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Post by slb2 on Jun 14, 2022 1:22:42 GMT -5
Lirio, I definitely go out for entertainment/work. Sometimes, it's simultaneously since I am again writing and being paid well for my previews and reviews of concerts/gigs/shows for Mshale News.
This past weekend, I had a terrible pain in my upper abdomen. It felt like someone had *punched* me in the stomach. Not gastric trouble, but simply high pain. It lasted 24 hours. Then I had some slight fever, body aches, and headache. I tested at home twice 48 hours apart, didn't go anywhere and no one came here. I tested negative for Covid. But I also had Covid-19 March 2020 as you might remember. Sick with fever, et al, for two full weeks. Now that I'm fully vaxxed and boosted, I think it wouldn't be as bad, but I don't want to find out.
Still, I am going out. Often wear a mask, but I go to a place that serves food and I take off my mask to eat and drink.
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Post by BoatBabe on Jun 14, 2022 8:22:26 GMT -5
Here in Crinkleville, all residents and staff members are 100% double-vaxxed and boosted, and we are in the middle (we hope!) of a Covid Outbreak. Eight residents are infected and isolating in their apartments, and 2 staff members are isolating at home. Everyone is reported to have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. The staff has placed isolation carts and isolation garbage cans outside the doors of infected residents, so we all know who are in quarantine.
Masks are required when we leave our apartments, yet not everyone wears them. I do. I wear a mask always, except in our apartment or driving by myself in my car. And I don't share the elevator. I wait. We don't eat in the dining room anymore. Either Thom or I go down, order and pick up food, and and come back home to eat.
The administration appears to be enforcing different levels of "CDC Guidance" for residents vs. staff, of which they are very short. Residents are supposed to isolate until they test negative. Tracy, who lives here on 4th floor, got so frustrated after 14 days of isolation and still testing positive and still being asymptomatic, that she ripped off the "Caution: Respiratory Droplets Warning" sign from her door, put on a mask and went to the dining room for dinner.
Staff comes back to work wearing masks after 5 days of isolation without a negative test if they are asymptomatic.
One can only surmise that we have a mutated Covid virus making the rounds here, and/or our high level of immune-compromised residents have not maintained the antibodies they need to fight off the infection. Either way, 3 different ambulances were here over the weekend and carted off people, for who knows what reason. We aren't allowed that information.
My anxiety level remains pretty high, especially with me returning to work. Masks, hand washing, hand sanitizing, distancing, no licking commercial door knobs or countertops, windows and doors open, and don't-touch-your-face remain my go-to defenses.
It's never ending.
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Post by doctork on Jun 14, 2022 13:04:42 GMT -5
Since I have been immunized and recently had Covid, I was comfortable not wearing a mask during our recent travels to New York for our college reunion but I was surprised how few people wore masks at all even though many events were indoors.
The current variants circulating are obviously very transmissible despite efforts at masking and most of the population being immunized. It's most likely that I caught Covid at work in the clinic where everyone is masked, all employees are immunized, and we offer telehealth in place of an office visit to anybody who has symptoms or who prefers not to come to the office. But when people work all day long in close proximity to each other, and some asymptomatic mask-wearing people are infected, some transmission will happen. No preventive efforts are 100% effective.
I was asymptomatic when I tested positive, which I did only because we had planned to go to an indoor restaurant for Mother's Day, one that had a vegetarian menu that appealed to Deidra and Gen. Good thing I did or else I might have exposed a lot of people at work on Monday before I developed a fever on Tuesday. I didn't get really sick with pneumonia until 6 days later. I do have numerous risk factors, and pneumonia is a known Covid complication, and I'd been working "on the front lines" for over two years without getting Covid.
Lirio I think you are right about less infectious respiratory disease spread when people are masked. There were far fewer cases of influenza and even the common cold when masking was mandatory. We seem to have reached a point where it is accepted that "life must go on," kids need to be in school, people need to work, and those at risk need to protect themselves.
People who fly when they know they are ill are thoughtless and immoral. But when the US enforces a (worthless) requirement for a negative test to fly (or cruise) to the US from another country, causing citizens to spend 7 - 10 days isolated in a foreign country at great personal expense, then pay $$$ for a new plane ticket, I'm not surprised this happens. Negative test results are not required for border crossings on land because per the US Constitution, a US citizen cannot be prevented from re-entering their own country. So they fly to Canada or Mexico and take a bus or a train or walk across.
