Coronavirus

[Stormheartgypsy]

On 6/19/2021 at 8:41 PM, Hoosier said:

I had read that people with certain blood cancers or organ transplant patients have a very reduced response to the vaccine... in some cases almost no response.  People with RA, lupus, or other autoimmune conditions seem to have a somewhat reduced response to the vaccine, though everybody is different of course.  I hadn't seen anything about the type of circumstance in my other post (going on an immunosuppressant well after vaccination) but it probably makes sense to take precautions just in case.  The timeline of the person in my story is unfortunate... if you recall, we were seeing an upswing in cases back in April.  Since cases have been dropping lately, perhaps they wouldn't have caught covid if we were talking about now.

As someone who is immunocompromised and fully vaccinated, I still have to be careful and cautious (and yes, I still mask up, social distance, etc) because the medication I'm on, I had to wait 1 week after each vaccine before  I could take my medicine to help control Ank Spon (its in the RA family). And yeah, that was no fun.

I don't foresee us achieving 'herd immunity' with MO on the rise w/ covid cases (and the Delta variant was found in wastewater in Branson, MO if I recall correctly)  and we'll probably all of us, need a booster shot. Reading interesting stuff how they are mixing vaccines to see which one is best to use a booster.

Article on immunocompromised + covid19https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-complex-situation-for-immunocompromised-people-and-covid-19-vaccines

[TimB]

7 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Getting close to having max vax protection.  My intent had been to wear a mask indoors until fully vaxxed (as per CDC guidance) and then stop, but my thinking on this is evolving.  I may still wear one indoors where there are a lot of people and at other times if I just want to hide my face.  No, I'm not planning to rob a bank lol  

Let's face it, people are kinda gross (except, of course, my fine friends here at American Weather) so if a mask helps cut down on the potential of picking up non-covid illnesses, that's great.  Although the amount of mask wearing is dropping, there are still more than enough people wearing them around here that you don't look like a weirdo for wearing one.  

I am young, not immunosuppressed and had systemic side effects from the vaccine, so there is every reason to feel confident that I am mounting a very robust immune response from it.  For me, wearing a mask at times is not going to be about covid.  Anybody else feel like this?

Yes. We’re barely past the days of mask wearing and I already have a cold that was so bad that I got a covid test on Friday (negative). I’m still wearing a mask until my symptoms are gone out of respect for others. Didn’t stop some 70ish year old woman from standing less than a foot behind me in line somewhere the other day, but if she catches my cold that’s her problem not mine. 

[IWXwx]

4 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Getting close to having max vax protection.  My intent had been to wear a mask indoors until fully vaxxed (as per CDC guidance) and then stop, but my thinking on this is evolving.  I may still wear one indoors where there are a lot of people and at other times if I just want to hide my face.  No, I'm not planning to rob a bank lol  

Let's face it, people are kinda gross (except, of course, my fine friends here at American Weather) so if a mask helps cut down on the potential of picking up non-covid illnesses, that's great.  Although the amount of mask wearing is dropping, there are still more than enough people wearing them around here that you don't look like a weirdo for wearing one.  

I am young, not immunosuppressed and had systemic side effects from the vaccine, so there is every reason to feel confident that I am mounting a very robust immune response from it.  For me, wearing a mask at times is not going to be about covid.  Anybody else feel like this?

I am also not immunosuppressed, although I am a lot older (63) and a former smoker, and as such I am really concerned with developing pneumonia as a result of the flu.  I am planning on wearing a mask when in crowded company in the winter to hopefully help ward off it off, even though I annually get a flu shot. However, a flu shot is just an educated guess of the possible strains expected to circulate. As you alluded to, there shouldn't be as many sideways looks when wearing a mask.

[schoeppeya]

23 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Getting close to having max vax protection.  My intent had been to wear a mask indoors until fully vaxxed (as per CDC guidance) and then stop, but my thinking on this is evolving.  I may still wear one indoors where there are a lot of people and at other times if I just want to hide my face.  No, I'm not planning to rob a bank lol  

Let's face it, people are kinda gross (except, of course, my fine friends here at American Weather) so if a mask helps cut down on the potential of picking up non-covid illnesses, that's great.  Although the amount of mask wearing is dropping, there are still more than enough people wearing them around here that you don't look like a weirdo for wearing one.  

I am young, not immunosuppressed and had systemic side effects from the vaccine, so there is every reason to feel confident that I am mounting a very robust immune response from it.  For me, wearing a mask at times is not going to be about covid.  Anybody else feel like this?

So wearing a mask has become your social security blanket?

[TimB]

19 minutes ago, schoeppeya said:

So wearing a mask has become your social security blanket?

So colds and flu and other crap are just necessary facts of life and it isn’t nice to get them less often?

