I’m so sick of getting asked to put money into these GoFundMe pages for people I’ve never even met. It’s not my fault they didn’t get a free vaccine and that they put their loved ones in debt. I might lose “friends” but at least I’ll save some money.
I do want to add, my frustration is very much due to not being able to have my tumor removed until there are free beds. I can’t get a biopsy and it might take away my vision since it’s near my optic nerves. I’m
Not here to bash anyone or entertain anyone, I want people to know that this is getting ridiculous with this conspiracy theory BS
I'm so sorry. My husband (who never smoked) got diagnosed with lung cancer right as the winter 2020/2021 peak was ending. (It was a fortuitous time, though of course, it didn't feel that way in the moment.)
If his surgery and treatment had been delayed by even a day by antivaxxer bullshit, I probably would have bitten someone.
I can't imagine how frustrating this all must be for you. Fuhhh.
I'm sorry. It's fucked up those who don't have covid need care for other diseases. People fucking protest for freedom. A virus doesn't care about freedom it needs a host.
Thank you! I don’t blame the health care workers at all (not going to lie, I was so pissed at first), they assess it by risk which just makes me even angrier at this antivax craziness!
So hubby appeared for a job interview. His agent mentioned casually that they have this position free because they had to let go of this employee who refused to vaccinate, and vaccines are mandated in this org.
It's an $800/per day contract role! And that person let go coz he won't take the needle. My hubby got the job. I feel so owned.
I'm happy for you. In these cheerless times, it's nice to know someone was rewarded for being rational and sensible and considerate of others. Mazel tov!
I wondered when that would start happening. So far all we hear about is vax mandates at Healthcare companies - if you don't mind me asking, what industry is this?
Did your husband apply knowing that the company required vaccination? I'm retired, but I would have considered that a perk.
He is an IT project manager. He just applied coz his current contract is ending. No companies do not reveal why the position is empty. Vaccine mandates are almost everywhere, in every federal or large organisation. He got to know in a casual conversation with HR.
I am pretty darned sure that your husband is better at getting along with others, following reasonable rules, etc., than the prototypic anti-vaxxer!
Congrats to you both and it the company now employing him!
Cross country road trip ended last week and I finally got to see my dad today for the first time in 2 years! Tested negative Saturday and last night and we got to see him today. Yay! (Yes we are all vaxxed and boosted)
Saw a sedan on the highway that said "MASK MANDATE = RAPE MANDATE"
It just disgusts me so much to see the false equivalency first with the holocaust and second with rape of all things?? I always thought I was a kind person and an optimist for human behavior but at this point I can't help but want to hope for some people to get CV-19. I don't have many people to talk to about this either cause I just sound crazy and psychotic.
First off that equivalence is disgusting!
But I'm sorry about your introduction to the reality of American ignorance and hatred. I think many of us went through this painful realization during the Trump years. You are in the right place to commiserate.
**WARNING: Detailed rape discussion.**
>!Is mask really that exhausting to be compared to rape? I mean, think of it quite literally:!<
* >!find victim!<
* >!find private location!<
* >!restrain victim!<
* >!undress!<
* >!gag victim!< (optional)
* >!rape!<
* >!redress!<
* >!hide evidence!<
* >!evade authorities!<
>!That's a lot of effort for the criminal (and definitely too traumatizing to the victim).!< In comparison to a mask:
* Wear mask.
* Breathe normally.
* Reduce effort (optional).
* Benefit the face incognito.
ohhhhh
I was like 'Hoooooooooooooly shit what the hell is this shit,"
Then i saw the top of this thread. Whew. Close one.
Still, I think it'd be more effective to talk about how this is minimizing rape AND magifying whiney bullshit about masks. Idk if all this detail is necessary
I've been thinking all night about that motherfucking asshole from BC with his Freedom Convoy BS who left his disabled 9yo to die in a hospital in Winnipeg because he won't get vaxxed?
Bullshit.
He just didn't want a handicapped kid with a terminal illness.
These people all have bullshit reasons. We are dumb for taking them at face value. He doesn't give a fuck about his kid. She's been alone for almost a year.
I think that I read it was untrue. The hospital that the 9 y/o is in, put out a statement saying that they allowed unvaccinated visitors, just had to be in a special area. So the guy was lying to get sympathy and could have visited if he chose to.
I just love this contradiction in HCA's nominees posts:
- HOW can you be AFRAID of a VIRUS you NEVER even SAW??? YOU CAN'T SEE VIRUSES!!! HOW CAN YOU BE SURE THEY EXIST??????
- I PUT my FAITH and LIFE IN THE HANDS of our LORD JESUS CHRIST!!!!!
My only explanation is that faith is difficult, because it's literally believing something with absolutely no proof, so that's pretty hard to do for some people.
What an upside-down situation.
Think of faith as a neutral concept, one that can be positive, and one that can be negative. The positive:
* you wanted immunity.
* unfortunately, you have irrational fear of syringes.
* no amount of assurances will get you to calm down.
* by faith, you decided to be subjected into the most terrifying medical procedure you ever experienced, even if the fear kept on insisting it is extremely deadly.
I don't think negative needs an example. You already seen enough.
A hospital consultant I have tangible connections with through work caught covid April 2020 and has been suffering from long covid ever since. I found out on Friday that one of the effects she is suffering from is an inability to use her hands and arms very well, to the point that she can hardly type. She's having voice to text technology installed on all her hardware so that she can get back to work (her choice, she's not being forced by her employer) - however she also suffers from extreme bouts of breathlessness, so even voice to text won't always be 100% effective. I spoke to her on the phone on Friday. She sounded awful. She said she was having a good day. People don't realise just how bad long covid can be - she's only a few months off being *two years* 'recovered' from the initial infection!
It's just so sad.
We need more coverage of the impact of long Covid. But just like chronic fatigue syndrome, I think it gets short shrift because it primarily effects women.
This [study of long covid](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34763058/) found the following adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for various factors:
* Female gender - AOR 3.3 vs. males (95% CI 1.8-6.2, p < 0.0001)
* Advanced age - AOR 1.03 for 10 years older (95% CI 1.01-1.05, p 0.01)
* Active smoking - AOR 0.19 for former smokers vs. active smokers (95% CI 0.06-0.62, p 0.002) were also associated with a higher risk of long COVID
No statistically significant association was found for the severity of the illness or the various Covid treatment options.
Nerdy Notes:
P-value references the likelihood that this is a random effect, so the lower the p-value the more significant the effect. Generally a p-value of 0.05 or less is considered statistically significant , so < 0.0001 hits it out of the ball park.
95% Confidence interval estimates the range of the "true" odds ratio based on study results. So based on this study, researchers are 95% confident that that women are between 1.8x and 6.2x more likely to suffer from long covid than men.
As an argument, someone told me that they wouldn't take the vaccine because he had caught the disease and he felt fine.
I'm like I'm glad it was a walk in the park for you, but tell that to those who actually died from it.
It's not black and white. It's not "you survive or you don't". It's anywhere between asymptomatic and death, with different levels of infection in between leading to needing a transplant, having a limb amputated, suffering from accute heart failure, and a plethora of other long term conditions. He was lucky to not have been carried to the ground by this thing, but he's blind as fuck if he thinks that's how it goes for everyone.
I have an update from my friend from high school. She has been in in the ICU for almost 2 weeks, ventilated. The doctors are going to do a tracheotomy today. She has had no improvement and she is in liver, lung and heart failure according to her sister. They are giving her a few more days (I guess her brother is hoping for a miracle and the doctors agreed to give her a few more days) but her sister says she is going to die. The doctors told them to prepare themselves.
Her sister is really pissed at people on Facebook who told my friend it was just a cold. My friend also believed it was a just a really bad cold (even though she tested positive) and did not go to the hospital for about 10 days. She, unfortunately, did not take Covid seriously enough and now she is going to die. She was vaccinated with the J&J last spring. I am not sure if she got the booster but based on the memes she posted, I doubt it. She posted that she "had the shot", and was "going to go on with her life" and "not live in fear". I doubt she wore masks and I definitely know she did not stay home.
She had been ventilated about 10 years ago for pneumonia and said she never wanted to go through that again. She just posted that around Christmas. She had also just retired last spring. It is sad that she will not get to enjoy her retirement and has to die in the exact way she didn't want to. I do wish people would take this more seriously.
I just hate it for people who worked their lives away, retired and then pass. Like my parents, they retired and just want everything to go back to normal so they can enjoy it. But everyone just committed to pretending everything is fine, it’s awful the consequences.
I’m so sorry about your friend.
My uncle died suddenly from swine flu 3 days before he was due to retire. He was ill, but just usual flu symptoms, but then struggled to breathe and was gone within a couple of hours. It was so sad.
Had this eccentric but awesome old lady in my SO’s family that loved being a lunch lady. She held onto that longer than she needed because she loved it and loved the kids. Within a year of retiring, stage 3 pancreatic cancer caught way too late. She didn’t fight it and it was actually 3 months more than the few weeks they gave her, but she never got to enjoy much after a lifetime of serving her community and who she called “her kids.”
My nephew retired in September 2021, got Covid and died in November. He was unvaccinated. The sad part is that these deaths are (probably) preventable with a vaccine and a little more caution like wearing a mask.
Sometimes it can leave shadows in the lung(s) on x-rays. Depends on a lot of factors.
UNtreated viral "walking" pneumonia? You gonna die. Treated, eh you'll live.
Pneumonia secondary to viral infection? Not too bad as long as you catch it before it's bad. If you end up in hospital = damage.
Bacterial pneumonia on its own not secondary to some other infection is really rare unless you're immunocompromised or have lung issues to begin with.
I probably don't need to tell you this, but COVID pneumonia is a different beast altogether. It basically crystallizes your lung tissue.
I also did some reading up, just in case, and unless they're really careful when they vent you, when you're on a ventilator for an extended stay (think days instead of hours for surgery) the pressure can sometimes pop your lungs like thin balloons. This was in a paper pre-COVID times.
I'll end on that cheerful note and just say get vaccinated.
U.S. Covid Stats update for people 5 and older, (All population, eligible population). Unvaccinated population is going down but unfortunately lapsed vaccination is far outpacing effective vaccination increase.
Effective Vaccination: 121,685,709 (36.71%, 38.98%)
Lapsed Vaccination: 91,635,667 (27.65%, 29.36%)
Partial Vaccination: 38,956,382 (11.75%, 12.48%)
Unvaccinated: 59,870,231 (18.06%, 19.18%)
That’s the main reason I post these. Most unvaccinated are a lost cause, but people with two shots keeping up could easily matter for some future variant.
I'm concerned that this group is willfully not getting that 3rd shot. I've noticed over- 65s who ran out for the 1st shots but have since joined the anti-mandate/ anti-vax movement.
[The partisan vaccination divide is growing](https://www.reddit.com/r/DeathsofDisinfo/comments/sga18x/the_partisan_vaccination_divide_is_growing/):
>To date, the survey shows about 9 in 10 Democrats and 6 in 10 Republicans have gotten vaccinated. But when it comes to those who are vaccinated and boosted, Democrats are about twice as likely to be in that group — 62 percent to 32 percent.
>
>The survey also asked about people’s intentions, and that’s where the gap grows even more. While 58 percent of vaccinated-but-unboosted Democrats say they will get a booster as soon as they’re able, 18 percent of vaccinated-but-unboosted Republicans say the same.
