r/ZeroCovidCommunity

Hi all, I really just need a safe space to vent about the lack of covid precautions from healthcare professionals.

my partner has Crohn’s and is officially on an immunosuppressive biological and while we’ve been covid conscious/masked as much as possible before he started, we have previously continued going to the doctors/going to the dentist (obviously, in order to for him to receive treatment, we have to see doctors).

We met with the oncologist who was overseeing his infusions. The first thing he said when we walked in was “what’s with the masks.” he was anti mask- even going as far as to demand we briefly unmask so we could “see who he’s talking to.” Being a CANCER DOCTOR who is anti mask is so wild and he was aggressive about it.

Every ER visit for his condition has had us surrounded by medical professionals unmasked/refusing to mask while my partner is in debilitating pain. There have been times where his pain is so high that he has had to unmask- we have had to take that risk. It is so unfair that receiving healthcare is a health risk. Crohn’s increases risk of dental issues as well as skin cancer and we haven’t been able to find a provider willing to mask that also takes his insurance.

I’m really tired of fighting with the healthcare teams that should be caring for him and safely helping him into remission.

I had a blood draw. I got dizzy, sweaty, and saw stars. The unmasked phlebotomists took my mask off because they insisted it was too hard to breathe in it. I was incapacitated briefly and wasn’t in a position to stop them. I’m so frustrated and worried.

Went to get some medical imaging recently, and requested the tech wear an N95 while in the room with me.

The appointment person checked with the tech and the tech said, if they can find one they will wear it. I said I could provide one. Appointment person says "they can only wear one that the facility provides, and not one touched by patients", when I mention the one I would provide is a factory sealed 3M Aura, they go "well N95s have to be fitted, they can't wear a random one". I point out that the policy doesn't make sense because they weren't going to wear one to begin with, so it can only help, not hurt. They said the tech would let us know by EOD if they *can't* find an N95.

Anyway on to the main issue-- I didn't get a call back, so I go to the appointment, and the tech did indeed find an N95 and kept it on the whole time from the waiting room until we finished. Yay!

BUT... it was valved.

I decided not to say anything since it was better than nothing and face-to-face interaction would be minimal, and I was in a KN100.

Couldn't help but think this was malicious compliance, but then again we all know that most people seem incapable of connecting dots these days "why was an N95 requested? does a valve still fit with that?" and maybe it was just "here's an N95 I found, criteria met"?

But as someone in another post mentioned, we now have to be VERY SPECIFIC: "UNVALVED N95 please".

I’m sitting in bed crying on a Wednesday morning because I just canceled my long weekend at my dad’s. I ran out of my Pluslife tests (I thought I had one more but I forgot I spilled one liquid so I’m missing a complete test). They haven’t been working well for me lately anyway—I tested my friend with my last one yesterday and it came up invalid. I still decided to spend some time with him anyway, which was monumentally stupid, but I am just so starved for human contact and physical affection. It felt like the right thing in the moment but this morning I realized I just couldn’t take the chance that I might have caught something from him and could pass it to my 76-year old dad.

I know I made my bed and now I have to lie in it, and this was a completely avoidable situation, but my heart is just tired of this. I want to be able to spend time with people I love without worrying about Covid in the back of my mind.

I have been feeling such a deep sadness and the social isolation is feeling too much to sit with. For me, these come in waves and cycles and sometimes it’s enough that I’m trying my best. I struggle with connecting with people in new ways even all these years later and it’s frustrating how afraid I am of trying. I see so many posts on here that make me feel less isolated and alone and I’m thankful for this space.

Recently I've started masking in public spaces but when I'm at my home or my dads house I unmask. My dad calls me last night after I was saying I'm uncontrollably coughing and feel really sick (blocked nose, runny, ear pain, HORRIBLE throat pain) and then he says how he is feeling and basically lists every single synthom of covid. And basically after the call I got into a panic. Told my mom my dad has covid, opened my windows and then ordered a covid test which is due for tomorrow. I am in horrible pain and fell really sick, covid is no joke and my breathing is horrible and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up in the hospital with an asthma attack because of how horrible my breathing is.

I was a patient zero in 2020 but now I fully feel everything. Idk what to do so some advice would be amazing. (I've been in my room all last night and today)

Interesting!

What do we think of this?

I was following the Air detector developed in Washington University in Saint Louis in 2023.

They developed a small device that samples the air and gives a PCR equivalent in it's accuracy, for covid 19 particals.

It was given to Varro Life Sciences to build a commercial device.

