Coronavirus prep
Replies
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Unfortunately, testing numbers have also gone down, so I don't think we are going to get good data on case numbers, which is a shame. Considering we have no idea yet how a mild case affects your health long term, it seems like it'd be useful data to have. But the goal seems to be return to "normal", even if that means we don't learn from this whole thing. Hopefully, we are able to get valuable info from smaller countries that were more dedicated to data collection and recording.
Here in central VA, pretty much all of the restrictions and mandates are lifted. I'd still say more than 50% of the people in the grocery or big box store are masked - not sure if that's because they aren't vaxxed, or they are just in the habit, or being extra careful. There's certainly no shortage of vaccination opportunities here.
I'm very concerned for vaccine hesitant people. All the guardrails are off but there are large areas in this country with only 30-40% vaccinated, and if a variant gets going we are going to see hospitalizations and deaths rise again.12 -
Unfortunately, testing numbers have also gone down, so I don't think we are going to get good data on case numbers, which is a shame.
Positivity rate has gone way, way down, though. I mostly follow it locally, but I believe that's true across the country. So I'm not bothered that the numbers are not reflecting the reality -- if that were true the positivity rate would be high, like it was back in March '20 when people had a hard time getting tested.6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Antiopelle wrote: »Muscleflex79 wrote: »Antiopelle wrote: »Wow, I'm a little bit baffled - and wiser - reading different approaches to sick days. In Belgium (closer to the rules in Finland apparently), it is very clear: you get x days of paid holidays (the legal minimum is 20 per year for a full time, most companies agree on more) and that's it. Those are for relaxing under the sun!
If you are sick to the point you can't work, you need to see a doctor and he/she will determine how much time you will be off work. A formal note is written and you have to hand this over to your employer on the first day of illness, whether it is for one day (the 'sneezing with a bit of fever or sprained ankle and can't drive' kind of sickness), for three days, or for a few months alike. Very exceptionally, you can stay one day off work without a doctor's note, but that is - I think - one day a year and you will be on HR's radar if you do that.
As for the covid vaccines: you will get time off to have the shot (you only need to report it to your manager) and if you have symptoms severe enough to prevent you from working, the same rule applies: see a doctor, which is the most sensible option imo.
@hipari : I work in the same kind of environment as you do and I get it that you wanted to advocate for your staff and for yourself. I do believe it is a difference in culture and the nature of the job, indeed (although I know some very motivated McDo burger flippers, who follow in-company courses to advance in their careers ).
Wow, this seems like it would be a huge waste of medical resources to have to go to a doctor for a single day off. not to mention, if someone is off feeling like **** the last thing they probably feel like doing is sitting around a doctor's office for half a day trying to get a note. I'm in Canada and at my employer and any I've heard of, if you are off more than 3 in a row you need a note which seems reasonable (not sure if that is a Canada thing or if it varies by employer).
I'm fortunate that where I work we are allowed 120 sick days per year - yes - 120. I remember when I first got the job many, many years ago telling my parents about it and they literally did not believe me. I had to show them in writing and they just shook their heads. And yes, some people have taken every single one of those (but most people average less than 10).
A doctor's check for a 1 - 3 day note usually takes up 10 minutes. You go in, doctor checks you out, gives you the note and you're out again. If you really feel like crap, you can ask a doctor's visit at home. It is almost always a family GP who knows you and your file. I think it is a good system as it takes away the ambiguity away from the employer - employee relationship.
As an American, reading this is WILD.
As a Canadian, with universal health care, reading this is wild.
It normally takes 4 to 6 weeks to get an appointment with my GP. I might be able to get a same day appointment with the clinic Nurse Practitioner but I've never been sure of their scope of practice, although they could probably write a note for absence from work for something simple (assuming a NP is an acceptable medical professional for the employer).
I'm liking the Covid-era phone appointment system though. I don't lose time travelling or sitting in a waiting room. Although I have had to run to the clinic to pick up test requisition slips at times, most of the diagnostic things have been sent electronically by my dr and I just wait for it to be booked.7 -
Unfortunately, testing numbers have also gone down, so I don't think we are going to get good data on case numbers, which is a shame.
Positivity rate has gone way, way down, though. I mostly follow it locally, but I believe that's true across the country. So I'm not bothered that the numbers are not reflecting the reality -- if that were true the positivity rate would be high, like it was back in March '20 when people had a hard time getting tested.
