None of this is impacted by someone wearing a mask for personal safety. Masks have always been a part of healthcare and is usually encouraged even outside of Covid. We were told to wear them on the ambulance pre Covid for patients with certain symptoms.

It’s not mandated by governments most places but is an office rule instead. Many doctors lived through seeing what Covid can do to people up close and personal. They also work with high risk folks all the time and are constantly seeing people who are sick.

Many offices I went to pre Covid asked people to wear a mask if they had flu like symptoms. This feels like an evolution of that and also one that makes sense. Keeps you and your patients safe.

Every doctor, specialist, etc I’ve been to so far is requiring them.

I’m doing my yearly round of checkups so that’s 4 offices so far.

Good to know. They aren’t my thing so haven’t had them. My friend got them and ate the whole bowl while raving soooooo went with that. Sounds like I should not trust her tastebuds lol

Had them at Crazy Aunt Helen’s.

Yeah. I’ve seen photos of it. It’s wild.

If you read through this sub and look at the Washington problems Insta you will see that many people had the same experience with metro today. Certain lines at certain times were a hot mess. Lucky you you didn’t get caught in that.

That’s good to know. But no on Smithsonian. his train was full when he got on at DCA and there were delays at every stop because people were trying to get on a full train. Sounds like an exception not the rule for the day.

My friend took the train from DCA and it took over two hours due to how packed the train was.

In addition to 395 itself being a literal parking lot. The entire ramp toward National was at a standstill due to idiocy as well. Total mess.

My massage therapist when from corporate law office to MT about 20 years ago and never looked back. Also have a friend who went corporate law to nonprofit work. Both are much happier.

Thank you for the clarification on those being numbers for people whose viral load is not suppressed. And the data.

Question. If the mother is vitally suppressed during pregnancy does that reduce the risk of vertical transmission or does the constant connection between mother and child in the womb counteract that process?

Great response btw.

I did 7 in four days but it was essentially a speed run and very surface level. Depends on what you want out of the experience. The pace felt right to me at the time and gave me an idea of what I wanted to go back and see.

Yeah. And let me also be extra clear, not being the demo being primarily marketed to is not the reason I left it just meant there was no draw for me. It’s also not good or bad that they have a target audience. If they had a location that was more convenient, or I didn’t have my own gym equipment, or they had classes I was interested in I would have stayed. I gave the place a year and found myself going less and less and I’m a huge gym rat. In that time maybe three or four people tried to talk to me and when I tried to use the co-ed steam room I got weirdly stared at by all the men in there.

Coming from a gym where there was a lot of community I just found myself sad about the lack there- but that’s also the transient nature of some of DC at play too.

I think the OP was looking for opinions and I gave mine but I also very clearly stated that they should give it a try and see what they think because I also have friends that love it there. It’s not a bad place it just wasn’t my place.

I think a certain demographic of gay men. I say that as a queer woman with a ton of gay male friends who absolutely love it and also based on their advertising and choice of music etc. Not a bad thing but it doesn’t feel fully inclusive in a way I can’t put my finger on and I’ve known a few people who have also felt that way and left. My last gym was a small queer owned gym that was the most inclusive and homey gym I’ve ever belonged to so the difference in vibes was super apparent.

Haven’t been to the Y yet but don’t personally love Vida and have plans to try the Y at some point. Vida isn’t bad it was just always busy when I wanted to lift and I had put together a modest home gym during the pandemic so just don’t want to fight for spots. I also feel I’m not the demographic they are marketing to and the selection of classes and times plus the distance of all of their locations to my home just meant I was going less and less. I’d give Vida a try and not sign up for anything unless you really like it, you could love it.

Doro soul food is carry out only. They have great fried chicken with Ethiopian spices. they also have a fantastic vegan fried chicken.

I’m a little rusty on this aspect but I’ll try to explain how things work which may help you answer things better for yourself. we have multiple antibody types making up our immune system. Some of these cells are in constant rotation and react to a broad range of things, they are first line of defense. There are also antibodies for specific antigens and these can take time to make, if you’ve never had exposure to a disease it would take the body a little extra time to ramp up and attack. Some immune cells have longer memories and can be stored away in our lymph nodes until needed leading to a faster response.

The stuff we have vaccines for are diseases that our body makes the memory cells for. Viruses like the one that causes flu constantly change their surface proteins over time which is why we need new ones so frequently, we don’t have the cells to fight the new strains. Some infections can completely wipe out immune systems memory leaving us more vulnerable as we have no/limited immune memory and would have to rebuild it.

There is no way to generally enhance, though limiting stress etc will help your cells do their jobs better in mounting a defense.

I used Master Plumbersin Silver Spring. They installed everything last year. They had me buy the filter direct from aquasana. Make sure that your install space is big enough and that the high quote isn’t because of some other issue.

It’s an aquasana system. Master plumbers can install it and you should have them asses your house before you order it. You can install the system in some tight spaces but it isn’t ideal. It’s installed where the water enters the house and mine is two smaller filters and one 5ft tall tank. I change the pre filter every two months (it turns brownish yellow), the post filter is every 6 months, the main filter is good for 6 months. They auto send the smaller filters.

The water tastes great and I’m happy I did it. The system is about $1600 and the install was about $1000 so not cheep, but it’s worth the piece of mind. You can also get under sink systems for less. I did not get the UV filter or any bells and whistles.

DC water has a map and you can search your house to find out when the pipe leading in was replaced or if it’s been verified. My pipes were copper which was a relief. I did put a whole house filter system in anyway because the water in this city is just awful.

Especially going to U st to party all night and then drive home under the influence. The locals that don’t have off street parking get their property destroyed by these folks and I wish they would crack down on it.

I didn’t find it to be worth the price and didn’t love the vibe but I have friends that absolutely love it there. It really depends on who you are and what you are looking for.