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Dealing with COVID-19

What effect is the pandemic having on your mental health?

  • It is making it easier

    Votes: 16 24.6%

  • It is making it harder

    Votes: 49 75.4%
  • Total voters
    65
Mary Terry said:
It is scary, scary to me, too! But if you DO get it and get sick enough to require hospitalization, then you must have qualified medical staff to take care of you. There are NO hospital beds or intensive care units or ventilators unless there is trained staff to provide care. If there is no qualified staff, then you will be sent away from the emergency department because they cannot and will not attempt to take care of you. They will not admit you to the hospital unless they have adequate resources to take care of you.
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If a lot more countries had eliminated the virus, as did New Zealand, Taiwan, Iceland and a few other countries did, then maybe a lot more medical staff and resources like intensive care equipment could be sent over to countries with higher infection rates, they could have had fewer restrictions without overwhelming their medical systems and maybe the pandemic would have burnt out quickly because a lot more people would have become immune a lot more quickly. The case to fatality ratio would be higher, maybe more like swine flu of 2009.

Mary Terry said:
That is why medical staff, first responders, etc will and should receive the vaccinations first. We need them to be alive and healthy in order to take care of us. Meanwhile, we - the non-medical people - need to stay safe and avoid the virus by wearing masks, good hygiene, social distancing, crowd avoidance, healthy eating to improve immune system, and all the other recommended precautions .... We all know the drill by now.
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Speaking of vaccinations, how about challenge trials? Placebos are needed for field trails and one thing to think about is whether they are needed for challenge trials.
 
QueenOfFrance87 said:
Some days, I wonder if I will make it to the end of the decade without dying or having a total meltdown. I apologise if I sound selfish, but that is how I feel at the moment.
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At least one can recover from a psychotic break. (Not all the way, but enough.) Death, OTOH, is generally not reversible to any degree. I personally don't fear death per se, it's the bizarre nature of covid where a lot of people can have it and be asymptomatic, but somebody random can catch it from them and die within a week or be rendered so permanently physically disabled that they can't think straight or talk or climb stairs without getting totally out of breath. It's as if everybody is a potential Typhoid Mary, and is spreading it unknowingly, and anybody can kill you. I basically go to the supermarket, a couple minimarts, occasionally a fast food drive thru, and doctors/pharmacies. I gave up thrift stores because they're so filthy. I don't go anywhere else. If covid suddenly mutates and starts killing millions and millions at once and the streets are littered with rotting bodies...I hope I'm out of here.
 
I have a couple questions:

1. Do we have an estimate on how many people work in hospitals in the US, and

2. will we have enough to vaccinate the rest of the Americans, and if not, how likely is it that we will have another round of vaccines?

Asking for a friend.
 
My stepdad insisted on inviting four more people to my small party next Saturday. I am not happy about it because I already invited enough people to not be considered high risk, and now it's going to be worse. I am scared that I will get coronavirus or get arrested because my stepdad wanted to invite his family. So now my party is ruined, so I may have to spend the day in seclusion.
 
Two days ago I went for a covid test (open on a Sunday?). You drive thirty minutes and go into a large warehouse style building, the size of a large airplane hangar. Inside are lines of people standing on X's marked on the floor.

There were forty tents in a row, with one person for each tent who takes down your name and medical card number and then you go to the back of the tent and sit on a stool. They ask you more questions, have you been out of the country? Have you gathered in a large group? Have you met or had contact with anyone with covid?

A nurse with full PPE, a mask and a face shield enters and asks you to say 'aah' while they put a tongue depressor in your mouth. They look down your throat, and then they use a long cotton swab that they put in a nostril to take a sample. It does not hurt, but it tickles and makes your eyes water. Then you leave.

The test indicated (two days later) that I'm negative for covid. I had to be tested two days before my Doctor's appointment, otherwise I would not be able to see my MD.

Phew and glad that it's over, not nearly as stressful as I thought it would be.
 
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Venting... (my apologies)

I'm stressed out and very depressed right now... Alberta just did what pretty much amounts to a complete shutdown, I pretty much can't do anything now... Stores aren't closed but have even smaller allowances for capacity, I'll bet lots of stores will go to curbside pickup only anyway (based on what I've seen lately), which will only mean major lineups everywhere I go now for anything... And hiring for jobs will probably be non-existent now... Life sucks! 2020 was a rather crappy year for me...
 
Lousy COVID curfew order is extended, and now I can't go to the north side of town so I could see the Northern Lights tonight. Whatever, it's not like they're gonna appear here, anyway.
 