Likewise, the # of tests and positivity rate have also continued their downward trend, and the positivity rate is currently under 1%.3 -
An aside: For me, it was very interesting to read the series of posts about work sick time laws and policies, and how medical care relates to them, in various countries. It really brings home the idea that we live with complicated intersecting *systems* that have co-evolved in our particular countries. It's hard to make sense of the individual parts (when sick time excuses or return-to-work clearances are required, for example) without understanding other parts of the environment (like how medical appointment logistics work).8
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On a more on-topic note: I finally got my vaccine today ! 😁24
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https://www.the-sun.com/news/3057850/celebrity-millennium-passengers-vaccinated-america-covid-positive/
Last year we learned a lot about Covid-19 from cruise ship data. Looks like 2021 may be a good year to learn more about Covid-19 vaccination effectiveness in these controlled environments
At a quick glance this story could help show the success of getting vaccinated but I know some concrete minds on the subject so new positive data is wasted on them but there's a small group that will make a new decision based on new data.7 -
Barely on topic, but I thought about visiting the bakery since our county only reported one new case in the last 10 days. Then I weighed myself this morning, down 3 pounds, so there's no way I'm bringing donuts back into my life.
Explanation: I tend to binge sweet, fatty foods so it's been easier to not have them around during the last year.16 -
Interesting change in vaccine advice - for Australia anyway.
Interval between Covid vaccine and any other vaccine was 14 days either side.
Has now been reduced to 7 and in exceptional circumstances can be given in under this.3 -
I went out tonight (first full reopening night for my city, evening included a workplace event (my workplace is small and the number of people who attended were smaller) and dinner (12 people) in a restaurant, as well as (in the morning) an in-person meeting of a smaller set of people), and wow was the downtown/near downtown city full of people compared to what's been normal. It was fun and celebratory, but also very much like "yay, this is over," so I hope it doesn't result in bad consequences for the city. (Weather was nice (if a bit on the humid side), and crowds were in many cases outside, which doesn't worry me, and in my own case I know everyone I was with -- we had a private room for dinner -- were vaccinated.) Granted, I don't know what restaurants/bars were like on the insides on Friday evenings the last few weeks, esp not in the area I was in, but it would have been much more limited in numbers if they were following the rules.
It was really fun and so nice to feel normal finally, but also overwhelming much earlier than it normally would have been and it felt like a crazy long day.15 -
paperpudding wrote: »Interesting change in vaccine advice - for Australia anyway.
Interval between Covid vaccine and any other vaccine was 14 days either side.
Has now been reduced to 7 and in exceptional circumstances can be given in under this.
I don't know if the official advice has changed in the US yet, but I remember on TWiV recently they said that the original 2 week buffer was out of an abundance of caution as there was no data, and at this point they don't see any need. Someone had written in because they were leaving the country, had to get one vaccine before they left, but also wanted to get the covid shot because wherever they were going was having supply issues if I'm remembering correctly. And they advised him to load up.5 -
An article in today's small town newspaper told about a couple who contracted Covid, after having been fully vaccinated. The wife had head cold symptoms and felt better in a couple days. The husband, however, is immune compromised and was very sick with it; a month in and he still feels very fatigued. I can only imagine if he hadn't been vaccinated, he might very well have died contracting Covid. However, the part of the article that left me scratching my head was it wasn't until his 4th test that he received a positive result??? I can see first or maybe even second test with positive not showing up. But he was clearly sick and had clearly been exposed. How many people are going to be persistent enough to test 4x, especially if a person is lucky enough to not feel very sick??
There is so much that is still unknown in all of this.6 -
An article in today's small town newspaper told about a couple who contracted Covid, after having been fully vaccinated. The wife had head cold symptoms and felt better in a couple days. The husband, however, is immune compromised and was very sick with it; a month in and he still feels very fatigued. I can only imagine if he hadn't been vaccinated, he might very well have died contracting Covid. However, the part of the article that left me scratching my head was it wasn't until his 4th test that he received a positive result??? I can see first or maybe even second test with positive not showing up. But he was clearly sick and had clearly been exposed. How many people are going to be persistent enough to test 4x, especially if a person is lucky enough to not feel very sick??
There is so much that is still unknown in all of this.
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An article in today's small town newspaper told about a couple who contracted Covid, after having been fully vaccinated. The wife had head cold symptoms and felt better in a couple days. The husband, however, is immune compromised and was very sick with it; a month in and he still feels very fatigued. I can only imagine if he hadn't been vaccinated, he might very well have died contracting Covid. However, the part of the article that left me scratching my head was it wasn't until his 4th test that he received a positive result??? I can see first or maybe even second test with positive not showing up. But he was clearly sick and had clearly been exposed. How many people are going to be persistent enough to test 4x, especially if a person is lucky enough to not feel very sick??
There is so much that is still unknown in all of this.