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Post by liriodendron on Jun 14, 2022 15:10:01 GMT -5
I wish there was one airline that still required masks. Or one flight per day between larger cities that required them. I would pay extra to be assured that every single person on my flight would be wearing a mask. I did learn that JFK and LaGuardia still require masks in the airport. Unfortunately, I am not flying to or from either of those airports. Because, in addition to really dreading being on an airplane with unmasked people, I am also dreading the long amount of time I will need to be in the airport before takeoff. I already take anti-anxiety medication to be able to fly at all, even before COVID.
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Post by joew on Jun 14, 2022 21:39:13 GMT -5
I'm pretty relaxed now. I'v pretty much stopped wearing masks except in places where it is required such as doctors' offices and Symphony Hall. I've pretty much decided to fly to PEI in August (although the reminder that the flights will be maskless has me rethinking). I feel safe in Symphony Hall with the mask reuirement but I wouldn't if everybody were maskless.
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Post by doctork on Jun 15, 2022 11:00:19 GMT -5
I think airports are more problematic than the actual flight, as I have considerable confidence in air filtration on aircraft, not so much in all the crowds of people. But I've decided that wearing a mask in crowds and doing my best to maintain some distance is Good Enough.
Yes, mask wearing protects other people more than the wearer but it is not all or nothing, and the wearer also gains some protection. Which along with the vaccination, plus now the immunity from a recent Covid infection (yes, complicated and not "just a cold"), is sufficient to loosen up my lifestyle closer to "normal."
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Post by gailkate on Jun 15, 2022 22:26:48 GMT -5
Is there a box to check? I need to vote for #1. This scientific survey will lose credibility without my vote.
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Post by gailkate on Jun 15, 2022 23:29:27 GMT -5
I'm also wearing a mask everywhere indoors. Haven't been to an indoor restaurant. I think I've said this before, but not getting sick enough to die isn't my gold standard for health. I know too many people who've felt pretty rotten from whatever variant is breaking through the vax, and I don't want to be one of them. But a couple of other questions. How reliable are the home tests? I also know people who tested negative for a couple of days after known exposure before testing positive. You can infect a lot of people in a couple of days. So what do we believe? I know a couple of cancer patients who don't even bother with home tests, just go straight in for the real thing. Question 2: People have been chiming in on a local Facebook discussion of thermometers. It seems that moms have abandoned forehead thermometers and gone back to the old-fashioned kind. One even took her kid to her pediatrician, armed with her low-tech thermometer, and demonstrated the difference between the two measures. I think I'm going to start comparing just for the heck of it. If we've all - docs' offices, hotels, etc. - been relying on unreliable instruments, I feel less confident about expanding my horizons. About the new testing rules for returning to the country. I hadn't thought about US vacationers; rather I was thinking of people from other countries. But I also know someone who was on a 10-day tour in Italy, miffed about testing at the hotel, but then very glad that they discovered a traveler who had to be quarantined. When is the right to bring germs back from vacation more important than the right not to be infected by a traveling non-tester? There's a class factor here. If you can afford an international vacation, it's okay to bring back infections to those who stayed home? It makes more sense that part of deciding you can afford to go has to include possible quarantine and expensive delays. Suppose someone in BB's building took off to look up their roots in Belgium or visit all the WWII battlegrounds? Can they just come back and infect all the residents - who have no choice but to let them back in? Look at this map. It's not pretty, even though we're a lot better off than we were a year ago. www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html Another possibility might be to add a new travel insurance charge to airline and cruise tickets. Like all insurance, everyone would share the risk and only a few would need it. It just seems to me that the tourist industry, airlines in particular, have had too much influence on this latest CDC decision.
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Post by slb2 on Jun 16, 2022 0:41:21 GMT -5
Spot-on, gk. Other industries always--yes, I said always--have too much influence on matters of public and private health, period.
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Post by doctork on Jun 16, 2022 2:26:01 GMT -5
The home tests are very reliable when positive with over 98% sensitivity. Because the virus takes 2 or 3 days to multiply to a level that is detectable by the test, false negatives can occur. If you are symptomatic but have a negative home test, then either repeat in a few days or get the more sensitive PCR test.
