Vaccines are useful, if your immune system is healthy. But none of the vaccines provides sterilizing immunity against omicron, and nothing on the horizon will, either. That is, an omicron-based vaccine can provide sterilizing immunity to someone who is immunologically naive, but not to someone who has previously been exposed to a different covid variant, either via vaccine or infection. That’s because our immune system has a memory, and when it sees something new it tries to match it to what it’s seen before. (And the immunologically-naive person immunized to omicron has almost no immunity to the original-strain covid, nor to alpha, beta, and delta.)
So we will continue to catch and spread covid. But a good mask DOES work. My mom died of omicron, and was infectious for a couple weeks, and despite spending tons of time with her as she died, none of her four n95-masked children caught it. None of us even had an asymptomatic infection. I believe that good masks carefully worn, work pretty well.
Wife had her class reunion last weekend. About 150 people gathered in two party venues over the course of two evenings for drinking, dining, and conversation.
Today she got a text from one of her classmates who was in attendance both nights. He tested positive for Covid today.
She sent out a mass email with the news. We’ll see what happens.
I realize this is going back a ways, but I thought it worth pointing out that one of the reasons given to encourage people to get the flu vaccine every year was to help protect elderly, very young, and immunocompromised people. Healthcare workers were typically required to get the flu shot if they were in patient facing positions. Not enough people did get the shot, but I know I encouraged people to do it, and I did it every year.
I definitely second the idea of an over the counter rapid flu test. I think I have never had a diagnosed case of the flu. But I’m certain that I’ve had it multiple times in my life. The most recent time was a month or two ago, and I would have taken more precautions if I’d known early on that it was influenza.
Okay, I’ve finally put into words, to my satisfaction, why I feel judged by the folks at work who want WFH available to everyone. It’s not really reasonable, and I’ve already discussed parts of it here and elsewhere, but at least now I can explain my visceral feelings in a way that I believe covers it sufficiently.
There are folks at work who don’t feel safe at the office and want the officially endorsed right to WFH as they see fit. They are concerned about, among other things, spreading it to vulnerable family members, the risks of long Covid, and so on. If their concern (and the concern of people in general over the virus) is justified, and I can’t find any reason to think otherwise these days, my unfair visceral reactions are twofold but related:
With the virulence (even with masks) and immune escape of the latest variants, how is keeping any nonessential business or travel open justified?
With the above, how is anyone being around more than like five other people for any nonessential reason justified? How is it not equivalent to Sturgis in 2021? Yeah, we have vaccines, but like I said, new variants’ virulence, reinfection possibility within two weeks, and immune escape seem to even that out. How can we make fun of the motorcycle nuts and simultaneously justify risking killing someone or giving them lifelong disability and increased cancer risk to shop for clothes or see friends? Why should I not be judged by the same standards I judged all the morons in 2020 by? Are the people who are concerned judging me that way? By not apparently having the same level of concern they are, are they right?
Like I said, I know that “blaming” the people justifiably concerned is itself unjustified, and that there are probably good reasons for both of the above that doesn’t involve “capitalism demands you spend and travel so the rich can buy a new yacht.” It’s just hard to think of sometimes, and certainly not fast enough to smother the visceral reaction.
But at least I can put into words why now, instead of feeling vaguely judged.
Keeping nonessential businesses open and allowing travel are justified because everything in life has risks and for a lot of people the benefits of these things outweigh the risks. It’s not about the stock market, it’s that going out, seeing friends and family in person, and visiting new places are what makes life worth living.
Wifey, RN visited a patient yesterday, and left because she had tested positive for COVID. She says she didn’t treat her, so it doesn’t sound like she had ‘close contact’. I meant to get another booster last week, but I forgot. I’ll try to get one today.
Got my second booster yesterday. The first two shots each wiped me out for a day (fatigue/sleepiness). I don’t remember what the first booster did, aside from some pain at the injection site. The pain at the injection site for the second booster started after I went to bed.
She may really get knocked out by getting both at once. I’ve heard that the shingles vaccine itself can knock you out for a few days. My doc was saying to get it on Friday and plan to do nothing over the weekend because I wouldn’t be feeling well. If she also has a reaction to the booster, it could be a very uncomfortable few days. Hopefully she has a mild reaction to both.
My husband got his second covid booster the other day, and tried to get a shingles vaccine, too. But he was at Walgreens, and apparently, our insurance will only pay for it if he gets it from CVS.
Someone remind my why the US has such a shitty healthcare system?
Because anything else would be <choke-gasp-aarrgh!> godless, Marxist, woke, leftist, SOCIALISM!
Gummint’s function is not to make your life better or even livable, but to keep you just employed enough to send in taxes. Until the next regime eliminates federal income taxes, of course, and then it’s devil take the hindmost.
The COVID vaccine (1st & 2nd shots) each wiped me out for a day. I was fine after waking up, except for the painful injection site.
The shingles vaccine, on the other hand, was the most excruciating vaccination I’ve had. I don’t recall any illness, but it hurt so bad it would wake me up at night for a few days.
I also got the Shringrix vaccine at the same time that I got my (second) booster. The Walmart pharmacist who was doing it noticed that I was overdue for a shingles vaccine and asked if I wanted to get it, and I said sure.
It didn’t hurt any more than any other vaccine ever has, but I did feel pretty lousy that night, and had chills. I don’t know whether that was Shingrix in particular, or the combination of the two. Either way, it was endurable.
My wife still needs to go in for her booster. She actually had Covid, and got the Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment for it. You’re not supposed to get boosted for six months after that, but I believe that time limit is just about up.
I mentioned this in my eyelid-debridement thread, but thought it would be worth mentioning here as well.
I tested COVID-19 positive back on June 5. I still have a lingering rough cough.
Yesterday, I saw my dry eye specialist for a four week checkup after some treatment. My last session there was (I know now) the day after I was exposed, and a few days before I was symptomatic and positive.
He told me that he could see the inflammation in my eyelids was noticeably worse, compared to the pictures we took about 3 months ago, and to the visual he did through the microscope 4 weeks ago.
(And, happily, that he thinks once that inflammation finally goes down, my eyes will feel even better.)
Sure, but as I describe in another thread, part of my mind goes, who cares about any of that? It’s possible to make up for it later. You can’t make up for long term lung damage or dead. Isn’t lecturing about mental health and quality of life what anti-vaxxers do? If I start thinking along those lines, how am I any different from them? At what point does me caring about money and the general economy make me like the heartless government officials we rail at for not doing what needs to be done?
In short, sometimes I wonder how much difference there is between me and the exact same people that leftists such as myself rail against for making the world and this pandemic worse.
Well, now I tested positive. It took about thirty months I suppose. It came at us through our Special Olympics group. I have had to call out of work for two weeks too. Honestly, I am never sick. I thought I could dodge this.
