Coronavirus 7: Ring in Delta Plus and then Omicron Takes Over

[Smash!]

19 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

This is basically contributing to the constant waves of covid - one variant starts then before it's finished we have a new one taking its place that evades immunity better. It still amazes me that we spent so much time and effort minimising spread and then went "too hard, let it rip"

I may sound like a broken record but it’s not just death that has an impact on our society but Long Covid as well. It will take time to understand the mechanisms and develop medication. I don’t get why this isn‘t relevant to our governments. When vaccines protect less and less against infection, the risk of Long Covid is there. 

[Coconut Flan]

I was going to go visit mom today.  Due to having cases at her facility and my lupus being cranky, I've retired to the recliner.  Perhaps tomorrow.  

Today's homily (watched online), the priest goes I just don't understand why people don't do what they can to end the pandemic.  He says it would take such small things and he can't get why people won't do the least thing.  

Edited July 3, 2022 by Coconut Flan

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

Additionally, in scrolling through our local death statistics for Covid related deaths, I see the average ages are getting younger (i.e., some 20s and 10s).  

Getting covid repeatedly appears to increase the risk of both long covid and severe disease. The "it's mild in kids!" narrative was only ever comparing to those who had severe disease the first time - it's just become more obvious I think that like in adults there are a range of outcomes.

 

1 hour ago, Smash! said:

I don’t get why this isn‘t relevant to our governments. When vaccines protect less and less against infection, the risk of Long Covid is there. 

You might think that having up to 20% of the population with ongoing issues would be an incentive to try and reduce spread but apparently governments are terrible at long term thinking. 

1 hour ago, Coconut Flan said:

Today's homily (watched online), the priest goes I just don't understand why people don't do what they can to end the pandemic.  He says it would take such small things and he can't get why people won't do the least thing.  

Me neither mate. Sitting on a train to work opposite the only two non-masked people in the carriage. It's mandatory on PT, not that they enforce it, so presumably these two have a valid medical exemption. Or are just arseholes. Or forgot. Who even knows these days.

I am looking forward to summer when I might be able to bike in again.

[CTRLZero]

On 6/15/2022 at 2:25 PM, Coconut Flan said:

Fauci has COVID:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/15/health/fauci-covid-positive/index.html

Now Fauci has had a case of what he’s calling Paxlovid rebound.  He tested negative after a five-day course on Paxlovid, then retested positive a few days later.  He’s being his own test subject, and is rethinking how long individuals should be given Paxlovid.  Link to CNN article-  CNN article - Fauci has Covid rebound after Paxlovid

[FiveAcres]

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/epidemiology-of-reinfections

This is short article about COVID-19 reinfection written by an epidemiologist. It's well-written and worth reading in its entirety, but she states her bottom line:

Quote

Bottom line

There are myriad reasons we need to do our best to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and prevent infection. Wearing masks, staying up to date with vaccines, and improved ventilation will help. And, ideally, reinfections would not occur. But we are well past the point of zero COVID, and reinfections can be expected, just like with other respiratory viruses. Vaccine and infection-induced immunity is clearly reducing severity of reinfection. Unfortunately, protection from severe reinfection isn’t guaranteed for high-risk groups.

 

[Coconut Flan]

From our county hospital system:  60% of incoming "COVID" patients are coming in for something else and testing positive for COVID mostly without showing any COVID symptoms.  

This last week that includes the two COVID positive residents at Mom's facility.  No one would have ever known if they hadn't needed to go to the hospital for some other reason.  

[adidas]

I have a few health issues and I spend some time in hospital regularly. Last weekend they didn’t want me in there because it’s so riddled with Covid. They usually hook me up to a drip immediately but this time they sent me home with all the meds and I’ve been seeing the dr regularly. Thank goodness I was well enough to take this option. I absolutely do not want to catch it again. 

[Howl]

Hubs had it, took Paxlovid along with Tassalon Perls (for cough),  Mucinex, Sudafed and some other OTC, got well and then had Paxlovid replapse. His symptoms have resolved but still testing positive.  

I've done zero precautions, just continued life together as usual because I thought I had it as well. However, I've done about 5 self tests, an antigen test, PCR and another self test this morning -- all negative. 

My friend's doc told her that a person is not infectious if there is no fever, but haven't seen that anywhere else. 

We're waiting on taking a car trip, but now I'm considering a zero-contact car trip with camping. 

