Wear Your Mask - COVID-19 Thread II

[hazard]

Might've had more of an impact if the request was 'please strike Canucks from that headline, as it is not accurate'.

Still, actions do have consequences.

[robkelk]

A real shot in the arm: Personal support worker becomes first Ontarian to get dose of COVID-19 vaccine

Folks on the radio are saying us ordinary folks shouldn't expect to be able to get vaccinated until April at the earliest.

Related: Once someone is vaccinated, do they still have to wear a mask? (tl;dr: Yes, because this stuff doesn't kick in instantly.) Also, "Can you still carry and spread the virus if you've been vaccinated?", "Will those who have tested positive for COVID get the vaccine or will they be deemed to have immunity?", "Can a person that has an active case of COVID-19 get the vaccine, and will it be effective while they are ill?", "How much of the population has to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity?", "Could a person get a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for their first dose and the Moderna vaccine for their second?" (no), and much, much more

[hazard]

In order, just off the top of my head without reading the link;
Yes (because as noted, it doesn't kick in instantly. It can take a couple of weeks or more), yes (because if you are infectious now it will still take time for the vaccine to kick in and help out, and it might not help that much), probably on the lower priority list (if the vaccine carries multiple strains you want them immunized for all of them instead of just the strain they caught), it may or may not help and/or worsen the situation, given how nasty COVID is expect 98+% of the population for herd immunity, generally you don't want to mix vaccines (it could work in theory but the odds for it are laughable).

[Inquisitive Raven]

In order, just off the top of my head without reading the link;
Yes (because as noted, it doesn't kick in instantly. It can take a couple of weeks or more), yes (because if you are infectious now it will still take time for the vaccine to kick in and help out, and it might not help that much), probably on the lower priority list (if the vaccine carries multiple strains you want them immunized for all of them instead of just the strain they caught), it may or may not help and/or worsen the situation, given how nasty COVID is expect 98+% of the population for herd immunity, generally you don't want to mix vaccines (it could work in theory but the odds for it are laughable).

Actually, on the herd immunity front, the figures I've been seeing tossed around are more in the range of 70%. Still, more is better.

[Inquisitive Raven]

I wasn't sure if I should put this here or the "Feel Good" thread: Possibly the only person in the world for whom getting Covid is a good thing.

[robkelk]

Admit it - you feel this way, too:



Source

Mouseover text: "*refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo. *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo."

[robkelk]

Canadians can ease off on the page-refreshing: Health Canada approves Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

And there was much rejoicing... in places that can't afford a freezer that can reach -70C

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The pandemic undercut Canada Post's business model — and showed it a new one

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Oh, and something pointed out by comedienne Martha Chavez to mention to folks with vaccine hesitancy: Usually, vaccines are tested in poorer countries in Africa and Central America to make sure they're safe. This time around, they're going straight to the rich folks in Europe and North America. So, yeah, they're safe.

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EDIT: Coronavirus vaccine tracker - how far along the testing and approval process is each vaccine?

[hazard]

Just wait for the winter to really set in Rob. I mean, it's Canada, it gets that cold.

(No it doesn't. But the factory meat freezers might if the weather outside is cold enough.)

[robkelk]

Provinces that acted faster had more success limiting spread of COVID-19, data shows

To which I say, "no shit, Sherlock".

[robkelk]

Ontario reports record-high 2,553 new COVID-19 cases amid criticism of holiday vaccination delays

<deep sigh>

Hillier said that if the Moderna vaccine were to be made a single dose, "that would allow us to get literally hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps even several million" vaccinated more efficiently.

General Hillier, can we just throw shells at the enemy instead of loading them into artillery pieces? That would allow us to tow another trailer full of shells to the battlefield instead of wasting that space on the weapon that you say that they need to be put into, and more shells at once is more efficient, right?

[robkelk]

Front-line-Pandemic Grocery/Gas POV: Tired, afraid and still getting screamed at

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2020 may go down as the year that broke time

[classicdrogn]

Front-line-Pandemic Grocery/Gas POV: Tired, afraid and still getting screamed at

WRT this one, I've been making a point of telling cashiers "thank you for sticking with it in a public-facing position" all along when I go through a store, and you know, sounding like I mean it rather than just repeating a line. Retail hell is bad enough under normal conditions, let alone with every Chad and Karen under extra all-pervasive stress and while risking an airborne, highly contagious, potentially lethal disease.

[LynnInDenver]

Whelp, they've confirmed that the more infectious variant has made it to Colorado: https://www.9news.com/article/news/healt...009324d7fd

I'm expecting this to have some effect on how they relax restrictions on businesses, since it seems more likely that the window between "too soon" and "not soon enough" in terms of reaction is going to shrink by quite a bit. This is definitely going to impact whether we're in a proper decline or just a plateau in our numbers, too.

[robkelk]

Why Israel is leading the world with COVID-19 vaccinations

[robkelk]

Larry King hospitalized with COVID-19

[robkelk]

So... the premier announced the Monday before Christmas that the entire province would be going into lockdown the day after Christmas. Panic buying resulted in stores - that were already busy with just-before-Christmas shopping - to fill up fast.

