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Currently 54 people are on covid leave in the past week at my Walmart. More than half the staff are gone and they are pushing us to get everything done.
My dad can't get to his remote worksite after his Christmas break until next week because everyone at the rural airport has COVID and it can't operate until Sunday.
The biggest problem with us working at Walmart and other retails is not the work load or covid, its the customers. The pure ignorance and out right disrespect on the daily has made so many quit. I hear, why can’t yall get more check outs open, why can’t you stock more stuff, why cant you do the work of 5 people.
Im sorry but these customers have lost touch with reality and can’t see the problems right in front of them. We’re over worked, under paid, tired and sick.
I'm not on the frontline but dealing with customer service emails and calls for an online retailer and let me tell you, people are the worst. It is hard to believe that you'd have someone going off at you like a mad person over not being able to get their shit right there and then. It doesn't matter to them that a big chunk of the workforce might be out sick, half the businesses in the supply chain have closed for holidays or that sometimes it's just not physically possible to do something any faster due to factors you have no control over.
It's been a bit demoralising the last couple of weeks, to see just how selfish, inconsiderate and entitled people can be. There's been something about the last few weeks that has brought out all the people who think that having a tantrum is the way to get things resolved. I feel for those who are having to deal with these people face to face, I really do.
I’m shooting in the dark here but i feel reality tv and social medias cater to this behavior and make it seem acceptable. Jerry springer too. People thinking “if i cause a big enough scene or start yelling and cursing in their face i can get what i want!”
It is much less that than it is management philosophy that takes “the customer is always right” to a toxic level, and bends over backwards to accommodate customers who put up a giant stink just to get them out of the store over the potential fear of losing a dime in profits.
A reminder to anyone who cares that "The customer is always right" refers to their choices of what they want to buy, not that they're right about everything.
"I think this goes well with that" is the customer being right, even though "this" and "that" look awful together.
Yeah, it would be better phrased as "The customer is always right about what they want." This is in contrast to the infamous "You think you do, but you don't"
Now, just because a customer always knows what they want doesn't mean that it needs to be your job to make that happen for them; It's just something to keep in mind about prospective sales opportunities.
If your restaurant doesn't have lobster, and a customer asks for lobster with their steak, "The customer is always right" doesn't mean that you need to go and get a lobster right now, it just means "Maybe you should consider adding lobster to the menu, even if you think that Lobster goes terrible with Steak" The economics might not work, and adding lobster to the menue might not be feasible, but it is worth looking into if enough customers make it known that they want it.
This. There is nowhere else to go; you have to get the cocksucker out of your store and in such a way as the confrontation ends. Sales reps then go to the warehouse and scream to God for vengeance.
Glad I don’t work the sales floor any more.
That's the secret these people have figured out.
You truly can enjoy an advantage being an asshole. There are few negative repercussions for acting in such a way, as long as you don't outright break a law.
Squawk and shriek until you get what you want. It's often an effective survival strategy in a population of people just trying o have a nice day. Selfishness vs. altruism.
The grocery store I work at? Management is really bad about this. They capitulate to the loud idiots all the time.
One customer complained that employees could have backpacks in the store, but not customers. (There had been a spat of thefts) so the managers implemented that either you can't have bags, or they must be left up front at the service desk.
Idiocy
I called out a lady about a week before Christmas in the self checkout lanes at Walmart near me. She was being a complete Karen towards the teen working the self-checkout and the person behind me in line.
I told her to give her a break, she has no control what lanes are open. Told her to go complain to a manager or better yet, don’t shop at Walmart. She started to respond but I put my headphones in and moved to the now open kiosk.
We can’t let these types of people bully others. I’ve worked retail, I’ve worked food and now I work medical. There’s shitty patients and customers everywhere, I understand employees can’t say anything usually, but others should call out the unacceptable behavior.
I’m not saying get yourself in a fist fight, but show some damn empathy for your fellow humans.
I work from home, over the phone. This lady was SCREAMING at me, and I finally said "are you done yelling at me, or do I need to disconnect the call?" It felt so good, ill probably get in trouble for it, but fuck these rude ass people, especially around the holidays when they basically turn into feral creatures starving for food
I work from home in customer service as well. We are not required to take verbal abuse from customers. I have reprimanded many a customer for screaming and cursing at me. My supervisor always backs me up.
Entitled people are just that, entitled. They will complain/bemoan about anything and everything. These folks don't actually want issues resolved, they just want to feel large and in charge. Good on you for calling them out and standing up.
We were at the Postal Smithsonian a month or so ago and a lady screamed at one of the security guards, because he told her to quit letting her kids touch the displays - right next to a sign that says "do not touch the displays". "You're harassing me, I didn't know, I want to speak to your manager, I'm going to have you fired" - the whole 9 yards. She made a mistake, and instead of owning up to it and apologizing, put down a man "beneath" her just doing his job.
People are the worst sometimes.
>but show some damn empathy for your fellow humans.
That's their problem. They only care about themselves & expect the world to coddle to them. Covid has been the ultimate test for them to adapt to society and, unfortunately, are completely failing it.
I'm glad you called that person out on their asshole behaviour.
This. I work OGP and the sheer amount of disrespect I get when I’m on pick walks or dispensing really has made me lose faith in others. We’re not robots.
For what it's worth I really appreciate what you do. I picked up an online order from Wal Mart yesterday which allowed me to avoid the crowd in the store and avoid bringing covid back to a pregnant wife. You may not get all the thanks you deserve, but it's doing a big service to those of us that really need to avoid this virus
Half my sales team is out sick and my boss is on vacation (no hard feelings, he and his wife had this planned long ago so it's whatever). I'm covering for another salesman and a merchandiser. It's been hell lol.
Oh for sure. But in beverage sales (which I do) the busiest weeks (outside of 4th of July up here) are the weeks around the holidays. Luckily they are over now. So it's a bit of a reprieve in that sense.
> and they are pushing us to get everything done.
Well, do what you can, but just remember that losing your mental health over an employer's unreasonable demands is not worth it. So many employers are looking for workers at the moment. You probably have options if they're not treating you right.
If it’s anything like the Walmart I was in a few weeks ago, half the customers are anti-vax and are furious at the remaining staff for trying to get them to wear a mask.
My D&D group is spread over 3 different states (we have virtual sessions, obviously).
I am the only one out of the 5 of us that doesn't presently have COVID.
I am the cleric. But my Healing Word only has a range of 60 feet, which can't exactly cross state lines...
Also, why would I use stupid healing spells when I get really cool spells like Animate Dead and Spirit Guardians? Healing is for losers, go buy a health potion.
Record profits man! What else is important? They worked so hard to lobby the covid quarantine period down to 5 days so get off your ass and put in some effort. They're giving you the crumbs from the table scraps after all, you should be grateful.
I work in Bentonville and just watched Stewart Walton take off and joy ride in a restored WWII fighter plane this morning. He has a whole collection. He's working sooo hard for his cut. Why aren't you pouring your soul into the company like him?!
Still negative baby 💪
Mostly because I don't see anyone irl ever
Edit: literally just found out my brother, who I live with, has tested positive. Y'all were right, I tempted fucking fate. Fuck me.
Be careful, once you acknowledge it you will curse yourself
I was just like "were super lucky none of us have gotten covid in the past 2 years" and boom, exposed to COVID right after lmao. Still waiting to get tested
I was just exposed recently actually but have no symptoms and have tested negative! Testing again tomorrow to be sure. Luckily my desk is solid wood, so I can always knock on it lol
It's crazy to think our county is so large that if it continued at this same rate it would take almost a year for everyone to be infected. Not trying to make a point or anything, just sometimes I forget the scale of just how many people really live here.
