COVID update - December

[Dave Gray]

Things are getting worse across the country and we haven't hit the Thanksgiving spike yet.

In FL, things are getting worse again.
I have had a few cases in my circles but haven't been exposed and everyone has recovered fully so far.

Christmas is gonna be tough -- I think my mother in law is expecting us to gather.  Even though it's a relatively small group of people that she sees individually, we don't all see each other and it's 4 different households, which I just don't think is safe.  I don't want to be one of those "I didn't mean me" people when it comes to guidelines.

I'm a little concerned that there seem to be different worlds.  I see some people on Facebook that I know just doing nothing different -- going to bars and live music.  And then people like me, who have a small group of people I see, and then I have people who are locked down like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

I really don't want to catch this.

[Tenshot13]

Things are getting worse across the country and we haven't hit the Thanksgiving spike yet.

In FL, things are getting worse again.
I have had a few cases in my circles but haven't been exposed and everyone has recovered fully so far.

Christmas is gonna be tough -- I think my mother in law is expecting us to gather.  Even though it's a relatively small group of people that she sees individually, we don't all see each other and it's 4 different households, which I just don't think is safe.  I don't want to be one of those "I didn't mean me" people when it comes to guidelines.

I'm a little concerned that there seem to be different worlds.  I see some people on Facebook that I know just doing nothing different -- going to bars and live music.  And then people like me, who have a small group of people I see, and then I have people who are locked down like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

I really don't want to catch this.

I just got in a huge fight with my mom yesterday about getting together for Christmas.  She says we WILL have Christmas, I said we'll see, it's not looking good right now.  She went ballistic, and this is even after her cousins met up for thanksgiving in another state with their family and someone had COVID, giving it to everyone.  Her stupid friends keep telling her "it's okay" and they all meet up with their families so why can't our family?  She has a pacemaker and my dad has been fighting stage 4 cancer for the better part of a decade (He's one of those rare cases that seemed like he wasn't going to make it and then non aggressive treatments have actually shrunk all his tumors).  Oh and he has diabetes.  It's really weighing on me that I'm the bad guy for trying to be smart about this with my high risk parents and not wanting them to die.

On top of that, we're going to try for a baby next year, and I have no idea what that might do to my wife in the long term if she gets it, or her pregnancy.  

[Sunstroke]

^^^ I got a little of the "why aren't you coming for Christmas" from my AZ family, but most have come to terms with the whole "do whatever it takes to get past this" attitude, but I know it still hurts for them not to see the rest of the family during the holidays.

[Fau Teixeira]

We've been locked down like tom hanks in castaway. It's not worth it to take risks that are unnecessary. sure not going out sucks .. but this is where we are.

[dolphins4life]

Relief may be in sight with the vaccines coming.

My godmother had it, but recovered after couple weeks

[Dave Gray]

I just got in a huge fight with my mom yesterday about getting together for Christmas.  She says we WILL have Christmas, I said we'll see, it's not looking good right now.  She went ballistic, and this is even after her cousins met up for thanksgiving in another state with their family and someone had COVID, giving it to everyone.  Her stupid friends keep telling her "it's okay" and they all meet up with their families so why can't our family?  She has a pacemaker and my dad has been fighting stage 4 cancer for the better part of a decade (He's one of those rare cases that seemed like he wasn't going to make it and then non aggressive treatments have actually shrunk all his tumors).  Oh and he has diabetes.  It's really weighing on me that I'm the bad guy for trying to be smart about this with my high risk parents and not wanting them to die.

On top of that, we're going to try for a baby next year, and I have no idea what that might do to my wife in the long term if she gets it, or her pregnancy. 

I know that I'm (kind of) a stranger to you, but I do think you're doing the right thing.  Your mom will get over it, if you decide not to gather.  There will be lots of other Christmases.  I'm also worried about being the bad guy, but I'd rather be the bad guy than have dead relatives.

I think that we're trending in a direction that, unfortunately, is going to make this choice easier as we get closer.  I'm kinda not making a final decision, thinking it might get easier when it's so obvious that things are bad.

