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The new Covid variant, JN.1 just took the life of one of my best friends. She was sick for 4 days and her son took her to ER where she was given a breathing treatment and RX - and sent home. The ER did not test for Covid. Because she lived alone and died alone, an autopsy was required and she was positive for the new variant. I am angry about losing her. We are long-time friends. She was a young grandmother at age 52 and will be very missed. Her young granddaughter is inconsolable. I just found out last night that my cousin and her 11 year old daughter have tested positive for Covid. I'm worried about them. Her Mom, my aunt, says they are sleeping a lot.

I've rarely been out due to the extreme cold temperatures, and I will wear a mask if I DO have to go out. But will that really help? Covid deaths are up 79% in my area for the last two weeks. The word out is this variant is way more deadly than original covid.

So sorry for the loss of your dear friend. That is awful.

COVID is here, but in California they just loosened the Covid guidelines. Here, a person who tests positive for Covid and has no symptoms does not need to isolate, according to new state health guidelines. People who test positive and have mild symptoms, meanwhile, can end isolation once their symptoms improve and they’ve been fever-free for 24 hours without medication — even if that point arrives in less than five days.
I guess all we can do is mask up and get immunized and demand a Covid test. Ugh.

And one has to wonder that 'not showing symptoms' makes it possible not to pass on the virus.

Sorry to hear this. (Warning, rant ahead...)

When public health is pushing vax and relax as a strategy, this is what we get. Asymptomatic transmission is the silent killer here. The boosters will help to keep you out of the hospital, but maskless interactions resulting in repeat infections is the norm now. Nobody wants to hear about it because "we're not going there again."

I've never stopped wearing a high quality N95 respirator mask (the ones we couldn't find in 2020/21 because they were for HCWs only) wherever people gather, and so far it's worked. (If I had it, it was symptomless.) I wear it to protect not only me but the elder behind me in the grocery line who believes the public health message that masks are for losers but by all means keep up with the handwashing.

I'm an elder myself (too old for disability insurance), but I work full time at a university in a HEPA-filtered office. N95 goes on for the walk from the parking lot to the office, and again when I step out to use the nasty old washroom or mingle with students who bring All The Things from all over the world at the start of every term - the latest vax-evasive variant from Asia or the UK/EU, Strep A (which is killing little kids in my province), Flu A and B (also killing little kids and elders), and even TB which is popping up again on campus.

All airborne.

I also carry 70% alcohol sanitizer in all my bags and clean my hands after touching things or handling the mask. (I wash my hands a LOT.)

I see a long-hauler colleague struggle with the aftermath of her third infection after a couple of years on disability from number two, caught at a wedding in the 'masks off, we need to see your smiles!' spring of 2021. A previously robust 50-year-old professor who used to bike to work every day now needs to be dropped off at the building entrance because walking from the parking lot leaves her absolutely flattened. She thought she was up to teaching two courses this semester, but they had to cancel one which was fully enrolled when she caught #3 in November from her grown child who 'is just living his life' and shares her house. She's now back to about 10% capacity and there's no way to know if she'll manage to bounce back from this round. Someone described it as when the copier starts to run low on toner and the 100th copy is too faded to read, and that's so true. She is a shadow of who she used to be.

I also manage student requests for accommodations, and so I can see the damage overlapping infections (Covid+RSV+flu+strep at the same time) are doing to them, over and over again.

It's a real eye-opener, and so my respect for the virus has not diminished at all.

Repeat infections don't confer immunity. They just don't, because this thing is so brilliant at mutating around the zero protections we have and planes full of sick maskless passengers fly everywhere, all day long. (If you have some spare time, Google 'nextstrain' for some charts from experts who have been consistently reporting global mutations.)

I had the latest booster in October and paid extra to get the latest four-strain flu shot for seniors. I had H1N1 for six weeks in 1995 and do NOT want to go back there again.

I'm privileged to not have to use public transit, and I choose to avoid air travel and concerts, don't eat in restaurants unless it's on a patio, and yes, I am that crazy person who masks to go in to use the washroom. I will turn down invites to gather indoors in winter and managed to miss the holiday virus swap festival. Was quite happy home alone in my cozy cave interacting socially online. Totally doable at my level of privilege living alone.

