@tbs
Since you ask, I would vote for the booster to be on the safe side. You might well get Omicron, too, but perhaps a milder version.
Speaking of which, Omicron is blazing through my community. Based on the public dashboard, I estimate that one person in five has it in my town alone--a highly vaccinated, masking community. Most have a bad-cold version but some also have a persistent headache, fever, and sore throat. A friend who is a nursing administrator says that in KY, a low mask, low vaccinated area, many admissions to the hospital are people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Hospitals are struggling to staff there now, I cannot imagine what it will look like in a couple of weeks.
Hopefully, a few prognosticators have it right and that the worst will be over, or at least the peak has passed, by the end of January.
Quebec, Canada went into lock down. https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/12/https-westernstandardonline-com-2021-12-stricter-lockdown-measures-expected-in-quebec-ahead-of-nye/
Hey Everyone! I am sure someone has already suggested this- but a few of the online communities I am part of are saying by mid -January there may be significant disruptions in supply chains and services. They are suggesting to people- if possible you may want to have up to two months of food, toiletries, and meds. I have spent the last week stocking up on dry goods, meats and frozen fruits and vegetables. I am not saying you should hoard- but make an assessment of what you may need and if possible purchase now.
Please be safe ❤️❤️❤️
Here is a tweet from Dr. Hotez- who helped develop new vaccine for global south- with no strings attached ( no patent) :
Media: @PeterHotez to @PaulaReidCNN: In coming weeks, "We should anticipate huge disruptions at all transportation hubs. The schools will be problematic when teachers and staff and bus drivers have to call in with breakthrough cases. The biggest concern is hospital workers." pic.twitter.com/ROcPnlDSsd
— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) January 1, 2022
@shawn I have seen rumblings of this as well, so thank you for noting it here. I agree -- no need to hoard, but I feel like stocking up to cover the next couple of months will be wise and much more of an actual need this year than when the pandemic first started.
Be well, all!
I am overall optimistic about 2022 but I have a few pieces of unease.
I'm directing a HS show (my last one before "retiring" and jumping headfirst into my new Ed. S. degree) and I just can't muster the love for it that I've mustered for shows before. In fact, all of my unease about 2022 is centered around this production. Between butting heads with my two adult co-directors about attendance (we are doing a large show in the midst of a global pandemic, a show I wouldn't have even considered if I had known what we were coming into - things seemed to be quieting down when we chose and cast the show) and the fact that Omicron is expected to peak by end of January (we run the second week in February) I just don't know how to do all this anymore.
I would love for my cast to stay safe and my adults (myself included) to have more grace and patience to put on the best show we can under the circumstances, but my insides are gnawing all sorts of red alert sirens that this is going to be a rough month for me.
If anyone has some positive energy to spare - some fire to send me to relight my candle for the next six weeks, or a general read on whether or not I'm going to end up having to cancel the show (I am desperately terrified of letting the kids down - especially the seniors!) I'll take any and all of it.
My daughter is getting ready to start rehearsals for her HS Musical- Bye Bye Birdie. She’s a senior and so looking forward to it. I however am I mess. I don’t want to pull her from it- but at the same time we live in Upstate NY and our Omicron/Delta numbers are insane. I am not sure the school will delay rehearsal- as they went on with the HS choir concert after Cornell (10 minutes away- where many of the parents work) closed down after 1500 cases in 7 days. We didn’t let her go to that.
It’s so hard to parent during this…. She had already missed so much of her HS experience, so much has been disrupted. How to balance?
Could you delay for a week or two? Have kids work on lines or run lines in a zoom- until we are through this? I used to be a Theatre professor and I taught HS at one time too. I know how hard it is to rehearse a show without being there.
Good luck ??
My sympathies. Tough times...Also, thank you Shawn for the warning on potential shortages..
I am worried about my granddaughter starting school on Monday. I hope she won't. She had Covid, then a very bad version of a stomach bug going around and now she looks pale and depleted. She is a petite, underweight six-year old and the world seems scary, at the moment.
So, apologies for my persistent lecturing, but for those who are interested, I may have mentioned the Mask Nerd before but he offers wonderful information on mask optimization, especially for children. I think they have been silent carriers throughout the pandemic and poorly masked, to boot. He has a good YouTube videos on masks. Here is an overview on him in the Guardian:
@tbs I think the best course is just to get the booster. You might get Omicron anyway but it the booster will protect you from most of the symptoms. (Or even from ALL of the symptoms.)
My son (age 20) had the booster and got the virus a few weeks later. But his symptoms were no worse than those of a mild common cold and only lasted a day or two. His apartment-mates also got the virus. They were vaccinated but NOT boosted, and their symptoms were a bit worse than my son's, although still nothing to worry about.
I think the best thing is to get the booster, be careful, and if you get the virus anyway, well, just think of the virus as being an extra booster that will keep you even safer from future infections. That's the way my son is thinking about it.
This message about shortages makes sense to me.
I recently started thinking of the beginning of the pandemic when I felt the need to stock up and was warning people in our forum of shortages coming before we had shortages. It makes logical sense that we are going to lose manpower around the world when people have to quarantine again.
I know some national companies have closed their doors again to the public for a few weeks.
Yes, school is going to be a problem for the next few weeks.
@Dannyboy and @Shawn , I assume there will be mandatory masked rehearsals? Honestly, if school is being held in person, and I am not thinking that is a sound idea right now, how much of a difference is there between being seated right next to someone in class and blocking a production during covid? ( I was a theatre kid growing up myself). At least kids can be spaced out in the auditorium seats while waiting for their scene to rehearse. Can the production dates be pushed back at all?
I am concerned about my after school job. Granted my exposure is less as it's about an hour total.
My friend in health care suggested wearing a KN 47 mask so I ordered some. Then I learned that you can wear another paper mask on top of it to keep it germ free. I will be trying this.
