Conoravirus ...

[H B]

Beau,
In my opinion, if someone does NOT want to get vaccinated, they can stay the hell home, or attend gatherings at their own risk, and develop their own anti-bodies. The vaccine is freely available to anyone over the age of 12 now, I think...so, as long as supply is steady (which seems to have far exceeded demand with the anti-vax political shit going on), in about 3 weeks, everybody that wants to be fully vaxxed up will/can be.
I am not going to alter my personal lifestyle forever (singing the mask, wallet, keys & phone song). The mask is about to get dropped from that little "head, shoulders, knees & toes" jingle. I just wish the stores would stop the requirement to wear them, but I think it is easier to be lazy and just keep the signs up. Eventually I will get tired of that too and start picking which stores I go into.
We have an open air bar/pub food place nearby, and while the patrons are no longer required to wear a mask, the poor employees still have to wear masks while humping food & drinks. That might be a Gov. mandate still..but it is silly. If the service industry people have not gotten sick already being exposed to anti-vaxxer chuckleheads, they probably won't now.
I know..take it to PA!
/rant

[Tigger]

As Beau mentions, the variants are the next wild card. Things are grim in India, and we'll see how well the existing vaccines work against the new wrinkles. It may be that the end result is a yearly booster shot like the flu shot, configured to protect against what might happen?

[BeauV]

Here's a great piece from Nature magazine on the topic of the COVID variant that arrived in Europe from central Africa. It'll be here in the US soon. sigh....

[Panope]

I've been on my back for 42 hours following 2nd Moderna shot. First 24 hours were brutal - almost wish I had taken J and J.

100 degree fever. Everything ached. Alternating shivering/sweating.

Improving now.

[BeauV]

Steve, I'm sorry to hear that. We didn't have any impact at all from the 2nd dose. It's amazing how variable the response is. I guess that shows how variable our various immune systems are. Good luck, drink a lot of water and stay off the alcohol and coffee. Get better!

[TheOffice]

As much as that sucks, it beats the disease! Feel better!

Joel

[TheOffice]

Well the Marion Bermuda race was cancelled. Rob made the right call.

[H B]

Steve, My wife had the Moderna vaccine and she said it felt like she was in a fight with Muhammad Ali. I was a little worn down the day after my 2nd Pfizer shot, had trouble regulating my body temp that night in bed, but was back to 'normal' the next day. Hopefully you are starting to feel better. Agree, it beats the virus itself..has anyone else besides me and Kim been following the "Hobot has COVID-19" thread on SA? I am happily surprised he survived it. I thought for sure when he went on the ventilator that was the beginning of the end, but I guess the medical professionals have learned a few things in the last year.

[BeauV]

The fatality rate for COVID-19 varies wildly by geography. I suppose this is obvious in extreme cases EG: Britain vs Mayanmar, but even within the US, there is a significant difference between places with large medical infrastructure readily available, like Boston and San Francisco, vs places without great hospital coverage. Rural hospitals have been closing for decades, as they can't make money. This has resulted in much higher fatality rates in rural areas.

[Panope]

Coming up on 72 hours since 2nd moderna shot and feeling pretty much normal, albeit 5lbs. lighter (did not eat much).

1st. 24 hrs: Horrid.
2nd 24 hrs: Tolerable.
3rd 24 hrs: Nuisance.

My wife received her shots at same time as as I did. She had a reaction similar, but not quite as long lasting as mine.

[H B]

Glad to hear you are feeling better, Steve!

[BeauV]

Steve - sorry to hear you had a rough go. It's worth it, but you know that. We've lost too many folks to this disease and the up-side of being vaccinated is a bit more normality in your life. Glad you're better.

[Panope]

Oh yes, totally worth it. I'd have done it for only the "greater good" reason. The fact that I am protected is icing on the cake.

[Tigger]

There's light at the end of the tunnel. In BC, 70.4% of adults and 67% of those 12 and up (youngest age authorized to get the vaccine) have now had one dose. Case counts have dropped under 200/day (total provincial population of just over 5 million) for the first time since last fall. Fingers crossed.

