Yeah it wouldn’t matter if they were allowed, there are none, and NSW folks are probably buying as soon as they come off the ship. I’m just bummed I’m going to miss seeing family tomorrow because I can’t prove no COVID. Depends on their risk tolerance and I will ask them, since we’ve not actually had known exposure, I’m just snotty with a headcold.
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FTFY
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Yep you did 
!
I’ve just heard there’s a PM presser at 12.30 aest and National Cabinet brought forward to tomorrow but will anything helpful come out of these 
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Doesn’t that mean that instead of the big spike in cases being due to the less dangerous and more contagious Omicron, it is due to strains with worse outcomes?
This does not seem like good news.
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And, like, isn’t the new CDC guidance for shortening isolation based on the idea that Omicron clears the body faster? Or am I misunderstanding?
Because, if that’s why isolation is shortened to 5 days, but lots of people are still running around with Delta and not Omicron… that seems unwise? Or not, I don’t know, obvs not a scientist!
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I wonder if the guidelines are partially to get people to test and isolate at all. Like people I’m sure are walking around with “just a cold” not getting tested because they don’t want to/can’t afford to isolate for 10 or 14 days. Shortening the timeframe will at least get people to isolate when they are most likely to still be contagious.
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My understanding is the guideline is to help compliance. People are NOT isolating for 10-14 days; this is hope they will isolate for 5 days.
I still don’t think they will. Many of the people in my company get 5 PTO days a year. They won’t use them to isolate for covid. Days off are precious, if it’s “just a cold”, they will not get tested.
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I’m starting to get nervous about New Years and Post-New Years Plans. New Years Day is Lily’s 1st Birthday and we are having a small party for her. Just 2 other families are coming, one set of friends that are her God parents and another set of friends with their 2 month old daughter. Everyone has had boosters except for the babies who are too little to be vaccinated.
Then I’m also re-starting the kids judo program for our judo club. I’m the head instructor and we haven’t had any kids program since March 2020. Our first practice is supposed to be 1/4 and we’ve already had some families sign up. The kids are 5-12 so they are all able to be vaccinated and we are requiring proof of vaccination or mask wearing at all times. I’m also planning to wear a mask at all times regardless.
Do both of these sound like bad ideas? I’m starting to get nervous. I also had one of my adult helpers reach out and ask if I had considered postponing judo by another month due to omicron. I saw a headline that looks like it might be more harmful to unvaccinated kids? But I saw a bunch of those for Delta too and then afterward the stats show it wasn’t actually any worse, so idk?
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We do gymnastics with our kids. The instructors and all children over 3 are masked.
I think at some point, people need to live their lives. A lot of what is reported is that if you are vaccinated, it’s like a cold.
Even though you are vaccinated, wearing a mask is a good thing to do because it protects others. Masks do way more to protect others than to protect yourself.
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I was starting to feel this way too. I also signed up Bella to start gymnastics in January. So maybe I’m too worried about it? But I just talked to a judo friend who is an anesthesiologist and she said we should absolutely postpone starting it. She said the hospitals are once again overrun and that her hospitals has everyone possible working from home. She said that we should also postpone starting gymnastics 
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Yeah, my personal take is that we will probably get omicrom, but I will do everything I can to delay that until hospitals have room to treat us and medical professionals are back to work. It would be even better if we could avoid it until Pipsqueak is vaccinated but I feel like that’s less likely so for now we’re going back into a much more locked down mindset until… probably Feb?
ETA that a good friend’s son has a birthday on NY and they are planning a small outdoor party for him on the 2nd. I haven’t heard if it’s cancelled yet but we’ve already decided that if it’s still on, I will go alone and wear a mask rather than taking Pipsqueak as a family and trying to keep her away from the other kids.
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I’m so sad. I just told the club owner that we are going to postpone and explained the reasons why. Now I need to call the rec center and see if I can get a refund for a few months of gymnastics. I signed her up for Jan - Apr, maybe I will ask for Jan and Feb, and then reassess. Maybe there will be a vaccine by then?
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We are able to book tests for January 12th. That isn’t useful. And they keep announcing that they will announce new guidance and not doing it. So…we just stay home forever?
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At this point my plan for after the holidays is to go into hiding for the 10-14 days…per quick test I was clear for Christmas which is when I was most concerned about given who else would be attending, but I’m currently visiting one of the parts of the US where covid doesn’t exist (don’t ask me what the explanation for the full hospitals is) so I’m assuming that even if I’ve been avoiding people as much as possible while I was here, a couple hours stuck in a tiny airport where people are mostly using chinwarmers prior to leaving is going to be ugly. But given that I’m already boosted, working from home by default, and don’t have any of the major known risk factors, I’m not seeing too many options beyond crossing my fingers and riding it out.
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oooh, I can answer this one. According to my mother, who also lives in a place where COVID doesn’t exist, Covid was not the reason why there wasn’t a bed for my grandma when she had her heart attack. Her text says " It isn’t because of Covid, it is because of other health issues, surgeries, being short staffed, and all of the factors of people having covid". So… basically because of covid?
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Another good friend just came up positive on the PCR. She was exposed a couple days before Christmas and her rapid tests were negative but the PCR was positive, results today. She does have symptoms, but they are mild. She is fully vaccinated and boosted.
The knot in my stomach about being required to return to work with a huge group of young folks continues to grow. I love the young folks! But in my group at work, they also have very very active social lives. Some refuse the vaccine. I have no faith in the once a week rapid test effectively screening them away from work, especially when I’m seeing how the rapid tests and especially the timing of them is playing out in my close friend group.
I’ve got a funeral to attend in early January, and I know I could choose to not go. It breaks my heart to not go, and I’m torn. I’ve been picking and choosing funerals to attend throughout the pandemic, and it feels so gross to me to try to assess the importance of each one. But I also see the utter lack of precautions at most of the funerals I have attended. Selfishly, I have a social thing I’m really looking forward to with my closest friends in mid January. My soul is screaming for time with those women.
Fork all of this.
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YIKES
I do know at least 1 person who went to one of these sites and they never reported her results. Also crowded sites and sites that shut down because everyone working there got covid.
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At-home test may be less sensitive to the omicron variant.
So they can detect it, but you need a much higher viral load for it to pick up- a lot of false negatives.
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