Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

We have all the best words.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

There’s some extremely good trouble headed their way.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Consistently wrong since 2002

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

This is all too absurd to be reality, right?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

‘Forty-two’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

This is how realignments happen…

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Trump is going to draw a dick on that dog with a sharpie, isn’t he?

I swear, each month of 2020 will have its own history degree.

Good luck with your asparagus.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Let there be snark.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday/Monday, Nov. 15-16

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday/Monday, Nov. 15-16

by | 96 Comments

This post is in: ,

Nationally? Level 4, approaching 5, TBH…

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*Somebody’s* got to look on the bright side…


(Old Irish proverb: Live, horse, and you’ll get grass. Next winter is, literally, unimaginable to a lot of people, including those whose cooperation in vaccination efforts are most essential.)

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In fairness to NYC, Staten Island is proud of its well-established reputation as the most Heartland(tm), aka toxic, borough…

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed and 0 new asymptomatic cases.

    In Xinjiang “Autonomous “ Region, 8 cases have recovered and 57 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There are currently 1 7 confirmed cases (none in serious condition), all in Kashgar, and 130 asymptomatic cases in Xinjiang (122 in Kashgar and 8 in Kizilsu).

    Yesterday, China reported 8 new imported confirmed cases and 14 imported asymptomatic cases and 1 imported suspect case:

    * Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), the new cases are Chinese nationals returning from Egypt; 4 asymptomatic case, all Chinese nationals returning from Egypt
    * Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from the Nepal and the UK; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Kuwait
    * Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Russia
    * Taiyuan in Shanxi Province – 1 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases, no information received
    * Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Russia; 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    * Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Belgium
    * Tianjin Municipality – 2 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese national and a Filipino national returning from the Philippines
    * Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the UK
    * Shanghai Municipality – 1 suspect case, no information released

    Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 8 new cases, all imported.

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    Are Iowa and South Dakota in a competition for who can be more wreckless and stupid about the virus?

  7. 7.

    NeenerNeener

    Another 260 new virus cases in Monroe County, NY yesterday. Heading in the wrong direction again.
    I’m not sure it really makes a difference when the Biden virus team gets a chance to talk to the Trump virus team. Trump’s vaccine rollout plan probably just consists of the names of the Trump family followed by the names of some of his staff and his billionaire/millionaire donors.

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    Reading that the virus has mutated to be more infectious goes a long way in explaining this latest and largest surge.

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NeenerNeener:

    Trump’s vaccine rollout plan probably just consists of the names of the Trump family followed by the names of some of his staff and his billionaire/millionaire donors. 

    I heard from an orange idiot that sunlight cures the virus, so let’s launch all of this trash into the Sun.

  11. 11.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Like producing a vaccine happened vastly faster than the grim predictions, distributing it will happen vastly faster.  Normal assumptions do not apply.  The vast majority of the world are focused and cooperating in an unprecedented way.

    Unfortunately, until Biden is sworn in, the US is an exception.  There will be no national strategy and one Hell of a lot of ground level sore loser refusal to accept reality.  The redder the state, the worse this will go to Hell over the next couple of months, and it will be bad enough in blue states.  Holidays and winter depression are magnifying quarantine exhaustion even in non-rebels.

    EDIT –

    @Ohio Mom:

    This is old news, though.  The mutated version is the one that took hold in the US in the first wave.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,103 new cases today for a cumulative reported total of 48,520 cases. The Ministry also reports four new deaths for a total of 313 deaths — 0.7% of the cumulative reported total, 0.87% of resolved cases.

    Today’s new case number lies between between R0 projections at 1.1 and 0.9, Dr Noor Hisham says.

    Meanwhile, 821 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 35,606 patients recovered — 73.4% of the cumulative reported total.

    One new cluster was reported today: Matambai in Sabah.

    1,102 new cases are local infections. KL has the most new cases, 392: 385 in Damanlela Building Site cluster alone, three close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Sabah’s new cases number has declined for the fourth straight day to 288 cases: 55 from older clusters, including 15 from Matambai cluster, 158 close-contact screenings, and 75 other screenings. Selangor has 150 cases: 99 in existing clusters, 24 close-contact screenings, two SARI screenings, and 25 other screenings. Perak has 116 cases: 113 in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, one SARI screening, and one other screening. Negeri Sembilan has 90 cases: 84 in existing clusters, three close-contact screenings, and three other screenings.

