I would not be shocked at all to learn that the pcr lab test I recently got for what I thought was covid was a false negative. We were still so certain I had it that we quarantined like I did. I bet a lot of people are running around contagious as hell with these false negatives.
Eh, it's not that they don't detect it. Think of the quadrant: true positive (you got it and the test says you got it), true negative (you don't got it, and the test says you don't got it), false positive (you don't got it, but the test says you do) and false negative (you got it, but the test says you don't). The current tests have a higher rate of false negative than is acceptable. I don't know the numbers, I'll get them at work tomorrow. Also, I read that the viral load for Omicron to trigger a positive result is a bit higher than other variants. Meaning you might have it, or have been exposed to it, but you have to have more of the virus in your system to trigger a positive result with some tests. Well, for the vaccinated, you're not as likely to have a high viral load, so you might have it, but it's not rampant enough to trigger a positive test result. Bottom line is this is the worst it's been. You're less likely to die from it, but we still don't have a ton of information about how Omicron behaves over the long haul. This virus is still really fucking weird in terms of health impacts, so it's still best to avoid it. I'm reverting back to the early 2020 posture of masked in the gym and everywhere I go, and monitoring the guidance on a 4th booster in a few months. I'm also refusing in-person meetings until we get through the holiday surge. I think ROTN is right. We're now at a point where the things we did early on to prevent wild spread simply can't be done. Folks aren't shutting back down, offices who aren't fully remote any more will not revert back, and while the hospital systems are more fragile than ever, it doesn't seem like there's a major counter-measure. They are mostly reacting to fatigue and falling compliance with countermeasures. For what it's worth, when either administration feels the need to get involved, it has made things worse instead of better. This is still fucked, and it's not going away anytime soon.
It will get hairy, because it would mean more rigid enforcement of counter-measures, again, at a time in which compliance is dropping. It would also mean some dramatic changes in healthcare that I don't think we want to entertain.
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1476181419063971840?s=20 Basically flying the white flag, here. And now that the CDC essentially said "fuck it, do it yourselves" people are upset they didn't do more to literally force the issue.
Im sorry not getting this cryptic response? What changes? I dont think the same level of mass lockdowns will happen but I can imagine a shut down again of say live sporting and entertainment events. Industry specific. Bars being put back on limited hours and such. If the spread gets big enough youll see places shutting down out of necessity. We have the most people out at one time than we've had at any point.
Hospitals overwhelmed means they have to start triaging differently. Requirements for qualifications relaxed, more personnel forced to do more work over longer hours, things that approximate battlefield medicine. Again, the bottom of the barrel has been scraped for almost 2 years. Very little has gone back into it. I can certainly see private practices refusing to see non vaxxed patients, and some state health departments allowing it.
As of yesterday, we have over 700 positive employees in our hospital. More than we ever had before. And we are under a vaccine mandate. Boosters aren’t mandated yet but we are having a slight staffing crisis at some of our clinics.
Well I tested negative again with a rapid test so they gave me antibiotics for possible sinus infection. Im still out of it. Woke up feeling much better but my energy is waxing and waning. I took the day off which is the last of this week for us.
I don’t know how we reconcile easily dismissing healthcare workers for being unvaccinated but also not wanting the healthcare systems to be overloaded. That’s some serious cognitive dissonance, but I don’t think there’s a better answer.
With the holiday weekend beginning early for many, I didn't expect to get my results or any guidance before having to return to work Monday. Fortunately my wife has connections and was able to get my results from the hospital, confirming what we already knew: I'm positive. As far as I can tell, I still have to quarantine for 10 days. So I don't go back to work until Jan. 7 now. Since no one else in the house is sick, I'd like to find out what they're supposed to do next week, but I can't, because when I called the state hotline back ( I was in the bathroom ) I get 2 and a half minutes of marketing for prescription savings, roadside assistance, and then disconnected. And I feel cruddy, so it's probably a good thing no one picked up after that.
4 people at work are now out with covid. All vaxed. We've been wearing masks at work, but I'm 100% sure they all got it from outside, but who knows if it's going to spread through the warehouse. Fiance in Australia also was exposed through family of family. Her dad's wife had her daughter over for Christmas, two days later wasn't feeling good and popped positive, so she's nervous about showing a positive test and not being able to leave the country of she happens to show positive as well. I've so far avoided all covid infections as far as I know, but I can't be sure since I haven't needed to get tested to find out. Fingers crossed the booster and my immune system are doing their jobs.
This rant summarizes how I feel about antivaxx idiots far better than I could. https://www.stonekettle.com/2021/12/recap-december-28-2021.html