Re: boosters and J&J. I’ve been seeing my allergist/immunologist for two + decades now and trust his opinion on literally everything more than most other practitioners I’ve met. I just sent him an email through their portal (which I have never ever done) to ask if I should get an MRNA shot because I had J&J in March.
ETA: I emailed because if I call for a non-urgent appt I won’t get in for 6-12 weeks at best.
If you’re comfortable would you post his recommendation? I’ve had a lot of relatives asking me if I’ve considered trying to get an mRNA booster, but I don’t know how easy they are to obtain outside physician approval. I guess it depends on how well organize state registry is? I’m kind of frustrated because I realize that my vaccine will likely do what it’s meant to do, limit any infection to mild symptoms and neutralizing antibodies are only one small part of your immune system. But I’m very concerned about asymptomatically transmitting it to people not yet eligible for the vaccines, and the mRNA vaccines have way more data there on limiting infectiousness.
He wasn’t as helpful as I hoped. LOL. He basically said “sorry, there’s no studies on that.” Which obviously, I know that, but I was hoping he would give a little more of an opinion. He only went as far as to say he doesn’t think it would be dangerous. After thinking about it for most of the day, I’m sort of focusing on the fact that he didn’t say ABSOLUTELY DO NOT EVEN THINK OF DOING THAT. I am leaning toward doing it at this point because I am worried about exposing unvaccinated family members, or being exposed by unvaccinated family members at this stage.
If you’re comfortable would you post his recommendation? I’ve had a lot of relatives asking me if I’ve considered trying to get an mRNA booster, but I don’t know how easy they are to obtain outside physician approval. I guess it depends on how well organize state registry is? I’m kind of frustrated because I realize that my vaccine will likely do what it’s meant to do, limit any infection to mild symptoms and neutralizing antibodies are only one small part of your immune system. But I’m very concerned about asymptomatically transmitting it to people not yet eligible for the vaccines, and the mRNA vaccines have way more data there on limiting infectiousness.
He wasn’t as helpful as I hoped. LOL. He basically said “sorry, there’s no studies on that.” Which obviously, I know that, but I was hoping he would give a little more of an opinion. He only went as far as to say he doesn’t think it would be dangerous. After thinking about it for most of the day, I’m sort of focusing on the fact that he didn’t say ABSOLUTELY DO NOT EVEN THINK OF DOING THAT. I am leaning toward doing it at this point because I am worried about exposing unvaccinated family members, or being exposed by unvaccinated family members at this stage.
Thanks for the update. That’s frustrating. And yeah, I doubt it would be dangerous. The AZ/Pfizer study looked good. I don’t know why J&J would be too different other than the latter was always intended to be just a one dose. I’ve read mixed success on Twitter regarding obtaining an mRNA vaccine after J&J. Some systems will flag you as being fully vaccinated and ineligible. Others don’t check. Not sure how insurance would handle it. If I try it I’ll let you know how it goes. Maybe I’ll start with my PCP.
Post by NewOrleans on Jul 22, 2021 19:48:19 GMT -5
Question. I’m scrolling Twitter and saw this. (Journalist says, “For everyone saying that Republicans are now freaking out about Covid because it’s killing their base — they knew it was killing their base a year ago. They didn’t care. Something happened in the last week that scared the hell out of them. I want to know what.”). Any idea what he’s referring to? MTG was just laughing yesterday, literally, about people dying and saying only obese people are at risk. So what republicans are freaking out about Covid?
I'm flying to visit my BFF a month from today. She might still be immunocompromised because she'll just have finished radiation. Because of delta, I plan on wearing a mask when I'm out in public until I leave. I bought face shields at Costco yesterday for the flight.
Would it be wise to isolate for 10-14 days before I leave? Or is that paranoid? I'm fully vaccinated with Pfizer.
Definitely protect her in any way that you can, if she had chemo before radiation she's most likely immunocompromised.
Yes, she's done chemo and is now getting radiation. I know that the most protective thing I could do would be to not travel to see her. (She invited me to join their family vacation.) But damn, I really want to see her. It's been a long time. So that's why I was thinking about isolating before I leave and maybe test, if I don't have symptoms. I'd definitely test if I do have symptoms. I plan on asking her as things unfold in the next couple of weeks. My ticket was purchased with miles so I think I can cancel w/o penalty.
