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

[Danoff]

If covid ****s me up, it ****s me up, but at least it was my choice of what to be potentially ****ed up by.

No it's not, unless you're intentionally injecting covid into yourself. This would be better stated by replacing covid with vaccine.

"If the vaccine ****s me up, it ****s me up, but at least it was my choice of what to be potentially ****ed up by."

That'd be more accurate, because you're choosing to inject yourself with the vaccine.

I'm okay with the risk, because I see both options as the same level of risk for myself.

It's not.

 

[TexRex]

It turns out other ailments don't take a break during a pandemic and an act as simple as getting vaccinated, which slashes risk of hospitalization due to COVID to nearly zero, is actually a good thing.



Who dies from a gallstone?

 

[Jezza819]

Brace yourself for the 2nd one. The little I could get out of wifey after her 2nd yesterday was it feels like she has the flu today. Sore, chills, fever, seems like she's hitting her asthma inhaler every 15 minutes...
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A meme
View attachment 1077680

Which version did she get? Because that sounds exactly like what I had immediately after my 2nd Pfizer. After 36 hours or so I was perfectly fine though. Hope she starts feeling better soon.

 

[ryzno]

Which version did she get? Because that sounds exactly like what I had immediately after my 2nd Pfizer. After 36 hours or so I was perfectly fine though. Hope she starts feeling better soon.

Pfizer, I got the same, that's all they have at the local Walgreens. Still waiting on my email for the second one. Also she said thank you for the well wishes, she's doing better today, fever is gone but she still feels under the weather.

 

[McLaren]

Question for those: local fellow I know of has been in the hospital for a month now recovering from Covid. He's been reportedly getting better every day, needing less and less oxygen-assistance. In the last 2-3 days though, he says he's been having a hard time with his vision going blurry & shared it's Optic Neuritis.

Any report of vision issues with long-Covid, or has he had something that just unfortunately came up as he was recovering?

 

[Outspacer]

Edit 4: Reading the twitter comments it's interesting to see that a lot of people interpreted the tweet as political, as if the intention was some kind of attack on republicans. I think it's the opposite, that the intention is to give them a kick in the butt to work harder to get the vaccination rates up. The 8000+ figure is a bit sketchy, but the 5:1 death ratio for republicans vs democrats is probably somewhere in the ballpark of reality.

Comparing Rs and Ds like that can hardly fail to be political! The whole notion that one person's freedom outweighs just about everything else, that has led to the estimated statistic he's given, is fundamentally political.

But is it an attack? I don't think so either. I read it more as a plea for Rs to stop killing each other. There are plenty of posts around mocking Rs for doing that, but there's no mocking in his post, just the numbers.

 

[Joey D]

Question for those: local fellow I know of has been in the hospital for a month now recovering from Covid. He's been reportedly getting better every day, needing less and less oxygen-assistance. In the last 2-3 days though, he says he's been having a hard time with his vision going blurry & shared it's Optic Neuritis.

Any report of vision issues with long-Covid, or has he had something that just unfortunately came up as he was recovering?

Yes, vision problems can be a symptom of long-COVID

One year after COVID-19 and fighting for my vision

Struggling with symptoms including light sensitivity, pain and poor depth perception, Mark didn’t know what was wrong with his eyes. But his doctor of optometry did: the lingering effects of COVID-19. Together, they were able to work through a treatment plan to help Mark on his road to recovery.

www.aoa.org

Vision changes are often linked with neurological issues too, which are unfortunately another common symptom of long-COVID. In that article from the AOA, it suggests that the issues arise due to long-term reduced oxygen to the brain. I don't know enough about long-COVID to say how accurate that is, but it sounds reasonable enough.

If you're keen on looking at a study that looked at the connection between COVID and vision problems, one was published in the British Medical Journal in July. If you're not keen on reading it (and I don't blame you if you're not) the researchers basically found that there was nerve fiber loss and a reduction of immune cells on the cornea. While the study looks more at can your eyes help diagnose long-COVID, there is some interconnection.

 

[ryzno]

And now we have Mu.

 

[Joey D]

Mu? Gotta catch 'em all.

Also, please tell me there will be a sub-variant that they'll call Mu-2.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Alt+0181 people...

µ

 

[Famine]

m/mu (pronounced myu) is next after lambda

Turns out knowing Greek isn't entirely useless.

 

[PeterJB]

And now we have Mu.

