wuhan - coronavirus

[Ausmumof3]

9 minutes ago, bookbard said:

Well, just got alerts from child's old school - they went on a camp last week - the alerts were for 'several' students with covid and conjunctivitis. Friend's husband has been told by Drs to sell business and retire (they're in mid 40s) as he has Long Covid and the stress is damaging his heart. They caught it off daughter who went to school camp 5mths ago. 

Covid numbers may have peaked in Vic and NSW. Someone (smarter than me) pointed out very high death/ICU rates and wondered whether it's the more serious variant or undercounting causing that. Maybe both. 

This is an aside, but I've noticed lots of reports in the last month or so of children murdered by a family member or a foster carer. I have no idea where to find stats on this, whether this is normal or not, but seems like an increase . . . due to stress from the world we live in, crumbling supports due to staff off sick constantly? It seems to be mostly in families who are 'known' to the authorities.

 

Yes we have a second criminal neglect case related to death of a child in February apparently. I think the cost of living is an added stress factor more recently too.

a family member on Dhs side attempted suicide last week after his surgery for back injury was delayed again. He got in to the hospital and all prepped up. Now he’s in ICU 😞 not someone we’ve had much to do with over the years but I wonder how common this story is going to become. 

[Dmmetler]

6 minutes ago, bookbard said:

Well, just got alerts from child's old school - they went on a camp last week - the alerts were for 'several' students with covid and conjunctivitis. Friend's husband has been told by Drs to sell business and retire (they're in mid 40s) as he has Long Covid and the stress is damaging his heart. They caught it off daughter who went to school camp 5mths ago. 

Covid numbers may have peaked in Vic and NSW. Someone (smarter than me) pointed out very high death/ICU rates and wondered whether it's the more serious variant or undercounting causing that. Maybe both. 

This is an aside, but I've noticed lots of reports in the last month or so of children murdered by a family member or a foster carer. I have no idea where to find stats on this, whether this is normal or not, but seems like an increase . . . due to stress from the world we live in, crumbling supports due to staff off sick constantly? It seems to be mostly in families who are 'known' to the authorities.

 

Purely anecdotal, but I am seeing a lot of marriages break up. Long term ones which seemed really stable. I really think that it's similar to the way couples sometimes don't make it through other traumas.

[Ausmumof3]

One thing that’s super frustrating is reading comments under some of the news articles about delayed surgery. Kids missing heart surgeries etc. And people commenting, it’s because they don’t care about anything but Covid.

No! It’s because no one else will care enough about covid to take basic precautions so that hospitals can handle this stuff. Why are we ok with this?

[bookbard]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

One thing that’s super frustrating is reading comments under some of the news articles about delayed surgery. Kids missing heart surgeries etc. And people commenting, it’s because they don’t care about anything but Covid.

No! It’s because no one else will care enough about covid to take basic precautions so that hospitals can handle this stuff. Why are we ok with this?

So true. Someone saying it's just another virus . . . well it's just another virus on top of all the other viruses etc, they didn't stop while Covid took a turn. 

[ktgrok]

18 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

Purely anecdotal, but I am seeing a lot of marriages break up. Long term ones which seemed really stable. I really think that it's similar to the way couples sometimes don't make it through other traumas.

Yeah, my mental health is NOT good, and it makes me NOT a very nice wife. Thank heavens my husband is able to realize this is not really me, but the stress, and just deal with it and not react when I am being short tempered. But I can totally see someone who has less patience just divorcing me, or cheating, etc. 

(I am working on it - reached out to friends for support, have a script for labwork, am starting PT again tomorrow as pain is also a big factor, etc)

But seriously, how is anyone NOT mentally messed up at this point? 

[catz]

On 7/31/2022 at 12:10 PM, wathe said:

 

It quotes Pfizer's trial rebound rate of 2%.  IME, in the real world it's much higher than that.

