Shhh! That's how we're pretending it's OK to "Live" with it.
General / Off-Topic The safest place
- Thread starter Robin of Spiritwood
- Start date
- Status
There are people who want to move away from hospitals, putting the ocean between themselves and the nearest ICU, while living in recirculated air at close quarters with hundreds of strangers during a once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic event which has just mutated the virus?
And they are paying money to do it, because we all remember how there were no ship outbreaks.
Travel is silly, for at least the next year.
There are people who want to move away from hospitals, putting the ocean between themselves and the nearest ICU, while living in recirculated air at close quarters with hundreds of strangers during a once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic event which has just mutated the virus?
And they are paying money to do it, because we all remember how there were no ship outbreaks.
I had an "outbreak" of another kind. My apartment storage locker was broken into. Someone punched a hole through the drywall, and opened the lock from the inside. Nothing valuable was lost, although they made a systematic search through my Rubbermaid tubs, and anything that looked like it might contain something.
My clever ploy of being poor, and having only junk in the locker foiled them. They left the tubs and debris all over the floor. Apartment offices are closed for the New Year. City cops were called, I took photos of everything, and no one was hurt. The cops said to just lock it back up, because they had already finished getting what they wanted...
I did clean out two tubs cleaning it up, and putting it back in. I found my training manuals from my enlisted days! They did not take the two clock radios, or the lantern flashlight. Got my exercise in.
Happy Everything!
IDK how people can find it possible to be pettily mean to each other like this during a crisis. But this is the best kind of crime to get, where you at least escape injury and loss?
During our 1990 revolution, rioters made away with black fronted microwaves believing them to be TV's. Criminals have the intelligence of Home Alone burglars.
During the break-in, they alerted no one, were quite thorough in opening anything that could contain valuable items (boxes, etc), and left quietly.
Not too bright at selecting a target (nothing of value in the locker), but smart enough to do it without exciting attention. Those tubs weighed an average of ten kilograms each (some twenty), full of paper, and didn't drop one.
It seems that collections of old oil company street maps, atlases, and spare ham radio parts were not what they wanted. I am just not cool.
Sounds cool to meIt seems that collections of old oil company street maps, atlases, and spare ham radio parts were not what they wanted. I am just not cool.
happy the thief didn’t cause much problem.All you need to do is put all your gold in some old batteries!
Last edited:
Well where I live {free state} no mask, no forced jab, everything is kind of normal, so happy new year folks!
Free state is a bit of an oxymoron.
Regardless, any perception of normalcy is more related to population density than absence of restrictions. No state imposed restrictions have any bearing on anything I do (I wouldn't stop wearing this mask in public if they threatened to shoot me for it, and I'd be fully vaccinated and boosted, even if it were as illegal as any schedule one narcotic), but COVID-19 has still kept me out of hospitals for two straight years when I have half a dozen elective surgeries that would significantly improve my quality of life queued up (I went more than a decade without insurance and almost twenty years without so much as a physical, during the most active decades of my life, and am paying for it now), and out of urgent care when it would otherwise have been prudent for me to seek medical attention.
Because of ignoramuses intent on protracting this pandemic as long as possible, I still have, among other lesser-issues: a deviated septum that is causing significant sinus problems; a progressive carpal boss that limits the range of motion of my dominant wrist; and a herniated calcaneal fat pad that is gradually making walking painful. I've also crushed a hand in a door, breaking the bones of my index and middle finger and costing me a pair of fingernails, and nearly brained myself on low hanging part of my basement ceiling, to the extend I could see the bone of my skull...and had to treat both injuries with tape because it was safer to not try to get into urgent care at places overflowing with COVID cases.
So yeah, it feels pretty normal for when I had no insurance and took my health for granted, except that I'm now almost forty and have great insurance that I can't use because everyone is in emergency-only-mode, booked solid for the foreseeable future, or just swamped with the inevitable result of people not taking little things like pandemics seriously.
Regardless, any perception of normalcy is more related to population density than absence of restrictions. No state imposed restrictions have any bearing on anything I do (I wouldn't stop wearing this mask in public if they threatened to shoot me for it, and I'd be fully vaccinated and boosted, even if it were as illegal as any schedule one narcotic), but COVID-19 has still kept me out of hospitals for two straight years when I have half a dozen elective surgeries that would significantly improve my quality of life queued up (I went more than a decade without insurance and almost twenty years without so much as a physical, during the most active decades of my life, and am paying for it now), and out of urgent care when it would otherwise have been prudent for me to seek medical attention.
Because of ignoramuses intent on protracting this pandemic as long as possible, I still have, among other lesser-issues: a deviated septum that is causing significant sinus problems; a progressive carpal boss that limits the range of motion of my dominant wrist; and a herniated calcaneal fat pad that is gradually making walking painful. I've also crushed a hand in a door, breaking the bones of my index and middle finger and costing me a pair of fingernails, and nearly brained myself on low hanging part of my basement ceiling, to the extend I could see the bone of my skull...and had to treat both injuries with tape because it was safer to not try to get into urgent care at places overflowing with COVID cases.
So yeah, it feels pretty normal for when I had no insurance and took my health for granted, except that I'm now almost forty and have great insurance that I can't use because everyone is in emergency-only-mode, booked solid for the foreseeable future, or just swamped with the inevitable result of people not taking little things like pandemics seriously.
Locally:
Staff at my centre are isolated because of Covid now.
