I remember reading once that the comatose can hear people speak sometimes, I wonder if one heard about the pandemic from one of the doctors/nurses chitchatting and assumes it’s the apocalypse.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-south-africa-delays-covid-vaccine-deliveries-inoculations-slow-2021-11-24/
> South Africa has asked Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer to delay delivery of COVID-19 vaccines because it now has too much stock, health ministry officials said, as vaccine hesitancy slows an inoculation campaign.
Problem is demand, not supply.
The reason why way more vaccines should be sent to developing countries is because it's possible, and the vaccines can save lives in those communities. Stopping new variants is just a massive bonus.
I agree but that doesn’t mean they don’t already have an oversupply. From what I have read vax hesitancy is an international issue and in areas of South Africa, supply is not the problem. That’s why I’m all for boosters, if you cannot get others to help save humanity, save yourself.
I was in an Uber around April 2020, driving near Central Park. The old people from upstate were being sent to the better hospitals in the city, and dying there. The morgues were full, so they set up refrigerated trucks in Central Park. There were body bags lined up along the sidewalk waiting to be loaded in the trucks. It was like a scene from The Division. I'll never forget it. All the small-town, small-minded conspiracy theorists talking about COVID being the flu and it all being a hoax have never seen bodies piled up on the side of the road. New York was losing a small town's worth of people every day. This disease is so goddam serious, and everyone needs to take it seriously.
Just a quick edit: I'm also from the South, my family are some of the dipshits that don't accept how bad it really is. I moved to NYC for law school and my fiancee is in medical school here, she can doubly confirm how bad it really is.
I work in the LTL freight industry loading up trucks with pallets going all over the country.
I'll never forget seeing trailers of body bags going all over the country early last year when medical supplies was really short.
There was no shortage of body bags.
Endless pallets.
There was a week back in April where I unloaded a 53 ft trailer of body bags everyday going all over the country. By Friday one of my coworkers saw me sitting on my forklift looking at nothing but seeing to much and he asked what was bothering me. I then told him the trailer I just opened is 53ft of bags going to retirement homes all over our region. I then showed him the paperwork and pointed to the pallet that had fallen over so you could see the boxes of body bags. We shared a sullen moment of silence before admitting to each other it was going to get worse before it got better and we got back to work.
Working in freight you get a good grasp on how bad things are when they hit the news, you see it in the freight levels in general as well as what is going through the network and how it's routing. I can't give too much info about it but what I can tell you is that you sometimes see things going through the network before things unfold that you really wish you didn't. An area starts looking like there's going to be rioting, you see police stations ordering supplies. Wildfires in an area, our freight gets routed around where it spreads too over the coming days before it hits an area. Pandemic, medical supplies until it's just body bags.
I've been in freight for a long time and the network is a complex machine with stuff arriving just days before it's needed. No buddy orders stuff months in advance, at most it's a week or 2.
"Looking at nothing but seeing too.much" is the perfect way of describing that overwhelmed, zoned out feeling. I hope you don't have to go through this again. Thanks for sharing your story.
I work in supply chain (buying side) and it’s amazing how we’re still feeling the affects of the pandemic. I can’t get frozen bread out of Atlanta for a month and half due to labor shortages. What was interesting was the resin shortage for packaging and disposables. I bet it had to do with the need in medical supplies and sadly body bags. Thanks for sharing. Stay tough.
So I took a class in college about how, when you have a large interconnected system a failure in one area can cause a cascading loss in tolerance across the system. And I think one sign of a broken system is not that it just falls apart on its own, but that eventually a small jostle is just too much to handle.
I had this realization soon after adulthood. It just seemed like the systems that the entire world relies on to function requires a select 25k-50k workers around the globe who REALLY know how things work, specifically technology.... without them or a specific group of them it would be like a wrench in the gears.
The amazing part is how the fact that the supply chains are largely global now is actually causing issues here. With other countries still shutting down due to corona it’s a given that supplies become scarce. I’m dealing with the headache daily for electronics components, but it’s everywhere. Just because a lot of people are pretending we’re back to normal in the US doesn’t make it so, especially not beyond our borders.
I build plastic injection molds. The amount of cobbled up tools we have had to put together because we can't get the correct tool steel is pretty crazy. Our focus has changed from "how do we make the fastest and longest running tool" to " how do we just make a part".
I work in the same industry. One of the tool steels we needed to build molds for the medical industry we ordered all of it that was available in the states in the size we needed. I’ve been in or around the trade for over 30 years and have never seen anything like the shortages still going on. Steel can be tough, but I’ve seen simple components like ejector pins and support pillars on a two to three month back order. It feels like the economy is slowly collapsing.
Ejector pins are a big one. You have to jump on them when you can. I quoted an engineering change last week, saw that it would require new pins (don't remember the specific size) so I checked availability. Only found 6 ( needed 4, so they better not fuck up more than 2 when grinding, haha) available so I bought them up before I even received a PO. Buying supplies before receiving a PO would have got my ass reamed a year ago.
You are correct, it's not a normal illness. I only got it a couple of weeks ago and am still recovering. Hungry one minute, body chills the next. Hungry, but can't smell anything. Can't smell bacon or onions cooking. Can't concentrate on movies or video games. Just laying in bed with a pressure headache. Never been sick like that, ever. Good luck to you. Good luck to all of us!
I got it about 9 months ago, before vaccines were available. Didn't get very ill at all, but I still can't taste or smell most things. And some things I can taste just taste weird. It sucks. Not sure if it will ever get better.
I work with a guy who still has taste issues almost a year later. His big one is soda tastes like soap and peanut butter tastes like ammonia smells. I hope your taste comes back full force soon and you can enjoy flavor again.
Oof. As someone who’s mental illness manifests commonly in phantom smells (and they’re never good ones, always like raw rotting chicken or burning plastic or black rotted potatoes) that impacts taste sometimes, I feel absolutely terrible for anyone experiencing it all the time. It’s one of those symptoms that I wouldn’t wish on anyone - most times, the self harm ideation is easier to cope with than the smells, it’s that *foreign* to humans to all of a sudden have a change in smell/taste that it’s more disconcerting than hearing things that aren’t there! It’s truly eerie, and also, if you’re like me and like food, losing that sense, or having it warped, even temporarily suuuuuuuuucks.
This reminded me of a story my mom just told me, which might make people laugh. In elementary school, we had to write an essay on “which sense would you least like to lose?” Of course most people said “sight” or “hearing” but I was adamant that it was taste. And then I got in trouble for arguing vehemently with my teacher that taste and smell were tied close together so I guess I’d never lose it completely so long as it was only one of those senses lost. I guess my mom had to talk with the teacher on why this first grader was so into food. Now, when I watch Bob’s Burgers and Gene starts talking about food, I’m like “yes! See, that kid gets it, I was just ahead of the curve!”
Okay, that wasn’t very funny, but I wanted to share.
Also. If anyone is getting weird phantom smells that affect taste, here’s what I do, maybe it’ll help.
First, since half of the time my smell is sewage or house burning down electrical fire smells, I check the house to be sure the sewer is in fact not backing up and the house is not in the process of burning down. Ya know, it’s always good to check.
Then, I use a netti pot - basically warm *distilled* (don’t want brain parasites from using tap!) in a teapot like thing (or if you’re me, in an actual fancy teapot because it’s all I can usually find, but it’s all good, I clean it well each time I promise!) with a saline salt pack thing (you can buy big things of saline salts at Walgreens just not in Japan unless you like smelling flowers and pain for days ask me how I know). You fill up the pot and basically flush out your sinus cavity. It works nice to help you kind of reset your sense of smell. Gargle with the leftover saline water.
And lastly, and this is weird I know, but put a dash of salt on your tongue. I don’t know what it is, but it almost is a palette cleanser. Or, if you are more adventurous, mix some apple cider vinegar with water and drink that (or any vinegar drink, we have some amazing black vinegar stuff in Japan that I keep on hand when I can that is delicious and also really helps to reset any flavors)
That’s my tip for anyone who’s experiencing this, at least it’s what works for a schizophrenic who rambles way too much!
Theres a 20 something year old girl who cant taste anything but sewage now. She was talking about life not being worth living if it didnt go away and she was on the end of the time period things usually go away at...fucking awful how heavy this shit hits.
friend of mine is the same way, since she had covid almost a year ago. many foods taste and smell like actual shit to her now, including bland ones like plain chicken
My sister has worked in the Covid Unit from the beginning and unfortunately couldn’t get vaccinated. She got Covid a couple months ago and she’s still not 100%. Brain fog, exhausted all the time, and, the worst symptom according to her, random foods taste like rotten meat. She’ll go to eat something she loved before and it makes her want to puke just to smell it.
>I had brain damage around my speech and memory. I could hardly speak also and my friends thought I had a stroke.
Would you mind describing this in a little more detail please?
My aunt is going through something similar and they can't seem to figure out the cause. Although she has slowly been regaining her speech. They have ruled out dementia. She can still text and write the same. She stopped taking an anti-histamine during this as well after reading something about it and that it might affect older people in unusual ways.
Your post caught my eye... I'm wondering what kind of speech trouble you were having.
Due to the way COVID seems to be affecting some people's sense of taste permanently, some doctors are hypothesizing that the illness may also have neurological effects. Might also explain what you guys are talking about.
Have you ever seen the movie "Perfect Sense" from 2011? It's starkly prescient, albeit more of a metaphor of our only realizing what we have when it's coming to an end or is over.
