BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Jul 22 - 08:02 AM

Day 8 for both of us and we've both just tested positive, though we both feel well and have almost lost all the symptoms. We're stuck at home for at least a couple more days then. Bummer.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 22 - 12:38 PM

Its not likely but a person can catch the highly contagious variant every month. Vaccine prevents dire symptoms but the new normal of an annual estimated flu vaccine and multiple covid varient boosters are probably the new normal.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jul 22 - 04:17 PM

Alas, that is what I've read, that the new variants can clobber someone who already had an earlier version of COVID. Don't feel safe just because you caught it once and survived, it can come back again. Damn.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Jul 22 - 07:03 PM

Mrs Steve and I are peed off because all the advice for people without test kits (which is most people) is that you can go out and about if you feel better, no temperature, etc., after five days. So we still have some test kits, we've been testing ourselves, we feel well but are still testing positive...so we are stuck at home. Not legally, but because we think we should.

A lady who does deliveries for one of the courier companies came round today. We know her well, she's a lovely lady who loves being part of the community and we usually have a really good old banter. Today we had to tell her to keep her distance. She told us that she's scared of catching it because she can't afford to take time off work, that she has her kids to feed, she can hardly afford to pay her bills and that there's no way she could afford to buy test kits. The other week she felt unwell, but just shut it out and carried on working. And who's to blame her? There must be millions like her. Ending the free supply of test kits was a big mistake.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 22 - 10:20 AM

As the BA.5 variant spreads, the risk of coronavirus reinfection grows

America has decided the pandemic is over. The coronavirus has other ideas.

The latest omicron offshoot, BA.5, has quickly become dominant in the United States, and thanks to its elusiveness when encountering the human immune system, is driving a wave of cases across the country.

The size of that wave is unclear because most people are testing at home or not testing at all. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the past week has reported a little more than 100,000 new cases a day on average. But infectious-disease experts know that wildly underestimates the true number, which may be as many as a million, said Eric Topol, a professor at Scripps Research who closely tracks pandemic trends.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 22 - 08:43 AM

Infection rates are up 8% for now. Deaths are for the most part optional for the vaccine resistant or the poor countries. Still no one is beyond redemption. What a long strange trip its been.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 22 - 09:17 AM

So two days later we are still testing positive (my line's gone faint). Mrs Steve is fine but a bit lacking in energy and all I have is a residual slight cough. There's no way we can go to Friday's Memory Café (where almost everyone will be over 75) and there's even more no way I can spend two hours in the confined space of my car on Friday with the 89-year-old lady who I fetch and carry. Had we not had test kits we'd be cracking on as normal. Ho hum.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 22 - 09:26 AM

Make that line fade away.
Get well soon Steve.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 22 - 09:29 AM

At least I have a test kit now.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 03:02 AM

Many more cases in our village. I decided to go to our village hall last night for the bingo, wearing a mask of course. I took a while to decide to go, and when I arrived, there sat quite a few cases of Covid who swore they felt better (but had they tested negative or not?)
I didn't win a bloomin' thing however, despite being only one number away from the £90 jackpot. Serves me right! I shan't go again - a mask doesn't always protect one completely (or so says my knowledgeable retired-doctor sister!)

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 07:38 AM

Steve, good for you for staying home. Hope you all feel better soon. I haven't caught covid yet... Just what I wouldn't need right now. Senoufou, et ta sœur, la pauvre!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 09:27 AM

The BA.5 variant is spreading fast here and apparently can get past immunizations and antibodies built up from previous cases. Dr. Fauci says if you are still eligible for another booster, get it now.

Now or later? When to get a Covid booster shot
Updated vaccines targeting BA.4 and BA.5 are expected in the fall, but doctors still overwhelmingly encourage those who are eligible to get booster shots now.

I've had both boosters so will be near the front of the line when the next vaccine iteration appears. Whatever it takes to try to stay healthy.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 09:34 AM

Well Mrs Steve was poorly for a few days but I got away with just an annoying cough. If anyone is going to catch it and show symptoms, then let me wish mine upon you! The most irritating thing is that I STILL can't test negative.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 11:44 AM

Ma soeur va un peu mieux, merci Mrrzy. Elle fait un peu de jardinage, cequi me dit qu'elle a retrouvé sa santé.
Et vous? Ça va un peu maintenant? Meilleurs voeux!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 07:05 PM

Well that was this morning, the faint T line. After a day working in the garden, with hard labour, blazing sun, a strong Cornish breeze and an overdose of fresh air, I tested negative (at long last) at six o'clock this evening. I so didn't beIieve it that I immediately repeated the test with a different brand kit. Same result! I'll do another test in the morning before I undo my shackles. I sense impending release...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Jul 22 - 06:58 PM

We are both negative. That makes me two days, so I'm unshackled! Mrs Steve is waiting until tomorrow, but we are now ditching the testing. We've gone way over and above current guidelines. Fortuitously, I'd done a big food shop just before we suspected that all was not well, and, as the garden is currently providing lots of salad and spuds and herbs, we haven't needed to call on anyone to shop for us, though we've had lots of offers.

