(turned into @) December Covid

[NewOrleans]

happy 3rd birthday to Covid. 😒

Reinfected patients had a more than doubled risk of death and a more than tripled risk of hospitalization compared with those who were infected with COVID just once. They also had elevated risks for problems with lungs, heart, blood, kidneys, diabetes, mental health, bones and muscles, and neurological disorders, according to a report published in Nature Medicine.

www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/repeat-covid-is-riskier-than-first-infection-study-finds-2022-11-10/

[NewOrleans]

Research led by The University of Queensland has found COVID-19 activates the same inflammatory response in the brain as Parkinson’s disease.

www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2022/11/silent-killer’-covid-19-shown-trigger-inflammation-brain

[erbear]

Cool, great. Everything’s normal here 😭

[underwaterrhymes]

I really think ten years from now nearly everyone will look back and be aghast at just how badly we botched this.

[estrellita]

Oof. Awesome.

So, me, H, and my parents all had our boosters (both from last year and the updated one within the last few weeks). My sister hates needles, and only got her original J&J shot a year and a half ago, no boosters. We were all together this past weekend for my dad's birthday. She just tested positive. The rest of us all tested negative. So, in our case, the booster seems to be doing its job! Luckily she hasn't had too bad of symptoms. She only really tested because she had some chills the other night and a sinus headache. I've had a minor sore throat but I also just started on a CPAP this week so I figured that had something to do with it. I'll keep testing and being cautious just in case, but so far we've been fine.

[lilac05]

Dec 1, 2022 22:44:03 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I really think ten years from now nearly everyone will look back and be aghast at just how badly we botched this.

I often wonder what we will learn about this looking back.

Anecdote: Right now, I find it super interesting that I literally only know a VERY small handful of people who haven’t had it yet. Of those people, a majority of them were essential workers. A grocery store manager, our doctor, three nurse friends (two who work in the ER) and their families, and two SLP friends who worked with Covid+ patients in the hospital from the beginning. Several others were anti-maskers and/or anti-vaxers who made as few changes to their lives as possible through everything. (Meanwhile, we were very locked down and super Covid-cautious, and we’ve had Covid twice…neither with a known source.)

Obviously many, many essential workers had it (and many anti-vax/mask) , but there’s a part of me that wonders if we will look back and find that some people were able to build some natural immunity to it by being exposed to it tiny, tiny bits at a time over a long period of time. Of course we have no research to suggest that right now (and I still think that masks and other recommendations were the best call at the time given the information we had)…but I wonder if we will find a connection later and if we will look back and think we made the right calls.

Also, Covid hospitalizations are up around here. Masks aren’t required even in hospitals, unless a patient is known Covid+ or had recent Covid exposure. Very few restrictions on visitors (including no masks required).

[sonrisa]

Dec 1, 2022 23:46:43 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

Several others were anti-maskers and/or anti-vaxers who made as few changes to their lives as possible through everything. 

I have found that set of people has a high reluctance to test as well. I'd expect a much lower rate of acknowledged/diagnosed COVID among them. It may not reflect a lower rate of actual COVID.

Anecdotally, I know a number of people who never got it who took precautions. We still see a decent amount of masking around here. 

My husband never went on to real lock down and kept working with patients throughout. He was also one of the only people I know to get regular access to N95s and wore them right from the start. So his greater "exposure" actually correlated with greater protection. 

[dulcemariamar]

My husband has Covid. It might be the first time or it could be the second time because I had it in June. We never tested positive at home though and I never got a PCR test but I had all the classic symptoms but my DH had a cold like symptoms for 2 days. This time around he is doing worse.

I am having massive hair loss from when I had Covid in June. It started in September and it is still horrible

[dulcemariamar]

Dec 1, 2022 21:43:25 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

happy 3rd birthday to Covid. 😒

Reinfected patients had a more than doubled risk of death and a more than tripled risk of hospitalization compared with those who were infected with COVID just once. They also had elevated risks for problems with lungs, heart, blood, kidneys, diabetes, mental health, bones and muscles, and neurological disorders, according to a report published in Nature Medicine.

www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/repeat-covid-is-riskier-than-first-infection-study-finds-2022-11-10/

I think most people have caught it twice or will in the next few months. Where do we go from here? We just get it once a year until our bodies are just riddled with issues

[jeaniebueller]

Dec 1, 2022 21:43:44 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

Research led by The University of Queensland has found COVID-19 activates the same inflammatory response in the brain as Parkinson’s disease.

www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2022/11/silent-killer’-covid-19-shown-trigger-inflammation-brain

Can you repost the link? It’s not coming up when I click. It says page not found

[jeaniebueller]

Dec 1, 2022 21:43:25 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

happy 3rd birthday to Covid. 😒

Reinfected patients had a more than doubled risk of death and a more than tripled risk of hospitalization compared with those who were infected with COVID just once. They also had elevated risks for problems with lungs, heart, blood, kidneys, diabetes, mental health, bones and muscles, and neurological disorders, according to a report published in Nature Medicine.

www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/repeat-covid-is-riskier-than-first-infection-study-finds-2022-11-10/

> Limitations included a cohort of mostly white males.

