Instead of being irritated with a majority who are tired of ignorant idiots who demand all the attention for their stupid proclamations, let's focus on marginalizing them and their oppositional attitudes towards everything.

I've legitimately seen people claim this is just ivermectin rebranded.

For those who got Moderna or Pfizer, are you doing the opposite one for your booster? Do you just need one of those?

The LA Times article a page back seemed to say:

1. If you had Moderna, use it again for the booster.
2. If you had Pfizer, there is an argument for switching to Moderna for the booster, but the guy said he was sticking with Pfizer rather than introducing another foreign substance into his body.

My wife works for the UW Medicine covid team and they are allowing a choice to mix and match but aren't offering any recommendations. When my wife and I got boosters we stuck with what we originally got (pfizer for me and moderna for her) and most people scheduling at UW seem to be doing the same. I thought about switching, but I'm young-ish enough and healthy enough that I think just getting a booster is the most important thing rather than figuring how to min/max my antibodies.

I got Moderna but willing to do either Moderna or Pfizer booster (not J&J). I'm researching places to get the boosters.

My vaccination was at Publix and got the regular CDC card. But read there are some providers that have a card with a QR code. Anyone here have one of those cards?

Unless the science says differently, I'll just take whatever the Walgreens is giving out that day.

Lowkey, a real benefit from a tragic pandemic

SI

It takes a special kind of asshole to attack Big Bird for helping kids get over their fear of needles. Naturally, we have just that kind of asshole in one of the most powerful positions in our government.

SI

I got 1-2 Pfizer, then the Moderna booster, following the leaning of the evidence

The biggest fucking snowflakes.

This guy just keeps cranking out the goods.

anti-vaxx muppet speaks out pic.twitter.com/RWehxEbn2s

— Brent Terhune in Indy Nov 26-28 (@BrentTerhune) November 8, 2021

Bert and Ernie scandal!

Waiting on test results for me and my two kids. This is maddening.

Negative!!

I'm sorry Lathum. You will get through this. Stay strong.


Wait. What? Negative is good? But positive is good, right? I'm so confused!

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We do not have covid.

One of my sons friends tested positive today. They were together all day Thursday.

Wow Lathum, that had to be a pretty scary time for you. Glad it came back negative

Thanks. It just runs through your mind all the logistical shit you will have to deal with.


I learned through a mutual friend that the mom of the kid who had it lost her taste and smell on Tuesday. She dropped her kid, who is one of my sons best friends, on Thursday. I was initially annoyed, but the thing is I know she is a covid denier. Unmask kids signs in her yard, anti vax stuff on facebook, etc...so I can't be mad at her I know who she is and what goes with the territory.

the weird thing is I really like her. She is a great mom, takes the kids to the waterpark, invloved with her kids, etc...it's such a strange worls we live in.

Europe is so much more advanced than us

Vienna brothel offers free entry to visitors willing to get Covid jab on-site

"You may get an STD, but we're trying to prevent COVID"

SI

I really want to travel next year.

Looking at this chart, thinking Portugal (or Spain) assuming they don't need a vaccinated person to quarantine for X weeks and assuming the US will let us back in easily. UAE looks interesting too, never been to Middle East other than through an airport.

Surprised about Russia considering their home grown vaccine efficacy is up there. I'd think Putin would do more strong arming on this.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations - Statistics and Research - Our World in Data

So Oklahoma's governor relieved the Oklahoma National Guard commanding officer of his command because he was following through with the vaccine mandate as directed by the Pentagon. He was replaced by someone that immediately rescinded the mandate for Oklahoma National Guard troops.

It's going to be interesting to see how hard the Pentagon comes down on shit like this.

We are scheduled to go to Rome in February. Really hoping it happens

I'd love to see the feds take their equipment and tell OK that if they want a guard, they get to pay for it.

If they want old school, then with the importance of chain of command, I'd say that court martials and discharges are in order.

