Ninety-four-year-old neighbor died last week of

[phylny]

Covid pneumonia. I have no idea of she was vaccinated or not.

It’s not gone away. I will continue to mask and distance.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Still masking up in public...

[maxsolomon]

22. Outdoors?

Just curious. I still see a lot of outdoor masking, but that is an unlikely place to contract Covid. Not impossible, but unlikely.

[Iggo]

25. I wear a mask outdoors in public.

Like at shopping centers and like that. I wear a mask on the bus (and also at the bus stop if there’s other idiots like me around.) and since I wear sunglasses or regular glasses and usually a ball cap and I find it to be a pain in the ass putting it on and taking it off all day, I just keep the mask on in between as well. It doesn’t bother me at all to wear it and it tends to brother the right people, so it’s win/win. (I’m a dick like that. Gotta get my yucks somewhere.)

[Wounded Bear]

30. Only if there are a lot of people around...

normally not, though. My brother and his SO both tested positive and have symptoms this week. This morning I drove over there to drop off some test kits, as I had several that I probably won't use before they expire. She was out on their deck when I arrived. We chatted a bit, staying about 8-10 feet apart. I didn't put on my mask. Perhaps I'll regret that, but like you said, outdoors one's breath will disperse quite rapidly. I may burn a test in a couple of few days just to check. We'll see.

[niyad]

2. same here.

[MineralMan]

3. Sadly, even a mild breakthrough case can be fatal

for someone in their 90s. Life's precarious at that age.

[phylny]

5. It's true.

She was very active - went to the gym, did light gardening, drove herself, and lived alone. I know once my elderly dad got sick at 93, he went downhill fast.

[MineralMan]

10. Yes. My father died of COVID pneumonia.

After diagnosis, he lived less than 24 hours. He was 96. We have almost no reserves at that age.

[GoodRaisin]

4. Good idea.

Sorry about your neighbor though.

[Emile]

6. My wife's 93 year old right wing aunt is taking Ivermectin.

Her 73 year old son is buying it for her.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. My next door neighbor died while taking Ivermectin.

She had cancer and stopped her chemo because someone in her church group said Ivermectin cures cancer. She was a Trumpster and I know she wasn't vaccinated. She was in her late 60s and still leading a good life, the ambulance came one day and then she was just home with a hospice nurse for a few days until she passed. Her kid let it slip to me she had Covid, but it sounds like the death was more from the cancer.

[Emile]

8. They are truly in a death cult!

[RobinA]

18. In Her Defense (sort of)

When you have cancer you are absolutely bombarded with naysayers about cancer treatment. Radiation, chemo, any medication...you name it, many people know that those things are all more lethal than your cancer. Which by the way, you caused by eating sugar and red meat. Tired from radiation? Ditch it and take megadoses of magnesium and you will be fine. If you are a suggestible person, with a deadly disease, taking medication that has side effects, that might or might not work, it is easy to get turned around by charlatans hawking [unproven] nonsense. And hey, the side effects disappear. Which is expected, since there are no effects, side or otherwise.

[Johnny2X2X]

20. Bingo!

I've seen it with close friends, refusing chemo because they did their own research. Part of it is I think people are bad at math. They don't get that a lot of cancer survivors don't need chemo and their doctors don't recommend it, but if your doctor is recommending it, there's a darned good reason for it. They don't get that a 40% less chance of it coming back is totally worth the chemo. And they can't imagine how they'll feel if it does come back and they refused the treatment.

Have a couple that are friends who breast cancer almost ended their marriage because the doctor strongly recommended chemo and the woman refused it, her husband was beside himself trying to convince her chemo was the right course. 5 years later and it hasn't come back thankfully.

People need to listen to their doctors more.

[riversedge]

11. I wonder what long term Ivermectin does to a human body? We may find out, as it seems

people have been taking it long term ? dosage. I hope they do medical research on these folks

[Johnny2X2X]

9. CDC numbers on deaths and hospitalizations vaxxed vs vaxxed

Get vaxxed and boosted, if you do the chances of you dying from Covid are near zero. The only people dying from Covid after being boosted are the very very old or the already very very sick. You're 93.4% less likely to die of Covid if you're boosted, that is a massive difference. If you're boosted, Covid is simply not a threat right now. 6 months from now, who kows, but as long as you're boosted right now, it's simply not a threat worth much worry.

Let the unvaccinated idiots die.

[riversedge]

12. Covid is a threat to me. I care for my 96 yr old mom and I am

about 70 years old. My greatest fear is catching it--i may have a mild case if lucky but it would probably do her in. My freedom is stiffed because I can not go about freely without a mask even trough vaxxed and boosted. I know others caring for their older relatives and friends who are in the same boat.

[Johnny2X2X]

16. Even at 96, vaxxed and boosted gives her a lot of protection

Still good you're being cautious. And I am cautious too.

My whole point though is that this is a pandemic for the unvaccinated now and really, those are the people who make up the vast majority of Covid deaths right now even thought they are a minority of the population.

