Shortly after I wrote this post about my experience with an antigen test, Josh Marshall posted this (paywalled) piece about a real-world experience with an antigen test. The net of the piece is that antigen tests may have false negatives when a person is first experiencing COVID symptoms, but they can perhaps serve as a proxy for whether a person is infectious. Josh linked to this thread from an epidemiologist/immunologist about the role of antigen testing:
Read the whole thing, and look at the graph, but his basic point is that the immunity conferred by vaccination leads to earlier symptoms because the immune system “kicks in” immediately, since it is primed to recognize the COVID virus. This means that the immunized might have symptoms prior to being contagious.
Open thread.
Expressing Concern or Showing Support?
Raoul Paste
Helpful to know. Thanks
Betty
Thanks for this explanation. I thought about sharing it, but it is somewhat confusing because of Omicron’s special characteristics. I am not sure if it might do the opposite of reassuring people about the best course.
Yarrow
“Might.”
The info about when people are contagious is really confusing. I’ve heard everything from “You’re contagious several days before you have any symptoms” to “People are only contagious for a few days” to “You can be contagious well after the five day isolation period” to this now – “You might not be contagious even though you have symptoms.” Nobody seems to know, even though doctors and public health people.
Ohio Mom
Discussions about antigen tests have been moot for me — every place I go to shop for whatever (groceries, pick up prescriptions, Target for odds and ends, and so forth) has a big sign on the front door, No Covid Tests.
So I was thrilled to hear Biden will be distributing free ones. I’m expecting a frustrating time getting my name on the list and a moment of joy when they finally arrive. I will continue to hope I never need them, however unrealistic that may be.
sab
@Ohio Mom: I am expecting it to be a lot like signing up for the vaccine early on, or signing up for Obamacare.
Another Scott
@Ohio Mom: I bought BinaxNow tests online from Walgreens weeks ago. It took a while for them to be shipped, but they did show up. Last I looked, though, they say that they’re not available online. My J sent one box to her twin in Austin, who promptly discovered that her “sinus infection” actually is COVID. :-( (2x vaccinated, but no booster.) She’s pretty much recovered from her “mild symptoms”, and her husband is doing better, too.
We ordered some iHealth tests on Amazon on the 9th. They’re supposed to be here around the end of January.
Good luck with the search!
Cheers,
Scott.
Scout211
This article has two very helpful charts to help figure out your early symptoms and how they differ from delta and before-delta variants. Source.
The charts are credited to the ZOE app from the ZOE COVID study.
Embra
So am I right in thinking that antigen tests might best be thought of–from a functional perspective–as contagion tests?
Cermet
The NYT has an article on the development of the mRNA vaccines and why they appeared ‘suddenly’ – which in reality took thirty years. Also, it was only in the last ten years that the final critical steps were developed (for different issues in different labs) that enabled the mfg. of this very special type of vaccine as well as a crucial way to ‘see’ the virus stem so it could be sequenced and used. All this took initial effort took many years and of course, stupid’s thought it was a ‘rushed’ development because how else could science develop the perfect vaccine so quickly? But then, its called basic research for a reason and why it is absolutely essential to fund.
Citizen Alan
@Ohio Mom: i’m not optimistic about test distribution at all because I expect Republicans to order them in bulk and then deliberately waste or spoil them as a Fuck You Libtard gesture.
Jinchi
Take care not to overinterpret your symptoms or lack of same.
Our high schooler picked up a case from school a week ago, probably Friday. Saturday he had high fever, heavy cough, congestion, muscle pains, and exhaustion and tested negative. Sunday same symptoms, positive. Spouse started having the same symptoms on Monday and both had about 4 days of (severe flu level) misery. Youngest and I had virtually no symptoms until Wednesday, when both of us felt slightly tired and sniffly. I would have mistaken it for a very mild cold any other year. Testing gave a very clear postive.