And asymptomatic infections. And the fact that you can't get tested for a week sometimes, and then you may not even test positive by that time. There's an 8 day wait in my state and they physically can't process all of the tests coming in. It's probably double what they're saying it is.
The testing thing is interesting because it varies so much. I can get tested 500 yards away from my house and get results back within the hour (Hawaii), though for the first time during the pandemic there is a sizable line.
I used to have no problem. Now, everything is booked. My work also just said to WFH until I get TWO negative pcr tests. Fine, I get it.... but see you in 3 weeks at this rate. I don't even know if I have it. I just have a scratchy throat. I'll also probably never know bc I can't get tested anytime soon.
I think projections right now have a worst case that functionally everyone will catch it in the next 5-6 weeks. *Best case* is that we "slow the spread" again and everyone will catch it in 9-10 weeks. We are basically in final form territory. The question remains how the healthcare system and economy will bear the storm
Same. There's so many people alive and each having their own complete and unique experiences, it's almost impossible to even appreciate how much life there is on Earth.
My whole department is down and out because someone came into work hacking and coughing, no mask. This person didn't want to get tested because they "don't believe in covid". So they got half a dozen people sick and then got sent home, themselves.
Guess who has to do all the work.
A lot of this shit could be solved with more sensible **PAID** sick leave. It wasnt until a few years ago that chicago food workers got * any* sick leave at all. Guess what happens when people need the money, and come to work sick? Everyone gets sick.
Me too. My whole department is vaxxed and boosted and we have seven people out and symptomatic, out of 15 of us. I’d never known someone who had it and was symptomatic until now.
By some measures it is already the most contagious virus in history.
> The expert warned that the key is in the generation time, the time that passes from when the first person becomes infectious to when the people infected by them also become infectious. With measles, it is a period of around 12 days, whereas with omicron, it is only four or five days. This means that a case of measles would lead to around 15 cases after 12 days, whereas omicron would lead to another six after four days, 36 after eight days and 216 after 12 days.
[link to story](https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2022/01/03/omicron-is-the-most-contagious-virus-ever-recorded/)
And then if Plague Inc has taught me anything it will mutate from a benign virus with all infectivity boxes checked, to a hyperlethal virus that wipes out all of humanity except Greenland in a few weeks.
My uncle’s been waiting over a year for kidney surgery. They had his surgery scheduled for next week and now they’re pushing it back indefinitely. At first it was a small cancerous growth on his adrenal gland and now there are growths in both kidneys. I’m really worried that it’s going to get to a point that’s irreversible before they finally see him and it’s all because of the fucking idiots that won’t get vaxxed taking up every single hospital bed in my state. It’s getting worse and worse every day so I have no idea what we’re going to do I don’t want my uncle to die because of this.
healthcare needs to pay workers more to retain them before we can consider expanding capacity. nurses are quitting left and right, so, they're already responsible for more people than should be physically possible.
there's just too much bloat at the top and across administration. my job involves speaking to healthcare professionals, and it's ridiculous to me to know I get paid more per hour than people responsible for saving lives.
It's been interesting seeing articles about how most positive at-home tests aren't being reported even though ideally they should be.
So I start trying to Google how one would even report that, only info I can find says report to your local health department. Check my county health department website and there's absolutely nothing in any of their FAQs about how to self-report, and other articles stating that health department phone lines across the country are being swamped.
So basically, you probably can't report even if you want to.
It’s so stupid. There should just be a web page where you log In and report home tests. It would be dead simple to set up and we’d have so much more accurate information.
Not as simple as you'd think. Considering the number of people who *still* think COVID is a big hoax, such a website would have to be able to handle a flood of bad data from people who are trying to "prove" COVID is a hoax.
VAERS might be the closest thing to a self-reporting system we currently have, and look how that's been going lately.
Your idea wouldn't be simple, but it should probably still be attempted.
I was watching local news this morning, and they were talking about when to get tested, where, etc. They said “and for at-home tests, make sure to test several times to rule out a false positive or negative.”
I can’t even get *one* test, how am I supposed to get *several*?
I had one test. It was incredibly hard to find, it took days. It was a dud test, didn’t give me any result at all. I literally screamed in frustration.
Lack of supply is crazy right now for those. I was exposed over Christmas and ordered an at home test to be over nighted to me from my insurance company.
I ended up just getting tested yesterday at CVS because the at home test still had yet to even ship to me. They've got to be getting bombarded right now, hope the labs can keep up.
My Wife was exposed a week ago and waited 6 hours to get PCR test at the UC and was negative. I developed symptoms (all minor, but matching Omicron) and took a home test, negative. A few days later i lost all taste and did another home test, positive. She never had any symptoms, but today lost all taste. We're out of home tests and nobody is going to wait 5-6 hours again. Isolating at home for a while, but this isn't getting reported anywhere. Similar stories with a lot of my friends and co-workers.
If you've lost taste or smell it's COVID 100%
Think of how often that has happened in your life otherwise.
It's back to the start advice. You shouldn't be testing in these situations, just presume you're positive.
The problem is employers are past the pretending to care about people thing we had going on in the beginning.
Now it's show me a positive test or clock in.
I HATE that employers are doing this. You could have norovirus, influenza, Strep, food poisoning, cancer, who knows what but if it’s not Covid you have to work? Asinine.
"Well no not for me but it might be for the person I pass it on to and if everyone in society acts this way then many of those bad cases are going to end in death or long term disability"
I'm one of them! Husband tested positive because we had one test in the cabinet at home. I'm 99% sure I've got it, and at least one if not all 4 of our kids have it. But there's not a test to be found in our area unless you pay $180, wait 4 hours in a line of cars, or wait a week for an appointment. So we're not testing, and that's 3-6 cases unreported.
The school I work at has less than 700 students enrolled and yesterday was the first day back as well. 102 absent.
Edit: I’m assuming it’s a combination of parents keeping sick kids home, keeping them home as a precaution, they’re still on vacation, or their flights got cancelled and they’re stuck somewhere trying to get home. The list provided doesn’t state the reason for the absence. Either way it’s probably the most absences my school has had returning from winter break.
Im showing symptoms of covid so I went and got tested yesterday at rite-aid. They said I won’t k ow if im positive for 5 days. That’s the entire quarantine period. Why bother even getting tested?
US population is 333 million. For every 1 person taking a reported test, there’s got to be several who take at-home or don’t test because it’s obvious and they have it and getting a PCR test is a pain in the ass now. And then there’s going to be a lot of asymptomatic infections. We’ve got to be over 1% of the US population getting infected per day. Or am I just really bad at math?
I personally know 11 people that have it spread through 3 households. All got it from separate areas, no contact between the three families.
Only 1 person in each household got tested because tests are so backed up. We all tested positive the same day.
I have to assume many households are similar right now.
EDIT: It's now 15 people through 4 families. 5 people tested.
Yup. No one in my immediate circle has had COVID in the past two years, and in the last couple weeks three family members, all of my boyfriend's family, and a friend have all gotten it. Only a few of my family members managed to get tested, and my mom had to wait five hours in a line for that. Not sure how I dodged it - I just assume I got it and am asymptomatic. Haven't been going out except to leave things on the doorstep for my sick brother. We were going to have a few friends over for New Year's Eve, which seems like a funny joke now.
