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Omicron anecdata?


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4 minutes ago, KSera said:

I’ll see if I can find it elsewhere. I don’t click Twitter links anymore 😬

I gotcha.  I feel like there is a hardly anywhere that you can see what the heck is going on these days.  Even if that is accurate kind of, it is only a bit over half of the states reporting. 

 

COVID-related ICU patients rise to 5-month high above 5,000—are new cases really falling? (msn.com)

About a week after the year-end holiday gatherings began, the seven-day average of new COVID cases fell to a more than three-week low of 58,354 on Thursday, down 9% from two weeks ago and down 17% from a recent peak of 70,508 on Christmas Eve, according to a New York Times tracker.

 

 

And the daily average for deaths fell has fallen to a three-week low of 355, and has dropped 5% in two weeks.

But as the NYT tracker has been warning, case and death counts could be “artificially low” this week, as officials who track those numbers take vacation for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Therefore, hospitalization data, which is typically not affected by holidays, should remain more reliable.

And by that measure, the numbers are getting worrisome.

The daily average of hospitalizations rose to 41,620 on Thursday, up 3% from two weeks ago but also the highest number seen since mid-August.

There are 29 states that have seen hospitalizations increase from two weeks ago, including 20 states that have seen double-digit percentage increases, led by South Carolina at 54%, West Virginia at 52% and Louisiana at 47%.

The number of severe COVID cases is also seeing a troubling rise, the daily average of COVID-related patients in intensive care units (ICUs) climbed to 5,080 on Thursday. That’s up 10% from two weeks ago, and the most seen since July 30.

Another sign that the fall in case counts is artificial is that the test positivity rate has been rising, to a four-month high above 14% on Thursday, with 41 states seeing double-digit positivity rates.

“Higher test positivity rates are a sign that many infections are not reported — even if they are tested at home. This results in a more severe undercount of cases,” the NYT tracker said.

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1 minute ago, mommyoffive said:

I gotcha.  I feel like there is a hardly anywhere that you can see what the heck is going on these days.  Even if that is accurate kind of, it is only a bit over half of the states reporting. 

 

I agree. Hospitalizations and deaths are the only thing that really makes sense to track now. I looked on the BNO News website, but on their site they stopped updating Covid data in August, so I can’t find what time period the Twitter screenshot refers to. I’ll check one of the other trackers and see if I can make sense of it. 

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2 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

I gotcha.  I feel like there is a hardly anywhere that you can see what the heck is going on these days.  Even if that is accurate kind of, it is only a bit over half of the states reporting. 

Yeah, I've just been looking at the local wastewater - cases are meaningless, and hospital data are confusing with the tripledemic, not to mention delayed.

Here's the local wastewater Covid - surprise, everyone mixing it up for Thanksgiving and Christmas is causing a surge!

image.png.c55327a44baa3ff0c120ce7849837957.png

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1 hour ago, Matryoshka said:

Yeah, I've just been looking at the local wastewater - cases are meaningless, and hospital data are confusing with the tripledemic, not to mention delayed.

Here's the local wastewater Covid - surprise, everyone mixing it up for Thanksgiving and Christmas is causing a surge!

image.png.c55327a44baa3ff0c120ce7849837957.png

Is that for last few months? Weeks?

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52 minutes ago, KSera said:

Is that for last few months? Weeks?

Sorry, I thought I'd included the X-axis in the screenshot, but apparently not!  Looks like it spans from about April 1st - present.  The big uptick on the right starts at the end of Nov (surprise!)  and the even steeper uptick on the far right stars mid-Dec.  

Here's just Nov through present (with the X-axis labels!): 

image.png.eafbfa46ad89051c34ea7e79447516e2.png

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3 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Verrrrry interesting. From reading Lucky Tran’s mastodon thread about this, it sounds unclear yet whether the CDC’s social media team made a mistake or if they have actually quietly changed the recommendation (which would be silly, as what’s the point of public health if they try to secretly and quietly make changes to recommendations? 🤨)

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19 hours ago, BeachGal said:

What have you all been reading about this paper? Has TWiV discussed it yet?

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.ade2798

Class switch towards non-inflammatory, spike-specific IgG4 antibodies after repeated SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination

Quoting myself to provide the link to the original paper which came out recently. The results are being extrapolated in such a way as to suggest that multiple doses of Pfizer mrna vaccine (Pfizer monovalent in the paper) or multiple doses of Pfizer mrna vaccine and a Covid infection, are shifting the antibodies to IgG4 which does not neutralize well and could lead to chronic problems. If true, this would be very concerning.

However, according to this tweet, the shift and increase to IgG4 antibodies is more nuanced and involved and not as alarming as it might appear.

The results—what the shift means—should be explained and clarified already because it will probably be something discussed in media in the coming months, possibly incorrectly.

