Are you still avoiding family due to Covid?

[Dollar Slice]

The Lowes in my area still has a 50% mask compliance rate.    I see people not wearing masks or not wearing them properly everywhere I have to go.  It's maddening.

that's quite stunning but not sure why I"m shocked still.

does lowes not have a mask policy or just no enforced? We sure have become one selfish disgusting culture.

We have a state mask mandate, and loads of people don’t wear masks, at least as I hear from people who do go into stores. (I last went into a grocery store locally in October.) It is maddening, but who is going to tell some potentially armed idiot to wear that mask? I don’t blame the grocery store employees.

I have a local store where I see people not wearing masks (obviously no enforcement by employees, etc.) so I wrote a Yelp review saying "I used to go here all the time, it's a great store, but I stopped because I don't feel safe" and explained about the masks, COVID, I don't blame the employees but they need to hire someone to do enforcement, they're endangering their staff as well as the customers, yadda yadda. The store manager wrote back and said they'll look into it and they take COVID safety seriously, blah blah. Maybe they'll do something. Who knows. Can't hurt. It's probably hopeless in some areas, but here (NYC) most places are very good about it, so it shouldn't be that hard to get near-100% mask enforcement in your business.

[American GenX]

I'm over 3 weeks in since my first dose of vaccine, and I'm still avoiding family over the winter.   Of course, most of them have not received the vaccination, and I could potentially still be a carrier, despite being vaccinated.

Everyone should be avoiding spending any time with family that don't live in the same household, except if outside using social distancing.

[seattlecyclone]

I haven't seen any of my family members in over a year now. My youngest sibling is nine years old. It sucks. But the pandemic situation is worse than it was at Christmas, not better. Now is not the time to reverse course.

I just got my first vaccine dose today. I would consider flying to see them after I get the second, but I will likely wait for my partner and dad to get it as well.

Aren't we still unsure if those with the vax can still spread it?

If true, wouldn't that mean we'll never have herd immunity?

Not sure, but if someone has been vaxxed they are highly unlikely to suffer more than mild symptoms which at this point is still very hopeful.

Sure is, I just shudder to think of the possibility that we'd have to tell people who can't be vaccinated that they need to hole up forever because the rest of us will always be passing COVID around and just not being affected by it ourselves because we have immunity.

[Mrs. Healthywealth]

It was impossible not to see my family, and then we gave them Covid. We were lucky that we all survived, but we are all still recovering over a month later. If we could have avoided seeing them we would’ve, but we cohabitate.

Now is the best time to keep family members safe and avoid contact. Vaccines are being given out to elderly, so let’s get this done.

In retrospect, do you think it was really impossible not to see your family?

That sounds unnecessarily harsh - did you miss the bolded?  I would consider it nigh-impossible to avoid seeing people who live in the same house.

I responded primarily to the dramatic structure of the first sentence. "Cohabitate" is commonly used to refer to partners, not family members. And of course, the bolded wasn't bolded originally. It was confusingly worded. My question was asked politely and my curiosity was genuine.

From all the help you have provided Dicey, didn’t take it in a negative way. It did make me pause and think if we could’ve, but given the situation, it was not possible.

Lol cohabitate was all I could come up with at the time; good with numbers, bad with words.

You know what I really want to hear your thoughts about is the other thread and how you would do our FIRE differently.

[Sandi_k]

It was impossible not to see my family, and then we gave them Covid. We were lucky that we all survived, but we are all still recovering over a month later. If we could have avoided seeing them we would’ve, but we cohabitate.

Now is the best time to keep family members safe and avoid contact. Vaccines are being given out to elderly, so let’s get this done.

In retrospect, do you think it was really impossible not to see your family?

Did you miss the part where they LIVE TOGETHER?

[American GenX]

I haven't seen any of my family members in over a year now. My youngest sibling is nine years old. It sucks. But the pandemic situation is worse than it was at Christmas, not better. Now is not the time to reverse course.

I just got my first vaccine dose today. I would consider flying to see them after I get the second, but I will likely wait for my partner and dad to get it as well.

Aren't we still unsure if those with the vax can still spread it?

If true, wouldn't that mean we'll never have herd immunity?

Not sure, but if someone has been vaxxed they are highly unlikely to suffer more than mild symptoms which at this point is still very hopeful.