I think US citizens who travel overseas should be prepared to pay the cost of foreign quarantine - either pay out of pocket or purchase travel insurance. Otherwise, stay home. Requiring a negative test does not prevent Covid from reaching the US (false negative, fraudulent testing etc) as has been amply demonstrated by its arrival in the US.
I'm a fan of the US Constitution (that pesky document!), which states that a US citizen cannot be prevented from re-entering his/her country, though isolation/quarantine of its test-positive citizens within the country could be required and provided by the government, as had been done in Canada and other nations. When arriving by air or sea, one is already at the border and cannot be denied entry, so airlines require the test to avoid the expense of flying you back to where the flight originated; government required testing and quarantine facilities for positives at ports of entry would be costly and unwieldy. The negative test is thus an industry requirement.
Fact is, one can take steps to reduce one's risk of Covid infection but it is not 100% preventable. Structure your life in accordance with your level of risk tolerance.
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Post by joew on Jun 16, 2022 10:31:15 GMT -5
Is there a box to check? I need to vote for #1. This scientific survey will lose credibility without my vote. Click on the text of the statement.
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Post by doctork on Jun 16, 2022 18:56:01 GMT -5
I didn't check any answer on the quiz because I wasn't "concerned," I just assumed that I would get Covid sooner or later. The whole year of 2020 - on the front lines when there was no vaccine and no good treatment - then I was concerned.
BTW, the US requirement for proof of negative test for US citizens returning from overseas has been eliminated. On all our flights to and from New York last week the pilot made announcements that although masks were not required, every passenger must respect the choice of other passengers to wear or not wear a mask and federal law requires that all passengers obey the requests of flight deck and cabin crew.
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Post by liriodendron on Jun 16, 2022 23:56:25 GMT -5
Really hoping that the person next to me on my flight on Sunday wears a mask. Either way, I intend to squish myself up as close to the window as I can get with my air blasting and both my N95 mask and my headphones on. I have no intention of speaking to anyone and I don't want anyone to speak to me.
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Post by doctork on Jun 17, 2022 2:12:19 GMT -5
On one of my flights a woman wearing a mask sat down next to me. I was not wearing a mask as I had paid extra for a first class ticket (that may be the first time I ever personally paid for a 1st class ticket, specifically to have more space, less crowding because of less masking) and was sitting by the window. I asked her if she would prefer if I put my mask back on, as I had worn it throughout the rest of the airport process. I was carrying a mask for myself plus some extra.
She said no need - she had done the same thing, wearing the mask until on board and seated.
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Post by joew on Jun 17, 2022 12:25:44 GMT -5
I've been considering flying fist class to PEI when I go this summer.
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Post by liriodendron on Jun 17, 2022 15:41:36 GMT -5
Thankfully, I do have a first class ticket for this flight (but not for when I go to our son's wedding later this summer - though I will be sitting in a row of three with two other family members then).
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Post by gailkate on Jun 17, 2022 19:16:40 GMT -5
How much more are the 1st class tickets on average? It sounds as if airline tickets are through the stratosphere.
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Post by gailkate on Jun 17, 2022 19:28:46 GMT -5
Another thought, Lirio: my friend who travels every weekend to a cancer center wears 2 masks, the surgical and an N95. I'll ask her when we talk tomorrow which she puts on first - I'm guessing it's surgical first and then the N95 to keep that tight. She's there for several hours so it sounds miserable to me, but she takes "immunocompromised" very seriously.
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Post by liriodendron on Jun 17, 2022 23:23:23 GMT -5
How much more are the 1st class tickets on average? It sounds as if airline tickets are through the stratosphere. I have no clue about flights in general, as I have never priced first class tickets for any other flights. This is a fairly short flight, just over 2 hours. I'm pretty sure my husband suggested it because he knew how much I hate to fly, how stressed out I am about COVID, and the only reason I was flying was to take care of his mother. This will be my 4th first class flight.
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Post by liriodendron on Jun 17, 2022 23:26:32 GMT -5
I have considerable confidence in air filtration on aircraft. What about those smaller regional jets? I've read several articles that indicate that they may not have HEPA filters, and, of course, this is the type of plane I'm flying on tomorrow.