Basically some countries in western Europe are getting hit again. Eastern European countries are worse.

At this stage, I'm more interested in serious hospitalizations & deaths vs infections as the gauge on how well we/countries are doing.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/c...ng-us-rcna4666

National Guard reports to state unless federal government "federalizes" them. There are probably some technicalities to get around this but not clear if that has happened. It'll probably go to some court.

This probably would allow the government to withhold federal funding for the Oklahoma National Guard, but this is uncharted territory and will likely end up in the courts as you said.

This also creates a massive readiness issue because it makes it difficult to activate this unit. It's also fairly common for units to send 1-2 soldiers to support missions anywhere around the world to fill gaps as needs arise and this would make it pretty much impossible for this unit to support any active duty needs.

Germany is back to about 60% of the max level in terms of Covid19 in ICU, albeit big regional differences. The most hit regions (guess where they rank in terms of Vaccination rates !) are near/at peak levels, sometimes approaching 30% of all ICU patients being Covid. Protection via Vaccination dropped a bit but is still massive (7-8x risk reduction for any hospitalisation for example, illustrated here, numbers at bottom are the calendar weeks, no need to say which line is which group of people)
Austria is further along towards hospital overload ... (guess how their vaccination rate compares to Germany !).

It'll happen in some regions of the the US as well. Take one look at Florida who despite a not-terrible vaccination rate (middle of the pack) got clobbered. Only difference between Florida and other states is seasonality. For a variety of reasons Florida (or states around it) have 2 seperate peak seasons (late summer then winter).

Delta is a cold hearted ***** and unless you have 90-95% adult vaccination (yes, yes, in theory infection too but in praxis those regions with lots of infected will often be most against vaccines meaning it's a 'wash') there will be a significant wave. 20-25% without protection just equals a whole shitload of people of which a way higher proportion will catch it than would in prior waves due to 1) Delta and 2) behavioural changes towards normal on both an individual and a collective level. Combine that with the fact that no one mitigation measure is perfect (remember the swiss cheese model) and you have high levels of infectious people running about even with required testing for, say, events. And of course vaccinate people still get it and pass it on. Much less than unvaccinated, especially the first couple months, but again that is offset by Delta being way more infectious.

The colder weather rebound seems to be quite strong.. I am guessing Kentucky will find out soon enough. We're about 50% here and the weather has turned much colder the last week.

Great news for developing countries. Assume it will be "affordable" for them. The quote below on "within 3 days" seems a high bar but better than nothing and assume if it was 1-2 weeks later, it would still help some.

Pfizer should make a nice profit but wonder what the deal mechanics are.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/16/healt...ess/index.html

Don't know if Ireland is being ultra-conservative but vaccination rate of 89% is pretty darn good and anticipating needing a curfew doesn't bode well for the US.

I'm guessing EU started vaccination in mass Mar-Apr-May (slightly behind the US which started in Feb-Mar) so 6-8 months ago.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/17/europ...ntl/index.html

Does this mean that 11% of the population is responsible for those severe cases? Or are there more breakthrough severe cases that I was aware? I thought that even waning protection against infection still meant pretty solid protection against severe illness.

That's what I thought and am leaning towards over reaction. But don't really know.

Another article in JP that pretty much says we'll need boosters but doesn't not yet know how long the booster will last.

Please Wait... | Cloudflare

KY just opened up boosters to all adults. I'll have to wait as I'm scheduled for surgery in a couple weeks but I expect my wife and older daughter will get it soon.

And yet, half the state doesn't even have a single shot.

Not for a lack of supply.

SI

Booster still not opened for all in GA.

I don't know what the stats are but have to believe there is plenty of supply to go around right now. Why not open it to all.

Looks like boosters for all adults coming soon. Hopefully before the Thanksgiving break so I can have some time to recover (if needed) during the long weekend.

Just scheduled my booster for 11/30. Can't wait for that sweet, sweet, 5G

Michigan is now #1 in the country in new cases per the CDC. I knew it would come around to us again. This winter could be really something, and not in a good way.