There's still a 5% chance they can have mild symptoms.  However, they could also be asymptomatic and shed the virus despite the vaccine having enabled their immune system to prevent a symptomatic illness.  That percentage is unknown but could be much higher than 5%.

[Catbert]

Well my area and much of the US is setting daily records for the number of COVID19 cases/hospitalizations/deaths so no change for me.  I've seen one relative in person for about 10 minutes masked and outside since March. Once I've been vaccinated I'll loosen up a bit. 

[tipster350]

I only did outdoor get togethers with extended family, but now it is cold and I haven't seen them since last Spring. The only family member I make an exception for is my brother, as he is disabled and with many health issues, and has gone for weeks at a time without aides, because covid created massive staffing shortages at the home care agencies. I am his only close relative. Therefore, it is necessity and not the desire for personal contact driving my in-person visits.

[Dicey]

It was impossible not to see my family, and then we gave them Covid. We were lucky that we all survived, but we are all still recovering over a month later. If we could have avoided seeing them we would’ve, but we cohabitate.

Now is the best time to keep family members safe and avoid contact. Vaccines are being given out to elderly, so let’s get this done.

In retrospect, do you think it was really impossible not to see your family?

Did you miss the part where they LIVE TOGETHER?

Apparently you missed my response on the previous page. There's no need to shout.

[Linea_Norway]

My family lives abroad and I d9n't visit them. Mother and FIL are both 70+/75+ Years old. FIL har just got a cancer operation. They are both selfisolating and not even meeting famil6 who lives close. If we would visit them, we would have to be in quaranteen for 10 days on return, which we don't fancy. The country where they live has higher risk than our country, so visiting them is also not attractive for us. We might visit later when we are all vaccinated and travelling abroad is not so discouraged as it is now.

[wenchsenior]

We've been avoiding interacting with family and friends (except for a handful of socially distanced outdoor encounters...I think 5? in total) since last April.  Our city has by far its highest transmission/infection/death rates this past month (and we've been a shit show since last summer), so we are getting MORE careful, not less.

[mm1970]

I know there was a lot of ppl who avoided holiday gatherings with family, even family that was relatively local to them.  I am just curious if you are still holding out on seeing them? Or has the new year eased your views on spending time with them?

I haven't seen my family (only about an hour away from me) since September.  I feel badly but just not sure what to do, as I do go out for groceries, Dr appts etc.  My 75 year old mom is over there too and I would rather wait until she is vaccinated at least.

Just wondering how others are handling this currently...

Here is the sum total of people we've seen since March 2020:
1.  One Mother's day get together in May, outdoors and masked with distancing.
2.  One birthday get together in June, outdoors, mostly masked and distancing, no more than 4 non household members at a time
3.  One birthday get together in August, we stayed 20 minutes, because we were mostly the only masked people (outdoors).
4.  The occasional "hey how's it going" while passing neighbors in their front yards or streets.
5.  One teenager "hang out" where the kid kept coming in the house and didn't want to wear a mask (that was...October?"
6.  In the summer, two runs with a friend, distanced.
7.  Oct/Nov, one dinner with a friend.  This was indoors, I wasn't terribly comfortable with the idea, but he was very good at isolating and Oct was our lowest COVID numbers.

That's it.  Haven't seen anyone else.  Our kids are in distance learning.  Our families are far away. DS 8yo hasn't seen a friend in person since March.  We don't gather at all.  I started using Instacart.  We haven't left our county since March.

Our local numbers are the highest they've ever been.  So obviously everyone else isn't like me.

[therethere]

Yeah, I haven't seen my parents or the in-laws since July 2019. We usually visit once a year in the Spring or Fall, so COVID cancelled our 2020 trip. We'd have to fly to see them, and quarantining after that would take up too much vacation time. So I guess we will continue to wait. We have only seen 4 of our friends in person, masked and outside twice, but it's mainly because all our good friends moved or had babies right before COVID hit and it's impossible to meet people in these times. I also WFH and we don't use cameras on our meetings. It has been an incredibly lonely and isolating year.

I'm not so much afraid of catching COVID myself, I'm more concerned about passing it on to my parents. And I'm pretty sure I had it over Christmas last year before it was "official." I could be convinced to go on a vacation via plane, but I still have the memory fresh in my mind of being horribly sick for a week, in a foreign country, and having to fly home. That's soured my view on going out in public if it's not really necessary.

