With the resurgence of the plague how does one stay safe? Vaccination and masking are obviously recommended but with the close proximity that a decent cuddle requires, what does one do?
Current 'maximum best practice' for covid safe cuddling is:-
If you do all of that the risk of transmission is as small as you can get it without cuddling in hazmat suits.
I like to wear a 16th century plague mask while cuddling, for maximum protection.
@MCcuddles2 I have seen drawings of those but never a pic of one. I am digging it. Having a cod piece for a nose is very trendy. I love the plague aesthetic.
I imagine it's a primitive solution for an oxygen reservoir.
Probably arrived through trial an error of small masks and C02 asphyxiation.
If you and your cuddle partner are vaccinated, you should be fine. Getting COVID will be like getting a cold. I dont do masks anymore unless the business requires it.
One supplements with vitamin D daily, washes hands regularly, and carries on with living their life in a world where it’s impossible to insulate oneself from all risk and mentally unhealthy to insulate oneself from all other humans. Please, no one try to start an argument with me. I’m not in the mood.
@TheMidnightOwl - Right? I'm done with this crap. I did my part and got the vaccine, but people still want to shame me because I went to a concert.
My precautions are:
• Go with people with a relatively similar lifestyle as me, meaning not out partying or getting together with large crowds/groups of people. Ideally if they interact with less than 5 people.
• Wear a mask (and request my cuddle partner does too, unless an exception is needed, which I'd consider)
• Great hygiene. Disinfect whatever whenever necessary, such as the parts of my mobility device I interact with frequently, my phone, wallet, zippers, water bottle, etc.
• I use my elbow, the tip of the bottom of a water bottle, or a retractable pen to press buttons whenever possible. Or sanitize right away if hand contact has to be made.
• Eliminate my usual close contacts to only those whom having in my circle is necessary or highly beneficial to me. Socially distance about 75%+ of the time when I am not interacting with people in my immediate social circle or cuddling with someone.
• If showing covid symptoms cancel. • After a cuddle session socially distance for 10 - ~14 days, unless symptoms show, in which case isolate.
• Cuddle somewhere public and as relatively socially distanced as possible.
• Avoid being near 2nd or 3rd handsmoking as much as possible.
• Include immune boosting foods to my diet and work on better managing my stress levels.
@Mike403 "If you and your cuddle partner are vaccinated, you should be fine. Getting COVID will be like getting a cold. I dont do masks anymore unless the business requires it."
This:
And:
Furthermore:
@Lovelight - so a few people got ill out of the millions who were vaccinated. I choose not to live my life in fear.
@Mike403 4000+ isn't "a few" people and you don't have to live in fear to take extra precautions to protect yourself and others. I understand you're against mask wearing for yourself "unless the business requires it."However I wanna make sure others know the truth that even if vaccinated they and others around them are still at risk and that taking more precautions help. Done and over with.
@Lovelight - 4000 is a few when comparing it to 168 million fully vaccinated individuals.
I sense this is going to get interesting ...let me grab my pop corn
160 million vaccinated Americans , about 6500 breakthrough infections, about 1200 of those died. And they were elderly. Sad they died but if you calculate the percentage the vaccine did better than 95%. Statistically next to nothing. The vaccines are to ensure you don’t get symptoms or not have to be hospitalized. But we must learn to live with covid just like we learn to live with the flu. Our end goal was never zero covid infections or death. It’s an impossibility, just like zero flu or death from flu and every year there’s variants, but the flu is an equal opportunity killer. It kills every age group regardless of health or age, whereas covid is elderly and those with underlying conditions. We can never ensure 100% safety from anything, a certain number of deaths is always factored in. Like death by motor vehicle. Every year 40,000 are killed by cars. If we wanted to ensure no more car deaths the speed limit would be reduced to 3mph or just ban cars. Everyone should live how they want to live, but one shouldn’t be afraid of life. Hell we don’t know if tomorrow an air conditioner might fall on our heads. Be well everyone.
Ah yes, the, “F*** the elderly and f*** the weak”, mentality. Edited. @CharlesThePoet - Mind the f-bombs please - thanks! [-Sid]
Exactly what everyone is looking for in a cuddle buddy…
@CharlesThePoet - I'll wear a mask when I'm around Grandma.
If that’s what you read from my post there’s no helping you. Tsk tsk profanity the sign of an intelligent person, not exactly eloquent words from someone who claims to be a poet.
Is profanity allowed in the forum?
@Ironman294 - Technically no. It'll be edited out once a mod sees it
@Mike403 thanks for the info. Never knew posting data and facts was not welcome.
@Ironman294 - I'm talking about the use of profanity. You can get your point across without cussing.
@Ironman294 profanity is tolerated here as long as it's occasional and justified.
@Ironman294 "160 million vaccinated Americans , about 6500 breakthrough infections, about 1200 of those died. And they were elderly."
And they matter!
"but the flu is an equal opportunity killer. It kills every age group regardless of health or age, whereas covid is elderly and those with underlying conditions."
