I have a group of friends who have gone back to normal for the most part. Restaurants, concerts, clubs, bars, etc... One of them tested positive today and that sparked the standard slew of get well messages from the rest of them. All well and good, I'm not gonna sit here and act like we should point and laugh at the sick. However the conversation that followed didn't sit well with me.
I asked the group if they normally quarantine from the rest of their household when only one gets sick, or if they just wing it. Someone said they stop kissing and sharing food, but stay unmasked and still sleep in the same bed. They were adamant about not sleeping on their couch. (must be a huge inconvenience to sacrifice a little comfort for their health). Anyway, same person proceeds to say that it wouldn't matter that much due to incubation time. I responded anecdotally that in the past quarantining from my household while sick has worked for for us and kept the healthy people healthy. No response after that.
The conversation continues with someone else who was saying they did the same thing I did, quarantined in their office and slept on the sleeper sofa to keep their partner healthy, AND IT WORKED?!?! This person then proceeds to question how they got it in the first place because they are fully remote for work... They would understand if their partner got it because of their on-site job, but couldn't reason with how they themselves the remote worker would get it. Mind you, all these people indulge in dining indoors at restaurants and bars, going to concerts without masks, running errands without masks... So, I said just that. "Probably restaurants? Honestly anywhere public.". The conversation ended right there, no one responded to me after that.
The bright side of the whole convo was that someone did eventually chime in and say that "It's best to assume COVID when you are feeling sick, because even a cold isn't worth spreading." Only to be countered by the sick person saying, "if I would have tested positive sooner I would have been wearing a mask or cancelling appointments" Felt sick and didn't care until the 2 lines showed up on the test.
So yeah, at the end of the day vibes and treats rule the world. No one wants to be told that their incessant need for good vibes and tasty treats is what may have gotten them sick with a highly communicable disease.
It's really exhausting...
It feels harder to maintain friendships with people who've gone back to pretending covid isn't a thing. At this point I won't hang out indoors with anyone who won't wear a mask
The most annoying thing about this is that if more people masked, thered be more opportunities to hang out because you'd know that person is safe
TOTALLY! Instead I hang out online and vent to some homies on the bear site.
Lighthearted anecdote related to this tho. I started dating my wife during COVID and she always jokes that me meeting her in the parking lot of my building with a mask on was the sexiest thing ever.
Exactly. Like hey, friends, you miss me? Want to see me? Same here! Wear a fucking mask so we can hang out!
It's extremely hard to maintain these friendships. Most of the group I mention here were colleagues who all linked up via Discord in March of 2020 and got very close during quarantine. So its especially tough for me to see them acting contrary to how they were early on. Hell! One of them was leaving amazon packages outside the house in a clear tupperware for a week before even bring them inside. Now that same person is out at clubs every weekend. The complete 180 is more confusing than anything at this point.
I made a pretty unhinged comment about a year ago about COVID also being a mind virus that makes you want to ignore it / actively spread it. I know it doesn’t do that. It’s part of my copium to believe the general populous is infected with an unknown psychogenic aspect of COVID.
One of the tests they used for a post-Covid study in Germany (i think) to test cognitive slowing was a go/no go test. It's meant to test response times, but also your ability to stop yourself when you realize you're wrong. Even like a 1/3 of people without long Covid symptoms were showing cognitive slowing.
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Surviving it in the face of all the warnings about its severity makes people feel like its not a big deal... Almost everyone I know who has moved on had a mild case once and that proved to them it wasn't a problem.
What is this virus actually doing to people?
From a physical standpoint we still don't know 100%, but its not good.
From a social standpoint everyone who gets it and survives seems to brush it off immediately and stop giving a shit, Xi included.
Yeah the complete disregard for OpSec is a different situation all together, and just as insane to me. I definitely see what you are saying tho.
The existential dread is overbearing at this point. My normal coping method of detached irony doesn't cut it anymore either.
The biggest thing to be is not even being able get respect from medical personnel, especially ones that are treating an immune disease...
I always mask around the house when I have anything that seems like a respiratory illness. Why wouldn't you? The people you love are right there! Maybe they'll catch it from you, maybe not, but at least give them a chance, right?
Exactly! It's wild to me that we have learned absolutely nothing from the pandemic.
Sometimes it had seemed like people were learning, but in retrospect so much of what people were doing was to chase the stigma and the demon away, only mimicking infection control measures they've heard about, mixed with semi-superstitions, and sort of accidentally getting it right at best. Without a foundation of scientific thinking people cannot come to grips with the real nature of the problem, and without the confidence that politics can belong to the masses they cannot dare imagine a solution.
