots and I don’t think I’m going to get any safer than I am today, so I’m doing whatever I really want to do.
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That’s where my parents are as well. For them, life is too short to not. (They feel they don’t have time to waste, and I agree, they are in their 70s. They take some precautions like masks in the grocery store, but otherwise they are living their lives. They’ve had their booster shots already. Also, treatment has improved significantly since last year, which is also a consideration.)
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And then the shit that makes me glad I’m old and got a smallpox vaccine (though, in all fairness, it probably isn’t effective anymore).
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I take a yoga class and find the surgical mask the easiest to breathe through. We have mask requirements but no one checks vaccine status. Nevada depends on tourism so that will never happen. As soon as you are seated at a table you can take off your mask and leave it off. Back in March the casinos were strict only allowing 4 people at a table even if you were with a group and having your mask on all the time except when actively drinking/eating. I rarely went to my meetup dining group then because it was a pain. Now I go twice a week.
At 67 being fully vaccinated I am not wasting time. Unfortunately this will be like the flu, people will die every year and we will get used to it. Originally I hoped it would disappear but don’t know if that was ever a realistic goal. I did buy travel insurance for my Ireland trip in June and also chose a travel company that has a Covid policy and assumes the costs.
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Sounds about right. Honestly, I’m team covid-19-totally-could-have-escaped-from-a-research-lab. Not because I’m a conspiracy theorist, but because I have met biologists, biochemists, and chemists and seen their organizational systems.
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it hurts because it’s true.
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In my grad school lab there were tons of chemicals older than I was, many of which were definitely decomposed. Mercury for everyone!
We also found some branded Bud Light from the Sydney Olympics when we were cleaning out the break room…in 2013
Absolutely no one is cleaning out the back of the -80 C freezer unless the freezer dies or has to move.
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I have no idea what post-pandemic life is like. I’ve shifted my risk calculus a ton since I got vaccinated (going to the rink almost every day, grocery shopping again, have international travel booked in 2 weeks) but I’m still like…not going to indoor restaurants (like I did before anyway lol, not really my thing). There’s also pretty good mask compliance here in my home state. We’re restarting breakfast on the bridges next month.
But like… am I going to be able to start volunteering in-person again at the teen shelter?
I’m about to hit 2 years at this job, and it’s pretty much felt like the entire time I’ve been in this role, it’s been a pandemic (I started January 2020) so I just don’t even know what my life looks like really in spring 2022 and beyond as the world moves into the next phase. I’m feel distant from my in-person communities after having everything be online the past 2 years, other than that brief June and July window of pedalpalooza when things felt safer.
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Ah, yes. Husband went to a conference in grad school city last week and took a bunch of his undergraduates to tour the lab where he worked there. It’s been two years. Guess who is listed as the safety contact on the signs on the walls, and whose cell phone number (now in another state and at a different institution) is the only contact?
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I really like the masks I use for skating. We have a mask mandate inside here in Oregon with no exception for working out, so I have to use a mask when I work out. These are the ones I use. I also was running (outside) in them prior to going back to rinks with the idea it would help me get used to working out with the mask on, which did help.
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Very into the copy here: “You will feel the soft and intimate touch due to the inner skin-friendly cotton of the mask with many advantages, such as fashion, simple, unique,and so on, suitable for all people. Let you enjoy the cozy wearing.”
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Smallpox!??!
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Oh my… {fans self} that sounds vaguely dirty! 
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I’m particularly amused at how the masks are just photoshopped onto every photo.
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And when dh’s lab moved from Miami to Pittsburgh in the early 90s, they cleaned out the freezer and found a vial marked HIV.
They finally tracked down the owner of the vial who said “Oh, just put that down the sink.”
Probably that would have been okay, but they autoclaved the heck out of it first!
Or dh’s colleague who ordered som chemicals and got…LSD. The sheriffs dept. took that away, but we wonder how far it got.
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