Your point is? Just cause "you and people in your age group wouldn't die from it" (not that that's true anyway) doesn't justify disregarding taking other precautions which aid in keeping others, including yourself safer.
"As my colleague Ed Yong explained, many COVID-19 patients experience protracted illness. These “long-haulers” suffer from a diabolical grab bag of symptoms, including chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, unrelenting fevers, gastrointestinal problems, lost sense of smell, hallucinations, short-term-memory loss, bulging veins, bruising, gynecological problems, and an erratic heartbeat. And according to the neuroscientist David Putrino, chronic patients are typically young (the average age in his survey is 44), female, and formerly healthy."
"You might be used to thinking of 30-somethings as safe and seniors as at risk in this pandemic. But if a man in his 30s and a man in his 60s both contract COVID-19, it is more likely that the 30-something will develop a months-long illness than that the 60-something will die, according to this research. (The calculation above doesn’t even include the countless long-haulers who never went to the hospital.)
More frightening than what we’re learning now is what we cannot yet know: the truly long-term—as in, decades-long—implications of this disease for the body. “We know that hepatitis C leads to liver cancer, we know that human papillomavirus leads to cervical cancer, we know that HIV leads to certain cancers,” Howard Forman, a health-policy professor at Yale, told James Hamblin and Katherine Wells of The Atlantic. “We have no idea whether having had this infection means that, 10 years from now, you have an elevated risk of lymphoma.”"
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/616087/
@Lovelight - Some people are sick and tired of being shamed just for wanting to go back to living life. The flu can be just as deadly to the elderly and we never masked up during flu season.
@Lovelight - Thank you for sharing these videos; Very insightful.
@Lovelight who said they didn’t matter, just stating facts. As I pointed out 40,000 a year die from motor vehicles traveling at the speed limit, all preventable if we reduced to 3mph or eliminated cars. Their lives matter too. Just because someone states facts does not mean one doesn’t care but things are factored in. Seriously if one doesn’t agree with the echo chamber in here after one or two posted it’s not tolerated or the person is attacked. And as someone with an underlying condition and contracted Covid it’s not like I don’t care. And I have been vaccinated, I’m part of the 71% of the Asian population that has been vaccinated. So I have done my part. First it was mask and socially distance or else you wanna kill grandma and selfish. then get vaccinated or else you wanna kill grandma and are selfish Then even after you get vaccinated if you don’t mask and social distance you’re being selfish and wanna kill grandma. The vaccine is readily available for a long time now for every adult and for a time 12-18. So it’s us that are vaccinated that are selfish if we don’t mask to protect the ones without medical conditions don’t wanna get the vaccine? I mean really. When will it end? Even if everyone was vaccinated, I have a feeling the government and those who favor lockdowns and don’t follow science will still demand some sort of authoritarian controls. The goal posts keep getting moved everytime we meet them.
People in here need to be able to listen to opposing views and not fly off the handle. Not saying you are but after participating in several threads there’s a certain ideology or POV you must adhere to or else. Much like people are facing in real life.
Some of the elderly in nursing homes even said they'd rather take a chance and be able to hug their grand kids. We're all gonna die of something someday no matter what we do.
Some people are sick and tired of being shamed just for wanting to go back to living life.
That is a truly horrifying attitude. Firstly, we are all sick and tired of it. Secondly, if you are really sick and tired of it - and frankly, I simply don't believe you - then you would have some interest in bringing it to an end, not in prolonging it.
Every time somebody doesn't wear a mask when they could, they are prolonging it: they are helping covid thrive. Every time somebody doesn't wash their hands, or doesn't get vaccinated, or closes the window unneccessarily, they are putting lives at risk. That's every person, every time.
If you want it to stop, then do what you can to stop it. If you want it to go on, then don't. Whose side are you on?
We are living life here in the UK pretty much as normal now, although still with some restrictions on travel. We have it because 90% of the adult population have had the vaccine at least once (77% fully vaccinated). Because people still wear masks even though it's been downgraded from a legal requirement to a question of personal resonsibility in certain areas. There are still a lot of cases, though, and that is a serious worry for the future because of the inherent risk of further mutation.
I'll say it again. If you want the pandemic to end, quit whining and do the things that will help bring it to an end. Exactly what that means is different for everybody, so do all the ones you can do and encourage everybody else to do all the ones they can do.
If you don't want to be shamed, then don't do things you should be ashamed of.
People in here need to be able to listen to opposing views and not fly off the handle.
People die because of those views. And many of those who hold those views try to justify them with lies.
If somebody is trying to kill me and my family and my friends - and let's be clear, if you're not wearing a mask when you should then you are - and furthermore they are lying about it, I think I'm entitled to 'fly off the handle'.
@CuddleDuncan - Whatever. Viruses never go away. The 1918 Spanish flu is still here. We learn to live with it.
So if a vaccinated person doesn’t wear a mask around a vaccinated person who is wearing a mask they are trying to kill that person and their family? Even the CDC and scientists would disagree with you.