[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 10 January 2022 - 08:51 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 10 January 2022 - 05:02 PM, said:

So my anti-vaxx sister finally got COVID (it was only a matter of time really), and has had it a long time now. And while she hasn't ended up needing to be in the hospital, my niece believes she's starting to exhibit long covid symptoms as it's now been weeks since she was infected and she's still exhibiting symptomatic stuff. My mom says she can't get through a phone call without coughing through most of it.

And yet, my mom developed a blood clot in her neck (likely a side effect from her Chemo treatment for her cancer) and my sister is hacking through a phone call while she tells my mom that she got that blood clot from the vaccine...

And I could be wrong, but isn't VITT associated only with AZ and J&J and not the mRNA vaccines? My mom is straight Pfizer for all three shots.

Getting a blood clot (TT) is far more associated with having COVID or with chemo treatment than it is with any of the vaccines (Vaccine Induced TT or VITT as QuickTidal said). I found a decent summary of the data written up by scholars here: https://www.uptodate...ocytopenia-vitt

The short summary of the above is that it would likely take several hundred thousand or even over three million doses of vaccine to find someone with VITT.

I'm sorry your sister has long COVID, yet I am happy that the only contact she's having with your mother is phone calls. That's a dangerous person/nuclear family for your mother to be physically around right now. Here's hoping your mother's chemo regimen works brilliantly.

Thanks man. Yeah it's a shitty situation, and my mom is a super trooper though it all. So many hospital visits, she must be exhausted.

[Tsundoku]

Why COVID-19 is a monster.

US man claims his penis has shrunk due to rare Covid side effect
He claims that his “above average” manhood has now significantly diminished – with doctors warning it is “likely permanent”.

https://www.news.com...888fbb36f6248a5

[Tiste Simeon]

Tsundoku, on 13 January 2022 - 12:14 AM, said:

Why COVID-19 is a monster.

US man claims his penis has shrunk due to rare Covid side effect
He claims that his “above average” manhood has now significantly diminished – with doctors warning it is “likely permanent”.

https://www.news.com...888fbb36f6248a5

Yes. Covid is the reason. I must have got it several years before Covid came along.

[Macros]

COVID must have hit the US a long time ago, how else does one explain all the guns?

[Tsundoku]

and oversized vehicles?

[Macros]

Bye bye Novax?

[Tsundoku]

Novax Djocovid is apparently going to fight it.

In other exciting news, I felt cold symptoms on Sun night/Mon morning 9/10 Jan, and the Mrs felt it on Tues morning, so we and the boy got tested on Wed morning 12 Jan.

The Mrs just got a text confirming she has the spicy cough. Which means I definitely have it as I have the same symptoms. The boy seems fine so far.
So we were already pretty much hermits most of these holidays but had definitely been isolating since Monday, and now have to stay in iso until Wed 19th. There goes my last week or so of holidays.

Fuck you, Covid.

The annoying part is we did all the right things, barely went out except for quick runs to the shops, stayed away from people, wore masks, sanitised etc.
Didn't visit any friends or relatives since Unicron went boom here from early Jan.

Oh well, I guess I'll be catching up some more on Netflix etc.

[Imperial Historian]

Tsundoku, on 14 January 2022 - 12:31 PM, said:

Novax Djocovid is apparently going to fight it.

In other exciting news, I felt cold symptoms on Sun night/Mon morning 9/10 Jan, and the Mrs felt it on Tues morning, so we and the boy got tested on Wed morning 12 Jan.

The Mrs just got a text confirming she has the spicy cough. Which means I definitely have it as I have the same symptoms. The boy seems fine so far.
So we were already pretty much hermits most of these holidays but had definitely been isolating since Monday, and now have to stay in iso until Wed 19th. There goes my last week or so of holidays.

Fuck you, Covid.

The annoying part is we did all the right things, barely went out except for quick runs to the shops, stayed away from people, wore masks, sanitised etc.
Didn't visit any friends or relatives since Unicron went boom here from early Jan.

Oh well, I guess I'll be catching up some more on Netflix etc.

I don't know what Aussie labour laws are like but in the UK if you are ill to the point you wouldn't have been able to work you can claim back your holidays. COVID isolation counts for this.

[Tsundoku]

Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure I can get it back thanks. Just a pain, is all.

I was due to go back to work on the 19th so it gives me one whole extra day off. Whoop-de-doo.

Meanwhile, in Denmark ...

‘We failed’: Danish newspaper apologises for not questioning government Covid-19 numbers
A major newspaper has published a stunning apology to readers, saying it had “failed” in its coverage of Covid-19.

https://www.news.com...b0d8edae7160658

--------------

I thought the distinction between in hospital because of covid or with covid was made ages ago, we just didn't have exact numbers.
Would it really have made that much of a difference to have that extra statistical breakdown?

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 14 January 2022 - 12:49 PM

[Aptorian]

The newspaper in question Ekstra Bladet is a tabloid. The article is more of an opinion piece than a statement from the paper, the author is a well known journalist who's been at most of the press conferences.

These numbers have been known by the press and the public since the beginning but hasn't been questioned because there was more overall support for the government a year ago. Now it's a feeding frenzy trying to find stuff to pick apart.

