Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Skyquake87
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Skyquake87 »

Aye, observed much the same - 'Pandemic's over' seems to be the prevailing attitude. I'm so used to wearing a mask these days, I'm quite happy to carry on. Noticed most shops have wound down their supplies of hand sanitiser and masks now. There's still signs up in shops encouraging people to wear masks etc but no-one gives a f**k.

I think the best any of us can do now is eat healthy, get plenty of exercise and keep washing your hands.

Quite a few people at work have refused the jabs - including people on my team. Largely out of buying into conspiracy theories (which for smart and well adjusted people I find depressing) or 'it won't happen to me'. Two of these have now come down with Covid. Sigh.
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Sades
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Sades »

The child is returning to school as cases surge here.

... I still think I'm going to end up keeping her home. Not sure. I go back and forth on it.

Alberta's acting like nothing is wrong but the numbers are climbing. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anxious, but at the very least the school boards are taking the same precautions they did last year.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Denyer »

Cases/illness/deaths rising here too, and evidence that protectiveness of vaccines is starting to tail off (although at least should act to avoid serious illness in cases of smaller viral load). But the consensus seems to be that autumn is a lot of unknowns.
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Sades
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Sades »

From the back to school plan:

If there is a case of COVID-19 at school

As the school year starts, the province has indicated that schools will not be informed about individual cases of COVID-19. Staff and students may choose to notify a school about a positive COVID-19 test, but it is not required. If we receive notification about a positive case from Alberta Health Services in a school, we will communicate with the school community. Quarantine is not required for close contacts under current provincial direction. This means classes will not be required to quarantine if there is a case of COVID-19 at school. Individuals who test positive will be expected to quarantine based on the provincial requirements in place at that time.


**** **** **** **** **** I don't know guys, I really don't know.
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Warcry
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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That's terrifying. I know kids usually come through COVID without getting too sick, but a policy like that is a good way to make sure that it'll tear right through an entire school until it finds the handful of kids whose immune systems are vulnerable. :(

In Manitoba, we've whiplashed from our schools being in the same position as Alberta's to "mandatory masks and vaccines" at the very last minute. The schools themselves probably aren't prepared for the logistics of that, and I know some of the parents won't be. The start of school is going to be a disaster because the government was too scared to make the right decision until they were shamed into it by parents and the teachers' union.

That's how everything seems to be going here these days, since the province doesn't have any leadership. Our premier resigned a couple weeks ago, because his party's popularity has tanked over the last year and a half as they dealt with the pandemic. That was less because of their actual policies, and more because Brian Pallister is a uncharismatic ghoul of a human being who was completely incapable of conveying even the simplest things about it without coming across as an arrogant asshole.

So now we're stuck with no one actually in charge, and the government jumping in contradictory directions without any coherent strategy. Three weeks ago they rescinded basically all their COVID restrictions on a dime without so much as hinting they were thinking about it, probably as a last-ditch attempt to turn their poll numbers around before playing the "it's all the premier's fault and he's resigned now" card. As of this weekend they're back on, and in fact they're more strict now than they were before. No one knows why, or why they were taken off in the first place if they were still needed (spoiler alert: they are definitely still needed because anti-vaxxers in our bible belt are determined to kick off a fourth wave of infections).

Oh, and several sitting members of government have now broken ranks to align themselves with the anti-vax, anti-mask crowds because of course they have, as a big segment of the Conservative Party in Canada is drawn from the "Christian fanatics who actually oppose everything Jesus stood for" demographic that also seems to form the nucleus of the anti-vax movement here in Manitoba.

In related "fun", the federal branch of the party is in hot water after a bunch of their campaign volunteers took part in a violent anti-mask, anti-vax (and, er, anti-vaping restrictions?) protest that shut down one of Justin Trudeau's campaign stops over the weekend. The same groups seem to be making death threats to various candidates who won't validate the conspiracy theories they've embraced.
Sades wrote: Wed Jul 14, 2021 8:30 amWas that the guy who was running for Mayor of Calgary? Yeah, **** that guy.
I meant to answer you a month ago! It was Maxime Bernier that our RCMP tossed in a cell a while back.
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Sades
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Sades »

Ahhhhhhhh yeahhhh. **** that guy, too.

1,842 cases in the Edmonton zone at last count. And our kids are starting school in three days.

I want to keep mine home but I also feel like she needs to go. This is fucking awful. I feel like I'm gambling with her physical health for the sake of her mental health.

Don't even get me started on politics. I think Kenney's still on vacation, no one knows where the **** he is. Meanwhile nurses have been put on notice that their vacations might be cut short as case numbers go up.