 

I'm curious about rebound rate overall.  I saw a very small study a LONG while back in Europe that showed relapse was possible with the same variant up to 4-6 weeks after.  That required tracking a bunch of variant sequencing no one is doing.  I certainly know people who haven't had this drug who've been up and down for 2-3 weeks with symptoms.  I do think the average people aren't testing ad nauseum once their 10 days are up.

I'm not defending this drug at all.  I am 4X vaxxed but otherwise in my 50's, and wouldn't seek it.  I just thought there were the same number of rebounds in the original trial.  And we are also dealing with a different variant, may that be tied to rebound?  

[bookbard]

They're only approving the Covid vaccine in Australia for 'vulnerable' children under 5 - ie already diagnosed with a condition.

Considering we've had a number of deaths from Covid in the 0-2 age range in children with no risk factors, and that it takes years to get a diagnosis for many conditions, I think that is short-sighted. 

 

[bookbard]

So apparently the risk of Covid for under 5s is far higher than for 5-10 year olds, and the risk of dying from Covid far higher than say measles. There's no good scientific reason not to roll out the vaccine for all. It is 100% political and I know some parents are absolutely devastated at this decision. 

NSW Covid numbers still really high today. I took a look at our local area numbers and they are also very high. The peak, maybe - hoping not a plateau. 

[Ausmumof3]

7 hours ago, bookbard said:

They're only approving the Covid vaccine in Australia for 'vulnerable' children under 5 - ie already diagnosed with a condition.

Considering we've had a number of deaths from Covid in the 0-2 age range in children with no risk factors, and that it takes years to get a diagnosis for many conditions, I think that is short-sighted. 

 

Unbelievable!

[Ausmumof3]

Yet another variant to keep an eye on I guess.

[bookbard]

Excess deaths this year. It's important to note that in 2020, Australia had lower than expected deaths, likely due to closed borders meaning no influenza. There was discussion at the time about whether we should 'accept' the usual thousand or so influenza deaths if they obviously weren't inevitable. Funny now . . . a thousand deaths seems so few compared with this year.

excess deaths

 

[Ausmumof3]

https://www.statnews.com/2022/08/04/polioviruses-found-in-wastewater-samples-in-2-n-y-counties-suggesting-continued-spread/?utm_content=buffer0a63a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter_organic
 

Not covid related.

more polio found in wastewater in NY

“New York State health authorities revealed Thursday that they had detected additional polioviruses in wastewater sampled in two counties north of New York City, findings that signal continued spread of the viruses in the region.”

 

[YaelAldrich]

3 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

https://www.statnews.com/2022/08/04/polioviruses-found-in-wastewater-samples-in-2-n-y-counties-suggesting-continued-spread/?utm_content=buffer0a63a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter_organic
 

Not covid related.

more polio found in wastewater in NY

“New York State health authorities revealed Thursday that they had detected additional polioviruses in wastewater sampled in two counties north of New York City, findings that signal continued spread of the viruses in the region.”

 

Sadly, this was going to happen. It's summertime and that means Orthodox Jews from Rockland county go "upstate" to summer homes (more like shacks) and camps for the kids (they come from all over) . I'm really worried that these families and kids will be bringing home presents to a lot of Jewish communities in the next couple of weeks. 

[KSera]

On 8/2/2022 at 7:27 PM, bookbard said:

They're only approving the Covid vaccine in Australia for 'vulnerable' children under 5 - ie already diagnosed with a condition.

Considering we've had a number of deaths from Covid in the 0-2 age range in children with no risk factors, and that it takes years to get a diagnosis for many conditions, I think that is short-sighted. 

 

I just can’t understand this. It seems to fly in the face of how decisions about other standard childhood vaccines are made. Many of those are less dangerous to kids than Covid, but since those negative outcomes are preventable, vaccines are recommended. Why is this one different? Last I read, the rate of people in the US getting the Covid vaccine doe their under 5s was in the single digits. Considering it’s the illness kids are most likely to catch right now, I don’t know why that is, except the idea that it’s not a problem for kids is just accepted. Except we have no idea yet what the long term implications of Covid are for kids, and even short term we know under 5s are more at risk. 

