Coronavirus - COVID-19

[fillow]

Got my first shot today. I wonder if I'm the only one on this board getting a Russian vac (Sputnik)?

[allegro]

I'm gonna disappoint you guys and admit that I'm still scared to get the vaccine, and so is my wife. She has hep c and is on a nasty treatment, and my RA has been flaring up, HORRIBLY, and, neither of us think we could handle the side effects right now.

So we're still wearing masks, and social distancing, and only leaving the house when it's absolutely necessary.

I'm reading stuff about how people with immunity issues aren't totally protected by the vaccine, anyway, so even if you GET the vaccine, you're going to have to live your life like you didn't.

Honestly, it's highly unlikely that anything either of you have would cause you to get any serious side effects from the vaccine; you're far more likely to suffer a worse side effect from the VIRUS or your DISEASE. The side effects from the vaccine compared to the shit you guys get from your diseases? Nothing. Walk in the park. And your diseases aren't known to exacerbate the side effects. Now, if you have blood clots or something, then it'd be a different story.

But, again, that being said, if you each get the vaccine, YOU in particular, you'd still have to live your lives really carefully, because you both have severely decreased production of antibodies.

I read this article about a guy who got the vaccine but didn't talk with his doc, first; he died of Covid after getting the vaccine. Ends up he had leukemia. No vaccine is gonna protect you when you have virtually ZERO immune system. His doc likely would have told him that. Instead, that guy got his vaccine and then went out into the world like he had an iron vaccine shield.

[Jinsai]

well, I got the pfizer shot and personally it was a day of feeling a little shitty. I have some health concerns, but the reality is that actually contracting Covid is a way bigger concern w/ some of that stuff.

[allegro]

Exactly.

I described it to people as this: I could have worked through the day, but if I had nothing going on at work, maybe I would have taken the day off. Mostly as a good excuse to take the day off. I did a ton of laundry all day, washed dishes, got a bunch of stuff done. Didn't even take a NAP. My husband? He stayed in bed all day, whining. But he's a much bigger baby than me. He admits this, LOL.

Was I "sick?" I'd say it was like mild flu symptoms, but maybe like when you first start getting the flu? But I think a lot of it is psychological. I didn't even THINK about it, so it faded into the background. My husband, on the other hand, spent all day hyper-focusing on every little symptom. "Do I have a fever?" I think I had a slight fever, but then I forgot about it. I've had worse hot flashes than this shit. If my husband ever had bad period cramps or menopause, he'd have to be hospitalized with meals delivered to his bed.

[shade]

Exactly.
If my husband ever had bad period cramps or menopause, he'd have to be hospitalized with meals delivered to his bed.

... most men would. Once you bleed to death every month or pushed 14 inches through your hooha... what could possibly still throw you off the tracks? The human body is amazing and disgusting, all at the same time.

Got Pfizer/BioNTech myself and did not feel anything other than fatigue...which I bet was due to the fact that it was my first day out of office in a way too long time. No rest for the wicked.
Pfizer/BioNTech is as safe as it gets, looking at the shorter term studies and all the regulatory work that has been submitted. What happens in 15 years no one can really tell - unless you want to wait another 15 years. The technology is fairly new. But hey, the people worrying to the extreme about this are usually the same ones that down 5 liters of coke per day, live off shitty fastfood on a daily basis, are on smartphones 24/7 and even sleep on them and throw in a mixture of pills for every possible condition they might or might not have. In the end it's a decision everyone has to make for themselves and I for my part gave up reasoning with people..

[allegro]

looking at the shorter term studies and all the regulatory work that has been submitted. What happens in 15 years no one can really tell - unless you want to wait another 15 years. The technology is fairly new.

Hasn't mRNA been studied for, like, 30 years or something?

But, yeah, that's exactly what I thought; I'm being bombarded by all kinds of shit on an hourly basis around me that's fucking me up - pollutants in the air, water, delivery of the food I eat, chemicals in my MAKEUP that isn't even regulated in this country but is banned in other countries, etc. etc. etc. but people are worried about this mRNA.

These idiots swigging Mountain Dew by the gallon and worrying about their DNA being damaged by a vaccine are likely the same people who thought we got cancer from the microwave oven.

Meanwhile, Naomi Wolf was finally banned from Twitter. Who's she? She was a sorta feminist who wrote some pretty famous books like "Backlash" and "The Beauty Myth" but went on to become an anti-vaxer who was telling people on Twitter that people who got the mRNA Covid vaccine put out some kind of energy that could make you sterile, or could make you miss periods, or suddenly have periods after you'd stopped having them, JUST BY STANDING NEXT TO PEOPLE WHO WERE VACCINATED.

