The Coronavirus-and Pip (the bird)

I think we are doing better. I gave him a gummy last night and some medicine and he actually slept through the night. I gave him another gummy and more medicine this morning and made sure he drank 16oz of water. His body isn't on fire today and his fever is down to 99.9-100.3 ish, which is fucking fantastic! I think the fluids yesterday really helped because I watched his monitor all day and his resting heart rate was finally down. It was running around 103 and it's around 80-90 now. I think that is high but Idk because mine is super low (59ish). I did notice mine was raised while I was having symptoms also, Idk if anyone else has noticed that, but it is definitely a thing.

I am going to be better about making sure he is drinking fluids and I think I am going to keep him on the indica gummies until his fever is completely gone.

As I understand it, there’s a pretty wide range of normal with average being between 60 and 100 depending on the person so 80 to 90 is on the higher side of normal. (I got really fascinated by my resting heart rate after I got my Apple Watch.)

A nurse at my doctor’s office told me that after she had covid, her resting heart rate rose and that she had times while she was sleeping where hers went up to 125. I think it had gone back down by the time we talked about it, but I don’t remember.

I’m glad things seem to be improving for you all. 💜

saying this with peace and love but xfinitypass and some others are trying to engage in a dialogue, and some of y'all are just going full ad hominem. i know this is in the internet and we're all tired, but when someone is trying to engage in good faith discussion i think that should be met with good faith rebuttals, not insults. this type of discussion is near impossible on social media, but inforoo is a small enough community where, on serious topics, we should be able to talk like friends instead of calling each other names.

i have no fully formed opinion on the issue of masks in schools so i won't contribute, but i do feel comfortable critiquing the form of the debate.

it'd be different if xfinitypass was trolling or being an asshole, but as far as i can tell they aren't.

I appreciate the the comment here.  In hindsight I was probably being an asshole choosing to chime in here given some on the board are actively deailing with Covid (though the comment I was replying to was about a public health policy, not an individual Covid situation).  I do think it's a debate that needs to be had though.  I stopped talking on the internet about Covid about a month ago because I realize it wasn't productive and not many people are coming with data driven takes anymore, don't know why I decided to start again, I think I was just at a Covid-related mental low after making a decesion recently to cancel a trip to meet in person the only friends I'd managed to make during the pandemic due to household risk level concerns with the variant, and wanted to sound off on why I'm optimistic that vaccines = returning to normalcy in the very near future (or even now in many states where Omicron has already peaked and started to fall rapidly).  I get it's an emotionally charged issue, but jeez the level of vitriol that gets directed at someone for just saying "I believe in the vaccines so much I think life should be normal again very soon" and "the risk level to children who are vaccinated is objectively low enough where things like learning loss and mental health issues are risks we need to be addressing as much or more than Covid" seems unfair.  They aren't particularly inflammatory or ignorant opinions,  I can link many mainstream, left-leaning doctors who agree with these takes.  Again, I probably chose the wrong time to bring this up, I could've waited a month for when Omciron cases are going down all across the US, that's my bad, but I don't really understand why the opinion is so inflamatory that it's being responded to as if I'm an anti-vaxxer or have been an anti-masker since the beginning of the pandemic (both of which positions are completely contrary to what I'm trying to say here).  The vaccines fundamentally changing the situation is something not enough people acknowledge and there is room to peacefully debate and consider that, and suggesting such doesn't suddenly make you as ignorant or inflamatory as someone actively trying to hinder progress like someone who is anti-vaccines.  

We know we have a highly effective and safe vaccine. The problem is that so many people will not GET the vaccine. So we are stuck wearing masks for the foreseeable future. What you choose to do with your life and your risk factors is up to you. What we are trying to say, ad nauseam, is that it is not time to take the masks off just yet. And those of us with no children, myself included, can not and should not make the judgement calls for those that do. 

Omicrom is able to evade vaccine protection regardless if it is less severe, which is why boosters are being pushed so much. Due to the lack of overall vaccinates in this country we are setting ourselves up to have the next variant completely vaccine resistant and the vaccines will do nothing for us. We could totally be back at square one.

