Covid 19: Coronavirus November 2020

Roxxsmom

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I guess it's a new month. Cases are increasing with no reasonable hope of relief in sight. So much hangs on this election, but I don't see even a Biden win resulting in federal-level mask mandates or lockdowns. At best they can offer better support for states that are still struggling to put lives ahead of the economy, and if the Democrats win both houses of Congress, to provide more relief for people who are struggling.

Other countries are reinstating lockdowns, but here even our bluer states are growing weary of fighting an antsy public that is determined to pretend the worst is over. I suspect cases will spike hard after the holidays, when many people will rationalize themselves into family gatherings that will bring students just home from college and people whose jobs put them in danger's way together with relatives who have been isolating more stringently.

Someone died of Covid on an airplane here, and other passengers haven't even been notified that they might have been exposed. Not that I plan on flying anywhere in the near to medium future, but when and if I ever do again, it most definitely won't be on Spirit. How can someone who was so ill she was literally minutes from death make it through their pre boarding, and why have they abrogated all responsibility to their other customers?
 

mccardey

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In Australia we're opening up again, and I'm finding that a little scarier than I'd expected even though our numbers are pretty much no new untraceable cases.

People in the cities seem to be coming into the regional areas more and more on weekends. I live in a regional area.
 
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RedRajah

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I never knew how much I took smelling things for granted until I lost it. :-/
 

MaryMumsy

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WaPo is behind a paywall. Unless a second woman has died on Spirit, that happened back in July.

On a personal note: just got a call that my best friend of over 50 years has tested positive. She has been very careful, but has had to go to work and the grocery store. She doesn't think she was exposed at work, but doesn't know. She is isolating at home for now. She is only the second person I know personally that has gotten it. The other person had it in Feb and knows where she got it, but not from whom.

MM
 

Roxxsmom

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WaPo is behind a paywall. Unless a second woman has died on Spirit, that happened back in July.

On a personal note: just got a call that my best friend of over 50 years has tested positive. She has been very careful, but has had to go to work and the grocery store. She doesn't think she was exposed at work, but doesn't know. She is isolating at home for now. She is only the second person I know personally that has gotten it. The other person had it in Feb and knows where she got it, but not from whom.

MM

Oh, sorry about the paywall. I thought the WaPo was making Covid articles available for free, but that's probably just ones that are about immediate crises. The death happened a while back, but the more recent article focused on the fact that none of the other passengers were ever informed what she died of.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/spirit-flight-woman-death-covid-b1528918.html
 

be frank

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In Australia we're opening up again, and I'm finding that a little scarier than I'd expected even though our numbers are pretty much no new untraceable cases.

We've been at zero new cases in Melbourne for five days (?) now. My work contacted me to ask if I'm ready to come back yet, and my response was a nervous "Ahahahahahaha. No."
 

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.
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Here in New Zealand the nurses/health care workers in the quarantine hotels are at high risk -- and two of them turned up positive yesterday :( It's a heck of a commitment for them to take on these jobs. I know we have to have quarantine facilities for people coming in from overseas (mandatory two week isolation in a managed facility) and for people who test positive but aren't in need of hospitalisation, but... I am seeing the rationale for what some folks are calling for: a purpose built facility on one or more of the military bases. Because I can't see the need for this disappearing anytime soon.
 

Friendly Frog

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Absolute number of cases are finally going back down here! Whee! (After beating all records from the first wave, mind.) We're a long way off of zero, after all, we just breached the 22K of cases last week. But I'm so happy because just last week we were still on a steep climb up and now we have three successive days of going down, roughly two weeks after the pubs closed. Lockdown is more bearable when you can actually see some results. But my heart goes out to all those care workers as the hospitals are starting to overflow and the record number of patients there is not likely to nosedive as quickly.
 

mccardey

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We've been at zero new cases in Melbourne for five days (?) now. My work contacted me to ask if I'm ready to come back yet, and my response was a nervous "Ahahahahahaha. No."
Four cases in my area yesterday, and a phone call from my brother to say that they'd been at the gym with one of them just before they came to my place to watch the u.s. election. This is very tiresome and if I have to get another test, I'll prolly blame Trump.
 

MaeZe

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Four cases in my area yesterday, and a phone call from my brother to say that they'd been at the gym with one of them just before they came to my place to watch the u.s. election. This is very tiresome and if I have to get another test, I'll prolly blame Trump.

Depends on the timing. You aren't contagious until the infection has incubated. So if the visit to see you was on the same day or the next day after your brother's exposure, you aren't really exposed. Two or more days after then you have some risk.

I would wait to see if your brother comes back positive on a test before worrying too much.

