Coronavirus

Since being back in the US (returned in April) we have had to isolate three times. Thankfully none of us have gotten sick, but we've had some close shaves. My wife's uncle passed away last week, and another friend whom we just saw last month died suddenly yesterday. The former for sure had covid, and I think the latter did too. As far as I know neither were vaccinated.

This is all so tragic and so absurd.

From Sept. 2-9, more than 243,000 children were diagnosed with the virus, per the AAP’s metrics. The week prior saw 251,781 new cases among children, the highest number of child cases in a single week overall. In short, as children return to school for in-person learning this fall, there’s been an uptick: “child cases have increased exponentially, with nearly 500,000 cases in the past 2 weeks,” the AAP report said.

Idaho is proudly dead last in vaccination rates. Our solid 40% of 2-shot fully vaxed people would put us tied with such beacons as Wyoming and West Virginia, but it's our 1-dosers of 46% that really brings home the victory.

Land of the free, home of the bodybag and all that. Our Republican governor might actually have some sense about these things (he's basically begged people to get vaccinated), but he's being circled by two loons attempting to primary him. One you'll remember as taking over a federal bird sanctuary building in Oregon a few years ago, and the other you might have seen enacting an executive order (as Lt Gov) against masks when the actual governor stepped out of state to a conference.

So any semblance of sanity is being checked by political pressures here. We just approved a guy to the local health department who's a pro-ivermectin anti-vaxxer. Apparently he's a doctor, but his specialty is skin pathology, at least until his clinic started doing Covid tests. I can't imagine there's any conflict of interest there with continued constant testing.

I live in the middle of a death cult. Hopefully I'll see you on the other side.

These vaccines are great but I'm not even slicing bagels right now, because I'd bleed out waiting to get into the hospital.

Speaking of Idaho I've lost track of how many articles I've read saying the real estate market there is growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country. Are you seeing a lot of transplants in your area ?

Msample wrote: Speaking of Idaho I've lost track of how many articles I've read saying the real estate market there is growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country. Are you seeing a lot of transplants in your area ?

Yes. Although, to be honest that's been the case for a long time, things just accelerated recently. For many years people here hated Californians for moving in and "liberalizing" the place, but I'd argue it's the opposite now. People are moving here to double down on their conservativism. Instead of hearing "Well, in California we..." anymore you hear "I'm so glad it's not like back in California".

Of course, everyone here now still hates everyone who got here later for jacking prices up, but I've been hearing that same drumbeat for years.

Property values are absolutely nuts around here, though. The house I bought six years ago has doubled in price, maybe more. Some people are looking at 3-4x values if they bought ten years back in the slump. Wages have, shall we say, not kept up with that growth. Renters are screwed here right now.

All this with no masks and a 40% vax rate!

My conservative brother has been talking about moving from CA to ID for a couple years now.

I guess to escape the crushing communist oppression of the (checks) fifth largest economy in the world. CA is apparently very bad at communism.

Well, both kids have tested positive. We had them tested on Sunday, and we just got the results today, on Friday. The older one is congested and says he's a little more tired than usual, but that's it. The younger one has no symptoms at all yet. The house where we're staying has very little room to isolate people, so we are masking around the house right now.

My head has been swirling with boredom, anger, fear, and cabin fever. I do not recommend the combination.

Aw man. Good luck and stay safe.

Bleh, that sucks man.

Yikes. Sorry to hear that, Nate. Hope everyone comes through OK. Wish you were closer. I'd at least try to pry you out of the house so we could play something on our very large back porch.

Thanks everyone. We're really okay. The boys are about the same (sniffles for the old one, nothing for the young) and my wife and I are also fine. So far we are getting with a light covid experience.

Quick update...it's been at least two weeks since our exposure. My wife and I, along with our younger son, have no symptoms at all. Our older son has only had a stuffed up head. Not sure how long we are supposed to wait to say that we are in the clear, but so far we are very grateful that we have had about as light a covid experience as anyone can have.

My wife and I got our flu shots a few weeks back, and I am wondering if that might have some impact on this experience. Does anyone have insight into that?

I can only speak anecdotally, but I got my second Pfizer shot on 5/5 and my seasonal flu shot a few weeks ago. No reactions to either. I had a really sore arm after my first Pfizer shot but nothing more than that.

Local mask usage is highly variable, depending on context. At least 90% mask usage at the grocery store, but maybe 15% at a nearby gym. I went to a busy coffee shop on Sunday morning, and the only people wearing masks were myself and one barista. I guess we have reached a point in the pandemic where everybody has internalized their own unique collection of covid facts and/or disinformation that allows them to do whatever they want. It's a flaw in human character that we can't easily cope with threats unless they are big and tangible. It's the same reason why we ultimately aren't going to do anything useful about climate change, at least not on a scale that matters.