"Most notably, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana -- the second highest-ranking Republican in the chamber -- received his first vaccine dose last weekend and appeared on Fox News to talk it up and reach a population of voters who might be most skeptical of the shot. Some parts of Fox News, too, have noticeably moved away from their anti-vaccine rhetoric in recent days.
The House GOP Doctors Caucus, meanwhile, is holding a press conference on vaccines Thursday alongside Scalise and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York -- a move designed to give the event more star power. The group is also planning to recirculate some of the PSAs they cut earlier this year encouraging people to get vaccinated."
Question. I’m scrolling Twitter and saw this. (Journalist says, “For everyone saying that Republicans are now freaking out about Covid because it’s killing their base — they knew it was killing their base a year ago. They didn’t care. Something happened in the last week that scared the hell out of them. I want to know what.”). Any idea what he’s referring to? MTG was just laughing yesterday, literally, about people dying and saying only obese people are at risk. So what republicans are freaking out about Covid?
I think that all their corporate donors started to freak out about the increase in cases which could start to affect the economy. So they started calling for the GOP to push vaccines.
I’m curious about the GOP vaccines ramp-up too. Florida is a mess, but DeSantis has started talking up vaccines regularly. A local COVID-denying doctor posted this week to get vaccinated (the post was essentially COVID is not bad…get vaccinated…don’t vaccinate your kids…get vaccinated…weird med treatment is the best for this flu…get vaccinated…this isn’t a big deal…get vaccinated…don’t mask the kids…get vaccinated—I had whiplash from that one post). It was a huge change from prior weeks so I imagine Florida’s weekly numbers tomorrow will be sobering. Summing the CDC numbers for the week is already scary—and the last few weeks the report has been higher than those. Last two weeks were 24K and 45K. I would not be surprised by 65K.
I’m curious about the GOP vaccines ramp-up too. Florida is a mess, but DeSantis has started talking up vaccines regularly. A local COVID-denying doctor posted this week to get vaccinated (the post was essentially COVID is not bad…get vaccinated…don’t vaccinate your kids…get vaccinated…weird med treatment is the best for this flu…get vaccinated…this isn’t a big deal…get vaccinated…don’t mask the kids…get vaccinated—I had whiplash from that one post). It was a huge change from prior weeks so I imagine Florida’s weekly numbers tomorrow will be sobering. Summing the CDC numbers for the week is already scary—and the last few weeks the report has been higher than those. Last two weeks were 24K and 45K. I would not be surprised by 65K.
So the Republican asshole governors and Congress people are getting and encouraging vaccines now? That’s what he means by “freaking out”?
Okay, so we’re leaving next week on a 1200 mile road trip. We’ll be staying with family. Two days there, three days back, and in between my husband will be participating in a (outdoor) sports event with 10000 people, most of whom are camping.
What the hell are the recommendations? We’re been fully vaccinated since this spring, as well as the family we’ll be staying with. Mask in public? What about restaurants? What is the danger to us or for spreading this?
I think once the cat’s out of the bag and restrictions are lifted, there’s no putting it back. So it’s hard to tell how much danger is around now vs. last April or last December or anything really.
I'm realizing that kind of information (how many of the total cases are among UV vs. FV) will eventually not tell us anything useful - I think it's far more useful to do the math to figure out how many FV get infected, get hospitalized and die and make the same calculations with UV people, and *then* compare those figures to show that UV people continue to be at higher risk of all three.
Right, exactly. If 99% of the population was vaccinated, you'd expect a high percentage of cases to be in FV people.
I'm increasingly disinterested in general case counts. I want to know what percentage of FV people are getting hospitalized and dying, vs UV.
And it'd be nice of course to know how much asymptomatic FV people actually contribute to spread, but I think it's going to be years before we understand that well.
My county has these break downs. It's really useful.
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 22, 2021 21:45:21 GMT -5
I think scout8 is right. It’s GOP donors freaking, especially when you notice this “enlightenment” came around the time the stock market tanked. They don’t suddenly care about their base dying when they can gerrymander their way to power for all eternity no matter what happens to their base.
