Coping in the Time of Covid-19 - New and Improved!

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  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    My friend has just tested positive. She’s had to cancel two Pilates classes she teaches and a trip to Cornwall to see her MIL. Ho hum.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Nenya wrote: »
    ...First world problems, I know.
    They are, but they're problems practically everyone in the first world has been struggling with for the last two years, and completely understandable.

    I'm in complete sympathy: tomorrow, my family is getting together to celebrate my great-nephew Archie's third birthday, and I hope those of the family who are recovering (there were a few positive tests last week) will be able to be there.

    I feel particularly sorry for Archie (and his little cousins and others of their generation): the first lockdown was imposed on his first birthday, so he's never been able to have a proper birthday, and never really known anything else.
  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited March 2022
    Piglet wrote: »
    Nenya wrote: »
    ...First world problems, I know.
    They are, but they're problems practically everyone in the first world has been struggling with for the last two years, and completely understandable.

    And entirely caused by the selfishness of other first-world people.

    Stop pretending the virus doesn't exist.

    (This isn't aimed at either you or Nenya, Piglet: you're both sensible people. I'm just grumpy about the large number of thoughtless selfish idiots we seem to share a planet with.)
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    I don't care if masks are no longer compulsory. I'm stacking up on FFP2s (because they protect me, rather than other people from me), and I'm wearing them.

    I grant that this is not an option at an event where food is involved.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited March 2022
    I'm currently on a bus, and I'm pleased to say nearly everyone is masked.

    ETA: the lady sitting opposite who wasn't must have read my thoughts - she's just put a mask on!
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    I walked into town today. I did not need a coat, so suddenly realised I had no mask. There is always one in my coat pocket. So I was maskless for the first time in two years. Same as almost everyone else.
  • It was about half and half in the supermarket today. At work, mask-wearing seems to be dwindling.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I don't care if masks are no longer compulsory. I'm stacking up on FFP2s (because they protect me, rather than other people from me), and I'm wearing them.

    I grant that this is not an option at an event where food is involved.

    Me too. We have had some changes to the rules and no longer need to scan QR codes for tracing 'places of interest' and more people are allowed to gather together, both in and outside. Masks are still to be worn on public transport and inside buildings. One expert suggested that it would be beneficial if they were worn in some outside locations like rugby spectators, due to people crowding together and shouting but I can't see that happening.

    I don't like wearing masks, and have lost a hearing aid due to wearing them, but with NZ opening up to overseas visitors and winter coming there are going to be a lot more bugs floating around in the air and masking could make a difference. I will also get the flu jab as soon as it's available and any other vaccinations my GP suggests.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Snuck in early with the flu jab because of being in the right place at the right time - so that's one less thing to need organising.

    Peak Covid in Christchurch with numbers greater than Auckland, which has a bigger population. There are sometimes when being ahead is not desirable - this is one of them.
  • Well, the FDA has just approved a fourth shot for those who want/need it--and I expect to hear from the Pfizer trial this month for the regular check-in, so I expect I'm going to get jabbed again. Oh. Yay.

    Not complaining, really. Just ruefully anticipating a night of fever and chills.
  • The fully vaccinated Miss Cats is enduring several days of fever and chills and aches and really not very wellness. It’s been a week so far and she is a bit worse every day. And trying to write her honours dissertation which is due next week. Have just told her to eat something, take the paracetamol and go to bed.
  • Oh dear, I'm so sorry. No fun at all. I hope they can give her an extension!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Sorry to hear that, Cathscats - hope she feels better very soon!
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I am hoping the fourth jab becomes approved here. I know it's being investigated. The suggestion was that it be given with the flu jab on April 1
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Last night, the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa lifted the National State of Disaster for Covid after 755 days of lockdown. Some regulations will stay in place, the wearing of masks indoors and restrictions on number attending funerals, but most events and public transport facilities are now open and people will not be arrested or imprisoned for breaking regulations.

    Slightly scary as we go into winter with the Easter celebrations just looming ahead, (up to five-million worshippers may travel to Moria in Limpopo Province from right around Africa for the Zion Christian Church) but so far so good.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    The combination of winter and Covid worries me too MaryLouise. I bought some purple
    KN95 masks to cheer me up.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I like that, @Huia! I have a bright red mask patterned with Great Dane silhouettes to add a touch of ridiculous to public outings.
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    Can you test positive but (since some time has elapsed) class youself as " non-contagious"? People have said this to my partner, who is still testing positive after 8 days of testing and a few days off-colour before the first positive test.
    I am less-than-convinced.
    Does anyone KNOW?
  • In Scotland you can count yourself as non contagious after 11 days. My daughter gave up testing herself at that point, as she was no longer symptomatic, but was still positive. We have to isolate for at least 6days (if we can then produce two negative tests on consecutive days) but at most 11.
  • Same in Oz; 11 days is the magic number. The ( very sensitive) PCR test indentifies viral DNA but can’t tell the difference between live and dead, so there may well be bits of viral nucleic acid hanging around without shedding of virus.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited April 2022
    It's a question of how much LIVE virus, if any, you are shedding. If it's all dead, nobody cares (but a test will still be positive). It can't infect anybody, which is what we mean by contagious. If it's live but there isn't much of it, you are contagious, but your ability to infect someone else is much lower (and this will go on decreasing every day).

    It's a kind of slide down into non-contagiousness. Generally live viral shedding is worst at the beginning of the infection, often before you know you're infected at all, and then goes downhill to nothing.

    The trouble is that we have no sensible way of measuring where a person is on that slide. All we know is that the longer you wait to go around people, the better (because you're further down that slide and less likely to infect people), and also that people who got hospitalized have higher amounts of virus to begin with, so have longer (further) to go.

