Have you been vaccinated for COVID-19?

[frimble3]

A friend of mine once said of New Hampshire: "The state motto is Live Free or Die, and they mean it."

What a shame.

Yes, but this is more like: 'Live Free and Die'.

 

[starrystorm]

Found out that the cruise has changed to masks at all times. Kind of a bummer, but I'll do anything for saftey.

 

[BenPanced]

Republicans lose their shit again as CDC now recommends vaccinated people start wearing masks again.

 

[Introversion]

A friend of mine once said of New Hampshire: "The state motto is Live Free or Die, and they mean it."

Time to build a wall, Massachusetts...

 

[BenPanced]

CDC Data Tracker allows you to select your local county for various data and information related to transmission and vaccine levels.

 

[AW Admin]

A friend of mine once said of New Hampshire: "The state motto is Live Free or Die, and they mean it."

What a shame.

As a native, I'm a little bitter. Stupid and stupider.

Motto ought to be "Live free and die while taking you nearest and dearest with you"

 

[Roxxsmom]

I'm sad that the NH governor removed the original requirement, but here in CA (supposedly the bluest of blue states--a blue state that has barely topped 50% of adults fully vaccinated ) there has never been a vaccine mandate to enter public venues and spaces, just a recommendation that the unvaccinated continue to wear masks in public spaces (which the vaccinated are recommended to do now as well). I doubt our Gov or the legislature here is going to do anything to push for more restrictions again, since they are peeing themselves over the upcoming recall election.

They are, I believe, now going to require vaccines for public employees and health care workers in CA. Seems like a no brainer.

But overall, the theme here has also been stupider and stupider.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Seeecond dose vaccine acquired today, baby! Whooo!

Coooounting down the days to full protection! Aaand then I'm going to the butterfly house in the zoo! And I'm not going to flinch because it's inside! And I'm going to wear my pretty snake mask my nephew made and look smashing!

And then I'm going to have a drink and send in another donation to the first vaccination programme I can think of because well duh, I want other people to have the miracle of vaccines too.

...but first I'm going to take the suggested painkiller because my arm is owie and I feel just a little colder than I should....

 

[Unimportant]

In two weeks, I get to put my name on the 'please give me an appointment' list. The roll-out in NZ has been rather....slow. Still, I'm happy with how they're prioritizing it.

One of my workmates did have quite a bad reaction to the second jab -- vertigo and nausea to the point that he spent two days in bed -- but he said that healthy young men actually are (so he's heard) the most likely to have such a reaction. Being none of the three, and having sailed through flu jabs over the years with zero side effects, I expect I'll have nothing more than a sore arm.

It's weird how I still take for granted that here in NZ we have zero restrictions and zero community cases. But every time I read the news, I flinch. Five weeks of super strict lockdown here in 2020 wasn't fun; I can't imagine how Yanks and Brits etc feel after more than a year of that. But I also know that, sooner or later, delta is going to escape quarantine and hit our streets. I hope like hell that it waits till we've got the majority of the population vaccinated..... (yeah, and I also hope that I get a giraffe for my birthday).

 

[Helix]

I had my first AZ on 11 June. I could have had it a few weeks earlier, but as I was heading out to the bush, I thought that if I did have a bad reaction, it would be embarrassing if I had to call out the Flying Doctor. (Although also quite an adventure. ) Of course, I didn't have a bad reaction, only the usual overnight chills, headache and muscle ache. They passed in a few hours.

Next shot is scheduled for 3 September and I am looking forward to it.

 

[Unimportant]

Oooh, I'd not thought of that, Helix! Now I want to get the shot and then head off to nowheresville, just so I can get a free chopper trip. I've always wanted to fly in a helicopter.....

 

[Helix]

I don't think the RFDS run helicopters, so I reckon it would have been one of their King Airs. Possibly landing on a station airstrip or the dirt road, with the cops going out ahead of the landing to knock down markers and block what little traffic there is. (I might be over-romanticising this.)