[Arcadia]

On 8/3/2022 at 1:56 AM, bookbard said:

So apparently the risk of Covid for under 5s is far higher than for 5-10 year olds, and the risk of dying from Covid far higher than say measles. There's no good scientific reason not to roll out the vaccine for all. It is 100% political and I know some parents are absolutely devastated at this decision. 

 

11 minutes ago, KSera said:

I just can’t understand this. It seems to fly in the face of how decisions about other standard childhood vaccines are made. 

Supply of the vaccine is an issue along with other issues like vaccine efficiency and febrile convulsion.

https://www.health.gov.au/news/atagi-recommendations-on-covid-19-vaccine-use-in-children-aged-6-months-to

“ATAGI’s guidance takes into account:

• The very low risk of severe COVID-19 (e.g. hospitalisation due to COVID-19) in healthy children aged 6 months to <5 years. This age group is one of the least likely age groups to require hospitalisation due to COVID-19. Among the small number who are hospitalised or who die due to COVID-19, underlying medical conditions or immunocompromise are frequently present.
• A relatively low rate of paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS-TS) following COVID-19 in children aged 6 months to <5 years compared to other older children, which has further declined with the Omicron variant compared to ancestral SARS CoV-2 strains.
• A clinical trial which included approximately 5500 children aged 6 months to 5 years and showed that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine provided modest protection against infection (vaccine efficacy 35-52%) with the Omicron variant after two doses (25 mcg per dose). Safety data from the trial reported patterns of vaccine-related adverse events commonly seen in other age groups after mRNA vaccination, although fever was more common in this age group compared to older children and adults. Most side effects were mild to moderate and lasted approximately 1-2 days. Children in this trial who had evidence of a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection were more likely to have side effects after vaccination.
• The vaccine efficacy data were against infection with early Omicron variants and there may be differences in efficacy against the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. Modest efficacy against infection also suggests protection will predominantly be against severe illness rather than infection, although there were insufficient episodes of severe illness in this clinical trial to assess this specific outcome.
• Data on benefits in children with complex medical issues or severe immunocompromise are currently limited, but vaccination is recommended based on first principles and evidence of benefit in other age groups.
• Up to one in four children in this age group had a fever following vaccination with Moderna vaccine, with higher rates seen in those with a history of previous COVID-19. As fever in this age group can sometimes result in medical review and/or investigations, and occasionally trigger a febrile convulsion, the side effect profile for this vaccination needs to be considered in the risk-benefit discussion.
• There is insufficient evidence to suggest that vaccination of infants and children would impact community transmission.
• ATAGI notes that there are currently constraints on the global availability and domestic supply of the Moderna vaccine for children aged 6 months to <5 years, which may persist until an alternative brand, variant-based or bivalent vaccines become available for this age group. Vaccine supply was one, among many, considerations in the ATAGI advice for this age group.

ATAGI will continue to monitor evolving evidence in areas of current uncertainty including vaccine effectiveness, duration of protection, and vaccine safety in this age group including data on febrile convulsions, safety of co-administration with other vaccines, and rare adverse events such as myocarditis/pericarditis (noting there have been very few cases of vaccine associated pericarditis or myocarditis in the 5-11 year old age group). ATAGI’s recommendations may be updated as alternative brands of COVID-19 vaccine for this age group or variant vaccines become available and as COVID-19 epidemiology changes including the appearance of any new variants of concern.”

[TCB]

https://www.propublica.org/article/covid-maternity-stillbirth-vaccines-pregnancy
 

Read this article this morning. So very sad. We just found out that one of my dd’s friends from when she was in school, died last year after having Covid while she was pregnant. She was only 22. Her baby survived. 
 

