The coronavirus

tempo_n_groove

oftenreading said:

Merkin Baller said:

tempo_n_groove said:

oftenreading said:

mace1229 said:

Why do people care if others get the vaccine and how does it help the community?
Those who want it go get it, and you’ll be protected. Those who are skeptical, fine. Your skepticism doesn’t make me sick. It’s believed you can still carry and spread Covid after getting vaccinated. So the vaccine doesn’t protect the community, it only protects the person getting it.

There is growing evidence that people who are vaccinated spread less, and maybe much less virus if they do get infected. A rapid immune response from vaccination leads to much lower viral load which leads to lower infectivity. It may be that there is only the potential for spread from small numbers of viral particles residing in the mouth and nose, or maybe not at all. So yes, getting vaccinated very likely helps to protect the community. 

And it can help protect you, since no vaccine provides 100% protection.

Fewer people getting sick means less strain on health care and other resources, which protects the community. It also reduces the chance of reservoirs of disease that keep getting circulated.

Cases have been trending down since mid January and not nearly enough vaccines have been administered to have that type of effect.

Any other reasons for the spike?  I show Jan 12 as the peak for the US.  I understand us heading indoors may have added to the spike but why the decline?

Asking the group as maybe you found a good article on my question.

January 12th is 20 days after Christmas. 

I would think the spike was a result of people getting together for the holidays, which would also explain the subsequent decline as we got into February / further away from the holiday season. 

Expert opinions suggest a few different reasons for the decline. One is, as you said, that the main winter holidays finished, cases peaked, and then people were not in as close contact. 

The second is that coronaviruses often have a seasonal pattern, with highest cases December and January. The reasons for this are complex and have to do both with human behaviour and viral characteristics.

The third is that the vaccines are working. They aren’t in enough people yet to stop the virus but they’re in enough for us to see an effect. 

The fourth is that there is a sizeable minority of people with some degree of immunity now from having been infected. This is no where near “herd immunity” but still helps the overall case burden. 

The last could be reduced testing. Testing numbers are down, possibly because the focus has switched to vaccination. However, positivity rate in the tests is down too, so it definitely isn’t all due to reduced testing. 

So instead of herd immunity we have "herd behaviour" that can cause decline and spiking. That is a good theory.  I definitely don't see testing as big of lines as I once did.  They are walk ins now.

HughFreakingDillon

mace1229 said:

Why do people care if others get the vaccine and how does it help the community?
Those who want it go get it, and you’ll be protected. Those who are skeptical, fine. Your skepticism doesn’t make me sick. It’s believed you can still carry and spread Covid after getting vaccinated. So the vaccine doesn’t protect the community, it only protects the person getting it.

it can significantly reduce symptoms, which helps curb the spread. 

HughFreakingDillon

Merkin Baller said:

Meltdown99 said:

Merkin Baller said:

Meltdown99 said:

Take the vaccine, don’t take the vaccine...your choice.  I am not losing any sleep over covid or the vaccine...it’s out of most of our control.

best to focus on things one can control...

Alternate take: 

Get the vaccine as soon as you can for the sake of the community you live in. That's something most of us will have control over at some point. 

Well guess what I have no control over when the vaccine is available...and Ill decide what goes in body, thank you...not anyone else.

You clearly missed the parts where I said "as soon as you can" and "at some point". 

You are correct, you're free to decide whether or not to get a vaccine, and when you have that choice, it will be within your control. 

For the sake of your community, you should get it. 

especially for someone who won't shut up about how the white man has wronged native americans for centuries, and they are at such a high susceptibility rate, you'd think someone like that would be first in line, shirt rolled up. 

GlowGirl

Weston1283 said:

I’ve had to fly a few times during the pandemic for various reasons, most recently 6 weeks ago.  Boston Logan was a ghost town every one of those times.

Today was the longest I’ve ever waited including Pre pandemic at the JetBlue terminal.  Absolutely packed.  (Flying to my wedding today)

Congratulations. How exciting!!