How long will I keep doing these things? Probably forever if that's what it takes, because I don't want to live my few remaining years as an invalid or unknowingly pass it along to someone else. Are masks a hassle? Not really. It's a small thing that's just part of my day and it's not hard. We're in plague times after all, so it behooves me to act accordingly.

What's unsustainable is putting kids in daycare and schools that haven't given a thought to upgrading air filtration, and hospitals and long term care homes with zero precautions in place, when we have this endless revolving door of transmission of all the things sickening and killing people every day in a rapidly disintegrating healthcare system.

The alarm bells have been clanging for four years now and nobody is listening anymore in the denial stage. It's really quite something.

[This message edited by FaithFool at 8:44 PM, Saturday, January 20th]

I'm so sorry. I think the hospital was neglectful in not doing any testing. I wonder what her oxygen levels were
or if there were other contributing factors.

I just tested positive for Covid for the second time on Thursday. Two days were very uncomfortable (lots of coughing), but I woke up today feeling hungry so I know I'm on the mend. First go round took me about 3-4 weeks to feel 100%.

The doctor at the urgent care tested me for strep, flu, and Covid. Isolation for five days and then mask for the next five days (right now I'm in Florida).

He said the Covid of today is a teddy bear compared to Covid of two years ago.

I do sometimes mask up, but I cannot stay in isolation and live in fear.

Jeanie Girl
I am so sorry for your loss.
Prayers for friends and family.

Faith, I hear what you are saying. As for me and my circle, we never practiced vax and relax ... We practiced Vax and Vigilance. I've never stopped wearing a mask out in public. The friend I just lost lives in a state that didn't care (or want to) about masks when they were being required. One of the southern states.

Annb, isn't it amazing how we are told different bits of info? I just read that this variant, the JN.1 is way worse than the original covid.

Hard to know what to believe so we just have to rely on common sense and safety.

These are truly difficult times.

[This message edited by Shehawk at 11:50 PM, Saturday, January 20th]

JN1 is NOT worse. Not by a long shot.
We do see more gi issues with it than respiratory and most patients are back to baseline in a week.
Standard masks are useless. Sorry. They may make you feel like it's helping but it doesn't. There have been plenty of studies showing this. N95 however can be effective.

I would also ask if this person had been vaxd if she has any clots or if she tested positive for any other respiratory viruses. We are seeing a lot of covid and RSV, covid and strep, covid and influenza A.

We are not seeing much hospitalization with it. We do see some folks with prior respiratory stuff have issues with wheezing and needing inhalers or nebulizer and a malingering cough after acute phase.

JN1 is NOT worse. Not by a long shot.

Tushnurse, thank you for this info. That's good to know.

I have a feeling my friend did not take vaccine but I'm not sure. As young as she was, she also suffered from RA and had issues with that. She recently had started receiving infusion for that. She had pain with the arthritis. A lot of pain..

A memorial service for her is a week from today. Weather permitting, I will go to the memorial.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your dear friend.

I was remiss I'm my prior post that I am sorry for your loss.

This vaccine has shown to be ineffective and there are some serious issues in a subset of the population that develop clots and pericarditis. As someone with autoimmune issues one has to carefully weigh benefits and risks. I do suspect that there is more to her death than covid. We are seeing very few people even needing hospitalization with it. And remember the population of patients I work with are the highest risk out there usually with at least 3 comorbid conditions, not counting age.

But again I am sorry for your loss.

Neither my husband or I has had covid until he tested positive tonight. He came home yesterday morning, and proceeded to sleep for nearly the next 24 hours. I have NEVER seen him sleep so much. Complained of chills and spent the afternoon and evening in the LazyBoy with a heating pad on his chest covered by a blanket and he turned the heat up in the house, too. He's got a bad cough.

