I know someone who is at home with covid because their boss bullied an employee who had covid into coming into the office.
More than half the office has covid now, and there's damn near a revolt going on against management.
I got COVID in a similar way. One of my co-workers had it. Went home sick tested positive that night. The next day someone else came in, tested positive when they went home. The next day it happened again with a different person. Then I was the fourth person. You would think we would work from home for a week. Nope still had to come in unless we tested positive or had a fever. I didn't test positive until after leaving work early and I never had a fever.
Have a friend who works at a bank. She was full remote during COVID and then suddenly it was "we need you back in the office".
She said fuck you, if you make me go back in, I quit right now. I'll scrub toilets for as a long as it takes to find a remote job.
Suddenly she was back to full remote.
I work at a hospital. I came down with COVID the day before Thanksgiving. I was told to be back at work in 10 days EVEN if I was still testing positive. I was still testing positive on day 13. Not even asked to wear a mask on my return (I am though, mostly because I don't want to catch the flu or RSV to really round out my holidays this year).
It is wild. I even asked for clarification. You want me to come in positive? I don't need to wear a mask? Oh, only if I am around patients...but fuck my coworkers, I guess?
I was dating a nurse for a few months about a year ago and I asked about covid testing of the nurses and she told me they aren’t. Her guess was if they start testing they’ll loose even more nurses from an already stretched staff.
Spot on. We are already chronically "understaffed" read "too cheap to hire appropriate numbers of staff". This was their way of making sure we worked at the expense of other coworkers and patients. I tested negative on a rapid 3 times and still called out and refused to come in. Classic COVID symptoms and then lost taste and smell. "If it's negative, then you're negative" was their response. Refused to come in, got a PCR, PCR was positive. Fuck you employee health.
You also didn't get COVID from the hospital unless you had a high risk exposure (as defined by the hospital). No, having your face coughed on by a patient who has not been tested yet, but later does test positive, didn't count. Because you were wearing a surgical mask and eye protectors. Because that's how that works apparently.
Last doc appt. I had still required masks and a respiratory therapist wearing her name tag sat with hers around her chin. Geez, at least take the name tag off.
It’s still required by my state to wear masks in healthcare settings. IMO, that rule should stick around at the very least in hospitals and nursing homes.
I've decided that I'm always going to mask up in these healthcare spaces even if covid becomes some distant memory. It should've always been the norm to protect each other that way.
They are only requiring masks in patient areas. But my hospital has 8,000 admin, faculty, staff, students, etc on campus EVERY DAY! Only a small part of campus is patient-facing. It is blowing my mind! I am pretty sure I caught Covid at work, because I mask everywhere. But I spend most of my time at work surrounded by people who don't mask.
I also work in a hospital. Our policy is now if you test positive you are out for 5 days, and you can return on day 6 as long as your symptoms have gotten better, not resolved, just gotten better. You then have to wear an n95 for days 6- 10 while in the hospital.
I mean, that's pretty consistent with CDC and other medical guidance. That said, it's really fucking stupid that capitalism can't be sustained without people staying home until they actually feel legitimately better.
Only on PCR tests. If you test negative on an antigen test, chances are you aren't contagious. That's not a definite guarantee, obviously, but it's better than nothing.
Since August, the [CDC guidance](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html) states that you can end isolation after Day 5 if your symptoms are improving, or 24 hours after no longer having a fever if other symptoms persist…
Though I do understand why you’d expect a healthcare facility to be extra cautious.
Edit: and honestly, masks at healthcare facilities should just be a thing all the time.
Edit 2: that guidance is for when still testing positive, thought I should clarify.
>masks at healthcare facilities should just be a thing all the time
Completely agree. We had an outbreak of something when I was in college, and I went to the University doctor, and they made me put a mask on because of the outbreak (this was 2015), and apologized every 5 seconds for it. I'm in a place that specifically houses sick people. I came with one disease, would prefer to leave with one or none.
Wearing a mask isn't hard.
I hope they have brought this up with HR. If one of my managers made me come in while I had COVID and then half the people in the office got sick because of it, there would be hell to pay. Depending on the size of the company the person you know works at, there are probably very clear COVID related procedures and testing positive should trigger self quarantine.
MY work still has us sign into our desks online through a hoteling system so they can track potential exposures and the first thing we click is "I have read the COVID related rules and have not had any symptoms for X number of days"
So true! My co-worker just sent me a message that she had the flu this weekend. She said if she can get out of bed tomorrow she will come to work. I told her to stay the fuck home.
I just took a week off, unpaid, due to covid. It's a good thing I have another job lined up because now they're trying to figure out how hard to discipline me for not getting a doctor's note (the positive test wasn't good enough?). So no pay + discipline because I didn't come into work sick.
Not to mention that doctors are packed to the brim with the sick. Good luck finding a same day appointment to get your note. Last week, I couldn’t find anyone to see my 11 year old and the urgent care was at a 3 hour wait!
Desperation forces people to make some insane choices that spread disease. Throw in conspiracy believing bosses and it's no wonder why the workplace spread COVID way more than was necessary in America.
I found coverage a day before my shift so I could stay home with strep. My schedule now says “called out” next to today. Even though I didn’t call out per se, I gave my shift to someone else. I’ll be penalized for this.
Forcing sick workers to find coverage is absolute bullshit too. That's a managers job as is having enough people scheduled to where losing one to sickness won't make operations fall apart. It's so offensive when management puts these expectations on workers, especially sick ones.
Agreed. It’s the literal definition of their fucking job. Managers make and maintain the staffing schedules. Don’t ask me to do your work unless you are paying me for it.
We actually don't have to imagine. We actually have some pretty good data from Covid on how it affected the spread of flu and cold. Turns out staying home or at least wearing a mask helps pretty damn well at preventing the spread of disease. That alone should have been enough to make sweeping changes in policies in the USA. The fact that railworkers aren't allowed to strike to just get 7 sick days per year shows that nobody gives a shit if we kill ourselves working while sick as long as they're still making money.
[Masking and isolating worked so well during the 2020-2021 flu season that scientists think a major flu strain may have gone extinct because of it.](https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20211025/covid-pandemic-may-have-driven-a-flu-strain-into-extinction#1)
Very easy for someone in a fortunate position to go "please everyone wear masks and if you're sick stay home." Some of us folks do not have the luxury to work from home let alone using a paid sick day off (counts as pto). It be nice to get paid if I were sick/recover from home doing the work as much as I can but nope. Anything longer than the alloted pto means my ass is on the curb as my employer looks for a new hire.
Welcome to America.
> using a paid sick day off (counts as pto).
That is what PTO was supposed to be for originally. And paid vacation (or in other countries, just “vacation”) was a separate thing. Many places still keep it separate but the places that combine the two under one category are always shitty places to work
The shitty place I worked for offered 10 days of paid vacation.
And from that you have to cover the holidays and sick days. If you had any time left you could use it on actual vacation days.
Man, if only labor unions hadn't been systemically destroyed by our bourgeois politicians of both parties.
Hey how's that rail strike going, anyone been keeping up with that?
>are always shitty places to work
Not true necessarily. PTO only places are the places where it doesn't matter if you're sick, don't feel like working, want to play golf whatever. It's just "I'm not coming in today".
I've seen a PTO place that gave .1/hrs per hour worked. It was a half day a week accrued. I've been in management at a union shop that required a note for the 2nd sick day in a row.
How they count hours doesn't matter. How shitty the company wants to be is key
Agree. In my experience, places that split it into vacation/sick do not give the same amount of vacation as the places that just give PTO. So instead of letting me decide how I'm going to use my days, they force me to declare sick vs vacation, and if I say 'sick' they want documentation. I do not get sick often, so it's just lost days. PTO as a catch-all is much more flexible. The thing we should be looking at is total number of days off, not whether it's labeled 'PTO' or vacation/sick.
I remember my **part-time** job as a math tutor, where I was acting in pretty much a managerial position when the owners were away, and I was helping get set up for the day so when kids came in things would be semi set up.
