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Covid-19 #20: Nowhere to Hide


Fragile Bird

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I tested positive after a foolish hookup. In retrospect, I am very lucky she casually mentioned her coworkers' testing positive. I would not have gotten a test, and promptly would have exposed my elderly parents. I have been asymptomatic, although I did lose my sense of smell and taste in an absolutely nightmarish couple hours. The taste almost completely returned, but I still can't smell certain things like soap or fruit. Very odd. 

I was able to fully isolate throughout, and today I got a phone call from a kind-voiced woman from the county response office, asking of my symptoms and doing some light contact tracing. Her call was 12 days after my positive test, so not exactly prompt, but our county is completely deluged by positive tests right now; positivity ranging from 15% to over 20% the last two weeks. I fear that many of our less-educated or skeptical population have gleefully spread the virus, and continue to ramp up anti-Governor Pritzker rants on the town FB page, and calls nearly two weeks after positive tests don't do much good.

In any case, I am going to the store and will be practically skipping up and down the aisles. Especially the beer one. God damn does a cold beer sound fantastic. My folks dropped off groceries outside my door while I  was staying away, and I didn't have the heart to ask Mother Dearest for some brews.

I can't be that happy for my own freedom, though; one of my friends' husbands had to spend three nights at the hospital while they battled the same outbreak that got me. He's one of those ultra-hiker types, profile picture is him dangling off some absurd cliff. One of the healthiest guys I know. I pray he does not suffer long-term lung issues as so many others have.

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7 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

I tested positive after a foolish hookup. In retrospect, I am very lucky she casually mentioned her coworkers' testing positive. I would not have gotten a test, and promptly would have exposed my elderly parents. I have been asymptomatic, although I did lose my sense of smell and taste in an absolutely nightmarish couple hours. The taste almost completely returned, but I still can't smell certain things like soap or fruit. Very odd. 

Oooh, the young lady who told you after being at your place, without a mask, after a few hours, right?

So you’re finished with quarantine? Thank heavens you had a mild case!

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27 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Oooh, the young lady who told you after being at your place, without a mask, after a few hours, right?

And you said I needed to be educated about people wearing masks while banging…:lmao:

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18 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Oooh, the young lady who told you after being at your place, without a mask, after a few hours, right?

So you’re finished with quarantine? Thank heavens you had a mild case!

Well, yes, I can't say I asked her to keep a mask on! Of course in hindsight, I knew she worked in a highly at-risk area and should not have broadened my very small circle of trust. My logic at the time was, well, overcome by baser needs. I also knew the virus at the time was spreading rapidly around the county. I took a gamble and only after dinner did she mention her work's outbreak. She still insists she never tested positive, which is odd or she's simply lying - we aren't in contact but she's absolutely a "It's just a bad flu" type. So there's a chance I was exposed before that. I had gone hiking on Election night, and the state park I went to had a whole lot of people crawling around on the majestic cliffs and outcroppings (google Garden of the Gods Illinois to see the scope, I certainly didn't feel at risk, but there were people milling around throughout that touristy part. Most likely it was the bartender. 

And yes, I am very blessed that only my sense of smell diminished. I have a strong immune system - I honestly don't ever remember having the flu in my life. If I weren't utterly and frighteningly broke, I'd take this time to travel while my antibodies are swimming around happily. Alas, that's not in the cards. I am truly happy my parents and I are able to spend Thanksgiving together in a few days. 

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20 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

Well, yes, I can't say I asked her to keep a mask on! Of course in hindsight, I knew she worked in a highly at-risk area and should not have broadened my very small circle of trust.

Lol, no, but if I remember your story you invited her over for dinner and drinks and she showed up without a mask on and didn’t mention all the sick people at work until 3 hours later, right? By then it was too late, so what the hell! 

