The Grandmother I am referring to is in her late 70's, and she is a viewer of The View and, as such, knows everything there is to know about anything and everything in the world...She has had three vaccines and swears they work, and therefore can't have covid. Despite showing her the CDC paperwork stating otherwise, she says it is from the internet where anyone can write anything, so she doesn't trust it, so I ordered an antigen test and brought it to her, but she did not do it correctly, nearly a week ago. She sounds worse and worse every time I speak with her. In addition, we have family members coming in town this week, including my sister. She had a liver transplant, along with my immunocompromised niece who was just cleared for the first dose of the vaccine and received it yesterday. Her husband is an enabler and just wants to golf; he will not in any way accept the likelihood that my grandma has the virus, since that would interfere with his golf game. She won't even tell the others, and now that she has taken the antigen test, she says the vaccine worked and it's just a cold. Could there be a point where you could get assistance, if both are in danger and possibly putting others in risk? My family members will not be allowed around her until she is certain and I see it in writing that the doctor has cleared her to be around them. I find this ridiculous. My view is that people should not be compelled to do things against their will or mandated to do things, but social pressures should replace them. My grandfather was lost to this pandemic and I don't understand why she thinks it's a virtue to be stubborn. Since I was with her the other day, I will also be getting tested today. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. Is there anything you can suggest?
The weekend before Thanksgiving my daughter came down with a head cold, she thought. By Monday she could not smell, a rapid test did show COVID. Her job required a PCR test, it was positive.
My daughter did everything right, 2 shots, mask everywhere she went and went out rarely. I am on the side of caution especially with the new strain.
You can't make Grandma take the test. As said, warn ur relatives and stay away.
I should leave your liver transplant recipient and the other immunocompromised adult to assess their own risks. The golfing husband, is that your grandmother's husband or your brother in law? - but in any case I can't see anything to prevent your sharing your concern about your grandmother with your sister and your niece.
Between a rock and a hard place? As far as I can tell from your post, neither you nor anyone for whom you have responsibility is either ill or at risk of infection. All other adults must make their own choices. Let them.
our elders are often wiser than us (even when we think we might have the answers). they reached old age -- they did some things right to be able to get there.
---
my own opinion, be careful with all these corona tests. you might EVEN catch corona in that corona-testing-office (full of previous sick people). even drive-throughs...not ideal. it's in the air.
---
we all have to see what's the best way forward, in each particular scenario (worry about corona symptoms...)
sometimes it's better just to let the cold/or whatever it was, go away, while you stay at home, away from people as much as you can.
i would say, keep grandmother at home :).
As CountryMouse has pointed out medically fragile people don't need to be exposed to ANY virus that is circulating, be it covid, influenza, rsv or simply the common cold. Since it has now been over a week since her first symptoms she is likely past the contagious stage of whatever illness but I would make a point of informing everyone that she is currently still symptomatic - they can make their own choices.