The problem with how you started this conversation it is was that you didn't read the room originally and that you are talking about choices for children when you don't even have any. I am sorry that I got so upset, but I am dealing with covid in a real life way right now. My husband could literally die because of his MS and we are both vaccinated and boosted and we have the omicrom variant. I have severe asthma and was not in a great breathing spot when I first got sick. We aren't the only people in this same boat. You stated that you have family you provide for that are both autoimmune compromised, whether vaxxed or not.

I get you are pro-vax and pro-mask, but there are so many other factors before we can even think of some sort of normalcy. And again, we will see more variants before we can even say whether or not the virus is getting to that endemic state. I can go get articles and data to back this up if I need to. Yes eventually we will all have to learn to deal and live our lives with this, but you are jumping the gun right now.

I understand, and like I said I was being an asshole by bringing it up rn, so it's on me, sorry for that.  I hope all gets better with your situation soon (I'm optimistic it will with how strong the vaccine's protection against the most severe outcomes is).  If I could, I would mandate vaccines for all (and all get the vax distributed globally a lot quicker so less variants arise), but that's not something I can control, so in the absence of it I'm just trying to point out how there is a lot of reason for optimism with the virus due to vaccines continuing to provide strong protection against the most severe outcomes, anti-viral treatments getting better and more available, and the new variant being weaker on average than the last one.  

this is far from true. essentially everyone in LA, NYC, DC are vaccinated and COVID is not over in those places. its here to stay

But the occurrences of severe outcome from Covid is much lower in those areas, especially if you take the data from just the vaccinated.  The goal of the vax wasn't to eradicate Covid, but to weaken it and make it a much more manageable virus that doesn't kill many people.  Couple that with antivirals that are becoming more and more available, and you've got the needed factors for it be something we just live with the risk of.

Good point, i redact my statement. Honestly, i think covid is going to be with us forever but I do see masks going away in 5 or so years as year round necessities, instead being seasonal to winters. All depends on variants though

Since I'm told we are all going to get this eventually, right now is not a good time for me. I'm thinking I will pencil it in about mid February and go lick some telephone poles.

edit-and I look great in masks.

its just mindboggling that this all could have been avoided if most countries had enforced lockdowns for two weeks in the beginning

Yall get like.

Really rude when someone has a different opinion.

When all of this started in the first half of 2020, I was one of those people that was dramatically locking down. We didn't have real human contact closer than six feet until at least May or June of that year, we had everything delivered, wiped down all of our groceries, never went indoors to a store or restaurant, none of that. In retrospect, that all seems a little silly now.

These days, a lot has caused me to be pretty much right down the middle on both the scientific and political spectrum on all this. I still pull on a mask if I get in a crowded situation and even double mask with a K95 if it's a really tight spot. But I'm in no way locking down anymore, I'm mostly doing what I would be prior to February of 2020. Three shots and an all around awareness is protection enough. I just know to play it a little safer for a week or two if I have a big event or visit to more vulnerable people coming up.

There's still one thing I wonder about and have been trying to read up more on. I think there's some evidence to support the notion that minor exposure to the virus or a variant itself can help boost your immune system. I can only offer my own anecdotal evidence and guess, but I think the passing exposure I've had to many over the last six to nine months has helped me and the wife in some respects. I'd never say that only that is enough, but I think in addition to a lot of immune boosting vitamins and two OG shots and the booster, it's made a big difference. I wouldn't really recommend that unless there was some real peer reviewed science to back it up though.

However, I still think a lot of science communication and policy is bass-ackwards stupid. The CDC has been a damn see-saw when it comes to guidance and Cheeto Tweeto made it partisinally political early on and that was a pandora's box that can never be closed. Let's not even mention how ridiculous schools are. The ones in my area will close at the drop of a hat if there's a threat of a dusting of snow, but they continue with business as usual when half of their kids are in classrooms with COVID.

Anyways, I'm ranting. It's endemic now and I'm more than willing to adapt to that with the right overall precautions and reasonable adaptations to spikes. Life has to go on.