Gradine
The Elephant in the Room (she/her)
Not especially; boysenberry isn't even botanically a berry at all, descended as it is from raspberries and blackberries (also not berries).
In case you were wondering, cranberry is a berry.
TSR TSR CON is running at the same time as Gary Con in Lake Geneva
In case you were wondering, cranberry is a berry.
dirtypool
Explorer
Pandemic protocols or not; masks or no masks 399 people in THAT space is ridiculous.
I went to PAX Unplugged, which had a mask mandate. Everyone in attendance followed the mandate. It wasn't a big deal. It certainly wasn't all that onerous.
I don't mean to attack your discretion, your choice is your own to make and is the right one. I'm just commenting that wearing the mask all day really wasn't all that terrible.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
Same with Gamehole Con. It was a bit of a drag, but worth it overall. It was fun to actually play something in person.
Saracenus
Always In School Gamer
I get it. Its been almost 2 years of this and everyone is getting fatigued. Just remember that your risk assessment for those conventions were is pre-Omicron variant. If you were what I consider fully vaxed (2 jabs and booster) and wearing masks prior to Omicron you were pretty safe if you weren't 6 months out from your last jab with Delta. Heck, I went and saw Patton Oswalt perform right before Thanksgiving. I got COVID tested before it and again after it.
The New York anime con that just happened in late early DEC became a super spreader event because the new variant can break through our current vaccines... For example, small, 30 person friend group at that con with at least 2 jabs (the CDC standard for fully vaxed in the US) and roughly half of them caught the new COVID strain. Most were asymptomatic and only a couple got hit hard. 35K people were asked to test out of 55K in attendance.
This is concerning but completely anecdotal.
Please take this with huge grains of salt, the CDC weekly COVID reports are just starting to show real data from DEC and there are tons of research still ongoing. We will have a better idea of what Omicron is doing in the next 2 to 4 weeks. The projections in that weekly report (every Tuesday) are currently based off of data collected from England, Denmark, and South Africa witch are farther along in their Omicron phase. This will get refined as we gather our own data.
The TL;DR version: We are entering a new phase and what we know in the Delta phase of this Pandemic may not apply in the on rushing Omicron phase. Use caution until we get harder data.
MASKS
As far masks go, the current standard recommended for Omicron is a three-ply surgical mask (you can get these at local stores) with a cloth mask over it. But the gold standard is the N95 NIOSH masks (This is the US Standard). KN95s (Chinese Standard) are good too, but there are so many counterfeits out there its hard to be sure (I avoid these right now). There is a South Korean version that is 90% instead of 95% with particulates (I forget the code for them) and there are almost no counterfeits in the market right now. A cloth mask by itself is basically worthless with the high R factor/transmissibility of Omicron. If you are just wearing just a plastic face shield... come on man.
US NIOSH LISTS (CDC N95 and CDC/FDA N95 Surgical):
Approved Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators | NPPTL | NIOSH | CDC
A listing of NIOSH-Approved Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators that health care workers can use to help protect themselves from diseases potentially spread through the air such as SARS or Tuberculosis.
www.cdc.gov
OTHER COUNTRIES STANDARDS (KN95s with Emergency Approval from the FDA):
EDIT: It's Omicron, not Omnicron. But hey, I misspelled it consistently throughout my post, so I got that going for me...
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Yeah good point. A lot of my public activity has been post delta peak but pre-arrival of omicron.I get it. Its been almost 2 years of this and everyone is getting fatigued. Just remember that your risk assessment for those conventions were is pre-Omnicron variant. If you were what I consider fully vaxed (2 jabs and booster) and wearing masks prior to Omnicron you were pretty safe if you weren't 6 months out from your last jab with Delta. Heck, I went and saw Patton Oswalt perform right before Thanksgiving. I got COVID tested before it and again after it.
The New York anime con that just happened in late early DEC became a super spreader event because the new variant can break through our current vaccines... For example, small, 30 person friend group at that con with at least 2 jabs (the CDC standard for fully vaxed in the US) and roughly half of them caught the new COVID strain. Most were asymptomatic and only a couple got hit hard. 35K people were asked to test out of 55K in attendance.
This is concerning but completely anecdotal.
Please take this with huge grains of salt, the CDC weekly COVID reports are just starting to show real data from DEC and there are tons of research still ongoing. We will have a better idea of what Omnicron is doing in the next 2 to 4 weeks. The projections in that weekly report (every Tuesday) are currently based off of data collected from England, Denmark, and South Africa witch are farther along in their Omnicron phase. This will get refined as we gather our own data.
The TL;DR version: We are entering a new phase and what we know in the Delta phase of this Pandemic may not apply in the on rushing Omnicron phase. Use caution until we get harder data.
MASKS
As far masks go, the current standard recommended for Omnicron is a three-ply surgical mask (you can get these at local stores) with a cloth mask over it. But the gold standard is the N95 NIOSH masks (This is the US Standard). KN95s (Chinese Standard) are good too, but there are so many counterfeits out there its hard to be sure (I avoid these right now). There is a South Korean version that is 90% instead of 95% with particulates (I forget the code for them) and there are almost no counterfeits in the market right now. A cloth mask by itself is basically worthless with the high R factor/transmissibility of Omnicron. If you are just wearing just a plastic face shield... come on man.
US NIOSH LISTS (CDC N95 and CDC/FDA N95 Surgical):
Approved Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators | NPPTL | NIOSH | CDC
A listing of NIOSH-Approved Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators that health care workers can use to help protect themselves from diseases potentially spread through the air such as SARS or Tuberculosis.
OTHER COUNTRIES STANDARDS (KN95s with Emergency Approval from the FDA):
PLEASE NOTE: KN95 Masks have to come from specific manufacturing plants in China in order for FDA emergency use in the US, there are tons of them that bare the KN95 logo that come from other manufacturing plants, buyer beware.
Definitely follow your own best judgement on what is safe for you and your family/friends/loved ones. And everyone stay safe and healthy.
Doh! I was thinking Lingonberry and grabbed the wrong name. I was going to rush to its defense if needed.
(I'm trying to remember what we taught cubscouts years ago about berries, fruits, polyfruits (?) years ago, and how the common usage doesn't match the scientific at all in tons of cases).
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
If a cranberry is a sandwich, is ketchup a fruit?
And if the answer to both is yes, then my daily repast of a poke bowl consisting solely of cranberries drenched in ketchup (called the Boston Strangler at the nationally-renowned seafood joint, Poke in the Rear) contains two of my five daily recommended food groups-
The fruit group The sandwich group. The pizza group. The Nutella/marshmallow fluff group. And the hard liquor group.
Are grains uncooked bread, which is uncheesed/unsauced Pizza? If so, is beer liquid Pizza? Or do you put it in another group?
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
The universe is full of not-food. Just because people choose to eat it, doesn't make it food- as many an ER Doctor can attest, or, for that matter, the entire pizza oeuvre of the fictional land of New Zealand.
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