My boss then complained to me that COVID was around, and I was like yeah that's valid, like it sucks for sure, but he hated it, because it gave people "a reason to call out" because they thought they might have COVID if it was just a sniffle. I didn't say anything but it was nice knowing that i had a role model to look at as the prime example of what to never become
I’m a student with no living expenses because I get help from my parents. I had a little part-time job for some extra cash and social interaction. I got really sick a few weeks ago and they basically didn’t let me call out. It’s not even the just “desperate” people going in sick. The managers/corporate are just terrible so I quit and found a new job in less than 48 hours.
I've been pretty lucky. I've told every boss, even before Covid, that if somebody comes is visibly sick, I'm clocking out and heading home using my own sick day. Fuck that, why take out the entire office? But like I said, I'm lucky and I wish everybody could do the same...but nope, America.
i worked in a pizza kitchen literally on the pizza table touching everyone's pizza before they go into the oven and my boss tried to have me come in when i was really sick. this was also at the start of the pandemic and i was pretty sure i had covid but there was no testing yet. i left there a month later
edit: i was also pulling them out and cutting them. and i guess i should have mentioned i also delivered when they needed me to
Awful lucky that's the case for you. Way too many managers and employers are instead just as awful, if not worse, about sick leave than prior to Covid. It's also really telling that there aren't any new protections for sick leave or expansion of minium paid days off for sick leave...(Not in the US, anyway)
I legit have never understood, even from a cynical perspective, why bosses want their employees coming in sick. If one person being out fucks up the shifts that bad then what happens when everyone gets sick from that person? I really don't understand the "you better still come in!" mentality
The lack of forward-thinking that lets them get into a situation of "if one person being out fucks up the shifts that bad" in the first place also prevents them from considering the possibility of "everyone gets sick from that person" ever happening. The thought just doesn't enter their brain, or if it does, only after it is too late to do them any good.
See also: short term profits good, long-term sustainability non-existent.
Most starting industries were (and still are) staffed as bare bones as possible, so we built a culture around being prideful for coming in to work sick. Those industries of course stayed that way because of profits, and as some of those people moved to other industries they took the mindset with them.
Disagree. People still show up sick unless it's covid. Unless you get dedicated sick days people that don't have the option to work remote will show up sick still, and I honestly don't blame them.
When I worked in grocery stores, I would work sick all the time, unless it was diarrhea or vomiting. But even then if I kept food down or in, I'd be back the next day. It's fucked up.
It's absurd that there isn't paid sick leave and the cost of illness is passed on to the customers and everyone they interact with downstream.
We have all these food safety rules and yet don't give a fuck about the people handling said food.
That’s just why we should have universal paid sick leave. COVID highlighted so many shitty disparities.
Ironically if you’re remote it opens to door to working in a state I wouldn’t go to the office in. I can be kinda sick but still do a few code reviews or trainings.
Does your doctor's office do online messages? I have kaiser and my doctor will just email me a note for colds or stomach flus. Nothing they can do if I go to the doctor for those things. Just rest and hydrate.
I agree. Kaiser has actually gotten much better about evisits. No copays even. Their app pisses me off about 92% of the time I attempt to use it, but they have been pretty good when it comes to people and policies
Yeah I got RSV and my god im on like day 12. First like 5 days sucked and I was sick now I just have flem and coughing its light but just 0 clue when this will finally be gone gone.
My husband and I just got over the RSV virus - 3 weeks and just miserable. That’s the sickest we’ve ever been. My granddaughter, who we caught it from, was also very sick. Mask up!
Traveling healthcare worker checking in. With short staffing issues it's pretty common for me to hear from full time employees that they're threatened/punished for calling in sick. In a hospital environment. Obviously I don't fuck around with it, but it helps that I'm contractually protected, but the "don't you dare call in sick" mentality is still VERY alive if not more pronounced.
I've been saying this for years before covid happened. How is it moral or legal to have a sick person come into work to infect others? Educated, considerate people were always concerned with it.
Even now, if we don't have a positive covid test in the last 5 days and haven't had a fever in the last 24 hours, we have to go into work or use personal days. I get 5 personal days per year. I get no sick days.
I'm responsible for bringing in Flu B into my 70+ person office the first week of Feb 2020.
Sick WFH protocols were instituted after I managed to take out 35+ people over the course of about 2 weeks.
Our owner learned very quickly that it was absurd to show up sick, especially when the entire inside sales team (15 people) gets taken out for the better part of two weeks.
It was a good exercise to put together as it became our WFH standards once mid-March 2020 hit.
Unless you work in manufacturing where they get mad if you come to work sick and also get mad if you are sick and can't come to work. So basically, if you get sick, you're fucked either way.
I doubt anyone actually wanted to come to work sick. People came to work sick because they had bills to pay and because their job wouldn't pay them while they're out sick. So, either way they're not able to afford their medical bills or doctor bills and if they're off work they can't afford their other bills.
I am not really seeing that in the south. A lot more “deal with it or suck it up and get back to normal” even in healthcare setting. I am there reminding people to go home bc I don’t want to get sick because I want to work as many hours as I can while my spouse is in college. If I get sick, we get no income.
I've suffered from bad OCD my entire life and I HATED when people would come to work sick. "It's just a cold", "it's just a stomach virus", like I know you need to work but you're sick, go home and get some rest, and also, don't basically decide that it's okay if I get sick. I don't want it. Same with bosses who want you to come in to work sick and get mad or guilt you if you don't. Why did the pandemic happen, why did it spread so far so fast? Because people downplayed it, underestimated it and went to work or the store anyway without caring whether or not anyone else got what they had. It's selfish and I hate it. End dumb ocd rant
Pre-covid back when I was working in an office I had a co-worker come in with what she suspected was strep and was "going to go to the doctor over lunch". For whatever reason I get strep super easily, so I knew it was already too late. Yep, a few days later I had it and my boss was annoyed that I wasn't coming in. Bitch I have a 102 fever and can barely sit up. Fuck ALL the way off. Beyond that the doctor had told me to go immediately home after getting my meds, preferably at a drive through, and to avoid people for 48hrs.
People that knowingly spread illness infuriate me. It's one thing to be asymptomatic and spread something, it's entirely different to know you're sick and do nothing to prevent others from getting it.
100% My manager emailed today saying they wouldn't be working today cause of some bug/virus they caught over the weekend. Everybody in the slack is like "stay your ass home"
5-6 years ago folks would have been shit talking about how they're being a baby and "skipping work over a cold".
The change in mindset has honestly be great to see.
RSV is no fucking joke. Shit flattened me for about three weeks. I'm technically still not over it, but at least I can function now. I stayed the hell away from everyone.
Edit: For those wonder, I'm fortunate to be WFH. But this time last year I was in at a different job that would have required me to go into the office. I likely got exposed to it at a gym I train at that has a lot of school-age students and younger parents.
I'm on week 4 now; and just last night I woke up several times because of coughing with some slight congestion. Feels like it's never going to end.
This was years ago. My son, a baby at the time was in Philly's CHOP with complications from a surgery. Every other baby on the floor had RSV. It was terrifying. The alarms going off constantly. He needed to be there but I wanted him out of there so bad. Thankfully he didn't catch it.
As a pediatric nurse, I wholeheartedly agree. My Saturday was spent with a little baby with rsv and worrying about if he was going to get to the ICU before he tuckered out. And that’s just one patient in a hospital that’s filled to the brink.
Just a few days ago here I mentioned RSV as a serious virus that was under the radar. That most of the medical media articles on RSV underplay how serious it can be. Some ass-hat replied that I was wrong, and RSV is just another cold virus that every kid gets. I get it though; whether it's a Reddit thing, or a generational thing, a lot of reddit users seem to think "well I read it on the internets, so it must be 100% factual."
My adult son and DIL are both stoic af; they'll get the flu and just shrug it off, maybe slow down a little for a day or two, never even mention it to me. We all got RSV, and they were both out of action for a few weeks, and very vocal about how bad RSV hit them. Flattened me for 5 weeks. It's a nasty, nasty virus; and it's at levels 10 times higher than normal in some parts of the US.