We’ve all quarantined since our high schooler tested positive. If we hadn’t, we would have sent the younger boy to school throughout the week. I really don’t understand the logic of the CDC changing the quarantine and exposure rules in December when it was pretty clear a major spike from a highly contagious variant was occurring due to winter holiday travel. Schools in our area followed suit and I’m sure that lots of transmission has occurred because people let their guard down. I really hope they’re right about the severity of Omicron being lower than Delta, but it’s little consolation if it’s a tenth as deadly but we end up with 10 times as many cases.
Take care everyone.
Jinchi
That would never happen.
narya
Community health centers/Federally qualified health centers are now able to order at-home tests to give to patients for FREE. We’re still sorting how we’re going distribute and how we’re going to get the results when folks use the tests, and other health centers may be in the same situation, but we’re getting our first order this week. Interested? Go here to find a health center.
Kirk Spencer
@Citizen Alan: The reported limit of four tests per household will help keep that “order in bulk” opportunity reduced. I’ve no doubt there will be attempts to get around that, some of which will be successful.
But there is hope.
Ohio Mom
@Citizen Alan: I’m pretty sure I heard there was a limit of four tests “per customer.”
Now, what exactly the distribution set-up is, and whether there will be good enough record keeping to prevent malicious stockpiling?
I like to think this has already been gamed mostly out. Not that there won’t be some fraud, this is an unredeemed world after all. We will have to wait and see.
As a footnote, I’ll add that I always think of attorneys as experts in worse case scenarios, else how would they be able to begin to protect their clients against those possibilities. So yes, you’re doing your thing.
ETA: I see Kirk got here first.
Doug R
Immune system “kicks in” early?
Sounds like when a fit person starts strenuous activity, their respiration and heart rates go up right away.
jonas
@Kirk Spencer: I’m sure the Biden administration went with the direct-to-consumer route rather than through state distribution systems so they could make sure malicious Republican governors didn’t fuck with it.
WaterGirl
@Embra: The operative word is might , which should be read in all caps, bold, and red. Possibly flashing.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan:
I expect that, too, as does Biden and his administration.
People wondered why they didn’t just send them to every house? The answer is obvious.
Making them jump through the hoop of reimbursement, at least initially, eliminates a lot of wasted tests. Possibly half of the tests.
Brachiator
@Jinchi:
In the Kaiser study reported on in the NY Times, of 52,000 hospital patients with Omicron, none had to be placed on a ventilator. The study still must undergo peer review, but this looks promising.
Mary G
Michael Mina has been screaming on Twitter that flooding the country with rapid home tests by the government is the only way out of the pandemic since TFG was in office. I thought he had good points and wondered why no one paid much attention. Well, the Biden people anyway.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Making people who take the virus seriously jump through the hoops of reimbursement is counterproductive, IMO. It will suppress uptake, as Dave outlined in a recent post. If there’s some reason the admin can’t make free tests available for people to pick up where vaccinations are available, I wish they’d say so.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: funding? legal obstacles? like making the gov’t liable for reliability of the tests? states/pharmacies willing to participate for similar reasons? just spit-balling
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It seems like all of those potential obstacles would apply in spades to the vaccines, but that got done regardless. I have no idea why they’re embracing a distribution system that seems guaranteed to piss people off and lower the effectiveness of the testing program. I assume there’s a good reason. If so, they should tell us.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I agree with that point of view, too. I could easily argue both sides of the argument in a debate.
But they are about to make them free – ordered on-line and delivered to your home – that seems very sensible to me!
Are you unhappy with that decision, or just unhappy because it took so long to get here?
In their defense, while everyone who is paying attention knew that there would be variants, no one saw Omicron coming. Omicron is a beast.
Brachiator
@Mary G:
How does this lead you out of the pandemic?
Princess Leia
Monday’s In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt was all about teating and super informative. Worth a listen.
