COVID 49 - Are We Done Yet?

[The Anti-Targ]

20 pages for thread 48, so...

The meaning of the title is, have we yet reached a point where COVID-19 is just another endemic disease and no longer a disease that needs special attention?

I would say almost but not quite. This article shows that the disease is still affecting people and not just because they are catching he virus and becoming sick.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/133240201/covid19-commentator-siouxsie-wiles-received-tsunami-of-abuse-court-hears

Quote

Footage of threats made against high-profile scientist and Covid-19 commentator Dr Siouxsie Wiles, has been shown in court as part of her legal action against her employer, the University of Auckland.

Wiles alleges the university didn't do enough to ensure her safety as harassment against her escalated.

A court has been told, Wiles had her home address and contact details leaked online and was compared to Adolf Hitler, a Satanist, excrement, an evil narcissist, a cockroach and a psychopath, due to her Covid-19 commentary.

She had also been threatened with hanging, rape, long jail terms, sexual violation and death by execution, her lawyer, Catherine Stewart, told Judge Joanna Holden in the Employment Court on Monday.

Unbelievable the things those people will say. Unhinged is the most charitable characterisation of such abusers.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Yup. Fucking insanity. Yet another reason I have no fucking sympathy for the “strong immune system”, horse paste crowd who end up as Herman Cain award winners; or the talking heads who feed them. 

[Luzifer's right hand]

I'm still following the hospital numbers here in Austria and it is fascinating how utterly irrelevant Influenza and RSV have been number wise compared to COVID this year so far.

A far more infectious disease has been added to the mix and people who believe that things are as they were before COVID are deluding themselves I think.

On a different note an uncle of mine has such an interesting case of long COVID that researchers are interested in him.

It is mainly because he had really through checkup a short time before so they have what they lack most often which is good before data. Also pre vaccines which is good data wise too.

Diabetes, organ damage and mental problems only appeared during and after his hospital stay with COVID.

They catched part of his liver dying early a short time ago and prevented the worst because a doctor kept pestering about another round of tests. Main culprit seems to be a blood clotting issue. Anticoagulants saved the day and he is now taking them regularly.

Edited November 8, 2023 by Luzifer's right hand

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

A far more infectious disease has been added to the mix and people who believe that things are as they were before COVID are deluding themselves I think.

It's the case here too.  The hospitalization numbers for covid are way way up here -- along with also flu and other respiratory infections (as always happens here within a week of Comic Con, the High Holidays -- and down here particularly the annual Village Halloween Parade).  But the covid numbers by far are the largest., as they've been for the last 4 years.  Even on the sidewalks and streets one hears people coughing and sneezing all over the place.  Lots of people are sick, even quite sick, but hardly anyone notices -- until they get sick themselves, of course.

The people who work in our supermarket and libraries are all wearing masks, which says something right there.

[LongRider]

6 hours ago, Zorral said:

The people who work in our supermarket and libraries are all wearing masks, which says something right there.

I'm the one who is wearing the mask in those places.  Well, not entirely true, a few other folk are too, but very few.

[Zorral]

13 minutes ago, LongRider said:

I'm the one who is wearing the mask in those places.

Last week, beside the staff, I was the only person I saw in our supermarket masking; it's different since the weekend.  Still, not a lot of people but I am noticeably not the Only One again.

[Mr. X]

There are definitely more people wearing masks on the subway again in recent weeks. Nowhere near as many as two years ago, but noticeably more than at the start of this school year, when I was frequently the one masked person.

[Fragile Bird]

I was at the hardware store today and told the person helping me that of course the weather had turned ugly after a couple of weeks of pretty good weather, the guy building my fence had been sick with a bad cold for three weeks. And now he’s going to be working in the cold and damp, and his wife is going to kill me if he gets sick again. 

The fellow told me his brother is an opera singer in Germany and also had a cold-like thing, very bad for him and his voice. He also said they’re worried in Germany because there’s been this cold/respiratory thing going around and there is some concern it’s a new version of Covid. Anyone heard anything along these lines?

[Wilbur]

Well, I have finally recovered from Covid after about eight days of very much flu-like symptoms.  I do not recommend Covid, unless you have enjoyed a week or more of pneumonia in the past and want the same experience again.  Zero out of ten, and that is from someone with all the current shots.

