Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus

My mothers company returned to the office 3 days a week earlier this month and from everything I have heard it's a complete shit show.

The CEO of their holding company has always been firm on "We are not a work from home company, never have been, never will be. We want you in the office to collaborate." But it's a corporate office for retail and everything can be done remotely.

This corporate office is located in rural Western Massachusetts, Trump country. The holding companies requirements are you must be vaccinated to return to the office unless you have a medical or religious exemption. If you are not vaccinated you must wear a mask at all times.

My mothers team mate who works in the cubical next to her is not vaccinated and refuses to wear a mask. It's been almost 4 weeks now where they have been back in the office and nothing has been done to address this workers refusal to wear a mask.

Through gossip, my mother has heard that fewer than 50% of the employees in the office have been vaccinated.

Their current plans are to return to the office 5 days a week by July. With some employees having the option to work from home 1 day a week with manager approval (like before covid).

To add insult to injury, the company was very clear about they would not supply equipment to work from home. You must return your monitor, keyboard, mouse, dock and so on. So guess what happened when my mother lugged all that stuff back to the office on day one? They had pallets of new equipment in the office. They tossed the equipment she returned in a recycling dumpster and gave her a new monitor, mouse and keyboard. The dock is done as the new monitor is a USB-c display with additional ports in the back acting as a dock.

She asked them straight up. Your telling me you are throwing all this stuff out and I can't continue to use it at home. Their answer was "Yup". Company policy is IT does not provide equipment for home office use.


Looks like conservatives organized to do something a labor union does.
 

It comes to no surprise to me that the actual death toll is higher than what has been reported.

The latest WHO data suggest that it is 3 times higher actually.
 

It comes to no surprise to me that the actual death toll is higher than what has been reported.

The latest WHO data suggest that it is 3 times higher actually.
Many experts believe that here in the US, we are counting about one case in seven.
 

It comes to no surprise to me that the actual death toll is higher than what has been reported.

The latest WHO data suggest that it is 3 times higher actually.


The simplest and most crude way to measure this is look at worldwide deaths before the pandemic and them looks at it during the pandemic. I’m sure there was a spike.
 
The simplest and most crude way to measure this is look at worldwide deaths before the pandemic and them looks at it during the pandemic. I’m sure there was a spike.

Oh for sure. There is a great deal of extra deaths unaccounted for that likely belong to covid.

Wonder how they didn't die from covid, they died with covid arguments fit into this.
 
The simplest and most crude way to measure this is look at worldwide deaths before the pandemic and them looks at it during the pandemic. I’m sure there was a spike.
But there was also the young people dying mystery too.

“We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica,” the company’s CEO Scott Davison said during an online news conference this week. “The data is consistent across every player in that business.”

OneAmerica is a $100 billion insurance company that has had its headquarters in Indianapolis since 1877. The company has approximately 2,400 employees and sells life insurance, including group life insurance to employers nationwide.


Davison said the increase in deaths represents “huge, huge numbers,” and that’s it’s not elderly people who are dying, but “primarily working-age people 18 to 64” who are the employees of companies that have group life insurance plans through OneAmerica.

“And what we saw just in third quarter, we’re seeing it continue into fourth quarter, is that death rates are up 40% over what they were pre-pandemic,” he said.

“Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, a three-sigma or a one-in-200-year catastrophe would be 10% increase over pre-pandemic,” he said. “So 40% is just unheard of.”

Davison was one of several business leaders who spoke during the virtual news conference on Dec. 30 that was organized by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Most of the claims for deaths being filed are not classified as COVID-19 deaths, Davison said.

“What the data is showing to us is that the deaths that are being reported as COVID deaths greatly understate the actual death losses among working-age people from the pandemic. It may not all be COVID on their death certificate, but deaths are up just huge, huge numbers.”


I actually saw a deeper analysis on the deaths and it was found that the lion's share of deaths in this younger age cohort were due to neoplasms (cancer) and dementia--I was surprised that this wasn't due to suicide or overdose, but if you take these incidences out, it barely changes your death rate. And that 2020 levels for the deaths of these conditions are much higher than 2019.

This was a head scratcher for me until I came across another study that found that people who had problems paying for cancer care were about 10 to 20% more likely to die of cancer. I do wonder if we saw excess deaths in this younger cohort due to loss of health insurance or the limiting of health insurance in 2020--or just the general issue of everything getting more expensive.

While yes, you are absolutely right, the easiest and the most valid way to get these stats is by extrapolating based on deaths before vs after, but I think that this statistic will probably suffer from overcounting when it comes to younger cohorts. We really need to look at 1. the affects of long term covid on younger people and 2. the sudden spike of deaths in this cohort to figure out why they are getting more sick from conditions that they were not dying from in such great rates pre pandemic.

This is immensely interesting to me and I could go on, but I will limit myself because no one else gets this geeky over population statistics.
 