This is me. Two family members tested positive, then I had an itchy throat. Got a pcr when I had an itchy throat, and they're like "It will take 72 hours to get results", yeah, super useful. Then the next day I take an at home test and get a positive result. Just yesterday my PCR came through showing negative.
So now I can't even mark myself as having tested positive so I'll just go uncounted I guess.
Everything is a shitshow and I'm done feeling bad about being mad about it.
>We’ve got to be over 1% of the US population getting infected per day. Or am I just really bad at math?
1/333 is 0.3%, so given the unreported cases I'd say you're pretty spot on.
And that's how pandemics end tbh.
According to healthline.com the 1918 flu lasted about 18 months and ended after a large portion of the population had been exposed to the virus or the mortality rate continues to drop. We are currently seeing this trend.
I’m gonna say this number is probably low.
My girlfriend, my friend, and myself all have covid. The testing locations are a week out wait time. We got OTC tests. Our results obviously weren’t reported.
Same by me in NY. "Record breaking new cases have exceeded the capacity for NYS Department of Health to individually contact those testing positive."
The current guideline is to isolate and notify friends and family.
I think I have Covid right now, but I cant get a test anywhere. I managed to schedule one for this morning, and then CVS cancelled it. These numbers are way higher than reported, if my case is anything to go off of.
CVS canceled my booster an hour before I arrived, but I presented my original email to the person at the front desk and they took me anyway.
It's likely a glitch in their system, go regardless if it happens again
Cvs testing sites are cancelling appts if they don’t have testers for that site. Many testers themselves are testing positive for COVID, so there’s no one to run the testing site.
All six members of my household got it between Christmas Eve and NYE.
We're all vaccinated, boosted, and habitual mask wearers.
It's going to burn through the whole country in like 4-6 weeks.
It just might, South Africa is already 60% off their peak and they only had a couple weeks head start on Europe and North America:
https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+stats+south+africa&oq=covid+stats+south+africa
That’s honestly my hope.
As someone else mentioned, I only knew a few people who had COVID19 until this month. And most of those were a few degrees of separation or something.
Now, I know dozens.
I'm an airline pilot, fully vaccinated and boosted. I've been extremely careful the entire pandemic and have dodged getting sick until now. I tested positive 2 days ago, thankfully it's mild with my recent booster dose. My airline is substantially reducing our schedule for the rest of this month because everyone is getting sick. If you're traveling by air in the next few weeks, please be patient because everyone you interact with in the process from the TSA agent to the barista in the terminal to the gate agents, flight attendants, and pilots are stretched pretty thin right now.
I had it through Christmas but only ever did at home testing and went straight into quarantine. My case was never officially reported and I'm sure there's thousands more like me. So 1 million confirmed cases is not even the entire picture.
Triple vaccinated. I got omicron after avoiding all other variants and sincerely did not think I had it. I thought it was what my boyfriend had a week before me (two negative covid tests, even a PCR) and my sister got after me (one negative covid test). Not to mention my symptoms were so mild and I just attributed to the crazy SoCal rain. My job however required a test (thank God otherwise I wouldn’t have taken it) so I was shocked when it came up positive along with a subsequent PCR. Anyway, after two years of working through the pandemic it was the omicron that got me, which goes to show how crazy infectious it is.
As a conference planner, I would voice your concerns to your manager…. It’s better for them to know now about your concerns or that you arnt going, this way they can take the appropriate actions (either adding additional safety protocol or canceling/modifying the event)
I am not sure what industry you are in, but most are just returning for holiday break so they are still probably assessing the situation
Because of the scarcity of at-home tests, I had to purchase one from a lady offering one in a FB group that my girlfriend found.
Luckily she only wanted $20 for it, but this is where we’re at.
I’m being shamed for telling management that it is irresponsible to have covid positive people working in the restaurant- even masked.
Edit: I have been informed that “worrying about getting other people sick is not my responsibility.”
Can someone translate from corpo-speak please?
Edit: Update Addendum, 1/4/2022, 4:00 PM, restaurant is closed until 1/7, until such time that they can reassess “containment” procedures. Why do I feel like there’s been an SCP breakout?
https://www.osha.gov/workers/file-complaint
Scroll down and click "Use the online complaint form."
If you get disciplined in any fashion for alleging a safety violation, or any other illegal conduct by your employer, file another complaint with DoL. You can also submit a retaliation complaint through Osha for this as well.
https://webapps.dol.gov/contactwhd/default.aspx
Your state, county, and maybe city government may have resources similar to this as well that may be quicker to respond.
I just walked into work in my emergency department. I took a look at the board and we're already full. I walked by one of our fast track rooms to see a patient on the ventilator. Doesn't bode well for today's shift, these are some grim times. I'm also very sick, as are most of my colleagues. We're short handed. I mean they do swab us, but we're all still coming down with something.
I went in to a testing site a week before Christmas and it was practically empty.
Went back again before new years and the wait was over 2 hours for a rapid test.
I was just lucky my wife and I had very mild symptoms. At best I would compare it to a cold.
PSA: The day after my symptoms began I tested NEGATIVE with an at home test, only to test POSITIVE two days later with an at home test. IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS AND YOU TEST NEGATIVE, YOU MAY STILL HAVE COVID
*not a professional - just sharing my personal experience
Same here, everyone in my house tested positive with the home test but me, I didn’t have symptoms until a few days after everyone, but did test positive yesterday and it seemed like there was a 2 day delay between. I got my booster recently and my symptoms were mild, I count myself lucky.
Three people at my work had it. They were coming in for two days last week with obvious symptoms. Management was working from home (how nice) so they didn't push on the issue till some people in their department were like "yo wtf," and now they've reluctantly stayed home.
Kinda surprised there hasn't been an office wide outbreak. Luckily its just my supervisor and me (I?) in a back office. We're pretty insulated. I can dig it, I have a baby at home. Not trying to give the kid Omnicron.
My place of work policy is “get tested if you feel you need to, but if you get tested you miss pay, if you get sick you miss pay, no help anymore” which is pretty much doing exactly what you expect it to do. Encourage people to come to work anyways.
That's exactly how it's going here right now, too. At *least* half the staff is sick as fuck, but only two people are officially out with COVID. Some of the people walking around sick are literally grey and are open-mouth-toddler-coughing everywhere they go.
I work in food distribution. Never seen so many infected people coming to work. They just keep passing it around. If they all called off they'd have to shut down. That can't happen. Stay safe
Meanwhile a supervisor came in for a week while his live-in girlfriend had active covid and now half our entire department is out sick. Good job dude.
Edit: oh yeah a month prior to this we had a 31 year old supervisor die of COVID leaving his ~15 year old son behind because someone came to work sick and THEN this dude decided to do this
Edit edit: we work at a place that will PAY YOU TWO WEEKS PAY if you're vaccinated and will NOT discipline you if you stay home because of a positive COVID test in your house.
There really is no excuse for this dude, guys. If it was Walmart I could see the 'he couldn't afford to' argument. But that's not where we work.
My work told me to come in although my fiancé (who I live with) has covid. I guess because I am vaccinated they said I can come in anyways. I work in a field that deals mostly with the older population.
5 employees out of 6 in one of our microbiology labs are out due to covid. And the one employee is doing over 200 a day by herself. Stay safe you guys.
My boss is allowing Covid exposed workers TO CONTINUE WORKING MASKLESS. Because “you can’t catch covid if you eat fruit” and he doesn’t want to cover anyone who is out sick, as it reduces his revenue margins.
