Vaccinated

[Spellbound454]

I think this virus is so infectious its going to get everyone it possibly can

The only thing we can do is booster and be careful.

[mamasita99]

My 18 year old DD went to CVS for her booster appointment this afternoon. The staff at the pharmacy said they ran out of booster and won’t get more til Friday. That’s what the appointments were for O thought…

[Opti]

Dec 29, 2021 20:07:16 GMT -5 mamasita99 said:

My 18 year old DD went to CVS for her booster appointment this afternoon. The staff at the pharmacy said they ran out of booster and won’t get more til Friday. That’s what the appointments were for O thought…

Sorry to read this. Its possible they got less than expected or someone misused what they had or ... ?

[mollyanna58]

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my brother got his second dose of Moderna yesterday.  He found that being unvaxxed was going to affect his ability to travel, so he finally got vaxxed.

[jerseygirl]

Article on newly approved drugs from Merck and Pfizer to treat Covid
Article urges that the Defense act be used to increase amounts produced.
Yay again for ‘Big Pharma’ in NJ

www.thedailybeast.com/dreams-of-a-new-covid-pill-panacea-have-been-dashed?source=articles&via=rss

[haapai]

Dec 30, 2021 10:51:36 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Article on newly approved drugs from Merck and Pfizer to treat Covid
Article urges that the Defense act be used to increase amounts produced.
Yay again for ‘Big Pharma’ in NJ

www.thedailybeast.com/dreams-of-a-new-covid-pill-panacea-have-been-dashed?source=articles&via=rss

The Washington Post is saying today that we only have 180,000 doses of the Pfizer drug and that it takes months to manufacture.  I'm unclear if that means 180,000 courses of treatment or one twentieth of that.  Either way, it's both a good tool that we didn't have before and something that we don't have enough of. 

If we hit testing delays, we may not be able to use it at all, even for the folks who are most at risk for the worst outcomes.  From the article:

Plus, both pills only work if the patient takes them within five days of their first symptoms. That’s a prohibitively short window in a country where COVID testing is still inadequate. Many people won’t know they’re infected in time to get a prescription and start taking the pills. “A lot of people don’t get tested right away,” Redlener said. “If you don’t catch it early, three to five days, these pills won’t help you.”

[pulmonarymd]

The new drugs will not make a meaningful difference in our current surge. There is a limited supply, a limited window, and many contraindications to their use. Vaccinating those who are unvaccinated will not change things either. This surge, like the one this summer will do what it will do, unless we change our behavior. Anyone think that will happen? Omicron spreads more quickly, so its course is already determined.

Just let it rip! Unvaccinated people have a 13 fold higher risk of dying. No sense in protecting those who do not want to be protected. Just protect yourself

[haapai]

Dec 30, 2021 11:41:58 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

The new drugs will not make a meaningful difference in our current surge. There is a limited supply, a limited window, and many contraindications to their use. Vaccinating those who are unvaccinated will not change things either. This surge, like the one this summer will do what it will do, unless we change our behavior. Anyone think that will happen? Omicron spreads more quickly, so its course is already determined.

Just let it rip! Unvaccinated people have a 13 fold higher risk of dying. No sense in protecting those who do not want to be protected. Just protect yourself

That does seem to be the policy.  What I don't understand is whether you are despairing when you describe it or cheering it on. 

[azucena]

I'm viewing this surge as let it burn through and maybe it helps us get to herd immunity.  Me and mine are vaccinated and taking appropriate precautions. 

Heading back to elementary school 1/5 with optional mask guidelines set to lift further 1/10 is going to be fun.  Our private school board thought it was a great idea to publish this plan way back in early Nov.  Now they've pretty much locked themselves into it.  SMDH.

[pulmonarymd]

Dec 30, 2021 11:46:23 GMT -5 haapai said:

Dec 30, 2021 11:41:58 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

The new drugs will not make a meaningful difference in our current surge. There is a limited supply, a limited window, and many contraindications to their use. Vaccinating those who are unvaccinated will not change things either. This surge, like the one this summer will do what it will do, unless we change our behavior. Anyone think that will happen? Omicron spreads more quickly, so its course is already determined.

Just let it rip! Unvaccinated people have a 13 fold higher risk of dying. No sense in protecting those who do not want to be protected. Just protect yourself

That does seem to be the policy.  What I don't understand is whether you are despairing when you describe it or cheering it on. 