[QuickTidal]

Tsundoku, on 14 January 2022 - 12:31 PM, said:

Novax Djocovid is apparently going to fight it.

In other exciting news, I felt cold symptoms on Sun night/Mon morning 9/10 Jan, and the Mrs felt it on Tues morning, so we and the boy got tested on Wed morning 12 Jan.

The Mrs just got a text confirming she has the spicy cough. Which means I definitely have it as I have the same symptoms. The boy seems fine so far.
So we were already pretty much hermits most of these holidays but had definitely been isolating since Monday, and now have to stay in iso until Wed 19th. There goes my last week or so of holidays.

Fuck you, Covid.

The annoying part is we did all the right things, barely went out except for quick runs to the shops, stayed away from people, wore masks, sanitised etc.
Didn't visit any friends or relatives since Unicron went boom here from early Jan.

Oh well, I guess I'll be catching up some more on Netflix etc.

Hope you all manage it alright. It does sound like this is the beginning of the endemic bit which means we are ALL getting Omicron, whether it shows symptoms or not.

My sons daycare friend woke up with a fever this morning, so my wife (who only dropped him off an hour ago or so) has decided to go get him to hopefully prevent him getting whatever it is (she's home on a PA day with our daughter anyways)...but yeah, we are prepared for someone to get it. Not that we want that to happen mind you.

And I'm still on antibiotics to vanquish a persistent bit of sinusitis...

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Pfizer omicron-specific shot expected to be available in March. Paxlovid still extremely scarce in the US, but expected to become more widely available in the near future....

'Naturally' the economy (and the fear of political backlash) couldn't wait....

Phase 1 trials for the US Army's universal coronavirus vaccine started in April 2021; Pfizer and Moderna were approved in less than a year for emergency use. If the universal vaccine had been fast-tracked in the same way, we would probably have it in a few months. But that seems unlikely....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Wonder when we'll reach \beth _{1}

https://en.wikipedia...number#Beth_one



'"It's important to emphasize that the next variant — and there will definitely be one — may not evolve from omicron and it will not necessarily have these characteristics," [...]

[...] Before omicron came along, SARS-CoV-2 was actually evolving to be more severe, says Bhattacharyya, of Harvard Medical School. "We're looking at a virus that's gotten progressively more severe over time," [...]


[...] alpha was about 40% more likely to kill a person than the original virus. And delta was about two times more likely to put you in the hospital than the alpha variant.

[...] Becoming "more mild" hasn't been the trend or evolutionary trajectory[...]

[...] omicron didn't evolve directly from delta. It evolved from an earlier version of the virus circulating in 2020. And so omicron could actually be more severe than its ancestral virus, and it could be progressing toward higher severity, Bhattacharyya says.

And thus, there's no guarantee that the next variant to emerge will be milder. It could be the most severe yet.

[...] spread occurs primarily at the beginning of a person's infection, even before they know they're sick. During this period, the virus infects mainly the person's upper respiratory tract. It hasn't reached deep in the lungs, where severe disease occurs.

[...]

So for a new variant to spread to more people and outcompete previous variants, it needs to become really good at infecting a person's nose and airway. But it doesn't matter how well the new variant infects cells in the deep lungs. As more people become immune to SARS-CoV-2, a new variant also has to be really good at evading antibodies and other immune responses.

So future variants will likely continue to improve their ability to infect and grow in the upper respiratory tract (and they will continue to be more immune evasive).

"Whether those changes also make the new variant more severe or less severe, that's kind of the luck of the draw"'

https://www.npr.org/...becoming-milder


So vaccines that only offer good protection against severe illness may have a very limited impact on the creation (and spread) of new variants. Hence: 'Experts urge development of new vaccines that protect against transmission of the virus in the first place'

https://www.theguard...ho-experts-warn


'"If we want to stop the epidemic[...] we will need nasal vaccines," Prof Tartour said. "As long as vaccines fail to prevent the transmission and therefore the spread of the virus, we will be under threat from new variants."

Pre-clinical studies of Theravectys' nasal-administered vaccine have suggested strong efficacy, with the viral load being drastically reduced along with pulmonary inflammation and tissue injury.

However, researchers are currently testing nasal vaccines to determine whether they would be effective against the Omicron variant.'

https://www.connexio...ctive-than-jabs

Nasal vaccines (assuming they are not administered by needle injection) will also hopefully appeal to the people who have avoided vaccination because of fear (or dislike) of needles....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'#LongCOVID frequently includes cognitive symptoms. Noting the clinical similarities between "chemo-fog" and "COVID-fog", we asked whether there are also neurobiological similarities, in collaboration with Akiko Iwasaki's @VirusesImmunity lab @YaleMed'

https://twitter.com/...939466294370307

Iwasaki:

'important study [...] on how significant longterm neurologic damage can occur after a mild respiratory-only SARS-CoV-2 infection

[...]

Brains from those with even mild or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection had microglial reactivity in subcortical white matter.

[...]

Neurogenesis in the hippocampus is thought to support memory function. Reactive microglia can impair this process.

