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

Apparently one of the companies licensed to make the J&J vaccine screwed up and ruined 15 million doses. Seems like poor quality control not to catch this earlier. At least it was caught before shipping them out.

More vaccinations = less spread = fewer mutations, surely.

New overall SF data page:

https://data.sfgov.org/stories/s/COVID-19-Vaccinations-Progress/7mye-zncy/

Key takeaways now that access has expanded to 50 and up in California: we've just done gangbusters here on several key fronts. Already at 46% of overall 16 and up population with one shot, a full quarter with a complete regimen, 65 and up with one shot about 85% and full regimen something approaching 60% I think. VERY pleased to see Bayview/Hunter's Point and Exclesior with nearly 50% already vaccinated as well, absolutely key for equity. Way too early still to be completely happy but if the vaccination numbers maintain and maybe even ramp up further we are going to be sitting pretty in a month's time for sure.

This is hardly a useful metric for anyone but me, but everyone I know through work or personally is either vaxxed or scheduled to be vaxxed before May or just isn't trying to get an appointment so that's my peek into life among the middle class in NYC.

DISCLAIMER: I am not an evolutionary microbiologist but I have worked with them

While random mutations are less likely to become established variants if they appear in less-susceptible populations, the virus will continue to mutate when spreading between susceptible individuals. It’s not impossible that evolutionary pressure applied by widespread vaccination and acquired immunity will end up generating immune escape variants. But it’s also perhaps not impossible that the rate of molecular evolution will be low enough and the structure of the Spike protein constrained enough that immune escape variants wouldn’t put us back in uncontrolled pandemic conditions.
― Canon in Deez (silby), Thursday, April 1, 2021 12:43 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean, I'm not an evolutionary microbiologist nor have I worked with them, but it just kind of seems like if there was a really good chance of the virus continuing to mutate in more deadly, more contagious, and immune-escaping fashions then we'd also see that more often with other viruses. Although I guess otoh we have new flu vaccines all the time due to mutations. Either way, I think the sci fi version of things tends to get people overly scared.

what does happen to surplus vaccine. Is it tken somewhere and stored indefinitely or incinerated or something?
NOt having much luck with finding an answer. But assume that it can't just be dumped because t might have a negative effect on surroundings.
Also is it just antibiotics taht there is fear of developing immunity to since a vaccination depends on triggering human antibodies. Not sure what effect of misdisposing of out of date vaccines on environment would be. New diseases breeding in whatever crossover nodes you get, like pigs and things.

Is there normally a single disposal protocol and does it tend to include incineration.

yeah that's an interesting question but i've never heard what they do

what becomes of the surplus vaccines?

we're a long way of knowing anything about really long COVID, but some early UK research on short-term prospects after recovery:

Nearly a third of people who have been in hospital suffering from Covid-19 are readmitted for further treatment within four months of being discharged, and one in eight of patients dies in the same period, doctors have found.

The striking long-term impact of the disease has prompted doctors to call for ongoing tests and monitoring of former coronavirus patients to detect early signs of organ damage and other complications caused by the virus.

Poopy G Stinkgarten 😮

I hate to be the person complaining here, but this is a pretty ridiculous situation. As of this past Monday, all people over 16 qualify for vaccines in Texas, but Austin Public Health is not yet opening appointments to the general public. This evening APH released a big batch of appointments and was unable to fill 4,000 of them.

I'll be two weeks past second vax in the latter part of April and I feel rationally/irrationally guilty about the fact that I don't have plans to change my behavior that much at that point. Am I alone in this?

“Vaccinated people do not carry the virus" https://t.co/FnbKbW3f09

— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) April 1, 2021

**checks date**

Ontario's drug-dealer premier is shockingly bad at distributing vaccines

Am I alone in this?

I think this falls squarely into the irrationally guilty slot. Unless you have avoided 100% of all human contact for the past year and plan never to have human contact again. But you must have had a human within arm's reach at some point, or how could you be vaccinated?

I think it's reasonable to not change your behavior until most other people have changed theirs. Not much point in going out and trying to do things as before when most everyone else is still in a quarantine mindset.

And I got my first shot today (Pfizer). I was called on the phone yesterday and asked if I wanted an appointment, the first of which was today. Turns out it was neither of the two places I had registered with to get an appointment, but my Aetna doctor (whom I haven't even met yet, as we switched to Aetna last July), or Aetna itself, that had it set up. Walked there from work, a couple minutes wait after I filled out the form, then the shot and 15 minutes hanging around (with a Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello movie on the waiting room TV). About as painless as I could imagine it would be.

I was just asked to travel for work on a date that coincides almost exactly with when I will have reached "full" immunity from my second shot. Technically a couple days before. I thought about pushing back on it but I feel confident enough at that point flying (studies showing near full immunity by that pont). Will still wear a mask and such.

