Official Thread: Coronavirus "COVID-19"

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coron...inter-omicron-wave-swamps-hospitals-1.5995243

Australians urged to work from home as winter Omicron wave swamps hospitals

SYDNEY -

Australians admitted to hospitals from COVID-19 neared record levels on Wednesday as authorities urged businesses to let staff work from home and recommended people wear masks indoors and get booster shots urgently amid a major coronavirus outbreak.

Australia is in the grip of a third Omicron wave driven by the highly transmissible new subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, with more than 300,000 cases recorded over the past seven days. Authorities say the actual numbers could be double that total, and Wednesday's 53,850 new cases was the highest daily tally in two months.
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Known infections in my extended family, in last month (multiple regions / countries):

Wife's sister and daughter (2)
Another of wife's sisters, her husband, two kids (4)
Wife's mom (1)
My mom (1)
One of my sisters and her husband (2)

That's 10 people from one extended family in a month. All vaccinated, so symptoms have been relatively light. 2nd infection for my wife's mom, so between being vaccinated and prior infection symptoms exhibited like a cold. My mom had it worst. First infection. Ran fever, aches and pains etc.

I got my 2nd booster a couple weeks ago. Choosing to wear a mask in some venues.
 
Lupine said:
Known infections in my extended family, in last month (multiple regions / countries):

Wife's sister and daughter (2)
Another of wife's sisters, her husband, two kids (4)
Wife's mom (1)
My mom (1)
One of my sisters and her husband (2)

That's 10 people from one extended family in a month. All vaccinated, so symptoms have been relatively light. 2nd infection for my wife's mom, so between being vaccinated and prior infection symptoms exhibited like a cold. My mom had it worst. First infection. Ran fever, aches and pains etc.

I got my 2nd booster a couple weeks ago. Choosing to wear a mask in some venues.
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Sounds familiar. We also had 10+ people infected in just a few weeks, all of whom were fully vaxxed and boosted.
 
Lupine said:
Known infections in my extended family, in last month (multiple regions / countries):

Wife's sister and daughter (2)
Another of wife's sisters, her husband, two kids (4)
Wife's mom (1)
My mom (1)
One of my sisters and her husband (2)

That's 10 people from one extended family in a month. All vaccinated, so symptoms have been relatively light. 2nd infection for my wife's mom, so between being vaccinated and prior infection symptoms exhibited like a cold. My mom had it worst. First infection. Ran fever, aches and pains etc.

I got my 2nd booster a couple weeks ago. Choosing to wear a mask in some venues.
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SubCog said:
Sounds familiar. We also had 10+ people infected in just a few weeks, all of whom were fully vaxxed and boosted.
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Driven by omicron subvariant BA.5, the COVID-19 case numbers are now rising in a majority of states. BA.5 is more contagious and more easily evades the immune system than past variants. With those facts in mind, what you two are seeing in your families makes sense.

Java Cool Dude said:
Wife is no longer positive thank God 🙏🏽
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:up:
 
Wow sorry to hear about your families getting Covid. Mask does help. I wear it as often as I remember to wear it.
 
Coronavirus: researchers assume high immunity in population

Vaccination, infection or both: according to model calculations, most Germans should have built up a certain immunity to the coronavirus by now. However, this is unlikely to protect them from an autumn wave.

A team of experts at the Technical University of Berlin assumes on the basis of model calculations that most people in the population have now had contact with the pathogen Sars-CoV-2. "According to our model, a large part of the population has now built up immunity through vaccinations, infections and a combination of both," modelers Sebastian Alexander Müller and Kai Nagel told the Düsseldorf-based "Rheinische Post."

Despite the high numbers of infections, they said, the health care system is therefore not currently expected to be overburdened, and a less restrictive policy seems justifiable. Nevertheless, "every infection carries the risk of a severe course," the experts warn. "And that risk also appears to recur with each infection, based on data to date."

Last week, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) estimated that 92 percent of adults had already formed certain antibodies to Sars-CoV-2 through vaccination or infection. According to the RKI survey, about one in ten adults in Germany had already been infected with the virus. However, the data refer to the time when the delta wave was subsiding and Omikron was just rising. The millions of infections that Omikron has caused since then are therefore not included in the study.

Berlin researchers Nagel and Müller caution against equating the current situation with a possible situation in the fall. With the appearance of a possibly immune-resistant coronavariant in the fall, the situation could fundamentally change, according to the researchers. "Overall, it can be said that, according to our model, a broad vaccination campaign would have a strong infection-dampening effect, but would not be sufficient on its own to break such a wave," the modelers said. Restrictions might then be appropriate again in some circumstances to protect the health care system. The details would depend on the variant and policy goals, they said.

"Schools continue to not be safe places to learn"

According to the model, the current summer surge is dampened by summer vacations because there are fewer infections in schools and workplaces. However, with the return to schools and workplaces after the vacations, the modelers expect more infections again. This has also been observed in previous years, they said.