[Pappy13]

Doing another zoom meeting with my family for Christmas. The Thanksgiving one worked out great. It's not like being together but it's not bad either. For Christmas we have decided to all wear something "special" for the zoom meeting. My wife got me a HOHOHO shirt...or is it an OHOHOH shirt, kinda hard to tell. She bought herself a reindeer suit. Should be fun.

[Spider-Dan]

I did a Zoom meeting for Thanksgiving and it worked out very well.  I set up some more family members so they can join the Christmas call.

[Dave Gray]

We had a convo with my mother in law.  (Well, my wife did.)  It kinda didn't go well but it is what it is.

The biggest issue we're having trouble with communication is how it's different for person A to see B, B to see C, and C to see D that it is for person A to directly see D.

Our family all sees each other in a web, in some fashion.  But getting all of them in one room is just not safe.  Also, most of the later generations just don't care -- we understand and don't mind sitting a year out.  But the older folks are holding on to the tradition.


I just got news today that my good friend's Grandma died of COVID.  She was very old.  Still, sucks...

[Sunstroke]

^^^ Oh, come on, Maine...surely these are hoaxes perpetuated by the far left Democrats to oppress and subjugate the population with socialist face masks...

 

[Spider-Dan]

Here's an interesting thread in response to the "Only 1% of COVID victims die, what's the big deal?" people:

There are two problems with this question.

1. It neglects the law of large numbers; and
2. It assumes that one of two things happen: you die or you’re 100% fine.

The US has a population of 328,200,000. If one percent of the population dies, that’s 3,282,000 people dead.

Three million people dead would monkey wrench the economy no matter what. That more than doubles the number of annual deaths all at once.

The second bit is people keep talking about deaths. Deaths, deaths, deaths. Only one percent die! Just one percent! One is a small number! No big deal, right?

What about the people who survive?

For every one person who dies:

    19 more require hospitalization.
    18 of those will have permanent heart damage for the rest of their lives.
    10 will have permanent lung damage.
    3 will have strokes.
    2 will have neurological damage that leads to chronic weakness and loss of coordination.
    2 will have neurological damage that leads to loss of cognitive function.

So now all of a sudden, that “but it’s only 1% fatal!” becomes:

    3,282,000 people dead.
    62,358,000 hospitalized.
    59,076,000 people with permanent heart damage.
    32,820,000 people with permanent lung damage.
    9,846,000 people with strokes.
    6,564,000 people with muscle weakness.
    6,564,000 people with loss of cognitive function.

That's the thing that the folks who keep going on about “only 1% dead, what’s the big deal?” don’t get.

The choice is not “ruin the economy to save 1%.” If we reopen the economy, it will be destroyed anyway. The US economy cannot survive everyone getting COVID-19.

---

It's also worth mentioning that if we wind up with over 60 million people that need hospitalization in this country, a lot more than "1%" of COVID victims will die.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Less than 1% percent of all airline passengers died on 9.11.01. 

More Americans died of Covid during each of the last three days than died of terrorism on 9.11.

Everyday we should be responding to Covid with the same level of intensity as we responded to 9.11.

 

[CF DolFan]

I get that people are dealing with a lot of bad issues from covid but the truth is most famous athletes, actors, and politicians who have had covid and are perfectly fine. Every week players or coaches miss football games and show up a couple of weeks later and aren't missing a beat. If that is what you see all the time and have no one in your life that has had to deal with it other than a positive test or two then it's almost comical to think they should now panic because tv tells them to. 

It is a dilemma. Hell ... I know different hospital people, both doctors and nurses, who hold opposite opinions on the matter. It isn't as black and white as people want to pretend. 

[Pappy13]

Tell me the last time that there was a "flu" list in the NFL?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I get that people are dealing with a lot of bad issues from covid but the truth is most famous athletes, actors, and politicians who have had covid and are perfectly fine. Every week players or coaches miss football games and show up a couple of weeks later and aren't missing a beat. If that is what you see all the time and have no one in your life that has had to deal with it other than a positive test or two then it's almost comical to think they should now panic because tv tells them to. 

It is a dilemma. Hell ... I know different hospital people, both doctors and nurses, who hold opposite opinions on the matter. It isn't as black and white as people want to pretend. 

So anyone who didn't personally know one of the less than 3000 people who died on 9.11 panicked about terrorism because the media told them to?