Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #107

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Grouse said:
Hmm, if due to less over 80s being around wouldn't the death numbers in that age group start to go down?
Click to expand...

It's certainly true that there are fewer people in their 80s and above. That is a cohort where death is common anyway, but Covid has snatched away so many people that would have still had years left.

There are also, every day, people just entering their 80s, and so that may somewhat stabilize the death rates in that age group.

This all makes me think of the impact of Covid on my four generations of family. I know we all have these stories in our families.

My parents are 88 and 89 and have been declining mentally and physically. As of yet they haven't contracted Covid, thank God, but their world has shrunk. My parents have been to all seven continents and seven seas. They've been traveling the world long before retirement and old age. Now their world is their Florida condo. Old age, yes, but mainly Covid keeps them from going out and enjoying what years are left to them. Also, so many of their friends have died, some from Covid.

For me, I had retired from teaching shortly before Covid arrived. I spent my first year mostly with my three grandchildren, but I had a lot of travel plans and maybe buying a home near my parents in Florida. Covid took all my plans away, and I had so looked forward to enjoying my retirement while I was young enough to do so.

For my daughter's generation, Covid has made life hell, with three school-aged kids who weren't flourishing during a year of remote learning, and a husband who lost his job. My daughter does not have the patience to teach three kids in different grades who couldn't grasp the online work.

For my grandchildren's generation, school has been crazy. A year of remote in which they didn't learn, and then on and off school whenever there was a positive case, and now school is full-time but many problems remain. Particularly for my youngest granddaughter. She's speech-delayed and was halfway through kindergarten when Covid closed the schools in NYC. She really needed the speech therapy and she's fallen behind in school. I'm a huge believer in masks, but it does make speech therapy impossible.

Of course I also haven't been able to see them very much. I'm crying, they're crying.


We all have these stories and I'm sorry to be rambling. I'm home most of the time but I try to take a walk when I feel I can do so safely. Today we are snowbound and the day has been really long!
 
JerseyGirl said:
MrJG and I have never had a covid test taken either. I thought we were the last two on earth to be tested.

I lost my job over a year ago due to the economy so I am not out in the workforce where I could pick up COVID. I have grocery delivery but still like to browse antique shops, run errands, pick up milk or bread from the corner store, post office drop offs etc. MrJG is home mostly, on long term disability, and doesn’t do most of the errands I do daily. This past January we drove down to Florida to visit family and flew to Florida for Thanksgiving, still came back healthy both trips. We are always fully masked except the car, home and outside.

We both got the first Modena shot in February and were boosted in early November.

It seems so strange to me that we both escaped COVID testing so far.
Click to expand...

we've never been tested either
we do have some free tests now but haven't used them
 
Deltacron: Is there a new variant at large, and should we worry?

Social media was recently lively with news that scientists in Cyprus claimed to have found a new hybrid variant of SARS-CoV-2. Named Deltacron, it appears to be a combination of the Delta and Omicron variants. However, other experts have questioned whether this is truly a new variant, suggesting the finding may be due to contamination during laboratory testing. Medical News Today looks at the arguments on both sides.

(...)

Dr. Jeffrey Barrett, Director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom, believes the findings are due to a lab error.

“This is almost certainly not a biological recombinant of the Delta and Omicron lineages,” he says. “The apparent Omicron mutations are located precisely and exclusively in a section of the sequence encoding the spike gene (amino acids 51 to 143) affected by a technological artifact in certain sequencing procedures.”

(...)

However, Dr. Kostrikis defended his findings. He asserted that since Deltacron infection rates were higher in hospitalized patients than in nonhospitalized individuals, the contamination hypothesis was less likely.

In addition, the samples identified as Deltacron were processed in multiple sequencing procedures in more than one country, lessening the likelihood of lab errors, he noted.

(More at link)
 
ilovewings said:
Can I be superficial for a minute? I am so bummed that I have not been able to go to the beauty salon for weeks: my hair is a mess- All during the pandemic (prior to Omicron) I was willing to take the slight risk to get my hair styled, dyed, cut, etc. However, I see Omicron as a horse of a different color. The salon I found here in Florida (with help of the lovely lady from WS), is vaccinated and masked, but with Omicron I don't think that is enough to protect me as a vulnerable person though vaxxed and boosted. Do ya all think I am doing the right thing? Thing is, I know nothing about this stylist- she could be living with grandchildren and teenagers for all I know- I just am not willing to take the risk so I guess I will have to wear wigs for a while ( my hair is very thin and needs lots of dye, style, good cut and a good stylist) to make it look decent. That is just the way it is. Maybe I am being too cautious but I just don't think so. I don't want any version of this virus- including the so-called "mild" version. My husband and I don't go anywhere but to the store and we are masked.
Click to expand...

please don't take the risk
it's not worth it
 
Sundog said:
Adding to my post, above.

