Covid-19 #36: I am the Apples and the Oranges

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Talking about canaries...

And things for pets finding a new home during the pandemic are going roughly as expected.

Now with restrictions being eased to lifted, and traveling being possible again, a lot of those pets end up in animal shelters, or just get abandoned. Soemtimes it's just a small step from the tragic to the absurd.

So in Hamburg animals shelters do just not get flooded with the usual suspects (cats and dogs) so to speak. But also with chickens. Yes, there were apparently quite a few morons living in this city, who felt a longing for a more rural life during lockdowns and started to house chickens on their balconies. Apparently flower boxes are the answer to the question how? Also, surprisingly not all the neighbours were happy to be wakened to a cock-a-doodle-do. Others were surprised they actually had to pay vet bills out of their own pockets. Either way, can we just agree that keeping chickens in a city is just plain dumb.

[IheartIheartTesla]

My son is going to kindergarten (in person) this year, and apart from the usual jitters there is this added layer of COVID uncertainty. However, I just got a letter saying that because of the delta variant everyone would be masking indoors, so even in mostly conservative town there are voices of reason.

[Zorral]

And on the 7th day, another sea lion rolled in on the polluted tides, exhaling concern trolling on its fishy breath, and so on and so forth. 

[Jaxom 1974]

16 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

 

I would have felt comfortable going to Oshkosh with a mask on, if I were going to be indoors. 

 

Right now, I thinknI agree with this assessment. As mentioned, it is different from a concert.  

I spent 6 days in Disney World last month, masks primarily required indoors for unvaccinated folks, and an absolute must irregardless of Vax status on transportation.  Granted Florida was just getting ready to ramp up the Delta stuff, so I didn't feel uncomfortable and my kids were pretty good about their masks when appropriate also. Not sure I'd want to go there this month though...

[RhaenysBee]

We are steadily climbing towards three digit number of daily cases. Still, only 1% of tests come back positive - yet. We are giving third vaccines - mainly to the elderly and the immunocompromised, especially if they got Shinopharm and didn’t develop antibodies. I won’t pretend to understand the biochemistry of this - but apparently even those who did develop antibodies have less protection than those who have Pfizer or Moderna or Sputnik antibodies.

Anyway, opinions are split over the third vaccine. The recommendation is to get a different one than the first two, but nobody seems to know which and why that particular combination is to be given (or not given) to an individual. I tried to convince my father to take the third vaccine but he’s rather apprehensive about getting another type of vaccine that was never tested in combination with the first type. I can’t say I don’t understand the sentiment. But I do still want him to renew his protection somehow because it’s been 5 months since his second vaccine and these things don’t last forever. I suppose the best thing I can do is to try to persuade him to at least talk to a doctor friend about this. Because I’m still terrified that he might catch this thing. 

In general, our vaccination rate has plateaued at a meager 57% which is infuriating. I mean we could have been at 90-100% by July if people weren’t so agonizingly ignorant and irresponsible. 

I do sometimes feel anxious about myself, although I keep reminding myself that after two jabs of a “good vaccine” and having had covid itself (possibly alpha though I was never told details about the nature of it), the realistic chance that I would get reinfected is truly microscopic. What makes me worry is everybody else. I mean with all the stuff you hear about delta I even worry about sister, who is partying and socializing a lot this summer. But chiefly about my parents. And I can’t help running these calculations in my brain about what’s the likelihood of my family coming through untouched? At least I’m terrible at maths and I couldn’t calculate this for my life, and maybe that’s for the better. Or maybe there’s no likelihood of coming through untouched because sooner or later, one wave or the other will get us all and it’ll just be a matter of luck who recovers from it? I don’t know, I’m spiraling. 

anyway, this is just a weird mood, I have had a semi-normal approach to the subject these past months. It’s not like this is on my mind every hour or every day, like it used to be. At this point I also think I’ve settled into a learned helplessness phase and accept that the best I can do is trust in the vaccines and hope for the best. Sorry about the long and shitty musings. 
 

sprry one more thing. The uselessness of stats piss me off. We are so past wanting to know the cumulative number of new cases and hospitalized cases and deaths. Tell me how many delta cases there are, if hospitalized and deceased patients have delta or not, if they were vaccinated or not. Tell me where the positive delta cases are located regionally. Tell me something informative. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Friday we had a coworker sent home with covid symptons, the first we've had in several weeks.

I'm bracing for more and more of the same news in the following weeks.

[The Anti-Targ]

Now that boffins, in addition to the ones I cited previously, are saying there is no herd immunity with Delta because of breakthrough infections and infectiousness, the paradigm of control of the virus has shifted. The worst effects of COVID (severe illness and death) are reliably mitigated by vaccination. But public health measures are warranted, at least while infection rates remain high, to protect the vulnerable (those who can't be vaccinated, and those for whom the vaccine does not confer good protection from severe illness or death). Public health measures should also be considered in relation to the longer term chronic conditions that result from COVID-19. I am not sure what the situation is among the vaccinated with long COVID, diabetes and other potential problems (erectile dysfunction).

Quote

Despite being a trivial matter for patients in intensive care units (ICUs), erectile dysfunction (ED) is a likely consequence of COVID-19 for survivors, and considering the high transmissibility of the infection and the higher contagion rates among elderly men, a worrying phenomenon for a large part of affected patients.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7355084/

Our study is the first to demonstrate the presence of the COVID-19 virus in the penis long after the initial infection in humans. Our results also suggest that widespread endothelial cell dysfunction from COVID-19 infection can contribute to ED. Future studies will evaluate novel molecular mechanisms of how COVID-19 infection leads to ED.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33988001/

Hopefully newer vaccines will be vastly better at preventing breakthrough infection, and herd immunity will be achievable. But for now, it does not look possible.