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 22, 2021 21:47:15 GMT -5
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
We waited and only planned (at the last minute) a short trip that could withstand even very stringent rule tightening (local, driving, outdoor only, far from other people, it would happen as long as it isn’t the full lock down of April). We still had to cancel because a kid got a stomach virus. My brother did something similar, only to have the whole family get sick with something that looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but doesn't come up as positive on tests. (Whatever it is is going around the Bay Area like crazy now and knocking people down like a "mild" case of covid - in bed, aching, fevers, can't do anything for a week. I know multiple families in different counties who have been hit by whatever it is).
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
Yes I have 3 trips planned, Aug, Sept, Oct. I am angry AF that numbers are going up again. I wanna fuckin relax dammit!
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
Yup - H and I have a trip planned to St Louis also non refundable. Really it’s our fault for not waiting and monitoring the situations but we keep hearing about how everything is booking fast so we wanted to get something on the books. We still plan to go but mask for anything indoors - we are both fully vaccinated so hopefully between that and masks it will keep our risks pretty low.
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
Yep. We cancelled a short weekend trip at the end of June and then rebooked for the end of August. And now I am like I JUST WANT TO GO TO A PLACE I HAVE ALREADY BEEN BC I AM TIRED OF BEING IN MY OWN HOUSE.
I told MH that if the weekend trip to DC gets cancelled I am booking a local hotel and using their pool bc I can't anymore.
I followed the rules, I got vaxxed. I wear a mask. I social distance. I will be super pissed (more than I am already) if I have to cancel again. I know that is the smart, safe thing to do but holy hell man.
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
You could not pay me to go on that trip. I know people who just went to Florida and all got Covid (vaccinated adults) and had to quarantine there before returning home to the west coast.
As a note, I can still barely smell 6 months out from getting Covid
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
Yep we canceled our vacation for next week. In the constant risk vs. reward calculation I couldn't find enough reward. Traveling for pleasure just doesn't seem smart right now.
We did a week-long road trip last week all around Northern CA. One member of our family cannot be vaccinated. The rest of us are. We planned in March and picked small hotels, requested low floors so we didn’t have to be in elevators, called restaurants ahead to ensure outdoor dining was available, and visited family and friends who have been vaccinated. We chose outdoor activities like the beach and hikes. The highest risk person in terms of the amount she goes out who we visited is my BFF, and she took multiple tests leading up to our arrival to make sure she didn’t have an asymptotic case despite being vaccinated. Last night I told DH that we seem to have gotten that vacation in just before shit hit the fan again.
Sorry to everyone having to cancel much-needed vacations.
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
Yep. We cancelled a short weekend trip at the end of June and then rebooked for the end of August. And now I am like I JUST WANT TO GO TO A PLACE I HAVE ALREADY BEEN BC I AM TIRED OF BEING IN MY OWN HOUSE.
I told MH that if the weekend trip to DC gets cancelled I am booking a local hotel and using their pool bc I can't anymore.
I followed the rules, I got vaxxed. I wear a mask. I social distance. I will be super pissed (more than I am already) if I have to cancel again. I know that is the smart, safe thing to do but holy hell man.
We were planning a weekend to DC also. Thank goodness I procrastinated once I questioned whether I really wanted to be in DC in the hot ass summer. Local hotel sounds like a perfect Plan B at this point.
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
You could not pay me to go on that trip. I know people who just went to Florida and all got Covid (vaccinated adults) and had to quarantine there before returning home to the west coast.
As a note, I can still barely smell 6 months out from getting Covid
And she'll be with an @. It's a surprise trip to see my other sister (my mom is going too). All adults are fully vaxxed so I'm hoping the risk is low. She ordered N95s for the trip because she is not messing around.
Saudade, there is NO WAY I would want someone like that as my doctor. Ever. I hope people have a choice in that.
Isn’t it awful? Unfortunately there is no choice. 😖 but thankfully the care is pretty standardized and the nurses and RTs know when something’s not right. Family can always request transport to Mayo but in reality Mayo hasn’t accepted any of our transfers so it really means nothing.