 

[akiwiguy]

NZ has been Covid free for ages, but vaccination has been lagging till now. I get my first one tomorrow.

 

[TeresaRose]

Reported by Global News, decided by Alberta's Health Officer, as of August 16, Alberta Canada will no longer require COVID-19 POSITIVE people to isolate! What!

 

[BenPanced]

Meanwhile meanwhile, another variant has been reported in Florida.

 

[Friendly Frog]

So I woke around 3 AM feeling hot and achy and it literally took me five minutes to grasp that ah yes, these are vaccine side effects. They did say pfizer was mostly felt at the second shot.

Fever, quesiness at night and then pretty much general apathy for the entire day. But I'm hoping this will have passed by tomorrow. But if that's what COVID is like even in the tiniest aspect, I'm glad I got the vaccine!

 

[owlion]

I got my second shot yesterday (much earlier than expected), which was nice! So far I've just had a sore arm and felt quite tired, but strangely the side effects seem less bad than with the first shot.

 

[Introversion]

Polarization over Covid vaccine prompts some Americans to get shot in secret

Better furtive & incognito than sick or dead.

 

[Introversion]

This 900-person delta cluster in Mass. has CDC freaked out—74% are vaccinated

An analysis of a COVID-19 cluster of around 900 people in Massachusetts—74 percent of whom are vaccinated—is among the alarming data that spurred the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse course on masks this week.

According to an internal CDC document first obtained by The Washington Post, data on the Provincetown, Massachusetts, cluster showed that vaccinated people carried surprisingly high levels of the delta coronavirus in their noses and throats. More importantly, vaccinated people were found to be spreading the dangerous virus variant to other vaccinated people. Nationwide, the CDC estimated that there are 35,000 symptomatic breakthrough infections per week among 162 million fully vaccinated Americans.

The CDC document overall highlights that delta is extremely contagious—much more so than previous versions of the virus, as well as the common cold or even the seasonal flu. Delta is more in line with the contagiousness of chickenpox, the CDC document said.

US officials should acknowledge that with delta dominating the country, "the war has changed," the document read. Officials who spoke with the Post say that the analyses and the urgency the document contains are what prompted the CDC to reverse its masking guidance earlier this week. The CDC now recommends indoor masking, regardless of vaccination status, in schools, in areas with "high" or substantial" COVID-19 transmission, or when there's contact with vulnerable people, such as unvaccinated children or immunocompromised people.

But the document shared with the Post two days after the CDC mask update goes further, saying, "Given higher transmissibility and current vaccine coverage, universal masking is essential to reduce transmission of the delta variant."

 

[Chris P]

I got my second shot yesterday (much earlier than expected), which was nice! So far I've just had a sore arm and felt quite tired, but strangely the side effects seem less bad than with the first shot.

I zonked out for a few hours with the first shot, and the second shot gave me no side effects at all. I guess we all have our own reactions.

 

[MaeZe]

Wow! The first hospital I ever worked in, my first job out of nursing school, was in Craig Colorado, a small town about 35 miles from where I lived in Steamboat Springs. They were just featured on CNN as a hospital in Loren Boebert's district that is experiencing an especially high rate of COVID 19 patients right now. Weird but this is an emotional moment for me.

CNN's Gary Tuchman visits a county in Northwestern Colorado where the vaccination rate is low and the Covid-19 infection rate is high. The area is represented by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who is in defiance of new Covid rules on Capitol Hill.

 

[TeresaRose]

Wow! The first hospital I ever worked in, my first job out of nursing school, was in Craig Colorado, a small town about 35 miles from where I lived in Steamboat Springs. They were just featured on CNN as a hospital in Loren Boebert's district that is experiencing an especially high rate of COVID 19 patients right now. Weird but this is an emotional moment for me.

