Weekly, thank god. But like I said, not much testing is going on.
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What in the world Florida?
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oh no this is gonna end poorly
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Did you not know that every day is opposite day in Florida? Seriously, I try to think of what a sane, rational government would do in a given situation and then imagine the opposite and assume thatās what Florida chose to do.
As a serious answer, our governor wants to run for president eventually (copy-paste for our last three governors really) and is wanting to go after the Trump voter base by being as anti-pandemic as possible. Like telling a student that he was being disrespectful for wearing a mask a few days ago. Last summer he stopped talking about vaccines and pushed monoclonal antibody treatments (never mind that one of his biggest donors profited from those treatment centers) and last fall he appointed a new surgeon general who doesnāt support vaccine mandates.
He won by 0.4% of the vote last time, maybe this fall we can vote him out? One can hope. The Democratic side of the ticket needs to get their shit together though.
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Our new surgeon general sent out an email to businesses in state (husband got one) recently saying masks donāt have any benefits and never have and therefore all businesses should stopped encouraging their use.
He was part of that Americaās Frontline Doctors group that made headlines back in 2020. Itās truly awful.
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Oh what the ever loving f.
In time maybe they will qualify for Darwin awards.
Unfortunately many others will feel the affects of their actions.
I take back what I said about mask mandates going away. We got a surprise weekend email that masks are no longer required at my work effective immediately, and students are walking around the hallways and coming into my lab without masks. Iām really mad that they thrust this new policy on us with no discussion and no notice. Iām vaccinated and low risk, and donāt have regular contact with anyone who is unvaccinated or high risk, but I have some stuff coming up in the next few weeks that I CANNOT be sick for. I had already planned to dial back my activities accordingly, but now my work isnāt as safe anymore and Iām frustrated. (I canāt work from home.)
I will admit I saw going out to bars, restaurants, retail stores, etc. as a choice that I can avoid if I want to lower my risk. But of course the employees that work there donāt have that choice. Now Iām team can we please put the masks back on, at least until itās warmer.
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Weāre about to see whether the modelling was right and what happens in a highly vaccinated small city.
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Iāve been feeling really hopeless about Covid lately. My Twitter feed seems dominated by MDs saying this is never going to end and Iām just wondering is this how itās going to be forever? Never getting to celebrate winter holidays with my large extended family again? Constantly having to evaluate every indoor interaction to determine if itās worth it? Up until now Iāve just been waiting for the under-5 vaccine, like that will be the end for us, but now Iām not sure. I need tips for dealing with this existential dread.
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Iām hopeful that weāll learn to live with mitigations with it as a fact of life like other infectious diseases - flu, chickenpox, TB, etc - it really seems like we are already getting there?
I am hopeful that the very mild cases that we are seeing for vaccinated people are likely going to continue. I think one heartening thing is that the vaccines are quite effective at reducing severity and hospitalization (50x lower chance of hospitalization!) for adults, and for the under-5ās who are getting covid, itās usually mild and comparable to other childhood illnesses (not always but, but far less, and that is true for many other infectious diseases we already accepted the risks for in childhood).
We have more abilities to plan ahead for activities that might spread it - like family holidays and travel and conferences - due to tests available.
We know a lot about treating covid now that we didnāt know 2 years ago, and even have antivirals for them, and outcomes for those that do need critical care is much better than it was even a year ago.
Iād like to say Iām heartened for now that weāre on the upswing of this.
It seems like there will be a few tiny benefits overall to this terrible pandemic: people will be more conscious of what going to work/school/traveling when sick with symptoms, and virtual options will be more accessible for people who are disabled and ill.
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This is where I am, for the exact reasons you gave.
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Are the sources youāre following now helpinh you? Helping you pick your behavior? Actionable? What would be different if you went on a low information diet for a time? Itās a thin bridge, but once you get past actionable and headed into doom scrolling, it can point to changes being needed.
I say this as someone who recently went from 9 + hours of screen time a day to an average of less than 3. Filling ourselves with dread is no way to honor the lives that have been lost. It can feel like a duty, like standing sentinel at a grave.
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My best tip for dealing with the existential dread was to delete Twitter from my phone and not read it any more. My feed also skewed to āthis will never get betterā posts from sciencey folks.
And while that may or may not be true, it was really harming me to be constantly marinating my brain in that.
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Iām just seeing reports that weāre all going to get it multiple times and that long covid is going to disable us all. Which seems like it canāt be true, but I guess it could be. I felt very hopeful at this time last year with vaccines becoming available and here we are still.
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Some of it is definitely doom scrolling, Iāve cut back after kidsā bedtime to help me sleep better. But part of it is a complete loss of faith in our government health agencies and feeling like I need to track it closely myself to keep my kids safe. I should cut back further though.
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Good advice. I should definitely cut back.
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The second part of this seemsā¦ statistically unlikely. But using the social model of disability, if everyone gets long covid, then we will be better prepared to support people with long covid. expectations will change, and accomodations will change.
Iām not really struggling with this with covid as much as I am with the war in Europe right now, but honestly putting myself on an information diet really did help a lot. i took twitter off my phone ages ago and i have to choose to engage with it now. I donāt end up on random thinkpieces about how weāre all fucked. I think it helps.
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This is why I left Twitter, because of the constant very convincing (to this nonmedical person) arguments that littlebird references, that everyone will end up with long covid and the related loss of function. Read something enough times and it starts to feel true. The solution for me was to stop reading it. Maybe that is an unhealthy head in the sand mentality but I feel less anxious so 
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My german class is mask optional tomorrow (except the two youngest classes). They are still having us complete a health check, but this is interesting because theyāve been VERY strict -( K)N95/FFP2 have been the only acceptable masks, temps at entrance, health forms filled in before every class. Interesting.
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