My wife gave it to me (no regrets!), and she caught it from her kids at school.  So the last two weeks at my place have been pretty boring, but we are happy to be back in the saddle, all things considered.

[Zorral]

57 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

there’s been this cold/respiratory thing

I've had this for two weeks and two days now.  The first 8 days, I was knackered and incapable of anything, other than coughing, drinking, blowing my nose and peeing, all day all night.  So congested!  But things keep improving all the time now, and I go hours without coughing and quit drinking five gallons of water and herbal teas a day. 

This is the first time I've been sick since October 2019.  But it wasn't covid, according to the tests, and it wasn't flu either: no fever, aches and pains, sore throat -- just dreadful congestion, coughing and fatigue. 

Was it RSV?  I haven't been able to find a place to get a vaccination for that.  The weird thing is that I have no idea how I got whatever-it-is.  I'd been nowhere except the library, and I always mask indoors when there are other people.  Though ... I'm not sure because my memory is so foggy, maybe when I voted?  The place was empty and I think ... I didn't wear a mask.  But I really don't remember.

I'm nearly normal again, about 90%; -- was able to hit my schedule at the library, and have even been able to work out again by the last days of last week, and I went out this weekend!  The steam heat is playing hell with my congestion and coughing though.  We got out the humidifiers, despite them making the cooler, while it moistens it. 

My niece seems to have been sick with it for months and months, no matter what antibiotics she got.  Evidently a lot of this whatever it is, while both covid and flu are spiking in so many places.

55 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

we are happy to be back in the saddle, all things considered.

We all are happy you are back too!  It's impossible to avoid getting something around kids.

[Wilbur]

14 minutes ago, Zorral said:

...It's impossible to avoid getting something around kids.

Thanks!

Germ-riddled children are a menace, but c'est la vie.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Wilbur
Autocorrect is monolinngual

[DireWolfSpirit]

Friday I received the latest Pfizer upgraded (now a covalent shot) that is supposed to follow your bivalents which will weaken in effectiveness after several mos.

So vaxx wise im as good as I can get, now for a little luck in avoidance and hopefully i make it through another season unscathed (fingers crossed emoticon).

[Luzifer's right hand]

9 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I was at the hardware store today and told the person helping me that of course the weather had turned ugly after a couple of weeks of pretty good weather, the guy building my fence had been sick with a bad cold for three weeks. And now he’s going to be working in the cold and damp, and his wife is going to kill me if he gets sick again. 

The fellow told me his brother is an opera singer in Germany and also had a cold-like thing, very bad for him and his voice. He also said they’re worried in Germany because there’s been this cold/respiratory thing going around and there is some concern it’s a new version of Covid. Anyone heard anything along these lines?

Well at least according to the limited data in Austria the current covid wave is one of the biggest if not the biggest ever infection wise but not in severity(waste water analysis). Nothing out of the ordinary symptom wise afaik.

However there is evidence that getting Cvoid again and again is not particularly good for your immune system and that might make it easier for other infections.

But it feels like lot of people have doubled down on doing as much as possible while having a mild case of an infectious disease and there is next to no masking in German language countries now. Far less than in left leaning US areas.

[maarsen]

10 hours ago, Zorral said:

I've had this for two weeks and two days now.  The first 8 days, I was knackered and incapable of anything, other than coughing, drinking, blowing my nose and peeing, all day all night.  So congested!  But things keep improving all the time now, and I go hours without coughing and quit drinking five gallons of water and herbal teas a day. 

This is the first time I've been sick since October 2019.  But it wasn't covid, according to the tests, and it wasn't flu either: no fever, aches and pains, sore throat -- just dreadful congestion, coughing and fatigue. 

Was it RSV?  I haven't been able to find a place to get a vaccination for that.  The weird thing is that I have no idea how I got whatever-it-is.  I'd been nowhere except the library, and I always mask indoors when there are other people.  Though ... I'm not sure because my memory is so foggy, maybe when I voted?  The place was empty and I think ... I didn't wear a mask.  But I really don't remember.

I'm nearly normal again, about 90%; -- was able to hit my schedule at the library, and have even been able to work out again by the last days of last week, and I went out this weekend!  The steam heat is playing hell with my congestion and coughing though.  We got out the humidifiers, despite them making the cooler, while it moistens it. 