Mail delivery of Abbott self-test kits just arrived by USPS, and they were not mailed to us from Michigan, but from Topeka, Kansas. I had received an informed delivery notice around 8:30 a.m. this morning that said that a package would be delivered from US HHS Detroit, Michigan. But when I got the package, it clearly said it was mailed from Topeka, Kansas. So not sure how all that worked.

ETA - The tests I received expire in October 2022.
Click to expand...
I'm in Sacramento and my test kits also came from Topeka Kansas.
 
Teche said:
I haven’t gone to get my hair cut in 2 yrs. Thankfully, I decided to gray gracefully prior to the pandemic. I’ve been trimming my own hair while my husband oversees. I’m retired and we don’t go out and about much so it doesn’t matter what my hair looks like to others. At this stage of my life, my health is more important than my appearance.
Click to expand...

same
I've been mostly living in pajamas and don't go anywhere
I actually put makeup on Christmas Eve for an outdoor socially distanced visit
 
Wanted: Volunteers to catch COVID in the name of science

The world's first medical trial authorised to deliberately expose participants to the coronavirus is seeking more volunteers as it steps up efforts to help develop better vaccines.

The Oxford University trial was launched last April, three months after Britain became the first country to approve what are known as challenge trials for humans involving COVID-19.

Its first phase, still ongoing, has focused on finding out how much of the virus is needed to trigger an infection while the second will aim to determine the immune response needed to ward one off, the university said in a statement on Tuesday.

Researchers are close to establishing the weakest possible virus infection that assures about half of people exposed to it get asymptomatic or mild COVID-19.

They then plan to expose volunteers - all previously naturally infected or vaccinated - to that dose of the virus's original variant to determine what levels of antibodies or immune T-cells are required to prevent an infection.

A drawback is the risk of harm to volunteers contracting the disease but the university is taking precautions.

Participants will need to be healthy and aged 18-30. They will be quarantined for at least 17 days and any who develop symptoms will be given Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment Ronapreve.
 
@Sulamith

I've never heard of Conroe but I guess it must be sizable if there is a rally there. A house divided is certainly very difficult to endure.

My niece went on vacation for her 26th birthday and my BIL went on a business trip. Usually they're both working from home, so my sister made them quarantine in the basement for a week and then take PCR tests before they could go upstairs. She has a pretty luxe basement with beds and a bathroom so all she had to do was leave food at the door.

If that's an option for you I would definitely make your husband quarantine, if you have a basement or extra bedroom. And I would invest in an air purifier with a HEPA filter.

Jmo
 
Arkay said:
@Sulamith

I've never heard of Conroe but I guess it must be sizable if there is a rally there. A house divided is certainly very difficult to endure.

My niece went on vacation for her 26th birthday and my BIL went on a business trip. Usually they're both working from home, so my sister made them quarantine in the basement for a week and then take PCR tests before they could go upstairs. She has a pretty luxe basement with beds and a bathroom so all she had to do was leave food at the door.

If that's an option for you I would definitely make your husband quarantine, if you have a basement or extra bedroom. And I would invest in an air purifier with a HEPA filter.

Jmo
Click to expand...

Thank you for your suggestions. I have got some free Government tests coming. I ordered them just-in-case and never thought I would actually need them. No extra rooms for him to sleep in. He can stay in the computer room in the daytime but no bed in there. I will look into air purifiers. Thank you!
 
Arkay said:
It's certainly true that there are fewer people in their 80s and above. That is a cohort where death is common anyway, but Covid has snatched away so many people that would have still had years left.

There are also, every day, people just entering their 80s, and so that may somewhat stabilize the death rates in that age group.

This all makes me think of the impact of Covid on my four generations of family. I know we all have these stories in our families.

My parents are 88 and 89 and have been declining mentally and physically. As of yet they haven't contracted Covid, thank God, but their world has shrunk. My parents have been to all seven continents and seven seas. They've been traveling the world long before retirement and old age. Now their world is their Florida condo. Old age, yes, but mainly Covid keeps them from going out and enjoying what years are left to them. Also, so many of their friends have died, some from Covid.

For me, I had retired from teaching shortly before Covid arrived. I spent my first year mostly with my three grandchildren, but I had a lot of travel plans and maybe buying a home near my parents in Florida. Covid took all my plans away, and I had so looked forward to enjoying my retirement while I was young enough to do so.

For my daughter's generation, Covid has made life hell, with three school-aged kids who weren't flourishing during a year of remote learning, and a husband who lost his job. My daughter does not have the patience to teach three kids in different grades who couldn't grasp the online work.

For my grandchildren's generation, school has been crazy. A year of remote in which they didn't learn, and then on and off school whenever there was a positive case, and now school is full-time but many problems remain. Particularly for my youngest granddaughter. She's speech-delayed and was halfway through kindergarten when Covid closed the schools in NYC. She really needed the speech therapy and she's fallen behind in school. I'm a huge believer in masks, but it does make speech therapy impossible.

