Thread by @KBSpangler

A very fast story about COVID and everybody trying to do right in circumstances which are weird and wild and impossible.

Hypothetically, let's pretend someone in this purely fictional household works for the state of North Carolina.

Let's say that the married couple in this hypothetical household has been hypervigilant about COVID protocols from early 2020 through now.

And, of course, right around Christmas, our imaginary couple felt like absolute balls.

They had all of the symptoms of mild Omicron. But they ran all over town and found at-home tests! And they were negative! And the symptoms went away very quickly. so they decided they probably had avoided COVID while catching the flu.

(Sometimes our purely hypothetical couple isn't that bright and also jumps to conclusions which makes them feel better, but I digress.)

And then the state employee goes back to work and immediately comes into contact with someone who tests positive later that afternoon, and who calls all of his contacts to let them know they have to get tested.

Because the state employee and his spouse (who is extremely beautiful and talented and is great with small children and animals, by the way) are conscientious and careful, they immediately go into quarantine, and the state employee notifies their workplace.

(During this time, the gorgeous spouse with the incredible singing voice and the beestung lips stops working on a project which we'll hypothetically refer to as PACK UP TWO HUNDRED STUFFED KOALAS because let's not spread the plague around, y'know?)

And then an email goes out that COVID at-home tests have been spotted at a pharmacy, so the spouse throws on her multi-layered masks which bring out the rainbow hues of her eyes and runs over to grab them.

As the spouse and the state employee are both asymptomatic, they take a test apiece.

They are negative. And our hypothetical couple realizes that they probably had COVID over the holiday break and that positive PCR test caught the leftovers.

https://twitter.com/BrunchBewtBlack/status/1479894019022876673

And they wait another couple of days and then take a second at-home test. Still negative.

The state employee notifies everybody and lets them know he's clear.

Today, the state gets in touch with the state employee and lets him know he has tested positive for COVID.

He should quarantine until Jan 9, they say, and wear a mask until Jan 14, just to be sure.

Everybody pause and look at your calendars.

The employee has been cleared to go back to work by the state, but not been cleared to go back to work by his employer. No guidance has come in from that department.

I can only imagine the chaos driving communications and decision-making at every level of this clusterfuck.

There isn't enough of anything--labor, testing, time, etc.

Even if you are trying to do what's right, well...what's right? Who's shaping policy?

Everyone is exhausted and I am extremely sympathetic to the mindset of "Fuck it, pandemic is the new normal, just chop wood and carry water while you can."

And then I wonder how many people our hypothetical couple might have infected when they thought they were clear.

Triple-vaxxed, constant mask-wearing, social distancing...this couple did everything right.

And the state is trying to do everything right.

The moral of this story is screaming.