This is the part where BoJo announces we'll ground all flights to and from South America in three weeks time...the day after the first cases are confirmed in the UK.

 

[Joey D]

Because healthcare workers use dark/unusual humor to cope, we share random things that we come across. Today, our little group had this study shared with us:

Study

The gist of it? It's looking at putting a ventilator up your rectum to deliver oxygen in either a gas or liquid form to help with respiratory issues caused by COVID. Or, to put in in laymen's terms, a tube up your bum to help you breathe or sort of a reverse fart if you will. If the prospect of erectile dysfunction doesn't dissuade you from not wanting COVID, having a tube up your backside has to be a good number two on that list...not that you'll be going number two.

I won't repeat some of the stuff we came up with regarding the study, but today I learned way too much about a few co-workers...

 

[Touring Mars]

Study

putting a ventilator up your rectum to deliver oxygen in either a gas or liquid form to help with respiratory issues caused by COVID.

Rectum? It nearly killed 'im!

a reverse fart if you will

TRAF - Temporary Respiratory Anal Fitting

 

[Danoff]

Because healthcare workers use dark/unusual humor to cope, we share random things that we come across. Today, our little group had this study shared with us:

Study

The gist of it? It's looking at putting a ventilator up your rectum to deliver oxygen in either a gas or liquid form to help with respiratory issues caused by COVID. Or, to put in in laymen's terms, a tube up your bum to help you breathe or sort of a reverse fart if you will. If the prospect of erectile dysfunction doesn't dissuade you from not wanting COVID, having a tube up your backside has to be a good number two on that list...not that you'll be going number two.

I won't repeat some of the stuff we came up with regarding the study, but today I learned way too much about a few co-workers...

Can you imagine what the republicans are going to do with this? There will be no end to the things which get shoved up people's butts to "protect" them from covid.

"I got some hydrochloroquin, ivermectin, a tube, and an air compressor...."

 

[ryzno]

Because healthcare workers use dark/unusual humor to cope, we share random things that we come across. Today, our little group had this study shared with us:

Study

The gist of it? It's looking at putting a ventilator up your rectum to deliver oxygen in either a gas or liquid form to help with respiratory issues caused by COVID. Or, to put in in laymen's terms, a tube up your bum to help you breathe or sort of a reverse fart if you will. If the prospect of erectile dysfunction doesn't dissuade you from not wanting COVID, having a tube up your backside has to be a good number two on that list...not that you'll be going number two.

I won't repeat some of the stuff we came up with regarding the study, but today I learned way too much about a few co-workers...

You gotta have a little fun at work, especially with everything y'all gotta deal with. I ASSume it was a little tamer than a construction worker or trucker.

 

[TexRex]

Can you imagine what the republicans are going to do with this? There will be no end to the things which get shoved up people's butts to "protect" them from covid.

"I got some hydrochloroquin, ivermectin, a tube, and an air compressor...."

Brings to mind the Appalachian medical clinic sketch from SNL years back.

"I slipped and fell."

"On a--"

"Yes, ma'am."

 

[TexRex]

To take Joe Rogan saying he has COVID at face value or not.

Says he's taking ivermectin, and it could easily be part of the disinformation campaign with him saying he's doing great and the treatment works all while not actually having or doing anything.

 

[McLaren]

To take Joe Rogan saying he has COVID at face value or not.

Says he's taking ivermectin, and it could easily be part of the disinformation campaign with him saying he's doing great and the treatment works all while not actually having or doing anything.

Sounds like the same **** Milo Yiannopoulos is claiming, that he has Covid but is taking ivermectin. I'm sorry, but well before death or serious illness, maybe it'll bite Joe in the ass so maybe he learns a small lesson about spreading his disinformation.

Edit* I just watched his video. Joe shows how out of touch he is with everyone else. "I started taking monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, z-pak, prednisone, NAD drip & a vitamin drip. I did that 3 days in a row, and I feel great". Thanks modern medicine except the vaccine which could've prevented "throwing the kitchen sink" at it. Most people are never going to do all that or probably afford to do that much.

 

[TB]

Because healthcare workers use dark/unusual humor to cope

Can confirm - married to one for 22 years.

Brings to mind the Appalachian medical clinic sketch from SNL years back.

"I slipped and fell."

"On a--"

"Yes, ma'am."

