Are you preparing for life disruptions from this winter/Omicron COVID surge?

[disneysteve]

We are both boosted. I’ve been wearing an N95 exclusively all along. My wife just upgraded to KN95. Indoor dining is out so no restaurants until spring. No travel plans. I’ll still grocery shop in person. Otherwise staying out of public as much as possible. Which isn’t much of a change for us.

[anethum]

I expect that in the near future, supply chain problems will get worse, as will availability of many services. Flight cancellations and public transit cutbacks are two examples we've already seen due to employee illnesses. I expect omicron to cause havoc at facilities like meatpacking plants when the variant arrives there.

Here in the DC metropolitan area, cases have skyrocketed, and this area has a very high vaccination rate. DC and suburban MD have masking mandates which are well-respected. One month ago, the 7-day average daily new case rate in DC was 11 per 100,000 population. Today it is 291. MD is 147 per 100,000 which is still a huge number. MD presently has the 4th highest new infection rate among the 50 states, and DC is higher than all of them. Hospitalizations are at record highs in MD, though the percentage of people infected with covid requiring hospitalization is lower than for other variants, so far.

Urban areas in the northeast are getting hammered with covid right now, and I expect this explosive case growth to spread throughout North America, and then Latin America.

This entire metro area had weathered the covid storm better than most regions until now thanks to high vaccination rates and responsible behavior. Infection rates here are now the highest they've been since the pandemic began, which is indicative of just how infectious omicron is. One suburban MD county reportedly has the highest vaccination rate in the country (NIH & FDA are located within the county), but even the new infection rate there is sky-high right now.

I have to be inside my 100 year old mother's home a few times each week. I mask there. Her 4 caregivers are vaxed. Mom is homebound and she's had 2 JnJ shots thanks to a county nurse who came and administered them. The JnJ vaccine is the only vaccine they would give to homebound people there, due to the simple storage requirements and the original thinking that it was "one and done".

My mom began home hospice care a year ago after breaking her hip, but she was discharged 6 months later because she doesn't have a known fatal condition, though she has fairly advanced dementia. Elderly patients usually don't survive too long after a hip fracture, which is why she was initially accepted for home hospice. My nightmare scenario is if one of the caregivers or myself brings in the virus to my mom. I wouldn't expect non-infected caregivers to continue taking care of my mom if she were infectious. I honestly don't know what I would do.

I've remained careful even when case numbers were low here. I never stopped masking, nor did most other folks here, and I only wear a KN95 mask. I've continued in-person food shopping throughout the pandemic, but now I've resumed doing what I did last winter, which is to do grocery shopping very early in the morning so that the stores are nearly empty.

A friend e-mailed me and 5 other friends this week, suggesting we meet for dinner this weekend at a restaurant in DC. I thought he was nuts. I declined, as did 2 others, all of us citing the current covid situation here. I have had a small number of boosted friends in my home for dinner, and I've eaten in some of their homes. I think I'll stop that for now, until the covid explosion here burns itself out. I had been going to museums, but I'll stop that for the time being, too. The Smithsonian closed 4 smaller museums here because they needed to send the staff in those museums to more popular ones, due to staffing issues related to covid. I still take brief trips to the library, which is notably emptier this week.

I expect to get omicron at some point (I'm boosted with Pfizer), but I'd like to hold if off for as long as possible. It's very difficult to get a timely PCR test reservation here right now because demand is so high. Actual infection case rates are probably even higher than our high numbers due to non-reporting of antigen tests results, as well as all of the folks who are unable to get tested at all. There are also recent reports that antigen tests are less likely to detect an omicron infection than infections from earlier variants.

[retire-early]

My mom in her 80s --- vaccinated and boosted --- returned to her senior center in early fall.

She is not sure whether she should return in Jan. 2022 after the holiday break.
The vaccine status of some of the members is unknown, and many of the members are not masked.
They say it is hard to be masked and do line dancing and Zumba.

Thoughts?

[Surewhitey]

Leaving for Mexico tomorrow. Double masking on the plane and double shots in the margaritas...