I am resigned to our fate. Winter is going to be difficult for us. Just a matter of how bad and for how long. But, since there is nothing we, as the medical community, can do about it, I have accepted it is going to happen. I am also of the belief that we have the tools to dampen this outcome, but we refused to take advantage of them. Now it is too late. What will happen will happen.

This is likely the last major surge. I do not believe that a worse variant is coming. So, once this is over, we will likely be heading towards the virus being endemic

[Spellbound454]

We have a shortage of PCR tests....... just a lot of people want them at the moment and if you do get one, it can take 3 days for a result.

but we do have Lateral Flow tests which you can do yourself. They can occasionally give false negatives (if you don't swab the back of your throat properly) but they don't really give false positives, so if its saying you have got it, then you have got it.

I think some people are just isolating after a Lateral flow given that they cant get a PCR. It will effect our figures, I suppose, but we already know our figures are less than they should be.

Its been useful for things like Christmas..... we all took a self test before we visited, so that, at that point in time, we were safe to mix.
We are also staggering the School intake and testing them all..... so that it keeps it out of School a bit.

...and we are putting Nightingale (Covid) hospitals on standby...just in case.

Lets hope we don't need them.... because at the moment, even though we have a huge infection..... hospital cases are lower than expected.

[TheOtherMe]

Got my Shringrix vaccine and blood work done this morning.  In the lab area, it was more crowded.  I look around and two people have the required masks hanging on their chins.  I look at another guy and he isn't wearing a mask.  Looked again and he was drinking prep stuff for a test.  He gets a pass.  

Go upstairs for the vaccine.  I pick a spot where there is a single chair and no one else as I knew I would be in and out, which I was.  Two women come and they are together.  One is carrying the mask.  Once seated she ties it on her face but not over her nose.  Then to talk to the other person, she takes it completely off.  I told the nurse it was a good thing they didn't try to sit by me.  I would have made a scene.

[TheOtherMe]

Dec 30, 2021 12:09:27 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

Dec 30, 2021 11:46:23 GMT -5 haapai said:

That does seem to be the policy.  What I don't understand is whether you are despairing when you describe it or cheering it on. 

I am resigned to our fate. Winter is going to be difficult for us. Just a matter of how bad and for how long. But, since there is nothing we, as the medical community, can do about it, I have accepted it is going to happen. I am also of the belief that we have the tools to dampen this outcome, but we refused to take advantage of them. Now it is too late. What will happen will happen.

This is likely the last major surge. I do not believe that a worse variant is coming. So, once this is over, we will likely be heading towards the virus being endemic

My chaplain Twitter friend has Covid.  Her wife (a doctor) is still hospitalized with Covid that required a ventilator.  HR is wanting the wife to do telehealth appointments while she recovers.  She is still hospitalized and they want her to work?  She can't walk yet unassisted.  Now her emotional support system will be through the iPad because her wife has an active Covid case.  

Chaplain said what area of Iowa and it's very, very red and he said there is no mask wearing there and the hospital is overrun because of it.

[Spellbound454]

I guess the good thing is that SA had their peak fairly quickly....... and the cases are falling fast.
Lets hope ours goes that way too.

[haapai]

Dec 30, 2021 12:09:27 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

Dec 30, 2021 11:46:23 GMT -5 haapai said:

That does seem to be the policy.  What I don't understand is whether you are despairing when you describe it or cheering it on. 

I am resigned to our fate. Winter is going to be difficult for us. Just a matter of how bad and for how long. But, since there is nothing we, as the medical community, can do about it, I have accepted it is going to happen. I am also of the belief that we have the tools to dampen this outcome, but we refused to take advantage of them. Now it is too late. What will happen will happen.

This is likely the last major surge. I do not believe that a worse variant is coming. So, once this is over, we will likely be heading towards the virus being endemic

I'm sorry that you're being asked to do this.  I agree that there are things that we could have done in the last few weeks to dampen what is coming at us but we refused to do them. 

I also hope that this will be the last major surge but I am unable to convince myself of that.  My heart tells me that something good has to come out of so much unnecessary pain and death but my brain tells me that silver linings are not guaranteed.

Please take care of yourself.  Please remember that there are good and kind folks out there even when you're seeing so many people at their worst. 

[TheOtherMe]

[pulmonarymd]

The good people did what they were asked to do. Right now, all we see in the ICU are unvaccinated folks, many of whom are unreasonable. But I gave my last F*** months ago. They made their bed, they can lie in it. They are also nasty to us. I will continue to do my job to the best of my ability, and that is because I cannot live with myself otherwise. The only way to stay sane right now.