    Penang has 26 cases: 19 in existing clusters, and seven close-contact screenings. Kedah has 10 cases: eight in existing clusters, and two other screenings. Labuan has eight cases: four in existing clusters, two close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Johor has eight cases: five in existing clusters, and three other screenings. Kelantan has seven cases: three in existing clusters, and four close-contact screenings. Terengganu has four cases, all close-contact screenings. Sarawak has one case, in an existing cluster. Melaka has one case, in an existing cluster. Putrajaya has one case, found in other screening.

    Pahang and Perlis reported no new cases today.

    One new case is imported: a Malaysian returning from Saudi Arabia, reported in Selangor.

    12,601 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 102 are in ICU, 39 of them on respirators.

    The four deaths today are a 46-year-old man; a 54-year-old man with hypertension;  a 73-year-old woman with diabetes, hypertension, heart arrhythmia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and Alzheimer’s disease; and a 51-year-old non-Malaysian woman with a history of diabetes, hypertension, and stroke.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    Keeping infected medical personnel on the job because they’re asymptomatic is crazy. They’re an obvious danger to patients, colleagues, and the public.

  15. 15.

    Chris T.

    @Amir Khalid: But the alternative is shutting down hospital beds.

    Personally, I’d recommend the alternative. Find out who didn’t wear a mask, boot them out of their beds, send them home. “If I catch it, I catch it.” Those who did take precautions can get the remaining beds.

  16. 16.

    JoyceH

    @Amir Khalid: Keeping infected medical personnel on the job because they’re asymptomatic is crazy. They’re an obvious danger to patients, colleagues, and the public.

    I think when they have the asymptomic nurses staying on the job, the notion is that they’re to treat the COVID patients, so they shouldn’t be coming into contact with the uninfected. That makes a bit more sense, but unless they have completely separate COVID facilities, or isolated wards with separate entrances and dining facilities, etc, it’s still mighty chancy.

  17. 17.

    JoyceH

    @Chris T.: I keep seeing all this hand-wringing about how to persuade the mask-resistant. Do we need a more persuasive argument? A better slogan? More advertising outlets? If I might make a modest suggestion — how about the maskless being stoned by angry mobs?

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    what we need is a government that could find non-mask wearers 

    and punch them in the snout with a springy boxing glove machine.

  22. 22.

    satby

    @Chris T.: I totally agree with this. And I never thought I would get to this point, but I’m witness every day to these malignant, entitled assholes, so now I think they should get the full ride they sign up for.

    Fuckem.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    @JoyceH:

    In my country, the authorities use a very persuasive argument: an on-the-spot police fine of 1,000 ringgit. I think the same argument, with the fine scaled up to at least US$1,000, would work reasonably well over there.

  26. 26.

    Robert Sneddon

    The BBC is reporting that Moderna which has a COVID-19 vaccine candidate has released interim results from their third-stage trials indicating 92.5% efficacy, similar to the Pfizer vaccine interim results and also the Sputnik V Russian vaccine.

     

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54902908

     

    The logistics for the Moderna candidate vaccine are less rigorous than the Pfizer candidate vaccine, it still needs refrigeration but not at dry-ice temperatures.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Yeah. My point was only that a more contagious mutation is the inevitable result of evolution, reproduction being the measure of evolutionary success. A more deadly strain is not.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: No more than there is with speeding tickets. Getting a lawyer to go to court for you and knock the fine down is a lot less costly than life in prison for murdering a cop.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie: I can’t imagine the gun play that would result with this fining on the spot.

    @Amir Khalid: Gotta remember we have a bunch of gun-humping ammosexuals in the States because of GUBBERMINT TURRANY!.

  34. 34.

    WereBear

    When they are lying in hospital beds screaming at the medical personnel that it’s a FAKE until they are intubated: I don’t think “normal” is the right mindset to use for this emergency.

  36. 36.

    Robert Sneddon

    @OzarkHillbilly: Actually, enhanced contagion is not automatically an evolutionary advantage for a disease to survive and replicate itself into the next generation. It’s complicated though and it depends on what is defined as a disease, whether it is mild or harmful or lethal or even beneficial (cowpox, for example, was a common disease among farm workers in the past but it was typically mild in its effects and it famously conferred significant immunity to smallpox).

