fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5333 ]

[ SECRET POST #5333 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5333 ⌋

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Sooo a friend of mine is very adamant about going to Dallas, TX sometime around October.

Given the current concerns about delta and the general reopening for schools I have very high concerns about this since she is higher risk despite being fully vacc.

Since she is not American and would be flying in, I have fears of her ending up in hospital worse case scenario and having to deal with extravagant fees even with insurance. Added into the general worry is that she is meeting up with online friends she has never met irl before despite her being friends with the group for 4 years and multiple discord voicechats etc. Also she has never traveled on her own before.

If anyone that lives around the area can tell me how bad/alright it is and potential outlooks for the fall that would be great because I can only find very worrying articles about covid projections in the next few months alongside a bunch of ppl saying not to worry cause fully vacc. It's hard to parse how bad it is from both sides being so polarizing.

Also any advice on how to phrase my concerns without looking like I'm censuring her choices is good too.

Maybe purchasing travel insurance would help in case she did wind up in the hospital.

Also make sure she's ALLOWED in. Last I checked the US border was not open for tourism (though I last checked like 2 weeks ago), only to citizens and business travel.

But yes, otherwise recommending the other anon's suggestion for comprehensive travel insurance.

See that's what I thought too, but with borders opening up in general it's hard to say where it'll be in the next few months. Chances are is that it'll still be closed.

The comprehensive travel insurance is already going to be in play I assume, but knowing the American health care system I can only imagine it'll be pricey regardless and the thought of her only being able to rely on people she's never met irl is daunting. Thanks for the input tho guys.

Yeah travel in general can be daunting because you have so many 'what ifs??' but I feel like right now it's a million times worse. :/

On second look, as she is Canadian the border is open via plane for crossing so it's definitely still an option...

Healthcare in the US is crazy expensive but as a foreign tourist she wouldn't be getting free (or even necessarily cheap/affordable) healthcare anywhere else, either and that will always be a risk of travel. That said, maybe a pandemic is not the best time to travel to another country, especially for a high-risk person heading to a state that is having a new COVID spike approaching the levels seen back in January.

The Delta variant seems pretty virulent and it appears to be hitting children fairly hard in Texas.

As to risks, it depends a little on which vaccine she got (a study suggests the Pfizer is less effective than the Moderna against the delta variant - https://news.yahoo.com/pfizers-vaccine-efficacy-dropped-42-105945416.html), how long she is going to stay, how many people she is going to be around, etc. Everything I've heard about breakthrough cases (getting COVID after being vaccinated) says that more than 99% have not required hospitalization or been fatal - https://abc13.com/covid-breakthrough-cdc-data/10923757/.

I don't know if this applies to all airlines, but I do know some require a negative test for COVID-19 before international flights, if so, there's that for the flight in at least and the test for the flight out will inform if she's been infected on the trip (keeping in mind, of course, that testing isn't perfect and someone could conceivably get infected between the test and flight).

As to projections for fall, no idea, but it will likely get worse. Texas is unfortunately one where the governor has banned mask mandates in schools (I live in Arizona, where this is also (really stupidly) happening and I've heard a little about Dallas from a sibling who is in a business connected to the Dallas area).

Thanksss.

I suspected the general outlook on Texas was bad and considering the politicization of vacc of Texas as a whole it didn't look great.

I know hospitalisation from covid fully vacc is extremely rare but considering that she's meeting up with a group of 7+ and they plan on doing the whole bar scene, amusement park, restaurant thing chances of coming out with something seems exceedingly high.

I guess I just don't like the idea of online friends being the only ones she can rely on and having to run through covid with only them in a foreign country. It feels like she's already consigned herself to catching covid while she's there and rolling a stacked dice that she won't be the unlikely 1% to get long term complications or worse.

" It feels like she's already consigned herself to catching covid while she's there and rolling a stacked dice that she won't be the unlikely 1% to get long term complications or worse."

I hope you're wrong about that, because if that's true, your friend is very, very stupid and selfish and you cannot help her. I'm sorry.