Was able to signup for my booster at Publix for Sun. Would be nice if booster retained higher efficacy for longer than 6 months.

Per an article above, we'll know soon enough.

Yeah, probably in about 6 months :p

SI

The CVS vaccination site is a giant pain in the ass. You pick a date and then pick a store and then it tells you if any times are available. I went through six days with no times available at four different locations. Sure would be nice if I didn't have to click on each store for each day only to see there are no available times.

It really is a hot mess.

I bet most of you could just walk in and get one. Wherever.

I used rite aid and was able to schedule a same day appt within 2 hours. I'm fairly certain I could have just walked in.

Woo hoo. We've reached 70%.

At one time, early on, 70% was the lower end of the bar.

https://www.axios.com/fauci-boosters...9d0924b0b.html

The word I'm seeing is for this to become endemic aka the new normal.

I think we're at the start of our next wave, the one that's rolling through Europe right now. And that's less than ideal because we never really dropped that low after the summer wave. But it's about to roll through the population again. However, hopefully, with the vaccination rates and recent boosters, the waves will get less deadly, particularly among the vaccinated.

SI

The reports here are that a rapidly increasing percentage of cases are a more transmissible variant of Delta.

But the good news is that asymptomatic cases are much higher and even for those who do have symptoms, they are generally a lot milder.

Hopefully this is the start of Covid becoming more like a seasonal virus we can (mostly) all live with

That would be a nice progression

SI

I went to a scheduled appointment at a CVS today at 9:30. Didn't have much problem. Wife was not a fan of the interface though; you basically had to pick a location then see the times available at that location. For those of us with a car, availability is more important than location. I don't really care which of the half-dozen CVSs in the area I go to.

Just set up my kids appointments. 12/1 and we go back 12/22. I am a little nervous as we are going in to NYC the 23rd to see Hamilton and I am hoping they don't feel gross.

I am glad my wife made me check on the updated Broadway mandates. Kids under 12 are only allowed in with a fully vaccinated adult if they have either a negative PCR test or on dose 2 week out, so we will be covered.

The CVS site is horrific. As others have mentioned the scheduling is clunky, but even worse is they don't have an option for adding a family member. You have to go in and start a new appointment reentering insurance info, address, etc...

Has anyone gotten the booster? Is it going to knock me out for a day like the 2nd Pfizer shot did?

I'll let you know after my Moderna booster this afternoon. With the original vaccination, I had a sore arm and then a floating feeling on the second day so hopeful it won't be that bad for me.

@NobodyHere why do you ask? Do you have a hot date scheduled?

:)

Need an update ...

She said something that indicated she might be a Steelers fan.

I mean I try to be a tolerant person (except for the Amish, f*** those guys) but Steelers fans don't even qualify as human.

I'll keep you posted.

I got the Pfizer booster yesterday morning after having Moderna for my first two shots. Nothing more than a sore arm/shoulder really.

Moderna booster made me a bit fuzzyheaded that night, slept in the next morning, and was a bit fuzzy most of the day. Was all gone by the morning after. That was still much better than the 2nd shot where I was fuzzy the evening of, had bad chills, dizziness, and aches the next day, and then was ok the day after.

SI

Got my Moderna yesterday. Sore shoulder only.

Unlike the orig where I was walking on clouds on the second day, I feel fine.

Ok, my sore shoulder went away, but my armpit hurt like a bitch yesterday. Brief bit of googling indicates it's the lymph node kicking in, apparently. It's tender still today but not as painful as yesterday.

I had the same exact reaction with my armpit hurting and swollen. I felt it on the morning of day 3 but it was back to normal later that day.

Back to normal. Wife didn't experience much either. Now have to remind the kids to get their boosters.

