How's 'that' situation going now?

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

1. How is the Coronavirus situation where you live? What's closed down? Have you gone out much? Are you (Oh, what's the trendy term now " Self-distancing "?) staying inside as a precaution or actually infected or is anyone else you know? I hope, if so, you're well. Let's...well, exchange comments.
2.   I am now in Portland, Oregon. The Govenor, and then, locally, Portland declared a state of emergency. I saw the comment made that Oregon was the furthest behind on dealing with CV of the 3 West Coast states.
3.   I went out yesterday ( Sun.), I am ill and had sleep to make up to-day (Mon.) and ended up not going out - I may go out across the street to a all-nite grocery tonite-early Tues. I have not heard of a regular medical appointment Tues. being cancelled.

[ClarkKent_DC]

From TheWrap:

"‘Law & Order: SVU’ Showrunner Laments Offering Roles to Actors Later Revealed to Be Unvaccinated"

Warren Leight, the showrunner for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” has shared his frustration that he’s had to recast roles on the long-running NBC procedural after learning actors were not vaccinated.

“To my sadness we are still offering parts to actors only to learn they STILL aren’t vaccinated (and therefore we won’t/can’t hire them),” Leight tweeted Monday night. “Our community has to look out for each other, especially when working unmasked in close quarters. The stream of misinformation is toxic.”

“The vast majority here are also vaccinated, but I’ve been surprised that even some older members of our community have chosen to play Russian Roulette with Covid,” he added.

[ClarkKent_DC]

I started a new job recently, and my new employer is very serious about COVID safety. Everyone -- students, faculty and staff -- must be fully vaccinated and boosted. Not only that, everyone must also get tested weekly, and the university provides multiple testing sites on its grounds.

Speaking of being on the grounds, everyone must also sign in, daily, on an app that has a function quizzing you on your symptoms: Do you have a fever, feel a cough, aches, chills, headache, etc.? Within the past two weeks, have you been in close contact with someone who has COVID, or traveled outside of the DMV* domestically or internationally? Have you tested positive for COVID within the past five days? Your answers to these questions gets you a green or yellow day pass to the campus, or a red pass saying stay the hell home.

Also, everyone must wear a mask at all times on the campus grounds, indoors or out.

Plus, everyone's workspace has a clear plexiglass shield  extending four feet high, affixed to the front of the desk and the open side that isn't against the wall.

[The Baron]

Wow, that's strict.  I suppose they have to be, though.

ClarkKent_DC said:

I started a new job recently, and my new employer is very serious about COVID safety. Everyone -- students, faculty and staff -- must be fully vaccinated and boosted. Not only that, everyone must also get tested weekly, and the university provides multiple testing sites on its grounds.

Speaking of being on the grounds, everyone must also sign in, daily, on an app that has a function quizzing you on your symptoms: Do you have a fever, feel a cough, aches, chills, headache, etc.? Within the past two weeks, have you been in close contact with someone who has COVID, or traveled outside of the DMV* domestically or internationally? Have you tested positive for COVID within the past five days? Your answers to these questions gets you a green or yellow day pass to the campus, or a red pass saying stay the hell home.

Also, everyone must wear a mask at all times on the campus grounds, indoors or out.

Plus, everyone's workspace has a clear plexiglass shield  extending four feet high, affixed to the front of the desk and the open side that isn't against the wall.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Well, unfortunately, there is shifting guidance on what should and shouldn't be done from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from various state and county health departments, and from area politicians, some of whom take the health threat more seriously than others.

The mayor of the District of Columbia is one who takes it very seriously, as does the D.C. Health Department, so at times they have been stricter about requiring masks in public places and when entering businesses. Right now, when you enter an establishment like a restaurant or movie theater in the District, the staff is supposed to ask you to show them your proof of vaccination. (My church would keep a log of who enters the building, the better to do contract tracing if, perish forbid, someone who visited came down with COVID. But two weeks ago, we suspended in-person services for the indefinite future and gone back to online-only services because the omicron variant was spreading.)

