I feel like it’s a good thing I don’t much like most people and enjoy my on company. So far I’ve avoided Covid but it’s come at a cost. I feel that I have enough chronic problems (I’m a senior citizen) that I just don’t want to risk getting long COVID. Besides when you live alone as I do, I think who’s going to care of me if I do get really sick. Shopping is a thing of the past for me. I’ll eat out in a restaurant occasionally but eat outside if available and I don’t go at busy times. My social circle is tiny and I don’t do group activities. No man/woman is an island, yet most of the time I’m alone with my dog and my reading. Sorry to hear about your recent experience with the medical establishment. As a person with a medical background, I’m disgusted with the way most in healthcare have abdicated their oaths to do no harm and ignore the science.
Thank you for your comments. Yes, it's very frustrating. My very kind spouse carried, at great inconvenience, a very heavy HEPA machine into my room that we normally have at home. That is what we had to do for me to feel more protected. But...shouldn't cleaning the air be the hospital's job?
I am so sorry! This is so frustrating. Last summer I had to be admitted to the hospital twice because of migraines that made me vomit for days. The second time I told them if they were going to put me in a room with someone I was going to leave. I ended up having to go into three different rooms over the course of two days, one of them was actually a supply closet on the ortho floor, whatever at least I didn’t have to share a room with anyone.
But once I got to the 3rd room one of the young medical assistants realized that I was wearing a mask the whole time and asked me if I wanted a note on my door requesting anyone who enters wear a mask. I was so delighted.
Everyone respected it. I don’t know how I would have lasted there for two days if they didn’t because I wouldn’t have been able to eat. I could stick a straw up under my mask to drink water, but I didn’t want to have to sleep in one and because she cared enough to offer I didn’t have to.
I feel so lucky to have a PCP who understands chronic illness and a local hospital where at least so far nobody tried to make me feel bad that I don’t want to get sicker (I have been disabled by MECFS from mono for 13 years.)
I’m hoping that at least now that we have an administration that’s taking away vaccines and healthcare people might stop spreading disease. Wishful thinking I guess, but I think we have a better chance now that the lesser evil party isn’t trying to pretend that they ended Covid.
I forgot to add, when I told them I was going home if I couldn’t get my own room because I didn’t want them putting me in with someone who had Covid the nurse said “We wouldn’t put you in with someone with covid!” and I didn’t mean to but I laughed in her face. I asked her how she would know, I said “I could have Covid you guys don’t know, you didn’t test me. Do you test anyone?” Are they really this out of touch or did they hope I was??
What bugs me is that it isn't hard to deal with a world which has asymptomatic spread. It's easy. It's really easy. It does require cognitive ability to understand that there are things you can't see, though, that's true.
It requires a LOT of cognitive processing power, because if you think about it deeply, you come to several conclusions:
1. If you acknowledge asymptomatic spread, then there's no way to feel "safe" anymore, which feels very threatening and is a hard burden to carry around. It returns people to the bad old days of 2020 and 2021. They don't want to return to the bad old days.
2. People like to think of themselves as good people. If they acknowledge asymptomatic spread, and they're walking around without masks treating vulnerable patients, then they're causing potential harm. Most peoples' brains will just do the mental equivalent of hitting a "blue screen of death" rather than feel that moral burden.
This is why any attempt to change behavior will probably require some sort of language that provides people a moral absolution for past behavior.
Something like, "We now know so much more about the dangers of asymptomatic spread, so you'll need to wear a mask" or "We now understand the dangers of an asymptomatic infection and we didn't before." Something that makes it seem like we're operating with new information...therefore they weren't bad people before.
I feel like it’s a good thing I don’t much like most people and enjoy my on company. So far I’ve avoided Covid but it’s come at a cost. I feel that I have enough chronic problems (I’m a senior citizen) that I just don’t want to risk getting long COVID. Besides when you live alone as I do, I think who’s going to care of me if I do get really sick. Shopping is a thing of the past for me. I’ll eat out in a restaurant occasionally but eat outside if available and I don’t go at busy times. My social circle is tiny and I don’t do group activities. No man/woman is an island, yet most of the time I’m alone with my dog and my reading. Sorry to hear about your recent experience with the medical establishment. As a person with a medical background, I’m disgusted with the way most in healthcare have abdicated their oaths to do no harm and ignore the science.
Thank you for your comments. Yes, it's very frustrating. My very kind spouse carried, at great inconvenience, a very heavy HEPA machine into my room that we normally have at home. That is what we had to do for me to feel more protected. But...shouldn't cleaning the air be the hospital's job?
Introverts are winning!! (Novid so far, mostly because of disability and poverty hahaha)
Thanks! It’s good to be able to laugh about it but in reality is a sad state of affairs
I am so sorry! This is so frustrating. Last summer I had to be admitted to the hospital twice because of migraines that made me vomit for days. The second time I told them if they were going to put me in a room with someone I was going to leave. I ended up having to go into three different rooms over the course of two days, one of them was actually a supply closet on the ortho floor, whatever at least I didn’t have to share a room with anyone.
But once I got to the 3rd room one of the young medical assistants realized that I was wearing a mask the whole time and asked me if I wanted a note on my door requesting anyone who enters wear a mask. I was so delighted.
Everyone respected it. I don’t know how I would have lasted there for two days if they didn’t because I wouldn’t have been able to eat. I could stick a straw up under my mask to drink water, but I didn’t want to have to sleep in one and because she cared enough to offer I didn’t have to.
I feel so lucky to have a PCP who understands chronic illness and a local hospital where at least so far nobody tried to make me feel bad that I don’t want to get sicker (I have been disabled by MECFS from mono for 13 years.)
I’m hoping that at least now that we have an administration that’s taking away vaccines and healthcare people might stop spreading disease. Wishful thinking I guess, but I think we have a better chance now that the lesser evil party isn’t trying to pretend that they ended Covid.
I forgot to add, when I told them I was going home if I couldn’t get my own room because I didn’t want them putting me in with someone who had Covid the nurse said “We wouldn’t put you in with someone with covid!” and I didn’t mean to but I laughed in her face. I asked her how she would know, I said “I could have Covid you guys don’t know, you didn’t test me. Do you test anyone?” Are they really this out of touch or did they hope I was??
People want to memory hole things like asymptomatic spread because it's just too hard to deal with a world that has it.
What bugs me is that it isn't hard to deal with a world which has asymptomatic spread. It's easy. It's really easy. It does require cognitive ability to understand that there are things you can't see, though, that's true.
It requires a LOT of cognitive processing power, because if you think about it deeply, you come to several conclusions:
1. If you acknowledge asymptomatic spread, then there's no way to feel "safe" anymore, which feels very threatening and is a hard burden to carry around. It returns people to the bad old days of 2020 and 2021. They don't want to return to the bad old days.
2. People like to think of themselves as good people. If they acknowledge asymptomatic spread, and they're walking around without masks treating vulnerable patients, then they're causing potential harm. Most peoples' brains will just do the mental equivalent of hitting a "blue screen of death" rather than feel that moral burden.
This is why any attempt to change behavior will probably require some sort of language that provides people a moral absolution for past behavior.
Something like, "We now know so much more about the dangers of asymptomatic spread, so you'll need to wear a mask" or "We now understand the dangers of an asymptomatic infection and we didn't before." Something that makes it seem like we're operating with new information...therefore they weren't bad people before.