Coronavirus Tales

That sucks Stele... I hope it's not and it's over soon for you!

Don't forget to get your flu shot, everybody!

Robear wrote:

Don't forget to get your flu shot, everybody!

Got mine last week. Getting my Moderna booster on Wednesday.

I hope it’s just a nasty cold and you feel better soon, Stele.

Where are you at in the cycle these days, Anti? Feeling any better?

The other week, I got my flu shot on a Tuesday, COVID booster on Thursday, then two doctor's appointments and an Xgeva shot in the flu arm on Friday. And yet it wasn't too bad.

Fever, nausea, and other stomach issues. Ugh. Possibly just flu.

First time I've had to do nose swab. That sucked. Now I wait.

Robear wrote:

The other week, I got my flu shot on a Tuesday, COVID booster on Thursday, then two doctor's appointments and an Xgeva shot in the flu arm on Friday. And yet it wasn't too bad.

IMAGE(https://64.media.tumblr.com/4d269e8e7016dac8ef0aec8dc3883d70/tumblr_pesb8oTCx71uvyu9yo2_540.gifv)

Stele wrote:

Fever, nausea, and other stomach issues. Ugh. Possibly just flu.

First time I've had to do nose swab. That sucked. Now I wait.

Could still be Covid, but I'm hoping it's short stomach bug.

DSGamer wrote:

Where are you at in the cycle these days, Anti? Feeling any better?

Thanks for checking. I’m technically past my state’s 10-day quarantine now and have -finally- started to feel better with only an occasional cough and continual fatigue (and insomnia, ugh). I’m planning to try to go to work (masked) tomorrow. It’s been nearly a month now that I’ve been out between all the kid Covid cycles and my own, and it appears that they just let everything pile up rather than make use of those who were partly covering for me while I was out.

But I’ve already promised myself to start very slowly so I don’t overdo it, and if it takes a long time to catch up on everything people left for me, then it just takes a long time. They had alternatives while I was out, and if they chose not to, then they chose to wait however long it takes.

But I’m glad to mostly be past it, and very glad that none of us needed the hospital. The vaccine did its job, and I could absolutely see from how sick I was how it could have been critical or deadly for me without the vaccine. It was bad, but I could feel how it was kept out of my lungs, and if what was in my head had been in my lungs, it would have been really bad.

I’m probably out of the booster shot running for a while, but I’ll be trying for my booster in a few weeks or next month or whenever they’ll let me.

I had two Moderna jabs in May. Annual flu jab two weeks ago.

Last night I saw Phish live in Chula Vista. Proof of vaccine was required to get in. There was a TON of people.

If I caught something, when should symptoms appear? If I remain symptom free, when will I know that I’m in the clear?

It took like 13 days from my daughters first positive test to when my symptoms started. Now, maybe I didn’t contract it for a week and then it incubated in me for a week. But Covid -can- take something like 7-10 days, hence the old 2 week quarantine for exposure or when traveling.

Robear wrote:

Don't forget to get your flu shot, everybody!

I've been getting the flu shot every year for at least the last decade. This year is the first time I have had an adverse reaction, but I don't think it was from the flu shot itself. I got an infection at the site of injection, I assume because the pharmacist didn't clean my arm thoroughly. Still getting it next year though.

I didn't get it last year, for the first time in more than a decade, but then, I was staying home. I took that bet. This year, obviously, I can't.

My wife's parents have gone unvaccinated, the mother because she says she's allergic (she does have health issues, and basically says she's allergic to everything) and the father because.... ?

Wife just got a text, they both got Covid (they're past 70 years old I should note) and the text says their doctor says getting Covid gives more antibodies than the vaccine, so they dont need the vaccine. The next line literally says 'So yall should come for Christmas'

Yeah those are people you cut out of your life.

Ask them if they've ever gotten the flu more than once.

I dunno, it will provide protection, assuming they're still alive come then. They'll be very much still in the realm of high protection at Christmas.

garion333 wrote:

I dunno, it will provide protection, assuming they're still alive come then. They'll be very much still in the realm of high protection at Christmas.

If I recall correctly- The vaccination provides higher levels of protection compared to a general infection. "I had covid" isn't a reason to skip getting vaccinated.

I know Virginia is full of doctors telling patients that getting COVID and surviving produces more antibodies than any vaccine, based on that Israeli study.

