Jump to content

End of Summer COVID 19 Poll


COVID Poll Heading Into Flu Season  

31 members have voted

You do not have permission to vote in this poll, or see the poll results. Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Eric said:

Re: work - my scenario did not fit any of the options.  We have never closed our office and I have been in to work almost every day.

I don't think I ever offered that option. What are the rules about masks and social distancing? Do clients come to the office regularly?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the testing question, my wife and I have been tested twice (once separately and the timing on results varied). We both took a test offered by Rite Aid and we had the results back in two days, I took one in July for a colonoscopy and, again, results were received in two days. She had one in July and didn’t receive the results for 14 days; useless. The run up to her last week was peculiar. Hopefully, it’s the exception to the general rule: she called her doctor, who said the hospital would call. The hospital called and said the testing center would call.  She never received a call (despite calling the hospital several times) and it was at that point she had a test administered by one of these medical emergency clinics. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Museum I worked for here in DC is still closed to the public, as are 95% of all DC museums. Two for-profit museums are open with limited visitors, as is the National Gallery (not part of the Smithsonian).

The museum I worked for (for ~7 years, in Administration, in the office of the executive director), ultimately laid off about 90% of the entire staff. And the remaining literally 12-15 people are only working half-time (or less), or so I’ve heard through the grapevine.

So I remain my wife’s personal chef (i.e. unemployed), as Washington DC remains on semi-lockdown (phase 2). Though the lockdown has gotten and kept our positivity rate down, currently around 2.6% last I heard (last week). Rates have been much higher in Northern Virginia and surrounding Maryland (close to 7% each, iirc), again, as of last week.

To be honest, I haven’t even seriously looked at more than a handful of job possibilities, since the unemployment rate is sky high around here. I’d hoped to find something as a contact-tracer, but those jobs seem to have been filled early on by out-of-work healthcare workers (though that wasn’t a requirement), and lately they’ve had multilingual requirements added as well.

Fortunately my wife’s Federal job is solid, and she’s working from home 4-5 days a week - only going into her offices downtown about 3-4 times per month.

We haven’t eaten out even once since March (not even with all the outdoor seating that’s popped up out in front of many restaurants), though we do get takeout about twice a week.

We rented a car and took a nice day-trip through Southern Maryland, following the Underground Railroad and an extensive mobile-phone narrated tour with over 100 stops  that stretches up into Delaware and on to Philadelphia, though we only covered about the first 40 stops.

Never went into any businesses, and took all our own meals. Only even remotely “contact”-related thing was when I stopped for gas, and to use the restrooms as two deserted Starbucks locations. Otherwise we were in the car the entire day, but it was nice to get out for a change, after 5 months nearly always in the same 800 city blocks (roughly 2 square miles).

Not complaining though. We’ve been listening to lots more music than we have in years (over a decade), and enjoying TONS of documentaries on-line, and lots of PBS. 

Edited by Rooster_Ties
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

The Museum I worked for here in DC is still closed to the public, as are 95% of all DC museums. Two for-profit museums are open with limited visitors, as is the National Gallery (not part of the Smithsonian).

 

I was told by an archivist that the Smithsonian has plans to open September 17 but not all staff would return. No idea if that's been pushed off or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

I was told by an archivist that the Smithsonian has plans to open September 17 but not all staff would return. No idea if that's been pushed off or not.

I am hoping to get back on at my museum, but probably in a different role. But my hunch is that they won’t be hiring back significant numbers until 2021.

Due to unforeseen construction required by the Federal agency that maintains our building, our museum was closed to the public starting last November(!) - i.e. NO admissions or rental revenue for the 5 months prior to the pandemic shutdown. As a result, they had to cut 20% of the salaried staff at the end of January (so the financial picture wasn’t super rosy even at the beginning of the shutdown).

I’m absolutely certain they’ll do whatever they have to, to emerge and continue on - but I suspect that will be with a bare minimum staff for another full year (just my wild guess). My position was eliminated, as were others back at the end of January - so if I can go back, I’m sure it will be in some other capacity (but probably lower on the totem pole too, c'est la vie).

But given the overall employment picture here in DC, with tourism down to a bare trickle, that may be the situation for thousands of others here (and tens of thousands more generally, as long as we’re still in phase 2 lockdown).

The National Gallery has a Billion(!) dollar endowment (iirc), and similarly the Smithsonian. Most other museums in DC, were operating in an entirely other world, in terms of reserves - being private entities unrelated to the Smithsonian (or National Gallery, which is similar, but distinct).

When things turn around, the shift will be abrupt, with lots of hiring. Until then, I’m reading online that what few openings are getting 500 or more applications. I keep reading horror stories about people applying to 100 and even 200 jobs, without getting more than 1 or 2 interviews (or none). I have to confess to having zero stomach for trying fight that battle hundreds of times over (and failure after failure) - so I’m gonna wait a few more months and hopefully things will be better by then.