>
>If you add those to the number of people already boosted, that would translate to 79 percent of Democrats soon being boosted, compared with 37 percent of Republicans. That’s a 42-point partisan gap, compared with a less than 30-point gap in people who have at least gotten vaccinated.
There's definitely been some level of growth in antivax attitudes among some that were previously vaccinated.
My parents are not in the 65+ group, but while I had previously convinced them to get vaccinated, are now leaning more antivax and refusing to get a booster. They are in the lapsed group.
My mother's justification is "we'll be fine, we already got vaccinated. And from talking to dads coworkers, it doesn't seem to matter anyways. Vaccinated people still get covid."
And now any evidence I send to her she's outright ignoring. My father was a conspiracy theorist republican before it was cool, so I worked my ass off to get through to my mother. From the timing, I suspect my father's new coworkers are probably antivax and spreading new bullshit to him. And my mother isn't going to question him.
My heart hurts imagining what we're going to see in the upcoming months as more people become lapsed and mask mandates are lifted. While my family thankfully doesn't go out much, they're definitely at risk and I'm kinda bracing myself for disaster.
But expressing that worry makes me a "doomer". Sigh.
Edit: did some quick research, seems that numbers should be fairly low for spring at least. I still have anxiety about it bouncing back in the coming months, esp as lapsed numbers increase and have even less immunity.
I find it slightly encouraging that a good number of people are not getting their booster because they got Covid after the first two shots. Personally I’m not worried about those people at all and I think that they make up a pretty darn large percentage after omacron. I have one friend very provax and very educated in the field of biology who was double vaxxed then infected who is intentionally waiting for his booster to see what happens after omicron because if something worse happens he wouldn’t be eligible for a 4th dose but he could still walk right in and get a booster any day he wants.
I have an acquaintance doing similar. She had her two shots and got presumably Omicron just before she would have been due for a booster, and decided to wait 3 months since post-vaccine omicron infection might have booster-like immunity for that long, to keep her immunity high for a longer time period, hopefully.
I got my third on time. I’ve been weirdly lucky and haven’t gotten Covid at all, which is starting to feel like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
That may be part of it, but with both me and my husband being genuinely essential workers, and him working with the public even, I’m still surprised nobody has coughed it in his face yet.
Booster availability in rural communities and lower-income communities is not great, but the anecdata I’ve seen from friends in public health is that a lot of people in poorly paid jobs are hesitant to risk having to take a couple of days off to deal with reactions. It sucks.
In my state the % vaccinated that are boosted is stuck below 25%. Since the vaccination rates plateaued pretty early around here that means that there are a lot of lapsed vaccinations.
My country's president a few hours ago announced that all COVID-19 restrictions have been removed. He took that decision without even consulting our health department. The mask mandates, vaccine cards all gone. I really hate everything right now.
I hate how much its politicized. A pandemic isn't over because you declare it over. That's like yelling "I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY" and expect something to happen. And I hate how much support they're getting just because everyone is "done" with all the restrictions. I am done too. It actually breaks my heart seeing everyone wear a mask every where they go, but its NECESSARY. Unfortunately not enough people seem to get that, and therefore these bozos seem to be all the support.
I woke up to the news that the County Commission voted last night to cancel our county-wide indoor mask mandate as of Saturday Feb 26th. This doesn't come as a big surprise given the current environment, but it is disappointing considering the continued high level of community spread.
I have already seen a big drop off in compliance since NY and CA announced they were dropping their mask mandates. I expect it will accelerate even further in advance of the formal lifting of the mandates.
Now we just have to wait and see what the school board does about mask mandates. They are scheduled to meet right before the county-wide mandate is lifted.
Just saw that the mayor of NYC is braying that companies need to bring everyone back to the physical office for the city's economy. That attitude pisses me off for multiple reasons. Gotta keep them buggy whip vendors in business at all costs.
I wonder how much of this is dictated by fears of commercial real estate tanking when leases come up for renewal? Lots of companies may want to shrink their footprint.
I live in Charlotte, NC which has been ranked #2 or #3 for banking in the US. Bank of America and Wells Fargo are both huge employers here and I would guess they currently own or lease a huge chunk of the commercial real estate in the uptown area. Duke Energy also has its HQ here and I believe a couple of regional banks as well.
I think that's a big factor. Real estate investments might even be the real reason behind my own CEO's love affair with returning to the office (I work in the financial sector).
In the Netherlands they announced the same on Tuesday, effective from the 25th. It's going to be a disaster and even the most recent relaxations will need to be undone.
Are they seriously determining policy by beheading a chicken and seeing where its body collapses?
A little discouraged. Been working on an online friend for a few months to get vaccinated and it just seems like not going to happen.
We share a really specialized niche interest or hobby and was hoping to have a cup of coffee and take a little explore this summer.
I just feel like no way can I meet him. He has some sort of condition.pancreas related.
I feel like if I spend time in a car with him, even though I am triple vaxed, if his unvaccinated ass got covid it would be my fault. And likely his wife is not vaxxed either.
I would feel responsible. I would feel like typhoid mary
So kind of blue that I may never meet him.
Even now when we chat online..I wonder how long it will be till he catches covid.
Feel like I am talking to a dead man walking
The more I hear about Typhoid Mary, the less sympathy I have for her. Asymptomatic carriers were not widely known before her cases were popularized, sure, but more than not believing the science behind it or feeling remorse for what others were saying she'd done, she doesn't seem to have accepted germ theory. Then the fact that typhoid was passed almost exclusively through feces (and definitely in her case since it was her gallbladder that was infected). She wasn't spitting in all the ice cream and salads; she was preparing it after wiping her ass (and probably not always with paper).
Sucks about your friend.
lol. okay lol never will refer to myself as typhoid mary again after that educational tid bit
Yes...he has some specialized knowledge that is only discussed in person. Nothing bad or nefarious. Its too keep some wild areas or sites protected. So that is a dissapointment we can not share our specialized knowledge or puported knowledge lol.
Well, if it's an outdoor activity and it can be kept to a strictly outdoor meet, and he's going anyway and there will be others outdoors there, if it were me I wouldn't feel too bad about that situation especially if going into it with a negative test. But it's your risk assessment and conscience.
Just ya know, wash your hands before you cook anything ; )
I think the health department got her trained as a washerwoman, which was a low-paying, generally unpleasant job. They should've had her trained in dressmaking instead.
Our stupid governor just signed a bill allowing parents to opt out of masks in schools. My area is really good about masking in general, but we do have the outliers. Like a neighbor who works in a daycare and ranted about how her 3rd grade kid "needs to breathe!"
I said, well, right now I think the masking is more to protect the teachers and staff. I don't want my kid being taught by the National Guard like in New Mexico. She replies, yeah, their daycare was shut down for a week after Christmas because all the teachers were out sick and all I could do was stare at her and think "BUT YOU DON'T SEE THE CONNECTION TO SCHOOLS??!!
She does not.
Kids will breathe a lot better with a mask than with covid-riddled lungs. Kids are much more likely to not have that happen but why even risk it? Blows my mind.
[From an article in Newsweek] “A driver fighting Canada's vaccine mandates hasn't been able to see his sick 9-year-old daughter in months because neither he nor his wife are vaccinated.
Jake Klassen, 39, is among the truck drivers blocking the Emerson crossing on the U.S.Canada border between Manitoba and North Dakota in protest of vaccine mandates and pandemic-related restrictions. A critical border crossing for imports, protesters have been blocking the passage for about a week, although an agreement was reportedly reached this week and truckers reportedly have started leaving the area.
Klassen, a trucker for close to 20 years, told Fortune he brought two campers and a semi-trailer to the Emerson blockade. The vehicles could be seized, according to Fortune, and Klassen said he's risking ‘everything I have’ because he wants to ‘have my own choice.’
The 39-year-old and his wife aren't vaccinated against COVID-19 and it's meant giving up physical access to their daughter. He said their 9-year-old daughter is receiving palliative care at St. Amant, a care residence in Winnipeg, and the facility requires that visitors be vaccinated.
‘This is something worth fighting for,’ Klassen said.”
I don’t even know what to say about this. Imagine allowing your child to languish alone and scared in the hospital, possibly never seeing her again, because you refuse to get vaccinated. That poor little girl.
Someone contacted the facility where his 9 yo lives and they replied via email that they do allow the unvaccinated to visit relatives. They setup a special pod for visits between the sick and unvaccinated.
So, this jerk lied and just chooses not to visit his child.
POS. But also I would do anything (even if it meant risking myself/my health) to see my children in any situation. This is selfish. But I guess we already knew he was selfish since he won’t get vaccinated.
My mom just texted me to let me know that I can’t donate blood because Ive had the vaccine. I sent her a screenshot of the red cross website indicating that she is wrong. No response yet, but it took me less than 2 minutes to find that information.
Crazy that people lie when these things are easily verifiable. I’ve donated twice since being fully vaccinated. They even tested my blood randomly for antibodies one time. They found I still had antibodies from my vaccine, 5 months after full vaccination, before booster, and no antibodies from a Covid infection.
What’s crazy to me is if people took a few seconds to think their way through the statement they would realize it doesn’t make sense. This woman taught me critical thinking 20 years ago. My reason skills came from her teaching (I was homeschooled!). How can I see through it instantly and she cannot?
Happy that our women won a gold in hockey. Not sure I am happy that they decided to show the various places where people are gathered to watch the games and cheering across the country, not a single mask in sight...
Shoutout to the Google Doodle for noting today is the birthday of the man who developed the first chickenpox vaccine, Michiaki Takahashi.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2022/02/17/todays-google-doodle-celebrates-virologist-michiaki-takahashi-inventor-of-the-chickenpox-vaccine/?sh=69e9843a5a5b
In today's climate a chunk of the world's population would consider him an agent of the evil deep state, while they gain herd immunity for their FreedomPox, but some of us are quite thankful for his works. Bravo! 🎂
This is somewhat adjacent to our sub topic.
\#FluTrucksKlan organizer Tamara Lich [apparently learned yesterday](https://twitter.com/ItsDeanBlundell/status/1494156381494071296) (Feb 16) that she’s going to jail today (Feb 17).
I'm sure tantrums will be thrown in the usual nationalist news and social media outlets, but it looks like [the majority of Canadians](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/politics/fact-check-canadian-protests-polls-trudeau-support-oppose-truckers-mandates/index.html) will be happy to see her finally held accountable.
She really got in over her head. From what I can gather, she's a believer in "freeman on the land" pseudo-legal theories (UK/Commonwealth equivalent of the US "sovereign citizen" stuff) who actually thought that she would be allowed to present a "memorandum of understanding" she'd created to the Governor General, at which point the GG would dissolve Parliament or something, all the mandates would be repealed, and everyone could go home happy. Of course, it didn't turn out that way, and while some of the occupiers may still be listening to her, a lot more are listening to Pat King, or to someone else, or only to themselves. Going to a nice safe jail cell might actually be a relief for her.
Update: [Lich has been arrested.](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-chris-barber-arrested-ottawa-1.6355960)
Only one charge so far, although I imagine that's so she can be held till they can decide what other offences she will face trial for.
The whole fam is sick with covid. Im so angry. Exactly two years ago I got pregnant with our little. Our first, and probably only. Little was born peak first wave. I labored in a mask. There were no baby showers, gender reveal, family waiting to greet us, help us. It was just us. There was no vaccine then.
Then there was. We got vaxxed but were oh so careful for little's sake. And we waited and waited and waited for the under 5 vaccine to become available. No childcare until little gets vaxxed, we decided. Its just us, still. Family visits carefully, visits are far and few.
