Truly, I have no idea. She’s been in the hospital for weeks now on a tube-fed liquid diet and had limited capacity to talk. I would be less bothered if the family was willing to be vaccinated, or at least quarantine. Or even if not fully quarantine then cease going out to bars and similar for a while. It’s not my own mother though, so we are just going to make parents happy.
Latest CDC data by vaccine status:
Unvaccinated: 451 cases per 100k
Vaccinated: 134 cases per 100k
Boosted: 48 cases per 100k
Unvaccinated: 6.1 deaths per 100k
Vaccinated: 0.5 deaths per 100k
Boosted: 0.1 deaths per 100k
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We’ve been trying, largely unsuccessfully, to institute a holiday-gathering-“rain-date” backup plan with my extended family for years, at least since the year my brother & his wife decided to show up with 2 of their 3 kids having just visited urgent care for some sort of snotty respiratory bug, which subsequently got everyone in the whole extended family sick over the following week or two.
(I know I’ve said one shouldn’t moralize transmission of respiratory viruses, but please grant me this one grudge - they knew their kids were very sick & exposed all of us anyway.)
Even this year, my mom had fever, cough, & body aches the week of Thanksgiving, but didn’t call my brother* to tell him not to come until Tuesday night after she tested positive for Covid (after “doing everything right** for 20 months”). My unspoken question to her was, if the Covid test had turned out negative, would you still have hosted people for Thanksgiving, given you were clearly sick?
*I had already declined due to a schedule conflict way before she had any symptoms, so my brother was the only one who would have been coming from out-of-town.
**“everything right” = mostly staying home, masking everywhere in public the few times she went anywhere, getting fully jabbed (though she had not jumped on the booster when eligible, so wasn’t yet boosted) - she most likely got infected from my less-reclusive, equally-masked and fully-boosted father.
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But if 90% of the people are vaccinated
Wait - almost 75% of all COVID cases and almost half of all deaths are vaccinated people - see it doesn’t work
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I thought it was 36 hours after your symptoms go away. That’s the guidelines I used, at last when I had exposure and mild symptoms. And that was just for going to the grocery store, with double masks. I declined an invite to hang out at a bar even though I had been symptom free for a few days.
Yeah, a covid test wouldn’t have picked up flu, which is not a nice party favor, either.
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My grandparents are coming to Christmas but only if everyone there is fully vaccinated.
So it came to light that my youngest brother, who is 21 and reckless in general, only got one dose of a two-dose vaccine (truthfully I’m surprised he got any). No one wants to be the one to break it to grandma, but I think she has a right to know. She has heart issues and has had several surgeries recently for her hip and back, so she’s not in her best shape right now.
We were going to bow out because we have a 3yo foster son who can’t be vaccinated, but he won’t be there. She’s fine with us coming even though he lives with us otherwise.
But now 6yo has a snotty nose. Not testing positive, but we will all test Christmas morning and if he is still snotty (or if anyone else is), we won’t go even if we’re all negative.
Christmas isn’t a big deal to us, so I don’t mind missing out. We missed out on Thanksgiving because our son had covid, so missing both major holidays this year might be a little bit of a bummer, but we all live locally so it’s not like these are people we only see once a year.
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current story is Brother’s Wife got covid from her sister, exposure was likely around Dec 8. Symptoms started Dec 11. Symptoms were moderate (she was sick, but not bedridden) until about Dec 18. Symptoms mild/mostly gone 20th (today). I said if she is 100% by dec 22, would ok to visit Dec 25. That would be 14 days after onset of symptoms, and 36 hours after full recovery. She was vax, but back in feb.
Their son (2 yr old) had similar timing, but only showed mild symptoms for about 3 days. has been symptom free for a week already.
My bro (unvaxxed, dont get me started) seems not have it, which is mind blowing since he takes no precautions. Their 8 mo old also seems unaffected.
So this might still happen. But I will be a nervous wreck… likely walking around opening windows, yelling at my kids not not touch their face, and then standing outside all day. Followed by a week of trying to tell if I am sick or not…at least whole family is off next week, so we can limit our exposing anyone else afterwards.
There is a chance my mom’s boyfriend dies over this. 68 with copd…+heart condition, 1/2 vaccinated… prob would be on a ventilator within 36 hours of getting sick.
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What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
But, never mentioned in that witty phrase is, “what are the odds of being killed?”
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Booster shot appointment at 12 noon today, fingers crossed it doesn’t affect me much more than a flu vaccine this time
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Hydrate well
Does that impact it? Because I’ll start chugging water now lol
That’s what I heard. I hydrated very heavily, also took an advil after the shot and at bed, and had no bad effects
Thanks for the tip, will give it a go!
I did not drink water, because I hate drinking water, and my reaction was awful. Proven true.
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Reminds me of the time I went with my Mom to CO. Really important to drink lots of water to avoid altitude sickness but she can’t stand water, can only drink tea, and can’t drink enough tea to avoid altitude sickness, so she got sick.
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If you drink tea to hydrate - make sure decaffeinated as the caffeine works against you
I would think Gatorade, Pedialyte or a powder flavor additive in water would be better than not drinking and better than carbonated (maybe seltzer), caffeinated or alcoholic beverages
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My wife and I, who both have health issues, have adopted the more macabre variation: “What doesn’t kill you only postpones the inevitable.”
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