Conoravirus ...

[TheOffice]

Thanks. Doing better. Sue came down with it too. She’s bouncing back.
Stay vigilant!

[BeauV]

In an interesting study I read about in Nature, it seems that once your body has bumped into COVID of any variant, you are strongly resistant to catching that variant again but you become less resistant to other variants than you were before you had COVID. While sounding weird, this is because your immune system recognizes the virus as COVID and starts to rapidly produce the wrong version of antibodies. (Memory is this is called "imprinting".) It appears that is partially why we've never developed Herd Immunity, as we hoped. Obviously, this is because COVID, like many coronaviruses, mutates rapidly and for the same reason we don't develop Herd Immunity to the various versions of the common cold that are coronaviruses, we should not expect to develop Her Immunity to COVID.

Sigh....

What this probably means is that unless we have a different approach to COVID vaccines, they will work to kill off all the known versions of COVID, but will still leave us getting sick from one of the massive numbers of mutations floating around.

It appears that this is the most compelling reason it is so important to reduce the global number of people getting sick. Unlike smallpox, if this virus has even a small pool of people in which to mutate, it will mutate. Then we'll be faced with a new wave. Precisely what we're seeing now with so many people unvaccinated+boosted. (Only 35% of California folks are up to date on there boosters.) Given irrational resistance to vaccination and our unwillingness to get the rest of the globe vaccinated, I fear we'll have to resign ourselves to catching some variant of COVID for the rest of our lives.

Sigh....

[TheOffice]

Beau,

The latest data from Hopkins is that if you get the latest variant that you don't need a booster for 4-6 months, and that you will have immunity for up to a year after that.

Joel

[BeauV]

Yes, but I think the proviso is that they're assuming it won't mutate again. But, I'm no scientist.

[The Red Lady]

Well, I managed to escape 'Rona for 3 years, but if finally got me. Nick is feeling fine so far, but living in a 40' boat makes it impossible to distance ourselves. Hopefully he doesn't get it. Fortunately it waited to attack until after my birthday and before some of our upcoming commitments. Until then, I'm buying stock in Dayquil

[TheOffice]

Just when you thought it was safe ...

I prescribe a sail Friday when it is in the 60s with a southerly wind.

[The Red Lady]

Just when you thought it was safe ...

I prescribe a sail Friday when it is in the 60s with a southerly wind.

Excellent plan Doc!

[BeauV]

Well, I managed to escape 'Rona for 3 years, but if finally got me. Nick is feeling fine so far, but living in a 40' boat makes it impossible to distance ourselves. Hopefully he doesn't get it. Fortunately it waited to attack until after my birthday and before some of our upcoming commitments. Until then, I'm buying stock in Dayquil

So sorry to hear this....

While Paxlovid got a (in my view) bum rap because it wasn't a perfect cure, do consider it early in the infection. It may be hard to get if you're not a geezer like me, but it does help make the disease milder.

As someone who lived in a room alone for almost 3-weeks with great food delivery from The Admiral, I know it's a pain. I nearly moved to the local Motel 6 to keep her safe. She never caught it. My fingers are crossed you'll be as lucky.

[The Red Lady]

Thanks Beau! Today I'm feeling 99% back to normal. I had two days of "wow this really sucks", 1 day of "meh" and now pretty much normal. I'm still testing positive and have lost my sense of taste but the best news is Nick tested negative this morning. Vaccines are a wonderful thing!