COVID poll - How close is it to you?

[Tor Bejnar]

Just how much has COVID-19 affected us and those close to us?  Many of us diligently, or occasionally, read the COVID-19 thread, but that doesn't count (for this poll).

If I've left off any 'obvious' options, please leave a reply so it can be added to the list.

You may select up to 7 options.  (My condolences if you could accurately select more; we would like to hear your experience!)

Edit:  a couple changes from previous version...

Kassy suggested this poll isn't needed, but 12 folks 'voted' during an hour and a half, so maybe it feeds a 'need'.  My inspiration was a post about "Every American I know knows somebody who has died of COVID" and I (an American) don't know that I do.  Anyway, enjoy 'take 2'.  (Thanks Kassy for leaving the old version up so I could copy it!)

There is no 'end date' for this survey as an individual's experiences could change over time.

[oren]

Surprisingly, it appears Covid-19 hasn't affected me that much, though I can assure it felt otherwise. Besides the few common ones (work from home, masks, vaccine), I will receive a booster shot in a couple of weeks.

[KiwiGriff]

I am the lone one with no effects.
We are presently in a three day hard lock down here in NZ due to 10 covid cases in the entire country.
I had booked two of those days off work anyway.

[Tor Bejnar]

I've added another bin:  Lockdowns have been the undoing of my plans (paraphrased).  Selections (votes) can be adjusted.

[NeilT]

For me this has been a mixed experience.

Nobody in the extended family has died and of the extended family we are pretty certain that only my wife has had it with a possibility of me but not sure.

My wife was ill for a month in Jan 2020 with several of the symptoms. As I was flying every fortnight then, it is possible I caught it and passed it on.

There have been upsides and downsides.  I broke a tooth during the lockdown and it became infected.  I am highly resistant to local anaesthetic so I will not visit a dentist who does not speak English very well. Being stuck in France and in lockdown this was not an opportunity.

When I had my heart attack in March this year, the doctors told me that the infection in my tooth had been a significant factor and had tipped me over the edge.  Whilst in Hospital the infection got a significant hold on me and they had to work fairly hard to control it. I wound up on 24 hour intravenous antibiotics when I left hospital.

However all is well now.

My wife is claustrophobic and suffers from being forced to use a mask.  Also she is now 80% deaf in one ear and 70% deaf in the other. As you can imagine masks are a complete nightmare for her.  She also can't wear her hearing aids with a mask as the mask straps keep hooking the aids out onto the floor. At £2,500 each this is a considerable problem.  Add to this that my wife has had to learn to lip read in French after we moved here and the situation is compounded.

We have been, essentially, restricted in movements for nearly 1.5 years with curfews and self attestation forms, with police checks, for a large amount of that time.

We get family visitors at the summer and Christmas normally.  Last year we did get some visitors in the summer, but less than usual.  We also had no family at Christmas and also could not travel to them either.

This summer we have had no visitors but will get them at Christmas if the vaccines continue to work.

On the upside, I have been working from home and have not had to travel or fly, nor pay for flights and accommodation.  This is a significant saving for me and it also allows me to work across many more time zones, increasing the range of the companies in the world I can easily work for.

We have heard of 2 deaths in family of friends but nobody in immediate friends. My parents are both in their 80's and no issues with them besides availability of medical screening for existing problems.

A mixed bag in all.

[Tor Bejnar]

Bin selections ("votes") can be edited now.

How easy it was for me to forget that people (mostly from Alabama) I have sung with at Sacred Harp sings (multiple times a year for over 20 years), but haven't seen since 2019, are gone, having succumbed to COVID-19.  These aren't my 'buddy next door' or 'best friend I do projects with' friends, but they are individuals I will remember for years to come, and will miss.

[pikaia]

There seems to be something wrong with the percentages. It says 25 out of 27 members have worn a mask in public, but that this is only 22.9%.
I suspect that it is dividing 25 by the total votes cast across all questions, not by the number of members.

[Tor Bejnar]

Those percentages are of 'all bins selected' by those 27 individuals. The first person to 'vote' (me) selected 5 bins, and each of those bins had 20% of the 'vote'.  Basically, the percentages are 'meaningless.'

