Skipping Thanksgiving thanks to covidiots

edited November 2020 in General

So I start a new job last week, half of the people are staggering shifts from home every few weeks, and most people are being pretty smart about the masks and everything. This is after heavy restrictions were put in place by our governor weeks before. So today someone who was home is now at his desk, coughing a lot, without a mask, right next to me, separated by a short barrier where we can't see each other without standing up, but with some openings at the top and bottom to pass papers through I guess.

My sister last week says our Thanksgiving group requires a negative covid test, because of a few who are high-risk. I'm likely high-risk, but my immune system has shown to be better than average most of my life. I'm one of the few working in an office every day, which I have to do because I'm new.

I overhear the guy say on a phone call that he recently got over covid, that it's not something he'd want to go through again, and that the doctor said he's likely contagious for a while. He's talking to a lot of people at his cubicle throughout the day. Coughing. A lot. Without a mask. They're all wearing masks. So after they leave, and he keeps coughing, I almost get up to ask him to please cough into his mask or tissue, and the boss walks up and says he has to wear a mask. He comes back with a mask on, with a face like an irritated child. He coughs through it for a while. Then takes it off. I can hear the difference. As he gets up to leave for the day, he's coughing, without the mask. Back and forth between his desk and whatever. Coughing. Then he leaves. Then I write my boss an email because he left earlier. I don't know what'll happen tomorrow.

Anyway, I told my sis it's not worth the risk because of office shenanigans like this. I'm not willing to risk my family's lives over it, even if I test negative this week. I'm getting the test anyway even if I can't get the results before Thanksgiving. If it were positive, what do I do? If it's negative, I probably wouldn't go anyway because of knuckleheads like this. I guess I can thank covidiots for the holiday this season.

PS: A lot of other countries who've followed the medical recommendations and cracked down on the covidiots have reduced the infections and normalized a lot of their economy. America would be in the same boat if we were serious about this and not pretending it's no big deal. Our hospital ICUs have overflowed AGAIN. I'm not gonna put any family member there because I have to be around covidiots.

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Comments

  • [Deleted User]DarrenWalker (deleted user)

    Well done, @davebutton. Good decision. If only there were more people like you where I live! Some nights I could swear the folks around me are actually trying to spread the virus.

    "Ooh, let's give it every possible opportunity to mutate! I wonder how many of us we can kill?"

  • edited November 2020

    I was hopeful the spread would generate safe mutations and breed out the harmful ones... but nope, this wasn't like SARS or MERS here (almost non-existent spread), and now our country may be the worst off just because of our ignorant, flippant, and lazy attitude to the worst disease we've seen in a hundred years.

    If this guy keeps it up, I'm confronting him, which is what I should have done yesterday immediately. Never hold back on stuff like this. Doing nothing empowers wrongdoers.

  • @davebutton - We should have done what China did. They locked people in their own homes and the government delivered their food. Now they are mostly COVID free.... but America is all about freedom so we will have none of that. :/

  • I don't agree with the extent China went, but based on accounts I've heard and read from people who've lived there the last several months and more, their economy and way of life has mostly returned to normal with minimal infections and deaths. All it requires is following medical recommendations. I don't know what it is with Americans that we're so reticent to take experts seriously and then subscribe to conspiracy theories like "plandemic" I heard the guy talking about yesterday. The results that we're seeing... you either have to be delusional to think they're fake, or you just don't care about your fellow Americans and put your convenience over everyone else's security.

  • @davebutton It sucks that you/we have to put up with inconsiderate people like that. I agree with @Mike403 -- to end a pandemic, strict measures must be taken. But Americans fetishize freedom to the point of ridiculousness. That and the incompetence of the orange brat in the White House will ensure that Covid-19 will continue to feel right at home in the U.S.A.

  • @davebutton Way to consider your family’s health. Congratulations on the new job despite inconveniences. Seeing your family virtually is another option.

  • We are all bringing a dish to my brothers house and taking turns making plates then sitting in lawn chairs in the driveway to eat , all in reoective corners broken down into pods based on members from each household.

  • Having a meal on a lawn chair sounds nice

  • Trick is to eat fast before it gets too cold

  • Be thankful that you have a place to go and please DON'T skip out, People like me have no where to go and wish that we had family and friends to be around.

  • @pmvines - or just stick to foods that still tastes good cold...like turkey.

  • edited November 2020

    I'd rather skip if it means not passing on a killer virus. Appeasing my loneliness isn't worth killing my loved ones.

