Didn't the entire American senate adjourn early, effectively abandoning the country in a time of need?
The House refused to pass the relief bill with nearly everything they wanted. What's the Senate supposed to do about it?
My family is starting to have people with only a degree of separation that are covid positive. I feel like the noose is tightening. I hope my parents, who are +/- 70 years old, see this and play it smart, but I don't think they will. My mom still can't differentiate between essential errands and not. I asked her if getting covid for the right sized green onions was worth it and told her she might need to suck it up and deal with the fact that her green onions aren't as skinny as she wants, to use grocery pickup for ALL groceries, including fresh meat and produce. She has been lulled into this false sense of "well if I wear a mask it's fine!" Except that one time, she forgot one specific item at the store, and her mask fell in a puddle, so she just put her shirt up over her nose and mouth. And also socializes with her immediate family, some of whom work in public facing jobs, or are just not careful. It is so frustrating.
Oh, yeah. They live in Georgia, I live in Virginia. We're safe from them. I think the wife and I decided to lock ourselves down; grocery store, essential doctors appointments and the gas station, that'll be it for us.
Got an email last night from my daughter's preschool saying that she was exposed to someone on Thursday who tested positive for more than 15 minutes while they were both wearing masks. Her school is closed Monday and will be receiving guidance from the local health department on next steps. We're contacting her pediatrician today to discuss best next steps and proper timing for testing. Her school has been phenomenal throughout this whole mess with zero confirmed cases or instances of known exposure since this all began back in March, but I'm not surprised that (what I expect to be) Thanksgiving exposure was enough to put a dent in their record thus far. My hope is that since they were both wearing masks, it will cut down on the amount that my daughter was exposed to and wouldn't have been enough to result in infection, but we'll see. Oh what fun...
The precautions being used are exactly what have helped prevent it spreading in schools. I wouldn’t worry too much, thanks to masks and constant cleaning usually confirmed cases don’t spread in those climates.
Yeah except getting kids to keep their masks on like they're supposed to is more difficult than people think. I was riding with a co-worker yesterday and she still had to remind all her older students to "keep your mask on". And of course, a couple didn't. I could be completely wrong, but I think there's a false sense of security about the role schools play in spreading this. Okay, maybe it doesn't affect kids as much as it does adults, but they can still pick it up and transmit it. And, at least locally, we are only NOW seeing the type of community spread that could offer a chance to see if the science is right or wrong. The kids aren't even in school and there's more teachers with it or having to quarantine because they've been around someone. The superintendent admitted she's concerned that we may not have the staffing if this takes off as expected.
I was supposed to come down to your neck of the woods for Christmas. However, given that ICU beds in CT are at 100% capacity and I’d also have to quarantine when I get back to MA, I’ll be staying put this year.
Pediatrician says to quarantine her for 14 days or until a negative test comes back. We need to wait until at least Tuesday to get her tested. My wife and I don't have to quarantine unless she comes back positive or starts showing symptoms (or we start showing symptoms). We play the waiting game until probably the end of next week, I guess.
Soonest test time I could get was Tue at noon. Guess I'll just monitor symptoms through the weekend. It's been 2 1/2 days and so far I feel fine.
We're getting more reports on some of the local dev slacks of people with kids who have COVID in their schools. They've all been fairly cagey with sharing information about the area of the city they're in, and I've got to say that it's pretty frustrating. Tokyo is a strange place because depending on where these things happen, you can run in to people. If you're part of the "foreigner community", lots of the parents are sending kids to international schools. The playgrounds are basically as before with more masks. It's definitely really hard for parents to manage (an) active kid(s) in the low to mid single digits in small apartments, so I get it. I just don't get the lack of (non-personal, non-specific) information sharing. One guy who spent six paragraphs on the recent case at his kid's school said "west" Tokyo when pressed. Fucking useless.
Shit's going sideways here in some parts of Canada. Alberta is breaking records daily... here in Ontario my city has is now being locked down as of Monday due to a large outbreak. One of the biggest outbreaks is in our major Hospital (University Hospital), and it's having a big impact. At least my family and close friends are being careful and see it for what it is. Some of our neighbours are morons, though, and are upset that we're bailing out of the usual Christmas neighbourhood parties and social gatherings. They. Just. Don't. Get. It.
It's blowing up here too. 3000 plus new cases a day, positivity rate over 18%. Judging just by traffic on the road, no one is staying home. What the fuck is wrong with people? During WW II people sent their children off to fight the enemy, rationed fuel, and grew victory gardens. Now people bitch about wearing a fucking mask because apparently that's a huge sacrifice.
It ain’t much better in Saskatchewan. Our government has stopped short of calling COVID-19 a hoax, but did everything else to undermine efforts to stop the spread. Fucking imbecile of a premier even hinted at families being able to gather over Xmas right in the middle of our current spike. The food bank is shuttered, our only safe injection site is closed up, and our prison is just shy of having a 100% infection rate. I can’t even put on my cooking classes for young offenders and the gang dissolution task force right now. And the restaurant industry is completely and utterly fucked, partially due to COVID, but also due to stubborn and shitty owners who won’t pivot to takeout and delivery. I have 5 jobs right now, all of which add up to 44 hours a week. I only have these positions because of my reputation in the city.