The Verband Bildung und Erziehung (VBE) believes schools in Germany are ill-prepared for the corona fall. "Schools are still not safe places of learning and run the risk of having to be closed again in the coming school year if the infection figures rise again," VBE chairman Udo Beckmann told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). Even in the third year of the pandemic, he said, politicians had failed to prepare schools for the expected increase in the number of infections in the fall.

Open schools can only be ensured if the best possible protection of students and teachers is guaranteed, Beckmann said. "Otherwise, mergers of learning groups or school closures will come all by themselves when the staffing levels, which have been thinned out for a long time anyway, finally crack due to the increase in infections in the colleges." In view of their scientifically recognized effect, the timely reintroduction of mandatory masks should not be a taboo subject.

Debate on mandatory isolation
In the meantime, there is still disagreement in the traffic light coalition about necessary corona measures. Several FDP politicians pleaded over the weekend for an end to mandatory isolation in the corona pandemic. Also the cash physician boss Andreas Gassen had said on weekend, by the abolition of all Corona isolation and quarantine defaults "the personnel emergency would be eased in many places". Those who are sick should stay home, he said. And those who feel healthy should go to work, the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

Currently, for the general population, mandatory isolation for those infected with corona can end after five days - with a "strongly recommended" negative test at the conclusion.

"Mr. Gassen is initiating an important debate with his proposal to lift the mandatory isolation," FDP health expert Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus told RND newspapers. "We must learn to live with the virus." Through vaccinations, many people are protected from severe courses, she said.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach had immediately rejected this. "Infected people must stay at home," he wrote on Twitter. Otherwise, the workplace becomes a safety risk, he said.

"Doctors should decide individually from a medical point of view whether and how long sick leave and isolation are necessary," FDP politician Aschenberg-Dugnus now said. "A state-ordered isolation is disproportionate in the case of a symptom-free course." Continuing, Aschenberg-Dugnus said, "Those who have fever and symptoms stay at home. This applies not only to Corona, but also to diseases such as the flu."

FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki also called for a discussion on isolation requirements. "From my point of view, it is overdue, both epidemiologically and for reasons of personal responsibility, to leave this decision to the people again - as other European countries have long done," the lawyer told the newspapers of the Funke-Mediengruppe. FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai expressed similar views. He warned of personnel losses due to isolation obligations. "We will face enormous challenges in system-relevant areas if we send masses of people who have tested positive without symptoms into isolation," he told the "Rheinische Post" newspaper.
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Source: Der Spiegel
 
We had another close call...both kids in sunday school were exposed, but neither caught it. (5 day home quarantine, so...we did our part there).
 
Just got back from 25 days at the lake. My mom and sister were out for the last week. We had no contact with anyone else during that time. I went into the lodge store 4x over those three weeks for about 5 minutes each time to get milk and bread. I did not wear a mask. This is the first time in over 2 years I have gone into an establishment maskless.

Yesterday, while still camping, I woke up around 4 AM with a sore throat. I woke up again at 8 AM and it was gone. I figured I mouth breathed that night. I had no other symptoms.

Yesterday, after we returned home, I had to run errands as we had no food here other than what was in the freezer. I wore a mask. KN95 as I have been since they started being easy to get. As I was finishing up at the store, I noticed my throat was scratchy again. I went home and it got progressively worse. I took allergy medication and started to feel like "something was coming on". My wife was super pissed as we have another trip paid for in 10 days, this time with her parents. We split a cabin at a great fishing lodge every year with them. I continued to feel like general rubbish for the evening. I took a rapid test at 9 PM. Negative. Fell asleep and woke up at midnight. Felt like I was sick. Called in sick. Terrible sleep as there were a bunch of storms and the kids kept waking up. Slept for like 2 hours due to this an a disagreement on whether 74 is good sleeping temp or not (IT IS NOT. Way too hot). At 6 AM my throat still hurt and I had a headache. Took another test at 6:15. Negative.

I went back to bed and woke up at 10 feeling just fine. No more sore throat. No more feeling like something was off. Now, at 5 PM, I feel like my throat is getting sore again, or I am imagining it. I guess I will call in sick tomorrow too. What sucks is that I am on probation from a promotion. They love to take promotions back from you when you use "excessive" sick time. The thing is, is that back to back sick days only count as one "occurrence" to HR. I'll burn another rapid test this evening.
 
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Java Cool Dude said:
Wife relapsed after a week and she’s testing positive for Covid!
I guess Paxlovid prevented the first infection from progressing but also stopped the body from producing a robust immunity response.
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I think that it is more likely that the course of treatment wasn't long enough. How many days was she on it? It seems like people are only given it for 5 days. That doesn't seem like enough to me. For example, sometimes a strep infection is treated for 5 days with antibiotics, but it ends up being not enough to completely knock it out. I know that a lot of people do not complete their courses of antibiotics, leading to the infection returning. You start to feel better after a couple of doses and then people just take a couple more and think they are fine. Then they need a second course, longer with a stronger antibiotic.
 
