Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #103

[CrimeAway]

Update from the UK on vaccinating children:

Covid vaccination for UK children: what has been approved?

ETA, official UK government advice:
COVID-19 vaccination: a guide for eligible children and young people aged 12 to 17 (version 3)

Also, I'm re-sharing a recent TWIV featuring Paul Offit Paul Offit - Wikipedia He discusses vaccination in general, and specifically in children:

 

[CrimeAway]

Because they’ve been tested since WE became positive.

How are you all feeling?

 

[Jsizzle]

How are you all feeling?

We are good! Husband is day….9 and I’m day 6. It’s been very mild. The worst part is not being able to go anywhere. Getting a little stir crazy lol. And also not being able to cuddle with my kids on Christmas. But generally speaking we are good. Thank you for asking .

 

[ilovewings]

What got us through the first year was the vaccine hope. Now boostered breakthroughs. Still have to social distance and wear masks due to variant.
Almost two years. I can honestly say it has been the worse time period in my entire life.

I know --it is so disheartening--We had so much hope when
the vaccines came out-- I honestly began to see the end
of this horror- but here we are and frankly, it is an
ugly place to be.

 

[CrimeAway]

We are good! Husband is day….9 and I’m day 6. It’s been very mild. The worst part is not being able to go anywhere. Getting a little stir crazy lol. And also not being able to cuddle with my kids on Christmas. But generally speaking we are good. Thank you for asking .

Hopefully you will be back to normal soon.

 

[Jsizzle]

Hopefully you will be back to normal soon.

Thank you! We are trying to stay far away from kids because we have friends staying with us for 5 days right at the end of of our quarantine. So keeping everyone else healthy is a must. Tested kids Monday and Friday. Negative. Have 1 more scheduled for the 27th

 

[Arkay]

I reckon there will be another year of it. December 2022 before it starts to settle.

The 1918 pandemic took 3 years to settle down. And we are not riding this one out any better than that one. imo

Vaccinations help, this time. Last time, far reduced capability for travel helped. They kind of balance each other out, to me.

This is very true. No such thing back then as passenger jets flying ordinary people all over the world in a few hours.

However, a precipitating factor in the worldwide spread of the 1918 Spanish flu was World War I, which did effectively seed the flu throughout the world. Of course it was by ship and took longer, but countries tried to cover up that their militaries were weak, and sick soldiers together in the trenches spread it everywhere, especially in the more virulent second wave. And there were no vaccines, as you mention.

I hope I'm not wrong but I don't think 50-100 million people worldwide will die from this, unless so many continue to refuse vaccines, wear masks and insist on being together indoors.

This link is from before Covid but does explain about WWI and its impact on spreading the flu worldwide.

There are plenty of other, more updated articles but this is the first I looked at.

The Odd Connections Between the 1918 Flu and World War I

 

[acutename]

I can't figure it out. I hadn't been in contact with anyone at all for two weeks. Other than my dogs. I had some Amazon and Door Dash deliveries, but they just ring the bell and leave. I don't open the door until they are gone. I have waved at neighbors when I check the mail, from a distance of at least 50 feet. Our houses are pretty far apart.

I never was contacted by a contact tracer either. I'm curious if anyone else who was at Harris Teeter that day has tested positive. I don't know if that's the kind of thing a contact tracer would even tell me. If they bothered to call. jmo

I know that the advice here- what to do if you get a positive test result- includes suggesting that you contact people you were around to alert them. Also, there is a phone app you can sign up for that "tells you if you have been exposed" so I am imagining (?) that it is modeled on the South Korea type system- if you have your phone with you all the time, and everyone else does, if there are a bunch of cases some where, and you were there, it will notify you. It is totally voluntary and I do not know how many people subscribe... it might catch a Harris Teeter type cluster if one occurred, or maybe just a lot of cases in a small geographic area.

 

[acutename]

@CharlestonGal, I completely agree with you about minimization of any covid variant. There will be those who die of Omicron, possibly even those who are vaxxed if they have underlying conditions. We have GOT to take this seriously. We just returned on Tuesday from a medically necessary four day trip out of state (by car this time) and I’m still noticing every little sniff and scratch.

I am back to: I wake up in the morning and ask myself: how is my throat? Is it just a little dry or is something wrong? Are my sinuses OK? Do I have a body ache? (rolling my eyes at myself)

 

[ilovewings]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/25/covid-public-health-laws-restricted/

States Restrict Power of health officials amid anger over mask and vaccine rules. The bottom line ( and it is a terrible bottom line) is that politicians are making decisions about public health that should be made by experts in public health. Read this and weep. It is a huge reason why we cannot get out of this mess we are in.

