Hey HamiltonGardener.

I think for me, normality would be all the things I used to do and the ability to resume those activities without a mask.

• being able to eat inside at a restaurant
• going to a Broadway show and walking through Time Square mask-less
• playing indoor tennis without a mask
• going to a gym mask-less
• basically all the in-door things I used to enjoy

I'm thinking it may become somewhat "normal" by summer. At least I hope so. I have adjusted to my new normal quite well. I get my social needs met at the place I ride. Other than masking when close to others we carry on as usual. Lots of people of different ages having fun. Visitors having fun. Happy kids, happy families. Most of my closest neighbors are not living in fear either. Most people I know are careful but not hunkering down at home. I do miss indoor dining a bit. Would be nice for DH and I to be able to go out for a nice indoor meal. I also miss seeing my grandkids on a regular basis. They are growing up so fast. Can't wait to spend time with them unmasked, with lots of hugs and kisses. I don't expect schools to open until until the 21/22 school year in the fall.

Embo, I don't think we had a vaccine in 2018, did we? So maybe herd immunity slowed it at that time. I think more and more Americans will cave and get the vaccine as they see people are doing ok with it. My neighbor is getting it this week, and I'm so happy for him (father of 3, working at a hospital).

Lucille, you are so right about "darkest hours are just before dawn." Or as I used to tell my kids, when you are climbing a steep hill, it's the toughest going just before you reach the peak. We cannot afford to let down now.

Embothrium 1918 flu.

We are losing a year of our family, seeing friends, eating out, shopping, etc. We have been very careful and staying away from just about everyone we know. Lots of lonely time, but lots of Facetime and House Party with the family. It's the best we can do to keep all of us safe.

Please be careful everyone. Another couple we know has COVID-19! Hopefully this time no one dies.

The virus mutations worry me the most. At what point do the vaccines we have now become ineffective against the mutations? Viruses mutate to stay alive - and they will definitely do their utmost to remain alive!

ETA- DH and I always wore our masks, kept appropriate distances, cleaned hands, etc and have no idea where we both picked up COVID-19....evidently from the same source and at the same time.

Viruses are expected to mutate. But that doesn't necessarily make them more dangerous. They evolve but the change could be toward a less severe virus. For something to mutate is not always a bad thing.

perhaps, next fall. look at the Spanish flu years, and halve it

Is a Virus a Living Creature?. To most people, it seems self-evident… | by R. Philip Bouchard | The Philipendium | Medium

I have been very, very careful. I have not seen once single friend since March. Just phone calls/zoom. I feel like we are in the home stretch albeit a very, very long home stretch. I'm not going to loosen up now. I'm going to hang tough and stay vigilant. I was just curious what others though.

I think people who believe they have been vigilant and careful, yet still get the virus have to look at the type of masks they are wearing and the fit of those mask. There were so many homemade masks being produced at the beginning of the pandemic, not all with appropriate fabric or fit.

I'm hoping a ramped up vaccine effort will have many people being able to sense some normalcy by mid summer, 2021.

How awful for you Annegriet. Surely this past summer there was a way to safely gather with a friend or two?! My bubble and I made the most of yard games, bonfires, exploring public gardens. It's what will get us through the winter months. Holding up, locked in your home is no life. DH and I continue to go to work daily so we see and chat with people. Much of the entertainment factor is removed for sure but other than that life really hasn't been THAT different. The important vital remains, FAITH, family, work. I am hosting a Christmas tea with a friend who had COVID before Thanksgiving. The freedom she is experiencing is par none. She is free to visit her mom and friends. It will be great to have a guest IN my home!! If this has impacted you sooo horrendously there should be plenty who are on the other side to have coffee with?!!

I think as we learn more about how the vaccine works and for how long, we may have some return to normalcy sooner than we think. I think the 5th vaccine is coming up for FDA approval, so they are rolling out the vaccines quite quickly. I personally know of 3 people in my circle of friends who have already gotten their first shot...that's a lot more than people in my circle of friends who have gotten the disease.

Once you get vaccinated and it's had time to work, then I think you personally can go back to a more normal lifestyle without concern. You could see people again, though you may still be required to be masked. You could go out again to shops and such. As more people get vaccinated and positivity rates drop, we'll see businesses open up again and economic activity return to something more normal. It will be gradual but noticeable.

Annegriet,

Up until this past week, we were able to do most of those things you listed. We have a 28 day lockdown we just entered to give the health care system a break until the vaccines can get rolled out further.