[Coconut Flan]

My daughter definitely had COVID and had zero fever through the entire time of it.   She had about ten positive home tests over 14 days.  For anecdotal evidence for you.  

[Baxter]

When my family ended up getting Covid in April, my two kids both had fevers but my husband and I didn't. We both had positive rapid tests. My husband was the one who gave it to us so I'm quite sure you can be contagious without a fever. He caught it at work even though he was wearing an n95, had an air purifier at his desk and ate lunch in his car because almost no one else in his office wears a mask. 

[clueliss]

If I got my June Covid from the person I believe I did. And I have no reason to believe I got it someplace else. I got it for my supervisor at work. He wasn’t running a fever. He had a cough and thought he had a respiratory virus or a cold. There was no fever I didn’t have a fever and don’t typically run fevers except for certain sorts of things that caused them like Oh say strep.  

[JDuggs]

Argh. My close friend coworker and her husband have covid. I didn’t ask her what day they tested positive. I know it was between Thursday and Sunday. She told me that her FIL who lives alone also has covid and needed to be admitted to the hospital yesterday. She said her husband was going to visit him today at the hospital! I guess his five days since testing positive are possibly up by today, but I kind of doubt it. I’m not going to press for the details. 

[CTRLZero]

More Covid stories.  My friend’s son-in-law tested positive while vacationing with his family.  They flew back, knowing they were contagious, because they didn’t want the hassle of being away from home while ill.  Understandable feeling, but what about all the other people you encountered while infectious.  Ugh.  I can’t see a way out of this disease.  I hope another booster is available soon for my peace of mind.  😷 

[Coconut Flan]

Today it was announce that the administration wants to offer a second booster to all adults.  Maybe you'll get your wish soon.

[Ozlsn]

Really interesting thread unroll going through some of the true statements around covid and their limitations.

Got to admit with the number of viruses circulating here right now I really wish the govt had spent a lot more time and effort working out better ventilation strategies for public places and keeping mask mandates. 

[Ozlsn]

Wired article from May 2021 on the shift to aerosol transmission being accepted.

So frustrating, because we could have mitigated so much better with more understanding.

For most respiratory diseases, not knowing which route caused an infection has not been catastrophic. But the cost has not been zero. Influenza infects millions each year, killing between 300,000 and 650,000 globally. And epidemiologists are predicting the next few years will bring particularly deadly flu seasons. Li hopes that acknowledging this history—and how it hindered an effective global response to Covid-19—will allow good ventilation to emerge as a central pillar of public health policy, a development that would not just hasten the end of this pandemic but beat back future ones. 

To get a glimpse into that future, you need only peek into the classrooms where Li teaches or the Crossfit gym where Marr jumps boxes and slams medicine balls. In the earliest days of the pandemic, Li convinced the administrators at the University of Hong Kong to spend most of its Covid-19 budget on upgrading the ventilation in buildings and buses rather than on things such as mass Covid testing of students. Marr reviewed blueprints and HVAC schematics with the owner of her gym, calculating the ventilation rates and consulting on a redesign that moved workout stations outside and near doors that were kept permanently open. To date, no one has caught Covid at the gym. Li’s university, a school of 30,000 students, has recorded a total of 23 Covid-19 cases.

Also if you haven't seen the John Snow Project videos they are worth watching.

Spoiler

 

 

[Knight of Ni]

My husband and I had COVID last week. All I can say is wow I'm so glad that I was vaccinated. If I was that sick with the vaccine I can't even imagine not being vaccinated. We both took Paxlovid and that helped a lot. It did give me a horribly bitter taste in my mouth. It was like I had chewed the pills instead of swallowing them.

[yeahthatsme74]

My husband, my 7yo, and I have all gotten sick and tested positive over the past three days. I had it in March 2020, they've never had it. I'm hideously miserable but don't feel like I'm literally going to die like I did before. Thank you, Moderna x 3!

[Becky]

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/people-report-paxlovid-rebounds-covid-experts-insist-cases-are-rare-rcna40031

My family’s experience - 9 family members had COVID in June and July. Of the 6 who took Paxlovid, 5 had rebound, and the rebound symptoms were worse than the original case. A small sample, but certainly calls the claim into question. The 3 who did not take it did not rebound. 
Interestingly, my adult daughter never tested positive, despite living with her husband and kids who all had it. She tested daily because she is a teacher. 