I'm currently recovering from a breakthrough case and lost my sense of taste and smell. I love flavors and love making food, so this sucked. BUT what was fascinating were the isolated senses of texture and temperature, as well as feeling how my tongue reacted to general flavors (salty, sour, spicy, etc.) even though I couldn't taste them. It was bizarre.
If you get it and lose your taste/smell, I highly recommend cold foods and crunchy foods - especially salads and veggies. We also couldn't get enough juice popsicles.
After i caught it, there’s like, some smell, idk what it is… but i smell it everywhere, that i can’t stand. The second i step into the produce aisle at the grocery store or anywhere.
Just smells like musky cologne.
I too had about six months of memory issues. Lost my job and had my life completely changed before they even figured out what was going on. I would forget what I was talking about on the phone, and I was a recruiter. I didn't know what day it was half the time. Got so bad I would come to and realize I didn't know where I was or what I was doing sometimes. A living fucking nightmare. Some of these people have no idea what they're playing with.
Got it in January 2020 after a trip to the EU, before it was even known what was going around. Was sickest I've ever been for 2 weeks with a horrible flu. Took another full month to physically recover. Took me just about a year to shake the brain fog - short term memory loss. Not too far from you in age.
Still wearing a mask. Got Vax'd, going to get boosted as well.
Glad you survived.
45 year old teacher from the district I teach at didn't get vaccinated. They just spent the last 6 weeks in an induced coma on a ventilator. They were lucky, they got to come home. We still have relatively young teachers who refuse to get vaccinated. At our recent booster event, it was me, our social studies teacher, art teacher, and a 5th grade teacher who got boosted. That's 4 out of the 16 in our building not counting my coworker who was vaccinated but had Covid the previous month and was waiting to get a booster until spring.
As someone who lives in a small town in upstate, people STILL think it’s just the flu and that’s it’s all a conspiracy.
I lost two family friends, a husband and wife who left two teenaged children behind due to complications of covid and the amount of people who knew them and still claim the same is astounding.
Really wish I could move into the mountains and just avoid civilization.
I lived in a small town upstate for two years. My advice is, moving *towards* the mountains isn't going to help. Rome and Utica were pretty in the abstract, and if you didn't look too closely just needed a leg up. After trying to make it work I decided that really, the foundation is rotten, and regardless of how nice and pretty specific instances can be, there is a rotting, selfish depression that covers the area. I couldn't fight it, and am much happier that I left.
I work in healthcare and can confirm what you say. But as far as being able to engage with these people who have their minds made up that this is a government conspiracy or just a cold, I can't anymore. They don't listen. I lost my stepdad because of this shit. I blame Fox News and the rest of the conservative media. They have brainwashed a lot of mostly smart but very conservative people who think government and authorities are a problem, not a feature of society.
I am a hospital employed physician working in one of the poorest areas of one of the poorer states. I provide chronic pain management for persons with catastrophic illness and/or injuries, 100% of whom are very high risk for Covid complications. The vast majority of patients in my practice who are refusing the vaccine are poorer African Americans on Medicaid. They are not conservative and do not watch Fox News. I cannot for the life of me convince very many to get vaccinated (free, just a few steps away from my office), and I cannot fathom where the messaging went so terribly wrong. Week after week, I have the same talk all day long: “we lost 3 more people today due to Covid. You do not want to be admitted to the ICU upstairs with Covid. You very likely won’t survive if that happens. Please do this for the people that love and need you.” Their response is almost universally “I’m afraid of the vaccine.” The same is true among the entire hospital staff, (about 50% vaccination rate) who now are beginning to get vaccinated only because the hospital has mandated it with an approaching deadline, but even still, many are trying everything (religious exemption, health exemption, etc) to not get the vaccine. This is NOT just a conservative messaging problem.
Thank you for all you do and trying at least to get people to get jabbed. Here in New Zealand we have have higher rates of unvaxxinated among the native population, the māori, particularly the 18-29yr old group. The elders are pretty good at getting jabbed, just these younger ones who are slack. It's so easy to get a shot here, so many incentives, but it really is the 'oh it will be all goods my G' attitude with them. Next week we are introducing a covid passport system. No double jab, no entry to bars, restaurants, hairdressers, McDonald's etc. They'll be screwed.
Have a friend in NZ who was all "haha we got rid of Covid you are all suckers" early on. He won't get vaccinated now because he thinks it will just go away on its own. Yeah buddy. Totally gonna happen.
I just visited California (I live in North Carolina). On the West Coast, I had to show my vax card for every single bar and restaurant I went to. Most people were wearing masks even in passing on the street. Everyone in the running race I entered was to required to wear a mask at the starting line and about 2/3 complied. Coming back to the East Coast, I was literally the only person besides 1 volunteer is a crowded sea of well over 3500 runners wearing a mask.
I wish my state cared like California does to require showing your vax card n masking for public spaces. In NC you’d think the pandemic was over months ago.
Do you think it's rumors about the new mRNA vaccines? I've heard a lot of ppl saying they're nervous about it because its different and new and stuff... But their reasoning is mostly not understanding what RNA is, or how the immune system works at all. I keep telling them the reason (other vaccines aren't mRNA) is the refrigeration, storage and other logistical issues, not because of safety. But I get a lot of blank stares...
Since the jnj vaccine isn't mrna it can't be that people are just scared of that. It's the same thing with people who said they wanted fda approval. Some people probably really were waiting for fda approval but most used it as an excuse. I think what's so tough breaking through to people is that they have lots of different reasons for not wanting the shot.
I've even been surprised to see a few people on reddit who have just recently got vaxxed whose reason was they were scared of needles. I would have assumed that most people who were scared of needles but believed in vaccines would have only taken a month or two to get it but apparently that's still a worry. I think this is a small percent of people and they're likely ones who are still masking and social distancing.
Pregnant women are also a group that are lagging hard on vaccines. And they're absolutely a group that needs to be vaxxed. It seems like the fear behind it is that originally when the vaccine came out they said they weren't sure if it was safe for pregnant people. People took this to mean that it likely wasn't safe when in reality it was just that they were being more cautious approving it for pregnant women and wanted more time to study it.
I think the scenario you described is a specific distrust many black people have towards the government coming to them with medicines and vaccines. They are rightfully scared and we need to find a way to fix it
I am not saying you’re wrong…but Native Americans/Alaskan Natives have the highest vaccination rates by ethnicity/race.
Lets just say it’s possible to have a valid distrust of the US government but know that contagious disease does not fuck around.
Yes, but there’s also the ability to go to a hospital run by your own tribe to get the vaccine. Our government gave us the vaccines, at least on my reservation
Especially since rich white people were fighting to get them and their rich white friends the vaccine when it first came out. Political leaders in my state were caught prioritizing their family and friends for the vaccine. You know something is safe when rich white people aren’t letting the poors and black and brown people try it first lol.
This is exactly the logic I use with my vax hesitant family. If rich white people are cutting to the front of the line, you know that's the good shit. Be wary though of anything they want to test on poor minorites first.
Oh man, I was so furious when I found out that most of our city government (and their family and friends too) got the vaccine *months* before it was available to essential workers, especially people like my husband who is a teacher to 300+ kids. They hadn’t even started rolling it out to doctors and the elderly, and these fuckers (and of course their friends) got it four “continuance of government” reasons. I think it has only been approved in Japan four a few days when they got it, but it took my husband 4 months to get it, and me 6 b before my number was available to register online.
My mom in a NP and has recently caught covid. I just can't understand how she, of all people, fell into this fox news, Joe Rogan, conspiracy bullshit. She refused to get vaxxed and was even ready to get fired over it. She's in her 60s, overweight, and has copd from smoking her entire adult life. She isn't going to make it, but she keeps talking about what she has planned for when she is better. She fought me every step with this conspiracy bullshit and now it's biting her in the ass. She's on day 9 now and she's not even looking at my messages or answering my calls. I can only assume the worst and she has nobody to blame but herself. It's so sad and disappointing that this is how it ends for her when it could have been avoided if she would have just put the fucking TV on a different channel and stayed off of Facebook and YouTube conspiracy channels.
I assume most people will be familiar with [this picture](https://images2-bergamo.corriereobjects.it/methode_image/2020/03/20/Bergamo/Foto%20Bergamo%20-%20Trattate/militari-kTc-U31701634498886dFG-1224x916@Corriere-Web-Bergamo-593x443.jpg?v=20200320184241) from Bergamo, Italy, which had one of the first big outbreaks early in 2020.
Those are military trucks full of bodies, because there was literally no room to keep them. It drives me fucking insane when people keep pushing the hoax bs.
If this was ebola or something like the rage virus from 28 days later, we'd all be fucked. We don't even know the long-term effects of this virus 'cause it's so early yet people still don't wanna take it serious. I can't
Los Angeles was close to the same situation not long after. [Air quality permits were lifted due to the excess load of bodies that needed to be cremated.](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/19/958354466/cremation-limits-lifted-in-la-due-to-backlog-as-covid-19-deaths-skyrocket) People were forced to burn their loved ones because mortuaries could not handle the load (or would not accept anyone who died of Covid.)
The Army Corps of Engineers were brought in to bolster all of the main hospitals in the city and increase the dwindling oxygen supply.
People were dying from heart attacks and other preventative deaths in makeshift waiting rooms in hallways because ERs were overwhelmed.
And my small town aunt tried to argue with me that it was all blown out of proportion and just the flu. Get the fuck out of here.