[...] we found significantly elevated circulating levels of CCL11 in long COVID patients who reported brain fog vs. those who did not.

[...] loss of oligodendrocytes was accompanied by reduced myelinated axon density in subcortical white matter within 7 days of infection. This could lead to [Downwards arrow] neural circuit function, axon health and to numerous deleterious neurological consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection.'

[...] detrimental changes in the brain, likely mediated by inflammatory factors. Similar neuropathobiology may be shared in chemo-brain, post-ICU syndrome and ME/CFS.'

https://twitter.com/...768706228862977

Full study:

https://www.biorxiv.....01.07.475453v1

'Long COVID patients show abnormal immune activity 8 months post infection

A comprehensive new study published in the journal Nature Immunology has reported immune dysregulation persists in long COVID patients up to eight months after initial infection. [...] long COVID is characterized by elevated levels of specific immune biomarkers, offering the strongest objective evidence to date of this emerging chronic disease.

[...] This pattern of immune dysfunction was so apparent that the researchers could effectively identify a long COVID patient with 80 percent accuracy just by studying immune biomarkers in a blood sample.

[...] these ongoing immunological changes were not linked to the severity of the initial infection. While long COVID has been reported in high rates for those hospitalized with the acute disease, anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of mild cases are showing signs of long COVID.

[...] because of Omicron's immune evasiveness it is possible long COVID could be highly prevalent with this variant. [...] even if vaccination reduces a person's chances of developing long COVID by half, we still may be facing a huge problem by letting the virus sweep through a community.

"Right now we should plan for the worst about long COVID," [...] "This whole idea of having millions of infections per day basically ignores the long COVID concern."'

https://newatlas.com...WxbBpEUQqdsXTXc

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'A fourth shot of COVID-19 vaccine [...] is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, according to a preliminary study in Israel.

[...] led to a increase in the number of antibodies "even a little bit higher than what we had after the third dose" [...]

"Yet, this is probably not enough for the Omicron[...] We know by now that the level of antibodies needed to protect and not to got infected from Omicron is probably too high for the vaccine"'

https://www.reuters....ron-2022-01-17/

May be best to wait for an omicron-specific booster in March or a combined omicron and non-omicron (those known so far...) in June. Then maybe universal coronavirus vaccine and/or nasal vaccine to prevent transmission around the end of the year, though hopefully before next winter's surge....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 17 January 2022 - 07:08 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

After my Trump-loving redneck cop relative down in Florida got covid the first time, we told him he should still get vaccinated and boosted, if only for his toddler's sake. (Of course he didn't.) His main symptom of the first covid infection was a terrible headache, so he probably already had brain damage from that one. And now this variant is more likely to infect and harm his child....

New Oxford study suggests that even people who are not aware of having any long Covid symptoms (including brain fog) show striking cognitive deficits in memory and attention tests for 6-9 months afterwards (given the small sample size---135 people---symptoms may last significantly longer for some people):

'Attention and memory deficits persist for months after recovery from mild Covid

Previous studies have shown that after acute Covid-19 infection some people can continue to suffer from cognitive symptoms such as difficulties in concentrating, colloquially referred to as brain fog, as well as forgetfulness and fatigue – features of the 'long Covid' syndrome.

But it was not known whether cognitive performance can also be affected in individuals who had mild symptoms and report no concerns after recovery from acute Covid infection.

"What is surprising is that although our Covid-19 survivors did not feel any more symptomatic at the time of testing, they showed degraded attention and memory."'

https://www.ox.ac.uk...very-mild-covid

Full paper:

https://academic.oup...fcab295/6511053

Brain damage piled on brain damage
Were all too much still, and of one to me
Too much remains: but every day that's saved
From that eternal idiocy, something more,
A bringer of new variants; and vile it were
That nature red in spike and pathogen....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 January 2022 - 03:11 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Persistent clotting protein pathology in Long COVID[...]

[...] we here investigate if the lingering symptoms that individuals with Long COVID[...] manifest might be due to the presence of persistent circulating plasma microclots [...]

We show that plasma samples from Long COVID[...] still contain large anomalous [...] deposits (microclots). We also show that these microclots in both acute COVID-19 and Long COVID[...] plasma samples are resistant to fibrinolysis (compared to plasma from controls [...] We detected various inflammatory molecules that are substantially increased[...]

[...] Clotting pathologies in both acute COVID-19 infection and in Long COVID[...] might benefit from following a regime of continued anticlotting therapy'

https://cardiab.biom...933-021-01359-7

[Malankazooie]

Got the free test kits coming in the mail. Going to pick up the free N95 masks at one of the libraries on the way home this evening. Free so why not, and rather be safe and never the sorry. Also, does anyone else get the feeling that they think a more dangerous variant is in the pipeline and so are being proactive and trying to get ahead of it? It seems odd to me that there is this push to mail out free test kits and make N95 masks free.

[amphibian]

One of my partner's co-workers was hospitalized last week with COVID related breathing issues. He has diabetes and had beaten a bout of cancer in the last ten years.

He died last night. My partner is really sad about this. I met him once and very much liked him.

[Tiste Simeon]

My condolences Amph, hope you and your partner can find comfort with each other in this horrible time.