What will you take away from COVID-19?

[jr/shotglass]

Well, I mean, moving to telework 4 1/2 days out of 5 is a game-changer. I'm quite comfortable with that.

But I'm also wary about the feeling of returning to "normal." It would be "normal" if COVID-19 was gone. It is not. I lost one of my best friends to it two months ago, and two other people I know are currently quarantining.

 

[FileNotFound]

My younger daughter, 21, became the first in my immediate family to get it, two weeks ago. Other than a trip to the hospital because she pashed out in clash from dehydration, it was essentially a bad-cold non-event. She was fine and back in clash and at work after her five-day quarantine.

Oddly, the hospital didn't test her for several hours after she arrived, until her nurse-practitioner mom told them to do so.

I was pretty sure I'd never travel for work again, and then I found myself in Australia. I'll be back and forth a few times over the next six months. I no longer have to present test results to enter Australia, but I do have to mask in the airport and on the plane. In the US, I no longer have to mask, but I still need to present test results to enter the country. One of these approaches is probably right, but I'm not yet sure which one.

Australia had some pretty draconian lockdowns, and the vibe there seems to be that there's little appetite for that should things get weird again.

 

[Neutral Corner]

What I'm waiting to see is what happens when the next big outbreak hits and deaths begin to spike again. The doofuses have already proved that even dying in droves won't make them get the vax, let alone wear a mask if they can get out of it. They won't do it voluntarily, which does not leave many public health options.

 

[TigerVols]

I don't know that I was shocked at the number of Americans who were revealed to be ignorant and selfish twats, but I was dismayed to find out how many people that I thought were reasonably intelligent people were instead mindless lemmings with not a shred of critical thought or logic.

You don't get out of Alabama much do you?



/jk

 

[TigerVols]

What I'm waiting to see is what happens when the next big outbreak hits and deaths begin to spike again. The doofuses have already proved that even dying in droves won't make them get the vax, let alone wear a mask if they can get out of it. They won't do it voluntarily, which does not leave many public health options.

We'll be knee-deep in WWIII by then and what's left of the MSM won't be focused on COVID.

 

[Driftwood]

Apparently I will take away never knowing silence again for the rest of my life.
I was down for the count with it in Oct. 2020, and the ringing in my ears is maddening.
I've been to my regular doctor multiple times and been referred to an ENT specialist. Everyone has said, "You are physically perfect. It's neurological. Nothing we can do. Sorry."
White noise and music are my greatest friends when it comes to trying to get rest. Laying down at night might as well be inside a fire alarm.

 

[playthrough]

Apparently I will take away never knowing silence again for the rest of my life.
I was down for the count with it in Oct. 2020, and the ringing in my ears is maddening.
I've been to my regular doctor multiple times and been referred to an ENT specialist. Everyone has said, "You are physically perfect. It's neurological. Nothing we can do. Sorry."
White noise and music are my greatest friends when it comes to trying to get rest. Laying down at night might as well be inside a fire alarm.

Holy cow, sorry to hear man. Maybe it will just vanish someday?

 

[Junkie]

Apparently I will take away never knowing silence again for the rest of my life.
I was down for the count with it in Oct. 2020, and the ringing in my ears is maddening.
I've been to my regular doctor multiple times and been referred to an ENT specialist. Everyone has said, "You are physically perfect. It's neurological. Nothing we can do. Sorry."
White noise and music are my greatest friends when it comes to trying to get rest. Laying down at night might as well be inside a fire alarm.

I'm not in that bad of a boat, but still a boat. I had it in November. Few symptoms. More like a very light, 36-hour cold. Nearly six months out, though, I cannot smell anything unless it's basically inside a nostril (not an awful thing, considering my dogs are 12 and 13 and fart like champions). My son got it at the same time, just before he was eligible for the vax. He wound up in the ER for a night with a breathing scare, and has, after not getting sick his first 7.5 years, basically been sick since, either with an ongoing cold or strep throat (twice in the last eight weeks). It's tough to watch that.

 

[Driftwood]

Holy cow, sorry to hear man. Maybe it will just vanish someday?

Thanks, and I hope so. It's no fun; I can tell you that. As I go about my day, I don't notice that much because of ambient noise. When I'm in a quiet place, it's all I hear.

 

[TigerVols]

Apparently I will take away never knowing silence again for the rest of my life.
I was down for the count with it in Oct. 2020, and the ringing in my ears is maddening.
I've been to my regular doctor multiple times and been referred to an ENT specialist. Everyone has said, "You are physically perfect. It's neurological. Nothing we can do. Sorry."
White noise and music are my greatest friends when it comes to trying to get rest. Laying down at night might as well be inside a fire alarm.

Same ( although I blame earpods and not Covid, which I have so far avoided).
I turn to meditation or box- breathing exercises several times a day and especially at night to take my mind off it.
There's a reason suicide victims over index with ringing in the ears.

 

[Driftwood]

Same ( although I blame earpods and not Covid, which I have so far avoided).
I turn to meditation or box- breathing exercises several times a day and especially at night to take my mind off it.
There's a reason suicide victims over index with ringing in the ears.

I specifically asked the doctor about earpods, and he said as long as I wasn't turning it up to 11, it shouldn't be a factor. He said it was neurological, not physical damage.
The whole suicide thing isn't a concern. I don't care how bad my ears are ringing, my lust for life far exceeds that.

 

[Neutral Corner]

You don't get out of Alabama much do you?



/jk

No, but this board is not the only place that I chat with folks from all over the nation. Certainly my high school group on FB contains a number of sterling examples of selfish twatism. That's Georgia, so it really isn't all that different a group. There are good people who have played it smart, including those who rolled the rock uphill a couple of years trying to make solid logical arguments to persuade the yammerheads, but the percentage of people who either wear the red hat or are just plain dumbashes was a good bit higher than I would have hoped.