My niece seems to have been sick with it for months and months, no matter what antibiotics she got.  Evidently a lot of this whatever it is, while both covid and flu are spiking in so many places.

We all are happy you are back too!  It's impossible to avoid getting something around kids.

Had the same thing a few weeks back. Lots of congestion and aches but a negative covid test. Right now the entire family but me has Norwalk. Not fun.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, maarsen said:

Had the same thing a few weeks back. Lots of congestion and aches but a negative covid test. Right now the entire family but me has Norwalk. Not fun.

O damn! But at least, not covid -- at least, that's what I kept telling myself. 

From what I've read Norwalk is awful, and extremely contagious.

 

[maarsen]

3 hours ago, Zorral said:

O damn! But at least, not covid -- at least, that's what I kept telling myself. 

From what I've read Norwalk is awful, and extremely contagious.

 

Oh yes. We had outbreaks the hospital I worked at. The smell was the giveaway.  I had a small maintenance job to do on a ward. Just walking through was enough to infect the guy I went with. He told me later it was 68 hours of spewing from both ends.

Edited November 22, 2023 by maarsen

[Zorral]

1 minute ago, maarsen said:

Just walking through was enough to infect the guy I went with. 

Holy cow!  I'm glad you didn't get it.  How are you coping with everyone else in your family suffering from it?

Edited November 22, 2023 by Zorral

[maarsen]

Just now, Zorral said:

Holy cow!  I'm glad you didn't get it.

For some reason I seem to be immune. Just a lot of laundry today.

[Zorral]

Just now, maarsen said:

For some reason I seem to be immune. Just a lot of laundry today.

Well, we're glad you're immune.  But I can only imagine the laundry -- for which you need to wear gloves and mask, etc.

[Zorral]

We really can't survive these guys running the country again.

The COVID Policy of you all know who.

"We want them infected"

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/21/2189477/--We-want-them-infected-The-Deadly-COVID-Policy? 

Quote

 

We Want Them Infected: How the failed quest for herd immunity led doctors to embrace the anti-vaccine movement and blinded Americans to the threat of COVID (p. 186). Redhawk Publications. Kindle Edition. ....

.... Dr. Howard is the Chief of Neurology at Bellevue Hospital in New York, where he worked throughout the pandemic, including during the worst of the COVID, when 800 people a day were dying in the city.  “Overall, I saw more people die in a few weeks than I had my entire career,” Dr. Howard wrote.

We Want Them Infected shows in horrifying detail that “herd immunity” was based on a foundation of deadly false beliefs held by many of the doctors and others advising the Trump administration in the early stages of COVID. These beliefs included:

1. Young and healthy people were not at risk from the virus

2. The elderly and sick could be shielded from risk by separation from the rest of the population.

3. Pursuing herd immunity would minimize illness and death from COVID

Each of these presumptions was wrong and fatal.

1.  HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YOUNG, MIDDLE-AGED, AND HEALTHY PEOPLE DIED AND WERE SICKENED BY COVID-19
In April 2020, Dr. Scott Atlas, soon to be a primary Trump COVID advisor, wrote to Seema Verma, Administrator of Trump’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid  that the virus would cause about 10,000 deaths, and mingling of the non-elderly population should be encouraged because “ Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem.”

In June 2022, a House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus issued a report naming Atlas as the leader of the failed herd immunity strategy: The Atlas Dogma: The Trump Administration’s Embrace of a Dangerous And Discredited Herd Immunity Via Mass Infection Strategy. Dr. Howard relies on and quotes extensively from this Report.

This House Report was largely ignored by the media, including The New York Times.

Here’s the Alexander quote again:

“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…"

Let’s see how that strategy worked out:

CDC Death Tolls as of September 23, 2023 (Table 1) ....

 

We tend to recall just how proven throughout history has been the herd immunity thesis by, o say, bubonic plague, the Influenza pandemic, small pox, malaria, syphilis, etc.

Quote

Dr. Howard wrote the book earlier this year, and the lethal effects of these policies continue, particularly in Florida, where Governor DeSantis, with his Surgeon-General, Ladapo, continues to risk the lives of his constituents by advising those under 65 not to take the vaccine. I wrote about this in a prior diary, Homicide in progress in Florida.

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by Zorral