Covid-19 Politics

[blackchubby38]

I had a breakthrough infection back at the end of February. The timeline for me was like this:

February 23/24- I felt like I was coming down with a cold. So I took a sick day on the 24th, which was a Friday. I felt well enough to go back to work on Monday, although for most of the day I had a runny nose. Coincidentally, I read in a Covid patient's medical record that he too had a runny nose and that's what made me get tested on Tuesday, the 27th. This was the third Covid test that I ever took and this time I knew something was different when my nose reacted differently to the cotton swab. I got the call the next morning that I tested positive and had to stay home for the rest of the week.

Even though I had mild symptoms(I felt like I did when I normally had a cold), they were annoying and I made an appointment to receive the Monoclonal antibody treatment on the Monday that I was scheduled to go back to work. Mainly because of the chest discomfort. But since I spent most of my time in quarantine doing my usual biweekly house cleaning, I didn't go through with the treatment and I decided that I felt well enough to return to work. By the end of that week, I would say that I was pretty much back to my old self. Although for awhile there, I had blood in my mucous. But as someone who has sinus problems, I'm pretty much use to that.

So now since I apparently have super immunity, I haven't decided yet if I'm going to get a booster shot if they're made available. I'm waiting to see what the final decision is going to be on whether most of the population needs one. But if I have to get one, I'm going with Moderna this time.

[sukumvit boy]

Nice to hear you recovered well blackchubby38.
It certainly looks like we all need to continue masking in certain enclosed situations , and don't forget hand washing after being in public .
Why do you say that about the Moderna shot? What did you have before?

[blackchubby38]

Nice to hear you recovered well blackchubby38.
It certainly looks like we all need to continue masking in certain enclosed situations , and don't forget hand washing after being in public .
Why do you say that about the Moderna shot? What did you have before?

Pfizer. But I'm thinking its time to take the vaccine that was once described as the Sledgehammer.

BTW, Since we are on the topic of booster shots:

Why Experts Can’t Seem to Agree on Boosters

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/o...ster-shot.html


And since Broncofan brought up "test and treat":


‘Test-to-treat’ could transform the pandemic

thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/3266378-test-to-treat-could-transform-the-pandemic/

[sukumvit boy]

I couldn't access the NYT link .But I certainly agree that test and treat is is the best way to go. I had pfizer and my partner had Moderna initial vaccinations and 1st boosters . I really think that both offer you the best protection available in practical terms with minor differences in terms of keeping you out ofthe hospital and alive.I thought that for some odd reason you might have had one of the other vaccines out there.
Take heart, having survived ,there is little doubt that you now have exceptionally strong immunity but should still get the 2nd booster when it becoms available . Will they give you a Pfiser booster if you have had Moderna all along ? I don't know.

[Ben]

Lack of Covid testing leaves researchers blind to evolution patterns, WHO warns
Potentially dangerous mutations of the virus could go unnoticed due to testing cuts, UN health agency says: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/26/lack-of-covid-testing-leaves-researches-blind-to-evolution-patterns-who-warns

[Stavros]

Not just the variants that are dangerous...is the RNC going to expel this guy or disown him or do something to remove him from public office? Nah...why?

"The chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party received a loud cheer at a campaign event after calling for Anthony Fauci to be “put in front of a firing squad”.
John Bennett, who is also running for Congress, said Dr Fauci should be tried and executed without offering any explanation what for at a campaign stop ahead of his June primary."
Republicans cheer as GOP candidate says Fauci should be executed by firing squad | The Independent

[Stavros]

A million deaths from Covid in the US, and some explanations why- and consider the failures of the 'Pro-Life' party that bear a heavy responsibility for that million....

"“You can’t separate our failure in the pandemic from conflicts over ideology and politics,” said Blumenthal. “The approach to the pandemic became enmeshed in people’s party affiliation and in their views towards government.”
‘Failure of an American ideology’: why Covid has an outsized impact on the US | US healthcare | The Guardian

[Ben]

Evidence of Possible Lab Origin of Covid-19:
https://theintercept.com/2022/05/19/...jeffrey-sachs/

[broncofan]

Biden tested positive for covid either yesterday or the day before. He has been vaccinated and boosted twice and is being prescribed Paxlovid, the pfizer antiviral that was shown to be very effective at preventing hospitalization in clinical trials. It will be interesting to see how his case progresses but hopefully it is mild and he doesn't have the rebound of symptoms that some people do after they finish the five day course.

In fall, a vaccine that provides enhanced protection against omicron is expected to be ready for the public. The vaccines we have don't provide very much protection against infection but still seem to be fairly effective against severe disease. I've read it's a good idea for our vaccines to be updated as there's a higher probability that new variants are descendants of omicron and we should prime our immune system with antigen that's closer to what's actually circulating. There's a chance that some protection against infection is restored and that we maintain protection against severe disease as new variants continue to appear.

I'll see if I can find an article I like with info about the updated vaccines.

[broncofan]

For science geeks out there, one reason I've read that omicron vaccines have been difficult to develop is due to something called immunological imprinting. The catchier rhetorical phrase is "original antigenic sin". Apparently your first exposure to a type of virus makes it more difficult for you to produce antibodies that tackle slightly different variants of that virus. I think the idea is that your immune response is anchored a bit to the first version you've seen.

Here's a definition I found: Immune imprinting is a phenomenon whereby initial exposure to one virus strain effectively primes B cell memory and limits the development of memory B cells and neutralizing antibodies against new minor variant strains of the virus.

Here's an earlier article about the phenomenon and its relevance to vaccines tailored to newer variants but there's a lot of discussion about it that's over my head. Many virologists I follow attribute some of the slowness in development to overcoming this phenomenon. What I haven't heard discussed is market failure. As long as boosters provide protection against severe disease what incentives do companies (mainly Pfizer and Moderna) have to produce more effective vaccines (until booster rates drop which they probably are doing)?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8440232/