I am scared about it all but focusing on what I can control is better than anxiety.
@Dannyboy and @Shawn , I assume there will be mandatory masked rehearsals?
This school has adopted a "masks optional" policy and refuses to revisit it. The best we can do is ask and force spacing in our practice spaces. Luckily this is a certain type of kid and the bulk of them will happily wear them.
I used the website @Jeanne-Mayell shared to order a bunch of N-95 masks for myself, my wife, and my daughters so between this, my booster, and my general disgust at how gross humans are (which I've had for tens of years and has always led me to touch as little as possible when out in public and carry hand sanitizer with me at all times) I'm feeling protected. I'm worried about the kiddos who choose not to mask because we can't make a policy that differs from the school, and should a parent challenge us for attempting to sidestep that, we'd receive no support from the principal or the superintendent.
My housemate informed me this morning that she's sick with a fever and muscle aches. She's assuming it's Covid and says she will get tested later this week if the symptoms persist. She says it's weird because she doesn't have a cough or any other symptoms. She works as a waitress and suspects she got it at her job as she doesn't socialize much outside of work (other than socializing outdoors with some neighbor friends). She says she got the booster. I got mine about three weeks ago and I suspect she got hers later than that as she hadn't had the booster at the time I got mine.
She rents a room in my house and mostly keeps to herself, but we do talk in and share the common areas of the house. So far, I have no symptoms, and I'm hoping I'll avoid getting them. She is isolating in her room, but does go out to smoke on the back porch. We usually don't wear masks in the house, but we both are now wearing them in the common areas since she's sick. I've also decided to spend less time in the common areas to reduce my risk of exposure (though at this point, it's possible I've already been exposed).
Last winter my niece got Covid, but no one else in her house got it. A few months ago, my sister's husband got it, but no one else did. My sister even slept in the same bed as her husband before the diagnosis and didn't get Covid. They all got tested in both instances and no one else in the house got it. I'm hoping the same will hold true if my housemate does actually have Covid as we really don't spend a lot of time in the same space. Of course, if it's Omicron, it could be more contagious than what my niece or brother-in-law had.
@melmystery @dannyboy Well, my husband and I have been extremely careful, but our son has been living with us in an apartment connected to the house and we share the kitchen and meals and we go for walks and hikes and drives in the car. He works in a hospital and while masked, he does remove the mask to take a drink and to eat. In the last two weeks, his floor started taking in covid cases, doors closed, but still it was there in the air. And he'd been working overtime to help out with so many people out sick.
A few days ago, he said he thought he was getting covid. He initially had an indeterminate lab test but then a third test came out positive. He's quarantining now and I am making up large pots of vegetable soup broth that my husband and I are also enjoying.
I asked some friends to send healing last night because yesterday he said he was feeling much worse and I got scared. I pictured an angel over him during the night, although it's hard to send healing when it's someone so close to me. My friends are powerful healers, though, and this morning he announced that he thinks he's turned a corner. He even got up and went for a jog in the woods.
I took a covid test yesterday and it was negative. Am keeping fingers crossed that my husband and I don't get it.
Good news though: on a New Year's Day Zoom with extended family, two nieces said their live-in bf's got covid and they did not. That information, along with the information you are posting here, is encouraging for people whose roommates get covid. So keeping fingers crossed. And keeping an eye on my sweet son's health. We are all triple vaxed, thank God. and so far, we both feel fine.
@jeanne-mayell It goes without saying but let me say it anyway - Light, love, healing, and protection to all of you and yours :-)
@dannyboy Thank you, dear friend. I am teaching the Become Deeply Intuitive class tonight and while I am very well now and it's just 5.5 hours away, I really would like to stay healthy for the duration of this course. If anyone here sees me getting sick, don't tell me! Don't want to know! I'm determined to bull-doze my way through any covid-ness. (good image for a Taurus, right?)
@dannyboy Thank you, dear friend. I am teaching the Become Deeply Intuitive class tonight and while I am very well now and it's just 5.5 hours away, I really would like to stay healthy for the duration of this course. If anyone here sees me getting sick, don't tell me! Don't want to know! Ha ha! Don't even try to look, okay? I know there is a lot of talent in this group but sometimes it is just fine not to look. Ha ha!
I'm determined to bull-doze my way through any covid-ness. (good image for a Taurus, right?)
Jeanne,
You might consider a room HEPA filter. They are good at capturing viral particles that could be otherwise be inhaled.
Also, I have been beating the drum about good masks here but this article has some new info:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/why-you-should-upgrade-your-face-mask-to-an-n95.html
The inventor also said that one can heat the masks to 162 degrees (most ovens low is 175) for 10-15 to cleanse, if masks are scarce.
My boyfriend got boosted today. Like myself he had no side effects from the booster. Very happy for him.
Today I woke up so very anxious about my little job and got a reprieve with the school district closing today.They called it a snow day (no snow) and also a staffing shortage with not enough subs due to Covid. Not sure why they are opening tomorrow but tomorrow, unless after school clubs are cancelled, I will have to go where it is very Covid-y. I am scared.
I am just hunkering down again here and feel fortunate to have seen family and/or dropped off gifts to porches last week. I am pretty reclusive so this is not a hardship for me. I did however have to say no to meeting my boyfriends mom now as she is not vaxxed. That didn't feel great, but I can't take a chance on infecting her. She is 80+ years old.
Awaiting my order of upgraded masks. My friend in health care suggested this. He is in health care w elderly folks and has been tested 250 times. Yesterday test 251 came back positive. That really shook me. Another friend responded that we are all going to get it which alarmed me. This is hard on this anxious girl. It's like I felt reading about SIDS when I was pregnant. I have to walk away from this kind of info/comments.