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Well, yes, it is too late, stupids!  Wotinhell -- where in hell -- have your brains been all these months?  There is no reason whatsoever that both the state of NY and City of New York weren't running a concerted advert-information campaign in and on and through all media in the state about what travel and partyies at Thanksgiving would mean -- or travel on Memorial Day, or the 4th or Labor Day, or Halloween -- and weddings and any other kind of partying, all along.  Why didn't they?  They didn't shoggoth's permission for that.

https://gothamist.com/news/its-not-too-late-cancel-nyc-launches-stay-home-campaign-holidays-approach

De Blasio's crying again. And losing so much money by closing the public schools. But keeping open the goddamn restaurants with no ventilation, oodles of dry heat.  Good God!

 

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Hoo boy much sturm and drang in the family.  

Sis very upset. BIL was determined to drive first to Nebraska to hook up with son and family there, and then on to Minneapolis to spend T Day with son and family there. Both sons told him No. You're insane to even thing of traveling now.  Even the CDC tells you to STAY HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS." Then third son, who lives in another suburb of their city told him he and his family weren't leaving home either -- plus they have a new baby, and the mother really doesn't want to take any risks.

BIL is ... in a state. He's demanding turkey and everything for T Day anyway. Which mean Sis has to do it, and her heart is not into it at all. Plus her heart is broken too, without any family get together.  But she seems to have gotten the word of god about this stuff, and is also relieved to not be traveling -- they did it for Labor Day and it was nerve-wracking for her.  AND they also went to North Dakota to see his brother and other family.  Hey, we're in Minnesota stupid not to go to ND!  She was really scared for two weeks that they might have contrcted it, as her BIL did, a couple weeks later, and so did his wife.  But her husband, even so -- such a perfection of a NoDak (even though he hasn't lived there since h.s.) -- can't get through anything into his thick skull if he doesn't want to hear it.

Which is why I'm hearing a lot about all this now.  Sis got the religion, i.e. climate change, covid-19, shoggoth, all of it.  But her husband -- no.  So she is emailing and calling me a lot, because I'm the only person she feels safe saying these things to.

 

 

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So while I was out tonight (spotlight hour, if you play Pokemon) I heard a report on the CBC about the Russian vaccine.

I think somebody else already mentioned that the Russians are claiming 95% efficacy, like Pfizer and Moderna. Sounds like it’s a good claim. 19,000 people received the vaccine and there were no serious side effects. Russia has offered the vaccine to whoever wants it, and 50 countries have ordered 1.5 B doses. The only doubt is whether or not they can manufacture all the orders.

However, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, this one can be stored at normal cold temperatures, and costs a lot less to make, $20 a dose. Sounds like they’ve done a good job. And it’s also become obvious that this is a virus that can be dealt with!

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5 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

@Fragile Bird - I’ll just get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, ASAP. A Russian visa is still a b1tch to obtain.

Although I do want to visit St Petersburg.

there is also the Oxford one which only needs to be refrigerated so is easy to distribute and is also cheaper than the Pfizer  or Moderna.  It also gets to 90% effective if you have a 1/2 dose followed by a full dose 4 weeks later. 

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Pretty clear Russia alone can't manufacture that many vaccines. India, on the other hand, can. China as well, but they have their own. Since I doubt India would be happy producing the Chinese ones, odds are that there'll be a deal so that Russia produces vaccines for Russia and local friends, and India will produce for Indian needs and possibly for other countries (say African or American ones).
Bottom-line, Pfizer and Moderna being more expensive and trickier to handle, I expect them to be mostly for Western countries, Oxford, Sputnik, the few Chinese ones and most probably a few others will be convenient for most of the world.

And it's really a good thing they all seem to be reasonably effective. If only one or two were useful, it'll take longer before we could vaccinate all those who want it. It also means that it'll be easier to deal with serious future mutations, since we have several ways to tackle the virus.

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9 hours ago, Zorral said:

Hoo boy much sturm and drang in the family.  