Since I'm rewatching Scrubs (most accurate hospital show made according to my wife) :

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Because healthcare workers use dark/unusual humor to cope, we share random things that we come across. Today, our little group had this study shared with us:

Study

The gist of it? It's looking at putting a ventilator up your rectum to deliver oxygen in either a gas or liquid form to help with respiratory issues caused by COVID. Or, to put in in laymen's terms, a tube up your bum to help you breathe or sort of a reverse fart if you will. If the prospect of erectile dysfunction doesn't dissuade you from not wanting COVID, having a tube up your backside has to be a good number two on that list...not that you'll be going number two.

I won't repeat some of the stuff we came up with regarding the study, but today I learned way too much about a few co-workers...

I believe I remember reading about this when it was done. So what's the verdict? Any chance for a home kit?

 

[Nexus]

Just got my first Pfizer dose around an hour ago. Feeling alright so far, second dose is booked on a Saturday so I won't be able to chuck a sickie during work if I get any major side-effects. Ah well.

 

[CyborgGT]

No it's not, unless you're intentionally injecting covid into yourself. This would be better stated by replacing covid with vaccine.

"If the vaccine ****s me up, it ****s me up, but at least it was my choice of what to be potentially ****ed up by."

That'd be more accurate, because you're choosing to inject yourself with the vaccine.

Eh, I stand by my wording of the sentence, given the context of the rest of my post, your interpretation is just off. That's what I was saying.

It's not.

How can you be so sure they're not equal risk for me when so many get through having the virus asymptomatic or otherwise not needing hospitalization? It is a pretty small percentage of people who get hit really hard, whereas it's impossible to know the possible negative long-term effects of the vax. I'm kind of waiting for the TV commercials in a few years notifying us of compensation qualifications, as is so often the case with the drug industry.

 

[Whitestar]

The difference, in my view, is that in taking the vaccine I'd be guaranteeing that something questionable is in my body, whereas I could just strike lucky with the virus and never pick it up at all

The difference, in my view, is that getting the virus you'd be guaranteeing that something questionable is in your body, whereas you would strike lucky with the vaccine and (probably) never pick it up at all.

 

[Famine]

it's impossible to know the possible negative long-term effects of the vax. I'm kind of waiting for the TV commercials in a few years notifying us of compensation qualifications, as is so often the case with the drug industry

Vaccines aren't drugs.

Drugs are (usually) artificial chemicals created to cause specific metabolic effects, and go through enormous observation programs, starting with in vitro, running through in vivo and into human trials, to see what the bioactivity and toxicity of the novel chemical agent is and for pharmacokinetics (it might, for example interact in a wholly unpredicted way with a metabolic product of a certain dietary item) long before it gets put into a foil packet with a brand name on the box.

A vaccine is either a dead (inactivated), dying (attenuated), or small bit of a virus (protein/mRNA). It has no bioactivity other than an immune response and the shock/wound caused by the needle itself. The immune system initiates its overblown "holy crap what the hell is that" response, and that generates T memory cells so that next time it happens the immune system initiates a slightly more precise "I know you, piss off" response.

The long term effects of a vaccine are T memory cells that recognise the virus. There's nothing left of the vaccine to stick around to cause anything long term at all, because the immune system destroys it all. Side effects are almost exclusively short term and intensely short term at that - anaphylaxis within 15 minutes, localised pain for a couple of days, regional pain for a few days, general unwellness (because, you know, immune response), and thrombocytopenia (CVST) at up to six weeks or so. These aren't exclusive to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines either.

Also, they don't cause any DNA changes, and they don't make people "shed spike proteins".

How can you be so sure they're not equal risk for me when so many get through having the virus asymptomatic or otherwise not needing hospitalization?

In the UK we've had 1,300 instances of anaphylaxis (which is why you're told to stick around for 15 minutes; you're in a room full of nurses) and no deaths, with 400 instances of CVST and 70 deaths.

We've administered 89 million vaccines, which tells you that the risk of a CVST is about 2 in 500,000 (globally the risk from the AZ vaccine is 2.5 per 100,000; around half of all UK vaccines so far have been AZ - but being phased out - so the figures roughly knit), and the risk of death from the vaccine's deathy side effects is a little less than one in a million.

