Coronavirus Thread v.2

[ReaperKK]

Ugh - sorry to hear that.  I hope you recover quickly and the family doesn't get it next.

But could the silver lining be getting to avoid the in-laws for Christmas?  My husband and I had the flu for Christmas like in 2016.  The worst illness I've ever had but there was that one silver lining...plus I got to sleep all day on Christmas and when does THAT ever happen?

If only I had that silver lining.  We disassociated with our respective (sibling) in-laws a few years ago.  The only family we see this time of year is our respective mothers.  My dad passed away a few years ago, and mrs.jingle's dad is figuratively dead to her.  So, it's a double bummer if we don't get to see them - because they also don't have much family to spend time with.

*Internet hug Chad* I'm like Mrs. jingle in relation to my father and we are also going to skip the inlaws this year but only because they are just too stressful to be around.

[jingle.boy]

mrs.jingle is positive. 



She's taking it surprisingly well - guess she got all her anger out over the weekend.  health-wise, it ain't no big thing ... my symptoms were already abating on Sunday; she's starting to get a little sneezy.  The bigger thing is trying to make sure we don't spread it to the jingle.young-adults.

[Lonk]

sorry to hear that, hope the symptoms stay mild.

[millahh]

Anyone here know what percentage of Chinese exports North America relies on for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies?  Asking for a friend.

I'm probably the best person here to answer that, though the best I can do is a lot of hand-waving.

A substantial portion of the starting materials for the synthesis of small molecule drugs come from China.  The manufacture of the drugs themselves is more typically going to be in India or the US. 

I wouldn't expect the biologic drugs would be subject to much impact, those supply chains don't typically involve China.

As for medical supplies, I guess it depends what supplies in particular.  Much of that stuff goes through Puerto Rico (for example, after one of the hurricanes took down a couple of manufacturing facilities for a couple of months, there was a shortage of IV saline bags).

[Stadler]

Economy wise, I would imagine this will only accelerate the process of the west investing in their own domestic chip fabrication. But yeah, I think its a tragedy that China didnt use these 3 years to get the vulnerable population vaccinated. 40% in the elderly population is pretty terrible.

Combined with the lower efficacy of their vaccine, and 3 years of "zero COVID" policies have gained little-to-no infection or herd immunity, this is a disaster waiting to happen.  In the old matter of 'bend but don't break', China seems like it's about to break because they refused to bend.

I'm not totally clear what you all are advocating for?  Forced vaccination?  Why wouldn't that be yet another adder to the list of the supposed human rights violations that get tagged on China (I only write it that way because while many ARE legit complaints, not all are)?

[Stadler]

Probably a shit ton.  Just like every other product.

Oh, also, The Grinch came early for me.  COVID positive on Saturday.  Nothing serious health wise - sniffles, sneezing, watery eyes.  Like hayfever, tbh.  But, mrs.jingle and jingle.daughter have not had it yet, and jingle.daughter has a very important week in her school placement - teaching three lessons this week.  So, being Christmas and all, this is a ripe-fucking-shitty time for this to hit.

God bless; I hope your family can come out of this unscathed.   

[Cool Chris]

Hey Chad, hope it skates through your household with minimal impact.

[jingle.boy]

Economy wise, I would imagine this will only accelerate the process of the west investing in their own domestic chip fabrication. But yeah, I think its a tragedy that China didnt use these 3 years to get the vulnerable population vaccinated. 40% in the elderly population is pretty terrible.

Combined with the lower efficacy of their vaccine, and 3 years of "zero COVID" policies have gained little-to-no infection or herd immunity, this is a disaster waiting to happen.  In the old matter of 'bend but don't break', China seems like it's about to break because they refused to bend.

I'm not totally clear what you all are advocating for?  Forced vaccination?  Why wouldn't that be yet another adder to the list of the supposed human rights violations that get tagged on China (I only write it that way because while many ARE legit complaints, not all are)?

I'm not advocating for anything. Just offering my thoughts and receptions on the matter.

[emtee]

Just tested positive. High fever, brutal body aches and cough. So much for a Christmas gathering.

Hopefully it's short in duration.

[King Postwhore]

Dammit. Hopefully it passes fast for you emtee.

[TAC]

Sucks to be sick for Christmas.

[jingle.boy]

2nd negative test last night, so I'm out of the woods.  mrs.jingle ... tested this morning; line is faint, but she's probably got a couple more days before her 1st negative test.  One more day of Pax meds.

jingle.young-adults dodged it this time.  So the score is Covid 4 (me x 2; jingle.son, mrs.jingle); jingle.house 1 (jingle.daughter).

