thanks for replying to this, especially since i didn’t even have a source to discuss.
i am just really resentful of having to send my child off to school next week and the surge is still tapering down and the vaccine is in god damn spring.
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BB has tested positive. The Boy did not want to isolate a child and thinks it’s not worth trying to keep himself or LB from getting infected. I am isolating and deeply unsure whether it’s worthwhile. It could last quite a while because the clock on BB started yesterday but the clock on LB/the Boy starts if and when they test positive.
I seem to have a touch of head cold, too, but I just tested negative again. I feel like I’m just going to get it anyway and will only make myself miserable in the meantime even though I know that household transmission is far from a given.
I have only 1 rapid test left (and I’m grateful to even have these- I borrowed them from my ex!) but we’re all going to find PCR tests somehow.
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This is probably old news to everyone but apparently Google gave employees their own PCR machines and up to 20 tests a month!
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Wait, they just GAVE them a PCR machine? For free?
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YES.
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…I want a PCR machine. I have no PCR tests to do, but I would brag about it, haha.
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Here is an article about it:
Google sends employees a Cue device and 10 rapid, at-home molecular tests, which costs $949 for consumers and are more accurate than an antigen test, as they can detect the genetic material of the virus. Full-time staff who are not required to be on campus can request up to 20 additional Cue tests per month for themselves and their dependents ages 2 and older through an internal portal, according to one of the people. Such employees are allowed to work from home indefinitely.
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Google friend feels bad and has been letting all of her friends use it too. But she just got a positive test yesterday 
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I would be offering them to anyone in my apartment building on buy nothing
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Damn! And I thought it was extravagant that my friend who works at the Apple store was getting sent weekly rapid tests from work, that he’s required to take to continue coming in to work.
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Ha, do those Cue tests make anyone else think about the “are you a zombie” tests from Feed? Which were ubiquitous and, as far as I can tell, free, at least when you’re getting them in public for building entry and such?
Except it’s snot and not blood.
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Why do they need these to work from home? (Rhetorical)
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I just meant as a microbiologist, I’d brag to my microbiology friends that I had my own PCR machine 
Not as like a “I can do Covid tests and you can’t” sort of thing. I would definitely let other people use it!
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2/3 of us got our December 30 PCR results back today (positive). One is still missing. OB had encouraged me to get my booster (yesterday) since even though everything pointed at COVID, the risk in pregnancy especially third trimester is pretty ugly. I would still have boostered but would have pushed it back a month if the results were in. One advantage would also be separating out the time of feeling like shit. I definitely still feel like shit and now extra shit. But as unpleasant as today is, it is less unpleasant than the first 14 days of COVID.
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I’m laughing at absurdity.
On a family zoom today a close loved one (late 50s in age, I think) told us he had COVID this week, super mild case, total non-event. He was vaccinated within the last 6 months because his employer required it. His unvaxxed 20-something son had it before Christmas and his case was severe enough he couldn’t drive himself to get tested and wasn’t sure he could make it down the stairs.
So loved one on zoom today says he is now convinced the vaccine helped him have a milder case, even though he said this was anecdotal evidence and “there’s no data to support this”. You should have seen everyone else’s faces! He was quickly corrected that there are oodles of data to support this. But he signed off quickly.
On the bright side, it seems like he changed his mind in a way that is good for society?
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Sorry you feel extra shit but glad you are boosted.
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Someone shared this on MMM and I found it really interesting. It certainly explains why children have been less likely to catch it, and why it tends to be milder in children. Can the MMR vaccine protect you against COVID-19? | SNOHC
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The write up is really weird. The cadence, for one. And in the intro they say the study looked at measles antibodies, and later say mumps (it appears the study actually looked at mumps). Interesting research but a very odd piece of writing.
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Yeah I wasn’t sure of how thorough of a study it was or anything, but figured I would share
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Google didn’t give them a PCR machine. Those cost like $50,000 and you need to know how to use them, and the columns are super easy to mess up. Even a cheap one is going to be like $10k.
They have a “Cue Reader” or can send them to the lab. The cue reader apparently has nucleic acid amplificiation, which they say was studied to be nearly the same as PCR.
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