 

 

Edited by BeachGal
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1 hour ago, BeachGal said:

Quoting myself to provide the link to the original paper which came out recently. The results are being extrapolated in such a way as to suggest that multiple doses of Pfizer mrna vaccine (Pfizer monovalent in the paper) or multiple doses of Pfizer mrna vaccine and a Covid infection, are shifting the antibodies to IgG4 which does not neutralize well and could lead to chronic problems. If true, this would be very concerning.

However, according to this tweet, the shift and increase to IgG4 antibodies is more nuanced and involved and not as alarming as it might appear.

The results—what the shift means—should be explained and clarified already because it will probably be something discussed in media in the coming months, possibly incorrectly.

 

 

Great explanation, thanks so much for linking that!

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2 hours ago, BeachGal said:

Quoting myself to provide the link to the original paper which came out recently. The results are being extrapolated in such a way as to suggest that multiple doses of Pfizer mrna vaccine (Pfizer monovalent in the paper) or multiple doses of Pfizer mrna vaccine and a Covid infection, are shifting the antibodies to IgG4 which does not neutralize well and could lead to chronic problems. If true, this would be very concerning.

However, according to this tweet, the shift and increase to IgG4 antibodies is more nuanced and involved and not as alarming as it might appear.

The results—what the shift means—should be explained and clarified already because it will probably be something discussed in media in the coming months, possibly incorrectly.

 

 

I am especially interested in this part: 

What is IgG4 and what does it do?  There are multiple types of antibodies that each have distinct jobs and regions that define them. IgG is one of these class of antibodies and within the IgG family there are four classes - IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 and IgG4.   IgG1 and IgG3 are considered inflammatory, while IgG2 and IgG4 are considered anti-inflammatory. Despite this, IgG4 can still assist in neutralizing targets. However, it is less effective at turning on some of the other parts of the immune system (we call these effector functions), such as triggering neutrophils to phagocytose (eat) the pathogen the IgG4 antibodies are bound to.  IgG4 can also have a protective role in allergies through regulating mast cells.

Specifically the bit about IgG4 regulating mast cells.

I have MCAS and have had a big decrease in symptoms over the last year and a half. I had been stable before that, but I had to avoid a lot of foods and hadn't had much luck in reintroducing them (especially nightshades). I have been successfully reintroducing nightshades, and I had attributed it to a change in hormones (which seem to heighten mast cell response for a lot of people), partly via more progress toward menopause and partly as an increase in a particular supplement to help me metabolize my (mostly) excessive hormones (one is low, the others are sky high). 

Now I am rethinking all of that and wondering if my Covid vaccines could've helped, lol! I also don't understand enough of the science of IgG to know if that makes sense to wonder about. 🙃

 

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This thread is a good compilations of public health recommendations from 386 multidisciplinary experts from 112 countries.

What actions to end the global threat to public health have global experts agreed to?

A few highlights with highest concensus:

Quote

1. COVID-19 is an airborne virus (100%)

2. COVID-19 presents the highest risk of transmission in indoor areas with poor ventilation (100%)

3. Relying on individual, voluntary compliance with transmission prevention measures is insufficient (96%)

4. Wide use of high quality respirators (N95, KF94, KN95, FFP2/3) is important to reduce transmission (96%)

5. Most countries have not adequately protected children throughout the pandemic (94%)

Quote

That means we need to have something that works all the time without the general public needing to do anything extra. 8/

One solution is mandating clean air indoors by improving air quality and ventilation standards that require monitoring to ensure they are working and providing visual feedback to people in those indoor spaces so they can confirm air quality is good. 9/

The importance of indoor air quality is not just about COVID but also from other air pollutants like VOCs and PM that are linked to various health problems, allergies, and optimal cognitive function which can tackle them all at the same time ( ). 10/

Quote

COVID virus was cultured from the brains of unvaccinated autopsied patients, some 7 months after acute infection and found replicating/active virus in the brain and in other cells and tissues throughout the body ( medpagetoday.com/neurology/l... ). H/T: @morganstephensa 26/

It is not just the people with severe COVID disease who end up in hospital that have consequences but mild infection can also have devastating impacts on people such as this real world example of a young fit person in their 30s ( ). 27/

Mild COVID infection increases your cardiovascular risk ( ). 28/

Mild COVID infection increases risk of blood clots and death ( ). 29/

Mild COVID infection can damage child and adult lungs ( ). 30/

COVID is not getting better or "milder" at a population level, even the under-reported official deaths in Canada are getting worse with significantly more deaths this year in 2022 than in 2021 or 2020 ( public.tableau.com/app/profile/b... ). Chart by: @Billius27 31/ Click "Show replies" 👇

In Quebec 75% more COVID deaths have been recorded in 2022 than 2021 along with 14,422 COVID hospitalizations since Sept. 1st and 403 hospitalizations in children under 10 since the start of the school year ( ). 32/

 

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Well, after almost three years, I finally got the wretched virus. No clue from whom or where. No one else in my family is sick. None of the people I was with during Christmas have it. No clue which variant bc just a rapid test.