[Surewhitey]

My mid-Jan Cali trip is a big question...

[Out of Steam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by anethum Here in the DC metropolitan area, cases have skyrocketed, and this area has a very high vaccination rate. DC and suburban MD have masking mandates which are well-respected. One month ago, the 7-day average daily new case rate in DC was 11 per 100,000 population. Today it is 291. MD is 147 per 100,000 which is still a huge number. MD presently has the 4th highest new infection rate among the 50 states, and DC is higher than all of them. Hospitalizations are at record highs in MD, though the percentage of people infected with covid requiring hospitalization is lower than for other variants, so far. Urban areas in the northeast are getting hammered with covid right now, and I expect this explosive case growth to spread throughout North America, and then Latin America. This entire metro area had weathered the covid storm better than most regions until now thanks to high vaccination rates and responsible behavior. Infection rates here are now the highest they've been since the pandemic began, which is indicative of just how infectious omicron is. One suburban MD county reportedly has the highest vaccination rate in the country (NIH & FDA are located within the county), but even the new infection rate there is sky-high right now. <SNIP> I expect to get omicron at some point (I'm boosted with Pfizer), but I'd like to hold if off for as long as possible. It's very difficult to get a timely PCR test reservation here right now because demand is so high. Actual infection case rates are probably even higher than our high numbers due to non-reporting of antigen tests results, as well as all of the folks who are unable to get tested at all. There are also recent reports that antigen tests are less likely to detect an omicron infection than infections from earlier variants.

We used to live in Suburban Maryland, and our daughter does now. The numbers there are shocking considering the high vaccination rates.

Agree that omicron infection appears close to inevitable, but being on an immunosuppressant drug, I'd like to hold it off at least until the new pill treatment is more widely distributed.

[disneysteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by retire-early My mom in her 80s --- vaccinated and boosted --- returned to her senior center in early fall. She is not sure whether she should return in Jan. 2022 after the holiday break. The vaccine status of some of the members is unknown, and many of the members are not masked. They say it is hard to be masked and do line dancing and Zumba. Thoughts?

I would not send my elderly mom to a senior center where people aren’t all vaxxed and masks aren’t required. That’s incredibly irresponsible of them to allow that.

We’re having trouble with my mom’s apartment complex where they’re having a New Years toast tomorrow afternoon so everyone will be unmasked. We’ve encouraged my mother not to attend but we doubt she’ll listen to us.

[PercMan]

No, but I have been attempting to make major purchases ahead of 2022 price increases.
I would encourage others to do the same. One supplier that I just made a purchase from
received notification that a 5% steel surcharge is coming in January for his products.
(He's seen a cumulative 58% steel price increases in the past 20 months).

A second and third supplier that I made major purchases from also stated similar price increases
were coming for their products, as well. A plastic culvert supplier that I just recently purchased
from is making similar statements. By the way, the plastic culvert price has increased 60% in
18 months and septic drainage pipe has increased a whopping 80% in the same timeframe.

A local Dollar Store manager told me that they were being allocated extra labor hours next
week to "adjust" the prices for their products. Based on the recent reports,
[MOD EDIT - Link Deleted] I don't think they're going to be lowering the prices.

[Imaginos]

Not for us.We’ve hardly been affected since it all started.Other than a brief period where the grocery store required masks,we don’t wear them.We live in a small town that’s had very few cases.We don’t really socialise much and I worked outdoors.We are fortunate to be in a low risk situation.I’m vaxxed and the Mrs. is not(her choice and I respect it).

[Bamaman]

My wife and I both have had double jabs, and we still came down with Covid 7 weeks ago. We fared it well and mainly felt lethargic for a week or so.

Our city is probably about average in COVID cases currently. Our citizens are very independent thinkers, and they've returned almost to their normal lifestyles. We see maybe half the people in grocery stores wearing masks and that's about it.

My wife has terrible arthritis and she got a neurostimulator implanted last week. We've been laying very low for the past 20 months with her health issues. Our outside contact with people is essentially just at church with those of our same age.