So, by your measure, things have been pretty normal around here...just some minor inconveniences. For example, sit down restaurants have been open, you just have to wear a mask between the door and your seat.

For me, normality will have returned when I can travel without quarantine periods.

Virus mutations happen in transcription errors, they don't have any determination to alter themselves to continue to replicate.

I guess that I am lucky. I have been a horse's patootie for years - no friends. Thus I cannot miss what I don't have.

It is not just wearing a mask that is making life-as-you-know-it difficult, it is human attitude. "Why is this happening to me?"

What some people might consider doing is getting involved in their community. I volunteer on Wednesday mornings. I have done volunteer stuff for many years. One does not have to be with others when volunteering. I volunteer at local non-profits and work on their landscape maintenance issues. No mask, no one telling me what to do. I see what needs to be done and then do it. Knowing that I am helping (in a small way) a bunch of other people who don't have it as good as I do, is mentally uplifting. Try it!

Our personal "normality" here will arrive 3 weeks after our 2nd vaccine booster shot, hopefully this will occur sometime in March (?), a best guesstimate unless the roll out turns into a flustercluck. Nationwide "normality" won't follow until the majority of citizens (80%) have been innoculated (by July/Aug?). That's seems to be the best case scenario, barring any monkey wrenches deliberate or otherwise.

For me...normal is just going to work and coming home everyday.

I have a lot of contact with friends via Zoom/phone calls. I live with a very compromised elderly person who I love dearly so I have made this sacrifice willingly. I talk with my sister twice a day. I really liked Jim's comments about getting involved in community.

Anniegriet, hang in there. You are doing the right thing, especially since you live with an elderly person.

I wonder if our pioneer forefathers would be amused or appalled by the expressions of distress by current citizens over the current, albeit temporary, restrictions.

I wonder if our pioneer forefathers would be amused or appalled by the expressions of distress by current citizens over the current, albeit temporary, restrictions.

Appalled. Especially since we have so much technology to keep us entertained and connected, plus the ability to order just about anything that we need and have it delivered to our homes.

Our forefathers would do what they did back then. Either force the infected into a single spot or ban them from the area. Pest houses were for those who had some type of communicable disease. If you lived and did not continue to catch the illnesses of the other residents after a time you could leave. Not many did.

Our pioneer forefathers wiped their behinds with leaves and bathed once a year. A jail cell would have been a luxury hotel to them.

HG they would have been lucky to be tossed into a jail cell. While smallpox is hopefully gone many of the other diseases the other residents had were easily passed to each other. If lucky their might be a few attendants but care was often was only provided by other inmates. If they were lucky they might have a bed or a blanket that became available when someone died. Frequently what they had were the clothing that they wore when they entered. In a jail cell they might have friends/family provide something more to eat than soup and some bread the better ones might have it three times a day but many it was less than that. In a pest house if sick there was seldom anyone other than other patients that would feed the people. If someone paid extra perhaps a patient might be fed.

I have no idea when it will be over. When I go to town, I could count on one hand the people I see that aren't wearing masks. I wear one when I have to go in a business that requires them, or when taking my husband to the doctor. I haven't had any one visit and come inside the house in a year. I don't wear a mask outside or on my own property. The farriers, the guy who delivers hay, the preacher, and the guy who works for me, helping with work outside, don't wear them. The guy who brought oxygen supplies and brought some inside....some in the new barn, did wear a mask and gloves.

I understand that the virus is spiking badly in some areas of California. I hate to hear that.

I may catch hell for saying this....again....but I have never been worried about myself catching it. It does concern me about my husband, but he can no longer leave the house, and isn't in contact with anyone who comes here. I am not worried about being outside, a respectable distance from anyone who comes here, for whatever reason. But I have never liked standing close to other people.... probably why I haven't been sick with anything in many years.

I am hosting a Christmas tea with a friend who had COVID before Thanksgiving. The freedom she is experiencing is par none. She is free to visit her mom and friends. It will be great to have a guest IN my home!! If this has impacted you sooo horrendously there should be plenty who are on the other side to have coffee with?!!

No immunity is developed and there have been cases of people who have had it once getting it again later.

I have noticed that nothing has been said either way with the new variants that are spreading. Having worked where I have that concerns me deeply.

I am hosting a Christmas tea with a friend who had COVID before Thanksgiving. The freedom she is experiencing is par none. She is free to visit her mom and friends. It will be great to have a guest IN my home!!

