COVID-19 hitting too close to home?

@“Snowball City” that’s wonderful news! How old is your daughter? I will be thinking of your uncle.

@MaineLonghorn Thanks! She is 24 years old.

Niece’s 14-month-old is running a fever. Ugh.

@oldmom4896 I hope your niece’s little one recovers quickly.

I really wish they would do that here (or even enforce what they have.) I see more and more people ditching their masks every day, particularly in Central Park. As if the park has some kind of magical covid-repelling power.

I run 4 miles/day in a mask and I’m a middle-aged woman. It’s not that hard. It blows my mind how whiney people are.

I just got word about my closest contact yet. Someone in my office is positive. In an office of 10 and 1 person out sick, it isn’t hard to figure. We all sit in our cubbies unmasked all of the time. I am hoping that the fact he’s usually in the field for half the day helps, and we do have super high ceiling and decent ventilation (I hope?!)

I am more worried for my coworker who sits across from me. He spends the field time with him in close contact. They drive together and I’m pretty sure they don’t mask up. And he has a wife finishing up her first trimester of a super high risk pregnancy.

I am also a bit miffed as I suspect he knew he was sick yesterday. At the end of the day he made some loud comment about it only killing old people (I had a lot to say about that one) and someone else saw him using wipes on his desk. But that didn’t stop him from hitting the Halloween candy dish every other minute that someone brought in yesterday. I am SO GLAD that I resisted. No communal food for me since the pandemic started. Usually, I’m first in line

@Classicmom I’d be livid. Honestly, I’d complain to his boss.

Most offices don’t allow communal food unless it is individually packaged. My daughter’s engineering company has that rule country wide. They are now working from home again, but if they go into the office it is by appointment, tested going in, have to wear masks even in their own areas (cubbies, offices, tables).

@ClassicMom98 why don’t people wear masks? Your office sounds a lot like the one my friend in Belgium works in. He and his wife are very, very ill with COVID right now and he thinks he got it at work.

Because I’m in the rural south and very few think it’s a big deal. Our policy is that employees only have to wear masks if dealing with the public or if they will be < 6 feet from someone or “if they want to.” I wear mine anytime I step outside of my cubbie, but it’s rare to see anyone else in a mask. Even with my limited time out of my cubbie I could take pictures every day of people unmasked <6 feet.

We also have no policies about food. Nor do we have to take our temps or anything. It’s always been business as usual. When I’m in a bad mood, I quip that it’s like they believe our paychecks somehow make us immune.

I went out to dinner last night outdoor. The restaurant took my temperature before they seated me.
I am medically exempted from having to go into the office, so I told people with cubes that they could use my office whenever they have to go in.

I got the HR form letter via email from my boss. 3 of my coworkers with the most exposure went to our health clinic to be tested. Obviously negative at this point, but they advised them to quarantine for 14 days. However, the form letter says that only the contact tracers can tell you to quarantine. Otherwise you are to report to work unless you have symptoms. I wonder who will be contacted if at all. Many of the positive people I know were never contacted by a tracer and those who were didn’t get called until a week after their diagnosis. A little late to do any good.

Not my district, but not far away either. Way too close to home and younger than I am. I’m glad I chose not to return to school, but have to admit I worry about my friends still there. We have cases in our school district and in the building I work(ed) in.

“A Manheim Township Middle School counselor has died of COVID-19”

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/a-manheim-township-middle-school-counselor-has-died-of-covid-19-prompting-the-cancellation-of/article_3f464938-1f9c-11eb-8861-af76afc79863.html

A college friend’s wife has been hospitalized with COVID. They had to move her to a larger and more specialized hospital. She is on Remdesivir .

My niece is feeling better but still has shortness of breath and no taste/sense of smell. Husband and kids tested negative. Much to be grateful for but I am so worried about long-term effects.

Let’s see. First, the wife and daughter of a client in the UK first got COVID. Then, a couple who are very close friends got it in March in the US and because he is rather prominent, it received coverage everywhere. A professor friend of mine, his wife and adult children. A niece who is a freshman at a big state school in the MidWest. A cousin in London and at least one of his kids.

The adults I’ve talked with said it took a lot longer to get over than they thought and was pretty painful when it was happening. None had to be hospitalized as far as I know.

My twin nephews are freshmen in high school. One is under quarantine because of a contact at school so must stay home. The other was not told to stay home so he is out working (two weekend hockey tournaments, and he’ll earn $400 for each). Quarantined brother is not happy to be missing out on the $$$, and no, he’ll get no unemployment payments.

How does that make sense? They go to the same school (different classes) and are on hybrid with them attending every other day. They travel to school together, they live together (half at mother’s, half at father’s houses), and work at home every other day in the same rooms. They play the same sports.

Another family I know has 5 kids. The 4th grade boy was exposed at school, so he was online learning and quarantined for 14 days, but the 2nd grade girl at the same school continue going to school (as did all the other grades but not 4th grade). Boy goes off quarantine and 12 year old is under quarantine because of an exposure at her school, but not the 13 year old at the same school.

I don’t get it. No way is a family with 5 kids under 14 able to isolate them all for weeks at a time.

Day started off well. The 3 co-workers are quarantining. Nobody has been contacted by a contact tracer (what a surprise), but my boss considered the medical profession’s advice as good enough. Yay! However, a couple of hours later another co-worker (same dept, different building) comes in and starts using our large (engineering plan size) copy machine. He was unmasked and huffing and puffing. Copying shouldn’t be that hard, but he’s almost as wide as he is tall, in his 60s with a host of problems. But, he loudly proclaims the virus isn’t real. I needed to eat my snack, so I went outside. Come back and he’s still there. I put on my mask fuming - I can’t say anything to him because he is following policy! Nobody is within 6 feet and he’s an employee, so he doesn’t have to wear a mask. after an hour, I was too mad to work. I picked up a bunch of stuff and headed home to do it. Hopefully he’ll be gone and the air will have recirculated by this afternoon. I told my secretary to let him know if he leaves before noon, but so far he’s still there… going on 2 hours… ugh. Edit - just got a text - he’s still there! Argh!!!

oh, and positive employee texted exposed employee to let him know how he thinks he got it. He drove someone home Thursday night who had tested positive but was asymptomatic. An hour later, he had a fever and got tested Friday. Really, Do you really believe that? Or are you hoping we will believe it, so nobody can get mad at you if someone else gets it?

I am in NJ which may be why I have so many I know of who have had COVID (some early on).

Friend had is in March - her strangest symptom was not smelling. Took her a long time to shake it (cough etc.), but get better on her own. Got the antibody test which is how she is sure she had it. Immediate family didn’t get it (adult sister she doesn’t live with had it also at the same time).

Another friend also had it in March. Again nobody else in her immediate family had it. She was never tested (not for antibodies either). Her strangest symptom was an eye issue (inflammation - needed steroids for it). Again took her a while to shake it.

A cousin had it also early on - got well after a couple of weeks. Another cousin, whom the first one worked with, got it at the same time. He was on a ventilator (late 60s). He died after getting off the ventilator from a blood clot.

My father had it (later in the spring). 88 years old at the time. He got it in an assisted living home. It was actually a mild case (considering all the possible previous conditions he has at that age). Was treated with steroids, Oxygen (not ventilator), and antibiotics (for his lungs). He spent over 6 weeks in the hospital. The last 2 1/2 trying to get a negative test so the nursing home would let him back in.

I also know a couple of people whose young adult children have tested positive but have been mostly asymptomatic.

@twoinanddone I get what you’re saying but the kids that are not quarantined were not exposed to a positive person. The guidelines are not to quarantine contacts of contacts.