The only hangover is that we both have slightly reduced energy levels, but that's improving. Not bad for two septuagenarians, aka two people approaching middle age!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Jul 22 - 09:59 PM

here in the Land of Oz it's mid winter & we have medical authorities saying wear masks indoors & politicians saying no way, it's business as usual!!

‘Not just another wave’: Australia’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels in several states Hospitals across the country are “bursting at the seams” as the number of people being admitted with Covid-19 reaches record levels in several states ...

Epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said the differing hospitalisation rates across the nation make for a “quite strange” picture – but one with a unifying theme.
“My understanding, from speaking to people around the country, is that every major hospital is at full capacity and bursting at the seams,” the University of South Australia professor said.
And there is worse to come, with most states and territories likely several weeks away from their peak hospitalisation rates of this wave, he said.
“That will be when the pressure is really on, and we’ll just have to see how they manage.”
The current wave, driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, has coincided with a “horrendous” hospitalisation rate from influenza ...

“If we use boosters and antivirals and get people wearing masks and staying at home, we have the ability to control it, to some degree,” the academic and director of infectious diseases at Mater Health Services said ...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Jul 22 - 08:41 PM

We felt emancipated after our negative tests, and Mrs Steve went into town to buy some birthday cards and some peppers for our peperonata, her first sortie past our garden gate for two weeks. We had managed very well, as I'd somewhat fortuitously done a big shop the day before my first positive test, almost two weeks ago...

Still slightly lacking in energy and still a bit nasal. I've heard similar things from many people. Six months ago I was saying that I'd never come across anyone who had had the disease. Today, I'm struggling to find anyone who hasn't had it...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Jul 22 - 10:31 PM

since Christmas a number of my friends have caught covid, I can't remember any getting it beforehand, but I'm sure some must have.

The strangest case was after a christmas lunch - friend & husband & 97 y/o mother didn't catch it, but their daughter & son & their partners each with 2 children (15 mths to 10) caught it, & other friends I've seen weekly before & after lockdowns, are missing our socially distanced Craft group (once we sat around several big tables) cos they or kids/grandkids in widespread suburbs have it.

People here are ignoring the daily statistics (we've had more deaths this year than we had in deep lockdown) & pleas by medical authorities at wear masks & make sure their boosters are up to date ... but the politicians & business leaders aren't listening, apart from saying get boosters.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jul 22 - 11:49 PM

I agree with Steve, it is now very common for people who managed to avoid it for two-plus years to suddenly find they have COVID. This latest variant seems to be particularly easy to catch. Family members with a couple of roommates are all hunkered down in different rooms of their house trying to not have everyone catch it. I've handed over some of my stash of tests to them and gone ahead to replenish my supply since both Medicare and my insurance company will pay for 8 tests a month (each).

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jul 22 - 02:19 PM

I wonder if several bouts of nothing but a runny nose could have been the mild symptoms people report. I have not been sick enough to require testing. Rhino virus is still alive and well.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Jul 22 - 07:18 PM

If you are in the northern summer and you have a cough and a runny nose, you probably have covid. Those symptoms, plus the positive tests, informed my behaviour for almost two weeks, until I tested negative at last. What you do about those symptoms is now up to you. In my case, I had to consider my plans for mixing with elderly people. My solution was to stay home until I tested negative.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 22 - 07:29 PM

I can't find the exact article I read this morning but I thought it was from the Washington Post, about how problematic the undercount is now of COVID. Many people test at home and deal with it, and the numbers and version of the virus aren't reported.

Tracking U.S. covid-19 cases,
deaths and other metrics by state is the overall number of cases since the beginning.

Fauci said he will retire before Biden's administration is over. He is 81 now, and he said if he stayed till it's gone he'd be 105.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 19 Jul 22 - 10:07 AM

Problem here is if people want to take personal responsibility for public health, we have to pay to do so. I only have a handful of tests left.

