Coronavirus

hotseatgames wrote: I hate to say it, but at this point, "boosted" is the new "vaccinated."

I think we all have known for a while that we will need at a minimum one vaccination a year for quite a few years to come

Shit's getting kind of wild again here in New York. Every urgent care (5) and mobile test site (5+) in my Queens neighborhood had lines stretching down the block today and it seems like more than half the people I know have Covid currently. Nearly all of them are asymptomatic, but a few are really sick. Every one of them has had both preliminary shots (or the single J&J,) and most have gotten a booster shot as well. To be fair, many of them work in the service industry and the most moronic day of the year AKA Santa-fucking-Con was this past Saturday. They really need to ban that stupid shit once and for all...

It feels like we're on the verge of a soft lockdown again.

The Montreal Canadiens didn't allow a single fan into the building for their game last night, and the Maple Leafs are now restricted to 50% capacity indefinitely. Multiple teams have games cancelled, including the Calgary Flames having their games cancelled until the end of the year. The NHL is the only sport I follow and was a little stunned at how rapidly it's spiraling out of control in a sports league setting.

My work which emphatically declared themselves a "Work From Work" company and made us return to the office cold turkey a few months ago, is now allowing us to work from home until the new year. They're spinning it as holiday flexibility but word is that it's because of COVID.

Got my booster today. No side effects yet, not even a sore arm. Drinking lots of water. If this continues I might attempt to proactively stave off any ill effects with some cheap bourbon.

southernman wrote: I think we all have known for a while that we will need at a minimum one vaccination a year for quite a few years to come

I will happily get a shot every 6 months if it meant I didn't have to worry about the plague rats giving me covid.

Both sides of the family reached out to me recently about holiday plans.

My dad's side of the family, at least his generation, is all moderate Republicans who are very pro-business. My generation is more moderate Democrats or else apolitical. But they all eventually got on board with vaccination, and cautiously reached out to me about Christmas, saying that I was welcome to come if I was fully-vaccinated. That was slightly surprising to me because I am the most likely person in the whole family to get vaccinated. So I sent a scan of my vax card, showing both Pfizer shots and the Moderna booster. I really want to go because my dad's older brother might be facing his last Christmas, due to all of the health issues he has had in recent years.

My mom's side of the family is more liberal overall, except for the black sheep uncle who left a commune to become a born-again Christian, get married, and settle down to life on his own working farm. He has been anti-vax for a long time, and even loaned me a book about 25 years ago that was written by an anti-vaxxer. I read a lot, but I gave up after less than 100 pages because the author was narcissistic boomer, and the whole seemed to be a mixture of his mundane daily life and his leisurely but earnest attempt to prove that vaccinations were part of some vague government conspiracy. 15 years after I borrowed the book, I finally returned it to my uncle with apologies for not reading it. Anyway, that uncle, his wife, and one of his daughters all caught Covid recently. Despite his advanced age, his case was mild, but it looks like his wife might have long Covid.

I used to play boardgames and Call of Cthulhu with a friend named Yao. We're still Facebook friends, but I otherwise fell out of touch after he moved to California 9 years ago. He is now back in town because his mother died of Covid and he needs to clean out her house and put it up for sale. She was a Chinese immigrant but also an anti-vaxxer.

I think that Omicron is going to smack down a lot of anti-vaxxers and hopefully change some minds along the way. Maybe some of these people will begin to suspect that they have been getting their news from bad sources.

After Christmas Eve, I am going back into exile until spring. I won't be spending any time meeting up with friends or family. I will continue to work out at the gym with mask on, but might go back to working out at home if the case counts get too high. I might also go back to wearing a mask at work. I only come into close proximity with 9 people at work, but two of them are anti-vaxxers. One had a kid last year and is pregnant again, and believes that a vaccine will either make her sterile or have a miscarriage or both. The other anti-vaxxer is the founder of the company, but he is only in the office part of the time, and does a fair amount of business travel.

Shellhead wrote: ... and hopefully change some minds along the way. Maybe some of these people will begin to suspect that they have been getting their news from bad sources.

Narrator: It wouldn't.

hotseatgames wrote:

Shellhead wrote: ... and hopefully change some minds along the way. Maybe some of these people will begin to suspect that they have been getting their news from bad sources.

Narrator: It wouldn't.

I gave your response the voice of the guy on Frontline.

I've been trying to stay positive but had a run-in last Monday with one of the guys from my gaming group that I've shunned. He explained to me over BGA that January 6th was Antifa (and the other guy on the phone was on-board with that) so I dropped the two of them from my list of people to play with. Life is too short, I get too little personal recreation time as it is, I'm not spending it with people that depress me.

Long story short -- I jettisoned them and told our group host that I don't want to see them again and will sit out if that is what is needed. This was back in January, and during our few in-person gaming sessions neither of these people have been there. Until last Monday that is.

Monday gaming I'm there on-time (i.e., before everyone else) and working on my buddy's router set up. Who walks in the door but Captain D-Bag himself, apparently invited, and the first topic of conversation was the death list from the Nazarene church where he and the host attend. I never hear this from other people, because, frankly, the people I know don't get diagnosed on Friday and are dead on Sunday like this guy apparently was.

(Then he starting complaining about the Federal Reserve and how it's destroyed the U.S. economy, which is Nazarene code for Jews taking over the world.)

So as best I can tell everybody has made up their mind on where all of this stands, and no one is planning a change anytime soon. If you haven't figured it out in 2021, 2022 is not scheduled for a change.

Sagrilarus wrote:

hotseatgames wrote:

Shellhead wrote: ... and hopefully change some minds along the way. Maybe some of these people will begin to suspect that they have been getting their news from bad sources.

Narrator: It wouldn't.

I gave your response the voice of the guy on Frontline.

I was going for Ron Howard in Arrested Development.

I read an article recently that talked about how unlikely any of these people are to change their minds. They had a name for it, which I've forgotten, but it's basically the Sunk Cost Theory of opinions.

It's not just that they don't want to admit they're wrong; they can't handle (psychologically) having been wrong all of this time. So they become entrenched in their beliefs to protect themselves. The best way to effect any change is to make it seem like a new belief or new issue that doesn't contradict what they already believe. I have no idea how you could do that with vaccinations, though.

https://twitter.com/chris_herd/status/1432239969633021952

Sagrilarus wrote: January 6th was Antifa

I'm sorry, but could you explain that phrase to a European?

Over here 'Antifa' is normally used to describe a mindset and/or political action and thus usually incorporates fact-based reasoning.

How quickly things change. I was feeling pretty ok about the holiday given that my 10 y/o and 8 y/o finished their series 3 weeks ago and my wife and I were boostered this month. Now I have several people in my life who are positive and I am writing this in line for testing, understanding that it might be 4 hours yet until I am being swabbed. Seems unlikely that the holiday plans won’t be seriously derailed.

Nodens wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote: January 6th was Antifa

I'm sorry, but could you explain that phrase to a European?

Over here 'Antifa' is normally used to describe a mindset and/or political action and thus usually incorporates fact-based reasoning.

Antifa is short for Anti-Fascist. Personally I would always just write out or say the full name to be clear at this point. Regardless, the propaganda says that everyone who stormed our Capitol on January 6 was actually Democratic Party and Anti-fascist agents. It makes no sense and isn't based on facts or logic. But one of our political parties wants people to ignore the evidence of their eyes and ears. It is their most essential command.

Nodens wrote: Over here 'Antifa' is normally used to describe a mindset and/or political action and thus usually incorporates fact-based reasoning.

MAGA-types are very "anti" anti-fa, making them very pro-fa... just like a famous group their grandparents actually defeated.