Monday Musings 3/28/22- Ya think? Who could have seen that coming?

No sooner than we got home at the wee hours of Thursday morning then I got an email from AORN. I am talking 0330 here; after driving 10 hours through the night. Best way to travel.

Well it felt like immediately upon returning home, but in actuality was 1600. What? I had to sleep. And do house fairy stuff including a trip to the library and to get the oil changed in the car. Duly masked of course. I had just been somewhere the positivity rate was classified as moderate.

However, the email I received from AORN was that there had been positive cases among the attendees. Oh, you mean those attendees that ignored the please mask sign? That had no respect for social distancing? Those attendees.

Of course I wore a mask and followed social distancing guidelines. If I felt a place was too crowded, we left. Walking the streets we wore masks.

With a quick glance around the conference floor there were maybe 30 of us who were masked. Including some intrepid soul who was wearing 2 masks, one of them an N-95. There was ample room to spread out in the seats during all the ceremonies: opening, house of delegates x 2, closing. All of them.

Even during our breakfast because we had a bunch of no shows.

But immediately upon closing of the conference, and maybe before, people were testing and being tested.

I feel fine. But I know there is a subset of people who have no symptoms at all.

More importantly, my canary in a coal mine husband who usually gets things first and who I was in very close contact with all week, has no symptoms.

I did my due diligence. And quarantined in the house, or wore a KN-95 mask out. And tested at 5 days post exposure, as the CDC instructed. That put my last exposure at Wednesday afternoon at 1600. Therefore I tested on Sunday at 1600.

Negative.

But some people who were at the convention were definitely ill. Several members of my chapter tested positive. Every one of them alerted the rest of us who had been in close-ish contact with them.

A few of us remain negative.

However, this serves to illustrate my point that I have been making all along. This was a group of vaccinated and boostered individuals. Who are nurses and should know better. Perhaps they should have kept a mask on a wee bit longer.

I believe this is our next normal.

Sporadic infection clusters.

If you need me, I’ll be chilling at the house, between shifts. And going early to the store when I need groceries. Or late. Whatever gets me face to face with less people.