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Post by doctork on Jun 18, 2022 13:51:04 GMT -5
Because they are less comfortable, I avoid the smaller regional jets when possible, but then I fly lots of transcontinental flights which are 5 or 6 hours long. Most of the regional jet flight are no more than 2 - 3 hours, and often if I check the aircraft involved for a particular route there will be a "real jet" flight available. On our recent trip SEA-SYR, both the CLT-SYR and SYR-PHL shorter legs were available on a 737, as well as other smaller aircraft. I don't know about air filtration differences, if any.
The price for a first class ticket vs coach is extremely variable, and I always check the different categories - first/business vs premium economy vs main cabin economy vs basic economy, though I never purchase basic economy (no advance seat assignment, usually ends up a middle seat, always non-fundable) and I do not fly Low Cost Carriers like Spirit, Frontier, Ryan. etc. Sometimes I price Southwest but I rarely fly that airline as it is usually more expensive.
Sometimes the first class ticket is three times standard economy; other times it's only $200 more. Occasionally at check-in I'm offered the option to purchase an upgrade to first for only $125, but that hasn't been happening lately. Most trans-cons are full flights and first class is fully booked with a wait list.
Overall airfare is through the stratosphere this spring/summer. I'd usually pay $500 - $600 roundtrip SEA-IAD (my record low was $175), but this last trip was $1500. Typically I'll compare prices through Travelocity but then buy the ticket I want at the airline website. Same with hotels.
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Post by gailkate on Jun 18, 2022 18:07:19 GMT -5
Three times! There go the last of my fantasies about being confident enough to fly this fall. I even toyed with a Christmas tour somewhere like Oberammergau
Lirio, if you're unsure about your plane's filtration, the double mask idea might be a good one. Naturally, it's hotter and more annoying, but for a short trip, the reduced worry might be worth it.
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Post by Jane on Jun 18, 2022 19:04:30 GMT -5
Last time I flew (to San Francisco in April), masks were still required on planes. I've become quite lax about masking. Only inside in crowds. We had a Moms meeting today, and it was in a church that had a big sign on the door requiring masks, so everyone there was masks. When I went outside to table at the March for Our Lives, I didn't mask.
Tomorrow we are going to a movie with the fam for Father's Day and then out to eat. Probably won't mask there either. Since the county is stopping contact tracking at the end of the month, I guess it's all over now, right? Henry and Pete both work in restaurants and the staff doesn't mask anymore. And Anna is helping Annie at Fairy Camp, and they don't mask there either.
Over the past probably four weeks, I have been working three days a week and calling 7-10 people each day and have only had one conversation in that time with someone who was very sick. She had been fully vaxxed and had no pre-existing conditions, so I just she was just unlucky.
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Post by doctork on Jun 18, 2022 20:10:06 GMT -5
Three times! There go the last of my fantasies about being confident enough to fly this fall. I even toyed with a Christmas tour somewhere like Oberammergau Lirio, if you're unsure about your plane's filtration, the double mask idea might be a good one. Naturally, it's hotter and more annoying, but for a short trip, the reduced worry might be worth it. Big factors in my expensive choices are 1) 3 hour time difference between PT and ET zones, and 2) we rigorously avoid the overnight red-eye or the early morning cock-a-doodle-doo flights, which are cheaper but very uncomfortable. If I travel without Howard, I just go ahead with the early morning flight departure, leaving my house at 2 am or 3 am. We live 100 miles north of SeaTac Airport and need leave 4 - 5 hours prior to flight departure time, allowing for rush hour traffic in both Seattle and Everett plus extra time for airport and security snafus. Still, this 50th reunion trip was a very special occasion. These classmates are our closest life-long friends and it's probably the last time we'll all be together. For Reunion, MerleFest, Storytelling, and seeing the grands, I'm willing to risk some air travel, but not yet enthusiastic about the hassles of international travel, though our TCM (Caribbean) cruise is still on for November. If you can stand the double masking, it likely decreases transmission. I don't care what the studies show about oxygenation, as an asthmatic the N95's make me feel like it is hard to breathe so I stick with the tie-on surgical masks, not the ear loop ones.
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Post by gailkate on Jun 18, 2022 22:58:06 GMT -5
Where do you find those, K? Are they available to non-doctors? I have cloth tie-ons, but haven't seen the surgical ones.
