doing the math

[the_siobhan]

The hospital is keeping housemate for a couple of days. They weren't able to keep anything down, including the Paxlovid, so I'm assuming the doctors were concerned about dehydration. Honestly, based on their symptoms I would have guessed Norovirus and not Covid, but hey, masking and hand-washing is good for not catching both right?

So my confirmed exposure was on Friday. My last potential exposure was yesterday. Assuming the housemate is clean when they come home and I continue to test negative, I can be around other people... Monday? That's five full days after being in the same room masked. That sound about right?

Hrm, just found this guideline that says mask for ten days after exposure. So if I count from Friday as my confirmed exposure that means I'm clear on Tuesday, or the following Saturday if I count from masked one.

*throws hands in the air*

This is the stupidest fucking time line.

In the meantime I'm running out of supplies. I need to see how much it costs to get food delivered. I know it's only $3 to get it pre-packed for me if I walk over and pick it up and that's probably safe enough if I do it during a low-traffic time slot.

You know, back when I worked with HIV I got to wear a full-ass hazmat suit. I have always regretted not stealing one. Going to pick up groceries while wearing a hazmat suit would honestly be a hoot.

***

Kitchen guy came in today for a couple of hours. He's still fiddling with a faucet that's fighting him and then he's done, hopefully tomorrow. Builder texted to say he scheduled with his crew to return on Monday and finish the drywall in the basement.

When I see kitchen guy I need to ask him for the name of the paint they used for the walls because who already put a big scuff in it by pulling the painters tape off too fast? This asshole right here.

***

I spoke to my dad on the phone today and it was really worrying how hard it was to get him to understand me. He also told me he had pneumonia last week - which means he's been sick three times in as many months. I get that it's not always possible to dodge illness, but three times since Xmas? That's concerning.

Comments

[greylock]

The exposure rules are all over the place now, but I reckon if you're still testing negative and have no symptoms, and go out masked, you could be fairly confident you're okay to pick up food or see people.

The shop might even bring it out to you, if you are really worried. Car to boot stuff seems to have survived here.

How was there not oodles of leftover paint?

I get that it's not always possible to dodge illness, but three times since Xmas? That's concerning.

Probably hasn't fully recovered from the first ick, letting the other icks slip in. :(

[dissectionist]

With incubation being 3-5 days, that’s really the important time period to quarantine as much as possible, for people who have the capability to do so (and who care about not being plague rats). The additional five days of masking (not avoiding others, just masking) is likely for fear that people might indeed have gotten infected but are asymptomatic or presymptomatic and not testing positive (or not testing positive yet).

In general, in our house, since JN.1 we’ve done five-day quarantine after known exposure and then called it good, but we always mask in public and/or around anyone but immediate family members anyway.

[the_siobhan]

I do the same. (Masking around other people)

Of course this all depends on Axel not coming home still infectious.

[dissectionist]

Yep. If they manage to get the Paxlovid into him and keep it down within the five-days-from-start timeframe, he’ll start testing negative quick. The problem is that rebound (when they start shedding virus again after Paxlovid treatment ends) happens about 20% of the time with Paxlovid, so that’s something to be wary of.

[redbird]

Rebound also happens when people haven't taken Paxlovid, unfortunately, which has gotten significantly less attention.

[dissectionist]

It can (though the rate of non-Paxlovid rebound is just over half of what we see with Paxlovid - it’s more like 1 in 10, not 1 in 5). Since they’ve been trying to get Paxlovid into housemate, if they’re successful, the higher rate will apply.

[the_siobhan]

OK, so the info I found on rebound says it happens 3 to 8 days after testing negative. So I should treat Axel as infectious for an additional week after they return home.

I'm starting to get why people think this virus was bio-engineered in a lab, this thing is unbelievable.

[kest]

Anecdotally 4/5ths of the people I know who have taken Paxlovid have rebounded and I don't know a single person who rebounded Paxlovid-free. The 'official' Paxlovid tests were on unvaccinated people, so I suspect vaccination and also higher body weight has something to do with it.

[houseof9cats]

JN.1 can manifest as GI.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/covid-19-is-new-covid-variant-jn-1-shifting-target-from-lungs-to-intestines-here-is-the-latest-buzz-among-scientists/articleshow/106173596.cms?from=mdr

It's ten to fourteen days. Five was manufactured to get people back into work more quickly.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isolation.html

We've been using click and collect since 2020. LOVE IT. Here it's a dollar unless you want same day, then it's $3.

Sorry for multiple edits. I love a bit of ADHD in the morning.

[greylock]

Five was manufactured to get people back into work more quickly.

Back into the office! So it can spread more!
Build up that herd immunity.

[houseof9cats]

IKR? Herd immunity that isn't going to happen. https://t.co/1Km2KcNqMq

[cornerofmadness]

Could even be both. I've had that norovirus before, I SHOULD have gone to the hospital but a) the medical group I worked with didn't provide health insurance b) were all over me for taking days off....I'm like I'm a doctor and you're an accountant and you're telling ME what i should be doing?!?

[houseof9cats]

I was thinking this earlier, too. Both is possible.

[kest]

After not being sick since January 2020, I have now been sick with four different things since December, including both covid and norovirus, so I could maybe see having covid and norovirus at the same time and that would SUCK. In any case I hope the hospital eventually figures it out. (Some of the constant sicknesses is doubtless because covid impacts the immune system, but also there's just been a lot of stuff going around this winter.)

The CDC here of course just changed things to say even people who test positive can just merrily be around other people if they don't have any symptoms now, but the guidelines they had previously were, if no symptoms, to test on day 6 and mask until day 10 (but that second part doesn't matter to me because I mask ANYWAY). My actual experience with the current covid variant is that I got it on Dec 28th and was sick af and tested clearly positive on Jan 1, so that's 4 days, and vaccinated people are likely most infectious from the day before they are symptomatic/positive to day +3 or so, so if you give it a week you're really probably fine even if you're an asymptomatic carrier.