Covid-19 News/Discussion

[MWil23]

5 hours ago, WizeGuy said:

Don't feel bad. This variant is crazy contagious. You'd have to live in a hazmat suit to guarantee avoiding it. I've known a lot of people who have caught it recently. The good news is- the symptoms are typically really mild. 

Some would go so far as to call it the "best case scenario" for such a contagion. (Smirks and exits thread for ensuing chaos)

[Xenos]

Get your free rapid tests. Unfortunately only 4 kit per address but still better than nothing.

https://special.usps.com/testkits

Edited January 18, 2022 by Xenos

[Xenos]

Everything you need to know about the rapid tests program:

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/recode/22890296/covidtests-biden-free-rapid-test-website
 

Quote

Don’t wait to order tests. Because tests are supposed to take between seven to 12 days to ship, the government recommends that people order tests on the site now, rather than waiting until they have symptoms or are exposed to someone with Covid-19. The hope is that everyone in the country will soon have their own mini stockpile of tests to use when they need.

 

[minutemancl]

I'm seeing more and more stories about the long term effects of COVID and long-COVID. Do we know if those long term effects are also happening in those who have had breakthrough cases (those who were vaccinated/boosted then got COVID)?

[minutemancl]

On 1/18/2022 at 6:33 AM, WizeGuy said:

Don't feel bad. This variant is crazy contagious. You'd have to live in a hazmat suit to guarantee avoiding it. I've known a lot of people who have caught it recently. The good news is- the symptoms are typically really mild. 

This is important. Lots of talk in the media right now is trying to shift this from what it really is, a national failure to fully address and deal with the pandemic, to a case of 'personal responsibility'. "Young adults are going to bars and spreading this like crazy!", etc. Anything to shift the blame from the fact that the majority of people who get it are getting it at work and the government has done nothing to incentivize or even make it possible for people to stay home or work more safely since like last year. Employers decided they wanted the pandemic to be over, and we don't have institutions strong enough to fight back against this in a unified way, so this is what happens.

Do not feel bad if you get COVID, especially if you've done everything right (vaccinated, boosted, masking when appropriate, etc). And that goes double since this new variant is absurdly contagious, and the only mask that really helps prevent this variant in any meaningful way is an N95 (not a KN95, a fitted N95) that the general population does not have access to.

Again, this is a failure on all levels. "The cruelty is the point".

[Xenos]

1 hour ago, minutemancl said:

I'm seeing more and more stories about the long term effects of COVID and long-COVID. Do we know if those long term effects are also happening in those who have had breakthrough cases (those who were vaccinated/boosted then got COVID)?

This was back in November. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03495-2

[minutemancl]

9 minutes ago, Xenos said:

This was back in November. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03495-2

So it seems like there is a lot we still don't know. That's super scary.

[TVScout]

Body temperature may not be an effective gauge of covid-19.

A recent study compiled data from 150,280 adult outpatient visits to Stanford Health Care facilities over a 10-year period. The average temperature was 98.0 degrees for men and 98.2 degrees for women. Another recent study, of 96 adults, found an average temperature was 97.0 degrees. And a 2017 study, of 35,488 adults, came up with an average of 97.9. “The number comes from a mid-19th-century study,” says Julie Parsonnet, an infectious-disease physician at Stanford University School of Medicine. In that study, a German physician, Carl Wunderlich, collected a million temperature readings from many thousands of patients and published this average: 98.6 degrees. “Wunderlich was a giant in the field,” says Philip Mackowiak, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and an expert on fever and body temperature. He points out that while 98.6 was the “average,” Wunderlich never called it “normal.” Mackowiak detailed the limitations of forehead thermometers in a 2020 paper.

[TVScout]

21 hours ago, Xenos said:

Get your free rapid tests. Unfortunately only 4 kit per address but still better than nothing.

https://special.usps.com/testkits

Supplemental:

• The U.S. government’s website to order free rapid coronavirus tests, covidtests.gov, officially launches Wednesday.

[Xenos]

Why it’s a bad idea to get Omicron and just get it over with.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/01/15/1073075753/get-omicron-symptoms-precautions

Quote

3. Your immunity will last months — not years

Unlike chickenpox, getting a COVID-19 infection is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for long.

