Coronavirus / COVID-19

[eldaec]

Thing in the Times about a study that concluded the vaccines (AZ at least) were almost certainly reducing transmission and not just turning cases asymptomatic, that I found reasonably convincing and understandable...

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b53bb7c6-a39b-11eb-949b-ab1b919d4f89?shareToken=f37be92aea796fe41300f90a89aea52e

The team conducting the study, which has been published before peer review, was able to record the viral load by noting how many “cycles” in the test were needed to detect a positive result.

Standard coronavirus tests employ a reaction known as PCR, in which genetic material from the virus is continually amplified. The fewer such amplifications needed to spot a positive, the more virus is present.

People who were vaccinated were far more likely to require 30 cycles or more to produce a positive result.

“I think from that we can infer that it likely reduces transmission,” Dr Koen Pouwels, from the University of Oxford, said. “These are people that are still able to transmit, but at a lower rate. So I think we can be fairly confident that there is a reduction. We just need to quantify the exact reduction.”

[Khaldun]

And yet international travel IS a thing and varients are spreading around.

Yes, that's what we're talking about already.

[HaemishM]

There are way too many unvaccinated, stupid motherfuckers running around maskless for me to feel safe either not wearing a mask in public or dining in a restaurant or going to the gym. People like my sister who apparently is going around saying "it's just a flu." I haven't spoken to her, and fear that when I do, I'll say something like "You get a flu shot, you dumb bitch, what do you think that is?"

[rattran]

1 week after my first shot, and I have a tooth going bad. Had a panic attack just thinking about going in among the unwashed only partly-vaccinated myself.

[Mandella]

1 week after my first shot, and I have a tooth going bad. Had a panic attack just thinking about going in among the unwashed only partly-vaccinated myself.

Around here the dentists still have procedures that would be the envy of the guys in the lab in The Andromeda Strain. You stay in your car when you arrive. They come get you and take you directly to your exam room. Everyone is masked and all rooms are wiped down and sanitized between uses.

I actually felt safer at my periodontist than at my doctor's office. A lot safer, actually. For all the six foot spacing and plexi shields patients waiting were still directed to go sit in clearly unsanitized shared chairs.

[Sir T]

I had a bad tooth pulled during the week. Utterly horrific extraction as the tooth had been infected for months, but the point is that the dentist wore this thing that looked like a space helmet with a pipe for airflow going behind his back. They also did not have any people waiting in the waiting room and you had to wait in your cars outside.

I wouldn't worry about infection at a dentists.

[rattran]

I've been putting off 2 extractions and an implant for a year. If it was just an extraction, I wouldn't be as worried. But it's more involved, and in Missouri. So I'm worried.

[slog]

I received the 2nd Dose of the Pfizer yesterday.  Today, I will entertain you all with details of my suffering. My employer gives us a full week of "Covid Relief Time Off" to use for stuff like getting vaccinated so used today because why not?

So other than a little fatigue, no side effects from the 2nd Pfizer dose.

[Rasix]

Son's baseball team had to shut down for a week due to the coach's kid testing positive. Not a big shocker, considering I've never seen a mask on the kid's face. Most of the real jock-ish kids barely even have them. It's interesting seeing the divide in mask usage. The breakdown on parent's profession is somewhat mixed. There's exceptions present, like the dentists' kids never wearing masks. Some kids whose parents are Univerisity employed wear and some don't. Most doctor's kids' do.

The one universal seems to be if your kid is a star player, a mask does not touch their face. Which is kind of odd, considering most of those players' parents have aspirations of them being collegiate atheletes and beyond. Might be difficult if COVID fucks up their lungs.

Luckily my son tested negative. We're both vaccinated but got tested anyways. They wanted to play Saturday, but I think we were the only hold out due to testing not being back yet. Funny enough, we were only going to have 8 and thus play with 8 (since no team wanted to lend players, shocker) since the coach's kid and other start player (both likely still had covid?) were playing in a club ball tournament. Fucking hell.

[Khaldun]

The way in which the disease got politicized across the world (it's not just the US) conditioned some reactions and responses that I think might not have happened otherwise. Polio is a good counter-example. At its height, people were really sensitive across the board to the risk of it even if the iron-lung level of consequence was relatively rare, and especially families whose kids were athletic with aspirations in that direction. If the political hierarchy in the US and elsewhere had said forthrightly, "look, the long-term consequences are rare but very serious, mask up and limit your exposure", I think some of the people who've rejected masking would have accepted it. Once it got mapped against serious divides within global populations, it was all over.

[slog]

The way in which the disease got politicized across the world (it's not just the US) conditioned some reactions and responses that I think might not have happened otherwise. Polio is a good counter-example. At its height, people were really sensitive across the board to the risk of it even if the iron-lung level of consequence was relatively rare, and especially families whose kids were athletic with aspirations in that direction. If the political hierarchy in the US and elsewhere had said forthrightly, "look, the long-term consequences are rare but very serious, mask up and limit your exposure", I think some of the people who've rejected masking would have accepted it. Once it got mapped against serious divides within global populations, it was all over.