[CodingHare]

Still avoiding.  My mom informed me that she won't get vaccinated because she's afraid of "allergic reactions", so it will probably be Thanksgiving before SO and I can get vaccinated and safely visit them.

Numbers of infections and deaths are higher now than ever.  No reason to change our behavior of avoiding all human contact we can.

[honeybbq]

I've already been vaccinated but I am not changing my daily habits and avoidance AT ALL.

The other day was the mostly deadly day for Covid in the USA. I think we've had 5 or 6 such records already in 2021. The stakes keep getting raised. People's cautious behavior (masks and social distancing) should not change yet.

I'm not sure I understand the point of this post.

[PDXTabs]

I avoid almost everyone, including almost all of my family, with the strong caveat that if almost anyone called me and told me that they needed my presence to prevent serious self harm that I would happily be there. I live with my mom and brother part of the time due to complicated family situation, so I have seen them off and on.

[charis]

My parents and spouse are scheduled to receive the first vaccine dose in the next 10 days.  The kids and I will not be vaccinated for a while, but they've been going to school and dance class since summer.  We'll probably see my parents more once they are vaccinated.

[Psychstache]

It was impossible not to see my family, and then we gave them Covid. We were lucky that we all survived, but we are all still recovering over a month later. If we could have avoided seeing them we would’ve, but we cohabitate.

Now is the best time to keep family members safe and avoid contact. Vaccines are being given out to elderly, so let’s get this done.

In retrospect, do you think it was really impossible not to see your family?

Did you miss the part where they LIVE TOGETHER?

Apparently you missed my response on the previous page. There's no need to shout.

Only thing that came to mind.
 
https://youtu.be/aKOmGhBOJZI?t=96

[Dicey]

It was impossible not to see my family, and then we gave them Covid. We were lucky that we all survived, but we are all still recovering over a month later. If we could have avoided seeing them we would’ve, but we cohabitate.

Now is the best time to keep family members safe and avoid contact. Vaccines are being given out to elderly, so let’s get this done.

In retrospect, do you think it was really impossible not to see your family?

Did you miss the part where they LIVE TOGETHER?

Apparently you missed my response on the previous page. There's no need to shout.

Only thing that came to mind.
 
https://youtu.be/aKOmGhBOJZI?t=96

That generated a genuine laugh. Thanks for that.

[Arbitrage]

Uh, yes.  The pandemic is raging at its worst...so far.  I also live in SoCal, where hospitals are completely overwhelmed and people are dying in droves.  Not about to throw up my hands and give up in the face of that. 

That said, it's not that difficult for us to avoid most family, as we live across the country from the majority of them.  We do have some family about a 40-minute drive away, and we've avoided them.  We do have one set of grandparents who often visits during extended cross-country road trips, and those visits haven't happened.  They will be in the area next month, but we'll likely avoid seeing them; they want us to come stay with them in their hotel suite, but I just can't see that happening.  It doesn't help that the stepfather is a diehard Trumpian who has denied the seriousness of the pandemic from the getgo, and loves to wax poetic about any restaurants or gatherings he is able to attend, maskless, without government interference.

[the_fixer]

We have been visiting local friends and family all along but always outside, distanced with masks.

Camping trips, bike rides, walks, picnics (BYOE Bring you own everything), kayak / paddle boarding and even a b day party outside with individual Bundt cakes.

While there are no guarantees we are exceeding the recommendations from the experts and being as safe as possible while still tending to our and our friends / families mental health.

Now that it is winter we will likely not see them until we are all vaccinated or the weather warms up other than the distanced gift drop off  we did at Christmas outdoors for about 1/2 hour.

The date makes no difference to me, we look at the stats and facts and situation and make our decision.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LibrarIan]

I've been seeing my parents, siblings, in laws, throughout the past few months. I also have been attending an MMA gym since it returned in June.

[Imma]

I haven't seen any of my family members in over a year now. My youngest sibling is nine years old. It sucks. But the pandemic situation is worse than it was at Christmas, not better. Now is not the time to reverse course.

I just got my first vaccine dose today. I would consider flying to see them after I get the second, but I will likely wait for my partner and dad to get it as well.

Aren't we still unsure if those with the vax can still spread it?

If true, wouldn't that mean we'll never have herd immunity?

Not sure, but if someone has been vaxxed they are highly unlikely to suffer more than mild symptoms which at this point is still very hopeful.