Article continues after sponsor message

T wo main things impact how well our immunity will protect us, explains Jeffrey Townsend, an evolutionary biology and biostatistics professor at The Yale School of Public Health. First, antibody levels: Immediately after you get a shot, booster or infection, your antibodies skyrocket and you're unlikely to get sick. Unfortunately, those levels don't stay high.

Second, the changing nature of the pathogen: As the virus evolves and variants emerge, our waning antibodies may not be able to target the new variants of the virus as precisely. Omicron is a prime example of a virus that has mutated to be able to continue infecting us — that's what the term immune evasion refers to.

So how much time does an infection buy you? 

While that's hard to answer precisely, Townsend's team estimates that reinfection could occur somewhere between three months and five years after infection, with a median of 16 months. This is based on an analysis of data from previous antibodies to previous coronaviruses, 

"At three to 16 months, you should be on notice," he says. "The clock is starting to tick again."

 

[MWil23]

38 minutes ago, Xenos said:

So how much time does an infection buy you? 

While that's hard to answer precisely, Townsend's team estimates that reinfection could occur somewhere between three months and five years after infection, with a median of 16 months. This is based on an analysis of data from previous antibodies to previous coronaviruses, 

"At three to 16 months, you should be on notice," he says. "The clock is starting to tick again."

That's quite the data gap.

And to be blunt, how would this be any different than a vaccine booster you need to get annually? (I'm not saying that you shouldn't get the vaccine; I've been adamant about getting it).

This strain is much more mild, ergo IF unvaccinated people are not going to get the vaccine (and they are not going to, period), this strain would be preferable for people to get if there isn't another realistically viable option.

[Xenos]

6 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

That's quite the data gap.

And to be blunt, how would this be any different than a vaccine booster you need to get annually? (I'm not saying that you shouldn't get the vaccine; I've been adamant about getting it).

This strain is much more mild, ergo IF unvaccinated people are not going to get the vaccine (and they are not going to, period), this strain would be preferable for people to get if there isn't another realistically viable option.

Well that’s why it’s important to read the rest of the article. Additionally, omicron sounds milder for people who are unvaccinated or who had a previous infection. I don’t know if this strain is preferable if you’re unvaccinated.

[MWil23]

1 minute ago, Xenos said:

Well that’s why it’s important to read the rest of the article.

I read it.  

1 minute ago, Xenos said:

Additionally, omicron sounds milder for people who are unvaccinated or who had a previous infection. I don’t know if this strain is preferable if you’re unvaccinated.

This is the same thing/you are contradicting yourself here. Did you mean something else?

[Xenos]

13 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

I read it.  

This is the same thing/you are contradicting yourself here. Did you mean something else?

Milder for vaccinated. 
 

Edit: but as the article stated, there’s still a host of other problems if you’re unvaccinated and get it. At this point, unless the hospitals turn away the unvaccinated and essentially force more people to get vaccinated, we’re still going to have the same issues.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Xenos

[TL-TwoWinsAway]

4 hours ago, minutemancl said:

This is important. Lots of talk in the media right now is trying to shift this from what it really is, a national failure to fully address and deal with the pandemic, to a case of 'personal responsibility'. "Young adults are going to bars and spreading this like crazy!", etc. Anything to shift the blame from the fact that the majority of people who get it are getting it at work and the government has done nothing to incentivize or even make it possible for people to stay home or work more safely since like last year. Employers decided they wanted the pandemic to be over, and we don't have institutions strong enough to fight back against this in a unified way, so this is what happens.

Do not feel bad if you get COVID, especially if you've done everything right (vaccinated, boosted, masking when appropriate, etc). And that goes double since this new variant is absurdly contagious, and the only mask that really helps prevent this variant in any meaningful way is an N95 (not a KN95, a fitted N95) that the general population does not have access to.

Again, this is a failure on all levels. "The cruelty is the point".

I actually think the blame is far more on the government than you state here. This whole "get the vaccine and you can life a normal life, as you won't get or spread COVID!" message was absurd, and undoubtedly cost lives. Many individuals avoided contact with vulnerable members of the population until they received the vaccine, then resumed close contact with those persons, unaware that they could still spread COVID.

These half measures have always been the issue, in my opinion, and we're seeing them everywhere.