cosmolinguist | [130/365] seLFTie

The LFT (home test, antigen test) photo announcing someone has covid feels so old school now doesn't it??

I saw one on Facebook this morning and realized it felt like it'd been a while!

The seLFTie was from a fellow USian émigré has also been back to see her family. Her unmasked airport selfie left me taken aback.

I'm sorry she has covid. But it also makes me so glad that diffrentcolours and I -- putting up with the ostracism of my parents and his severe sensory issues with masking, him coming along at all was motivated by the desire to give me access to food that didn't depend on my restaurant-loving parents -- kept ourselves and our families uninfected on a very similar trip.

I don't want to seem selfish. I don't take any joy in seeing this person get covid. I don't want anyone to get covid!

It's just...seeing this did make me think that what D and I did was worth it. Avoiding restaurants despite it adding a new dimension of awkwardness to the parental visit, masking the whole plane journey except when eating or drinking, buying a good co2 monitor and carefully heeding it, doing all kinds of things that were uncomfortable when the much easier option would've been to do nothing.

We didn't do that for nothing.

We worked hard and that's no guarantee it'll pay off but this time it did, for us.

I'm so grateful and also so proud of all of my household for making this possible and convincing me it was worth it for me to get to see my parents again.

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silveradept

Congratulations on being able to stick to it and minimize your risks. I'm sorry for the person who caught the virus, though.

cosmolinguist

Yeah I'm sorry for her too. She was the first person who got the "shielding" letter that I knew of, so I know she has something that can make covid more serious for her. But she seems quite sanguine about having gotten it so I hope she'll be okay.

I think a lot of people are trusting that the vaccinations will protect them from dying and the worst of the symptoms. (Assuming they're not one of the people who believes that getting infected is good for one or another reasons.) I hope that's true for her and she recovers.

(Hopefully wiser for the experience.)

otter

I'm glad you did those hard things to reduce your risk and that it worked. Too many people I know who are traveling without masking have the same thing as your acquaintance - covid upon return home, or while on the trip.

Yes it's so common isn't it. Or "oh I have this bad cold/i feel really sick" once they get home but they don't even bother to test. I hate seeing it all the time.

I'm so glad it worked out and so glad I got to meet you!

ewt

I am so tired of people saying "oh well, there's nothing we can do really," proceeding to do nothing, and then getting (and passing on) COVID or some other airborne illness. The lack of agency really frustrates me, in a similar to the attitude to things like snow (I think you've probably read my Canadian-in-London rant about snow clearance and infrastructure decisions which are not made in a vacuum), but worse.

Non-pharmaceutical interventions are inconvenient and sometimes uncomfortable, but they do reduce transmission, especially when used together. Obviously I don't need to tell you this, you already know and apply this knowledge.

I am very glad your trip didn't result in any covid infections.

Oh my gosh yes it is like the snow thing! I'd never made that connection but it's useful. Thank you. And thanks for joining me in those rants in the first place, I felt very alone in them before. :)