This is kind of OT, but I’m going to ask anyway: under what conditions do you think that symptomatic people should stay home? If a person’s symptoms are debilitating, staying home is the obviously correct choice. But if a person’s symptoms aren’t debilitating and wears a ventless respirator (and can tolerate it and it doesn’t interfere too much in what they’re doing), I don’t see why they should stay home.
In general I think people who are definitely sick should not go to parties or the social part of work (which for almost everyone I know is the part that can’t be done from home), even with ventless respirators, even with a negative covid test. There are lots of diseases, spreading them is costly, masks interfere too much at parties and in person interactions at work, which is the only reason for many people to go (if you’re at a job that benefits from in-person presence because of equipment or because your home is too disruptive, this doesn’t apply. if your job involves interacting with a lot of people, or food, obviously don’t go while symptomatic). I think running unpostponable maintenance tasks like grocery shopping (if you can’t get delivery) or doctors visits is okay.
The problem I find harder is people who are mildly symptomatic, in ways that could be an illness or allergies, or are on the trail end up symptoms after a disease has probably but not definitely been cleared. “No interaction for five days after a sniffly nose” is life ruining for a lot of people.
The problem I find harder is people who are mildly symptomatic, in ways that could be an illness or allergies, or are on the trail end up symptoms after a disease has probably but not definitely been cleared. “No interaction for five days after a sniffly nose” is life ruining for a lot of people.
Yeah, this is a much more difficult situation for me. I think I more or less always have minor COVID symptoms if construed strictly, given that various minor allergies or similar have the same symptoms as COVID...
Decreased social interaction can be a showstopper but sometimes it isn’t; so, I think a case-by-case policy would be more reasonable than a general stay-at-home-no-matter-what recommendation. In the party scenario, the choice is between attending and not attending (I’m assuming that there’s no remote party option like VR chat or something). For some parties (like birthday parties), attending might be better even if social interaction is reduced. For others (like indoor dinner parties), it might not be worth attending. In the job scenario, many jobs can’t be performed remotely, so physically attending would be better. You seem to have acknowledged this when you said:
if you’re at a job that benefits from in-person presence because of equipment or because your home is too disruptive, this doesn’t apply
This is kind of OT, but I’m going to ask anyway: under what conditions do you think that symptomatic people should stay home? If a person’s symptoms are debilitating, staying home is the obviously correct choice. But if a person’s symptoms aren’t debilitating and wears a ventless respirator (and can tolerate it and it doesn’t interfere too much in what they’re doing), I don’t see why they should stay home.
In general I think people who are definitely sick should not go to parties or the social part of work (which for almost everyone I know is the part that can’t be done from home), even with ventless respirators, even with a negative covid test. There are lots of diseases, spreading them is costly, masks interfere too much at parties and in person interactions at work, which is the only reason for many people to go (if you’re at a job that benefits from in-person presence because of equipment or because your home is too disruptive, this doesn’t apply. if your job involves interacting with a lot of people, or food, obviously don’t go while symptomatic). I think running unpostponable maintenance tasks like grocery shopping (if you can’t get delivery) or doctors visits is okay.
The problem I find harder is people who are mildly symptomatic, in ways that could be an illness or allergies, or are on the trail end up symptoms after a disease has probably but not definitely been cleared. “No interaction for five days after a sniffly nose” is life ruining for a lot of people.
Yeah, this is a much more difficult situation for me. I think I more or less always have minor COVID symptoms if construed strictly, given that various minor allergies or similar have the same symptoms as COVID...
Decreased social interaction can be a showstopper but sometimes it isn’t; so, I think a case-by-case policy would be more reasonable than a general stay-at-home-no-matter-what recommendation. In the party scenario, the choice is between attending and not attending (I’m assuming that there’s no remote party option like VR chat or something). For some parties (like birthday parties), attending might be better even if social interaction is reduced. For others (like indoor dinner parties), it might not be worth attending. In the job scenario, many jobs can’t be performed remotely, so physically attending would be better. You seem to have acknowledged this when you said: