@suteiki77 - I think we are in the same state-what are the actual guidelines? I am feeling feeling lost, confused and frustrated after the gov’s latest press conference.
SMH.
“Texas restaurants that reopened at partial capacity last week have a choice to make: Whether or not their employees should wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
“One restaurant company landed on a decision that has some employees weighing their safety versus their jobs.”
“No face masks or face coverings of any kind.”
“That’s what a back-of-the-house employee at a Hillstone Restaurant Group establishment in Dallas was told last week, as restaurants prepared to reopen at 25% capacity, according to CBS Dallas.
That employee, who did not want to be identified publicly, expressed discomfort and was told to think about it — and then was removed from the schedule, the employee told CBS Dallas’ Brooke Rogers.
Another employee said some agreed to work because they were offered a 40-hour work week, but were told if they declined, they wouldn’t be eligible for rehire.”
“Hillstone management also points to the law, writing on its website: “Current orders do not require our staff or guests to wear face masks. If you are concerned about your safety in this respect, we hope you will join us a later date.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-masks-dallas-restaurant-workers/
That’s a nice resource! Yes, I think my teens have had many whooping cough vaccinations already…just looked, one required for HS entry.
Do we even know the relative risk of various environmental conditions? We see outbreaks in nursing homes, cruise ships, meat-packing plants. In Boston, there was the BioGen conference, and more recently, a couple of WalMarts where there was an outbreak among employees. Do we know what % of the positive cases are from these group scenarios vs. more casual contact?
Clearly, if an infected person sneezed right in your face, you’d have a very high risk of being infected. Some have said if you are within x feet (6 ft? 10 ft? 3 ft?) for y amount of time (15 min?), then you have a higher risk of being infected.
But if everyone is wearing a mask, washing hands, maintaining social distance, avoiding crowds, how much less is the risk of infection? Do we know? Is anyone studying this? Is the contact tracing even going to tell us?
As an aside, the local news has previously reported an employee at the local grocery store where we shop tested positive, but would not say when the employee last worked “for privacy reasons”. So, seems as though the contact tracing is not concerned about casual contact, at least not at that time.
I can only speak directly about our experience. MD said stay home at least two weeks. And before venturing out (after 2 weeks since symptom onset), there also needs to be 72 hours with no symptoms such as fever & coughing.
He was specific about no fever & no coughing.
Neither of us were instructed to get tested. We were told to recover at home & be on the watch for any serious breathing difficulties.
Same for a coworker’s husband. Stay home & recover. No test. Call me (the MD) if things get really bad.
This was Illinois. Second week of April more or less.
Of the 15 people we counted in H’s workplace transmission chain, we are aware of only one person who got a test. It was positive.
If I went in for a PCR test now, it very well might come up positive bc the test picks up on virus remnants or “litter”. That is not the same as having active infectious disease.
@Lennon
Here you go. 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/
I’m sorry you are feeling that way. I think almost everyone is feeling most or all of that in various ways. It is a crazy time in history.
contact tracing as I understand it is supposed to work to find all the people who were in closest contact (and most likely to get sick from) a person who tests positive or comes down with the virus. It helps prevent the spread and resurgence of the virus.
I think it is frustrating that the grocery store would not even give that much info.
My son did a college tour at a school that was in a state that supposedly had no cases. Turns out there was a professor who was diagnosed the next day or so after that. I could not get useful info until after hours on the phone. They kept telling me the students in class with the professor were notified. OK, how about visiting students like my son? How about the students he was eating lunch with and sitting next to all day? Thankfully he was no exposed directly to any of those people but who knows how many others had it already that day. We know others there later tested positive.
Well, the local news isn’t doing the contact tracing, some other entity is. Even if you are a direct contact, I think HIPA would prohibit telling you who. I know my son’s school could never tell who had been sick, only that someone had X or Y illness (we had a medical order that they had to tell us about certain exposures because of his illness)
My oldest skyped us to chat about his worries about his sibling. Can’t you make them move in with you? (we live in a much less infected area) My ill child lives smack in the middle of a hotspot. I said yes, we have offered, they have declined. Going on week 11 of isolating to keep him safe. Oldest says but he’ll never be safe, even with a vaccine (if the vaccine is live, he couldn’t have it). And his voice breaks, and he says But we can’t even help, can we. We just wait for someone to breathe on him?
And I had to say we just have to hope he’ll be okay. And we all cried. And when I went to the grocery store after lasting 23 days without going anywhere at all, the first thing I saw was someone arguing about why they had to wear a #$@& mask to buy milk. I remind myself they thought he would never get out of the hospital, so all our time has been a gift, but this is really hard on us. Remember people like us are everywhere when you don’t want to mask, or “need” to travel outside your area.