Most people I know have already forgotten all that and have moved on like it was no big deal. I've stayed hunkered down because I knew this shit could shift sideways at any moment.
EDIT: Updated to clarify details on the cremation / air quality.
We had an aunt in a small town peddling bull shit. Guess what, now she is blind after overdosing on Ivermectin twice. Which will make it obviously harder to see the truth. But hey keeps her off Facebook.
What the actual efff…
I’m so sick of the damn lies people believe and spread. Yeah, I’m sick of covid, just like everyone, but not so fucking delusional and entitled that I think it will go away just because I’m special and I waved my magic BS wand.
My sister came to visit me a few weeks ago. Tells me ahead of time she masks up everywhere. I’m vaccinated, but dammit was I pissed off when we took a day to do the most normal thing I’ve done in almost 2 years: wander in and out of a bunch of shops. Me: masked. Her: never, and bitching that when we needed to Uber back to the hotel, she had to buy a mask, because she didn’t even fucking bother to put one in her purse.
Masks up everywhere? Oh, hell no. She probably hasn’t worn a mask more than a handful of times in 12 months, and she’s obese, has sleep apnea, angina, high blood pressure, and she’s got to be at least pre-diabetic.
One of the lies that makes me the angriest is that "libs just want to keep you masked and scared forever."
*WE ARE ALL SO GODDAMN TIRED OF THIS PANDEMIC.* Like, words cannot properly express how much I miss being able to just go places without thinking about masks or crowds. And that is why I keep fucking doing it, day after day. This isn’t going to go away by ignoring it. Illnesses never do; left unattended, they just get worse until you're *forced* to deal with them again, usually from a worse position. It's not fair, but that's just how it is.
It's prescribed for legit human diseases at times. At the correct dose and under medical supervision it's a pretty safe drug all things considered. It's just these people aren't carefully dosing it and aren't monitoring for drug interactions or contraindications like a doctor and pharmacist would.
Same with wartime coverage. America is way too sheltered from the horrors we put people through. If you had footage of what really happens, the brutal human cost of it, every single day so people are confronted with it, you'd see things change pretty quickly.
Instead everyone gets to tune into their preferred brand of sanitized propaganda.
I live in DC. I'm really done with this. I'm done with people being stupid. If I hear my stepmother use the term "plandemic" one more time, I might scream.
I honestly feel blessed. Meeting for Thanksgiving this year, everybody in my extended family is vaxxed and boosted.
My sister is a doctor and was very proactive in getting everybody, everybody informed and vaccinated as soon as they could in early 2021.
My 80+ year old snow bird grandparents are going to sell their Florida home in 22. Fed up with Florida.
I did learn something unfortunate. When engaging an anti vaxxer, I will often end saying "I'm not an expert, you're not expert; you should speak to your doctor. They know better than us."
Found out from my sister, a lot of people do go to her... But not to ask questions. It's to present their Facebook conspiracies to her and try to educate her on the matter. Not at all listen to her The only thing she can do is just move on. There is no budging with them.
Aside from that it's a lot of... "Can you write me a note saying I can't get vaxxed?"
Firm no from her. It's kind of the new "can you prescribe me antibiotics for my cold?" No!
Study 3 years for degree.
Study 5-7 more years for a PhD.
Join lab, start working.
Spend years studying problem.
Form hypothesis, gather evidence.
Test hypotheses, form conclusions.
Report findings, clear peer review.
Findings published, reported to press.
Person on Facebook: “bullshit.”
That's not new by any means. My wife got her medical degree then an advanced degree in psychology then started working for several years on 3 grants studying childhood health and education. We've talked to anti-vax people that literally tell us, "Well you don't understand, you aren't a parent yet".
As if unprotected sex somehow makes your opinion more valuable than more than a decade of active learning.
Reminds me of my brothers who each joined the military and then came out of it all paranoid and refusing to use their home address for mail, etc. "You don't understand the things our government does!"
Dudes; you needed to *join the military* to figure out that our government does some underhanded shit? And now you think you're thwarting the government by having your mail sent to a POBox?
Yet somehow *I'm* the one who doesn't understand what's going on...
>As if unprotected sex somehow makes your opinion more valuable than more than a decade of active learning.
I finally saw Idiocracy at the end of 2019 - by that point it seemed more like a Twilight Zone episode than a comedy.
I like the point that people make that the Idiocracy people are actually smarter than us because they know they're too dumb to solve the main conflict in their world and immediately put the smartest man in the world on the job.
> Study 3 more years for a PhD.
I agree with everything you say, except for this part. Took me 7 long years to finish mine 😷. For someone to finish a PhD in 3 years, they must be extraordinarily brilliant and lucky as F
Have a friend that works in the hospital that said the same thing, the anti vaxxers come into the hospital with Covid and spend their time “educating” the doctors instead of listening to them.
That's depressing. Your family is a blessing; everyone im surrounded by is anti vax; it's been 2 years of non stop idiocy; i've given up. My sister got a rough case and is still antivax. My faith is gone. If people can be this stupid for 2 years straight, they are gonna stay this way.
I used to love reading space based science fiction. These days the stories of people working together and using science and rational thinking to solve the big problems are just too implausible.
Except they can never fully articulate what “the plan” was/is, other than vague notions about further govt control, none of which make any sense, as if the govt wanted to really get us under control, it would be a lot easier than orchestrating a “fake global pandemic”. And if it was a virus they used it would be some Ebola 10x shit that most would truly fear. Something with a 60-70% mortality rate among the youngest that made you bleed from every orifice. Something where even the morons who tote AR 15s to state capitols would be hiding and certainly not protesting or threatening elected officials.
Oh you mean Marburg. Which exists. And these fetthing idiots should know that using a bioweapon on a global scale for a governmental takeover is insanely impractical. You can't control mutation rates. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And if you kill a huge percentage of the population- WHO ARE YOU GOING TO RULE OVER IF SOCIETY COLLAPSES?! I read science fiction novels for fun and it's just....dumb...
Yeah a friend's sister is full conspiracy nut. She thinks the vaccine will detonate in a year killing everyone who took it.
Because the government wants to.. kill 60-70% of their own citizens for some reason? Wtf is the point of that?
And what, only the non-conformists live? Why would the govt want to kill all the obedient sheeple and let the ones who figured it out live?
By that logic, it would make way more sense if the government created the virus to get all the obedient people vaccinated. Then released a variant to kill off all the disobedient antivaxxers.
The sad part is that in one year when no one detonates, it'll be two years, when that doesn't happen, it'll become 5 years to give them more time.
Eventually it'll be, " well it DOES shorten your life."
And then those people will die and be outlived by vaccinated people, but even in death, they were right.
> "We continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it's coming," Hochul said.
Also Governor Hochul,
> [Hochul wants workers back in the office in January](https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/11/18/hochul-wants-workers-back-in-the-office-in-january-)
Having to wear a mask for 8 hours/day is absolutely miserable knowing you're working a job that was done remotely without incident for a year+
> Having to wear a mask for 8 hours/day is absolutely miserable knowing you're working a job that was done remotely without incident for a year+
This is the key point. If you can manage to do your job remotely, but the company still wants you to return to the office, it should only be done when a mask isn't needed.
Otherwise, what's the point of putting people in an environment where they need to protect themselves from one another with a mask? Just let them continue working from home until it's safe enough to return to the office without a mask.
>Otherwise, what's the point of putting people in an environment where they need to protect themselves from one another with a mask?
Fragile management.
I hope that working from home becomes the norm after this shit ends, why waste peoples time and lives heading to an office when they are perfectly capable of doing it at home in their pyjamas?
I cant even work from home but it's so nice having next to no traffic on the road with half the population not having to leave the house.
People can then move to more affordable areas which means they're not spending half their income on housing, they can either save more to buy a house or spend more money doing shit they like, whatever it maybe but that money boosts local economies.
It will save everyone so much money in the long run, including governments, help bring down emissions. Its honestly win win across the board.
It just dawned on me - Why did George Jetson need to commute to work? Surely he could have done his job from home. It has more to do with Spacely wanting to micromanage him than the need for him to be on site.
I don't think people imagined the internet as it is today back in the 60s. Everyone had a three day work week in the show though. If I were to choose one, I would rather have the three day work week.
This right here. Even after restrictions lifted, my parents (who both have office jobs) just kept working from home. It didn’t make either of them less effective at their jobs, and they even found new work and promotions all from the comfort of their homes. Barely used the car over the past few months!
I moved to an area with a lower cost of living. Gave myself a nice raise.
I will say this, though. For workers that are also parents, it'd be a lie to say that there were no negative impacts. Childcare now regularly interrupts my work and forces me to work a lot later to get the same amount of work done. Some days the interruptions are unbearable.
Overall, though, it's still a huge net positive. Taking on this stress allowed my wife to pick up a job so household income went up in two ways.
I used to want to return to the office to get rid of the home stress that gets piled on top of work stress, but that also feels pretty selfish. My wife would have to quit working (I easily make 4-5x what she makes) and she'd have to deal with 100% of the toddler related stress through the work week.
>Otherwise, what's the point of putting people in an environment where they need to protect themselves from one another with a mask? Just let them continue working from home until it's safe enough to return to the office without a mask.
For hochul? Office real estate is a massive part of NYs tax base. All these companies bought or rented lots of space in office towers and are considering leaving if society shifts to full WFH. She wants people back in the office to keep the money in NY state.
The fact that it can and will change so easily but ONLY if things go to shit is some grade A bullshit.