I'm one of the Astra Zeneca cohort for the first dose. We'll get the official word on Thursday, but it looks like the recommendation will be to get one of the mRNA vaccines for the second shot. Remains to be seen if the timeline for shot #2 is moved up.

Perhaps we can have another get together at the Seattle Boat show next January!

[kimbottles]

Perhaps we can have another get together at the Seattle Boat show next January!

That is a GREAT idea!!

[H B]

Oh yes, totally worth it. I'd have done it for only the "greater good" reason. The fact that I am protected is icing on the cake.

Unfortunately, it seems at least 30% of the dumb-asses in this country do not agree with you. I have anti-vaxxer 'friends' that are spreading rumors wherever they can that people are dying from vaccine complications, when I know first hand that they are spreading false information. We had a chronically ill neighbor that passed away recently, and the anti-vax chick says she died from vaccine complications, but I am 95% sure she was in such poor health she never got the vaccine anyway..I am working on confirming the story before I confront this person.

[TheOffice]

A large number of the anti-vaxxers have probably already had covid. So if we can get to 70% vaccinated we should be in decent shape.

Bermuda is removing most of its restrictions (except for travelers) on June 6. Travelers still need pre-departure and arrival tests with a quarantine until the arrival test is back. I'll probably sleep the first 24 hours I'm there, so I'm not worried about the short quarantine.

Joel

[Olaf Hart]

Oh yes, totally worth it. I'd have done it for only the "greater good" reason. The fact that I am protected is icing on the cake.

Unfortunately, it seems at least 30% of the dumb-asses in this country do not agree with you. I have anti-vaxxer 'friends' that are spreading rumors wherever they can that people are dying from vaccine complications, when I know first hand that they are spreading false information. We had a chronically ill neighbor that passed away recently, and the anti-vax chick says she died from vaccine complications, but I am 95% sure she was in such poor health she never got the vaccine anyway..I am working on confirming the story before I confront this person.

This might be useful..

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-accuses-russia ... a-57367812

[Tigger]

As anticipated, those of us who received AZ 9 or so weeks ago now have a choice:
1. Another shot of AZ, (available immediately), or
2. Whichever of the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna) is available (but will have to wait a couple of weeks).

Hmm. It's an interesting question to consider.
- Currently we are averaging ~130 cases a day in the province as a whole and around ~30/day in my health region of 1.5 million.
- 75% of adults (18+) and 72% of all eligible (12+) have had at least one shot
- AZ (and the others) were not designed to be mixed. But, studies in the UK, Germany, and other places indicate it's safe and maybe more effective.
- mRNA vaccines do better dealing with the variants
- there is a VERY small chance of blood clots with AZ
- yearly booster shots are likely to be of the mRNA flavour

If the delta variant was causing the same kind of problems here as it is in China I'd go for the second dose of AZ so as to get the most protection the quickest. But, given that things are very stable, I'm going to wait for the few weeks it takes to get either of the mRNA flavours. Hopefully it's the right choice.

It's absolutely astounding to think that less that 1.5 years after the beginning of the pandemic there are multiple vaccines addressing the issue--two of them being of an entirely new structure.

[Tigger]

Interesting article about the long-term vascular effects of covid, featuring research from Saskatchewan using a synchrotron (sounds like a Star Trek weapon but it's a real thing!)

https://globalnews.ca/news/7916400/coro ... lth-risks/

[BeauV]

Ross,

I think various places have shown that one can stay safe by modifying behavior unless you're forced into dangerous situations. I personally would wait for one of the mRNA-based vaccines, provided that wait didn't involve months. Hell, we went for 14 months using masks and handwashing, along with staying the heck away from folks. Another month probably won't hurt you. That said, many folks are going bonkers and want to PARTY.

You got this, just go sailing.

