Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Sades
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Sades »

We're still alive, but no vaccine in sight, anti-maskers, mutated strains and restaurants and bars opening again might change that at some point.
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Clay
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Clay »

I never gave an update on my doctor appointment! Because I'm still waiting!

I had my appointment on the 8th, and we concluded that given the time frame and the duration of my loss of taste, I most likely had covid sometime in early January, but was already recovered enough to not test positive by the time I actually got a test. I did get blood taken for a covid antibody test, but I'm still waiting on those results. They said the test itself doesn't take all that long, but that there's a massive backlog in testing so it'd be a week or more. And that was before all the snow and power problems (my power is fine, but I don't where the lab is that they send bloodwork to).

In the past few days, my sense of taste seems to have returned, so yay, flavor! But it's unsettling to think that, despite hiding inside, going to the grocery at the slowest hours, wearing a mask every time I go outside, etc., I still may have caught it. Of course, I may not have and simply lost my sense of taste randomly for a month when a highly contagious disease that causes that exact symptom was circulating, but that seems less likely.

Speaking more broadly, the US is creeping toward 500,000 dead today. I saw a blip on the news about a doctor in Texas, where the power is out for the entire state, getting fired for giving a small number of covid vaccines to anyone nearby because the blackout meant that the doses would go bad within hours and be useless. Pragmatism loses again.
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Denyer
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Denyer »

Bloody ridiculous. Something health services here are doing routinely AFAIK.

It's looking more and more that antibodies don't necessarily form detectably without a strong reaction (and the only way to guarantee that safely isn't catching it in the wild) so wouldn't be surprised if that comes back clear as well.
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Clay
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Ah, I've screwed up some of the details. He actually administered the about-to-be-expired doses back in December, not during the current disaster.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/worl ... xpire.html
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Denyer wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:53 pm Bloody ridiculous. Something health services here are doing routinely AFAIK.

It's looking more and more that antibodies don't necessarily form detectably without a strong reaction (and the only way to guarantee that safely isn't catching it in the wild) so wouldn't be surprised if that comes back clear as well.
Certainly in my experience they're doing everything they can to make sure the stuff doesn't go to waste as one it's been removed from storage its either used or binned essentially.
The nurse I was chatting with when I got my first jab suggested that they'd have a large amount of cancellations/people just not showing up but it meant they were able to give more colleagues at the hospital their first shot and more vulnerable patients on wards too.
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Tantrum
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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My work started mandating stricter mask requirements last week. Now, you have to wear one unless you're in your private office, alone, with the door shut. You can have it off briefly for eating and drinking, so long as the 6 foot requirement is met. Previously, the 7 foot tall divider between me and my office mate was enough to negate the mask requirement, but now a separation must be floor-to-ceiling. My office mate teleworks two days a week, and leaves by 1:30 other days. Then, I can close my door and be sufficiently isolated to have my mask off.

Someone who works in my building tested positive this morning. He let us know via conference call, and my supervisor sent out an e-mail to our group. I wasn't individually notified as a close contact, and shouldn't be at any risk. He was only doing half days last week, so I don't think I even saw him. There's a possibility that he had a close contact with another coworker that I had contact with. But, I can't think of any coworkers I spent more than 15 minutes with, after a meeting Tues morning, before the positive coworker could've passed it to anyone.
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Sades
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Sades »

In other Covid news ("news"): People continue to be stupid, still no vaccines here, and I continue to use the pandemic as an excuse to almost-happily sequester away from humanity in all but a digital manner.

The only things I really miss are powwows, visiting my dad, going to the museum and occasionally going to a movie. Oh and maybe not worrying that a random bug is possibly going to take me or someone I care about out- I mean even without Covid that's a possibility, but y'know.
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Clay
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Clay »

Clay wrote: Thu Feb 18, 2021 4:06 pm I never gave an update on my doctor appointment! Because I'm still waiting!
Should like to say that I got my covid antibody test results back last week, and they were... negative!

So either I just randomly lost my sense of taste for five weeks in the middle of a pandemic where the the effects of the virus also happen to cause those symptoms, or the tests aren't accurate and I did in fact have covid at some point in January.

I'll guess I'll never know for sure.

