Neverending Covid-19 Coronavirus

Joe Mac said:
It seems to be. We’ve been rolling back on everything since the start of February, upto mandatory mask wearing ending on 28/2. There are still reasonably high case numbers but the deaths and hospital/ICU numbers are stable and low. I don’t know if our vaccine take up percentages differentiate us and the UK from a lot of other developed nations that haven’t had as high a proportion of the population take it up though 🤷🏻
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We are seeing the same things, even in places like Florida where there was a low vaccine uptake. It feels like this is different, but I am concerned that another variant will pop up and make a bunch of people sick. I don't want to lull myself into a false sense of security, so I won't say that we are at herd immunity. I'm just wondering if we aren't too far off.
 
nolalady said:
We are seeing the same things, even in places like Florida where there was a low vaccine uptake. It feels like this is different, but I am concerned that another variant will pop up and make a bunch of people sick. I don't want to lull myself into a false sense of security, so I won't say that we are at herd immunity. I'm just wondering if we aren't too far off.
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Yeah the talk of the mutant child of delta and omicron had me worried there for a while last week when I first read about it but then nothing seems to have exploded in the last week and my headspace seems to only be able to compute one impending doom at a time and Putin seems more dangerous right now…
 
Indymisanthrope said:
www.bloomberg.com

Moderna’s Covid Shot Bolsters Immune Response In Kids Under Six

www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com







Make it make sense please.
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Looks like Moderna cut their dose too much when testing in 6-11 yo - although the numbers are in line with what we see against Omicron in adults. There's a possibility they have to go back to the drawing board and try again with a higher dose - like the 1/2 dose they use as the booster in adults. Or try a 3 dose regimen. But this could also get accepted because 2 full doses in adults has about that sort of efficacy vs Omicron. The 3rd dose helps a lot vs Omicron and these data in 6-11 doesn't include a dose 3.
 
Biden said today that any second covid booster would not be available to the public without funding from congress.

What exactly does that mean? Does that mean your insurance either covers it and if it doesn't or you don't have insurance you have to pay for it?

Or does it mean there wouldn't be a second booster period without funding from congress.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
Right, that's the part that confused me. Not hitting a 50% threshold is one thing, but when the performance is comparable to the adult dose against the variants that are currently prevalent, what's the issue? If the original/Alpha or Delta variants were still raging, this would probably have a better protection rate.

At any rate, the topline results here seem substantially different from Pfizer's, in the sense that Moderna isn't reporting that the 2-dose regimen didn't stimulate enough of an immune response. In fact it did if I'm reading correctly, it's just that this immune response isn't especially effective at completely preventing Omicron infection.

This feels somewhat like a goalpost shift. I agree we want variant-specific vaccines (and I question where those promised 100-day turnaround times are, as we head into April), but you generally don't shift your formulation like that in the middle of a large late-phase trial without invalidating a lot of the data you had gathered before.

At the end of the day, 43.7% efficacy isn't 50%, but it's a lot better than the current level of 0% protection. It's safe, and it's moderately effective? Let's get this started already.
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I agree. If it's the best we have and if it's safe, they should deploy. The real key remains whether it prevents serious infection.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Biden said today that any second covid booster would not be available to the public without funding from congress.

What exactly does that mean? Does that mean your insurance either covers it and if it doesn't or you don't have insurance you have to pay for it?

Or does it mean there wouldn't be a second booster period without funding from congress.
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I believe it means that either your insurance covers it or if it doesn't, you pay for it.
 
yukbon said:
My oldest tested positive on Thursday, I popped hot today.
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bruuuuuhhhhhh wtf how am i still fucking positive? i feel 100% fineeeeeeee. i got the monoclonal antibodies and aside from two slightly less-than-100% days, have so far been unscathed. As a fat dude, I feel -- and this is not a word I use often -- blessed. I have friends who've lost parents and siblings; my stepmother's brother died. My mother is still feeling side effects, months and months later. So I know it's gauche to be like 'but i want my paper that says i'm ok!". For real: Blessed. I just want to be done with it.

Fine joke: the schools don't require any negative test -- just a positive test and then five days after THAT the kids can go back to school, no negative test, no questions asked, just welcome back kids.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, my HR lady's going "hey you filled out the 'out from work because of covid' forms but we need the forms to return to work" and no amount of me telling her i can't fill them out on account of i am still testing positive is getting through to her.
"I can't do it, i don't have a negative test."
"we need that before you can return to work, even if you're working from home"
"well, I can't give you one, since I don't have one"
"well, you need to turn it in"
Rinse, repeat.

It's like some kafkaesque HR MS Teams conversation.
 
My mothers company returned to the office 3 days a week earlier this month and from everything I have heard it's a complete shit show.

The CEO of their holding company has always been firm on "We are not a work from home company, never have been, never will be. We want you in the office to collaborate." But it's a corporate office for retail and everything can be done remotely.

This corporate office is located in rural Western Massachusetts, Trump country. The holding companies requirements are you must be vaccinated to return to the office unless you have a medical or religious exemption. If you are not vaccinated you must wear a mask at all times.

My mothers team mate who works in the cubical next to her is not vaccinated and refuses to wear a mask. It's been almost 4 weeks now where they have been back in the office and nothing has been done to address this workers refusal to wear a mask.

Through gossip, my mother has heard that fewer than 50% of the employees in the office have been vaccinated.

Their current plans are to return to the office 5 days a week by July. With some employees having the option to work from home 1 day a week with manager approval (like before covid).