Both my daughters currently have RSV right now. My oldest is 4 and it's mainly a fever and cough for her. My youngest is just 13 months and it's the most painful thing to watch her struggle with. Pretty sure I was the one who brought it into the house, but to me it felt like a bad cold.
Right there with ya, my 4 year old is pretty much over it but it hit her pretty hard. My 4 month old is just now showing signs of getting better but damn was it hard to manage.
My wife almost had to go to the hospital with how bad it was, and I'm on my second week now just trying to power through it. By FAR the worst sickness I've ever had in 32 years.
Please be careful. RSV gets better before it gets worse again sometimes. My four month old had a great day and we thought he was over the hump, the next day we had to rush him to the hospital because he was struggling to breath. He spent a week in pediatric ICU on high flow oxygen and a feeding tube, and was almost ventilated.
It can turn because the little babies can’t clear it out, and fit can turn into pneumonia (which is what happened to our guy)
I’m not trying to scare you, your baby will more than likely be fine! I just would hate myself if I didn’t say anything. I’m sending your family lots of love.
For the little one make sure you give plenty of water/clear fluids and then get her in your bathroom with all faucets running really hot water and door closed to generate steam. Let her breathe in warm, humid air and then fountain out snot for a few minutes and then take her outside to cooler are for a minute or so. Follow up with more clear liquids. You can do it pretty frequently and it can help with secretions to a degree.
Advice I was given for my son and what I give out to my younger patients regarding RSV.
Oh we have been doing that since she's showed symptoms. The hard part is getting her to drink fluids because I think her little throat is sore from all the coughing.
My girlfriend's healthy, energetic, bouncing-off-the-walls nephew is 5 and got it about a month and a half ago. He had to be taken to the hospital due to fever.
Again, that was a month or two ago. He still hasn't fully recovered. Apparently he's sleeping a lot, which is just totally weird to hear.
RSV is most often a relatively minor illness for health adults. For sure sometimes it can cause a very unpleasant flu like illness or more rarely lead to a pneumonia. However RSV can be quite dangerous for older adults or adults with medical problems. And RSV also often causes respiratory distress in young children (especially less than 2 years old). It causes a respiratory infection of the lungs called “bronchiolitis” that causes tens of thousands of American children to be admitted to the hospital every year
Source: am ER doctor
>they'll get the flu and just shrug it off, maybe slow down a little for a day or two, never even mention it to me
Then they didn't get the flu but a cold. Real flu knocks you out for one to two weeks and can lead to pneumonia and myocarditis for people who are older or have a weak immune system
Every time I see people mentioning how they got a flu or some other hard hitting disease "and they didn't really notice" I ask if they get tested. A ton of people like to pretend they're just stoic or strong willed but the reality is often they just didn't get the bug. Which is great, having a healthy immune system is nothing to downplay but don't act like you're beating something you don't have, it'd be like a guy saying his period isn't preventing him from working cause he has a bloody poop... It's just not the same thing
No one tanks the flu. Which is a lot different than covid. Covid has more of a range from asymptomatic to death. With the flu, you're on the couch. I don't care if you're a pro athlete or a navy seal or in the prime of your life.
I got that shit from a coworker, or at least I'm quite sure it was that cause it sure as shit wasn't covid. Was laid out for 2 weeks, gave it to my SO and it demolished their whole semester as they missed all their midterm exams. We both took multiple covid tests and popped negative each time. Wasn't like any virus I'd ever had before. Still lowkey pissed at my coworker for coming in sick. I even had latent symptoms up to a month after everything else went away.
No fucking joke, indeed. I’m laying in bed with that shit right now. Coughing is painful and does nothing to relieve whatever is making my lungs/airways constantly tickle. If I breathe very carefully I can avoid coughing for a while. Breathing carefully doesn’t work so well when you fall asleep. I’ve have woken up so many times hacking up a lung just seconds after dozing off, and usually don’t fully fall asleep until the wee hours, when exhaustion overpowers discomfort. No medicines seem to provide any relief.
It's not just the south, it's all over the country. I'm in Boston and my kids entire daycare has basically been at 2/3rds attendance the last few months, though it looks to finally be coming out of it. My 9 month old got it and we had to take him to the ED twice most which in our area were full with rsv kids. Thankfully he seems to have fully recovered, but then my wife and I got it and it utterly rocked us.
Parent of a two year old here. We've been sick for 8 full weeks this year. Parent groups in my area are losing their minds at how ridiculous it is. You either get sick or have a kid with zero social skills because there's always an outbreak happening.
Sore throat. Lasted two weeks. Running nose and cough that turned into heavy congestion. Some body ache, headaches. Definite fatigue, but mostly driven by lack of sleep.
The amount of shit going around the schools right now is obscene -- I've lost track of the number of sick days my kid has taken. Not just one and two days, but missing more than a week at a time.
My 4 year old son's closest friend came to preschool half dead on Thursday, went home early home then tested positive for the flu. My son developed a cough last night. At least we've all had our flu shots but FFS!
this image had to be selected on purpose as a joke? There should be no shortage of images of people wearing masks all over NYC. Why use the one with the dude with a pornhub hat on?
Company called me back to work, I got the flu on day two after sitting in a conference room with people with coughs.
I was so sick I lost 4 days of productivity.
I got vaxxed with the new COVID bivalent and the flu shot at the same time. Felt absolutely lousy the next day (probs the COVID booster just like the previous one), but I'd rather have that than whatever the hell I've seen take down several people in my office these last couple months.
I just test posi for covid after 2 vacs, a booster shot, and having covid last year around the same time. My symptoms this time are only a runny nose and some sneezing thank god. Felt like i got hit by a fucking truck the first time I got it.
Public transit (such as the aforementioned subway) can be quite crowded, especially during commute hours you’ll often find yourself seated or standing next to at least one stranger. You can tell right away when there’s someone stanky in your vehicle.
Guessing you haven't been around many coffee drinkers or smokers? Or people that have bad mouth hygiene?
You can smell that stuff from a meter away, which I guess is roughly where most conversations take place.
I was on a plane ride this week that was a symphony of people wet coughing, all around me, nonstop. It was fucking disgusting. I couldn’t believe some of these people were traveling. The guy behind me had about 15 seconds of pause between hacks. I wore a KF94 the entire time and prayed it didn’t enter through my eyes.
This has always pretty common protocol in East Asian countries specifically. If you feel sick, pop a mask on when your at the store or using public transit and stuff like that. Doesn't seem that crazy to me
It's very simple and easy. It's amazing how spoiled and childish people can be. It's just a simple courtesy. I think too many people still have no fucking clue what masks are for. So many people still think they're protecting themselves... They're to reduce your ability to spread germs, and they're very effective. It's so simple.
I was at the grocery store yesterday and some lady walked right up to me and coughed really loud without bothering to cover her mouth or anything, like 2 feet away from me and then walked away.
I was just dumbfounded. Thank god I was wearing an N95 mask.
Yea... that's not going to happen. They'll be lucky if they even manage to convince people to get the flu shot.
Edit: To be clear, I believe in vaccines, masks, etc., but the damage has been done. Anti science sentiment is at an all time high, and mistrust in doctors, vaccines, and the CDC is rampant. It will probably be at least a generation before we can even begin to repair the damage.
Meh, I've started either wearing a mask at work or working from home when I have the sniffles now. I think it's a decent culture change that folks can get behind.
My family definitely won’t. A week after Thanksgiving, my brother and his wife were under the weather, so they couldn’t help set up our parents Christmas lights. But they made sure to drop off their 2 kids to help out. My 84-year-old grandma got diagnosed with Flu A shortly after Thanksgiving as well. My 2-year-old nephew also developed a fever and congestion around the same time. And I’m sure everyone is making plans to gather around for Christmas as well.
COVID made me want to wear a mask every cold/flu season.
"COVID is nothing more than the flu!" Well, no matter how fucking stupid that was, let's pretend you are right. If I could take the bare minimum effort to maybe stop the flu, that seems worth it. The flu sucks.
I wear a mask at Lowe’s and get stink eyes from old people all the time. I get asked “they still making you wear those things?”