[be cause]

there's no bin for ' the proportion of friends that believe any old crap on social media in preference to any science ' .

[Tor Bejnar]

Oh, but there is:  "Other (please post a reply)"        

[longwalks1]

I am working a bazillion hours, well never more than 63 hours in a week.  24 hours of those was spent @$9.00 an hour asleep, but not anymore.  It is just effing hell in working with the disabled, we are so short of help, especially in Iowa. Every business around here has help wanted signs up, I could go 5 blocks away and work for Winnebago Inc and be be part of killing the planet  (making more Recreational Vehicles) and start at $17.50 an hour.  No, I have morals.

It is so bad they replaced all overnight positions in Waiver in North Iowa for my employer - 15 homes - (less dependent - more capable - stable individuals), so I am out and have to transfer to ICF with the wheelchairs, lifting, incontinent merde, and passing a whole bunch of meds there.  I did not mind picking up 16 hours a week in ICF to add to my 32 hour base $21 buck an hour overtime.  But to do that many hours exclusively in ICF is going to be hard on my back.

 There are 4 open positions on 2nd shift between 3 houses.   4 out of 6 positions.  They are going to want 55 hours out of me every week.  Not how I want to spend my next 2-3/4 years until I get full Soc. Sec benefits in the US.   And to cap it off, my employer does not offer a plan for those of us who are or will be available to get Medicare at 65.  Probably 8 people in Forest City with my employer  who are 65 or older and work full time.   

I say eff off and die, hopefully a painful one - to all the Demopublicans who voted to raise the age  of full retirement benefits from 65. They should have know more.   Same goes for the Republicrats.   

For Winnebago County, as in all of Iowa, they only post numbers once a week.  Sequential weeks for new cases was 2, 4, 9, 17 and now supposedly 20.   However one county north in Minnesota the dailies have seemed to continue to climb.  School starts soon and Iowa is one of the 6 states that absolutely forbids local schools to use masks.  Gonna be effin hell.   

Covid seems destined to be deleterious to me for the rest of my life.  It did not have to be this bad.   

[kassy]

Those percentages are of 'all bins selected' by those 27 individuals. The first person to 'vote' (me) selected 5 bins, and each of those bins had 20% of the 'vote'.  Basically, the percentages are 'meaningless.'

Aargh! 

With questionnaires you ask a bunch of questions and the results should group in some way so you can filter out some result else why ask the questions?

1-5 should cluster in some way

6 and 7 look into economics but there is some overlap between the datasets (depends on type of job etc).

Then 8 is  I have worn a mask in public places.

You should hope that this question scores rather close to 100% by now but whatever the answer is there is no control via other questions.

9 and 10 are ofc related.

11 etc. Vaccine status might change over time. Handling this in questionnaires is troublesome.

14 oh people i could tell you stories. But once again no controls or questions to work out a pattern from there.

Other....well we need the text.

16 should score low but again no controls or patterns.

8 vs 16 functions as a low level control which is useless if you cannot see individual responses.

Not personal but it was just a relatively boring subject in university which i found interesting. 

[kassy]

And the way the forum does polls does not help either.

Other:

It was december 2020. I ran into a person i knew. We worked together somewhere a decade ago and since we must live close we did quite often see each other on the street. We never talked but after half a year of lock down things change a bit so when we ran into each other we did talk. She had Covid in march and she was struggling with long Covid. None of the doctors knew what was going on. Sometimes there was nothing and then suddenly symptoms flared up again. When she declared she had long Covid i discreetly stepped back another meter...

[Tor Bejnar]

Thanks, Kassy.

I briefly thought to label the questions 1, then 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d (choose 1 of the 4, if any), etc.  But one might get COVID twice, once a 2a and once a 2c (or have a scare, then later get it, 2d and 2b).  3a and 3b (work) could both be true (restaurant closed - lost my waitstaff job; lots of applications later got hired as a work-from-home computer programmer [which had formally been office-based]). 

