Live from Quarantine

[quote]The university has students seated six feet apart and masks are always required,

It's all so fucking neurotic.

For the life of me, since March 2020 when the pandemic started, I have never known or met anyone around me who's infected with this fucking virus. The reaction and procedures taken against this virus are irrational and insane.

It's like killing everything we have known in life just to protect the vulnerable from this benign virus.

OP, you left out a lot of details. Is your student hot? VPL? Does he flirt with you?

R3, I don’t actually know which student it is, they don’t supply that information.

And none of my students flirt with me. So I can say with certainty this student doesn’t flirt with me.

My brother's fraternity has five confirmed cases living in the house, and eight more living outside the house. 30 more are waiting for their test results. Students may be properly masked up at a distance in a classroom, but I can't imagine them keeping good practices in their free time. Those classroom measures don't work 100% of the time. I think it's wise you stay at home.

R2, calling the virus “benign” is willful stupidity. It’s got a 2% death rate, at least, and it’s just getting started.

My 77 year old cousin got it, and spent 10 days in the hospital. My sister-in-law probably had it, based on her symptoms, but couldn’t find a tester.

The scary thing is whether or not you can get reinfected, and under what circumstances? We might be in the situation where we need yearly booster shots. But it’s not benign.

Hi Ernst!

I was quarantined once in the hospital because they thought I might have TB, awaiting my TV test results. I was too sick to care. I was in one of thipose negative pressure rooms with a double-door entranceway. It was pretty dramatic.

I’ve been semi-quarantining at home simply because I’m retired and can do so. I had walking pneumonia from March until at least August, and am 60, so felt like I was at higher risk for catching COVID and possibly dying from it. The isolation is starting to bother me now, but as long as I had books and TV and internet, the time flys. I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this up.

Your quarantine is just for a couple weeks, right? Think of it as an opportunity to complete some household chores, like painting walls or something. Or indulge a new hobby. Good luck.

Oh, the Christmas Moose says “Hi”.

R5, I totally understand and I am certainly going to follow all of the guidelines. I’m just confused about why I was told to quarantine. One of my nieces had a classmate test positive, but the county health department told her parents she didn’t have to quarantine even though they sit next to each other because all students were wearing masks, and therefore there were two barriers between them. I had three barriers according to their definition, two masks and six feet, so I was just confused as to why I was told to quarantine.

R7, yes. Two weeks out. I have a few things I wouldn’t mind doing around the house, it might be a good break. I’ll still be asked to teach my class remotely as long as I feel like I can, and I still have my own classes to attend virtually, but it’s going to be weird to not be allowed to leave. They told me I shouldn’t leave my yard. I also put myself on semi-quarantine at the start, but I was allowed to run around the block, pick up food, etc. I am not even supposed to do those things!

1) Aren't you required to teach online, OP, during your quarantine?

2) Why would you quarantine in dorm? I guess if you don't live alone, this would be helpful.

3) Why on earth are you quarantined for any length of time? My school says everyone wears a mask so nobody in contact with a positive is "quarantined" longer than the 2 days it takes to get. test result. My country Switzerland is very rapid on that - less than 24 hours usually. Tracking has fallen apart here in the last 2 weeks. Too many cases.

If everyone wears a mask it makes it highly unlikely that it can be spread, but it is still possible. Aerosols can pass through even the best masks. Also testing will show a negative result for the first days after you've been infected but while you've already begun spreading it!

Covid is an excuse for many things- many of them pathological and ridiculous. I had a family member placed on quarantine in March and she watched movies and talked on the phone most of the time. They had a meal delivery service (I think Blue Apron or something) and cooked at home.

R2 is an idiot.

Are you going to fist yourself during quarantine now that your 6'6" husband isn't around? Do you want to be gangbanged by the frat bros on campus?

R7, TB? where are you? USA?

you can get it through you EYES dumb cunts.

I was placed on quarantine for 14 days or until I tested negative. At my government job, we are required to "volunteer" to either assist at COVID test sites, deliver meals to seniors, or assist the homeless sheltered at one of the hotels. I did the latter once a week, and during one of those weeks, 4 people at the hotel tested positive, so I was instructed to quarantine for 14 days and get tested. I went to one of the drive-thru test sites, got tested, got the negative test result in two days, and returned to work.

