Stay-at-Home Thread

[Gryffindorian]

My sister in law just got the result of after-infection-test #1. It's negative =) If #2 turns out negative, too, she can go back to working in a home for elderly people. Her patients kept asking after her and calling her while she was quarantined with a (thankfully only rather mild) corona infection.

I assume by Test #1 you meant the antibody test.

I live in Northern California where the COVID 19 cases and fatalities are considerably lower than our Southern counterpart. I have always believed since the early days of the lockdown that testing should be made available to everyone, male and female, young and old, sick and well. Since many people could be asymptomatic, who's to say we don't have more sick people walking around in public, shopping for groceries, and going to work every day? I could be one of those people! Sheltering in place is simply not enough, especially those of us who have to venture out. I'm not understanding why only certain individuals or occupations of one city or another can get tested.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Thankfully we’re getting closer to the shutdowns’ shutdown. When all this started I was ranting about inconsideration of others and now I’m ranting about inconsideration of liberty. My kids are back at school. I’m back working (I’m a staff author but my publisher is back on) and people are adjusting to relative normality instead of calling the police every time they see someone at a park without a gas mask. Morrison is encouraging states to open in a 3 stage system. I’m positive.

Where I live, a coffee shop opened up last Sunday and because it angered the governor, he suspended the business license of the company. This business is just a small mom and pop business owned by literally one woman. Her husband my be part of it, I'm not sure.
I'm depressed about all of this.
In addition after like 6or 7 weeks of shutdown, the mayor of one of the larger cities got upset about people in a park not wearing masks and acting normal, so he decided that everyone in HIS city was going to have to wear masks if they were not inside their house or car. Or get a $999.00 fine.
I've had it up to my eyebrows.

 

[Gryffindorian]

The $1,200 stimulus/disaster relief should cover the $1,000 fine.

I saw two disturbing videos this week. One doctor flying from NYC to SF showed a video of a packed flight with no distancing whatsoever. Shame on you, United Airlines!

Another one featured a packed restaurant in Colorado with all the patrons happily socializing with no masks or spaces in between, like it was business as usual.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Where I live, a coffee shop opened up last Sunday and because it angered the governor, he suspended the business license of the company. This business is just a small mom and pop business owned by literally one woman. Her husband my be part of it, I'm not sure.
I'm depressed about all of this.
In addition after like 6or 7 weeks of shutdown, the mayor of one of the larger cities got upset about people in a park not wearing masks and acting normal, so he decided that everyone in HIS city was going to have to wear masks if they were not inside their house or car. Or get a $999.00 fine.
I've had it up to my eyebrows.

It's not that hard to just wear a mask of some kind.

 

[auntiehill]

It's not that hard to just wear a mask of some kind.

No, it's not hard. It's really, REALLY not hard at all.

 

[think]

this is what we do.. work from home.. hehe

 

[KimMH]

Good boy Wilson

 

[rhubarbodendron]

While I’m not joking any protests anytime soon I do feel that liberty is important and there are a few interesting contradictions worth pointing out in your post..

Good points and certainly valid. However, the right of one person ends where the rights of the next person begins. Nobody has the right to infect others only because they are too lazy to take precautions.
You will agree that someone driving on the wrong side of a highway (i.e. against the legally prescribed direction) endangers other drivers and that the right to his individuality certaily doesn't cover the right of driving in the opposite lane.
Not wearing a mask and not keping distance to others is essentially the same. Like traffic rules, these rules were set to protect the whole society. Endangering others' lives goes lightyears beyond the personal rights guaranteed by the constitution. If someone is too egocentrical to consider the health and the very lives of his fellows and to see that these laws are there for protection (his own included!), I think the victims of his misbehaviour have a right to call him mentally - or at the very least socially - deficient.

I assume by Test #1 you meant the antibody test.

No, I mean a test for the active virus.
Over here, we do no antibody tests because those tests are not yet far enough developed to be of any use: they have an extremely high rate of false results and that might be potentially dangerous.
What if someone in a high risk group gets the false result that he's immune? He'll expose himself carelessly, get infected and might die. If a doctor or nurse gets wrongly tested immune, they might suffer the same fate and as they all are atm extremely exhausted and therefore have a badly working immune system, their chance of survival is reduced.
Our experts consider these risks too high and will wait till properly working tests are available.
Until then, in Germany and afaik of the rest of Europe everyone who was infected has to undergo 2 tests for the active virus. If in both tests no surviving virus can be detected, the person is assumed to be recovered.
Whether surviving an infection will lead to a long-term immunity has yet to be found out. We play it safe and assume they won't be immune much longer than a few weeks.
So when my SIL goes back to work, she'll still have to wear full protection gear to protect herself from a new infection and to protect her patients from her transfering a virus to them.