Indian Country seems to be leaning heavily NDP this go 'round. It's interesting to see. Jagmeet and his brother are both on Tiktok trying to snag that youth/Indigenous vote. :laugh:

Have you been introduced to The Beaverton, Warcry?

Edit: Y'know, the UCP may be a big steaming pile of hot garbage, but at least they aren't the People's Party.
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Warcry
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Warcry »

Speaking of Wannabe Calgary Mayor Guy, this was good to see. Hopefully he lands more jail time on the other charges. What a piece of trash.
Sades wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:22 amI want to keep mine home but I also feel like she needs to go. This is fucking awful. I feel like I'm gambling with her physical health for the sake of her mental health.
I can understand that. Things aren't so bad in Manitoba right now, but when everything went to hell in April/May that was exactly how I felt...I knew that keeping him safe at home was the only thing we could do to protect him, but at the same time I felt terrible because I could see the psychological toll it was taking on him every single day. It got so bad that he was too scared to even go out and play in our own back yard for a while. His school starts up again tomorrow and he's so nervous about it that the stress gave him two nosebleeds at bedtime. :(
Sades wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:22 amDon't even get me started on politics. I think Kenney's still on vacation, no one knows where the **** he is. Meanwhile nurses have been put on notice that their vacations might be cut short as case numbers go up.
I hear he showed up on a Facebook stream this week, answering pre-approved questions submitted by his followers and talking about how he deserved a break after all his hard work. What a swell leader!

...meanwhile in Manitoba, after Pallister ragequit this toolbox is leading the province for the next two months. The odds-on favourite to become full-time premier until the next election is the health minister who mismanaged the pandemic so badly that we needed to ship COVID patients to Ontario and Saskatchewan. I think we're doomed. :(
Sades wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:22 amHave you been introduced to The Beaverton, Warcry?
I have! Sadly, the real world is so absurd these days that it can be hard to tell the difference.
Sades wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:22 amEdit: Y'know, the UCP may be a big steaming pile of hot garbage, but at least they aren't the People's Party.
Ah, so we've reached the point where recycled 4chan memes are now being used in place of actual political discourse. I figured it would take at least one more election cycle before things sunk that low.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Hey, guys! Over here, the Dinosaur Party aka Labour has responded to the Conservative government putting a small tax on earnings to help the NHS recover and continue delivering services by crying ‘the poor are going to be paying for the rich’ (you can actually identify the party by that cry!) and ‘they promised not to increase taxes - you can’t trust liars like this’.
Oh, and shouts about government mismanaging the whole C-19 thing.
Let’s be honest: every damn government made mistakes. The last real pandemic was in 1918 and even prepping for a new event (there are plans to handle Ebola, you know) wasn’t sufficient. The lies from China and complacency by WHO didn’t help anyone.
Meanwhile, deaths are increasing in the UK, slowly but steadily. I believe that the NHS is handling this level of flow pretty well, but it’s still around 800 lives lost per week.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Denyer »

Labour are fucking useless and only a few governments have done particularly well, but this one's been more corrupt, embezzling, murderously stupid, etc than most that wouldn't be considered kleptocracies.

National insurance hikes disproportionately affect lower earners and when you've got stats like over £100 billion being trousered during a pandemic the argument "tax the rich" holds a lot of water.

Similarly, there's a fuckton of quantitative easing in the 100s of billions range going on, national insurance is just a way of making direct taxation a little more palatable to followers than wealth/profit taxes; "sharing" the burden wider and also lumping it onto businesses.

Added to which it'll get swallowed up putting sticking plasters on the NHS, completely failing to meet the manifesto pledge of preventing care recipients from having to sell homes, etc.

Meanwhile, they're trying to ram this through parliament:

https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-i ... se-the-nhs

Even that relatively friendly interpretation focusing on free-at-the-point-of-access emergency care remaining unchanged concludes "There are several parts of the Health and Care Bill which MPs need to take a very close look at indeed. The local changes are positive in heralding a more cooperative health service, but this is a very difficult time to introduce complicated changes. The new powers for Secretaries of State risk creating a health service where decisions are taken to suit party politics rather than patients. The provisions on social care and the workforce are inadequate."

Backdoor privatisation and profiteering, when about 10% of NHS budgets are already effectively privatised.
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Clogs
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Honestly, Denyer, if Labour ministers parade like this, we will end up with a totally privatised health service. Perhaps they’d like that..? They can generate support off the poor while not being poor themselves, then provide alcohol and food lines for the poor.