Subject: RE: FITNESS & Declutter 2022 - Pandemic redux
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 11:45 AM

Woo Hoo only 209,000 US deaths from Covid this year so far!
-grim grin-

Subject: RE: FITNESS & Declutter 2022 - Pandemic redux
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 05:22 PM

Thanks for the memories
Retro virus clues
Covid's not the flu
The Presidents that you worked for
are practically no more
Thank you so much

Strictly entre nous
Fauci, how are you?
And how are all
Those little dreams
That mostly did come true?
Awfully glad we met you
Cheerio and toodle-oo
Thank you
Thank you so much

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 02:46 AM

I got a call from my doctors' surgery yesterday offering me two injections! The lady didn't say what they were, but I assume she meant a Covid vaccination and a flu jab. I declined for now. I'm not an 'anti-vaxxer' but I'll wait until the autumn after seeing how this new jab affects people. I don't want to be ill with post-vaccination reactions, as I now live alone.
I still wear a mask when shopping at the supermarket.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 08:22 AM

SEPTEMBER is the month for the recent variant vaccine distribution.
The flu shot is always a guess as to its coming variant. We get it wrong more often than getting it spot on.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 09:02 PM

The senior (double-strength) flu vaccines are in now (I just called my favorite pharmacist) and if I go in next week on Monday (I choose a day when she's in because she has a great counter-side manner) to get that then maybe by mid-September if COVID vaccines are in I'll be set.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 06:35 PM

I don't know how well this link will work to Bloomberg. It's a report
on the statement from the World Health Organization.

"We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic"

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 06:59 PM

Infection rates in the UK have dropped dramatically. Seasonal, of course. My booster is booked for next month.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 12:33 PM

I got the new Pfizer Omicron COVID booster almost three weeks ago. I still wear a mask when I go into public spaces, but with ever booster I hope I'm more resistant should I come into contact.

I heard a news story this week that said there may be about 10% of the population (US? World?) that has immune systems that use exposure to past corona viruses (colds) to combat exposure to the new corona virus, so they fight it off early and don't develop symptoms. Everyone else has to get exposed, let their immune systems start making the antibodies, then fight it off (hopefully) after symptoms have developed. I look forward to more information about this.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 12:51 PM

Most colds are not caused by coronaviruses (only about one cold in seven) so you wouldn't know whether that was a useful strategy anyway as you wouldn't know which virus you had.

I had my flu jab a couple of days ago and I'm getting boosted on Monday. As I had covid in July I'm hoping that lot will see me through relatively unscathed (giving it my best shot if you'll excuse the pun).

I have the mother and father of a cold at the moment (not covid - tested negative twice this week), so, who knows, I might be one of the one-in-seven. Masks are rarely seen round here and no-one insists that you wear one. I hear that infection numbers are on the up again. The government here, presiding over a health service that they've rendered unfit for purpose, is getting worried about a possible double whammy of flu and covid this winter.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 12:59 PM

https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_causes

It's likely that someday you'll have a close encounter with one of these types:

Rhinovirus

Coronavirus

RSV and parainfluenza

There are also a lot of viruses that doctors haven't identified. About 20%-30% of colds in adults are caused by these "unknown" bugs.

Enough that it makes a noticeable number of cases and doesn't render the statement I made incorrect, especially with the mystery 20-30% unknown.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 02:46 PM

Well webMD states that coronaviruses cause about 20% of colds, a bit higher than my wiki figure, but who knows. I didn't say you were incorrect, just that even if you knew that coronavirus-colds did help to protect against covid it wouldn't really be a useful strategy to try to employ. All down to pot luck really. Every little helps.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 03:22 PM

I don't know anything about it and am not basing my luck on anything - I observed that there is new research. We will have to wait and see what comes of it.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 04:33 PM

Anything that helps to enhance immunity is good.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 02:56 AM

Has anyone had the Pfizer Autumn booster, I had one yesterday and have slight shortness of breath today.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 05:40 AM

I had my booster last Monday. On the little card it sez "Pfizer-Comirnaty." My arm was sore for a few days (I've never had that before). Oddly, I also had a sore arm (the other one) after my flu jab the week before. But life must go on. What with all my lurgies over the last few weeks, I've had umpteen blood tests as well as a cannula stuck in my hand for days. My new nickname is pincushion.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 06:06 AM

Yes I've had the sore arm every time, but never any other side effects. Mrs Bonzo had to pass on the Pfizer because one she had previously almost certainly caused a blood clot in her left eye.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 10:38 AM

My most recent booster was Pfizer, same company as all of the rest of my vaccinations and boosters. This most recent one had the least amount of side effect, amounting to a day of an achy arm and not much more. Maybe a little headache.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Oct 22 - 02:06 PM

There is a reported surge of Covid in Europe and is suspected to show up in the US by winter.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Oct 22 - 08:07 PM

There is a good reason to wait 4 months or more after having Covid or a Covid vaccine, to get a booster.
nuff said.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Oct 22 - 07:08 PM

Not nuff said at all. I can't find a single responsible website that says you have to wait more than four weeks after testing positive for covid before you can have the regular booster. Please do not peddle irresponsible misinformation.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Oct 22 - 07:26 PM

CDC recommends waiting 3 months.