The numbers are coming in ... and much to the surprise of nobody who knows how cause-and-effect works (which means the politicians were taken completely by surprise, of course), the number of cases spiked, and Ottawa has moved from orange-zone to red-zone.

Thanks ever so much for that Christmas present, premier. </sarcasm>

[Star Ranger4]

Ugh. Speaking of, My niece found out sunday that one of her co workers had been diagnosed with it. Which was just after having spend NY Eve and NY day with us.

We won't have more data till... friday. Which, why worrysome is less stressfull than putting up with my mom stressing about it all.
She is a failure engineer; which means its pretty much her job to look at all the things that can go wrong and what is the worst that can happen when it does. Amoung other things she was ranting about not knowing the timeline of all of this; but the simple fact is maybe even the co worker doesn't know when he was exposed. And maybe he didn't pass it along to my niece, that is the POINT of all these damn restrictions!

*sigh* Still cleaning up last years messes.

[robkelk]

Always wear your mask when outside.

People should wear masks when they're outside of their house as much as possible. It's an added barrier. You don't know if you're going to come into close contact with someone or not

[robkelk]

I don't know enough about epidemiology and viral medicine to be able to fully understand this article. However, it's the only study that I'm aware of that looks at medium- to long-term effects of COVID-19.

The Lancet: 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study

Quoting from the summary:

At 6 months after acute infection, COVID-19 survivors were mainly troubled with fatigue or muscle weakness, sleep difficulties, and anxiety or depression. Patients who were more severely ill during their hospital stay had more severe impaired pulmonary diffusion capacities and abnormal chest imaging manifestations, and are the main target population for intervention of long-term recovery.

[LynnInDenver]

Yeah, my takeaway from the article is that a significant portion of those who become more than very mildly symptomatic will develop or retain at least one major long-term issue from the illness, possibly life altering depending on the severity of the issue. Fatigue and weakness are big issues and can be detrimental to one's ability to function, especially in a late-capitalism society (where one is EXPECTED to work to survive) and can incite and/or compound mental health issues like depression just because of the frustration that can develop.

Or, again, this isn't the flu, this is much much worse than the flu, partly because we're only starting to get a handle on the long-term damage it does to survivors, and I wouldn't be surprised to find similar issues even in the mildest of symptomatic cases, and even an uptick in the population of "I dunno, I just suddenly found my endurance completely shot, and the doctor went ahead and ordered an antibody test, and it came back positive, so I clearly got the damned thing even though it didn't put me in bed for a week, and they think that's what set off this endurance issue."

[robkelk]

Just received the same AlertReady message twice. (For you folks in the USA, that's the Canadian equivalent of a Presidential Level alert - and we cannot opt out without turning off our phones altogether.) Almost the entire province of Quebec is under curfew from 8pm to 5am, starting today and going until further notice. One can go to work, escort a minor who has to go to work, go tend to an ailing parent (no other relations, just parents), buy medications, or (if you stay within 1km of your home) walk the dog - anybody else caught out faces a fine starting at $1000 and going up from there.

Doesn't affect me... yet.

[LynnInDenver]

Just received the same AlertReady message twice. (For you folks in the USA, that's the Canadian equivalent of a Presidential Level alert - and we cannot opt out without turning off our phones altogether.) Almost the entire province of Quebec is under curfew from 8pm to 5am, starting today and going until further notice. One can go to work, escort a minor who has to go to work, go tend to an ailing parent (no other relations, just parents), buy medications, or (if you stay within 1km of your home) walk the dog - anybody else caught out faces a fine starting at $1000 and going up from there.

Doesn't affect me... yet.

I can see what they're doing there... trying not to close businesses, yet trying to dramatically reduce the ability to have private gatherings that may be the current key spreader of infection... not a lot of time between typical business closing and when you need to be at home to go and socialize at someone else's house unless you arrange a sleepover (assuming 20-30 minutes to get home, 20-30 minutes to get to the friend's house, 20-30 minutes to get home, that leaves a scant 90 minutes at best for socializing). Just like engaging a full lockdown on the day right after Christmas, it's trying to present a sufficient logistical challenge that most people will cancel such plans rather than deal with the headache.

[Dartz]

In the space of two weeks, we've gone from one of the best performers in Europe - to second to Belgium.

In the space of 2 weeks, about 1% of the population was confirmed as having the bloody thing.

[robkelk]

It's no better over here.

Despite the lockdown that's been in place for two weeks now, Ontario reports record high new COVID-19 cases with 3,945, logs 61 new deaths.

People have not been taking the pandemic seriously since the first vaccine acceptance was announced.

[Dartz]

Well, the bill just arrived for Today - over 6000 new cases. And they've stopped testing non-symptomatic contacts

1/3 cases since the start of this has been detected in the last week
Nearly half of all cases since the start have been in the last two weeks.
1/75 in Dublin got it.
1/40 in Monaghan got it.

What the fuck happened?