Coronavirus

Crazy.

I went flying off today running all kinds of errands. Dawned on me in Whole Foods I’m the only person in the store without a mask. Next up was buying new sneakers face-to-face with the store clerk. Then a bus ride home. Suddenly remembered a small cloth mask in my bag - inadequate, but it did the job. Crazy to leave the house maskless after all this time.

__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

My mother was teacher, and Hubby and I were going through some of her things recently, and we started talking about how hard it must be to be a teacher nowadays. It's hard enough under normal circumstances, but now, it's not just the students that you have to deal with, but the parents too. There's no consistency in the rules, so every school district seems to be doing things differently. Some parents get angry because they want their kid to wear a mask and be safe from COVID, and other parents get angry because they don't want their kid to have to wear a mask. There's just no way to please everyone, and with most kids still not being able to get vaccinated, nobody is safe.

__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Hubby and I still wear our masks whenever we go out. We're seeing less and less people wearing them every day, but there are still about 30-40 percent of the people around here wearing them in stores.

The news has been saying that they expect the numbers to go up again in December and January because of the holidays, so hopefully more people will start wearing their masks again, or at least learn to social distance better.

I think that parents also have it hard right now, so I try to be sympathetic. Though this one parent (not one of mine, thank goodness, but I had his kid last year and knew that they were a handful) came in and just SCREAMED at my principal. It was awful. (And he's a police officer! With that temper, yeesh!). He kept saying "Are you or are you not in charge of this facility?!" as if our principal has the latitude to overrule county and state policies about how to handle close contacts.

I feel especially sorry for single parents right now. Last year I had a parent who was a single mother, raising three kids with no help, and the child I was teaching of hers had serious special needs. The only person she had to supervise him was her 17 year old son (who honestly tried his best, but this child needed adult professional support). She was really responsive if I would text her, but what could she do? Not work? Pay for child care?

Some parents protested at our county recently saying masks are like "muzzles." My main reaction was, um, I don't think it's the kids who need muzzles. And if you think it's appropriate to tell me I have to teach in a room with 24 unvaccinated, unmasked kiddos, think again.

Generally, though, my kids' parents have been pretty understanding and I think that most of them at least understand that teachers are not the ones making county and state policies.

I'm glad to hear that you're not having too many problems with the parents. Every time I hear a story on the news about a crazy parent arguing with a teacher, or even worse, attacking a teacher, over the masks rules, it makes me glad that I don't have kids. It's bad enough having to worry about your kid's health during the pandemic, but I can't imagine the idea of having to send your kids into those types of toxic situations.

Yes, I have an acquaintance who has three children who are immunocompromised, and it has been really hard for them. Out of caution, they really can't go anywhere unless they know that everyone will be masked and/or vaccinated.

That must be very hard on them. I really wish that some of these unvaccinated people would stop making this a political thing, and just try to understand that this is about people's health, and for some people, it's literally a matter of life or death.

That's the part that continues to just kill me. The idea that someone else's life/health is worth less than your own comfort.

I'm vaccinated and I've had my booster, but I continue to mask in part to put others at ease. When you see a stranger out and about (in the grocery store, in a waiting room), you have no way of knowing if they are vaccinated. So by mildly inconveniencing myself, I reduce the stress on others who cannot vaccinate or who are more vulnerable to infection.

I agree with you 100%. I don't understand why some people are so stubborn, (and inconsiderate), that they're refusing to do something as simple as getting a free vaccine. Even if they think that the whole thing is overblown, or even those people who think it's a hoax, (and I don't understand how anyone can believe that at this point, but apparently some people still do), why wouldn't people err on the side of caution, rather than taking the risk that they could be wrong? They're being stubborn, and people are dying.

Maybe I can shed some insight.

First, I am pro-vaccine, but anti-mandate.

Initially, the scientific community & the government sold the public on the idea I like to sum up as "Can't get it, can't spread it."

In other words the general consensus given to the public was the vaccine provided nearly complete immunity and once vaccinated, people could return to a "normal" life.

This turned out to be untrue.

Soon, the vaccinated were told they could not return to normal - they should continue distancing, isolating as much as possible, avoid gatherings & travel, wear masks (maybe even 2 or 3 at a time depending on who you were listening to) and may even require a booster in the near future.

Then it was revealed that vaccinated people could still contract the virus - in some cases in even higher viral loads than unvaccinated people and that they could spread those loads to others. So they could still carry the virus, still be contagious and be an even greater potential spreader than the unvaccinated. Then there were "breakthrough" cases - people who contracted & manifested the virus despite being fully vaccinated.