The article said the placental problems resulting in the still births were only found in people who had not been vaccinated. I wish this information was more widely known so women could make a more informed decision.

[KSera]

9 hours ago, TCB said:

https://www.propublica.org/article/covid-maternity-stillbirth-vaccines-pregnancy

The article said the placental problems resulting in the still births were only found in people who had not been vaccinated. I wish this information was more widely known so women could make a more informed decision.

😢 Heartbreaking. There should be a stronger PSA campaign so that pregnant women know the risk. So, so many seem to think the vaccine poses a risk to their baby and don't realize that it's covid that is a very significant risk to both themself and their baby.

[Ausmumof3]

Preprint only info on 2.75

 “Our multiscale investigations suggest that BA.2.75 acquired virological properties independently of BA.5, and the potential risk of BA.2.75 to global health is greater than that of BA.5.”
 

 

[Ausmumof3]

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/free-masks-keep-victorians-safe-winter
 

Free N95s for vulnerable in VIC. This could really help reduce the impact of the next wave although I think a good education campaign on how to fit and wear them best and how to safely rotate will be needed to get the best value. I still see a lot of people wearing n95s but very loose with obvious leaks.

[Ausmumof3]

Hospitalisations are back up here although cases are down. EDs were all way over capacity last night. The reff is below one but already heading back up as well possibly though it’s hard to be sure. There could be quite a tight gap between waves? 

[KSera]

3 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Preprint only info on 2.75

 “Our multiscale investigations suggest that BA.2.75 acquired virological properties independently of BA.5, and the potential risk of BA.2.75 to global health is greater than that of BA.5.”
 

 

I'm concerned what this means for the decision to send Moderna and Pfizer back to redo their bivalent vaccines to target BA.5 instead of BA1/2. It doesn't appear from what I read in that thread that there would be good backward protection from a BA.5 vaccine to BA.2.75

[Ausmumof3]

4 hours ago, KSera said:

I'm concerned what this means for the decision to send Moderna and Pfizer back to redo their bivalent vaccines to target BA.5 instead of BA1/2. It doesn't appear from what I read in that thread that there would be good backward protection from a BA.5 vaccine to BA.2.75

It seems like the vaccine makers will never be able to keep up unless we can actually slow transmission globally. Even that may not work - it’s hard to know if new variants are due to massive spread or evolutionary leaps in immune compromised individuals. 
 

My feeling is we need to ventilate/air filter our way out of this more than vaccinate our way out of it. Plus that will help massively with any future airborne viruses whereas vaccines are mostly useful for this specific one so seems like a better use of funds. I guess balancing power usage and climate issues with safe ventilation will be the challenge though.

[bookbard]

51 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

My feeling is we need to ventilate/air filter our way out of this more than vaccinate our way out of it. Plus that will help massively with any future airborne viruses whereas vaccines are mostly useful for this specific one so seems like a better use of funds. I guess balancing power usage and climate issues with safe ventilation will be the challenge though.

I am hanging my hopes on the nasal spray tech or a new all coronavirus vaccine that's highly effective, like the polio one. I am hoping - perhaps with vain hope - that we can stop it in its tracks. While I am all for getting the air purified - not just for viruses, but for pollution - the fact is you can catch covid (etc) outdoors, in pure fresh air. I can think of a half dozen stories of people outdoors who have caught it that way.  And, in fact, my daughter caught a bad cold a few weeks ago (we tested PCR twice, so not covid) from playing outdoors with a bunch of kids at a playground. 

 

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, bookbard said:

I am hanging my hopes on the nasal spray tech or a new all coronavirus vaccine that's highly effective, like the polio one. I am hoping - perhaps with vain hope - that we can stop it in its tracks. While I am all for getting the air purified - not just for viruses, but for pollution - the fact is you can catch covid (etc) outdoors, in pure fresh air. I can think of a half dozen stories of people outdoors who have caught it that way.  And, in fact, my daughter caught a bad cold a few weeks ago (we tested PCR twice, so not covid) from playing outdoors with a bunch of kids at a playground. 