[cramx3]

Sucks to be sick for Christmas.

This.  Last year covid ruined Christmas for my family.  So far, we are looking good to celebrate as usual tonight and tomorrow, but yeah, it's definitely causing issues for lots of people right now. Same with the flu.  Fingers crossed everyone has a safe holiday and those who are sick, get well soon.

[cramx3]

Since the topic of Myocarditis has been coming up a lot recently and I happened to find this study that was shared on reddit, figured I'd share it here too:

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.061025

CONCLUSIONS:
Immunoprofiling of vaccinated adolescents and young adults revealed that the mRNA vaccine–induced immune responses did not differ between individuals who developed myocarditis and individuals who did not. However, free spike antigen was detected in the blood of adolescents and young adults who developed post-mRNA vaccine myocarditis, advancing insight into its potential underlying cause.

Seems like they are starting to find that certain people had an underlying "condition" (I don't think that's the right word, but not sure how else to explain it) where they were going to be susceptible to this reaction and it seems that if they didn't get the vaccine and instead got a natural covid infection, they likely would have had Myocarditis and it likely would have been worse.

It seems like it's just an unfortunate aspect of a vaccine that's very safe, but still can cause an issue with a very tiny portion of the population.  This other article's study found that to be as high as 39 cases per 100,000, so that's a good idea of the % chance that you would be the unfortnate person to have an myocarditis issue. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eci.13947

Also, before people say that's still not acceptable (which I feel is a bit bogus to think considering all other risks we generally take), those who had myocarditis were almost all healed naturally and were mild cases.  It's an incredibly smaller % of those who had sever or death from this. 

[TempusVox]

Lucky me. 2nd bout of Covid. I had been triple vaxxed and got it last January on a business trip to Vegas. I have a compromised immune system so my doc sent me for monoclonal antibodies.

I meant to get the latest iteration of the vaccine. The key word is "meant" in that sentence. 😑

I was on a business trip this past Tuesday and due to storms was stuck in Atlanta overnight and at the airport for about 19 hours. Now on Paxlovid and feeling miserable af.

[cramx3]

I dont know what's worse, being stuck in the airport for that long or having covid.  Either way, you got hit hard.  Feel better soon.

[Orbert]

I guess I'm wondering how people who get Covid these days know that they have it.  I mean yeah, you get tested and the test says you have it, but how did you decide to get tested in the first place?  What made you think it was Covid and not just a regular cold?  It's winter where I am.  I get sniffles, coughs, sore throat, and it's gone in a day or two.  I'll admit, if I cough more than once or twice in an hour, I'll think "Oh shit, is this it?  Did I finally get Covid?"  Then later I realize that I haven't coughed for the rest of the day, and the next day, I'm fine.  This has happened a few times.  If it's gone the next day, I'm gonna assume it wasn't Covid, and even if it was, I'm not even showing symptoms anymore.

Covid is a respiratory disease, so I assume the cough is going to be a bronchial cough, my lungs feeling like there's crap in there that needs to be expelled, not a tickle in the back of my throat like a "normal" cough.

They say that if I'm showing symptoms, I should get tested.  Well, yeah.  But how are Covid symptoms any different from my normal winter maladies?

[cramx3]

It's tough, but I think part of it is instinctual.  There's been so many times the last two years where I had the sniffles and didn't think I had covid, but only tested to make sure and be safe for going into work with others.  But when I finally did have covid, I just knew that was it.  Even last month when I  had the flu, I knew it wasn't covid for some reason.  I tested, negative.  I just got over a small cold too, this time I didn't bother testing.  I was pretty sure it wasn't covid, and I guess I'll never know, but it was a quick recovery and a mild cold. 

[jingle.boy]

I hear ya Bob, I've had those situations for months (Is this dry throat COVID?  Is this random headache going to develop into something else?  Is this just a tickle in my throat, or might it be the first sign of COVID?)  I think if multiple symptoms persist for an extended period (more than a day), the prudent thing to do is test.  Not sure if RATs are still readily available in the US, but they are up here.  So, after I had very bad sniffling/sneezing/watery eyes for a couple days, I tested.  I was positive, but the symptoms abated almost immediately, and it wasn't no big deal for me.  However, I'd already passed it to mrs.jingle, and she got a really bad case.