I had some moderately nasty side effects for about a half a day, the day after my booster, until my last one (second booster). I was prepared to spend it in bed, but I didn't really have ANY side effects other than a slightly sore arm. I'm working on soon getting the omicron booster.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Oct 22 - 09:10 PM

The Omicron booster for me was much like you describe your last booster; the arm was a little sore but otherwise, a non-event.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 03:44 AM

From Jeri's link:

"If you recently had COVID-19, you may consider delaying your next vaccine dose (whether a primary dose or booster) by 3 months from when your symptoms started or, if you had no symptoms, when you first received a positive test.

Reinfection is less likely in the weeks to months after infection. However, certain factors, such as personal risk of severe disease, or risk of disease in a loved one or close contact, local COVID-19 Community Level, and the most common COVID-19 variant currently causing illness, could be reasons to get a vaccine sooner rather than later."

The caveats in that extract, which I won't bother to highlight as we can all read, in no way amount to a recommendation that "there is a good reason to wait 4 months or more after having Covid or a Covid vaccine, to get a booster." I haven't found any source on any UK website that suggests such a delay, and I did go to the trouble to try to find one.

In medical matters, it's often the case that we should not make recommendations in these threads as to how people should act. Drawing attention to reputable sources to support a point of view is valid, but "nuff said" doesn't cut it.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 22 - 10:26 AM

In the last week, COVID cases are up 29% in the US. Daily reported deaths were up 23%. Hospitalizations always lag behind those two numbers - this week they were up only 1%, but that will probably increase in the next month.

Tracking U.S. covid-19 cases, deaths and other metrics by state
More than 1,064,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S., and more than 97,084,000 cases have been reported.

No numbers can fully convey the state of the covid-19 pandemic in the United States, but several metrics taken together provide a clearer view of what is happening now and what may be coming soon.

The data in these charts is gathered by The Washington Post from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state government sites (cases and deaths) and the Department of Health and Human Services (hospitalizations). Not all tracking sites use the same sources or report dates, so case and death numbers can differ.

Half of the states show increasing numbers while the rest are neutral or dropping numbers. Those with the worst infection spikes right now are, alas, Hawaii, Alaska, Texas, Florida, and Arizona. All GOP states. There is a correlation to be made as those states' governors tend to dismiss COVID precautions.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 22 - 01:17 PM

Also in the Washington Post:

Whites now more likely to die from covid than Blacks: Why the pandemic shifted

Skill Wilson had amassed more than three decades of knowledge as a paramedic, first in Memphis and then in Fayette County. Two places that felt like night and day.

With only five ambulances in the county and the nearest hospital as much as 45 minutes away, Skill relished the clinical know-how necessary to work in a rural setting. Doing things like sedating patients to insert tubes into their airways.

But when it came to covid-19, despite more than 1 million deaths nationwide, Skill and his family felt their small town on the central-eastern side of Fayette County, with its fields of grazing cattle and rows of cotton and fewer than 200 covid deaths since the start of the pandemic, was a cocoon against the raging health emergency.

“It was a lot easier to stay away from others,” his widow, Hollie Wilson, said of the largely White and predominantly conservative county of about 42,000 residents. “Less people. Less chance of exposure.”

Covid seemed like other people’s problems — until it wasn’t.

The imbalance in death rates among the nation’s racial and ethnic groups has been a defining part of the pandemic since the start. To see the pattern, The Washington Post analyzed every death during more than two years of the pandemic. Early in the crisis, the differing covid threat was evident in places such as Memphis and Fayette County. Deaths were concentrated in dense urban areas, where Black people died at several times the rate of White people.

“I don’t want to say that we weren’t worried about it, but we weren’t,” said Hollie, who described her 59-year-old husband as someone who “never took a pill.” After a while, “you kind of slack off on some things,” she said.

Over time, the gap in deaths widened and narrowed but never disappeared — until mid-October 2021, when the nation’s pattern of covid mortality changed, with the rate of death among White Americans sometimes eclipsing other groups.

Those GOP White people who ignored the vaccinations and didn't bother to socially distance or wear masks - COVID came back to bite them in the ass.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Oct 22 - 04:03 PM

This is only winter number 3. We should not get cocky until after year 4 if previous pandemic parameters apply.

In CA there is a new respiratory epidemic developing among infants.