COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

[Kraken]

I am Schroedinger's uncle -- simultaneously going and not-going, depending on my covid tests between now and Thursday morning. My probability wave won't collapse until then.

Wife is definitely not going, but our doc thinks she'll be fine; she's fully boosted and about to start on remdesivir.

[Smoove_B]

Sorry to hear about your wife, Kraken and you too gilraen. I have family in south Jerz right now that are all infected (aunts, uncle, cousins) because my cousin's kid brought it home from day care and gave it to everyone. My one cousin has had it three times now and my aunts and uncle are being worked over pretty hard. My mom is in the hospital recovering from a pacemaker implant and I'm genuinely worried she's going to get it while there - it's a 3+ days stay.

I really had hoped this summer was going to be better, but this is the path we're all on now. Over and over.

[FishPants]

What conference in Toronto? Was it the Collision IT conference, or the AWS Summit? We do seem to be in another wave, at least from co-workers in Toronto and Montreal, they get together and someone gets Covid -- I've got a family vacation scheduled early August that we've been trying to do for 20 years; I'm staying home based until we are wheels up.

[Zaxxon]

My wife has a conference in October in Toronto, and y'all are doing a bang-up job convincing me to try to nip that in the bud.

[FishPants]

My wife has a conference in October in Toronto, and y'all are doing a bang-up job convincing me to try to nip that in the bud.

I wouldn't ring fence just Toronto - basically anywhere there's crowds, there's going to be spread. Our offices in Montreal have a lot of people passing it around currently, but thankfully it continues to be mild for the people I've spoken with.

[Zaxxon]

My wife has a conference in October in Toronto, and y'all are doing a bang-up job convincing me to try to nip that in the bud.

I wouldn't ring fence just Toronto - basically anywhere there's crowds, there's going to be spread. Our offices in Montreal have a lot of people passing it around currently, but thankfully it continues to be mild for the people I've spoken with.

Yeah, definitely. It's just that Toronto specifically has been mentioned round these parts multiple times lately. Interesting timing for me.

[MHS]

We are definitely surging here. Our daughter and her boyfriend both have it, as well as my brother, his wife, and their oldest daughter. Our daughter has had both shots and both boosters + Evusheld since she's immunosuppressed due to lupus, but she's had it for over a week and is still sleeping 16-20 hours a day because she is just totally wiped out. Her boyfriend has asthma and his oxygen rates have been dropping to the low 90s/high 80s. Several people in our poker group have had it (we aren't doing in-person poker right now, but a lot of the group still are/were(, with one running a temperature in the brain-damage range. I still haven't gotten it, despite having done nearly a dozen work trips this year, and I'm going to be getting my 5th shot (3rd booster) this week before Neal and I drive to Michigan to visit his family. My nephrologist let me know they've recently approved the 3rd booster for us immune-weaklings.

Stay/get healthy, everyone.

[Kraken]

What conference in Toronto? Was it the Collision IT conference, or the AWS Summit? We do seem to be in another wave, at least from co-workers in Toronto and Montreal, they get together and someone gets Covid -- I've got a family vacation scheduled early August that we've been trying to do for 20 years; I'm staying home based until we are wheels up.

Collision.

[hitbyambulance]

my mom just got her _second_ dose of EvuShield

[Jeff V]

Stay/get healthy, everyone.

Request denied. But I guess that's what I get for taking a vacation to a red state.

[Zaxxon]

An expert committee recommended Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration plan on an updated booster shot of the coronavirus vaccines that targets some form of the Omicron variant that has dominated for months.

The panel’s 19-2 vote paves the way for F.D.A. regulators to recommend a new formulation for the boosters that the Biden administration hopes to offer later this year, before an expected winter resurgence of the virus.

The committee debated but did not specify which formulation might work best. The F.D.A. appeared to be leaning toward a combination of the existing vaccine and two subvariants of Omicron, known as BA.4 and BA.5. According to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those two subvariants together now make up more than half of new cases in the country

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/us/p ... n-fda.html

[Pyperkub]

NOt quite treatment yet, but a possible reason for long Covid:

“It’s very exciting for us to actually find something that’s wrong — that it’s in the patient’s lungs and not in their head,” Parraga said.

The study, which was funded by the Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund, looked at 34 patients — 12 who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 22 others who had not been hospitalized...

...Using an MRI technique developed by Western University that is five times as sensitive and has five times the spatial resolution of a CT scan, the researchers were able to see how tiny branches of air tubes in the lungs were moving oxygen into the red blood cells of their patients....

...All 34 of the patients who participated in the study were experiencing problems in the level of oxygen being absorbed by their red blood cells.

And they all had the same result, regardless of the severity of their symptoms or whether they had been hospitalized for COVID-19 — another key find, Parraga said.