HughFreakingDillon

"you may fist bump the bride". 

congrats Weston! 

Halifax2TheMax

Some interesting information detailed here about data, social media and covid, some of which sounds familiar (particularly the bolded part). I selected snippets to post but by all means, read through it.

How do COVID-19 skeptics use public health data and social media to advocate for reopening the economy and against mask mandates?

We studied half a million tweets, over 41,000 visualizations, and spent six months lurking in anti-mask Facebook groups.

Here’s what we found.

Controversial understandings of the coronavirus pandemic have turned data visualizations into a battleground. Since the start of the pandemic, graphics like “Flatten the Curve” or line charts showing the pandemic’s death toll have been crucial to helping people understand the spread of the disease and how best to respond to it. Visualizations animate these data-driven stories, giving readers both a high-level understanding of the pandemic juxtaposed with heart-wrenching personal stories. John Burn-Murdoch’s COVID-19 trajectory charts, for example, powerfully illustrate how the pandemic has unfolded in painstaking detail, and each peak in these graphs drives home the sheer devastation that is the US coronavirus death rate. For government officials, medical professionals, and journalists, resources like the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Map, The COVID Tracking Project, and health department data portals give users an overview of the pandemic with datasets focused on testing, patient outcomes, and the racial disparities between those who do and do not receive care. Indeed, rigorous data analysis has also played a pivotal role in successful coronavirus response policies like those in Taiwan.

Anti-maskers are acutely aware that mainstream political and news organizations use data to underscore the pandemic’s urgency; they believe that these data sources and visualizations are fundamentally flawed and seek to counteract these biases. Their discussions reflect a fundamental distrust in public institutions: anti-maskers believe that the inconsistency in the way that data is collected and the incessant fear mongering make it difficult to make rational, scientific decisions.

Anti-mask protests in the US amplify existing anti-establishment narratives in American political culture that involve rejecting elite narratives. These data visualizations simultaneously challenge scientific consensus and represent an act of resistance against the stifling influence of central government, big business, and academia. Moreover, their simultaneous appropriation of scientific rhetoric and rejection of scientific authority also reflects long standing strategies of Christian fundamentalists seeking to challenge the secularist threat of evolutionary biology.

So how do these groups diverge from scientific orthodoxy if they are using the same data? We have identified a few sleights of hand that contribute to the broader epistemological crisis we identify between these groups and the majority of scientific researchers. For instance, anti-mask users argue that there is an outsized emphasis on deaths versus cases: if the current datasets are fundamentally subjective and prone to manipulation (e.g., increased levels of faulty testing), then deaths are the only reliable markers of the pandemic’s severity. Even then, these groups believe that deaths are an additionally problematic category because doctors are using a COVID diagnosis as the main cause of death (i.e., people who die because of COVID) when in reality there are other factors at play (i.e., dying with but not because of COVID). Since these categories are subject to human interpretation, especially by those who have a vested interest in reporting as many COVID deaths as possible, these numbers are vastly over-reported, unreliable, and no more significant than the flu.

http://vis.mit.edu/covid-story/

https://slate.com/technology/2021/03/covid-skeptics-critical-thinking-research.html

mcgruff10

My wife and I are getting our second shot tomorrow (pfizer).  Fingers crossed for no side effects.  I think i'm going to call out of work Friday just in case.  

mace1229

oftenreading said:

mace1229 said:

Why do people care if others get the vaccine and how does it help the community?
Those who want it go get it, and you’ll be protected. Those who are skeptical, fine. Your skepticism doesn’t make me sick. It’s believed you can still carry and spread Covid after getting vaccinated. So the vaccine doesn’t protect the community, it only protects the person getting it.

There is growing evidence that people who are vaccinated spread less, and maybe much less virus if they do get infected. A rapid immune response from vaccination leads to much lower viral load which leads to lower infectivity. It may be that there is only the potential for spread from small numbers of viral particles residing in the mouth and nose, or maybe not at all. So yes, getting vaccinated very likely helps to protect the community. 