[BeauV]

Interesting article about the long-term vascular effects of covid, featuring research from Saskatchewan using a synchrotron (sounds like a Star Trek weapon but it's a real thing!)

https://globalnews.ca/news/7916400/coro ... lth-risks/

it's interesting to see someone literally looking a the vessel boundary layer. Long ago I thought it was a discernable surface, like your skin. But, it turns out that it's much more complex than that. Not only do the small vessels need to be very thin to let O2, CO2 etc... flow across easily, but the large vessels need to produce a slime that covers the vessel wall. This slime protects the vessel walls from mechanical erosion. If the scar tissue doesn't produce this slime, which there is a lot of evidence that it doesn't, then the blood will literally mechanically erode the vessel wall and more scar tissue will result. Everything becomes steadily worse once scaring gets significant. COVID-19 probably does this scaring. But, so do various other things. They are a very complex surface, these vessel walls.

[Tigger]

Interesting article about the long-term vascular effects of covid, featuring research from Saskatchewan using a synchrotron (sounds like a Star Trek weapon but it's a real thing!)

https://globalnews.ca/news/7916400/coro ... lth-risks/

it's interesting to see someone literally looking a the vessel boundary layer. Long ago I thought it was a discernable surface, like your skin. But, it turns out that it's much more complex than that. Not only do the small vessels need to be very thin to let O2, CO2 etc... flow across easily, but the large vessels need to produce a slime that covers the vessel wall. This slime protects the vessel walls from mechanical erosion. If the scar tissue doesn't produce this slime, which there is a lot of evidence that it doesn't, then the blood will literally mechanically erode the vessel wall and more scar tissue will result. Everything becomes steadily worse once scaring gets significant. COVID-19 probably does this scaring. But, so do various other things. They are a very complex surface, these vessel walls.

We're sticking with the sailing/mask/social distance plan--it's worked so far, and we haven't come close to killing each other! Now is not the time to let up ... nobody wants to be the last soldier killed in a war, so to speak.

[Olaf Hart]

https://youtu.be/KMPyii-BV1I

More about the possible lab origin of COVID

[BeauV]

https://youtu.be/KMPyii-BV1I

More about the possible lab origin of COVID

I probably shouldn't be entirely and automatically skeptical of anything reported on a "news" service owned by Rupert Murdock, but I could only get about 1/4 of the way through that video before my BS detector started firing. I'd be happy to read the technical/scientific articles that the two scientists have published but can't find hide-nor-hair of them. Do you have links to those?

[kdh]

Beau, there’s a great article in the Journal (I know) that I find credible. Just some interesting science

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-scienc ... lewebshare

[BeauV]

Beau, there’s a great article in the Journal (I know) that I find credible. Just some interesting science

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-scienc ... lewebshare

Keith, there's a reason that this piece is in the "opinion" section and not the "science" section of the publication. As I understand the discussion from the scientific papers, either something really rare happened or someone did it intentionally. Since watching the first bit of video OH posted, and reading some other press articles, I've started to struggle though the paper linked in the WSJ article and have asked for help from two genetic engineers I know well and trust. I'm taking this seriously, but so far this article still belongs in the opinion section, in my humble opinion.

[Olaf Hart]

It’s interesting, the lab leak has been my first impression of this thing since day 1.

Thinking back, it’s just been a pattern recognition thing, I couldn’t accept this virus was so well adapted to infect humans from the beginning.

Fits in with the gain of function argument

[BeauV]

OK, my genetic engineering buddies say: "No one knows the answer. If they say they know, they're an idiot looking for public recognition through the press." (To be blunt)

I was also directed to this piece in NATURE: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01529-3

After plowing through the Nature article and a number of journal articles, I don't think anyone knows. No one has "proved" anything, all the scenarios I've found are speculation and end with folks saying: "We can't rule this out." in some sort of words. In other words, to be blunt, this is great for selling advertising in media outlets, but quite literally no one has convincing evidence of anything conclusive.

Therefore, I think folk should stop hyperventilating on TV and YouTUBE and wait until the science catches up with all these crazy conspiracy theories.

(BTW, no one has ever found the animal that passed Ebola to humans and it took a long long time to figure out that SARS1 came from a bat, many years.)

[Tigger]

If it was a naturally occurring mutation, China's lack of transparency isn't helping put out any conspiracy fires. This will be an interesting one to watch.