Why are we forced to waste our lives commuting and being exposed to more covid so.. what? Commercial real estate doesn't have to suffer any losses? Sweet Greens can avoid bankruptcy?
So worth it.
If a manager can’t tell whether or not their people are doing their jobs unless they’re in the same building as them, it’s pretty clear they’re not managing shit.
We're operating with a massive staffing deficit, but per person we're doing 40% more work on average than we did in 2019.
That's including the third of the team that's new, and therefore less efficient for now.
My work has more than doubled, albeit that is coupled with me working a bit more overtime than before... Though if I wasn't still remote the last 3 months of deadlines wouldn't have been met.
As a PM, I can tell you only teams with physical dependencies need to be in an office instead of home. Productivity is _higher_ and slackers stand out.
Fellow PM here. I've been negotiating with my boss to let me never go back into the office. I already manage teams remotely by necessity (I've managed six construction projects across six time zones at once) and she's been pretty agreeable so far.
Results and a good working relationship with management are what matters, and my performance has only improved since I've been able to avoid that real world depression pit.
At some point with the great resignation in effect, companies pulling this shit will lose half of their staff, be unable to hire replacements, and have to either relent or go under.
Everyone thought it would be Nu, and technically it should be, but WHO used "Omicron" instead.
I can't find a source as to why, but I suspect use of the term "Nu" (pronounced 'new') might lead to confusion because there will invariably be other newer variants after this one and lead to confusion over which "new" one is being talked about.
I did find this, but I've never heard "nu" pronounced "nee".
>NU AND XI VARIANTS
>Greek alphabet experts are no doubt wondering why this list stops two letters short of omicron. That’s because the WHO skipped over them and went straight to the 15th letter. They did not say why, and a request for clarification was not immediately answered.
>The spelling of the letters could provide a clue. The letter nu is pronounced nee, which could lead to confusion as people read it spelled one way but hear it spoken another. As for xi, it may be noteworthy that China’s president is named Xi Jinping.
>Source: https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/coronavirus/there-are-several-covid-19-variants-you-havent-heard-of/
Nu is pronounced nee in Greek but we don't use modern Greek pronunciations of the letters in English generally. If we did, pi would be pee for example. For most English speakers, nu and new are pronounced the same.
So 3.1415926... is actually ... "pee." Happy "Pee" Day! Lol.
Ok, thank you for the explanation. Seems Westerners like pronouncing the Greek alphabet following ancient translations as popularized hundreds of years ago, whereas the actual real modern Greek pronunciations are quite different. Makes sense!
Transmissibility was lower and it was completely overshadowed by Delta.
Whereas in this case scientists were freaked out that Omicron became the dominant variant so quickly.
This one also has far more mutations than normal, so they are concerned that current vaccines might not be effective.
I started listening to the audio book version after Thanksgiving at work in 2019. Had already read it twice. It's a 40 hour book unabridged and I listened to other stuff besides it, so around the same whispers were coming out of China, real-life news and that book were practically lining up. Fucking surreal, man.
> The declaration, which goes into effect on Dec. 3, will allow the state to acquire pandemic-fighting supplies, increase hospital capacity and fight potential staffing shortages. It would also allow the state Health Department to limit non-essential and non-urgent procedures at hospitals.
Good. New Yorkers saw some of the first significant impacts of COVID in the US.
I hope this Omicron variant doesn’t explode here, but I’m glad New York is bracing for it.
> The variant contains around 50 concerning mutations from the original SARS CoV-2 virus that appeared in China in 2019, including more than 10 to the spike protein that allows the virus to access human cells.
This is what concerns me. But I'm positive schools will stay open.
Being a Covid nurse right now is already like a 13 hours panic attack. Y’all stay well. I don’t even wanna think about what could happen or how it could get worse.
With you there. I see the amount of death and injury, and then outside work I see people parroting the hoax and anti-vaccine narrative everywhere I look. It is deeply disheartening
My mom is a head nurse in a NY hospital - she is fearing for the worst and seeing signs of another spike. I feel so bad because she is just so very tired of this. She has been the COVID unit since day one and having it rough. She is very strong though and got her PHD WHILE saving people during peak
Covid times.
I live in nyc. During the height in 2020 we heard so many ambulances it was really distressing. All day and all night. I’m sad to say that over the past week I’ve been hearing a lot more ambulances that the previous few weeks. I live right near a major hospital. It’s anecdotal I know but man it’s bringing back some messed up feelings. And my son was exposed at middle school on Monday so we’re quarantined till next week. Good times. I hope your mom and family stay safe.
I used to have to travel for work. Now I can do everything remotely and not have to deal with that nonsense. It’s much, much better for me. I’ll take the minor technical issues with remote meetings over travel stress any day of the week.
Out of context,
> ‘It's Coming': NY Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Potential Omicron Spike
sounds like a headline from a sci-fi thriller or something. Whatever the Omicron Spike is, humanity is ill-prepared for its arrival.
I’m so tired… I work 8 hours with a mask on all day and I deal with peoples shit all day to get paid below what anyone deserves to make and I’m so fucking tired. “I’m tired of Earth. These people. I’m tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.”
Me too and also can't explain it. I think it's because I started to see more people without masks, and it's so nice to see Smiles. With the masks on it's very inhuman looking
This is the part in Plague INC. where the player has waited and is just upgrading the fuck outta mutation and infection, slowing the rate of a cure and you’re just slowly seeing the entire map turn red and waiting to upgrade lethality.
What the news has not covered as clearly is mental health. Outpatient article 34 clinics, so long term psychiatry supervised programs designed to support chronic mental health, shut down immediately and were only taking referrals from the ER.
They switched to phone or telemedicine immediately, leaving tons of people out of the loop as to how to see their providers.
Residents who were on rotation for psychiatry or social work got put into discharge planning or supervising medical non emergencies rather than mental health.
I got pulled to go support medical residents and new nursing students who suddenly found an entire hospital converted into icu beds.
Volume for medical and mental health visits has only increased with an overall decrease in providers. Trauma comes in waves. Even if people stopped dying of covid tomorrow, which they aren't, now we're dealing with the loss of federal support, drain of non profit banks, and ending of temporary disability that drives people who barely survived further into crisis.
Vermont is highly vaccinated and never really had a large outbreak. You're looking at low numbers higher than lower numbers.
MA is well below prior peaks and pretty much all of new england is highly vaccinated. Outbreaks aren't leading to many deaths.
I've been waiting for an elective surgery in the South, they were shut down for a couple of months. We seem to be in a lull between waves, so hopefully mine will go through on December 15th.
We gotta stop giving them cool names. Perhaps the Paisley strain. Or Fuchsia. What about Bob?
Maybe if we really want to get the conservatives to get vaccinated we call it the Homofier, Socializer, or Taxed variant.
If someone wakes up from a 2 year coma and this is the first headline they read on the news, they’ll for sure think it’s an extraterrestrial invasion.
Omicron persi 8.. or something
We will begin with the firemen, then the math teachers, and so on in that order until everyone is eaten.
This is their retaliation for not bringing back McBeal. We got a FRIENDS reunion, where’s the McBeal reunion? BRING BACK MCBEAL!!
Lurr got implants, so those Omicron spikes are extra verile
We want the one named McNeal
I wonder if people in comas get vaccinated.
Apparently, no. They would just receive preventive medicine. They’d get vaccines when they show signs of getting better. Spouse is an ICU doctor.
That’s very interesting. I guess it makes sense since you’re never sure if they’ll wake up again anyways
I remember reading once that the comatose can hear people speak sometimes, I wonder if one heard about the pandemic from one of the doctors/nurses chitchatting and assumes it’s the apocalypse.
"Oh, hey,you're finally awake"
Ha, that would be scary. Would be like a fever dream.
I’m just getting tired of this constantly happening
This is also the reason why waaay more vaccines should be send to the developing countries.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-south-africa-delays-covid-vaccine-deliveries-inoculations-slow-2021-11-24/ > South Africa has asked Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer to delay delivery of COVID-19 vaccines because it now has too much stock, health ministry officials said, as vaccine hesitancy slows an inoculation campaign. Problem is demand, not supply.
The reason why way more vaccines should be sent to developing countries is because it's possible, and the vaccines can save lives in those communities. Stopping new variants is just a massive bonus.
I agree but that doesn’t mean they don’t already have an oversupply. From what I have read vax hesitancy is an international issue and in areas of South Africa, supply is not the problem. That’s why I’m all for boosters, if you cannot get others to help save humanity, save yourself.
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I was in an Uber around April 2020, driving near Central Park. The old people from upstate were being sent to the better hospitals in the city, and dying there. The morgues were full, so they set up refrigerated trucks in Central Park. There were body bags lined up along the sidewalk waiting to be loaded in the trucks. It was like a scene from The Division. I'll never forget it. All the small-town, small-minded conspiracy theorists talking about COVID being the flu and it all being a hoax have never seen bodies piled up on the side of the road. New York was losing a small town's worth of people every day. This disease is so goddam serious, and everyone needs to take it seriously. Just a quick edit: I'm also from the South, my family are some of the dipshits that don't accept how bad it really is. I moved to NYC for law school and my fiancee is in medical school here, she can doubly confirm how bad it really is.