Sure is, I just shudder to think of the possibility that we'd have to tell people who can't be vaccinated that they need to hole up forever because the rest of us will always be passing COVID around and just not being affected by it ourselves because we have immunity.

It's the same for flu.

Us immunocompromised people are used to dealing with a certain level of risk if we are ever going to set foot outside of the house. I am careful, like I've always been, and once everyone has had their shots I will go back to my usual level of careful. 

[HPstache]

I guess I am in the minority here.  I've been indoors with my family (parents, parents-in-law, siblings and brother in law) multiple times since COVID.  The only time we were super diligent about not seeing family was like March and April when it was really scary and a lot of unknowns.  We are getting together less, but still gathering on occasion.  I would be really bummed if I got COVID, but from what I've seen, even the most diligent non-meeting-upper mask wearers still manage to catch it...

[startingsmall]

We went through a brief period of seeing my parents during early fall (when cases were relatively low here, <10 cases / 100k people / day), but we've been far more restrictive since cases started climbing around Thanksgiving. I think we've only seen them once since then, when the weather made it easy to be outside/distanced. We mostly stayed outside... and although we were indoors briefly (to eat), they had their entire rear wall of sliding glass doors open and we ate at two separate tables (one for my parents, one for my household) that were ~10-15 apart. Until they're vaccinated, we'll only get together when the weather is amenable to doing it mostly outside like that. (They're kinda weenies about the cold, so that means not very often!)

[Tasse]

I haven't seen any of my family members in over a year now. My youngest sibling is nine years old. It sucks. But the pandemic situation is worse than it was at Christmas, not better. Now is not the time to reverse course.

I just got my first vaccine dose today. I would consider flying to see them after I get the second, but I will likely wait for my partner and dad to get it as well.

Aren't we still unsure if those with the vax can still spread it?

That is correct, and the biggest reason I used the word "consider." I hope we will know more in the coming months.

If true, wouldn't that mean we'll never have herd immunity?

It is very likely that being vaccinated *reduces* your odds of spreading it, but it may not be reduced to zero. If so, the threshold for herd immunity would be higher, but it would still be possible.

Grocery store mask compliance here is essentially 100%, maybe only 80 or 90% if you don't count people who don't know it goes over your nose. Outdoor mask compliance is above 50% I'd say.

The only time we were super diligent about not seeing family was like March and April when it was really scary and a lot of unknowns.

I agree that things felt way scarier in March and April. Objectively, though, things are much much more dangerous now than they were then.

[MoneyQueen]

My parents just got the shot, I found these articles helpful to decide when it’s safe to visit and travel. Looks like everyone being vaccinated prior to gathering is the safest option, and transmission is possible even after vaccination or prior exposure:(

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22219362/end-of-covid-19-pandemic-social-distancing-masking

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-immunity/covid-19-infection-gives-some-immunity-for-at-least-five-months-uk-study-finds-idUSKBN29J01P

Thought this was really important, so wrote my 1st post (MMM stalker since 2012 ;0)

[Dicey]

My parents just got the shot, I found these articles helpful to decide when it’s safe to visit and travel. Looks like everyone being vaccinated prior to gathering is the safest option, and transmission is possible even after vaccination or prior exposure:(

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22219362/end-of-covid-19-pandemic-social-distancing-masking

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-immunity/covid-19-infection-gives-some-immunity-for-at-least-five-months-uk-study-finds-idUSKBN29J01P

Thought this was really important, so wrote my 1st post (MMM stalker since 2012 ;0)

Welcome, @MoneyQueen. Congratulations on jumping through the hoops! Feel free to contribute as you wish. We love hearing new voices, and success stories even more. Can't promise if you hang around you'll be more successful, but odds are good...

[KathrinS]

I live in a different country to my family, and since the start of the pandemic, I've gone to visit them twice. Both times, I went for a month or longer, so had plenty of time to isolate from them and then still spend some time together. Thankfully my mother has a big house, so it was easy to stay apart.

My mother regularly invites over my grandmother, which seems risky as they both have a lot of contact with other people, but when she didn't do so during the first lockdown, bigger problems surfaced: grandmother was chronically depressed/ crying every day, started believing conspiracy theories, and just generally not in good shape. So, my mother decided that the risk is worth it, as the grandmother would likely deteriorate to the point where she couldn't recover anymore after a year or two of isolation.

