Coronavirus prep

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Replies

  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,048 Member
    My take on it is we can't keep getting mass inoculations every six months forever just because there's another variant, and they don't believe that will be necessary

    It seems highly likely to me that the long term maintenance will be annual jabs.

    Even though immunity might wane somewhat after, say, 9 months, for reasons of real life practicality I think it will be annual thing like flu vaccine.

    When reflecting on @kimny72 & @cmriverside's comments re: antibodies providing short term protection while T-/B-cell defenses take about 2-6 months (did I get that right??) post-vaccine to peak, it occurred to me that for the flu vaccine, the waning coverage 6+months post-vaccine coincides with a lull in flu transmission. Peak flu season would be in the period of time protected by antibodies and then peak T-/B-cell training.

    I'm pondering whether a similar situation might evolve for covid variants/vaccines. I.e. everyone gets boosted right as indoor transmission is likely to rise, and by the time efficacy wanes (perhaps due to new mutations), we're all spending more time outdoors again. Rinse. Repeat.
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,983 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    At the very least, this whole Covid pandemic has created awkward and unexpected moments in our lives; giving us a new outlook on etiquette, etc. :( We didn't celebrate Christmas with anyone last year. :( This year we thought we'd invite a few people and keep it intimate(our adult children, my sister and her dd, and our niece and her bf). Well, we did. However, we probably should've stated vaccinations mandatory or some such thing because 2 of our relatives are not and will not. :( So, very awkwardly, we uninvited them. I'll have to talk with dh about it but maybe if we request masks and pre-Christmas negative test??? It just feels so awkward and impolite the whole way around. But with my ds coming who has diabetes, and my sister and I both working with elderly people, I just do NOT want to risk it ya know? I just assumed they were vaccinated and I'm not sure why. :( I *know* the vaccinated are not immune to this virus but after seeing what fear my sister went through by being exposed to a couple of her friends that she assumed had been vaccinated and were not, then a day after being together, her 2 friends came down with Covid. I felt her friends should've let her know they weren't vaccinated; my sister was working with them often for God's sake. :(

    Argh. IDK. Ready to crawl in a cave and hibernate with the bears.

    I am thinking about buying some of the rapid tests from the pharmacy that we can use the day of holiday gatherings. I should probably get them soon, though...my CVS has them right now, but I bet they sell out as the holidays get closer.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    edited December 2021
    Omicron is already in the US. Assumed it was already, but now we know.

    https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/01/first-case-omicron-coronavirus-variant-identified-united-states/
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,023 Member
    For @kimny72 (or whoever might be interested) from Shane Crotty, who recently achieved a World Expert status for vaccine research:
    This ranking is based on Expertscape‘s PubMed-based algorithms, which place Crotty in the top 0.1% of scholars publishing information about vaccines over the past ten years.
    https://www.lji.org/blog/shane-crotty-achieves-world-expert-status-for-vaccine-research/

    At about the 22:00 min mark he begins discussion about T&B cells. :) The whole video is a hopeful, positive, well-researched explanation of longer term really good protection (even against variants) for vaccinated people, regardless of age.

    Thanks! I'll watch it tonite :smiley:
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    At the very least, this whole Covid pandemic has created awkward and unexpected moments in our lives; giving us a new outlook on etiquette, etc. :( We didn't celebrate Christmas with anyone last year. :( This year we thought we'd invite a few people and keep it intimate(our adult children, my sister and her dd, and our niece and her bf). Well, we did. However, we probably should've stated vaccinations mandatory or some such thing because 2 of our relatives are not and will not. :( So, very awkwardly, we uninvited them. I'll have to talk with dh about it but maybe if we request masks and pre-Christmas negative test??? It just feels so awkward and impolite the whole way around. But with my ds coming who has diabetes, and my sister and I both working with elderly people, I just do NOT want to risk it ya know? I just assumed they were vaccinated and I'm not sure why. :( I *know* the vaccinated are not immune to this virus but after seeing what fear my sister went through by being exposed to a couple of her friends that she assumed had been vaccinated and were not, then a day after being together, her 2 friends came down with Covid. I felt her friends should've let her know they weren't vaccinated; my sister was working with them often for God's sake. :(

    Argh. IDK. Ready to crawl in a cave and hibernate with the bears.

    I am thinking about buying some of the rapid tests from the pharmacy that we can use the day of holiday gatherings. I should probably get them soon, though...my CVS has them right now, but I bet they sell out as the holidays get closer.

    Since I had to visit the ER where I know I was exposed to 2 covid patients three days before thanksgiving, and thanksgiving was with my elderly diabetic mother, I used a rapid test the morning of. Supposedly rapid tests are not all that reliable for telling whether or not someone has covid but are very reliable for determining whether someone is contagious at that exact moment. So rapid test the morning of, plus masking, seems like it might be a viable solution.

    BTW this was my first covid test ever - due to the way I live I haven’t been in a situation which required one previously. And it made my nose runny and then stuffy for hours! Ugh! I wonder if buying some of those nasal drops which temporarily shrink nasal tissue would help.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    I wish we had walk-in booster clinics here. We did have but with children now getting vaccinated as well, appointments are definitely necessary.
    So getting online and checking it all out is on my to-do list of the day.

    Can you not just go to a drugstore there? Here I could go to any CVS or Walgreens, which are all over.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,668 Member
    In the US it's easy to walk in and get vaccinated or boosted, but I think it's much harder elsewhere.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,905 Member
    edited December 2021
    In the US it's easy to walk in and get vaccinated or boosted, but I think it's much harder elsewhere.

    I thought Reenie is in the U.S.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    I wish we had walk-in booster clinics here. We did have but with children now getting vaccinated as well, appointments are definitely necessary.
    So getting online and checking it all out is on my to-do list of the day.

    You should just be able to go to a pharmacy website and set an appointment. CVS here had both walk-in and appointments. I got my appointment same day at CVS, but Walgreens was a week out. CVS was also doing walk-in, Walgreens wasn't. I didn't check around much as to availability, but Wal-Mart pharmacy, Costco, and just about every pharmacy that I know of had boosters.

    I'm not sure if it's just a state thing, but here kids can get vaxed at a pharmacy or by their Dr. but schools and school districts have also been holding shot clinics specifically for 1st and 2nd dose kids vax. There hasn't been any big backups at our pharmacies. There are no mass vax clinics like last spring though...but I think we're past that stage in regards to getting mass amounts of people vaxed. Those who will have already done so and those who won't just won't.