 

[Ocanain]

Good points and certainly valid. However, the right of one person ends where the rights of the next person begins. Nobody has the right to infect others only because they are too lazy to take precautions.
You will agree that someone driving on the wrong side of a highway (i.e. against the legally prescribed direction) endangers other drivers and that the right to his individuality certaily doesn't cover the right of driving in the opposite lane.
Not wearing a mask and not keping distance to others is essentially the same. Like traffic rules, these rules were set to protect the whole society. Endangering others' lives goes lightyears beyond the personal rights guaranteed by the constitution. If someone is too egocentrical to consider the health and the very lives of his fellows and to see that these laws are there for protection (his own included!), I think the victims of his misbehaviour have a right to call him mentally - or at the very least socially - deficient.

I understand the point you are trying to make and for the most part I agree but there is a distinction between legal rights, moral rights and considerations.

Your analogy is not only in respect to imminent danger that doesn’t apply (for infection of covid19 only presents a potential risk) but the use of the roads is a government contract between the users and the government. The constitution declares the rights of civilians and suspending all liberties is closer to saying that all cars should be taken off the road for fear they may drive on the wrong side and of course the chance that they will be kept off the roads for so long that there will be no more cars to drive on them.

I am not simply a proponent of liberties but also of consideration but the potential endangerment is one that may be evaded independently which means that these liberties do not infringe on everyone’s rights. Even at the point of vaccine, not everyone will take it; much like other forms of vaccination and the question is where does risk meet liberty.

Terms like socially and mentally deficient are entirely subjective. Socially deficient is just a move against what is socially acceptable to the mainstream and mentally deficient is being used here to infer that alternative views are idiotic. These are both elitist defences.

As I mentioned before I have an immunity disorder. It’s part of a chromosomal genetic disorder. Is anyone around me with any illness endangering me? Yes but what is the price between consideration and liberty? It’s choice. I am the master of my conviction and for me to call anyone that crosses my path socially and mentally deficient or to say they are subjects of egotistical endangerment is preposterous.

Thanks for your comment.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Can we agree that we disagree, based on coming from different countries and applying different measures which in turn are based on the different legal and personal situation? - Errmm, that sounds confusing. Let me try again. What would appear normal and acceptable for the one of us wouldn't for the other, because the underlying norms are different.
Are you ok with that phrasing?
After all, it'd be a pretty boring world if there weren't different views. And the same problem can have several solutions, depending on where it occurs. So disagreeing is a part of life and neither of us need lose face if we come to no agreement.

 

[Gryffindorian]

@rhubarbodendron, so there are two types of Covid 19 tests in your country? Where I live, people usually get tested for Covid 19 (to see if they're negative or positive) or antibodies (if they've had the disease). I'm just curious.

 

[Miss Chicken]

When I started this puzzle my cat Spider was still alive, just before I finished it today my son arrived from the vet after picking up Spider’s ashes. When I get paid next week I will have to look for a nice urn to put his ashes in.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Could you make an urn yourself? Many potteries offer a burning service for customers. You buy the clay from them, make the vessel, let them burn it, then you glace it and they do the second burning. This way you could have an urn that fits Spider's personality.

@rhubarbodendron, so there are two types of Covid 19 tests in your country? Where I live, people usually get tested for Covid 19 (to see if they're negative or positive) or antibodies (if they've had the disease). I'm just curious.

No, we have only one type of test. We do not test for antibodies at all because those tests aren't reliable enough yet. We do work on improved antobody tests, though.

 

[Kor]

I find that I maintain a sense of time moving forward (or whatever you want to call it, as opposed to every week blending into the next) by working on new projects that have specific goals and outcomes; cooking something I haven't made before (or not in a long time), doing different hobby/arts stuff, learning something new, as well as putting together itineraries for trips I want to take in the future.

Kor

 

[Gryffindorian]

No, we have only one type of test. We do not test for antibodies at all because those tests aren't reliable enough yet. We do work on improved antobody tests, though.

Okay, clearly I misread your original post and thought your sister-in-law had two different tests. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

no prob
only one negative test is required to lift quarantine, but my SIL works as a nurse in a home for elderly people who are the highest risk group, and therefore requires two negative test results to be permitted to go back to work. With risk groups we take no risk but rather make double sure as the tests don't have a 100% hit rate. Only 80-90% depending on the manufacturer. With 2 negative tests you can be fairly sure the testee is virus-free.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I have been feeling very low since my cat was put to sleep. Today I received flowers from the vet, it has been many years since someone sent me flowers so it was a pleasant surprise to receive them.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

aww, how nice of him! I think he loved your cat, too. Some vets let the professional distance to their patients drop with special animals. When my last hamster had to be put to sleep, my vet almost cried. Everyone loved the hamster as -unusual for that species - he had been very friendly and socialized with everyone.

 

[Finn]

I have been feeling very low since my cat was put to sleep. Today I received flowers from the vet, it has been many years since someone sent me flowers so it was a pleasant surprise to receive them.

I only got a card from the place where I took Finn the night he was put down. Nice of your vet.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

I only got a card from the place where I took Finn the night he was put down. Nice of your vet.

My dad had the same doctor for 25 years. When my dad went into the hospital the last time and died, the doc was on vacation. We never heard anything from him.