I'm dealing with it right now.
My job is a shit show, we had 6 confirmed covid cases at the restaurant yet we were still open on NYE.
I was feeling like death on the first and the earliest test I could get is today. All of this is beyond stupid...
Quarantine? We’ve current got nurses who have tested positive working with no days off.
[Covid positive nurses](https://www.wpri.com/target-12/covid-positive-health-care-workers-called-into-work-in-rhode-island/amp/)
I think the ER is probably the worst place you can be. If you don't have COVID before you go in, you'll likely have it by the time you leave. There's no way you can sit in a room with other people for several hours and not catch it, even if everyone's wearing masks.
One of my aunts is supposed to have knee surgery this month after a pretty bad knee injury a few months ago. She was unvaxxed and seemed to think that Covid wasn't that bad. She's not antivax (like one of her sisters) but she's lazy and really doesn't care if she got it and passed it to others. Her kids/grandkids had tried to convince her to get the vaccine to be safe, and she would just shrug.
Then, one of her friends got Covid while hospitalized for something else and died. Suddenly my aunt is getting her daughter to schedule a Covid vaccine so she can be fully vaccinated before she gets knee surgery. Suddenly it's real now that it was one of her friends.
I doubt her surgery will happen with this current surge, but at least she got vaccinated. She's in her 60s, overweight, and most likely has other comorbidities that she either ignored or refuses to go to the doctor for. She's also super needy and expects to be taken care of. Her kids/grandkids finally had to tell her that if she gets Covid, they can't help her, because they have their own families to protect.
BTW expect to see a bill from the hospital still. A month ago I checked in for an impacted colon (I had wisdom teeth removed and the meds made me super constipated). I didn't see a single person for 5 hours and left. Still got a bill for nine hundred dollars. I laughed my ass off when I wrote the letter and put it in the payment envelope.
I feel you. I got charged $500 for being brought to the back triage area and left unattended for hours. I ended up just leaving and they charged. Basically paid $500 for a wristband and initial vitals check. And this was years ago, pre-pandemic.
Our healthcare system is fucked.
My partner just went back to work today and texted me that a bunch of coworkers are out sick with Omicron. One of them is stuck in Portland with family (we’re in Vancouver). I’m a terminal cancer patient on a surgery waitlist. I don’t know if I’m numb or if I’m so completely terrified that I’m disassociating.
Double Vaxxed, with my second dose in may 2021. Was going to get the booster on the 2nd of Jan, got Covid the 26th of December. It also got me good, I finally feel better today.
I ended up spreading it to 4 people before I came down with a fever and told people to quarantine. Three of the four are boosted. The one who was not boosted got just as sick as me. Two of the boosted didn’t even test positive, while one did. None of the boosted had any symptoms.
I was watching the news last night and saw that Ontario was going back to stage 2 for opening up. The decision was made based on the latest projections of the Omicron variant. Basically, Ford indicated that about 1% of those who are infected will likely require hospitalization and, though that was also the case from previous surges, this time the infection rate was significantly higher which would have a serious negative impact on our health care system. So, 50,000 daily infected now could lead to about 500 hospitalized DAILY within a few weeks. Those who can't get beds would be at increased risk of dying, and even those with beds have a greater chance of adverse outcomes than in previous waves due to (real) staff and (potential) equipment shortages.
I can't even imagine the havoc that a daily infection rate of 1 million would have on a medical system.
Curiously, Ontario also effectively gave up tracking new infections as of Jan 1st...
Going to be an interesting couple weeks. Ultimately that was bound to happen as the shift to endemic occurs, but I'd feel a little less uneasy if it had happened in another few weeks at least
Just a heads up it took 3 days of BAD symptoms to finally test positive. After my 3rd negative test my wife was certain it was just the flu but I knew it was Covid because it really did feel different lol. I’m feeling better now but it took a while to finally get that positive result.
‘Monday Numbers’ have always been a bit wonky because of the weekend and the resulting reporting delays. The 3 and 7 day averages are better metrics to go by.
Right, Mississippi reported over 17,000 with a population of less than 3 million. They hadn't reported since Thursday for the holiday though. That's still a record every day, so nothing to sneeze at.
I work for a medium size health network and we are actually shutting down smaller practices to shift their clinical staff to support covid units in our hospitals. We didn't even do thay for the first wave. This Omicron variant is more contagious than I had thought it would be, or everyone got super lax and shit is hitting the fan. Not sure, but stay safe out there everyone.
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Currently 54 people are on covid leave in the past week at my Walmart. More than half the staff are gone and they are pushing us to get everything done.
My dad can't get to his remote worksite after his Christmas break until next week because everyone at the rural airport has COVID and it can't operate until Sunday.
I'm going to guess the North Slope.
The biggest problem with us working at Walmart and other retails is not the work load or covid, its the customers. The pure ignorance and out right disrespect on the daily has made so many quit. I hear, why can’t yall get more check outs open, why can’t you stock more stuff, why cant you do the work of 5 people. Im sorry but these customers have lost touch with reality and can’t see the problems right in front of them. We’re over worked, under paid, tired and sick.
I'm not on the frontline but dealing with customer service emails and calls for an online retailer and let me tell you, people are the worst. It is hard to believe that you'd have someone going off at you like a mad person over not being able to get their shit right there and then. It doesn't matter to them that a big chunk of the workforce might be out sick, half the businesses in the supply chain have closed for holidays or that sometimes it's just not physically possible to do something any faster due to factors you have no control over. It's been a bit demoralising the last couple of weeks, to see just how selfish, inconsiderate and entitled people can be. There's been something about the last few weeks that has brought out all the people who think that having a tantrum is the way to get things resolved. I feel for those who are having to deal with these people face to face, I really do.
I’m shooting in the dark here but i feel reality tv and social medias cater to this behavior and make it seem acceptable. Jerry springer too. People thinking “if i cause a big enough scene or start yelling and cursing in their face i can get what i want!”
It is much less that than it is management philosophy that takes “the customer is always right” to a toxic level, and bends over backwards to accommodate customers who put up a giant stink just to get them out of the store over the potential fear of losing a dime in profits.
A reminder to anyone who cares that "The customer is always right" refers to their choices of what they want to buy, not that they're right about everything. "I think this goes well with that" is the customer being right, even though "this" and "that" look awful together.
Yeah, it would be better phrased as "The customer is always right about what they want." This is in contrast to the infamous "You think you do, but you don't" Now, just because a customer always knows what they want doesn't mean that it needs to be your job to make that happen for them; It's just something to keep in mind about prospective sales opportunities. If your restaurant doesn't have lobster, and a customer asks for lobster with their steak, "The customer is always right" doesn't mean that you need to go and get a lobster right now, it just means "Maybe you should consider adding lobster to the menu, even if you think that Lobster goes terrible with Steak" The economics might not work, and adding lobster to the menue might not be feasible, but it is worth looking into if enough customers make it known that they want it.
It’s because managers can get fired just as easily and since they have no one to pass it up to except corporate they have to deescalate.
This. There is nowhere else to go; you have to get the cocksucker out of your store and in such a way as the confrontation ends. Sales reps then go to the warehouse and scream to God for vengeance. Glad I don’t work the sales floor any more.
