Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

This is fucked up. We have like 5 doses per adult at this point.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/politics/coronavirus-astrazeneca-united-states.html

again, i think there's a real opportunity to change the way the world is seen with a COVID Corps but I imagine the administration considers it a political nonstarter until everyone who wants a shot in the us gets a shot. it is immensely fucked up though for sure.

[¬º-°]¬ ᴵ ʰᵒᵖᵉ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵉᵐᵃⁱˡ ᶠⁱⁿᵈˢ ʸᵒᵘ ʷᵉˡˡ

— Chappell Ellison (@ChappellTracker) March 11, 2021

What would be the effect of stacking vaccines? Say getting the two rounds of Pfizer plus the J&J within a few weeks or months of each other. Would there be high potential for serious harm? Would you become super immune?

NB I am not seriously considering doing this, but I can’t be the only person thinking about it. And toward the end of the year when supply and distribution are in good shape, it would become feasible. I’m expecting articles about this phenomenon by July.

vaccy flipping

If you get your vaccine card punched five times, you get a free bagel.

I did read somewhere that the UK is looking into whether there's increased effectiveness when they mix up the first and second dose providers (so here it would be AZ for one and Pfizer for the other), but haven't seen any results.

man the first dose of moderna fucked me up, it was like having a low key flu for eight hours last night

feelin fine this morning

Aiming to be the last person in Canada to get vaccinated, purely out of spite

(As a "healthy" person in a non front facing role living in Toronto, I'll be pretty close to the end of the line anyway.)

oof those Je55e posts are making me feel very trench

like... mustard gas?

borad slang for "trenchant social commentary"

but the variety of trench was very "death to the USA" so mustard gas could work

As a "healthy" person in a non front facing role living in Toronto, I'll be pretty close to the end of the line anyway.)

― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.),

here's your chance to pick up a smoking habit, eat bread, drink beer

xpost Brad, that was exactly my reaction (in both senses). Super-surreal, imo, to feel fleetingly sick. Like, more or less fine, then sick flu-ish for a few hours, then fine again.

oof those Je55e posts are making me feel very trench

maybe if they can say they're "deporting" the vaccine they'll give a few to other countries /trench

yeah tbh those posts made me rationally angry. foh with that bullshit.

it wouldn't likely make you 'more immune' to my knowledge, anyway.

the question is more whether you'd need a booster several months down the line, say you got your shots in January but now it's July and things are winding down. That's what many of the studies that went into Phase 3 the earliest are now testing (I actually go in on the 22nd for another round of bloodwork). my guess is the immunity lasts longer than 3 months, and that the '3 month' guideline the CDC is using is just out of caution. but probably doesn't last forever, much like flu shots don't.

I'm not sure if I need to get another set of shots or what, since I had mine in Sept, but until I hear that I do I'm not gonna take away from someone who outright hasn't had any yet.

but agree with above, we should focus on getting vaccines to other nations that need it rather than like, roiding up with extra doses here

I did read somewhere that the UK is looking into whether there's increased effectiveness when they mix up the first and second dose providers (so here it would be AZ for one and Pfizer for the other), but haven't seen any results.

omg lol

if water is good for me, I'll drink ALL the water and i'll get superpowers

The policy in Scotland is you get two doses of the same vaccine, not sure if UK wide is different.
I imagine that's impacting on the logistics for early vaccines as we only had Pfizer available at first.

i forget which thread i posted that the consensus is ~3x more people have had it then have tested positive, but here's that:

Man, 38% of people tested for antibodies in this study in California came back positive. 45% in LA!

(Not totally clear on the sampling methodology.)https://t.co/ZdHqdydkpk pic.twitter.com/4mRTY2vfJ7

— Alexis C. Madrigal (@alexismadrigal) March 12, 2021

Yeah. US has ~30 million confirmed cases (maybe 100 million actual ones?). People keep forgetting that in their calculations. (The number of *very* mainstream media articles that argued we'll never reach herd immunity without taking that number into account.. Too many).

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) March 12, 2021

the implication of this is that with 25% of the population having had >= 1 dose, we're fast approaching some level of (likely temporary, weak) herd immunity. everyone should still get fully vaccinated obviously.

can't just add the two groups together because there's probably tons of overlap

For sure

Although likelihood of getting covid and access to
vaccination are anticorrelated in the US because lol US healthcare so the overlap here is probably less than in other countries.

