Covid insanity

[Fuzz]

4 hours ago, Chibearsv said:

Around here that scrambling is what jammed everything up.  In March we stared at our phones waiting for appointment availability windows to open and each time they did, the appointments went faster than SW on 24:24.  When we got one, we had to stand in line at mass vaccination centers run by the military.  Now only 3 months later, anyone can schedule an appointment to have the vaccine given in your own home.

Hopefully things change quickly for you all as well.

The problem is, the Govt started vaccinating in Feb; beginning with aged/disability care residents/staff, front line workers, high risk people, etc. Four months down the track, here I sit fully vaccinated, and we still have aged/disability care residents/staff, front line workers, high risk people etc still waiting for their first shot. I mean, how hard is it to drive over a Mr Whippy van full of vaccines and jab every single person in an old folks home? Jab 'em while they're napping! Easy-peasy!!

[Ken Gargett]

i swear the queensland health dept is dumber than soup. it just never ends. when will we be free of these morons. 

needless to say the tweed hospital, despite promises, never got back to me (not one we can blame on qld health, i guess). 

still, i have my pfizer shot all planned for saturday morning. i get a reminder text today. it says i have an appointment for saturday. all good. it says under 60s only. i am 62. they know this. they were advised.

months this has gone on. 

not happy. if i want to discuss anything, ring (*&(*&. i ring P(()*(*. but we can't discuss it because it is a machine only. and again, i get the history of vaccines and again i am told some bridges are built with stone and some with wood. who the hell cares? what the hell does this have to do with anything? who has the bridge building fetish? 

finally get on to the hospital where i am getting the shot. woman tells me she knows nothing about appointments etc, except that they are really hard to get. so if i have one, ignore what they said and turn up and insist. that from someone within the hospital. every single time i talk with someone, i get a different story. truly moss on rocks has more idea. 

i have already advised my sisters that if i cannot get this first shot on saturday, they better have bail money handy. i will not go quietly. 

[Bill Hayes]

In Briiiiiiiiighton in Melbourne, we are all waiting for the Pfiiiiiiizer darling!  

 

[Baccy]

I feel like such a fool. I could have gotten the shot months ago... now I'm sitting here with a positive pcr test. You guys are scrambling to get it over there and I refused it out of plain old fashioned stubbornness😭

update(8/7/21): I'm fine now but it was a long 2 weeks of hell, fever every days for 2 solid weeks and couldn't eat anything but soup. I recommend avoiding it if at all possible!

[Ryan]

In Ireland in February, before people started getting vaccinated, we were running about 1,000 new cases per day and 40 deaths per day. A death rate of about 4%.

Between February and May, just about everybody here over 50 got fully vaccinated.

We are still running about 500 new cases per day, (mostly 18-40 year-olds). In the entire month of June there were 30 deaths, averaging 1 per day. In July so far, there have been 8 deaths. Or about 0.1%.

The evidence for vaccination seems fairly clear.

[Ken Gargett]

finally got the second shot. not easy. i get to the mall at the tweed - apparently in nsw, they do this stuff in the mall, not the hospital, but i really don't care if they do it in a broom closet as long as i can finish this. 

the phone refuses to acknowledge the nsw check in system. but we eventually work something and i sign in. this took ages and there is a long queue behind me and no one getting jabs. 

get in and the woman tells me she is the queen of this - and she sure as is. she was terrific. but of course, not so simple. where are your records from qld? i have none. she asks me all sorts of questions. i have none of this. i do say that i asked when i got the foirst one, for evidence. was told that was not organised yet. it is not that one hand does not know what the other is doing. it is that one hand doesn't even know there is a second one. 

the queen goes away and eventually comes back. she has apparently tracked me down. 

don't even feel the needle, she was that good. 

about two hours later, no symptoms but i am told that they could still come. might need an easy arvo with cigar and drink and book. 

[LLC]

Great you finally got the second jab. 

[B44]

Congrats Ken! Take it super easy — no booze and light meals for 24 hours. 

[Ken Gargett]

2 minutes ago, B44 said:

Congrats Ken! Take it super easy — no booze and light meals for 24 hours. 

no one has mentioned no booze at any stage. bugger that. 

[B44]

Just now, Ken Gargett said:

no one has mentioned no booze at any stage. bugger that. 

It’s what all the docs here in the states recommend. Hedging their bets on your reaction in case it’s poor to keep you as strong as possible. I had a rough go of it, but they say the older you are the less of a reaction you have. You’ll be fine 😜

[Hammer Smokin']

Nah get hammered

Then your side effects are hangover.

[LordAnubis]

you probably jsut got the water injected into you Ken, You could make movies of this shambles.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/handful-of-queenslanders-get-wrong-dose-in-covid-vaccine-blunder-20210728-p58ds8.html

[Huckleberry]

Just wait until the D variant hits your land Ken!  Might as well start stocking up on Rob's seconds, and copious amounts of wine and booze now.  It will be like the Hotel California!

[Ken Gargett]

Just now, Huckleberry said:

Just wait until the D variant hits your land Ken!  Might as well start stocking up on Rob's seconds, and copious amounts of wine and booze now.  It will be like the Hotel California!

if that is the delta variant, it is here and has been for a while. 

[Huckleberry]

Just now, Ken Gargett said:

if that is the delta variant, it is here and has been for a while. 

