COVID-19 2nd wave - Texas only - Stats and such

[gurt 749]

I got it for the first time (I think). Started feeling bad on Friday, then had a buddy who I saw on Tuesday say he tested positive. I immediately took a home test and came back negative, took another the next day and still negative. Meanwhile we are moving into a new house during all this, couldn’t come at a more inconvenient time. Nothing like moving mattresses in the triple digits while feeling like crap. Finally tested positive today.

Overall it has just felt like a severe and long lasting cold, like others have said.

[South Austin 52,600]

My girlfriend's daughter started showing symptoms on Saturday -- congestion, low-grade fever, fatigue, nothing too terrible.  Home test was negative.  Subsequent PCR and flu test came back negative.  She felt fine two days later.  I've heard a lot of stories like that.  It may be combination of current testing not as effective in picking up the latest strain, and there's a non-COVID summer virus going around.

[atomheartbevo 89,792]

My other kid tested positive yesterday.  For the three of us in the house using the at-home kits, when we popped positive it started showing quick. 
 

Also half my family has it now.  WTF this shit is spreading fast.  

[South Austin 52,600]

8 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

WTF this shit is spreading fast.  

Due in part because most of the population is in "don't give a fuck mode," and I've admittedly moved into this camp recently. 

And for anecdotal evidence, take my New York City trip last weekend.  As soon as we got to ABIA, I noticed that less than 10% of the folks inside the airport were wearing masks, and that % held true once we got on the plane.  If everyone isn't wearing masks, then any protection from me and my son wearing masks goes way down, so we just took ours off.  And when we got to New York and it's mass of humanity, about the same 10% or less of the people around us were wearing masks, whether outside or in museums, restaurants, retail stores, the subway, etc.  The only place that required masks was the Gershwin Theater.  We got back to Austin on Sunday, and so far neither me nor my son has felt any symptoms.

This latest variant should burn through the population.  And for the sake of transitioning COVID from pandemic to endemic, it seems like that's a good thing, especially if hospitalizations remain low.

[atomheartbevo 89,792]

1 minute ago, South Austin said:

This latest variant should burn through the population.  And for the sake of transitioning COVID from pandemic to endemic, it seems like that's a good thing, especially if hospitalizations remain low.

Top Gun:Maverick and the new Buzz Lightyear movie should help with the spread.

[South Austin 52,600]

Just now, atomheartbevo said:

Top Gun:Maverick and the new Buzz Lightyear movie should help with the spread.

Add the new Jurassic Park flick.  And Thor: Love and Thunder should keep this thing going through the summer.

[Captainant 27,764]

For fucks sake. I'm going to be in Las Vegas the week of June 20th for a big work conference, and then in ATX the weekend before July 4th running the expo hall for a fan convention.

I should see if I can get a booster, for whatever good it'll do me... Facemasks are back, baby!

 

Fuck.

[Skipper 6,200]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

My girlfriend's daughter started showing symptoms on Saturday -- congestion, low-grade fever, fatigue, nothing too terrible.  Home test was negative.  Subsequent PCR and flu test came back negative.  She felt fine two days later.  I've heard a lot of stories like that.  It may be combination of current testing not as effective in picking up the latest strain, and there's a non-COVID summer virus going around.

The deal with the rapid test is that many aren't showing positive until day 2 or so after symptoms.  In the UK it's apparently common practice to swab throat as well if trying to catch early.  For some reason messaging on rapid test delay positives is not widespread here.  Essentially I think the theory is that, particularly if you have been vaccinated or had a prior infection, your antibodies recognize and start fighting the virus immediately leading to symptoms, but it doesn't settle into the mucus sufficiently to flash positive for a couple of test.  Michael Mina (doc/lab guy, not the chef) has been beating this drum for months which is the only reason I know about it.   I'm sure tons of people have been infected, tested negative day 1 and assumed they had something else.

[South Austin 52,600]

44 minutes ago, Skipper said:

The deal with the rapid test is that many aren't showing positive until day 2 or so after symptoms.  In the UK it's apparently common practice to swab throat as well if trying to catch early.  For some reason messaging on rapid test delay positives is not widespread here.  Essentially I think the theory is that, particularly if you have been vaccinated or had a prior infection, your antibodies recognize and start fighting the virus immediately leading to symptoms, but it doesn't settle into the mucus sufficiently to flash positive for a couple of test.  Michael Mina (doc/lab guy, not the chef) has been beating this drum for months which is the only reason I know about it.   I'm sure tons of people have been infected, tested negative day 1 and assumed they had something else.

And I've thought about that.  It's possible that a large contributor of the spread is folks who have minor symptoms, test right away and get a negative, and if they don't feel any worse they go about their business at work, in HEB, etc.