And it can help protect you, since no vaccine provides 100% protection.

Fewer people getting sick means less strain on health care and other resources, which protects the community. It also reduces the chance of reservoirs of disease that keep getting circulated.

Last I heard still 0 deaths and very low hospitalizations from those vaccinated. So with very little exceptions, not getting vaccinated only impacts that person. With the majority of people wanting the vaccine, it’s not going to over run health care if 20% chose not to.
Im for this vaccine. Got my second shot last week. But given the speed at which it came, that just 4 or 5 months months ago most people didn’t think we’d even have one until 2022 (not to mention at the same time many more openly said they wouldn’t trust one that came this fast), I don’t agree with this mass guilting campaign. If they don’t want it, that’s on them. Very unlikely that decision will spread and infect someone who did get it, and basically 0 chance if that does happen it will result in a death or even an ICU visit.
We won’t even have enough for everyone to get the vaccine for a few more months. Someone doesn’t want it, that’s another dose for someone who does. And in a few months of this is still a problem and we can link it to the 20% (or however many it is) that chose not to get the vaccine that’s keeping the pandemic alive, and we have enough supply for everyone, then guilt them. I just don’t see the point if and until that happens.

Spunkie

^It'll be the kids the population needs on board, those least affected. They'll have to up the fear antics.

PJNB

mcgruff10 said:

My wife and I are getting our second shot tomorrow (pfizer).  Fingers crossed for no side effects.  I think i'm going to call out of work Friday just in case.  

Good luck man. My work has us scheduled to get it next month.

mcgruff10

PJNB said:

mcgruff10 said:

My wife and I are getting our second shot tomorrow (pfizer).  Fingers crossed for no side effects.  I think i'm going to call out of work Friday just in case.  

Good luck man. My work has us scheduled to get it next month.

Thanks Jeff!  You and Jess are getting the shot through work?

mickeyrat

for those who have gotten at least one in the states , were you given info on this cdc site?

https://vsafe.cdc.gov/en/

post shot health tracker

jpgoegel

mickeyrat said:

for those who have gotten at least one in the states , were you given info on this cdc site?

https://vsafe.cdc.gov/en/

post shot health tracker

yeah.  filled it out every couple days up through my 2nd shot, havent gotten an alert to check in though since #2

PJNB

mcgruff10 said:

PJNB said:

mcgruff10 said:

My wife and I are getting our second shot tomorrow (pfizer).  Fingers crossed for no side effects.  I think i'm going to call out of work Friday just in case.  

Good luck man. My work has us scheduled to get it next month.

Thanks Jeff!  You and Jess are getting the shot through work?

Jess is actually getting the Pfizer this Monday since she is in health care. I will be eligible for it in April since I am part of the Emergency Response Team at work. Crazy thinking it was going to be fall at the earliest for us and now we are both days and weeks away from each getting one. Let me know how you make out!

23scidoo

In Rhodes, a man who worked as a guide, haven't work over a year because of lockdown..
the whole year (2020) he get from the state 1800euro(2145dollars)..
yesterday they cut off the electricity in his house..

but..but.. we have the vaccine now..

static111

mace1229 said:

oftenreading said:

mace1229 said:

Why do people care if others get the vaccine and how does it help the community?
Those who want it go get it, and you’ll be protected. Those who are skeptical, fine. Your skepticism doesn’t make me sick. It’s believed you can still carry and spread Covid after getting vaccinated. So the vaccine doesn’t protect the community, it only protects the person getting it.

There is growing evidence that people who are vaccinated spread less, and maybe much less virus if they do get infected. A rapid immune response from vaccination leads to much lower viral load which leads to lower infectivity. It may be that there is only the potential for spread from small numbers of viral particles residing in the mouth and nose, or maybe not at all. So yes, getting vaccinated very likely helps to protect the community. 

And it can help protect you, since no vaccine provides 100% protection.

Fewer people getting sick means less strain on health care and other resources, which protects the community. It also reduces the chance of reservoirs of disease that keep getting circulated.

