Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #101

[Betty P]

So many people will die while awaiting transplants. So it makes no sense to waste precious organs on those who are unwilling to do everything they can to make it a success. This is already done anyway. An active smoker, for instance, is not going to be given a lung before a nonsmoker gets one. I'm a smoker myself and I see this as fair. Likewise, drinkers will not get a liver before non-drinkers. This is basic common sense, if you ask me.

Even people who had cancer are sometimes not considered. Sad, but true.

 

[MimosaMornings]

I know loads of fully vaccinated people with Covid at the moment, some are feeling really rough, the rest are doing ok and muddling through. None have needed hospital treatment.

UK cases at the moment are pretty high, but deaths are nowhere near what they were in the other waves. Quite a contrast with the graphs of less vaccinated countries. The vaccines ARE stopping serious illness and death here.

Source: Worldometers.

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(PS anomaly in first wave of cases as we weren’t testing unless admitted to hospital - that wave should probably be as high as the other two)

Holy smokes, I know loads of unvaccinated people who got Covid (some on their second round this year) but very few vaccinated ones.
Are they getting it at work or school?

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Yes. A sobering message, for those of us who thought that the "vaccine" was our "get out of jail" card. It wasn't the magic sold to us.

Covid-19 is our new reality. Lockdowns didn't work, vaccines are only part of the equation. Masks, social distancing, vaccines...and learning to live in our new world.

The "magic" is that it will keep most of us from dying. That's magic, or miracle, enough for me - and that's exactly what was sold to us.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Just a little update here. Little Willa is home from the hospital and doing great. Back to normal. No other detected infections in the family. They all had negative PCR tests X2. And Willa’s test was an actual antibody test done at the hospital. She had positive antibodies but at discharge her PCR was negative.
Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. No need to respond and clog the thread but know you are all in my heart and I appreciate you!

Wonderful news!

 

[casesensitive]

If a patient is not following doctor's advice (which in this case is getting vaccinated), giving them a kidney would be a total waste. Transplant recipients have to take medications regularly, and so on. Non-compliant patients won't do well. Also, immunosupressant drugs mess up their immune system, which means they are in much higher risk of infections after getting transplants.
Which is clearly why they should be vaccinated.

My daughter had her first kidney transplant at age 21. She rejected that kidney after 20 years, and had a second transplant 3 years ago.

You can't get an organ transplant if you are considered non-compliant to the rules, which entail endless regular appointments, and years of other tests like annual dental exams, and passing a psychological test. They test and rate you on your compliance to their protocol before they put you on their organ waiting list. (Ontario, Canada).

There was no research on organ recipients receiving a covid vaccine, and my daughter's transplant team were non-committal for many months. As time passed, she was advised to definitely get the vaccine. She was given two Pfizer shots within 3 weeks. Many Canadians had to wait almost 4 months to get a second shot. Her husband was also authorized to get 2 shots within 3 weeks.

She was told that the results of kidney organ recipients who got 2 shots, who take her specific anti-rejection drugs was a dismal 8% protection against covid. The group that takes another drug was 46%. She has now been approved to get a third vaccine.

I hope that people facing organ transplants will listen to their doctors now that research has shown how important the covid vaccines are. I initially worried that vaccines might jump start an immune response that could result in rejecting a transplanted organ. The opposite is true--the anti-rejection drugs fight the vaccine. We have to stay up to date--every day brings more knowledge.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Holy smokes, I know loads of unvaccinated people who got Covid (some on their second round this year) but very few vaccinated ones.
Are they getting it at work or school?

Mostly, it's coming from their kids who are at school. We've only just started vaccinating school kids.

In my workplace I have two fully vaccinated parents tested positive in the last couple of weeks, another waiting on a result. They work at different locations. All reported heavy cold type symptoms which made them feel rough for a few days. On the plus side, they do not appear to have passed it on to anyone else at work.

 

[Lilibet]

I remember after getting vaccinated and the taking off my mask when going out- I felt liberated and I too thought this was "our get out of jail card"--- I think there were a combination of factors that worked against the vaccine being our way out of this hell- The Delta variant came along and was a game changer- couple that with more people than expected not getting vaccinated, couple that with people, vaccinated and unvaccinated living life like there is no pandemic-- they aren't utilizing masks or social distancing

This is exactly right. Because I got my second shot May 26, I had about three weeks feeling somewhat liberated (tho’ still cautious) until Delta hit the news…a real game changer that no one could have predicted. And thanks to the surprising number of unvaxxed and those living life without caution, we can’t relax our precautions. Even a booster won’t feel liberating.

 

[Lilibet]

The "magic" is that it will keep most of us from dying. That's magic, or miracle, enough for me - and that's exactly what was sold to us.

Standing ovation! So true!

 

[Lilibet]

Sigh. My neighboring county in southern Oregon. Mine isn’t much better…

Oregon politician says ‘ask God’ about COVID-19 vaccination, ‘you can’t trust doctors’

An elected official representing Oregon’s 12th most populous county told residents listening to a public meeting Wednesday they should put their faith in God, not doctors or scientists,when it comes to their decision on whether to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“You’re just going to have to ask God, and pray for wisdom on this one, because you can’t trust the politicians, you can’t trust the doctors, you certainly can’t trust the CDC or any World Health Organization,” Josephine County Commissioner Darin Fowler said during the virtual meeting of the three-person board of commissioners.
<snip>
Public health experts say low vaccination rates are why Josephine and other southern Oregon counties have seen record numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the summer surge of the virus driven by the delta variant.

 

[SouthAussie]

Mostly, it's coming from their kids who are at school. We've only just started vaccinating school kids.

In my workplace I have two fully vaccinated parents tested positive in the last couple of weeks, another waiting on a result. They work at different locations. All reported heavy cold type symptoms which made them feel rough for a few days. On the plus side, they do not appear to have passed it on to anyone else at work.