Started feeling a bit off Wed night, mostly headache. Then headache, fever, aches and generally miserable all day Thurs and part of Friday. Better Friday night and Saturday. Since late afternoon yesterday, my only symptom is a terrible sore throat, which is apparently common to Omicron variants.

I have diabetes 1.5 and Hashimoto’s, so I am glad it hasn’t been worse. I am vaxed (Moderna) and got the (Pfizer) bivalent booster in September. 

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56 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Well, after almost three years, I finally got the wretched virus. No clue from whom or where. No one else in my family is sick. None of the people I was with during Christmas have it. No clue which variant bc just a rapid test.

Started feeling a bit off Wed night, mostly headache. Then headache, fever, aches and generally miserable all day Thurs and part of Friday. Better Friday night and Saturday. Since late afternoon yesterday, my only symptom is a terrible sore throat, which is apparently common to Omicron variants.

I have diabetes 1.5 and Hashimoto’s, so I am glad it hasn’t been worse. I am vaxed (Moderna) and got the (Pfizer) bivalent booster in September. 

Oh darn. I’m sorry to hear. I hope you’re through the worst of it and feeling 100% soon. 

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1 hour ago, ScoutTN said:

Well, after almost three years, I finally got the wretched virus. No clue from whom or where. No one else in my family is sick. None of the people I was with during Christmas have it. No clue which variant bc just a rapid test.

Started feeling a bit off Wed night, mostly headache. Then headache, fever, aches and generally miserable all day Thurs and part of Friday. Better Friday night and Saturday. Since late afternoon yesterday, my only symptom is a terrible sore throat, which is apparently common to Omicron variants.

I have diabetes 1.5 and Hashimoto’s, so I am glad it hasn’t been worse. I am vaxed (Moderna) and got the (Pfizer) bivalent booster in September. 

I'm so very sorry.  I haven't had it (yet/that I know of), and it just seems nearly impossible to avoid forever.  Hopefully you are through the worst of it--I would think a good sign is that your other symptoms have gone away, but I know there are other worries, too, so I do not want to dismiss those.  Hope you feel a lot better quickly!

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Yet another Medcram video discussing a trial using infrared light on Covid patients. Results were quite good. Dr. Seheult is quadruple board certified and is one of the founders of Medcram. He’s one of my favorite resources for Covid information.

When we had Covid last year, we used our near infrared/red light device, a large Joovv, for a short period of time each day and also took melatonin both of which we continued for 2-3 months after. We have since added a tabletop Hooga device which is cheaper than a Joovv but still very good (and bought all of our kids a Hooga for Christmas). I also use a pair of glasses to help keep my eyes healthy.

If you are looking for a decent device that is affordable, the Hooga devices would be a good choice. Hooga is based in Wisconsin. The small Hooga Pro 300, about $170, would do the trick. Hooga also makes a smaller, rechargeable device but the 300 has more LED lights. The device I linked is still small enough to use while you are sitting on the couch or lying down (and therefore, you’d be more likely to actually use it). You would just place the device against your bare skin — no bra — for a short period of time, repositioning it so the light shines on all areas of lungs and heart. You’d want to do front and back. 10” twice a day would be enough, even 10” once a day. Overdoing the time would not be better.

If you live in an area with a lot of sun, daily exposure for a few minutes directly on the skin would work, too. And it’s free.

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Nobody's Coming to Save Us: The Future of Public Health in The West (substack.com)

Now there’s a new (sub)variant called the Kraken, the first official Covid recombinant. Not only does this beast significantly undermine our vaccines, it also doesn’t appear to be showing up on home tests, or even PCRs. All of this leaves us off guard and flat-footed.

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Another nasal sanitizer, Nozin, that is being used in some hospitals by HCWs and given to patients. It contains the antimicrobial benzalkonium chloride similar to Blue Willow's NanoBio Protect nasal antiseptic which is practically impossible to buy now. Blue Willow's is a nano product and Nozin is not. Nozin is about $25 per bottle.

https://www.nozin.com/product/nozin-nasal-sanitizer-12ml-bottle/

https://www.amazon.com/Nozin®-Sanitizer®-Antiseptic-Alcohol-Sanitizer/dp/B086Q8V26P

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17 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

“Airfinity estimated Monday that 18,900 people were dying from the virus in China every day, for a total of 269,400 deaths from December 1 alone. The group expects the country's daily deaths to reach 25,000 a day roughly 10 days after infections peak on January 13, with the death toll likely to reach 1.7 million by the end of April.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported three new COVID deaths on Monday for January 8, for an official death toll of 5,272 since the start of the pandemic.”