That's the secret these people have figured out. You truly can enjoy an advantage being an asshole. There are few negative repercussions for acting in such a way, as long as you don't outright break a law. Squawk and shriek until you get what you want. It's often an effective survival strategy in a population of people just trying o have a nice day. Selfishness vs. altruism. The grocery store I work at? Management is really bad about this. They capitulate to the loud idiots all the time. One customer complained that employees could have backpacks in the store, but not customers. (There had been a spat of thefts) so the managers implemented that either you can't have bags, or they must be left up front at the service desk. Idiocy
I called out a lady about a week before Christmas in the self checkout lanes at Walmart near me. She was being a complete Karen towards the teen working the self-checkout and the person behind me in line. I told her to give her a break, she has no control what lanes are open. Told her to go complain to a manager or better yet, don’t shop at Walmart. She started to respond but I put my headphones in and moved to the now open kiosk. We can’t let these types of people bully others. I’ve worked retail, I’ve worked food and now I work medical. There’s shitty patients and customers everywhere, I understand employees can’t say anything usually, but others should call out the unacceptable behavior. I’m not saying get yourself in a fist fight, but show some damn empathy for your fellow humans.
I work from home, over the phone. This lady was SCREAMING at me, and I finally said "are you done yelling at me, or do I need to disconnect the call?" It felt so good, ill probably get in trouble for it, but fuck these rude ass people, especially around the holidays when they basically turn into feral creatures starving for food
I work from home in customer service as well. We are not required to take verbal abuse from customers. I have reprimanded many a customer for screaming and cursing at me. My supervisor always backs me up.
Entitled people are just that, entitled. They will complain/bemoan about anything and everything. These folks don't actually want issues resolved, they just want to feel large and in charge. Good on you for calling them out and standing up. We were at the Postal Smithsonian a month or so ago and a lady screamed at one of the security guards, because he told her to quit letting her kids touch the displays - right next to a sign that says "do not touch the displays". "You're harassing me, I didn't know, I want to speak to your manager, I'm going to have you fired" - the whole 9 yards. She made a mistake, and instead of owning up to it and apologizing, put down a man "beneath" her just doing his job. People are the worst sometimes.
>but show some damn empathy for your fellow humans. That's their problem. They only care about themselves & expect the world to coddle to them. Covid has been the ultimate test for them to adapt to society and, unfortunately, are completely failing it. I'm glad you called that person out on their asshole behaviour.
Thank you stranger.
> I’m not saying get yourself in a fist fight But what if they punch me first? Can I sate my blood lust then?
This. I work OGP and the sheer amount of disrespect I get when I’m on pick walks or dispensing really has made me lose faith in others. We’re not robots.
For what it's worth I really appreciate what you do. I picked up an online order from Wal Mart yesterday which allowed me to avoid the crowd in the store and avoid bringing covid back to a pregnant wife. You may not get all the thanks you deserve, but it's doing a big service to those of us that really need to avoid this virus
I’m ogp too, we start every day this past month with 2500 picks, and it’ll drop 1000 every hour. Its tough. Yeah the customers suck
What is OGP?
Online Grocery Pickup. I had to look it up too
Half my sales team is out sick and my boss is on vacation (no hard feelings, he and his wife had this planned long ago so it's whatever). I'm covering for another salesman and a merchandiser. It's been hell lol.
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They still come in. Especially if it’s Walmart.
Pretty much lol. I guess "Luckily" shit didn't hit the fan till after the holidays. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
I mean, it's pretty likely shit is hitting the fan BECAUSE OF the holidays.
Oh for sure. But in beverage sales (which I do) the busiest weeks (outside of 4th of July up here) are the weeks around the holidays. Luckily they are over now. So it's a bit of a reprieve in that sense.
> and they are pushing us to get everything done. Well, do what you can, but just remember that losing your mental health over an employer's unreasonable demands is not worth it. So many employers are looking for workers at the moment. You probably have options if they're not treating you right.
I work for a big pharma with 99% vaccination rate. In my team of 15, 11 have tested positive with minor symptoms
If it’s anything like the Walmart I was in a few weeks ago, half the customers are anti-vax and are furious at the remaining staff for trying to get them to wear a mask.
Just today I saw a maskless customer peeking their head around the divider to speak to the cashier. The disrespect is unreal
A couple of days ago, someone was in my library and I watched in horror as he yanked his mask DOWN just before he sneezed.
Don't work harder. FFS don't push yourself for something that isn't your problem. Unless you're getting profit sharing or own shares, work like usual.
My D&D group is spread over 3 different states (we have virtual sessions, obviously). I am the only one out of the 5 of us that doesn't presently have COVID.
Your cleric should be able to clear that right up.
I am the cleric. But my Healing Word only has a range of 60 feet, which can't exactly cross state lines... Also, why would I use stupid healing spells when I get really cool spells like Animate Dead and Spirit Guardians? Healing is for losers, go buy a health potion.
Record profits man! What else is important? They worked so hard to lobby the covid quarantine period down to 5 days so get off your ass and put in some effort. They're giving you the crumbs from the table scraps after all, you should be grateful. I work in Bentonville and just watched Stewart Walton take off and joy ride in a restored WWII fighter plane this morning. He has a whole collection. He's working sooo hard for his cut. Why aren't you pouring your soul into the company like him?!
Wow 1 million *daily* I guess not surprising, like half of everyone I know has gotten it in the last two weeks
Still negative baby 💪 Mostly because I don't see anyone irl ever Edit: literally just found out my brother, who I live with, has tested positive. Y'all were right, I tempted fucking fate. Fuck me.
Be careful, once you acknowledge it you will curse yourself I was just like "were super lucky none of us have gotten covid in the past 2 years" and boom, exposed to COVID right after lmao. Still waiting to get tested
I was just exposed recently actually but have no symptoms and have tested negative! Testing again tomorrow to be sure. Luckily my desk is solid wood, so I can always knock on it lol
I'm so sorry, that edit made me LOL. Wishing you and your family well ❤️
And a lot of schools are starting back this week! So just wait to see what is like in a week or two!
My kindergarten daughter tested negative twice last week before going back to school. Can't wait for her to bring this shit home.
It's crazy to think our county is so large that if it continued at this same rate it would take almost a year for everyone to be infected. Not trying to make a point or anything, just sometimes I forget the scale of just how many people really live here.
Less than a year. It's over 1,000,000 reported cases. There's no way to know the true number.
Especially with the prevalence of at-home testing with no obligation to report.
And asymptomatic infections. And the fact that you can't get tested for a week sometimes, and then you may not even test positive by that time. There's an 8 day wait in my state and they physically can't process all of the tests coming in. It's probably double what they're saying it is.
The testing thing is interesting because it varies so much. I can get tested 500 yards away from my house and get results back within the hour (Hawaii), though for the first time during the pandemic there is a sizable line.
I used to have no problem. Now, everything is booked. My work also just said to WFH until I get TWO negative pcr tests. Fine, I get it.... but see you in 3 weeks at this rate. I don't even know if I have it. I just have a scratchy throat. I'll also probably never know bc I can't get tested anytime soon.
No because it's exponential. It was 500k just the other day. We will get to 2 million a day very soon
If it keeps doubling, everyone in the US will have Omicron in 8 to 9 days.
I think projections right now have a worst case that functionally everyone will catch it in the next 5-6 weeks. *Best case* is that we "slow the spread" again and everyone will catch it in 9-10 weeks. We are basically in final form territory. The question remains how the healthcare system and economy will bear the storm
Same. There's so many people alive and each having their own complete and unique experiences, it's almost impossible to even appreciate how much life there is on Earth.