And ideally I can get back on, (unfortunately more at the ground floor), with my old employer. Fingers crossed.

Edited by Rooster_Ties
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

I don't think I ever offered that option. What are the rules about masks and social distancing? Do clients come to the office regularly?

Masks on unless you are in your office or alone in a cube.  Rarely do we have third parties, but all required to wear masks.  Every morning we have our temperature taken and have to answer a series of questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our employer is softly pushing people to come in to the office to try things out.  I'm biking in 3-4 days/week and have been doing that for close to a month..

In Toronto there are two options for schooling - either 100% on-line or roughly 30% in-person/70% on-line.  We're going to have the kids go in-person (as long as this lasts and isn't shut down by another Covid wave).

Generally not eating out, though ordering pick-up from time to time.  I am going to the gym about twice a week, and went to the movies twice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fortunate (like Rooster's spouse) to have a solid federal job (just passed 25 years of service). Teleworking from home, and I don't anticipate ever going back regularly. More like office visits when my government-furnished laptop has issues, or I need a book from my office.

Mother (who just turned 88!) flunked a test in mid-July with fairly minor symptoms, did 2 week quarantine, and then tested negative. [Not sure if I've previously shared this.] A few weeks later, fell down, hit head, went back to hospital and flunked covid test. Got shuffled around at physical therapy places and tested negative 3 days later (so believe first test was false positive, but at this point who the hell really knows). Scary given her age and underlying conditions. Fortunately no severe symptoms (at least so far). Frustrating about the lack of communication within/across medical system.

Haven't gotten a test myself. Vacationed with another couple for a week around July 4. Just four of us in a large farmhouse. Mostly outdoor activities (bikes, grill). Have met another couple in their backyard, with social distancing kept in mind. My wife just flew cross country (on fairly full American flights) to visit/help her parents in smoky California.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, medjuck said:

I think your percentages for 3 are wrong, perhaps not taking into consideration that almost everyone voted twice as they were asked  to.  

To cover both friends and personal experience I had to set it to allow multiple answers. Otherwise I would exhaust the number of allowed questions.

Edited by Dan Gould
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

No one has ever been restricted from participating and I have no idea why you thought that.

I've seen quite a few polls on US-based fora with an international membership that were mostly US-centric, so I assumed this one was too; my mistake. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, GA Russell said:

Dan, I had difficulty choosing an answer for Question #1 because the comments were not appropriate for me.

I am not clear why; if the problem is no kids of school age, my wife and I have no kids at all but I still answered based on what I know is happening in the county.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Far as the other non-job questions go, my wife and I don’t have any kids (we know our limits!), and I think(?) most schools around here are mostly only-line only, or a few are trying staggered shifts where kids are only in school in person ~2 days/week (but have the options for all on-line). Without kids, and there being 3 different ‘state’ jurisdictions (DC, VA, and MD), it’s a little hard to keep track of it all.

And neither one of us have ever been tested. We both think there’s a 30%(?) chance we both got Covid back in late (iirc), because we both had mild symptoms and some odd headaches - but at that point, the idea of largely asymptotic carriers wasn’t even being talked about. I really have no idea if either of us got it, and I’m inclined to say we probably DIDN’T, but I can’t rule it out either.

I have a cousin in Chicago, and she’s pretty she her husband got it (and he has asthma), and it kicked him pretty hard, though he was never hospitalized. Had him half on the ropes for a solid 10-11 days, but he wasn’t able to get tested. This was back in April, iirc.

And my wife knows some people through work who have had relatives who have gotten it - though not people we know personally (so I guess that’s one degree of separation more than was asked about in the polling) - but my cousin’s husband certainly qualifies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/8/2020 at 4:47 PM, Dan Gould said:

I am not clear why; if the problem is no kids of school age, my wife and I have no kids at all but I still answered based on what I know is happening in the county.  

Dan, here in Raleigh, all grammar schools are online.  Neither of the comments which followed state my views.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I guess I can say I now "know" someone in real life with Covid - someone at my new job who I've only interacted with via email was diagnosed last week or over the weekend (husband and child also positive). Just found out from my wife (her supervisor) that her fever spiked to 105.7 and she is on her way to the ER. :blink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

as a fixed income social security recipient who had some good teaching/playing gigs scheduled for the spring, this thing has caused some financial difficulty, though it's been pretty much manageable. Actually, sales from the new book and historical cds were substantial and helped me put enough aside to pay my property taxes.

the good news is that Lincoln Center expects to have classes in the Spring  and wants my blues-history course. We will see how that develops. I am cautiously pessimistic.

on the other side of things, my niece's father in law, mid-60s and a doctor, living in Texas, died of Covid last week. Was a wonderful man from all accounts.

 

Edited by AllenLowe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...