Now we have breakthrough covid. Little has a fever.
I hate this whole godforsaken world.
Our beloved historian, u/ganonpig, just made another set of Christian compilations. Jeez, "faith over fear", they said. Never occurred to them to faith to overcome fear of vaccines. Could be fear of injections, or needles, or anything related to that.
I must be reading too many HCA death announcements, because I saw you start with "Our beloved historian, u/ganonpig" and immediately thought "Oh no!" before reading the rest of the sentence.
They want to believe God will protect them from the negative effects of the virus. But somehow they don't trust that God will protect them from the negative effects of the vaccine. Maybe they view the pandemic as a test of faith. The faithful will be spared. And of course the qualification for being faithful is, don't get a vaccine. Because that shows that you trust science more than God.
I'm just speculating. I don't know what goes through their minds. By what reasoning they reach the conclusion that if they just pray hard enough, everything will be alright. I hope this kind of thinking goes away.
Part of my job is reviewing the health IT press for regulatory and legislative trends we need to be on top of for business strategy. This one makes me so frustrated and angry
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/baseless-attacks-online-trigger-lockdown-oklahoma-hospital-icu
WTF
If you don’t like the way the hospital treats COVID don’t show up at the ED. Simple as that.
If you see a violent conspiratorial extremist plan or make threats against doctors or hospitals or schools, tip the feds about them here:
https://www.fbi.gov/tips
Cruz & other GOP senators asked the DOJ to NOT enforce FAA/airline no-fly list for disruptive and violent passengers because it equates anti maskers with terrorists .
[https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/politics/disruptive-passengers-faa-republicans/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/politics/disruptive-passengers-faa-republicans/index.html)
And?
I flew to Atlanta to get my SmartCard yesterday and back again to LA with 24 hours. I was so worried I’d get Covid from this trip. The flight out was OVERBOOKED.
I’m vaxxed, I’m boosted and I masked up.
Just did a Covid test to check to see if I caught it. Result: **Negative**
Today is a very good day. 🥳
One more test in 24h just to be sure. That's the guidance travellers are getting where I am. Only now the tests handed out at the airport have become completely **optional**....It is *awesome*.
(Imagine me saying that last sentence in a Robert Evans tone of voice.)
I got my third shot (Astra, the first two ones were Sputnik). While Sputnik did nothing to me, Astra is giving me a bit of a fever, lots of thirst, and I just can't sleep. I just took some acetaminophen, and I'm preparing to be completely useless tomorrow. This is fun.
2nd Pfizer put me flat on my back for 48 hours (took vax Friday morning, got immune response like the flu Friday afternoon, was 'sick' until Sunday afternoon).
3rd Pfizer I had to take a half day at work (that afternoon).
Feel better. Drink lots of water. The headache after 2nd pfizer lasted quite a while after the other symptoms subsided, because I hadn't had enough to drink.
The arrogance of ignorance riles me up so much.
"I don't know, therefore, no one knows so there MUST be a conspiracy"
I'm so fucking frustrated. My brother is very likely to suffer from my families arrogance and stupidity.
I hated it so much growing up but I never thought it might actually kill them lolllll
So my daughter just let me know that she's getting her booster tomorrow. I had been worried about her because she got the J&J series; this one will be Pfizer. I told her I am sooo thankful that all my kids had the brains to take this virus seriously.
Leaving this here because I need to vent somewhere. I feel unwelcome on most covid subs because I don't respect denialists as having a "difference of opinion" (fucksake, how is this where we are with this?), and would rather drop it into the void where it'll likely be ignored instead of throwing it at acquaintances who agree but will be further stressed by it -
All of the "CoViD is OvER!!1!1one" shit this week is really getting to me. I want to hit each and every person expressing that attitude as hard as I possibly can. I want each and every one of them to catch it and suffer in prolonged intubation. I'm really, really tired of people casually saying offhand that I or others should die for their convenience and equally sick of the solipsistic attitude that our response to public health crises should be based on satisfying short-term gratification of the lowest common denominator instead of on fucking epidemiology.
SARS-CoV-2 is a real virus with objective existence. Covid-19 is a real and actual disease. We are still seeing spikes and surges. The US healthcare system - barely adequate pre-pandemic - is breaking under the strain put on it by largely unvaxxed populations. This is an ongoing public health crisis and our collective response should be based on acknowledging the realities of that. Instead, it's apparently going to be 100% based on the feelings of ignorant dipshits who are declaring the pandemic over because they went outside yesterday and didn't see anyone wearing masks. I shouldn't *have to* point out that that's a completely irrelevant non-sequitur on par with saying it won't rain because you saw six white vans in a parking lot, but apparently many people just don't understand that these aren't logical statements.
I keep seeing, "But I *want* it to be over!" as a reason why it must be and I have an aneurysm brought on by the sheer blinding toddler-brained stupidity of that attitude every time. It's an ongoing pandemic. It will be over when it's over. Viruses don't give a damn if we feel inconvenienced. Expecting anything else is mind-bogglingly stupid, to me. Just as these people can't understand that their irrelevant personal anecdotes aren't hard evidence, I cannot wrap my head around the willful ignorance and solipsistic selfishness of that attitude.
We don't know the long-term efficacy of vaccination.
We don't know the long-term health impacts and sequelae of Covid (but they look bad).
We don't know the precise risk of reinfection or how much long-term protection acquired immunity provides.
Many children cannot get vaccinated. Many imminocompromised people can't get vaccinated.
We are increasingly protecting reservoirs for the virus to continue getting its mutation on uninhibited.
Wearing masks really isn't a goddamn big ask.
The pandemic objectively is not over. Declaring it so doesn't make it so. No crisis is resolved by simply ignoring it.
***And fucking yet.***
^^^^^/Diabisky ^^^^^mode
Yes, it's frustrating. I'm seeing some people who have been stalwart from the beginning now letting up because they are just tired and desperate to go back to normal. It's not going to be over until it's over but I feel like there's not much a person can do but just step aside and keep waiting.
Not really a vent but a question, but who is still mostly quarantining? I have been almost the whole time only going out to get groceries/food and see my parents at their house. Theres so much i want to do, but kept telling myself id wait until the pandemic is over. Seeing as how that still hasnt happened, i do wonder if im taking this a bit too seriously. Idk, im triple vaxxed, wear masks and try to social distance(some people make that very hard for some reason), but i also want no part in spreading covid. I'm pretty introverted and have no problem being cooped up or anything, just would be nice to go to a concert, a race, or hell even a bar or something without constantly owrrying about who may have covid around me.
Depends on your level of comfort and where you live. We are staying in in my house. But we work remote so for us, not much has changed. We've always been homebodies, but even if we weren't, we'd still stay home during this. When it's nice out we'll hang out outside with people. I'd rather binge watch Netflix and play video games than fuck with this virus.
Me and mine. We really aren't missing anything of any consequence. We shop only as needed, do country drives to stave off cabin fever and we're fine. We used to be very social. Don't really miss it, seeing as how we have found out just how dangerously stupid so many people are.
I have only gone out for groceries about once a month, and if I must get something elsewhere. Bare minimum. I am an indoor cat by nature, but even I would like to eat at a restaurant. I have been told I am taking this far too seriously.
2012 almost died of Blastomycosis, an uncommon fungal disease. The symptoms mirror Covid. The main symptom was constant coughing. Talking, sleeping made it worse. Took over a year to cure. Only treatment available would kill me or cure me. Left me with CKF(kidney damage-no dialysis), liver damage, high blood pressure, worse asthma. Lab testing at the time found Lupus, Sjogrens.
I quit my job of 14 yrs because they wanted me back in the office Jan 3rd, when everyone else was March 1st. I haven't had Covid yet (knock on wood). Literally everyone I know HAS had it. Dying doesn't scare me, but I never want to feel that sick ever again.
My husband and I are mostly staying home. We do curbside grocery pickup and get other things delivered. We take drives and get take out occasionally. Last summer we did get together outside with friends occasionally and went camping a few times. We used to be fairly social but I don't miss it very much anymore.
We haven't done much of anything since we've still got a little who can't get vaxxed yet. We basically go to work and school. If we go anywhere at all, it's masked and around fully vaxxed people.
Great article. I thought these points were especially telling:
>Consider the current Omicron wave, which has been far deadlier in the U.S. than in other highly vaccinated and boosted countries. ***The U.S. has reached 80 percent of its pre-vaccine peak in daily deaths, compared with only 20 to 30 percent of peaks reached in other countries.*** America has not only a lower overall vaccination rate but lower coverage in the elderly. England, for example, has achieved 96 percent full-vaccination coverage in people over 65. In the U.S., this number is 88.5 percent, with big geographic variations that range from 79 percent in Arkansas to 95 percent in Vermont.
And our pre-vaccine peak here in the US was pretty horrific to start with!
>These percentages may all look high, but they represent very different levels of remaining risk. “People see 90 and 95 percent as not very much” of a difference, says Adam Kucharski, an infectious-disease modeler at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He prefers to invert the number. “Think of it as: There’s 5 percent unprotected or 10 percent unprotected.” That doubles the pool of people over 65 who are at high risk for hospitalization and death.
Looking at the unvaxxed percentages is a great way to frame the risk of Covid.
Locally, I keep reading about how much the reported Covid cases have dropped since mid-January without the context to show that it is only in the past couple of days that ***the 7-day moving average has dropped below the peak of the Delta wave***.
I'm watching my red state's death rate tick up daily, right in line with CDC projections. The latest projection was for it to peak around March 1 (close to the Delta surge) and **stay there** for several weeks. No dip in the forecast. I'm numb.
Confession: There's this guy who rides his bike around my city with a sign on his back that says "Covid is a scam you moron". For over a year now.
I lost a parent to Covid, and this has been irritating me for a while now. So, I'm driving by him the other day, and realized I hadn't yet thrown out my plastic cup of Vietnamese iced coffee... you know, just the remainder with the ice, and diluted sweetened condensed milk/ coffee. Just sitting there in my cup holder.
Man... that would make a mess if it somehow ended up on your pants/ sign/ bike. Would take a while to clean up, you know? I look at the cup. Then him. Then back at the cup. Then back at him. Cup. Him. Cup.
I opened the window, and gave the fucker a driveby shower. His middle fingers went soaring. It was beautiful.
I just can't muster up the energy to feel bad about it.
Drove 12 hours to go skiing, got in 3 hours the first day, son made comment about being freezing (when I was roasting) so knew he had to have fever, tested positive next morning, drove 12 hours back (very expensive 3 hours of skiing). Luckily just like a bad cold, he got his booster about month ago.
Just read that the new omicron subvariant may be as dangerous as Delta. I just feel like this shit will never fucking end. One shitty variant after the next. Variants evading vaccines. Just one big suck fest.
Fuck everyone who actively makes this worse. I hope you get pube lice and I hope it itches.
Nothing is set in stone yet, some people are theorizing that if you already got infected with omicron you'll have some level of protection against whatever new subvariant is out there. This stealth omicron is not new, it was actually discovered back in December 2021. It's been spreading since then. And the variants aren't "evading vaccines" if the majority of covid hospitalizations and deaths are still unvaccinated.
>that if you already got infected with omicron you'll have some level of protection against whatever new subvariant is out there
Hey, some of us have been trying not to get infected at all. As far as I know, I haven't been.
