Coronavirus Tales

Antichulius wrote:

Your Test to Stay is a lot more thorough than they’re doing here. They only test to stay after passing a % threshold of active positive cases schoolwide (or 30 cases total for larger schools, with cases dropping off the count after 10 days). And then test to stay is a 1 time event. After that, they wipe the case count and start again at 1 for the next new case that crops up. Also, exposure does not require staying home. And no mask mandate.

And all that is the reason why when my daughter caught it and 2 days later they hit 30 cases and tested to stay, they found another 30 new cases. But of course, still with no mandated testing to follow up on those who were still incubating during the first test.

Yours seems to be a good way to handle it—so much better than here.

Wow, that's the opposite of a functional test to Stay program, more like Test to Stay and get Covid program.

Stengah wrote:

Regarding schools, the ones near me are really regretting not having a distance learning option available at all this year. Having to come up with lesson plans for the kids who have to quarantine due to close contacts on top of handling their normal in-person class has been a major drain on the teachers. Predictably, the schools having the worst problems are those that bent to public pressure and didn't implement mask requirements or sign up for pool testing. I'm just glad I've been able to do the stay at home dad thing so my kids don't have enough go to any area daycare, which seems to be where many of the new cases and close contacts are coming from.

Yeah, despite the last two years and claiming we will never have a snow day again, my kids' school didn't seem that prepared for 1 or 2 kids being in quarantine vs a whole class. My kids did fine since they're at or above on their work and I could give them the attention they needed. But I can't imagine the hell this would be on other families in different situations.

We're in a weird spot at work. I work for an IT consultancy. Our client is both critical and high risk, so they're part of a vaccinated-only government order, effective December 1st. This means all of our staff need to be either fully vaccinated or able to prove a medical exemption. There's one member of our team who isn't able to do this. He won't tell anyone why he won't get vaccinated - he only says that it's not going to happen. Our employer has said that he can just work remotely from the company head office (as opposed to the client site).

Now, that really sucks just generally, but it's worse when you factor in that our client only allows for 2 work-from-home days per month, requiring prior approval from management. This means that while us vaccinated staff can't work remotely more than two days a month, unvaccinated staff get to work remotely full-time. I'm not sure how to approach this, but it might be time for a difficult conversation with the powers that be.

From the published, updated requirements, having unvaxxed folks work remotely won't fly, and having them unvaxxed without any excuse will get them disqualified from government contracts. Our lawyers figured that out and as far as I know that has not changed. I suspect your co-worker will be facing consequences soon. I don't mean that in a bad way, just as a fact. Maybe ask mgmt what their lawyers say.

From the FAQ wrote:

"An individual working on a covered contract from their residence is a covered contractor employee and must comply with the vaccination requirement for covered contractor employees, even if the employee never works at either a covered contractor workplace or federal workplace during the performance of the contract. A covered contractor employee's residence is not a covered contractor workplace, so while in the residence the individual need not comply with requirements for covered contractor workplaces, including those related to masking and physical distancing, even while working on a covered contract,"

Our company is looking at as much as 10% loss, although since we are tiny the CEO and others are working to convert the folks who are refusing. One to my knowledge gave in because he loves the job (my boss, thankfully). Not sure of the others and I'm not going to ask, so as not to rock the precariously balanced boat.

Yeah we have a bunch of remote employees, as we closed some smaller offices in 2020. Everyone still has to comply with vaccine mandate Dec 1.

Same here. I have an uncomfortable conversation ahead with one of my team members. Trying not to ruin their Thanksgiving, and mine.

Have a coworker that also seems to be refusing. He’s working remote so not sure how far the company will push. He smokes cigars and drinks a fair amount of vodka but the shot has him worried about what’s going in his body. He put down religious reasons for not getting it but he’s not religious. And to top it off his son had covid not too long ago and has asthma on top of it.

I don’t get it but it’s pointless to push it with them.

My employer recently announced they are complying with the federal vaccine mandate. It's all being driven through HR so fortunately as a manager i won't have to tussle with any blockheads.

Order ginal shot was J&J. Just got my Moderna booster with a flu shot. Three people here have now warned me I'm gonna feel bad tonight. Lol

you order that ginal dude

Pfizer for first two doses, got a Moderna on Friday. Got really tired a few hours later and felt just off all night and didn't sleep well, but was basically fine by Saturday afternoon. Wasn't as bad as either of my first two doses.

I'm the opposite; first two were Moderna, and I got a Pfizer booster Saturday afternoon. Mild headache and felt warm Sunday night (might have been unrelated?), but otherwise totally fine.

garion333 wrote:

Order ginal shot was J&J. Just got my Moderna booster with a flu shot. Three people here have now warned me I'm gonna feel bad tonight. Lol

I had my booster last week (all three were Pfizer). First two doses I had no side effects. The booster gave me the chills all night. It took me 2 hours of shaking in bed to realize that it was because of the booster, and then I added a bunch of blankets and was fine the rest of the night.

farley3k wrote:

you order that ginal dude

You wish you could too!

you order that ginal dude

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

I tripled up on Moderna on Saturday. Or 2.5x I guess, since the booster is half strength.

This time I got some chills over night, and my watch gave me a warning about an elevated heart rate. I definitely felt like crap the next day, but I don't know how much of that was the direct result of the shot and how much of that was me abstaining from caffeine until my heart rate went back to normal.