Counterpoint: Seat Belts.  'The long-term consequences of an accident are rare but very serious, buckle up and limit your exposure' has been similar to the marketing campaign for decades.  It was only when we mandated their use that people changed their behavior. 

[Cyrrex]

I don't necessarily agree with making it "mandatory" as such, but that doesn't mean both government and private entities can't make your life impossible if you don't have, say, a vaccine pass.  Don't want a vaccine?  Cool!  Also, we'll arrest you if you go out in public.

[Khaldun]

Arundhati Roy on the devastation of covid-19 in India right now. An unsparing indictment of Modi and the government he has shaped. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/28/crime-against-humanity-arundhati-roy-india-covid-catastrophe

[eldaec]

India is the only country I've spent time in where the degree of nationalist and sectarian infection in the discourse even among generally well educated, was just frightening.

It is where Trump/Johnson et al lead.

And that piece is say exactly what I'd expect.

[Khaldun]

At least some of that is a result of Modi's repression--somewhere in the last five years, it's become actively dangerous to be an educated, elite Hindu who is on record as disagreeing with Modi and Hindutva. (Obviously it's been real bad to be a Muslim elite since the very beginning of Modi's rise to power.)

And yes, this is precisely where this was always going in India and will go anywhere else on this road. It's not an accident that Hungary has had one of the world's worst death rates from covid-19 and that Brazil has been a catastrophe throughout the pandemic. Authoritarianism and sectarian nationalism doesn't even create efficient structures for managing public crises.

[pxib]

Finally got first shot of Moderna after it got easier to get appointments online, and although there'd been a rush early on once things cleared up I had all sots of options. No crowd, no fuss, got it at a grocery store pharmacy a few blocks away... went shopping for the 15 minutes I wasn't recommended to drive.  Injection site was hot and achy the day of, merely achy for an additional three days and now I'm just waiting until mid May for the scheduled second shot.

Asking around, the report is that people are coming to their appointments on time and the appointments are indeed still booking up solid just more slowly than early on. Even though rural Kansas has a lot more doubters than the urban area I'm in, they're apparently also getting consistent enough business that they're using doses as quick as they're getting them. Everybody jokes about how getting the vaccine improves your cell phone reception.

[Sky]

My county is redneck af and we're at 51% 1st dose, 41% fully vaxxed.

I'm kind of amazed, but it does take the edge off being at the grocery store lately. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much more penetration we're going to get.

[Strazos]

At least some of that is a result of Modi's repression--somewhere in the last five years, it's become actively dangerous to be an educated, elite Hindu who is on record as disagreeing with Modi and Hindutva. (Obviously it's been real bad to be a Muslim elite since the very beginning of Modi's rise to power.)

And yes, this is precisely where this was always going in India and will go anywhere else on this road. It's not an accident that Hungary has had one of the world's worst death rates from covid-19 and that Brazil has been a catastrophe throughout the pandemic. Authoritarianism and sectarian nationalism doesn't even create efficient structures for managing public crises.

And as bad as it is here in India...it's likely to only get a lot worse before it gets better. People are still having weddings and other large-scale religious ceremonies here.

[01101010]

Pfizer round two was an hour ago. Some woman waiting in observation had a reaction while waiting to leave. Visibly sweating and kinda out of it so that was interesting.

Now the wait-and-see part starts. Good thing I took care of all my errands yesterday on my day off.

edit: Fell asleep on the couch last night and remained there. Getting up this morning, feels like I have a medium sized hangover. Stomach is flip-flopping, headachy, slight ringing in the ears, and overall body aches but nothing severe. Slightly hard to focus on anything that takes up brainpower, but that is probably due to everything else being more pronounced. The arm I got the injection in is less sore than the last one. So overall, nothing crazy...

[Cyrrex]

edit: Fell asleep on the couch last night and remained there. Getting up this morning, feels like I have a medium sized hangover. Stomach is flip-flopping, headachy, slight ringing in the ears, and overall body aches but nothing severe. Slightly hard to focus on anything that takes up brainpower, but that is probably due to everything else being more pronounced. The arm I got the injection in is less sore than the last one. So overall, nothing crazy...

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but this post you made is entirely in your imagination.

[Phildo]

I had my second Pfizer yesterday and took today off work just in case, but I feel fine so far other than some arm soreness.

[calapine]

I had my second Pfizer yesterday and took today off work just in case, but I feel fine so far other than some arm soreness.

Exactly my reaction too (2nd Moderna). Focusing too much on possible reactions probably just invites them.

[eldaec]

Read various things suggesting getting more rest in the aftermath helps get a stronger response from the vaccine.


Might be bullshit but unlikely to hurt.