My daughter went to a birthday party on Sunday and late Monday night, she got a text that someone at the party tested positive. They won't say who so she doesn't know if she had close contact. She has no symptoms and a self-test came back negative, but my brother and his wife (doctor/nurse) pulled out for Thanksgiving. He's got 2 weeks of surgeries scheduled and can't afford to either get sick or risk unknowingly transmitting it to patients. So that sucks. She's going to get a PCR test but results won't be back until after Thanksgiving. I need to make sure she's clear because I'm having surgery in less than 2 weeks.

This whole fucking situation sucks, and it sucks even more that a bunch of idiots are prolonging the problem.

I feel you man. My daughter has been tested and quarantined 4 times since August. I don't think anyone has actually had COVID but a majority of the softball team has been sick 3-4 times this fall with colds and other crap.

We've been pretty good at the college this semester with Covid, but we're having a pretty significant flu outbreak now. I hope the break allows it to calm down some.

Last fall, Caitlin was interning in an elementary school as part of her major prerequisites and got Covid. She gave it to 11 teammates. In January, the coach appealed to the school district to allow her to get the vaccine ahead of the season with the rest of the teachers and they refused because she wasn't employed by the school district. Yet she spent 2-3 days at the school every week. Made a ton of sense...

Although every silver lining…

New heavily mutated variant B.1.1.529 in South Africa raises concern

Best case this establishes itself only in late spring when summer effects will start to dull impacts, then there's time to update vaccines for the refresher for 50/60+ next autumn.

The big caveat (but good kind) is that South Africa is entering a time of "season" (see lastyear) and as everywhere else has less measures to stop spread than ever before. And low vacc levels ... So it is not like a big jump in cases is unexpected and can solely be put down to a new variant.

You jinxed us.

Bye Delta. Hello "Nu"

So I'm training a new guy at work and it turns out he's an anti-vaxxer right wing kook. He was bitching about not being told the vaccine was a requirement for the job during the interview process (it's a fucking federal job dipshit). So now he's attempting to get an exemption. In the meantime he has to test daily, which he didn't realize either. His first test was on Tuesday and Wednesday when I told him he needs to go submit another test he got pissed because apparently he assumed it was weekly rather than every day. His plan is to leave the state if his exemption is denied because pretty much impossible to find a job in Washington that doesn't require vaccination. The same guy also went on a rant about the government giving out free money so no one is willing to work anymore.

We have another guy that's anti-vax and going through the same process, but he's more of the Joe Rogan type anti-vaxxer than the right wing nut job the other guy is.

Keep in mind, this is a federal job working at a large military hospital. I don't know what they're expecting.

I think this is reassuring news but 60-100 days sounds like a long time (even though I'm sure, historically, its a record response time).

/Stupid prediction with little scientific backing - more a hunch than anything from a non-epidemiologist/

In Texas, we've had waves every 6-7 months: June/July 2020 -> December/January 2021 -> July/August(/September?) 2021
Average Daily New Covid-19 Hospitalizations By Week (Monday-Sunday) - Texas Medical Center

That makes me think that natural immunity lasts about 6 months. Then whatever dominant variant is running around goes through the population. The vaccinated crowd gets their 10% or whatever breakthrough cases and there's a significant change in behavior with increased masking and pulling back of social activities: fewer people in restaurants and the masking in, say, grocery stores goes from 30% to 70%. Meanwhile, the current dominant variant rolls through the unvaccinated crowd and they get their natural immunity, all while not modifying behavior. Eventually, the virus runs out of vectors and burns itself out for another few months.

We're about a month from our next wave that rolls through the unvaccinated population. If Delta is still the dominant variant at the time, it'll be what the next wave is and Omicron will be squelched out. If Omicron gets a foothold in time, maybe it'll be Omicron instead. Remember, Beta was stronger than Alpha but it just hit at the "wrong" time - right after the initial winter wave that was dominated by the original COVID and Alpha, so it never was as significant as Alpha or Delta. It's that whole thing about evolution not being about survival of the fittest, but survial of the good enough.