I'm finding it VERY easy. I remember a couple of times when I was younger, in a huge crowd I would state, "I wish there was some kind of law where you had to stay at least six feet away from the other person!" 20 years later, I got my wish. I love it! No longer have to feel like I have to kick the person in front of me just to get some breathing room. I was social distancing before it became popular.

My mother never let me learn to drive a car at sixteen because she genuinely believed autistic people didn't drive or there was some sort law against it. So I never learned to drive.

I was taking lessons and trying to get my license, but I had to stop for a while. There is NO public transportation where I live. But....thanks to Covid, most of my appointments are online now. Any school or job interviews are canceled so I don't have to go to those anyway.

I'm technically exempt from wearing a mask (got a doctor's letter), but I've never needed it if I wear a fabric mask. I find human faces scary but now that mostly everyone is covering it up with a mask, that's another issue I don't have to worry about anymore.
 
Job interviews seem easier under current restrictions.

My first job interview was mainly by text message, until induction.

The interview for my 2nd job was in a hospital setting. Everyone wore masks.
There's some comfort to be had hiding behind the mask.

Essentially, I now have two jobs whereby my ocd 'clean-freak' traits are an asset.

Doesn't feel much like a 'Disorder' when I can utilise it and get paid for doing so.
:)
 
I have been invited by the autism charity I am registered with to the Christmas meal, other service users have kindly invited me before but I don't think households should be mixing. It was kind of them to offer
 
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SchrodingersMeerkat said:
I'm technically exempt from wearing a mask (got a doctor's letter), but I've never needed it if I wear a fabric mask. I find human faces scary but now that mostly everyone is covering it up with a mask, that's another issue I don't have to worry about anymore.
Click to expand...

Would you like to explain the mask rules where you live? Around the world, they are most commonly required in places where lots of people are likely to gather and quite confined spaces, such as on public transport and in shops.

Other restrictions that are common around the world are social distancing and requirements to give contact details say when eating in at a cafe or restaurant.

Does anyone here know of a jurisdiction that is not only corona free but has none of these internal restrictions?
 
Aspergers_Aspie said:
I don't understand the perspex screens, if covid particles are in the air, doesn't air just go over, under, around the screen?
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Yes.

Perhaps that why it's mandatory (unless exempt) for the wearing of face masks/coverings in places with high footfall.

wearing the mask together with coughing/sneezing into your own elbow may go someway to reduce the amount of particles you're releasing into the air current to flow over, around and behind those perspex screens.
 
Myrtonos said:
Would you like to explain the mask rules where you live? Around the world, they are most commonly required in places where lots of people are likely to gather and quite confined spaces, such as on public transport and in shops.

Other restrictions that are common around the world are social distancing and requirements to give contact details say when eating in at a cafe or restaurant.

Does anyone here know of a jurisdiction that is not only corona free but has none of these internal restrictions?
Click to expand...

I don't know, I've never used it. It's a letter from a doctor. I guess if I needed to, I'd just show it to the people trying to kick me out for not wearing a mask. Just like when people tried to kick me out with my service animal. I'd just pull out the letter from my psychiatrist saying she was a service animal. I have to wear a mask because my dad has a compromised immune system.
 
I am one of those hospital workers,...in a neonatal ICU, ...a bit insulated from the "war zone" that is the adult critical care, but the "trickle down" is my team members being randomly pulled to the adult side, leaving my team short staffed, equipment being shifted their direction, and as an autistic,...the mask wearing,...is forcing me to have further communication difficulties. I never realized just how much I looked at mouths,...but now even eyes and heads are being covered with PPE, so I am struggling even more with voice inflection and diction as we are all talking through these masks.

I had my CoVID-19 pneumonia at the end of September,...I was in the Emergency Department twice, pancreatitis the first time, then severe shortness of breath the second time. Was able to get donated plasma antibodies and dexamethasone to prevent me from being admitted, but it was really close. I am still having some residual shortness of breath,...three months now. I did donate plasma antibodies to return the favor given to me.

I did receive my first of two vaccines this past Monday,...next dose in 3 weeks. My son's wedding plans,...January 2021,...now is just parents and siblings, boxed lunch at the church. Hoping for a real party sometime this summer, with all his friends and family,...let's get everyone vaccinated.

Obviously, I am not a "social butterfly", so the social isolation at home is no real change for me, but it is obviously affecting my wife more as she regularly makes time to meet with her girlfriends,...which she can't do right now.
 
I have been invited to attend a Christmas Meal at the autism charity centre I am registered with, I am not going to attend as I don't believe households should mix at Xmas, and if people are, they could be potentially contributing to a rise in covid cases
 
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