Octopus Overlords

Hell, we've got so many overlapping COVID threads that half of the time I don't even realize I'm not in R&P!

My wife and I got our bivalent boosters back in September.

Friday night I felt "slightly unwell". Yesterday afternoon I felt like I had the flu (fever, runny nose, tired). Today my BinaxNOW antigen test came up positive. The solid line appeared red only seconds after I put the sample into the test.

My wife took a test which came up negative. Hopefully that will last.

This is the second go-round for me; I had it back in April 2020 and gave it to my wife shortly afterward. Last time my only symptom was loss of taste/smell, and that lasted for weeks. I never had a fever or any of the other stuff.

Ugh. Sorry to hear it. The next few months are going to be...interesting. Hope you're doing better.

And speaking of better, this is pretty cool news - potentially the first biomarker (i.e. a way to easily recognize) Long Covid:

https://twitter.com/VirusesImmunity/sta ... 7597019137

Delighted to host @resiapretorius and @PutrinoLab at Yale today. @ValterVSM and I learned how to image #microclots and activated platelets. Activated platelet stained with anti-CD62P antibody are evident just looking through the eyepiece This is from a #longCOVID patient

I haven't checked in a while. Looking over my county data over 7 days per 100,000. 20 reports per day. 12.3 hospitalizations per day. That says to me people are pretty much only only getting tested when they're hitting "this may be bad" level of infection, especially when you hit the talking point of "hospitalized with COVID vs hospitalized because of COVID". The good news is less than 6% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID patients and statewide we've been steady at 1000-1100 hospital beds taken since August.

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2022 10:01 am Ugh. Sorry to hear it. The next few months are going to be...interesting. Hope you're doing better.

Thanks, I think I am. After a couple days I was finally able to get my temperature to stay below 100 without meds. Still having some extra mucus production but no longer feel like I was hit by a truck. O2 levels remained good.

On Sunday I tried to call into our Urgent Care to at least talk with someone. After a couple hours on hold the automatic message said I had moved up from #4 to #2 in line. I eventually gave up. I didn't feel bad enough to go to the ER, so I followed the advice I had - isolate and take meds to keep the temperature down.

I also left a message for my doctor's office, which they returned Monday afternoon and set me up with a tele-health visit on Tuesday morning. Decided not to use paxlovid since my symptoms seemed to be improving and I am in only in one of the risk groups (weight of course since I'm in the US).

Wife took another test yesterday, which was positive. Just like in 2020 she is surfing the wave right behind me. She seems to be having a slightly milder time of it than I am so far, but she's in more risk categories than I am. She had to cancel a handful of appointments she had set up for this week.

When taken early in an infection, Paxlovid shortens the course of covid, reduces symptoms, and (might) reduce the odds of developing long covid. Get some for the wife, stat! Or at least ask her doctor if it's appropriate.

Kraken wrote: Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:38 pm When taken early in an infection, Paxlovid shortens the course of covid, reduces symptoms, and (might) reduce the odds of developing long covid. Get some for the wife, stat! Or at least ask her doctor if it's appropriate.

Wife decided she couldn't take it because she is on a lot of other medication and paxlovid interferes with at least one thing she doesn't want to stop taking even for a week.

Paxlovid also creates a nasty metallic taste in one's mouth that lingers for weeks, so she's missing out on that.

Kraken wrote: Wed Nov 09, 2022 6:05 pm Paxlovid also creates a nasty metallic taste in one's mouth that lingers for weeks, so she's missing out on that.

A prescription dose of vitamin D did that for me. Maybe my OTC vitamin D is a magic bullet. I mean wasn't beaming sunlight at our internal organs an alternative to injecting bleach to get rid of COVID?

Good news for the people that received Moderna's bivalent shot:

The bivalent booster used in the United States is known as mRNA-1273.222; it contains Moderna's original vaccine and a vaccine specifically designed against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

The study included about 511 people ages 19 to 89 who were vaccinated, boosted with the original formulation and then boosted months later with a 50-microgram booster dose of the bivalent booster.

All participants had a 15-fold increase in Omicron BA.4/BA.5 antibody levels from pre-booster levels. Neutralizing antibodies against BA.4/BA.5 were 5-fold higher for participants with previous infection and 6-fold higher for those without previous infection. The company said immune responses were consistent in participants age 65 years and older and those age 18 to 65.

It's pre-print, but I'm hopeful - maybe because I'm in the pool of ~12 million Americans that opted to get it.

With respect to the variants:

The company said that early analysis in 40 people also found that both bivalent vaccines showed "robust neutralizing activity" against the BQ.1.1 subvariant, although not as strong an antibody response as they showed against BA.4./BA.5.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BA.5 accounts for about 30% of all new infections in the United States. As a mix of new variants rises, BQ.1.1 now represents about 24% of new infections.