The Dangerman
I got my home antigen test at the local Senior Center yesterday. Fairly busy line for the vaccine; no line for the at home test. Tested negative at home, then went to a different location to do the PCR test given the reports of false negatives. Odd sinus activity was only symptom but was enough to make me want to be very sure. I’m around too many unvaxxed at work to risk it.
Ken
@Cermet: Next you’ll be saying we should fund volcano monitoring, when there’s a simple way to keep them from erupting.
You can keep your saints with halos,
Your hosannas or dayenus:
Let’s throw virgins in volcanoes!
And that’s good enough for me!
Gimme that real old-time religion, etc.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Florida received tests and did not distribute them. That’s quite a hoop right there.
I guess testing helps. But then what? Do you need a system to help people if they have to quarantine? Help them get access to a confirming test?
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: No, the free tests are a great idea. I plan to order some in case someone in the family develops symptoms. But it seems like a good idea to also have community-based resources, perhaps using the same distribution channels used for the vaccines, so people who don’t have testing kits at home can get some for free and quickly if someone in their family gets symptoms. Make it as simple as possible.
scav
@Yarrow: Unfortunately, I think the whole question of when people are contagious is confusing or, let us say, complicated and with a lot of variables, if not wired-in variance. It certainly makes sense that a primed immune system that can immediately recognize the virus and mount a defense quickly (rather than only begin to cobble something together after the virus has multiplied and started breaking things) could drag the onset of defense-related symptoms before the time the virus has multiplied enough to be shed. Especially as the defense the body is mounting is slowing the virus’ rate of multiplication. Add to that the inevitable variability in individuals immune systems plus those on the virus behavior end of things, and I’m not sure hard and fast rules capable of being cross-stitched on a bumper sticker are that probable.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
I heard up to 8 a month per person.
marcopolo
For starters, towards the beginning of the pandemic, Josh Marshall created a curated twitter list of doctors, epidemiologists, science writers, infectious disease specialists, etc…
Here is the link.
If you click on this you will see all the tweets these folks are putting out. It is truly a firehose of information but I do look at it daily and there is always something I learn. For example, understanding how masks work, what masks are best, well there were recommendations there I used to buy my latest round of masks for Omicron. So I was ahead of the curve on that. And on going out to purchase antigen tests before they were all bought up.
As far as the question of how long folks who catch Covid stay infectious: well, we all have unique bodies & immune systems and when you throw in differing vax statuses (and different vaccine efficacies, and how much of an initial virus load you got when you were infected then it’s pretty obvious there just can’t be a definitive time frame for this for everyone. From what I’ve read going with the 5 days after onset of symptoms plus a negative antigen test plus masking for five days (which is about as conservative a position as there is) should cover the vast vast majority of folks but there will always be exceptions.
I’m vaxxed & boosted & when I am out in public I always wear a really good fitting N95. I feel pretty good about going on about my normal life like this (no I don’t do anything indoors w/out a mask, no I don’t put myself in situations where I am inside with huge numbers of folks (grocery shopping is probably the most busy location I visit in a week). I figure I probably will catch it someday (which no longer worries me) but I hope that day is off in the future where hospitals and health care system are no longer taxed (overtaxed) by huge numbers of new infections.
Ken
@Brachiator: I think Mina makes some additional assumptions, like people who test positive will voluntarily quarantine for two weeks. The underlying idea is that humans are rational and caring, so, well…
(There’s a second underlying assumption that people are capable of doing the quarantine — not the part about isolating for a couple of weeks, but the part about not working or going out to buy food and medicine.)
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I agree with that, too. They are already sending something like 500,000 tests to community health centers. I may have the exact number wrong, but it’s a huge amount – they are trying to get test to low-income and low-resource people who may not have a computer to order tests from.
Next time Jen Psaki answers that question, I’ll make note of the number. I think that to some extent they are getting slammed for not doing things that they are already doing.
The Dangerman
One more bit of information from yesterday. Making a reservation for the PCR test was a sick joke (almost literally impossible) but the walk in line wasn’t bad at all. Didn’t clock it but only 20 to 30 minutes.