She and her followers were also HEAVILY pushing ivermectin.

[Magnetic]

Hasn't mRNA been studied for, like, 30 years or something?

The thing about mRNA is how gloriously unstable it is, so it's perfect for transient induction of weird proteins, such as the COVID spike protein. When the vaccines came into production, I was seriously impressed with the concept. Several former colleagues in the UK signed up for the trials, because we've work(ed) with similar systems.

But yah, it really is sad the pushback on this, but I expect nothing less from a society that has systematically dumbed down its population for decades because they're easier to control that way.

[shade]

Hasn't mRNA been studied for, like, 30 years or something?

But, yeah, that's exactly what I thought; I'm being bombarded by all kinds of shit on an hourly basis around me that's fucking me up - pollutants in the air, water, delivery of the food I eat, chemicals in my MAKEUP that isn't even regulated in this country but is banned in other countries, etc. etc. etc. but people are worried about this mRNA.

These idiots swigging Mountain Dew by the gallon and worrying about their DNA being damaged by a vaccine are likely the same people who thought we got cancer from the microwave oven.

Mountain Dew, I remember the first time I saw that shit..yeah, if it radiates poisonous green, it's probably not the best choice. The green Froot Loops also disappeared here. Officially because of rebranding and formula, inofficially because of regulations and chemical bans/restrictions. Man, I used to love the green ones as a kid. Can I blame my insanity on green Froot Loops now?

Anyways, 30 years is pretty accurate. It was in the early 90's when they first started injecting RNA vectors into rodents. But here's the catch, rodents. Preclinical studies. Pricey, cumbersome, often not reproducible in humans. The industry was, for a long time, not really interested in putting in the money, since RNA is highly instable, immunogenicity was hard to control and the ineffcient delivery methods made it a pain in the ass. Just because you could get it into a system did not mean it actually did its job where you wanted it to. The progress really came with different "delivery" methods for the mRNA, nano particles, viral vectors, and more gene editing to stabilize the material.
..So this was before we had nanoparticles, viral vectors and gene editing to stabilize RNA lifetime by adding molecules and tweaking around the sequences.

Before Covid hit, we were still in clinical trials with this entire mRNA vaccine approach. Interestingly not for any "common" disease but for targeted, personalized cancer therapy. A custom vaccine for "your very own" cancer. Simply spoken, they can analyze your tumour cells and target them with a specific custom made vaccine - or reprogram cells of your immune system (CAR T cells) to go track down the cancer cells that they could not detect before. Highly individualized, and high in profit - now it got the industry's attention.
For the DNA based approach (like J&J and AstraZeneca), there have been a couple other things going on before Covid. They tried for an Ebola vaccine and got approval in several countries. But hey, we are talking Ebola.

[Erneuert]

... most men would. Once you bleed to death every month or pushed 14 inches through your hooha... what could possibly still throw you off the tracks? The human body is amazing and disgusting, all at the same time.

I absolutely agree and say this all the time, especially when it comes to kidney stones. I’ve suffered through them twice now (the first one being the most absolutely unbearable; like, on the floor in agony at 1am unbearable), and watched this video the other day just out of random curiosity. Seeing the organ exposed and so naked like that makes you realise how delicate it all is.

[r_z]

Whenever someone you're close to hesitates to get vaccinated, just tell 'em this:

Either you get the vaccine or you'll get covid. It's as simple as that. Since places will be opening up and lessen restrictions moving forward, there's no other option, really.

First thing I'll do when they allow kids to be vaccinated with Pfizer is getting my daughter a shot. I won't even think twice about it.

[shade]

Whenever someone you're close to hesitates to get vaccinated, just tell 'em this:

Either you get the vaccine or you'll get covid. It's as simple as that. Since places will be opening up and lessen restrictions moving forward, there's no other option, really.

First thing I'll do when they allow kids to be vaccinated with Pfizer is getting my daughter a shot. I won't even think twice about it.

Yup, because you can't reason with people. Plus, I'm tired of it.
Got to make your own decision on what's worse, a covid infection or possible vaccine side effects. Forcing people into it can't be the way.
I just feel sorry for people that are worried about family. Got a colleague with a nutter conspiracy theorist for a brother (with all sorts of chronic diseases) and is therefore of course worried about him catching Covid, but oh hey, what can you do other than tell them once, twice, maybe three times?

