Long COVID Risk Associated With Certain Symptoms: Study "Among those, about 23% of the survey participants were still experiencing symptoms that lasted for more than 12 weeks, which the researchers considered as having long COVID."
Yeah, Kes...this is about the only place I post my opinions because it is civil and respectful. I use Facebook to see how my grandkids rabbits did in the county fair.
Speak of the Devil; Polioviruses found in wastewater samples in 2 N.Y. counties, suggesting continued spread
After reading the last 2 days of posts, I think it's time for my coping song. (AJ clears throat)....Somewhere...over the rainbow....
Ugh....terrible news for sure. If there is a silver lining, at least as far as viral spread is concerned, is that it has evidenced itself, historically at least, as being relatively slow to spread, less easy to transmit and hence easier to isolate and control. The data shows us Polio cases and deaths peaked in 1952 with 58K and 3K respectively. Distribution of the vaccine began in late 1955. From the time of it's peak until end of 1955 when the virus had a "clear runway" so to speak, total reported cases and deaths were 161k and 7K respectively. Unencumbered by any vaccine in 4 years yielded 161K cases, 7K dead.....at it's peak Covid had 300K and 4K dead....PER DAY. Indeed, at present, the Covid burden is still costing us 1 million hospital days/month. No doubt, polio is a terrible disease to be sure, but in terms of its threat and burden to society, a mosquito on the ass of an elephant by comparison.
Do vaccines protect against Long Covid? How Well Do Vaccines Protect Against Long COVID? "Evidence is starting to show it's likely."
There are so many reasons to be fully vaccinated, the conclusion of Stu's link is a big one I've yet to hear a good reason for not being vaccinated other than fear of what isn't known. Which after hundreds of millions of people who are vaccinated with extremely low side effects so far. It's just hard to for me to be wary or fearful of the vaccine.
What do you consider "fully"? I got the first set... I'm done with it going forward. I got the latest version of Covid last week, it was a pussy cat compared to my usual bout with colds. I see no reason for further vaccination in my case... my defenses recognize the virus for what it is, and handle it. If the vaccine were a preventative I'd probably think differently. Since it is not...
So I guess my question for you is why not get the boosters? Have you gotten your tetanus booster, or are you done with that as well? Every adults hould get the Tdap vaccine once if they did not receive it when they were younger to protect against whooping cough, and then a Td booster shot (tetanus & diphtheria only) every 10 years. If you are going to be around a newborn, its particularly important to get the Tdap shot to help protect the baby from whooping cough. How about flu vaccine? Now that you are in your 50's will you or have you gotten your Shingrix and Pneumococcal vaccinations? You aren't in the target age group but how do you feel about the HPV vaccine?
Ah Terry, you and the other T so want to compare Covid to every other possible disease that has a vaccine. Problem: those other things are NOT a cold virus. As I've said before, I'm not against vaccines. I've had a million of them and I don't discourage anyone from getting them. I am against being FORCED to take one for something I've had twice with ZERO difficulty overcoming. I'd prefer not to get it of course, but the vaccine doesn't stop it. So it's non-value added to me in this case.
Scott do you think we'd have been better off not spending all the money to develop the vaccine? Just let it run its course? I assume that you also don't bother with the flu vaccine as well.
Have you read the history of why we never had cold vaccines before? It wasn't for lack of trying. Turns out... a lot of the time cold vaccines made things WORSE, and they were not very effective. I questioned at the beginning why THIS ONE was different??? From the data I see, it really isn't. And there's a lot of bad that happened to folks who were at very low risk but were forced to take the vaccine, but they don't want to talk about that... For me, it's about risk management. I do usually get the flu vaccine. That bug usually tears me up, so I try to avoid getting it or mitigate the symptoms if possible. Covid... not even close. So the risk for ME is low, and I treat it just like any other cold. I think EVERYONE has the right to weigh their risks and make a decision based on that. Will they always be right? Doubtful, but it was a free country once...