What we know so far:

Most of us are fully vaccinated; a few aren't; and a few, apparently, don't want to disclose (or thought they could check only one item, or didn't notice the question, or didn't know ).

Most of us have worn masks, but not all of us.  Have masks never been an issue in parts of God's Own (New Zealand)?  Some of us are anti-maskers?

Nearly 1 in 5 of us know a victim.  Fewer of us have knowingly been infected.

And some of the comments makes my heart go out to my fellow ASIFers. 

Makes the survey worthwhile to me, already. 

Tor

[Bruce Steele]

I think I had it but I tested negative. I lost smell and taste and isolated but when tested , it was negative. I really didn’t feel anything and kept up farm chores but there was a period weeks later where I had to really draw deep to drag myself through it which I assume was some malaise due to long Covid. I was with wife most days except when I isolated , waited for a test day and then got results but she never had any symptoms. Weird !
 My farm business was improved because people shopped from home and had food delivered. Restaurant sales collapsed for a whole year but online sales and CSA took up slack. Restaurants have returned but feed costs, fuel costs, processing costs have all been rising quickly now.  So my farm expenses have gone up 30% over the last year. 
 

[KiwiGriff]

Have masks never been an issue in parts of God's Own (New Zealand)?  Some of us are anti-maskers?

For most of the time we have had no covid in the wild so no need to wear a mask.
Masks are now mandatory when in shops under level four alert   and I have complied with that since I took part in the survey.
NZ is behind most of the west in its vaccination roll out. The opportunity for me to get vaccinated only came around last week. I will book mine as soon as the level four lockdown is eased.

[Sebastian Jones]

Like everyone I know in this most vaxxed of locations (over 90% of the eligible population), I personally know people who have gotten sick with COVID 19, also I have had two relatives get sick. I had an intense exposure (close contact over 4 days), but, because I'm fully vaxxed, did not get infected.

[Andre Koelewijn]

Those percentages are of 'all bins selected' by those 27 individuals. The first person to 'vote' (me) selected 5 bins, and each of those bins had 20% of the 'vote'.  Basically, the percentages are 'meaningless.'

Yes, they are meaningless, in a way.
Yet one can calculate the right percentages: number of votes divided by number of members voted.
E.g when I started this post, 'wearing a mask' had 34/36. This seems to give a reliable percentage.

[Jim Hunt]

I was flat on my back in bed for a week with the symptoms of Covid-19. However that was at Xmas 2019, so it can't have been. Can it?

[etienne]

I was flat on my back in bed for a week with the symptoms of Covid-19. However that was at Xmas 2019, so it can't have been. Can it?

Of course it could be. We had that in January 2020 but could not be tested because we didn't go in any risky country.

[kassy]

And some of the comments makes my heart go out to my fellow ASIFers. 

Makes the survey worthwhile to me, already. 

Tor

I agree, also thanks for reminding me of a subject i had not thought about for ages. 

Lets see if more stories get added.

One of the weirder things in the Covid thread is that some people projected their view so much. In this case it matters in which country you are and beyond that there are very different economic realities. Some can stay at home all day others are out and about.

When people in NL got really scared, around march 2020 when lots of deaths were reported from Italy and then Spain we went into lockdown and the streets really emptied overnight. It was quite surreal.

I did love the blue blue skies of summer. No airplane white stripes in the skies, only birds up there. Another thing which really stood out was the evening clock. It started at 21:00 so around 20:45 you heard some cars speeding home and then there was this veil of silence which is very unusual. At first you just heard a lack of noise. You really miss something. So i opened the drapes and just peered at the empty road and enjoyed the silence.

[crandles]

I know someone who died with COVID-19  - 9
Family or friends were/are hospitalized with COVID-19  - 7

We obviously know a lot more people than family and friends. Guess that makes sense, work colleges, someone in same school as children ...

My sister a school teacher in Tanzania knows a few pupils whose parents have died. I didn't tick either box but she would probably tick 'know someone who died' but not family or friends hospitalised 

[Sebastian Jones]

Given the science oriented nature of this forum, I am gobsmacked- no, I'm appalled- that only 34% of respondents have worn a mask in public places.
I suppose COVID 19 deniers are everywhere, but they have not been terribly obvious here.
Somehow or other, 66% of the people commenting on this thread don't think COVID 19 is a real threat.
Beyond bizarre.

