quote:

we are all planning to hike the Rocky Mountains in July/August.

Any chance you will be coming to Montana?

Yes, I can see that we will have to make some decisions for the long term on how we wish to proceed with covid becoming a permanent part of the landscape (not to mention other pandemics to come).

For myself, I am willing to do plenty of travel so long as I can be assured of the ability to protect myself, and have the choice to not put myself in compromising situations.

We can go to Europe, for example, and choose to not attend crowded events, find places to stay that respect and practice covid precautions.

Mr. Pique went to NC without me last summer for his mother's 95th birthday, but that was the Delta variant and he was fully vaxxed. What I am hearing is that the vaccines that work to protect against delta are useless against the omnicron variants.

Condolences, Pique.

As Jon said, we all have to find our modus vivendi with this disease.

My wife and I have been traveling. We've taken a number of flights across country. We eat out. We socialize in small groups.

Of course this is "risky." We're vaxxed, and we wear masks on public conveyances and in airports. But we all know that these measures only change the odds. So far we haven't had COVID, as far as we know. Though we could have been asymptomatic. We've never had a blood test for antibody type.

Many of my friends have come down with it in the current wave. All have had light cases, with the worst being like two days of the flu. No one has complained of symptoms persisting past the end of the infection. That's my experience, and it conforms with what I'm seeing about the type of disease common with Omicron. And we have such improved treatments available now. That's the basis of my willingness to get out and about again. But in the end, this is a personal tolerance issue about risk and consequences, not a pro-science / anti-science dichotomy.

So do you think with the drugs that are available if you do get it that the risk is reasonable?

i know most vaxxed people get a mild case, but when you are in your 70s the view looks a bit different.... especiallly since apparently they don't know everything yet about long term effects even in people who had mild cases.

i don't want to be overcautious. but putting ourselves in a highly crowded closed environment for many days at a time seems unwise.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

quote:

Originally posted by rontuner:
Like has been said before, our condolences.

Tough choices. Probably a lot will depend on if your doctors will see you after travelling??

I've tested a bunch - both with family members coming into town to visit and singing in a couple of concerts over the weekend. Everyone agreed to test an hour before each of the last rehearsal and 2 concerts because we would be singing unmasked for the first time all season.

I know testing doesn't catch early infection, so that probably doesn't offer much help...

Negative home tests are totally meaningless. I'm convinced this is one of the reasons infections are surging, because people have been given false assurances by stupid home tests.

We treated the results as "I'm reasonably sure I'm not infectious RIGHT NOW. That's why we had the test no longer than 1 hr prior to gathering for a few hours.

Our medical people in the choir came up with the plan. Their take was the difference between infected and being able to trasmit virus.

I am so very sorry you're dealing with this Pique.

It's one thing to be deciding whether or not to take a vacation trip, exp. since that would often be two travelers and you'd have a lot of control. But a visit like this with family, where you'll have zero control (just the car trips you described are a huge concern).... I think it makes sense to think of this as a very different, and much riskier, trip.

I also want to say to Mr. Pique that it's ok for him to decide not to attend if that's what he thinks will make the most sense for his health. His choice not to attend in person says nothing about him as a son or family member, and it says nothing about his grief or loss.

One of my friends did not attend the funeral for her father, and as it happens, her whole family is from NC and she decided not to go because she thought the covid risk was too great.

A few months later she traveled with her spouse and visited the grave and I think that was very meaningful to her. I think she's ok with these decisions because she made them, and she decided to prioritize her health and the health of her spouse and children (at least one of whom was below vax-able age at the time of the funeral).

And she told me she was prepared, if any of her relatives wanted to criticize her, to tell them to f*ck off. I did not hear if it became necessary for her to do that, but I think having a plan in place helped in that respect as well.

Having said all that, if Mr. Pique decides he wants to attend, then that's ok too.

You and he just have to put the best plan in place that you can, for whichever scenario.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
So do you think with the drugs that are available if you do get it that the risk is reasonable?

i know most vaxxed people get a mild case, but when you are in your 70s the view looks a bit different.... especiallly since apparently they don't know everything yet about long term effects even in people who had mild cases.

i don't want to be overcautious. but putting ourselves in a highly crowded closed environment for many days at a time seems unwise.

For me, I think the risks of resuming cautious normal life are reasonable. I have no risk factors that I know of, other than age (65), and I do know that that IS a risk factor. But I'm choosing to face that risk while mitigating to some extent. It's perfectly understandable for someone else to come to a very different conclusion about what to do.

I'll be teaching in September in full classrooms where most of the students will probably choose to go unmasked. I'll likely go unmasked too, so that we can all understand each other in these small seminar classes.

quote:

I'll be teaching in September in full classrooms where most of the students will probably choose to go unmasked. I'll likely go unmasked too

I taught in person all last academic year. For a good part of that, masks were required. Once the requirement was dropped, I kept mine on and continued to wear a mask for every class all semester long.

As for the fall semester, if things are the way they are right now, I'll be wearing a mask to teach in again.

One thing that pops up into my head a lot is, if I'm going to get covid, I don't want it to be from work. Is that weird??

SK, I shared your post with Mr. Pique. Very kind of you, and i hope it helps him sort out what is best for him.

Navigate it by not going?

Why do you need this much risk? You have been so careful.

SO's mother is 80. She takes risks we wouldn't and then passed them on to us.

I went to CVS yesterday. The pharmacist wasn't wearing a mask. She said, "Most people don't, Daniel."

The federal guidance for my country is wear a mask indoors because we are in the middle of the fifth wave and my county is in Florida's top tier for transmission.

My late brother's funeral was in Tennessee when Tennessee was very thick with Covid. I did not
go. I am still glad I did not go. The day before he died he told me to "stay away from people."

We are going to Monroe Township in New Jersey July 12. Bob has set up lunches with relatives. Maybe I can get sick before we go and miss that.

A couple points to consider.

Mr. Pique went to see his mother while she was still living. That, to me, is much more important than her funeral. He can do no more for her, so it's really about his own feelings and familial relationships.

What would his mother want him to do under the circumstances? I'm sure that ideally, she would want him there. Sadly, we are not in an ideal situation. Would she want him to take that risk?

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
A couple points to consider.

Mr. Pique went to see his mother while she was still living. That, to me, is much more important than her funeral. He can do no more for her, so it's really about his own feelings and familial relationships.

What would his mother want him to do under the circumstances? I'm sure that ideally, she would want him there. Sadly, we are not in an ideal situation. Would she want him to take that risk?

Mik expresses my thoughts as well. It is too much to risk. It is inconceivable that a parent would want her son to risk his life for the funeral.

quote:

Originally posted by kluurs:

Mik expresses my thoughts as well.

Mine, too.

Hear, hear.