That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons bring us some web forums whereupon we can gather
http://www.octopusoverlords.com/forum/
I think the mistake (the one I made too) was that we were trying to get "out" somehow. Instead, The Great Barrington folks got their wish. Just let it wash over everyone repeatedly, mostly uncontrolled and let's see what happens.So we gave up on NPIs because we were vaccinating our way out of it. Now we're giving up on vaccinating our way out of it? We're magical-thinking our way out of it now?
Get a booster, dont get a booster, maybe get a booster! The government will pay for it! The government won't pay for it, the government might pay for it!
It's no wonder most non-immunocompromised people who have been pressed back to working at the office have simply shrugged their shoulders and accepted that "it's over"
Risk assessments are great, but what it seems to have come down to is that the WHO says the benefits are marginal, while the FDA says while the benefits to an individual are marginal the reduced burden on healthcare system during infection waves is substantial enough to justify continuing the recommendation. The FDA's guidance also has the benefit of being much simpler and more legible from an end-user standpoint. Just saying "all adults should get boosters" is pretty clear-cut guidance. During the early days of the vaccine there was a lot of chaos around eligibility, prioritization, recommendation, etc. that led a lot of people who were eligible to avoid seeking vaccination and boosters.
We got rid of ours months ago. It's been replaced with another apocalypse go-bag.
Some of the downvoted ones are also worth reading if you need to bring down your mood.Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Mar 29, 2023 10:05 am Ars has a write-up on the WHO advisors thing now, and the [upvoted] comments are solid as usual...
I didn’t get a flu shot until I retired from teaching public school because there is no way I could ever avoid whatever was the virus of the month. Fortunately, I got over everything, and hardly missed any teaching time. I took off more days for my family and personal sanity than for viruses during my career.
Saw that one and had the same thought.Sudy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 29, 2023 1:47 pmI didn’t get a flu shot until I retired from teaching public school because there is no way I could ever avoid whatever was the virus of the month. Fortunately, I got over everything, and hardly missed any teaching time. I took off more days for my family and personal sanity than for viruses during my career.
Of note:The US government will soon authorize another round of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to certain high-risk populations, namely people 65 and older and those with compromised immune systems, according to a Washington Post report that cited anonymous officials familiar with the plan.
The spring booster plan for high-risk individuals in the US would resemble booster offerings already in place in Canada and the United Kingdom, and it would put the country largely in agreement with updated recommendations released last week by the World Health Organization. The agency's advisory group on immunizations determined that, as of now, healthy adults and children do not need additional boosters in the near term, but certain high-risk groups should be offered boosters every six to 12 months.
The US's spring boosters will be offered to high-risk people who have gone at least four months since their last shot and want additional protection, the Post reported. The US last authorized a booster dose in September, meaning that some in the high-risk group may be around seven months past their last dose.
Before the doses are available, the Food and Drug Administration will first announce an authorization, which will reportedly occur in the next few weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will then need to sign off, which is expected to occur quickly and will make the doses available immediately. They will likely be free to all those who want them, as the federal government has a glut of boosters.
Still, experts have expressed mixed opinions about who should get boosted, when, and with what. While most agree that frequent boosters benefit the immunocompromised, opinions vary on shots for older adults, with suggested age cut-offs ranging from the 50s to 70s and some saying it should largely depend on health status as well as age.
While age and immune status are the high-risk factors identified for spring boosters in the US, the WHO advisers were more inclusive in their definition of high risk, including pregnant people, younger people with significant comorbidities (such as heart disease and diabetes), and frontline health workers, in addition to older adults and the immunocompromised.
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The formula of future boosters will also likely draw debate, with some experts suggesting a monovalent booster—one that would target only the current omicron strains—would be better than the bivalent formulation.
For now, only 16.5 percent of the US population—and only 42 percent of people age 65 and older—have received a bivalent booster dose.
The Biden administration is launching a $5 billion-plus program to accelerate development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments, seeking to better protect against a still-mutating virus, as well as other coronaviruses that might threaten us in the future.
“Project Next Gen” — the long-anticipated follow-up to “Operation Warp Speed,” the Trump-era program that sped coronavirus vaccines to patients in 2020 — would take a similar approach to partnering with private sector companies to expedite development of vaccines and therapies. Scientists, public heath experts and politicians have called for the initiative, warning that existing therapies have steadily lost their effectiveness and new ones are needed.
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Jha and others said the new effort will focus on three goals: creating long-lasting monoclonal antibodies, after an evolving virus rendered current treatments ineffective; accelerating development of vaccines that produce what is known as mucosal immunity, which is thought to reduce transmission and infection risks; and speeding efforts to develop pan-coronavirus vaccines to guard against new variants of SARS-CoV-2, as well as other coronaviruses, from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) to still-unidentified viruses in that family.
Why does today's "normal" have to return to yesterday's normal, during a less enlightened time?We recognize that COVID-19 is here to stay. We have to plan to gradually and safely go back to normal, while we continue to focus on mitigating risk to vulnerable patients.
Outside of the conspiracies, functionally I don't think this is a bad thing, right?Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Apr 14, 2023 1:47 pm I might be late to the party here (work has been....interesting), but word on the street is that starting next week (+/-) you wont' be able to get the OG monovalent vaccinations any more. From now on, only the bivalent vaccinations will be available (in the United States) - for an initial series or for a "booster".
Start your conspiracy theories now.