But across the district line in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the newly elected governor campaigned on giving parents control of what happens in the public schools, and that they should have a choice; on his first day in office, he signed an executive order ending mask mandates in the public schools. This flies in the face of state and federal laws that require masks in the schools, and at least seven jurisdictions are in litigation with the governor's office because they want to and believe they are legally obligated to keep the mandates in place. 

Wearing masks in the public schools is now a point of contention. There is a wave of parents squawking at school boards and state legislators introducing bills to get rid of the mandates, all spouting the talking point that, according to nobody, wearing masks in schools has not proved to reduce the spread of COVID, so there's no point in continuing. Even the governor of Maryland -- a Republican, but usually a sensible, moderate person, not an ideologue in sheep's clothing like the governor of Virginia -- is pushing for the end to mask mandates in schools in his state.

I am dismayed at the utter lack of willingness by some to pull together for the common good. What about the choice of parents who want the people who run schools to do things that keep the children safe? How does the choice of those who are ignorant and bellicose and selfish negate the choice of those whose kids are in the same room with the other ones? 

[The Baron]

Our company has essentially "solved" the problem by closing down most of our offices and having us all work from home full time. Back when all this started , I thought maybe we'd be working from home for a few weeks, tops.  Little did I know.  

[ClarkKent_DC]

Our company is big on people being in the office for the camaraderie and the office culture and the aspect of customer service that just can't be conveyed on a video call.

That said, in a concession to the times, my department (I don't know about others) has everyone working in the office three days a week and at home two days a week. So I haven't yet met all of my co-workers. I share a room with three other people, and this means there is no day when all four of us are there at the same time.

[The Baron]

It's different for me, because nobody on my current team is in the same state as I am, anyhow. So, I'm not gonna see them face-to-face whether I'm at home or the office.

[ClarkKent_DC]

For most of the past seven or eight years, I worked totally remotely at home, with editors who were in other states or even other countries, as CBR is based in Quebec. I contacted people only through Slack, or Yahoo! Messenger, or email, or occasionally by phone.

Even my job interviews (plural; I had three rounds) for Howard were done by Zoom call. 

Of course, the background acting I've done happened on site, in person. But these days, pretty much all auditioning for movies, TV shows and commercials happens via Zoom or something similar.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I am dismayed at the utter lack of willingness by some to pull together for the common good."

You and me both.

[Tracy of Moon-T]

What boggles my mind is the sheer number of parents who are outraged over masks in schools, demand that school be in-person, and scream about books they want banned.

However, they shrug away school shootings and refuse to do anything to keep their children safe. 

[Richard Willis]

Is DMV the District of Columbia and the entirety of Maryland and Virginia or just the counties closest to DC?

Here in Los Angeles County we have an indoor mask mandate, going beyond the State requirement which was just lifted. Depending upon hospitalization numbers they think the County mandate may be lifted next week. There is still a mask mandate in all California schools.

The shifting advice seems to be because the virus is "shifty."

It's not a COVID story, but I'm throwing this out there for general information. I just had a bout of vertigo caused by one of the crystals in my inner ear floating into the wrong position. It lasted a full week, tapering off in the last few days. Yesterday was my first day of being completely back to normal. After there was no change in the first two days, I called the Advice Nurse with my health plan. Since Vertigo could be caused by a serious medical problem, he said I needed to have someone take me to the emergency room. A friend took me there after 7:00 PM and picked me up at 2:30 AM! Before arriving at the benign diagnosis, they tested my blood and performed both an EKG and an MRI. No heart of brain problems. Discussing this with friends and relatives I discovered I had gotten off easy. This is more likely to happen to people later in life (I'm going to be 74 in a few months) but it can happen at any age. One of my UK cousins had it at 12 and it lasted three weeks! I'm hoping this is my one-and-only vertigo experience, but some people have it multiple times. Some people have the room spinning even when lying down and have nausea. I was lucky not to have either.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Richard Willis said:

Is DMV the District of Columbia and the entirety of Maryland and Virginia or just the counties closest to DC?

The latter. Basically, it's the jurisdictions that fall "inside the Beltway," that being the Capital Beltway that rings around the city.

Specifically:

• The District of Columbia
• Prince George's County and Montgomery County in the state of Maryland
• Arlington County and Fairfax County, and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church in the commonwealth of Virginia

Hope this helps.