I live in a highly vaccinated state. There is a limit to what this variant can do. I see a quick peak and a decline over the next month. I can do this for that long.

[raeoflyte]

Dec 30, 2021 11:50:40 GMT -5 azucena said:

I'm viewing this surge as let it burn through and maybe it helps us get to herd immunity.  Me and mine are vaccinated and taking appropriate precautions. 

Heading back to elementary school 1/5 with optional mask guidelines set to lift further 1/10 is going to be fun.  Our private school board thought it was a great idea to publish this plan way back in early Nov.  Now they've pretty much locked themselves into it.  SMDH.

This is what I'm hoping. By Feb/Mar we will hopefully be off this wheel that looks up and then crashes again.

[imamazed]

My DS and my daughter-in-law have what might be Omicron. They've done a rapid test and tested positive. They're waiting for the PCR results that should be back by tomorrow. 

They are both very sick with chills, fever, headache, fatigue, etc. They are also fully vaccinated with boosters and they do wear masks whenever they go out.

On Christmas day they had invited my daughter-in-laws sister and her husband to their home for breakfast. The husband said he wasn't feeling well. He had been to a company Christmas party on the 22nd and thought he had eaten something bad or it was because he had a hangover. Obviously, he wasn't wearing a mask because he was eating and drinking. As the day went on, he became sicker so he did a rapid test a few days later. It was positive. 

For Christmas dinner they went to an in-laws house where there were 8 altogether, all fully vaccinated with boosters. So far, 4 have tested positive including daughter-in-law's 81 year old grandfather who so far, is not in the hospital. 

[imamazed]

My DS as sick as he is has said the shots have kept him out of the hospital, and that is great, but
what upsets me is the shots don't seem to protect us against Omicron. My DH and I are fullly vaxxed and wear a mask whever we go, which isn't far these days. I don't even want to go out anymore. 

[Deleted]

Dec 30, 2021 16:06:07 GMT -5 imamazed said:

On Christmas day they had invited my daughter-in-laws sister and her husband to their home for breakfast. The husband said he wasn't feeling well. He had been to a company Christmas party on the 22nd and thought he had eaten something bad or it was because he had a hangover. Obviously, he wasn't wearing a mask because he was eating and drinking. As the day went on, he became sicker so he did a rapid test a few days later. It was positive. 

For Christmas dinner they went to an in-laws house where there were 8 altogether, all fully vaccinated with boosters. So far, 4 have tested positive including daughter-in-law's 81 year old grandfather who so far, is not in the hospital. 

That is really sad.  You'd think someone who had been to a group gathering and didn't feel well later would stay the heck at home out of caution and consideration for others.  

I hope your DS and DDIL recover quickly.  My DS and DDIL had it about a month ago and so did 2 of their 3 kids.  The adults were vaccinated and all are fine now.  I did stay home for Thanksgiving- small price to pay to see them all well over Christmas!

[pulmonarymd]

Dec 30, 2021 16:11:41 GMT -5 imamazed said:

My DS as sick as he is has said the shots have kept him out of the hospital, and that is great, but
what upsets me is the shots don't seem to protect us against Omicron. My DH and I are fullly vaxxed and wear a mask whever we go, which isn't far these days. I don't even want to go out anymore. 

The vaccines prevent death and hospitalization. Not sure what is do disappointing about that. 800,000 people are dead and millions have been hospitalized so far. Keeping people from dying was always goal #1

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Dec 30, 2021 16:11:41 GMT -5 imamazed said:

My DS as sick as he is has said the shots have kept him out of the hospital, and that is great, but
what upsets me is the shots don't seem to protect us against Omicron. My DH and I are fullly vaxxed and wear a mask whever we go, which isn't far these days. I don't even want to go out anymore. 

The vaccine was never meant to keep you from getting it period.  It was to prevent serious illness and death. Which all three of them successfully do, even without a booster.

It's more akin to the flu shot than a polio vaccine.   The flu shot is only 50-60% effective.  The mRNA vaccines even with Omicron are still at higher efficacy than that which is an incredible feat of science.

I get being frustrated but that's just the nature of disease.  The only one we have ever managed to eradicate is smallpox and that's because we are the only vector for it.  Everything else you are vaccinated for still exists.  I'm sure if you tested me every day of my life eventually I'd test positive for measles, but the vaccines efficacy rate is such that my body wipes it out before I get sick.