Not really a big sharer of personal life stuff on here but am sharing because I am wondering how other folks have dealt with Covid.

I tested positive last week Monday after having some light symptoms on Saturday and Sunday of that weekend. My girlfriend and I have been working remote for the past 2 years and decided to come back, voluntarily, into the office two weeks before I tested positive, in Mid-April. The office is a huge converted warehouse with 30ft ceilings. At any time there's maybe 12 people in the building that normally would house at least 120 people. The closest person to me is about 10 feet away. On that Monday, I started working remote that day because I thought I just had a cold. My close sitting coworker chatted me and asked how I was feeling because he had a fever and congestion over the weekend but had a negative PCR test. I did an at home which was positive and then positive PCR results a day later. We don't go anywhere unmasked since then and I still grocery shop and run errands with a mask but the only maskless place was sitting at our desks.

Anyways, it was lousy for about 3 days and then I've been back to work remote dealing with just some nasal congestion and off-and-on mucus since then. I was hopeful that 8 days after first testing positive with the at-home test I'd have been cleared today. Still positive 😩. I've felt fine, exercised by taking some walks more days than I've not and even took an 8 mile bike ride yesterday. Not fatigued in the slightest.

For anyone who's had it recently, how long did it take for you to test negative after having it?

My predicament is that I have tickets for a music festival this weekend that I was hoping to go to but I may have to flip them if I'm still testing positive up until then.
 
Not really a big sharer of personal life stuff on here but am sharing because I am wondering how other folks have dealt with Covid.

I tested positive last week Monday after having some light symptoms on Saturday and Sunday of that weekend. My girlfriend and I have been working remote for the past 2 years and decided to come back, voluntarily, into the office two weeks before I tested positive, in Mid-April. The office is a huge converted warehouse with 30ft ceilings. At any time there's maybe 12 people in the building that normally would house at least 120 people. The closest person to me is about 10 feet away. On that Monday, I started working remote that day because I thought I just had a cold. My close sitting coworker chatted me and asked how I was feeling because he had a fever and congestion over the weekend but had a negative PCR test. I did an at home which was positive and then positive PCR results a day later. We don't go anywhere unmasked since then and I still grocery shop and run errands with a mask but the only maskless place was sitting at our desks.

Anyways, it was lousy for about 3 days and then I've been back to work remote dealing with just some nasal congestion and off-and-on mucus since then. I was hopeful that 8 days after first testing positive with the at-home test I'd have been cleared today. Still positive 😩. I've felt fine, exercised by taking some walks more days than I've not and even took an 8 mile bike ride yesterday. Not fatigued in the slightest.

For anyone who's had it recently, how long did it take for you to test negative after having it?

My predicament is that I have tickets for a music festival this weekend that I was hoping to go to but I may have to flip them if I'm still testing positive up until then.

Over here, 10 days after the first positive test, if symptoms have improved and there’s no fever, you’re considered cleared. No need for a negative test. Some people test positive well after their first diagnosis but are thought to not be contagious anymore.

So you guys need a neg test to resume activity?
 
Over here, 10 days after the first positive test, if symptoms have improved and there’s no fever, you’re considered cleared. No need for a negative test. Some people test positive well after their first diagnosis but are thought to not be contagious anymore.

So you guys need a neg test to resume activity?
It's 5 days unless you still have symptoms. However, it looks like I would be "in the clear" because my symptoms have improved.


I still have very minor sinus congestion. I'd like to test negative before I resume my normal activities. Although I'll probably stay away from the office and continue to work remote for some time until cases have gone down significantly.
 
It's 5 days unless you still have symptoms. However, it looks like I would be "in the clear" because my symptoms have improved.


I still have very minor sinus congestion. I'd like to test negative before I resume my normal activities. Although I'll probably stay away from the office and continue to work remote for some time until cases have gone down significantly.

We also have a 5 day thing if your symptoms improve but you have to wear a mask at all times during days 5-10 (so you can't go to restaurants, gyms, etc - and it will still apply after masks are not mandatory indoors anymore in 4 days).

You're being very responsible! If everyone was like that, we'd all be doing much better.
 
We also have a 5 day thing if your symptoms improve but you have to wear a mask at all times during days 5-10 (so you can't go to restaurants, gyms, etc - and it will still apply after masks are not mandatory indoors anymore in 4 days).

You're being very responsible! If everyone was like that, we'd all be doing much better.
yeah! I was hopeful to be someone who never got it but oh well. Kind of annoying because I know people who (while being vaccinated and boosted) have been not as cautious pretty much doing everything they used to without masks and never have gotten it. One lax in masking for a period of time and here I am.
 
Surprise surprise, there is a high level of community spread in my mothers office and surround community now.

The return to the office April 1st is not being rolled back. But rather masks are mandatory except when you are sitting at your desk where you can take them off.

My mother really hasn't noticed much behavior changes from coworkers. Those who are ani vaxers / anti maskers still aren't wearing their masks...
 
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