Coronavirus

[Mr._Clark]

I got my 4th shot (2nd booster) in October before I went to visit Swerd and Dennis. Managed to return from a 1200 person concert at the Fillmore without issue. For all four vaccinations it was just a sore shoulder for a day or two.

The bug finally caught up to me though. Felt like I was coming down with a cold on the 11th. Back in November I already had the flu that's making the rounds this winter, so it wasn't that. The cold symptoms progressed quickly so I decided to stay home from the 13th on and the Covid test the next day came back positive. Crap! Fortunately no one at the office caught it when I worked the 12th but I may not have been contagious yet. A dozen of us gather for lunch at a local pub each Friday and I suspect that is where I caught it.

Symptoms were different from the flu. With the flu I had 3 days of alternating fevers and chills. With the fevers I perspired profusely and my clothes and sheets were soaked. Once the fever broke I recovered quickly. The covid virus felt like a bad head cold. The constant swollen sinuses were the worst part. Occasional soreness in the throat and ran a mild fever for several days, but the fever was nothing like the flu. I missed the flu vaccine so I bore the full brunt of that one. Can't imagine how bad Covid would have been had I not been immunized. My nephew in his 30's contacted it last spring and was close to being hospitalized. Our hospitals are currently dealing with full emergency wards and 10 to 12 hour delays just getting people out of ambulances and admitted for triage. Last place I would want to be right now! A week at home lying in bed or on the coach was tolerable.

I was masked at home most of the time and tried to limit myself to two rooms. My wife is retired and was home as well. Despite my constant hand washing and masking she still caught it though. She wasn't wearing a mask and in hindsight probably should have been. My timing was pretty crappy. Our son is back from university and our daughter is flying in from Halifax tomorrow for the first time in a long while. My wife won't be able to celebrate with my side of the family Christmas Eve and it's doubtful she'll be better for her family come Boxing Day. I could handle being home alone for the holidays but it will be rough on her.

Unfortunately, it seems as if almost everyone will probably get it sooner or later.

This SNL "Ad" is in poor taste, but it is somewhat humorous:

 

[Teetertotter?]

We celebrated our family Christmas on December 10, with some nieces and nephews, grandkids and families and 2 GG kids, plus daughter and son, etc. We celebrate early as leaves them for other immediate family on Christmas. No one with COVID, flu, and other stuff. Wife and I live in Wisconsin and others are within 1-1/2 hours driving and daughter up from FL. Daughter is not vaccinated, but takes a couple COVID tests before she visits.

All others had their shots, including some boosters. Wife and I are 80 and have not traveled in 3 years with no future plans. We do have some close church friends and go out for dinner as a group every so often and after church, go have breakfast at a local establishment. It is hit and miss with who goes for breakfast.

COVID and other diseases have been nonexistent with our families. Everyone seems to be cautious in their own way and my wife is in contact weekly, with family.

I have Kiwanis once a week and with WI., winter, son and I play indoor simulated 2 man golf league, one evening a week. Wife does activities with 2 of her friends or talk a lot..........Seems like we are grocery shopping or finding things we need 4 times a week....lol. His and hers cars are in good shape with LIFE being GREAT!

 

[Eppie]

Unfortunately, it seems as if almost everyone will probably get it sooner or later.

This SNL "Ad" is in poor taste, but it is somewhat humorous:

Blocked in Canada but I managed to find it. Seems only material that is over 1 year old is freely available on their Youtube page. Yeah, SNL has a funny twist on these things.

 

[cpp]

The news in our paper this morning " Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world? "

I guess they will just keep on making new variants until their whole country is protected as they unleash these new variants on the world population. Just my odd weird opinion.

 

[Swerd]

The news in our paper this morning " Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world?"

Does anyone really have to ask? If there's one thing we know for certain about COVID-19, it's that new virus mutations can only happen if numerous people get infected.

 

[Teetertotter?]

They have yet to come out with long term effects on your health and advertise with vengeance.....if the case.
We have our shots and still more cautious what and where we go or do.

 

[mtrycrafts]

They have yet to come out with long term effects on your health and advertise with vengeance.....if the case.
We have our shots and still more cautious what and where we go or do.

Hard to know what the long-term effects are after only about 2 years out there. Takes time. I would think the experts can make an educated prediction but not from
actual effects.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Eric Topol posted on his blog about yet another new variant, XBB.1.5 that is apparently becoming more prevalent in some geographic areas. It appears to me that there is not enough sequencing data right now to know for sure exactly what it is happening with this variant.

