Both sides are politicizing when each side choose to ignore the basis of the claim. And you're doing exactly what I am getting at. Making binary statements like 'we all should be wearing masks' or 'we should shut down' is counter productive. When it comes to America, we are great at doing this. We ignore the nuances and legit concerns. Instead we like to blame the politicians instead of holding ourselves accountable. I have a good friend, who like many here, likes to talk politics all day long and ridicule the 'other' side. When I asked him who he voted for, he gave a generic canned response 'they are all corrupt. I didnt vote for any of them'. I kindly told him to STFU and when he was ready to be an adult and do his civic responsibility to vote, then I would listen to him b****. Trump didn't put himself in office nor did Abbott. If Texas is so shitty, then leave. I left. Masks shouldn't be a focus if we are not going to talk about their effectiveness. If your canned response is going to be 'just wear a mask', then I am not going to take your position very serious. We should be wearing more than cloth masks. And we should be talking about sanitary issues about repeatedly using facemasks before cleaning or replacing. We are going to be doing this for a long time. This is my end point; If we are not going to require people to use effective and quality face masks, I am staying away from people as much as I can. If we as a society can't be responsible adults, which includes not electing self serving politicians into office, then you all can deal with the consequences. Did you *really* think the shutdown was about flattening the curve? Of course we were going to open back up. Before the shutdown, the virus was largely in heavily populated areas. By the end, it was in almost every county. Of course its going to explode the moment we open back up. And in those months, we did almost nothing towards TTI. A decade ago we had these same discussions about Obamacare. I understood the importance of getting people with pre-existing conditions the medical help they needed. But I also realized the dangers of giving private insurance companies full control. When the vast majority of money flows through insurance companies first, its very difficult for both the government and the medical field to navigate something like this in a timely manner. If this virus is as bad as everyone makes it out to be and we want to liken it to a biological war, then maybe we need to do something very unpopular like conscript the medical field and industry.
Has anyone been tested this week or have any advice where to go and not wait hours in a line? I'm in Austin but I have an employee in Houston with a fever over 100 and he was hoping to get tested tomorrow. Ideally on the north side of town....
How about "listen to the experts who are telling you to wear a damn mask?" This is nonsense. Of course things can be done better - that will *always* be true. It's not feasible for everyone in society to wear fancy masks - both due to supply and cost. So we do the next best thing: the science says cloth masks make a huge impact. The fact that other masks might help more is irrelevant - you seem to be saying "if you can't fix the problem entirely, don't try at all". "Wear a mask" is the low-hanging fruit. It's both cheap and easy to do and has an outsize impact, and if people would stop politicizing it, it's easy to get people to do. It absolutely should be the focus. That's your choice, certainly - no one is telling you to interact with people. But if society is going to both allow and encourage interaction, we should do it as responsibly as possible. And that means telling everyone to wear a f***ing mask. Again, this ignores the results in other countries. TTI works when there are small outbreaks - we've seen that in Asian countries and a few European countries. But places like Italy, Spain, and France didn't stop this with TTI. They had the same problems NY had and that the rest of the US is facing now - outbreaks growing too fast for TTI to help. Yet they still managed to stop it, with proper and effective shutdowns. And they stayed shutdown the proper length of time. And *now* they can use TTI to stop the small outbreaks when they happen. You complain about not doing what works, but then ignore what works and what all the scientists are telling you. Then you complain about both sides blah blah blah. I'm on the side of science. It just so happens that Democrats, for the most part, and a chunk of Republicans (like the Ohio governor and some western state governors) are also. It's not Dems vs GOP. It's educated people vs dumbasses.
I didn't realize how hard it was to get scheduled for a test until I looked and gave up. Harris County tests are booked within 15-30min of opening up sign up slots. CVS was completely booked too. I don't trust any of the rapid tests results. This feels like the early March/April days when tests were rationed to first responders and high risk folks.
Read this article about Houston...not looking too good. Hope everyone is staying as safe as possible. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ts-its-hidden-toll-people-dying-home-n1233151
Finally able to get scheduled to get tested today. Didn’t know it was so hard to find testing. Been feeling like crap the past 6 days, fever, chills, cough, sore throat, fatigue, vertigo, headache, night sweats. One urgent care I called said results would take 10-12 days to get back. Lol
Private clinic if you can. My relative went to a private clinic to get tested late last week. Took 3 days to get the result back. They couldn’t find any availability with public testing sites in SW hou.
My DR sent me to Quest for a blood test. I was able to schedule my appt for the time I chose via mobile and was in and out in 15 minutes. Had my results back in 48 hours. This was in April though so not sure if Quest is log jammed now.
I had all of that except the cough and sore throat. The fever, chills, fatigue, vertigo and especially the headaches were very extreme. I also came back positive in April. Still experiencing fatigue, vertigo and headaches 3 months later as well as constant GI issues.