[FiveAcres]

This seems like a definitive and authoritative source on the origins of Covid-19.

https://news.arizona.edu/story/studies-link-covid-19-wildlife-sales-chinese-market-find-alternative-scenarios-extremely

Quote

 

An international team of researchers has confirmed that live animals sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, were the likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed 6.4 million lives since it began nearly three years ago.

Led by University of Arizona virus evolution expert Michael Worobey, researchers traced the start of the pandemic to the market in Wuhan, where foxes, raccoon dogs and other live mammals susceptible to the virus were sold immediately before the pandemic began. Their findings were published Tuesday in two papers in the journal Science, after being previously released in preprint versions in February.

The publications, which have since gone through peer review and include additional analyses and conclusions, virtually eliminate alternative scenarios that have been suggested as origins of the pandemic. Moreover, the authors conclude that the first spread to humans from animals likely occurred in two separate transmission events in the Huanan market in late November 2019.

 

Link found on WebSleuths.

 

[Ozlsn]

Meanwhile monkeypox is now officially an emergency here. Hoping this means a ramp up in vaccine production and distribution.

[Smash!]

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

Meanwhile monkeypox is now officially an emergency here. Hoping this means a ramp up in vaccine production and distribution.

Good! In Switzerland meanwhile officials still “monitor the situation closely” without having any plan. If this virus finds more ways to infect people I would like to get my smallpox shot, thank you very much.

[Coconut Flan]

If you aren't a man who has sex with other men or live in a household with one or have close contact with one and that means as close as living with one, you aren't in much danger at this time.  My son and his husband aren't panicking yet.  They're monogamous and had already cut back socializing due to COVID so they're feeling safe.  They know no one in their circle who has had it and I feel absolutely fine visiting with them.  Of course, I did have a small pox vaccination decades ago, but I also know if they felt the least bit sick that they'd tell me.  

That isn't to say it can't get worse, but the average person who isn't in the likely group has only a very, very, very low chance of randomly catching it.    

[Smash!]

36 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

That isn't to say it can't get worse, but the average person who isn't in the likely group has only a very, very, very low chance of randomly catching it.

I agree. Still it can get worse and I‘m mostly furious over the lack of preparedness by our officials. The 3rd gen small pox vaccine is approved in the EU but not here for example. What if the monkeypox virus mutates? This virus could surprise us like the coronavirus has done countless times over the last two years.

 

[Smash!]

Interesting article about Long Covid and ME/CFS but unfortunately it’s in German. The translated text is under the spoiler

Spoiler

Long-Covid has brought greater attention to ME/CFS, a fatigue disease. But for decades, sufferers have been fighting for more attention, research - and medicines.

Carmen Scheibenbogen has been the head of the ME/CFS consultation at the Charité hospital in Berlin for 15 years. She is one of the few in Germany to conduct research on ME/CFS, better known as chronic fatigue syndrome. In the past, when the professor offered training sessions, only a few doctors signed up. Today, there are thousands.

Suddenly, more and more specialists are interested in this complex neurological disease, which has such severe symptoms that 60 percent of those affected are unable to work.

One in four of them can no longer leave the house at all. Patients suffer from extreme exhaustion, concentration problems, headaches and muscle pain. Either as a permanent condition or as a result of light stress.
Although the WHO recognized this disease more than 50 years ago, many physicians are not familiar with this clinical picture. As a result, they often do not take sufferers seriously or suspect a mental illness behind the symptoms.

With far-reaching consequences: Wrong treatment, no research, no therapy. The social consequences are also serious; sufferers often have to spend years fighting with social security funds.

According to estimates, there are 250,000 sufferers in Germany - including 40,000 children and young people. But there will be more and more, because as the number of corona-infected and thus post-Covid patients increases, so does the number of ME/CFS sufferers.

"We know that ME/CFS occurs in a proportion of Long Covid patients," says Carmen Scheibenbogen.

Exact numbers are not yet available, but estimates are that one in ten will develop post-Covid after a Corona infection, and of those, ten to 20 percent will develop ME/CFS.

"In terms of medications, we only have those available so far that we can use to treat symptoms, such as sleep disturbances or pain. What we need, however, are drugs that target the causes," says Carmen Scheibenbogen.

Finally, the federal government is also providing more funding for research. But these funds are nowhere near enough. There are already drugs that could potentially help, but clinical trials still urgently need to be conducted.

There is also a lack of competence centers and outpatient clinics, because the few specialists can hardly cope with the onslaught of patients. So there is still a long way to go - through Corona, the clinical picture is finally getting more attention.