Bad information, at this point, plays such a central role now. The issue has been fully politicized and polarized, and I don't see how we undo that.

So, how many deaths among people like me would it take for the hypothetical "me" to start to take something seriously? I don't know, to be honest.

A million dead Americans, probably a click or two more than that if you measure by the more neutral "excess deaths" metric... and most of the country has decided it's time to back off. And many are now furious that we did any of the things that we did to try to slow/stop it as an article of faith.

It's bananas and driven by such irrationality that I don't think this is about math.

I work with and around political people, professionally. I wear a mask a lot more than the average person, especially of late, so I end up tagging myself (like it or not) as out of the mainstream. And I have lost track of the anecdotes from relatively mild covid-deniers who have fully hinged their actions on the most specious and absurd little things. That anecdote about the car crash victim dying of physical trauma but being "counted as a covid death because he tested positive" is just a get-out-of-thinking-free card for an awful lot of people (and these are people charged with making decisions on behalf of the public). It's just staggering.

-Nobody really dies of this, I got it and it was just like a cold
-I heard about the hospital just using covid numbers to get more funding
-The car crash guy story, gimme a break
-The studies say that the vax was always a lie and does nothing at all
-The studies say that masks were always a lie and do nothing at all

A million plus dead is crazy. We had a poll on this I need to look at again.

A million is roughly 1 in 330 people in this country that have died from covid. I'd imagine if you filled a stadium with 50k people and announced 150 people would randomly be chosen to die it's something that would be taken seriously.

Then again, a significant percentage of people don't believe that number and always have a friend or relative that knows someone that died in a car accident and the death certificate listed covid as the cause of death.

If you told people that, for the Super Bowl, 150 people would be killed and there's nothing they could do about it. After all the hemming and hawing and rules lawyering came to nothing, there would still be a full stadium full of people thinking "it won't be me" rather than an empty stadium full of people going "I'd rather not give myself an extra 1 in 300 chance of dying today".

SI

ping Shirley Jackson

I know this misses 100% of the audience who really would need to grok it, but I still love the fuck out of it...

In 2018, "Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial" was published in the British Medical Journal.

It sought to determine if wearing a parachute when jumping from a plane had any impact on survivability.

It did not. pic.twitter.com/SkyzKRDgrc

— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance) February 23, 2023

Oh, to one day experience the joy felt by the data scientists developing this abstract:

I would even go so far as to suggest EXTREMELY cautious extrapolation.

I can't fathom how ANYONE believes that number. That's far scarier than Covid ever was.

unfortunately it seems to me that the worse the threat, the more chaotic society responds. at least it has been like that throughout history and covid reminded us of that.

The football stadium example is good to comprehend scope but it doesn't say much about whether or to what degree we "take COVID seriously" (I'm never sure what that means).

I've traveled internationally the last few years and did stuff like go to the movies and restaurants as soon as they were open. Those things increased my risk of infection, illness, and death, to some degree, but, all of those things could have happened if I didn't go too. And my personal risk was further muddled by working in an office with people most of that time, and living with someone who worked in a grocery store the entire time. It seemed silly to avoid mostly-empty theaters when I lived with someone who was around hundreds of people every day indoors, most of that time with no mask mandate.

Vaccines were an easy choice, so was masks, deciding not to give up experiences I'll never get back was an easy choice too - COVID wasn't nearly scary enough. And I believe all the numbers. As it was I tested positive one time, and then negative the next day. I wish I did more traveling and socializing, I probably would have got through it all cleaner from a mental health standpoint. Or maybe I would have died. But it would have been worth the risk.

Nothing to worry about yet …

Bird Flu has been around for a while. I’d hope if/when it becomes person to person transmissible, we should be better prepared in treating it vs Covid.

https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2023...cambodia-death

I still look at this in the opposite direction. A million plus dead is incredibly low. Astonishingly so. A third of a percent. That's not to minimize anything about the pandemic or the tragedy of the people dying, but just to put it perspective.

I think 1M+ is high. Recent annual Flu deaths are typically below 60k.