[Jonger]

5 hours ago, TimB84 said:

Don’t your motorcycle insurance rates increase every time a motorcyclist without a helmet splatters his brains all over the highway?

I believe those riders have to pay more insurance.

[schoeppeya]

8 hours ago, TimB84 said:

So colds and flu and other crap are just necessary facts of life and it isn’t nice to get them less often?

Lol yes germs are part of life. But, I haven’t had a cold in over ten years with no masks. 
 

And I’m specifically asking about people “not wanting to see his face”. 

[TimB]

2 hours ago, schoeppeya said:

Lol yes germs are part of life. But, I haven’t had a cold in over ten years with no masks. 
 

And I’m specifically asking about people “not wanting to see his face”. 

Congratulations, but some of us aren’t lucky enough to go years and years without getting these bugs that are constantly passed around. And yes, I know there’s some skill involved too, but it takes a fair amount of luck to go 10 years without getting a communicable disease that is very common.

[StormfanaticInd]

Kinda hate that states are not reporting as much. Think its too soon to do that even though this pandemic is basically over

[dan11295]

https://covariants.org/per-country

Here is some data showing variant percentages in some countries. Many of the countries where Delta has become dominant are seeing increases in cases. e.g. UK, Portugal, Russia, Indonesia, even though it is summer in the NH. Latter two countries on this list (Russia, Indonesia) are seeing notable increase in deaths, and are also lagging in vaccinations.

Finland and Canada however are still seeing declining cases so far. 

[Hoosier]

8 hours ago, schoeppeya said:

Lol yes germs are part of life. But, I haven’t had a cold in over ten years with no masks. 
 

And I’m specifically asking about people “not wanting to see his face”. 

I've found that there are times that I like hiding behind the mask.  People can't read your facial cues/expressions so well.  I'm probably a little weird.

[schoeppeya]

13 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

I've found that there are times that I like hiding behind the mask.  People can't read your facial cues/expressions so well.  I'm probably a little weird.

Fair enough! Same reason a lot of people hate masks, reversed. 

[TimB]

3 minutes ago, schoeppeya said:

Fair enough! Same reason a lot of people hate masks, reversed. 

Yeah, weren’t there a lot of people early on in the pandemic that had an issue with masks “because it would make it harder to identify criminals” (or at least framed it this way because their real reason for having an issue was even less logical)?

[schoeppeya]

16 minutes ago, TimB84 said:

Yeah, weren’t there a lot of people early on in the pandemic that had an issue with masks “because it would make it harder to identify criminals” (or at least framed it this way because their real reason for having an issue was even less logical)?

So you don't think your desire to continue to wear masks/continue some covid restrictions has anything to do with you have a preclusion to being anti social and the social side effects of the pandemic favor those preclusions? Its nothing more than masks prevents colds? 

[TimB]

8 minutes ago, schoeppeya said:

So you don't think your desire to continue to wear masks/continue some covid restrictions has anything to do with you have a preclusion to being anti social and the social side effects of the pandemic favor those preclusions? Its nothing more than masks prevents colds? 

I mean I’m sure I’m biased toward that, being an introvert, but the things I’ve discussed in the past regarding this haven’t had all that much to do with being social. I want to work from home at least 50% of the time forever, not because I fear human interaction at the office, but mostly because I don’t want to waste hours and hours of every week commuting. I like the idea of wearing masks especially when feeling ill, but wearing masks doesn’t prevent one from socializing with other people. And I like the idea of strangers continuing to give personal space when waiting in line (where feasible), but how often do you interact with the person in front of or behind you in line anyway? EVERYTHING in this world is built for extroverts, it’s time to settle that score a little.

[Malacka11]

I don't think Covid "restrictions" should be continued unnecessarily but I'd love it if it were socially acceptable to wear a face mask if you choose to from now on, just like it is in Asian countries. I think it's also a common sense thing that if you have ANY type of respiratory illness, that you wear a mask. Obviously not everyone will ever adhere to such suggestions but if we could at least try to normalize it, I'm sure we could massively cut back on the spread of every little cold. 

 

And yeah, it would be great if people don't get up in your shit like crazy in stores and whatnot, but fat chance of that happening tbh

[TimB]

3 minutes ago, Malacka11 said:

I don't think Covid "restrictions" should be continued unnecessarily but I'd love it if it were socially acceptable to wear a face mask if you choose to from now on, just like it is in Asian countries. I think it's also a common sense thing that if you have ANY type of respiratory illness, that you wear a mask. Obviously not everyone will ever adhere to such suggestions but if we could at least try to normalize it, I'm sure we could massively cut back on the spread of every little cold. 

 

And yeah, it would be great if people don't get up in your shit like crazy in stores and whatnot, but fat chance of that happening tbh

The bolded is why this won’t fly. People are all caught up in the illusion of American exceptionalism, especially when compared to countries where they view the people as “other”.

