Facebook is late to the metaverse -- we already have people in the same physical space occupying wildly different realities.

Redfruit said:

that’s an obnoxious thing to do that will only cause a fight. The best thing to do is not to go if the unvaccinated concerns them. 

Not going is an obvious option and may be the best alternative; but, sometimes we cannot avoid such interactions for a variety of reasons.  That is why I prefaced my statement with, "If you decide to go."

I am quite a bit older than you, as are a number of my friends and family members.  I also have a family member under 5 years of age whose welfare concerns me.  With this many at high risk individuals, I have started carrying extra face coverings with me when I attend private indoor gatherings.  I do not ask someone's vaccination status; but, I do politely ask them to wear a face covering to protect others at the gathering.  If they do not have a face covering with them, I give them one.  I have yet to get into a fight in such situations.  Most people are willing to wear a face covering to protect a very young child or an elderly person.

ml1 said:

we were also asked to take a COVID test ahead of time, or when we arrived at the house.

Do you know what they used for the at-home tests? Or for the thread in general, thoughts on testing strategies? At this point we're still going to make the trip (the sibling has decided to un-invite herself; we'll see if she gets over it and can handle wearing a mask for a few hours and join us), but I'll want to get the whole family tested when we get back, even apart from family drama (airport layovers, and being in an unvaccinated part of the country for a week, seems like good enough reasons for testing on their own).

My son recently had a friend who advised him of testing positive for covid.  My son has the two vaccinations, but not the booster.   My son did two rapid tests that said negative.  He then did a PCR test and it showed positive.   He did feel ill for a couple of days.  He did the responsible thing and did not join us for Thanksgiving.  So, I have to question how reliable is the rapid test and of course, my son may have done the rapid tests before the covid infection was detectable.

PVW said:

Do you know what they used for the at-home tests? Or for the thread in general, thoughts on testing strategies? At this point we're still going to make the trip (the sibling has decided to un-invite herself; we'll see if she gets over it and can handle wearing a mask for a few hours and join us), but I'll want to get the whole family tested when we get back, even apart from family drama (airport layovers, and being in an unvaccinated part of the country for a week, seems like good enough reasons for testing on their own).

we took our tests ahead of time. I got this one from Amazon. 

RobertRoe said:

My son recently had a friend who advised him of testing positive for covid.  My son has the two vaccinations, but not the booster.   My son did two rapid tests that said negative.  He then did a PCR test and it showed positive.   He did feel ill for a couple of days.  He did the responsible thing and did not join us for Thanksgiving.  So, I have to question how reliable is the rapid test and of course, my son may have done the rapid tests before the covid infection was detectable.

Yes, it's a pain in the ****. It can take a few days before symptoms show up after exposure to COVID-19. Same sort of thing with the tests, as your son's case demonstrates. Is he feeling alright and out of isolation yet?

He felt ill for just two days.   Ill, but not serious.  So, thanks for the vaccine for keeping him from a serious illness.  I think he is about ten days now.  I am assuming that since he had two covid vaccinations plus the covid breakthru infection, that he is very immune now.  

PVW said:

Do you know what they used for the at-home tests? Or for the thread in general, thoughts on testing strategies? At this point we're still going to make the trip (the sibling has decided to un-invite herself; we'll see if she gets over it and can handle wearing a mask for a few hours and join us), but I'll want to get the whole family tested when we get back, even apart from family drama (airport layovers, and being in an unvaccinated part of the country for a week, seems like good enough reasons for testing on their own).

When family members returned recently from a trip to Florida, they were required to quarantine for a period of one week.  School aged family member(s) attending school in the SOMSD were required to attend school virtually during that period. Check and see if any members of your family will be required by State regulation to isolate or quarantine on return to NJ.

joan_crystal said:

PVW said:

Do you know what they used for the at-home tests? Or for the thread in general, thoughts on testing strategies? At this point we're still going to make the trip (the sibling has decided to un-invite herself; we'll see if she gets over it and can handle wearing a mask for a few hours and join us), but I'll want to get the whole family tested when we get back, even apart from family drama (airport layovers, and being in an unvaccinated part of the country for a week, seems like good enough reasons for testing on their own).

When family members returned recently from a trip to Florida, they were required to quarantine for a period of one week.  School aged family member(s) attending school in the SOMSD were required to attend school virtually during that period. Check and see if any members of your family will be required by State regulation to isolate or quarantine on return to NJ.

why were they quarantined returning from Florida? There’s no law that says you must do that. 

