COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

[Famine]

My wife's going to be giving vaccinations at the local place, and headed down there yesterday to see the place (especially with regards to access)... and while she was there, they stabbed her with the A/Z vaccine.

She was fine until later in the day, and had the typical immune response overnight - floppy and sore, with a reasonable fever (38.5/101) - and has been feeling like crap all day today, but seems fine now.

 

[Brett]

Oklahoma will open to anyone over 16 starting next Monday. At least a few Tribes had already done so.

 

[McLaren]

Oklahoma will open to anyone over 16 starting next Monday. At least a few Tribes had already done so.

Same here in Texas. You gotta be a damn insomniac to find an actual opening online here, though.

 

[Joey D]

Those that have had at least their first shot, how were you notified of your appointment? Call or text from a known phone number, or email, or both, etc.? I get so many spam calls I don't want reject one that could possibly be from one of the places I've applied notifying me of when I can get the first shot.

So this is more or less what my job has been for the past six months.

At our organization, when you're eligible for your first shot, your put in a cohort and then assigned a "vaccine due" which allows you to go in and schedule. When you're at that clinic getting your shot, you can schedule your second dose right then and there, or if you're not able to they send a scheduling ticket to your MyChart account which allows you to go in and schedule it yourself.

The slick stuff I built makes it so when anyone goes to schedule will automatically get the proper time frame they need their second dose by. Also, it prevents people from scheduling too many vaccines since that was a problem with older people for some reason. I'm not sure what it is about being over the age of 65 that makes you think you not only need a Pfizer vaccine, but also a J & J vaccine and another round of Pfizer for good measure.

When you have an upcoming appointment, you get texted 7 days before and if you don't confirm the appointment, you get another text 5 days before, then a phone call 3 days before. If you meet the threshold for not showing up to appointments, you get another notification the day before your appointment. You also hit a work queue for a scheduler to look at if you're doing something weird too so they can call you and help you get scheduled.

If you cancel your appointment, it automatically opens the appointment slot instantly and if it's not filled, it sends notifications to people on a waitlist and they have X amount of time to respond before it pulls the next group.

Thanks to all this, we're pretty much filling all our appointments and getting a ton of people through a day. You can also just show up 15 minutes before the clinics close and ask if they have any leftover vaccine. Most of the time they don't, but if they do you can make a walk-in appointment right then and there, which then puts you in the algorithm to get scheduled for your second dose.

It all works really well and even Governor Cox took note of how good our online scheduling system is. Or to put it another way, Cox approves! (it's good to be approved by Cox right? )

By comparison, our health department took the approach of "let god sort it out" and it was a nightmare for the first so many weeks. It's better now, but still runs about as efficiently as you'd expect a government-run operation to be. It's where I got my vaccine at and basically, I scheduled online, had to bring two pieces of information with me to prove my employment, and then was handed a code to schedule my second vaccine. I then had to check every day to see if my code worked and when it finally did, I could schedule my vaccine for a two-hour block of time.

 

[Jezza819]

Thanks to a tip from a co-worker today. I looked at Kroger's website and got scheduled for the first shot Saturday April 3rd and the 2nd shot three weeks later. It's at a Kroger about 25 miles away from me but I'll gladly make that drive on two Saturday mornings to get it over with.

 

[UKMikey]

It all works really well and even Governor Cox took note of how good our online scheduling system is. Or to put it another way, Cox approves! (it's good to be approved by Cox right? )

I hope he sticks up for you in the next funding review.

 

[Brett]

Same here in Texas. You gotta be a damn insomniac to find an actual opening online here, though.

I know from what my mom told me about helping my grandfather get a spot that it was similar here earlier in the phases. I do not know how it is now. I helped get my partner get signed up for one of the big vaccine days locally and it was a bit of a challenge; I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to have people select times for both their first and second round. I know this last weekend IMMY Labs--I think it was them at least--had a big vaccine event at the OKC Fairgrounds. For as awful as the state was in doing anything to help prevent people from getting COVID, they have seemingly done a better job getting people vaccinated.

 

[Outspacer]

AstraZeneca asks for certification of Dutch vaccine plant

... thus clearing the way for the 16 million doses to be delivered to the EU after checks. It's not said how many of those doses actually came from the NL plant but clearly at least some did. If it all came from there it would signify a marked increase in production capacity overall, which would be very very welcome (no matter how the politics play out).

 

[Shaun]

So after 28 days of zero reported community transferred cases here in Victoria Covid has been eradicated going by that metric according to our health officials.

