Quarantine Life

To would be an understatement; we are firmly navigating a legal gray area here. I have been in self-imposed isolation for ten days now, and frankly, it feels quite unsettling. One of my fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the Constitution, has been effectively stripped away from me without so much as a shred of written documentation to justify it... 🤷

What happens if I just don't pick up the phone? Or even better, what if I don't answer the door at all?

That occurred to me while I was there. A contact of mine mentioned they were checking on him at 7:00 AM; frankly, there is no way I would be out of bed by 7:00. Not when I'm stuck indoors like this.

Don't sweat it, they don't have the time to waste chasing down contacts anymore.

Besides, what else are they going to use to manufacture those terrifying pandemic numbers? Like we didn't have enough epidemiologists to force people into isolation, or like people aren't too damn disobedient to report their own contacts.

The situation with our healthcare system is just... well, it’s a mess. You have people showing up for scheduled appointments while they're actually under quarantine—it happens all the time because nobody seems to know the protocol. Since the hospital administrators haven't received any clear directives on how to process these cases, they just end up turning them away. They don't get seen, and then they just wander off somewhere else. I guess it's just pure administrative chaos at this point.

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Rachel Fowler11 said:Yeah, I get where you're coming from. It’s just... honestly kind of trippy, and actually pretty messed up, that you could be under some official quarantine order without even realizing it...

I mean, if you don't even know you're supposed to be isolating, how are you even meant to follow the rules?
Like, what happens if I get a call at some random time when I can't pick up? I miss it, and since I generally don't call back numbers I don't recognize, they can't exactly leave me a message.
If that happens, I'm not really worried about the fine—I could easily just file an appeal.

crimsonranger3 said:That occurred to me while I was there. A contact of mine mentioned they were checking on him at 7:00 AM; frankly, there is no way I would be out of bed by 7:00. Not when I'm stuck indoors like this.

That wasn't quite what I meant. I was thinking more about those moments when they call you just to let you know you need to go into quarantine.

Of course, one is expected to place absolute faith in official authorities, but I’ve been pondering a rather curious hypothetical scenario... what if someone were to simply ignore their quarantine orders—not that I would, mind you—under the pretense of having received no actual information regarding their isolation status? Just a thought experiment. 🤷

If they had merely notified me verbally about the quarantine, I could easily claim that nobody ever informed me and that there isn't a single shred of written documentation to prove otherwise... While I am certain there would be penalties involved, the intellectual exercise remains quite intriguing...

Over at my firm, there are ten of us currently under quarantine, and we should all be cleared in two days. Curiously, my department was the only one that didn't seem to undergo any real verification. A colleague mentioned that they checked her identity via the intercom without her even stepping outside, while another coworker said the official just called him up from the fourth floor of the building... It seems they weren't particularly concerned with verifying identities at all...

How do people actually manage to stick to self-isolation?
My neighbors have grandkids and college students over constantly. It feels like every other day there’s someone stopping by for lunch.
Now, both of them are sick. We're talking fevers over 100 degrees and all that.
And because of that, the two of them are officially under quarantine.
I know this because she told me herself.

But how are they even following the rules?
Every time I head out and run into her in the lobby, she’s right there... waving guests goodbye. They were just over at her place for coffee. She practically bragged about it (as if I had asked 🤦), saying, "They just came by to check on us."
It wasn't even her son and daughter-in-law—whose own kids are sick and also stuck in isolation.
It was just some friends.
It wasn't a quick "drop off some groceries" type of visit either.
It was a full-on social gathering.

Every single person I know who was stuck in quarantine had friends and family constantly popping in for visits... I mean, seriously, if they aren't allowed to go out, apparently everyone else is perfectly fine to just show up at their doorstep...

Being cut off from the rest of the world for two weeks straight without a single shred of contact is a massive shock to the system, and honestly, it’s a disaster waiting to happen for anyone's mental health.

Rachel Fowler11 said:Yeah, I get where you're coming from. It’s just... honestly kind of trippy, and actually pretty messed up, that you could be under some official quarantine order without even realizing it...

It gets even worse when some stranger calls you from an unlisted number, tells you you're stuck at home in isolation for the next two weeks, and then just hangs up on you.

Frank Martin2 said:It gets even worse when some stranger calls you from an unlisted number, tells you you're stuck at home in isolation for the next two weeks, and then just hangs up on you.

Or even worse, if it comes from a number you actually recognize. 😁

That whole self-isolation system—it might have worked at first, I guess, especially back when people were flying in from overseas and getting those specific mandates from health officials right at the airport—but honestly, it just doesn't make sense anymore. There isn't really anyone left to track all that, and they aren't even notifying people like they used to.
I mean, they probably can't even do it—they likely just don't have the technical setup for it. To me, getting a random call from an unknown number doesn't mean anything at all; it’s just a total mess if that's how they're supposed to be telling people they need to isolate.

nimbleranger17 said:Every single person I know who was stuck in quarantine had friends and family constantly popping in for visits... I mean, seriously, if they aren't allowed to go out, apparently everyone else is perfectly fine to just show up at their doorstep...

Being cut off from the rest of the world for two weeks straight without a single shred of contact is a massive shock to the system, and honestly, it’s a disaster waiting to happen for anyone's mental health.

I honestly can't believe some of the nonsense I have to read online.🙂

It is probably because during those two weeks, they accumulate a mountain of "brilliant" ideas they feel compelled to dump on everyone else.🍿

nimblemaker52 said:I honestly can't believe some of the nonsense I have to read online.🙂

It is probably because during those two weeks, they accumulate a mountain of "brilliant" ideas they feel compelled to dump on everyone else.🍿

Honestly, yeah—I’d definitely agree that it could be quite a shock to someone's mental state, though I’m not entirely sure why anyone would find that surprising. Humans are social creatures by nature, after all, and we really do need that regular connection with others to stay grounded.

gentlerider79 said:Honestly, yeah—I’d definitely agree that it could be quite a shock to someone's mental state, though I’m not entirely sure why anyone would find that surprising. Humans are social creatures by nature, after all, and we really do need that regular connection with others to stay grounded.

I mean, even if you aren't exactly the most social person out there, being stuck alone for two weeks—where you can't even go for a walk outside or just grab coffee with a friend—is a lot. Self-isolation just seems kind of pointless to me. Like, if you're actually sick, then sure, take a sick day from work, but if you aren't? I don't really see the point.

Oh, please. You haven't been in solitary confinement for two weeks. You have a phone, you have video calls, and you’ve got everything you need right there in your own house. You have movies, you have books. You haven't been suffering in isolation for fourteen days. Stop the drama.

Paul White9 said:Oh, please. You haven't been in solitary confinement for two weeks. You have a phone, you have video calls, and you’ve got everything you need right there in your own house. You have movies, you have books. You haven't been suffering in isolation for fourteen days. Stop the drama.

Honestly, even just staying cooped up at home for three days in a row gets to me—so I can't imagine being stuck there for half a month! And the worst part? It's because of nothing. Just absolutely nothing.

Lawrence Reed3 said:Honestly, even just staying cooped up at home for three days in a row gets to me—so I can't imagine being stuck there for half a month! And the worst part? It's because of nothing. Just absolutely nothing.

Well, obviously it’s boring. I've been saying all along that this isn't nearly the massive drama people are making it out to be.

The whole thing is such a farce, really, because they’re keeping perfectly healthy individuals under house arrest without them even testing positive for a single ailment, let alone actually being sick.