I do wonder (knowing what we know now, without all the uncertainties then) with the relatively low impact to younger folks, would we still do what we did like school closures, the remote work etc. What could we have done differently with the 100% hindsight.

[Poll] How many actual COVID pandemic deaths in the USA (once the pandemic is over)? - Front Office Football Central

It was lower than I thought we would have at the very start of the pandemic (though we had a lot of fog of war about the numbers coming out of China) but higher than I thought we would get to around June, apparently (from thread above).

SI

Bottom-line. The various US agencies disagree if Covid was a lab leak or (un)natural transmission via the Wuhan market.

I don't understand why US Energy Dept gets a vote at the table on this (?) but the FBI believes it.

A Lab Leak in China Most Likely Origin of Covid Pandemic, Energy Department Says - WSJ

Who are the other 4 agencies that disagree? Not identified


And the FBI won't share their rationale.


So yeah, I'd like the congressional hearing on the origins of Covid and also the lessons learn & recommendations for next time.

With this Congress?

Office of Science - Wikipedia

Thought to check the CDC website for updated metrics.


Now 4+ months later, we are at

CDC COVID Data Tracker

> 12 is at 77.4% (2 shots)
> 12 is at 90.3% (at least 1 dose)

And the bivalent (shot #5 I believe) metrics are much worse with everyone other than 65+ with < 20% for bivalent.

It will be good to combine flu+covid into one shot otherwise I suspect most Americans won't want to come back another day to get the covid shot. Flu shots are in the 50-52% range.

I'm planning to get another booster for the 4 of us before my boys head (via plane) to see my folks for Spring Break.

I understand the government's reluctance to ask people to do too much on the theory that people will then get confused/frustrated and do nothing.

But there are those of us who want to get vaccinated as much as needed to decrease our chance of catching COVID. And I think that we are being ignored/left behind.

I'd like the government to give us their thoughts on whether every 4 months makes sense for a booster. Or every 6. I Understand that most people won't do that. But it feels like there is now a deliberate decision to let immunity wane for people who don't want it to wane simply because the government is afraid of what some anti-vaxxers might say about them asking for too much.

I suspect the ideal frequency for boosters is once a quarter, actually, but regardless any message about regular boosters is one with almost 0 political upside.

I don't disagree.

And that sucks. No one is making anyone get a shot. I'm just asking the government not to withhold information from those of us who want it because it will hurt some people's feelings to know that other people are making different choices than they are.

Yeah, they could give a simple guideline: The optimal frequency for boosters is every X months. We will continually update the booster to work for the most current variants. Come get 'em if you like, if you don't, good luck.

I've avoided catching it so far. I'd like to keep the streak going.

Just don't give the 5g proteins to anyone else.

Bill to prevent mRNA vaccine recipients from donating blood is killed

Well crap, no combo shot this year.

I get an annual combo of Flu+Covid probably is not "optimal" for Covid vaccinations (e.g. prob 6-8 month range, so twice a year instead of annual) but do think this is the best compromise. With flu shots in the 50-52% range, it's a good way to get the low hanging fruit done.

I have to believe it'll be ready for 2024.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flu-cov...official-says/

I got my 3rd booster a month before we went on a cruise and my wife got her 2nd booster 2 weeks before and she got Covid and I had pretty much the same symptoms but tested negative (so far). I suppose it made it milder but who knows.

Basically, reputable research firm says masks "makes little or no difference".

I googled on other articles about this and there is definitely pushback on the methodology and other stuff etc. But Cochrane is reputable, so do think it's good to keep an open mind that the conventional wisdom of wearing masks (including N95) may not be correct.

It's not intuitive to me, I know masks are not near 100% but would still think there's some level of protection for getting/passing on bugs.

Masks Cochrane review: There’s still not strong evidence for masks’ effectiveness.

Yet, even that "high quality" study is a mess.