Even at 96, your mother is less likely to be hospitalized with Covid if she's full vaxxed and boosted than someone not vaxxed between the ages of 35-65. She's really close to as safe as a 25-34 year old person not vaccinated is.

https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/421-010-CasesInNotFullyVaccinated.pdf

[riversedge]

19. I see your point and I remain vigalant and glad you do also. But bodies get

fragile as they age-even without pre-existing conditions.

My only hope is that mother nature just lets her go peacefully [instead of struggling for air with covid]

Stay well.

[Johnny2X2X]

23. At 96, a lot f things are risky

The flu, infections, falls, fully vaxxed and boosted even at the age though makes Covid probably not at the top of the list for potential death causes, which is a great thing.

I know a lot has been made of the fact the vaccines aren't perfect, but they still are an amazingly effective way to prevent serious illness and/or death from Covid for all age groups. Even a 96 year old is exceedingly unlikely to get seriously ill if they do catch Covid as long as they have been boosted.

I have an elderly mother too, she has a whole host of health problems and a very weak immune system. She also refuses to stay home, she says she'd rather get it and die than not live her life right now. Of course she's fully vaccinated and boosted and wears a mask, but she's probably right, she only has a few years left at any rate, so going out there and living her life while she still can is probably the best use of her time. But everyone has to make their own judgements.

Where I'm at is if they have us take a Covid booster every 6 years for the rest of my life I will be first in line to do so. If the CDC recommends wearing masks some places I will also do that, it's not much of an inconvenience.

Where I think we're heading with Covid is that the unvaccinated continue to get it over and over until they suffer a serious case or die. The vaccinated population will just get on with living their lives. For those that are vaccinated, this has finally become the flu.

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Of course, get the vaccines and wear the masks, as so many here state, when I went...

recently to my doc for my annual checkup the other day, the nurse while I was chatting to her (and I was thanking her for their sacrifices, all of them, during these extreme times that we live in), she did mention that most, if not all, of the people she handled w/ COVID, were for the most part, already suffering from other ailments.

Thus, another thing to keep on top of. If you take meds for other conditions, be very alert and wary, and be on top of your other health conditions. I know that some have said that other conditions (and statistics support this) are being ignored or not being paid the attention that they should be and people, as an unfortunate result, are passing away from these conditions.

I'm waiting for my fourth shot, if and when they ever approve it. I think that this will become an annual thing eventually, since it seems like that COVID mutates quite often.

[spinbaby]

14. I have a friend who's a respiratory therapist

She’s been on the covid front lines since the beginning. She says that the majority of deaths they’re seeing now are middle aged and unvaccinated.

[SWBTATTReg]

15. Crazy and totally unnecessary, isn't it? A simple yet effective means to avoid death, but yet...

the idiots defer to unproven plots that the vaccines are full of chips that will track them or do other dire things to them, yada yada yada.

Maybe, the deaths of all of these idiots is a good thing for humanity as a whole, as the idiots die out (at their own hands), and those that are left are amongst the fittest still standing (that is, assuring the survival of the species).

[Johnny2X2X]

17. My cousin is a head nurse on a Covid floor in the local hospital

Says the same thing, the elderly have been vaccinated and boosted at a very high rate. When you look at the data, unvaccinated people ages 35-64 are being hospitalized at twice the rate of fully vaccinated people over 65.

So it's relatively younger antivaxxers who are mostly the ones getting sick and dying. It's a pandemic of choice mostly now.

And risk factors are still at play too. And the crowd that always seems to ask about Covid deaths, "Yeah, but did they have comorbidities?" are usually totally oblivious to the fact that if being overweight is a comorbidity, 74% of the country has a comorbidity. I've had people say that stuff to me with a straight face while they're sitting there at at least 35% body fat and 70 pounds overweight. I pull no punches, "Dude, you have a major comorbidity, you're way way overweight, so you're saying if you die from Covid it won't be as big of a deal because you're not in shape?" There's still this idea that Covid is mostly killing people with one foot in the grave already, that's simply not the truth, it's mostly just killing the unvaccinated, that's the biggest factor on who will be killed if they get Covid, vaccine status.

[maxsolomon]

21. Did someone say Covid has gone away?

Condolences on the loss of your friend. 94 is a long life.

[phylny]

24. I don't know that anyone we'd listen to has said

it’s gone away, I just see people acting like everything is back to normal and not wearing masks.

Thanks for your kind words.

[nitpicker]

26. Just because reported deaths have shrunk to about a thousand a day

In the US, we could still hit a million by May Day. ((I hope not.))

And remember when we were all appalled by 500 deaths a day in NY/NJ? It's just spread out more.

Hopefully, the wane in shot immunity won't translate to more deaths.

[nitpicker]

27. Actually, most store staff are still masking around here

Even though half of the customers are not.

They must NOT be housing a super-senior...

[nitpicker]

28. For me it's still the 3 Ws

Wear a mask
Watch your distance ((even if it means driving back away from the store because the unmasked are hanging over cart corrals))
Wash your hands ((and other exposed body parts, like the face))

[CTyankee]

29. I thought handwashing was just always good sense, not particularly for Covid.

At first, we thought Covid could be spread on surfaces so we wiped down our groceries and wore gloves shopping. Then we found out how Covid itself is actually spread (not from surfaces in general).