I mean, I understand not wanting to be a killjoy, but your friend is making some poor choices. Maybe those poor choices deserve some censure? The CDC is currently recommending that everyone mask up in public indoor places, even if they're vaccinated.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html

And:

On January 12, 2021, CDC announced an Order requiring all air passengers arriving to the US from a foreign country to get tested no more than 3 days before their flight departs and to present the negative result or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 to the airline before boarding the flight. Air passengers will also be required to confirm that the information they present is true in the form of an attestation. This Order is effective as of 12:01am EST (5:01am GMT) on January 26, 2021.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

Here's where to find the stats for Texas, with data by county:

https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/AdditionalData.aspx

In addition, you might want to ask her:

* Does she understand that she's traveling to an area full of unvaccinated mouth-breathers, the majority of whom won't be masked up or observing proper social distancing and sanitation?

* Does she know what the local laws are about being in public spaces, public/private gatherings, what businesses are open, etc.?

* Does she have a plan in case she gets sick? Does she realize that healthcare is very expensive in the U.S. and that hospitals are very crowded right now? Where will she stay if she gets sick? Who's going to take care of her for the days/weeks/months it takes for her to recuperate?

* Does she have a plan if her country OR the U.S. decides to close its borders while she's here and she gets stuck in the U.S. until she's allowed to return home? Again, where's she going to stay? Does she have enough money to support herself while she's stuck here? What if her internet friends flake, what are her plans then?

* Does she drive, can she rent a car? Is she dependent upon someone else for transportation? Because public transport in the U.S. is not good, and of course, it's going to be a high risk environment.

Thanks for the questions here. I will try to figure out a way to ask them to her and get the scope of her plans.

She isn't much into detailed plans when it comes to going out so I feel that she prob hasn't thought too hard into very hard situations like you posed here because it seems like she's relying on her fully vacc status as a trust fall if she gets sick.

I'm trying to find ways to phrase things so it doesn't look I fully disprove her traveling because she's very stubborn about these things.

If I hint that I find her friends potentially untrustworthy or that the situation is
high risk/precarious she will not listen and tell me that this all could change in the next few months and downplay the Delta variant in terms of herself getting it. It is all very frustrating to talk to her about this. She has already shut me down about her meeting her friends when I said they could flake on her recently.

I'm sorry, because you obviously care about your friend but you can't protect her from her own willful stupidity. This is not a good time to be traveling to the U.S., much less a COVID hotspot where people aren't being very careful. It's particularly stupid to try this when you have little experience with international travel and are determined not to do research or make plans. Your friend is not smart, and she's making bad choices. There's only so much you can do about that, especially if she's determined not to listen to sound advice.

A lot can change within a few months, and maybe with any luck your friend will be too much of an idiot to realize that there might be rules for entering the U.S. and she won't be able to do it.

I am only hoping that she will reconsider somehow if/when it gets worse from schools reopening.

At this point I can only really sit back and hope she doesn't go through with it and come out worse for it.

I have even tried getting her to consider alternative plans where her US friends come to Canada instead later in Nov where it isn't nearly as bad but to no luck.

Thanks for your input here, I feel like I'm being too much of a downer but maybe I'm being the right amount of practical. :/

I don't think you're a downer. I think that at best, your friend is being foolishly over-optimistic and refusing to consider the very real possibility that her plans are flawed. But honestly, that's a very generous take. My suspicion is that your friend is one of those self-absorbed fuckwits who thinks that their desire to do fun stuff trumps the grim reality of a deadly disease and an over-burdened healthcare system. The fact that she'd rather risk her own health and the health of everyone she might potentially infect just to meet some internet friends speaks volumes.

You're not being a downer. Arm her with all of this information and whatever choice she makes, she makes, but at least it won't be made out of ignorance. Might be a stupid decision, but it's her decision and as long as the facts are known, you don't need to feel guilty about whatever happens.

i feel you, i met with a friend i hadn't seen in a long time and she was super blasé about getting vaccinated, talking about how she'll just "wait out until they have made a vaccine against delta as well so i don't have to get vaccinated twice" and i had such a hard time responding without preaching.

but on the other hand, like, dude.

Your friend is a dumbass. I'm sorry.

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[ SECRET POST #5333 ]

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