The data that they used came from the US Department of veteran affairs.

I feel like this is a very specific demographic that was studied. I haven’t had a huge chance to closely look at the article, but I wonder about the median age of the people, comorbidities, and other factors.

[Deleted]

[mention]lilac05 [/mention] my sister is an essential worker (ER doc who also does sports medicine treating a lot of athletes). She was required to test sometimes as often as 3-4 times per week during the height of the pandemic, and her family were extremely cautious with masks and vaccines and staying away from people. She had LOTS of close calls where she was definitely “exposed” to people who hadn’t tested positive yet. Her family only caught COVID like two months ago (and they think they were exposed through one of BIL’s coworkers). So I think you may be right about essential workers maybe building up small bits of immunity over time.

[mcppalmbeach]

My dad got Covid Monday. He had just been boosted a month before. He has felt pretty awful, but not scary awful. The headache was the worst. I am still concerned about my mom getting it although they sleep in separate rooms and aren’t usually together to be honest. He was good about masking until yesterday and he felt better and was more lax. He felt bad enough to call his doctor about meds twice, but she never called him back and the nurse said I’d he didn’t hear back it meant keep doing what he’s doing 🙄 I’m surprised they were so dismissive.

[NewOrleans]

Dec 2, 2022 5:58:21 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Dec 1, 2022 21:43:44 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

Research led by The University of Queensland has found COVID-19 activates the same inflammatory response in the brain as Parkinson’s disease.

www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2022/11/silent-killer’-covid-19-shown-trigger-inflammation-brain

Can you repost the link? It’s not coming up when I click. It says page not found

it opened for me…? 

www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2022/11/silent-killer’-covid-19-shown-trigger-inflammation-brain

[underwaterrhymes]

lilac05 - oh, see, I was going a different direction. I mask indoors for the most part and have avoided getting it until just last week. Most of the people I know who still haven’t gotten it do the same. I really feel if we had kept masking, we wouldn’t have these super high numbers. Hundreds of people are still dying every day here in the United States and no one is talking about it at all anymore and no one tests or reports it. Plus, repeated infections are showing huge detriment to people’s bodies (e.g. heart and lung disease, chronic pain, body inflammation) and long haul COVID is increasingly a concern.

I really think that when the initial fear of COVID went away, people decided they were tired of the precautions that really helped mitigate the disease and when the government and the media stopped talking about it, everyone just returned to normal. Obviously, we couldn’t live like we were initially forever, but the Trump government botched messaging so badly from the get-go, that we were never going to get everyone on board.

Years from now we are going to look back and realize that in throwing up our hands in the air, we created a society that has chronic long-term COVID-related health problems and who dies younger than they did previously because of it.

[underwaterrhymes]

mcppalmbeach - that’s another thing that is infuriating. Paxlovid genuinely helps (and they’re seeing that rebounding happens regardless of whether you take it or not). It shouldn’t be so hard to get. I tested positive at home and literally just messaged my doctor through my app and she called in my prescription immediately without even asking to see me. It should be that easy for everyone to access an accurate and immediate healthcare response.

[lilac05]

Dec 2, 2022 7:16:07 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

lilac05 - oh, see, I was going a different direction. I mask indoors for the most part and have avoided getting it until just last week. Most of the people I know who still haven’t gotten it do the same. I really feel if we had kept masking, we wouldn’t have these super high numbers. Hundreds of people are still dying every day here in the United States and no one is talking about it at all anymore and no one tests or reports it. Plus, repeated infections are showing huge detriment to people’s bodies (e.g. heart and lung disease, chronic pain, body inflammation) and long haul COVID is increasingly a concern.

I really think that when the initial fear of COVID went away, people decided they were tired of the precautions that really helped mitigate the disease and when the government and the media stopped talking about it, everyone just returned to normal. Obviously, we couldn’t live like we were initially forever, but the Trump government botched messaging so badly from the get-go, that we were never going to get everyone on board.

