As have I (Pfizer) since April.In short, if you want to avoid being seriously affected by the Delta and Delta+ variants, get yourself fully vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines now. I've been fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine since mid-May 2021.
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) informational thread
- Thread starter yaxomoxay
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Booster is a loose term. I've found that I have to read the entire article to get the context of how the article uses the term. Most articles assume that you are reading it in the same way that they are writing about it.
I got a post on COVID vaccine effectiveness on chemo. A patient was in a clinical trial and he got his bloodwork two months after his shot and the concentration of antibodies was about 1/20th of that of a normal person. So there is protection but less of it. If you're on chemo, you're avoiding people as much as you can anyways, even without a pandemic.
I got my second dose of Pfizer in early February. Caught something in May. I'm calling it "something" because I had no known exposure to anything and at the time I considered a test, I had pretty much missed the window where it would have given a positive result. So...I went untested.In short, if you want to avoid being seriously affected by the Delta and Delta+ variants, get yourself fully vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines now. I've been fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine since mid-May 2021.
I do wish I would have attempted a test anyway, because when you compare the more common symptoms of the delta variant as compared to "regular" COVID...mine lined up. The symptoms were at their absolute worst for about a day. And it didn't feel "mild" by any means. I've had the flu and it was awful. Whatever this was, was worse than that. The cough held on for about 4 days after the rest of the symptoms passed. Got a good muscle workout from that cough 😂.
I now have two instances where I suspect that I've had this thing. The second, as mentioned, (if that's what it was) was May. The first is a question mark because everything lines up with COVID...except the timing. It was late-summer of 2019. The symptoms I had matched up, it took absolutely forever to get rid of, it was unlike anything I've ever had before, and I've had minor breathing difficulties and occasional migraines (both of which are things I've NEVER had before) ever since.
And to add...with me in my house, I have one other vaccinated person (my wife) and one unvaccinated (my daughter...not old enough). Neither one of them caught what I had in May. And neither caught whatever it was I had in 2019. So either I didn't have what I suspect I did...or my wife and daughter have now been lucky TWICE.
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We don’t need to vaccinate everyone in the world (although it would be ideal). We need to vaccinate those who are 60+ and didn’t have COVID.
Yeah, the Delta variant is kinda laughing at that. Seeing so many younger people getting nailed with the variant and hard.
Personally, I am kinda worried to see how it effects the younger unable to be vaccinated kids as school returns soon. My son is vaccinated, but he's in 8th grade and he will be back at school in 2 weeks with 6th graders who aren't old enough to get vaccinated.
As we all know, schools are friggen petrie dishes. Everything gets passed around.
Not really. They get sick, true however Death rate is incredibly low. We’re going to see higher number of cases but death rate is very low.
337 people under 18 died so far of COVID. 819 died of pneumonia in the same date range. Now, it’s true that they can be carrier, and that’s why it’s the older population (or those medically at risk) that we need to focus on. Total vaccination would be certainly the best, but with limited stock we have to focus where it makes sense.
It's not always about death rate though. My best friend has been dealing with "long covid" since the first week of December. He's finally off the meds, and the covid induced diabetes has gone away, but now he is still dealing with fatigue and brain fog.
They did an MRI and found white spots that shouldn't be there. He has an issue with recall. Sometimes it can take him 10 seconds longer to recall things, sometimes 20 minutes. Being a paramedic of 23 years, he cannot work a rig. Could you imagine at a scene he's working to recall which drug he needs to push or how much?
I know, my brother is having a similar issue and might need brain surgery due to a plethora of symptoms from long COVID. He barely made it . He got COVID in November. There are going to be cases like that, but again considering that vax stocks are limited we need to focus on who’s most likely to die or have serious issuss, which is 65+ (Although I’d lower it to 45+).
According to my son's cardiologist (he's got a major heart condition), the thing they are seeing is in children that have had covid, that they are seeing increases in caridac enzymes in previously healthy kids months after they recover. These enzymes show up when the heart is damaged.
Absolutely, it’s serious. My comment was based on your comment about getting the vaccines. Let me put it another way: I’d rather give precedence to boosters to those above 45 (at minimum those 65+) than vaccinating more people under 25. I hope that sooner rather than later this won’t be a choice that we have to make. I had my 15yo get a vaccine for example, so I don’t oppose the idea at all.
good luck to your kid; I had open heart surgery at 17…
Thanks. His cardiac report wasn't the greatest this last year. He was on a EKG/ECG watch every two years, dropped to one year this time and he wasn't going to be cleared for any sports at all, but we talked her into letting him play soccer at a rec level, and only defense at that.
Back in the second week of June, I started to experience a bad, metallic taste in my mouth and also funny smell that lasted for nine days! 😲 😒 I wonder did I experience a very mild case of COVID based on the Delta variant (the CDC website and the web site of my health provider weren't that helpful).
I of course wouldn't give a definitive answer, but could say it's entirely possible!
One of my biggest gripes with COVID's symptoms is that they are the same as so many other things. I have allergies, so especially at this time of year...I have a cough. Even though I know darn well what is causing my cough, every time it gets a little more frequent, it's an "oh crap" moment!
Here in Canada we have over half of our people fully vaccinated and a good percentage (over 80% over 12 years of age) with their first dose...many thought we were just weeks away from beating this thing. (and we're reopening our border for vaccinated Americans to be able to travel to Canada on August 9th).
Our case counts here in BC have doubled the last 3 days from the week prior. Not good. Undoubtedly it'll be the delta variant.
We have about 10% of our population that seems dead set against getting the vaccines. 3.7B doses have gone out (per Johns Hopkins), but they still cling to the belief that the vaccines are experimental. (find me a single drug trial anywhere that has been so extensively tested?!)