And in cheery news. We are getting a $53 refund check from our auto insurance folks. Got an email today telling us the check is in the mail. Not sure where that $53 number came from…but every penny counts!
Note that current adult vaccine recommendations are to get Td (tetanus, diptheria) every 10 years, with at least one in your life being Tdap (tetanus, diptheria, acellular pertussis) instead of Td. But if immunity from the acellular pertussis vaccine fades quickly, you may want to get Tdap instead of Td every time.
@greenbutton Thank you for your post. I’m sorry you have this stress. I don’t know what your son’s health issue is. I am immune deficient and have read that some types of immune deficiency react differently than others but that it is possible in some people that being immune deficient keeps them out of trouble with the virus the 2nd weak because rather than have an overreactive immune response, they have an under reactive one (which is not good, either but avoids the 2nd week issues in many who get very bad off from Covid). I also think there are more and better treatments coming. The antibody serum, the Dutch treatment, etc. I also think having one’s own masks be as effective as possible is a good idea.
Our other kid sent us a picture from work. She is a server in a restaurant in Kentucky and the staff is wearing masks.
She says business at the restaurant has been “okay” — hard to get any more details out of that one.
There is no testing follow up. My friends works at a doctor’s office in the hospital - no retest. Honor code - you can come back after 7 days of no symptoms. THIS IS IN A HOSPITAL.
In addition, from what I recall (sorry I don't have links handy), pertussis has evolved around the vaccine. The acellular vaccine provides specific immunity to a component (PRN) that is not present in the strains causing most recent pertussis outbreaks. Vaccinated people can have few to no symptoms but still be infectious.
Contact tracing will work will if there is an app that is required if you want to get into restaurants, grocery stores, colleges etc (they can scan your forehead for fever and scan your phone like at the airport). They are private business and can enforce it. The app does the work - pings you if you’ve been within 6 feet of a confirmed positive. Testing needs to be plentiful for this to work. You will then be told where to go to test and get a quick result. If you don’t go, someone will call you… but at the end of the day, they can’t make you test. My guess is most will comply. People don’t seem to mind everyone knowing what they do on their phones now - all apps are spying.
@emilybee, that is one of our favorite restaurants. Many people, us included, are appalled at their attitude. I will not be going to that restaurant even once it’s “safe” because of this. Their FB page has been inundated with angry posts from people declaring they will boycott. It’s one thing to require masks, but another thing altogether to forbid it. I guess they don’t care if their cooking staff begins dropping like flies. Their kitchens are all visible to the patrons, and there is no way for the workers to safely distance themselves from each other.
Well according to our president (today) he’s heard we have tremendous supply. So much so that we’re going to start having some of our supply go to other countries. (this was in response to a nurse saying PPE was spotty). So there’s that.
Here’s what I’m seeing today:
I was able to file for unemployment today (since I’m temporarily furloughed from work for COVID-associated closures.) So far, so good! Keeping my fingers crossed that there’s no problems with my claim.
My D was informed today by her boss that her Big 4 accounting firm will continue its work-from-home policy until at least August 1st, no matter what her state decides to do about re-opening. She’s on maternity leave now. Have a mentioned that I haven’t been able to see her or my 10-week-old grandson since February? 
Also talked with my neighbor whose wife died of COVID (one of those supposed anomalous victims with no underlying conditions who nevertheless died after 2 weeks on a ventilator). He’s not doing well at all. I think of him and his wife whenever I get tired of self-isolation.
I went for a walk and talk with a friend. She was on one side of town and I was on the other and we talked on our cell phones. Was nice to catch up. She announced that, ‘we’ had walked 3 miles at the end. I have a feeling she walked further than I did as I heard her breathing hard and I was walking slower. My foot hurt a bit yesterday so I took it easy. Funny that she assumed we went the same speed. : )
My boss sent me a cookie in the mail from some company with a note thanking me for my service as a teacher. 
It is in the decontamination pile for the next few days.
I got special deer fencing so I can garden this summer. I’m psyched!
I had a Zoom meeting with my advisory group and they were happy to see each other.
I just made breakfast for dinner using things we had delivered from the local milk company and it was a hit! Pretty good day so far. Other than the pandemic stuff.
Yes, per Johns Hopkins we’ll need 100+k tracers, practically immediately. Aint gonna happen (which is why I’m skeptical that we’ll do it right).