Redfruit said:

why were they quarantined returning from Florida? There’s no law that says you must do that. 

Joan, we're you referring to a school policy that required them to quarantine?

Redfruit said:

why were they quarantined returning from Florida? There’s no law that says you must do that. 

Per Joan's post, sounds like a SOMA school district policy? In my district they require quarantining if you're not fully vaccinated and, if you travel internationally you need to get tested even if fully vaccinated. It probably varies by district.

PeterWick said:

Joan, we're you referring to a school policy that required them to quarantine?

Yes.  Travel to a few contiguous States such as NY, PA, and CT are exempt from that requirement.

It was just a matter of time. A traveler from southern Africa came to the U.S. this week.

So far, the contract tracing hasn't found much spread. Fingers crossed.

PeterWick said:

It was just a matter of time. A traveler from southern Africa came to the U.S. this week.

So far, the contract tracing hasn't found much spread. Fingers crossed.

It's only a matter of time until Omicron is all over the U.S.

It probably already is.

yahooyahoo said:

It's only a matter of time until Omicron is all over the U.S.

It probably already is.

most likely west coast first. Just like it started in 2019 in Washington state.

Jaytee said:

yahooyahoo said:

It's only a matter of time until Omicron is all over the U.S.

It probably already is.

most likely west coast first. Just like it started in 2019 in Washington state.

we got it from the East (probably Italy) also. I don't know about the relative timing, but I'm pretty sure it came in both ways.

Jaytee said:

most likely west coast first. Just like it started in 2019 in Washington state.

I don't know. Air travel now makes that a wild card. The person traveled from Africa. I wonder if this will have a widespread distribution sooner. Not that it matters. I hope every place in America knows the value of contact tracing and stamps it out better than our effort against delta.

sac said:

we got it from the East (probably Italy) also. I don't know about the relative timing, but I'm pretty sure it came in both ways.

if my memory serves me well, I think the first person diagnosed with covid19 was in Washington state. 

Jaytee said:

if my memory serves me well, I think the first person diagnosed with covid19 was in Washington state. 

Yes, for the US, the first case was Washington State. However, for our area, covid arrived from Europe.

Jaytee said:

if my memory serves me well, I think the first person diagnosed with covid19 was in Washington state. 

First *diagnosed* doesn’t mean first to enter.

But does that really matter?

Countless people came from all over the world, and here, yes, mostly from Europe. It’s not as if catching that person in Washington would have nipped it in the bud.

jimmurphy said:

First *diagnosed* doesn’t mean first to enter.

But does that really matter?

Countless people came from all over the world, and here, yes, mostly from Europe. It’s not as if catching that person in Washington would have nipped it in the bud.

yes. I guess the person was showing the signs of being covid19 positive, became very sick and went to a hospital. technically that person was patient zero. Of course it started popping up in New York and other places. I’m just saying the first person diagnosed was in Washington state, because I was replying to yahoo’s comment about it probably being in the USA already. 

jimmurphy said:

Jaytee said:

if my memory serves me well, I think the first person diagnosed with covid19 was in Washington state. 

First *diagnosed* doesn’t mean first to enter.

But does that really matter?

Countless people came from all over the world, and here, yes, mostly from Europe. It’s not as if catching that person in Washington would have nipped it in the bud.

exactly. The bigger the international hub, the more likely that region will see the variant. EWR is quite big  

Early on, I recall there being a lot of debate over the effectiveness of travel bans, with some arguing that they did more harm than good, doing little to stop the spread of the virus while making it difficult for scientists and other experts to travel and collaborate and causing a lot of difficulties for ordinary people -- family members suddenly caught on the wrong side of a border, etc.

Certainly the early US response was dumb and little more than an exercise in xenophobia and cheap politics -- Trump's banning of travel from China while the virus entered from Europe and exploded in NY and NJ demonstrated that (as well as helped poison any investigation into the virus' origins, as that inevitably got tied up with Trump and his supporters clear bad faith in ginning up anti-China sentiment).

I'm not convinced our current round of travel restrictions are a good idea either. While I don't think Biden is being motivated by anti-African animus, it still feels like a relatively cheap way of showing we're doing something without actually doing much. Putting some real muscle into getting Africa vaccinated -- and not with expiring or otherwise unwanted spare vaccines -- would be an actually substantive response to the problem of variants.