I saw this pic on FB (Rudimental at Cardiff, two days ago).
I imagine things like this aren't helping matters.


Rudimental


But with your death rate remaining pretty low, it sounds like the vaccines are doing their work.
I think, once we reach 80% fully vaxxed, we will be approaching things in a similar way. But our states' vax rates are not uniform, so each state will slowly open up as they reach 80% fully vaxxed.
They are telling us that masks and QR codes will stay in place though (until who knows when).

 

[HongKongPhooey]

I saw this pic on FB (Rudimental at Cardiff, two days ago).
I imagine things like this aren't helping matters.

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Rudimental


But with your death rate remaining pretty low, it sounds like the vaccines are doing their work.
I think, once we reach 80% fully vaxxed, we will be approaching things in a similar way. But our states' vax rates are not uniform, so each state will slowly open up as they reach 80% fully vaxxed.
They are telling us that masks and QR codes will stay in place though (until who knows when).

Everyone attending this event had to produce either proof of double vaccine, or a negative test. Measures are in place to restrict spread but it's never going to be foolproof.

 

[SouthAussie]

Everyone attending this event had to produce either proof of double vaccine, or a negative test. Measures are in place to restrict spread but it's never going to be foolproof.

I hope we follow your example. I think we are going to do similar, from what I am hearing.
Potentially, it seems that there are a lot of things we won't be able to do if we are not double vaxxed.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

I hope we follow your example. I think we are going to do similar, from what I am hearing.
Potentially, it seems that there are a lot of things we won't be able to do if we are not double vaxxed.

Its so tricky. Risk cannot be eliminated, thats the bottom line I think. So it becomes all about personal choice at some point. I wouldnt be going to an event like that, but I didnt before the pandemic so I dont feel a sense of loss.

 

[SouthAussie]

Its so tricky. Risk cannot be eliminated, thats the bottom line I think. So it becomes all about personal choice at some point. I wouldnt be going to an event like that, but I didnt before the pandemic so I dont feel a sense of loss.

It seems to be about hospital capacity. According to the modelling they have been doing here.

Which is why our 80% double vaxxed figure is set in stone, before any opening up. With our PM saying that he wants to push past 80% as well, to keep deaths as low as possible.

I definitely know we plan to let it run endemic (while using masks and QR codes), once we are far more protected.

NZ seems to be adjusting to the 'endemic' outlook also. As they just can't completely kick Delta either.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Mostly, it's coming from their kids who are at school. We've only just started vaccinating school kids.

Correct. Everyone I know with it has school age children. Many whole households with it. Lots of kids off school, the local primary has 9 cases in one class!

So, lots of naturally immunity being acquired, and my kids reckon about half their peers got vaccinated at school this week. Hopefully this will go some way towards a kind of herd immunity in children.

I hate to say it but maybe Boris has done the right thing letting it run through schools a bit before winter kicks in. We shall see.

 

[Cool Cats]

Double

 

[SouthAussie]

World's Five Safest Cities

1. Copenhagen
2. Toronto
3. Singapore
4. Sydney
5. Tokyo

... all had factors that illustrate how overall safety correlates to a strong sense of social cohesion, total population inclusion and societal trust.

... based on 76 safety indicators across infrastructure, digital life, personal security, environmental factors and, of course, health – with pandemic preparedness and Covid-19 mortality included this year.

The world's five safest cities post-pandemic

 

[Cool Cats]

Nick Goldberg: The jerk next to me on the plane wouldn't wear a mask. Here's why I didn't do anything.

Fri, October 8, 2021, 6:01 AM

It really shouldn't be so hard to follow the mask rules on a flight. Why are so many people rebelling?

The man sitting next to me on the plane was not wearing his mask.

Everyone else — every single person I saw — was following the rules. This guy, though, was an American, middle aged, flying back to L.A. from Frankfurt, Germany. His mask was down around his neck.

I ignored him for the first half-hour or so, but finally, nervous about sitting for 12 full hours next to an unmasked man during a pandemic, I asked if he would put it on. I swear I was very polite. Apologetic even.

He ignored me. I asked again, and he finally looked at me and angrily told me that if I wanted him to wear a mask, I would have to get the flight attendant to tell him. He wasn’t going to take orders from me, he said.

So I got up and spoke to the flight attendant, who told him he was required to keep it on — covering both his mouth and nose — for the entire flight. But as soon as she walked away, he pulled it down again, sneered at me, and for the rest of the flight he wore it under his nose.

I said nothing more to him for the remaining 11 hours. I was actually afraid he might become violent if I persisted.

From what I now understand, that may have been a wise decision. Air rage is at an all time high.

Testimony before a recent hearing of the House Aviation Subcommittee described passengers biting, kicking, punching, throwing trash and food, and screaming racial epithets and slurs. One passenger, angry about the mask requirement, urinated on a lavatory floor; several punched other passengers in the face, according to the FAA. In some cases, passengers followed crew members out through the airport, taunting or threatening them.

 

[SouthAussie]

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called for $8bn in funds to ensure that COVID-19 vaccinations can be fairly distributed across the world and give all countries a way out of a pandemic that has killed more than five million people.

“Not to have equitable distribution of vaccines is not only a question of being immoral – it is also a question of being stupid,” he said at a news conference after the launch.

UN calls for $8bn to redress world COVID vaccine imbalance

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I went for a walk down the street to the CBD yesterday (central business district) and for the first time in months I saw quite a few people walking around not wearing masks at all.

Then you see the ones with their noses completely uncovered. Or with their masks around their neck.

Seems like they're jumping the gun a bit.

By the way , we had five cases today, but not active in the community (or so they say)