Years from now we are going to look back and realize that in throwing up our hands in the air, we created a society that has chronic long-term COVID-related health problems and who dies younger than they did previously because of it.

I think that’s definitely a possibility, too. I think it’s just hard to know. But I am also at the point of accepting that there’s a possibility that some of the measures we took to “do the right thing” may have been the best we could do with what we had…but they may also have not been the best plan.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot we will never know because we don’t have great data on a lot of this. We have some great data, a lot of incomplete data, and some areas where we have almost nothing (like PP mentioned about certain groups of people being less likely to test). Now that everyone does home testing, a lot fewer people are even being recorded officially as having Covid, so it’s impossible to reliably track at this point.

[sonrisa]

Our region does waste water testing and that’s what I use to gauge changes local viral levels. And it tracks death and hospitalization rates. Both of which rely less on self reports of testing. You can also look at the percentage of people who o get PCRs who test positive. I feel like I still have a lot of useful data points.

[nothingcontroversial]

Dec 1, 2022 22:52:15 GMT -5 estrellita said:

I've had a minor sore throat but I also just started on a CPAP this week so I figured that had something to do with it. 

Totally not the point, but if you think that you have a minor sore throat as a result of starting CPAP, you might want to check out the CPAP Reddit board to see if they have any suggestions. For instance, it might have something to do with having sufficient water in your humidifier tank or sufficiently using your humidifier. (I don't think that I have the option of turning off my humidifier, but I think that some CPAP's do give you this option.) Also, do you have a heated tube? The heated tube is supposed to reduce the possibility of having water from the humidifier condense in the tube. 

[estrellita]

Dec 2, 2022 8:38:37 GMT -5 nothingcontroversial said:

Dec 1, 2022 22:52:15 GMT -5 estrellita said:

I've had a minor sore throat but I also just started on a CPAP this week so I figured that had something to do with it. 

Totally not the point, but if you think that you have a minor sore throat as a result of starting CPAP, you might want to check out the CPAP Reddit board to see if they have any suggestions. For instance, it might have something to do with having sufficient water in your humidifier tank or sufficiently using your humidifier. (I don't think that I have the option of turning off my humidifier, but I think that some CPAP's do give you this option.) Also, do you have a heated tube? The heated tube is supposed to reduce the possibility of having water from the humidifier condense in the tube. 

Thank you for the tips! I think the humidifier seems to be working OK and yes, it does heat. My sinuses tend to be constricted and clogged, so it seemed like the humidity was clearing them out. I did join the sleep apnea sub, but I'll look for the CPAP one too!

I'm feeling more sneezy/congested today but still negative. Odd if we caught 2 unrelated things but very possible.

[glw]

My sister has covid for the fourth time right now (tested positive the day before Thanksgiving, still testing positive). She's a healthcare worker and still wears full PPE every day, but her coworkers don't and many are anti-vaxxers/maskers and pretty much no one masks in public where she is. She had not fully recovered from case #3 when she got #4, so she's been referred to a "center for complex covid cases," hopefully they can help her. I'm worried this will have life-long effects for her.

[breezy8407]

Reading about reinfection complications is foreboding. I'm on my second round of covid currently. First was about a year ago, at Xmas time. This time has been much milder, and the worst part is all the inconvenience which I am grateful for. The two home tests that were positive were very brightly positive. Darker than the control lines in both which were different brands. Yesterday, my test was negative and it aligns with how I feel. Per the CDC guidelines, if I test negative again tomorrow, I can resume normal activities without a mask. Its interesting seeing how its evolved over the last year.

[eddy]

Lilac I have been wondering about micro exposures for a long time. I could throw several anecdotes out but they are annoying lol.

I will say I have a member of my household who has high contact with other humans through contact sports and general life. He hasn’t worn a mask or taken precautions since early in the year. Still no covid. He absolutely has the highest exposure potential of our family. I have wondered for a while if high exposure has actually helped him. He is also vaccinated with all boosters available to him. Or he is just one of those people that should be studied lol.

[NewOrleans]

Dec 2, 2022 8:11:44 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

Dec 2, 2022 7:16:07 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

lilac05 - oh, see, I was going a different direction. I mask indoors for the most part and have avoided getting it until just last week. Most of the people I know who still haven’t gotten it do the same. I really feel if we had kept masking, we wouldn’t have these super high numbers. Hundreds of people are still dying every day here in the United States and no one is talking about it at all anymore and no one tests or reports it. Plus, repeated infections are showing huge detriment to people’s bodies (e.g. heart and lung disease, chronic pain, body inflammation) and long haul COVID is increasingly a concern.