[kassy]

You totally missed the discussion about this above. The forum is stupid in calculating this but the actual score as of now is 38/40 so 90%. Also see above for NZ comment (which explains 1 no vote, one to go for science).

[A-Team]

It's had zero effect on us. We double vaxxed early (as did our entire social network) and are looking forward to a Delta booster. I wear a Korean quality face mask in public places and even on trails to show support for the others doing so and as a courtesy to front-facing supermarket checkers and the like.

I help DRASTIC occasionally with exposure of the lab leak coverup having been involved academically in past decades with things like engineered genomes, protein molecular evolution and structure-function prediction. These citizen scientists have done a remarkable job overall though quality is uneven.

https://twitter.com/BillyBostickson

I'm very familiar with why polio vaccines such as Salk and Sabin kick out SV40, the risk of rabies vaccine made from BSE-infected fetal calf serum, how military-industrial complex vaccines like anthrax come into mandated use etc etc yet the anti-vaxx vehemence baffles me in regard to the two mRNA vaccines. I ask them straight off to tell me about IgG which has been a great conversation stopper.

We've gone round and round here before on the infringed freedoms brought on by city water chlorination, fluoridation, jury duty, seat belt wearing, open containers, tax-filing, no-smoking regulation, by medical prescription only, voter registration and so on. Fine but if you choose the enhanced risk, take on the doubled insurance premium.

What ever became of John Locke and the social contract?
https://www.britannica.com/story/the-social-contract-and-philosophy

[FishOutofWater]

We will never know if covid killed my daughter's partner. He had some very weird symptoms that did not point to any common diagnosis, then felt bad for a day and died suddenly before any kind of test could be done. It was shocking. He was a great guy and good friend to me and then he was gone.

It could have been a clot or vascular event caused by covid but we will never know for sure.

My wife is a MD who works with pregnant women so precautions about covid have been a big deal for us.

[Sebastian Jones]

Sigh.
Yes, I did skip the discussion about the weird way the Forum does polls.
Thanks for masking everybody!
You restored my faith in (this slice) of humanity!
I am surprised at how few say that COVID 19 has affected them.

[oren]

Sad to read many of the stories here. I guess it's mostly the luck of location, some got hit hard and some managed to limit the damage one way or another, by good management or collective luck.
It appears I am the first to tick the booster shot checkbox, which also has to do with location.
Luckily those I know personally who contracted Covid did so after having been vaccinated and recovered well. But then again most of the Covid deaths here happened in different circles (the country is strongly divided into several social groups with limited interaction) and the death ratio on a total population basis has reached ~0.08% which is quite low, relatively speaking of course.
I should add that I switched to working from home in 2018, so could continue normally when Covid arrived. My job is in financial markets and my work is semi-independent and depends on my personal judgement. The early warning, analysis and information given by various forum members helped me avoid serious mistakes that would have ended my job and my livelihood, and still it was touch and go.

[SteveMDFP]

I was flat on my back in bed for a week with the symptoms of Covid-19. However that was at Xmas 2019, so it can't have been. Can it?

Personally, I think it extremely improbable.
Symptoms of Covid are essentially indistinguishable from influenza.  Unless you got blood clots.  Assuming you didn't, I think there's a far more likely explanation.

[ruffed]

There are no covid-19 cases in Western Australia except sailors on visiting ships.
Western Australia is isolated from the rest of Australia by state border closure. Generally, all visitors must quarantine for 14 days.

[GrauerMausling]

I was flat on my back in bed for a week with the symptoms of Covid-19. However that was at Xmas 2019, so it can't have been. Can it?

Personally, I think it extremely improbable.
Symptoms of Covid are essentially indistinguishable from influenza.  Unless you got blood clots.  Assuming you didn't, I think there's a far more likely explanation.