I think it’s called ‘Communism’.

Like it or not, it’s best we pay a little extra for healthcare right now rather than end up in the unenviable position of a lot of people in the rest of the world.

The schools are back and the infection/death rate is already rising. I’m being told that if I’m vaccinated and get a negative PCR test once a week, I can carry on even if I’m in direct contact with someone with full blown Covid... expect a rough winter ahead.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Denyer »

Legally speaking I don't think you need the clear test if vaccinated or a kid. Although if Israel's anything to go by (and it looks like it is) there's going to be a lot of reliance on boosters.
Honestly, Denyer, if Labour ministers parade like this, we will end up with a totally privatised health service. Perhaps they’d like that..?
Labour need to split into purplish Tories and Labour. They're unelectable, and the only way Blair got elected was getting into bed with Murdoch et al. It's the Tory lite part that'll stand any chance.

They'll still have to differentiate themselves in terms of policies and present something credible and trustworthy. Otherwise it'll be the status quo of being able to hold a press conference for Patel to skin immigrant Dalmation puppies whilst Johnson fucks them in a PPV for party donors. I'm fascinated what this will eventually contain because it'll all have been run past lawyers.

Actually, it'll be interesting to see if NI (and not the the NI that should have made a difference to approval ratings) can tip them over the edge, as the self-interested polls by broadsheet owners are desperately trying to suggest.
Like it or not, it’s best we pay a little extra for healthcare right now
Absolutely. Scatter-gun targeting low income earners and small businesses disproportionately (and particularly after massive reductions in income, furloughing staff and all the rest) is a really shit way of doing that for everyone apart from the people/companies sitting pretty it protects.

It's not likely to have a particularly adverse affect on either of us whichever way they do it, AFAIK? We can take a bit of an increase in tax on income and investments. And some people who've benefited massively from disaster capitalism and government funding can take more than a bit of an increase.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Clogs »

987 deaths in the UK in the last 7 days, 14 in my local area, and numbers rising daily. Viruses don’t bother about government decisions and opposition arguments.

College has been open barely one week and we’ve students and staff off either because they are resident with someone with Covid-19, have had a positive test result and/or have symptoms. Yeah, we’re guessing a few of the not-so-bright students will be fibbing, just like last year; it became the absence excuse of choice rather than migraine or food poisoning.

Leicester City Council has plans prepared to fully reopen public services within the next month, I’m told.

Stay well, friends :love:
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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I got my booster Saturday. Providence has an event called Watetfire, where they light around 100 braziers in the Provicence river a few times a year. Normally, there's vendors and food trucks. This year, there's a covid vaccine distribution and testing test. No appointment needed, and it was already funded, so they didn't even ask for my insurance.

They only had Pfizer. My first 2 doses were Moderna, but the CDC approved mix-and-matching for boosters. Both Moderna shots knocked me on my ass, the first one day of and day after, the second for 3-4 days. After the Pfizer shot, I feel fine, except for a bit of arm soreness. I'm not sure if this is due to a difference in the vaccines, or if I'm just getting better at tolerating shots. Last year's flu vaccine made me lay down for an afternoon, this year's did nothing.

The closest thing to a problem is that they had 3 lines: one to register, one for the shot, one to update your car, and I waited in the wrong one first. Even then, it was only an extra 5 minute delay or so.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Clay »

I've been back in a college classroom since August (on the other side of the lectern now), and it's gone... not terribly? Masks are mandatory inside, and I'd guess that probably ~60% of the students actually wear them properly. Fittingly enough, that's apparently about what the vaccination rate currently is for staff, students, and faculty altogether.

I've only had one (to my knowledge) student contract Covid during the semester so far. She had to isolate for two weeks, but came back with a clean bill of health. Haven't really had any long-term absences, but I have had students that, having had Covid in past at some point, are very prone to feeling ill with minor bugs that they would otherwise shrug off.

