Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus

RenegadeMonster said:
That is no longer an option in Massachusetts. The governor is opposed to remote learning and has blocked the ability for schools K-12 to return to remote learning. So what's happening here instead is cancelations rather than going remote.

The governor says they need to hold school in person because studies have shown kids are falling behind, are depressed, suicide rates are up.

All is true, but somehow I feel the bigger motivation to keeping schools open in person is child care to keep the economy running.
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My brother is a teacher in Westborough. He just texted me that over 18% of the high school student body is out sick today.
 
yukbon said:
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From looking at the reporting about the CDC guidance, it appears to be about work capacity, and is not based on any medical or scientific data at all.

look at this weasel language (from CNN's reporting about CDC's guidance -- the CDC guidance itself is a huge fucking clusterfuck of bad communication)

"The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after."

... so the majority, generally kinda sorta.... what?

"Alternatively, if a five-day quarantine is not feasible, it is imperative that an exposed person wear a well-fitting mask at all times when around others for 10 days after exposure," the CDC added.

And even this mealy-mouthed bullshit is being soft-pedaled: "hey if you need to go to work, you gotta work!"

Dr. Anthony Fauci said the changes were aimed, in part, at keeping society running smoothly. "With the sheer volume of new cases that we are having and that we expect to continue with Omicron, one of the things that we want to be careful of is that we don't have so many people out," Fauci told CNN's Jim Acosta. "We want to get people back to the jobs, particularly the essential jobs, to keep society running smoothly," said Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

And there it is.
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And now this unscientific guidance the CDC just released has sparked corporate action:

Walmart is cutting pandemic-related paid leave in half — from two weeks to one week — after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut isolation requirements last week for asymptomatic people with Covid and shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.
www.cnbc.com

Walmart cuts paid Covid leave in half, as CDC isolation guidance changes

The CDC cut isolation requirements last week for asymptomatic people with Covid and shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com

Because hey, it's not like Walmart workers could ever infect the estimated 37 million people that go to a Walmart each day.
 
ranbalam said:
Kind of related to that - my friend called me last week because he didn't feel good and wanted advice. He felt fevery (no thermometer at home) and was shaking. He said his company (he's a virtual/studio casino dealer) allows for five paid sick days, but they also get a point against them for using said sick days, so he was thinking of going in so he didn't get the penalty point. I understand that people can abuse their time off, but to penalize for using what was earned seems so wrong. Sure enough, my wife said they do the same thing at her hospital. That's just insane to me. Is that common?

My friend ended up staying home, then eventually testing positive. Two days later his company shut down for the week because 75% or more of the staff were positive.
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It is common at some of the public middle schools my wife has taught at. They are discouraged from taking any days. I'm sure it has changed a little during COVID at least but still.

Even worse if you have an unavoidable absence after you run out. She started teaching through an essentially OTJ training program where you are under review/probation prior to certification your first few years. Early in the last school year, she had to get surgery that required a few days bed rest to recover from and didn't have enough sick time to cover it because they were on an accrual schedule and had run out of her days the year before due to having a child. She worked this out with her assistant principal ahead of time and agreed for days without pay and some overtime tutoring or something to try to make up. No word about it again until about 6 months later at the end of the year. The principal failed her for her evaluation for "lack of professionalism" specifically for the surgery days. She would have had to give up on teaching or start over completely if she hadn't gotten the previous principal to call in a favor to get the district to offer her a take it or leave it job at one of the worst schools in the county.
 
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When I was working in retail management 10 years ago during the recession, company policy was any sick day without a doctors note was an "unexcused absence". 2 unexcused absences within 90 days would be a write up. Then, if your third unexcused absence occurs within 90 days of your last one it was automatically a write up. Then, a 4th unexcused absence within 6 months of of your third unexcused absence would be an automatic termination.

The timer always resets after you next unexcused absence and real nice of them to extend the last stage to 6 months.

This lead to people having to pay $25 copays at the time every time they called out sick to get a doctors note when they were working low wage jobs. Not to mention, if the reason you are calling out is your kids home sick or schools canceled, good luck getting a doctors note.

Missing more than 3 consecutive shifts you could not return to work without a doctors note.

Being out more than 1 calendar week would put you in short term disability and 2/3rds salary if you were a manager or full time employee. No pay for part time employees.
 
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RenegadeMonster said:
When I was working in retail management 10 years ago during the recession, company policy was any sick day without a doctors note was an "unexcused absence". 2 unexcused absences within 90 days would be a write up. Then, if your third unexcused absence occurs within 90 days of your last one it was automatically a write up. Then, a 4th unexcused absence within 6 months of of your third unexcused absence would be an automatic termination.

The timer always resets after you next unexcused absence and real nice of them to extend the last stage to 6 months.

This lead to people having to pay $25 copays at the time every time they called out sick to get a doctors note when they were working low wage jobs. Not to mention, if the reason you are calling out is your kids home sick or schools canceled, good luck getting a doctors note.
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Terrible. Meanwhile when my friend started his first engineering job in Germany, he was contractually required to take at least one vacation per year that was 3 consecutive weeks for mental health.
 
www.local10.com

No COVID symptoms? ‘Don’t get tested,’ Florida surgeon general says.