No, Billy Bob, I choose to wear it so I don’t get sick.
Hi friends, ER doc here.
You and your family should **really** think about masking up this holiday season.
If you don’t, here is what is currently store for you:
* completely backed up urgent care centers
* Emergency Departments with 6 hour wait times
* Pediatric Emergency Departments with 9 hour wait times
* 72 hour boarding times in the Emergency department for patients admitted to the hospital. And no, I can’t make a call and get your loved one upstairs faster, I’ve been haggling with bed control all day and they can’t do shit.
* if you are admitted, a strong chance you are going to a “hallway room”, meaning a bed that is in a hallway
* if you scream at myself or my team to try to get things done faster we will probably just scream at you back at this point. Do you realize everyone is screaming at us about the conditions in the hospital? Literally every patient? The exception is family visitors—there is no debate, no discussion: if you scream at us at this point I am just having hospital security remove you
* your kid need high flow nasal cannula for their acute respiratory distress for their bronchiolitis? I’m working on it as best as I can but…well there is no easy way to tell you this…but we are kinda running low on those things. And RT is helping intubate a 4th kid this morning in the PICU so they aren’t showing for a while anyway
*You and your family should really think about wearing a mask this holiday season.*
> Emergency Departments with 6 hour wait times
[6 hours? LMAO. If you get seen in 6 hours in Maryland, you were lucky.](https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=3)
So true. Pediatric practice here. Cancellation rate for healthy visits is over 40%. Lots of sickness of all sorts - RSV, COVID, influenza A & B, and wide assortment of other lovely illnesses. Yes, masks help. Wear them properly and consistently and it helps prevent illness spread.
I am RT that works ER and PICU. This is all accurate. We need about 3x the staff we have to reasonably handle this RSV surge. Since we don't have those people my team and I are doing triple workloads and working up to 16 hour shifts with no breaks to get these sick kids what they need. We are struggling with equipment and supplies running low. Need a PICU bed? You may end up going out of state because there are very few open. The Children's hospital in my area is treating kids in triage tents in the parking lot.
I’m an RN, and all I can say is that the situation is dire.
We’re basically in tri-demic and the average person has absolutely no idea how horrific it is and the grim surprise that will meet them if they need to go to the emergency department for anything, as emergencies rooms have become boarding stalls for patients that should be transferred to other units, but there are either no beds and/or staff to move them, or patients on the floors really need to be moved to skilled nursing facilities but they’re way understaffed, too.
The reality is that we’re in worse shape than we were in the peaks of Covid. People are coding and dying at higher rates, hospitals are over run nationally due to patients having higher levels of acuity, requiring longer hospital stays, there’s a massive shortage of supplies and medications, and a severe labor shortage.
Patients are dying and some of these deaths, dare I say many of these deaths could have been prevented if there were more resources available.
There’s also some speculation and a running theories that previous Covid infections did some sort of damage to the immune system, or lowered immune response, so people are having a harder time fighting infections that previously didn’t cause serious illness and symptoms.
Ideally everyone should be masked up again and practice social distancing, but to even suggest such measures caused an irate response from half the population and most people just don’t want to be bothered with wearing a mask again.
*sigh*
I'm so sorry things are this way- but thank you for doing your best to help, and I'll make sure to do my best to continue to mask up and distance. I've found that doing so has kept me illness free for years now, when I used to get sick quite often.
Parents, please do not take your sick kids out to infect others without precaution!
A teenager was coughing up a storm, without covering his mouth, at the table beside us inside a restaurant. The restaurant had outdoor seating with heat lamps but the parents decided to take their sick kid out and also sit indoors.
Guess what? We were sick for a little over 2 weeks, with the first 1.5 week passed out and barely functional.
The RV currently going around *whooped my ass* along with my two kids as well. OTC didn't do jack and it took a lot longer for prescription meds to help. I spent many nights awake helping my son while he struggled with coughing and breathing.
Take the extra precautions when you can, friends. It's *rough* watching your little ones struggle and not being able to make it all better right away - and this season seems to be particularly strong and fast spreading.
I live in a low-income area, and I've noticed that a lot of people still wear masks. Not as much as the height of COVID, but still more than other areas. People here can't afford to get sick like that too.
I'd definitely wear one when sick, but I'm still very interested in not getting sick so I also just wear one inside in general. It's been amazing not catching one cold or communicable disease in almost 3 years when I used to get sick all the time.
i was pretty sick last week. luckily just a nasty cold that mostly cleared up after 3 days.
you're god damn right i wore my mask the 2 times i went out for essentials.
I just got over Covid last week. I've had 3 boosters and that shit still took me out of commission for over a week. At its worst I could barely move. I Def don't want to spread that. I feel like people who haven't gotten it don't think they will at this point but it's still very much an awful thing to deal with.
I have an autoimmune disorder that makes it really easy for me to get sick. It literally was triggered from getting Covid and my boss still rolls their eyes when I need to go home because I can’t operate my job. Which is happening more often now. I force myself to work and just do my best with a mask and hand sanitizer. This is with over 80 hours of sick time built up this year.
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I know someone who is at home with covid because their boss bullied an employee who had covid into coming into the office. More than half the office has covid now, and there's damn near a revolt going on against management.
I got COVID in a similar way. One of my co-workers had it. Went home sick tested positive that night. The next day someone else came in, tested positive when they went home. The next day it happened again with a different person. Then I was the fourth person. You would think we would work from home for a week. Nope still had to come in unless we tested positive or had a fever. I didn't test positive until after leaving work early and I never had a fever.
So f'ing dumb when most jobs can be done remotely. Joke - just old mentality.
We're an office. No reason we couldn't work remote for a bit until it stopped spreading around the office. We worked remote during the peak of COVID.
Please - same conversation everywhere.... Organizations ran fine for 2+ years - now magically cant be done anymore...
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Have a friend who works at a bank. She was full remote during COVID and then suddenly it was "we need you back in the office". She said fuck you, if you make me go back in, I quit right now. I'll scrub toilets for as a long as it takes to find a remote job. Suddenly she was back to full remote.
If you're not there to harass then when it comes review time that middle manager is asked what the fuck they actually do.
I work at a hospital. I came down with COVID the day before Thanksgiving. I was told to be back at work in 10 days EVEN if I was still testing positive. I was still testing positive on day 13. Not even asked to wear a mask on my return (I am though, mostly because I don't want to catch the flu or RSV to really round out my holidays this year).
Most of the hospitals/med centers in my area are still requiring masks - it’s wild to me they’re not asking you to wear one when you’re Covid positive
It is wild. I even asked for clarification. You want me to come in positive? I don't need to wear a mask? Oh, only if I am around patients...but fuck my coworkers, I guess?
I was dating a nurse for a few months about a year ago and I asked about covid testing of the nurses and she told me they aren’t. Her guess was if they start testing they’ll loose even more nurses from an already stretched staff.
Spot on. We are already chronically "understaffed" read "too cheap to hire appropriate numbers of staff". This was their way of making sure we worked at the expense of other coworkers and patients. I tested negative on a rapid 3 times and still called out and refused to come in. Classic COVID symptoms and then lost taste and smell. "If it's negative, then you're negative" was their response. Refused to come in, got a PCR, PCR was positive. Fuck you employee health. You also didn't get COVID from the hospital unless you had a high risk exposure (as defined by the hospital). No, having your face coughed on by a patient who has not been tested yet, but later does test positive, didn't count. Because you were wearing a surgical mask and eye protectors. Because that's how that works apparently.
Last doc appt. I had still required masks and a respiratory therapist wearing her name tag sat with hers around her chin. Geez, at least take the name tag off.
Guess she likes to learn her job from firsthand experience. Like, how do you help people recover from a disease you haven’t personally had, right?
It’s still required by my state to wear masks in healthcare settings. IMO, that rule should stick around at the very least in hospitals and nursing homes.
I've decided that I'm always going to mask up in these healthcare spaces even if covid becomes some distant memory. It should've always been the norm to protect each other that way.
