Covid now

[dogmom]

No one in our 5 person household has gotten it. I’ve actually upgraded my “going into stores” mask to an N95. I work at a hospital, but changed my job to a M-F one so I take the train in, mask there. My husband masks at work (small town government, little interaction with public) when I tell him positivity numbers are going up. (I work in a procedural area so everyone has to test before coming in. Very helpful that I can’t ignore the facts.) I see random people come in with long haul Covid so I am concerned, but not freaking out about it. Like I think if all 5 of us got it there would be a 50/50 chance of someone getting long haul Covid. We go to restaurants, but we try to eat outdoors and don’t go when crowded. But I haven’t been a hermit. I’ve flown several times, will not take my mask off in airport or plane. I can go 5 hrs without eating or drinking. (We really overestimate how much water we need a lot if the times.) I suspect my 16 will mask at school, it will be his choice. My 19 yo still masks most of the time. He might do less at college, but at home they are worried about 84 yo grandma. (No wants to be the person that possibly kills her.)

My concern falls into two categories. (1) I don’t want to have it, not know, and give it to a medically vulnerable person at work or start an outbreak that leaves us short staffed. (2) I have combined sick:vacation time. 1-2 weeks out with Covid means 1-2 weeks less of vacation. That is worth masking in the supermarket. If anyone gives me grief I just tell them I’m a nurse and sometimes see baby’s with newly diagnosed cancer (not strictly true for last 3 months with new job, but it was before that.) If anyone says something after that they are either delusional, a jerk, or both. I completely realizing the fact I can get away with writing these people off is I am a white woman in a state with decent gun control. So very sympathetic to people who get grief and worse for mask wearing.

Also, side note. I always thought cruises would just be breeding grounds GI viruses before Covid. So I can safely say never going on one now for a whole bunch of reasons. In general I’ve become less and less enamored with our vacation destination obsession in this country. I see so much wrong with it from feeling one has to go, to the expense by many measures, by the damage it’s doing to places. I not nearly as absorbed as I used to be with planning my next one. Don’t get me wrong I still want to travel some, but there is an icky underbelly to the whole industrial vacation complex that has made me rethink my approach.

[marinkitty]

We are pretty much back to normal. Mask when required and I personally still choose to mask in the airport if I'm sitting at the crowded gate area (just passing through the concourses I typically do not wear one) and on flights but each member of our family makes their own decisions about that and I'm ok with it.

DH got Covid the second time this summer (mild case this time and a reasonably mild case pre-vax in Jan 2021 from a work trip) and I'm 99% sure it was from not masking on his flight back from Portugal. We'd been together and with other friends the entire time he was in Portugal and he got sick three days after flying home and none of us remaining in Portugal had it, so I do think crowded airports and flights are a likely place to catch it.

DS1 also got Covid in Europe this summer - when he was in Norway with his overland trip. They traveled around by train and so that's the most likely place one of the campers picked it up and and it spread through the group from there. He was basically asymptomatic other than being extremely worn out for two weeks or so. I was exposed to him for five days taking no precautions and didn't get it. It was his first time having it. To my knowledge I haven't had it yet.

DS2 had Covid in the spring after prom when the new variant started to blow through our area. He was sick two or three days. No lasting issues. His first time too.

DD also hasn't had Covid to our knowledge.

I am not sure if I'd mask if I were indoors at a crowded event - maybe. We definitely don't avoid travel - I've flown more than 20 times so far in 2022 and haven't gotten sick (but I do mask as mentioned above for parts of the trip though I eat on flights without worry).

Depends on the local numbers how we proceed - when things get nutty locally I do tend to stay outdoors or minimize the number of crowds we are in. But I would never voluntarily keep us home from school/work etc again - the damage from being isolated etc for so long was worse IMO than the risk of getting Covid post-vax and with the different therapeutics.

You could not pay me to get on a cruise ship, but I honestly wasn't a fan even pre-Covid - just not my style of travel and they have always been floating petri dishes.

We will continue to get any recommended boosters.

[MSWR0319]

I was talking to a friend last night whoÂ’s husband was hit fairly hard by Covid. HeÂ’s on day 9 and just started turning a corner with his O2 stats, but still very winded when walking short distances. She said her Dr told
her to give him Pepcid, Zyrtec, and a baby aspirin and he started turning around after just one dose. He was past his time to start Paxlovid. I hadnÂ’t heard anyone using a variety of meds for awhile so I thought IÂ’d share. Her doctor said no one sheÂ’s had take it has had to go to the hospital. May be coincidence though. Around here though IÂ’m hearing more and more getting hit fairly hard, even with 3 vaccinations.

[AngB]

My parents spent a week in Vegas, flying there and back and staying at a hotel and my dad attending a tax preparer conference and still managed not to get it. (My dad even tested.) They have 2 boosters but still, I thought they'd get it for sure.