>>>New York is the bellwether for what is happening with XBB.1.5 and it doesn’t look good with a marked rise in hospitalizations, especially among seniors, in recent weeks as this variant has been taking hold. Of course, other factors are likely contributing such as waning of immunity, indoor/holiday gatherings, cold weather, lack of mitigation. But it is noteworthy that New York’s Covid hospital admission rate is the highest since late January (and also exceeds the summer 2021 Delta wave, but with some ambiguity as to how hospitalization were categorized then and now). . . . So we don’t know for sure how much of this is being driven by XBB.1.5, but it doesn’t look favorable. <<<
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a581203-c374-42f5-9699-36c3ccf52560_5988x1982.png

A new variant alert

The XBB.1.5 variant is on a growth spurt in the United States

erictopol.substack.com

On the other hand, he suggest that the bivalent booster is likely to be effective:

>>>Although we don’t know how well the bivalent booster does against XBB.1.5 yet, there’s no reason to think it would not be helpful added antibody protection compared with not getting the booster. So if you haven’t had a booster in the past 4+ months, this would be well advised.<<<

As the Sergeant on Hill Street Blues said "Let's be careful out there"

 

[cpp]

Does anyone really have to ask? If there's one thing we know for certain about COVID-19, it's that new virus mutations can only happen if numerous people get infected.

And they have an abundance of "numerous people "

 

[Swerd]

And they have an abundance of "numerous people"

Not quite so numerous as before the pandemic.

 

[Mikado463]

Not quite so numerous as before the pandemic.

the Chinese call that 'thinning the herd' .......

 

[mtrycrafts]

the Chinese call that 'thinning the herd' .......

And the herd is very large.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I think we have similar patterns amongst Conservative party supporters in Canada, as well.

How Many Republicans Died Because the GOP Turned Against Vaccines?

Party leaders are unquestionably complicit in the premature deaths of their own supporters.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[Mr._Clark]

Eric Topol posted on his blog about yet another new variant, XBB.1.5 that is apparently becoming more prevalent in some geographic areas. It appears to me that there is not enough sequencing data right now to know for sure exactly what it is happening with this variant.

>>>New York is the bellwether for what is happening with XBB.1.5 and it doesn’t look good with a marked rise in hospitalizations, especially among seniors, in recent weeks as this variant has been taking hold. Of course, other factors are likely contributing such as waning of immunity, indoor/holiday gatherings, cold weather, lack of mitigation. But it is noteworthy that New York’s Covid hospital admission rate is the highest since late January (and also exceeds the summer 2021 Delta wave, but with some ambiguity as to how hospitalization were categorized then and now). . . . So we don’t know for sure how much of this is being driven by XBB.1.5, but it doesn’t look favorable. <<<

It looks like XBB.1.5 is rapidly becoming more prevalent (I believe the CDC numbers are estimates, so it's not clear exactly how many cases are caused by XBB.1.5).

>>>Dec 30 (Reuters) - Over 40% of COVID-19 cases in the United States are now caused by the highly contagious Omicron XBB.1.5, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed on Friday, with the subvariant doubling from the previous week.<<<

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/omicron-subvariant-xbb15-accounts-405-us-covid-cases-cdc-2022-12-30/

>>>There’s no indication it causes more severe illness than any other omicron virus, Dr. Barbara Mahon, director of CDC’s Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, told NBC News.

While overall Covid hospitalizations are rising around the country, areas such as the Northeast that have seen high levels of the new variant have not experienced a disproportionate increase in hospitalizations, Mahon said.<<<

What is the XBB.1.5 subvariant? CDC reports a new strain of omicron taking over in the U.S.

About 40% of confirmed U.S. Covid cases are caused by the XBB.1.5 strain, up from 20% a week ago.

www.nbcnews.com

The nbcnews.com article has a link to a letter published in the NEJM, which found that the bivalent booster had a better neutralizing antibody response to XBB than the original boosters (XBB.1.5 was not included)(and, of course, it didn't look at T cell response).