  37. 37.

    satby

    So, update on the situation here in purple South Bend surrounded by red state Indiana and western Michigan: not a single department of health requirement was followed Saturday: no limiting of customers, no reduction of entries, no enforcement of “masks required to enter”, no masks on the same asshole farmers who refused to wear them all along, nothing. On the other hand, customer traffic was horrible, so there was little practical need to limit customers anyway. I’m calling the incredibly useless health department today though and complaining all the way up the chain of command. Just because. And maybe the mayor’s office.

  45. 45.

    MagdaInBlack

    Just learned Illinois DMV facilities are closed til Dec 7 due to covid. I see Chicago and surrounding counties are deep purple, meaning high covid cases. I’m not feeling at all good about going to work and “turning the numbers” for the corporate folks berating us from home.

  46. 46.

    debbie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Looking at that tweet up top about poll workers, do you know if there were any issues with that in Iowa? There weren’t where I voted. Not one single person was unmasked or wearing their masks incorrectly.

  49. 49.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @JoyceH: Many (most?) people who are asymptomatic are actually just pre-symptomatic. Having infected nurses continue to pull long hours under immensely stressful and exhausting conditions (as if SARC-CoV-2 positive is not already stressful enough) will further compromise their immune systems, making them more likely to crash.

    Maybe you have the positive nurses treat the mild or moderate cases. However, as beds and staff are stretched  beyond breaking point, mild and moderate cases will be probably be sent home again (as during the 1st wave).

  51. 51.

    satby

    @debbie: because there’s no consistency of policy and your governor hasn’t made that an order yet. And, red state, so probably never will. Police have to enforce an order or piece of legislation that includes fines for non-compliance. That’s their job. IL made it a felony to harass or threaten store workers enforcing mask policies. Mask compliance is much higher there.

  52. 52.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    Atlas needs to be indicted. 

    In the interest of time, I’ll need a list of Trump trash that shouldn’t be indicted.  Thank you for your cooperation.

  53. 53.

    Nelle

    @mrmoshpotato: It does feel like a noose us tightening around us in Iowa.  My neighbor’s lights don’t go on as usual at 5 because, instead of two teachers and two high school students heading off to school, the are isolated at home with Covid.  My husband’s flying is canceled because the guy he was supposed to give a check flight to had a son who was with someone who tested positive. My son has been sent home from work twice in two weeks because someone had contact with someone who tested positive.  All of this has been from people taking it upon themselves to call others; there is no apparent contact tracing going on.  I suppose this is a libertarian’s idea of paradise.  Testing is all booked up.

  54. 54.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    IL made it a felony to harass or threaten store workers enforcing mask policies. Mask compliance is much higher there. 

    We also have a Democratic governor (GTFO Governor Hedgefund!) and legislature.

  55. 55.

    satby

    @MagdaInBlack: even in big states with good public health compliance, the high numbers of essential workers and magical thinking will cause horrible outbreaks. Magical thinking like “it’s just my family, they’re not sick so we can get together”.

    The four people I know of who have it now all caught it from family members. One is in the hospital.

  56. 56.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Starting today, there is mandatory masking in stores. Owners have been provided with masks and signs and will be required to limit store capacity. We’ll see how that goes.

  58. 58.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    That picture of a young black guy trying to hand a mask to an old white guy and the white guy refusing sort of sum it all up.

  60. 60.

    satby

    @mrmoshpotato: hey, JB is a good guy! I wish I was still in IL. because he’s doing a lot more to try to get people to stop spreading the virus than the chain-gang of crazy idiots around here.

  62. 62.

    different-church-lady

    @raven: I’m still trying to figure that out:

    a) score a TD and the Browns would be ahead two posessions with under a minute on the clock. Yeah, strange things happen, but c’mon.

    b) if you’re going to deliberately not score, you should give yourself up in bounds so the clock keeps running.

  65. 65.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby: “Governor Hedgefund” is Bruce Rauner. (h/t Driftglass) So glad enough people wanted to give him the boot.

    JB is doing a good job as is Chicago’s DPH.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato: Why GTFO to Pritzker?  I voted for him while holding my nose, but he has turned out to be great.

    I see that you were intending a reference to the previous governor, whose name I have never spoken or never typed.  Ugh.