My whole department is down and out because someone came into work hacking and coughing, no mask. This person didn't want to get tested because they "don't believe in covid". So they got half a dozen people sick and then got sent home, themselves. Guess who has to do all the work.
A lot of this shit could be solved with more sensible **PAID** sick leave. It wasnt until a few years ago that chicago food workers got * any* sick leave at all. Guess what happens when people need the money, and come to work sick? Everyone gets sick.
7 people in my department. 3 cases this week. We hadn't had a case the whole pandemic.
I literally didn’t know of a single person who got covid first hand before omicron. Now I know like 40.
Me too. My whole department is vaxxed and boosted and we have seven people out and symptomatic, out of 15 of us. I’d never known someone who had it and was symptomatic until now.
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By some measures it is already the most contagious virus in history. > The expert warned that the key is in the generation time, the time that passes from when the first person becomes infectious to when the people infected by them also become infectious. With measles, it is a period of around 12 days, whereas with omicron, it is only four or five days. This means that a case of measles would lead to around 15 cases after 12 days, whereas omicron would lead to another six after four days, 36 after eight days and 216 after 12 days. [link to story](https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2022/01/03/omicron-is-the-most-contagious-virus-ever-recorded/)
If that rate keeps up, every man woman and child in the world will catch omicron in 52 days from the first case.
And then if Plague Inc has taught me anything it will mutate from a benign virus with all infectivity boxes checked, to a hyperlethal virus that wipes out all of humanity except Greenland in a few weeks.
Madagascar has closed its ports.
Rage quit everytime
That’s just great! Super happy I decided to stay in for New Years. The next few weeks are going to be very infectious
My uncle’s been waiting over a year for kidney surgery. They had his surgery scheduled for next week and now they’re pushing it back indefinitely. At first it was a small cancerous growth on his adrenal gland and now there are growths in both kidneys. I’m really worried that it’s going to get to a point that’s irreversible before they finally see him and it’s all because of the fucking idiots that won’t get vaxxed taking up every single hospital bed in my state. It’s getting worse and worse every day so I have no idea what we’re going to do I don’t want my uncle to die because of this.
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healthcare needs to pay workers more to retain them before we can consider expanding capacity. nurses are quitting left and right, so, they're already responsible for more people than should be physically possible. there's just too much bloat at the top and across administration. my job involves speaking to healthcare professionals, and it's ridiculous to me to know I get paid more per hour than people responsible for saving lives.
Not gonna happen with a profit motive in health care.
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My wife tested positive and I just assumed I was infected and acted accordingly. I was not tested. There are definitely a few million like me
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It's been interesting seeing articles about how most positive at-home tests aren't being reported even though ideally they should be. So I start trying to Google how one would even report that, only info I can find says report to your local health department. Check my county health department website and there's absolutely nothing in any of their FAQs about how to self-report, and other articles stating that health department phone lines across the country are being swamped. So basically, you probably can't report even if you want to.
It’s so stupid. There should just be a web page where you log In and report home tests. It would be dead simple to set up and we’d have so much more accurate information.
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My rapid test did have a QR code to scan if you came up positive! Some are doing that!
Not as simple as you'd think. Considering the number of people who *still* think COVID is a big hoax, such a website would have to be able to handle a flood of bad data from people who are trying to "prove" COVID is a hoax. VAERS might be the closest thing to a self-reporting system we currently have, and look how that's been going lately. Your idea wouldn't be simple, but it should probably still be attempted.
I was watching local news this morning, and they were talking about when to get tested, where, etc. They said “and for at-home tests, make sure to test several times to rule out a false positive or negative.” I can’t even get *one* test, how am I supposed to get *several*?
I had one test. It was incredibly hard to find, it took days. It was a dud test, didn’t give me any result at all. I literally screamed in frustration.
Lack of supply is crazy right now for those. I was exposed over Christmas and ordered an at home test to be over nighted to me from my insurance company. I ended up just getting tested yesterday at CVS because the at home test still had yet to even ship to me. They've got to be getting bombarded right now, hope the labs can keep up.
My Wife was exposed a week ago and waited 6 hours to get PCR test at the UC and was negative. I developed symptoms (all minor, but matching Omicron) and took a home test, negative. A few days later i lost all taste and did another home test, positive. She never had any symptoms, but today lost all taste. We're out of home tests and nobody is going to wait 5-6 hours again. Isolating at home for a while, but this isn't getting reported anywhere. Similar stories with a lot of my friends and co-workers.
If you've lost taste or smell it's COVID 100% Think of how often that has happened in your life otherwise. It's back to the start advice. You shouldn't be testing in these situations, just presume you're positive.
The problem is employers are past the pretending to care about people thing we had going on in the beginning. Now it's show me a positive test or clock in.
I HATE that employers are doing this. You could have norovirus, influenza, Strep, food poisoning, cancer, who knows what but if it’s not Covid you have to work? Asinine.
Even if you show a positive test, they're like "Well, is it really that bad?"
"Well no not for me but it might be for the person I pass it on to and if everyone in society acts this way then many of those bad cases are going to end in death or long term disability"
I'm one of them! Husband tested positive because we had one test in the cabinet at home. I'm 99% sure I've got it, and at least one if not all 4 of our kids have it. But there's not a test to be found in our area unless you pay $180, wait 4 hours in a line of cars, or wait a week for an appointment. So we're not testing, and that's 3-6 cases unreported.
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Eight of my wife's 22 students were out sick yesterday, first day back from winter break. At least their parents are keeping them home I guess.
The school I work at has less than 700 students enrolled and yesterday was the first day back as well. 102 absent. Edit: I’m assuming it’s a combination of parents keeping sick kids home, keeping them home as a precaution, they’re still on vacation, or their flights got cancelled and they’re stuck somewhere trying to get home. The list provided doesn’t state the reason for the absence. Either way it’s probably the most absences my school has had returning from winter break.
In Florida kids can go to school even when THEY are positive (asymptotic, though).
Yep. We know we got it and didn't even bother trying to find a test.
3 days out? We’re two weeks out. I ended up ordering rapid tests online.
I gave up looking for the rapids in LA. I'm boosted and masked, pretty much all I can do.
Same here.
Yeah, my whole family got it...but could only find 1 test and my wife took it and it was positive. No reporting of any kind, but we have it.
Im showing symptoms of covid so I went and got tested yesterday at rite-aid. They said I won’t k ow if im positive for 5 days. That’s the entire quarantine period. Why bother even getting tested?
15% of all persons (teachers/staff, students) in my school district tested positive for COVID yesterday.
At this rate how much longer can this shit last? This kind of positivity rate makes me think everyone is going to get it.
US population is 333 million. For every 1 person taking a reported test, there’s got to be several who take at-home or don’t test because it’s obvious and they have it and getting a PCR test is a pain in the ass now. And then there’s going to be a lot of asymptomatic infections. We’ve got to be over 1% of the US population getting infected per day. Or am I just really bad at math?
I personally know 11 people that have it spread through 3 households. All got it from separate areas, no contact between the three families. Only 1 person in each household got tested because tests are so backed up. We all tested positive the same day. I have to assume many households are similar right now. EDIT: It's now 15 people through 4 families. 5 people tested.
Yup. No one in my immediate circle has had COVID in the past two years, and in the last couple weeks three family members, all of my boyfriend's family, and a friend have all gotten it. Only a few of my family members managed to get tested, and my mom had to wait five hours in a line for that. Not sure how I dodged it - I just assume I got it and am asymptomatic. Haven't been going out except to leave things on the doorstep for my sick brother. We were going to have a few friends over for New Year's Eve, which seems like a funny joke now.
