Covid-19

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stuartcnz
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Covid-19

Post by stuartcnz »

I think it's time that the forum had a place for this topic.

Early on in the pandemic I saw a piece with a psychologist who said that in time, they would be able to put the P at the beginning of traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D). This is fitting, because society as a whole is being subjected to a chronic stress event as the pandemic unfolds.

There will be similarities and differences in how everyone experiences the pandemic. I invite everyone on the forum to share their experiences here, if they feel they want to.
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Re: Covid-19

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I'll go first.

Here in New Zealand, we went onto a war footing, as a country when we went into lock down in March. As I work in a container terminal (Ships), we are regarded as an essential service. As such, the government ordered us to work through, whilst at the same time developing a different work place structure, that would allow us to keep the port operational if anyone caught the virus.

The way that our port did this, was to split the workers into four different groups, that did not work with each other. It was set up so that there were two yard groups (receive and delivery) which handles inwards and outwards movements by rail and road transport. One day shift, and one night shift. And two ship groups (load/unload ships), like wise, one day shift and one night shift. The terminal was shut for an hour between shifts, and the yard and ship groups were physically separated, so that none of the four groups would come into physical proximity with each other.

The idea was, that if anyone caught the virus. Their whole group would be stood down, leaving the other three groups to keep the port operational, as best we could.

As the only crane driver to be put into one of the yard groups, I worked with our plant services tradesmen, in maintaining the cranes on non-ship days. On ship days, I worked in the yard with the rest of my group.

It was a strange thing, that before we went into lock down, we felt more vulnerable working on an international border of entry. But once we entered lock down, because there was community transmission, we felt safer at work with the processes that had been implemented.

Our lock down lasted about two and a half months, until we had eradicated the virus here, and we resumed life as it had been, both as a society and at work. At that point, working at the border again became the more risky place to be. A large proportion of our ships are only four days out from Melbourne, Australia, which has had a large resurgence of the virus.

Since then we have had another community outbreak of the virus. So far it is contained in Auckland, so geographically isolated from where I am. However, we have not gone back into the full lock down which proved so effective the first time. This leaves me with some what of a feeling of unease, seeing the effects around the rest of the world, that like wise never instituted a full lock down.

Right at the beginning of our community outbreak, one of our tug boat crew caught the virus. He was a very fit and healthy guy. He has recovered from the virus, but as far as I am aware, he has still not returned to work, as one of the side effects for him, was a serious bout of bronchitis.
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Re: Covid-19

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Mostly we have been going on as normal, working in the shop and at that farm. Well, except for trying to find stuff in the stores - I was only one going to store for several months. We use well fitted N95 face masks that I have used for decades in various hobbies, as well as insanely washing hands and surfaces we touch all the time. So far, so good for us.

We had a long time friend catch it and die in about a week and half at the first of March. In may, one of the kids (40 something now), we have known since her high school caught it and recovered fine. 4 weeks ago a sister caught it, was tested early since she is in health care, went to hospital two days into it. Recovered well but has some residual weakness/fatigue issues. Her boyfriend has a friend who also caught it but waited 8 days to go to the same hospital on the same day. He died two days later. The stuff is pernicious and vile. And no, the malaria drug does not work. Steroids, plasma transfusions, and anti-viral drug Remdesivir (sp?), worked.

As a nation, we supposedly went into lock down, but since directing the entire US is a lot like 'herding cats', it was not particularly effective. As proven by our being 4% of the world's population with 25% of the world's cases and 25% of the world's deaths from this thing. Paraphrasing a very old meme, "You can tell an American.... but you can't tell them much."

Still, overall, the virus is mutating, as they all do, and the most recent ones seem to be less lethal, so that is good. Also, which may be even bigger thing, Walmart is requiring face masks in the store. Which even in Oklahoma seems to be having some small but noticeable effect - the infection rate is still high, but going down slowly. (The death rate also seems to be going down, even more quickly. Good thing.)
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Re: Covid-19

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In our community of about 350,000 people we are faced with a higher C19 infection rate than several other local communities. This seems to be related to the close working and living parameters of our agricultural field workers. Not as bad as with the meat packing industry but still not good.

Our police force is operating under a program very much like that instituted in New Zealand and with nearly 300 officers only one has become infected with the virus. He survived and his group went into stand down for two weeks as a precaution. The patrol cars are disinfected after each shift (12.5 hrs) and after having been used in an arrest. My buddies used to kid me about being a lazy old retired guy but now they are wishing they were a wee bit older-Ha! Jack
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Re: Covid-19

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The US as a whole has handled this cluster about as badly as one could possibly handle it. If it was the stupid thing to do, we did it. 4% of the world's population and 20% of the world's deaths from covid. Doing great, USA!