Between that and the slooooow rollout of the vaccine fingers crossed we are coming out the other side of it. Thankfully only required to wear masks on public transport and hospitals mostly now.

Big test comes over the next few weeks as we introduce quarantine for those flying in ( flights in will be back on the table)as that's been stuffed up royally the last couple of times.

 

[FPV MIC]

As I'm eligible for stage 1b of the vaccine rollout in Australia I filled in the paperwork on the first day I could, which was four days ago. After an initial phone call a couple of days ago to recheck my eligibility I got the text yesterday confirming that today's the day for me.

All done with no side effects other than feeling a bit hazy this morning... but that could very have well been as a result of the several neat Makers Mark 46's I drank with my father in law last night

Edit: I should mention that the process was extremely efficient. I waited about a minute before the doctor came to take me to her room and after the mandatory questioning and cautions I was back out to the desk to get my next appointment which had been prepared while I was in with the doctor. All in it was about twenty minutes with fifteen of those being the mandatory post injection observation period.

 

[DG_Silva]

I was lucky enough to get my vaccination yesterday as well - got a text message on Wednesday to say to book it, and first appointments available was yesterday, so I decided to take advantage of my week's holiday and get the injection in case I had a bad reaction.

Absolutely fine for the injection, a bit of a sore arm for 3-4 minutes, and pulling back into second on the drive home, but beyond that I woke up this morning feeling a little hazy too - the best way to describe it would be a slight hangover, but my cold might be exacerbating it a little.

 

[UKMikey]

This sounds like it'll go well...

 

[McLaren]

I only just peeped his bio. What a pillock.

Edit* Reading the Twitter replies, this dude apparently drove drunk and killed a guy on his way to college. Pillock is being far too nice, but the AUP does not allow the words actually necessary to describe this man.

 

[MaxAttack]

I've been jib jabbed with a first shot of the AZ vaccine - I had it offered to me late in the day yesterday and after a quick email got a call back within 5 minutes to say I could drop in any time from 9-2. Got it done about 10am this morning.

I'm 26, 27 on Monday, and healthy enough, but after personally logging over 2000 lateral flow test results over the past weeks, I'm going to go ahead and not feel guilty about this at all. The more vaccinated, the better.

I hope more regular ass Joes like myself can get jib jabbed soon.

Like many above, I can report a super slick and professional vaccine operation down here on the Isle of Wight, enthusiastic and helpful volunteers, and a very positive energy around the whole thing, so kudos to those guys.

 

[Brett]

This sounds like it'll go well...

I only just peeped his bio. What a pillock.

Edit* Reading the Twitter replies, this dude apparently drove drunk and killed a guy on his way to college. Pillock is being far too nice, but the AUP does not allow the words actually necessary to describe this man.

Woof, that bio. Was he not given enough attention as a kid? Why do people take pride in being giant douchebags?

 

[Outspacer]

EU stops short of vaccine export ban - BBC

Unsurprisingly then, no actual ban, however the previous arrangement where EU states can block individual shipments remains in place, as was used by Italy to block the shipment to Australia. Thankfully the Dutch and Belgian leaders are more reluctant to use the ability than Italy or France.

"EU heads of state and government spent hours arguing during a video summit on Thursday about how to divvy up an extra load of 10 million coronavirus vaccine doses" - Politico

Of interest from that article is that VDL gave some updated figures: 88 million doses delivered to EU member states, and 77 million more exported - 21 million to the UK.

So that puts known production of vaccines within the EU at 204 million doses thus far, once the 10 million they're arguing over and the 29 million of AstraZeneca known to be close to shipping are included. If the proportion exported remains the same, and if 360 million are delivered to the EU next quarter as VDL expects, then I'd estimate that production in the EU will be 600 million doses over the quarter.

UK production* is less than a tenth of that 204 million. Probably quite a lot less than a tenth, given that the likely reason for importing doses from India was to cover a shortfall. A 'reciprocal' export of AstraZeneca to the EU would be about 1 to 2 million doses (~10% of total vaccine production) - a tiny amount for the EU. Furthermore, production in the EU appears to be increasing far more rapidly than in the UK, and across a wider base of manufacturers (re. the EMA press release today, which includes approval of the NL AstraZeneca plant).

(* - apart from the lipid nanoparticles that go to Pfizer - of course it's less easy to quantify that, but it has directly supported the production of 10s of millions of doses in the EU. It's mostly irrelevant to any point I'm trying to make though aside from promoting cooperation).