 

Yeah true. I think the hope is that ventilation drives down transmission enough to spread the peaks out even if there’s still some transmission.

[Ausmumof3]

Average wait time for non critical cases at my local ED is 469 minutes right now.

Someone died after waiting 45 for an ambulance on the side of the road for 45 minutes with chest pains.

Ambulances were ramped up to six hours and every hospital was code white. Labour has promised to fix healthcare but don’t seem to be very invested in controlling the pandemic.

All of the other tutors at work were masked yesterday so yay. I think.

[Ausmumof3]

My oldest is sick. We’ve been kn95ed indoors everywhere. He’s negative for covid at the moment but he’s obviously picked up something either indoor masked or outdoors. I am mostly masking for outdoor socialisation now as well.

[KSera]

8 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

My oldest is sick. We’ve been kn95ed indoors everywhere. He’s negative for covid at the moment but he’s obviously picked up something either indoor masked or outdoors. I am mostly masking for outdoor socialisation now as well.

Seems pretty common right now for rapid tests not turn positive until 3 to 5 days of symptoms. Sometimes not turning positive until the person is starting to feel better. sure makes it difficult.

Edited August 10, 2022 by KSera

[Ausmumof3]

31 minutes ago, KSera said:

Seems pretty common right now for rapid tests not turn positive until 3 to 5 days of symptoms. Sometimes not turning positive until the person is starting to feel better. sure makes it difficult.

Yeah agreed.

we will head down for a PCR in the morning I just can’t do it today. 

[KSera]

39 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Yeah agreed.

we will head down for a PCR in the morning I just can’t do it today. 

Hope it turns out to be nothing and he feels better quickly!

[Laura Corin]

UK Covid figures are all falling, except for deaths (which always lag other statistics).  97.6% of adults have antibodies (I think the double jab rate for adults is around 90%). 

There's a conference at work today - all the windows are open in this old building, but I'm the only person masked apart from one co-worker who masks out of courtesy around me:

[bookbard]

New zoonotic virus identified in China: Newly identified Langya virus tracked after China reports dozens of cases | Infectious diseases | The Guardian

So far not as serious - no one has died. But a reminder that climate change will increase the incidence of viruses spreading from animals to people.

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, bookbard said:

New zoonotic virus identified in China: Newly identified Langya virus tracked after China reports dozens of cases | Infectious diseases | The Guardian

So far not as serious - no one has died. But a reminder that climate change will increase the incidence of viruses spreading from animals to people.

Nooo! Feel like I need a blocked ears emoji for this one 

[bookbard]

15 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Nooo! Feel like I need a blocked ears emoji for this one 

yeah sorry. I feel like I'm only ever posting doom and gloom on this forum nowadays. 

[KSera]

Study showing colleges and universities who institutes Covid vaccine mandates had lower death rates in the community surrounding them than those that didn’t. This reduction effect was strongest in areas with lower vaccine rates in the community. 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2022/08/02/college-vaccine-mandates-saved-lives-in-surrounding-community-according-to-new-study/?sh=35e3e17e5762

“The authors calculated that the college vaccine mandates during the 13 weeks avoided approximately 7,300 deaths, equal to about 5% of total deaths from Covid-19 during this period.”

[Arcadia]

5 hours ago, bookbard said:

New zoonotic virus identified in China: Newly identified Langya virus tracked after China reports dozens of cases | Infectious diseases | The Guardian

So far not as serious - no one has died. But a reminder that climate change will increase the incidence of viruses spreading from animals to people.