It really sucks that people planned summer vacations and suddenly shit is so confusing again. My sister is reluctantly traveling this weekend to both Florida and Alabama. She’ll stick to the beaches but if she could get her money back (she can’t) she’d just stay home. It doesn’t sound fun to travel right now. Fucking hoaxers.
After cancelling last August’s trip to Ireland to see my family we are going in a couple weeks. Now I feel nervous again especially as the numbers there are climbing again a fair bit. But I simply can’t bear to not see my family for even longer and I assume as winter approaches things might get worse again. So as of now their border is open and my plan is to go as long as the border remains open. I hate that this seems like it will never end.
Post by mrsukyankee on Jul 23, 2021 9:28:22 GMT -5
laurack, I get ya. I can't go to the US and haven't seen my parents in over 2 years. As soon as it's possible, I will travel, even if it means I have to isolate and stay in the US for a month (I'd work remotely).
Hmmmm. More on the Republican defection to vaccines.
When asked what more could be done to encourage Alabama residents to get their coronavirus vaccinations amid the latest spike in infections, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) had run out of ideas for how to persuade people in a state with the lowest vaccination rate in the nation.
She did, however, have one message for her state: “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.” 😍
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 23, 2021 9:45:14 GMT -5
I've been following a conversation on Twitter about this about-face at this point. So many theories being posted, but each theory has issues with it. Here are the most popular theories I saw:
1) Since the GOP seems to suddenly be united on this, they've received some internal polling about their supporters basically forcing them to come out in support of vaccines. 2) Their supporters are now the ones dying en masse, whereas last year it was more of people they give no shits about dying (residents in blue states, Black people, Hispanic people, etc.). 3) The stock market tanked a few days ago and they're like "Oh shit, maybe we need to say something." 4) Their donors are putting pressure on them. 5) Delta's spread means more quarantines, and therefore more disruptions to employment and education. 6) Distraction from other GOP-related news, like the arrest of Barrack or something else they know is brewing. 7) Threat of lawsuits against right-wing media.
I'm guessing it's about money. It's always about money. So a mix of #3, #4 and #5.
Velar Fricative, thanks for sharing. I’m interested because this could be a valuable turning point. I was SO optimistic in April/May— so many shots in arms, Biden had exceeded goal, Broadway planned to open soon… but now I’ve been really upset again and COVID-fatigued in a way I hasn’t been before because I was just worried about surviving. But if we could get these awful Republicans and their supporters to get a vaccine, maybe there’s hope again! Is the Missouri governor changing his tune too?
Velar Fricative , thanks for sharing. I’m interested because this could be a valuable turning point. I was SO optimistic in April/May— so many shots in arms, Biden had exceeded goal, Broadway planned to open soon… but now I’ve been really upset again and COVID-fatigued in a way I hasn’t been before because I was just worried about surviving. But if we could get these awful Republicans and their supporters to get a vaccine, maybe there’s hope again! Is the Missouri governor changing his tune too?
Nope, he just created a lottery but isn't actually doing anything to allow for resources (including federal) to be poured into the worst-hit areas of his state.
How are you all handling getting tested if you've had a chance of being exposed, but have to be at work?
I was on vacation last week and I was around a ton of maskless people, many of whom I assume were not vaccinated (and many who obviously weren't yet eligible for vaccination). I wanted to get a rapid COVID test before being around all my coworkers, but getting an appointment anywhere in my home or work town the same day was impossible. I tried to get a test at work today, but without a known exposure, they refuse to test someone who is asymptomatic and who hasn't been randomly selected. Which is dumb, btw - I've had 2 random tests in recent months when I was certain I hadn't been exposed, but now that I want to test as a precaution, I'm ineligible.
I could do a PCR test but IDK how quickly I get results back, and I have multiple in-office things I have to do tomorrow. I am also not allowed to WFH anymore. What are employers expecting people to do?
I feel like this kind of BS around testing is going to result in a lot of unnecessary spread. I know this was an issue at the start of the pandemic, but I'm surprised it is this difficult to get a quick result when everyone is going back to offices.
I realize I’m late to the response, but we were at Merriweather yesterday, just biking around, and came upon the covid testing people. No apparent lines, and the signs said same day result. Just for future reference.