Octopus Overlords

Zarathud wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 12:58 pm Politics. Management would rather deal with the staff shortages during outbreaks than OUTRAGE! and lawsuits over mandatory vaccination. Never mind that OSHA regulates workplace conditions down to the type of extension cords used.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:19 pm CVS only says Novavax 'does not require an appointment' unlike Moderna or Pfizer.

Today in JAMA Network Open, a randomized clinical trial shows that a single healthcare worker (HCW)-collected throat swab had significantly higher sensitivity for COVID-19 rapid antigen testing (RAT) than an HCW-collected nose swab during Omicron predominance, but self-collected nose swabs were more sensitive than self-collected throat swabs among participants with symptoms.

The findings "demonstrate that the throat sample technique is more challenging than obtaining a nasal sample, as we found a lower sensitivity and a higher number of inconclusive rapid antigen test results for self-collected throat specimens compared with HCW-collected throat specimens," the researchers wrote. "In contrast, no difference was found between HCW-collected and self-collected nasal specimens."

Using both nasal and throat swabs increased sensitivity for HCW- and self-collected specimens by 21.4 and 15.5 percentage points, respectively, compared with a single nose swab.

"Our findings suggest that the current testing recommendations should include throat specimens to improve the sensitivity of rapid antigen testing," the study authors wrote. "Further research should confirm our findings using redesigned and other rapid antigen testing devices and explore whether throat specimens can also improve the detection of other common airway infections."

A new study based on a cohort of Brazilian infants shows those who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infections in the uterus may be at an increased risk for developmental delays in the first year of life.

...

"All mothers were unvaccinated at the time of cohort inclusion, and maternal demographics were similar in the two groups," the authors wrote.

At 12 months, 20.3% of COVID-exposed children and 5.9% of the controls received a diagnosis of neurodevelopmental delay (risk ratio, 3.44; 95% confidence interval, 1.19 to 9.95).

For the exposed group, the prevalence of neurodevelopment impairment using the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) was 35.7% at 4 months, 7.0% at 6 months, and 32.1% at 12 months.

Previous studies conducted in the United States and elsewhere have shown a risk of delays in infants exposed to COVID-19 infections in utero, but this is the first study to look at the phenomenon in northern Brazil.

In follow-up of exposed infants, the researchers found 10% had an abnormal result on cranial ultrasonography, mainly mild ventriculomegaly, a swelling in the brain caused by cerebrospinal fluid buildup.

"That has been described with other congenital infections, like cytomegalovirus and Zika virus," they wrote. "Although the findings were mostly mild, there was an association between the diagnosis of abnormalities and the risk of developmental delay."

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 7:53 pm First study I've seen confirming anecdotal reports that using a throat swab is more accurate for rapid testing:

[...]

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 11:31 ammore testing (with larger pools of people) is needed.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 7:51 pm

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:19 pm CVS only says Novavax 'does not require an appointment' unlike Moderna or Pfizer.

Novavax is stored at refrigerated temperatures so it doesn't required advanced prep (like Moderna or Pfizer which are stored frozen). Is your local (county) health department offering weekly clinics or partnered with a hospital system to offer free/low cost vaccinations for those without insurance?

6.9% of children
16.0% of adults
33.3% of seniors

Hospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America's health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC's tracking shows.

"COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly," the agency said in its weekly update. "Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas."

The study, a comparative analysis with 18 months of follow-up of hospital admissions for those with COVID-19 and those with seasonal flu, found that COVID-19 patients experienced significantly higher rates of death, healthcare utilization, and adverse health outcomes in most organ systems than did patients with the flu. Its results were published on Dec. 14 in the infectious diseases section of the medical journal The Lancet.

...

Al-Aly’s study undertook a comparative analysis of 94 pre-specified health outcomes and found that over 18 months of follow-up, COVID was associated with a “significantly increased risk” for 64 of them, or nearly 70%. The disease’s enhanced risk list includes everything from cardiac arrest, stroke, chronic kidney disease, and cognitive impairment to mental health and fatigue, two characteristics often associated with long COVID.

By comparison, the seasonal flu was associated with increased risk in only six of the 94 conditions specified. Further, while COVID increased the risks for almost all the organ systems studied, the flu heightened risk primarily for the pulmonary(lung) system. Those findings, Al-Aly says, suggest that “COVID is really a multi-systemic disease, and flu is more a respiratory virus.”

...

The result: COVID-19 poses a much higher risk, both in the short run and long term, than flu. But the flu remains “a formidable foe,” Al-Aly says. “Going into this winter season where cases of COVID and flu are rising, people should make sure they are vaccinated for both, and for RSV if they qualify, and take precautions to lower their risk.”

hepcat wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 3:44 pm And 2nd test was positive. Quarantine time. Thankfully, my throat is feeling much better and my congestion is almost gone. So I suspect I'm on the downward end of the trip.

hepcat wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 3:47 pm The only really concerning part of is that light headedness, as I mentioned. I wasn't expecting that. Feels like I'm high.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:57 pm Wife's home test was the slightest bit positive after returning from a cruise (go figure)

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:58 pm
There's some variation in the guidance based on severity and underlying health status, but I'd go with 10. And to make sure you're counting the days correctly - Day 1 (of 10 or 5) is the day *after* you start showing symptoms.

I had my health. I had a job. And then, abruptly, I didn’t.

...

One symptom would fade and a new one would assert itself. My ankles deflated and I started wearing the new sneakers, but my breathing and stamina steadily worsened. A wheeze or cough would interrupt my talking. On the mile-long walk back from school with my younger son, the route we’d been taking for two years, I lagged behind, guiltily asking him to slow down. I started buying five-pound bags of rice from H Mart instead of ten-pound ones. Then I just started getting rice delivered.

...

When I started hearing about the late-summer COVID wave, it occurred to me that now I was one of those people myself. This is what disability advocates have said all along, not that it usually sinks in: The able and the disabled aren’t two different kinds of people but the same people at different times. Last year, I was healthy; this year, I had a breathing ailment, even if nobody could say exactly what that ailment was.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:12 pm Wife ordered the sushi boat twice. Sushi is #1 on the click-bait slideshow of foods never to have on a cruise.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:19 pm This story is making the rounds today, so I'm sharing it here. It's a bit long, but it's fantastic storytelling.

Kraken wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 12:47 am It is a good story. It is also more than a bit long. Before you devote the time to read it, you might like to know the ending.

Hospitals throughout the state are seeing an increase in COVID-19 admissions. There’s also been a slight rise in deaths, experts say.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 3:42 pm 'the virus has achieved a sort of intelligence and, like some bacteria/parasites, is now selected to alter people's personalities to drop precautions against transmission and infection'

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 3:44 pm Wouldn't be the first...