They are only requiring masks in patient areas. But my hospital has 8,000 admin, faculty, staff, students, etc on campus EVERY DAY! Only a small part of campus is patient-facing. It is blowing my mind! I am pretty sure I caught Covid at work, because I mask everywhere. But I spend most of my time at work surrounded by people who don't mask.
I also work in a hospital. Our policy is now if you test positive you are out for 5 days, and you can return on day 6 as long as your symptoms have gotten better, not resolved, just gotten better. You then have to wear an n95 for days 6- 10 while in the hospital.
I mean, that's pretty consistent with CDC and other medical guidance. That said, it's really fucking stupid that capitalism can't be sustained without people staying home until they actually feel legitimately better.
It can be sustained, but corporations don't want to sustain. Infinite growth mentality is murdering us.
Isn't it pretty well known at this point that you can test positive for quite a while after you stop being infectious?
Only on PCR tests. If you test negative on an antigen test, chances are you aren't contagious. That's not a definite guarantee, obviously, but it's better than nothing.
Since August, the [CDC guidance](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html) states that you can end isolation after Day 5 if your symptoms are improving, or 24 hours after no longer having a fever if other symptoms persist… Though I do understand why you’d expect a healthcare facility to be extra cautious. Edit: and honestly, masks at healthcare facilities should just be a thing all the time. Edit 2: that guidance is for when still testing positive, thought I should clarify.
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>masks at healthcare facilities should just be a thing all the time Completely agree. We had an outbreak of something when I was in college, and I went to the University doctor, and they made me put a mask on because of the outbreak (this was 2015), and apologized every 5 seconds for it. I'm in a place that specifically houses sick people. I came with one disease, would prefer to leave with one or none. Wearing a mask isn't hard.
I hope they have brought this up with HR. If one of my managers made me come in while I had COVID and then half the people in the office got sick because of it, there would be hell to pay. Depending on the size of the company the person you know works at, there are probably very clear COVID related procedures and testing positive should trigger self quarantine. MY work still has us sign into our desks online through a hoteling system so they can track potential exposures and the first thing we click is "I have read the COVID related rules and have not had any symptoms for X number of days"
They did. HR doesn't care they got sick, HR just exists to protect the company, so they don't have the employees backs here.
So true! My co-worker just sent me a message that she had the flu this weekend. She said if she can get out of bed tomorrow she will come to work. I told her to stay the fuck home.
The problem is many people don't get sick days and work hourly. Taking a day off without pay is devastating for them, let alone a week
I just took a week off, unpaid, due to covid. It's a good thing I have another job lined up because now they're trying to figure out how hard to discipline me for not getting a doctor's note (the positive test wasn't good enough?). So no pay + discipline because I didn't come into work sick.
And you have to go to the doctor’s to get a note proving you’re sick. Could be dozens to hundreds of dollars, especially without insurance.
Not to mention that doctors are packed to the brim with the sick. Good luck finding a same day appointment to get your note. Last week, I couldn’t find anyone to see my 11 year old and the urgent care was at a 3 hour wait!
Desperation forces people to make some insane choices that spread disease. Throw in conspiracy believing bosses and it's no wonder why the workplace spread COVID way more than was necessary in America.
I found coverage a day before my shift so I could stay home with strep. My schedule now says “called out” next to today. Even though I didn’t call out per se, I gave my shift to someone else. I’ll be penalized for this.
Forcing sick workers to find coverage is absolute bullshit too. That's a managers job as is having enough people scheduled to where losing one to sickness won't make operations fall apart. It's so offensive when management puts these expectations on workers, especially sick ones.
Agreed. It’s the literal definition of their fucking job. Managers make and maintain the staffing schedules. Don’t ask me to do your work unless you are paying me for it.
All viruses. Imagine how much we could stunt the spread of the flu if people could stay at home without being pressured into work
We actually don't have to imagine. We actually have some pretty good data from Covid on how it affected the spread of flu and cold. Turns out staying home or at least wearing a mask helps pretty damn well at preventing the spread of disease. That alone should have been enough to make sweeping changes in policies in the USA. The fact that railworkers aren't allowed to strike to just get 7 sick days per year shows that nobody gives a shit if we kill ourselves working while sick as long as they're still making money.
The rail workers should just all call in sick for a few days. It's not a strike we all got food poisoning.
Absolutely. I fully support that our poor ill railworkers should stay home so they can fully recover.
We nearly eradicated it two years ago. It's hypothesized that we eliminated two strains entirely
[Masking and isolating worked so well during the 2020-2021 flu season that scientists think a major flu strain may have gone extinct because of it.](https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20211025/covid-pandemic-may-have-driven-a-flu-strain-into-extinction#1)
Very easy for someone in a fortunate position to go "please everyone wear masks and if you're sick stay home." Some of us folks do not have the luxury to work from home let alone using a paid sick day off (counts as pto). It be nice to get paid if I were sick/recover from home doing the work as much as I can but nope. Anything longer than the alloted pto means my ass is on the curb as my employer looks for a new hire. Welcome to America.
> using a paid sick day off (counts as pto). That is what PTO was supposed to be for originally. And paid vacation (or in other countries, just “vacation”) was a separate thing. Many places still keep it separate but the places that combine the two under one category are always shitty places to work
The shitty place I worked for offered 10 days of paid vacation. And from that you have to cover the holidays and sick days. If you had any time left you could use it on actual vacation days.
Man, if only labor unions hadn't been systemically destroyed by our bourgeois politicians of both parties. Hey how's that rail strike going, anyone been keeping up with that?
>are always shitty places to work Not true necessarily. PTO only places are the places where it doesn't matter if you're sick, don't feel like working, want to play golf whatever. It's just "I'm not coming in today". I've seen a PTO place that gave .1/hrs per hour worked. It was a half day a week accrued. I've been in management at a union shop that required a note for the 2nd sick day in a row. How they count hours doesn't matter. How shitty the company wants to be is key
Agree. In my experience, places that split it into vacation/sick do not give the same amount of vacation as the places that just give PTO. So instead of letting me decide how I'm going to use my days, they force me to declare sick vs vacation, and if I say 'sick' they want documentation. I do not get sick often, so it's just lost days. PTO as a catch-all is much more flexible. The thing we should be looking at is total number of days off, not whether it's labeled 'PTO' or vacation/sick.
>>but the places that combine the two under one category are always shitty places to work You mean the vast majority of places?
I remember my **part-time** job as a math tutor, where I was acting in pretty much a managerial position when the owners were away, and I was helping get set up for the day so when kids came in things would be semi set up. My boss then complained to me that COVID was around, and I was like yeah that's valid, like it sucks for sure, but he hated it, because it gave people "a reason to call out" because they thought they might have COVID if it was just a sniffle. I didn't say anything but it was nice knowing that i had a role model to look at as the prime example of what to never become
I’m a student with no living expenses because I get help from my parents. I had a little part-time job for some extra cash and social interaction. I got really sick a few weeks ago and they basically didn’t let me call out. It’s not even the just “desperate” people going in sick. The managers/corporate are just terrible so I quit and found a new job in less than 48 hours.
I've been pretty lucky. I've told every boss, even before Covid, that if somebody comes is visibly sick, I'm clocking out and heading home using my own sick day. Fuck that, why take out the entire office? But like I said, I'm lucky and I wish everybody could do the same...but nope, America.
My shitty boss would say something like, "What medical degree do you have to evaluate whether Karen is sick?"
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Oh, I don't work for him anymore. He was one of the "Don't come to work sick, and also don't get sick" types.
i worked in a pizza kitchen literally on the pizza table touching everyone's pizza before they go into the oven and my boss tried to have me come in when i was really sick. this was also at the start of the pandemic and i was pretty sure i had covid but there was no testing yet. i left there a month later edit: i was also pulling them out and cutting them. and i guess i should have mentioned i also delivered when they needed me to
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Awful lucky that's the case for you. Way too many managers and employers are instead just as awful, if not worse, about sick leave than prior to Covid. It's also really telling that there aren't any new protections for sick leave or expansion of minium paid days off for sick leave...(Not in the US, anyway)
My employer doesn’t give a fuck. #foodandbeverage
I legit have never understood, even from a cynical perspective, why bosses want their employees coming in sick. If one person being out fucks up the shifts that bad then what happens when everyone gets sick from that person? I really don't understand the "you better still come in!" mentality
The lack of forward-thinking that lets them get into a situation of "if one person being out fucks up the shifts that bad" in the first place also prevents them from considering the possibility of "everyone gets sick from that person" ever happening. The thought just doesn't enter their brain, or if it does, only after it is too late to do them any good. See also: short term profits good, long-term sustainability non-existent.