Last I heard still 0 deaths and very low hospitalizations from those vaccinated. So with very little exceptions, not getting vaccinated only impacts that person. With the majority of people wanting the vaccine, it’s not going to over run health care if 20% chose not to.
Im for this vaccine. Got my second shot last week. But given the speed at which it came, that just 4 or 5 months months ago most people didn’t think we’d even have one until 2022 (not to mention at the same time many more openly said they wouldn’t trust one that came this fast), I don’t agree with this mass guilting campaign. If they don’t want it, that’s on them. Very unlikely that decision will spread and infect someone who did get it, and basically 0 chance if that does happen it will result in a death or even an ICU visit.
We won’t even have enough for everyone to get the vaccine for a few more months. Someone doesn’t want it, that’s another dose for someone who does. And in a few months of this is still a problem and we can link it to the 20% (or however many it is) that chose not to get the vaccine that’s keeping the pandemic alive, and we have enough supply for everyone, then guilt them. I just don’t see the point if and until that happens.

My understanding is that if enough people choose not to, that can lead to the virus mutating amongst the unvaccinated. Which could in theory produce a stronger more deadly version that the current vaccine is useless against.   Whereas if everyone gets vaccinated the current variants stop circulating and mutating because enough people have the vaccine to stop transmission.  But hey if people want to have the choice to go ahead and put us all at risk and make it worse I guess that’s the $1.05 you gotta pay for freedom.

dignin

Elections have consequences. Thank you America and the Biden administration.

U.S. to send 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada: report


https://globalnews.ca/news/7704507/canada-us-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine/?utm_source=notification

HughFreakingDillon

excellent news

oftenreading

Some information about PASC, the new acronym for "long covid" - Post Acute Sequelae of SARS-Cov2. Sorry, can't provide a link because it requires an account but the text is below. If anyone is still thinking of refusing vaccination on the grounds that they'll very likely survive covid, perhaps take this into account. You don't need a severe case to develop long lasting symptoms.

At a recent White House briefing, Anthony Fauci, MD, introduced a new acronym for what had been called "long COVID." PASC is the new term used to describe long-lingering effects of COVID-19 (see Infographic below) and is this week's top trending clinical topic.

At the briefing, Fauci stressed that even patients with moderate cases of COVID-19 can develop PASC. "New symptoms sometimes arise well after the time of infection, or they evolve over time and persist for months," he explained. "They can range from mild or annoying to actually quite incapacitating." Fauci noted that the National Institutes of Health recently launched an initiative to further study the phenomenon.

The most common symptoms of PASC include fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, mental health issues, sleep difficulties, impaired lung capacity, and what has been called COVID brain fog. Loss of smell is also a well-recognized long-term effect, especially for healthcare workers. New research has found that more than 50% of those in medicine who had COVID-19 say their sense of smell has not returned to normal an average of 5 months after infection.

PASC has been reported in all age groups, including children. A recent preprint posted on medRxiv, which has yet to be peer reviewed, provides preliminary evidence that children may also have symptoms that last for months after their initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Researchers surveyed caregivers of 129 patients younger than 18 years in Rome, Italy, who had a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis. More than 50% of the children had at least one symptom that persisted 4 months or longer, with nearly a quarter (22.5%) reporting three or more such symptoms.

Doctors say they are seeing more and more cases of PASC. This is leading to questions about best practices for management. Experts say the key is validating patients' symptoms and making sure they feel heard, as specific guidelines for workup and treatment are still in development.

For now, when it comes to tackling symptoms like fatigue, specialists recommend "keeping it simple." Advising patients to be patient, get extra rest, and undergo sleep evaluation is a good starting point, says Aaron B. Holley, MD, program director of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The introduction of the new term is just the latest sign that the condition is likely to stay at the forefront of discussions during the next stage of the pandemic. Because so much about PASC is still unknown, and because the symptoms are so varied, interest in emerging information remains high, as is evident by its becoming this week's top trending clinical topic.

hedonist

That’s frightening.