It's not too late. Get your bivalent shot, ASAP.

As of yesterday my whole family has the bivalent.

I got the Pfizer, but I think the rest of the family got the Moderna. That'll teach me.

Zaxxon wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 3:14 pm As of yesterday my whole family has the bivalent.

Ditto! I took twins to get poked yesterday (their older brother already had it). Twins got Pfizer, but I'm still 100% Moderna.

We're getting our boosters today, supposed to be Moderna (according to the Walgreens website). We had Pfizer for the primary series and Moderna for the first booster. So going for the perfect 50-50 split.

stessier wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 3:16 pm I got the Pfizer, but I think the rest of the family got the Moderna. That'll teach me.

You must have missed all the "mouse memes" from September and October over the Pfizer bivalent shots - that also demonstrated a boost in immunity. Bottom line, you're better off with than without.

My original vaccination/booster was Moderna, but this time I went back and forth with the conflicting info about whether it was better to mix for the boosters. I'm glad I (and the rest of the household) stuck with Moderna.

Wish I could get boosted; I'm too fresh off of nature's booster. January is the earliest I can take another shot.

WHERE IS NOVAVAX BOOSTER

edit: here, kinda: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/19/health/n ... index.html

I am going to take an airplane this week. I had my first pair of shots, plus a booster. But I haven't got a recent booster, so I am a bit worried. I know I need that, but time has been slipping away from me recently.

Its a short flight, going to stay masked for all of it. I have KN95.

This is my first non-car trip since the pandemic started, so I am a bit nervous.

Jaymon wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 1:29 pm I am going to take an airplane this week. I had my first pair of shots, plus a booster. But I haven't got a recent booster, so I am a bit worried. I know I need that, but time has been slipping away from me recently.

Its a short flight, going to stay masked for all of it. I have KN95.

This is my first non-car trip since the pandemic started, so I am a bit nervous.

Add safety glasses to help, like my wife Morgan Fairchild.

https://mobile.twitter.com/morgfair/sta ... 6024213512

If someone next to you is symptomatic (coughing, sniffling, etc...) ask to be moved. Whatever you do, don't remove the mask. Not to drink water, not to get a snack, not for a quick "mask break" in the bathroom or while you're in the airport. Every time I speak to someone that mysteriously develops COVID and they tell me they mask, they actually mean they mostly mask. I get it - it's not easy or fun. Safe travels!

She's in her 70s? Wow. /Deahawk moment

I strongly suspect I will have to take it off at the security checkpoint when I hand over my ID,. Ima try to hold my breath then, I suppose. But otherwise, it will be on for the entire journey including both airports and the shuttle bus.

Jaymon wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 4:29 pm I strongly suspect I will have to take it off at the security checkpoint when I hand over my ID,. Ima try to hold my breath then, I suppose. But otherwise, it will be on for the entire journey including both airports and the shuttle bus.

Speaking as a pandemic air-travel expert who has taken... two flights during that span, it worked out for me. Pull mask down for 3 sec while holding breath, replace and move on.

Went to Vegas last month, wore a N-95 contractors mask from the time I left the car at the airport until we got to the hotel. No food, no drink. Lowering the mask for security id took minimal time. My wife was less strict in masking and had a compromised immune system, so she caught it and showed symptoms a few days after coming back.

I have to fly from Chicago to Cincinnati in 2 weeks for a law firm meeting and plan to do the same. My risk won’t be from the airplane, it’ll be the firm dinner and training when I have to be unmasked speaking to my Red State partners (OH/IN) to introduce myself as their new partner. Sigh.

Zarathud wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:33 pmintroduce myself as their new partner.

Congrats on that anyway! (If not on the potential COVID that comes with it.)

I have to go to Dallas for 4 days/3 nights in December for my employer's legal conference (first in-person one since the Before Times). There will be hundreds of us there, and I'll be one of probably only a handful of people wearing a mask. I won't be able to avoid things like dinners, though, and I suspect that will be my downfall.

ImLawBoy wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:07 am

Zarathud wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:33 pmintroduce myself as their new partner.

Congrats on that anyway! (If not on the potential COVID that comes with it.)

I have to go to Dallas for 4 days/3 nights in December for my employer's legal conference (first in-person one since the Before Times). There will be hundreds of us there, and I'll be one of probably only a handful of people wearing a mask. I won't be able to avoid things like dinners, though, and I suspect that will be my downfall.

Can you not say you're a cancer survivor and simply can't take the risk at this time? Seems like everyone should understand that.

Honestly, it's not so much me I'm worried about. I was relatively lucky in that, while I had obvious concerns due to the stress on my body at the time, I didn't have to do chemo or otherwise get immunosuppressed. I've had five pokes and I wear a mask indoors everywhere but my home (and in my home when non-immediate family members are present). Plus, our General Counsel went through leukemia (along with the associated chemo and such) during the pandemic, and he's going to be there so the optics wouldn't be great for me to bow out. Also, if I'm being truly honest, I'm looking forward to seeing some colleagues I haven't seen in years, so there's a selfish part of me that wants to go.