Why would that be improbable? My brothers neighbour here in Germany was in the hospital on January 1st 2020 - with all the symptoms of Covid19. At that time of course nobody suspected Covid19, so nobody took samples. But 2/3 month later a check for antibodies showed an infection with SARS-COV 2 so I'm confident that the actual infection already happened in December 19.

 

[Jim Hunt]

I was flat on my back in bed for a week with the symptoms of Covid-19. However that was at Xmas 2019, so it can't have been. Can it?

Personally, I think it extremely improbable.
Symptoms of Covid are essentially indistinguishable from influenza.  Unless you got blood clots.  Assuming you didn't, I think there's a far more likely explanation.

Why would that be improbable? My brothers neighbour here in Germany was in the hospital on January 1st 2020 - with all the symptoms of Covid19. At that time of course nobody suspected Covid19, so nobody took samples. But 2/3 month later a check for antibodies showed an infection with SARS-COV 2 so I'm confident that the actual infection already happened in December 19.

I've never smoked and I've never worked down a mine. After the "flu" I was coughing for months. A chest X-Ray at the end of March revealed "a degree of COPD and emphysema".

[Jim Hunt]

Noting the title of the thread, the answer is now "very close". North Cornwall has become the Covid capital of England. At least two of the population of our little hamlet have succumbed. Despite the requisite double jab in one case:

https://Davidstow.info/2021/08/the-covid-19-holiday-season-in-cornwall/#comment-1156

[longwalks1]

Myself, I just want to scream here in the usOfa - Iowa every time someone says with absolute certainty that the medical profession gets rich on every positive Covid pcr test, that some are faked as are some of the death certificates (the doctors are supposed to get $3000 extra for a covid death certifcate  according to the QANUTS).   I really do not know how that could be done, seems like it would be an impossible scam.  it is very strongly believed by all too many.

I am not trained in medicine, but I have no idea how a 96 y.o who was positive for Covid and admitted to ICU could have been misdiagnosed for 11 days and then given Zocyn and the pneumonia clears.  It would seem to me to be utterly impossible that a Mayo Clinic hospital could do that.  I mean, they take cultures on admit.   However my brother seems to believe that is possible, him and others.  Conversely, I do not see how he could have survived an 11 day pneumonia infection.

My dad was at deaths door at day 12, md from ICU calls at 11 pm, (never good) "your dad is failing, we have no other options, but we are trying an antibiotic in case he picked up a pnemonia, there is not much else we can do." He is DNR correct?"  "Correct."  The antibiotics worked.  People get infections in the hospital.        So I am talking about it to my MAGA racist brother on the phone and he starts to blurt out in his pedantic MAGA voice, "they misdiagnosed the COVID."     I     just      went    silent.        He backpedaled, it is just what I have to live with here.   

Mom was diagnosed positive asymptomatic  same day as me, 2 days ago.   She leave isolation where she is tomorrow.  Work had me go in and start meds and g-tubes at a new house after my very serious exposure to dad, did not ask me to get a PCR, and over a week later when I tested positive, said, you can still come into work.  And then they change their mind and I am off until 10 days after test results arrived. 

Asymptomatic in November 2020 and September 2021, I am getting up to 30 km for bicycle rides and will see how much biking I can get in, cant' go to the YMCA.   I have tofu, carbs and the end of the garden.  I am one of the lucky ones.  This is the best time to bicycle in Iowa. 

[Tor Bejnar]

I got a Modena booster shot yesterday (available for 65 and up, etc., now) and am updating my responses to this poll. I feel under the weather today, just as I did the two days after shot #2.

Some social events I used to participate in I haven't gone back to yet.  In two weeks I'll re-evaluate.

How fast does the booster take effect?  (I couldn't find this on the internet.)

Before getting the shot I was asked if I had any questions.  I had two:

• Will the microchips make me a better driver?  ["There aren't any, so 'No'," she said.]
• Will the tiny eggs hatch and force me to retire within a month?  ["No eggs, but ... [taking a good look at me] 'Maybe'," she said.  My wife had warned her that I'd be a joker.]