Well..... Now on their site they present it as a

" Subscription-based monitoring contracts ". In other words, we will not have access to it.

That's that I guess.

I am prefacing this by asking people to please be kind about my ask and understand that I’m doing the best I can to reduce risk of Covid. I would LOVE to only date other CC people, but as a neurodivergent fat nonbinary queer polyamorous CC person in the Midwest, my options are extremely limited. I have only met 2 other CC polyamorous people in my area in 5 years of living here. I’m more than willing to be realistic about potential risk, but I ask you please do not speak down at me because I am choosing to take more risk than you.

I just recently started dating a couple who live together. I live about an hour away so we can’t see each other frequently, but at least every 1-2 weeks. Neither of them mask, though one has agoraphobia and does not go out very often but does have another local partner who visits frequently. The other is not currently working, and has no other partners she is seeing on a regular basis. Though they don’t mask, I do feel some comfort knowing they are comparatively not going out and having nearly as much exposure as the average person.

I also have found someone through local kink community I very much adore and could see myself in a relationship with. He is more local to me, and he is engaged to his partner he lives with (with his parent), and will be moving into a home with his partner and a few friends this fall. He does not mask, and he does work in customer service, though he is open to masking (he actually work a kn95 at our first hangout without my asking 🥹) so I know he is open to at least some additional risk mitigation.

All this said, I am looking for suggestions and thoughts people have on general requests I can make of potential partners when it comes to testing/masking, and what I can do to protect myself the best I can under the circumstances. I do not have a plus life or metrix, and the local potential partner does not have extra spending money for RATs, but the couple is more well-off and may be willing to purchase RATs to use before I come up to visit. If I become partners with any of them, I know I will ask them to mask at any major super spreader event like a concert or plane ride, and if they are unmasked at anything like that I will not see them for 10 days after the event. I know people have had different experiences with asking partners to mask, and I’m certainly nowhere near that at this point, but any suggestions on “more reasonable” masking requests I could make, I am eager to hear.

Yesterday, the FDA posted their decision summary after recently granting 501(k) clearance to Aptitude Medical’s Metrix molecular COVID-19 test: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/reviews/K253453.pdf

Recent post on the clearance: https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroCovidCommunity/comments/1vogxvw/aptitude_metrix_updates_fda_has_granted_510k/

Supporting the clearance are 2 new studies evaluating 1,171 symptomatic individuals from the 2023-2024 (540) and 2024-2025 (631) respiratory seasons; much larger than the 357 previously evaluated to grant Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).

In short: The test performed similarly across the board, and they were able to tighten the confidence interval on the false positivity rate with the much larger sample size. For some reason, there was a fairly high invalid rate for the 2023-2024 season specifically, which is something that I know folks often complain about with the platform…not really sure what the deal was there.

Previous EUA data:

• Age 2+, 282 asymptomatic and 75 symptomatic (357)

• Sensitivity: 96.6% (59/61), 95% CI 88.8–99.1%

• False positive rate: 1.0% (3/293), 95% CI 0.2-2.8%

• Invalid rate: 5/357 (1.4%)

New 2023-2024 data:

• Age 14+, 540 symptomatic

• Sensitivity: 95.4% (83/87), 95% CI 88.9–98.2%

• False positive rate: 0.4% (2/451) 95% CI 0.1-1.6%)

• Invalid rate: 31/540 (5.7%)

• Invalid rate after retesting: 4/540 (0.7%)

New 2024-2025 data:

• Age 14+, 631 symptomatic

• Sensitivity: 96.9% (62/64), 95% CI 89.3–99.1%

• False positive rate: 0.5% (3/564), 95% CI 0.2-1.5%

• Invalid rate: 3/631 (0.5%)

• Invalid rate after retesting: 2/631 (0.3%)

New combined data:

• Age 14+, 1,171 symptomatic

• Sensitivity: 96.0% (145/151)

• False positive rate: 0.5% (5/1,015)

The IFU sheet containing the old EUA data: https://www.fda.gov/media/162403/download

Whenever I get in from being outside, I sanitize my phone and AirPods. What are people using?

What I’ve tried:

-Early on during the pandemic, I used a PhoneSoap BasicUV Sanitizer Box.

- I then switched to Lysol. Unfortunately, the Lysol method has now ruined a phone and two pairs of AirPods.