And our little corner of 'Covid Paradise' is exploding along with most of the midwest. We have several relatives who have now tested positive and in various stages of the disease. Saw a close relative yesterday for very short (about 3 or 4 minutes) outdoor visit - no physical contact, and the wind was blowing with us literally upwind. 30 min after the visit, got a call from them and one had gotten test results of positive. Geez... So now, we get to just kinda hang out at the house, shop, and farm, trying to avoid contact with anyone. Quarantine!

Note about Okrahoma, along with all the other states that are having mass cases of this. For a while people would wear masks, albeit a big percentage of them incorrectly, leaving their nose out. Now for the last 3 to 4 weeks, they have dropped all pretense of caring, concern, or even interest in trying to avoid this for themselves and their associates, and a very large percentage are not even bothering with a mask of any sort. Notice - where I said 'associates' in that last sentence, the word would normally be "loved ones", but since they have proven beyond any doubt that they don't give a flying f about the people around them, associates is a better description.

Yeah, that's sarcasm, irritation, bitterness, and just plain old being pissed off at the massive level of stupid in this country!

My attitude will rebound to it's normal plain old cranky, cantankerous self in a couple weeks. Bear with me....
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Re: Covid-19

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Well, I'm back for a minute or two. The one we were exposed to is fine - no symptoms, even though she had the disease. We will be on last quarantine day this Fri, no symptoms or other indications of ill health. We had one of the sisters pass away the day before Thanksgiving (not covid), and were unable to go visit family due to this quarantine, so that is still a bad feeling, but we are healthy and at this point, not likely to catch it from this exposure.

Snow and freezing rain expected tomorrow and Thurs, so guess we get to "enjoy" some winter! (I hate winter!)

And Okrahoma continues the tradition of doing whatever it can to make a bad situation worse! We reached a one day state record a couple weeks ago of over 4,500 people testing positive in one day! And our bright little corner of Okrahoma - the zip code we live in - got the "Stupid Human Tricks" award for having over 2,300 of those in just this town! (Not even the whole town, there are 4 zip codes here!)

Next time...
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Re: Covid-19

Post by Stealth Camper »

We have 1 Million vaccinated as of today! It's a start...only 19 Million more to go in the next 8 days to stay on schedule.

But for now - it is time for most of us to pause - Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!
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Re: Covid-19

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Today I just felt like a post was needed for this year; Sunday, 10 Jan, Day 375, 2020.
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Re: Covid-19

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Got first shot 4 weeks ago. Scheduled to get next one tomorrow. We are having winter this week. Today it got up to 17 F. Tomorrow is supposed to be a 'scorcher' and get up to 18 F. Luckily, there is only about 1/4" of ice on the ground, covered by about 1" of fluffy snow. Slicker than greased monkey snot! I have a 50 lb bag of kitty litter in the back seat for traction purposes when get out of car. Sprinkle it around wherever I have to walk. Helps some.

We 'only' have to drive about 115 miles to get the shots, since the chaos surrounding the vaccinations is massive! This should be interesting!

Got any room left in New Zealand for a couple of snowbirds??
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Re: Covid-19

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Sorry, they are still making it excessively difficult to get in here. On the upside those of us that work at the border should be starting to get our vaccinations in a week or so.
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Re: Covid-19

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stuartcnz wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 6:30 pm Sorry, they are still making it excessively difficult to get in here. On the upside those of us that work at the border should be starting to get our vaccinations in a week or so.

Would love to come visit some time, but really can't afford it now, anyway! Hoping after the world settles a little. A lot of very pretty places we want to see!

Got our second shots this morning! Amazingly smooth and efficient - went in the door and got in line with about 100 people ahead of us. About 10 minutes later we were answering the final screening questions and walking to the nurses stations for the vaccinations. Mind blown.
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Re: Covid-19

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Had my first Pfizer vaccine shot three days ago. I found it easier than the flu shot. No side effects from the first shot, and am booked in for the second shot three weeks after the first.
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Re: Covid-19

Post by stuartcnz »

Had my second shot about three days ago. 24 hours after was a little lethargic, and developed a throbbing headache while at work (Operating a ship to shore container crane), took one paracetamol tablet, and have had no issues since.
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Re: Covid-19

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Good to hear! We have no lingering side effects from the shots. Various family members, including 1 grandkid and 1 great grandkid caught covid and have been having some "long covid" symptoms...not severe, but irritating. We finally seem to be getting at least some of our act together in this country. Maybe.
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Re: Covid-19

Post by Stealth Camper »

Well, our little corner of the world has become more relaxed relative to covid. The vaccination seems to have worked. A dozen or so friends/family who have caught it survived (only one did not and that was early last year), and there have been only relatively mild lingering effects. We have even been out to dinner at a couple of our favorite places! Meanwhile, our state continues in it's headlong dash race to see whether more can catch it or get vaccinated.

And India is in total meltdown! Geez...the world is such a strange place. It's like an alien planet!
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