SI

I sneezed at a restaurant today and my dad turned to the people behind him and said, "Don't worry it's not covid" Yeah he's an idiot BUT the point is the people behind him said "oh we're not worried at all... god bless you. Which I said thanks." Then my dad did the whole, "It was a joke, LOL" like he does when he realizes that perhaps his joke was ignorant. The people said to him, "No worries at all, Let's Go Brandon." So no matter what some idiot(s) say on these boards and elsewhere we all know that there is a straight very short line between Covid and the right wing nut jobs. I know know, stats and such and polling data which is all BS (LOL) but we all know the truth. They suck up whatever conspiracy they can. I just pray that they don't vote in more ignoramuses that run from science. I'm nervous that they will just gerrymander their way to herd immunity {see what I did there}? F'n morons.

Seasonality more than immunity i would say. There's not that many infected (even Texas isn't, say, the amazon Region or Peru) for immunity to be the driver between wave/no wave. Temperate regions have 1 long season, others like Texas or Florida have a shorter Winter season but an extra one in summer.
Delta changed it a little bit in that under pretty normal conditioms (say UK) there' s significant spread no matter the season. But all things being equal seasonality makes a big difference. Just that with Delta it needed less of a push from this (waves in Europe generally started sooner than last year despite more immunity via vaccination especially).

And remember that 1) it's no on/off switch and 2) holds out longer against significant illness than getting the sniffles or just being a carrier.

75% of clinics in Germany are having to postpone procedures already, patients are getting shipped across country ... This whole pandemic has done a real number on resiliency of health care with lots and lots of folks quitting or being burned out, yet ignorant idiots are still demanding that "increasing ICU capacity" should be the goal, being utterly oblivious how taxing and complex it is to work there and how long training takes even then.

I don't get it (not saying you're wrong - I'm saying I'm ignorant). I keep hearing about seasonality of the illness, but how is the virus affected by seasonality?

I always hear these theories about "people go indoor during these seasons" - like summer for the south and winter for the north - but that's never made sense to me. That's only for leisure activities, for less than 10% of people's days. School, work, commute - these are constant during all seasons (except school and summer) and they take up a much larger portion of the day and a much larger chance for exposure and chance for people to expose others. Even other things that take up a lot of time in many people's lives - errands, gym time, many leisure activities like going to movies, etc - these are all in a constant indoor environment. They don't change with the season. It's only a tiny segment of time in a person's day that's affected by what season it is.

Or people just gesture vaguely at how cold and flu season is seasonal but with no mechanistic explanation. Like I get why typical viruses explode in the December-January time frame in the US: there's a huge amount of spreading travel with a number of very fomite-transmissible respiratory diseases along with cramming a bunch of respiratory disease transmitting people into tiny metal tubes and shared living spaces.

However, this is also true in summer, to a lesser density, and major transmission just isn't there to the point where "summer colds are the worst" in The Stand, could be a running joke that was universally understood. And I seem to remember that has something to do with immune response to influenza and rhinoviruses being particularly sensitive to air and nose temperature.

But none of this explains that huge summer waves we've experienced in Texas (and other places) with COVID. So I think I'm missing some other piece here.

SI

Too soon to tell but hopefully a sign that Omicron is a dud.

Omicron variant showing ‘unusual but mild’ symptoms, South African doctor says | WOODTV.com

I saw something else that the reported cases with symptoms are tending to be among unvaxxed.

As long as variants are still repelled by vaccines, we will be fine here. The rest of the world, of course, is another story.

cite:

The new variant appears to be spreading most quickly among those who are unvaccinated. https://t.co/1DykX3V7pZ

— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) November 27, 2021

This also may have to do with their behavior being far more risky, stupid, snowflaky, and selfish so they are more exposed to the virus.

Two weeks of uncertainty.


Nice CDC tracker below.

