D&D and the rising pandemic

[ssvegeta555]

Choose your international travel locations carefully. Things are still ugly out there:

Vietnam detects highly contagious new coronavirus variant as infections surge

Vietnam's Health Ministry announced Saturday that it had detected a highly transmissible new variant of the coronavirus that has helped fuel a recent wave of covid-19 infections in the country. Genetic sequencing indicated that the new variant was a mix of the coronavirus strains first detected...

www.yahoo.com

They note that non-pharmaceutical measures seem to be less effective with this one because of its virulence and increased rate of reproduction. Translation: it is easier to catch, and needs a lower viral load to successfully infect someone,

I was hoping to fly out there perhaps October or something. Vietnam was in talks a month and a half ago to slowly open up allowing fully vaccinated individuals to visit. I haven't been able to see my fiance since her country closed down in March of last year. We're planning to get married but looks like it'll be delayed again perhaps to next year if this keeps up. We can always wait. I'm just more concerned about her.

My fiance lives in Ho Chi Minh City and she's telling me the whole city will in lockdown starting midnight. Essential travel only. Her building might be disinfected because there's someone rumored to have covid was in her building recently. But if someone with covid was there, I'd think it'll be fully locked down instead. Her sister's entire district was quarantined today, no one can come out. This all happened within 24 hours.

 

[Umbran]

They note that non-pharmaceutical measures seem to be less effective with this one because of its virulence and increased rate of reproduction. Translation: it is easier to catch, and needs a lower viral load to successfully infect someone,

Yeah, this is how contagions generally develop/evolve - they tend to increase in virulence, but decrease in leathality.

 

[Umbran]

Her building might be disinfected because there's someone rumored to have covid was in her building recently. But if someone with covid was there, I'd think it'll be fully locked down instead.

As we find more and more that transmissions from surfaces isn't really a thing, disinfecting the building becomes less and less of an issue.

 

[Umbran]

I think a lot of folks in the US are going to freak out when cold/flu/COVID season rolls around, these variants migrate north, much like seasonal influenza, and at least partial restrictions come back.

Yeah, well, freak-out bars are low these days.

I'm kind of expecting that booster shots and periodic restrictions and masking will be required for a long time.

 

[Wyldekarde]

I miss playing face-to-face games but here, we personally still have it suspended. It doesn't help that the country where I'm at has not totally lifted quarantine procedures and I predict will still be ongoing for the rest of the year at the minimum. Quarantine has not been lifted at all since it started last year so we're now over 1 year in a quarantine state. Even though we can go out, I still keep to strict mask always (and face shields) as they are required here and I definitely keep social distancing strictly.

On a good note though, finding games now for me as a GM who never gets to play has been improving. I can now join pickup games from many international groups active on discord while using VTTs as a medium. I normally use Astral Tabletop but I've also started using Talespire which is pretty fun.

 

[ssvegeta555]

As we find more and more that transmissions from surfaces isn't really a thing, disinfecting the building becomes less and less of an issue.

Yeah, it was just a rumor she overheard. No one came by to disinfect anything. But a person living in the room below hers could've been exposed from a co-worker and if the test results are positive, I wouldn't be surprised if they quarantined the whole building. So that's fun...

 

[Cadence]

Our LGS has been open two days a week with pretty small groups for a while (not me). They were open for FNM for MtG this Friday for the first time since early 2020 and apparently had quite a turn out.

I couldn't make it, too busy cleaning house to have three friends over for a cookout and some EDH tonight. (Last one to have second shot had it kick in a few weeks ago).

 

[Umbran]

So, having been largely isolated and anxious about human contact for a year and more takes its toll.

I have a player for whom the thought of being around people again has generated so much stress that he can't come to the table yet. He's having problems just leaving his house.

And this is a guy I've known for years - he's not typically fragile. I feel so bad for him.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So, having been largely isolated and anxious about human contact for a year and more takes its toll.

I have a player for whom the thought of being around people again has generated so much stress that he can't come to the table yet. He's having problems just leaving his house.

And this is a guy I've known for years - he's not typically fragile. I feel so bad for him.

I may have mentioned my extreme introversion paying dividends before...

But Mom is my polar opposite, and would eat out almost daily. She’s been vaccinated since early March, but still hasn’t managed to muster the courage to go anyplace besides MD appointments and other necessary errands. No in-restaurant dining. Sometimes, I drive her around town a bit instead of returning directly home.

But she seems to be coming around. She actually dropped her mask around her neck at the other day. (Everyone was vaccinated and we were there to get her watch repaired and get some links removed.)

 

[MarkB]

Yeah, well, freak-out bars are low these days.

I'm kind of expecting that booster shots and periodic restrictions and masking will be required for a long time.

The next several months will be the first real test. Until now, variants of the virus have developed based upon whether they can out-compete the original for infection rates. But now that multiple countries have significant immunised populations, this is when we may start seeing variants cropping up on the basis of their resistance to the vaccines.