I really think that when the initial fear of COVID went away, people decided they were tired of the precautions that really helped mitigate the disease and when the government and the media stopped talking about it, everyone just returned to normal. Obviously, we couldn’t live like we were initially forever, but the Trump government botched messaging so badly from the get-go, that we were never going to get everyone on board.

Years from now we are going to look back and realize that in throwing up our hands in the air, we created a society that has chronic long-term COVID-related health problems and who dies younger than they did previously because of it.

I think that’s definitely a possibility, too. I think it’s just hard to know. But I am also at the point of accepting that there’s a possibility that some of the measures we took to “do the right thing” may have been the best we could do with what we had…but they may also have not been the best plan.

What data do you need to be convinced that we did not do enough? A million people have died, a full third of them in 2020 alone when we had nothing to fight it with. A million disabled. 4 million out of work with long Covid (which 20% of patients get). 
time.com/6213103/us-government-long-covid-response/

[NewOrleans]

Dec 2, 2022 7:16:07 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

lilac05 -Hundreds of people are still dying every day here in the United States and no one is talking about it at all anymore and no one tests or reports it.

Cases, hospitalizations and test positivity are all rising at the national level, suggesting that the relative stability seen this fall could be coming to an end.
Daily case and death data are subject to fluctuations around Thanksgiving that do not affect other metrics. It is therefore particularly concerning to see hospitalizations and test positivity — the most reliable data at this time of year — rising sharply.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

[lilac05]

Dec 2, 2022 16:26:47 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

Dec 2, 2022 8:11:44 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I think that’s definitely a possibility, too. I think it’s just hard to know. But I am also at the point of accepting that there’s a possibility that some of the measures we took to “do the right thing” may have been the best we could do with what we had…but they may also have not been the best plan.

What data do you need to be convinced that we did not do enough? A million people have died, a full third of them in 2020 alone when we had nothing to fight it with. A million disabled. 4 million out of work with long Covid (which 20% of patients get). 
time.com/6213103/us-government-long-covid-response/

It’s not even a matter or if we did enough or not. Given Trump’s impact on everything, we obviously didn’t do nearly enough on many things. What I’m trying to say is that we *might* find out that different strategies could have possibly worked better or some things that we did were not as beneficial as we initially thought they were. I’m not suggesting that I know the answers or can say now that doing X was wrong. I believe that all of the professionals were doing their jobs to the absolute best of their ability given everything we had/knew. I’m just saying that historically speaking, many times the medical community has done things that they believe is absolutely the right thing to do at the time, given what they knew at the time…but as we learn more later and look back, we can see that it wasn’t actually the right thing. (A quick example being how we have treated mental illness over time.) I am simply saying that we might look back and see things differently. Actually, I hope we DO look back and see things differently…as that means people are continuing to scrutinize and learn so we can hopefully do better next time.

[rubytue]

Down toward the bottom of the NYT tracking page NewOrleans posted, the right side 90-day cases by region is troubling me. That uptick on NY and the NE… another winter serge?

Attachments:

[jeaniebueller]

Dec 2, 2022 6:49:33 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

Dec 2, 2022 5:58:21 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Can you repost the link? It’s not coming up when I click. It says page not found

it opened for me…? 

www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2022/11/silent-killer’-covid-19-shown-trigger-inflammation-brain

It’s still page not found. Maybe it’s just me 😭

[estrellita]

Dec 2, 2022 18:49:07 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Dec 2, 2022 16:22:31 GMT -5 eddy said:

Lilac I have been wondering about micro exposures for a long time. I could throw several anecdotes out but they are annoying lol.

I will say I have a member of my household who has high contact with other humans through contact sports and general life. He hasn’t worn a mask or taken precautions since early in the year. Still no covid. He absolutely has the highest exposure potential of our family. I have wondered for a while if high exposure has actually helped him. He is also vaccinated with all boosters available to him. Or he is just one of those people that should be studied lol.

My oldest somehow has never had it even with all of us having it, school, etc. I don’t get this virus.

My family of 4 hasn't ever tested positive. If we've had it, we were asymptomatic. My dad hasn't either, despite being around my mom when she tested positive in Nov 2020 and my sister this week. I'm honestly shocked I haven't had it. This past year, I haven't been careful really. I've taken 2 trips, been out in public a lot, etc. Nothing. Not complaining of course, it's just so weird. So either I'm magically immune or my vaccines are doing their job! Who knows.

[wanderingback]

Ok this has turned in to the @@@ thread, can we just label it as such.

I would love a non @ covid/illness thread too personally