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

  • Thread starter baldgye
  • 13,265 comments
  • 628,404 views

I guess we can consider the COVID crisis to be officially over if the pharmaceutical companies are suing each other over it now.
Pfizer / BioNTech have also been sued for patent infringement by CureVac. Moderna is also facing lawsuits — biotechnology companies Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences sued over the method for packaging up the mRNA and delivering it to the body. Another biotechnology company, Alnylam, is suing both Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna over a similar technology.
Well isn't this wonderful.
 
"Free" COVID tests will come to an end:

Also, it appears that the next variation of the COVID vaccines will be approved and roll out shortly after Labor Day here in the US:
 

I guess we can consider the COVID crisis to be officially over if the pharmaceutical companies are suing each other over it now.


-

"Free" COVID tests will come to an end:

Free tests ended here in the UK several weeks ago, except for vulnerable groups. It's kind of daft though, as anyone can still order free tests provided they are for an eligible person... but they cannot possibly be checking that. I have ordered two boxes in recent weeks for my Mum - who is eligible for free tests - but I am still the one ordering them without any information requested as to who they are for.

I'm still strongly opposed to ending free testing though - COVID is still wreaking havoc in terms of sick days etc., and it will just go on and on. But as £2 per test, there was never any way that the average person was going to fork out for their own tests, and that's before the tsunami of living cost increases that is about to smash Europe...
 
The "bivalent formulation" of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine has been authorized by the FDA:
I don't really understand what this means. I know that Moderna was a bit behind Pfizer in applying for approval for their booster, this seems like something else.
 
I don't really understand what this means. I know that Moderna was a bit behind Pfizer in applying for approval for their booster, this seems like something else.
The new formulation is to protect people from all the subvariants of Omicron. It'll be needed 2 months after your last booster or your initial series. It should replace the existing boosters that are out there right now too, so you won't need to get the previous booster before getting this booster.

I have a meeting with the health department this afternoon so hopefully I know more.
 
The new formulation is to protect people from all the subvariants of Omicron. It'll be needed 2 months after your last booster or your initial series. It should replace the existing boosters that are out there right now too, so you won't need to get the previous booster before getting this booster.

I have a meeting with the health department this afternoon so hopefully I know more.
I guess I'm just confused about why both moderna and pfizer are coming through at the same time given that they applied at different times and have different vaccines. I thought Pfizer approval was coming like... tomorrow or the next day, and Moderna was expected in a few weeks. Seeing them lumped together early made me think this was something different.

Is "bivalent" just a combined pfizer/moderna booster from the earlier vaccines?
 
Last edited:
I guess I'm just confused about why both moderna and pfizer are coming through at the same time given that they applied at different times and have different vaccines. I thought Pfizer approval was coming like... tomorrow or the next day, and Moderna was expected in a few weeks. Seeing them lumped together early made me think this was something different.

Is "bivalent" just a combined pfizer/moderna booster from the earlier vaccines?
The two vaccines are pretty similar in terms of their formulation and how they work, so my guess is the FDA gave the authorization for them because they showed similar results in the studies so far (the studies are still ongoing too). The council that approves this sort of stuff doesn't meet all the time, and I'm guessing that they just wanted to get both approved so distribution would be better. I'm not confident on how many people will get this booster, but there will definitely be a rush over the next few weeks.

As for the bivalent part, it just means the vaccine will target two different strains of the virus instead of one. I'm not exactly up and up on the science behind it, but my completely laymen's understanding of it is that there could've been an Omicron-specific vaccine, but in order to protect yourself from the original strain, you'd need the original booster followed up with the Omicron booster. Instead of having two booster shots that were needed, the manufacturers just combined them so you'd only need one shot.

If you want to compare it to something similar that's already on the market, the HPV vaccine Gardasil 9 is a bivalent vaccine since it protects against two forms of HPV. Another example would be the yearly influenza vaccine which is a quadrivalent vaccine since it targets four strains of influenza.