I get to have a lovely test on Monday, not because I've been exposed or anything. It's a requirement before getting a pulmonary function test a few days later. The pulmonary test is evaluating my autoimmune disease so it's not COVID related.
 

mccardey

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Depends on the timing. You aren't contagious until the infection has incubated. So if the visit to see you was on the same day or the next day after your brother's exposure, you aren't really exposed. Two or more days after then you have some risk.

I would wait to see if your brother comes back positive on a test before worrying too much.

Maeze. I'm not worried, I'm just saying I'll blame Trump. (Also, we are nothing if not informed about covid-19 and infectivity down here... ;) )

I get to have a lovely test on Monday, not because I've been exposed or anything. It's a requirement before getting a pulmonary function test a few days later. The pulmonary test is evaluating my autoimmune disease so it's not COVID related.
Enjoy it. I was very relieved the first time to find that the nasal swab is not at all like the swabs you get when your sinuses are inflamed and painful. Just as well!
 

Lyv

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Someone bake me a cake, please. I got through to the loudest, nastiest anti-masker in a local FB group. It took months. He thanked me for converting him. Over the months, he's called me terrible names, but I never lost my patience, and always told him I just wanted him to be ok. I don't cry easily, and maybe it's that so much of great consequence is happening, but I cried (not telling him that). I'm sorry for the self-indulgent post, but we're in the middle of a surge and this feels good.
 

RedRajah

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I'm slowly getting better, but the husband now has lost both scent AND taste.

Still feels like I'm breathing through cotton in my throat and lungs.
 

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.
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Crikey. The test sounds unpleasant, and the infection itself sounds pretty dire.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and make it go away for everyone, or at least contain it the way NZ has. Ick, ick, ick.
 

MaeZe

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More from the chapter on Payback's a Bitch. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has coronavirus. Or maybe that's the Karma chapter.

CNN's Kaitlin Collins reports Meadows was at an election night party Tuesday in the White House in which hundreds of people attended. Collins reported that officials said everyone would be tested before the event.

Bloomberg White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs tweeted that four other White House aides currently have coronavirus, citing sources. Jacobs also said "pains were taken" to keep Meadows' diagnosis secret and that people around Meadows who knew about it were told to keep quiet....

... It marked the latest case of the virus in the West Wing, coming not even two weeks after Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, and other aides tests positive for the virus. Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and at least two dozen others tested positive for the virus in early October, after Trump held large gatherings of people not wearing face-masks, including the ceremony announcing the nomination of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court....
Unbelievable! Did he just socially distance himself, no hand shaking?

These people are so scummy, no wonder they flock around Trump.


It's like a bunch of people passing STDs around without warning their partners. Ever see the Frontline program on the syphilis outbreak in Conyers Georgia? Sorry, it's not related but it came to mind.
 

mccardey

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The hold that Trump has had over his White House (the ones who stayed) is just extraordinary. It's not like Meadows wasn't aware of the issues. He did, at least, believe in Covid-19.
 

cbenoi1

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The hold that Trump has had over his White House (the ones who stayed) is just extraordinary. It's not like Meadows wasn't aware of the issues. He did, at least, believe in Covid-19.

Until someone close to Trump dies from COVID, not a whole lot is going to change. It's just a very bad flu.

-cb
 

Sonya Heaney

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So, my grandmother's entire village in Ukraine has just been diagnosed with Covid. Baba died a few years ago, but this is scary for my extended family. It's the poorest place in Europe, and the nearest hospital requires everyone to bring their own medication and syringes etc. :(

In Australia we're opening up again, and I'm finding that a little scarier than I'd expected even though our numbers are pretty much no new untraceable cases.

People in the cities seem to be coming into the regional areas more and more on weekends. I live in a regional area.

The Southern Highlands cases are concerning me. I know it's basically nothing at the moment, but we all saw how fast it took off in Victoria. I mean, I'm in a city, but our only case in half a year was a diplomat from overseas.

My local library is militant about things. Security guards, a separate room at the entrance to fill in contact tracing forms (and then you have to put the pen in a basket to be sanitised). People in masks following everyone around with sanitiser and cleaning everything they touch.
 

Introversion

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Yikes, sorry to hear that, Sonya. I hope for the best for them!
 

Chris P

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I think people are giving up on it around here, unfortunately. It's got me spooked. It's a shame because DC and the near suburbs were doing pretty well with masks and distancing. But in the last two weeks it's like people stopped caring. I'm seeing less mask wearing, and last evening people crammed into the elevators when in the past they were fine waiting in line (I live in a largish high rise). There are a few bars/restaurants nearby, and they're packed. Even if the business is following the law, the patrons for sure aren't.

Yeah, I get it that this is getting old, but this virus is still killing people. We know what stops the spread and we were doing it mostly well for so long. I'm severely curtailing my going in and out. Being out isn't as risky as getting through the building, though. They've just stopped caring.