It was inevitable most would be overwhelmed and psychically torn, and would fold under those conditions, and were only awaiting the first announcer to tell them it's okay. It is a source of continued relief to them that the small number of people maintaining Covid measures on scientific grounds do so without hegemonic backing, and our squawking can be ignored without apparent consequence. All according to Porky's plan.
I will never stop squawking, though
Yeah, for a little while it really did feel like we were making progress. The comradery that everyone felt during the "flatten the curve" stage was very beneficial, but also extremely short-lived. As soon as the mainstream decided that vaccines operate in a way that they fucking don't, all bets were off. Everyone was convinced that the vaccine was the only viable preventative measure anymore and began to use that as an excuse to throw caution to the wind.
When rumblings began that maybe the vaccine isn't magic, that's when we began to see the push towards "we aren't going to live in fear" and "I did my part for years and it seems like its here to stay.". Then the general public learned the word endemic, but not the definition of it, so that started to get thrown in our faces. No amount of squawking was gonna sway people anymore at that point, but i too will never stop.
Has anyone been able to convince someone to care more about COVID here? I feel like it's easier to argue any other topic at this point.
Unfortunately not, the vast majority of people outside of this community appear to be accepting the risk for the sake of normalcy. The only reason I still drag on about it to other people is because it plays a major part in how I live my life now. People ask me to go to dinner, or a brewery, or tell me they are playing a bar. The only thing I can do is reiterate the same "excuse" and move on.
I've been able to get some family members to do it by hassling them every time we spent time togetger
I don't understand it, I really just don't understand it. A couple weeks ago that WSJ article was making the rounds at my work, the one that surprisingly was acknowledging long covid. At least I think it was, I didn't actually read it, but it lead my boss to, at our weekly meeting, proclaim "you know I hate to say it but at this point it seems to be true - covid really is causing a lot of long term issues in people." I almost fell out of my chair.
Yet in the following weeks, no change in behavior. Still walking around the office, no masks. Still meeting in the small room, no masks. I just don't understand it at all. I mean before this point I was just assuming most people were in the dark regarding the gravity of the covid issue, propagandized into compliance. Yet here are multiple people in my life all coming to the eye-opening realization that, oh shit maybe there's mroe to this covid thing. And...nothing. Do I have too much faith in people? Are most people just walking around just waiting for someone to tell them what to do? Is the power of convenience and peer pressure really that strong? I mean this isn't even asking them to do something for other people, this is asking them to do something for themselves. Like, they can't even wear a mask for selfish reasons? And I'm not even asking them, it was a conclusion they came to on their own - they don't even know my stance on covid (I'm remote). There was no one influencing their thoughts but themselves. Yet they refuse to change their behavior at all.
Masking is taboo at this point. No matter how many people come across all the information in the world about long covid, most of them will still not even think of a mask because of the conditioning being levied against them from all sources.
You're right and I honestly can't believe that this is how most of the country goes through life.
Do you have that WSJ article by chance? I gave it a Google, but there's so many.
https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/covid-new-health-problems-old-infections-06cb84be
I think we underestimate how much peer pressure and crowd-think shut down a person's brain
Not to be self-congratulatory, but hexbears are skeptical of the mainstream and confident in our own worldview, which might insulate us from this a little.
same person proceeds to say that it wouldn't matter that much due to incubation time
My understanding is that incubation times are much less than 2020. Then we weren't exposed to the virus, so the body reacted to it much slower.
Yeah, I think their point was regarding contagiousness prior to symptoms, which is a fair point, but taking precautions after exposure can’t hurt… you don’t just throw your arms up and say “oh well”.
Oh totally. Just agreeing with you that the incubation period isn't a reason to do nothing. If anything, it's easier now.
Right, I gotchu. It really is some extreme cope when people decide that it’s not worth it to even try.
Shouldn't the quarantining person be in the bedroom, and the other person on the couch? It doesn't feel "fair", but it allows for better air exchange, and they don't accumulate viral density in a place that other people walk through.
Yes totally, that’s how my partner and I handle it. The sick one has the bedroom while the healthy one has full reign of the rest of the house.
The conversation continues with someone else who was saying they did the same thing I did, quarantined in their office and slept on the sleeper sofa to keep their partner healthy, AND IT WORKED?!?!
This doesn't always work though, it goes through masks just a much smaller viral load gets through
thank you comrade