I'm more worried about bringing it home to my oldest son. While I theoretically could bow out using that as an excuse, I think it's politically unwise. He's fully vaxxed up to bivalent, though, and we'll be extra careful when I get home.

If I've had it, mine has been asymptomatic and I never knew. Beyond that, my approach is still to hold it off as long as possible. Long COVID treatment approaches are an ongoing discovery, as would be any potential prevention. The longer I wait to be exposed, the better my chances of not being crippled for years and/or life.

Of course, I'm a recluse anyway, so it's easier for me than for many others. Although having pretty severe social anxiety does make it far more uncomfortable to be the only person in a busy store wearing a mask and having everyone shoot contemptuous glares all the time.

ImLawBoy wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:07 am

Zarathud wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:33 pmintroduce myself as their new partner.

Congrats on that anyway! (If not on the potential COVID that comes with it.)

I have to go to Dallas for 4 days/3 nights in December for my employer's legal conference (first in-person one since the Before Times). There will be hundreds of us there, and I'll be one of probably only a handful of people wearing a mask. I won't be able to avoid things like dinners, though, and I suspect that will be my downfall.

Thanks, it's official as of today. Life is a marathon, and not a race. Starting in October (when the wife was sick), I get paid based on billings (correlated to my ability to avoid downtime from COVID and other illnesses, and a healthy U.S. economy), not PTO.

I'll be wearing my mask from the time I arrive at the airport to the time I hit the hotel (and back), because airports were hell on earth even pre-pandemic. But I'm officially there to meet and introduce myself to people so being unmasked is mandatory. Cincinnati is as Red State as Dallas. And alcohol will be involved because it's a gathering of lawyers.

I'm really hoping to have received an immunity boost/asymptomatic exposure while my wife was sick.

Dallas isn’t Red State.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 3:07 pm Good news for the people that received Moderna's bivalent shot:

Ah, that's the one my wife and I got about two months before we tested positive again.

We did get over it relatively quickly, like thanks to that booster.

The whole family got the bivalent booster and flu shot this afternoon. So far no issues!

Next up - gut microbiome:

The trillions of microbes living in the gut—bacteria, fungi, and viruses—are known collectively as the gut microbiome. Research has shown that changes in gut microbes may contribute to a variety of diseases and conditions.

COVID-19 patients often have imbalances in their gut microbes that allow antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections to take over. These patients also have a high rate of secondary bacterial infections that may be life-threatening. However, it hasn’t been clear how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, affects the gut microbiome. Many critically ill COVID-19 patients receive antibiotics. These can also affect gut microbes. So, it’s not clear if COVID-19 or antibiotic treatment causes the microbiome disruptions in these patients.

An NIH-funded research team, led by Drs. Ken Cadwell and Jonas Schluter at New York University School of Medicine, investigated how SARS-CoV-2 infection affects gut microbes in mice. They also explored the relationship between gut microbe imbalances and bacterial infections in COVID-19 patients. Their findings were published in Nature Communications on November 1, 2022. 

...

Together, these results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection disrupts the gut microbiome. This enables secondary bacterial infections, both by allowing pathogenic bacteria to colonize the gut, and by altering the gut lining to let these bacteria more easily spread from the gut to the bloodstream.

“Our findings suggest that coronavirus infection directly interferes with the healthy balance of microbes in the gut, further endangering patients in the process,” Schluter says.

“Now that we have uncovered the source of this bacterial imbalance, physicians can better identify those coronavirus patients most at risk of a secondary bloodstream infection,” adds Cadwell.

Now I have to figure out how to eat yogurt with a mask...

I hear there are poop transplants available.

Well, that would bypass the mask issue...

Watch out for your cornhole, bud.

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 7:24 pm I hear there are poop transplants available.

One of my coworkers had to do one before I was born and apparently it did her wonders as a child. I guess she ate way too many limes as a child and they somehow totally killed all her intestinal helpers.

First world problems: I hate having to wear a mask in the morning to grocery shop. I miss the days when I could get up and grocery shop at 08:00 (or earlier in the before times) in an empty store and leisurely grocery shop while leisurely drinking my morning coffee.

Still on the verge of going out and demasking. After having spent Turkey Day unmasked around a bunch of non vaxed non socially hygienic relatives and with them staying late into the evening at my parents' house, I'm thinking I may actually go to a bar. And if I can do that, surely I can start grocery shopping unmasked. Closer than not to three years now. At this point anxiety of being in public might keep me away.

There's a time to decide to stop masking and do stuff. I would humbly suggest December of 2022 is not that time, though I can appreciate opinions vary.