Drunken Janitor said:
Just got back from 25 days at the lake. My mom and sister were out for the last week. We had no contact with anyone else during that time. I went into the lodge store 4x over those three weeks for about 5 minutes each time to get milk and bread. I did not wear a mask. This is the first time in over 2 years I have gone into an establishment maskless.

Yesterday, while still camping, I woke up around 4 AM with a sore throat. I woke up again at 8 AM and it was gone. I figured I mouth breathed that night. I had no other symptoms.

Yesterday, after we returned home, I had to run errands as we had no food here other than what was in the freezer. I wore a mask. KN95 as I have been since they started being easy to get. As I was finishing up at the store, I noticed my throat was scratchy again. I went home and it got progressively worse. I took allergy medication and started to feel like "something was coming on". My wife was super pissed as we have another trip paid for in 10 days, this time with her parents. We split a cabin at a great fishing lodge every year with them. I continued to feel like general rubbish for the evening. I took a rapid test at 9 PM. Negative. Fell asleep and woke up at midnight. Felt like I was sick. Called in sick. Terrible sleep as there were a bunch of storms and the kids kept waking up. Slept for like 2 hours due to this an a disagreement on whether 74 is good sleeping temp or not (IT IS NOT. Way too hot). At 6 AM my throat still hurt and I had a headache. Took another test at 6:15. Negative.

I went back to bed and woke up at 10 feeling just fine. No more sore throat. No more feeling like something was off. Now, at 5 PM, I feel like my throat is getting sore again, or I am imagining it. I guess I will call in sick tomorrow too. What sucks is that I am on probation from a promotion. They love to take promotions back from you when you use "excessive" sick time. The thing is, is that back to back sick days only count as one "occurrence" to HR. I'll burn another rapid test this evening.
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Yeah, still sick but not terribly so. One of my daughters is sick. My mom now admits that she is sick. Didn't want to tell us on the weekend I guess because then she wouldn't be allowed to see the kids. Or she didn't realize she was sick. I should have been more responsible and ended the gathering as soon as I thought she might be sick. I understand that getting sick is part of life, but we have that trip that we do every year with my inlaws to a fishing lodge everyone just loves to be at. If we are sick, my we cannot go. We already paid a sizeable 50% deposit. My wife is livid with my mom and says she does not trust her any more and will not go to or allow our kids to go to any sort of gathering with her. That's not a rational response. Also wants me to call her up and have her tell the kids its her fault we won't be going on our trip. Yay, life just got even worse.

I still think we'll be fine for the trip. I am still negative. Its almost certainly not Covid. A very mild cold. What burns me is the sick time while on probation.
 
got my booster shot on friday. Didn't go too well (as expected). Fever, cold, arm hurting like hell. Yay, they joys of MS i guess. Well, whatever, it will go away as always. Meanwhile we're kinda the only ones in our whole neighborhood who avoided that shitty virus so far, feels kinda odd.
 
Get boosted you old farts.


https://arstechnica.com/science/202...ter-against-ba-5-in-older-adults-pfizer-says/

The new bivalent COVID-19 booster spurred neutralizing antibody levels that were fourfold higher against the omicron subvariants BA.4/BA.5 in older adults than those seen after the original booster, Pfizer reported Friday.
...
The new data released by Pfizer and partner BioNtech today doesn't directly address that question—it only presents data on antibody levels, not data on whether bivalent-boosted people were less likely to get infected with SARS-CoV-2 than people given the old booster. However, a fourfold increase in neutralizing antibodies is impressive—and thought to represent a clinically meaningful difference in protection.

"Fourfold is usually the magical cutoff for a lot of us when we look at neutralization. Fourfold seems to mean something," Florian Krammer, a vaccinologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan, told Stat News.
...
But the booster still faces challenges, including that BA.5 is on the decline. This week the long-reigning subvariant slipped further, accounting for 39 percent of cases in the US, according to the latest surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BA.5 sublineage BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are on the rise and poised to become dominant in the coming weeks. Currently, they account for 16.5 percent and 19 percent of US cases, respectively.

It's unclear how the booster will fare against the new, BA-5-related sublineages. But, preliminary data suggests it still may outperform the original booster in terms of antibody levels.
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Ugh….old farts would be me, and bill :bleh:

Covid seems to be surging here again, although that might be just perception as a number of my neighbors all contracted it recently.

Time to make an appointment for another jab.
 
I got the b-b-bivalent b-b-booster prick yesterday. So far so good. [knock wood]. The second dose and first booster made me feel achy and lethargic the next day, which is why I waited for a Friday afternooner.

Wifey, who's a school nurse, got hers right after me.
 
JZL said:
I got the b-b-bivalent b-b-booster prick yesterday. So far so good. [knock wood]. The second dose and first booster made me feel achy and lethargic the next day, which is why I waited for a Friday afternooner.

Wifey, who's a school nurse, got hers right after me.
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I went nuts and got the flu shot in one arm and the B booster in the other. Truly a daredevil move. Had zero symptoms next day. The latest booster seemed mildest to me. Got the Moderna version.
 
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