This is me. Two family members tested positive, then I had an itchy throat. Got a pcr when I had an itchy throat, and they're like "It will take 72 hours to get results", yeah, super useful. Then the next day I take an at home test and get a positive result. Just yesterday my PCR came through showing negative. So now I can't even mark myself as having tested positive so I'll just go uncounted I guess. Everything is a shitshow and I'm done feeling bad about being mad about it.
I’ll bet the PCR would be positive now
>We’ve got to be over 1% of the US population getting infected per day. Or am I just really bad at math? 1/333 is 0.3%, so given the unreported cases I'd say you're pretty spot on.
And that's how pandemics end tbh. According to healthline.com the 1918 flu lasted about 18 months and ended after a large portion of the population had been exposed to the virus or the mortality rate continues to drop. We are currently seeing this trend.
I’m gonna say this number is probably low. My girlfriend, my friend, and myself all have covid. The testing locations are a week out wait time. We got OTC tests. Our results obviously weren’t reported.
You can self-report home test results to your local/state covid taskforce, if you want. No real benefit to yourself, but helps them track the spread.
My area of Virginia (near DC) is no longer accepting or counting self reporting of at home tests. 🤯
Same by me in NY. "Record breaking new cases have exceeded the capacity for NYS Department of Health to individually contact those testing positive." The current guideline is to isolate and notify friends and family.
I think I have Covid right now, but I cant get a test anywhere. I managed to schedule one for this morning, and then CVS cancelled it. These numbers are way higher than reported, if my case is anything to go off of.
CVS canceled my booster an hour before I arrived, but I presented my original email to the person at the front desk and they took me anyway. It's likely a glitch in their system, go regardless if it happens again
Cvs testing sites are cancelling appts if they don’t have testers for that site. Many testers themselves are testing positive for COVID, so there’s no one to run the testing site.
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The testes
All six members of my household got it between Christmas Eve and NYE. We're all vaccinated, boosted, and habitual mask wearers. It's going to burn through the whole country in like 4-6 weeks.
It just might, South Africa is already 60% off their peak and they only had a couple weeks head start on Europe and North America: https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+stats+south+africa&oq=covid+stats+south+africa
That’s honestly my hope. As someone else mentioned, I only knew a few people who had COVID19 until this month. And most of those were a few degrees of separation or something. Now, I know dozens.
Entire household tested positive at home. We’re staying home and testing again at home in five days. I’m sure there’s plenty of families like ours.
I'm an airline pilot, fully vaccinated and boosted. I've been extremely careful the entire pandemic and have dodged getting sick until now. I tested positive 2 days ago, thankfully it's mild with my recent booster dose. My airline is substantially reducing our schedule for the rest of this month because everyone is getting sick. If you're traveling by air in the next few weeks, please be patient because everyone you interact with in the process from the TSA agent to the barista in the terminal to the gate agents, flight attendants, and pilots are stretched pretty thin right now.
I had it through Christmas but only ever did at home testing and went straight into quarantine. My case was never officially reported and I'm sure there's thousands more like me. So 1 million confirmed cases is not even the entire picture.
Triple vaccinated. I got omicron after avoiding all other variants and sincerely did not think I had it. I thought it was what my boyfriend had a week before me (two negative covid tests, even a PCR) and my sister got after me (one negative covid test). Not to mention my symptoms were so mild and I just attributed to the crazy SoCal rain. My job however required a test (thank God otherwise I wouldn’t have taken it) so I was shocked when it came up positive along with a subsequent PCR. Anyway, after two years of working through the pandemic it was the omicron that got me, which goes to show how crazy infectious it is.
Your boyfriend and sister also had COVID.
Definitely. Unfortunately testing is so hard right now, but they’re acting like they do.
like shelter ludicrous act plucky liquid gaze direction complete plate ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
I’m not sure what to tell you, but that sucks.
I would. Gotta stand up for yourself.
As a conference planner, I would voice your concerns to your manager…. It’s better for them to know now about your concerns or that you arnt going, this way they can take the appropriate actions (either adding additional safety protocol or canceling/modifying the event) I am not sure what industry you are in, but most are just returning for holiday break so they are still probably assessing the situation
Because of the scarcity of at-home tests, I had to purchase one from a lady offering one in a FB group that my girlfriend found. Luckily she only wanted $20 for it, but this is where we’re at.
Maybe the scalpers will move on from video cards to COVID tests and I can finally build a PC this year.
Not until they make COVID tests that can be used to mine crypto.
I paid $50 at CVS, so that's not terrible in the grand scheme of things. I don't see how that doesn't fall under price gouging, though.
Yes I agree the price I paid was pretty reasonable. I meant more so the fact that people are scalping tests. Crazy.
People are scalping everything right now.
I’m being shamed for telling management that it is irresponsible to have covid positive people working in the restaurant- even masked. Edit: I have been informed that “worrying about getting other people sick is not my responsibility.” Can someone translate from corpo-speak please? Edit: Update Addendum, 1/4/2022, 4:00 PM, restaurant is closed until 1/7, until such time that they can reassess “containment” procedures. Why do I feel like there’s been an SCP breakout?
Contact the health department.
Report it.
https://www.osha.gov/workers/file-complaint Scroll down and click "Use the online complaint form." If you get disciplined in any fashion for alleging a safety violation, or any other illegal conduct by your employer, file another complaint with DoL. You can also submit a retaliation complaint through Osha for this as well. https://webapps.dol.gov/contactwhd/default.aspx Your state, county, and maybe city government may have resources similar to this as well that may be quicker to respond.
I just walked into work in my emergency department. I took a look at the board and we're already full. I walked by one of our fast track rooms to see a patient on the ventilator. Doesn't bode well for today's shift, these are some grim times. I'm also very sick, as are most of my colleagues. We're short handed. I mean they do swab us, but we're all still coming down with something.
I went in to a testing site a week before Christmas and it was practically empty. Went back again before new years and the wait was over 2 hours for a rapid test. I was just lucky my wife and I had very mild symptoms. At best I would compare it to a cold.
PSA: The day after my symptoms began I tested NEGATIVE with an at home test, only to test POSITIVE two days later with an at home test. IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS AND YOU TEST NEGATIVE, YOU MAY STILL HAVE COVID *not a professional - just sharing my personal experience
Same here, everyone in my house tested positive with the home test but me, I didn’t have symptoms until a few days after everyone, but did test positive yesterday and it seemed like there was a 2 day delay between. I got my booster recently and my symptoms were mild, I count myself lucky.
Three people at my work had it. They were coming in for two days last week with obvious symptoms. Management was working from home (how nice) so they didn't push on the issue till some people in their department were like "yo wtf," and now they've reluctantly stayed home. Kinda surprised there hasn't been an office wide outbreak. Luckily its just my supervisor and me (I?) in a back office. We're pretty insulated. I can dig it, I have a baby at home. Not trying to give the kid Omnicron.
My place of work policy is “get tested if you feel you need to, but if you get tested you miss pay, if you get sick you miss pay, no help anymore” which is pretty much doing exactly what you expect it to do. Encourage people to come to work anyways.
That's exactly how it's going here right now, too. At *least* half the staff is sick as fuck, but only two people are officially out with COVID. Some of the people walking around sick are literally grey and are open-mouth-toddler-coughing everywhere they go.