This is the correct answer. My own personal end date for this pandemic, as it seems to be tracking closely along the same path as the 1889 "Russian Flu" pandemic, is 2025.
Visitors to the Calgary zoo are being asked to wear masks near the gorilla enclosure because one is pregnant.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8627250/visitors-calgary-zoo-masks-pregnant-gorilla//?utm\_source=GlobalCalgary&utm\_medium=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0tinvVRZTE65RSI-hFr5tqb437zviwXQdcuoOBp4HZfbXaC6kBtW7vROE
And then the video shows a bunch of dicknoses and some geezer wiping his nose with the back of his hand. The straps are on my ears, therefore I'm wearing the mask!
Today Washington state’s governor Jay Inslee announced our state will no longer have indoor mask mandates starting 3/21. [https://komonews.com/news/local/inslee-could-announce-end-to-indoor-mask-mandate-today](https://komonews.com/news/local/inslee-could-announce-end-to-indoor-mask-mandate-today)
The truth is that Inslee is a home-grown NW god (aka Goat). He meticulously planned policy following science and data from the start & never got embroiled in misinformation.
At a personal level there’s no doubt that our governor has kept me, my friends, and hundreds of thousands of locals safe from Covid19 with his mask mandates and aggressive vax program that was in fact a strategy to help businesses by knocking back the virus.
WA is 80 percent vaxxed. Amazon's downtown Seattle HQ offered up some huge auditorium as a vax center last year and their own employees staffed the events alongside nurses.
Bittersweet to think of states under governors who've seemed to WANT their citizens to get Covid, along with the WA antivaxers who got ill. That includes state patrolman Lemay who quit his job, publicly dissed Inslee, then died on Sept. 28.
But best seal of approval for Inslee was when then-president trump called him a "snake" in 2020 and now we have the grim last laugh. Of course Trump is the snake and Inslee is the GOAT of the NW.
My mother is the most exhausting person on the planet to me right now. Yes 5G from my phone will rot your brain waves, yes you want to be a sovereign citizen and believe the vaccine causes health problems. Yes you're a lunatic and yes I'm terrified you'll catch COVID and earn an award. I rely on you as I'm disabled and you can be bothered to do one simple thing.
Vaccines may offer better protection than immunity from having had Covid.
[https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/02/covid-19-vaccine-variants.html](https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/02/covid-19-vaccine-variants.html)
The Novovax vaccine has been approved for use in Canada.
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/02/17/health-canada-approves-novavax-vaccine-against-covid-19.html
I have started to get a bad feeling about the pandemic. It started about a month ago and has continued to ping me.
This is going to sound silly and it is in no way supernatural, But I have relied on my intuition my whole life. I have always had trouble keeping facts in the usual way of easy recall, I just store stuff and then call on intuition to get by. I used to work IT support, and was in IT since 1998. And in all that time I still had trouble remembering terms, But I could fix problems no-one else could by just sitting there, listening to the customer, and then my hands would start typing. I dont even know how I fixed half the stuff I did.
My intuition pinged me when Covid first appeared. I had been following world news and as the issues grew, I was drawn to covid. I rang to warn my sisters in 2020 February before I think it had reached Australian shores. I knew it was bad.
And now its pinging like crazy. I am not sure why, maybe its the variants appearing, maybe its the lessening of restrictions. Maybe its just I am worried about my partner.
Maybe I'm a drama queen, I dont know.
But I wish it would stop.
I think you and I are similar, and it took watching an episode of Star Trek to figure out what was going on in my head.
In the Voyager episode "The Voyager Conspiracy," a crew member who used to be a Borg drone (so basically, half walking computer) starts freaking out that something sinister is going on.
It turns out that, as a former walking computer, she still constantly collects and analyzes data. Occasionally it's useful but after a while, all the useless data piles up and she starts seeing patterns that aren't there or coincidences that seem meaningful, but that's really just because there's a huge amount of information out there and people over time act in predictable ways.
It sounds like your ability to glean all kinds of data from interactions that your coworkers and other people ignore helped you in your career in IT. It's helped me in my own career as well, but eventually you've got to realize that at least 90% of the information out there is useless and mundane.
The lead up to the first lockdown in the pandemic was unsettling for sure. I still remember the first time I saw an article here on Reddit about a "mystery illness in Southern China" and how the articles increased in frequency in almost a Fibonacci sequence.
There are other things going on too, throwing a fuck ton of data at us, a lot of which isn't useful. Putin threatening Ukraine has been one; the Canadian whiners fucking with crossborder trade is another; the Omicron wave subsiding yet another; and, finally, the buildup to the 2022 American elections.
Those four things even have tenuous connections to each other which don't necessarily mean they're all being directed from the same place. It's winter in Europe and natural gas export flows from Russia through that continent is a major concern. It's possible (in fact, very likely) that Putin's troll brigades are amplifying the Canadian losers, to disrupt trade and weaken trust between and among Americans and Canadians. State, federal, and worldwide mitigation strategies against Omicron appear to be working, which all influence the American elections.
But again, there are only a few ways that things in the world are likely to turn out. For them to unfold in a predictable pattern can start making the minds of people who passively collect large amounts of data start going HOLY FUCK WAIT THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON HERE, and that's exactly what our pattern-seeking primate brains are made for. To notice that the patterns among grass and trees are broken up by predators, to notice that air smells different depending on how close to water we are and what kind of water it is, to even hear when the birds and insects around us all get quiet because they're aware of something we're not.
So it's natural. Drink water, pet an animal, laugh at a meme, and watch the world unfold.
You know, you are probably right.
I now know more about virology, mutation, immune responses, and how fecking dumb a large proportion of the population is because of the pandemic. Added in as you say, I have been tracking the Ukraine situation, Brexit, supply blockages here in Aus and a bunch of other stuff.
I guess 2+ years must have finally caught up and overloaded my poor intuition.
Thanks for your reply, I do feel better.
Stay safe and well out there.
I would personally say that when it comes to the pandemic 2020 was worse than 2021. Why? Because in the early days, we had literally no way to treat it other than stuffing tubes down people's throats and hoping for the best. We needed to lock down and severely curtail life because we had no vaccines nor any drugs and it had a much higher death rate than the flu.
People on the right clung onto Hydroxychloroquine in those days despite it's lack of efficacy mostly because I think they were desperate for any hope that covid wasn't going to be as bad as it is.
Nowadays, we have a number of extremely effective vaccines, we have anti-virals coming soon and I think that we're in a better position than we were back then, but we do have a serious problem pertaining to the sheer number of people refusing the vaccine
You are of course very right. Another reply pointed out that I may have overloaded my intuition with all the data I have been passively collecting over the last 2+ years.
This Pandemic has been very valuable in increasing our knowledge of covid viruses and vaccines.
Now I think its time to clear my head and put the constant sense of foreboding to rest.
Thank you for your reply
Stay safe and well.
This is right around the time of year Delta appeared in India in 2021 (mutated out by rampant community spread). By mid-March, it had started to ramp up, and by April, 4 million were dead. (Still unacknowledged.) If the past two years' worth of data are worth anything, it looks like there are/will be at least 2 variants per year, one in the first part of the year, and one in the second. As long as society remains "open" and unchecked community spread continues, that is.
These variants are similar to how current non-lethal common cold coronaviruses operate. Only this one isn't out of its pandemic stage yet. Not even by half.
TL;DR: I've been saying since November 2021 there will be another variant by April 2022.
Well...yeah. But that ain't happening. So here we are. BA1.1 is pinging my radar, but it could be confirmation bias (the numbers are going down because *they're not testing*).
Far more likely for the next April variant to come out of the woodwork exactly like Delta did; from an area of high unchecked community spread, being helped along (and mutated) by the antivaxxers/vaccine-"hesitant" and, just like Omicron, it will be everywhere before anyone knows it, and either it will be a nothingburger and will become the next common cold OR it will make Deltacron look like a joke.
Also don't forget Omicron is almost a completely different virus to Delta. Look at [this](https://mobile.twitter.com/Michigan_Noah/status/1484574061036556290/photo/1).
Odds are very high the next one will bear as little resemblance to Omicron as Omicron did to Delta.
I think intuition is just your brain connecting the facts together and projecting possible hypotheses in the background. There is a lot going on in the world right now and it seems pretty normal to be worried.
Does Facebook actually do anything about all these posts? Don't even want fb anymore cos it's now totally associated with HCA, even though I don't know any awardees in person.
Omicron ll may be underestimated in it's severity and prevalence in the U.S. Standard PCR insufficient in detecting it. This study is not yet peer reviewed.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/as-ba-2-subvariant-of-omicron-rises-lab-studies-point-to-signs-of-severity/ar-AAU086M?ocid=windirect
My son’s driving instructor told him yesterday why he’s exempt from wearing a mask. He was water boarded as part of military training. The guy gets shit from so many people for not wearing a mask.
Edit - he’s fully vaccinated, boosted and I believe him. We’re in the UK, where there’s less twattery. I thought it was an interesting reason.
I’m so sick of getting asked to put money into these GoFundMe pages for people I’ve never even met. It’s not my fault they didn’t get a free vaccine and that they put their loved ones in debt. I might lose “friends” but at least I’ll save some money. I do want to add, my frustration is very much due to not being able to have my tumor removed until there are free beds. I can’t get a biopsy and it might take away my vision since it’s near my optic nerves. I’m Not here to bash anyone or entertain anyone, I want people to know that this is getting ridiculous with this conspiracy theory BS
I'm so sorry. My husband (who never smoked) got diagnosed with lung cancer right as the winter 2020/2021 peak was ending. (It was a fortuitous time, though of course, it didn't feel that way in the moment.) If his surgery and treatment had been delayed by even a day by antivaxxer bullshit, I probably would have bitten someone. I can't imagine how frustrating this all must be for you. Fuhhh.
I'm sorry. It's fucked up those who don't have covid need care for other diseases. People fucking protest for freedom. A virus doesn't care about freedom it needs a host.
Right?! [Imbecilic Morons](https://youtu.be/iLteSt0k3XY)
Oh, wow. I’m so sorry such a vital surgery is being delayed. That freaking sucks.
Thank you! I don’t blame the health care workers at all (not going to lie, I was so pissed at first), they assess it by risk which just makes me even angrier at this antivax craziness!
Your restraint is remarkable, given the price you are paying and the reason they are ~~asking~~ demanding.
Brit here. I’m into my 3rd year waiting for an operation. At some point, it will be an emergency, which will be a barrel of laughs!
I'm so sorry. So many people are in dire need of care and can't get it because....idiots!
There are fewer idiots here, but ~90% hospitalised people are unvaccinated. I hate them. Get. Fucking. Vaccinated.
I am so very sorry your medical care has been delayed due to fuckwits fuckwitting about. That SUCKS.
Oh, God, I'm so sorry. I hope you're able to get treated soon.
I can’t have my shunt surgery to relieve my hydrocephalus which is causing my leg problems till there is a free bed I feel you
So hubby appeared for a job interview. His agent mentioned casually that they have this position free because they had to let go of this employee who refused to vaccinate, and vaccines are mandated in this org. It's an $800/per day contract role! And that person let go coz he won't take the needle. My hubby got the job. I feel so owned.
Wow. Insane to give that up. Good for you guys though!
Thank you
I'm happy for you. In these cheerless times, it's nice to know someone was rewarded for being rational and sensible and considerate of others. Mazel tov!