 

4 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Nooo! Feel like I need a blocked ears emoji for this one 

Study is paywalled https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2202705

[bookbard]

7 hours ago, KSera said:

Study showing colleges and universities who institutes Covid vaccine mandates had lower death rates in the community surrounding them than those that didn’t. This reduction effect was strongest in areas with lower vaccine rates in the community. 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2022/08/02/college-vaccine-mandates-saved-lives-in-surrounding-community-according-to-new-study/?sh=35e3e17e5762

“The authors calculated that the college vaccine mandates during the 13 weeks avoided approximately 7,300 deaths, equal to about 5% of total deaths from Covid-19 during this period.”

Thank you, that is very interesting. That is a lot of lives saved.

We're getting a lot of people complaining retrospectively about either lockdowns or quarantine rules that were in place in 2020 and 2021 in Australia. Now that there are no restrictions, they seem 'pointless'. Except that over those 2 years of protections, only 900 people died. Since then? over 10,000. That was the point of that time - to save lives, and it did. 

[Ausmumof3]

9 minutes ago, bookbard said:

Thank you, that is very interesting. That is a lot of lives saved.

We're getting a lot of people complaining retrospectively about either lockdowns or quarantine rules that were in place in 2020 and 2021 in Australia. Now that there are no restrictions, they seem 'pointless'. Except that over those 2 years of protections, only 900 people died. Since then? over 10,000. That was the point of that time - to save lives, and it did. 

It would also be helpful if media would publish deaths per million over the course of the pandemic. Ours are something in the high four hundreds low five hundreds. Other countries who suffered earlier are all well over 2000.
 

At the rate we are going well probably catch up unless something changes but it was worth doing. 

[Ausmumof3]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-022-00762-9
 

COVID-19-associated coagulopathy (CAC) summary - there’s quite a lot of terminology that’s a bit too much for my brain but interesting as far as I can take it in. They did say effects seem to be reduced with omicron which I guess is a positive thing.
 

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[kbutton]

1 hour ago, Ausmumof3 said:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-022-00762-9
 

This was interesting:

Quote

Anti-phospholipid antibodies
An unusual feature of CAC, among thrombotic disorders in general, is that it involves thrombosis in arteries, veins and the microcirculation — a spectrum reminiscent of patients with severe anti-phospholipid syndromes124. Indeed, there have been multiple case reports of patients with COVID-19 developing severe thrombotic disorders accompanied by anti-phospholipid antibodies and lupus anticoagulant124,125,126. However, transient development of anti-phospholipid antibodies can accompany other viral infections, so it remains to be established whether an anti-phospholipid syndrome is truly induced in patients with COVID-19 and what role this may have in driving thrombosis and organ damage in these patients124,126. 

 

[Corraleno]

Fox News still pushing the claim that the covid vaccine has killed or injured millions of people:

"STEVE KIRSCH (GUEST): They told -- the agencies, the FDA, the CDC, the NIH said that these vaccines were safe and effective. And when I started seeing my friends die and be injured and I started looking at the data, there was no question that this vaccine is the most dangerous vaccine ever created by man. It is a thousand times more deadly than the smallpox vaccine and that's too unsafe for people to use.

...

BRIAN KILMEADE (HOST): You did your own research. What did you find was effective and what was the reaction when you put it out there? 

KIRSCH: Well, what I found was that hundreds of thousands of Americans have been killed by this vaccine and millions have been injured. And, you know, there -- clearly, you are more likely to be injured or dead from the vaccine than if you were unvaccinated."

Source

[kbutton]

22 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

Fox News still pushing the claim that the covid vaccine has killed or injured millions of people:

"STEVE KIRSCH (GUEST): They told -- the agencies, the FDA, the CDC, the NIH said that these vaccines were safe and effective. And when I started seeing my friends die and be injured and I started looking at the data, there was no question that this vaccine is the most dangerous vaccine ever created by man. It is a thousand times more deadly than the smallpox vaccine and that's too unsafe for people to use.

...

BRIAN KILMEADE (HOST): You did your own research. What did you find was effective and what was the reaction when you put it out there? 