I'd rather they all stayed at home and safe, but there are so many factors to consider, and although it scares me, I think my mother might be right.

[former player]

I've seen my brother, my closest family member, twice since March.  Once was for lunch in September when infection numbers in our area were suppressed, once on Christmas Day.  I was originally invited for Christmas lunch but declined because his stepson, who is a teacher in London, would be visiting.  As it turned out matters got so bad in London that stepson decided to stay put (he was effectively put under lockdown a day after deciding not to travel) and my invitation was reissued and accepted.

The whole UK is back under lockdown now and the new variant is spreading fast with no sign of things getting better.  We are both on course for vaccination in April/May so may see each other again once vaccination has been completed and had time to take effect, which would be June/July.  So that's another six months to go.

[DadJokes]

When daycare is closed, my in-laws often watch our kid (particularly if I have a heavy workload and can't watch him while working). Also, since they are okay with the risk, we are as well. We also spent Christmas with my wife's sister.

As for extended family, I'm glad to have any excuse to avoid seeing people.

[Kris]

We’re still avoiding people. Nothing has changed yet, so our behaviors haven’t, either.

[SwordGuy]

I mentioned on FB last night that today we would surely exceed 24,000,000 confirmed Covid cases here in the US and also exceed 400,000 deaths.

This is what a person working in a small community hospital responded:

Our small community hospital morgue is packed.
Stacked.
The funeral home staff will be playing Corpse Jenga to find their person.

[By the River]

My dad has taken the first vaccine shot and will have the second on February 4.  I'll probably wait to see him again until after that.  Even though he lives 5 hours away, we have visited 3 times since it started.  Drive up early morning, visit, drive back that same day. 

[mathlete]

I visit my siblings sometimes. But my parents are in their 60s so I'm avoiding them.

When I first read the title, I interpreted it as, "Will you still avoid family after COVID."  :)

[LibrarIan]

I visit my siblings sometimes. But my parents are in their 60s so I'm avoiding them.

When I first read the title, I interpreted it as, "Will you still avoid family after COVID."  :)

With a vaccine that apparently does not prevent the spread, only reduces symptoms, is there ever going to be an "after COVID?"

[Kris]

I visit my siblings sometimes. But my parents are in their 60s so I'm avoiding them.

When I first read the title, I interpreted it as, "Will you still avoid family after COVID."  :)

With a vaccine that apparently does not prevent the spread, only reduces symptoms, is there ever going to be an "after COVID?"

... What?

The vaccine prevents the vaccinated person from getting Covid. Therefore, that person, who will not have Covid, will not spread the virus.

[Tasse]

There is no guarantee that a vaccine that stops you from getting sick (which Pfizer/Moderna does) will also stop you from spreading the virus.

However, the situation is not that it "apparently does not prevent spread." We simply don't have data either way yet. It takes time to run these studies, especially when you need a large sample size of people to actually be exposed or infected.

EDIT:

Here is a general source to back up what I'm saying: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/12/956051995/why-you-should-still-wear-a-mask-and-avoid-crowds-after-getting-the-covid-19-vac

And here is a source that goes slightly more into immunology: https://qz.com/1954762/can-you-spread-covid-19-if-you-get-the-vaccine/

[Imma]

I mentioned on FB last night that today we would surely exceed 24,000,000 confirmed Covid cases here in the US and also exceed 400,000 deaths.

This is what a person working in a small community hospital responded:

Our small community hospital morgue is packed.
Stacked.
The funeral home staff will be playing Corpse Jenga to find their person.

Hospitals have storage units in the parking lot in my country now. During the first wave, when my relative passed, her body was transported to a morgue a few hours a day and driven back to our hometown for the funeral. There were so many deaths in those days that the morgue was filled to capacity with just the bodies that were going to have a funeral service that day.

[BudgetSlasher]

My in-laws are the only family close to use, the next closest being 1,470 miles away. So visits were already limited.

Visits with the in-laws are limited to outside. We see them a couple times a month; every two weeks we do our grocery shopping/pick-up and deliver some to them (it keeps them out of the store for a little longer). If the weather is ok we will share a meal outside with a patio heater. If not a few pleasantries on the porch and off we go.

Once the vaccine is widely available we definitely need to visit the remote family. It had been a while before the pandemic, but since there have been health scares, general old age, new homes, and new family members.