Not weird at all, MaeZe. I get emotional every time I see these clips. For the suffering patients, and the frustrated nurses and doctors. It really is heartbreaking, that they have to work day and night, make so many sacrifices tending to Covid patients, when this could all be just a distant memory if we would have got it right, and ALL of us isolated for two weeks in the beginning, or at least soon after, when more was known about the virus. To have these government twits fight against mask wearing, etc. is still, after all this time, incredulous to me! That they make it a political issue, or/and don't believe in the virus at all. IT IS INSANE! and it's very very sad. Lives are lost, families destroyed because of these people. The way she sashays down the steps, her hair bouncing on her back, grinning, and the way she yells, giving her speech, making her proclamations, makes me think she LOVES the attention. She craves attention and will do anything to get it. She won't let anything stand in her way. If lives are lost, so be it. It's a chance to get bigger, get more followers, more likes.

 

[BenPanced]

I've just checked local NPR news and found out I'm still under "substantial" or "high" risk (live in Ramsey County, Minnesota, work in Hennepin), where masks indoors are still recommended for those vaccinated. I'll have to check my work email when I get home since I was off last week and see if procedure's changed significantly (currently, essential on-site staff can forego masks if they're fully vaccinated and everybody has to check in with a nurse for quick health screening).

 

[MaeZe]

Post office and the couple grocery stores I've been in still have masks not needed if you are vaccinated signs up. Only the library, pharmacy and the Kaiser clinics facilities have masks required signs up.

The governor continues to give mixed messages which no doubt he believes are very clear. These guys have no clue their messages cannot be nuanced if they are to be effective. This state is going to have a terrible time trying to put the mask genie back in the bottle.

And from the comments on the Nextdoor forum a few people in this area are almost certainly taking advantage of the mask optional situation to take their masks off and remain unvaccinated. Here (Seattle and surrounds) there are only a few of them but in places like Spokane I imagine there is a majority of unmasked unvaccinated people running around in public indoor spaces. It's a setup for a delta-variant epidemic.

 

[MaeZe]

Here are two important stories about what's going on with the vaccines vs the variants: masks and social distancing are still required.
Dropping anti-Covid measures during vaccine rollout 'risks resistant variants'

It's counterintuitive until you look at why.

Predictably, the model showed that a rapid rate of vaccination reduced the risk of a resistant strain emerging.

But in what the authors called a "counterintuitive result", the model showed that the highest risk of resistant strains emerging came when a large proportion of the population was vaccinated, but not large enough to ensure herd immunity.

This is in essence where much of Europe is currently, where the Delta variant is spreading rapidly.

The authors said the model showed a threshold of 60 percent of the population vaccinated, after which resistant variants were more likely to occur.

The situation in the US—where 60 percent of adults are fully vaccinated and 80 percent of new cases are caused by the Delta variant—is similar.

"Vaccines are our best bet to beat this pandemic" said co-author Simon Rella, from Austria's Institute of Science and Technology (IST).

"What our model showed is that when most people are vaccinated, the vaccine-resistant strain has an advantage over the original strain.

"This means that the vaccine-resistant strain spreads through the population faster than the original strain at a time when most people are vaccinated," Rella told journalists in an online briefing.

And the technical article that goes with it:

JULY 30, 2021: Expert reaction to modeling study looking at SARS- :CoV-2 transmission during COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and likelihood of emergence of vaccine-resistant variants

“This modelling study looks at the conditions which increase the risk of the emergence and establishment of a vaccine resistant variant. One of the key results is that the risk is highest when a large fraction of the population has been vaccinated, but transmission is also high. This is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. It has to be remembered that this is a modelling study. The real world is always much more complex than can be represented in a model and chance will always play a key role. Nevertheless, studies like this can highlight threats and help us work through potential risk-mitigation strategies.” ...

“In this peer-reviewed modelling study, the authors use a model with SARS-CoV-2 like parameters to assess the potential emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, and the role of the impact of the rate of vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce the probability of the establishment of vaccine-resistant variants in the population.

“As stressed by the authors, the mechanism to adjust the transmission rate reflects the strengthening or relaxation of a package of non-pharmaceutical interventions. The model in the study does not attribute the effect of individual intervention measures on virus transmission rates.