I thought at first it could be aspiration pneumonia because he had an incident last week where his drink went down the wrong pipe and he said he actually wondered if "this is it". Couldn't get any breath in his lungs to cough/breathe when it happened. I suggested last night he might want to take a covid test but since it was my suggestion, that was dumb. And then he took one tonight and it was positive.

We were in a hospital on Tuesday for an appt that I had. Wondering if he picked it up there, although I guess it could have been anywhere.

My daughter, along with three teachers at her school, have Covid. She started feeling ill Sunday afternoon. By Monday morning she said her nose was running like a faucet, every joint in her body is aching and she's running a 100-101 temperature and has a bad headache. Her throat is sore and her voice is raspy. Thank goodness she is not having any breathing issues at this time. She tested positive around mid-day Monday. The doctor called in a RX for her - MOLNUPIRAVIR - and she started taking it immediately. She said she has a huge fever blister on her lip, and she got a RX for that too. She says she just wants to sleep but she's trying to stay up. She said she's drinking lots of water. 'She trying to eat chicken soup and some broth.

My guess is she got it at school on Friday as from what I read, symptoms usually occur about two days after exposure. I was with her Saturday but I'm not showing any symptoms at all - and testing negative. Her worry was that I might come down with it.

Hopefully the meds will help and the symptoms start to disappear by tomorrow or Friday. Her school has a policy that as long as one is not experiencing symptoms, they come back to work. I see that policy as a nightmare.

[This message edited by Jeaniegirl at 10:43 PM, Wednesday, January 24th]

Jeanie, sorry to hear about your daughter!

My recent bout with Covid was mild compared to the first go-round. The only medications I took were cough medicine and Advil.

I tested positive on Thursday, and today I was out at Epcot here in FL. I did my 5 days isolation, and todayI stayed outdoors 98% of the time, and I wore my N95 when I stopped in a store. Slightly weak but I think by tomorrow I'll be 100%.

IMO your daughter should not go back to work before she is feeling 100%! At least stay home until Monday.

Wishing her a speedy recovery, and I'd test yourself for a couple of days just to be certain.

I ended up testing positive yesterday, and feel like death warmed over. So tired. I have been sleeping off and on for the last day and a half. Once my H tested positive, I called and cancelled the one appointment I had this week. I'm at home atm anyway on a medical LOA (knee surgery) so it's no big deal for me to lay low. H went off to work on Monday morning, still testing positive, saying that "no one cares anymore". Well, I care. I am disgusted at him going off to spread it around. Granted, he doesn't come in contact with a lot of people, but certainly there are a few. I questioned if he had any masks still, he said he did, but I bet he's not wearing them. No wonder we can't get rid of this thing. I blame people like him, although certainly it continues also because we're around people when we're incubating but we don't know yet.

I'm PISSED as shit. I had a follow-up appt. at Dana-Farber today - post radiation four months - and they have re-instituted their mask wearing policy due to all the respiratory stuff going around, and people undergoing treatment due to cancer are usually immunocompromised. As we were walking out of our appt. and through the waiting area, there's a guy sitting there by himself, with his mask down around his chin, talking on the phone speaker.

Not that I'm really at risk any longer, but everywhere you turn, you see people with bald heads, undergoing chemotherapy, and this asshole decides talking on the phone is worth more than him spreading germs. I was tempted to go back to the receptionist and complain, but these days, you worry about who you piss off and how they might respond.

Number4, I hear you! The last doc appointment I had in Mid-December, very few at the big medical center building were wearing masks. In my doc's office, everyone had masks on, which made me trust him even more. I do not understand how people can be unconcerned about others in that manner.

I do not understand how people can be unconcerned about others in that manner.

Because people are selfish.

Wearing a mask doesn't bother me. I live where the air hurts my face. My winter ear flap hat came with a removable mask! And when I want more protection I wear a scarf over that.

I dont typically wear a mask out much anymore unless I'm sick. The hospital still requires masks and I know my doc office does but the urgent care clinic in town doesn't.

I see many people still wearing masks grocery shopping of all ages. You'd think being in a place where there's people fighting for their lives, a mask would be common sense.

And wearing masks means one doesn't have to worry about make up or lipstick. Win-Win