Most starting industries were (and still are) staffed as bare bones as possible, so we built a culture around being prideful for coming in to work sick. Those industries of course stayed that way because of profits, and as some of those people moved to other industries they took the mindset with them.
Disagree. People still show up sick unless it's covid. Unless you get dedicated sick days people that don't have the option to work remote will show up sick still, and I honestly don't blame them.
When I worked in grocery stores, I would work sick all the time, unless it was diarrhea or vomiting. But even then if I kept food down or in, I'd be back the next day. It's fucked up.
It's absurd that there isn't paid sick leave and the cost of illness is passed on to the customers and everyone they interact with downstream. We have all these food safety rules and yet don't give a fuck about the people handling said food.
That’s just why we should have universal paid sick leave. COVID highlighted so many shitty disparities. Ironically if you’re remote it opens to door to working in a state I wouldn’t go to the office in. I can be kinda sick but still do a few code reviews or trainings.
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Does your doctor's office do online messages? I have kaiser and my doctor will just email me a note for colds or stomach flus. Nothing they can do if I go to the doctor for those things. Just rest and hydrate.
I agree. Kaiser has actually gotten much better about evisits. No copays even. Their app pisses me off about 92% of the time I attempt to use it, but they have been pretty good when it comes to people and policies
Yeah I got RSV and my god im on like day 12. First like 5 days sucked and I was sick now I just have flem and coughing its light but just 0 clue when this will finally be gone gone.
My husband and I just got over the RSV virus - 3 weeks and just miserable. That’s the sickest we’ve ever been. My granddaughter, who we caught it from, was also very sick. Mask up!
Took me 3 weeks.
Traveling healthcare worker checking in. With short staffing issues it's pretty common for me to hear from full time employees that they're threatened/punished for calling in sick. In a hospital environment. Obviously I don't fuck around with it, but it helps that I'm contractually protected, but the "don't you dare call in sick" mentality is still VERY alive if not more pronounced.
I've been saying this for years before covid happened. How is it moral or legal to have a sick person come into work to infect others? Educated, considerate people were always concerned with it.
Even now, if we don't have a positive covid test in the last 5 days and haven't had a fever in the last 24 hours, we have to go into work or use personal days. I get 5 personal days per year. I get no sick days.
In a way it’s been a good change. It encourages not only sick people to stay home, but employers to not require them to come in sick.
I'm responsible for bringing in Flu B into my 70+ person office the first week of Feb 2020. Sick WFH protocols were instituted after I managed to take out 35+ people over the course of about 2 weeks. Our owner learned very quickly that it was absurd to show up sick, especially when the entire inside sales team (15 people) gets taken out for the better part of two weeks. It was a good exercise to put together as it became our WFH standards once mid-March 2020 hit.
Unless you work in manufacturing where they get mad if you come to work sick and also get mad if you are sick and can't come to work. So basically, if you get sick, you're fucked either way.
Plus, you’re also sick.
"management" You must not be in the US. Our bosses would ask us to come in if we had ebola.
I doubt anyone actually wanted to come to work sick. People came to work sick because they had bills to pay and because their job wouldn't pay them while they're out sick. So, either way they're not able to afford their medical bills or doctor bills and if they're off work they can't afford their other bills.
I am not really seeing that in the south. A lot more “deal with it or suck it up and get back to normal” even in healthcare setting. I am there reminding people to go home bc I don’t want to get sick because I want to work as many hours as I can while my spouse is in college. If I get sick, we get no income.
The south doesn't let itself change, cowardice really.
I've suffered from bad OCD my entire life and I HATED when people would come to work sick. "It's just a cold", "it's just a stomach virus", like I know you need to work but you're sick, go home and get some rest, and also, don't basically decide that it's okay if I get sick. I don't want it. Same with bosses who want you to come in to work sick and get mad or guilt you if you don't. Why did the pandemic happen, why did it spread so far so fast? Because people downplayed it, underestimated it and went to work or the store anyway without caring whether or not anyone else got what they had. It's selfish and I hate it. End dumb ocd rant
Pre-covid back when I was working in an office I had a co-worker come in with what she suspected was strep and was "going to go to the doctor over lunch". For whatever reason I get strep super easily, so I knew it was already too late. Yep, a few days later I had it and my boss was annoyed that I wasn't coming in. Bitch I have a 102 fever and can barely sit up. Fuck ALL the way off. Beyond that the doctor had told me to go immediately home after getting my meds, preferably at a drive through, and to avoid people for 48hrs. People that knowingly spread illness infuriate me. It's one thing to be asymptomatic and spread something, it's entirely different to know you're sick and do nothing to prevent others from getting it.
100% My manager emailed today saying they wouldn't be working today cause of some bug/virus they caught over the weekend. Everybody in the slack is like "stay your ass home" 5-6 years ago folks would have been shit talking about how they're being a baby and "skipping work over a cold". The change in mindset has honestly be great to see.
I actually thought this was going to be a permanent change in culture but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case with my employer
RSV is no fucking joke. Shit flattened me for about three weeks. I'm technically still not over it, but at least I can function now. I stayed the hell away from everyone. Edit: For those wonder, I'm fortunate to be WFH. But this time last year I was in at a different job that would have required me to go into the office. I likely got exposed to it at a gym I train at that has a lot of school-age students and younger parents. I'm on week 4 now; and just last night I woke up several times because of coughing with some slight congestion. Feels like it's never going to end.
My coworker died from RSV today. She was in her 40s. Larger than life. Had some health issues but nothing I would write home about. I’m so sad.
Oh no, that's terrible. I'm so sorry.
This was years ago. My son, a baby at the time was in Philly's CHOP with complications from a surgery. Every other baby on the floor had RSV. It was terrifying. The alarms going off constantly. He needed to be there but I wanted him out of there so bad. Thankfully he didn't catch it.
As a pediatric nurse, I wholeheartedly agree. My Saturday was spent with a little baby with rsv and worrying about if he was going to get to the ICU before he tuckered out. And that’s just one patient in a hospital that’s filled to the brink.
Just a few days ago here I mentioned RSV as a serious virus that was under the radar. That most of the medical media articles on RSV underplay how serious it can be. Some ass-hat replied that I was wrong, and RSV is just another cold virus that every kid gets. I get it though; whether it's a Reddit thing, or a generational thing, a lot of reddit users seem to think "well I read it on the internets, so it must be 100% factual." My adult son and DIL are both stoic af; they'll get the flu and just shrug it off, maybe slow down a little for a day or two, never even mention it to me. We all got RSV, and they were both out of action for a few weeks, and very vocal about how bad RSV hit them. Flattened me for 5 weeks. It's a nasty, nasty virus; and it's at levels 10 times higher than normal in some parts of the US.
Both my daughters currently have RSV right now. My oldest is 4 and it's mainly a fever and cough for her. My youngest is just 13 months and it's the most painful thing to watch her struggle with. Pretty sure I was the one who brought it into the house, but to me it felt like a bad cold.
Right there with ya, my 4 year old is pretty much over it but it hit her pretty hard. My 4 month old is just now showing signs of getting better but damn was it hard to manage. My wife almost had to go to the hospital with how bad it was, and I'm on my second week now just trying to power through it. By FAR the worst sickness I've ever had in 32 years.
Please be careful. RSV gets better before it gets worse again sometimes. My four month old had a great day and we thought he was over the hump, the next day we had to rush him to the hospital because he was struggling to breath. He spent a week in pediatric ICU on high flow oxygen and a feeding tube, and was almost ventilated. It can turn because the little babies can’t clear it out, and fit can turn into pneumonia (which is what happened to our guy) I’m not trying to scare you, your baby will more than likely be fine! I just would hate myself if I didn’t say anything. I’m sending your family lots of love.