  69. 69.

    RSA

    This could only happen in fiction, but I’d like to imagine a robust and stable single-shot vaccine to be developed, then roving gangs of vigilantes (COVIDgilantes?) holding down maskless people and injecting them.

  71. 71.

    mrmoshpotato

    @RSA: “So you’re calling 911 because you were forcefully immunized against a deadly, contagious virus?  I don’t understand.”

    “BUT MUH FREEDUMB!”

  72. 72.

    Zzyzx

    If we’re still forced to be shut down for next summer because this is still raging, I might just give up. I’m isolating myself this winter with the mantra, “We might have a vaccine by spring.” At some point, even I will need some interaction with someone other than my wife (who is an essential worker and works enough hours that I rarely see her).

  74. 74.

    Fair Economist

    @NotMax: By the Worldometer count, the US has already passed 250,000.

    This fall is turning out much worse than I’d expected.

  75. 75.

    WaterGirl

    @Zzyzx: May I suggest that you develop a mantra that is not based on short-term hopes for spring?  If you can see that you are setting yourself up for possible defeat, now might be a good time for all of us to adjust our thinking.

    Because if you or any of us give up, it’s not just ourselves that we would be endangering, it’s everyone else, too. Personally, I am hoping for some normal in 2022.

    edited

  76. 76.

    YY_Sima Qian

    While most of Europe reacted quite late to their 2nd wave, leading to an awful lot of preventable injuries and deaths, they have finally acted and cases maybe peaking in some of the worst hit countries (although I am skeptical if the measures they have put in place to date will see them through the depths of winter and Christmas season).

    The US is seeing a ferocious surge in the fall, with little coherent mitigation strategy heading into winter and Thanksgiving + Christmas. The massive loss of life in the coming weeks is already baked in. Never mind the actively counterproductive Federal level, even at the state level there is often no unified strategy. D governors are undermined by R legislatures and courts, D local authorities are constrained by R governors and state houses, and everyone is undermined by recalcitrant law enforcement and reactionary groups. Even if local authorities impose hefty punishment for violation of mask mandates or stay at home orders, good luck getting many of the police & sheriff departments to enforce the regulations.

  78. 78.

    Sloane Ranger

    Yesterday in the UK we had 24,962 new cases, down around 2000 from the day before, but usual disclaimer applies. These are weekend figures so there may have been processing delays. The new cases are distributed among the home nations as follows,

    England – 21,998 (down @2000)

    Northern Ireland – 472 (down @40)

    Scotland – 1159 (up @40)

    Wales – 1333 (up @400).

    There were a total of 177,305 new cases in the 7 days ending 15th November, an increase of 12.9% on the previous 7 day period.

    Deaths – There were 168 deaths yesterday, 143 in England, 9 in Northern Ireland, 0 in Scotland and 16 in Wales. The headline figure is significantly lower than what we have been seeing recently and may have been affected by admin. delays due to the weekend.

    Testing – Next update expected today as they are no longer updating this figure over the weekends. Please don’t ask me why not.

    Hospitalisations – 14,915 people were in hospital as of Thursday, 12th November and 1355 were on ventilators as of Friday, 13th. Nothing really to add to yesterday’s report on this.

    General – Boris Johnson is self isolating (again) as he was contacted by NHS Test and Trace as having been in contact with someone who tested positive. This is believed to have been Tory MP, Lee Anderson, who he met in person for about 35 minutes. Neither were apparently masked during the meeting and there is a question about what distance they were apart during the meeting. A photograph posted by Mr Anderson seems to show them as being about 1 metre apart, not the recommended 2 (although it is notoriously difficult to tell from photos).  Johnson will carry on working during his isolation and hold meetings via video conferencing but, obviously, cannot attend the House of Commons for the next 2 weeks. Following on from this, Leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg (MP for 17th Century), who has been unwilling to change how the House conducts business during the pandemic because “tradition” is now exploring how to “support additional virtual participation” in debates.

    PLUS, Matt Hancock, Minister of Health, has hinted that the current English lockdown may not end on 2nd December, as planned, although he stressed this was still the government target. I don’t think the numbers are going down as fast as they’s like.