[richardp]

Whenever someone you're close to hesitates to get vaccinated, just tell 'em this:

Either you get the vaccine or you'll get covid. It's as simple as that. Since places will be opening up and lessen restrictions moving forward, there's no other option, really.

Yeah but if you say that to literally anyone in the Midwest, you'll get laughter and some long winded conspiracy theory about how COVID isn't even real instead of any kind of self realization. People here are literally playing chicken with this shit because they think its funny to "own the libs" or some stupid shit like that.

[shade]

Let nature do its job then.
Sometimes I'm an asshole and don't like principles of solidarity.

[burnmotherfucker!]

Yup, because you can't reason with people. Plus, I'm tired of it.
Got to make your own decision on what's worse, a covid infection or possible vaccine side effects.

I remember a couple months back, when the vaccine finally opened up to the full public here, the local news was covering covid. It is a pretty standard local broadcast and so there's really never any hint of political bias one way or the other compared to national news. The first segment I caught was this local guy complaining that he had had a headache for a week after getting his first dose and he is now hesitant to get the second dose. I'm thinking to myself, well that sucks no one wants a headache. The very next story was covering the surge that began a while back in India. There was footage of people in the streets (because hospitals were full) breathing heavy and gasping for air. Many of these people in the footage seemed to be very young and otherwise healthy, normal adults. And there they were looking like they were suffocating to death. And I'm thinking, I'll take the fucking headache.

It really is a dice roll at how covid affects you. You could be 80 and obese and not have symptoms or you could be 35 and in perfect health and it wrecks your lungs for life.

I think its reasonable to be concerned about how the vaccine will affect you. But with the millions that have received it already and its high effective rate, it's just such a low risk high reward proposition to me that I just don't see why everyone isn't jumping at the chance. And for what it's worth I just got my second dose a week ago. The second one was more intense than the first for sure but it was so short lived that I'd actually rather experience that again than I would the few days of shoulder pain I got from my first dose.

Obviously if people have medical conditions that's a different story, but at least ask a doctor about it, don't just assume you can't handle it. And for healthy people deciding they don't want it? I don't know what can be done about it. You can't force it, that would be wrong. But it's also wrong for those people to be so selfish by not taking into account people who actually can't handle it for legit medical reasons. As long as those two groups exist, one will always potentially infect the other. And who knows how long immunity from these vaccines even lasts? Or about variants.

[M1ke]

I'm going to be in the position of getting to choose what vaccine I get for my second dose.

I got AstraZenica for my first, and the province is going to allow me to choose between a second dose of AZ or either of the mRNA vaccines.

There's not a ton of data on the efficacy of mixing and matching, but what is out there seems to imply that it's at least on par, if not better than sticking with the same, but there's not enough data to say for sure yet.

It's going to be a bit of time, they're also making me wait until 12 weeks after my first dose, which isn't until July 13th, so hopefully some more data will come out before then that makes the decision a little bit more clear as to what I should get for my 2nd dose.

[Magnetic]

It's going to be a bit of time, they're also making me wait until 12 weeks after my first dose, which isn't until July 13th, so hopefully some more data will come out before then that makes the decision a little bit more clear as to what I should get for my 2nd dose.

Don't know how Canada is doing compared to the UK, but my partner's 2nd dose was originally scheduled for mid-July (12 weeks), and he's getting his 2nd 6/15.
While not well studied, if I were in your shoes, I'd have no hesitation getting a mixed vaccine. They all deliver the same protein for the immune system to respond to, the delivery system is slightly different.

In fact, when we have to have boosters, I'll take whatever comes available. The statistics in the US tells me that the vaccine IS working. Infection rates are still high in the unvaccinated group, but this is hidden in the overall infection rates, because those who are vaccinated are bringing the average down.
I hope Canada speeds up their rollout process for you.

[allegate]

In first federal ruling on vaccine mandates, judge sides with Houston hospital, dismissing claims from staff resisters

It's such a grand little ruling too because he takes their claims so literally in his responses.

The lawsuit claimed that federal law prohibits employees from being required to get vaccinated without full U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the vaccines. Currently, the FDA has authorized the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines under a special provision for emergencies.

The judge dismissed this argument as well, saying that law does not apply to private employers. He also dismissed an argument that anyone who gets the vaccine is effectively a human subject in an experimental trial.