Off course, they may well be fibbing just to get out of class, but I don't care. I don't want to catch anything, so I'm not about to make people think that they need to err on the side of coming to class instead of just staying home when they're sick. If some take advantage of that, so be it.
Tantrum wrote: Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:29 pm They only had Pfizer. My first 2 doses were Moderna, but the CDC approved mix-and-matching for boosters. Both Moderna shots knocked me on my ass, the first one day of and day after, the second for 3-4 days. After the Pfizer shot, I feel fine, except for a bit of arm soreness. I'm not sure if this is due to a difference in the vaccines, or if I'm just getting better at tolerating shots. Last year's flu vaccine made me lay down for an afternoon, this year's did nothing.
My friend had the two regular doses of Pfizer and the same for the booster, and the Pfizer booster had him feeling worse for a weekend than did either of the original shots. Who knows?
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Last night, my six year old had to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night because he couldn't breathe. He'd been coughing a little bit for a couple days beforehand, and we'd kept him home from school, but it went from a 1 to a 10+ in terms of severity inside a couple hours. We don't know yet if it was caused by COVID or one of the other respiratory infections that's going around, but the end result was pretty much the same either way -- a bunch of masked strangers showing up at the house to assess him, followed by an ambulance ride to the hospital, where only one of his parents was allowed to wait with him. Followed by a four hour wait because the health-care system is so overloaded by COVID cases that they literally don't have the resources to look at a kid who's wheezing up air worse than Darth Vader any more quickly than that.

He'll be fine...they got to him eventually, and the medication they gave him did a good job of opening up his airway. But you can just see the system creaking at the seams...COVID numbers are going up and if this happened in a month when the system is even more overloaded, it could have had a much different result. :(
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Clay
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Clay »

Well that's scary as ****.

Is the medication they gave him a one-and-done kinda thing, or is going to need a regimen for a while?
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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That's what the selfish science-denying fuckers don't get or don't care about, covid patients tie up intensive care facilities for far longer than most other serious illnesses. For those thus affected they're high on triage list criteria because of the nature of severe cases, and it has a much greater impact on availability of services.

If opening airways worked I suspect it's not covid, not that that's necessarily a great comfort. Hope he's back to rights ASAP.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Hope he gets better quickly Warcry.

Mine has been up three times so far tonight as she's also sick. Bit of coughing and a stuffy nose. No fever. Her cough started yesterday.

It's the second time she's been sick since she started school, last one wasn't Covid but sure looked like it. I'm thinking it's a sinus cold this time.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Clay wrote: Thu Nov 11, 2021 10:54 pmIs the medication they gave him a one-and-done kinda thing, or is going to need a regimen for a while?
One and done, thankfully. He'd just finished a course of antibiotics for a tooth infection and it was difficult enough to get him to go along with that when he was healthy. I'd hate to think how much "fun" it'd be to try to get him to take medication while he's sick and cranky.
Denyer wrote: Fri Nov 12, 2021 2:11 amThat's what the selfish science-denying fuckers don't get or don't care about, covid patients tie up intensive care facilities for far longer than most other serious illnesses. For those thus affected they're high on triage list criteria because of the nature of severe cases, and it has a much greater impact on availability of services.
Oh, we're pretty painfully aware of that too. The reason for the tooth infection I mentioned above is that he needs some minor dental surgery...which has been delayed for over a year now thanks to COVID shutting down such things for so long and creating a major backlog. Now he's starting to see complications develop. At this point, I'm starting to hope that the baby teeth that are giving him problems just fall out so that he can avoid having to get them fixed...
Sades wrote: Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:42 amHope he gets better quickly Warcry.
He's doing a lot better now. Back to school tomorrow, I hope. No COVID this time around thankfully, though the test they gave him at the hospital brought on four days' worth of nosebleeds. :(
Sades wrote: Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:42 amIt's the second time she's been sick since she started school, last one wasn't Covid but sure looked like it. I'm thinking it's a sinus cold this time.
Are the schools in Alberta sending sick kids home? They pretty much didn't do anything at all in Manitoba last year...my wife worked as a lunch supervisor at the school and she saw kids hacking up a lung pretty much every day. This year, they're claiming to be more strict but I haven't really seen any evidence yet that they actually are.

Of course, our new premier was the health minister when we were shipping people to other provinces due to how badly overwhelmed our hospitals were. And our new health minister is an active member of a for-profit megachurch that makes a habit of violating health regulations. They're going to do a great job of getting things on track, I can feel it! :nonono:
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Sades »

Glad the little one is doing better. :up:

Are the schools in Alberta sending sick kids home?

**** no, it's 'Berta. :laugh: If they're not vomiting or otherwise practically dying it's business as usual. They send notes home every once in awhile, reminding people to keep sick kids home. Yesterday we were sent the Alberta daily Covid checklist. So they're basically doing the bare minimum, which is really all they're authorised for, I think. Kiddo said yesterday that the kid next to her was coughing all day. Even she was really annoyed that he was at school with that cough. But I get that work culture in this country is shitty and doesn't often allow a parent to stay at home with a sick kid whenever it's needed.

Kiddo got vaxxed this weekend, she had a sore arm for a bit but no other reactions. \o/
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