So why is Hancock baiting with "our contract trumps yours" rather than emphasising this disparity in numerical terms, at least in public? Perhaps to avoid alarming the UK population? I'd say the best way to do that would be to avoid inflaming the dispute with the EU and not be using points that play right into their hands, but what do I know.

Naturellement, when it comes to inflammatory language French politicians refuse to be outdone:

France's foreign minister said on Friday that the EU "shouldn't be paying the price" for the UK's vaccination policy.

"One can't play with blackmail, having given a lot of first jabs and then run into problems with the second," Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Info radio.

(edit: BBC, with a slightly different quote, France accuses UK of 'blackmail' over vaccine exports)

It is utterly frustrating to see all these arguments going on right when the supply of vaccines in EU seems to be quickly increasing to the point where providing jabs could well become the bottleneck. Indeed, even the official who instigated the raid in Italy seems to think supply will be fine, no need for more (Politico):

Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who heads the EU executive’s vaccine task force argues Sputnik is a red herring. “We have absolutely no need of Sputnik V,” he said Sunday.

Why is AstraZeneca's UK production so low? It's amounted to only about 5 million a month thus far. I remember back in January when this row started it was said that the UK plant had low yield to begin with but that it had been resolved. There's no sign of any stockpiling. There are two sites, Oxford and Keele - is one not producing yet? Or are they both just tiny?

 

[Blitz24]

This sounds like it'll go well...

This moron is located in southern NJ and trust me, he is of no value.

 

[FerrariF1GT]

Woof, that bio. Was he not given enough attention as a kid? Why do people take pride in being giant douchebags?

He’s probably someone who thinks that they can have all the freedom they want without bearing the responsibility that comes along with and the consequences that come with being irresponsible.

I mean if the gym wants to do this it’s their preogative (to be clear, I personally don’t approve of it) but if the policy gets them bad press and they lose customers as a result, then I’d say they probably had it coming to them.

 

[UKMikey]

I only just peeped his bio. What a pillock.

Edit* Reading the Twitter replies, this dude apparently drove drunk and killed a guy on his way to college. Pillock is being far too nice, but the AUP does not allow the words actually necessary to describe this man.

"Wazzock" may be nearer the mark.

 

[Pupik]

First vaccine completed. Feeling alright thirty minutes later.

No joke, this appeared on random after the first song. ..

...and this was third:

I only just peeped his bio. What a pillock.

Edit* Reading the Twitter replies, this dude apparently drove drunk and killed a guy on his way to college. Pillock is being far too nice, but the AUP does not allow the words actually necessary to describe this man.

Any real doctor knows that a 1500kg of an automotive solution is a lethal dose.

 

[Outspacer]

John Campbell's video a couple of days ago was mostly about a change in instruction on injection technique that the Danish have made, as a precaution against accidentally injecting into a vein which could be a cause of blood clots.

He explains it better than I could...

 

[MaxAttack]

First shot of the AZ vaccine had me completely wiped out - shivers, heat flares, massive aches, and couldn't manage a bite to eat. My arm kept aching more and more until I couldn't so much as grip with it and just had to hold it in place.

Took 2 paracetamol and went to bed at 9pm. Thankfully I've woken up feeling like myself.

Whew - I knew I was fine, but man I felt weird. My advice is cancel any plans to be a normal human directly post jab.

 

[DG_Silva]

My advice is cancel any plans to be a normal human directly post jab.

Agreed, this is why I decided to take it this week while I was on holiday, just in case. As it was, I guess I wasn't unlucky like you.

 

[CodeRedR51]

I pretty much have to go into work after I get my first one, so hoping it's not a terrible experience.

 

[Danoff]

I pretty much have to go into work after I get my first one, so hoping it's not a terrible experience.

I think a lot of people have no side effects after the 1st dose of pfizer. The 2nd dose is a different matter, because your immune system responds to the virus. If you've had covid, or another coronavirus, you might have more of a response to the 1st dose.

 

[TJ13]

I think a lot of people have no side effects after the 1st dose of pfizer. The 2nd dose is a different matter, because your immune system responds to the virus. If you've had covid, or another coronavirus, you might have more of a response to the 1st dose.

I had just little stiffness and sore after my first one but nothing significant.
Second one for me is 8th.
So I am not looking forward to that one as I kept hearing that it's the 2nd one that is worse than the first.

 

[Barra333]

I got myself booked for a shot on 5th April. Second shot will be the start of August because Canada decided 21-28 days wasn't long enough.