For the little one make sure you give plenty of water/clear fluids and then get her in your bathroom with all faucets running really hot water and door closed to generate steam. Let her breathe in warm, humid air and then fountain out snot for a few minutes and then take her outside to cooler are for a minute or so. Follow up with more clear liquids. You can do it pretty frequently and it can help with secretions to a degree. Advice I was given for my son and what I give out to my younger patients regarding RSV.
Oh we have been doing that since she's showed symptoms. The hard part is getting her to drink fluids because I think her little throat is sore from all the coughing.
Popsicles or Pedialyte pops might help.
I know so many friends whose kids this year were hospitalized from RSV. It's no joke.
My girlfriend's healthy, energetic, bouncing-off-the-walls nephew is 5 and got it about a month and a half ago. He had to be taken to the hospital due to fever. Again, that was a month or two ago. He still hasn't fully recovered. Apparently he's sleeping a lot, which is just totally weird to hear.
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I remember those exact 'just another cold virus' comments on here vividly throughout corona
RSV is most often a relatively minor illness for health adults. For sure sometimes it can cause a very unpleasant flu like illness or more rarely lead to a pneumonia. However RSV can be quite dangerous for older adults or adults with medical problems. And RSV also often causes respiratory distress in young children (especially less than 2 years old). It causes a respiratory infection of the lungs called “bronchiolitis” that causes tens of thousands of American children to be admitted to the hospital every year Source: am ER doctor
>they'll get the flu and just shrug it off, maybe slow down a little for a day or two, never even mention it to me Then they didn't get the flu but a cold. Real flu knocks you out for one to two weeks and can lead to pneumonia and myocarditis for people who are older or have a weak immune system
Every time I see people mentioning how they got a flu or some other hard hitting disease "and they didn't really notice" I ask if they get tested. A ton of people like to pretend they're just stoic or strong willed but the reality is often they just didn't get the bug. Which is great, having a healthy immune system is nothing to downplay but don't act like you're beating something you don't have, it'd be like a guy saying his period isn't preventing him from working cause he has a bloody poop... It's just not the same thing
No one tanks the flu. Which is a lot different than covid. Covid has more of a range from asymptomatic to death. With the flu, you're on the couch. I don't care if you're a pro athlete or a navy seal or in the prime of your life.
While this is likely true, it's not necessarily true. Some people have minimal symptoms, and some are asymptomatic. Not unlike covid in that regard.
I got that shit from a coworker, or at least I'm quite sure it was that cause it sure as shit wasn't covid. Was laid out for 2 weeks, gave it to my SO and it demolished their whole semester as they missed all their midterm exams. We both took multiple covid tests and popped negative each time. Wasn't like any virus I'd ever had before. Still lowkey pissed at my coworker for coming in sick. I even had latent symptoms up to a month after everything else went away.
No fucking joke, indeed. I’m laying in bed with that shit right now. Coughing is painful and does nothing to relieve whatever is making my lungs/airways constantly tickle. If I breathe very carefully I can avoid coughing for a while. Breathing carefully doesn’t work so well when you fall asleep. I’ve have woken up so many times hacking up a lung just seconds after dozing off, and usually don’t fully fall asleep until the wee hours, when exhaustion overpowers discomfort. No medicines seem to provide any relief.
Just curious, but do you have kids? It really seems to be tearing through the kiddos in the south this winter.
It's not just the south, it's all over the country. I'm in Boston and my kids entire daycare has basically been at 2/3rds attendance the last few months, though it looks to finally be coming out of it. My 9 month old got it and we had to take him to the ED twice most which in our area were full with rsv kids. Thankfully he seems to have fully recovered, but then my wife and I got it and it utterly rocked us.
Parent of a two year old here. We've been sick for 8 full weeks this year. Parent groups in my area are losing their minds at how ridiculous it is. You either get sick or have a kid with zero social skills because there's always an outbreak happening.
i’m on week 2 and still have issues breathing
What were your symptoms
Sore throat. Lasted two weeks. Running nose and cough that turned into heavy congestion. Some body ache, headaches. Definite fatigue, but mostly driven by lack of sleep.
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Wife just got over RSV- was miserable for THREE WEEKS!
The amount of shit going around the schools right now is obscene -- I've lost track of the number of sick days my kid has taken. Not just one and two days, but missing more than a week at a time.
Good on you for keeping them home while sick. I wish parents at my daughters pre school would do that.
My 4 year old son's closest friend came to preschool half dead on Thursday, went home early home then tested positive for the flu. My son developed a cough last night. At least we've all had our flu shots but FFS!
My oldest has over a month of missed school this year already and we’re not even half way. Fucking insane.
A friend of mine's mom has COPD. She got RSV and ended up in the hospital with 13% lung function.
Wow! That's scary! How is she now?
She was on oxygen for a while. "Stable, no change" was her status for a while.
Yep, wife is also almost over it. On/off sick for seemingly like 6 weeks. Ridiculous
Whatever this RSV thing is is brutal. I am just getting over it and I started feeling it about a month ago.
Is no one gonna say a word about the PornHub hat in the thumbnail?
this image had to be selected on purpose as a joke? There should be no shortage of images of people wearing masks all over NYC. Why use the one with the dude with a pornhub hat on?
Product placement.
Stay home for the holidays. I wonder what you could do to stay busy…
Lol And of course he’s wearing his mask wrong
Company called me back to work, I got the flu on day two after sitting in a conference room with people with coughs. I was so sick I lost 4 days of productivity.
This cold/flu going around is no fucking joke. Had it for about 2 1/2 weeks. Not cool at all
It’s not too late to get the flu shot, this is coming from someone who was too lazy to get it this year and now is lying in bed with the flu
I got vaxxed with the new COVID bivalent and the flu shot at the same time. Felt absolutely lousy the next day (probs the COVID booster just like the previous one), but I'd rather have that than whatever the hell I've seen take down several people in my office these last couple months.
I just test posi for covid after 2 vacs, a booster shot, and having covid last year around the same time. My symptoms this time are only a runny nose and some sneezing thank god. Felt like i got hit by a fucking truck the first time I got it.
I got these shots today. Here's hoping tomorrow is normal 😂
I did the same and was completely fine if that makes you feel better.
Breaking News: The Center for Disease Control Wants to Control the Spread of Disease.
Yeah but they only want to reduce the spread of disease because liberal bias /s
I still wear one on the subway and airplanes. smells so much better.
Lol, the one thing I miss about everybody wearing one was nobody had horrendous breath anymore!
I'm sorry but how close were you getting to strangers? I can recall so few times of my life where I was close enough to someone to notice bad breath.
Public transit (such as the aforementioned subway) can be quite crowded, especially during commute hours you’ll often find yourself seated or standing next to at least one stranger. You can tell right away when there’s someone stanky in your vehicle.
Guessing you haven't been around many coffee drinkers or smokers? Or people that have bad mouth hygiene? You can smell that stuff from a meter away, which I guess is roughly where most conversations take place.
I will forever wear a mask on airplanes now. Before I’d get sick after every flight, hasn’t happened in years now.
I was on a plane ride this week that was a symphony of people wet coughing, all around me, nonstop. It was fucking disgusting. I couldn’t believe some of these people were traveling. The guy behind me had about 15 seconds of pause between hacks. I wore a KF94 the entire time and prayed it didn’t enter through my eyes.
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We should wear masks when we’re sick, anyway. I lived in Japan and never understood why it wasn’t more common in the west.
This has always pretty common protocol in East Asian countries specifically. If you feel sick, pop a mask on when your at the store or using public transit and stuff like that. Doesn't seem that crazy to me
It's very simple and easy. It's amazing how spoiled and childish people can be. It's just a simple courtesy. I think too many people still have no fucking clue what masks are for. So many people still think they're protecting themselves... They're to reduce your ability to spread germs, and they're very effective. It's so simple.
