COVID - "doing all the right things..."

[cilla4progress]

and still getting it. This is what scares me. How does this happen?

I didnt watch MSMBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle discuss this morning, but this was her case.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Are the people in your household also doing all the right things?

A household is really a single entity where this virus is concerned; it takes only one mistake by one person to bring it home. What if your teenager sneaks out to visit a girlfriend, for example (teenagers' judgment isn't always the best)? I don't know what Stephanie Ruhle's home situation is, but even if she was doing all the right things, maybe not everybody else did.

[LisaL]

2. The only way to be completely safe is to lock yourself away from civilization in the bunker

somewhere with enough supplies that you don't have to be in contact with outside world.
People think they are doing the right things, but if they are still in contact with other people, nothing is a 100% effective.
I haven't watched what she said, but there are people here who say they are doing all the right things, but they still go to supermarkets, doctors visits, pharmacies, and so on.
So it's not completely safe, far from it.

[BusyBeingBest]

3. Spouse, kids, roommates--

anyone else who is in your home multiplies your risk, unless you wear a mask 24/7. And even wearing a mask won't totally prevent it, unless it's n-95 or similar.

[LisaL]

4. Yep. And general public is told to wear cloth masks.

Cloth masks usually don't filter nowhere near 95%.
So people think because they are wearing a mask they are 100 % safe and it's not the case, not even close in case of a cloth mask.

[Wounded Bear]

5. An N95 mask is not 100% effective...

thus the name. N95 means that is it 95% effective, more or less.

Now, if everybody wore an N95, they would be about 99% effective, but nothing is perfect. It also depends on whether someone spent time in confined spaces with other, and how much time.

Nothing is perfect, it's all about reducing the risk as much as is possible.

[cilla4progress]

6. Just having a hard time wrapping my mind around

a risk analysis scale.

Our adult daughter (only child) lives alone and has been "isolating" since March We have invented our own vocabulary for this.

By isolating - only socializing primarily outdoors with 2 others (who also both work and live with partners, however), masked. She doesn't go to restaurants and bars, wears a mask at work and shopping.

Her employer is quite mask compliant. However there was a part-timer who let her mask fall below her nose, who my daughter worked in close proximity to. Co-worker tested positive, so daughter had to quarantine for 2 weeks in early November. She tested negative and is back at work.

We drove the 10 hours to spend Thanksgiving with daughter. No socializing with others; just hiked, cooked, ate, played games. We had a long discussion about whether to go, but daughter has been getting depressed

Now daughter is driving here for Christmas. She will have potential exposure through 12/18. Following new CDC guidelines somewhat, she will isolate /quarantine till 12/23, drive home, then further isolate here while indoors, thru about 12/25.

It's not ideal, in my mind. Husband and I are 65. We are in very strict compliance. I shop for maybe 1 hour a week, fully double-masked, and that's it. We are very fortunate that I can work from home and he retired in March.

I really rankle at the judging of some about a situation like mine, where we are doing our best, but accommodations have to be made for reality, including, as for us, our daughter's mental health!

[StarryNite]

7. My daughter did "all the right things" and still got it.

She has been wearing a mask out in public since March. She washes her hands and uses tons of hand sanitizer when out. She works at a bank where employees are required to wear masks although she says some still pull them down to talk. She keeps hers on the entire time she is in the building. She wears gloves in the bank because money is filthy. The bank has small plexiglass panes in front of the teller windows. Not all the customers would wear masks. They were only allowed to offer them masks and not enforce mask wearing even though our county and the town the bank is in have mask mandates. One customer went off on her for offering a mask and as he left the bank, after she finished his transaction, he turned back to her and told her to go f*ck herself not once but twice as he flipped her off with both hands. Since that event her bank manager has told his employees they can refuse to serve anybody who comes in without a mask. They are to tell them to use the drive thru if they don't want to wear a mask.

She doesn't eat inside restaurants. She doesn't go in friends' homes. She hasn't even been in our house since before March. It's just her and her husband living in their house. He has tested negative, she tested positive. She had a mild case. She never even had a fever. She lost her sense of taste and smell but it is slowly returning. She quarantined for 15 days. She went back to work last week. She then found out that two of her coworkers, both who wear their masks properly all day, also tested positive and were in quarantine the same time she was.

Apparently if only some people do "all the right things" it's just not enough. Maybe because she did all the right things is the reason she had a mild case?

[LisaL]

8. In your daughter's case, doing all the right things unfortunately still involved a high risk job,

where she was in contact with her co-workers and general public.
And yes, mask can limit how much virus someone is exposed to, resulting in a milder case.

[StarryNite]

9. Yes, that's true.

[cilla4progress]

10. I'm getting more helpful info on this thread

so far than anything I've read or heard in media!

Hopefully, this will keep going

I think there needs to be more.concrete info about the TYPE of masks people are wearing. As I said, we are now doublemasking. We use those papery masks luke the blue ones only black, that we bought at Costco on the bottom, then top it with a cloth mask.