https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/100741 Vax Protection Fades Fast Against BA.4/5-Related Hospitalizations — South African study makes the case for more frequent boosters

As is the case in the US. Back in Feb 2022, it was estimated that 73% of the population was already immune to Omicron. Since then a ton more people got infected, likely bringing the percentage much higher, although I don't know what the number is.

Would that help much though? If the post above by @Lawyer&Mom is any indication, it seems to me people will get it no matter what they do.

I would get the pieces of food as dry as I can before setting them on the mesh tray, then I will set another tray at the bottom of the oven to catch the drip.

Yes, other groups include the control group and others that don't get the bivalent vaccine as a way to compare the results. It seems Pfizer and Moderna run their trials very similarly, using rougly the same number of animals. Is this standard procedure in initial trials? And I read somewhere that Pfizer must have more gotten more results since June, but they are not available to the public. I agree. It's good that it is available to anyone who wants it, just as long as it is not mandated. I live in a very highly vaccinated area, we just came out of a big wave, so it will be interesting to see how much uptake there will be.

Marty Makary mentioned it a few times and also on this presentation of the Moderna version where 8-10 mice were used in each trial group. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2022-09-01/06-COVID-Miller-508.pdf

Because there really was no human trial. The trial was done on exactly 8 mice. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/03/covid-19-omicron-shots-available-but-their-effectiveness-is-unclear-.html?&qsearchterm=booster This decision did not leave enough time for Pfizer and Moderna to complete human clinical trials on the new boosters before a fall vaccine rollout. As a consequence, the FDA and the CDC are relying on human data from the clinical trials of the BA.1 shots to understand how the BA.5 boosters might perform. They also relied on data from studies in which the BA.5 boosters were tested in mice.

No. omicron was a mild disease for all of us back in January, so we'll pass. Not related to my decision, but here's two doctors argue it's best to take this booster after 6 months from previous vax/infection. https://time.com/6211075/covid-19-vaccine-omicron-boosters/

I wear them for medical visits as these are the only places still requiring masks.

Paxlovid not clearly benefitting younger adults (under 65). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2204919 CONCLUSIONS Among patients 65 years of age or older, the rates of hospitalization and death due to Covid-19 were significantly lower among those who received nirmatrelvir than among those who did not. No evidence of benefit was found in younger adults.

I've used Adobe Premiere Pro.

I agree that we should make our own decisions, including choosing which experts to trust. But I don't see anything in TexasProud's posts that suggests she thinks others are making the wrong decisions for themselves. I think many people who participate in the covid threads on this board live with vulnerable family members, so they tend to be more cautious than the general population. Boardies who aren't high risk or living with high risk individuals don't seem to participate much, but that doesn't mean they are a minority. Many of them probably live "normal" lives like TP observes.

Definitely no water other than bottled water. A Google search told me Oralit is equivalent to Pedialyte there. Maybe his friend can help him get some. The travel to Bali then back to the US would be rough. I am praying he will recover quickly.

Not necessarily. It depends. When my kid got "food poisoning" while traveling there, it turned out to be salmonella. I hope all your son has is the kind that resolves quickly. I know how miserable it is as I've experienced it myself. I'm so sorry. See if you can advise him to take something similar to Pedialyte.

The following pieces are not too difficult yet have the potential to be showy. Sweet Bye and Bye (Walter Stier) Flower Song (Gustav Lange) River Flows in You (Yiruma)

We are watching this and loving it, too. It is more "episodic" in nature which makes it an easy watch. It reminds me a little of the American medical series House.

Yes, I was speaking about my personal comfort level. Maybe I could have used more precise words. I am okay with my risk level of catching the virus when I interact with people in a way that assumes they are not infectious. Some friends feel/see that as too great of a risk so they take more precautions like requesting to eat outdoors, only meeting online, not meeting at all, etc. I am aware of pre-symtomatic spread having experienced that in my own family, twice.

When a friend comes to eat at my house, she and I understand that we are both healthy and not at great risk of passing covid virus to each other. I don't see the benefit of taking it on and off. Maybe I am projecting my own discomfort. I admit I can't stand wearing the same mask after taking it off. Personally, I am not any more comfortable being around a sick person breathing out viral particles through a days-old cloth/surgical mask than no mask at all. I also tend to assume people aren't infectious unless they are experiencing symptoms (I know asymptomatic transmission can happen). Others may feel differently.

Some people have eye issues, including styes from mask wearing. Has anyone seen this recent mask study being reported by any new source? I think it could help to warn people to always wear clean masks. People participating here are not at all like the typical men on the street in their knowledge of everything covid and its mitigation. I have seen and personally known individuals who would wear the same cloth masks everyday at a week long conference without washing them once. Or the friend who would visit, remove her mask to speak/eat/whatever, wear it again, remove it again when feeling restricted, etc. In those cases, I'd rather they not wear one at all. My own husband and kids would also just wear their reusable masks if I don't throw them in the washer myself. And still some people feel bad throwing away their surgical masks after a short use, so they keep wearing the same one longer than they should. So I do hope this study would serve as a good PSA for people who are more casual with their mask wearing.

Yes, I just thought it's a legitimate study that is worth sharing. It is problematic that masks could be breeding grounds for bacteria and other pathogens. But I see your point that one has to weigh the pros and cons.

Then I would conclude that the amount inhaled is generally harmless to the body based on how far humans have survived without wearing masks. As to the point brought up by another poster that the mask prevents a child from sticking his finger into his mouth, I'd use the same argument. Young kids putting all kinds of yucky stuff into their mouths is nothing new. This is why we frequently train them to wash their hands, right?

Bacterial and fungal isolation from face masks under the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-15409-x Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has led people to wear face masks daily in public. Although the effectiveness of face masks against viral transmission has been extensively studied, there have been few reports on potential hygiene issues due to bacteria and fungi attached to the face masks. We aimed to (1) quantify and identify the bacteria and fungi attaching to the masks, and (2) investigate whether the mask-attached microbes could be associated with the types and usage of the masks and individual lifestyles. We surveyed 109 volunteers on their mask usage and lifestyles, and cultured bacteria and fungi from either the face-side or outer-side of their masks. The bacterial colony numbers were greater on the face-side than the outer-side; the fungal colony numbers were fewer on the face-side than the outer-side. A longer mask usage significantly increased the fungal colony numbers but not the bacterial colony numbers. Although most identified microbes were non-pathogenic in humans; Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Cladosporium, we found several pathogenic microbes; Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Aspergillus, and Microsporum. We also found no associations of mask-attached microbes with the transportation methods or gargling. We propose that immunocompromised people should avoid repeated use of masks to prevent microbial infection.

You all need to give My Mister a try. It's the single best piece of movie/drama of any genre produced, of any time, anywhere. MHO, of course. But it's one that is shared by many around the world. If I am not mistaken, it's the highest rated Korean drama on imdb. It may feel dark and depressing at the beginning, but the reward is very worth it. It's available on Netflix and Viki.

Correct, and so it would be safe to assume they were infected during omicron. I was wondering if these people had previous alpha/delta infections. Sorry for not being clear. Something else I am observing in my circles, the not vaxxed and never infected people seem to be immune to the current variant as well. Life is not fair. Some do have super innate immunity.

Thanks for the article. It's not clear to me if the "unvaccinated" in the study have had previous infections. The unvaccinated people in my circle who have so far escaped the current wave were infected during alpha/delta. So I have hope yet that some in the population do have durable immunity. ✌️