Welcome to sick season.
According to the CDC, New York City — along with New Jersey and at least 16 other states — is now experiencing “high” to “very high” levels of respiratory-illness activity as measured by the number of weekly visits to health-care providers and emergency rooms by people having symptoms of fever, cough, and sore throat.
The culprits are the usual suspects: this year’s strains of influenza, COVID, and RSV. And though flulike-illness levels have been above baseline nationally for several consecutive weeks, the CDC warns that we still haven’t hit the peak.
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As always, seniors remain the most at-risk demographic for severe outcomes from respiratory illnesses, which is why the low vaccination rates for that group remain troubling.
Beyond vaccination, for everyone, the best way to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses like the flu and RSV is regular handwashing; avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth; and staying home if you get sick. High-filtration face masks still work great, too, and not just for avoiding COVID.
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Saw a guy on the subway having a cough the whole ride, two weeks later I have COVID again. I find myself wearing a mask this month cause I don’t want a flu or anything, and not a single person has a mask on and is looking at me like I’m a psycho for wearing a mask.
I have seen so many sniffly and sick people out and about recently and not a single one had a mask. It’s like everyone just said fuck it, forgot about the pandemic and just went back to no masks and looking at masked people like they’re crazy
I’m so glad I live in the Seattle area. Plenty of people still wear masks.
for robberies doesn’t count. lol
Why are you being down voted I had a chuckle. C’mon
Fret not. Votes don’t matter, this is not reddit!
In the fediverse, votes are much like life itself. Any meaning or value comes from within, lol.
Bc laughing at and enabling this shit is how we have an open Nazi on the doorstep of the White House. What you do matters.
I moved to Portland over a year ago and I’d say about 25% of people at the grocery stores here are still wearing masks to this day and nobody makes a fuss about it. It’s been great.
The good news is that it’s likely you didn’t get COVID from that guy. Gestation period is on average 5 days.
Key word is average
A significant portion of the population still believes masks don’t work because their favorite talking heads told them they don’t.
I made the mistake of going back to Reddit ONCE and got in an argument with an alleged “MPH” (master of public health) who was adamant masks don’t work, despite the overwhelming evidence they do. He ended up threatening to stab me with an icepick. Multiple times across various, unrelated threads. Reddit actually banned him.
These motherfuckers are out there and they’re some combination of stupid and crazy.
This reminds me that I have to get more N95 masks. People don’t give a shit here in Seattle. Most grocery store workers wear one and about 10% of the public still does.
My local grocery store took down the plastic shields between The customer and the cashier this month, after they’ve been up for years why take them down during flu season? It’s just so foolish how everyone is letting their guard down
Yeah, I developed a cough and decided it was time for masks again but because I know it will definitely work to help me avoid spreading whatever I got further.
I wish that was what most people used them for too since that makes pretty good sense to me but… Nope. One nice guy in a wave of people who would lick my eyeball if they thought it would give them 5 seconds of happiness.
Boy am I glad I’m having surgery on Thursday.
In a hospital.
Full of people with these highly contagious respiratory illnesses.
Oh well, at least I’m vaccinated.
Good luck! I hope it’s completely unremarkable.
Me too. Thank you.
Good luck. I went to one for an hour appointment and got COVID. Also vaccinated. The strain out there right now just does not care.
The strain out there right now just does not care.
For real. Caught covid for the first time just before Thanksgiving. Got the newest booster back in October. New strain be like a honey badger.
Why aren’t things separated into something like surgical/lab test centers and illness centers.
Why must I sit next to someone with COVID just to get my 3rd colonoscopy of the week?
The hospital here does have a separate surgery center, but it is only for simple procedures. Apparently mine requires more than what the surgery center can do, so I have to be in the main hospital.
It’s insane to me that hospitals and doctors’ officers don’t require masking of all parties while indoors. They spread disease almost as much as children do (not really, but they tend to spread worse diseases than children do), and they get lots of immunocompromised people in there.
3rd colonoscopy of the week?
Weird hobby …but okay. :-P
There is no shame in following doctor’s orders.
Is that Boris Johnson?
No, that’s Lloyd Bridges.
No, Boris Johnson never quit.
His hair is to well kept to be!
Maybe get some more N95s?
Wear an N95 mask. You should be making up in hospitals and clinics anyway.
Good luck my dude get well
Thanks!
It’s so funny. I don’t know you, and yet I have this bague picture of your life from reading your comments here and there.
I hope this surgery is going to solve what’s been going on! Feel better! Don’t stress 😊
I’m hopeful too, thanks. I am trying not to stress, but any surgery is risky, so I’m a little bit on edge, but I’ve been sick for months, so this is my last hope before the Mayo clinic.
Well I’m rooting for you! You’ll be ok. And of course you already know this, but try to focus on the moment now instead of the possibility of unhappiness and pain in the future. Worrying doesn’t help anything. And for all you know your life will be greatly improved!
Thanks!
Its almost like the government told us we were on our own to stay safe, then stopped funding the tracking, testing, and reporting that would let us do so.
You can get free tests from the US Government. They still report on it.
