Coronavirus prep

Options
1402403405407408484

Replies

  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    ythannah wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    Our numbers are low but are they really, if people aren't getting tested the way they were?

    Hard not to get "political". I think we've heard me rant about a certain province and about the "feeling" that once we've been vaccinated we're good to go hug everyone without masks or restrictions and no matter what.

    Up to now I haven't encouraged my dad to move out of "that" province because a) he has built his life and support network there and because b) I've felt that him moving to a congregate facility currently represents a risk that he can/could still afford to avoid by remaining home alone c) I was hoping that things would improve so that he could move to an independent living facility near his current location so as to retain contact with people he knows

    With the decision to hide our head in the sand and avoid further testing (as of the end of August testing in Alberta will only be available when your doctor feels that testing you for COVID is relevant in terms of providing care to you), and with the general anti-masking attitude in the province (here's looking at you Superstore employees not wearing masks... oh, sorry, I'm not looking, because I'm shopping at Walmart where they do wear them)... anyway, I am seriously considering whether it is time to start arguing for him to move to an independent living facility in another province where we still consider masking indoors to be appropriate and closer to where I live.

    Throughout all of this I have been incredibly thankful that my frail, mobility-impaired 82 year old father has continued to live independently in his own home, even though it has meant an extra house for me to maintain. At least he's been safe.

    I don't know if you have Chartwell homes there, or if his budget can accommodate the price tag, but they fared very well locally. Not a single outbreak.

    You heard a lot about how bad the homes were - but my mom lives in a Chartwell retirement home that had an "outbreak" in Dec/Jan before they were vaccinated. Three people tested positive, all staff, not one resident got infected. (But yeah it costs me almost $5000 a month.)
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 15,442 Member
    Looking into Chartwell, thank you for the tip.

    There are several in a circle around my home location and also some in Edmonton and Calgary but none in a three hour radius from dad's current location...

    I don't believe any of the three we checked out near dad actually got outbreaks; but they were extensively locked down with visitors banned.

    I know that near home at least three of the places we looked at and were considering had outbreaks and at least one death each.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    33gail33 wrote: »
    I'm probably not making myself very clear - I am not advocating for a free for all where sick people go out and spread it around - I think it is prudent for anyone with respiratory symptoms to stay home/mask until they are symptom free. I don't think that Covid testing vaccinated people is necessary for that to happen.
    I think that the messaging around the vaccine has been really, really bad. From the beginning telling people that even when they have the vaccine they still have to take every precaution they took prior to the vaccine isn't super convincing for vaccine hesitant people to get it. And all the hand wringing and drama over "breakthrough cases" which are either asymptomatic or mild, is just reinforcing hesitancy.
    It needs to be emphasized that the vaccine was never meant to create sterilizing immunity, that mild "breakthrough cases" are expected and normal - not that they are a huge deal and/or a failure of the vaccine. Getting a bad cold from the Covid virus is a vaccine success story - it means that the vaccine is doing what it was intended to do. And that messaging isn't getting out enough imo.

    Yes, I think those are good points, and I share your frustration about the messaging.
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    edited August 2021
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    Gisel2015 wrote: »
    I’ve not seen any statistics showing which shot people with breakthrough cases got. It seems like that would be an interesting statistic.

    If anyone has seen the breakdown, please post.


    I don't know if somebody (CDC??) is keeping track of which vaccine has the most break-thru cases, or if testing centers ask for the name of the vaccine that a person received. It would be interesting to know.

    I was reading online (Mr. Google to the rescue) that breakthrough cases may be under counted and underestimated since not all vaccinated people feeling sick or "thinking" that they got covid seek testing. Some just quarantine themselves for few days. In addition, some vaccinated people that might have been infected with the new variant could be totally un-symptomatic, but still able to spread the virus. That is why masks are still needed.

    I agree. My dh was sick last week with a bad cold; I'm guessing but we had no proof. When he called the dr. they told him not to worry about getting tested because he had Covid back in November and was vaccinated in March/April. They only asked if he was running a fever. With all the breakthrough infections going on of vaccinated people.....I didn't agree with his dr. at all. :(
    Our numbers are low but are they really, if people aren't getting tested the way they were?

    Could go ahead and get tested. My mom and several people in the same house have had a bad cold lately. She had Covid August 2020 and was vaccinated earlier this year. If not for negative tests, I would have guessed Covid again. But people still do get other respiratory infections.

    He's fine now. But it still baffles me why they didn't at least give him the option. He probably could've pushed a test for himself but he's one of those people that a) believe everything his dr. tells him and b) is lazy. :( They told him people are getting bad colds in our area so he went with that. :s But then how would they know if they're all bad colds and not Covid if they're not still pushing the tests?
    He feels justified by his drs. decision because he didn't have a fever and didn't lose his sense of taste or smell. I reminded him that back when we contracted it in November, my only symptom was fatigue and I was tested because he'd had a "cold" and got tested. I cannot remember if he had a fever then or not.

    They're getting lax with the testing. :( SMH

    And to @lokihen, I agree with you.


    But if it is Covid, which with vaccination is generally equivalent to a bad cold, then what is the point of testing to confirm that? At some point we move on from the pandemic "panic" stage of this, to the endemic stage - where yes, people are still going to get Covid, even with the vaccine, and they are going to recover without treatment in the vast majority of cases.

    I read recently that the Delta variant is as contagious as chicken pox, if that is the case then we are not going to eradicate it by testing and isolating people indefinitely. The only way through this now is to vaccinate as many as possible so that it doesn't cause mass severe illness and death. The messaging that we are somehow going to "beat" Covid by eradicating it from the population through lockdowns, testing and isolation is outdated. It isn't going to happen.

    1) So the infected person knows that he needs to quarantine and protect vulnerable people
    2) To give public health officials relevant data to understand local risk factors, possible spreader events and long term vaccine efficacy metrics.

    My point is that at a certain point as the disease becomes endemic quarantining infected people with mild illness isn’t feasible. At a certain point (I believe that point to be now in my specific area of the world) we have to shift our containment strategies away from “positive cases” to more meaningful metrics, such as hospitalizations and deaths. Mass testing of mildly ill people in a post vaccine scenario just doesn’t make sense. That is the whole point of the vaccine program, to keep people alive and out of the hospital, even after they are exposed.


    Why not? What about kids under 12 -- just let them get infected?

    I just wanted to add to this - public health restrictions, including school closures, were never put in place to protect children. They were put in place to protect adults and the elderly who children come in contact with. This made sense in a pre-vaccine environment, in a post-vaccine environment (for adults) it no longer makes sense.

    If Covid affected adults and the elderly the same as it affects children do you think the world would have basically shut down the way it did? Of course it wouldn’t have, we would have been told to wash our hands, stay home when we are sick, and go about our day otherwise. There wouldn’t even be a vaccine because we wouldn’t need one.