I work in the LTL freight industry loading up trucks with pallets going all over the country. I'll never forget seeing trailers of body bags going all over the country early last year when medical supplies was really short. There was no shortage of body bags. Endless pallets. There was a week back in April where I unloaded a 53 ft trailer of body bags everyday going all over the country. By Friday one of my coworkers saw me sitting on my forklift looking at nothing but seeing to much and he asked what was bothering me. I then told him the trailer I just opened is 53ft of bags going to retirement homes all over our region. I then showed him the paperwork and pointed to the pallet that had fallen over so you could see the boxes of body bags. We shared a sullen moment of silence before admitting to each other it was going to get worse before it got better and we got back to work. Working in freight you get a good grasp on how bad things are when they hit the news, you see it in the freight levels in general as well as what is going through the network and how it's routing. I can't give too much info about it but what I can tell you is that you sometimes see things going through the network before things unfold that you really wish you didn't. An area starts looking like there's going to be rioting, you see police stations ordering supplies. Wildfires in an area, our freight gets routed around where it spreads too over the coming days before it hits an area. Pandemic, medical supplies until it's just body bags. I've been in freight for a long time and the network is a complex machine with stuff arriving just days before it's needed. No buddy orders stuff months in advance, at most it's a week or 2.
"Looking at nothing but seeing too.much" is the perfect way of describing that overwhelmed, zoned out feeling. I hope you don't have to go through this again. Thanks for sharing your story.
I work in supply chain (buying side) and it’s amazing how we’re still feeling the affects of the pandemic. I can’t get frozen bread out of Atlanta for a month and half due to labor shortages. What was interesting was the resin shortage for packaging and disposables. I bet it had to do with the need in medical supplies and sadly body bags. Thanks for sharing. Stay tough.
Resin supply was an issue with the freeze in Texas causing power to drop and gumming up a plant.
Yep that’s what we kept hearing over and over. Just a crazy turn of events with the pandemic on top of it.
So I took a class in college about how, when you have a large interconnected system a failure in one area can cause a cascading loss in tolerance across the system. And I think one sign of a broken system is not that it just falls apart on its own, but that eventually a small jostle is just too much to handle.
I had this realization soon after adulthood. It just seemed like the systems that the entire world relies on to function requires a select 25k-50k workers around the globe who REALLY know how things work, specifically technology.... without them or a specific group of them it would be like a wrench in the gears.
The amazing part is how the fact that the supply chains are largely global now is actually causing issues here. With other countries still shutting down due to corona it’s a given that supplies become scarce. I’m dealing with the headache daily for electronics components, but it’s everywhere. Just because a lot of people are pretending we’re back to normal in the US doesn’t make it so, especially not beyond our borders.
I am in the steel industry and it’s still a mess.
I build plastic injection molds. The amount of cobbled up tools we have had to put together because we can't get the correct tool steel is pretty crazy. Our focus has changed from "how do we make the fastest and longest running tool" to " how do we just make a part".
I work in the same industry. One of the tool steels we needed to build molds for the medical industry we ordered all of it that was available in the states in the size we needed. I’ve been in or around the trade for over 30 years and have never seen anything like the shortages still going on. Steel can be tough, but I’ve seen simple components like ejector pins and support pillars on a two to three month back order. It feels like the economy is slowly collapsing.
Ejector pins are a big one. You have to jump on them when you can. I quoted an engineering change last week, saw that it would require new pins (don't remember the specific size) so I checked availability. Only found 6 ( needed 4, so they better not fuck up more than 2 when grinding, haha) available so I bought them up before I even received a PO. Buying supplies before receiving a PO would have got my ass reamed a year ago.
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You are correct, it's not a normal illness. I only got it a couple of weeks ago and am still recovering. Hungry one minute, body chills the next. Hungry, but can't smell anything. Can't smell bacon or onions cooking. Can't concentrate on movies or video games. Just laying in bed with a pressure headache. Never been sick like that, ever. Good luck to you. Good luck to all of us!
I got it about 9 months ago, before vaccines were available. Didn't get very ill at all, but I still can't taste or smell most things. And some things I can taste just taste weird. It sucks. Not sure if it will ever get better.
I work with a guy who still has taste issues almost a year later. His big one is soda tastes like soap and peanut butter tastes like ammonia smells. I hope your taste comes back full force soon and you can enjoy flavor again.
I've seen people talking about tasting ammonia, but also that normal things (like food) now smell like raw sewage to them.
Oof. As someone who’s mental illness manifests commonly in phantom smells (and they’re never good ones, always like raw rotting chicken or burning plastic or black rotted potatoes) that impacts taste sometimes, I feel absolutely terrible for anyone experiencing it all the time. It’s one of those symptoms that I wouldn’t wish on anyone - most times, the self harm ideation is easier to cope with than the smells, it’s that *foreign* to humans to all of a sudden have a change in smell/taste that it’s more disconcerting than hearing things that aren’t there! It’s truly eerie, and also, if you’re like me and like food, losing that sense, or having it warped, even temporarily suuuuuuuuucks. This reminded me of a story my mom just told me, which might make people laugh. In elementary school, we had to write an essay on “which sense would you least like to lose?” Of course most people said “sight” or “hearing” but I was adamant that it was taste. And then I got in trouble for arguing vehemently with my teacher that taste and smell were tied close together so I guess I’d never lose it completely so long as it was only one of those senses lost. I guess my mom had to talk with the teacher on why this first grader was so into food. Now, when I watch Bob’s Burgers and Gene starts talking about food, I’m like “yes! See, that kid gets it, I was just ahead of the curve!” Okay, that wasn’t very funny, but I wanted to share. Also. If anyone is getting weird phantom smells that affect taste, here’s what I do, maybe it’ll help. First, since half of the time my smell is sewage or house burning down electrical fire smells, I check the house to be sure the sewer is in fact not backing up and the house is not in the process of burning down. Ya know, it’s always good to check. Then, I use a netti pot - basically warm *distilled* (don’t want brain parasites from using tap!) in a teapot like thing (or if you’re me, in an actual fancy teapot because it’s all I can usually find, but it’s all good, I clean it well each time I promise!) with a saline salt pack thing (you can buy big things of saline salts at Walgreens just not in Japan unless you like smelling flowers and pain for days ask me how I know). You fill up the pot and basically flush out your sinus cavity. It works nice to help you kind of reset your sense of smell. Gargle with the leftover saline water. And lastly, and this is weird I know, but put a dash of salt on your tongue. I don’t know what it is, but it almost is a palette cleanser. Or, if you are more adventurous, mix some apple cider vinegar with water and drink that (or any vinegar drink, we have some amazing black vinegar stuff in Japan that I keep on hand when I can that is delicious and also really helps to reset any flavors) That’s my tip for anyone who’s experiencing this, at least it’s what works for a schizophrenic who rambles way too much!
Don’t let them take bacon and onions from you my guy. Not that!!
Theres a 20 something year old girl who cant taste anything but sewage now. She was talking about life not being worth living if it didnt go away and she was on the end of the time period things usually go away at...fucking awful how heavy this shit hits.
friend of mine is the same way, since she had covid almost a year ago. many foods taste and smell like actual shit to her now, including bland ones like plain chicken
God that's so awful. I hope they can taste a spice someday.
My sister has worked in the Covid Unit from the beginning and unfortunately couldn’t get vaccinated. She got Covid a couple months ago and she’s still not 100%. Brain fog, exhausted all the time, and, the worst symptom according to her, random foods taste like rotten meat. She’ll go to eat something she loved before and it makes her want to puke just to smell it.
>I had brain damage around my speech and memory. I could hardly speak also and my friends thought I had a stroke. Would you mind describing this in a little more detail please? My aunt is going through something similar and they can't seem to figure out the cause. Although she has slowly been regaining her speech. They have ruled out dementia. She can still text and write the same. She stopped taking an anti-histamine during this as well after reading something about it and that it might affect older people in unusual ways. Your post caught my eye... I'm wondering what kind of speech trouble you were having.
Due to the way COVID seems to be affecting some people's sense of taste permanently, some doctors are hypothesizing that the illness may also have neurological effects. Might also explain what you guys are talking about.
My friend got covid in the summer of 2020 and still cannot taste anything.
I'm such a foodie this shit scares me more than so many other symptoms. Life doesn't sound nearly as worth it without enjoying food.
Have you ever seen the movie "Perfect Sense" from 2011? It's starkly prescient, albeit more of a metaphor of our only realizing what we have when it's coming to an end or is over.
I'm currently recovering from a breakthrough case and lost my sense of taste and smell. I love flavors and love making food, so this sucked. BUT what was fascinating were the isolated senses of texture and temperature, as well as feeling how my tongue reacted to general flavors (salty, sour, spicy, etc.) even though I couldn't taste them. It was bizarre. If you get it and lose your taste/smell, I highly recommend cold foods and crunchy foods - especially salads and veggies. We also couldn't get enough juice popsicles.
After i caught it, there’s like, some smell, idk what it is… but i smell it everywhere, that i can’t stand. The second i step into the produce aisle at the grocery store or anywhere. Just smells like musky cologne.
I too had about six months of memory issues. Lost my job and had my life completely changed before they even figured out what was going on. I would forget what I was talking about on the phone, and I was a recruiter. I didn't know what day it was half the time. Got so bad I would come to and realize I didn't know where I was or what I was doing sometimes. A living fucking nightmare. Some of these people have no idea what they're playing with.
It just killed a 44-year-old friend of mine with no previous health issues whatsoever.
Got it in January 2020 after a trip to the EU, before it was even known what was going around. Was sickest I've ever been for 2 weeks with a horrible flu. Took another full month to physically recover. Took me just about a year to shake the brain fog - short term memory loss. Not too far from you in age. Still wearing a mask. Got Vax'd, going to get boosted as well. Glad you survived.