And, just to get in the weeds a little, since my wife works in academic publishing (so guess what gets talked about at the dinner table. That's a review study. It's in Cochrane, which is a good, legit journal and not some predatory bunch of hacks. However, there's no actual new science being done there - it basically aggregates other reviews and tries to draw a conclusion from them. The heavy lifting in a review article is being done by which studies you choose to include - which you choose to leave in because you think it's "good science" and which you choose to omit because it's "bad science". And that Slate article talks about the limitations of that sort of study. There's a reason why review articles are some of the hardest to get accepted in major journals - because you're just reporting on science that's already been done, as opposed to original research or case studies. So who is making the determination of your review articles matters a lot more than what the science says in those. (And, seriously? Talking about fomite transmission 3 years into COVID? I get it in the early days when we were trying to get our arms around this, but now? Really? When there's been very little evidence for it? That really calls into question the potential conflicts of interests from the author)

SI

To keep it short... the correlation between the number of golf balls that make it into the cup in golf was unchanged when controlling for trees. Therefore trees on the course have no bearing on the ball going into the cup.

That's how I feel most of the right sums up mask usage. You take that particular conclusion and say what you wanted to say all along. Regardless of the nuances that are abandoned to reach that conclusion.

I tried very hard to find a decent analogy for the central flaw in the Cochrane meta-analysis that got Bret Stephens etc to declare that masks "do nothing."

It's this: "Imagine you found 100 papers showing that it’s hard to get kids to replace sugary snacks with broccoli..." pic.twitter.com/KB443Y5vtC

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) March 3, 2023

Doesn't matter. The paper is out that comes to the conclusion I like. Therefore, no criticism of it matters. I refuse to allow surgical staff to wear masks when they do surgery because this study says it is useless, and it will make libs angry. Yee-haw!

The study itself admits it's basically useless. It rates its conclusion as "low confidence" and cites the ridiculous reasoning that they don't know if many people in the masked cohorts actually wore masks.

Completely stupid to even publish garbage like that. One might say intentionally irresponsible.

I've been reading more critiques about the study and this is what I'm starting to think.

I've not seen a rebuttal from Cochrane to all the criticism. I'd like to see what they say or have them issue a clarification/retraction.

As I was reading the article, I was just thinking "why, why do this". I do think we need to do the research but it seems like a free for all right now, and there are some scientists/hobbyist that may not have rigorous controls.

Viruses in permafrost: Scientists have revived a 'zombie' virus that spent 48,500 years frozen | CNN
Important quote.

The Cochrane Review 'Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses' was published in January 2023 and has been widely misinterpreted.

Karla Soares-Weiser, Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Library, has responded on behalf of Cochrane:


source link: https://www.cochrane.org/news/statem...viruses-review

Thanks.

From Mar 10. You'd think they would have offered a clarification a little earlier. But good walk back I guess.

I feasted positive for COVID for the first time yesterday. It was a good three year run.

Purely anecdotal as I've seen zero news coverage of any type of an increase in positives, but 4 people in my office have had spouses or kids test positive in the past 2 weeks. None of us, though, have tested positive despite living with those people through it all.

Yes, it certainly took them long enough.

Three years ago, things looked bleak. But at least we were united. We had a common enemy. We had a sense of purpose. If you had told me then that the pandemic would end up, like everything else, being eaten by red versus blue, I would’ve been skeptical. It felt like maybe something was finally bigger than that.

Best I can imagine they may have still been operating in the mindset of "we didn't think people would wilfully misinterpret our findings from what is basically a pretty niche academic exercise and that it would be used to drive widespread misinformation".

I mean, that would be pretty naive, but institutional inertia is a bitch, and academics generally have a pretty tough time understanding the ways in which things like facts and studies can be wildly misinterpreted or misunderstood by non-academic.

Whoops!

An Ivermectin Influencer Died. Now His Followers Are Worried About Their Own ‘Severe’ Symptoms.

As a lib, I feel owned/sad that my fellow humans are slowly poisoning themselves to death.

So, I guess good job by them. Owned a lib on the way out and all that.