[Rubyvroom]

Definitely still avoiding contact with people, including family.

I haven't seen any out of state family at all. My parents live within 30 minutes of us so we did "drive-thru" holidays where we exchanged baked goods and gifts outdoors, but didn't hang around to open gifts due to the cold weather. We haven't seen them since then and probably won't anytime soon, other than the occasional spontaneous house call / sanity check where I might stop by to drop off some takeout or a small gift. My father has heart disease so he's been taking things incredibly seriously and wants his jab as soon as his turn comes up.

My in-laws babysit a toddler-aged grandchild along with the toddler's other set of grandparents, so that's their biggest risk factor. They've asked to see us from time to time but it's generally because of a house project or maintenance issue that they need another set of hands to assist with (they are a handy family - pre-covid we'd get the family together quite often to knock out house projects, usually having a big BBQ or party). When that happens, we all take a 14 day pause prior to the visit, and then my DH might go over for a few days even staying the night just to crank through any and all help they might need in one shot. We've done that maybe 3 times during the past year. We're about to do it again this weekend. So I would say we've been less careful on my in-laws side but we still take major precautions when it comes to quarantining before and after.

Other than that I've been trying to be mindful about calling friends and extended family to check in. I've had a few "drunk text/calls" from friends/family members after the holidays and it worries me a bit that people are definitely feeling that fatigue and loneliness.

We also set up a Minecraft realm and some of the siblings/cousins pop on there from time to time. We get on voice chat and play some games and it almost feels like we're hanging out, so that's been a nice way to try to navigate the winter months.

[bmjohnson35]

We see our kids somewhat regularly. They are less than conservative when it comes to their social life.  We do have friends who are high risk.  We haven't seen them in over 11 months.  Prior to visiting mom, we isolate from kids/grandkids for at least 2 weeks prior to visiting.  We very rarely eat out as well.   

[ixtap]

I mentioned on FB last night that today we would surely exceed 24,000,000 confirmed Covid cases here in the US and also exceed 400,000 deaths.

This is what a person working in a small community hospital responded:

Our small community hospital morgue is packed.
Stacked.
The funeral home staff will be playing Corpse Jenga to find their person.

Hospitals have storage units in the parking lot in my country now. During the first wave, when my relative passed, her body was transported to a morgue a few hours a day and driven back to our hometown for the funeral. There were so many deaths in those days that the morgue was filled to capacity with just the bodies that were going to have a funeral service that day.

In the SoCal area we are now using refrigerated trucks for body storage as funerals are taking weeks rather than days now and morgues have long been filled up. It is pretty heartbreaking to see on TV. I'm a fan of cremation myself so probably quicker to do that than a burial. I wonder if we will eventually have mass graves like other countries (Brazil) or multiple bodies placed in one grave site due to lack of burial sites. Not a lot of land around here.

In my state of Calif we have around 3 million cases and 33,000 deaths.

I am a member of a non profit that was planning on holding an awards ceremony "It will be just like ordering take out!" Luckily, a short request begging them to think of their families and communities did the trick. Unlike the speakeasies cropping up all up and down the state.

[Imma]

I mentioned on FB last night that today we would surely exceed 24,000,000 confirmed Covid cases here in the US and also exceed 400,000 deaths.

This is what a person working in a small community hospital responded:

Our small community hospital morgue is packed.
Stacked.
The funeral home staff will be playing Corpse Jenga to find their person.

Hospitals have storage units in the parking lot in my country now. During the first wave, when my relative passed, her body was transported to a morgue a few hours a day and driven back to our hometown for the funeral. There were so many deaths in those days that the morgue was filled to capacity with just the bodies that were going to have a funeral service that day.

In the SoCal area we are now using refrigerated trucks for body storage as funerals are taking weeks rather than days now and morgues have long been filled up. It is pretty heartbreaking to see on TV. I'm a fan of cremation myself so probably quicker to do that than a burial. I wonder if we will eventually have mass graves like other countries (Brazil) or multiple bodies placed in one grave site due to lack of burial sites. Not a lot of land around here.

In my state of Calif we have around 3 million cases and 33,000 deaths.