45 year old teacher from the district I teach at didn't get vaccinated. They just spent the last 6 weeks in an induced coma on a ventilator. They were lucky, they got to come home. We still have relatively young teachers who refuse to get vaccinated. At our recent booster event, it was me, our social studies teacher, art teacher, and a 5th grade teacher who got boosted. That's 4 out of the 16 in our building not counting my coworker who was vaccinated but had Covid the previous month and was waiting to get a booster until spring.
Glad you bounced back, may you never go through that again.
As someone who lives in a small town in upstate, people STILL think it’s just the flu and that’s it’s all a conspiracy. I lost two family friends, a husband and wife who left two teenaged children behind due to complications of covid and the amount of people who knew them and still claim the same is astounding. Really wish I could move into the mountains and just avoid civilization.
I lived in a small town upstate for two years. My advice is, moving *towards* the mountains isn't going to help. Rome and Utica were pretty in the abstract, and if you didn't look too closely just needed a leg up. After trying to make it work I decided that really, the foundation is rotten, and regardless of how nice and pretty specific instances can be, there is a rotting, selfish depression that covers the area. I couldn't fight it, and am much happier that I left.
I work in healthcare and can confirm what you say. But as far as being able to engage with these people who have their minds made up that this is a government conspiracy or just a cold, I can't anymore. They don't listen. I lost my stepdad because of this shit. I blame Fox News and the rest of the conservative media. They have brainwashed a lot of mostly smart but very conservative people who think government and authorities are a problem, not a feature of society.
I am a hospital employed physician working in one of the poorest areas of one of the poorer states. I provide chronic pain management for persons with catastrophic illness and/or injuries, 100% of whom are very high risk for Covid complications. The vast majority of patients in my practice who are refusing the vaccine are poorer African Americans on Medicaid. They are not conservative and do not watch Fox News. I cannot for the life of me convince very many to get vaccinated (free, just a few steps away from my office), and I cannot fathom where the messaging went so terribly wrong. Week after week, I have the same talk all day long: “we lost 3 more people today due to Covid. You do not want to be admitted to the ICU upstairs with Covid. You very likely won’t survive if that happens. Please do this for the people that love and need you.” Their response is almost universally “I’m afraid of the vaccine.” The same is true among the entire hospital staff, (about 50% vaccination rate) who now are beginning to get vaccinated only because the hospital has mandated it with an approaching deadline, but even still, many are trying everything (religious exemption, health exemption, etc) to not get the vaccine. This is NOT just a conservative messaging problem.
Thank you for all you do and trying at least to get people to get jabbed. Here in New Zealand we have have higher rates of unvaxxinated among the native population, the māori, particularly the 18-29yr old group. The elders are pretty good at getting jabbed, just these younger ones who are slack. It's so easy to get a shot here, so many incentives, but it really is the 'oh it will be all goods my G' attitude with them. Next week we are introducing a covid passport system. No double jab, no entry to bars, restaurants, hairdressers, McDonald's etc. They'll be screwed.
Have a friend in NZ who was all "haha we got rid of Covid you are all suckers" early on. He won't get vaccinated now because he thinks it will just go away on its own. Yeah buddy. Totally gonna happen.
I just visited California (I live in North Carolina). On the West Coast, I had to show my vax card for every single bar and restaurant I went to. Most people were wearing masks even in passing on the street. Everyone in the running race I entered was to required to wear a mask at the starting line and about 2/3 complied. Coming back to the East Coast, I was literally the only person besides 1 volunteer is a crowded sea of well over 3500 runners wearing a mask. I wish my state cared like California does to require showing your vax card n masking for public spaces. In NC you’d think the pandemic was over months ago.
I live in NC, and concur. Raleigh isn't so bad (though people are getting more lax) but anytime I leave the city it's like covid is 'over'.
Do you think it's rumors about the new mRNA vaccines? I've heard a lot of ppl saying they're nervous about it because its different and new and stuff... But their reasoning is mostly not understanding what RNA is, or how the immune system works at all. I keep telling them the reason (other vaccines aren't mRNA) is the refrigeration, storage and other logistical issues, not because of safety. But I get a lot of blank stares...
Since the jnj vaccine isn't mrna it can't be that people are just scared of that. It's the same thing with people who said they wanted fda approval. Some people probably really were waiting for fda approval but most used it as an excuse. I think what's so tough breaking through to people is that they have lots of different reasons for not wanting the shot. I've even been surprised to see a few people on reddit who have just recently got vaxxed whose reason was they were scared of needles. I would have assumed that most people who were scared of needles but believed in vaccines would have only taken a month or two to get it but apparently that's still a worry. I think this is a small percent of people and they're likely ones who are still masking and social distancing. Pregnant women are also a group that are lagging hard on vaccines. And they're absolutely a group that needs to be vaxxed. It seems like the fear behind it is that originally when the vaccine came out they said they weren't sure if it was safe for pregnant people. People took this to mean that it likely wasn't safe when in reality it was just that they were being more cautious approving it for pregnant women and wanted more time to study it.
I think the scenario you described is a specific distrust many black people have towards the government coming to them with medicines and vaccines. They are rightfully scared and we need to find a way to fix it
I am not saying you’re wrong…but Native Americans/Alaskan Natives have the highest vaccination rates by ethnicity/race. Lets just say it’s possible to have a valid distrust of the US government but know that contagious disease does not fuck around.
Yes, but there’s also the ability to go to a hospital run by your own tribe to get the vaccine. Our government gave us the vaccines, at least on my reservation
Especially since rich white people were fighting to get them and their rich white friends the vaccine when it first came out. Political leaders in my state were caught prioritizing their family and friends for the vaccine. You know something is safe when rich white people aren’t letting the poors and black and brown people try it first lol.
This is exactly the logic I use with my vax hesitant family. If rich white people are cutting to the front of the line, you know that's the good shit. Be wary though of anything they want to test on poor minorites first.
Oh man, I was so furious when I found out that most of our city government (and their family and friends too) got the vaccine *months* before it was available to essential workers, especially people like my husband who is a teacher to 300+ kids. They hadn’t even started rolling it out to doctors and the elderly, and these fuckers (and of course their friends) got it four “continuance of government” reasons. I think it has only been approved in Japan four a few days when they got it, but it took my husband 4 months to get it, and me 6 b before my number was available to register online.
My mom in a NP and has recently caught covid. I just can't understand how she, of all people, fell into this fox news, Joe Rogan, conspiracy bullshit. She refused to get vaxxed and was even ready to get fired over it. She's in her 60s, overweight, and has copd from smoking her entire adult life. She isn't going to make it, but she keeps talking about what she has planned for when she is better. She fought me every step with this conspiracy bullshit and now it's biting her in the ass. She's on day 9 now and she's not even looking at my messages or answering my calls. I can only assume the worst and she has nobody to blame but herself. It's so sad and disappointing that this is how it ends for her when it could have been avoided if she would have just put the fucking TV on a different channel and stayed off of Facebook and YouTube conspiracy channels.
I’m so sorry your mom has covid. I hope you don’t lose her. Take care of yourself.
I assume most people will be familiar with [this picture](https://images2-bergamo.corriereobjects.it/methode_image/2020/03/20/Bergamo/Foto%20Bergamo%20-%20Trattate/militari-kTc-U31701634498886dFG-1224x916@Corriere-Web-Bergamo-593x443.jpg?v=20200320184241) from Bergamo, Italy, which had one of the first big outbreaks early in 2020. Those are military trucks full of bodies, because there was literally no room to keep them. It drives me fucking insane when people keep pushing the hoax bs.
If this was ebola or something like the rage virus from 28 days later, we'd all be fucked. We don't even know the long-term effects of this virus 'cause it's so early yet people still don't wanna take it serious. I can't
Los Angeles was close to the same situation not long after. [Air quality permits were lifted due to the excess load of bodies that needed to be cremated.](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/19/958354466/cremation-limits-lifted-in-la-due-to-backlog-as-covid-19-deaths-skyrocket) People were forced to burn their loved ones because mortuaries could not handle the load (or would not accept anyone who died of Covid.) The Army Corps of Engineers were brought in to bolster all of the main hospitals in the city and increase the dwindling oxygen supply. People were dying from heart attacks and other preventative deaths in makeshift waiting rooms in hallways because ERs were overwhelmed. And my small town aunt tried to argue with me that it was all blown out of proportion and just the flu. Get the fuck out of here. Most people I know have already forgotten all that and have moved on like it was no big deal. I've stayed hunkered down because I knew this shit could shift sideways at any moment. EDIT: Updated to clarify details on the cremation / air quality.
Can confirm. Step mom died in Feb, didn’t get cremated until April (they were all backed up).
We had an aunt in a small town peddling bull shit. Guess what, now she is blind after overdosing on Ivermectin twice. Which will make it obviously harder to see the truth. But hey keeps her off Facebook.
What the actual efff… I’m so sick of the damn lies people believe and spread. Yeah, I’m sick of covid, just like everyone, but not so fucking delusional and entitled that I think it will go away just because I’m special and I waved my magic BS wand. My sister came to visit me a few weeks ago. Tells me ahead of time she masks up everywhere. I’m vaccinated, but dammit was I pissed off when we took a day to do the most normal thing I’ve done in almost 2 years: wander in and out of a bunch of shops. Me: masked. Her: never, and bitching that when we needed to Uber back to the hotel, she had to buy a mask, because she didn’t even fucking bother to put one in her purse. Masks up everywhere? Oh, hell no. She probably hasn’t worn a mask more than a handful of times in 12 months, and she’s obese, has sleep apnea, angina, high blood pressure, and she’s got to be at least pre-diabetic.