“All these patients had this abnormality. They all had really serious symptoms, so their exercise scores were low, they were breathless when they exercised and when we measured the oxygen levels in their blood in the tips of their fingers after exercise, that was also low.”

And these external measurements corresponded to the abnormality the researchers found in their MRI measurement of the lungs, she said.

Oh, and yes, this has been peer reviewed, but is relatively small:

The research team acknowledges the sample size of this study, which has been peer-reviewed, is small and therefore that results should be considered “exploratory and hypothesis-generating.”

[Kraken]

I tested positive this morning after getting a negative result last night. Doc has prescribed remdesivir. I'm right at the beginning of this thing so it should be effective.

Symptoms are a headache, runny nose, and foggy brain, and are noticeably worse than when I woke up. Hope the antiviral will keep it from getting much worse.

[Isgrimnur]

[Zaxxon]

Best of luck.

[Smoove_B]

I am so sorry to hear it, especially given your situation with your sister's memorial. Hopefully you and your wife muscle through, unaffected. As I tell everyone, don't hesitate to get yourselves to an ER if your situation changes.

[LordMortis]

Be well.

[Max Peck]

I tested positive this morning after getting a negative result last night. Doc has prescribed remdesivir. I'm right at the beginning of this thing so it should be effective.

Symptoms are a headache, runny nose, and foggy brain, and are noticeably worse than when I woke up. Hope the antiviral will keep it from getting much worse.

If you have access to an oximeter, keeping an eye on your %SpO2 is a good idea. If it starts to drop off, that can be an early indicator that you need to head to the ER.

[LordMortis]

I tested positive this morning after getting a negative result last night. Doc has prescribed remdesivir. I'm right at the beginning of this thing so it should be effective.

Symptoms are a headache, runny nose, and foggy brain, and are noticeably worse than when I woke up. Hope the antiviral will keep it from getting much worse.

If you have access to an oximeter, keeping an eye on your %SpO2 is a good idea. If it starts to drop off, that can be an early indicator that you need to head to the ER.

A friend of mine who got laid up in the hospital with COVID carries a pulseox now. I surprised when he said they can be had from CVS pretty cheaply.

Edit: I don't know how to shop for one but Amazon has them starting at about $12.

[Max Peck]

I bought one from Amazon last year, after reading this article: Covid: How a £20 gadget could save lives

One of the mysteries of Covid-19 is why oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels without the patient noticing.

It is known as "silent hypoxia".

As a result, patients have been arriving in hospital in far worse health than they realised and, in some cases, too late to treat effectively.

But a potentially life-saving solution, in the form of a pulse oximeter, allows patients to monitor their oxygen levels at home, and costs about £20.

They are being rolled out for high-risk Covid patients in the UK, and the doctor leading the scheme thinks everyone should consider buying one.

[Smoove_B]

Just remember, they are prone to errors based on your skin tone.

[Max Peck]

I wasn't aware of that, but it makes sense given that it uses an optical sensor.

[gilraen]

I bought this Contec pulse oximeter at the beginning of the pandemic. I went with this brand because their oximeters are FDA-approved as Class II medical devices. Didn't buy it from Amazon, though, as I didn't trust them not to send a knock-off fake.

[MHS]

I tested positive this morning after getting a negative result last night. Doc has prescribed remdesivir. I'm right at the beginning of this thing so it should be effective.

Symptoms are a headache, runny nose, and foggy brain, and are noticeably worse than when I woke up. Hope the antiviral will keep it from getting much worse.

Sorry to hear, Ken. Get better quickly and thoroughly.

[Kraken]

Thanks. The battle is in my sinuses now. My eyeballs and the roots of my upper teeth hurt, and I have a fever. Go antibodies, hold the line!

[Jeff V]

Today is day 5 after first testing positive, and still tested positive. The effects so far have been on par with the mildest summer cold in the history of summer colds. Every time the kids see me, they cover their mouth and nose with their hands and run as if I'm Pennywise coming to snatch them.

[Kraken]

My symptoms faded soon after my first dose of Paklovid. I started it less than 8 hours after my first positive test, so maybe this stuff's going to fix me right up.

Interesting footnote -- it's free. Presumably the gubmint is paying for it. Thanks, Biden!

[Isgrimnur]

May it make you strong.

[Smoove_B]

Interesting footnote -- it's free. Presumably the gubmint is paying for it. Thanks, Biden!

Glad you were able to get access to it - maybe because of your age? I've been hearing horror stories (in NJ) about access, though none of the people are..in your age range.

[Kraken]

Interesting footnote -- it's free. Presumably the gubmint is paying for it. Thanks, Biden!