  80. 80.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @JoyceH: Meanwhile, in Fargo, North Dakota conditions are bad enough that travel nurses are ending their contracts early (something that they don’t like to do because it can get you blacklisted):

    Nursed say ND response to COVID-19 is a sh*tshow

    While Sanford Health denied the allegations, several Sanford nurses tell Valley News Live over 70 traveling nurses have ended their contracts in Fargo early due to what they cited as ‘poor working conditions.’

    (Bolding is mine)

    Meanwhile in Philly thousands of nurses contemplate going on strike to protest horrendous and unsafe working conditions:

    Nurses in Philly area hospitals posed to strike

    “Nurses at Mercy and St. Mary gave their 10-day notice last Friday, November 6. Since then, management has reached back out to schedule further bargaining sessions. If no agreement is reached by the end of the day on Monday November 16, the nurses are set to stop work for two days beginning Tuesday.”

    “Dellago said she was concerned that the ratios were only going to get worse as the hospital fills back up with COVID-19 patients, landing nurses who should be caring for four patients with six, eight, or even ten each

    Edited to add: Med staff lost to COVID-19, so far…

    These are all the medical personnel who have been killed by COVID-19 (up to 4 November)

    correction, the lis of medical personnel who have been killed by COVID-19 (up to 4 November) is NOT a complete list.

  82. 82.

    Uncle Cosmo

    I noted this paragraph in the story about mutated SARS-CoV-2:

    The D614G virus outcompetes and outgrows the ancestral strain by about 10-fold and replicates extremely efficiently in primary nasal epithelial cells, which are a potentially important site for person-to-person transmission…

    According to my primary care physician (who also holds an MPH), it’s been common knowledge (at least among health care folks) for some time now that the primary route of entry and egress for the virus is nasal.

    It seems logical to conjecture that in many of the asymptomatic but contagious, Miz Rona sets up housekeeping in the nasal cavity and never gets farther into the host body, but is able to ride exhalations through the nose out into the environment.

    It seems logical to wonder if the lack of internal transmission is due to a circulation bottleneck in that area that limits the access of the virus to the host bloodstream.

    It seems logical to wonder if that same bottleneck would limit a vaccine’s ability to eliminate the virus from that nasal reservoir (since vaccination works by stimulating the host’s immune system, which is transported by the circulatory system).

    It seems logical to wonder if a nasal spray that kills the virus (and is somewhat less harmful than e.g., Clorox) might be useful in limiting superspreading. I presume researchers have looked into the possibility, but with what results?

     

    I wonder if anyone has looked closely at the possibility

  83. 83.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WaterGirl: The determining factor shouldn’t be whether they are asymptomatic, but whether they are CONTAGIOUS.

    I conjecture that

    1. Anyone who’s contagious probably has a few bazillion copies of the ‘Rona living in the nasal cavity ready to be propelled into the environment on any exhaled breath;
    2. Those who are contagious with symptoms have had the virus spread from the nasal cavity into the body, & are very probably at home or in a medical facility (MD’s office or hospital), scared half out of their wits, & not going anywhere in public anytime soon;
    3. In those who are asymptomatically contagious, the virus has not spread out of the nasal cavity & they are probably unaware they’re spreading the stuff.

    I further conjecture that we could stomp superspreading if we combined a lot more testing (as in, nearly everyone) with a medicated nasal spray that would attack the virus in those primary nasal epithelial cells where it seems to lurk:

    You’re COVID-positive but asymptomatic. Here’s a bottle of nasal spray. Use it 4 times a day for the next 3 days. If you start to show symptoms, seek medical attention. If not, come back for a second test, & if it’s negative, you’re out of isolation.

    That might just work. Now to find the Magic Anti-COVID Nasal Spray (that’s somewhat less toxic than bleach)…

  84. 84.

    The Pale Scot

    Does anyone have an opinion or knowledge of the PPE company Protectly? Like all the other PPE outfits they are paying for ads that look like articles, but there are articles referring to them in the local media.

    MY BiL is in the hospital with cancer. I will need/want to travel to NJ soon, and the stories I’ve heard about non mask wearing MoFos on the plane means I’ll need to find a N95 or better and then isolate in a motel. I’m looking at the Moldex line. They have a plastic frame with the filter attached, I figure that something like that is less likely to be counterfeited. But as with all the others, How are getting these things when the producer says all production is already spoken for in the next 6 months.