[CHEF DIESEL 126]

Philmont Scout Ranch is reporting that since seasonal staff(college age) reported for summer work that 63 cases have been reported in the last couple days among a total of about 1300 staff. Sort of a big outbreak. I was told it's nearly all unvaccinated Mormons which make up a number of staff and participants. Seems that covid spread instantly across those who were not immunized.

My son is in Boy Scouts and headed up there in a few weeks for a 10 day trek. That would suck to come down with covid out in the mountains and have to hike to an area where you can be taken back to base camp.

[crash_davis 23,115]

Going to Europe in 2 weeks. Getting my 2nd booster today. 1st booster was back in October. Not sure it will fend off the new variants including monkeypoxilcoviditis. Wish me luck.

Also hoping new booster will help me get better 5G connection in Greece. Win win!

Edited June 8, 2022 by crash_davis

[justhookit 4,191]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

My other kid tested positive yesterday.  For the three of us in the house using the at-home kits, when we popped positive it started showing quick. 
 

Also half my family has it now.  WTF this shit is spreading fast.  

Yup. In my immediate family, 4 out of 6 of us have all had it in the last 3 weeks. 3 different cities and 3 different exposures - one convention, one bar, one car ride. All very mild cases except one. The 3 of us with mild cases wouldn’t have even tested if we didn’t know we had been exposed.

All of us are boosted with no known prior Covid infection.

[Skipper 6,200]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

And I've thought about that.  It's possible that a large contributor of the spread is folks who have minor symptoms, test right away and get a negative, and if they don't feel any worse they go about their business at work, in HEB, etc.

Right.  Mine was mild and I wasn't sure what it was but I tested solely out of (i) curiosity, (ii) to know if I got a natural "booster" so future booster wasn't on my radar rest of the year (at least) and (iii) because we had not yet vaccinated our 5 year old and were considering but not if he had a known infection.  So testing answered my questions (and luckily it was a super mild case for kids because I did feel a lot of dad guilt for the 24 hours he ran a fever).  I'm not sure at what point we test again as I'm not going to test every time we get a cold which is inevitable.  Hell my son has a cough and I feel a bit stopped up now.  Not wasting $$ on test kits to check symptoms 10X per year with young kids constantly bringing shit home. 

[atomheartbevo 89,792]

7 hours ago, Skipper said:

The deal with the rapid test is that many aren't showing positive until day 2 or so after symptoms.  In the UK it's apparently common practice to swab throat as well if trying to catch early. 

I wish I had done that - I had symptoms, tested with rapid test a day or two later, negative, then things worsened and I tested positive two days later.

[Brisketexan 105,329]

All three members of the household of our neighbors tested positive, all are asymptomatic (they had to test for travel).  Again, just another data point.

[Celery Man 20,996]

We get sick all the time these days because daycare. I swear to God whatever we had should be covid, but we’ve tested several times each and no positive. Would be our first go round, so I suppose I just mean that we got something that gave us a 2 week moderate butt kicking. Not as bad as the stomach bug we had a while back, but it has just hung around. And weird sinus stuff for me - my jaw was swollen for a day, now I have pressure under my eyebrows.

9 hours ago, South Austin said:

The only place that required masks was the Gershwin Theater.  

How was Wicked? We’re heading up in a few weeks and I couldn’t interest the wife in Hamilton, she wants to see the oz thing.

[utee94 15,862]

I guess our tequila shield finally failed.

My wife is a physical therapist and spends hours every day in close proximity to others. I'm honestly surprised it took this long, but she finally got it.  A patient of hers that she treated and interacted with closely on Monday a week ago, started feeling symptoms on Tuesday and tested positive Wednesday and told my wife.  My wife canceled her patients for the rest of the week but felt fine, then started having some mild symptoms Friday, tested positive on Sunday.  I of course started feeling symptoms on Sunday night and tested positive on Tuesday.

Both of our cases very mild, feels basically like allergies/cedar fever for 3 days.  I'm pretty much back to normal now and my wife was fine on Monday.  We're both vaxed and boosted, which I'm sure contributed to the mildness and short duration.

It's nice to know I should now have super-human viral defensive capabilities.

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by utee94

[South Austin 52,600]

Just now, Celery Man said:

How was Wicked? We’re heading up in a few weeks and I couldn’t interest the wife in Hamilton, she wants to see the oz thing.

I didn’t love it (and would’ve preferred Hamilton, but the tickets were twice as much), but it was really, really good. You’ll like it.

[CooterBrown 18,028]

Flew to London from Austin last night. If I didn’t have COVID, I surely do now. There were probably 50 people on the flight that were constantly coughing and hacking.

[atomheartbevo 89,792]

10 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Flew to London from Austin last night. If I didn’t have COVID, I surely do now. There were probably 50 people on the flight that were constantly coughing and hacking.