The NYT has a better breakdown of what the new boosters actually are though:
 
From the start, one of my co-worker has said things like "I'm not getting a damn shot". Someone asked him what about if you get it? His reply: "If I die, I die."

He sent an email out early Monday that he had a stomach bug and would be out sick and would possibly be out on Tuesday, too.

He was out Tuesday.
And Wednesday.
And today.

I asked another co-worker if he'd heard anything. He said he texted him yesterday and he did test positive and feels like death.

Sounds like this is the find out part of the ****ing around.
 
A good friend and workmate tested positive for the first time on Monday...

... hence why I was more than a little surprised to see him in work today.

His reasoning - he tested negative this morning and feels fine (which is fair enough), and that he "must have been positive last week without knowing it".

So, unless he had one of the shortest infections in recorded history, he must have been in work for at least a couple of days while infectious last week...

Apparently he only tested himself on Monday because his wife has COVID...
 
Last edited:
he must have been in work for at least a couple of days while infectious last week...
Based on my antibody test, I almost certainly did, too. I don't know when I would have had it so i can't say for sure but I obviously felt good enough to go to work and didn't feel the need to get tested. When I was sick, I always got tested and they were always negative.
 
Finally got my booster shot Friday, 2 months after I think I was supposed to. Most symptoms lasted for about a day and a half, but it took 4 days to kick the fever(fine now).

Someone I work with this morning said something sarcastically about "aren't you glad for those vaccines" followed by informing me that it has now been confirmed that the recently retired Dr. Fauci had major investments in the lab where the virus was invented for the purpose of killing as many people as possible. He had more to say but I could not get out of that conversation fast enough.
 
I really wish I could have gotten a 2nd booster, so I am curious how long before I am eligible for the booster just being rolled out now. It has been about 11 months since I got my 1st booster.
 
I really wish I could have gotten a 2nd booster, so I am curious how long before I am eligible for the booster just being rolled out now. It has been about 11 months since I got my 1st booster.
I believe you can get it now, as soon as it’s available. I’m planning to get one ASAP, it’s been a little less than 11 months for me.
 
Been about 10 months since my first booster. Did an antibody check in July and that came back negative so I haven't caught the infection "yet" and I have been through some hard peaks too without a mask on unless the place requires it.
I will be getting my second booster here in the coming weeks so I know I am really covered for my trip which again going to Philippines. Shouldn't be that bad to get it sooner than later.
 
TB
Sounds like this is the find out part of the ****ing around.
Text from yesterday said he needed to take a nap because eating breakfast wore him out.

I certainly don't wish for anyone to get sick but it's almost like the ones that naysay the most are just asking for it.
 

TB
Text from yesterday said he needed to take a nap because eating breakfast wore him out.

I certainly don't wish for anyone to get sick but it's almost like the ones that naysay the most are just asking for it.
I'm sure you'll be hearing in a week or three about how they beat COVID and no stinkin vaccines were needed.
 
I'm sure you'll be hearing in a week or three about how they beat COVID and no stinkin vaccines were needed.
He's at work today and I overheard the comment that for two days, his 9MM was looking like a good idea and if he wasn't married, he'd probably be dead.

Greys Anatomy Wow GIF by ABC Network


Because I'm kind of a dick, I did feel the need to rub it in a bit that I didn't even know I had it.
 
While not peer reviewed, this study takes a look at how COVID has impacted the labor market in the US. Per the study's findings, the US has 500k fewer people in the workforce.

 

I really, really hope another variant doesn't kick down the door and make a surprise entrance.
 

I really, really hope another variant doesn't kick down the door and make a surprise entrance.
Totally agree, I just got boosted for omicron. I'd like that to last at least a little while.
 

I really, really hope another variant doesn't kick down the door and make a surprise entrance.
Not sure if it's been posted in this thread before but apparently Omicron BA4.6 is a variant of concern.

It also looks like our government is getting ready to scrap Covid isolation payments in the near future (and restrictions continue to be rolled back), so I'm fully expecting our case numbers to balloon as we approach summer.
 

Latest Posts

Back