Crematoriums can only handle a maximum amount of bodies and it's very difficult to scale that up - maximum capacity is something like 150% of normal amount of deaths (worked in one a long time ago). This spring my hometown had a death rate of about 7x normal for about a month. This summer we lost another person and that person wanted to be cremated. Normally the family can choose to walk with the coffin to the oven and say goodbye there. That wasn't possible now. They tried to say it in the most emphatic way possible but there was a backlog of bodies and our family member wasn't going to be cremated right after the service. Maybe not even the same day. It's easier to scale up burials, all you need is a couple of extra diggers. I'm sure we'd find enough space for burial sites if necessary.  And I'm in the Netherlands, we're very densely populated.

I hope we won't reach the point where we can't have proper funerals. We didn't get to say goodbye to our loved ones while they were alive due to Covid, we had extremely limited funeral services but at least we got to see their bodies and have some form of ritual. That was hard enough. Not even having a dignified funeral at all would be terrible.

[jrhampt]

Yes, I remember some of the crematoriums in the NYC area this spring broke down from overuse.

[paulkots]

I guess I am in the minority here.  I've been indoors with my family (parents, parents-in-law, siblings and brother in law) multiple times since COVID.  The only time we were super diligent about not seeing family was like March and April when it was really scary and a lot of unknowns.  We are getting together less, but still gathering on occasion.  I would be really bummed if I got COVID, but from what I've seen, even the most diligent non-meeting-upper mask wearers still manage to catch it...

x2

Covid needs to be weighed against isolation that can be more destructive/deadly.

My neighbor was falling apart mentally during the first wave since she went into complete lockdown. Work from home, groceries delivered, never seeing family/friends, etc. We were speaking at a distance in the backyard, she was telling me that she was falling asleep on the dog sleeping pad with her dog. Recently she started to be more social yet still very cautious and the difference can be seen, her outlook changed and she looks like a different person.

[chicagomeg]

We're lucky; my partner & I both work from home now & so do most of our friends. So, we've felt pretty comfortable having outdoor gatherings of 4-6 people most weekends since it started. There are a few friends who don't behave as carefully as we do that we have stuck to seeing on Zoom etc.

My mom is retired & lives an 8 hour drive away. We've seen her twice this year, quarantining for 2 weeks before hand both times. A stop or two to use the bathroom each time was our only exposure to others & my mom and I agreed it was a minimal risk worth taking since she's otherwise pretty isolated. While I was home for Christmas we had a freak 55 degree day & decided to have an outdoor Christmas, masked, with my sister and her kids. I was a little nervous as the kids & my mom didn't do great at keeping distance but everyone seems fine afterwards so we were lucky maybe.

Partner's parents live in Hong Kong; that will be our first stop after we're vaccinated & the travel regulations are clear.

The UK variant has given me pause. We didn't see anyone this weekend & given the reports of just how much more contagious it is, we may go back to the virtual life for several months until we're eligible for vaccines. It seems that outdoors+distanced+masks may not be enough to avoid the new straing.

[mcneally]

I haven't seen any of my family members in over a year now. My youngest sibling is nine years old. It sucks. But the pandemic situation is worse than it was at Christmas, not better. Now is not the time to reverse course.

I just got my first vaccine dose today. I would consider flying to see them after I get the second, but I will likely wait for my partner and dad to get it as well.

Aren't we still unsure if those with the vax can still spread it?

If true, wouldn't that mean we'll never have herd immunity?

I heard speculation that you could still be carrying *some* virus even if your vaccinated body is protected from getting sick, but you're going to be less contagious (if at all).

I work from home and live alone. I've visited my out of state parents (driving) a couple times for a week each. I just do a 10+ day quarantine first, so it seems like less risk for all involved than going to the grocery store.

[nereo]

I know there was a lot of ppl who avoided holiday gatherings with family, even family that was relatively local to them.  I am just curious if you are still holding out on seeing them?

We are not seeing family or friends in person, and are keeping up our social-distancing protocols.

Cases are skyrocketing in my neck of the woods (as they are in many, many places). We won’t ease up until we are both vaccinated (which hopefully will be in the next couple of weeks), and even then we’ll be very deliberate about The Who, When and How we see people.

[protostache]

I haven't seen any of my family in person other than my wife and kids since Christmas 2019. The only people that have been inside the house are contractors and they typically are in and out as fast as possible. I very occasionally set foot in a grocery or big box hardware store but that's been it since March.

To reiterate what someone else said up thread, I'm not avoiding my family, I'm keeping them safe.