It seemed the vaccine lowered the severity of the virus for most who manifested it after being fully vaccinated, but there were still some cases where the virus took it's toll and even some rare deaths of vaccinated people from the virus (usually dependent on various health factors).

The point of all this was what we were first told about the vaccine's efficacy was wrong.

At the outset, the public was also sold the idea that the vaccine was almost completely safe.

Now, here's the crux - if what we were told about the vaccine's efficacy was wrong, then how do we know what we've been told about the vaccine's safety is not also wrong?

I'm not trying to throw doubt on the vaccine, just explaining the thought process behind WHY some people are still hesitant about getting the vaccine. And, I have to admit, there is some logic to it.

I understand what you're saying, but even if there's a chance that the vaccine isn't as safe as they said it was, it's sill safer than walking around unmasked and unvaccinated. People are at a much higher risk of getting a severe case of COVID, and possibly dying, without getting the vaccine, than the risk with the vaccine, or even from the vaccine.

I have had many, many people in my low-vaccinated county tell me that "the vaccine doesn't do anything, I know so many people with the vaccine who got COVID". And they are always surprised when I tell them that in our county, 90% of the people with COVID are unvaccinated.

I am, as I've repeatedly said, very sympathetic to people who are afraid that there may be long-term side effects. There is literally no science about the 5, 10, or 15 year effects of the vaccine because that science cannot exist. So I get it. And in the back of my mind, I do feel a little worry about it, having myself received two doses and a booster.

But what I find entirely unacceptable is to not be vaccinated AND to willfully skirt around masking and distancing. The men who showed up to replace my HVAC system were unvaccinated, and they were all going to just walk into my house unmasked. To me, that is gross behavior. My sympathy for vaccine hesitancy ends when that same person engages in behavior that endangers others.

I'm going to get vaccinated tomorrow. Fear is present. Have you been vaccinated? How does it feel?

Had both of my jabs. I had the Pfizer.
First one was ok. Dead arm kicked in about an hour after I had it, and lasted around 2 hours.
After that, all my lymph nodes swelled up and all my joints, elbows, knees etc were sore for about 24 hours.

Second jab I felt rough for about a week.
Not flu symptoms... but it felt like I'd recovered from flu.
You know that kinda groggy feeling you get after you've gotten over something?

It's different for everyone though.

__________________

For me it was a sore arm (worse than a flu shot, not as bad as my tetanus shot) and nothing else with both shots and my booster.

But reactions seem to range from basically nothing to "hit by a truck". You'll get a paper that tells you what you can do to help (like for the injection site or which medications you can take for symptoms).

Good luck!

Second shot just made me tired. As Rodent described, I felt like I was getting over something like a bad flu but never any symptoms of a flu. Just easy to exhaustion and tired for maybe two weeks that sloooowly tapered off to mostly normal a few weeks after that. I never felt sick, got a fever nor did I have chills or any other sickly feeling. Just got tired.

Exactly 12 hrs after my shot I shook from head to toe. I went to bed early and the next morning felt like I had fought a drunker version of myself

I worried about this at first too - and even now the concern isn't completely removed - but the thing is, long-term effects of the vaccine won't make any difference if I don't survive this pandemic. Also, we do know that the vaccine greatly reduces the risk of severe illness and that Covid itself can have some very serious and debilitating long-term effects. People focus too much on whether or not the virus will kill you, and not enough on its potential to disable you for life. On top of that, we also know that surviving one bout of Covid, even without serious long-term effects, does not guarantee that you won't get it again or that you'll survive a second bout. So while I have a little bit of sympathy for the people afraid of the vaccine, I absolutely think it's foolish for them to continue to let that fear prevent them from getting it.

I've had three doses of the Pfizer vaccine. After the first shot, my arm hurt a lot and I felt tired. The pain lasted several days. After the second shot, my arm hurt quite a bit, but not as bad as the first time and the pain didn't last as long.

I got my booster on the same day I got my flu shot. They injected the Covid shot into my right arm and the flu shot into my left arm. Both arms were pretty sore the day of the shot and very sore the day after. After that, my left arm was completely fine and my right arm only hurt if I touched the injection site. The pain at the injection site lasted another two days.

__________________

I agree, which is why I myself am vaccinated and believe it is the right course of action. Could the vaccine potentially have long term side-effects? Yes. But are people definitely dying of it right now? Yes.

Same!! Only I got the COVID in my left arm and the flu shot in my right. I actually had a bruise where I got the COVID booster, I think from the nurse just jabbing me a bit too hard.

I guess you could say she was...

A naughty nurse...