5-11 was approved about a month ago and it's at 63% fully vaccinated. 12-18 was approved like 2-3 months ago and it's at 69% full vaccinated. Compared to 18+ at 71% and where it's been approved and readily available since Mar ... the vaccination pace for kids are pretty good.

Yet to be seen if they hit a plateau at around low 70s.

CDC COVID Data Tracker

I think that says everyone over 5 is 63% vaccinated so that also includes everyone over 12, etc. The counts show only 200K fully vaccinated in the 5-11 group (196.7M vs 196.5M), which makes sense as there's only been a window of about a week for full vaccination among that age group.

It shows about 4M have gotten the first dose, which sounds about right, considering what it takes to distribute it and there's likely some reporting lag, too.

Here's my back of the napkin sketches on the numbers:

228M=228,677,953
232M=232,755,525

228M/XM = 80.7% X=283,367,971
232M/YM = 74.5% Y=312,443,523

Y-X=29,055,551 in the 5-11 age group
232M-228M=4,077,572

So, 4M/29M= 14% so far

SI

You are so right. Sorry

Was wanting for some happy news

We're adding ours to the fully vaccinated count tomorrow and that makes us breathe easier

SI

Just got boosted. Arm a little sore so far.

Got boosted yesterday. Sore arm, and pretty exhausted this morning. Took a 2 hour nap (which is very atypical) this afternoon. Woke up from that feeling good.

I strategically planned my booster for Thanksgiving Eve so I could I could just veg out/nap Thanksgiving night and not tempt myself to work. That worked pretty well. It's not often I can just sit and do nothing for a while without being angsty, but the night after the Booster, I was super run-down so it was easy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...attle-rcna7139


¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unrelated cause of death, I'm sure.

Judas


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The CMS mandate was paused now just a couple of days before it was about to take effect. What was cute about this was that the challenge was only brought by 11 states, but the judge said it applied to all states (except a handful covered by another ruling). Aw, those darn leftist activist judges... oh wait, Trump appointee. My bad. He's just protecting the constitution or something.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...e-judge-block/

If you work in health care and don't want the vaccine, that's totally your right. And you can kindly toddle your butt to another career that doesn't risk others well-being for your dumb choices.

SI

New KFF poll showing 18% of vaccinated don't intend to get the booster. I'm surprised it's that low tbh, I take this as good news. Usual partisan split of course.

Wife and kids were planning to fly to see grandparents this Christmas. FIL called and said not to come because of Omicron. We reached out to relative who is fairly high up there in the VA and he said probably shouldn't travel either (his son is cancelling a trip home also). So looks like we are cancelling the trip.

Still hard to gauge how real this is. I get its more infectious and vaccinated folks are getting it. But the real gauge is how much more serious is it for hospitalization and mortality, and we probably won't get a more clear picture until later this month.

All these travel restrictions seem overkill right now, and wonder if this is an overabundance of caution from Biden or if they know something already that is not yet public.

Son is effectively a 2 day trip away driving alone, so this probably means he'll be spending Christmas by himself.

I'm not sure I'd be that worried specifically about Omicron so much as we're definitely headed towards (already in?) another wave that will be cresting around Christmas and January in a lot of parts of the country. So if you're visiting particularly vulnerable populations, it's not an ideal time.

SI

Considering that every country is trying to figure this out, the idea that there is one piece of secret information that we have is probably not true.

Everyone seems to be saying "this is somewhere between a nothingburger and going back to square one, but we really don't know yet and won't for 2 weeks"

Everything coming out early seems to suggest it's more transmissible but milder symptoms. Until we hear otherwise, I'm going with overreaction by Biden. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place though, and there's only so much he can do about it. There's a definite need for us to accept that this isn't going anywhere and that we need to "learn to live with it" but of course, that requires people to take all necessary precautions so that living with it is like the flu, not an ongoing national crisis. But continuing to keep things shut down or half-assing everything is causing this to extend in perpetuity.

I'm not really sure there's a pathway for Biden to navigate this successfully that he has any control over.