Also, president Biden made a speech today saying that the target for getting every adult in the US vaccinated is May 1, followed by at least two more months of masking and social distancing. Earliest possible return to "normal" would be 4th of July, if aiming for holidays. Neat.
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Clogs
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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The Blood Plague is over! The Black Death has gone! The Red Death has decided to play cards professionally and moved to Vegas!

Honestly, you wouldn’t believe the sheer bloody stupidity over where I live. Lots of people refusing to wear masks in the shops, my oik neighbours hosting parties and a general ‘who cares a f, because there’s a cure/it’s never going to happen to me’ attitude.

Sadly, this last week, I’ve heard of two people’s aunties passing away suddenly with Covid-19, both admittedly over 70 years old, but also a work colleague’s cousin who was in his forties and fit as a fiddle until it got him and he was gone within 28 days. There’s so much crowing about how it’s not so bad but, at the same time, it’s still taking lives and there’s upset families feeling they’re being told to shut up and put up.

I had my first vaccination last Tuesday and, within two hours, was laid up with a ‘flu-like reaction. Luckily, I’d been able to book a few days off work; even working from home, I’d have been unable to concentrate. Spent two days in bed and I am still so very tired and sleepy, four days later. Not looking forward to the next jab as it’s reckoned to cause an even stronger reaction... am already discussing time off with my manager.

Which brings me to my next WTF? Work has informed me I’ll be returning to the office after Easter, because it’s going to be great to get back to normal. As I’ve previously mentioned, I’m on public transport and all but one of the other staff have cars; ironically, we bus users are the two eldest. There’s now definite proof that buses and trains were and are significant Covid-19 vectors, to which I’ve face-palmed in a manner that would have made the Lost Light crew impressed. The over 60s are advised not to use any public transport until they’ve had their second vaccination (mine’s 7th June), so us two oldies have already said ‘nope’ and await developments. Both of my sons have been on the buses recently and say that passengers are, again, refusing to wear masks or wearing them incorrectly...

Epidemiologists have predicted the next wave will be about two weeks after Easter. Now, I wonder why...?
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

I'm off to get my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine today. Most of the things I've seen in passing (because I'm beyond the point of reading more articles about covid-19) suggest this is usually the one that people react to more so than the first one, which gave me an arm ache at it's worst, so this could be a fun time!
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Skyquake87
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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...I'm hoping I get my jab at all. Things are not looking great on the supply front, thanks to recent scrapes and guff involving the EU, which I can't even be bothered to get into. Suffice it to say, we're still reliant on them for imports, but now there's a hold up.

All of which doesn't fill me with enthusiasm that things really will get back to normal and as per Clogs above, we'll all be back in lockdown within the space of a month. "But the numbers are down!" "Of course they are! No-one can go anywhere!". My work is also showing some moves of getting office based staff back in, following a combination of lower productivity, faltering IT and rising levels of sickness - the latter not surprising when we've been working flat out to cope with the insane amounts of contact we've had, with some customers just saying "I was bored, so got in touch with you".

Christ, I'd have given anything to have been bored throughout all this...
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Skyquake87 wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:05 pm ...I'm hoping I get my jab at all. Things are not looking great on the supply front, thanks to recent scrapes and guff involving the EU, which I can't even be bothered to get into. Suffice it to say, we're still reliant on them for imports, but now there's a hold up.
To be totally honest I only got mine so quickly by virtue of working for the NHS otherwise I'd have been way at the back of the queue.
Happy to report there have been no ill effects after the second shot (so far) other than a bit of mild neck ache that I can't 100% be sure was caused by the vaccine.
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Denyer
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Overseas is less relevant to the AZ, which has production sites here as long as basic materials can be sourced. Do wonder if they've got sufficient stocks for second doses of the Pfizer though. In a pinch, I suspect that mixing vaccines probably doesn't make that much difference -- and boosters later in the year and going forward are likely to weight more towards AZ anyway, on a cost and "Plague Island (formerly known as the UK, soon to be called the Kingdom of Mercia) has alienated the rest of the world again" basis.