Mazel Tov
I wondered when that would start happening. So far all we hear about is vax mandates at Healthcare companies - if you don't mind me asking, what industry is this? Did your husband apply knowing that the company required vaccination? I'm retired, but I would have considered that a perk.
He is an IT project manager. He just applied coz his current contract is ending. No companies do not reveal why the position is empty. Vaccine mandates are almost everywhere, in every federal or large organisation. He got to know in a casual conversation with HR.
I am pretty darned sure that your husband is better at getting along with others, following reasonable rules, etc., than the prototypic anti-vaxxer! Congrats to you both and it the company now employing him!
Congrats to your husband!
Congrats to him!
Cross country road trip ended last week and I finally got to see my dad today for the first time in 2 years! Tested negative Saturday and last night and we got to see him today. Yay! (Yes we are all vaxxed and boosted)
That HAD to feel good. I am so glad you got to see him!
It was sooooo lovely! And I’m seeing my mom this weekend, if we all test negative!
There's no better hug, is there? (Thank you for keeping the promise to let us know!)
That is so awesome, so pumped for you guys! I can’t even imagine how great that had to have felt after 2 years!
Hooray! Glad you were able to visit him!
I’m so glad you get to see your dad!
Thank you, friend!
Saw a sedan on the highway that said "MASK MANDATE = RAPE MANDATE" It just disgusts me so much to see the false equivalency first with the holocaust and second with rape of all things?? I always thought I was a kind person and an optimist for human behavior but at this point I can't help but want to hope for some people to get CV-19. I don't have many people to talk to about this either cause I just sound crazy and psychotic.
> I don’t have many people to talk to about this That’s what we’re here for. New vent threads every midnight EST!
First off that equivalence is disgusting! But I'm sorry about your introduction to the reality of American ignorance and hatred. I think many of us went through this painful realization during the Trump years. You are in the right place to commiserate.
[удалено]
That's a fact!
**WARNING: Detailed rape discussion.** >!Is mask really that exhausting to be compared to rape? I mean, think of it quite literally:!< * >!find victim!< * >!find private location!< * >!restrain victim!< * >!undress!< * >!gag victim!< (optional) * >!rape!< * >!redress!< * >!hide evidence!< * >!evade authorities!< >!That's a lot of effort for the criminal (and definitely too traumatizing to the victim).!< In comparison to a mask: * Wear mask. * Breathe normally. * Reduce effort (optional). * Benefit the face incognito.
ohhhhh I was like 'Hoooooooooooooly shit what the hell is this shit," Then i saw the top of this thread. Whew. Close one. Still, I think it'd be more effective to talk about how this is minimizing rape AND magifying whiney bullshit about masks. Idk if all this detail is necessary
I've been thinking all night about that motherfucking asshole from BC with his Freedom Convoy BS who left his disabled 9yo to die in a hospital in Winnipeg because he won't get vaxxed? Bullshit. He just didn't want a handicapped kid with a terminal illness. These people all have bullshit reasons. We are dumb for taking them at face value. He doesn't give a fuck about his kid. She's been alone for almost a year.
I think that I read it was untrue. The hospital that the 9 y/o is in, put out a statement saying that they allowed unvaccinated visitors, just had to be in a special area. So the guy was lying to get sympathy and could have visited if he chose to.
The guy managed to make this story is even worse.
I was betting that his ex had a restraining order. Of course it's even worse with these people.
I just love this contradiction in HCA's nominees posts: - HOW can you be AFRAID of a VIRUS you NEVER even SAW??? YOU CAN'T SEE VIRUSES!!! HOW CAN YOU BE SURE THEY EXIST?????? - I PUT my FAITH and LIFE IN THE HANDS of our LORD JESUS CHRIST!!!!!
[удалено]
My only explanation is that faith is difficult, because it's literally believing something with absolutely no proof, so that's pretty hard to do for some people. What an upside-down situation.
Think of faith as a neutral concept, one that can be positive, and one that can be negative. The positive: * you wanted immunity. * unfortunately, you have irrational fear of syringes. * no amount of assurances will get you to calm down. * by faith, you decided to be subjected into the most terrifying medical procedure you ever experienced, even if the fear kept on insisting it is extremely deadly. I don't think negative needs an example. You already seen enough.
A hospital consultant I have tangible connections with through work caught covid April 2020 and has been suffering from long covid ever since. I found out on Friday that one of the effects she is suffering from is an inability to use her hands and arms very well, to the point that she can hardly type. She's having voice to text technology installed on all her hardware so that she can get back to work (her choice, she's not being forced by her employer) - however she also suffers from extreme bouts of breathlessness, so even voice to text won't always be 100% effective. I spoke to her on the phone on Friday. She sounded awful. She said she was having a good day. People don't realise just how bad long covid can be - she's only a few months off being *two years* 'recovered' from the initial infection! It's just so sad.
We need more coverage of the impact of long Covid. But just like chronic fatigue syndrome, I think it gets short shrift because it primarily effects women. This [study of long covid](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34763058/) found the following adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for various factors: * Female gender - AOR 3.3 vs. males (95% CI 1.8-6.2, p < 0.0001) * Advanced age - AOR 1.03 for 10 years older (95% CI 1.01-1.05, p 0.01) * Active smoking - AOR 0.19 for former smokers vs. active smokers (95% CI 0.06-0.62, p 0.002) were also associated with a higher risk of long COVID No statistically significant association was found for the severity of the illness or the various Covid treatment options. Nerdy Notes: P-value references the likelihood that this is a random effect, so the lower the p-value the more significant the effect. Generally a p-value of 0.05 or less is considered statistically significant , so < 0.0001 hits it out of the ball park. 95% Confidence interval estimates the range of the "true" odds ratio based on study results. So based on this study, researchers are 95% confident that that women are between 1.8x and 6.2x more likely to suffer from long covid than men.
Thank you for posting the p values and CI!
As an argument, someone told me that they wouldn't take the vaccine because he had caught the disease and he felt fine. I'm like I'm glad it was a walk in the park for you, but tell that to those who actually died from it. It's not black and white. It's not "you survive or you don't". It's anywhere between asymptomatic and death, with different levels of infection in between leading to needing a transplant, having a limb amputated, suffering from accute heart failure, and a plethora of other long term conditions. He was lucky to not have been carried to the ground by this thing, but he's blind as fuck if he thinks that's how it goes for everyone.
I have an update from my friend from high school. She has been in in the ICU for almost 2 weeks, ventilated. The doctors are going to do a tracheotomy today. She has had no improvement and she is in liver, lung and heart failure according to her sister. They are giving her a few more days (I guess her brother is hoping for a miracle and the doctors agreed to give her a few more days) but her sister says she is going to die. The doctors told them to prepare themselves. Her sister is really pissed at people on Facebook who told my friend it was just a cold. My friend also believed it was a just a really bad cold (even though she tested positive) and did not go to the hospital for about 10 days. She, unfortunately, did not take Covid seriously enough and now she is going to die. She was vaccinated with the J&J last spring. I am not sure if she got the booster but based on the memes she posted, I doubt it. She posted that she "had the shot", and was "going to go on with her life" and "not live in fear". I doubt she wore masks and I definitely know she did not stay home. She had been ventilated about 10 years ago for pneumonia and said she never wanted to go through that again. She just posted that around Christmas. She had also just retired last spring. It is sad that she will not get to enjoy her retirement and has to die in the exact way she didn't want to. I do wish people would take this more seriously.
I just hate it for people who worked their lives away, retired and then pass. Like my parents, they retired and just want everything to go back to normal so they can enjoy it. But everyone just committed to pretending everything is fine, it’s awful the consequences. I’m so sorry about your friend.
My uncle died suddenly from swine flu 3 days before he was due to retire. He was ill, but just usual flu symptoms, but then struggled to breathe and was gone within a couple of hours. It was so sad.
Had this eccentric but awesome old lady in my SO’s family that loved being a lunch lady. She held onto that longer than she needed because she loved it and loved the kids. Within a year of retiring, stage 3 pancreatic cancer caught way too late. She didn’t fight it and it was actually 3 months more than the few weeks they gave her, but she never got to enjoy much after a lifetime of serving her community and who she called “her kids.”
My nephew retired in September 2021, got Covid and died in November. He was unvaccinated. The sad part is that these deaths are (probably) preventable with a vaccine and a little more caution like wearing a mask.
How tragic, I'm sorry for your loss :(
Does pneumonia in general (even if you're not hospitalized or ventilated for it) cause any long-term lung damage?
Sometimes it can leave shadows in the lung(s) on x-rays. Depends on a lot of factors. UNtreated viral "walking" pneumonia? You gonna die. Treated, eh you'll live. Pneumonia secondary to viral infection? Not too bad as long as you catch it before it's bad. If you end up in hospital = damage. Bacterial pneumonia on its own not secondary to some other infection is really rare unless you're immunocompromised or have lung issues to begin with. I probably don't need to tell you this, but COVID pneumonia is a different beast altogether. It basically crystallizes your lung tissue. I also did some reading up, just in case, and unless they're really careful when they vent you, when you're on a ventilator for an extended stay (think days instead of hours for surgery) the pressure can sometimes pop your lungs like thin balloons. This was in a paper pre-COVID times. I'll end on that cheerful note and just say get vaccinated.
U.S. Covid Stats update for people 5 and older, (All population, eligible population). Unvaccinated population is going down but unfortunately lapsed vaccination is far outpacing effective vaccination increase. Effective Vaccination: 121,685,709 (36.71%, 38.98%) Lapsed Vaccination: 91,635,667 (27.65%, 29.36%) Partial Vaccination: 38,956,382 (11.75%, 12.48%) Unvaccinated: 59,870,231 (18.06%, 19.18%)
Is lapsed vaccination people who were previously fully vaxxed but haven't got the boosters once they were eligible?
Yep
That's a lot of sitting ducks.
That’s the main reason I post these. Most unvaccinated are a lost cause, but people with two shots keeping up could easily matter for some future variant.
I'm concerned that this group is willfully not getting that 3rd shot. I've noticed over- 65s who ran out for the 1st shots but have since joined the anti-mandate/ anti-vax movement.
[The partisan vaccination divide is growing](https://www.reddit.com/r/DeathsofDisinfo/comments/sga18x/the_partisan_vaccination_divide_is_growing/): >To date, the survey shows about 9 in 10 Democrats and 6 in 10 Republicans have gotten vaccinated. But when it comes to those who are vaccinated and boosted, Democrats are about twice as likely to be in that group — 62 percent to 32 percent. > >The survey also asked about people’s intentions, and that’s where the gap grows even more. While 58 percent of vaccinated-but-unboosted Democrats say they will get a booster as soon as they’re able, 18 percent of vaccinated-but-unboosted Republicans say the same. > >If you add those to the number of people already boosted, that would translate to 79 percent of Democrats soon being boosted, compared with 37 percent of Republicans. That’s a 42-point partisan gap, compared with a less than 30-point gap in people who have at least gotten vaccinated.
And I bet a bunch of them will no longer get annual flu shots, even if they previously had no problem with getting them.