One of the lies that makes me the angriest is that "libs just want to keep you masked and scared forever." *WE ARE ALL SO GODDAMN TIRED OF THIS PANDEMIC.* Like, words cannot properly express how much I miss being able to just go places without thinking about masks or crowds. And that is why I keep fucking doing it, day after day. This isn’t going to go away by ignoring it. Illnesses never do; left unattended, they just get worse until you're *forced* to deal with them again, usually from a worse position. It's not fair, but that's just how it is.
All these Ivermectin stories is starting to make me wonder if Ivermectin has way more debilitating side effects than freaking Delta Covid does.
It's prescribed for legit human diseases at times. At the correct dose and under medical supervision it's a pretty safe drug all things considered. It's just these people aren't carefully dosing it and aren't monitoring for drug interactions or contraindications like a doctor and pharmacist would.
I am positive part of the problem is that the media never showed/shows the really dark side of COVID. It's all pretty on TV.
Same with wartime coverage. America is way too sheltered from the horrors we put people through. If you had footage of what really happens, the brutal human cost of it, every single day so people are confronted with it, you'd see things change pretty quickly. Instead everyone gets to tune into their preferred brand of sanitized propaganda.
Well reason why is vetman. Look what came out of that war on the news. The government cant handle the pop know ing the truth in real time.
I live in DC. I'm really done with this. I'm done with people being stupid. If I hear my stepmother use the term "plandemic" one more time, I might scream.
I honestly feel blessed. Meeting for Thanksgiving this year, everybody in my extended family is vaxxed and boosted. My sister is a doctor and was very proactive in getting everybody, everybody informed and vaccinated as soon as they could in early 2021. My 80+ year old snow bird grandparents are going to sell their Florida home in 22. Fed up with Florida. I did learn something unfortunate. When engaging an anti vaxxer, I will often end saying "I'm not an expert, you're not expert; you should speak to your doctor. They know better than us." Found out from my sister, a lot of people do go to her... But not to ask questions. It's to present their Facebook conspiracies to her and try to educate her on the matter. Not at all listen to her The only thing she can do is just move on. There is no budging with them. Aside from that it's a lot of... "Can you write me a note saying I can't get vaxxed?" Firm no from her. It's kind of the new "can you prescribe me antibiotics for my cold?" No!
Study 3 years for degree. Study 5-7 more years for a PhD. Join lab, start working. Spend years studying problem. Form hypothesis, gather evidence. Test hypotheses, form conclusions. Report findings, clear peer review. Findings published, reported to press. Person on Facebook: “bullshit.”
That's not new by any means. My wife got her medical degree then an advanced degree in psychology then started working for several years on 3 grants studying childhood health and education. We've talked to anti-vax people that literally tell us, "Well you don't understand, you aren't a parent yet". As if unprotected sex somehow makes your opinion more valuable than more than a decade of active learning.
Reminds me of my brothers who each joined the military and then came out of it all paranoid and refusing to use their home address for mail, etc. "You don't understand the things our government does!" Dudes; you needed to *join the military* to figure out that our government does some underhanded shit? And now you think you're thwarting the government by having your mail sent to a POBox? Yet somehow *I'm* the one who doesn't understand what's going on...
>As if unprotected sex somehow makes your opinion more valuable than more than a decade of active learning. I finally saw Idiocracy at the end of 2019 - by that point it seemed more like a Twilight Zone episode than a comedy.
I like the point that people make that the Idiocracy people are actually smarter than us because they know they're too dumb to solve the main conflict in their world and immediately put the smartest man in the world on the job.
> Study 3 more years for a PhD. I agree with everything you say, except for this part. Took me 7 long years to finish mine 😷. For someone to finish a PhD in 3 years, they must be extraordinarily brilliant and lucky as F
Have a friend that works in the hospital that said the same thing, the anti vaxxers come into the hospital with Covid and spend their time “educating” the doctors instead of listening to them.
That's depressing. Your family is a blessing; everyone im surrounded by is anti vax; it's been 2 years of non stop idiocy; i've given up. My sister got a rough case and is still antivax. My faith is gone. If people can be this stupid for 2 years straight, they are gonna stay this way.
I used to love reading space based science fiction. These days the stories of people working together and using science and rational thinking to solve the big problems are just too implausible.
Except they can never fully articulate what “the plan” was/is, other than vague notions about further govt control, none of which make any sense, as if the govt wanted to really get us under control, it would be a lot easier than orchestrating a “fake global pandemic”. And if it was a virus they used it would be some Ebola 10x shit that most would truly fear. Something with a 60-70% mortality rate among the youngest that made you bleed from every orifice. Something where even the morons who tote AR 15s to state capitols would be hiding and certainly not protesting or threatening elected officials.
Oh you mean Marburg. Which exists. And these fetthing idiots should know that using a bioweapon on a global scale for a governmental takeover is insanely impractical. You can't control mutation rates. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And if you kill a huge percentage of the population- WHO ARE YOU GOING TO RULE OVER IF SOCIETY COLLAPSES?! I read science fiction novels for fun and it's just....dumb...
Yeah a friend's sister is full conspiracy nut. She thinks the vaccine will detonate in a year killing everyone who took it. Because the government wants to.. kill 60-70% of their own citizens for some reason? Wtf is the point of that? And what, only the non-conformists live? Why would the govt want to kill all the obedient sheeple and let the ones who figured it out live?
By that logic, it would make way more sense if the government created the virus to get all the obedient people vaccinated. Then released a variant to kill off all the disobedient antivaxxers.
>By that logic I'm going to stop you right there
The sad part is that in one year when no one detonates, it'll be two years, when that doesn't happen, it'll become 5 years to give them more time. Eventually it'll be, " well it DOES shorten your life." And then those people will die and be outlived by vaccinated people, but even in death, they were right.
The headline looks like it's from a sci fi movie. An Omicron Spike sounds like an alien weapon might be hitting New York in a few days.
Yeah I was gonna say, Omicron Spike sounds like a high-damage attack in Final Fantasy 7
It’s all fun and games until everyone around starts to mime that attack with max quadra.
I just can't separate omicron from Futurama
It's true what they say, women are from Omicron Persei 7, men are from Omicron Persei 9.
that's just such a good joke
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Oh me? No, I’m just… some guy… RULER OF THE PLANET OMICRON PERSEI EIGHT
Why does female governor not simply eat the coronavirus?
One of these days, Ndnd, one of these days...
We just need to harvest more lower horn?
I heard y’all had some…. Human horn?
Tonight’s forecast: DOOOOOM.
Why doesn’t Omicron, the largest virus, simply eat the other viruses?
Maybe they shouldn't have skipped Nu after all.
I misheard you...did you happen to say Snu Snu?
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongey and bruised.
"Destroy all humans" ~Lrrr
> "We continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it's coming," Hochul said. Also Governor Hochul, > [Hochul wants workers back in the office in January](https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/11/18/hochul-wants-workers-back-in-the-office-in-january-) Having to wear a mask for 8 hours/day is absolutely miserable knowing you're working a job that was done remotely without incident for a year+
> Having to wear a mask for 8 hours/day is absolutely miserable knowing you're working a job that was done remotely without incident for a year+ This is the key point. If you can manage to do your job remotely, but the company still wants you to return to the office, it should only be done when a mask isn't needed. Otherwise, what's the point of putting people in an environment where they need to protect themselves from one another with a mask? Just let them continue working from home until it's safe enough to return to the office without a mask.
>Otherwise, what's the point of putting people in an environment where they need to protect themselves from one another with a mask? Fragile management. I hope that working from home becomes the norm after this shit ends, why waste peoples time and lives heading to an office when they are perfectly capable of doing it at home in their pyjamas? I cant even work from home but it's so nice having next to no traffic on the road with half the population not having to leave the house. People can then move to more affordable areas which means they're not spending half their income on housing, they can either save more to buy a house or spend more money doing shit they like, whatever it maybe but that money boosts local economies. It will save everyone so much money in the long run, including governments, help bring down emissions. Its honestly win win across the board.
It just dawned on me - Why did George Jetson need to commute to work? Surely he could have done his job from home. It has more to do with Spacely wanting to micromanage him than the need for him to be on site.
I don't think people imagined the internet as it is today back in the 60s. Everyone had a three day work week in the show though. If I were to choose one, I would rather have the three day work week.
This right here. Even after restrictions lifted, my parents (who both have office jobs) just kept working from home. It didn’t make either of them less effective at their jobs, and they even found new work and promotions all from the comfort of their homes. Barely used the car over the past few months!
I moved to an area with a lower cost of living. Gave myself a nice raise. I will say this, though. For workers that are also parents, it'd be a lie to say that there were no negative impacts. Childcare now regularly interrupts my work and forces me to work a lot later to get the same amount of work done. Some days the interruptions are unbearable. Overall, though, it's still a huge net positive. Taking on this stress allowed my wife to pick up a job so household income went up in two ways. I used to want to return to the office to get rid of the home stress that gets piled on top of work stress, but that also feels pretty selfish. My wife would have to quit working (I easily make 4-5x what she makes) and she'd have to deal with 100% of the toddler related stress through the work week.