Had the first Pfizer 3-4 weeks ago (apparently retrospectively classed as high risk; I disagree based on specific medical history, but figured it was best to go along with) and a bit blegh the next day, but nothing really out of the ordinary. Other half had it worse from first doze of AZ some time before that but always does react to flu shots. The Twitter discussion around the Rev Richard Coles' first dose was probably as meaningful a sample as most articles -- older people tend to have a less strong response to vaccinations in general, having both more trained and somewhat weaker immune systems.
Skyquake87 wrote:All of which doesn't fill me with enthusiasm that things really will get back to normal and as per Clogs above, we'll all be back in lockdown within the space of a month. "But the numbers are down!" "Of course they are! No-one can go anywhere!". My work is also showing some moves of getting office based staff back in, following a combination of lower productivity, faltering IT and rising levels of sickness
Yeah, this is the bigger danger right now. I'm surprised they've even made a show of blocking any international travel (although it's still a sieve with the 'Stanley Johnson' exemption for second home owners).

I think the drop is also significantly due to the % of the population who've already been exposed, as people aren't particularly paying attention to restrictions and the country's never had anything that could be termed a lockdown by comparison with other nations. People may not have antibodies but there's still probably a lot of T-cell development happening.

Against that, you're seeing greater mutation in large populations such as India.
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ganon578
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by ganon578 »

Got my first shot of the Moderna vaccine yesterday! Woohoo!

Looking forward to getting the other in a few weeks. The drive-thru system I was sent to was streamlined and fast. I figured I wouldn't be eligible to get a vaccine anytime soon, but the phases changed a bit where I live and qualified by working in an essential manufacturing industry. So hooray for that!

Arm is a bit sore (no worse than your typical flu shot). I understand the second shot of Moderna can knock you around a bit, so I am mentally planning ahead to work from home those days.
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Tantrum
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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My parents got their 2nd shots of Pfiezer yesterday. My mom e-mailed me at 9pm to say no side effects yet, and that they hoped to feel OK the next day (today). There's no follow up e-mail, so either there were no side effects worth mentioning, or they're too incapacitated to type.

At work, I saw the guy who's had covid walking around without his mask. Before I could say anything, he realized his mistake, and went back to his car to get it.

There's one guy at work besides me who double masks, with a cloth mask over a disposable one. Today, I saw him with the cloth mask pulled down below his nose while the disposable one was worn properly.
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Sades
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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I'm next up for the shot. Hound has a bit of a wait but I have issues and they are vaccinating Indigenous people sooner than others so I'm in the next group.

It's one of those "...Yay?..." moments. :laugh:
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Denyer
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Not sure if the account I've just removed with a load of COVID denying bullshit was a bot or a person, but the phrase "face diaper" clinched it.
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Unicron
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Denyer wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 5:58 pm Not sure if the account I've just removed with a load of COVID denying bullshit was a bot or a person, but the phrase "face diaper" clinched it.
I'm inclined to say person, as they had made a reply or two in other threads that looked legit. Either way the post here had to go. That was bullshit stacked on bullshit
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Tantrum
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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My parents' 2nd shots went OK, so they'll be fully vaccinated sometime next week. Given the CDC guidelines that it's OK for vaccinated people to visit one unvaccinated household at a time, I've invited them down next weekend. This'll be the first time I've seen them since June.

I get my first shot of Moderna Tues, through my employer. The only downside is that it's in Groton, CT, which is 57 miles away. The state is distributing Pfiezer a 5 minute walk from my house, but my age group isn't eligible for that until 2 weeks from Monday, and there's no guarantee I'd get one of the first spots.

I won't know what time my appointment is until Monday. I'm hoping for an afternoon, or at least late morning slot. I usually wake up at 7:30, and get out of bed around 8. Getting up earlier means making my first significant drive in 6 months on insufficient sleep.
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Denyer
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Post by Denyer »

I don't think it makes much difference. Pfizer have fiddled the testing slightly in terms of reporting figures that cast the best light (most effective age group etc) the same as others. Roughly speaking, for the two dose ones the first dose is about equivalent to having been infected (but without the risks, possible organ damage etc) and cuts hospitalisation and severe illness risks and the second tops it up.

It'd be nice if our generally still semi-responsible national broadcaster learnt the first thing about statistics; 7 blood clot related deaths out of upwards of 18 million (i.e. about a third of the population) is statistical noise, and not demonstrated as cause and effect -- in the same sort of given period more people are likely to accidentally kill themselves falling on a sharp piece of mango.
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