KIRSCH: Well, what I found was that hundreds of thousands of Americans have been killed by this vaccine and millions have been injured. And, you know, there -- clearly, you are more likely to be injured or dead from the vaccine than if you were unvaccinated."

Source

Nice of him to also include a jab at the smallpox vaccine while he was at it.

[ktgrok]

On 8/9/2022 at 5:55 AM, Ausmumof3 said:

 

My feeling is we need to ventilate/air filter our way out of this more than vaccinate our way out of it. Plus that will help massively with any future airborne viruses whereas vaccines are mostly useful for this specific one so seems like a better use of funds. I guess balancing power usage and climate issues with safe ventilation will be the challenge though.

That helps if you are right by a ventilation source...but if you are next to someone with the virus, or the air is flowing past you from a sick person to the air exchange, you will still be exposed. It helps prevent a huge build up of viral load, but the virus someone is spewing out still has to travel around before it hits the intake to get filtered. So, if I were going into a hair cut and there are only 3 people in the building, and the air was filtered well I'd feel good, since it is unlikely the 3 people around me are contagious, and anyone there before me would have had their germs filtered out. But if I'm in a classroom with people that are actually contagious around me, I don't see it helping a ton, unless I'm lucky enough to sit by the register that is putting out the newly filtered air. 

On 8/9/2022 at 6:52 AM, bookbard said:

I am hanging my hopes on the nasal spray tech or a new all coronavirus vaccine that's highly effective, like the polio one. 

 

Yes. The nasal spray REALLy seems to reduce the chances of picking up covid. When HIGHLY exposed it reduced the chance of getting Covid from 25% to 6%. And that was using it AFTER knowing the person they were living with tested positive. So already exposed likely for days when they started using it. I'd imagine better results even when used prophylactically - before and after work or concert or what not. Plus if you use it after testing positive it pretty much kills off everything in 48 hours..you might still have it deeper in your body, but without it in your nasal pasage or throat you must be less likely to spread it to others. Could really slow or stop this thing, if it continues to work like expected, and if we could get the cost down. 

[Arcadia]

@Ausmumof3 long covid study based on 2020 variant but just published

news link https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/face-masks-are-back-for-visitors-to-great-smoky-mountains-national-park-buildings-and-research-finds-low-levels-of-stress-hormone-are-a-predictor-of-long-covid-11660229857
Study link (66 pages) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.09.22278592v1.full.pdf

“New research conducted by the Yale School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at New York’s Mount Sinai found that lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol were the clearest predictor for developing long COVID, a debilitating condition that causes a range of symptoms that linger long after a patient has recovered from the acute phase of the virus.
The study involved 215 individuals with or without long COVID who caught the virus during the first wave in 2020. Most were not hospitalized and skewed younger to middle-aged.
“These findings will help guide additional studies into the pathobiology of Long COVID and may aid in the future development of objective biomarkers for Long COVID,” the researchers wrote. The research was published in preprint form, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed.”

Edited August 11, 2022 by Arcadia
typo

[kbutton]

8 hours ago, Arcadia said:

“New research conducted by the Yale School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at New York’s Mount Sinai found that lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol were the clearest predictor for developing long COVID, a debilitating condition that causes a range of symptoms that linger long after a patient has recovered from the acute phase of the virus.

Finally something good that could come from my high cortisol, lol!!! I am the queen of making cortisol. 

[Ausmumof3]

11 hours ago, ktgrok said:

That helps if you are right by a ventilation source...but if you are next to someone with the virus, or the air is flowing past you from a sick person to the air exchange, you will still be exposed. It helps prevent a huge build up of viral load, but the virus someone is spewing out still has to travel around before it hits the intake to get filtered. So, if I were going into a hair cut and there are only 3 people in the building, and the air was filtered well I'd feel good, since it is unlikely the 3 people around me are contagious, and anyone there before me would have had their germs filtered out. But if I'm in a classroom with people that are actually contagious around me, I don't see it helping a ton, unless I'm lucky enough to sit by the register that is putting out the newly filtered air. 