Jackie
@debbie: I believe that’s the number of tests (not home kits) per month to be covered by insurance.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yup. there was a viral tweet going around the other day, a screen shot of a text, something like: We tested positive, but we’re on the plane! Don’t tell any body! tee hee! Another anecdote about a lady pushing an overflowing cart up to the check out line.
Checker: Wow! Getting ready for a big weekend?
Customer: No, my whole family is on day three of quarantine!
Meanwhile, we’re at 66% vaxxed, 23% boosted. The rates for kids are (to me, childless) shocking. I agree the messaging around tests and the timeframe for contagion have been confusing, but the message on vaccinations really hasn’t been. Get the fucking shots.
Fair Economist
@Yarrow:
Because nobody really does. You can’t do the kinds of experiments you would to actually determine infectiousness – they’re not ethical. Natural experiments don’t give the necessary resolution to say “safe by day xxx”.
debbie
@Jackie:
Eight tests is what I meant, but thanks.
ETA: In response to Ohio Mom’s comment:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
am I wrong that this is the second time this has happened at an NYC Olive Garden in as many weeks? why Olive Garden?
@Fair Economist: I”m not one of your science guys, but that’s what I always keep in mind: We’re dealing two-month old (or at least known) variant of a disease we didn’t know anything about two-and-half years ago. So I’m fairly forgiving toward the gov’t.
StringOnAStick
I’m hoping that once the medical system is out of crisis (and that this actually happens at some point), there will be a research push to figure out on the genetic level why some people are hardly affected at all and some die, regardless of co-morbidities or vaccination status, though the latter is probably a much less fertile area of inquiry since fully vaccinated people without co-morbidities rarely die from Covid infection. I figure this is will likely as useful to basic science as figuring out the molecular structure of DNA was since pandemics are a fact of life, something most humans weren’t paying enough attention to in general until this hit the fan, certain folks excepted of course.
There was 30 years of research behind these vaccines; that needs to be recognised and expanded upon, broadly.
Jackie
@debbie: Four free HOME tests per household.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: My understanding is that other rich countries that don’t have psychopathic opposition parties and fanatic-infested courts to choke off public health resources do help people with quarantine and follow-up testing. That would be great, but I accept that’s politically impossible here.
Another Scott
@Fair Economist: CT_Bergstrom has updated his long thread on looking at various scenarios given the unknowns. (He initially was very skeptical of the 5 days + 5 days masking CDC recommendation.)
Cheers,
Scott.
The Dangerman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I simply do not understand that behavior. There is probably a significant number of Folks in that crowd that would shit themselves if somebody lit up a cigarette in that restaurant but second hand virus isn’t a cause for concern.
Jinchi
You gotta assume the clowns who literally fight for the right to spit covid in your face are lousy tippers.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
The UK has screwed up testing and tracking, at least in England (Scotland and Wales have some independence with respect to policies). And there has been insanity and pushback in France and Germany.
Some of the countries that have done the best, Singapore and China, maybe South Korea, are more heavy-handed than would be accepted here in the US.
Here, the state governments that have fought mask and testing mandates would screw up anything that Biden tried to enforce. Hell, the recent dumb-ass Supreme Court decision may cause new problems.
I applaud some of Biden’s efforts and agree that he can do better, but it is just not the case that the US is the only rich nation that ha screwed up. Australia royally messed up the early advantage that they got from lockdowns with a pitifully slow vaccine program.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Jeez. We don’t go into churches to perform abortions. Why are they invading our Olive Gardens?
Another Scott
ObOpenThread – J just today got an air mail Xmas card from a former colleague who is now in Korea. It was mailed on December 13.
I’d hate to think how long it would have taken to get here if it was mailed the equivalent of “first class”…
FederalNewsNetwork (from January 13):
I don’t know enough about this stuff, but the optics are terrible and couldn’t be much worse. The postal service carriers in our neighborhood are working 7 days a week and often past 8 PM. If DeJoy is “helping”, we’re not seeing it here.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
narya
@WaterGirl: See my comment at 13 for the link to the health centers.