[Sir T]

https://twitter.com/rupasubramanya/status/1389718661905092609

Rupa Subramanya@rupasubramanya
New variant discovered discovered in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is "at least 15 times more virulent than the earlier ones, and may be even stronger than the Indian variants of B1.617 and B1.618. Experts a shorter exposure is enough to acquire the virus". I don't even.


The Hindu@the_hindu
· 22h
Experts say the new prevalent #COVID19 variant, which is being called the AP strain as it was first discovered in Kurnool, is at least 15 times more virulent than the earlier ones, and may be even stronger than the Indian variants of B1.617 and B1.618

[Sir T]

So, in a metaphor, a seaside town in japan has used $228k of Covid relief money to build a giant statue of a squid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56978075

[RhyssaFireheart]

So I'm being submitted on Monday for approval to return to the office.  I'll have to go through instructor-led training of some sort (lulz!) before being allowed back, but otherwise it's only part time.  My manager suggest M W F, I countered with M W Th, and he's fine with that, so we'll see.  I'm still planning to wear a mask when moving about and will continue to avoid in-person meetings if possible.

At least it'll be a change from being at home all the effing time.

[Rasix]

Yah, I just got approved for working on site. I didn't ask to, but I need to install some development hardware for another site in our lab.

There's no logical reason why it has to be me, but whatever, I'll go in. We're still in a phase 1 reopening, so the practices are pretty much the same as a year ago. Fun fun.

Baseball season is almost over and my son will be done with school soon, so there's little impact on me personally. I'd just rather not be everyone's lab gopher.

[Sky]

We are fully opening on June 1. Nobody is happy, but it is what it is. Just happy that I'm vaccinated.

Unfortunately, we kinda got forced into moving up our timeline thanks to the state and locals falling into line behind the CDC almost immediately. We figured we'd phase the opening similar to last year's phases. So I just had a shitload of work dumped onto my desk to finish next week.

And I just had a confrontation yesterday with an angry dude about masks, so after June 1 it'll basically be 'fuck it, pandemic's over' (though the daily deaths are still more than double of where they were last year here, but who gives a shit, right?)

[slog]

I volunteered to go back into the office for a pilot.  I only live 10 minutes away so I figured "why not?"  Unfortunately, the powers that be decided to change to a more open concept seating arrangement and that just doesn't work when the job requires 6 zoom meetings a day. 

So it's back to the home office I go.

[01101010]

I had to go in for a whiteboarding session for a new intervention a project is planning. Had a call an hour before so went in early. It was strange not least of which I have ever only been in the office for this job for my orientation week. The whole time I kept thinking I could be listening in on the whiteboarding session on Teams and working on code to pull the data for another project. Actually started feeling anxious about not being able to get more done.

[Sky]

the powers that be decided to change to a more open concept seating arrangement and that just doesn't work

fify

[Samwise]

Usually in an open-seating office you at least have conference rooms where you can have meetings without everyone having to hear everyone else.  I'm still waiting to see how things shake out when the office reopens, but given the number of people who've gone fully remote and the number of Zoom meetings I'm going to continue to have to do, I might be able to just permanently claim a conference room as my private office.  

[slog]

Usually in an open-seating office you at least have conference rooms where you can have meetings without everyone having to hear everyone else.  I'm still waiting to see how things shake out when the office reopens, but given the number of people who've gone fully remote and the number of Zoom meetings I'm going to continue to have to do, I might be able to just permanently claim a conference room as my private office.  

So when everyone is on zoom calls it becomes a scramble to see who can show up the earliest and claim a room.  Sounds fun!

[Samwise]

So when everyone is on zoom calls it becomes a scramble to see who can show up the earliest and claim a room.  Sounds fun!

Every Zoom call takes the place of what would otherwise (pre-pandemic) have been a meeting in a conference room, so room availability should stay the same, at worst.  

My "private office" comment was suggesting that with the increased number of people who've gone full remote, we might just have one conference room per person in the actual office, which means effectively everyone gets a real office with walls and a door, just like the old days.  Will have to see how the numbers actually shake out, but the overall trend is going to be toward office space being cheaper, which means more space for those of us who have the luxury of living near it.  I've already been thinking about subletting my own private office from one of the companies in SF who are madly scrambling to stop the bleeding from their now-useless leases.

[Khaldun]

Lots of talk in academia about what the "new normal" ought to be when we all come back in the fall, which for a lot of faculty and staff sounds uncomfortably like "I wonder whose jobs we can get rid of permanently?" and "Hey, maybe we really don't have to have students here" (that's being pushed by the ed-tech people who've been trying to pull an Uber on K-12s and universities alike since the late 1990s and have so far failed).  But there's stuff I'm completely good with making permanent. I've been to talks and workshops on Zoom "at" locations all over the world this year and it's been rather lovely. A lot of events that would have been dull canned lectures have been turned into conversations or dialogues. I would be perfectly happy to see professional association meetings die forever.