Glad you were able to get access to it - maybe because of your age? I've been hearing horror stories (in NJ) about access, though none of the people are..in your age range.

Funny thing is, after I called my doctor's office to request it, I had to run a few errands before I could isolate for a week or more. While I was out (without my phone...I don't habitually carry it and often forget to take it with me) they left me a voicemail saying the doc wanted a telemedicine call, but I didn't get the message until shortly before noon. They were closing up shop early for the upcoming 5-day weekend, so he just went ahead and gave me the scrip before starting his holiday.

The fact that Wife started the same treatment two days earlier must have been an argument in favor. The phone consult was probably a procedural formality.

[Jeff V]

My symptoms faded soon after my first dose of Paklovid. I started it less than 8 hours after my first positive test, so maybe this stuff's going to fix me right up.

Interesting footnote -- it's free. Presumably the gubmint is paying for it. Thanks, Biden!

That's what I'm taking, but I don't know if it's doing anything or not. My symptoms were already mild in the first place. When my wife had it a month ago and took Paklovid, it left a bitter taste in her mouth that nothing seemed able to neutralize.

[Smoove_B]

Geez, I'd missed that you've been hit with it too. Again, I hope you can get better soon.

[Kraken]

My symptoms faded soon after my first dose of Paklovid. I started it less than 8 hours after my first positive test, so maybe this stuff's going to fix me right up.

Interesting footnote -- it's free. Presumably the gubmint is paying for it. Thanks, Biden!

That's what I'm taking, but I don't know if it's doing anything or not. My symptoms were already mild in the first place. When my wife had it a month ago and took Paklovid, it left a bitter taste in her mouth that nothing seemed able to neutralize.

I noticed that taste too. I am pleased to announce that beer's lovely bitterness neutralizes it.

[Scuzz]

My daughter in Portland is just getting over COVID. She had 3 shots and is very careful, but she either got it at work or a Pride event she went to last week. She had a sore throat and heavy cold symptoms for maybe 5-6 days but is feeling good enough to work from home now.

But that was enough to get me and the wife in for our second booster shots.

[Jeff V]

My daughter in Portland is just getting over COVID. She had 3 shots and is very careful, but she either got it at work or a Pride event she went to last week. She had a sore throat and heavy cold symptoms for maybe 5-6 days but is feeling good enough to work from home now.

But that was enough to get me and the wife in for our second booster shots.

I wanted to get my second booster before going to visit the rat. My kids are treating me like a pariah now.

BTW, my kid's school said they were good to go 5 days after testing positive. I first tested positive last Saturday. I tested positive today...day 6.

[Kraken]

My symptoms faded soon after my first dose of Paklovid. I started it less than 8 hours after my first positive test, so maybe this stuff's going to fix me right up.

Interesting footnote -- it's free. Presumably the gubmint is paying for it. Thanks, Biden!

That's what I'm taking, but I don't know if it's doing anything or not. My symptoms were already mild in the first place. When my wife had it a month ago and took Paklovid, it left a bitter taste in her mouth that nothing seemed able to neutralize.

I noticed that taste too. I am pleased to announce that beer's lovely bitterness neutralizes it.

I was too quick to dismiss that nasty taste. I perceive it as more metallic than bitter. After my third dose, it's started sticking around all day. Most unpleasant. But the drugs are working great. I feel a little coviddy around the edges and more tired than usual -- changing the cat box and taking out the trash felt like it took forever today -- but I'm mostly functional and able to work.

[Jeff V]

Today I tested negative, just in time for the mid-summer holiday weekend. Wife's schedule: Friday: double shift (2nd/3rd) Saturday: 2nd shift Sunday double, Monday double (with double pay). Not able to do much besides hang out around the house anyway.

[Smoove_B]

Missed this from Wednesday for some reason. I'm sure there was something else going on:

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that is paying $3.2 billion for 105 million doses of an updated Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for a fall campaign, pending Food and Drug Administration signoff on the new formula.

The order is a major step in the administration’s efforts to move forward with a new vaccination push this fall, in a bid to blunt a renewed COVID-19 surge when the weather turns colder in much of the country.

...

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha said that “despite months of warnings from the Administration on the consequences of a lack of funding,” due to Congress’s lack of action, Wednesday’s order “will not purchase enough vaccines to offer one of these new booster shots to every adult and unfortunately, comes at the expense of continued funding for other critical pandemic response needs like testing manufacturing and domestic vaccine manufacturing.”

[gilraen]

I just tested positive on day 7, so I'm still a walking biohazard. I guess I'll stop wasting tests and give it another 3 or so days before checking again.

[hitbyambulance]

what's the medical evidence for the efficacy of getting a second booster if one is not-quite-at the fifty-year-old milestone? and if it's worth it, how does one 'persuade' the provider to administer it?