Again, my frustration. We should not need "Ignore." We should be able to trade strategies for staying safe. Post #591 is very interesting and is actually constructive. Yes, let's keep staying out of restaurants. Let's try to ignore the crackpottery, trolling and snark, but engage when people are actually being helpful.
Masks are the greatest for protection. What was it, like 20 minutes when Fauci said not to wear a mask because HCPs needed them, now people act like he was running around ripping people's masks off for six months? Yeah, that kind of pisses me off, but whatever, bygones.
Yeah, and there was a brief period (in the US) when N95s were hard to get. But then I remembered-- (I think I posted this story before) in about 2004, I bought a reusable respirator to avoid dust when I was vacuuming leaves in the back yard... and I remembered being pissed because I had to buy a more expensive one because the cheap ones were sold out. I'd only used the thing maybe six times for 45 minutes.
I go down to the garage -- which is in a state of unthinkable chaos -- and incredibly, I lay my hand on this respirator immediately, and look up the filters online. Yup: N95 or P100 equivalent! I wore that damn thing indoors everywhere I went for 8 months. It had a valve, so I taped some N95 filtering over that.
Waited until last August to get vaccinated, but never got COVID. Now I have a better valveless, two-way reusable N95/P100 respirator that filters both incoming and outgoing air, and I've been working face-to-face with COVID patients (albeit only briefly indoors, mostly outdoors) for two months-- standing right next to them while they are coughing, less than 24 hours after they get out of quarantine. I use a conventional disposable N95 outdoors and the respirator indoors.
Some of those folks had to have been contagious, it's impossible that I wasn't exposed somewhere, 15% of the students had it. You can get Omicron swimming in the same outdoor pool with someone who is infected, this has been contact traced, it's insanely easy to catch.
Didn't get COVID, as far as I know.
There is no evidence that repeated exposure to small viral loads of COVID produces immunity. Unfortunately, asymptomatic infection doesn't even produce immunity. (God, I wish it did.) However, the idea of some kind of prophylaxis post exposure -- Zinc, for example, and vitamins, I don't know about washing out your nostrils -- certainly can't hurt and might even help. No substitute for the protection we got from the vaccine last summer and most of this winter, but why not?
I don't know why someone would not wear a mask in an indoor public place right now, or make assumptions about their own immunity, vaxed or not. Omicron changed the game. A lot COVID here in Cali and many other places, a lot of friends have been sick in the past couple of months. Hoping none of them become long-haulers. This spring was frickin' horrible here. A lot of people relapsing, too-- if you do get Covid and recover, take a few weeks off from partying! Purely anecdotal, but the heavy drinkers tended to relapse more from what I could see. I'm so glad the school year is over, this spring just SUCKED.
Everybody be careful, everyone stay safe. I am officially fasting from this thread for another two weeks! Peace out.
. For common cold remedy.