Baud
@Another Scott:
“He chose us over all the other monopoly delivery services!”
Mike E
@Another Scott: Glad to hear they had a mild go of it, the original vax series seems to have good staying power. Miss E is now recovered from her stint with covid last week, she had two PCR tests that confirmed the case and now tests negative with nearly all of her symptoms gone (she has a little ear congestion, it’s her weak spot from many an ear infection as a toddler 20+ years ago…covid always finds a crack in people to exploit). She smartly wore a mask and quarantined at her mom’s place, they’re both well and triple-vax’d. I hope to see her next weekend.
Nicole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Maybe because they feel safer screaming at a bunch of tourists, rather than at actual New Yorkers?
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I see all of the virus-humping assholes haven’t killed themselves off yet.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a suburb of Dallas, I gather
ETA: “The FBI negotiators are the ones who have contact with the person in the building.” Nelson said. There is “no threat to the general public” at this time, Nelson added.
James E Powell
@Another Scott:
There is something really rotten about this. DeJoy is a bad person, we know this. And he doesn’t have skills or knowledge that we can’t get elsewhere. So what is the deal?
Also, why elect a Republican as chairman? Is this just more of that elites back-scratching elites like we see when “liberal” law professors cape for Federalist assholes?
Gin & Tonic
@Nicole: Bingo!
Another Scott
@Mike E: Thanks. J and her twin seemed to have some issues after the 2nd dose of Pfizer (extended sunburn-like sensations, no sweating, not like hot flashes) that are only now subsiding to some extent (antihistamines seem to be helping). They’re nervous about getting a booster, understandably so, but I worry. We too are very glad that her sister is recovering well and that the case was mild!
Good luck to Miss E and all of you!
Cheers,
Scott.
Zzyzx
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Obviously it’s the lack of other Italian food options in NYC. You have to look hard to find it.
Another Scott
@James E Powell: Dunno. It might be institutional traditions of flipping between parties or something. That’s fine in normal times when things are working well, but…
Agreed that the board seems to be looking at metrics and issues that are completely divorced from the reality of how the USPS has been hollowed out and how it is struggling. But, maybe that’s what the board is for…
Grr…,
Scott.
Wanderer
@narya: Thank you for this info Narya.
MazeDancer
A gunman is holding hostages in a synagogue in Colleyville, TX, outside Fort Worth.
FBI on scene negotiating.
Yarrow
@Fair Economist: Well, they know something, otherwise they wouldn’t be giving any guidelines.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, in the UK…
( Insert Sideshow-Bob-Stepping-On-Rakes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
Covid harvests another…felon suspect who had fled after faking his own death?
The scriptwriters really emptied their plot twist collection for this one.
Ken
@Zzyzx: IIRC, a couple of years ago Olive Garden had to explain the reason their pasta is… not great is that they can’t add salt to the cooking water because it would damage the pots. Or maybe it would void the warranty on the pots, I don’t remember exactly; just that at the time it struck me that “damaged by salt water” would count as a negative to me, were I tasked with buying cookware for a restaurant.
trollhattan
Heard today an engineer friend who declared against getting vaccinated “because my immune system has always worked perfectly, so why would I?” got the ‘rona, along with their son. Both are on the mend.
debbie
@Zzyzx:
?
Only one on every other block.
Ken
Perhaps a Camelot delusion of some sort? Naw, too wild a speculation.
This, however, screams “behind on his child support payments” to me.
debbie
@Jackie:
Two tests in each kit, obviously. I got the math down. Thanks.
Origuy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “why Olive Garden?”
Free breadsticks?
raven
I just came from a superspreader. 90,000 mostly unmasked Dawg fans celebrating the National Championship. I kn95’d the whole time save one photo op!