[SimonF92]

Myself, I just want to scream here in the usOfa - Iowa every time someone says with absolute certainty that the medical profession gets rich on every positive Covid pcr test, that some are faked as are some of the death certificates (the doctors are supposed to get $3000 extra for a covid death certifcate  according to the QANUTS).   I really do not know how that could be done, seems like it would be an impossible scam.  it is very strongly believed by all too many.

I am not trained in medicine, but I have no idea how a 96 y.o who was positive for Covid and admitted to ICU could have been misdiagnosed for 11 days and then given Zocyn and the pneumonia clears.  It would seem to me to be utterly impossible that a Mayo Clinic hospital could do that.  I mean, they take cultures on admit.   However my brother seems to believe that is possible, him and others.  Conversely, I do not see how he could have survived an 11 day pneumonia infection.

My dad was at deaths door at day 12, md from ICU calls at 11 pm, (never good) "your dad is failing, we have no other options, but we are trying an antibiotic in case he picked up a pnemonia, there is not much else we can do." He is DNR correct?"  "Correct."  The antibiotics worked.  People get infections in the hospital.        So I am talking about it to my MAGA racist brother on the phone and he starts to blurt out in his pedantic MAGA voice, "they misdiagnosed the COVID."     I     just      went    silent.        He backpedaled, it is just what I have to live with here.   

Mom was diagnosed positive asymptomatic  same day as me, 2 days ago.   She leave isolation where she is tomorrow.  Work had me go in and start meds and g-tubes at a new house after my very serious exposure to dad, did not ask me to get a PCR, and over a week later when I tested positive, said, you can still come into work.  And then they change their mind and I am off until 10 days after test results arrived. 

Asymptomatic in November 2020 and September 2021, I am getting up to 30 km for bicycle rides and will see how much biking I can get in, cant' go to the YMCA.   I have tofu, carbs and the end of the garden.  I am one of the lucky ones.  This is the best time to bicycle in Iowa.

Sorry to read about the trauma you and your family have been going through.

They didnt misdiagnose the covid infection. Generally, serious infections of coronavirus lead to aberrant activation of the immune system. The way the body fights viruses and bacteria is actually different (linked, but fundamentally different). It is different because viruses replicate inside the host cells whilst bacteria replicate independently.

What happens is that the covid induced 'immune chaos' in the lungs, with that immunity directed toward viruses, facilitates the over-expansion of generally already-present bacteria to pathophysiological amounts- leading to dangerous bacterial pneumonia.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01806-20

[longwalks1]

Yes, I am absolutely positive they did not misdiagnose his Covid.  Mom and I being diagnosed via PCR after being exposed to him.  After being around him with only a K-95 and no gloves - around hour 36 he vomited, I did clean up the vomit  as best I could and called 911.  Father did die after 27 days, and I doubt any doctors got  $3000 for the diagnosis.   No intubation, he agreed in April 2020 when I went over that with him.   I got to see him for a week, and mom got to come in with me the last day, hospice status allowed one more person to come, mom.   He was only up for 5 phone calls to nieces and sons for that visit, he identified all of them on his own, I just handed the phone to him.  As we were leaving, I could see the air hunger was coming sooner the the dilaudid could be given.   I believe the doctor and nurse I talked to who said he did not die in pain.   

There are hundreds of thousands who have  witnessed worse than me.             I still hear the same crap, "I think a flu shot would be as good as a booster."    "It's not the black plague."   etc.   The funeral was bifurcated.  One cousin and her husband was on the "Israel then  the Nile cruise" which was Iowa's first big rodeo with the bucking bronc of COVID and so they were lab rats who lived.    She and all her sisters and spouses wore masks, other branches of family, no.  Mom and I did. 
 
At present, COVID is somewhat standing still in Iowa  10 to 30 cases a week per 10,000 inhabitants. Cases were supposed to go be being reported 3 time a week, but they are still just doing it once a week.   Nebraska still does not report.   Almost maxed out in all ICU's, high school and college and professional sports all operating like it is normal, bifurcation.  Will see if the cold weather does bump up a spike of cases that hit the ICU.   

[Tor Bejnar]

It's about 6 months later.  Have things changed for you? (You can edit [i.e., remove then restate] your data.)