All in all that was worlds better than shot #2, which gave me painfully dry skin for several days.

garion333 wrote:

Order ginal shot was J&J. Just got my Moderna booster with a flu shot. Three people here have now warned me I'm gonna feel bad tonight. Lol

So, despite last year's flu shot giving me a fever for 24 hours (first time that's happened) and the J&J shot flattening me with tired, fever, chills, aches and headache for a full 24 hours with lingering symptoms for an additional two days after that I was prepared for the worst.

I had a headache that Acetaminophen took away and some mild muscle aches today.

That's it.

Crazy.

Just returned with my 3rd Pfizer shot this afternoon! Let's see how this evening goes...

Update: Just as the first 2 shots of Pfizer, a fairly sore arm at the injection site for several hours afterwards, but no other side effects.

I'm liking all you double Modernas reporting a booster was NBD: mine may end up scheduled when I have a pretty critical project thing going on the next day.

I’m triple-Pfizered as of this past weekend.

The side effects were a little bit stronger than I remember the other doses having, but not bad at all. (Sore arm, not-quite-fever, some muscle aches, all over within 36 hours of the shot.)

I'm 30 hours in from a Moderna booster for my J&J I got in April. Slightly sore arm but absolutely no side effects, yet at least.

I had a surprise booster shot today (I didn't know I was going to get it until three hours before it happened).

As I was getting the shot I remembered how drowsy I was the day after my 2nd shot. Between the booster shot and the Thankgiving Day turkey coma, I might not have much of a day tomorrow.

Edit: Oh man, what a night. Had body aches that made it difficult the sleep. Once they were gone, I knew I was running a fever because of the chills I was getting.

Currently toasting myself with a temperature of 100°F! Going to have to keep a close eye on myself.

Whelp, Thanksgiving travel got us. My sister in law was kind enough to visit family and bring Covid with her back. Thankfully she spent most of her time sleeping or gambling so she wasn't around anyone much, which explains why so far only her two youngest kids are positive and everyone else is negative.

Gotta quarantine my kids for a few days and then get them re-tested. Can't wait, an entire week with the kids at home is just what the doctor ordered to change my wife's opinion on getting our kids vaccinated! (My youngest isn't old enough yet, but my eldest is and I've been trying to talk her into get him the J&J. This might do the trick!)

I got a booster of Moderna this morning. Hopefully I won't feel too bad but the first pfizer shot really wiped me out so I told work I might be out tomrrow.

And I don't feel bad today. Even came into work.

On another note I thought this was funny.

IMAGE(https://preview.redd.it/fm1w1yr13q281.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=b25d8567cce045e9e6cedf9da18855c1f95537a7)

Had a couple of bits of bad news from the family back in New Zealand. First, one of my nieces, who I had always thought was fairly sensible, has suddenly turned into an antivaxxer. At least the rest of the family is pushing back hard.

Second, my sister participated in the clinical trial of a new Covid vaccine. That's not the bad news; it worked and she's showing all the right antibodies. The problem is that, because she didn't get one of the standard vaccines, she's having trouble getting the health bureaucracy to give her a vaccination certificate, which is becoming increasingly necessary for many normal activities, including her job (her employers eventually grudgingly granted her an exception after considerable persuasion). Fortunately one of our cousins is on the Ministry of Health's Covid advisory board and may be able to pull some strings.

I would say, assuming her part in the trial is complete, then just get the publicly available vaccine for paperwork purposes.

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

Had a couple of bits of bad news from the family back in New Zealand. First, one of my nieces, who I had always thought was fairly sensible, has suddenly turned into an antivaxxer. At least the rest of the family is pushing back hard.

Second, my sister participated in the clinical trial of a new Covid vaccine. That's not the bad news; it worked and she's showing all the right antibodies. The problem is that, because she didn't get one of the standard vaccines, she's having trouble getting the health bureaucracy to give her a vaccination certificate, which is becoming increasingly necessary for many normal activities, including her job (her employers eventually grudgingly granted her an exception after considerable persuasion). Fortunately one of our cousins is on the Ministry of Health's Covid advisory board and may be able to pull some strings.

My, your sister is being treated a bit like someone in the military. When you're fit and able to be used you're greatly wanted, but once you're used up you're pointless and dead weight.

Your sis is helping society but can't rejoin. What a joke! Hopefully the bureaucracy works itself out, but it's dumb you seemingly need to know someone to make that happen.

garion333 wrote:

Whelp, Thanksgiving travel got us. My sister in law was kind enough to visit family and bring Covid with her back. Thankfully she spent most of her time sleeping or gambling so she wasn't around anyone much, which explains why so far only her two youngest kids are positive and everyone else is negative.

Gotta quarantine my kids for a few days and then get them re-tested. Can't wait, an entire week with the kids at home is just what the doctor ordered to change my wife's opinion on getting our kids vaccinated! (My youngest isn't old enough yet, but my eldest is and I've been trying to talk her into get him the J&J. This might do the trick!)

Everyone in my house is still negative. No symptoms, but we're fully in the "it should be hitting the kids soon if they were only exposed to a little bit of the virus". They seem totally normal, which is good, but we're still waiting on the shoe to drop and wake up to one of them coughing, fever, etc.