COVID-19 - On the Ground

[Cascadia]

Your “friend” is an idiot.

[KUTradition]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/heal ... -york.html

perhaps related:

https://vox.com/science-and-health/2290 ... -spillback

[jhawks99]

THWM99W has more covid patients now than at any time during the pandemic. They've set a new record almost every day this week.

[japhy]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/heal ... -york.html

perhaps related:

https://vox.com/science-and-health/2290 ... -spillback

I am sure this will all turn out to be no big deal. How bad could it be?

[PhDhawk]

https://english.elpais.com/society/2022 ... aring.html

Pretty cool site. Shows the efficacy of different types of masks in terms of exposure times.

I think it's pretty omicron but still well done.

[KUTradition]

dude, didn’t you get the memo?

the pandemic is over

[Mjl]

https://english.elpais.com/society/2022 ... aring.html

Pretty cool site. Shows the efficacy of different types of masks in terms of exposure times.

I think it's pretty omicron but still well done.

Thanks for sharing.

I'm obviously not an expert on this (should probably stop there) and don't doubt that masks are effective, or that N95s are the most effective...

But something seems fishy with that information. The 27 minutes for something that should be a range or rounded was the first clue - that's a rhetorical trick to make numbers sound like they're backed up by something specific (book recommendation - Never Split the Difference).

So I looked at the source - the study was actually just reading (and possibly cherry-picking) some other people's work, and the website of the organization that did it looks like marketing material for N95s.

So then I looked at their sources... And have no idea where the hell they came up with those numbers. Most of the sources were saying the data was inconclusive on cloth masks. One of them was from early April 2020 and admitted it had no real data to go off of. One of the studies showed cloth mask effectiveness ranging from 1% to 98% effective.

The overall study also contradicts a couple things that have been studied - it claims that masks are not more effective at protecting others than protecting yourself. It also claims the virus can live on surfaces for days. The latter is another red flag, because it was being used to justify the need for buying four N95s at a time. I saw nothing in the source material backing these claims.

If I dig into the donors for this ACGIH, I get the feeling some of them would stand to profit off sales of N95s. But instead I'm gonna give sleep another try.

[sdoyel]

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

As a co-worker so eloquently put it to me last night, "tomorrow (today/Tuesday 2/22) is going to be like the first day back to school and you are the Principal".
Yep, about 200 employees returning to the office for the first time in 2 years and I am the asshole who is basically assigned to greet them and make sure they are situated.

[KUTradition]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/02 ... ics/?amp=1

[randylahey]

dude, didn’t you get the memo?

the pandemic is over

Lol. I was shocked to see this thread still going. Missed a couple months worth

[jfish26]

What's a good word for things that were changed for the worse/stopped as a response to Covid, and are now just normal? I'm thinking of things like the elimination of daily housekeeping at hotels, and putting sports TV/radio people off-site.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Literally at least 6 hours of conversations back and forth with my mother (88 year old cancer "survivor" missing part of a lung - and current health issues) and sister (severely "immunocompromised" - and lost her husband last June) the past week debating if my mother and I should attend my nephew's wedding in DC next month. The decision was finally made yesterday afternoon. Extremely reluctantly for my mother, much less reluctantly for my sister and I. We decided NO. Way too much anxiety (for various reasons-mostly Covid concerns) to the point of it just not being worth it.

Fast forward to last night when my mother called me whining about it. While 99.5% of the time I am extremely compassionate towards her and do whatever I can to make her happy, last night I reached MY breaking point and told her I have had enough. We collectively made the decision and that's it. It's final. It's been way too much drama and I had to explain that I am going through an extremely stressful time and gave her a "what about me".

Meanwhile, the mask mandate is/was lifted in Chicago today. So..... You would think the company I work for would have made a decision if wearing masks in the office is mandatory - or not. Nope. I'm the asshole who will go to "management" and tell them I feel they need to make the decision and inform the employees THIS morning.
P.S. While I am ok wearing a mask in the office, if it's not required, I will choose not to - unless I am surrounded by other unmasked employees. Then I might choose to.

[TDub]

so if you're gonna chose to wear a mask or not based on what others are doing.......why does management need to make the decision for you....Make your own decision based on what you feel is right regardless of the rules in place for your office. Pretty much sounds like what you're gonna do anyway, so why complain before your choice?

[Deleted User 863]

so if you're gonna chose to wear a mask or not based on what others are doing.......why does management need to make the decision for you....Make your own decision based on what you feel is right regardless of the rules in place for your office. Pretty much sounds like what you're gonna do anyway, so why complain before your choice?

I don't need a mandate to wear a mask if it makes me feel safer. My daughter,s school doesn't have a mask mandate anymore, she's in 2nd grade, and she still wears her mask sometimes. We chose to let her make her own decision about it. She says they don't bother her much, so she still wears them sometimes when in crowded places.

I think moving forward, if I feel sick and have to run to the store for something that can't wait, I will wear a mask. We probably should have been doing that for years anyway to slow/stop the spread of germs.

[KUTradition]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/heal ... -york.html

perhaps related:

https://vox.com/science-and-health/2290 ... -spillback

I am sure this will all turn out to be no big deal. How bad could it be?

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ble-canada

[PhDhawk]

There's some evidence that Omicron came to humans after infecting mice.

Helps explain why it accumulated so many mutations without having related strains detected in humans for so long...also many of the mutations in omicron make it more infectious in mice.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 2721003738

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

so if you're gonna chose to wear a mask or not based on what others are doing.......why does management need to make the decision for you....Make your own decision based on what you feel is right regardless of the rules in place for your office. Pretty much sounds like what you're gonna do anyway, so why complain before your choice?

Good post with good questions. My frustration is the lack of communication. Mostly being because we are required to be vaccinated and I feel it's somewhat hypocritical to not let someone in the office who isn't vaccinated but it's ok to let people be unmasked. Which is a bigger threat to the "community"?
Upshot is/was that I chose to go massless except on elevators and when I was sitting in someone's office with multiple other people.

[zsn]

There's some evidence that Omicron came to humans after infecting mice.

Helps explain why it accumulated so many mutations without having related strains detected in humans for so long...also many of the mutations in omicron make it more infectious in mice.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 2721003738

Not qualified sufficiently to understand the nuances of the publication, so I got lost quite early in the paper. Are the authors insinuating/alleging that the jump from mice to humans had any nefarious intervention/lab accident or was it strictly incidental?

[PhDhawk]

There's some evidence that Omicron came to humans after infecting mice.

Helps explain why it accumulated so many mutations without having related strains detected in humans for so long...also many of the mutations in omicron make it more infectious in mice.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 2721003738

Not qualified sufficiently to understand the nuances of the publication, so I got lost quite early in the paper. Are the authors insinuating/alleging that the jump from mice to humans had any nefarious intervention/lab accident or was it strictly incidental?

no they don't suggest anything nefarious