Once I'm fully vaccinated, I will wear masks indoors to make others feel comfortable but I'm definitely going to do indoor activities again. Not going to continue to build my life around the very statistically small chance that I would both get infected and spread it to someone else even when fully vaccinated.

Daughter vaccinated in Marion, IL, in what may be the biggest Walmart I've ever seen. Second appointment easily made for close to home in a few weeks.

As far as I could tell, she was the only one there for a shot, but it was toward the end of the day, so who knows. Mask game was all over the place in there. Masked couples, unmasked families, mixed mask on/off couples/families, people that look exactly like who you might expect to be mask free with masks on, people you might expect to have masks on with masks off. Maybe as many gaiters as masks (which may be a compromise form of protest?), huge number of noses out all around. I doubt this place has been particularly compliant in months, but as more people get vaccinated I imagine the situation will get even more complicated and chaotic everywhere.

Fwiw, btw, more Trump stuff in downstate Illinois (which went 60-80% GOP) than during our brief poke into Kentucky (which voted largely the same). More confederate flags in Kentucky, though, but not none in Illinois!

I thought Walmart enforced its mask rules?

I thought so, too, but a quick look found news stories from last summer saying the mask requirement was not being enforced for fear of violence and confrontation. At least staff was totally masked.

Got my second moderna shot yesterday morning and felt kind of tired but otherwise fine; my wife has had a splitting headache since about midnight though

My mom in Florida stopped going to Walmart because too many people didn't wear masks.

The numbers are good

Breaking news: We just set an incredible all-time record of +3.975M doses reported administered over the total yesterday! 14% higher than prior record. Now 100M+ Americans w at least one dose. Averaging 2.99M/ day over past week. CDC will post details here https://t.co/Bdxgob9E2y

— Cyrus Shahpar (@cyrusshahpar46) April 2, 2021

Also:

https://www.axios.com/cdc-travel-guidelines-vaccinated-international-d2ec68b2-bbbd-4511-a882-c99c5146519e.html

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n432

Covid-19: Are cloth masks still effective? And other questions answered

This is interesting because, well, the "let's not wear face coverings" voices seem louder and it seems we're (UK) much more likely to end up in a "Oh, don't worry about covering your face" situation than a "Wear better coverings" one.

It's a continual frustration to explain how Miami-Dade, Florida's most populous County, has the highest case load yet the highest mask compliance. I haven't seen unmasked faces in stores since late March 2020.

we should wear masks but it's a second order effect to staying home. places where people are still going out voluntarily or because they have to work, and with high household occupancy, will always be worst hit even if you give everyone N95s.

my wife just started at a co-working place in London and nobody wears masks there apparently. i didn’t think that was legal.

Not confident venues will get the support they need to enforce this fairly and safely

California will allow indoor live events/performances starting April 15 for counties in red, orange and yellow tiers. Proof of vaccination or COVID-19 test will be required https://t.co/1xDBxnhISr

— Colleen Shalby (@CShalby) April 2, 2021

Of course they won't.

“Good luck I guess” — the state of California

Idk red still sounds pretty bad???

there is not a single person in this earth getting paid enough money to enfore the non-compliant to wear masks

just got my first shot of moderna, no ill effects yet. feels good to be in the endgame now

Hold up, now AZ is being temporarily taken off the market *again*, for the *same* blood clot reason?

blood claat, that's what I've got in my vein

Re my above post about feeling rationally/irrationally guilty about not changing my life that much post-vaxx, this is the kind of thing that sets it off:

It’s actually really sad how many people want to stay in lockdown life forever. I think there will be a wide swath of American hikikomori. We should think about programs to help them. https://t.co/AOtAaHwVkm

— Nellie Bowles (@NellieBowles) April 2, 2021

Like, I get that for some people this has been really hard. But some of those people seem to think there is something wrong with me for not finding pandemic restrictions as hard as they've found them. (I am not going to say "lockdown" because come on, we in the US have not been locked down, I have been socializing with people throughout the entire pandemic, I am not a hikikomori because I've been hanging out with friends outside their house instead of inside.)

All I can derive from that tweet is that Nellie Bowles has a feeling.

my wife and i just got dose one, paul simon’s “graceland” playing over the cvs speakers. got a little emotional, not gonna lie

only wish i got the jab ten minutes early to the tune of the pointer sisters’ “automatic”

*earlier

I also feel irrationally guilty for not feeling any strong emotions about getting the vaccine

I really don’t like it when extroverts try to “help” introverts.

^the worst

Actually the worst is when a natural introvert who has been “converted” does this.

I'm not even an introvert! I'm a strong extrovert!

those terms are as meaningless as horoscope-derived personality traits

ok

Mask game all over the place down here on the Kentucky border. Really no rhyme or reason.

they're like Freud's hydraulic theories about the mind, that things build up and release... super compelling and intuitively grasped concepts that just have zero relationship to how the brain works or how humans actually behave