I cannot afford to keep re-buying the products. Would appreciate any advice or tips! Thanks!

we dont live in the same house. i havent seen him since sunday. 24 hours after i last saw him, he came down with a sore throat. today he described it as being hit by a bus and generally feeling unwell with coughing, vomiting, etc. he hasnt tested for covid but im acting like it is just in case. how concerned should i be? i mask almost everywhere, he masks when sick and in crowded spaces (esp indoors) but is more lax than i am. we were unmasked and had sex. im a real bad hypochondriac already :(

Maybe this is a bit of a vent but I also am being so serious when I ask this. Why is there so much peer pressure not to mask nowadays? I’ve never felt so much peer pressure in my life, and I grew up looking very weird (I went through a lot of alt phases in a very conservative area from when I was 10 even into my early/mid 20s though I’ve settled into more casual appearance nowadays). But I have never felt this type of pressure to conform before or this sheer level of constantly low grade judgement before in my life. I just don’t get it? You’d have thought people would just not care if someone masks nowadays. Like you’d think the pandemic, even if it’s “over”, would have taught people why sometimes masking is necessary. Now instead even my grandma with afib and a pacemaker (afib she got after a covid infection mind you) doesn’t mask and thinks I’m ridiculous. My brother who has a PhD in microbiology doesn’t mask and thinks I’m paranoid. An ex friend who is all about social justice and advocating for disability rights doesn’t mask and thinks I’m being performative. No one masks. And they all act like I’m crazy. Even most of my long covid doctors don’t mask. Lord. How did this happen? Even strangers comment, or just outright stare in a way they never did even when I teased my bright blue hair and wore black eyeshadow back in the day LOL.

I'm a beginner interested in learning piano seriously and want in-person lessons. Wondering if there's anyone out there (you or someone you may know) in the general area who can teach piano and is Covid-cautious so we can have sessions with minimized infection risk.

Wife & I have been uber-cautious since COVID began. We wear good masks (respirators like KN95s) everywhere we're around others, don't go to big events or family gatherings, and use nitric-oxide based nasal cleansers that so far seem to have kept us from getting COVID.

Yet, we are constantly hassled by family (especially 83 YO Mom) to "just live your life! already!".

Sigh.

I started studying COVID in early 2020 because even a simple cold would damn near hospitalize me (COPD & Asthma from 18 years of 2nd-hand smoke from 3 heavy smokers). THEN, I learned something even worse..

COVID. IS. A. VASCULAR. DISEASE.

Which is a BFD for wife, who had a near fatal heart attack 10+ years ago. Her Cardiac system is basically held together with duct tape and bailing wire. MORE Cardiac damage could kill her. And the way I get hit with even a cold..COVID could possibly kill me as well.

I've tried to explain this umpteen times. How I have BAD COPD & Asthma. Wife has heart issues.

And they just don't care.

"Live your life!" they scream, endlessly.

I'm SO SICK of trying to explain why we DO "live our life" the way WE (not THEY) want.

Just the other day, wife came pretty close to not being here any longer (long story). My Mom responds with "see? This is a 'wake-up call' to just LIVE. YOUR. LIFE!"

I responded with what she is calling a "lecture on COVID" and am...sorry, not sorry, Mom. Learn something. It might help you.

Anyone else able to relate? This is freaking exhausting.

I remember someone posting about success rates of getting hired after masking during job interviews.

I just got a job offer today which made me realize that out of the last 5 job interviews I've had, I wore a mask to every one and was offered the job 4 times.

I didn't wear a mask to a 2023 job interview out of fear of bias working against me. After starting that job, I masked constantly at work. I was poached by another team who knew me as a masked worker, and I was offered the new role. I interviewed for a volunteer role last year wearing a mask, volunteered wearing a mask every time, and was invited to apply for a job at that organization which I ended up being offered. The next job I interviewed for, I wore a mask and did not get offered the job, but I think that they had a lot of candidates and that it was simply poor luck on my part. The next two jobs after that, I showed up masked to the interviews and was offered the job.

I'm feeling proud and hopeful about the lack of judgement!

Edit: I actually got two In-home care jobs as a masked person (one of which I found on Caregiver app, and the other was for a friend's family member), so that technically makes my success rate 6 out of 7 jobs I interviewed for (wasn't masked for one, but was over zoom and advertised myself as wearing a mask in public). AND I just got offered a second position at one of the jobs I just started a week ago.

People are asking what field I work in. Three positions were behavioral health. Behavioral health jobs are often entry level and pay a living wage. It was how I got my foot in the door to do case management without a college degree. I leveraged child care, volunteer work, and service industry experience to get my first BH job.

Also working in any kind of health support gives you an excuse of masking because "I work with vulnerable populations" which makes you look more committed to the work in my opinion.