Not sure which of these to repost from 2020, so whynotboth.gif

 

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

Flew to London from Austin last night. If I didn’t have COVID, I surely do now. There were probably 50 people on the flight that were constantly coughing and hacking.

Good luck with that return flight. I'm in Amsterdam for work flying back to Austin tomorrow and just tested positive so looks like I'll be sticking around a little bit longer.

[South Austin 52,600]

2 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Flew to London from Austin last night. If I didn’t have COVID, I surely do now. There were probably 50 people on the flight that were constantly coughing and hacking.

Well, if I had to pick somewhere cool to die, England is as good a place as any.

Edited June 9, 2022 by South Austin

[Pato del Muerto 52,596]

2 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Flew to London from Austin last night. If I didn’t have COVID, I surely do now. There were probably 50 people on the flight that were constantly coughing and hacking.

Did anyone you saw have the courtesy of choosing to wear a mask in an attempt to protect others on the flight?  
 

probably pointless on a trip like that where most will sleep for some portion of it, and nobody would sleep with a mask. 
 

locally, there is now a noticeable uptick in hospitalizations, but it’s still at 10% of what it was at its worst for omicron, and doesn’t yet show signs of being a hyperbolic increase. 
 

instead of 5-7 admits a day it’s 12-15. 

[texasdago 7,579]

27 minutes ago, Grade of D as in David said:

Good luck with that return flight. I'm in Amsterdam for work flying back to Austin tomorrow and just tested positive so looks like I'll be sticking around a little bit longer.

So are you required to quarantine or stay somewhere specific?  Just curious... 

[CooterBrown 18,028]

Did anyone you saw have the courtesy of choosing to wear a mask in an attempt to protect others on the flight?  
 
probably pointless on a trip like that where most will sleep for some portion of it, and nobody would sleep with a mask. 
 
locally, there is now a noticeable uptick in hospitalizations, but it’s still at 10% of what it was at its worst for omicron, and doesn’t yet show signs of being a hyperbolic increase. 
 
instead of 5-7 admits a day it’s 12-15. 

We wore masks. Slept in them too which sucked. I’d say overall usage on the flight was around 10%. Of the coughers I could see, none of them were masked.

[EuroHorn 3,268]

47 minutes ago, texasdago said:

So are you required to quarantine or stay somewhere specific?  Just curious... 

you’re required to quarantine as a sex worker in the red light district 

[Scheiss Meister 8,411]

2 hours ago, South Austin said:

Well, if I had to pick somewhere cool to die, England is as good a place as any.

Aw hell no!  If I can't die in Texas, let me die in Scotland.

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

2 hours ago, texasdago said:

So are you required to quarantine or stay somewhere specific?  Just curious... 

I'm supposed to hole up in my hotel room for the next 5 days. I need to see if the red light district window girls deliver.

[Incredulity 11,683]

2 minutes ago, Grade of D as in David said:

I'm supposed to hole up in my hotel room for the next 5 days.  

That would really fucking suck.

 

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

Just now, Incredulity said:

That would really fucking suck.

 

I'll be shocked if I have not smeared shit all over the walls and gone feral by the time this is over.

[Hate 20,144]

I'll be shocked if I have not smeared shit all over the walls and gone feral by the time this is over.

Will they deliver alcohol to your room? Maybe some weed or shrooms?

[South Austin 52,600]

18 minutes ago, Hate said:

Will they deliver alcohol to your room? Maybe some weed or shrooms?

Sounds like they need to deliver toilet paper instead.

[Pato del Muerto 52,596]

Well Austin msa is now moved to medium/yellow because cases/100k have edged over 200 (203). 
 

hospitalization metrics are still nice and low, though Covid admits/100k (hopefully they mean admits for c19 but who knows) is up to 4 from 2.2 and the threshold from medium to high is 10. 
 

no clue if this triggers anything or is just FIO. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Pato del Muerto

[Radical Larry 28,662]

Good luck with that return flight. I'm in Amsterdam for work flying back to Austin tomorrow and just tested positive so looks like I'll be sticking around a little bit longer.

There are worse places to get stuck - Kabul, Pyongyang, College Station, Norman, etc.

[Deej 76,915]

6 minutes ago, Radical Larry said:

There are worse places to get stuck - Kabul, Pyongyang, College Station, Norman, etc.

Don't forget a Texas/Kansas football game. 

[InkaUtexas 26,097]

9 minutes ago, Radical Larry said:

There are worse places to get stuck - Kabul, Pyongyang, College Station, Norman, etc.

I would pick Kabul over College Station. At least I know I will be able to get some good kebabs 

[texasdago 7,579]

Well, if it happens to us I'm renting a house in the Italian countryside 

[dcbc 14,509]

8 hours ago, Grade of D as in David said:

in Amsterdam for work flying back to Austin tomorrow and just tested positive

RIP  Hope she was worth it.