"He took it wrong" "He was murdered by Big Pharma- the Biden Crime Family- Hilary Clinton- The Easter Bunny."

When did the Easter Bunny turn liberal!?!?!

That story is so damn sad. We truly are a country of idiots.

The part about people giving this stuff to their kids made me slightly physically ill.

Yeah, the kids part pisses me off.

The adults, no problem. Free(ish) country, that's why we have the Darwin awards.

Article says Bird Flu not too much of a concern right now for humans. But I can see tremendous damage done to our poultry industry. I didn't know this was a reason why egg prices are so high.

Avian Flu is Far From Becoming a Human Pandemic | Time

…and if the H5N1 avian flu does, somehow, transmit to humans more easily… then the covid body count could, indirectly, explode. Because if our political division around covid causes half of Americans to skip getting a vaccine, taking precautions, and following treatment guidance… we could have an enormous wave of otherwise avoidable casualties. (Losing over a million Americans has already been awful… but that’s with a disease that has a <1% fatality rate).

I dunno.

50% fatality rate (if holds true from the small sample size) will get people on board. There'll still be some crazies but a vaccine won't get here fast enough for 95% of the population.

This sounds like a no brainer to me.

You'd think they have plenty of data by now.

Good proactive move.

https://www.reuters.com/business/hea...es-2023-03-20/
And the same old dilemma as with the Covid vaccines

Nice move Joe. It's evident there is significant disagreement on how it started so don't expect any smoking gun info. But the FBI seems to have a higher confidence and it'll be interesting to read their rationale.

Biden will release Covid-19 origin intelligence - POLITICO
I was wondering if the CIA had an assessment (not mentioned in article link). You'd think the CIA with spies /assets in China would have a better idea. In a different article ...



... now if they would really release all the info about Aliens and how they are spying and/or living amongst us.

Good news if it pans out. Should make the annual bivalent dose (same time with flu shots?) a lot easier.

A new approach to a Covid-19 nasal vaccine shows early promise | CNN
Made me look to check # cases, deaths. There's an uptick in deaths but overall decreasing trend for infections & hospitalizations, and for deaths overall.

CDC COVID Data Tracker

And a WHO dashboard for global Covid. A little weird for the massive infection/cases spike in this past Dec/Jan.

https://covid19.who.int/

Guess it's official.

I do want an congressional investigation/hearing, not to primarily focus on the origins but more lessons learn. There'll be some inevitable finger pointing and blame placed, but lessons learn is pretty important.

Biden signs bill ending Covid-19 national emergency | CNN Politics.

For closure on this chapter of the book

> 12 is at 77.4% (Primary series, 2 shots)
> 12 is at 90.4% (Primary series, at least 1 dose)
> 12 is at 19% (Bivalent)

77.4% is a pretty good number. But it took forever (2 years) and prob less impactful than it seems.

It's a bit of a disappointing number, though I guess, in the political climate maybe better than can be expected. It was perhaps less impactful from a containment standpoint but it probably took a large chunk off of the hospitalization and death numbers

SI

Both my in-laws have been dealing with medical issues in the past year. I got a $76 Spirit airline flight from Atlanta to Dallas for FIL birthday (can't beat the price but catch is only allowed a reasonable sized carryon backpack).

Wife drove me to the airport but said she wasn't feeling great. At Sat 6am, took me 22 min to get through security. A lot of people in line but it moved briskly.

Got to the gate and wife calls me. She took the Covid test and came back positive. So we cancelled my plans as the in-laws are in a fragile state.

She had been dealing with runny nose and throat clearing. We thought allergies as we've been doing yard work, but she was worried enough to take the test.

I called Spirit and told them I was at the gate but cancelling my flight. They said get a doctors statement and I can get my $76 refund. I'm thinking fair chance we'll never go to the doctor. She's gotten all the vaccination shots available so we'll monitor her. I'll really get worried if there is respiratory issues vs sniffling and throat clearing.