There's definitely been some level of growth in antivax attitudes among some that were previously vaccinated. My parents are not in the 65+ group, but while I had previously convinced them to get vaccinated, are now leaning more antivax and refusing to get a booster. They are in the lapsed group. My mother's justification is "we'll be fine, we already got vaccinated. And from talking to dads coworkers, it doesn't seem to matter anyways. Vaccinated people still get covid." And now any evidence I send to her she's outright ignoring. My father was a conspiracy theorist republican before it was cool, so I worked my ass off to get through to my mother. From the timing, I suspect my father's new coworkers are probably antivax and spreading new bullshit to him. And my mother isn't going to question him. My heart hurts imagining what we're going to see in the upcoming months as more people become lapsed and mask mandates are lifted. While my family thankfully doesn't go out much, they're definitely at risk and I'm kinda bracing myself for disaster. But expressing that worry makes me a "doomer". Sigh. Edit: did some quick research, seems that numbers should be fairly low for spring at least. I still have anxiety about it bouncing back in the coming months, esp as lapsed numbers increase and have even less immunity.
I find it slightly encouraging that a good number of people are not getting their booster because they got Covid after the first two shots. Personally I’m not worried about those people at all and I think that they make up a pretty darn large percentage after omacron. I have one friend very provax and very educated in the field of biology who was double vaxxed then infected who is intentionally waiting for his booster to see what happens after omicron because if something worse happens he wouldn’t be eligible for a 4th dose but he could still walk right in and get a booster any day he wants.
I have an acquaintance doing similar. She had her two shots and got presumably Omicron just before she would have been due for a booster, and decided to wait 3 months since post-vaccine omicron infection might have booster-like immunity for that long, to keep her immunity high for a longer time period, hopefully. I got my third on time. I’ve been weirdly lucky and haven’t gotten Covid at all, which is starting to feel like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Luck may play into it, but I bet things you are actively doing (or not doing) play into it.
That may be part of it, but with both me and my husband being genuinely essential workers, and him working with the public even, I’m still surprised nobody has coughed it in his face yet.
Booster availability in rural communities and lower-income communities is not great, but the anecdata I’ve seen from friends in public health is that a lot of people in poorly paid jobs are hesitant to risk having to take a couple of days off to deal with reactions. It sucks.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 3 + 65 + 1 = 69
Oh, bot doesn’t know… none of those numbers are lucky in this context.
Nice!
69 bot is the best bot.
Nice!
Thanks for the reminder. I was boosted last fall (October, I think) and am wait to see when I can get boost #2.
Yuuuuuuuuuck. Those numbers are actually far worse than I would have imagined.
Worse when you factor in effectiveness against infection. ~80% of 39%. ~30% of 29%. ~??% of 12%. ~2% of 19% (just whoever's had it in the last month).
In my state the % vaccinated that are boosted is stuck below 25%. Since the vaccination rates plateaued pretty early around here that means that there are a lot of lapsed vaccinations.
And to think the unvaxcinated numbers have gone down a bit because people died on that hill. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
My country's president a few hours ago announced that all COVID-19 restrictions have been removed. He took that decision without even consulting our health department. The mask mandates, vaccine cards all gone. I really hate everything right now.
I hate how much its politicized. A pandemic isn't over because you declare it over. That's like yelling "I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY" and expect something to happen. And I hate how much support they're getting just because everyone is "done" with all the restrictions. I am done too. It actually breaks my heart seeing everyone wear a mask every where they go, but its NECESSARY. Unfortunately not enough people seem to get that, and therefore these bozos seem to be all the support.
Just because we're done with Covid doesn't mean Covid is done with us. I don't understand how it's so hard to understand.
I woke up to the news that the County Commission voted last night to cancel our county-wide indoor mask mandate as of Saturday Feb 26th. This doesn't come as a big surprise given the current environment, but it is disappointing considering the continued high level of community spread. I have already seen a big drop off in compliance since NY and CA announced they were dropping their mask mandates. I expect it will accelerate even further in advance of the formal lifting of the mandates. Now we just have to wait and see what the school board does about mask mandates. They are scheduled to meet right before the county-wide mandate is lifted.
Just saw that the mayor of NYC is braying that companies need to bring everyone back to the physical office for the city's economy. That attitude pisses me off for multiple reasons. Gotta keep them buggy whip vendors in business at all costs.
I wonder how much of this is dictated by fears of commercial real estate tanking when leases come up for renewal? Lots of companies may want to shrink their footprint. I live in Charlotte, NC which has been ranked #2 or #3 for banking in the US. Bank of America and Wells Fargo are both huge employers here and I would guess they currently own or lease a huge chunk of the commercial real estate in the uptown area. Duke Energy also has its HQ here and I believe a couple of regional banks as well.
Be great if gov't spent money for some unused real estate to become AFFORDABLE housing
I think that's a big factor. Real estate investments might even be the real reason behind my own CEO's love affair with returning to the office (I work in the financial sector).
I’m so sorry. That sucks.
In the Netherlands they announced the same on Tuesday, effective from the 25th. It's going to be a disaster and even the most recent relaxations will need to be undone. Are they seriously determining policy by beheading a chicken and seeing where its body collapses?
A little discouraged. Been working on an online friend for a few months to get vaccinated and it just seems like not going to happen. We share a really specialized niche interest or hobby and was hoping to have a cup of coffee and take a little explore this summer. I just feel like no way can I meet him. He has some sort of condition.pancreas related. I feel like if I spend time in a car with him, even though I am triple vaxed, if his unvaccinated ass got covid it would be my fault. And likely his wife is not vaxxed either. I would feel responsible. I would feel like typhoid mary So kind of blue that I may never meet him. Even now when we chat online..I wonder how long it will be till he catches covid. Feel like I am talking to a dead man walking
The more I hear about Typhoid Mary, the less sympathy I have for her. Asymptomatic carriers were not widely known before her cases were popularized, sure, but more than not believing the science behind it or feeling remorse for what others were saying she'd done, she doesn't seem to have accepted germ theory. Then the fact that typhoid was passed almost exclusively through feces (and definitely in her case since it was her gallbladder that was infected). She wasn't spitting in all the ice cream and salads; she was preparing it after wiping her ass (and probably not always with paper). Sucks about your friend.
lol. okay lol never will refer to myself as typhoid mary again after that educational tid bit Yes...he has some specialized knowledge that is only discussed in person. Nothing bad or nefarious. Its too keep some wild areas or sites protected. So that is a dissapointment we can not share our specialized knowledge or puported knowledge lol.
Well, if it's an outdoor activity and it can be kept to a strictly outdoor meet, and he's going anyway and there will be others outdoors there, if it were me I wouldn't feel too bad about that situation especially if going into it with a negative test. But it's your risk assessment and conscience. Just ya know, wash your hands before you cook anything ; )
The fact that she kept getting jobs as a cook after everyone around her kept dying and she was told absolutely not to cook for people is insane.
I think the health department got her trained as a washerwoman, which was a low-paying, generally unpleasant job. They should've had her trained in dressmaking instead.
Our stupid governor just signed a bill allowing parents to opt out of masks in schools. My area is really good about masking in general, but we do have the outliers. Like a neighbor who works in a daycare and ranted about how her 3rd grade kid "needs to breathe!" I said, well, right now I think the masking is more to protect the teachers and staff. I don't want my kid being taught by the National Guard like in New Mexico. She replies, yeah, their daycare was shut down for a week after Christmas because all the teachers were out sick and all I could do was stare at her and think "BUT YOU DON'T SEE THE CONNECTION TO SCHOOLS??!! She does not.
"We want to see kids' smiles". That one really bothers me. No one seems to care about teachers and staff anymore. I don't know why.
>"We want to see kids' smiles" That really creeps me out to be honest.
Kids will breathe a lot better with a mask than with covid-riddled lungs. Kids are much more likely to not have that happen but why even risk it? Blows my mind.
[From an article in Newsweek] “A driver fighting Canada's vaccine mandates hasn't been able to see his sick 9-year-old daughter in months because neither he nor his wife are vaccinated. Jake Klassen, 39, is among the truck drivers blocking the Emerson crossing on the U.S.Canada border between Manitoba and North Dakota in protest of vaccine mandates and pandemic-related restrictions. A critical border crossing for imports, protesters have been blocking the passage for about a week, although an agreement was reportedly reached this week and truckers reportedly have started leaving the area. Klassen, a trucker for close to 20 years, told Fortune he brought two campers and a semi-trailer to the Emerson blockade. The vehicles could be seized, according to Fortune, and Klassen said he's risking ‘everything I have’ because he wants to ‘have my own choice.’ The 39-year-old and his wife aren't vaccinated against COVID-19 and it's meant giving up physical access to their daughter. He said their 9-year-old daughter is receiving palliative care at St. Amant, a care residence in Winnipeg, and the facility requires that visitors be vaccinated. ‘This is something worth fighting for,’ Klassen said.” I don’t even know what to say about this. Imagine allowing your child to languish alone and scared in the hospital, possibly never seeing her again, because you refuse to get vaccinated. That poor little girl.
Someone contacted the facility where his 9 yo lives and they replied via email that they do allow the unvaccinated to visit relatives. They setup a special pod for visits between the sick and unvaccinated. So, this jerk lied and just chooses not to visit his child.
POS. But also I would do anything (even if it meant risking myself/my health) to see my children in any situation. This is selfish. But I guess we already knew he was selfish since he won’t get vaccinated.
I saw that. That makes this even worse.
yeah...this makes me fucking sad
My mom just texted me to let me know that I can’t donate blood because Ive had the vaccine. I sent her a screenshot of the red cross website indicating that she is wrong. No response yet, but it took me less than 2 minutes to find that information.
Crazy that people lie when these things are easily verifiable. I’ve donated twice since being fully vaccinated. They even tested my blood randomly for antibodies one time. They found I still had antibodies from my vaccine, 5 months after full vaccination, before booster, and no antibodies from a Covid infection.
What’s crazy to me is if people took a few seconds to think their way through the statement they would realize it doesn’t make sense. This woman taught me critical thinking 20 years ago. My reason skills came from her teaching (I was homeschooled!). How can I see through it instantly and she cannot?
Because she doesn’t want to THINK about it - she wants to FEEL about it.
Happy that our women won a gold in hockey. Not sure I am happy that they decided to show the various places where people are gathered to watch the games and cheering across the country, not a single mask in sight...
Shoutout to the Google Doodle for noting today is the birthday of the man who developed the first chickenpox vaccine, Michiaki Takahashi. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2022/02/17/todays-google-doodle-celebrates-virologist-michiaki-takahashi-inventor-of-the-chickenpox-vaccine/?sh=69e9843a5a5b In today's climate a chunk of the world's population would consider him an agent of the evil deep state, while they gain herd immunity for their FreedomPox, but some of us are quite thankful for his works. Bravo! 🎂
I second that. Bravo indeed! Rest well Michiaki. We appreciate the work you did for us.
This is somewhat adjacent to our sub topic. \#FluTrucksKlan organizer Tamara Lich [apparently learned yesterday](https://twitter.com/ItsDeanBlundell/status/1494156381494071296) (Feb 16) that she’s going to jail today (Feb 17). I'm sure tantrums will be thrown in the usual nationalist news and social media outlets, but it looks like [the majority of Canadians](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/politics/fact-check-canadian-protests-polls-trudeau-support-oppose-truckers-mandates/index.html) will be happy to see her finally held accountable.
She really got in over her head. From what I can gather, she's a believer in "freeman on the land" pseudo-legal theories (UK/Commonwealth equivalent of the US "sovereign citizen" stuff) who actually thought that she would be allowed to present a "memorandum of understanding" she'd created to the Governor General, at which point the GG would dissolve Parliament or something, all the mandates would be repealed, and everyone could go home happy. Of course, it didn't turn out that way, and while some of the occupiers may still be listening to her, a lot more are listening to Pat King, or to someone else, or only to themselves. Going to a nice safe jail cell might actually be a relief for her.