  • [Deleted User]APV (deleted user)

    For several years now I have gotten used to having Thanksgiving by myself. I don’t live near my family. I used to attend a Thanksgiving celebration at a UU church in my area, but stopped around 3 years ago because that church’s congregation just can’t seem to shut up about politics and I don’t agree with their political views.

    @davebutton My employer takes stricter measures to make sure something like what you experienced never happens where I work. Our sales teams alternate between coming in and working from home, but they alternate pairs of who will be coming in each week. The factory workers like myself are who goes in everyday, every week all the time with masks, distancing, etc. Perhaps share this with your employer to see if they might do something similar for the remainder of the duration of the pandemic.

    Today I had to go get tested for COVID-19 for the THIRD time despite the second time only being 11 days prior. I had just returned from lunch today and:

    Supervisor: Please tell your whole team to meet HR outside.
    Me: OK.

    We went outside and HR, my supervisor and the supervisor above him were telling us that a member of my team believed they may have been exposed. So me & my whole department had to go get tested again today. Guess I’m gonna have to get used to being tested every 2-4 weeks for however many years this pandemic puts down the drain.

  • Better to miss Thanksgiving this year and celebrate with family next year, than to take the chance this year and have an empty chair at the table next year.

    @davebutton I like that term you've coined, covidiots. I'll have to adopt that! Yes, if more people (especially in America) were willing to accept the extremely minor inconvenience of wearing a mask in public, the sacrifice of entire holidays might not be necessary at this point.

  • [Deleted User]APV (deleted user)

    @Parad0x The term covidiot has already spread all over the internet, perhaps before this thread existed. I found it defined in the Urban Dictionary, and even used on Health.com as early as this past July. I will certainly adopt it myself and share it with my team at work as soon as we all return upon receiving our negative test results.

  • [Deleted User]jguycuddler2 (deleted user)
    edited November 2020

    Ridiculous to see people whining about freedom on this thread.

  • @jguycuddler2 - Who is whining about freedom?

  • [Deleted User]jguycuddler2 (deleted user)

    @Mike403 Read the comments.

  • [Deleted User]DarrenWalker (deleted user)

    @jguycuddler2: Yeah, not seeing it. Complaints about people's irresponsible use of freedom, sure—but complaints about freedom itself? Nowhere to be found. Not that I'm seeing, anyway.

  • @jguycuddler2 - I read the comments.. I don't see it. Can you copy and paste the comment where somebody whined about their freedom?

  • [Deleted User]jguycuddler2 (deleted user)

    From @davebutton - our ignorant, flippant, and lazy attitude to the worst disease we've seen in a hundred years

    From @Mike403 - We should have done what China did. They locked people in their own homes and the government delivered their food. Now they are mostly COVID free.... but America is all about freedom so we will have none of that

    From @misternatureboy - But Americans fetishize freedom to the point of ridiculousness.

  • @jguycuddler2 - This is a thread discussing covidiots who don't take the virus seriously. All three comments you pasted are from us who agree with the original poster and believe that Americans care more about their freedom than stopping a deadly virus.

    I can't believe I have to explain this to you.

  • [Deleted User]DarrenWalker (deleted user)

    The freedom to be an idiot is fine when the only one to suffer the consequences is the person being an idiot. Otherwise? Not so much.

    The freedom to endanger others isn't what I'd call an excellent freedom.

  • This mindset that being responsible and acting in a way that will benefit those around you even if it means not getting your way or doing what you want to do is somehow an infringement of liberty disheartening and an attestation to how self centered we are as a species

  • [Deleted User]jguycuddler2 (deleted user)

    @Mike403 I literally have no idea what you’re talking about now lol. You asked me for examples of people whining about freedom and I quoted them. I don’t know what you thought you were explaining? And there’s really no reason to be condescending - I only my pointed out my opinion that it seemed ridiculous to me that people would complain about being free.

  • @jguycuddler2 - It's ridiculous that we think the virus should be taken seriously? I'm trying to understand what you're trying to say.

  • [Deleted User]jguycuddler2 (deleted user)

    @Mike403 I think this is the third time I’m saying it: it’s ridiculous that people are whining throughout this thread about being free.

    Please don’t overcomplicate my statement.

  • @jguycuddler2 - Nobody is whining about being free.. You still haven't shown me any evidence of that.

  • [Deleted User]jguycuddler2 (deleted user)

    @Mike403 Alright, buddy. I quoted you three separate comments whining about being free. I’m sorry that you’re not understanding them, but I don’t have the patience to continue to argue and can only assume that you’re feigning ignorance to stir controversy where there is none. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

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