Just got back from getting a booster vaccination. Received the J&J in April through my local county. Moderna booster today at Hy-Vee, a major Midwestern grocery chain. Apparently I reserved the last Moderna shot for today because it was greyed out as an option when my wife attempted to register minutes later. We hope they will have more openings for her tomorrow. So far no symptoms.

JC wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I dunno, it will provide protection, assuming they're still alive come then. They'll be very much still in the realm of high protection at Christmas.

If I recall correctly- The vaccination provides higher levels of protection compared to a general infection. "I had covid" isn't a reason to skip getting vaccinated.

Correct, but natural infection provides a more robust longterm protection against variants.

Regardless, two months is not a long time for the antibodies to completely disappear.

But it sounds like you all only want to be around folks who have current, strong antibodies effectively giving something resembling immunity. To me that's a bridge too far, but I can understand the hesitancy to not want to be around these folks. Would I avoid them completely? Nah.

"I had Covid" is good enough for me if someone doesn't want to get a vaccine (same for CDC guidelines). That's their choice to not be as protected as possible by getting a vaccine.

I recognize these people may be anti-vax nut jobs, but they're still family and this damn pandemic has been going on long enough that if 75% of the people at the gathering have the vaccine and 25% were sick in October with Covid but without a vaccine then that's a gathering I have no problem being at.

What's next the next step here? Shunning people who got the vaccine but not a booster? At some point most folks are going to stop getting boosters, much like the flu vaccine which is moderately ignored by folks without everyone, well, doing this:

Stele wrote:

Yeah those are people you cut out of your life.

If we continually cut people from our lives rather than show some kindness and empathy society is gonna come out of this pandemic in worse shape than when Trump was in office.

The problem is, flu is endemic, and treating this the same way will mean that people who refuse the vaccine are likely to get a COVID-19 variant around every 16 months, based on modeling using about five other related coronaviruses. And getting COVID is much more dangerous than getting flu, by at least an order of magnitude.

Yup. That's how it's gonna be. Still don't think we need to cut them out of our lives because they don't want a vaccine and have been infected before.

I have a feeling Delta may be the last variant of note since it's super contagious. Maybe not, but even so a seasonal vaccine that many get with other folks having natural immunity and/or prior vaccinations is where we're gonna end up.

JLS wrote:

Just got back from getting a booster vaccination. Received the J&J in April through my local county. Moderna booster today at Hy-Vee, a major Midwestern grocery chain. Apparently I reserved the last Moderna shot for today because it was greyed out as an option when my wife attempted to register minutes later. We hope they will have more openings for her tomorrow. So far no symptoms.

I got mine at Walgreens in Savage today and they had a bunch of openings for Friday. Have her look there.

A while back, one of the guys at my job was handing out home recipes for a covid19 cure/preventative. I hadn't seen him in about a month, I found out last week he died from covid19. Fortunately I wasn't around to get that recipe from him.

That’s horrible, Max, I’m sorry to hear it.

Got our flu shots a week or two ago....was hoping to grab our Covid boosters this week or next....I got Covid from somewhere. f*ck...this thing hits hard even with my J&J back in March.

Sorry to hear it, Hobear, here’s hoping it’s a quick recovery.

Thanks it sucks for the kids being right at Halloween and my daughter's birthday shortly after. Just bad timing.

garion333 wrote:

I have a feeling Delta may be the last variant of note since it's super contagious. Maybe not, but even so a seasonal vaccine that many get with other folks having natural immunity and/or prior vaccinations is where we're gonna end up.

To paraphrase Doctor Malcom: Life (or viruses) finds a way. Let me introduce you to AY.4.2 an evolution of Delta that is competitive with it and is seeing growing numbers in the U.K. ( BBC news link ). I think any assumptions about the final state of Covid 19 are probably unwise.

Well my covid test came back negative. But this is a nasty stomach virus or flu or whatever. I still haven't had a real meal since Saturday. My whole digestive system has been a wreck.

Take care, hobear.

Wife scheduled covid booster for her Thurs and me Fri. Just in case it knocks us on our butt for a day, we can cover each other with the kids.

Hobear, I hope it's a short run for you and you can find/feel healthy enough for alternative celebrations.

Take care, Stele--hopefully it'll run it's course soon. That sucks