Woof this second dose has me feeling like hammered dogshit

Feel better, forks.

Tufekci is good but is just off here, the people who are figuring how much vax in arms is needed to curb exponential growth are definitely taking number of people carrying immunity from previous infections into account, and the typical numbers thrown around are on the order of 25%, just as she says -- she really does have a habit of saying things that are in line with general consensus and then saying how frustrated she is that no one else is saying those things

Seems like the strain of UK origin is just fucking Europe up all over again now while the UK itself vaccinates rapidly.

Truly what on earth is happening with Europe pic.twitter.com/UaVooXTAzT

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) March 12, 2021

sorry should've put in the outbreak thread I guess

Xp I think her point (certainly my point in posting it) is that many people don’t realise that very many more than 30m Americans have had it, which has implications for how much vaccination we need for herd immunity. I don’t think she’s saying that public health departments or epidimiologists or stay news or Ed Yong don’t know this. But no one in my family realises it and I got the impression when claiming “3x” somewhere here yesterday that some people here didn’t know either.

Anyway if you live in Georgia and you are average weight then you can get an appointment now. If you’re just below average weight then remember a litre of water weighs a kilogram I guess? (This is a stupid way of prioritising access btw, there’s very little evidence someone with a bmi of 25 is at additional risk that justifies the complexity of a tier 1.a.vii.(6))

Georgia folks needing #covid19 vaccines 🗣️🗣️🗣️ - the criteria are opening up on Monday, which includes BMI >25. My BMI is over 25 if I wear jeans when I step on the scale. Appointments for next week are available *now* at 888-457-0186

— Edjah Nduom, MD, FAANS (he/him) (@EKNduom) March 12, 2021

Sorry, I should make clear that I am not thinking of gobbling up extra vaccine. Just 1) I was honestly curious about the potential effects of stacking vaccines and 2) I can easily imagine it happening.

If I get the J&J vaccine, I'd probably put in some effort into researching getting one of the others later on.

I don't know if this advice helps, but when I got my first Moderna shot, my arm got really sore after several hours, so taking my doctor's advice, I took some Tylenol (the 8 hour relief one - two pills per dose). Very, very mild soreness after that, I wonder if it helped prevent any other symptoms as well. Regardless, took a second dose like 10 hours later after the first one was wearing off, and then once more 12 hours later just to be soreness-free. FYI, I was told Tylenol is preferable to Advil as there isn't the risk of curbing your immune system's response to a vaccine (and as always take it well after a shot, definitely not before).

I originally read that you took a second vaccine and then a third all in the same day - jeez leave some for the rest of us.

Second day after second vax is much better, still ailing a bit but i can hold a thought in my brain and lie down without feeling bruised.

This is tangential to thread topic but endlessly fascinating
https://aeon.co/essays/what-can-we-learn-from-the-lunar-pandemic-that-never-was

Also: the people in the pods that game-ified covid risk look like what you think they would look like:
https://www.wired.com/story/group-house-covid-risk-points/

At the risk of tempting fate in a “man these edibles ain’t shit” way, I will say that yyit’s been 8 hours since I had my first AstraZeneca dose and I feel fine, my arm is barely even sore. I am starting to get that weird skin sensitivity that sometimes comes with a cold or flu, I might take a couple of paracetamol to head off any effects before bed but so far it’s not at all as bad as everyone’s been telling me (when I said I’d got the AZ my friend said “oh the puke-maker!”)

Can a mod delete that post

damn, did a lot change in 7 minutes?!

It was starting to happen as I typed (skin sensitivity a tell) - almost as soon as I posted my arm to hurt. Not the ache/stiffness I get w flu jab but a sharp throbbing pain about once a second. That passed and now I feel sick. Very achy and lethargic, it’s kind of interesting - like instant flu! The effect really is a bit like coming up on bad recreational drugs, I’m gonna take a couple of paracetamol and ride it out. I’m glad it’s doing its thing

My arm *started* to hurt

Wins, I totally sympathize with you and am sorry you are hurting. But there's an argument to be made that it'll be more interesting if mods do not delete your initial post, because of the beginning "At the risk of tempting fate in a 'man these edibles ain’t shit' way."

Not that any of us should be entertained or amused by your suffering, of course. But it is kind of a textbook “man these edibles ain’t shit” moment, isn't it?

I speak as someone who has definitely had At the risk of tempting fate in a “man these edibles ain’t shit” moments.