Sis very upset. BIL was determined to drive first to Nebraska to hook up with son and family there, and then on to Minneapolis to spend T Day with son and family there. Both sons told him No. You're insane to even thing of traveling now.  Even the CDC tells you to STAY HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS." Then third son, who lives in another suburb of their city told him he and his family weren't leaving home either -- plus they have a new baby, and the mother really doesn't want to take any risks.

BIL is ... in a state. He's demanding turkey and everything for T Day anyway. Which mean Sis has to do it, and her heart is not into it at all. Plus her heart is broken too, without any family get together.  But she seems to have gotten the word of god about this stuff, and is also relieved to not be traveling -- they did it for Labor Day and it was nerve-wracking for her.  AND they also went to North Dakota to see his brother and other family.  Hey, we're in Minnesota stupid not to go to ND!  She was really scared for two weeks that they might have contrcted it, as her BIL did, a couple weeks later, and so did his wife.  But her husband, even so -- such a perfection of a NoDak (even though he hasn't lived there since h.s.) -- can't get through anything into his thick skull if he doesn't want to hear it.

Which is why I'm hearing a lot about all this now.  Sis got the religion, i.e. climate change, covid-19, shoggoth, all of it.  But her husband -- no.  So she is emailing and calling me a lot, because I'm the only person she feels safe saying these things to.

 

 

Your sister should tell him if he wants turkey, he can crack on and buy, prepare and cook it.

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14 hours ago, Zorral said:

De Blasio's crying again. And losing so much money by closing the public schools. But keeping open the goddamn restaurants with no ventilation, oodles of dry heat.  Good God!

I hope there is a special kind of hell for the people who close the schools and keep the bars/restaurants open.

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15 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

And you said I needed to be educated about people wearing masks while banging…:lmao:

C'mom. Random hook-ups carry their risks (and their rewards tbh). A friend of mine took a lady home, it took him a while the day after to notice that the "lady" in question stole him some money. 

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So I just read an interview with a Polish epidemiologist, who claims we should be testing people for the response to the adenovirus before we give them the adenovirus vaccine (as having a response would kill it before the vaccine would be able to start working?). I thought they chose a chimpanzee virus specifically because people have no response to it?

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43 minutes ago, Filippa Eilhart said:

So I just read an interview with a Polish epidemiologist, who claims we should be testing people for the response to the adenovirus before we give them the adenovirus vaccine (as having a response would kill it before the vaccine would be able to start working?). I thought they chose a chimpanzee virus specifically because people have no response to it?

Maybe they are worried about crossreactivity? Even chimp adenovirus might look similar to the immune system.

It's apparently happening with COVID-19 with people having some protection because a coronavirus-caused cold.

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3 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

I hope there is a special kind of hell for the people who close the schools and keep the bars/restaurants open because they refuse to provide any sort of financial safety net to independent restaurants and hospitality workers. 

 

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On 11/24/2020 at 9:36 AM, Argonath Diver said:

I can't be that happy for my own freedom, though; one of my friends' husbands had to spend three nights at the hospital while they battled the same outbreak that got me. He's one of those ultra-hiker types, profile picture is him dangling off some absurd cliff. One of the healthiest guys I know. I pray he does not suffer long-term lung issues as so many others have.

The guys in my carpool (which I wear a mask in), still completely believe that covid is no threat to them because they are quite fit.  In their minds it only affects fat people and old people.  In their case I think its a result of early misinformation that has hardened in their minds, as neither is in the right wing echo chamber world that just doesn't believe in covid at all.

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https://www.wired.com/story/the-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-data-isnt-up-to-snuff/

 

Quote

But not everyone has been convinced. The price of AstraZeneca’s shares actually dropped on the news, and an analysis from an investment bank concluded, “We believe that this product will never be licensed in the US.” Over at STAT News, Anthony Fauci cautioned that we’ll need to see more data before coming to a conclusion. The skeptics have strong reasons to be concerned: This week’s “promising” results are nothing like the others that we’ve been hearing about in November—and the claims that have been drawn from them are based on very shaky science.

Hm.

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