Jaytee said:

yes. I guess the person was showing the signs of being covid19 positive, became very sick and went to a hospital. technically that person was patient zero. Of course it started popping up in New York and other places. I’m just saying the first person diagnosed was in Washington state, because I was replying to yahoo’s comment about it probably being in the USA already. 

OK

Jaytee said:

sac said:

we got it from the East (probably Italy) also. I don't know about the relative timing, but I'm pretty sure it came in both ways.

if my memory serves me well, I think the first person diagnosed with covid19 was in Washington state. 

We aren't disagreeing.  I didn't say that it came FIRST from the east, but only that it DID come that way also, separately from what came from the west.  Many US cases trace back to Europe, especially those in this area - at least at first. When all of this first started, the biggest outbreaks were in the Northwest and the Northeast as I recall. 

PVW said:

Early on, I recall there being a lot of debate over the effectiveness of travel bans, with some arguing that they did more harm than good, doing little to stop the spread of the virus while making it difficult for scientists and other experts to travel and collaborate and causing a lot of difficulties for ordinary people -- family members suddenly caught on the wrong side of a border, etc.

Certainly the early US response was dumb and little more than an exercise in xenophobia and cheap politics -- Trump's banning of travel from China while the virus entered from Europe and exploded in NY and NJ demonstrated that (as well as helped poison any investigation into the virus' origins, as that inevitably got tied up with Trump and his supporters clear bad faith in ginning up anti-China sentiment).

I'm not convinced our current round of travel restrictions are a good idea either. While I don't think Biden is being motivated by anti-African animus, it still feels like a relatively cheap way of showing we're doing something without actually doing much. Putting some real muscle into getting Africa vaccinated -- and not with expiring or otherwise unwanted spare vaccines -- would be an actually substantive response to the problem of variants.

I don't disagree with this. But anything that serves to slow down travel is going to slow the virus ... somewhat. And perhaps buy time. That's what they're saying anyway.

If you look at worldwide case totals though the logical thing to do would be to restrict travel from Europe rather than African countries. Europe's per capita totals are very high now and overall Africa's totals are close to nil.

I guess restricting travel from Africa makes sense if omicron originated there ... but I am by no means sure that it did. South Africa is just the first country to identify it. It may have arrived there from elsewhere, e.g. Europe. Omicron was in the Netherlands before it was identified by South African scientists.

Early on (2020) this disease made me think of weeds with runners spreading underground. By the time you see the shoots popping out of the ground, the Infestation is deeply rooted and nearly impossible to get rid of. And spreading like crazy out of view. I think Omicron will follow this same pattern.

HKU breakthrough in Omicron jab race

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/section/11/236650/

University of Hong Kong researchers will soon partner with a mainland drugmaker to develop a vaccine against Omicron after they successfully isolated samples of the fast-spreading variant.

Hong Kong yesterday recorded a fourth Omicron case - a man arriving from Nigeria on November 24. So far, none of the Omicron cases have entered the community.

HKU has become the first in Asia to successfully isolate Omicron, four days after the variant's first two cases were confirmed in the city and five days after it was reported by South Africa to the World Health Organization on November 24.

HKU microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung said the partnership is aimed at producing a new generation of jabs that carry deactivated Omicron variants, but refused to disclose the name of the mainland firm as contracts have yet to be signed.

Yuen said existing vaccines - including the Beijing-made Sinovac and German-made BioNTech/Fosun available in Hong Kong -can still offer protection against Omicron infections.

He cited two cases in Hong Kong as an example, in which a South African man carrying the Omicron variant infected a Canadian staying in the opposite room at quarantine hotel Regal Airport.

Yuen said both men have received two BioNTech doses less than six months ago and only suffered mild symptoms.
...more

It's good they nailed its mRNA sequence quickly. Hopefully they will get a good idea of which epitopes to target soon.

HatsOff said:

I guess restricting travel from Africa makes sense if omicron originated there ... but I am by no means sure that it did. South Africa is just the first country to identify it. It may have arrived there from elsewhere, e.g. Europe. Omicron was in the Netherlands before it was identified by South African scientists.

Early on (2020) this disease made me think of weeds with runners spreading underground. By the time you see the shoots popping out of the ground, the Infestation is deeply rooted and nearly impossible to get rid of. And spreading like crazy out of view. I think Omicron will follow this same pattern.

Boom.  This is spot on.