My Aggie pal has given us alot to unpack here.....first a disclaimer. I am not a doc, an immunologist/virologist, so the opinions and data I put forth are not my own. I'm an old, retired finance guy...happy to opine at great length on the economy and capital markets rightly or wrongly with some level of cred. This stuff....not so much. For this I channel my daughter, who preaches to me on the reg about this stuff. Dad braggin alert ahead..... summa Biology grad UNC, cell nerd to the nth degree, currently 3rd year med student Drexel Med. With that said..... - Colds and Covid are both viruses, but they are not the same virus or same family of viruses. Yes they are both respiratory viruses in that that is their pathway of attack, but colds spring typically from rhinoviruses, Covid is developed from a coronavirus - a very different creature as I understand. On top of that, Covid comes from a novel coronavirus, meaning one we haven't seen in humans before therefore leaving us without historical immunity/protections of virtually any kind with the result being the most destructive, deadly and costly pandemic in over a century. Suggesting that Covid is the same as a cold is akin to suggesting the Civil War was a neighborhood squabble or that getting a punch from your kid sister is no different than getting punched by Mike Tyson in his prime. Some similarities but vastly different threat levels and outcomes. I don't get this whole notion of "the vaccine doesn't stop it." I have no idea where that comes from? Happy to look at any credible source that suggest otherwise. All the data I see evidences something quite the opposite. COVID Data Tracker The data I see is telling me that for people our age +50 - are 5X more likely to get infected unvaxxed and greater than that for severe disease, hospitalization and death. Applying those results to a population of 300+ million people yields massive, massive benefits across virtually every segment of our society, i.e., public health, economic, education, etc that if I put pencil to paper I could quantify very easily in dollar terms in the Trillions - capital T. If the standard for saying it's "stopped" is zero sure, I get it, but c'mon, semantics. Using a football analogy is you're suggesting to me that if my defense gives up one single yard we didn't stop the opponent when we held them to less than 20% of their typical output. Call it whatever you want, but clearly the defense was very, very effective and the team will be much more successful as a direct result and I'll call it a win. On another note, as we begin to roll out a newer generation of the vaccine formulated specifically to attack the more recent variants, as I understand viral mutations, the greater is the distribution of the vaccine, the longer and more effective the vaccine will be in mitigating the spread. That is viruses mutate by way of cases......the more infections, the greater will be the pace of mutations away from the original vax formulations and the greater the risk to the population. This current animal that is spreading is a very different creature and indeed fundamentally different virus than was the original invader. That the vaccines are still as effective as they are are a testimony to the science and cell nerds that created them. Go hug your nearest cell nerd....I'm very proud of mine!
I have gotten the flu vaccine for 20+ years. I skipped one year and got the flu in Vegas. I spent 3 days in bed at Caesar's Palace sick as a dog and another ten days back in NJ. The other years no flu or even a bad cold. I got the two mandatory covid vaccine installments. Then six months later I got the booster. Its time to get the second booster but I am hesitating.
Well I am not in favor of forcing the population to get this vaccination, I support the right of various establishments to require it for participation/attendance. There are rights involved there as well. I believe that there is ample evidence...proof, even...that the vaccine somewhat decreases your chance of getting it...and very much decreases the chance of severe disease though it doesn't eliminate it. Due to the rather intense and unfortunate politicization of this vaccine, I don't think the cell nerds are gonna convince everyone of the value of vaccination. Thus a large portion of the population will remain unvaxxed or incompletely vaxxed. Thus the main value will be in lessening the risk and the severity to those individuals who choose to be vaxxed, and there will be less chance of the vaccine decreasing the virus's presence in society as a whole. I doubt that massive acceptance vaccination would eliminate this virus now that it's out of the "bottle" and maybe wouldn't even cut it back as much as we would hope...but we will never know.
Seems like we will have an updated / tweaked vaccine available this fall. I will be lining up for the shot when available. Will be getting the Flu shot as well.
This is the bivalent vax formulated to specifically address the newer variants as well. This is the one my doc recommended I wait for to get the next boost. I'm with you TOK, as soon as it's available, I'll be getting the jab
Wonder what the recommendation will be for those who already got two boosters. My guess is it would depend on how long ago.