"The hospital's employees are not participants in a human trial," he wrote. "They are licensed doctors, nurses, medical technician, and staff members. The hospital has not applied to test the COVID-19 vaccines on its employees."

The lawsuit originally was filed in Texas state court but was moved to federal court at Houston Methodist's request. The federal judge ruled Saturday that Texas state law only protects workers from being fired if they are forced to commit a crime.

[M1ke]

Don't know how Canada is doing compared to the UK, but my partner's 2nd dose was originally scheduled for mid-July (12 weeks), and he's getting his 2nd 6/15.
While not well studied, if I were in your shoes, I'd have no hesitation getting a mixed vaccine. They all deliver the same protein for the immune system to respond to, the delivery system is slightly different.

In fact, when we have to have boosters, I'll take whatever comes available. The statistics in the US tells me that the vaccine IS working. Infection rates are still high in the unvaccinated group, but this is hidden in the overall infection rates, because those who are vaccinated are bringing the average down.
I hope Canada speeds up their rollout process for you.

Well, you were right. They made the announcement yesterday that they were moving them up to 8 weeks, and so I just got booked for Wednesday.

I'll be getting Moderna for my 2nd dose. Here's hoping that the early data suggesting that mixing gives a better immune response plays out!

[botley]

Jon Stewart retire bitch (again)

[versusreality]

yeah, I didn't really get what Stewart was doing. I thought it was satire, I couldn't even tell to be honest.

[eimwe]

Got my first shot today. I wonder if I'm the only one on this board getting a Russian vac (Sputnik)?

You're not the only one) I got my second dose back in April. So far, so good.

[Swykk]

I took that as him being facetious. He did similar bits on The Daily Show. Was he really being serious?

[marodi]

I'm in Canada also and my second dose was move up from September to July 10. I'm getting fully Pfizerized, folks!

That is if I don't catch the Delta Variant in the meantime.

Have I told you that I caught the swine flu in 2009, before they rolled out the vaccine? Now, that was fun.

Not.

[M1ke]

Got my second dose last night. It's kicking my ass, but not as hard as the first dose did.

Glad to have it though.

[allegate]

this thread is bonkers. fleeting contact with an infected person is all you need? wow. terrifying. and that graph showing how fast it's moving? Christ.

[Erneuert]

this thread is bonkers. fleeting contact with an infected person is all you need? wow. terrifying. and that graph showing how fast it's moving? Christ.

Yep. Australia (specifically NSW where I am) has been in the clear for months without incident. It was just a few days ago that a limo driver in his 60’s (who transported a lot of people) visited our eastern suburbs and has caused a major cluster infection that the state is trying to contain with the tightest restrictions (and mask wearing) since just before Christmas. One idiot is all it takes. There was CCTV footage of him (this is the Delta strain) swiftly moving past another individual which was enough to infect the other guy. It’s the middle of winter here too which doesn’t help.

Mask back in my pocket wherever I go.

[shade]

It's going to stay interesting and it is only a matter of time before the first variant shows up that requires the vaccine update. They are working on multiple protein components, but it gets trickier going down that road.
Will be fun to re-vax the entire population again, even with the infrastructure up and running.

I also don't get the rules any longer. I gave up. CDC says you are not required to wear a mask when fully vaccinated? Europe keeps these laws in place, unless outside.
Studies suggest transmission significantly goes down, that does not mean it's 0. And as long as not everyone had a chance to get the vaccine, it should be required. I mean if it hits the anti-vax community later on, so be it. My solidarity is limited there.

I got my two shots and am doing fine. Let's see about that cancer in 15 years from now

[marodi]

My mother got her second shot last night. I was accompanying her because she can't walk long distances so she borrows a wheelchair and I'm her official pusher (ha!). So she got her dose, I drove her to the waiting area and we sat there for 15 minutes. After that, we went to leave and just before the door, there were two volunteers with a bunch of boxes. They handed one to my mom and one to me and we got out.

It's only outside that I realized that they were boxes of surgical, disposable mask. Unopened. 50 masks in each boxes. I was stunned. Boxes like that were quite expensive when bought in stores. And then I wondered why they were giving them away at the vaccination center. I think that it maybe because our Communist government had bought so much that, now that they are close to lift up the obligation to wear a mask, they decided to give them away.

Anyway, I'm incredibly grateful for the gift. So is my mom.

[Erneuert]

I'm her official pusher

You’ve been in plain sight all this time, Robert Modell?

[marodi]

^^
Damn, my cover's blown.