Yes. The nasal spray REALLy seems to reduce the chances of picking up covid. When HIGHLY exposed it reduced the chance of getting Covid from 25% to 6%. And that was using it AFTER knowing the person they were living with tested positive. So already exposed likely for days when they started using it. I'd imagine better results even when used prophylactically - before and after work or concert or what not. Plus if you use it after testing positive it pretty much kills off everything in 48 hours..you might still have it deeper in your body, but without it in your nasal pasage or throat you must be less likely to spread it to others. Could really slow or stop this thing, if it continues to work like expected, and if we could get the cost down. 

Yeah I agree ventilation is not the answer for personal protection on an individual level but I think it’s the answer to driving community transmission levels down to a manageable level hopefully. 

[KSera]

13 hours ago, ktgrok said:

That helps if you are right by a ventilation source...but if you are next to someone with the virus, or the air is flowing past you from a sick person to the air exchange, you will still be exposed. It helps prevent a huge build up of viral load, but the virus someone is spewing out still has to travel around before it hits the intake to get filtered. So, if I were going into a hair cut and there are only 3 people in the building, and the air was filtered well I'd feel good, since it is unlikely the 3 people around me are contagious, and anyone there before me would have had their germs filtered out. But if I'm in a classroom with people that are actually contagious around me, I don't see it helping a ton, unless I'm lucky enough to sit by the register that is putting out the newly filtered air. 

 

This is a modeling study of different conditions in a classroom and it showed pretty encouraging results for decreasing transmission with various ventilation interventions (windows and filtering):SARS-CoV-2 aerosol transmission in schools: the effectiveness of different interventions

I agree it's not going to remove risk of being right next to someone who is contagious though. With a mask on? Then maybe so. It would really dilute the number of particles available to make it through or around your mask.

 

[Laura Corin]

13 hours ago, Arcadia said:

@Ausmumof3 long covid study based on 2020 variant but just published

news link https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/face-masks-are-back-for-visitors-to-great-smoky-mountains-national-park-buildings-and-research-finds-low-levels-of-stress-hormone-are-a-predictor-of-long-covid-11660229857
Study link (66 pages) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.09.22278592v1.full.pdf

“New research conducted by the Yale School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at New York’s Mount Sinai found that lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol were the clearest predictor for developing long COVID, a debilitating condition that causes a range of symptoms that linger long after a patient has recovered from the acute phase of the virus.
The study involved 215 individuals with or without long COVID who caught the virus during the first wave in 2020. Most were not hospitalized and skewed younger to middle-aged.
“These findings will help guide additional studies into the pathobiology of Long COVID and may aid in the future development of objective biomarkers for Long COVID,” the researchers wrote. The research was published in preprint form, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed.”

The symptoms of low cortisol sound much like what my brother experiences.  His liver damage has reversed but he still has exhaustion,  weight loss and low appetite. I sent him a link - thank you.

[Jean in Newcastle]

5 hours ago, kbutton said:

Finally something good that could come from my high cortisol, lol!!! I am the queen of making cortisol. 

Extremely low cortisol is what I got AFTER getting mono and then fibromyalgia. I don’t think that it came before the virus. (Different virus but possibly similar mechanism). 

[Laura Corin]

1 minute ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Extremely low cortisol is what I got AFTER getting mono and then fibromyalgia. I don’t think that it came before the virus. (Different virus but possibly similar mechanism). 

From my reading, their use of 'predictor' is exactly that  - the Covid produced low cortisol in some people.  This post-viral low cortisol reading predicted Long Covid.

[Jean in Newcastle]

21 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

From my reading, their use of 'predictor' is exactly that  - the Covid produced low cortisol in some people.  This post-viral low cortisol reading predicted Long Covid.

Ah ok.  I had misunderstood the word "predictor".