The majority of our area has pretended like covid doesn't exist for over a year now. My kids masked at the beginning of last school year but were some of the only ones masking and then my kid that is the most cautious about masking got covid in between the vaccine doses, and 2 of 3 siblings got it from him. I encouraged them to stop masking after that because it seemed pretty pointless.

I haven't got it yet, DH did from the kids. We are pretty much back to normal. DH and I wear masks at work but that's it.

I don't think I'll even test kids unless I suspect something like strep or whatever (DS1 had strep 3 wks ago so I did give him a test then before taking him to urgent care because I was fairly certain it was strep but wanted to rule out covid first...) We have not vaccinated our 3 year old who will be heading to preschool (she's already had covid and I'm not interested in dragging her in for multiple shots that aren't very effective), my other kids have not been boostered and DS2 hasn't had his second covid shot. I do think we'll do flu shots this year so I'll consider boostering them then and maybe giving DD 1 dose of covid vax while she's getting a flu shot depending on how things are going.

I will get a covid booster myself this fall when it's available but since I'm in healthcare I wouldn't be surprised if it was required anyway.

[niccig]

DH and I were positive beg of August. It was mil for both of us. At school some people are still masking and others aren’t. I’m masking in some situations but not others. It’s difficult to do speech therapy with a mask on so with some students I don’t wear it


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[melrose7]

We aren’t doing anything special and haven’t over the last 2.5 years. We just got back from a family vacation with over 20 people in a cottage. Same vacation we have taken for the last 26 years with various number of extended family members. Some family members had gotten it(4 of 5 of us got it sept 2021), some haven’t, some have their vaccinations and others, like my family have nothing. No mask wearing at all, last year either.

We are also going to a water park destination in 10 days and even went summer of 2020 when masks weren’t required there.

No flying, not because we are scared, we just don’t have the option too.

Kids have never masked up in school. They were optional last year.

[Melaine]

We are living normally. I will start immune stuff like vitamin D and some extra probiotics at some point since we won’t be getting as much sun exposure just like every flu season but other than that life goes on. Everyone we know has had it. I don’t see many masks around here. I was very happy to throw most of our masks away a couple months ago.

[ahisma]

We are more or less back to "normal". None of the 4 of us still at home have gotten it yet, that we know of. My major precaution is frequent testing, as I have made my peace with the likelihood of us getting it, but not at all with the possibility of unknowingly spreading it. I also do monthly-ish antibody tests at work and have not seen results there indicating that I've had it.

DS1 is in HS, DS2 is in MS, DH is a high school teacher, and I work in a community setting - we all have frequent facetime with folks. It would be offensive for me to mask in many situations (I did for a very long time, and am absolutely pro-mask), and DH has stopped masking in the classroom too. We still run air purifiers (me work, DH classroom, DSs have them in all classrooms) to help minimize exposure, and hopefully severity. We are all fully up to date on our vaccines. We've been exposed so many times that we know of, and haven't gotten it. We feel both lucky, and like ticking time bombs. It seems like we will likely get it anytime - I don't think we have any super immunity or anything.

I do avoid crowded indoor settings for the most part - but I never liked those anyway!

[candaceb]

I am so over it after being careful for so long. Our district announced the guidelines for fall this week and they strongly recommend masks for red, encourage for yellow, and welcoming for green. I have told DS that he can make his own decision. I predict we are going to spend most of our time in red at this rate, until eventually they give up on tracking. I have a decluttering business and most of my clients are 65+. I do not want to have to call someone and say "whoops, I was at your house yesterday not wearing a mask and I tested positive today" so I continue to mask religiously at work. I don't mask most other places unless required, like dr. offices. None of us have had it yet, despite multiple known exposures. DS was with his BFF unmasked hours before he tested positive. Our temple requires N95 or surgical masks. We went to a bar mitzvah in Toledo last week and almost no one was wearing a mask. It felt like one of the biggest risks we have taken and part of me just wants to get it over with.

[Kestrel]

I'm kind of up in the air. All of my household had it over Christmas school break, and again in late June. It is extremely rare to see masks here (WA) unless it is on someone obviously old and frail. We did mask at our recent dentist office, and at an elbow-to-elbow school event this month, and of course will at our upcoming doctor's visits. But here we are done, even though it seams half the population is hacking cough.

After much, much, _much_ debate, we are continuing online school. It is hard to predict, but we think schools will go back to masking this fall once flu season hits in November. (The election cycle will influence this, too.) Our DS had issues while masking, and DS excelled at online school, so even though I'm not happy about it, we are doing one more year. This is DS's last year of middle school, and we agreed he must go to inperson high school no matter what. I worry what will happen with schools this year. In-person schools are so short of teachers here, while our local online program is fully staffed with the same teachers from last year, except for electives.