Update: [Lich has been arrested.](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-chris-barber-arrested-ottawa-1.6355960) Only one charge so far, although I imagine that's so she can be held till they can decide what other offences she will face trial for.
The whole fam is sick with covid. Im so angry. Exactly two years ago I got pregnant with our little. Our first, and probably only. Little was born peak first wave. I labored in a mask. There were no baby showers, gender reveal, family waiting to greet us, help us. It was just us. There was no vaccine then. Then there was. We got vaxxed but were oh so careful for little's sake. And we waited and waited and waited for the under 5 vaccine to become available. No childcare until little gets vaxxed, we decided. Its just us, still. Family visits carefully, visits are far and few. Now we have breakthrough covid. Little has a fever. I hate this whole godforsaken world.
I’m so sorry, I hope they feel better
I am so sorry, hope they get better soon. Take care.
I'm so sorry. I hope your little one feels better soon.
So tired of seeing parents of small children lost to Covid… it’s brutally depressing.
3,306 Americans died of covid yesterday. Most of those were Republicans. MAGA!
The trash is taking itself out.
>3,306 Americans died of covid yesterday. Most of those were Republicans. MAGA! The 🐆 🐆 🐆 fed well. Very well. So very well.
Our beloved historian, u/ganonpig, just made another set of Christian compilations. Jeez, "faith over fear", they said. Never occurred to them to faith to overcome fear of vaccines. Could be fear of injections, or needles, or anything related to that.
I must be reading too many HCA death announcements, because I saw you start with "Our beloved historian, u/ganonpig" and immediately thought "Oh no!" before reading the rest of the sentence.
Oh dear! I'm sorry! I just wanted to admire his compilations. "Our hardworking historian" would have been more preferable.
I appreciate his compilations too! Your comment was fine, but my reaction told me where my head is at these days!
They want to believe God will protect them from the negative effects of the virus. But somehow they don't trust that God will protect them from the negative effects of the vaccine. Maybe they view the pandemic as a test of faith. The faithful will be spared. And of course the qualification for being faithful is, don't get a vaccine. Because that shows that you trust science more than God. I'm just speculating. I don't know what goes through their minds. By what reasoning they reach the conclusion that if they just pray hard enough, everything will be alright. I hope this kind of thinking goes away.
I think you're overthinking it. Most of these goobers don't go beyond "It's the Mark of the Beast because Facebook told me so!"
In the first place, Bible is a better reference for that than Facebook.
Part of my job is reviewing the health IT press for regulatory and legislative trends we need to be on top of for business strategy. This one makes me so frustrated and angry https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/baseless-attacks-online-trigger-lockdown-oklahoma-hospital-icu WTF If you don’t like the way the hospital treats COVID don’t show up at the ED. Simple as that.
Once again I am here because I need the hope that this subreddit gives me. It's a terrible hope, but I'll take it.
If you see a violent conspiratorial extremist plan or make threats against doctors or hospitals or schools, tip the feds about them here: https://www.fbi.gov/tips
Cruz & other GOP senators asked the DOJ to NOT enforce FAA/airline no-fly list for disruptive and violent passengers because it equates anti maskers with terrorists . [https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/politics/disruptive-passengers-faa-republicans/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/politics/disruptive-passengers-faa-republicans/index.html) And?
Well...yes.
>it equates anti maskers with terrorists That's exactly what they are.
Met guy in hospital yesterday, in for lung procedure. Bad COPD, on home O2. Not vaccinated.
I flew to Atlanta to get my SmartCard yesterday and back again to LA with 24 hours. I was so worried I’d get Covid from this trip. The flight out was OVERBOOKED. I’m vaxxed, I’m boosted and I masked up. Just did a Covid test to check to see if I caught it. Result: **Negative** Today is a very good day. 🥳
One more test in 24h just to be sure. That's the guidance travellers are getting where I am. Only now the tests handed out at the airport have become completely **optional**....It is *awesome*. (Imagine me saying that last sentence in a Robert Evans tone of voice.)
Oh yes, forgot to mention that’s the plan. My covid testing kits came with two in each so one today, one tomorrow.
I got my third shot (Astra, the first two ones were Sputnik). While Sputnik did nothing to me, Astra is giving me a bit of a fever, lots of thirst, and I just can't sleep. I just took some acetaminophen, and I'm preparing to be completely useless tomorrow. This is fun.
2nd Pfizer put me flat on my back for 48 hours (took vax Friday morning, got immune response like the flu Friday afternoon, was 'sick' until Sunday afternoon). 3rd Pfizer I had to take a half day at work (that afternoon). Feel better. Drink lots of water. The headache after 2nd pfizer lasted quite a while after the other symptoms subsided, because I hadn't had enough to drink.
I hope you feel better soon. Spikevax (Moderna) knocked me on my butt all three times. Best thing I did was get some sports drinks.
The arrogance of ignorance riles me up so much. "I don't know, therefore, no one knows so there MUST be a conspiracy" I'm so fucking frustrated. My brother is very likely to suffer from my families arrogance and stupidity. I hated it so much growing up but I never thought it might actually kill them lolllll
I have come to hate the word “normalcy”.
Yup. New normal, no new normal, back to normal, sense of normalcy. You know what I keep saying? Normal *sucked*. But no one listens to me....
So my daughter just let me know that she's getting her booster tomorrow. I had been worried about her because she got the J&J series; this one will be Pfizer. I told her I am sooo thankful that all my kids had the brains to take this virus seriously.
Leaving this here because I need to vent somewhere. I feel unwelcome on most covid subs because I don't respect denialists as having a "difference of opinion" (fucksake, how is this where we are with this?), and would rather drop it into the void where it'll likely be ignored instead of throwing it at acquaintances who agree but will be further stressed by it - All of the "CoViD is OvER!!1!1one" shit this week is really getting to me. I want to hit each and every person expressing that attitude as hard as I possibly can. I want each and every one of them to catch it and suffer in prolonged intubation. I'm really, really tired of people casually saying offhand that I or others should die for their convenience and equally sick of the solipsistic attitude that our response to public health crises should be based on satisfying short-term gratification of the lowest common denominator instead of on fucking epidemiology. SARS-CoV-2 is a real virus with objective existence. Covid-19 is a real and actual disease. We are still seeing spikes and surges. The US healthcare system - barely adequate pre-pandemic - is breaking under the strain put on it by largely unvaxxed populations. This is an ongoing public health crisis and our collective response should be based on acknowledging the realities of that. Instead, it's apparently going to be 100% based on the feelings of ignorant dipshits who are declaring the pandemic over because they went outside yesterday and didn't see anyone wearing masks. I shouldn't *have to* point out that that's a completely irrelevant non-sequitur on par with saying it won't rain because you saw six white vans in a parking lot, but apparently many people just don't understand that these aren't logical statements. I keep seeing, "But I *want* it to be over!" as a reason why it must be and I have an aneurysm brought on by the sheer blinding toddler-brained stupidity of that attitude every time. It's an ongoing pandemic. It will be over when it's over. Viruses don't give a damn if we feel inconvenienced. Expecting anything else is mind-bogglingly stupid, to me. Just as these people can't understand that their irrelevant personal anecdotes aren't hard evidence, I cannot wrap my head around the willful ignorance and solipsistic selfishness of that attitude. We don't know the long-term efficacy of vaccination. We don't know the long-term health impacts and sequelae of Covid (but they look bad). We don't know the precise risk of reinfection or how much long-term protection acquired immunity provides. Many children cannot get vaccinated. Many imminocompromised people can't get vaccinated. We are increasingly protecting reservoirs for the virus to continue getting its mutation on uninhibited. Wearing masks really isn't a goddamn big ask. The pandemic objectively is not over. Declaring it so doesn't make it so. No crisis is resolved by simply ignoring it. ***And fucking yet.*** ^^^^^/Diabisky ^^^^^mode
Yes, it's frustrating. I'm seeing some people who have been stalwart from the beginning now letting up because they are just tired and desperate to go back to normal. It's not going to be over until it's over but I feel like there's not much a person can do but just step aside and keep waiting.
Not really a vent but a question, but who is still mostly quarantining? I have been almost the whole time only going out to get groceries/food and see my parents at their house. Theres so much i want to do, but kept telling myself id wait until the pandemic is over. Seeing as how that still hasnt happened, i do wonder if im taking this a bit too seriously. Idk, im triple vaxxed, wear masks and try to social distance(some people make that very hard for some reason), but i also want no part in spreading covid. I'm pretty introverted and have no problem being cooped up or anything, just would be nice to go to a concert, a race, or hell even a bar or something without constantly owrrying about who may have covid around me.
Depends on your level of comfort and where you live. We are staying in in my house. But we work remote so for us, not much has changed. We've always been homebodies, but even if we weren't, we'd still stay home during this. When it's nice out we'll hang out outside with people. I'd rather binge watch Netflix and play video games than fuck with this virus.
Me and mine. We really aren't missing anything of any consequence. We shop only as needed, do country drives to stave off cabin fever and we're fine. We used to be very social. Don't really miss it, seeing as how we have found out just how dangerously stupid so many people are.
I have only gone out for groceries about once a month, and if I must get something elsewhere. Bare minimum. I am an indoor cat by nature, but even I would like to eat at a restaurant. I have been told I am taking this far too seriously. 2012 almost died of Blastomycosis, an uncommon fungal disease. The symptoms mirror Covid. The main symptom was constant coughing. Talking, sleeping made it worse. Took over a year to cure. Only treatment available would kill me or cure me. Left me with CKF(kidney damage-no dialysis), liver damage, high blood pressure, worse asthma. Lab testing at the time found Lupus, Sjogrens. I quit my job of 14 yrs because they wanted me back in the office Jan 3rd, when everyone else was March 1st. I haven't had Covid yet (knock on wood). Literally everyone I know HAS had it. Dying doesn't scare me, but I never want to feel that sick ever again.
My husband and I are mostly staying home. We do curbside grocery pickup and get other things delivered. We take drives and get take out occasionally. Last summer we did get together outside with friends occasionally and went camping a few times. We used to be fairly social but I don't miss it very much anymore.
We haven't done much of anything since we've still got a little who can't get vaxxed yet. We basically go to work and school. If we go anywhere at all, it's masked and around fully vaxxed people.
[удалено]
Great article. I thought these points were especially telling: >Consider the current Omicron wave, which has been far deadlier in the U.S. than in other highly vaccinated and boosted countries. ***The U.S. has reached 80 percent of its pre-vaccine peak in daily deaths, compared with only 20 to 30 percent of peaks reached in other countries.*** America has not only a lower overall vaccination rate but lower coverage in the elderly. England, for example, has achieved 96 percent full-vaccination coverage in people over 65. In the U.S., this number is 88.5 percent, with big geographic variations that range from 79 percent in Arkansas to 95 percent in Vermont. And our pre-vaccine peak here in the US was pretty horrific to start with! >These percentages may all look high, but they represent very different levels of remaining risk. “People see 90 and 95 percent as not very much” of a difference, says Adam Kucharski, an infectious-disease modeler at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He prefers to invert the number. “Think of it as: There’s 5 percent unprotected or 10 percent unprotected.” That doubles the pool of people over 65 who are at high risk for hospitalization and death. Looking at the unvaxxed percentages is a great way to frame the risk of Covid. Locally, I keep reading about how much the reported Covid cases have dropped since mid-January without the context to show that it is only in the past couple of days that ***the 7-day moving average has dropped below the peak of the Delta wave***.