    I’m going to have do something, this one has less red flags than the others I’ve seen.

    Help

  85. 85.

    Yarrow

    @Uncle Cosmo:  I have read some discussion about the lower virus rates in Thailand and the apparently common practice of nasal irrigation there (like a neti pot). There has been some conjecture that nasal irrigation on a regular basis may wash out the nasal passages making it harder for the virus to stick and/or washing out any virus that is there.

  87. 87.

    J R in WV

    When I read that great idea:

    New COVID strategy: Vaccinate potential superspreaders 1st. Such decisions loom after Pfizer announced a vaccine that’s 90% effective in people not previously infected w/ the virus. In Australia, one theoretical model is to identify possible superspreaders

    Then I stop and think… Who among us is the least likely to submit to vaccination for a disease they do not believe in? Superspreaders? Why else are they superspreaders?

    Personally I think they should get indelible ink stamps on their forehead and quarantined at home, not allowed out on the streets, until the plague is announced to be over (in other words, never!) or they submit to health requirements and receive sufficient vaccinations to test immune. Ankle bracelets to let the health department know where they are at all times, alarms when they leave their premises.

    A bar code, actually, in permanent purple ink.

    They might hate that prospect more than the vaccination.

  88. 88.

    J R in WV

    If you are known to not be a mask wearer, you have already declared you don’t believe in health care.

    Too late to change your mind when you are ill.

    Same for refusing the vaccines, you have decided you don’t believe in health care or medical science, no health care available for you but Homeopathy or Chiropractic. Or Woo of your choice. Magik crystals under your pillow, and best of luck wishes.

    But one thing you don’t get to choose is staying out in public transmitting the Trump Plague to innocent folks. Quarantine for you. And an ankle bracelet to let Health Dept know when you violate quarantine, and make it easy to locate and arrest violators. Sentenced to receive vaccine while in prison to protect other prisoners only guilty of common illegality.

  89. 89.

    J R in WV

    @debbie:

    The police here are refusing to have anything to do with getting non-maskers to cooperate.

    Fired, lost pension, get over yourselves, if you don’t want to enforce health regs look for another job.

    Locally, when smoking was outlawed in WV, the Health Dept inspectors got Deputies to accompany them to bars in the beginning.

    When the Rs took over the legislature years later, they offered a law to stop the Health Dept from regulating smoking, the bar owners said “Don’t do that, business is up now that non-=smokers can enjoy the bar.”

  91. 91.

    Yarrow

    @Zzyzx:  I don’t know where you live but if you live in a northern, colder climate you’ve got to get through the winter/early spring. By summer the virus should be better in your area as people can be outside more. Highest risk factors are indoors, close together, poor ventilation, and time in those conditions. Winter is worse in colder climates for all that. Summer (inside in a/c) is worse in warmer climates.

    See if you can maybe meet a friend once day a week for a socially distanced walk or bike ride or something. Exercise is good for mental health and overall health. Seeing a real person is also good. Being outdoors and socially distant if you both wear masks is fairly low risk.

  92. 92.

    Zzyzx

    @Yarrow: Seattle… mid-late January is through the worst of it.

    I walk 6-8 miles every day even through the rain, but do it solo. I’m diabetic so my walks are serious business to get my heart rate up.

    I’ll see other people when this is over.

  93. 93.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @WaterGirl: Thank you! Thats what happens when I post on my break. But I feel like I have to vent because I have a lot of health care workers in my family.

  94. 94.

    Yarrow

    @Zzyzx:  I get it. Mental health is important too. And interacting with people is part of that, since humans need social contact. Maybe walks aren’t the best way for you to do that but there could be another way.

  95. 95.

    Zzyzx

    @Yarrow: I made some life decisions over the last decade that led to my core friend group being scattered all over the country, but it was fine because we all travel a lot and we go see concerts and other events and hang out there.

    It WAS working very well.

  96. 96.

    Yarrow

    @Zzyzx:  Ugh. It’s so hard. A friend of mine got divorced last year and has been trying to meet new people and date and then Covid happened. Lives alone except for the dog. It’s incredibly lonely and difficult. I feel for your situation. My friend has had some success by taking online classes – local classes – and has met a few people through those and has been able to do socially distant walks at the park and things like that with them. It’s hard, though.

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