Me, I think there's considerable likelihood another variant could evolve that poses an even greater threat if we can't get the world vaccinated at a faster rate.
Our case counts here in BC have doubled the last 3 days from the week prior. Not good. Undoubtedly it'll be the delta variant.
We have about 10% of our population that seems dead set against getting the vaccines. 3.7B doses have gone out (per Johns Hopkins), but they still cling to the belief that the vaccines are experimental. (find me a single drug trial anywhere that has been so extensively tested?!)
Me, I think there's considerable likelihood another variant could evolve that poses an even greater threat if we can't get the world vaccinated at a faster rate.
We have people go on clinical trials because they will otherwise die and there are no other options. COVID is so much easier than cancer when you can just get a vaccine.
I think that's a misuse of the term. If a better vaccine is developed, then it should be used as soon as it is available. But the first one is very effective, and doses already produced should not be thrown out. So, poor countries that have low vaccination rates could get the better vaccine sooner than countries where many have already gotten first doses, and would be in line for better booster shots. Most likely, countries that control vaccines would hoard the better one and "charitably" give poor countries their remaining original vaccines.
The use of the term in news articles is ambiguous. You have to read more of the article to figure out which context they are referring to. If you've read articles on the development of vaccines to address variants and the articles on third doses, they use the same term to refer to both. I'm just using the term as it is being used in general discussion and by the media.
Also from Canada and from BC, I am probably one of the few Canadians that had gotten COVID in early 2019 while travelling back from Eastern Europe or perhaps had gotten it when I worked during Christmas and was helping a customer with computer problems who was clearly sick; coughing, runny nose etc and my supervisor was afraid of getting sick and knew that I used to work in nursing and kind of immune to the cold and flu, so the supervisor conveniently shifted that customer to me. And I had the flu shot because I was still working in private nursing on the side, so I thought I'll be fine if I got it. Boy was I wrong. When I got sick just about 1 week after the last exposure, I felt weird because it wasn't the usually flu or cold. I had a flash fever and a persistent cough with a slight sore throat, but eventually I got better and I guess I didn't give that much thought until. What comes next was something I didn't expect. I got LONG COVID; still have a bit of a symptom today. I got COVID toes, strange skin rashes on my feet and hands which flakes off for some odd reasons. Hard to breath and chronic fatigue syndrome and had some brain fog in the beginning like I couldn't remember my bank PIN. That's wasn't good or I forgot how much is Canadian money; that kind of basic stuff you take for granted. But after COVID, I just lost it at least for a brief moment. The brain fog went away thank god. I thought I was developing an early onset of dementia! After COVID, I am not fit especially when you are living in BC and do a lot of running. My best 10k was 38min. Now, I'm glad if I can make 2 km in 1hr! While I had recovered mostly from the Long Covid symptoms, it wasn't until last year during the general checkup that my GP decided to do a white blood cells count because he wanted to know what's going on with me. And lord and behold, my body was still fighting something as the white blood cells count was high and still is today (16 months after the last infection) which signifies the T-cell response to something. I went to see a specialist for this blood disorder and the specialist finally concluded, after taking 48 vials of blood, scans, xrays and ultrasound later that I should get the mRNA vaccine which I did for the first dose. That was 8 weeks ago and I can definitely feel the effect. I was getting better and I recovered from LONG Covid almost completely. I'm due for the 2nd shot today so we'll see how it goes.
I believe that I had gotten 3 hits including the Delta variant, because the last one I had was really quick! What I meant quick was the early variants were slow. I could feel I was getting ill, but my body defended the variants easily and recovered quickly. With natural immunity, the original variant and the UK variant were easy to deal with. But with the Delta variant, my natural immunity + Moderna held up a valiant fight I think, but it wasn't a walk in the park.
LONG Covid is a real disease and unfortunately, no one has a clue how to deal with this yet. What some people don't realize is that Long Covid will disable a large number of able bodied workers, who could not return to their former jobs at their full capacity, which means that as long as people are not willing to vaccinate themselves to prevent them from potentially developing Long Covid, I suspect many more businesses will have a hard time finding workers. People need to realize that it's not that workers are lazy and collecting stimulus benefits because they don't want to work. They are collecting the stimulus benefits because they can't work due to Long Covid and probably will need on-going financial assistance moving forward.
New Covid variant under investigation in the UK, PHE says
No evidence to suggest it causes more severe illness, PHE says
www.independent.co.uk
Yup. As anticipated, here we go. 🙄
But will it cause a lot of sickness for those who got the full vaccine doses? 🤔 🤷♂️New Covid variant under investigation in the UK, PHE says
No evidence to suggest it causes more severe illness, PHE says
Yup. As anticipated, here we go. 🙄
Per the article that's being investigated - currently they're saying there's no evidence of enhanced virulence or vaccine evasiveness... though it's worth noting that's distinct from there is no enhanced virulence or vaccine evasiveness. I guess this is one to watch for the time being, but even if it does prove relatively benign, another variant in circulation with a different set of advantages probably isn't a good thing full stop...
New report out of Isreal (where they have done a lot of testing of their COVID vaccinations):
And personally, 88% effectiveness is low enough for me to mask indoors for a long time...
EDIT: Watch the video in the link above too. Dr Scott Gottlieb says some of the Isreali data is showing for older people who got vaccinated early, severe illness protection may be dropping and now below 80%.
- Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine is just 39% effective in Israel where the delta variant is the dominant strain, according to a new report from the country’s Health Ministry.
- The two-dose vaccine still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness, according to the Israeli data.
And personally, 88% effectiveness is low enough for me to mask indoors for a long time...
EDIT: Watch the video in the link above too. Dr Scott Gottlieb says some of the Isreali data is showing for older people who got vaccinated early, severe illness protection may be dropping and now below 80%.
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