Of course I also haven't been able to see them very much. I'm crying, they're crying.


We all have these stories and I'm sorry to be rambling. I'm home most of the time but I try to take a walk when I feel I can do so safely. Today we are snowbound and the day has been really long!
Click to expand...

You are not ramb!ing-- you expressed tboughts and feelings of most of us here:
This evil pandemic has affected several generations -- However, the pandemic
feels most cruel to those of us with limited years left-and we are helpless to
do anything about it. Frankly what makes it worse is knowing it did not
have to be this way-- the selfish irresponsible and ignorant people who refuse
to get the vaccine have perpetuated this pandemic so what we have now are
continual variants that keep killing more and more of us, and the rest of
us live in terror of contracting the virus.
 
Sulamith said:
Thank you for your suggestions. I have got some free Government tests coming. I ordered them just-in-case and never thought I would actually need them. No extra rooms for him to sleep in. He can stay in the computer room in the daytime but no bed in there. I will look into air purifiers. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Get him a twin sized blow up mattress.
 
There's some interesting ideas in this article:

Long Covid sufferers may have hidden damage to their lungs, new MRI scan study reveals | Daily Mail Online

"Long Covid sufferers may have hidden lung damage, a small study in the UK has suggested.

Scientists supported by the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre used a xenon gas scan to pick up abnormalities in the lungs of those suffering from breathlessness after having Covid.

The study uses the odourless, colourless, tasteless and chemically non-reactive gas, to investigate possible lung damage in the patients who have not been admitted to hospital, but continue to experience the symptom.

The initial results of the study suggest there is significantly impaired gas transfer from the lungs to the bloodstream in the long Covid patients despite other tests – including CT scans – coming back as normal."
 
Hi all,
Hope everyone is well!
We got our free tests a couple days ago, Bianca brand, and we’re in Illinois.
My husbands PCR test came back negative on Thursday!!! Any symptoms he had are gone. He’s a diabetic so I am super thankful he got through it. We are both vaxxed and boosted.
I had my 3rd chemo this past Friday. Doing okay. We leave for Florida (planned vacation before breast cancer reoccurance) this Wednesday. Rented an RV to drive down in because Dr. said no flying and I agree. Staying in North Captiva Island, only accessible by ferry, in a house, with our kids and two grandkids. I’ll be masked while around everyone. So thankful to be getting out of this cold and snow!
I’ll try to update what I see while out in the wild!
 
Arkay said:
It's certainly true that there are fewer people in their 80s and above. That is a cohort where death is common anyway, but Covid has snatched away so many people that would have still had years left.

There are also, every day, people just entering their 80s, and so that may somewhat stabilize the death rates in that age group.

This all makes me think of the impact of Covid on my four generations of family. I know we all have these stories in our families.

My parents are 88 and 89 and have been declining mentally and physically. As of yet they haven't contracted Covid, thank God, but their world has shrunk. My parents have been to all seven continents and seven seas. They've been traveling the world long before retirement and old age. Now their world is their Florida condo. Old age, yes, but mainly Covid keeps them from going out and enjoying what years are left to them. Also, so many of their friends have died, some from Covid.

For me, I had retired from teaching shortly before Covid arrived. I spent my first year mostly with my three grandchildren, but I had a lot of travel plans and maybe buying a home near my parents in Florida. Covid took all my plans away, and I had so looked forward to enjoying my retirement while I was young enough to do so.

For my daughter's generation, Covid has made life hell, with three school-aged kids who weren't flourishing during a year of remote learning, and a husband who lost his job. My daughter does not have the patience to teach three kids in different grades who couldn't grasp the online work.

For my grandchildren's generation, school has been crazy. A year of remote in which they didn't learn, and then on and off school whenever there was a positive case, and now school is full-time but many problems remain. Particularly for my youngest granddaughter. She's speech-delayed and was halfway through kindergarten when Covid closed the schools in NYC. She really needed the speech therapy and she's fallen behind in school. I'm a huge believer in masks, but it does make speech therapy impossible.

Of course I also haven't been able to see them very much. I'm crying, they're crying.


We all have these stories and I'm sorry to be rambling. I'm home most of the time but I try to take a walk when I feel I can do so safely. Today we are snowbound and the day has been really long!
Click to expand...

Your words will become a "classic" tale of this horrible virus, and how it truly does affect 4 different generations. i feel like I know your whole family from your so-well-constructed words!

Sometimes I just hate living in Florida.... EVERYTHING just becomes so political, rather than people coming together and helping each other get through... BUT being able to be outside on a daily basis makes it so so much easier. Sooo much easier.

I really do hope you get to find your little bit of sunshine closer to your folks.. I sense both your days and their late days would be happier.....

Make sure to save your words here......... You will want to remember them down the road.... Like a diary!!!!!
 
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