getting updates on the contact tracing.

30 participants, 27 fully vaccinated, one partially, two unvaccinated. The meeting ended on Thursday and the first reported case was Saturday. By Wednesday, we had 7 total cases. 6 of the cases were fully vaccinated employees.

The contact tracing revealed that one of the unvaccinated individuals showed up to the event with mild symptoms. Slight cough, clearing her throat. Dismissed it. She was antivax, was not a mask wearer throughout the pandemic (the gov of her states fought mask mandates), didn’t alter behaviors. By the time she returned home (she flew btw), she was feeling rough. Quickly went downhill and spent three days in bed. Just starting to feel better now.

The six fully vaccinated people were all very close contacts. Most had been in a car with her either to/from the airport or to dinner. She didn’t wear her mask. They didn’t. All had mild to mild flu-like symptoms. But, it was impactful. One had to cancel a move, one cancelled a surgery for his daughter, and of course all had their Thanksgiving plans ruined. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear any have transmitted COVID to their family members despite being in close contact several days after the meeting.

This is one cluster event so I’m not going to say this applies to all; however, I will say the results we saw were consistent with what the experts have been saying. Unvaccinated, infected people are shedding virus like crazy and if you are in close contact without face coverings, you are probably going to get it regardless of vaccination status. The only person who rode with her in a car who didn’t get it, was the only person who had received a booster (October).

If you are vaccinated, you are less likely to transmit the virus…probably because your viral load is significantly less. You are also much less likely to have severe symptoms.

We have very clear pandemic protocols in our company for events and in person meetings. In this case, we had an employee who knowingly violated many of the requirements we have in place. As a result, it’s hard to really say how many people she infected. Think about the person on the plane sitting next to her, the gate agent, maybe the Uber driver…it bother me to think about it.

She did inform us that she is planning on getting vaccinated as soon as possible now. I guess when you dance with the devil, you gain a new perspective.

My next task is dealing with an employee who will be fighting me of our new vaccination/weekly testing policy that goes into effect in January. Apparently he had COVID, received monoclonal antibodies, but doesn’t want to test weekly in January because of a medical condition. He’s still unvaccinated. I’m guessing, in his opinion, the experimental treatment for the virus is more safe than the fully approved vaccine that teaches the body how to produce the antibodies.

Watch out for yourselves people. There are a lot of selfish people out there.