[quote] R7: TB? where are you? USA?

Boston. I went to the ER because I was very ill with a constant hearty cough. The ER at “highly respected” Mass General hospital turned me away with a diagnoses of “cough”. That was so insulting, I got sicker, and went back to the ER two weeks later. I told them I was coughing up blood. (Not a lot but I must have been straining my lungs), I told them that I worked with a lot of people from India and went to Easter Europe a few years earlier, I think the blood in my cough and my Indian co-workers was what promoted the quarantining. This was 2007 and I had a sense they were using me as a practice patient. But it was good I was there because I almost died from pneumonia, at age 47.

I had one reoccurrence of something similar. They wanted to again dismiss me untreated, but I related the above to the triage nurse, and said, “you almost killed me the last time, and I’m not going to let you do that again. I need to see a doctor”. That was surprisingly effective.

So, TB still exists. I have no idea as to why it isn’t still killing people today like it was just 100 years ago.

R9, I do still have to teach online as long as I do not develop symptoms. The professor I am working with told me today she would cover it if needed, but I think I’d like to stay in my routine. I chose to quarantine at home. They provide the option for people who need it, but I don’t think they expect graduate students to take them up on it. The university policy is basically to stay in your room 23 hours and 40 minutes per day. My husband is very healthy, and since I am in a diabetic, he wanted to be able to help take care of me if I do develop symptoms (not expected).

R10, that’s the really weird thing that I’ve been learning about today as I read through the information the health department provided. I am to quarantine in my home for 14 days. My husband, however, continues to lead a normal life. If I develop symptoms and test positive, then he will be placed on quarantine for the entire time I am symptomatic, then for 14 days beyond my first negative test.

R11, I have a free HelloFresh code. We did it for a while, we’ll be doing that some too!

for those that find it hard to stay home etc.

R6 Apparently, you can get re-infected, and the second time may be worse. Recently there was a case in Sweden, and there have been others elsewhere in the past few weeks.

[quote]and since I am in a diabetic,

Your husband is a diabetic?

R20, I don’t disagree with you, but I’m also taking it with a grain of salt.

Three people in the United States have been reinfected, there are 8 million cases, so three doesn't even blip the radar. And there could be other factors at play too. I’m not worried (yet).

R12 - Please leave us a message before you die of COVID, okay? But I guess you will die from diabetes type II first.

R21, at least it’s a funny typo!

I am the diabetic, not him!

But that’s why I love ya, Ernst.

I’ve read that there are two strains of COVID that are circulating. Having antibodies to one does not protect against the other. So, it is not people getting reinfected. It’s people getting the two separate diseases. The second one may tend to be worse, because the first one has already damaged your lungs or heart or whatever. This would be good news, because the idea that COVID can repeatedly reinfect someone implies that you’ll keep getting repeatedly sick until it kills you, even if it takes 5 or 6 times, etc.

I do genealogical research. I find that TB seemed to be completely out of control in the 19th century, in particular. I don’t know why it went away. I’m guessing improved sanitation, perhaps? Plus, when someone gets TB today, they get quarantined. Maybe COVID will become like that? Where it leaves most young people mostly alone, but kills-off half the adult population before the age of 50.

One of the hardest things about COVID for me is that we remain ignorant about so much about it. In particular, whether the “two strain” theory explains the multiple infection rate, or it really does reinfect people? How long do we remain immune after infection? And so forth. I do much better emotionally with any bad news when I feel fully informed. I can tolerate misfortune, but I’m a planner/worrier. The uncertainty is more bothersome than fear of actual infection. This is why Trump ‘s dishonesty is so bothersome to me. I’d rather know what to expect, no matter how bad, than to feel like nothing we’re told can be trusted, and there’s no knowing what extent of troubles we are in for.

I still have supplies of canned goods I bought in Feb/March. I know I should start eating that food, all of it is food I might eat, but I find some of it is food I am simply not excited about it, so it just sits.