To add insult to injury, the company was very clear about they would not supply equipment to work from home. You must return your monitor, keyboard, mouse, dock and so on. So guess what happened when my mother lugged all that stuff back to the office on day one? They had pallets of new equipment in the office. They tossed the equipment she returned in a recycling dumpster and gave her a new monitor, mouse and keyboard. The dock is done as the new monitor is a USB-c display with additional ports in the back acting as a dock.

She asked them straight up. Your telling me you are throwing all this stuff out and I can't continue to use it at home. Their answer was "Yup". Company policy is IT does not provide equipment for home office use.
 
I heard on the news that at the all-hands staff meeting at Twitter where management explained that investors had sold to Musk, the biggest question the staff had was if they will continue to work from home. I got a chuckle out of that but it makes sense. Musk's preferences are known and people who currently work at Twitter are likely to be able to find work elsewhere. Making a noise about it is a way of telling the new owner he may be looking at some staff turnover if he's going to push people's lifestyles back to Office Space.

Btw, while chunks of central Mass. might be Trump Country, I think further west is mixed. Last week I read this from Patrick Lawrence and felt it rang true.

The other day I ventured forth from my remote village to a lively market town called Great Barrington to shop for Easter lunch — spring lamb, a decent bottle of Bourgogne. Easter is much marked in my household, one of the few feasts we allow ourselves, and it is a reminder this year of a truth that could scarcely be more pertinent to our shared circumstances: After all our small and large crucifixions, there is new life to come.

Great Barrington lies in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, a fashionable little burg dense — as you can tell simply by walking around in it —with righteous liberals. No place, you remind yourself, is perfect.
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BA4 and BA5 variants of Covid are circulating around South Africa and are causing an uptick in hospitalizations.

www.medpagetoday.com

South Africa Likely to See Fifth COVID Wave

Recent sharp increases in test positivity, cases driven by BA.4 and BA.5 variants
www.medpagetoday.com www.medpagetoday.com

BA.4 and BA.5 have risen to make up more than half of cases over the last few weeks, Lemieux noted, and "if you line up the case counts ... you start to see a rise that is reminiscent both in its numbers, its timing, and its test positivity rate of the Omicron wave, possibly taking off even faster."

In a Twitter thread today, Suliman noted that Gauteng province once again appears to be the epicenter of the outbreak, with 3,145 daily cases reported and a rolling 7-day average of more than 2,000. "Case rate up 173% week-on-week or currently doubling every 4.8 days," he tweeted, adding that the case positivity rate in the province jumped to 20.2% from 11.9% just a week prior.

Hospitalizations were up 59% week-over-week, but off a low baseline, with a total of 993 patients currently in Gauteng hospitals, he noted. "This increase is not as steep as that in infections, but needs to be monitored closely."
 
Today when I went to the grocery store it was the first time in more than 2 years that there was not a mask to be seen. Not a single customer or employee was wearing a mask.

I was wearing mine and it was making feel insecure as I got looks from other customers.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Today when I went to the grocery store it was the first time in more than 2 years that there was not a mask to be seen. Not a single customer or employee was wearing a mask.

I was wearing mine and it was making feel insecure as I got looks from other customers.
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The only people that are required to wear a mask at my office are those who aren't vaccinated, so I don't wear one now out of fear that people might think I'm an anti-vaxxer. =(
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Today when I went to the grocery store it was the first time in more than 2 years that there was not a mask to be seen. Not a single customer or employee was wearing a mask.

I was wearing mine and it was making feel insecure as I got looks from other customers.
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Max Sterling said:
The only people that are required to wear a mask at my office are those who aren't vaccinated, so I don't wear one now out of fear that people might think I'm an anti-vaxxer. =(
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This phase of the pandemic has been so dang confusing. I've been self-conscious as one of the few masked in some places, and self-conscious as one of the few unmasked in other places. One can't help but project, and to project others projecting upon oneself.

The other day I went to the movies with a couple I know, and one of them only removed their mask and ate popcorn when the other got up to use the bathroom. We're all getting super weird, man.
 
I gave blood last week, and they test the blood for covid antibodies. Mine came back as reactive+, which they said means my blood and plasma can be used for convalescent covid patients to help them fight it off. I'm vaccinated and boosted, and I know I was exposed when my son had it a few months ago, but I've never gotten sick or tested positive, so I was happy to see that result.
 
news.yahoo.com

Covid deaths no longer overwhelmingly among unvaccinated as toll on elderly grows

WASHINGTON -- Unvaccinated people accounted for the overwhelming majority of deaths in the United States throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic. But that has changed in recent months, according to a Washington Post analysis of state and federal data. The pandemic's toll is no longer falling...
news.yahoo.com news.yahoo.com

The bulk of vaccinated deaths are among people who did not get a booster shot, according to state data provided to The Post. In two of the states, California and Mississippi, three-quarters of the vaccinated senior citizens who died in January and February did not have booster doses. Regulators in recent weeks have authorized second booster doses for people over the age of 50, but administration of first booster doses has stagnated.
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RenegadeMonster said:
news.yahoo.com

Covid deaths no longer overwhelmingly among unvaccinated as toll on elderly grows

WASHINGTON -- Unvaccinated people accounted for the overwhelming majority of deaths in the United States throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic. But that has changed in recent months, according to a Washington Post analysis of state and federal data. The pandemic's toll is no longer falling...
news.yahoo.com news.yahoo.com
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So more vaccinated people are dying from COVID but the bulk of those deaths are from people who didn't continue to get vaccinated? Seems to track...
 
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