Admin has percieved the personal risk, finally. We have antigen testing in the ER now. Too late for the ones that got sick.
Globally:
UK sequencing data over December shows Delta disappeared almost completely. London has 96% Omicron now.
This is more than just a mass effect displacement.
Omicron has to be creating immunity to Delta secondarily, preventing Delta from reinfecting its old hosts. It is effectively working as a "transmissible vaccine" vs both itself and Delta. A small South African study supports this idea:
Could be the beginning of the end of this story. On average, there's a 6 month gap between significant variants, so if nothing emerges by June-July , the pandemic is potentially done? The other factor that could end it is the polyvalent vaccine.
The SPFn polyvalent vaccine from Walter Reed Army is now being tested vs Omicron, but that seems irrelevant practically as everyone will have had Omicron long before the vaccine is available. I have a healthy respect for the Coronavirus family now, and will be seeking the polyvalent vaccine nevertheless.
Staff at my centre are isolated because of Covid now.
Admin has percieved the personal risk, finally. We have antigen testing in the ER now. Too late for the ones that got sick.
Globally:
UK sequencing data over December shows Delta disappeared almost completely. London has 96% Omicron now.
This is more than just a mass effect displacement.
Omicron has to be creating immunity to Delta secondarily, preventing Delta from reinfecting its old hosts. It is effectively working as a "transmissible vaccine" vs both itself and Delta. A small South African study supports this idea:
-Reuters
Could be the beginning of the end of this story. On average, there's a 6 month gap between significant variants, so if nothing emerges by June-July , the pandemic is potentially done? The other factor that could end it is the polyvalent vaccine.
The SPFn polyvalent vaccine from Walter Reed Army is now being tested vs Omicron, but that seems irrelevant practically as everyone will have had Omicron long before the vaccine is available. I have a healthy respect for the Coronavirus family now, and will be seeking the polyvalent vaccine nevertheless.
Would be nice, and the expectation is for it it to peter out, with each succeeding variant being more mild than the last and everyone having been infected or vaccinated at some point and having some resistance. Hardly a guaranteed outcome though.
Since I seem to be much better at avoiding people than most, I still plan on having never been infected until well after the next batch of vaccines are available. The Walter Reed cannidate seems promising. Hopefully that turns out well, and people actually take it.
Vaccines aren't mandatory here and we have over 90% of over twelves having a first dose.
I live in a city where mask wearing is compulsary in shops so they can stay open and staffed. Those businesses that don't have to have been gradually closing due staff sickness and contacts. So, it would seem prudent to keep the rules to keep the food shops open.
I know it can be different for people but the more densely populated the area, the more precautions should be taken.
Our problem here is mostly hospital staff and they don't have any choice but to face it.
The least we could do over here was try and reduce the number of contacts, which seems to have helped a bit as foot fall in the city was well down, but we don't know where we truly are as the reporting system is lagged and there's a lot of contraditory reporting going around.
We had our Xmas and NY here, just waiting to see the effects of it.
You would think that Disney would be selling Darth Vader respirators by now. Or at least Mandalorian style face shields.
Yeah, but would they actually care enough that they actually were fit for purpose...
Absolutely.
Only that the purpose is making money as much as possible, definitely not to filter air or to obstruct anything from getting to wearer's eyes or mouth...
"The Vero E6 cells are commercially available, so if you wanted to do some living cell experiments yourself..."
...erm no thanks. I'm good <grin>
Well, shops here can do as they please, some, not many ask people to wear a mask, however most don't, as they don't get many customers if they do.
It's going to be interesting to see the difference from more laxed areas compared to more restrictive areas.
A lot of it will depend on how busy or isolated your local area is.
I've lived or worked around where i live for 20 years, 10 in my current place. I know it well. It's never about what the rules are, it's about how people interact with each other, being aware of the current situation.
It's a social awareness and sense of community thing.
It has always been relaxed if you mean being aware of ppl around you and being courteous, giving space, putting ppl at ease and not pressurising them etc.
So far we've done well with our wee local shop never being closed so we've done alright but Omicron is a completely different and more contagious animal.
It's not a competition, just doing the right thing to protect those around you who have medical conditions.
This is not something we win, just survive.
Well the rules defines your life, what you can or cannot do, so it matters, we should just put things into context, more people die of cancer, drunk driving, pollution, hunger, the list is long, so this thing is tiny compare to what else is out there trying to kill us.
I got the Rona or so they told me, it was just like a flu, 5 days on D3, C vitamin, K2 and zinc and it was fine, I don't know anyone who died or got serious sick, not saying that it's not dangerous however a normal healthy person as far as all the reports goes regarding Omnicron will be just fine.
The aftermath of this thing is going to be much more of an impact to our society at so many levers I don't even know where to start and honestly this forum is not the place anyway. Stay safe and stay healthy.
Some rules you have to abide to, to maintain your freedom, however if some halfwit comes up to me suggesting that everything is safe, with no evidence, i'm not gonna trust it until proven otherwise..
It's not a question of what kills more, it's about minimising the risk so it can't kill, like i alluded to before by looking out for each other..
Super-fit ppl have died over here but it's the most vulnerable who are most at risk and it's only now they're testing positive so it's still unknown as that will take a few days.
And i know we'll be dealing with the fallout of this for a long time but the here and now is the most important as we can only affect so much so protect those you can first.
That's just my priority now.
I have my own thoughts about the whole thing but that's gonna have to wait.
Either way, stay safe and don't play with it, not take it seriously.
- Status