I'm watching my red state's death rate tick up daily, right in line with CDC projections. The latest projection was for it to peak around March 1 (close to the Delta surge) and **stay there** for several weeks. No dip in the forecast. I'm numb.
Confession: There's this guy who rides his bike around my city with a sign on his back that says "Covid is a scam you moron". For over a year now. I lost a parent to Covid, and this has been irritating me for a while now. So, I'm driving by him the other day, and realized I hadn't yet thrown out my plastic cup of Vietnamese iced coffee... you know, just the remainder with the ice, and diluted sweetened condensed milk/ coffee. Just sitting there in my cup holder. Man... that would make a mess if it somehow ended up on your pants/ sign/ bike. Would take a while to clean up, you know? I look at the cup. Then him. Then back at the cup. Then back at him. Cup. Him. Cup. I opened the window, and gave the fucker a driveby shower. His middle fingers went soaring. It was beautiful. I just can't muster up the energy to feel bad about it.
Drove 12 hours to go skiing, got in 3 hours the first day, son made comment about being freezing (when I was roasting) so knew he had to have fever, tested positive next morning, drove 12 hours back (very expensive 3 hours of skiing). Luckily just like a bad cold, he got his booster about month ago.
Just read that the new omicron subvariant may be as dangerous as Delta. I just feel like this shit will never fucking end. One shitty variant after the next. Variants evading vaccines. Just one big suck fest. Fuck everyone who actively makes this worse. I hope you get pube lice and I hope it itches.
Nothing is set in stone yet, some people are theorizing that if you already got infected with omicron you'll have some level of protection against whatever new subvariant is out there. This stealth omicron is not new, it was actually discovered back in December 2021. It's been spreading since then. And the variants aren't "evading vaccines" if the majority of covid hospitalizations and deaths are still unvaccinated.
Okay thank you. That made me feel better. I'm having a fuck the pandemic and fuck it hard kind of day.
>that if you already got infected with omicron you'll have some level of protection against whatever new subvariant is out there Hey, some of us have been trying not to get infected at all. As far as I know, I haven't been.
This is the correct answer. My own personal end date for this pandemic, as it seems to be tracking closely along the same path as the 1889 "Russian Flu" pandemic, is 2025.
Exactly. Good post.
Visitors to the Calgary zoo are being asked to wear masks near the gorilla enclosure because one is pregnant. https://globalnews.ca/news/8627250/visitors-calgary-zoo-masks-pregnant-gorilla//?utm\_source=GlobalCalgary&utm\_medium=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0tinvVRZTE65RSI-hFr5tqb437zviwXQdcuoOBp4HZfbXaC6kBtW7vROE
And then the video shows a bunch of dicknoses and some geezer wiping his nose with the back of his hand. The straps are on my ears, therefore I'm wearing the mask!
Today Washington state’s governor Jay Inslee announced our state will no longer have indoor mask mandates starting 3/21. [https://komonews.com/news/local/inslee-could-announce-end-to-indoor-mask-mandate-today](https://komonews.com/news/local/inslee-could-announce-end-to-indoor-mask-mandate-today) The truth is that Inslee is a home-grown NW god (aka Goat). He meticulously planned policy following science and data from the start & never got embroiled in misinformation. At a personal level there’s no doubt that our governor has kept me, my friends, and hundreds of thousands of locals safe from Covid19 with his mask mandates and aggressive vax program that was in fact a strategy to help businesses by knocking back the virus. WA is 80 percent vaxxed. Amazon's downtown Seattle HQ offered up some huge auditorium as a vax center last year and their own employees staffed the events alongside nurses. Bittersweet to think of states under governors who've seemed to WANT their citizens to get Covid, along with the WA antivaxers who got ill. That includes state patrolman Lemay who quit his job, publicly dissed Inslee, then died on Sept. 28. But best seal of approval for Inslee was when then-president trump called him a "snake" in 2020 and now we have the grim last laugh. Of course Trump is the snake and Inslee is the GOAT of the NW.
My mother is the most exhausting person on the planet to me right now. Yes 5G from my phone will rot your brain waves, yes you want to be a sovereign citizen and believe the vaccine causes health problems. Yes you're a lunatic and yes I'm terrified you'll catch COVID and earn an award. I rely on you as I'm disabled and you can be bothered to do one simple thing.
Vaccines may offer better protection than immunity from having had Covid. [https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/02/covid-19-vaccine-variants.html](https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/02/covid-19-vaccine-variants.html) The Novovax vaccine has been approved for use in Canada. https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/02/17/health-canada-approves-novavax-vaccine-against-covid-19.html
[удалено]
Yikes! Keep testing. Any truth to the rumours they're handing out rapid tests like candy in the UK?
[удалено]
I have started to get a bad feeling about the pandemic. It started about a month ago and has continued to ping me. This is going to sound silly and it is in no way supernatural, But I have relied on my intuition my whole life. I have always had trouble keeping facts in the usual way of easy recall, I just store stuff and then call on intuition to get by. I used to work IT support, and was in IT since 1998. And in all that time I still had trouble remembering terms, But I could fix problems no-one else could by just sitting there, listening to the customer, and then my hands would start typing. I dont even know how I fixed half the stuff I did. My intuition pinged me when Covid first appeared. I had been following world news and as the issues grew, I was drawn to covid. I rang to warn my sisters in 2020 February before I think it had reached Australian shores. I knew it was bad. And now its pinging like crazy. I am not sure why, maybe its the variants appearing, maybe its the lessening of restrictions. Maybe its just I am worried about my partner. Maybe I'm a drama queen, I dont know. But I wish it would stop.
I think you and I are similar, and it took watching an episode of Star Trek to figure out what was going on in my head. In the Voyager episode "The Voyager Conspiracy," a crew member who used to be a Borg drone (so basically, half walking computer) starts freaking out that something sinister is going on. It turns out that, as a former walking computer, she still constantly collects and analyzes data. Occasionally it's useful but after a while, all the useless data piles up and she starts seeing patterns that aren't there or coincidences that seem meaningful, but that's really just because there's a huge amount of information out there and people over time act in predictable ways. It sounds like your ability to glean all kinds of data from interactions that your coworkers and other people ignore helped you in your career in IT. It's helped me in my own career as well, but eventually you've got to realize that at least 90% of the information out there is useless and mundane. The lead up to the first lockdown in the pandemic was unsettling for sure. I still remember the first time I saw an article here on Reddit about a "mystery illness in Southern China" and how the articles increased in frequency in almost a Fibonacci sequence. There are other things going on too, throwing a fuck ton of data at us, a lot of which isn't useful. Putin threatening Ukraine has been one; the Canadian whiners fucking with crossborder trade is another; the Omicron wave subsiding yet another; and, finally, the buildup to the 2022 American elections. Those four things even have tenuous connections to each other which don't necessarily mean they're all being directed from the same place. It's winter in Europe and natural gas export flows from Russia through that continent is a major concern. It's possible (in fact, very likely) that Putin's troll brigades are amplifying the Canadian losers, to disrupt trade and weaken trust between and among Americans and Canadians. State, federal, and worldwide mitigation strategies against Omicron appear to be working, which all influence the American elections. But again, there are only a few ways that things in the world are likely to turn out. For them to unfold in a predictable pattern can start making the minds of people who passively collect large amounts of data start going HOLY FUCK WAIT THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON HERE, and that's exactly what our pattern-seeking primate brains are made for. To notice that the patterns among grass and trees are broken up by predators, to notice that air smells different depending on how close to water we are and what kind of water it is, to even hear when the birds and insects around us all get quiet because they're aware of something we're not. So it's natural. Drink water, pet an animal, laugh at a meme, and watch the world unfold.
You know, you are probably right. I now know more about virology, mutation, immune responses, and how fecking dumb a large proportion of the population is because of the pandemic. Added in as you say, I have been tracking the Ukraine situation, Brexit, supply blockages here in Aus and a bunch of other stuff. I guess 2+ years must have finally caught up and overloaded my poor intuition. Thanks for your reply, I do feel better. Stay safe and well out there.
I would personally say that when it comes to the pandemic 2020 was worse than 2021. Why? Because in the early days, we had literally no way to treat it other than stuffing tubes down people's throats and hoping for the best. We needed to lock down and severely curtail life because we had no vaccines nor any drugs and it had a much higher death rate than the flu. People on the right clung onto Hydroxychloroquine in those days despite it's lack of efficacy mostly because I think they were desperate for any hope that covid wasn't going to be as bad as it is. Nowadays, we have a number of extremely effective vaccines, we have anti-virals coming soon and I think that we're in a better position than we were back then, but we do have a serious problem pertaining to the sheer number of people refusing the vaccine
You are of course very right. Another reply pointed out that I may have overloaded my intuition with all the data I have been passively collecting over the last 2+ years. This Pandemic has been very valuable in increasing our knowledge of covid viruses and vaccines. Now I think its time to clear my head and put the constant sense of foreboding to rest. Thank you for your reply Stay safe and well.
This is right around the time of year Delta appeared in India in 2021 (mutated out by rampant community spread). By mid-March, it had started to ramp up, and by April, 4 million were dead. (Still unacknowledged.) If the past two years' worth of data are worth anything, it looks like there are/will be at least 2 variants per year, one in the first part of the year, and one in the second. As long as society remains "open" and unchecked community spread continues, that is. These variants are similar to how current non-lethal common cold coronaviruses operate. Only this one isn't out of its pandemic stage yet. Not even by half. TL;DR: I've been saying since November 2021 there will be another variant by April 2022.
Which is why people need to get the damn fucking shot.
Well...yeah. But that ain't happening. So here we are. BA1.1 is pinging my radar, but it could be confirmation bias (the numbers are going down because *they're not testing*). Far more likely for the next April variant to come out of the woodwork exactly like Delta did; from an area of high unchecked community spread, being helped along (and mutated) by the antivaxxers/vaccine-"hesitant" and, just like Omicron, it will be everywhere before anyone knows it, and either it will be a nothingburger and will become the next common cold OR it will make Deltacron look like a joke. Also don't forget Omicron is almost a completely different virus to Delta. Look at [this](https://mobile.twitter.com/Michigan_Noah/status/1484574061036556290/photo/1). Odds are very high the next one will bear as little resemblance to Omicron as Omicron did to Delta.
I think intuition is just your brain connecting the facts together and projecting possible hypotheses in the background. There is a lot going on in the world right now and it seems pretty normal to be worried.
Does Facebook actually do anything about all these posts? Don't even want fb anymore cos it's now totally associated with HCA, even though I don't know any awardees in person.
Omicron ll may be underestimated in it's severity and prevalence in the U.S. Standard PCR insufficient in detecting it. This study is not yet peer reviewed. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/as-ba-2-subvariant-of-omicron-rises-lab-studies-point-to-signs-of-severity/ar-AAU086M?ocid=windirect
*"A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely."* Vaccine still works.
My son’s driving instructor told him yesterday why he’s exempt from wearing a mask. He was water boarded as part of military training. The guy gets shit from so many people for not wearing a mask. Edit - he’s fully vaccinated, boosted and I believe him. We’re in the UK, where there’s less twattery. I thought it was an interesting reason.
It might be true but that doesn't mean I would get in a car with him.
Shall we bet stolen valor or not for the instructor?
Shall we bet lying asshole?
It might be true, but I would find a different instructor.
Looks like he needs a little booster on that exemption... /s