Tests are great, but the wrong end of the funnel. The virus has already potentially permanently altered my immune system when that positive line pops up. There’s no way for me to know how much community spread is happening so I can avoid indoor spaces when its high. Hospitals are basically only reporting deaths so I don’t know when I should be more serious about masking. Really the fact that we still need free tests is a giant flashing failure light.
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Christmas gatherings will really get it going.
I just had the nastiest something I’ve had in a LONG time last week. Got tested for covid, influenza, and strep, all negative. Guessing it was RSV or just a really bad cold, not sure.
My partner got it from me and got hit twice as hard and wound up with a 103 degree fever and unable to get out of bed.
It’s going around for sure
Same here. Caught something on the flight back home from Thanksgiving, and I still can’t kick it
Keep crowding those emergency rooms for non emergencies folks…that certainly help those in need and reduce wait times and healthcare workers workloads…
Antibiotics for everyone!
Where do you propose people who don’t have insurance go for non-emergency healthcare?
Um… a regular doctor?
Will still be cheaper than an ER…
Insurance doesnt give you access to the doctor. It reduces the cost for the going to the doctor…
Edit: ITT a bunch of uneducated and misinformed people argue with and downvote me for describing the current American Healthcare System because they dont like the current American Healthcare System, so they feel entitled to just go “nuh uh, I’m poor, the rules don’t apply to me. Imma just steal the most expensive healthcare.”
I don’t know of many regular doctors who are willing to see people who are uninsured. Unlike hospitals, doctors expect to be paid back by everyone, even the poor.
Hospitals 100% expect to be paid too.
You can almost assuredly find a private practice doctor that will see you for a cash transaction, but you do need to pay for Healthcare services in America.
You shouldn’t put the lives of people experiencing true emergencies at risk because you want to commit a crime and dine and dash on an emergency doctor so he can look at your sniffles.
Medical debt is dischargeable by bankruptcy, but you can only get 1 of those every 8 years.
Can’t visit a regular doctor if you don’t have one already, and you won’t without insurance because they won’t be taking patients that don’t have insurance.
You can try those quick care places, but they tend to either require insurance or charge an arm and a leg just to be seen. They also tend to have limited hours.
The emergency room must see you for free at the point of service and will bill you later. That works for those that can’t afford to pay up front for care or have trouble being seen during work hours.
Your first paragraph is patently false.
The rest is “I’m a criminal. Let me steal medical services.”
You know where it is impossible to “steal medical services”? Any first world country with a single payer system.
Pretty shitty to blame people who cannot afford medical care because of our terrible system.
But you know where the people in this thread suggesting that poor people MUST abuse Emergency Rooms to steam medicine and services? America.
I agree, its a broken system. It should be universal single payer. It’s not though.
Medical debt sucks. You know what sucks more? Exhausted overworked doctors and nurses constantly being stolen because some people fancy themselves above the system.
Why are prices so out of control? Why does one trip to the hospital, with insurance or not, bankrupt someone? Because shit sucking leeches are perpetuating this complete lie that the only way to find medical care if you are poor is to rip off an Emergency Room.
Is that a serious question? I sincerely hope that people don’t think that is a thing to do.
Going to the ER is always going to be more expensive than going to a regular doctor, with insurance or without.
An urgent care clinic or general medical center is where you’re supposed to go for non-emergency care. If you can’t afford the doctor bills at those, then the local county health department should offer medical services at reduced cost for low-income people.
Urgent care and medical centers require insurance.
ERs do not.
So, again, where do people without insurance go for non-emergency healthcare? What the county health department should do is irrelevant. There should be universal healthcare in this country. There isn’t that and health departments aren’t offering any medical services at reduced cost.
The only option uninsured people have in much of the U.S. is the ER.
Theft is a crime.
You are admitting to being an entitled theif.
There SHOULD be universal Healthcare, but there isn’t.
The answer is finding a private practice that will see you for cash, not theft, which is a crime.
You are not entitled to free healthcare.
You are not entitled to free healthcare
yikes
Yikes what?
I am all for the US going single payer. We aren’t though.
So impoverished sick people who can’t afford to go to a private practice for cash should just die?
No, what isn’t getting through your thick skull?
You take on the medical debt. Like everyone else does.
And if you never pay it back… which poor people can’t afford to do… that’s not theft?
I’m a nurse in a hospital. We absolutely do NOT consider uninsured people seeking healthcare to be theft.
Would we prefer that people have Medicaid and seek primary care services elsewhere? Of course. So one of the things we do when people come in is get them signed up. Should that be our responsibility? Of course not. But here we are.
To be clear, I am saying providing a false name or intending to fully skip out on the bill is theft.
I am arguing with people here who say the ER is the ONLY place you can go if you don’t have insurance. That is a lie. There are tons of places you can go, the ER is NOT your only option if you don’t have insurance.
I am arguing with people here who say if your uninsured and go to the ER you should provide a false name or fully ignore the bill you run up. That is theft. You take on your debt, you make at least good faith payments, or you file for bankruptcy, just like the rest of us.
