Plague Diary: In Which I Have the Plague

[lydy]

In preparation for my gig in Cleveland, and because I had a minor gastric event, I submitted a saliva test, administered on Nov. 23rd.  Today, while at a rest stop in Illinois, I checked my email, and found that the result was positive.

I am currently in Indiana, and will go on to Cleveland and quarantine there.  I have informed my employer, and he will inform the Cleveland Clinic, and let me know how to proceed on Monday.  Even if the contract goes up in smoke, I will stay in Cleveland until I'm safe to go home.

I am very, very worried about my family.  I am somewhat worried about myself.  

As our president has said, It is what it is.  It didn't need to be this way, but it is. 

Comments

[lydy]

So, there is a lot we don't know. But the pattern of infection is consistent with airborne pathogens and not with food borne or fomite transmission. If the latter two were true, we'd be seeing different patterns of infection. The biggest questions seem to be about how much viral load creates the disease, how easy is it to acquire said viral load, etc. I listened to an epidemiologist talking about how we know it's airborne, and I don't remember all of the details, but roughly, they said that if it was, for instance, touch-based, we'd have more reports of people who had been in contact with a specific item being infected and that being the only common denominator, and we just don't have those.

As for why I didn't want to tell anyone, I knew it would complicate my life enormously. As, in fact, it has. I got yelled at by the hotel manager in Indiana, who threatened to charge me more money because he could not rent the room. He wanted to know why I had come there and I explained that I had no place else to go. He said I should not have come, I told him I didn't find out until I was an hour away, and could not possible return to Minneapolis. He started yelling, and I yelled back that he had no moral leg to stand on, he was letting college students have loud parties in the hotel. He said that they didn't have COVID and I yelled at him that he had no idea if that were true, he hadn't tested any of them. At which point, he suddenly decided that he didn't need to charge me more money. Honestly, they should be cleaning every hotel room as if someone who is positive has stayed there.

And the Airbnb hosts are upset, too. One of the two is warm and friendly, but warned me that his wife/partner is very stressed out. Additionally, they notified Airbnb, and Airbnb has "escalated your case to a safety team" and I don't know what that means. I am, of course, isolating (and it was a beautiful day for a bike ride, today, dammit). At the moment, the entrance they want me to use is not shared by anyone else, but on the 20th, another tenant will be there, and so there are concerns.

And my temporary gig could still all go up in smoke, in which case I will have spent a great deal of time, money, and effort to get to Cleveland, be sick, and turn around and go home without having any income to show for it.

So, yeah, there was a long moment where I just wished that I could pretend I didn't know, and act normal. But I am crap at being a sociopath.

[dreamshark]

Got it. That is shockingly unprofessional behavior from the hotelier. As you say, they should be cleaning every room as if somebody sick had stayed there. Especially if they are letting college students party in those rooms. Sheesh.

So are you in Cleveland now, at the AirBnB? The idea that they are upset because someone else might be sharing your entrance IN FOUR WEEKS is absurd. You only need to quarantine for 2 weeks unless you get a whole lot sicker. Which I gather is not happening, right?

Have your housemates back in Minneapolis been tested? When will they get the results?

[pameladean]

Going by the advice of the state health department, we've ordered at-home saliva test kits. They will be here Tuesday, which is the earliest that we should be tested anyway given that our last exposure to Lydy was Thursday.

P.

[dreamshark]

Of course you don't know that one of you didn't get it first and expose Lydy.

In any case, it sounds like all of you are feeling well, which is good to hear.

[pameladean]

That's true, of course. We never will know, I guess, unless they do contact tracing differently. But the state seems just to go by whether you were exposed to a known case.

P.

[bibliofile]

I hope you all end up being okay! It is worrisome.

[pameladean]

Ugh, I'm sorry people are being so awful. It's as if they were trying to pretend there was no pandemic.

P.