Thinking you can't get Covid again if you've already had it is incorrect.

From the CDC:

Currently, it is unknown if recovered persons are definitively immune to SARS-CoV-2 re-infection because biologic markers of immunity have not been correlated with protection from infection in humans. However, available evidence suggests that most recovered individuals would have a degree of immunity for at least 3 months following initial diagnosis of COVID-19.

So your friend isn't free to visit her mom and friends. It's recommended the same safety measures be taken - wear masks, stay 6 feet away from others whenever possible, and wash hands regularly, even if you've had Covid once. Having Covid doesn't provide permanent immunity from it.

Early on there were a couple of people who posted on here regularly that had people in their families infected a second time. One I remember was in the medical profession. Thinking you are safe after having one of the many variants is an open invitation to acquire another one.

Holding up, locked in your home is no life.

The whole point of this thread is that we are longing for normalcy. Those of us who are staying in our homes are getting a bit squirrelly and so we are venting. Far better to vent than to rationalize that it is OK to mingle because of unproven theory and give in to behavior that might lead to infection:

The freedom she is experiencing is par none.

When I see tempting rationalizations, I just 'say no'.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6

Article is date September 08, 2020

Despite the virus’s sluggish mutation rate, researchers have catalogued more than 12,000 mutations in SARS-CoV-2 genomes. But scientists can spot mutations faster than they can make sense of them. Many mutations will have no consequence for the virus’s ability to spread or cause disease, because they do not alter the shape of a protein, whereas those mutations that do change proteins are more likely to harm the virus than improve it (see ‘A catalogue of coronavirus mutations’). “It’s much easier to break something than it is to fix it,” says Hodcroft, who is part of Nextstrain, an effort to analyse SARS-CoV-2 genomes in real time.

"The whole point of this thread is that we are longing for normalcy. Those of us who are staying in our homes are getting a bit squirrelly."

Yep--that's why I posted. You guys are great at empathy, encouragement, and good advice!

I believe that "normalcy" is a more appropriate word than "normality."

I'm thinking there's a lot of optimism here about the impact of the vaccine, and it may not be entirely warranted.

Here in Aus, we have a pretty good handle on the virus, much better than the US or Canada. There's a spike in NSW at the moment - about 120 cases - but there's little to no community transmission anywhere else in the country. Where I live, in Victoria, we had a spike earlier this year - and based on that experience I think it's incredibly optimistic to believe that a few weeks of lockdown will get the kind of numbers you have under control in either Canada or the US. It took us 4 months of hard lockdown, with mandatory masks, curfews, closures, no travel (we had a 5km limit from home), restricted to home except for essential shopping and exercise, etc, to get on top of it.

And now, guess what, the government is planning to continue the mandatory quarantining of returning citizens in hotels on return from abroad for the next couple of years because, and I quote: "The federal Department of Health said it was not yet clear whether two of the main vaccines to be used in Australia, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, will prevent coronavirus being transmitted to others, although they are effective at reducing the severity of the disease."

The vaccine isn't necessarily going to be the instant game-changer we had hoped it would be - it could be several more years before we don't need to wear masks and endure an assortment of Covid restrictions. And if that's true here, how much more true is it in countries where the virus has a much wider hold?

The state and local government here are being very slow in vaccinating. In the fifteen days since the vaccine allotment was received less than a quarter of the doses have been given. At that rate it will take one year to fully vaccinate the first group of healthcare workers and nursing home patients.

This will fulfill our governors desire to keep the state in lock-down for the completion of his term.

My brother lives in Thailand, and they will begin their national vaccination program in MAY. I‘m not sure of the rules, if it is available or free for all, or for citizens, but he works in a school so there will certainly be some accommodation for faculty, staff, and students. But still, even for medical personnel and persons at risk, no vaccine until May. Worldwide this will be a long rollout, so I‘m looking forward to 2022 Or ‘23.

I saw the words "new normal" and it made me think of hearing it all the time in 2020. I remember saying, it wasn't normal. It was all temporary. I was right and I was wrong. So much has changed for the better, such as we are able to do so much more electronically, yay! More people can work from home. The kids suffered in their schoolwork, boo! We lost so many people.

But I thought I might pop this to the top for remembrance, and maybe, just maybe, you're far enough away from what it was like to be grateful for what has returned.

It was less difficult for me than others. No kids at home and retired. I was spending a lot of time checking on my elderly mother, too.

I really missed being able to travel.

Funny, I cleaned out a shelf the other day and found three homemade masks. They get tossed!

Originally we were supposed to stay home for two weeks. Lasted a heck of a lot longer than that. It was an awful time for students and anyine in healthcare.

I have gotten all my boosters but still caught covid last winter.

Same, ded - just know it could've been a lot worse. I understand most deaths from COVID now ( and they number in the thousands) are people who are unvaccinated.

And also know COVID is certainly not the last pandemic. Bird flu has been showing up in people, and who knows what the next pathogen will be - or how severe?

That was a very difficult time for us. We did fine here at home and had a lot of driveway and open garage company. We didn't suffer from missing our friends but did not go any place enclosed or crowded for many, many months.

We immediately began doing all that was asked of us by Dr. Fauci and others - we had mother in senior care and knew we'd never get in to see her if not strictly following new 'rules' and being able to honestly report that. I can remember standing ankle deep in snow outside a screened window for a 45 minute visit with her - visit that required a 4 hour round trip. They later put a temporary room divider in an empty downstairs apartment and let us go in out of weather (and got the residents away from a cold open window). It was constructed in a way I could get around it - and did, getting my share of hugs and kisses in after convincing her to promise not to tell on me. She loved it that we had a secret.

I did get in and regularly every week before they had opened doors to family. Her hearing aids were lost and staff couldn't find them. I finally called her RN care coordinator and just said I'm coming in. She has mild dementia and no one knows what she hasn't understood or just hasn't heard. I told her nurse you can hazmat suit me, make me take the stairs not elevator, whatever it takes but I'm coming inside. I did, and found the hearing aids. One was broken and I rushed it back downstairs to the parking lot to DH who then rushed it for an emergency repair and brought it back.

I do have to give them credit - approx 200 residents from independent living all the way to a memory care wing and they had no Covid other than a couple of the staff. None of the elderly became ill during that awful time.

We lost her in early 2022 and at that time we still were allowed only in her private apartment. None of the 4 restaurants, not the pool area, not even the laundry room - all was off limits to us other than check in at the entrance nearest her wing, have our temps taken, go straight to her apartment and no place else.

They took such good care of her. Delivering her meals to her rooms they managed a 1 1/4# weight gain every month that entire year when her doctors nutritionist had told me not to look for a gain, only to pray for no more loss 😊

I called there this last Christmas and found the same staff working her floor. I sent their Christmas cookie package in her memory. I'd love to make a trip back and tell that staff in person how fondly I think of them and what a positive change they made in my life. They are still appreciated and not forgotten.

How fortunate you were, with that senior care facility, morz. My mother suffered from mild dementia symptoms as well as being in a rehab facility during that initial lockdown. she was finally able to go back home, and passed in 2021. Her experience was quite tough for her.

On another note, just read this about a new variant on the rise - nicknamed 'Nimbus'...

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/razor-blade-throat-covid-subvariant-california-20381353.php

"...Officially called NB.1.8.1, the variant was labeled a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization on May 23, according to a recent report. That means it’s not currently a major threat; however, it’s spreading fast enough to raise flags. As of late April, it made up 10.7% of global COVID-19 samples, a jump from 2.5% just a month earlier.

The variant was first spotted in January and carries several genetic changes, particularly in the spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it infect human cells. Some of those changes might help it spread more easily or avoid the body’s immune response, especially in those who were previously infected or vaccinated....."

It was difficult for most--and now we know it was all a farce perpetrated by the Left. Talk about threat to democracy.

Arcy, shouldn't you be in church or something?

arcy_gw

It was difficult for most--and now we know it was all a farce perpetrated by the Left. Talk about threat to democracy.

Sometimes I wonder what your incentive is to come up with this really bizarre stuff.

^^ exactly. It's hard to tell if she really believes the weird things she writes.

My cousin, an infectious disease physician at Penn Medicine, would beg to differ about it being anything close to a farce.

alisande gets my nomination for comment of the year!

" I wonder what your incentive is to come up with this really bizarre stuff. "

There's an old saying, I'm not sure who the source is and it doesn't matter, that goes something like this:

" Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt "

Notice she frequently drops off weird comments and never bothers to come back? She has to be reading the things people post in response to her bizarre comments but never bothers to follow up. Crickets.

Maybe she’s still bitter about the time she wasted making the new useless cloth masks. I’ve got the picture burned in my mind, husband slumped in a kitchen chair looking pretty miserable.