I get Spirit needing a doctors note otherwise there would be abuse. For a split second, I was tempted to be a smart ass and say "nevermind, I'll get on the plane then" and see what she would say. But I just told her I wanted her to let gate agents know I cancelled so they won't be looking for me and possibly inconvenience the flight.

So after 2+ years, me travelling internationally in the past year, her working as a teacher in 2021 and 2022, and neither of us testing positive ... wife now has Covid.

oof Edward, how horrible to get it after all this time. Hope you are all okay, and get your money back somehow from Spirit

Thanks. I'm feeling fine ... for now at least.

The dilemma I have is we are on the backend of our groceries (milk, bread, cokes etc.). Question is should I drop by Kroger late at night, wearing a mask, do self checkout, and stock up. Funny how these questions come up when you test positive.

Wait - did you test positive, or just your wife?

If you don't have symptoms or haven't tested positive, you're not restricted other than you should wear a mask for 10 days from exposure. It's your wife who is supposed to isolate for 5 days from first symptoms. After that, it doesn't even matter if she's still testing positive, she just has to wear a mask for another 5 days but can go out in public.

So to answer your question, you can do whatever, just wear a mask.

Just my wife. I don't have symptoms but I haven't taken the test (just happened this morning) but will later today.

Didn't know about the current protocols. Okay, so I take the test and it's negative, I can still go to Kroger but with mask on.

You don't really need to test before you go to the store, if you don't have any symptoms. Just mask up. You're supposed to test day 6 (after 5 full days from first exposure). If negative, you've got another 5 days with mask. If positive, isolate.

Even if you decide to test today, you still need to test in 5 days - unless you come up positive today, then your 10 days begins and you and your wife are pretty much on the same schedule (5 days in isolation, 5 days in mask).

Okay, thanks.

Assuming no symptoms, I guess I'll go shopping tonight.

I think it's worth saying that you and your wife deserve a lot of credit for thinking of others here. It's one thing to learn and to talk about all of this and have opinions. It's another to behave as if the results mean you should take responsibility and walk the walk as well.

Guard is definitely down now. I went to a doctor's office yesterday that I had visited three months ago. In January, signs were up, a box of paper masks at the front desk. I saw two people reminded to wear masks. Yesterday, no boxes, no one wearing masks, except the actual doctor himself. Which had me wondering if nothing has changed except perception. I will take another look into what boosters are available and when they should be taken.

Went to Kroger and did my thing last night. Not that busy and non eventful. Took the Covid test this morning and came back negative.

Got wife some Mucinex, she slept pretty well and is feeling somewhat better. She has nose congestion and not chest congestion. Assume this is like the flu where it peaked yesterday and is now all downhill to recovery now.

(On another note, ordered pickup from our local Indian restaurant. Their pulled chicken pepper, medium spicy is pretty darn great)

re: doctors. I go to the dentist multiple times a year, and my doctor last year only to get non-Covid vaccinations (Tetanus, Shingles, Hepatitis). Both doctors & staff were still pretty good with requiring masks and disinfectant gel everywhere. My dentist also has me gargle with something which makes sense. They have done away with temperature gun reading though. Overall, happy with the level of Covid monitoring & prevention both are doing.

I was also at the doctor Friday, and the same. No masks are required, but all of the staff were masked. Got a shingles shot and spent all day yesterday achy with a fever. Fun.

Same for my first shingles shot (although I combined it with dTap and Covid booster). Good news is that I didn't have a single issue with the 2nd shingles shot 3 months later. Hopefully the same for you.

That's good to hear.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

I think the three medical places I go to (Dentist, kidney doctor, regular doctor) have all moved to whatever you feel comfortable with in regards to masks, and I think most of them have gone maskless too when I visit)

Wife is feeling much better. Pretty quick ... onset on Fri, peaked on Sat, felt better on Sun, almost back to normal Mon.

It was like a flu/allergies, no excessive symptoms. All she took was Mucinex to help with decongestion. We had Indian food on Sat, she could taste and smell it so no issues then.

Had all her vaccinations. She's a runner so much more fit than me. Glad it was a mild case. She retired from teaching but is doing part-time work with special needs kids. CDC does say she can return on day 6 (Thu) assuming no more symptoms.