[Stebo]

21 hours ago, IWXwx said:

I am also not immunosuppressed, although I am a lot older (63) and a former smoker, and as such I am really concerned with developing pneumonia as a result of the flu.  I am planning on wearing a mask when in crowded company in the winter to hopefully help ward off it off, even though I annually get a flu shot. However, a flu shot is just an educated guess of the possible strains expected to circulate. As you alluded to, there shouldn't be as many sideways looks when wearing a mask.

Yeah I could see myself wearing one in the winter, I enjoyed not being sick this year.

[Stebo]

16 hours ago, Jonger said:

I believe those riders have to pay more insurance.

Dead motorcyclists? The point he is making is that the more claims they make the more everyone's insurance goes up.

[Stebo]

1 hour ago, Malacka11 said:

I don't think Covid "restrictions" should be continued unnecessarily but I'd love it if it were socially acceptable to wear a face mask if you choose to from now on, just like it is in Asian countries. I think it's also a common sense thing that if you have ANY type of respiratory illness, that you wear a mask. Obviously not everyone will ever adhere to such suggestions but if we could at least try to normalize it, I'm sure we could massively cut back on the spread of every little cold. 

 

And yeah, it would be great if people don't get up in your shit like crazy in stores and whatnot, but fat chance of that happening tbh

It will probably go back to gross assholes coughing on those who have masks on because this country is full of entitled shitheads. The same people who didn't think this was real to begin with.

[Stebo]

1 hour ago, TimB84 said:

The bolded is why this won’t fly. People are all caught up in the illusion of American exceptionalism, especially when compared to countries where they view the people as “other”.

Yep, entitlement is more important than health and safety.

[schoeppeya]

26 minutes ago, Stebo said:

Yep, entitlement is more important than health and safety.

Lol

[Stebo]

5 minutes ago, schoeppeya said:

Lol

Yeah we know you don't care, you have made that apparent from the get go, you can stop reminding us at every turn.

[Jonger]

59 minutes ago, Stebo said:

Dead motorcyclists? The point he is making is that the more claims they make the more everyone's insurance goes up.

Riders who choose to ride without helmets have to purchase additional medical coverage. That's fully designed to cover the increases, so his assumption isn't true. The damage to the machine isn't any different with or without the helmet. The decision to not wear the helmet is completely medical.

[TimB]

7 minutes ago, Jonger said:

Riders who choose to ride without helmets have to purchase additional medical coverage. That's fully designed to cover the increases, so his assumption isn't true.

An insurance company is a business. The more they pay out in claims, the more everyone’s rates go up. Just because it isn’t explicitly spelled out that way on your bill doesn’t mean it isn’t baked into the premiums somehow. Also, I’m absolutely certain there are plenty of people who ride without helmets but don’t tell the insurance company they ride without helmets. But this is so far off topic that I’ll stop there.

[schoeppeya]

56 minutes ago, Stebo said:

Yeah we know you don't care, you have made that apparent from the get go, you can stop reminding us at every turn.

Man, you seem like a miserable human. I feel for you. 
 

To your point though, pandemics over so I’ll go ahead and leave y’all to talk about how scary the world is and how mean people are.

[luckyweather]

I’ll go ahead and leave y’all

 

sweet

[Hoosier]

I wouldn't have necessarily picked Missouri to be seeing the biggest rise right now, but here we are.  Cases have risen about 75% there in a relatively short period of time, though we are still talking about numbers in the hundreds per day and not thousands.

[Jonger]

5 hours ago, TimB84 said:

An insurance company is a business. The more they pay out in claims, the more everyone’s rates go up. Just because it isn’t explicitly spelled out that way on your bill doesn’t mean it isn’t baked into the premiums somehow. Also, I’m absolutely certain there are plenty of people who ride without helmets but don’t tell the insurance company they ride without helmets. But this is so far off topic that I’ll stop there.

You're right, it's a business...and that's why they charge a premium to higher risk drivers and that applies to people not wearing a helmet.

Also, insurance might have a solid case for not paying out if it's found the rider isn't wearing a helmet when the accident occured.

[mattb65]

There seem to be regular headlines stating that the overwhelming number of new covid hospitalizations are unvaccinated individuals.

The specific numbers should be reported, every day. Just like they report the number of cases daily for the past year, it should be.

1. Number of new cases if possible report fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated as sub-groups of the new cases

2. Number of new hospitalizations including the number fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and the number unvaccinated

3. New deaths - fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated  and unvaccinated

 

The CDC is gathering this data but it's voluntarily reported so not exactly a full picture - more for surveillance purposes to identify if there's a cluster that might indicate a concerning new variant - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html

 

The hard data may be powerful enough to move some skeptics across the line to finally choose to protect themselves. I'm not sure if this data is being collected at scale though.