[Radical Larry 28,662]

Well, if it happens to us I'm renting a house in the Italian countryside 

Don’t pick Tuscany. No houses to rent there.

[MissingInAction 25,183]

On 6/8/2022 at 9:07 AM, atomheartbevo said:

Top Gun:Maverick and the new Buzz Lightyear movie should help with the spread.

Bob Bullock was packed to the gills when I saw Maverick. Maybe two masks in sight. 

Id say half the people I know have had it, but luckily no hospital admissions.

I'm pretty sure I've had it and thougt it was allergies. 

Fuckitol I'm L I V I N.

[Homercles 10,206]

Outside Incredulity how many are repeats here?  

[justhookit 4,191]

32 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

Bob Bullock was packed to the gills when I saw Maverick. Maybe two masks in sight. 

Id say half the people I know have had it, but luckily no hospital admissions.

I'm pretty sure I've had it and thougt it was allergies. 

Fuckitol I'm L I V I N.

Yeah knowing what I know now I’m pretty sure anyone who thinks they haven’t had it actually did, but didn’t know it. This variant is truly just like bad allergies or cold for almost everyone. My mom is the exception, she has it right now and is fairly sick. She got the monoclonal antibody yesterday and also Paxlovid and is doing a little better today.

Cindy somehow has avoided it while I’ve had it she just tested negative again. Either she had it before and didn’t know which is my guess, or she’s just immune somehow.

[StruggleBus 3,922]

On 6/8/2022 at 8:17 AM, South Austin said:

My girlfriend's daughter started showing symptoms on Saturday -- congestion, low-grade fever, fatigue, nothing too terrible.  Home test was negative.  Subsequent PCR and flu test came back negative.  She felt fine two days later.  I've heard a lot of stories like that.  It may be combination of current testing not as effective in picking up the latest strain, and there's a non-COVID summer virus going around.

I know 12 or so people that have had it in the last couple weeks. All have tested positive on rapid tests once symptoms were present. And none of them got PCR tests or bothered going to the doctor, so yeah, case counts are massively underreported right now. 

Edited June 10, 2022 by StruggleBus

[atomheartbevo 89,792]

3 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

There are worse places to get stuck - Kabul, Pyongyang, College Station, Norman, etc.

Pattaya, Thailand.

You better have a certain fetish, because otherwise

[atomheartbevo 89,792]

1 hour ago, MissingInAction said:

I'm pretty sure I've had it and thougt it was allergies. 

1 hour ago, justhookit said:

Yeah knowing what I know now I’m pretty sure anyone who thinks they haven’t had it actually did, but didn’t know it. This variant is truly just like bad allergies or cold for almost everyone

Yeah, all four in my family, we all started out like bad allergies (not helped by me and one of the kids catching it just as allergies were in fact really bad).  If there had been no fevers, I might have kept on assuming allergies.

[MissingInAction 25,183]

1 hour ago, justhookit said:

Yeah knowing what I know now I’m pretty sure anyone who thinks they haven’t had it actually did, but didn’t know it. This variant is truly just like bad allergies or cold for almost everyone. My mom is the exception, she has it right now and is fairly sick. She got the monoclonal antibody yesterday and also Paxlovid and is doing a little better today.

Cindy somehow has avoided it while I’ve had it she just tested negative again. Either she had it before and didn’t know which is my guess, or she’s just immune somehow.

She should donate some blood to a research group for study.

[atomheartbevo 89,792]

59 minutes ago, StruggleBus said:

I know 12 or so people that have had it in the last couple weeks. All have tested positive on rapid tests once symptoms were present. 

Once we had symptoms, it still took 36-48 hours for the rapid tests to show positive, and by then we were really heavy on the symptoms.

I regret not swabbing my throat when I first had symptoms, as the nose swab showed negative.

I will say that once the symptoms were fully present, the rapid tests hit positive within just a minute or two.

[t_eight 150]

US will end Covid-19 testing requirement for air travelers entering the country - CNNPolitics

 

[Deej 76,915]

13 hours ago, StruggleBus said:

I know 12 or so people that have had it in the last couple weeks. All have tested positive on rapid tests once symptoms were present. And none of them got PCR tests or bothered going to the doctor, so yeah, case counts are massively underreported right now. 

I saw an estimate of cases being undercounted by a factor of 30. 

[UnivTex34 1,763]

Checking in. Daycare called at 10, 2 positives in his class. Got the little man home, and he tested positive immediately on rapid test. Been at daycare since last may, so not sure how we dodged it for so long. He's two, so can't really isolate, so I'm sure I will not be far behind.