Coincidently, our 90lb lab was wheezing a lot yesterday. Had a couple spit ups of sticky phlegm. Didn't eat her food. Very lethargic all day. Also feeling much better today. No idea if she caught it from wife but CDC says its possible

What You Should Know about COVID-19 and Pets | Healthy Pets, Healthy People | CDC.

Good that they are offering this up.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-b...ccine-cdc-fda/
Yup, sounds like the annual flu shot. It would be nice if it was a combo single shot.

I am glad that the trend is downward. Hopefully this is the direction that sticks.

Hopkins has stopped gathering data. Nearly everyone has stopped masking in all but the most sensitive areas. I get it.

That said... we still had over 1,300 Americans die of COVID last week. I know we have decided it's over and everything, but that's still an awful lot of actual people to just collectively round to zero.

Well, you can round it to zero when they all really died in a car accident or from the vaccine. /s

At the risk of sounding like an anti-vaxxer/MUH FREEDOM dude from 3 years ago, the US was averaging about 1K deaths a week from the flu less than 5 years ago (it varied from year to year but 50K+ deaths was not out of the ordinary and the average was around 35K a year) and no one so much as batted an eye at that.

I think that's a reasonable question, particularly couched that way. What I'd counter with is that we're in one of the lowest lulls we've seen in the pandemic and you're comparing it to the peak of flu season so it's comparing highs with lows.

The preliminary data from flu gives a range of 19K-56K deaths this past season (yes, I know it's a laughably large range but it's what we've got so far). Meanwhile, COVID logged over 70K so it's still worse than even the top flu projection, but using the mid-point, it's "only" twice as much as opposed to close to an order of magnitude different. For comparison, we had 270K COVID deaths last year over that same time period.
2022-2023 U.S. Flu Season: Preliminary In-Season Burden Estimates | CDC
CDC COVID Data Tracker

Currently, things have been mercifully quiet on the variant front so we haven't had any surges lately. And the surge this past winter was lighter than previous winters, but, again, still around double flu's usual damage. Hopefully we're in the tail end of the COVID pandemic and if it "just" becomes like the flu, then it's not ideal but so much better than we've been.

SI

Genuine question: Did we ever come up with a reasonable way to assign covid to deaths? For instance, if someone dies with late stage cancer, congestive heart failure or another deadly disease - but tests positive for covid - do they still count as a "Covid death"? IIRC, a lot of the flu deaths in the past have been people in extremely fragile condition getting the flu and it tipped the scales against them.

I'm not saying they shouldn't count, but if the "somewhat healthy person gets covid and dies" cases are pretty much over - then I can see reducing the threat level.

I don't think we ever did, and I don't think we ever will because that well's been so poisoned that no one's going to agree on anything.

Which will make the next pandemic even more fun.

IIRC it's the same as anything else. It comes down to what the medical examiner determines and considering the number of medical examiners in the country I don't there's ever going to be clear consistency and, outside of the obvious political issues, I'm not sure there's reason to change anything.

Yes. Covid must be listed in the primary cause of death chain on the death certificate. This was decided within a couple of months of the pandemic starting and a retroactive correction was made to the counts at that time.

You will sometimes see people saying "there's video of [xyz] saying if someone dies in a car crash and tests positive for covid, it counts as a covid death," but that was before the CDC standardized this.

You can see the guidelines here:

COVID-19 Coding and Reporting Guidance - National Vital Statistics System

Every Covid doubter/denier I've talked to knows someone that knows someone that's brother/uncle/friend/grandma died in a car accident and the death certificate said Covid. Are you telling me they're all liars?

In my experience, it's that and somehow exactly 6 people they know that died from the jabby.

If we can't trust Nicki Minaj's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate's testicles, who can we trust?



SI

From the DailyMail so take it FWIW. Interesting story. Anyone live (or knows anyone) in Washington Court House and works in Columbus?