This kind of thing makes me wonder how many other illnesses he was tested for. If he was already vaccinated for COVID and had 3 negative COVID tests... maybe consider the possibility that he has flu, pneumonia, any other variety of illness with similar symptoms? Other diseases don't just disappear, and it seems irresponsible to only be testing for the "popular" one.5 -
An article in today's small town newspaper told about a couple who contracted Covid, after having been fully vaccinated. The wife had head cold symptoms and felt better in a couple days. The husband, however, is immune compromised and was very sick with it; a month in and he still feels very fatigued. I can only imagine if he hadn't been vaccinated, he might very well have died contracting Covid. However, the part of the article that left me scratching my head was it wasn't until his 4th test that he received a positive result??? I can see first or maybe even second test with positive not showing up. But he was clearly sick and had clearly been exposed. How many people are going to be persistent enough to test 4x, especially if a person is lucky enough to not feel very sick??
There is so much that is still unknown in all of this.
This kind of thing makes me wonder how many other illnesses he was tested for. If he was already vaccinated for COVID and had 3 negative COVID tests... maybe consider the possibility that he has flu, pneumonia, any other variety of illness with similar symptoms? Other diseases don't just disappear, and it seems irresponsible to only be testing for the "popular" one.
I'm not sure I understand why he wouldn't be tested for Covid? And he did end up testing positive the 4th time. His wife had it and had tested positive so he knew he'd been in contact. I know of another case where one of the family members tested positive, was having symptoms then 2 more family members started having symptoms yet tested negative even after being tested more than once each. They never showed a positive test despite living with the infected person and having very similar symptoms.
IOW I don't believe the tests to be so accurate that we should base all our answers/reactions on them.5 -
An article in today's small town newspaper told about a couple who contracted Covid, after having been fully vaccinated. The wife had head cold symptoms and felt better in a couple days. The husband, however, is immune compromised and was very sick with it; a month in and he still feels very fatigued. I can only imagine if he hadn't been vaccinated, he might very well have died contracting Covid. However, the part of the article that left me scratching my head was it wasn't until his 4th test that he received a positive result??? I can see first or maybe even second test with positive not showing up. But he was clearly sick and had clearly been exposed. How many people are going to be persistent enough to test 4x, especially if a person is lucky enough to not feel very sick??
There is so much that is still unknown in all of this.
This kind of thing makes me wonder how many other illnesses he was tested for. If he was already vaccinated for COVID and had 3 negative COVID tests... maybe consider the possibility that he has flu, pneumonia, any other variety of illness with similar symptoms? Other diseases don't just disappear, and it seems irresponsible to only be testing for the "popular" one.
I'm not sure I understand why he wouldn't be tested for Covid? And he did end up testing positive the 4th time. His wife had it and had tested positive so he knew he'd been in contact. I know of another case where one of the family members tested positive, was having symptoms then 2 more family members started having symptoms yet tested negative even after being tested more than once each. They never showed a positive test despite living with the infected person and having very similar symptoms.
IOW I don't believe the tests to be so accurate that we should base all our answers/reactions on them.
I guess I don't understand the purpose of testing for COVID if you're completely sure you have it and no amount of negative test results will convince you otherwise. Why waste resources and time running test after test, if you will only trust a positive result?
I can't imagine going to a doctor with a sore throat, being tested for strep, getting a negative result, and having the doctor say "well we'll just keep testing for strep until we get a positive." They would probably move on to other possible causes of my sore throat.7 -
moonangel12 wrote: »An article in today's small town newspaper told about a couple who contracted Covid, after having been fully vaccinated. The wife had head cold symptoms and felt better in a couple days. The husband, however, is immune compromised and was very sick with it; a month in and he still feels very fatigued. I can only imagine if he hadn't been vaccinated, he might very well have died contracting Covid. However, the part of the article that left me scratching my head was it wasn't until his 4th test that he received a positive result??? I can see first or maybe even second test with positive not showing up. But he was clearly sick and had clearly been exposed. How many people are going to be persistent enough to test 4x, especially if a person is lucky enough to not feel very sick??
There is so much that is still unknown in all of this.
I agree that that's unfortunate.
One of my friends, fully vaccinated 65+, now believes she has Covid (fever, cough, wheezing, no smell/taste). Her doctor's immediate advice was for her to be tested for it. (Haven't heard the test result yet, so I'm not offering this as a "people who are vaccinated getting Covid" story (yet); I'm sharing it because it illustrates that the practices for testing Covid-suspect people post-vax may differ by area or even by doctor.)3 -
Here in the UK it was being said that one of the available vaccines, I don't remember which one, 80% reliable. This is way more reliable than the flue vaccine has been quoted to be in the past. So there is still a slight risk that someone who has been vaccinated will come down with covid But, having the antibodies already they will not become as ill as they might otherwise become, its highly unlikely they will need to go to hospital for instance. Where as someone who has not been vaccinated will still have the same likelihood of needing hospital care and face the ultimate price for not being vaccinated. Thankfully any deaths which are reported here are few, still too many but with deepest sympathy to the families, these are persons who rejected the vaccine.