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator:
This just seems flatly contradictory to the data from the field that clearly shows a lot of (unvaccinated) people dying from this, so it’s peculiar to me.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
RE: Kaiser study:
Here is a summary:
I noted that this study may not be peer-reviewed.
trollhattan
@Matt McIrvin:
IDK how to draw any conclusions other than these county numbers have skyrocketed (4-5X) since mid-December, but here’s our current covid healthcare count:
Hospitalizations: 505
ICU: 82
Ventilator use: 190
Safe to say most current cases are omicron but those data have a very long lag before being reported.
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Olive Garden in Times Square is pretty high profile. Part of it is because it’s dumb – why the fuck would you go to NYC just to eat at a fucking Olive Garden. But its location means there will be TV cameras near it pretty much 24/7.
trollhattan
Kiddo wanted to drive to Santa Cruz to visit buddies today, we advised nyet. The tsunami surges are still occurring and while minor in many places in at least one monitored spot in California, have exceeded 4 feet above normal.
twitter.com/NWS_NTWC/status/1482460106851770371?cxt=HHwWhoCz6Zvn4JIpAAAA
debbie
@raven:
Did anybody give you grief for masking up?
Gin & Tonic
You have to watch the video.
raven
@debbie: Nope, I did take a fall when I tried to go down on the seats instead of the stairs and people were very helpful and concerned. After the game some brother had a table full of “let’s go Brandon” shit and I screamed “how can you have this shit for that racist motherfucker”?? “he ain’t no racist”. I had the sense he was frontin for someone and they told him how to reply when pressed.
raven
@trollhattan: My niece is a Banana Slug
debbie
@raven:
And I’m sure he was paid handsomely. //
raven
@debbie: It was a pretty low-rent operation. There we’re dudes selling 40oz’s and fireballs on the route as well. The digital tickets have made it tough on the dude’s tryin to make a buck.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Good point about the TV cameras. It’s also “safe” for people who don’t want to try anything new. You know exactly what you are getting.
Mediocre but predicatable food, in my opinion.
My right-wing religious sister loves it.
LongHairedWeirdo
A little while back, I kinda verbally vomited an essay (ed: into a comment on this blog), which I simply call “the monster essay” because of its relatively forced conclusion regarding “What kind of person would blow off a deadly global pandemic?”.
Did anyone see it and want to see a revision? Anyone just want to see it? (Noble blog leaders, if there is interest, I have no idea about the best way to share.)
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Good for him! And fuck all of the anti-vax/anti-mask plague rat shitstains.
WaterGirl
@LongHairedWeirdo: No promises for publication, but you can send me an email and I’ll take a look. :-)
email to my nym at balloon-juice.com
trollhattan
@raven:
Three of her HS buddies are proud slugs, which is who she wants to see.
Don’t think there’s any danger away from the coast, just traffic issues and lookie-loos. A parent must find things to fret over.
raven
@trollhattan: copy
mrmoshpotato
@LongHairedWeirdo:
Best way? Massive Tony Jay-esque comment! ?
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl:
This is why I have generally eschewed chain restaurants for most of my adult life. I don’t want to know exactly what I’m getting and that it’s “reliable”. I have cooked for decades to get a semblance of that. When I go out, I want intriguing, captivating and something I wouldn’t or couldn’t make.
Another Scott
@LongHairedWeirdo: You posted it here in a comment, right? Assuming that is correct, I remember seeing it and thought it was interesting. Someone else later suggested that it should be front-paged. You probably should send it to WG or AL.