New guidance coming from Dr. Joseph Ladapo and the Florida health department will recommend only people with active COVID symptoms and/or medical risk factors get tested, which would eliminate countless people who are lined up.
www.local10.com www.local10.com

Sighs, more games to reduce the positive test counts in the state no doubt.
 
dhodo said:
Terrible. Meanwhile when my friend started his first engineering job in Germany, he was contractually required to take at least one vacation per year that was 3 consecutive weeks for mental health.
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It's not regularly that companies over here adhere to this that strict but normally you get between 25 and 30 days of paid vacation a year and You should generally at least have one 2 week vacation period to refresh . Also although the law says that employers can demand a doctors letter for every sick day most common is that it is only needed if you are sick for more than 3 consecutive days. ( reason being that statistics day workers after faster back to work if they don't have to visit a doctor for every sick day)
 
Indymisanthrope said:
Again, where are the doctors with all this same-day availability in the first place? Are people resorting to urgent care facilities for this?
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For us, yes. My wife was feeling sick and her Dr wasn't responding so I sent her off to urgent care, where she was Dx'd with covid-19. Then her Dr finally got back to us and said yeah they have tests, but we need to sign up on their site. I filled out the online forms but at this point it was already 3pm on the 22nd so we just went to a testing site. Sat in line (in the car) to get everyone else tested but the site closed. There's a 24 hour site but the lines are 6 lanes wide with literally miles long, we just went home. Came back to the place that was shut down the next day... I then found out that because of my job I have access to a special testing facility, so I only had to wait 45 minutes in that line (with the kids and my father in law).

...I got a call this Monday, Jan 4th, from my wife's Dr's office, "Hi, we got your registration form from the website, when can you come in", literally more than a week after I tried to set it up. She had the gall to sound annoyed when I told her I took care of it already.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
Again, where are the doctors with all this same-day availability in the first place? Are people resorting to urgent care facilities for this? How many people in jobs requiring doctors’ notes even have a primary care physician to start with?
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Yes, generally it almost always is an urgent care center they have to go to to get these doctors notes. It often requires waiting 3+ hours as well at said urgent care center.

But it really depends where you live and if your doctor is part of a large medical group.

In rural areas there are still doctors that own their own practices. It's very easy to get a same day sick appointment with them. If you just need a doctors note, hell, just call them and they will have one for you to pick up at the office. No visit / co-pay required.

But in urban areas, it's far more likely your doctor is part of a medical group and due to higher population likely doesn't have the ability to see you same day.

The medical group is important to mention, because they would never write a doctors note without a visit / without charging a co-pay. They are more concerned about profits and liability.

When I had Bell's Palsy in 2020 I called my doctors office to make an appointment. They immediately referred me to go to their medical groups "Priority Care Center". Because of Covid they were making appointment windows. And the earliest they could get me in was the next morning.

The priority care center recommended a follow up appointment with my doctor in 1 week. Being the same medical group they could help book the appointment right there and then. The earliest they could get me in to see my doctor for the follow up was a little over 2 weeks later :oops:
 
Two different cases against the Biden Administration vaccine and testing mandates will be in front of the SCOTUS today. The two cases made their way to the SCOTUS through emergency action.

www.cnn.com

These Supreme Court arguments are about far more than vaccine mandates | CNN

Jennifer Rodgers writes that the US Supreme Court oral arguments over federal Covid-19 vaccine mandates could foreshadow the conservative majority's view of executive power: specifically, how much control the federal government has over rule-making.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

These cases are different than previous cases heard by the SCOTUS on vaccine mandates and testing which they upheld. Because these cases are against federal agencies. The department of labor and health and human services.

These cases are brought on by states saying these federal agencies do not have the constitutional power to issue said mandates. States believe they are the only ones who would have the power to issue such mandates. And we all know if the power were to revert back to the states the mandates would only exist in blue states and red states wouldn't have them.

We will have to watch and see what happens here.
 
Right now the SCOTUS is floating the idea of issuing a stay against the vaccine and testing mandate that is to go into effect on January 10th.

The conservatives are trouble by the mandate, but feel they need more time to figure things out.

Right now it's looking like the most likely outcome will be a temporary stay of the mandates. Far short a permanent injunction the states are looking for.
 
Just like everything else related to the pandemic, what you think of the CDC's new quarantine guidelines is politicized as well.

Many of us here see if for what it is. It's more about keeping the economy open than scientific data. But bring that up in a discussion with someone who is on the other end of the political spectrum and you would be wrong in their mind. They all say the updated guidelines is based on data over the last two years that show you are most likely to be infectious during the time period of the new quarantine guidance. And it's all about the data. When I countered I was asked to produce data to back up my claims.

The data I gave them was the rest of the world still has longer quarantine and our quarantine used to be longer because data shows you can still spread COVID for two weeks. That they were missing that the CDC's decision was based on averages, and they key word "most infections". I agreed with them that the CDC's decision was based on data, but equally so with the needs of the economy. The new guidance is not about stopping the spread. It's all about quarantining when you are only "most infections".

But of course I was wrong, and still didn't provide data that proves my point. :rolleyes:
 
RenegadeMonster said:
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Man, this is devastating. My heart breaks for the families, and for the health care professionals that will be forever scarred by this pandemic and the misinformation that has helped to fuel it.

I got a positive antigen this morning. I've had a sore throat and mild headache since Thursday and feared the worst (tests were negative on Thursday and Friday). It's pretty mild (I'm vaccinated and boosted). In a normal time I'd pop some advil and deal with it, but here I am isolating in my bedroom. The wild thing is I have absolutely zero idea where it came from. The number of people I've seen unmasked is limited to my family (my kids tested negative at school on Monday, and my wife had it the week before xmas). Aside from work (where I see three coworkers, always with masks), I haven't left the house in weeks... Literally not even a trip to the grocery store. I wish I had at least a good story to go along with this.

Be safe out there.
 
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