I think sometimes, when people who are against the Covid vaccine lose a loved one from Covid, they just double down harder against it. My theory is that it would be too painful for them to admit to themselves they were wrong and that that error may have resulted in their terrible loss, so they become almost more against it. We have seen this with a number of our patients’ families.

This is a little off topic but about possible Covid treatments from around the world. I was listening to a Medcram podcast and they were discussing Ivermectin. There are several countries doing studies, at least 2 going on in the USA, which is good. The Dr mentioned that it is necessary to study it in the US rather than assuming the same things occur here. One of the things he talked about was the prevalence of undiagnosed parasitic infections in countries in South America and Africa etc, apparently as much as 50-60% of the population. He said one confounding factor with the finding of decreased mortality in those populations is that giving them large doses of steroids might cause the parasites to increase and flourish. If your study is giving some patients Ivermectin and not others, you might see a decrease in mortality caused by the effect of Ivermectin on the parasites rather than Covid. It will be interesting to see the results of studies here and in Europe and they will hopefully shed some good light on the true effects of using Ivermectin.

Thank you for those ideas. I’m going to check the anxiety thing with her.

Her driving is actually good, thank goodness! She really does manage well, but has b en commenting about the discomfort in her brain recently.

I asked her about playing music but she said usually that increased her distraction, especially if any words, but she’s going to try white noise instead.

She does do very well but I sometimes wonder at the effort she needs to put in because of these issues. She has been mentioning it a lot more recently so I don’t know if it is getting worse, don’t know if that’s possible, or if maybe it is being exacerbated by stress. I’ll pass on that tip to her. Thanks!

I would definitely get in touch with her dr as they may want her to have the monoclonal treatment now or at the very least immediately she tests positive and it can take a day or so to arrange - it does in my area.

Does anyone have tips if the problem isn't so much remembering to do things, but feeling like your mind is hyperactive, and therefore finding it hard to focus on studying? This isn't me but my dd, so I may not be describing it accurately. She is very reliable about remembering things etc, but feels uncomfortable often because of her mind. She makes really great grades, and does life very well really, so I don't know what to advise her. She doesn't drink coffee or much other caffeine, so hasn't really tried that. I'm sure it sounds like she has no real problems lol but she does feel really uncomfortable in her head. My dh on the other hand does have a ton of issues with doing life because of his ADHD, tried one medicine, that didn't seem to make any difference, and he doesn't feel like he has found much to help at all.

Thanks for all the suggestions to look into!

I think both being US does make a difference and is free. I haven’t looked into Apple Pay so thanks for that suggestion.

Last time I sent a small amount there were fees even with the friends and family, unless I didn’t do it correctly.

Does anyone know a good way of sending money to a family member in another country, that doesn’t have high fees? It’s not a huge sum or anything, but would like something safe and secure that doesn’t cost a huge amount.

I do think I’m going to get her a simpler calculator for college, as that seems to be recommended, and is not too expensive. Then if she needs something else we can get that later. Thanks for those recommendations @Arcadia and @JanetC

This is great but I have a feeling the narrative might then shift towards what they think might happen in the longer term. Maybe there are people prepared to look at things rationally and logically though. I think the irrational and illogical voices in my life are very loud, so maybe I overestimate how many people there are in the not open to logic side. ETA - I have suggested to some vaccine hesitant people I know that looking at what happens in New Zealand and now Portugal may be something that they feel are more unbiased sources of information.

Thanks for all the information and suggestions! Funnily enough, instead of it malfunctioning, dd found that she had the wrong setting selected so the old one she’s using will carry on for a while.

I don’t have studies to share but I did recently make a trans Atlantic flight. My understanding is that the aircraft has good air filtering and exchanges the air very frequently, which definitely helps to reduce risk. However, on almost every leg of the journey I sat right next to someone who wasn’t wearing their mask properly, and, especially at the airport, some were not wearing masks at all. I was wearing a KN 95, and being extremely careful, especially going over because I was going to see my elderly parents. We are all vaccinated but I still wore an N95 mask when I was anywhere near them inside for several days until I had been able to get a PCR test, and test myself each day, and felt like I was almost certainly safe for them to be around. Anyway, I do not feel like flying is a particularly safe activity, mostly because of people’s inability to follow the rules, but having said that, I did not get Covid on my trip. But it doesn’t sound like this is necessarily a logical, well thought out position that your SIL is taking, so I don’t think you will be able to persuade her. Could you stay nearby and just meet up outside or with you all wearing good masks?

My dd has to use a graphing calculator for parts of her Calculus course and the old TI -84 Plus that she has been using is malfunctioning. She is applying to do civil engineering and I thought we should maybe go ahead and get the recommended calculator for that but I am having trouble finding which calculators they recommend. Does anyone have any recommendations for me, for a good calculator that an engineering student would use?

I bought travel insurance to travel US to UK and it did cover Covid. I can imagine that it might well be a different story covering US Covid medical costs.

Thank you so much! The links and examples are just what I need. I really appreciate your help!

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a resume template for college/scholarship applications? Free is lovely but I also don’t mind paying. It just needs to be something we can access and do fairly quickly. I have been looking all over the internet but I end up clicking on endless links that just send me to another page and never the actual thing. Thank you so much for any advice or information you can give me!

The whole thing is pretty disheartening. I don’t even know what to say, but truth is very hard to come by these days. I work in a hospital. I would have thought that if so many vaccination deaths were occurring then I would have seen at least some there. I’m fairly certain that if there were serious frequent issues New Zealand would be seeing lots of it as they’ve vaccinated so many. It’s ironic really but the same people I know who said that many deaths were being wrongfully labeled as Covid, are now saying they’re vaccine deaths. All I can bear witness to is that I have seen many people actually die of Covid and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone die from vaccination.

I remember he had problems but hadn’t realized he was hospitalized. I hope he’s better now.

Don’t want to give the impression that I don’t believe there are serious effects, that are rare. Maybe it is the use of Pfizer which has changed things there. It was interesting to note that there had not been any comments recently, and that seemed interesting since so many vaccinations were being given. I hope that the people who believe that thousands are dying from the mRNA vaccines, might be able to look at another country and maybe begin to question that.

I was wondering if those of you from Australia and New Zealand could comment on if there are reports of serious side effects etc from the vaccines now that your countries are vaccinating so many people so quickly. In the initial stages of the vaccination program in Australia some of you seemed to be reporting a possible vaccine related death quite frequently, but I had not seen that for a while. I believe the vaccines to be very safe from what I’ve read, and seen myself, but of course the rumors swirl around on social media, and I talk to vaccine hesitant people who believe them. I suggested to a couple of people at work, that if they wanted to know the truth, they should keep up with how things are going in New Zealand, as they are vaccinating so many.

First of all Mercy I know that that is absolutely not true of you. In my opinion a big problem we have in this country (USA) is that many people from the 2 political sides tend to demonize the other side. I have heard people from the right and left say that the other group is aiming for complete control and it terrifies them. I think we need voices of reason to prevail and that does not seem to be happening and that is so sad, and in my opinion should “terrify” all of us if we are going to be terrified about anything.