Honestly, it's because some people are assholes. The constant battle to get anti-maskers to mask up when it's required is taxing on hospital and office staff, particularly front desk and security.Sudy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 14, 2023 2:58 pm Wow, I'm stunned that some Canadian hospitals have or will eliminate masking except during outbreaks or in patient care/waiting room areas. I thought and hoped masking was here to stay in hospitals and doctor's offices. Like, forever. There can be exceptions for areas with spread-out contact, sure. But hospitals seem like an excellent place to transmit respiratory infections?
Why does today's "normal" have to return to yesterday's normal, during a less enlightened time?We recognize that COVID-19 is here to stay. We have to plan to gradually and safely go back to normal, while we continue to focus on mitigating risk to vulnerable patients.
Also:Federal health officials will not formally urge that people get a second booster. Instead, the “permissive” policy says they may get a second dose if they want.
Even as some people have been clamoring for a second booster, others appear unconcerned. Only about 42 percent of people 65 and older have received the first bivalent booster, according to the CDC.
Federal officials have noted they are not advocating a second omicron booster for young people, who in rare cases can experience heart-related side effects after getting the vaccine.
The FDA on Tuesday also retired the original mRNA vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech in favor of the updated shots.
The FDA still plans to move to a once-a-year coronavirus vaccine shot for most Americans — a timetable announced in January that is intended to coincide with annual flu inoculations in the fall. The FDA and its advisers hope the simplified schedule will encourage more people to get coronavirus vaccine doses. Officials will select a reformulated dose in coming months based on which coronavirus strain scientists think is most likely to be circulating in fall and winter.
My GI doctor and Osteo Doctor seem to be debating starting my remicaid equivalent again. GI says I've been off too long and now getting back on is more complicated. Osteo says at least six weeks from surgery. I'm going with Osteo, which doesn't make GI happy. It doesn't help that the infusion service, and before that Humira have been hammering these precuations into me for over a decade. I need to ask about when to get the 2nd bivalent, I guess.LordMortis wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:01 am TY, At this point I'm stuck at home but come May when I presumably can drive again and presumably restart my immune nuking infusions I'll look into getting jabbed again.
Please allow me to TLDR; it for youAre repeat COVID infections dangerous? What the science says
Just how much harm repeat infections will cause is a matter of debate. “There are some almost pathologically polarized opinions out there,” says Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London. One side argues that SARS-CoV-2 is a run-of-the-mill respiratory virus, no worse than the common cold, especially for those who have been vaccinated. Others have said that repeatedly getting COVID-19 is a gamble. Each bout comes with a risk of damage — or at least changes — to the immune system, and long-term health repercussions. Both groups are armed with evidence. What do the data say about the risks of reinfection and the potential for COVID-19 to cause lasting consequences?
I'll tread lightly, but people believe and expect otherwise because it's what they hear from people driving the entire process (government officials, private sector leaders, businesses/employers, etc...). I was with a group a few weeks ago and asked them what the #3 killer was in the United States for 2022. When I indicated it was COVID, minds were blown. I don't think it will leave Top 10 for 2023, but I'm not sure if it will remain #3. My point is there has been an insane amount of effort applied to playing down the virus and getting back to normal.
It's different in a significant way. Depending on where you live, influenza cycles seasonally meaning there are times of the year when you needn't worry about influenza. SARS-CoV-2 has not stopped circulating since we identified it and we've given up on trying to do anything in the short or medium term to address that.It may be different than the flu, but that seems like a good guideline for caution. But then I mean... no one gets their flu shots so I guess it didn't matter.
In terms of it changing into something different that might increase morbidity and mortality? Absolutely. And yes, we're probably a still few more years out from understanding the contributing factors for Long COVID (or PASC as we're being encouraged to call it), much less addressing it medically. I think more realistic is the next hurdle we'll see when they (hopefully) develop the nasal vaccinations that block transmission. The hurdle here being refusal people will have with uptake.But there's no reason a COVID Spanish Flu can't happen, right? Even if the mechanisms and chances may be considerably different. And long COVID is obviously still largely a mystery because we're only a few years out from the first cases.
For the first time in about three years, major Massachusetts hospitals said Tuesday they have no in-patient COVID-19 cases.
Calling it a “big milestone,” Tufts Medical Center spokesman Jeremy Lechan said, “As of 6:45 a.m. (Tuesday) morning, we have no COVID-19 inpatients for the first time since March 21, 2020.”
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Dr. Todd Ellerin said the same was true at South Shore Health, where he is director of infectious diseases.
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Hospital information is potentially about to become useless. About the only thing we have left is wastewater surveillance but funding was cut for that with the expiration of the emergency, so I'm honestly not even sure where that stands.Number of Data Elements. The CDC will reduce the number of data elements that hospitals must report from 62 to 44. Specifically, CDC will make the following data fields optional for federal reporting:
Total hospitalized pediatric suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients
Hospitalized and ventilated COVID-19 patients (patients currently hospitalized in an adult, pediatric or neonatal inpatient bed who have suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and are on a mechanical ventilator)
Total ICU adult suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients
Hospital onset (total current inpatients with onset of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 14 or more days after admission for a condition other than COVID-19)
Previous day’s adult admissions with suspected COVID-19 and breakdown by age bracket
Previous day’s pediatric admissions with suspected COVID-19
Previous day’s total ED visits
Previous day’s total COVID-19-related ED visits