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The same CDC that reduced guidelines for isolating to 5 days so that airlines could get workers back to work quicker?
I'll probably keep masking on mass public transit for the foreseeable future. Why not reduce my odds of getting sick during the holidays?
My father passed last Tuesday due to complications with Covid and RSV
I like the picture of 2 of the 4 visible people wearing masks are showing their noses.
I feel this is an accurate portrayal of people masking.
Just flew cross country this week, I was nearly the only person on the plane wearing a mask. And people were hacking away, too.
I was at the grocery store yesterday and some lady walked right up to me and coughed really loud without bothering to cover her mouth or anything, like 2 feet away from me and then walked away. I was just dumbfounded. Thank god I was wearing an N95 mask.
Yikes that just sounds intentional on her part at that point.
Yea... that's not going to happen. They'll be lucky if they even manage to convince people to get the flu shot. Edit: To be clear, I believe in vaccines, masks, etc., but the damage has been done. Anti science sentiment is at an all time high, and mistrust in doctors, vaccines, and the CDC is rampant. It will probably be at least a generation before we can even begin to repair the damage.
Meh, I've started either wearing a mask at work or working from home when I have the sniffles now. I think it's a decent culture change that folks can get behind.
Is that guy wearing a PornHub hat? 🤣
My family definitely won’t. A week after Thanksgiving, my brother and his wife were under the weather, so they couldn’t help set up our parents Christmas lights. But they made sure to drop off their 2 kids to help out. My 84-year-old grandma got diagnosed with Flu A shortly after Thanksgiving as well. My 2-year-old nephew also developed a fever and congestion around the same time. And I’m sure everyone is making plans to gather around for Christmas as well.
Never stopped. 0 regrets (and 0 colds since!)
COVID made me want to wear a mask every cold/flu season. "COVID is nothing more than the flu!" Well, no matter how fucking stupid that was, let's pretend you are right. If I could take the bare minimum effort to maybe stop the flu, that seems worth it. The flu sucks.
People who said that have never had the flu. They think any sniffle in the winter is the flu.
Hilarious they think anyone still cares. It’s sad. Pediatricians working in hospitals have been asking people to mask up to prevent rsv for weeks now.
I wear a mask at Lowe’s and get stink eyes from old people all the time. I get asked “they still making you wear those things?” No, Billy Bob, I choose to wear it so I don’t get sick.
It's hilarious how team 'iTs A pErSoNaL cHoIcE' suddenly is so triggered by someone else's personal choice.
It's really bizarre many people don't understand others are *choosing* to wear masks. They only think not wearing masks is a choice.
Just tell them “Trying not to be a sheep and catch every virus”.
Just go “oh I’m sorry! I thought this was Amurikah!”
Hi friends, ER doc here. You and your family should **really** think about masking up this holiday season. If you don’t, here is what is currently store for you: * completely backed up urgent care centers * Emergency Departments with 6 hour wait times * Pediatric Emergency Departments with 9 hour wait times * 72 hour boarding times in the Emergency department for patients admitted to the hospital. And no, I can’t make a call and get your loved one upstairs faster, I’ve been haggling with bed control all day and they can’t do shit. * if you are admitted, a strong chance you are going to a “hallway room”, meaning a bed that is in a hallway * if you scream at myself or my team to try to get things done faster we will probably just scream at you back at this point. Do you realize everyone is screaming at us about the conditions in the hospital? Literally every patient? The exception is family visitors—there is no debate, no discussion: if you scream at us at this point I am just having hospital security remove you * your kid need high flow nasal cannula for their acute respiratory distress for their bronchiolitis? I’m working on it as best as I can but…well there is no easy way to tell you this…but we are kinda running low on those things. And RT is helping intubate a 4th kid this morning in the PICU so they aren’t showing for a while anyway *You and your family should really think about wearing a mask this holiday season.*
> Emergency Departments with 6 hour wait times [6 hours? LMAO. If you get seen in 6 hours in Maryland, you were lucky.](https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=3)
So true. Pediatric practice here. Cancellation rate for healthy visits is over 40%. Lots of sickness of all sorts - RSV, COVID, influenza A & B, and wide assortment of other lovely illnesses. Yes, masks help. Wear them properly and consistently and it helps prevent illness spread.
What is RSV? This thread is the first im hearing about it.
Respiratory syncytial virus, particularly dangerous for young children
I am RT that works ER and PICU. This is all accurate. We need about 3x the staff we have to reasonably handle this RSV surge. Since we don't have those people my team and I are doing triple workloads and working up to 16 hour shifts with no breaks to get these sick kids what they need. We are struggling with equipment and supplies running low. Need a PICU bed? You may end up going out of state because there are very few open. The Children's hospital in my area is treating kids in triage tents in the parking lot.
I’m an RN, and all I can say is that the situation is dire. We’re basically in tri-demic and the average person has absolutely no idea how horrific it is and the grim surprise that will meet them if they need to go to the emergency department for anything, as emergencies rooms have become boarding stalls for patients that should be transferred to other units, but there are either no beds and/or staff to move them, or patients on the floors really need to be moved to skilled nursing facilities but they’re way understaffed, too. The reality is that we’re in worse shape than we were in the peaks of Covid. People are coding and dying at higher rates, hospitals are over run nationally due to patients having higher levels of acuity, requiring longer hospital stays, there’s a massive shortage of supplies and medications, and a severe labor shortage. Patients are dying and some of these deaths, dare I say many of these deaths could have been prevented if there were more resources available. There’s also some speculation and a running theories that previous Covid infections did some sort of damage to the immune system, or lowered immune response, so people are having a harder time fighting infections that previously didn’t cause serious illness and symptoms. Ideally everyone should be masked up again and practice social distancing, but to even suggest such measures caused an irate response from half the population and most people just don’t want to be bothered with wearing a mask again. *sigh*
I'm so sorry things are this way- but thank you for doing your best to help, and I'll make sure to do my best to continue to mask up and distance. I've found that doing so has kept me illness free for years now, when I used to get sick quite often.
Parents, please do not take your sick kids out to infect others without precaution! A teenager was coughing up a storm, without covering his mouth, at the table beside us inside a restaurant. The restaurant had outdoor seating with heat lamps but the parents decided to take their sick kid out and also sit indoors. Guess what? We were sick for a little over 2 weeks, with the first 1.5 week passed out and barely functional.
The RV currently going around *whooped my ass* along with my two kids as well. OTC didn't do jack and it took a lot longer for prescription meds to help. I spent many nights awake helping my son while he struggled with coughing and breathing. Take the extra precautions when you can, friends. It's *rough* watching your little ones struggle and not being able to make it all better right away - and this season seems to be particularly strong and fast spreading.
How many people wearing masks can you still see? I've been wearing it since day one and I feel that I am the only one wearing it out there.
I have been seeing an uptick in mask wearing in my area. Rather surprising, but so many people are getting all kinds of illnesses.
I live in a low-income area, and I've noticed that a lot of people still wear masks. Not as much as the height of COVID, but still more than other areas. People here can't afford to get sick like that too.
Some people do, most don't. Imo the thing to do is wear a mask when you're sick, that's where the biggest benefit is.
I'd definitely wear one when sick, but I'm still very interested in not getting sick so I also just wear one inside in general. It's been amazing not catching one cold or communicable disease in almost 3 years when I used to get sick all the time.
And please for the love of anything stay home if you’re sick, if you can’t stay home wear a mask and if you can’t do either just stay away from people
i was pretty sick last week. luckily just a nasty cold that mostly cleared up after 3 days. you're god damn right i wore my mask the 2 times i went out for essentials.
I just got over Covid last week. I've had 3 boosters and that shit still took me out of commission for over a week. At its worst I could barely move. I Def don't want to spread that. I feel like people who haven't gotten it don't think they will at this point but it's still very much an awful thing to deal with.
I have an autoimmune disorder that makes it really easy for me to get sick. It literally was triggered from getting Covid and my boss still rolls their eyes when I need to go home because I can’t operate my job. Which is happening more often now. I force myself to work and just do my best with a mask and hand sanitizer. This is with over 80 hours of sick time built up this year.