The Corona Virus Thread

[macelena 1,070]

11 hours ago, Erik said:

If unvaccinated hosts remain the virus will remain and if we don't get our shit together it will become endemic like the flu, which some would argue it already is.

They claimed Omicron was much less lethal yet more contagious. If so, i guess that would be acceptable. I just made it home with my parents from the academy, went to get tested before, and the doctor smoked me, since having no symptoms nor having had any confirmed contact, i was mean to be safer. It was the same back in summer, and turns out I had Delta and had my parents a couple of weeks isolated. We had 6 deaths that day on my city, 5 of them vaccinated, which still makes it better than being unvaxxed considering the proportion of people who had the jab, but it is a bad sign. 

Edited December 23, 2021 by macelena

[+Erik 1,804]

We really don't have hard data on the Omicron virus because now we have some people fully vaccinated with three shots and partially with two. So, if Omicron is infecting people, I would offer that it may be worse than Delta it only appears better because we now have people with some level of immunity. Also don't forget we have people just getting over Delta, so they have some natural immunity which is certainly impacting Omicron's lethality. Viruses usually get better at what they do, not worse. Here in the States 3 injections are the new level of protection with additional boosters to follow. Yesterday the US released a pill form of medication that is effective against Covid if taken in the first 5 days of illness. We're getting there, we will beat this thing and make enough medication for the World that we can finally put this behind us.

[+Nightshade/PR 7,837]

" We're getting there, we will beat this thing and make enough medication for the World that we can finally put this behind us."

I've thought about your writing this for a couple of weeks, and forgive me for being pessimistic: I wish I had your faith. (I'll try & be brief)

After so many years of seeing the worst of humanity both close-up & afar, I had very little faith left in humanity to begin with. Since this pandemic began, even that small amount has died. I have not been surprised at the absolute idiocy, selfishness, and unthinking arrogance of so many people refusing to take even the basic precautions against either contracting it themselves, or likewise no attempt to prevent spreading it to other...all in the name of some "freedoms" they claim are being violated, but choose not consider, understand,  or even care that they are literally killing themselves and others. Even with all the information available at their fingertips, so many of us would rather read some DS online, or watch some BS on television, rather than listen to what real experts around the world have been have been begging all of us to do since this whole thing started: Wear a mask, practice social distancing, and FFS get vaccinated.

It's hard for me to be optimistic about things getting better when there's the constant drumbeat of the cycle of infection & death that's all you ever read about. And how the very medical professionals that are so desperately trying to save as many as they can, are being burned out, as well as being vilified for not saving those who made no effort to save themselves. And I see how horrifyingly easy it has been for people with their own agendas to strip away the most innate parental, personal, and social instincts from people that listen to and follow them. If nothing else, the spectre of racking up horrific medical bills that with ruin them & their families financially, whether they live or die after contracting the disease should be a deterrent.

That's simple idiocy.

" We're getting there, we will beat this thing and make enough medication for the World that we can finally put this behind us."

I hope you're right. I truly do.

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by Nightshade/PR
Spelling & word correction.

[TeargasHorse 287]

I've been sick since Dec 31. Came home with chills and joint pain. That only lasted one day but through that, I contracted pneumonia which has lasted since then (3rd week now). I am on the mend and getting better slowly. Lucky for me because the hospitals are full to the point that patients are lining the corridors completely on at least 2 floors with both vax and non. I was vaxed but I missed my booster appointment 2 weeks before I got it. My work office shut down because 60% of the workers are sick, so everyone but a skeleton crew of managers is at the office, everyone else is working from home.

The threat is real, if you don't believe it, go to your local hospital and see for yourself.

[+Erik 1,804]

@TeargasHorse feel better soon and you're not kidding about hospitals right now.

[+Nightshade/PR 7,837]

Just in case everyone has forgotten the pandemic is still running rampant in the world, the milestone of 6 million dead worldwide was passed today, with the last million being tallied in the last 4 months by Johns Hopkins University. Here in the States, the estimates are that we'll surpass the 1 million dead mark in the very near future. For the record, and to put this in context, that's more than the population of these states:

Wyoming (Population: 581,075)

Vermont (Population: 623,251)

Alaska (Population: 724,357)

North Dakota (Population: 770,026)

South Dakota (Population: 896,581)

Delaware (Population: 990,334)

2022 World Population by Country (worldpopulationreview.com)

In numbers close to home, that is the death of 2.55 times the entire population of where I live. And of course, now that things are "opening up" there are less people interested in getting vaccinated.

Again, call me a pessimist, but with the relaxing of all official safeguards, and the propensity for people to forget/ignore/refuse to acknowledge the danger of something that's not "in their face", and people just want to "move on", I fear another deadlier strain is in the offing.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Nightshade/PR

[Nesher 628]

Yeah, the virus is still here.. and cancer, flu, and many other diseases that kill millions every year.. life needs to go on

I was stuck with my 3 YO daughter for a week when she got it, no one really kept any distance, I was still smushing her & none of us got infected..

[fallenphoenix1986 603]

Dodged it for two years WFH, I was back in the office for a whole 6 days over a two week period... got it.

Nothing much to report though, double vaxed and boosted, was no worse for me than a bad cold, some not so lucky and the plan now seems to be lets just pretend it's gone away.

[+EricJ 4,199]

I've dodged it so far. I mean I social distance and wear a mask when I go out. I haven't given it a chance and I'm triple vaxxed so far. Lucky me I guess.

[+Nightshade/PR 7,837]

If the numbers hold true, by the end of the day, we are going to surpass the 1 million mark in deaths from the pandemic in the US. Due to the absence of uniform tracking data, the exact moment will be unknown, and it'll be little more than a sidebar in the news cycle more concerned with other things to keep the focus off this unimaginable number of people that have succumbed to a preventable disease. When I think of all that we've lost as a country in singular and the world in plural, in terms of the potential breakthroughs and developments from people around the globe that will never come to pass, it's nothing less than catastrophic.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

 

[rlwicker1967 32]

I actually got the 'Rona just a few weeks ago. I had a cough, a little fever, and a loss of appetite. I had no problem with breathing. It caused me to miss my dad's funeral. He was 80 and had been suffering from Alzheimer's. I can see how some people are hit really hard with it. I can also see how some people are barely affected by it. I had a fever of 101.8 deg one night. That was the first time I had a fever since March 2010. I'm not going to say these people were lying. I will just say they didn't know what they were talking about. They thought they did. I have Asthma, severe allergies, Diabetes, and Multiple Sclerosis. The fact that I have MS and severe allergies actually means I'm less likely to get a bad case of the virus. I was just getting over symptoms of severe allergies when I got the darn thing. Two weeks prior, I had a really bad post-nasal drip and lost my voice. I started getting my voice back and the bad coughing had pretty much gone away. Well, due to MS, I have to have infusions of Ocrevus, which suppresses the immune system. I got my infusion on Thursday, went back to work, and tested positive on Saturday. The next time I get my infusion therapy, I will take a week off. 🤣 Oh, BTW, I have been in Heart Failure for the last 2 years and now, I have an ICD. I feel so much better now.

 

Now, I am flying SF2 again. During the time I was recovering from Heart Failure, I watched a lot of videos about the F-4 and I'm happy to say, I now know how to get that beast to Mach 2 and know why I wasn't able to reach that speed before. I actually got the F-4E to Mach 2.07 with missiles aboard.