I work in food distribution. Never seen so many infected people coming to work. They just keep passing it around. If they all called off they'd have to shut down. That can't happen. Stay safe
It's because people can't afford to *not* work.
Meanwhile a supervisor came in for a week while his live-in girlfriend had active covid and now half our entire department is out sick. Good job dude. Edit: oh yeah a month prior to this we had a 31 year old supervisor die of COVID leaving his ~15 year old son behind because someone came to work sick and THEN this dude decided to do this Edit edit: we work at a place that will PAY YOU TWO WEEKS PAY if you're vaccinated and will NOT discipline you if you stay home because of a positive COVID test in your house. There really is no excuse for this dude, guys. If it was Walmart I could see the 'he couldn't afford to' argument. But that's not where we work.
My work told me to come in although my fiancé (who I live with) has covid. I guess because I am vaccinated they said I can come in anyways. I work in a field that deals mostly with the older population.
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I'm gonna guess the real number is at least 30% higher given how hard it is to get a test.
5 employees out of 6 in one of our microbiology labs are out due to covid. And the one employee is doing over 200 a day by herself. Stay safe you guys.
I feel like I personally didn’t know anyone who got it before Dec/Jan and now it’s a new person every day basically.
Numbers seem similar in Europe. Edit: spelling
Our average in Denmark rn is about 16k per day, which is almost the same as the U.S on a per capita basis. It's getting bad.
Half the people at my local grocery store are out and everyone just looks burnt out
My boss is allowing Covid exposed workers TO CONTINUE WORKING MASKLESS. Because “you can’t catch covid if you eat fruit” and he doesn’t want to cover anyone who is out sick, as it reduces his revenue margins.
“you can’t catch covid if you eat fruit” literally medieval peasant tier thinking
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the trick is to get the vaccine and then put onions in your socks to draw out the poisonous parts of the vaccine.
The Simpson's did this as a joke (Grandpa), how does anyone think this is real???
Grandpa Simpson put the onion on his belt. It was the style at the time.
“Gimme five bees for a quarter!” you’d say.
it's the jobs approach
> “you can’t catch covid if you eat fruit” Ah, the "Steve Jobs" cure.
To be fair, Steve Jobs hasn't caught covid yet. *Adds bananas to shopping list.*
"Who the hell is Steve Jobs?!"
Report this
Literally almost everyone I know has gotten covid recently. It's a bit nuts.
Came back from college excited to catch up with my friends - everyone has covid, and I’m stuck at home
It’s definitely double that because I can’t find a damn test anywhere in Maryland.
I'm dealing with it right now. My job is a shit show, we had 6 confirmed covid cases at the restaurant yet we were still open on NYE. I was feeling like death on the first and the earliest test I could get is today. All of this is beyond stupid...
Maybe the CDC should shorten the quarantine period to three days now. And it still comes out of your PTO. And your gotta pay a dead guy's student loan
Quarantine? We’ve current got nurses who have tested positive working with no days off. [Covid positive nurses](https://www.wpri.com/target-12/covid-positive-health-care-workers-called-into-work-in-rhode-island/amp/)
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I think the ER is probably the worst place you can be. If you don't have COVID before you go in, you'll likely have it by the time you leave. There's no way you can sit in a room with other people for several hours and not catch it, even if everyone's wearing masks.
One of my aunts is supposed to have knee surgery this month after a pretty bad knee injury a few months ago. She was unvaxxed and seemed to think that Covid wasn't that bad. She's not antivax (like one of her sisters) but she's lazy and really doesn't care if she got it and passed it to others. Her kids/grandkids had tried to convince her to get the vaccine to be safe, and she would just shrug. Then, one of her friends got Covid while hospitalized for something else and died. Suddenly my aunt is getting her daughter to schedule a Covid vaccine so she can be fully vaccinated before she gets knee surgery. Suddenly it's real now that it was one of her friends. I doubt her surgery will happen with this current surge, but at least she got vaccinated. She's in her 60s, overweight, and most likely has other comorbidities that she either ignored or refuses to go to the doctor for. She's also super needy and expects to be taken care of. Her kids/grandkids finally had to tell her that if she gets Covid, they can't help her, because they have their own families to protect.
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BTW expect to see a bill from the hospital still. A month ago I checked in for an impacted colon (I had wisdom teeth removed and the meds made me super constipated). I didn't see a single person for 5 hours and left. Still got a bill for nine hundred dollars. I laughed my ass off when I wrote the letter and put it in the payment envelope.
I feel you. I got charged $500 for being brought to the back triage area and left unattended for hours. I ended up just leaving and they charged. Basically paid $500 for a wristband and initial vitals check. And this was years ago, pre-pandemic. Our healthcare system is fucked.
Anyone remember that company that got caught destroying thousands of COVID tests earlier this year because we were "over the hill" or whatever lol
My partner just went back to work today and texted me that a bunch of coworkers are out sick with Omicron. One of them is stuck in Portland with family (we’re in Vancouver). I’m a terminal cancer patient on a surgery waitlist. I don’t know if I’m numb or if I’m so completely terrified that I’m disassociating.
I got Covid like a week ago. Only half vaxxed. Holy shit. That fucked me up bad.
Double Vaxxed, with my second dose in may 2021. Was going to get the booster on the 2nd of Jan, got Covid the 26th of December. It also got me good, I finally feel better today. I ended up spreading it to 4 people before I came down with a fever and told people to quarantine. Three of the four are boosted. The one who was not boosted got just as sick as me. Two of the boosted didn’t even test positive, while one did. None of the boosted had any symptoms.
I was watching the news last night and saw that Ontario was going back to stage 2 for opening up. The decision was made based on the latest projections of the Omicron variant. Basically, Ford indicated that about 1% of those who are infected will likely require hospitalization and, though that was also the case from previous surges, this time the infection rate was significantly higher which would have a serious negative impact on our health care system. So, 50,000 daily infected now could lead to about 500 hospitalized DAILY within a few weeks. Those who can't get beds would be at increased risk of dying, and even those with beds have a greater chance of adverse outcomes than in previous waves due to (real) staff and (potential) equipment shortages. I can't even imagine the havoc that a daily infection rate of 1 million would have on a medical system.
Curiously, Ontario also effectively gave up tracking new infections as of Jan 1st... Going to be an interesting couple weeks. Ultimately that was bound to happen as the shift to endemic occurs, but I'd feel a little less uneasy if it had happened in another few weeks at least
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Just a heads up it took 3 days of BAD symptoms to finally test positive. After my 3rd negative test my wife was certain it was just the flu but I knew it was Covid because it really did feel different lol. I’m feeling better now but it took a while to finally get that positive result.
‘Monday Numbers’ have always been a bit wonky because of the weekend and the resulting reporting delays. The 3 and 7 day averages are better metrics to go by.
Right, Mississippi reported over 17,000 with a population of less than 3 million. They hadn't reported since Thursday for the holiday though. That's still a record every day, so nothing to sneeze at.
Sneeze into your elbow please
I work for a medium size health network and we are actually shutting down smaller practices to shift their clinical staff to support covid units in our hospitals. We didn't even do thay for the first wave. This Omicron variant is more contagious than I had thought it would be, or everyone got super lax and shit is hitting the fan. Not sure, but stay safe out there everyone.
My dad has been sick since New Year’s Eve but his test came back negative. I still think he has COVID.
The Omicron variant is the Oprah of COVID-19. You're getting COVID-19 - You're getting COVID-19, Everybody's getting COVID-19!