>>>Persons who received either one or two monovalent Covid-19 vaccine boosters had much lower neutralization activity against omicron subvariants (especially against BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, and XBB, which contain the predicted escape mutation R346T) than that against the WA1/2020 strain. Persons who received the BA.5-containing bivalent booster had better neutralizing activity against all omicron subvariants (especially against BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, and XBB) than those who received either one or two monovalent boosters, even though the neutralization GMT against WA1/2020 was similar in the cohort that received the two monovalent boosters and the cohort that received the bivalent booster. These responses are consistent with recent observations in persons with breakthrough omicron infection showing broadened neutralizing activity against omicron subvariants.5 Limitations of this study include the small cohort size, differences in age among the cohorts, the unknown effect of previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and comparison of the vaccines at a single time point. These serologic data show an overall neutralization benefit with bivalent booster immunizations.<<<

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2214293

The NEJM study should probably be taken with a grain of salt because there were only 35 people total (three cohorts of 12, 11, and 12 people).

 

[Swerd]

The NEJM study should probably be taken with a grain of salt because there were only 35 people total (three cohorts of 12, 11, and 12 people).

In addition to the small sized cohorts that you mentioned, the authors mentioned other possible limitations:

• Difference in ages among the cohorts.
• Unknown effect due to previous SARS-CoV-2 infections. (These first 2 are probably the results of a quick study, as opposed to a more carefully selected patient population that I'd expect in a larger clinical trial.)
• And, probably most important, this study tried to compare the antibody based neutralizing effect of different vaccines that were not given at the same time. We already are well aware that the circulating antibody levels raised by these anti-Covid-19 vaccinations drop noticeably some 6-9 months after they've been given. Again, a proper clinical trial would have tested antibody levels in people vaccinated at similar times.

I'm not saying we should ignore this study because it's not a properly designed clinical trial. It was done quickly, and suggests there may be better protection from the bivalent vaccine. Those are both worth something.

And thanks for mentioning the lack of any T-cell response data. I've trained you well .

 

[mtrycrafts]

...

And thanks for mentioning the lack of any T-cell response data. I've trained you well .

How did the Q-cells respond though?

 

[Swerd]

How did the Q-cells respond though?

Q-cells are something that mainstream immunologists don't regularly mention. Even their existence is considered highly controversial. There are more than a few highly influential B- and T-cell immunologists who forbid any discussion of Q-cells in their labs.

It is said that Q-cells were first described growing in cell cultures obtained from a yoga guru who suddenly died from unknown causes. Others claimed that Q-cells could also be obtained from individuals who practiced other forms of 'wellness' or who harbored elaborate and unlikely conspiracy theories. One study demonstrated that the best growth medium for Q-cells contains the blood from juvenile humans who had been kidnapped and subjected to satanic torture. As a result, these were at first called QAnon cells. But later, the more standard term Q-cell was adapted.

Q-cells were shown to be another white blood cell that developed from never previously described bone marrow precursor cells. If these precursor cells were exposed to 5G wireless internet signals while in culture, they produced abundant amounts of infectious virus particles, later identified as SARS-CoV-2. These viruses infected and killed B- and T-cells, but the progeny of these precursor cells, the Q-cells, survived unharmed.

I'd cite references from the scientific literature, but all of these have been deleted from online science libraries. Apparently, all this had been predicted by L. Ron Hubbard in his book "Dianetics".

 

[cpp]

I like it how now the Online activists are blaming COVID for the on-field collapse of American football star Damar Hamlin. The team and his physicians say the most likely cause is an arrhythmia that occurred as a result of the blow to his chest. But NO its blame the vaccine. Might as well blame the vaccine for everything.

 

[everettT]

I like it how now the Online activists are blaming COVID for the on-field collapse of American football star Damar Hamlin. The team and his physicians say the most likely cause is an arrhythmia that occurred as a result of the blow to his chest. But NO its blame the vaccine. Might as well blame the vaccine for everything.

Yeah it's been pretty loud and considering that his Doctors don't have a definitive answer, it's not very constructive. It doesn't help that they mRNA vaccine manufacturers weren't forthcoming with their trails and the rate of myocardial issues in people under 30, which fuels speculation. There's a place for discussion but not speculation.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I like it how now the Online activists are blaming COVID for the on-field collapse of American football star Damar Hamlin. The team and his physicians say the most likely cause is an arrhythmia that occurred as a result of the blow to his chest. But NO its blame the vaccine. Might as well blame the vaccine for everything.

It is easier to blame Covid for everything than to face reality.