 

[Touring Mars]

My former colleague Pablo (and my friend Daniel) published a paper last week that showed that human rhinovirus (a common cold virus) can block SARS-CoV-2 replication, and this was reported worldwide, including on the BBC...

https://academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiab147/6179975

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56483445

But while, at first glance, it might seem like a good news story, it got me wondering about whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Pablo and other authors on the paper study virus-virus interactions, and it is well known that lockdown restrictions aimed at reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission have also resulted in dramatic drops in infections of other viruses, including influenza and common cold viruses... indeed, I don't think I've ever gone this long without a bout of the cold...

This had me wondering if this might partly explain the lack of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with school children. Indeed, other coronaviruses are already in circulation and can, in theory anyway, possibly result in people developing antibodies that also protect against SARS-CoV-2. This study suggests that rhinoviruses can protect against a severe SARS-CoV-2 infection by a different method, but the point is that the lack of other viruses circulating could actually end up being a bad thing, esp. if, like rhinoviruses, they only result in mild illness (but confer strong protection against a much more dangerous virus).

I must admit, I don't understand the topic well enough to know, and indeed, I don't think it is even that well understood even by those whose careers are based on answering such questions... but it does at least make some logical sense to me to be slightly concerned at the prospect of schools going back while SARS-CoV-2 levels remain quite high, but other viruses, such as common cold viruses, have been taken out of circulation.

I expect, however, that most kids didn't/don't have such protection from other viruses to start with, so the effect may be (and probably is) almost negligible... but I would not like to be wrong about that.

 

[FPV MIC]

I got myself booked for a shot on 5th April. Second shot will be the start of August because Canada decided 21-28 days wasn't long enough.

Neither did Australia for the AZ vaccine. I had my first shot last Thursday and my next one isn't until 17th June... 12 weeks later

 

[Outspacer]

My former colleague Pablo (and my friend Daniel) published a paper last week that showed that human rhinovirus (a common cold virus) can block SARS-CoV-2 replication, and this was reported worldwide, including on the BBC...

https://academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiab147/6179975

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56483445

But while, at first glance, it might seem like a good news story, it got me wondering about whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Pablo and other authors on the paper study virus-virus interactions, and it is well known that lockdown restrictions aimed at reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission have also resulted in dramatic drops in infections of other viruses, including influenza and common cold viruses... indeed, I don't think I've ever gone this long without a bout of the cold...

This had me wondering if this might partly explain the lack of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with school children. Indeed, other coronaviruses are already in circulation and can, in theory anyway, possibly result in people developing antibodies that also protect against SARS-CoV-2. This study suggests that rhinoviruses can protect against a severe SARS-CoV-2 infection by a different method, but the point is that the lack of other viruses circulating could actually end up being a bad thing, esp. if, like rhinoviruses, they only result in mild illness (but confer strong protection against a much more dangerous virus).

I must admit, I don't understand the topic well enough to know, and indeed, I don't think it is even that well understood even by those whose careers are based on answering such questions... but it does at least make some logical sense to me to be slightly concerned at the prospect of schools going back while SARS-CoV-2 levels remain quite high, but other viruses, such as common cold viruses, have been taken out of circulation.

I expect, however, that most kids didn't/don't have such protection from other viruses to start with, so the effect may be (and probably is) almost negligible... but I would not like to be wrong about that.

Obviously I have no training in this field whatsoever, but maybe we can make reasoned guesses about what it might mean. Mine would be that the timing of the initial wave back in spring goes somewhat against it making a huge difference, since colds are more common in winter so many people would've had recent exposure. That said, I think it's logical that cross-immunity could have mitigated the severity of that wave and it could have been even worse otherwise. Either way, it's good to see a study publishing some results on it.

I was sceptical that allowing children back to school in September was wise, and noisily critical of them staying in school during the November lockdown. The data shows that cases rose in school children far more than in other age groups during the term, peaking at 3% prevalence for teenagers (ONS). So hardly a lack of transmission amongst them. The question mark is over how much that transmission spilled outward - my hunch is that it spread to parents and then onward, and the only counter to that was a study that found firstly that it hadn't particularly spread to teachers and secondly that schools rates weren't that different to 'locality' rates (which IMO didn't really answer the question).

With this return to school, I dunno. It's certainly not obvious that it's a bad idea, even though cases have almost doubled amongst the 11-16 year olds (or will have; the data lags). I can see the logic in having a few weeks back followed by the easter hols as a 'firebreak', just to see how things go. The important result of this experiment will be to see how cases amongst parents are affected. Then we ask does that matter as much with all over 50s soon having had a jab? Since an infection path from child to a hospitalised case would in most cases take a few steps, and hence some time, could this prove to have been a well-timed gamble?