“According to a study published in December by the Mainz University Medical Centre in Germany, around 40 per cent of those infected with the coronavirus still have symptoms more than six months later.”
I have it in my rules that guests must be vaccinated and boostered (or the current CDC guidelines at the time of booking) and that you may be requested to show proof upon arrival. (But I never ask).
My STR is on the second floor of my house and we share a common front door and hallway so I do care about infections. I don’t allow visitors anymore. Only registered guests.
I assume that everyone is infected and run a HEPA machine in the shared hallway and wash shared door knobs with disinfectants or use gloves. After a guest leaves, I open windows, run fans and the HEPA machine for 1 1/2 days before going into clean fully masked and gloved. All bedding is washed in disinfectant including the clothes I wear to clean.
I come from a science background and think that the one thing people are missing is that the more infections, the more mutations and the more likely we will get a version of COVID that is more deadly or cause more breakthrough infections of those vaccinated. The probability of this happening is high IMHO.
I do however, allow for some flexibility if the guests tell me that they had issues with the shots.
When I had what my doctor believed was COVID in 2/2020 but wasn’t allowed by my government to be tested, I was pretty sick but that is not the only danger. I recovered and then experienced 6 months of long COVID. Any previous injuries I had experienced inflammation. I was in a knee brace and using a cane for 6 months. Even to this day, I have trouble hiking up inclines because of my breathing. In the past I would easily hike 5-10 miles a day. Now, it’s about 3 miles.
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Our check out instructions now ask guests to open all windows and internal doors before they leave. We don’t need to enter the property at all during the immediate post check out time. There has only been the odd time when they haven’t complied, and in that case we simply leave it for a few hours before popping in and opening them ourselves.
We leave it three hours before going in, with a FFP2 mask, and then removing the bedding, towels etc to be washed at 60C. The following morning we’ll do the cleaning and bedding and it’s ready to go by midday.
We’ve been doing this since we first reopened, way back in July 2020 and so far, it’s worked for us.
That said, now that so much more is known about how Covid is transmitted, a bit of me is thinking what we do is overkill. Although, ironically, the main reason we haven’t gone back to same day changeovers is that having the buffer day makes the whole process a lot less stressful.
Ok, it’s less revenue, but as a result of Covid my OH has been able to build up a pretty successful online teaching practice and having that day between bookings gives her far more flexibility (she’s the bedding expert 
).
JF
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I just found out yesterday that a friend of mine did the same. Fell, broken ankle on Sat and couldn’t get surgery until yesterday due to crowded hospitals. Even before that I was advising a friend who was getting on a ladder to do painting to be very careful. Even slipping off a single step can result in a hospital visit. As I result, I’m not doing a lot of projects around the house that I would normally do.
They aren’t any more dangerous than usual but if nothing else, I’m going to try to stay well and whole out of respect for hospital staff who are begging, literally begging us to stop spreading covid.
There are going to be lots of long term effects of the pandemic including damage to the health care system and to schools.
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Wish I could request this of guests but it can be 10 degrees outside so I adjust the windows based on the temperatures. Also, I ask guests to close the front door of the suite and front door to the house but sometimes guests shut every single door in the suite (no air circulation).
Sadly, even something as simple as instructions to shut the front door gets misunderstood.
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Please stop blathering incomplete facts or false information.
If someone wants to come into my house and stay upstairs they must be fully vaccinated and boosted. You can be you and get sick. At my age with my health history I am taking no chances.
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Why I would never rent from you.
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An idiotic woman from Raleigh, NC who HAD COVID PNEUMONIA flew to Fairbanks last week to see the Aurora Borealis, tweeting about it (until she realized that Alaskans had seen her tweets) and posting on Facebook.
This is why I favor requiring vaxxing, testing, and masking in order to fly, but our Governor, a Trumpster, got rid of all mandates before Omicron and is up for re-election with antivax loony votes.
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I have two nurse friends who worked on Covid care units. Both caught Covid prior to Vaccines being available.
One was so profoundly affected at the age of 40 she is now disabled—extreme tiredness, loss of memory function, damaged lungs, extreme hair loss.
The other recovered except she’s lost almost all of her beautiful long hair. She repeatedly cut it shorter & shorter. Last week she just shaved it. At this time, no one knows if it will ever grow back.
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Healthcare personnel & educators are leaving their fields. They are leaving careers they’ve invested years & $$$ training for. Staffing shortages already were occurring. It will be interesting to see how things change.
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We simply couldn’t take the risk and closed our Airbnb down for now. I miss it so much. Hoping that things improve this spring. FYI, I have some good older friends who caught the virus and I think the fact that they were vaccinated probably save their lives. Be smart, everyone.
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How do we find out if cards are fake or not?
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Actually, where did you ‘read that there are a lot of fake cards out there’?
Sadly in the USA there are fakes. For a short time you could order them on Amazon. Recently a Nurse was arrested for providing them & using actual vaccine batch/lot numbers.
I don’t know how common fake cards are but they are not uncommon. An anti-vaxxer neighbor offered to connect me with her NY doctors who will prescribe & mail order deliver Ivermectin & a vaccination card —if I needed it. That conversation went downhill fast. Btw-I’m SURE those ivermectin tablets are real-real fake that is.
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A good fake is hard to distinguish. With a good printer, heavy card stock & cheap publishing software I might could conjure up a decent looking fake most people wouldn’t know was fake.
The give-away is the vaccine lot number. Lot numbers have a standard format. You could compare someone’s card to yours to verify format. I don’t think I’d bother. If someone hands you a fake card, they are invested in the lie. It will not end well.
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In the UK it’s simple results are uploaded by our health service onto the NHS app so can’t be faked.
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If a person is careful you might not be able to tell if the vaccination card is genuine or not. Even if they are somewhat sloppy they can simply insist that the card is real, and depending on the nature of the alleged error suggesting that it is fake there might be a genuine question. For me this is another factor in my not requesting/requiring a vaccination card when the rental space is not shared. In the very near future (this year, already in place in some states like NY) I would think that many states will develop authentication measures/apps/procedures. The state of Massachusetts just announced something this month.
For more information (but despite title the article repeatedly says it’s a crime to create/sell a fraudulent vaccination card but concludes upfront "“It’s very easy to fake—it doesn’t require rocket science to replicate”). see How to Spot Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Cards
I went to our local municipal hospital’s vax clinic at our local convention center. They put little labels from a label printer with hospital name, mfr & batch no on my card, all 3 times. I saw other cards with folks vaxed at Costco w Costco Pharm rubber stamp & hand written batch nos.
I think I could spot the fake, although it would be simple to copy. I was in and out of graphics arts trades for 20 years. So far I’ve had folks who were glad to find a host who wants vaxed guests.
We really do need a phone app like the Europeans. I now have the exposure alert app on my iPhone, but it only warns me if I’ve been near someone who tested positive for more than ? minutes. Not where or who.
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The good news is that fake Ivermectin tablets are just as good for you in fighting Covid as the real ones.
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In Australia we have a government app and you scan in a QR code. I have one for my Airbnb. The app also stores a copy of the vaxx certificate on your phone in case you have to show someone which is (or was) all that was required to get into a bar. I have been told by a young triple vaxxed acquaintance that some of her friendship group have fake ones. But I hope the majority of people are doing the right thing if only because they are potentially saving themselves and their loved ones a lot of pain or even death.