I just looked for it, but couldn’t find it.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
So, I’m getting down to some of the reasons for my early retirement – something I had overlooked. Moral injury. I suspect this will eventually be revealed as significant part of the ‘great resignation’. It’s not that my employer was an evil enterprise – far from it. But it did have some problems. I was a multiple-times whistleblower, and that did certainly take a toll on me. But I now suspect the fatal event was the pandemic. As many know, I was tasked in Feb 2020 with forming a response from the institution to Covid should it reach the US. But a bit after the institution shut down, I was moved onto other things and while I think the institutional response in the context of the national response was pretty good, they didn’t exactly take a leadership role and set a higher standard, and I think that was part of the national mistake. When the feds underperformed, most of the states didn’t demand better, and when the states underperformed, institutions within the states didn’t demand better. I was demanding better, and was let down. And that let down carried with it illness and death that was preventable. And I suspect a lot of workers in a lot of industries are feeling the same way – they didn’t get PPE, they shouldn’t have been in the office, or the business open, or having inside dining, or whatever. And they feel fractionally responsible for the 850,000 deaths. And that breaks some of us, at least professionally.
Suzanne
So it is fucken bonkers today at the grocery stores. Between the supply chain issues and people’s panic buying, the pandemic exploding and a whole bunch of schools are closed for a week, there’s a big snowstorm coming, and apparently there’s a football game…. every parking spot is full, lines are long, shelves are bare.
So Mr. Suzanne texted me asking for the following items: beer, Hostess cupcakes, lemonade, Brie, and gummy bears.
So I bought him a big bag of gummy bears at Whole Foods. But apparently those aren’t good enough, so I had to also buy him some Haribo.
trollhattan
Can we just call Orkin and have them spray the joint for Bannons? This fuckin’ guy.
WaterGirl
@Sure Lurkalot: In case I wasn’t clear, I was not extolling that as a virtue from my perspective.
Merely acknowledging what the draw would be because the food is not all that great.
Though they did used to have the best tiramisu. Don’t know if they still do because it’s been years since I went there.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne:
What? Whole Paycheck doesn’t have top-dollar, top-of-the-line gummy bears?
Brachiator
@Suzanne:
Ah yes. From the Essential Nutrition Food Groups.
They have gummy bears at Whole Foods? Are they organic?
trollhattan
@Martin:
Similar. Not roles but an employer who did everything well early, and now that is eroding badly (in my eyes, anyway). They have an arbitrary 50% back in the office policy and now, while omicron is kicking into high gear with historic high infection rates…crickets. Oh, there’s a director’s covid address scheduled. In two weeks.
The Dangerman
Oh Oh. Just got hooked on Wordle. Problem is I did my first one in 3 steps. I’m thinking of retiring since 2 seems damed unlikely.
Suzanne
@mrmoshpotato: The Whole Foods ones look good to me!
The Albanese ones are shit, though.
mrmoshpotato
ScienceNews – Wild Donkey Ass Fossil
Suzanne
@Brachiator: They are not organic. They are loaded with sugar. No pretense of nutritiousness.
Alison Rose
@Brachiator:
And vegan!
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl: I truly didn’t think you were extolling Olive Garden because everything you tell us you cook sounds delicious.
Dan B
@narya: I went to the link and zoomed to South Seattle and found nothing. Didn’t find anything for all of Seattle. Any idea what’s up? I’m on my phone.
schrodingers_cat
The concern trolling on the left about having to google where testing is available is epic. I feel like I am living in a different country. Mask compliance here is well over 95% and even lab tests have been easily available since the fall and they are free. I had flu like symptoms and so did husband cat the week following Christmas, so we both had to get PCR tests. Yes I did have to google. But I did not have to walk uphill in the snow both ways.
Sure Lurkalot
@Suzanne:
I’m trying to decide which one of those items doesn’t “fit” and it’s all of them, Katie!
P.S. You’re a better spouse than I am (not saying much, but I’ve got probably 3 decades more cohabitation under my belt and that may have something to do with it).
WaterGirl
@Martin: I totally get what you’re saying. You had a leadership role and from what I’ve seen I’m sure you did a great job, but you weren’t able to get through to them.
That may not have been possible, however, no matter how great your plan was.
I can not understand how an essential worker who is public facing could possibly feel guilty in any way for spreading the virus or making anyone else sick.