The process to analyze sewage for Covid must be pretty weird. How does one person's poop, presumably mixed in tons of other poop, show up in a lab analysis?

Scientists launch manhunt for 'longest ever' Covid patient in Ohio | Daily Mail Online

Maybe they can do the genealogy DNA thing and track the person down like they do serial killers.

It would be amazing if this ends up being a married guy who has his side piece exposed due to his COVID poop.

Thanks, Ohio.

Don't ask me why but I'm fascinated by poop sampling for covid. The article is from Jan 2023.

CDC figuring out 'logistical and legal' aspects of testing airplane wastewater for coronavirus variants, source says | CNN

Apparently, there are some potential legal hurdles. I guess there are some HIPAA or similar concerns but surely individual privacy concerns won't override national health concerns.

In and out in 2 minutes, and analysis in 5-7 days (seems long to me). Assume if a variant become worrisome, they can speed up the analysis.

Didn't think about this but makes sense the data would be used to plan for the annual covid shot. Wonder if this can work for flu also e.g. I always hear the flu shots are 40-60% effective.

In addition to planes, happening at UK airports so probably going to happen here too (which makes sense).

You just wanted to say "poop."

Yes, but actually poopy.

Been a long time since I've said that since kids went diaper free.

Could go under Random but this is probably created largely because of Covid.

I can see this becoming popular in another/next pandemic (needs a v2 where it looks better and is lighter) but doubt it'll take off where things are. I like the concept & effort though.

Dyson Zone Review | PCMag

Just took a test, this is legitimately the first time I think I may have it. I get terrible seasonal allergies and I thought it was just that. Woke up today tired and sore. We are supposed to have my nieces graduation party here Saturday so I powerwashed the deck. Made it about an hour then came in and slept for 3 hours. Woke up feeling like my head was going to split in half so I took a test. I went to her indoor graduation Friday so I easily could have picked up something there.

I really hope it is negative. Between the party and my sons band competition Friday that he has worked all season for the timing couldn't be worse.

Very popular YouTuber MKBHD did a video review of the headphones yesterday. He said it's the dumbest product he's ever reviewed and noted the sound was comparable to $200-300 headphones.

Negative. Whew.

Whew Indeed, happy for you

PSA.

My wife had Covid about a month ago. She's a runner and hasn't been feeling 100% while running, which we attributed to Covid remnants.

She went to the doctor and confirmed my wife's airways sounded blocked some. Wife got some steroids and Z-pack. She is feeling much better after a day of treatment. Wife said she didn't think it was that bad but the steroids & antibiotics were really noticeable.

So if you've had Covid and think you've recovered, haven't seen your doctor, and feel "off" ... make an appointment.

Bonus. The steroids and Z-pack were free, no co-payment at CVS. I'm not sure why, I remember always having a small $5-$10 co-payment. Something must have changed and not complaining.

Not Covid related but poop related so thought it kinda fit here.

Apparently, there was a lot of dysentery going on back then.

Ancient toilets unearthed in Jerusalem reveal a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease | CNN

There's a reason that the development of reasonable sanitation practices was a gating element to civilizational growth.

So I finally got Covid last week - in the middle of a trip, no less - and the symptoms still aren't fully gone. I think I went through every possible symptom you could have. Started with mild allergy-like symptoms - tickle in the back of the throat, sinus headache - which is why I didn't think much of it. That progressed to a bad sore throat and chills/hot flashes (no menopause jokes please!) for a couple of days (when I finally realized I had something more than just allergies). By Saturday, sore throat was gone and I started feeling better, but a lot of congestion and persistent cough. By early this week, my smell/taste was muted. Those symptoms have continued, more or less, until today.

I finally said fuck it and went for a run this morning. I'm just going to power through it and if I'm still not seeing any progress by Tuesday, I'll message my doctor to see if he'll prescribe something stronger. I've already gone through an 80-count bag of cough drops and 4 bottles of Mucinex and Dayquil/Nyquil. Today is day 10 so I'm finally leaving the house for the first time since we got back from our trip on Sunday.