Sorry, I didn't know.  Thought you were just dealing with the plain old version of bat herpes.  Anyway, we are seeing, when you get to the hear of that matter, massive infection rates again; even among those who have been fully vaccinated.  Some populations have even gone so far as to be vaccinated with two different versions, from their own respective companies of origin, and they are still becoming infected and testing positive.  Of course the news will tell you it only happens to those who haven't been vaccinated.  Myself, I have already lived through the bat herps, and natural antibodies trump any vaccine, at least that is what the Encyclopedia tells me

Wish you all the best!

[Meesterjojo]

All yall are making me rich again with overtime. We've got several covid patients now which we haven't had even 1 since March.

Reduced staff. It's a bad combo. Barely August. By December if it keeps pace with last year, I'll be neck deep in it. 

At least I'll be able to afford the increased price for Cubans. Dang. Just need time to smoke em.

[Ken Gargett]

just because we really don't seem to have had enough about covid lately...

[Chibearsv]

9 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

just because we really don't seem to have had enough about covid lately...

Nailed it! 

I had a very similar conversation with my neighbor last week when he told me he'd get vaccinated right after his wife grew a tail.  After a back and forth Q&A, he revealed that he believed the doctors were only pushing the vaccine to get paid by big-pharma and there was no real evidence that it was effective.  I asked him what he would do if he got so sick from Covid that he couldn't breathe.  He told me he'd go to the hospital to get treated.  I asked him why?, since he obviously doesn't trust doctors.  He said nothing for a bit and then came up with "that's different" and changed the conversation. 

Amazing

[RDB]

High vaccination rates in the UK have finally pretty much put a stop to the anguish. Falling case rates, very few of those positive needing hospital, and fewer of those dying. Thank f*** for that.

[rcarlson]

24 minutes ago, RDB said:

High vaccination rates in the UK have finally pretty much put a stop to the anguish. Falling case rates, very few of those positive needing hospital, and fewer of those dying. Thank f*** for that.

Infection itself will drop rates.  

[RDB]

58 minutes ago, rcarlson said:

Infection itself will drop rates.  

Yes absolutely right, and we’ve had a hell of a lot of that. Current estimates from large sample testing are that around 95% of the English population now has Covid antibodies, either as a result of the virus or the vaccine. There’s also growing evidence that the best protection against new infection comes from having had both the virus and the vaccine. Makes sense to me.

[rcarlson]

2 minutes ago, RDB said:

Yes absolutely right, and we’ve had a hell of a lot of that. Current estimates from large sample testing are that around 95% of the English population now has Covid antibodies, either as a result of the virus or the vaccine. There’s also growing evidence that the best protection against new infection comes from having had both the virus and the vaccine. Makes sense to me.

I think there's a counter to the "if one is good, two is twice as good" method.  I've read that the vaccine is a smaller spectrum of viral protection than natural, and that promotes long-term mutations that can't be controlled.  I'm not guzzling this stuff, but I am not seeing where the natural versus vaccinated immunity is addressed with much rigor.  The political agendas swallow the whole topic whole.  At least half of us have had about enough of the certitude that proves wrong within days and weeks.  No wonder people are all over the map on who they chose to believe today.  

[RDB]

I’m not proposing a theory, just reporting the data. Fewer of those in the UK who have had both the virus and the vaccine are being hospitalised, and I understand that’s not an artefact of the profile of that population. I’m a researcher myself but not in this field, so I don’t claim expertise. But I would certainly recommend to someone who has had the virus to get vaxed in addition, and I took that advice myself. 

[rcarlson]

16 minutes ago, RDB said:

I’m not proposing a theory, just reporting the data. Fewer of those in the UK who have had both the virus and the vaccine are being hospitalised, and I understand that’s not an artefact of the profile of that population. I’m a researcher myself but not in this field, so I don’t claim expertise. But I would certainly recommend to someone who has had the virus to get vaxed in addition, and I took that advice myself. 

Then we learn here in the States that how "hospitalized" (i.e. why they've been hospitalized) has been manipulated to meet a political agenda.  The stats themselves are unreliable.  So much b.s. Really discouraging.  

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, rcarlson said:

At least half of us have had about enough of the certitude that proves wrong within days and weeks.

Such frustration is understandable. Uncertainty in matters of health has of course been around as long as there’s been people. What’s really changed are the stakes here and our perception of them. (I’m reminded of Louis Black’s bit on experts’ recommendations re eggs - “It’s good for you, now it’s not good, now it’s partly good… make up your mind already! It’s breakfast I gotta eat!).

We should also admit that health officials, while no doubt of varying efficacy, are in a tough spot. If they preface everything with that caveat that “This is our best determination right now, but we’re still learning and it could always change!” then many - perhaps most - people wouldn’t take their recommendations very seriously. If they don’t constantly remind people that advice is only the best available, people begin to worry that the experts are clueless. It wouldn’t be the first time.

In retrospect, US authorities made a mistake early on with the “don’t wear masks” recommendation. They should’ve just said “they can really help slow the spread, but please don’t buy any until we have enough for hospitals.” Sometimes experts can go too low in their estimations of the public’s capacity to understand nuance. 

Of course like everything in this country COVID has been appropriated into the politico-cultural sphere of ideology, to everyone’s detriment. In May 2020 I said that if this crisis couldn’t foster some degree of de-escalation in what’s called “partisanship” (a misnomer because the divisions are as much cultural as they are political), then George Carlin was right - we’re just circling the toilet bowl on our way down the drain. 

I fear George was spot on. Unfortunately for me I’m too much of an optimist to every really give up!