I have a few friends who have had it and are dealing with long term issues. Fatigue and shortness of breath is definitely one. One of my friends is 34 and prior to this she had been a runner and now it is hard for her to walk up stairs. It appears that the disease might cause lung scarring which might explain the shortness of breath.
I don't get the mask thing. It's restrictive on my privates to wear clothes. Clothes aren't natural. This is a violation of my freedom. In fact it's my constitutional right to walk around naked. So what if I've got to go pick the kids up from school? Gotta problem with that? USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!...oh and MAGA! </sarcasm> To those I say, "No offense but you're an idiot". You can't get mad because I said "No offense".
Yes, the same experts back in March who said masks were useless. And to the same people in these forums who I argued back with back in March stating we should all be wearing masks. They said the same thing you're parroting now. 'Listen to the experts. Masks are useless. Its more important to wash your hands. That is how COVID is spreading'. And now we are doing the same stupid ****. Bantering over semantics. Why do we need experts to tell us to wear masks? To wash our hands? To social distance? To not make unnecessary trips to 7-11 because you're bored and want an ice tea and skittles? To attend large gatherings? To wash your filthy masks so you dont end up getting a bacterial infection that might land you in the hospital where you may contract COVID? Are we really that stupid? Apparently so. And by your response, you agree. Which leads me to... https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0016018 If we can do better with minimal effort, we should and we can. Making an effective mask is not fancy. Its just doing it right. The general population is incredible lazy. Mask type Material Threads/in. Average jet distance Uncovered … … ∼8 ft Bandana Elastic T-shirt material 85 ∼3 ft 7 in. Folded handkerchief Cotton 55 1 ft 3 in. Stitched mask Quilting cotton 70 2.5 in. Commercial maska Unknown Randomly assorted fibres 8 in. So yes, what you use makes a pretty big difference. If the 'experts' choose not to educate the general population on what is a better solution, of course people will go the path of least resistance. And I am not suggesting we need to police everyones mask of choice. But we should at least educate people instead of doing half measures so we stand in solitude. This is why other countries are doing better .... they are not stopping with half ass measures. We are not going to stop this virus. This is not ebola. This is not N1H1. This is highly contagious. To suggest TTI is pointless w/out strict measures is absolutely ludicrous. Look at the statements in this thread. People can't even get tested, and if they can, it takes several days to get results. Never mind the cost. Do you really think we can just self quarantine for 2 weeks because we *think* we walked past someone with COVID? Wait a week later for symptoms to show up? We need fast cost effective testing and we need it fast. Here we are in July and we haven't even come close to solving this problem even though so many other countries have. I have not said to ignore scientist in the least bit. I have not said we shouldn't wear masks. I am doing the absolute opposite. You simply want to stop at what the 'authorities' suggest. I am telling you it is not enough and we need to do more. Your precious authorities that you worship keep changing their mind. And nothing has changed since since Feb. We should be doing everything we have talked about over the past 6 months, not just stop at wearing masks. In January, very very few people wore masks. In February, more people wore masks. By March, 1/3 of people were wearing masks. Once shutdown went into effect, ~75% of people were wearing masks In May, pandemic was over and we opened up. Everyone started resuming their normal lives. 1/3 of people still wore masks. Now that its mandated, over 95% of people are wearing masks where mandated(which makes this whole conversation about wearing masks pointless) The fringe few who are not wearing masks are not the one who are spreading this virus. Its not Trump. Its not Republicans. Its not Democrats. Its the selfish self serving Americans who refuse to adhere to public warning. These are the people who you should be angry at. If at this point someone is incapable of making informed decisions and need a politician to tell you what to do, then perhaps these people shouldn't be participating in our democracy. This is where other countries differ.
My understanding is that the big labs, Quest and Labcorp are insanely backlogged now, which is why test results that were taking 3-5 days, are more like 12-15 days for results now. My point of contact with someone that later got a positive result was over a month ago, so I've pretty much given up on getting tested. I haven't had any symptoms though, so think I just dodged a bullet there.
To a degree, this is true. But it would help tremendously if Trump consistently wore a mask, tweeted about how masks are helpful and otherwise took steps to decrease the divide that masks are somehow creating, in a country that he's the ultimate authority of. For all the ridicule Trump gets, there are still people - those that dislike wearing masks - that look to him for guidance.
Private clinic everybody! Your family physician should have some rapid tests - call them and set an appointment. Do not hesitate to DM me if you need some recommendations. I lost my health care due to COVID, but only paid $75. These urgent cares are charging $200. Ridiculous.
I only go to costco and work. We have been wearing masks for months. My costco cashback this year is going to be nice.
100% agree. Ive been pretty passive about the Trump nonsense up until COVID. Now he needs to go. Trump is not going to be the leader he should be and congress isn't much help either. Its up to the States and Governors to help us get through it. And if they fail, then we the people need to roll up our sleeves and be the adults.