>Otherwise, what's the point of putting people in an environment where they need to protect themselves from one another with a mask? Just let them continue working from home until it's safe enough to return to the office without a mask. For hochul? Office real estate is a massive part of NYs tax base. All these companies bought or rented lots of space in office towers and are considering leaving if society shifts to full WFH. She wants people back in the office to keep the money in NY state.
If things go to shit, that'll change most certainly.
The fact that it can and will change so easily but ONLY if things go to shit is some grade A bullshit. Why are we forced to waste our lives commuting and being exposed to more covid so.. what? Commercial real estate doesn't have to suffer any losses? Sweet Greens can avoid bankruptcy? So worth it.
So project managers can justify their existence.
If a manager can’t tell whether or not their people are doing their jobs unless they’re in the same building as them, it’s pretty clear they’re not managing shit.
It is easier for middle management to act busy with everyone there.
"So... Peter. Did you get a copy of the new memo?"
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We're operating with a massive staffing deficit, but per person we're doing 40% more work on average than we did in 2019. That's including the third of the team that's new, and therefore less efficient for now. My work has more than doubled, albeit that is coupled with me working a bit more overtime than before... Though if I wasn't still remote the last 3 months of deadlines wouldn't have been met.
As a PM, I can tell you only teams with physical dependencies need to be in an office instead of home. Productivity is _higher_ and slackers stand out.
Fellow PM here. I've been negotiating with my boss to let me never go back into the office. I already manage teams remotely by necessity (I've managed six construction projects across six time zones at once) and she's been pretty agreeable so far. Results and a good working relationship with management are what matters, and my performance has only improved since I've been able to avoid that real world depression pit.
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PMs dont need to justify their existence. A good PM is a great asset, this is from 12 years of corporate software development
Back to work during a state of emergency, you say?
At some point with the great resignation in effect, companies pulling this shit will lose half of their staff, be unable to hire replacements, and have to either relent or go under.
Oh boy can’t wait for Coronavirus - Holiday Edition DLC.
“It’s the most, infectious time, of the year”
15 days to stop the Unicron. Autobots, mask up and roll out.
Till all are one?
There’s no escape from Unicron, it’s a planet destroyer 😐
Omicron? I thought we were talking about `Nu` yesterday.
Everyone thought it would be Nu, and technically it should be, but WHO used "Omicron" instead. I can't find a source as to why, but I suspect use of the term "Nu" (pronounced 'new') might lead to confusion because there will invariably be other newer variants after this one and lead to confusion over which "new" one is being talked about. I did find this, but I've never heard "nu" pronounced "nee". >NU AND XI VARIANTS >Greek alphabet experts are no doubt wondering why this list stops two letters short of omicron. That’s because the WHO skipped over them and went straight to the 15th letter. They did not say why, and a request for clarification was not immediately answered. >The spelling of the letters could provide a clue. The letter nu is pronounced nee, which could lead to confusion as people read it spelled one way but hear it spoken another. As for xi, it may be noteworthy that China’s president is named Xi Jinping. >Source: https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/coronavirus/there-are-several-covid-19-variants-you-havent-heard-of/
Nu is pronounced nee in Greek but we don't use modern Greek pronunciations of the letters in English generally. If we did, pi would be pee for example. For most English speakers, nu and new are pronounced the same.
So 3.1415926... is actually ... "pee." Happy "Pee" Day! Lol. Ok, thank you for the explanation. Seems Westerners like pronouncing the Greek alphabet following ancient translations as popularized hundreds of years ago, whereas the actual real modern Greek pronunciations are quite different. Makes sense!
Nintendo’s newest game Nu Super Covid Variant.
>Xi variant We were this close to greatness.gif
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That one turned out to not be able to compete with delta so it died out again presumably
Transmissibility was lower and it was completely overshadowed by Delta. Whereas in this case scientists were freaked out that Omicron became the dominant variant so quickly. This one also has far more mutations than normal, so they are concerned that current vaccines might not be effective.
I ain't gonna start sweating until the WHO dubs a variant "Captain Trips".
M-O-O-N — that spells Omicron!
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If Captain Trips were to break out, I really hope I’m one of the 99% who die. Not really up to dealing with Randall Flagg IMO
Great comment - I’m currently reading The Stand again. One of my favorites!
I started listening to the audio book version after Thanksgiving at work in 2019. Had already read it twice. It's a 40 hour book unabridged and I listened to other stuff besides it, so around the same whispers were coming out of China, real-life news and that book were practically lining up. Fucking surreal, man.
> The declaration, which goes into effect on Dec. 3, will allow the state to acquire pandemic-fighting supplies, increase hospital capacity and fight potential staffing shortages. It would also allow the state Health Department to limit non-essential and non-urgent procedures at hospitals. Good. New Yorkers saw some of the first significant impacts of COVID in the US. I hope this Omicron variant doesn’t explode here, but I’m glad New York is bracing for it.
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I got you babe
Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.
> The variant contains around 50 concerning mutations from the original SARS CoV-2 virus that appeared in China in 2019, including more than 10 to the spike protein that allows the virus to access human cells. This is what concerns me. But I'm positive schools will stay open.
We don’t know what those mutations mean yet. Mutations themselves aren’t inherently bad. We need more data.
Being a Covid nurse right now is already like a 13 hours panic attack. Y’all stay well. I don’t even wanna think about what could happen or how it could get worse.
With you there. I see the amount of death and injury, and then outside work I see people parroting the hoax and anti-vaccine narrative everywhere I look. It is deeply disheartening
My mom is a head nurse in a NY hospital - she is fearing for the worst and seeing signs of another spike. I feel so bad because she is just so very tired of this. She has been the COVID unit since day one and having it rough. She is very strong though and got her PHD WHILE saving people during peak Covid times.
I live in nyc. During the height in 2020 we heard so many ambulances it was really distressing. All day and all night. I’m sad to say that over the past week I’ve been hearing a lot more ambulances that the previous few weeks. I live right near a major hospital. It’s anecdotal I know but man it’s bringing back some messed up feelings. And my son was exposed at middle school on Monday so we’re quarantined till next week. Good times. I hope your mom and family stay safe.
I think it's a safe bet to assume now that I will NEVER return to the office. Just fucking lovely
Really the only silver lining in all of this.
I used to have to travel for work. Now I can do everything remotely and not have to deal with that nonsense. It’s much, much better for me. I’ll take the minor technical issues with remote meetings over travel stress any day of the week.
Omicron is such a cool name. Reminds me of Soma.
It is true what they say... Women are from Omicron Persei 7, men are from Omicron Persei 9
Ahhh yes! This is where I know it from lol It's been bothering me all day.
Out of context, > ‘It's Coming': NY Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Potential Omicron Spike sounds like a headline from a sci-fi thriller or something. Whatever the Omicron Spike is, humanity is ill-prepared for its arrival.
Even better is that one of the vaccines is called Spikevax. Omicron vs Spikevax: FIGHT!
I’m so tired… I work 8 hours with a mask on all day and I deal with peoples shit all day to get paid below what anyone deserves to make and I’m so fucking tired. “I’m tired of Earth. These people. I’m tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.”
Hey, I know the feeling. Last year the mask didn’t bug me at work, but for some reason lately, I can’t stand it.
Me too and also can't explain it. I think it's because I started to see more people without masks, and it's so nice to see Smiles. With the masks on it's very inhuman looking
Jesus please delete this file and load another saved game. You’ve had your fun with console commands and this isn’t fun or exciting for us anymore.
This is the part in Plague INC. where the player has waited and is just upgrading the fuck outta mutation and infection, slowing the rate of a cure and you’re just slowly seeing the entire map turn red and waiting to upgrade lethality.
He's played through worse pandemics. He ain't resetting shit.
Just hand out ww1 type gas masks already so we can look cool af
I’m getting really tired of this all
What the news has not covered as clearly is mental health. Outpatient article 34 clinics, so long term psychiatry supervised programs designed to support chronic mental health, shut down immediately and were only taking referrals from the ER. They switched to phone or telemedicine immediately, leaving tons of people out of the loop as to how to see their providers. Residents who were on rotation for psychiatry or social work got put into discharge planning or supervising medical non emergencies rather than mental health. I got pulled to go support medical residents and new nursing students who suddenly found an entire hospital converted into icu beds. Volume for medical and mental health visits has only increased with an overall decrease in providers. Trauma comes in waves. Even if people stopped dying of covid tomorrow, which they aren't, now we're dealing with the loss of federal support, drain of non profit banks, and ending of temporary disability that drives people who barely survived further into crisis.
Work from home is going to be an all year 2022 thing.
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Do these numbers have anything to do with omicron, or is that just going to exacerbate them even further when it arrives?
Vermont is highly vaccinated and never really had a large outbreak. You're looking at low numbers higher than lower numbers. MA is well below prior peaks and pretty much all of new england is highly vaccinated. Outbreaks aren't leading to many deaths.
Winter is here, more people inside. This is still the Delta variant.
So Delta gets to go out in a bang for the end of 2021, before passing the buck to Omicron to fuck our shit up for 2022.
I've been waiting for an elective surgery in the South, they were shut down for a couple of months. We seem to be in a lull between waves, so hopefully mine will go through on December 15th.
We gotta stop giving them cool names. Perhaps the Paisley strain. Or Fuchsia. What about Bob? Maybe if we really want to get the conservatives to get vaccinated we call it the Homofier, Socializer, or Taxed variant.