You are at much higher risk of anaphylaxis and TCP from the vaccine if you are younger, but you'd be surprised by how little difference it actually makes. The risk of a CVST from being a woman of reproductive age and on the contraceptive pill is 4 in 100,000 - so if you have a girlfriend/fiancee/wife and she's on the pill, her risk of a CVST is literally 10 times higher for avoiding a baby than the global risk of getting vaccinated. Of course where the whole CVST/vaccine issue completely falls apart is the risk of a CVST from COVID-19 itself... at 40 per 100,000.


Currently the risk of death from COVID-19 infection is 2%. For the vaccines it's 0.00008%. You are at a higher risk from the vaccine if you're younger, but not 25,000x higher - and of course you're also at much higher risk of long COVID if you are younger too, and the vaccine offers significant protection from that too.


Edit: A quick check suggests a 5-10x risk for "vaccine induced" CVST from AZ in 18-49 age group compared to 50+ - and women more at risk than men. That means the AZ vaccine carries roughly the same CVST risk to a younger woman as the Pill does, whereas her risk of dying from COVID-19 without the vaccine is roughly the same as her risk of getting pregnant without contraception other than by pulling out... and you can't get "long-pregnant".

Do you expect me to dismiss an alleged scientist, but not some random video game forum commenter?

I don't expect anything of anyone, but I'd certainly suggest that if you're flagging someone as being the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology because he said he's the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology and it turns out that he isn't actually the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, you should probably treat his other claims with as much scepticism given his willingness to make up a position from which he can claim authority.

 

[TexRex]

Since I'm rewatching Scrubs (most accurate hospital show made according to my wife) :

"I was bored."



I can't imagine being that bored.

Has your wife seen any Chicago Hope? Man, I loved that show. I could never really get into Scrubs, though I do love John C. McGinley.

 

[Adamgp]

Illinois shifted into reverse real fast.

We went from fully open and mask free to requiring masks for everyone. They are begging everyone to cancel holiday travel plans, which I doubt anyone will do. Now cancelling events again, like the already postponed pride parade.

 

[Danoff]

How can you be so sure they're not equal risk for me when so many get through having the virus asymptomatic or otherwise not needing hospitalization?

Because the risk of vaccine is so low, that no matter what your covid demographic is, your risk is many times higher with covid. Your risk level with covid also changes with time, of course. As ERs fill up, your risk goes up. When ERs empty out, your risk goes down. But even at the best possible time, with the best possible health, your unvaccinated outlook with covid is worse than your outlook with vaccination and covid.

The irony of your "what about the risk for me" argument is that in order to really make a dent in this conversation, you'd really need to be arguing not that you're healthy, but that you're very very sick in a very specific way that would interact badly with the vaccine suspension. Like, for example, if you had some kind of absurd allergic response to vaccine suspension in general and an epi pen was too risky. If you really want to make this case, I think it would be easier to claim that you're in a high risk vaccine group rather than a low risk covid group. The unvaccinated risk from covid never goes down super low. The risk from vaccine can get much higher though - although I'm not sure whether anyone is really in a health position where they shouldn't get vaccinated. I'll leave that question to people who know better than me.


Edit:

Ah, already bedridden with a blood disorder that predisposes you to clotting... something like that. That might put you in a higher risk group, maybe specifically for J&J or AZ. I still don't know if anyone is in a position where the vaccine is the more dangerous route.

It is a pretty small percentage of people who get hit really hard, whereas it's impossible to know the possible negative long-term effects of the vax. I'm kind of waiting for the TV commercials in a few years notifying us of compensation qualifications, as is so often the case with the drug industry.

Are you seriously comparing the vaccine to implanted medical devices and surgical procedures?

 

[TB]

Has your wife seen any Chicago Hope? Man, I loved that show. I could never really get into Scrubs, though I do love John C. McGinley.

If it's hospital-centric, she isn't going to watch it. Even if there's just a scene in something we're watching, she'll find the stuff they have wrong.

At least for Scrubs, the backwards x-ray was intentional.

I can't remember what it was but last week she was surprised that a show got something kind of obscure correct and said that they must have had a consultant on set that day to tell they how it should look.

 

[Outspacer]

I still don't know if anyone is in a position where the vaccine is the more dangerous route.

I don't know either, but suspect from what I've read that that's true in most cases. Those with a valid medical reason to not have the vaccine are very likely also at very high risk of having the worst outcomes from catching COVID. Not sure if immune system disorders is the main reason, but that keeps being mentioned as a prime example. For people on immunosuppressives the risk of side effects from the vaccine can be a lot higher (depending on specific meds/circumstances); it's not just that it won't work.