For me, nothing on this poll has changed.  More family members have contracted COVID-19 (some for a 2nd time), but still none have been hospitalized.  My wife and I received our 2nd booster shots today.  We still wear masks in public, even if (or maybe because) few others are, except where still required (by institution signage).

[SteveMDFP]

It's about 6 months later.  Have things changed for you? (You can edit [i.e., remove then restate] your data.)

For me, nothing on this poll has changed.  More family members have contracted COVID-19 (some for a 2nd time), but still none have been hospitalized.  My wife and I received our 2nd booster shots today.  We still wear masks in public, even if (or maybe because) few others are, except where still required (by institution signage).

For me, the biggest change is that I'm a lot less worried about it--less worried for myself and for those I know.  Vaxxed x 4, and rapid tests in the cabinet.  I'm at relatively high risk, so if I get symptoms and test positive, I plan to get an Rx for Paxlovid.   I'm personally confident that these things together will keep me out of the hospital (and out of the long-Covid clinic, and out of the coffin).

The better the disease management tools available, the less critical are public health measures.

[A-Team]

Vaxxed x 4, and rapid tests in the cabinet.  if I get symptoms and test positive, I plan to get an Rx for Paxlovid. 

We got second Moderna boosters this week, zero aftermath. Still masking at stores, still keeping distance outdoors, still avoiding indoor gatherings involving ill-informed peeps, not to mention airplanes now that CDC is encouraging actively sick to fly.

We're having better luck with the embedded vaccine nanochips than Tor. The first works as a garage door opener and the second gave us a month of free internet. The insect eggs never hatched (winter vaxx).

Rx for Paxlovid is easier to get than Paxlovid itself (or insurance coverage for it), read about the well-connected Dr. Feigl-Ding's adventures chasing it.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1512827889212919809

Since the US is under-vaccinated relative to Israel and UK, I am expecting BA2 to really surge here in late April since prior infections will have little carry-over benefit and vaxx protection generally has waned. Tucson is quite high on the wastewater counts (said a fairly reliable leading indicator) and quite low on commonsense.

The situation now in China is bordering on total chaos -- 193,000,000 under strict lockdown and food delivery running low. They would have been okay if it hadn't been for this unexplained omicron variant. Now they are looking at low levels of population immunity and very high risk for their elderly.

Can cramped electronics lines be kept open? This could hit the US hard ... we couldn't even manufacture a box of thumbtacks at this point.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing for China situation
https://twitter.com/EricTopol for long Covid (2.7% of UK)

over 20,000,000 global deaths attributable to pandemic (central estimate)
over 1,180,000 US deaths attributable to pandemic (central estimate)

https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid excess deaths to date

[SteveMDFP]

Vaxxed x 4, and rapid tests in the cabinet.  if I get symptoms and test positive, I plan to get an Rx for Paxlovid. 

We got second Moderna boosters this week, zero aftermath.

A-Team !!!   Very good to hear from you.  Your inimitable contributions have been missed by folks around here.

Rx for Paxlovid is easier to get than Paxlovid itself (or insurance coverage for it), read about the well-connected Dr. Feigl-Ding's adventures chasing it.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1512827889212919809

Well, I'm cautiously optimistic that supply issues will resolve soon.  If not, there are I believe three other FDA-approved options.

[oren]

Have things changed for you?

Yesterday I would have said no, but today both my wife and daughter tested positive, with a bit of symptoms. I'm probably next though have tested negative for now.
Still, we lasted two years virus-free, skipped the nasty variants, we're vaxxed and boosted, I think we should be fine.

P.s. nice to hear from you, A-Team.

[etienne]

Well, even with a mild Omicron, directly after I made things like appointments when I was not available, and almost 6 weeks healed, I am still not back to normal.
I learned that long COVID is only if it lasts for more than 3 months.

[Rodius]

It would be interesting to do a second poll.

Since this one I have caught Covid in spite of my efforts to avoid it, I know someone who has died from it, it took me something like 8 weeks to fully recover, and my youngest child has caught it.