COVID-19 Rant

[Zapranoth]

Had  Moderna dose #2 on Saturday and felt cruddy that night (aches, chills) -- not debilitating just unpleasant.   50% less so on Sunday, and normal on Monday.
Arm is less sore than last time.   So, for strong assurance of avoiding the ICU, that's a great trade.

I'm doing vaccine clinic this weekend which will be fun and a good change of pace.

If any questions about the vaccines, fire away, I've had plenty to read on them recently.

[Rev. Powell]

If any questions about the vaccines, fire away, I've had plenty to read on them recently.

Am I correct in saying that although the current vaccines may not be as effective in stopping transmission of the new mutations of the virus, they nevertheless still reduce the severity of symptoms of the new variants?

[pennywise37]

well i dunno the answer to your question but i had my 1st Vaccine today and my arm still hurts.  i go in a month for my 2nd one i feel fine otherwise

[Allhallowsday]

...If any questions about the vaccines, fire away, I've had plenty to read on them recently.

Do doses of vaccine expire relatively quickly? 

[Trevor]

I now know three people personally who died of this *&^%$# Chinese virus.

[Zapranoth]

If any questions about the vaccines, fire away, I've had plenty to read on them recently.

Am I correct in saying that although the current vaccines may not be as effective in stopping transmission of the new mutations of the virus, they nevertheless still reduce the severity of symptoms of the new variants?

Seems to be the case so far.  But, that is being feverishly studied.    The best thing to do is to vaccinate everyone we can fast as we can and minimize these mutations happening.

But against the variants there definitely still is effect on disease severity too.

[Zapranoth]

...If any questions about the vaccines, fire away, I've had plenty to read on them recently.

Do doses of vaccine expire relatively quickly? 

Once you thaw the vaccines you have to keep them refrigerated and use them within 5 or 30 days (depending on which of the big two it is).
The way we've been doing our clinics is setting appointments and thawing enough vaccine to do that given day only.

[Zapranoth]

well i dunno the answer to your question but i had my 1st Vaccine today and my arm still hurts.  i go in a month for my 2nd one i feel fine otherwise

If it's the moderna, take some tylenol or ibuprofen before you take dose #2. 

[sprite75]

Ugh

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a new public health proclamation on Friday rolling back all COVID restrictions on Iowa businesses.

Effective at 12:01 A.M. on Sunday, the proclamation removes mask requirements, gathering limits, and restrictions on businesses.

"The proclamation strongly encourages Iowans, businesses and organizations to take reasonable public health measures consistent with guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health," said Pat Garrett, a spokesperson for the Governor's Office.

#CovidKim is one of the worst governors in the country and Iowa has been at the bottom in terms of COVID response, vaccination, and having a high infection rate.

[Bushma]

Let me preface this by saying I'm in the US.  I've spent too much time at home watching TV lately, which hasn't been all bad, Bubu Ho-Tep was on a couple of weeks ago!  One of the things I've noticed lately is all of the commercials for lawyers doing class-action lawsuits against companies who went through the entire FDA testing process for drugs and the long term effects are so bad the companies are being sued.  Now they want me to take a vaccine for a virus which they rushed?  TBH, I don't want to take the vaccine because if normal stuff released to market has all these side effects, why would I want to take something that they rushed?

Now, I'm not an anti-vaxxer or anything.  Vaccines have done wonderful thing to help humans.  I'm just worried about what they are pushing and the lack of testing to get something out to the public.

[zelmo73]

Now, I'm not an anti-vaxxer or anything.  Vaccines have done wonderful thing to help humans.  I'm just worried about what they are pushing and the lack of testing to get something out to the public.

I don't blame you. You should not feel shamed or pressured by anyone for not taking the rushed vaccine, simply for that reason that nobody really knows what its long-term effects are. Anybody that tries to ridicule you is an even bigger idiot than the anti-vaxxing camp that they continuously try to ridicule. What's worse is when the news media is trying to sell the COVID-19 vaccines like snake oil. I don't find this particular article reassuring, for example:

"They overlapped preclinical studies with the early phases of the trials," said Dr. William Moss, executive director for the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University. "In fact one of the reasons we are even talking about vaccines now just 10 months later is that some of the phases in which vaccine development normally occurs were overlapped rather than done sequentially."

...

University of Pennsylvania professor of medicine Dr. Drew Weissman, who has been studying mRNA and mRNA vaccines for decades, said they do not cause dangerous inflammation to animals. Along with the vaccines for Pfizer and Moderna both passing animal trials, they also passed clinical trials on humans where they were tested on more than 70,000 people.

"Clinical trials for 75,000 people show it's safe and it's 95 percent effective," Dr. Weissman said. "That's pretty good data to convince people that it is OK."

A serious safety issue would have surfaced in the trials if there was one, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

While mRNA is a new technology, experts have been working on it for years.

"It's not just as though these technologies were just starting to be developed during the pandemic," Dr. Moss said. "There has been a lot of preparatory work."

https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9792931264

It is hard to "trust the science" when it is being rushed out so quickly. They are expecting 75,000 human lab rats to be the prototypical template for billions of people around the world; that is akin to one drop of fresh water in the Dead Sea, hoping that it gets rid of all of the salt in the seawater. And the way that they are selling the snake oil: "Oh no, we didn't skip the lab animal trials, we did them at the same time!"  

[Newt]

The mRNA vaccines have been under development since the 1990s.  What was "rushed"?   

[Rev. Powell]

The conservative in me wants to say that there's normally way too much regulation, government bureaucracy and red tape at the FDA, and that this fast vaccine rollout is a triumph of the free market.

[zelmo73]

The mRNA vaccines have been under development since the 1990s.  What was "rushed"?   

Using people as human lab rats without first seeing what the effects are on lab animals sounds pretty rushed to me.

[Zapranoth]

It is hard to "trust the science" when it is being rushed out so quickly. They are expecting 75,000 human lab rats to be the prototypical template for billions of people around the world; that is akin to one drop of fresh water in the Dead Sea, hoping that it gets rid of all of the salt in the seawater. And the way that they are selling the snake oil: "Oh no, we didn't skip the lab animal trials, we did them at the same time!"  

This is a for-layperson counterexample that is correct,

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2020/11/20/allison-weis-covid/

If you take very specific exception to any points raised, glad to discuss.