[Lonk]

When I had it a few months ago, it started as a tingle in the back of my throat on a Saturday afternoon. By Sunday afternoon it had developed into a sore throat, low energy and coughing. When I went to sleep that night, I slept 2 hours before I woke up feeling like I was suffocating. After being up for 3 hours in the middle of the night, decided to grab a test and it came back positive.

So I guess for me was more that progressively getting worse that made me want to get tested, instead of initially assuming that's what it was.

[emtee]

For me it was the combo of high fever and worst body aches I've ever had. It started with a tickle in the throat and then chills. Then the fever hit and kicked my ass. I still have a slight cough.

[jingle.boy]

For me it was the combo of high fever and worst body aches I've ever had. It started with a tickle in the throat and then chills. Then the fever hit and kicked my ass. I still have a slight cough.

I think Bob's point is, what if the symptoms aren't quite as obvious or severe?

[Orbert]

Basically, yeah.  If I feel really sick and have multiple symptoms, especially for several days, I'll get tested.  But regular colds still exist, and I get them sometimes.  Sure, I'd like to err on the side of caution, but I'm not giving in to paranoia, either.

I've heard from a few friends who've had Covid in the past year that "it was like having a bad cold or flu".  Well, if that's all it was, then maybe I don't see the problem.

[Stadler]

All I know is, I had a series of work trips back in Oct./Nov. and I had some potential COVID exposure.  Every sniffle, every cough, every clearing of my throat, I did a test.  At one point, my nose was bleeding from taking the friggin' swab up the nostril.   All negative.

I'm not testing after every possible symptom.  If there's reasonable doubt as to whether I have it, I'll gladly test all day long, but all the millions of viruses and what not that have been around for decades didn't just disappear when COVID came along. 

[jingle.boy]

Basically, yeah.  If I feel really sick and have multiple symptoms, especially for several days, I'll get tested.  But regular colds still exist, and I get them sometimes.  Sure, I'd like to err on the side of caution, but I'm not giving in to paranoia, either.

I'm not sure taking a test is giving in to paranoia?

I've heard from a few friends who've had Covid in the past year that "it was like having a bad cold or flu".  Well, if that's all it was, then maybe I don't see the problem.

From personal experience (see above)... that might all it be for you/me, but as evidenced by my situation, others can directly catch it, and get much more sick.  THAT is the issue to be aware of.

to Stads.  I'm of the same mind.

[Adami]

Yea, taking a test isn't giving into paranoia. I've never had COVID to my knowledge but I have gotten tested a lot. Better to just quickly rule it out.

[cramx3]

For me, if I show up into the office coughing... people are going to ask.  That's just how it is these days.  There's clear signs all over the building to not come in if you are sick.  But if you just have a cold, I think it's fine to come in.  But you can't be sure without taking a test, so just take a home test and then when people ask, you can give them a sense of safety knowing you don't have covid.

[T-ski]

I never had the sore throat or cold-like symptoms when I got it. I was 99% certain it was just a stomach bug/flu type sickness. I only took the test because my work needed me too. I would have gone back to work within 48 hours because I felt good enough to do so although I did have a lingering cough.

[TAC]

  I mean yeah, you get tested and the test says you have it, but how did you decide to get tested in the first place? 

I think people are just curious.

[King Postwhore]

  I mean yeah, you get tested and the test says you have it, but how did you decide to get tested in the first place? 

I think people are just curious.

Of they feel sick and start to test.  That's what I did.  I felt run down and felt a fever coming on and yup, I was positive.

[Grappler]

  I mean yeah, you get tested and the test says you have it, but how did you decide to get tested in the first place? 

I think people are just curious.

For me, it's a courtesy thing.  I have a family member that is HIV positive.  If we have a family gathering and one of my kids is sick, I want to re-assure them that nobody in the house has covid.  During the height of the pandemic, my kids having the sniffles kept that individual from coming once or twice, just to be safe.  Same goes for work or school - we don't want to send a covid-positive person out of the house until they're not as contagious. 

So we test for covid when we feel the need to test, but not every single time someone gets sick. 

[Orbert]

That all makes sense.  I was just curious, because I do get seasonal allergies and "normal" coughs and sniffles, and my workplace has signs saying "Do not come in if you have cough, fever, headache, etc." (something like that), but I'm not going to test every time I have a cough.  Two straight days of coughing with no sign of it get any better, yeah, I'll test.  I've tested three times so far; I'm not against it or anything.  I was just wondering how others decided to test, and it's pretty much what I figured.

[gmillerdrake]

Just move to Missouri.....Covid doesn't exist here anymore.