Like so many others, we're just hanging in there, distancing ourselves, washing our hands and staying out of crowds. Hopefully society will shortly get back to a somewhat normal lifestyle.

[madsquopper]

In DC also (Northern Virginia), Both of us vaxxed and boosted. We've been semi-isolationists all along, but I've been playing trivia indoors, and we both have restarted in-person dancing at masked and vaxxed dances. However, with the recent surge some of the dances have been put on hold and we've been considering cutting back on the others. Our trivia team may go back to online temporarily. Avoiding getting covid indefinitely probably isn't feasible; for all we know we were already infected and asymptotic. We just try to follow the up-to-date recommendations and hope for the best.

[travelover]

Formally cancelled our February Kauai trip. Fortunately, we booked condos that can be cancelled with minimal penalty. Working on airline refund. It is very disappointing, on many levels.

[savory]

We have re-upped our caution with the Omicron variant. We had hoped to have a NY Eve get together with a few friends who have been vaccinated and boosted. But, we decided to cancel. Still shopping in-store now with N-95s vs the 2 layer, home made cloth masks.

We are weighing our caution however a bit differently. We are in good health and expect that our symptoms will be flu like if we get Covid (I did have a minor case of Covid durng a period of being very careful which was befoe the trips etc, I mentioned below) So, in some ways, we are watching ourselves at a higher level than we would if the flu was are only concern.

We do have domestic flight plans for February. We have been a little more aggressive than some other posters having been on 4 domestic air plane trips and once to Europe over the last two years. When we arrived at our destinations, we followed a careful protocol, in one case isolating 8 days in a hotel before visiting family. Our flight was our main risk although I expect others might disagree. The other trips had limited contact with people e.g (we hiked the Grand Canyon)

I am putting a lot of value on the vaccination. I hope that is a good bet.

[daylatedollarshort]

We made it through Christmas with all the family visiting and going out to eat / museum trips so I'm grateful for that. Based on local hospitalization and infection rates back in November, our lives had started returning to normal - a few Christmas parties / events, one in a ballroom with lots of people, we started seeing plays again.

Now one of our kid's co-workers is in the hospital with Covid and not doing well. A number of friends of friends are getting sick, so it seems to be getting closer to us now, more than even last year. I think we will still go grocery shopping since we've had the boosters and wear masks, but it is back to house projects, Zoom and outside activities, and Netflix probably for the winter now. And reminiscing about fun times we had past New Year's Eves before Covid hit.

[Montecfo]

Wearing mask in stores. Otherwise keeping changes to a minimum. Planning quite a bit of travel and don't want to cancel.

[Teacher Terry]

Mostly normal except staying out of big crowds like a concert. Masks are required and most people following the rules. I have a trip to Ireland planned for June and really hoping it doesn’t get canceled.

[DrRoy]

Mainly, we keep cancelling or delaying cruises that we booked a year out. Coming up on a domestic one in Feb. that we will probably cancel, and a European one in May.

[Dtail]

Back to wearing masks indoors, but still eat at indoor restaurants.
A close friend and DGF's older son's family just got covid and none were vaccinated.

[Badger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom56 ...During the past two weeks we went for our annual preventive check-ups and all the UCLA facilities we visited were nearly empty. It was just like last year. The nurse drawing blood from my arm told me that she was infected during the month of October but was asymptomatic. She was wearing her mask below her nose. She believes she contracted it from a dialysis patient who was positive. I just rolled my eyes. The key to getting through wearing a mask with high filtration and making sure that you have a good seal around your face. Air should not be seeping out through the sides when you breath.

Any health care provider should know better if they have any decent training in Microbiology and Human Anatomy. With that lack of consideration for her patient neither she not the patient are protected from contracting the virus. I would have left and reported her to her supervisor and/or director of the facility.


Cheers!

[FIREd]

No change. I’m up to date on my vaccines and I’m still wearing a mask in all public spaces (a requirement here for the past 18 months). We haven’t had major supply disruptions in this part of the world throughout the pandemic, so I’m not taking any particular steps to prepare this time around.