😥

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COVID-19 Research Round-up - by Katelyn Jetelina (substack.com)

"New info: Another study confirmed that Moderna induced a better first defense (protection against infection). In addition (and for the first time) we see that it also generated a larger T-cell response (i.e. secondary defense) than Pfizer. This likely impacts downstream outcomes, like duration and strength of protection against severe disease."

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Maybe we're done talking about vaccine response, but I had my bilavent booster on Monday finally (long story why I waited this long).  This was my 5th covid vaccine.  I had very little in the way of side affects from 1 and 2.  But I was down HARD for 36 hours with 3 and 4 (one Pfizer, one Moderna) with classic flu like - headache, fever, aches, napping, swollen lymph nodes, etc.  

I had almost NOTHING from this vaccine.  Maybe a little tiredness.  It's also that time of the month which almost had me reschedule so I did take advil a couple times after for those reasons (I do every month - though I did take a long break before and after the booster).  But I'm beyond 48 hours, my arm isn't even sore this time.  SO WEIRD.  My husband had the booster and the flu the same day in the fall and had nothing at all too.  

Feeling like I may just pair flu and covid next fall with this response!  

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39 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

I tested negative on day 10, but here on day 15, still exhausted. Seriously, it feels like my thyroid is way off, but it’s not, my doc tested. Afternoons are gruelingly tough. I am in bed by 7:00 pm. 

I’m sorry! Everything I’ve read indicates rest, rest, rest as mich as you can. Did your dr test your hgb and ferritin by chance? It seems like Iron status may be affected by Covid for some people. 

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1 hour ago, KSera said:

I’m sorry! Everything I’ve read indicates rest, rest, rest as mich as you can. Did your dr test your hgb and ferritin by chance? It seems like Iron status may be affected by Covid for some people. 

Ferritin, no. Hgb, yrs bc A1c always and all the thyroid things. I have Diabetes type 1.5 and Hashimoto’s, triggered by a viral infection in 2019.

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On 1/6/2023 at 11:53 AM, BeachGal said:

Another nasal sanitizer, Nozin, that is being used in some hospitals by HCWs and given to patients. It contains the antimicrobial benzalkonium chloride similar to Blue Willow's NanoBio Protect nasal antiseptic which is practically impossible to buy now. Blue Willow's is a nano product and Nozin is not. Nozin is about $25 per bottle.

https://www.nozin.com/product/nozin-nasal-sanitizer-12ml-bottle/

https://www.amazon.com/Nozin®-Sanitizer®-Antiseptic-Alcohol-Sanitizer/dp/B086Q8V26P

This active ingredient is widely available in Wet Ones wipes and other antiseptics for cleaning wounds. It’s weird they list it as an “inactive ingredient”. That’s a lot of money to pay for swabbing alcohol based hand sanitizer up your nose. 
 

I’m interested in this benzalkonium chloride now—it’s ability to kill the COVID virus. It’s always been my go to hand sanitizer because it it’s supposed to kill norovirus. Alcohol doesn’t. 

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6 hours ago, popmom said:

This active ingredient is widely available in Wet Ones wipes and other antiseptics for cleaning wounds. It’s weird they list it as an “inactive ingredient”. That’s a lot of money to pay for swabbing alcohol based hand sanitizer up your nose. 
 

I’m interested in this benzalkonium chloride now—it’s ability to kill the COVID virus. It’s always been my go to hand sanitizer because it it’s supposed to kill norovirus. Alcohol doesn’t. 

I agree that it is overpriced but considering how few nasal sprays that have shown some level of protection against Covid are sold in the US, there isn’t much choice. The NanoBio product has lasted two months for my husband and me so I think the Nozin might too.

Iota carrageenan nasal spray is easy to make and would cost less than $1 per bottle to make. It is best if used before exposure. We use a diy version and also Xlear occasionally. Plus we mask in most crowded places.

 

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On 1/12/2023 at 9:50 AM, BeachGal said:

I agree that it is overpriced but considering how few nasal sprays that have shown some level of protection against Covid are sold in the US, there isn’t much choice. The NanoBio product has lasted two months for my husband and me so I think the Nozin might too.

Iota carrageenan nasal spray is easy to make and would cost less than $1 per bottle to make. It is best if used before exposure. We use a diy version and also Xlear occasionally. Plus we mask in most crowded places.

 

I appreciate you sharing about it!

Do you find that it's drying to your nose--being that it's alcohol based? I have Sjogren's (I'm dry, dry, dry), so I cannot imagine putting alcohol in my nose lol. I'm wondering if I could make a diy version. Put the benzalkonium chloride in a gel of hyaluronic acid or something like that. 

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