The flu shot on the other hand I can still get the flu I just don't die from ripping my abdominal muscles in half or drowning in my own mucus.  I have to have one every year because it mutates but those shots are cumulative which means each time I get one my immune system is better primed for the next variant.   Based on current data that is likely where COVID shots will go too.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 30, 2021 16:11:41 GMT -5 imamazed said:

My DS as sick as he is has said the shots have kept him out of the hospital, and that is great, but
what upsets me is the shots don't seem to protect us against Omicron. My DH and I are fullly vaxxed and wear a mask whever we go, which isn't far these days. I don't even want to go out anymore. 

Protecting from the virus was never the end point of the study.  The end point of the studies on the vaccine were do they prevent hospitalization (yes), and do they prevent death (yes).  So yes, you are protected from hospitalization and death.

[pulmonarymd]

It’s also a first generation vaccine. The fact that it is so effective is a marvel. They will try to improve future versions to make it even more effective. But to have distributed hundreds of millions of doses in less tha 2 years is an amazing feat of science and technology

[Deleted]

Dec 30, 2021 16:51:39 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Protecting from the virus was never the end point of the study.  The end point of the studies on the vaccine were do they prevent hospitalization (yes), and do they prevent death (yes).  So yes, you are protected from hospitalization and death.

I read a lot of health and science stuff (probably too much) and I honestly thought it would prevent it- I think that's the typical definition of a vaccine for a layperson. Now that I've adjusted my expectations, I'm still profoundly grateful for the vaccines, which likely saved DS and DDIL from serious cases of COVID.

Dec 30, 2021 16:53:02 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

It’s also a first generation vaccine. The fact that it is so effective is a marvel. They will try to improve future versions to make it even more effective. But to have distributed hundreds of millions of doses in less than 2 years is an amazing feat of science and technology

I totally agree with that. And I did set my 5-year old granddaughter straight when she told me "Daddy's vaccination didn't work".

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I do blame the media for some of the hesitancy.  I get it makes ratings and you want to keep people up to date but for Pete's sake even with Omicron two shots are still 75-80%+ effective.  That is AMAZING and the data holds out for all three of them.  All of which were developed in less than a year.

Every single one of them still stands up to preventing serious illness and death which was the goal.

They are a freaking miracle of science that people should be beating down the doors to obtain.

But they don't report it that way because it doesn't sell.  Which results in people refusing to get it at all because after all the media just told them it doesn't work against Omicron.  That's not what the science actually says AT ALL.

Plus people need to remember that PCR cannot distinguish live or dead.  I could test positive but that doesn't mean I spread it, I could be shedding dead virus because my immune system already knocked it out.  

Before anyone jumps on me I am not saying that gives you an excuse to go breathing all over everyone if you test positive.  I'm saying you can't say me testing positive is "proof" the vaccine didn't do it's job therefore it's pointless for you (general you) to get one.

[minnesotapaintlady]

Half of Carrot's cousin and his uncle have covid now, but sounds like they're still trying to figure out how to have their Christmas this weekend with the "non-sick".  They all live in the same house. 

[minnesotapaintlady]

Dec 30, 2021 17:19:43 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I do blame the media for some of the hesitancy.  I get it makes ratings and you want to keep people up to date but for Pete's sake even with Omicron two shots are still 75-80%+ effective at preventing it.  That is AMAZING and the data holds out for all three of them.  All of which were developed in less than a year.

Is it really though?  They are dropping like flies at work among the vaccinated.  I know they got their shots because I was at the same clinic they were...and the vaccinated have stickers on their badges now (at least the ones that wanted the bonus check).

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I went digging my bad it is 75-84% at preventing serious illness and hospitalization.  If you get the booster so far data shows you go back up into the 90th percentile.

So yeah you'll feel like crap but your odds are still higher being vaccinated that you will come out the other side than then being unvaccinated.  

Meanwhile with the flu shot you still have about a 50% chance of developing complications.   I do often wonder how many people who refuse the COVID shot dutifully trot off to get the flu shot without question.

Many I know are the same people who use the same argument against the COVID vaccine as they do the flu shot.  What the miss is the flu has been circulating around long enough that even without the flu shot you got enough evolutionary pressure going on it still likely won't kill you.   COVID is novel it hasn't been around long enough to cave to pressure, it's gonna win against your unvaccinated ass.