Happy 5-Year Anniversary, Covid-19!

Not that I was doing it much beforehand, but I haven't been to a crowded indoor event since, such as a theater or concert. Even while shopping, I still tend to keep "social distancing".

No more office commutes!!!

I kive working from home.

I still have some of the brain fog, but it is getting better. Still can't stomach much pork or beef. Canned tuna? Forget it too as well as any frozen fish.

Early on I remember hearing about and being fascinated by the Chinese building hospitals in only a few days. They were dealing with some easily spreading very serious illness. My thinking was ‘’Thank God I don’t live in China-that would never happen in the US’’

And the world had a collective nervous breakdown.

I quit smoking, because when I got laid off from the job I despised, I figured I could either smoke or eat. (This was before the announcement of the additional unemployment benefits). So that was nice. I also happened upon a new job, and therefore did not return to that awful job when they eventually called me back. It was literally killing me, mentally and physically.

One comfort is dick head will screw up any pandemics/epidemics with that moron of a HHS director......because I want the next one to just take me out. I've had enough. Life hasn't been enjoyable for 2 years since my husband passed, and it looks like the next (at least 4) are just going to present more suffering. I'm done - I have no power, no control....what's the use?

I wish you could find something positive in your life - because when you identify it, it will grow and life will get better.

(5 years ago next month, people around the globe started to hear about a little thing called "Covid-19." It's wasn't anything to worry about, just a couple of cases of flu-like symptoms around the town of Wuhan. Then, 3 months later, the world changed. I'm curious...how has your own personal world changed since then? What do you find you are doing now, or not doing now, that was directly a result of the pandemic, which basically reared its head 5 years ago? And, of course, condolences to those who lost loved ones.)

I ignored everyone including those idiotic people who: forced people to listen to them or they will be called "racists" or "dirty" for not wanting any fake "shot", and threatened everyone like bullies into taking a death shot for NEURALINK (which is why all those "vaxxed" people are dying of turbo cancer, heart attacks, in their sleep, etc).

I will never trust any of those people about anything ever again. I won't listen to Dump (a Democrat), his imbecile crowd of GOP incels or any of the "woke" Dems for anything at all.

Happy to come give you a break, COVID.

You've done your best.

No one listens to government or celebrities who were paid to coerce others into that bullshit.

Stay pure and don't listen to the aggressive stupidity of eugenicists. Bill Gates and the other cryptkeeper Elon keep telling you they are planning viruses, yet people's nonchalant attitudes seem to be really stuck beneath their COVID "brain fog" (which they got from those needle pricks).

I moved to a new state & town a couple months before COVID hit. I wasn't in a hurry to meet new people or my neighbors, so I was "nesting" in my new house and getting ready for winter. I attended two small events in town (a history lecture and a concert) and figured "I'll meet more people once spring comes". 😀 😆😭😭😭.

2020 & early 2021, there was nothing going on. I went through a severe depression and wasn't working. I never caught COVID during that time. The social effects of an ongoing pandemic are real. I had to fight my depression & social anxiety just to get outside & walk my dog. The absolute silence and lack of humans outside was very depressing. I remember one day we just walked for 45 minutes, then I thought to myself "we have not seen a single person" and I started crying and we walked home.

Gina Corona Virus.

I used to be much more extroverted and would hit all of the holiday parties, the pool parties in the summer and do a lot of camping.

Once the plague hit, I realized I was spending a shit ton of money on dumb stuff. So I just stopped. No parties, no camping.

Yes, I miss it. My friends still ask me over and I will have small sit by the fire pit and drink this beer another friend brewed get togethers, but no more big parties for me.

I still refuse to go to the theater, movies, restaurants, bars or any place many people gather. It costs too much and the risk is too high.

I can get carry out and read my books.

I still remember the notice on our office door that said we would be closed from March 15 - 31. I was already working a hybrid schedule so it was easy to pivot to 5 days at home. I would go into the office on Saturdays to print whatever I needed, water my office plant, and drive my car for a little while. It was weeks and weeks of seeing that sign until, sometime in May, someone took it down.

We moved our offices to another building in the same complex that same July. We were given days we could go in to pack up of cubicles so that there weren't too many people in at the same time. We did the same when it came time to unpack in the new office.

I did a lot of walking during the pandemic. I would walk 2 or 3 miles just to get some fresh air and see people.

There are people who have assigned cubicles that I STILL haven't seen or met.

I was an essential worker, so I kept working through the Covid period. It was strange to be driving through empty streets, working, then coming home to a steady stream of walkers filtering past my front door on their daily exercise. On my days off I'd ride my bike over to my mother's house and on the way back drop by some friends front yards for a chat over the fence. I had been planning an early retirement mid 2020, but that was a bit pointless, so I stayed on for an extra year. Between the overtime and having nothing to spend it on I ended up with an extra $75k in my retirement pot. I never got Covid and had to do a PCR test every three days for work. To the best of my knowledge I'm still a novid.

It was a great excuse to check myself out of rehab at the time!

[quote] It costs too much and the risk is too high.

You are hysterical. It costs you nothing and the risk is practically non-existent.

I started buying beer in bulk (3 30-packs at a time) so I only had to go to the store once a week. I've continued to do that. And I rarely go out to bars anymore.

LOL, R19, I started buying cases of wine or ordering online and picking it up. I had to stop that process though because I was becoming a drunk.

R19 and R20 Like most, I was furloughed and began day drinking a lot. It was beginning to become a problem. Back at work and glad to have it under control now!

You show up to parties empty handed, r18? Just show up, eat all the food, dink everything in sight and leave?

The rest of us don’t. If I get invited somewhere, I take food, a gift for the host/ess and some alcohol to share. Because I’m not a stingy Scrooge.

I had a bad feeling when i got sick early Jan. A nasty flu which lasted 2 weeks.

I worked in public health during the pandemic in contact tracing and case investigation from August 2020 to February 2022. In the spring of 2020, I was laid from another job and collected UI until I landed the public health job. Working in public health was difficult for various reasons (talking with people who lost loved ones, people who had severe cases, and people who were immunocompromised and very worried) and it fucked with my mental health a bit. It was a remote job and my colleagues were supportive and we had made a lot inside jokes about our jobs in order to cope with the shit we faced everyday.

In December 2021, I interviewed for a remote data science job with an organization that deals with gun violence. On New Year's Day 2022, I got an offer letter for a start date in February. I was sad to leave mainly because my co-workers were great people and again we all helped each other get though tough situations. I have kept in touch with several of them and we play Jackbox games on Discord a few times a month and we do in person meet ups a few times a year as we live in different cities/towns. We all have some PTSD and trauma from our work. But, in some ways we have said that our jobs made us more aware of the importance of public health and why society needs to be better educated on basic science topics.

So sorry R7. I didn’t have any husband for very long so I can only imagine.

It seemed like everyone in my city was out wandering around with a cocktail to go. I podded with some friends and we’d order takeout on Friday nights and go for drives on weekends or inner tubing.

My brother died in June 2020 and I spent the rest of the year wrangling with his estate. I was glad to have those friends around. I took only a week off and went back to work. It provided some comfort and anyway, I was working from home.

Thankfully, even after flying during the height of everything, I didn’t catch Covid until 2023 and it was mild.

I work from home 4 out of 5 days now. Back in 2017 when I managed a staff of 7 for a former employer, I had to fight tenaciously with HR and senior management to let just one of my team work from home every other Monday. They acted like i was asking for the Taj Mahal on a plate. Now I’m hearing they all work remote as well.