This also has implications for how we open up our border to foreign travellers, and whether our ongoing elimination strategy is viable. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Perhaps the threat of ED could be a great motivator for the knuckle dragging, er I mean foot dragging, vaccine hesitancy crowd?

If the potential loss of sexual pleasures won't get those sleeves rolled up I don't know what would?

[Kalbear]

3 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Perhaps the threat of ED could be a great motivator for the knuckle dragging, er I mean foot dragging, vaccine hesitancy crowd?

If the potential loss of sexual pleasures won't get those sleeves rolled up I don't know what would?

It doesn't matter. The vaccines aren't good enough at stopping infectious spread in delta and lambda to warrant massive campaigns. Either people will get the vaccine or they'll get covid. All we can do now is buy time for kids to get vaccinated and give the rest of the world some fighting chances. 

[The Anti-Targ]

4 hours ago, Kaligator said:

It doesn't matter. The vaccines aren't good enough at stopping infectious spread in delta and lambda to warrant massive campaigns. Either people will get the vaccine or they'll get covid. All we can do now is buy time for kids to get vaccinated and give the rest of the world some fighting chances. 

You mean they will either get the vaccine and possibly get COVID, or they will get COVID and possibly die and more possibly end up in hospital on a ventilator. There is still a significant incentive to vaccinate even if the current iteration of vaccines won't stop the spread as much as was hoped.

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

You mean they will either get the vaccine and possibly get COVID, or they will get COVID and possibly die and more possibly end up in hospital on a ventilator. There is still a significant incentive to vaccinate even if the current iteration of vaccines won't stop the spread as much as was hoped.

Sure, but the case before was to tell people to vaccinate to help control the spread as well as help them not die. Thats not nearly as true now - though there is ample evidence that vaccinated don't spread as much, they still do it enough that it by itself is not sufficient for going back to normal.

Therefore, if you are caring about stopping the spread to people who are vulnerable and cannot be vaccinated yet, its better to focus on preventative measures rather than focus on vaccination campaigns. 

[JoannaL]

In Germany we had a EMA (EU) approval for the 12-17 year old vaccination since May, but no national recommendation (meaning you could have your children vaccinated if you want to but it was not scientific recommended to do so. The German Approval Agency (Stiko) argued that since the risk for the teenager is very small, the vaccination risk must also be very tiny and the trial which let to the EMA (and FDA) approval for this age group just had 1000 people in it , so not enough to find small risks. This led to some ugly fights between politicians and scientists and to parents which got very diverse communication what to do. I also wanted to wait for the scientific Stiko recommendation (I have two daughters in that age range and I worry for them, but we are talking about a very small Covid risk against an unknown vaccination risk, so I feel this is difficult to decide). Now, this week, it seems the recommendation will come. It seems they have data from a FDA investigation of the first 10 mio vaccinated in the US. I will link a file if I find any (presumably Wednesday when they publish the recommendation). I hope that these rumors are true and so I booked in advance vaccination dates for my daughters for next weekend. I hope I do the right thing.

[DireWolfSpirit]

More DeSantis b.s. being checked-

NIH Director Collins on DeSantis blaming immigrants for Covid spread: "Let nobody try to say that's why the US is in trouble. The rate of infection in Mexico is actually lower than it is right now in places like Texas, Louisiana, and Florida."

[Fragile Bird]

53 minutes ago, JoannaL said:

I hope I do the right thing.

About 74.3% of children 12 to 17 in Canada have received their first dose, and 53% are fully vaccinated now. I’m sure most of the 21% will get their second dose before school starts on Sept. 7th.

There have been no major problems so far that have been reported. If that gives you any comfort. <3

[Luzifer's right hand]

The German Stiko is now recommending vaccinating 12-17 year old.

Feels like a lot of times was lost because full vaccination before school starts again will not be possible.

Better late than never.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Give me that good booster stuff pusha man!!

Pfizer submits data to FDA showing a booster dose works well against original coronavirus and variants

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/16/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

 

[Zorral]

Coming to NYC, starting Tuesday, August 24th, enforcement beginning September 13th:

https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-nyc-covid-vaccination-mandate-de-blasio-20210816-lo5k5elhybckfpbqx2njzbrhsy-story.html

https://covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/excelsior-pass

[Fragile Bird]

Karma has come to bite the butt of Pope Francis’s biggest US critic, Cardinal Burke. He’s on a ventilator. He seems to have been infected visiting Wisconsin.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

32 minutes ago, L'oiseau français said:

Karma has come to bite the butt of Pope Francis’s biggest US critic, Cardinal Burke. He’s on a ventilator. He seems to have been infected visiting Wisconsin.

#God'sPlan

[The Anti-Targ]

9 hours ago, Kaligator said:

Sure, but the case before was to tell people to vaccinate to help control the spread as well as help them not die. Thats not nearly as true now - though there is ample evidence that vaccinated don't spread as much, they still do it enough that it by itself is not sufficient for going back to normal.

Therefore, if you are caring about stopping the spread to people who are vulnerable and cannot be vaccinated yet, its better to focus on preventative measures rather than focus on vaccination campaigns. 

That is still very much the case. It's just that measures in addition to vaccination are needed if a country / state wants to get rates of infection back to what they were when people thought the end of the pandemic was in sight.