I didn't mean to sound critical; comfort means a whole lot to me. My trip to England was made quite enjoyable by being enveloped in a cushy pod and being served wine regularly along with every possible edible. I'd have been crippled if I'd spent 9 hours in an airline seat. (Yes, I know we're not supposed to say crippled. I only say it about myself, but it's the only word that approaches accuracy.) I see it's only 7.5 hours from Detroit, but I still think I'd have to have the pod. Nine hours to Rome from Chicago, no direct flights to Italy from Detroit. But if the flights are tripling in cost, then I really would feel obliged to have such a good time I'd be afraid to go.
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Post by doctork on Jun 19, 2022 1:05:18 GMT -5
These are the Halyard ones I bought on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B011JJN2ZU?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder-t1_ypp_rep_k0_1_7&&crid=37NG72FWRQ1FE&&sprefix=halyardThese more clearly show the two separate ties, but they are not the ones I bought: www.amazon.com/dp/B08XQS666X?pd_rd_i=B08XQS666X&pf_rd_p=faa90cdd-671c-4d4c-a2bd-e438f0be59e9&pf_rd_r=E7SHEH6STXXXJZE1RESN&pd_rd_wg=dpEJs&pd_rd_w=0JmXj&pd_rd_r=ac6d977b-bfe4-4acf-be4b-7fc14bf6f547I prefer the ties because they don't irritate my ears like the elastic loops and the fit is better because you can tie it exactly where it best fits your head, both at the back of the neck and at the crown. The pleats cover the mouth and nose better without a side gap. The bridge over the nose can be adjusted to fit snugly so that my glasses don't fog up. They are disposable and inexpensive enough (I buy my own because clinics and hospitals seem to supply only the ear loop style) that I don't wear them longer than one day, and in fact if it's busy I change to a new mask at mid-day. Surgical masks were always intended to be changed between cases or procedures, not worn all day. Practically speaking, when you want to lower the mask to get a sip of water or eat lunch, you can also pull the top tie forward over your face and it will stay in place via the neck tie. When you are ready to put the mask back in place, slip that tie back over your head and it's back in place. The ear loop masks have to be taken off and put down somewhere. The masks with two separate elastic loops - one behind the neck, one over the corn/back of the head - are never "just right" in fit like the straps that can be tied individually.
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Post by gailkate on Jun 19, 2022 18:24:59 GMT -5
Naturally, there are people who disagree with you entirely among the Amazon reviewers - what's new about that? - but I'm thinking about trying the one you bought. I hate the earloops because a person with hearing aids and sometimes glasses doesn't need to be fighting loops, too. In the pics there still seems to be a gap, though not as pronounced as the standard cheapies. I'm thinking I should be able to invent transferable elastic ties so I could customize the cheapies. Given my skill level, that seems fraught with pitfalls.
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Post by doctork on Jun 19, 2022 20:59:25 GMT -5
The fit of that mask could vary according your face shape and size but I find that if I keep the upper tie strap flat on the sides of my face and tie it near the top/back of my head it minimizes any gap that might otherwise be there. And as you pointed out - no problems with glasses, hearing aids, ear rings or ear buds.
The only potentially relevant complaint was about the upper tie straps being too short to tie. The first box I bought did have a couple of masks like that poor quality control I suppose. No problems since then on several boxes. At that time, early 2020, masks were in short supply and Halyard was the only supplier of tie masks I could find, so I wasn't complaining when most of them were fine.
I could send you a couple to try out if you want, just PM me the address.
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Post by slb2 on Jun 20, 2022 2:20:20 GMT -5
All along, I've been connecting the earloop masks at the back with a twist-tie or rubber-band then pull it over my head as it's now a circle. When I want to lower it, I pinch at the sides and lower it. I find it an awful hassle to tie over my hair on top of my head and then at my neck under my hair. It's dreadful and I usually can't do it. I've ruined many masks trying to tie them.
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Post by liriodendron on Jun 20, 2022 7:29:26 GMT -5
I had purchased two different types of N95 masks thinking I'd use them when I flew as they are a bit more expensive than the KN95 masks I've been using for quite some time now. When I tested them before my flight yesterday I felt that I didn't get as tight a seal as I had with the KN95s, so I left the N95s at my mother-in-law's house and used/brought KN95s with me. These are the ones I've been using. bonafidemasks.com/Powecom-kn-95/I was thrilled to find that my seatmate on my flight home yesterday wore a mask.
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