    Oh, and there have been some cases where in spite of a person being weeks out, and clearly fully recovered, the tests just go on saying "positive." They are not as far as anybody can tell an actual danger to anybody. Apparently they just don't clear the dead viral DNA bits as fast as others or something?

    So I'd go by time elapsed. The longer, the safer. And 11 days sounds far more reasonable than the current US "5 days and no symptoms". Bah!
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    I have given in.
    I am right at the end of my drug cycle and can no longer do the "everything" I have been doing the past 9 or 10 days. Loyal Partner is 9 days from his first positive home-test and went back to work today. (The T-line was very very faint on his home test yesterday morning)
    Bugger it all ... I am out-argued by all local (ie national) protocols right now. It is not worth further increasing emotional tension between us and doing more work in the house, while at the same time I am getting to my weakest point in my drug cycle.
    Thanks for all the help, everyone
  • I think you've done well. Beautifully, even. Peace to you and yours.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    ((@Galilit and partner)) What @Lamb Chopped said.
  • That sounds horrendous, @Galilit . Prayers abounding, as far as I can pray at the moment.

    I've succumbed to this thing, whatever it is now. I feel so angry because it's been turned into a political marshmallow, receiving projections of every single trope of pointless machismo and total hypercapitalist greed, and at the same time paranoia and various other things. I'm not going anywhere right now, and I have FFP2 masks, but being in the UK, support feels decidedly at arm's length if there even is any. It's all so outsourced, so arm's-length, so un-public-service. Everything is caught up in the maelstrom of hypercapitalism, because the one service one is not permitted to access is the original NHS service, the GP. Instead, there are various outsourced supposed alternatives. As I say, this leaves me feeling lost and rather angry.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Me too, @ThunderBunk - totally ridiculous! Take care of yourself 🕯.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    Mr Boogs has it now - tested positive and a dry cough. I’m sure I have it too ‘tho I’ve tested negative so far, but I have a sore throat. 🙄
  • Felt annoyed in Waitrose, to see only about 25% were wearing a mask. And deaths are running at about 1500 per week, or 75 000 per year. It's libertarian, you see.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    I suppose technically having tested negative post Covid I am unlikely to be infectious to anyone but I shall continue to wear a mask in the relevant settings.
  • DormouseDormouse Shipmate
    I had a lateral flow test on Tuesday last at the pharmacy, and a PCR test on Friday at the medical centre - as I felt lousy. Concluded it was after-Shingles fatigue and a bad cold. (Runny nose, cough, sneezing, sore throat) Mr D has just self tested (our last home test) as positive (with the same symptoms...) He'll try to have a PCR asap but I suppose I might need another one too. This is our first experience of the Plague darkening our doorstep.
  • Felt annoyed in Waitrose, to see only about 25% were wearing a mask. And deaths are running at about 1500 per week, or 75 000 per year. It's libertarian, you see.

    I think "libertarian" would allow me to shoot any selfish types that came near me unmasked, wouldn't it?
  • Felt annoyed in Waitrose, to see only about 25% were wearing a mask. And deaths are running at about 1500 per week, or 75 000 per year. It's libertarian, you see.

    I think "libertarian" would allow me to shoot any selfish types that came near me unmasked, wouldn't it?

    Get thee behind me, Satan!
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Felt annoyed in Waitrose, to see only about 25% were wearing a mask. And deaths are running at about 1500 per week, or 75 000 per year. It's libertarian, you see.

    I think "libertarian" would allow me to shoot any selfish types that came near me unmasked, wouldn't it?

    Let me know where you are imprisoned and I'll bake a cake with an escape file in it.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    I’m still testing negative. The sore throat has gone too.

    Mr Boogs is coughing and tired but still has his sense of taste and smell.

    I won’t be seeing anyone as I’m sure I must have it but asymptomatically. This one affects everyone differently, doesn’t it?

    🤔
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Felt annoyed in Waitrose, to see only about 25% were wearing a mask. And deaths are running at about 1500 per week, or 75 000 per year. It's libertarian, you see.

    I think "libertarian" would allow me to shoot any selfish types that came near me unmasked, wouldn't it?

    A 3m long spear (2m plus grip and stabbing depth, you see) ought to suffice. Much quieter, and more environmentally friendly.
  • As long as you know your anatomy and your aim is sure
  • How is it that the libertarians would put it? "Your right to exhale ends at my respiratory system"?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    How is it that the libertarians would put it? "Your right to exhale ends at my respiratory system"?

    Funny how it doesn't seem to work that way with them, isn't it. *cough* masks *cough*
  • Friday after lunch, I suddenly felt chill. I wrapped myself in a blanket and took a nap. Upon awakening I took my temperature, and it was elevated. I felt chilly and achy all evening, with little appetite, and my temperature was still elevated when I went to bed. This morning it was still elevated although I feel a little bit better. As of this writing temperature is still elevated although down a degree or two. I'll lie low for several days.
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    Hope you soon feel better, Miss Amanda.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Nenya wrote: »
    Hope you soon feel better, Miss Amanda.

    As do we
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Have you taken an LFT, Miss Amanda? I hope it isn't Covid, but I think you're wise to lie low for a wee while anyway.

    Take care, drink plenty of fluids and get well soon!
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
  • I'm feeling much better today, and I tested negative. If I test negative again tomorrow, that will be that. I think it may have been stomach flu, not covid, after all.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    *phew*
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    What a relief that you tested negative, Miss Amanda! But, stomach flu is no fun. Get well soon!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Glad to hear that, Miss Amanda - get well soon!
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Good news indeed
  • Feeling much better today. Temperature back down to normal. Gastric track seems to have settled down. I'll test later this morning . . . confidently expect it will be negative.
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    That's good news.
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