But they damn sure have a reason to be pissed that they were treated, and still are treated as expendable workers not essential workers
That has to take a toll, too, a big one.
edit: Come into work whether you are safe or not, or you’re fired. How could you feel any loyalty to your employer after they risked your life?
Brachiator
@Martin:
Man, you did what you could. This pandemic has surprised and challenged many.
Best wishes on your retirement.
Gin & Tonic
For those who’ve had to endure my bitching about the US immigration system, take a look at this graph (click on the Twitter link.)
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: Did your dIL get her GC finally?
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: No. Interview is on Friday. Hopefully the visa comes soon afterward. Since they’ve been married over two years now, she doesn’t have to go through the “interim” process and gets the 10-year visa right away.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
I remember back in the day when you had to walk 10 miles to get to the dry goods store selling masks. And when you got one, it was made out of wood! Had to line it with some bear grease. Lucky if you only got a few splinters in your cheek.
People who ride the bus here in Southern California can get free masks. The blue surgical kind, which are OK. And yet I still see people wearing home made cloth masks or other make-do items.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I know it doesn’t help and I hope this doesn’t piss you off, but it’s obvious that they are trying.
Imagine the backlog from the defeated former president’s reign.
Still sucks, though. They got an appointment recently, yes?
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Silver lining! (Ridiculous that it’s been 2 years.)
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne:
And clearly he had texted you earlier for a big bag of weed
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Agree on the Google thing. Don’t understand the critique, if it works.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: I bellyache about the general level of mask compliance and vaccination out here in Haverhill, but I do have to say the city has been doing its damndest to help people, with city vaccination clinics, PCR testing and state-funded rapid test distribution.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: It is not obvious that they are trying.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: If Biden or Harris say something bros and sisters have to kvetch. Many of them have media perches and are ostensibly considered of the left and liberal.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat:
They are desperate to say Biden is failing them. Not just failing, failing them! They are being betraaaaayed. Again.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Maybe all the cool kids use Duck Duck Go now?
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: That was really funny.
I’m sure the crazy guy break-in is anxiety-producing, even one week later. Those look like comfort food to me.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: That would be annoying.
bluefoot
@Cermet:
This is one of my pet peeves about how research, and especially biology research, is funded. Especially in the the last 10 years or so, one must show some sort of relevance to humans/disease to get funded. The thing is, you can’t really tell what’s going to become important or “relevant.” There’s a limited pool of money for research but still, I think we could do better at funding good science just because it’s good science.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: These people want a Democratic administration to fail, and they try to do damage whenever possible. I can’t tell how much damage the lefties do, because I don’t really follow them. I just encounter them when one of the Democrats I follow on Twitter drops a load of sarcasm and contempt on some whiny complainer. The pushback is swift and vigorous and that is encouraging.,
Raven
@Steve in the ATL: did you watch today?
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: The blue checked progressive bros and sisters do a lot of damage, mainly because their media perches give them a wider reach. I don’t follow them either. But they show up on my timeline after they do something stupid.
They are yearning for the return of the Orange Monster.
schrodingers_cat
This is my take on media bros and sisters.
Anyone who is critical about Dems while maintaining silence about the Republicans is an unserious person who should be ignored.
Steve in the ATL
@Raven: yes, it was fun! Though I never saw you on camera. Or were you working the drive through at the chicken fingers place?
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: The lefties are very bitter sore losers. And they are afraid that Biden and his team will succeed. That prospect is as big a threat to them as it is to the Republicans.
Some of the media people who amplify the lefties are allies. And some are amoral and just want to promote a fight.
LongHairedWeirdo
@WaterGirl: Done.
raven
@Steve in the ATL: I happen to know the AD’s office manager and she gave me her seats.
JaySinWa
I just saw and ordered a five test pack for $48 from Costco online. Listed as while supplies last on their front page.
raven
@JaySinWa: Mee tooo
Ramona Rosario
@Another Scott: WTF!