Here we are having a battle with what is now called the delta variant. Our local numbers testing positive for the thing are up by 1/3 over last week and more over the previous weeks. Some are still talking about opening up everything on the 21st others are saying more care is needed. My hope is there are fewer who are left with long covid after the vaccination.
The reason doctors will request testing of someone with symptoms who has household contact is to be certain what it is and this particular case is reflected in the number tally. If tests are not carried out then how can the running totals be correct or as near as possible. It is possible for someone sharing the same household not to have covid even though another member of the household does. It happened in my family, my son and his second son both had it but no one else in the family did. It is much easier for the Delta variant to be transmitted thought.4 -
paperpudding wrote: »Interesting change in vaccine advice - for Australia anyway.
Interval between Covid vaccine and any other vaccine was 14 days either side.
Has now been reduced to 7 and in exceptional circumstances can be given in under this.
I don't know if the official advice has changed in the US yet, but I remember on TWiV recently they said that the original 2 week buffer was out of an abundance of caution as there was no data, and at this point they don't see any need. Someone had written in because they were leaving the country, had to get one vaccine before they left, but also wanted to get the covid shot because wherever they were going was having supply issues if I'm remembering correctly. And they advised him to load up.
I don't know if it applies to covid vaccines, but when I was reading up on vaccine intervals for my shingles shots (which do, or at least did at the time, have an interval recommendation with respect to other vaccines), and wanting to figure out when I could get my seasonal flu shot and a tetanus booster that I needed, I discovered that you could get all on the same day and not have to worry about interval spacing. My recollection was that this was a general recommendation (I believe I was on the CDC site) for any vaccinations that require an interval before getting a different vaccine (not all vaccines require an interval -- my recollection is that it wouldn't have been an issue if it had just been the flu shot and the tetanus booster).
Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor and all of the above is based on stuff I read nearly a year ago, so my memory could be off on details, although I'm confident on my main point about same-day vaccination being an option in lieu of interval spacing.2 -
An article in today's small town newspaper told about a couple who contracted Covid, after having been fully vaccinated. The wife had head cold symptoms and felt better in a couple days. The husband, however, is immune compromised and was very sick with it; a month in and he still feels very fatigued. I can only imagine if he hadn't been vaccinated, he might very well have died contracting Covid. However, the part of the article that left me scratching my head was it wasn't until his 4th test that he received a positive result??? I can see first or maybe even second test with positive not showing up. But he was clearly sick and had clearly been exposed. How many people are going to be persistent enough to test 4x, especially if a person is lucky enough to not feel very sick??
There is so much that is still unknown in all of this.
This kind of thing makes me wonder how many other illnesses he was tested for. If he was already vaccinated for COVID and had 3 negative COVID tests... maybe consider the possibility that he has flu, pneumonia, any other variety of illness with similar symptoms? Other diseases don't just disappear, and it seems irresponsible to only be testing for the "popular" one.
I'm not sure I understand why he wouldn't be tested for Covid? And he did end up testing positive the 4th time. His wife had it and had tested positive so he knew he'd been in contact. I know of another case where one of the family members tested positive, was having symptoms then 2 more family members started having symptoms yet tested negative even after being tested more than once each. They never showed a positive test despite living with the infected person and having very similar symptoms.
IOW I don't believe the tests to be so accurate that we should base all our answers/reactions on them.
I guess I don't understand the purpose of testing for COVID if you're completely sure you have it and no amount of negative test results will convince you otherwise. Why waste resources and time running test after test, if you will only trust a positive result?
I can't imagine going to a doctor with a sore throat, being tested for strep, getting a negative result, and having the doctor say "well we'll just keep testing for strep until we get a positive." They would probably move on to other possible causes of my sore throat.
You're assuming he wasn't also being continually tested for other conditions as well?
I don't believe it's unusual if someone is ill and not getting better, to get multiple tests until a result is achieved or they recover fully. I'm thinking specifically of autoimmune conditions (like Lymes) where it takes multiple tests over months and sometimes years. A tested diagnosis may affect insurance status too.
Determining why someone is ill may not directly affect the patient being tested (assuming they recover on their own regardless) but it is the type of data public health officials need to determine risk and spread.
Considering how new COVID-19 is, I think finding and documenting every case we can is super important to helping us understand it, get it completely under control, and be better prepared for the next pandemic. They are still learning new things about it all the time, including the best ways to test for it.4
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