Maggie's Farm

It's possible she had it at some point since May, asymptomatically.
But in May when we tested for antibodies, she came up blank. My son and I both had them.

My mother is 85 years old and an alcoholic. She suffers from macular degeneration and is going deaf, and has depression. Her mother lived to 92 and was active until the very end.
About 20 years ago we were told my mother had 6 months to live due to her drinking.

The question you can ask is whether medical science is 'bad' because she's alive after 20 years and didn't die in 6 months OR if she could have lived to 92 without all her other issues and been active if she'd given up drinking, based on medical advice.

I'd say the latter is more likely. Genetics play a huge role in life. If you can manage your affairs and health in a positive fashion, you may optimize outcomes.

A follow up question may be "is it worth it to spend so much time putting effort into getting 10 extra years if I'm not really enjoying myself along the way?" Well...that's a personal choice.

Most of Gang Green's points are simple things I do that don't interfere with my enjoyment of life. I do tend to sit a little too much, and probably don't get enough sleep, so I'll try to adjust those. But I get plenty of exercise and eat well, manage my weight and try to not overdo the alcohol.

My mom is 85 and my father is 85. One is in terrible shape, the other is on a natural downward slope but working to improve.

I can only hope to be in better shape than both when I'm 85, and I don't think it will take much to get there.

BTW, I had Covid. It was a bad flu for me, not a cold. I've had flu, cold and this was pretty bad by comparison to those. I know others who had it far worse than I did. I won't scoff at this as just a cold. But I'm not really taking it as seriously as politicians want me to, mainly because my first-hand knowledge is better than anything they've got.

Oh hell yeah it does. My parents are the same age, divorced.
Comparatively speaking, they look and behave completely differently.

I'd like to believe if she'd cared for herself my mother could live past 100. She may still, who knows? But it seems unlikely. Then again, it also seems unlikely that she's made it this far...so genes really count for quite a bit.

I don't know that the media isn't reporting what you posted...I see/hear it so much I've turned off the TV/Radio.

I haven't ever said the pandemic wasn't real. Or that it was a joke. I've always felt some reasonable steps should be recommended and followed. But we've allowed the chickens to fly the coop and gone way, way overboard.

My point is that there isn't a whole lot you can do, policy-wise, to stop this. The event I encountered this weekend was avoidable in only one way - complete and utter lack of human contact of all types.

Sorry, but that is simply not a policy that is going to stick. Especially since I've had it already, and while I'm going along with the 'guidelines', I'm not buying into the bullshit. And there is a lot of bullshit out there, mostly on the "OMG this is so awful" side.

It's bad. Worse than we've seen in many years. But not so awful as to have required the excessive public interventions we've seen and the apocalyptic scenarios which we're told are all too common (and really aren't).

Still, my story is one of how to do right by others voluntarily and as a matter of choice, despite recognizing the utter idiocy of the general policies in place ('wear your mask until you reach your magic table where no viruses can touch you' is one of my favorites, though 'by shutting down businesses we're saving lives' is by far the best one).

Had I not already had Covid, I doubt I'd be doing anything different than I did this weekend. I broke no rules, recommendations or guidelines. There was no gathering of large groups, just a small meeting of friends who had mostly had it already. It was an unlucky event that one of these friends came down ill the next day and tested positive. After all, he'd spent 2 weeks being careful prior to Christmas just so he could see his parents. Somewhere along that 'being careful' timeline he'd chanced into the virus.

It happens and there isn't much you or anyone can do about it and there's nothing any policy can do to stop it.

I believe I've discussed this in the past, if not directly, then indirectly.

But my POV is that if we have to take extreme measures to protect the 'front line workers' from this, then why have we not done the same when other viral outbreaks have presented themselves, like the flu, in years past?

More deadly/less deadly and more viral/less viral doesn't factor into this discussion. A bad flu season is a bad flu season and we just didn't do these things. Are we going to do this all the time now? Did Howard Hughes' mentality infect everyone - are we all germophobes?

I took the steps I have taken because I am concerned about potential spread, but more concerned about the social stigma that comes along with this now. I don't want to be a vector, and I don't want to be the person everyone points to as the vector so they can shame him/her. But I won't criticize anyone who takes it less seriously than I do. Technically, I could be all over the guy who called me - because I don't know what he did that allowed this to present itself in his system. I know he had quarantined prior to Christmas so he could see his family...but obviously he did something or went somewhere during his quarantine. Or his quarantine just wasn't 'good enough'. Or his family brought it with them.

Who knows? It's a virus. It's going to spread. I don't think he spread it deliberately or I doubt he'd have called. Clearly he was concerned enough to let people know, and that's the right thing to do.

Now my procedures have been put off until Jan 27. I hit my deductible this year, so now I'll be paying for this work...a small price to pay, overall. But it's annoying. As such, at least for my part of the discussion, I have touched on the topic and done my part.