 

[mickey2942]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/25/covid-public-health-laws-restricted/

States Restrict Power of health officials amid anger over mask and vaccine rules. The bottom line ( and it is a terrible bottom line) is that politicians are making decisions about public health that should be made by experts in public health. Read this and weep. It is a huge reason why we cannot get out of this mess we are in.

Same thing is happening everywhere.

Lewis and Clark County approves governing body to oversee health officials

Insanity. Facebook pages are full of huge family Christmas parties.

 

[jjenny]

If your vaccine is Pfizer, it appears better to boost with Moderna for Omicron protection.
"For people who were given three Pfizer doses, vaccine effectiveness dropped from 70 percent one week after the booster to 45 percent after 10 weeks. Pfizer recipients who received a Moderna booster, on the other hand, seemed to fare better; their vaccine regimen remained up to 75 percent effective at up to nine weeks."

Booster protection wanes against symptomatic Omicron infections, British data suggests.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Because they’ve been tested since WE became positive.

Which kind of test?

 

[Arkay]

Israel to receive first shipment of Pfizer anti-COVID pills in coming week -- report | The Times of Israel


I really think this Pfizer pill will be a game-changer. I hope it's readily available soon and that we are kept informed, as we know it has to be taken within 5 days of symptom onset. Right now the omicron symptoms manifest so differently than the other variants; it's difficult to be sure without a Covid test.

But this seems to be great news.

 

[Sundog]

What You Need to Know About Paxlovid, Pfizer’s COVID-19 Pill, According to Experts

Are there drug interactions for Paxlovid?

Yup—and there are a lot. “The list is huge,” says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. “It’s well over 100.”

There is a full list of potential drug interactions on the Emergency Use Authorization fact sheet for providers on Paxlovid. But, in general, “Paxlovid will have a slew of drug-drug interactions including cardiac medications, certain antibiotics, certain anti-epileptic drugs, and certain statins,” says infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

There are a lot of seniors who won't be able to take the Pfizer antiviral pills/course of treatment due to the medications they take, apparently there are quite a few contraindications. Hopefully we'll soon have a better supply of monoclonal antibody treatments that are effective against omicron, for those who won't be able to take the antiviral pills.

 

[mickey2942]

Cruises are once again facing disruption because of Covid-19

These folks are lucky they were not stuck somewhere forever. I wonder what will happen now? If crew members have Covid, no doubt that means at least 1/4 of the crew, if not more would be under quarantine.

Unless the CDC has changed.

The CDC changes so much of what they say, it is just a constantly moving target.

Before, folks who were vaccinated, did not have to quarantine after exposure. Now, who knows?

 

[Lilibet]

What You Need to Know About Paxlovid, Pfizer’s COVID-19 Pill, According to Experts

Are there drug interactions for Paxlovid?

Yup—and there are a lot. “The list is huge,” says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. “It’s well over 100.”

There is a full list of potential drug interactions on the Emergency Use Authorization fact sheet for providers on Paxlovid. But, in general, “Paxlovid will have a slew of drug-drug interactions including cardiac medications, certain antibiotics, certain anti-epileptic drugs, and certain statins,” says infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

There are a lot of seniors who won't be able to take the Pfizer antiviral pills/course of treatment due to the medications they take, apparently there are quite a few contraindications. Hopefully we'll soon have a better supply of monoclonal antibody treatments that are effective against omicron, for those who won't be able to take the antiviral pills.

Sections 4 and 7 of this PDF give contraindications and drug interactions. At the moment only one of my meds was on the section 7 list and Paxlovid might reduce it’s effectiveness, but I could live (literally) with that temporarily, as it’s not as necessary as my blood pressure meds. But everyone would be wise to check these lists ahead of a potential need for Paxlovid in order to be informed. I never expect my doctor to be quite as diligent about these things as I am.

https://www.covid19oralrx.com/files...ct-Sheet-COVID-19-Oral-Antiviral-Combined.pdf

 

[indicolite22]

Unjabbed people who catch Covid are 60 TIMES more likely to end up in intensive care | Daily Mail Online

Figures from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), which covers units in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, show that between May and November the rate of admission for double-jabbed Covid sufferers in their 60s was just 0.6 cases per 100,000 people per week. But among people of the same age who remained unvaccinated, the rate was 37.3 per 100,000 per week - equating to a relative risk about 60 times higher. Among those in their 50s and 70s there was almost a 30-fold difference in average weekly admission rates between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.

 

[Lilibet]

A long interactive list of questions and answers about covid-19.

You asked, we’re answering: Your top questions about Covid-19 and vaccines

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Thank you and best wishes to you.

I am in Phoenix, but grew up in Chicago, so I follow the news there. It really is a totally different world when it comes to Covid.

MrX.... so are you saying that people in Phoenix are more care-free and maskless?

Just asking because my brother's family is there and I have been concerned because two of his wife's adult kids are truly health compromised... and I worry about their constant huge family get-togethers...