How has the coronavirus affected your personal life?

[Ogertron3000]

Yesterday we were released from our 5th lockdown after 10 days. It stopped this wave but its only a matter of time until it happens again.
With the state north of us getting a bit out of control I imagine someone will sneak through the border and reinfect us down here again.
Vaccine rates are very low here, mixed messages from the powers that be and general distrust means it going to take a very long time until we have enough vaccinated to avoid future lockdowns.

 

[pacu mom]

I usually do OK with aesthetics but I had one weird occurrence 5 years back, where it just didn’t work, & after a couple of injections the dentist just sent me home and told me to come back. When he drilled that same tooth a week later it was fine.

This last go around with the new endodontist was pretty brutal. The doctor himself was terrific, however he gave me an awful lot of anesthetic. I think it must get trapped in your Cartlidge and stuff because it seemed like it was working out of me for days, and I would have these random episodes of neuropathy in the lip. Not exactly numbness, but needles and pins, like the anesthetic is wearing off.

That has never happened to me before, and I’m wondering if this new doctor is using new anesthetics? Or maybe there’s just some nerve damage now…

You either had a very hot tooth or he missed the inferior alveolar nerve block if you were given a lot of anesthetic. Sometimes profound anesthesia is hard to achieve. It's a tricky block because the inferior alveolar nerve runs deep in the mandible. There is one area where there is a small opening and the nerve is near it. The anesthetic has to be injected close to that one spot. Going low, the patient will not get numb. Going high, the patient may get numb after a while. Anesthetic is limited based on a person's body weight and medical history. Tricky shot because every persons anatomy is different, and the notch that we aim for may not be in the same area as other people. To achieve profound anesthesia of lower teeth, the inferior alveolar, lingual and buccal nerves are blocked. You might have had slight bruising of the nerve if you experience paresthesia for days afterwards.

That you can tolerate multiple dental injections is a good thing. So it's not a needle phobia that triggers your reaction to vaccinations.

 

[Ulu]

I have no idea what caused the reaction, But I assumed it was physiological and not psychological. I requested the shot.

 

[skjl47]

That seems to be what Fauchi is saying. I do not have the rest of the statement so without a person's entire comments it is possible for an edit which takes things out of context. I not longer have faith in Fauchi but also do not want to play sneaky games which twist statements.

Hello; Caught Washington Journal this morning (C-sPAN) They had Fauci on and he was expanding on the new mask stuff. He stated the chance of a vaccinated person shedding virus is very rare. No details on what very rare may mean in real numbers.

So I may be stretching this to an extent, but here is my take so far. Only the unvaccinated old have much chance of death from the virus to start with, maybe 5% if the numbers hold up. So around 95% survival. For those unvaccinated who are not old the odds of survival are very good around 98%+.
For the vaccinated the odds of survival go way, way up for old and younger, but I do not have a number. So if I extrapolate the much better survival rates of the vaccinated with the statement of Fauci that the shedding of virus by the vaccinated with breakthru infections is very rare, then the real chance of the vaccinated shedding virus must be very, very, very rare. A logic summary to be sure and with possible flaws.

I see news reports of illegals caught at the southern border being tested positive for covid and then not only released into the interior of the USA, but being transported by the government into the interior. Some were sent to Nashville TN in the last weeks. They could be in my area right now. This is not some very remote chance of a vaccinated person shedding virus. This is a number of actively infected people in my area being sent by an arm of the same government which is so very worried about the very remote chance a vaccinated person might shed some virus they are imposing new mask mandates.

 

[RD.]

This pandemic isn't simply some kind of numbers game, with the end result being a mathematical consequence. What part of this don't you understand?
And with regards to numbers, no one has any idea how much virus is being shed on average, when the average vaccinated person coughs/sneezes etc when they are infected with the Delta variant, or any other variant of covid-19.

Here's a thought - go spend some time speaking with some front line workers, doctors/nurses/health care aids, and get their take on what your made up in your mind percentages mean to them.

Hello; Caught Washington Journal this morning (C-sPAN) They had Fauci on and he was expanding on the new mask stuff. He stated the chance of a vaccinated person shedding virus is very rare. No details on what very rare may mean in real numbers.

So I may be stretching this to an extent, but here is my take so far. Only the unvaccinated old have much chance of death from the virus to start with, maybe 5% if the numbers hold up. So around 95% survival. For those unvaccinated who are not old the odds of survival are very good around 98%+.
For the vaccinated the odds of survival go way, way up for old and younger, but I do not have a number. So if I extrapolate the much better survival rates of the vaccinated with the statement of Fauci that the shedding of virus by the vaccinated with breakthru infections is very rare, then the real chance of the vaccinated shedding virus must be very, very, very rare. A logic summary to be sure and with possible flaws.

I see news reports of illegals caught at the southern border being tested positive for covid and then not only released into the interior of the USA, but being transported by the government into the interior. Some were sent to Nashville TN in the last weeks. They could be in my area right now. This is not some very remote chance of a vaccinated person shedding virus. This is a number of actively infected people in my area being sent by an arm of the same government which is so very worried about the very remote chance a vaccinated person might shed some virus they are imposing new mask mandates.

 

[RD.]

Seeing as some folks like numbers, here's some interesting stats from our Province.

Data provided by AHS for Public Health Zones from Oct 06, 2019 to May 2, 2020

Laboratory confirmed influenza cases (total) - 8,470

This past year - zero. Not a single lab confirmed case of influenza. I'm sure those cheap, no "good" masks played any part in those numbers.....

 

[skjl47]

Worldometer - real time world statistics (worldometers.info)

Hello; Of course public health is a numbers driven process. I will pull some numbers from the above link to use as examples. Check the link to see additional information. Of course there are other sources and the compromises we make are generally known. Societies have to accept some level of risk in order to function.

One example will be traffic fatalities. We could mandate vehicles go no slower than some for sure safe speed, say 15 MPH. We could require all vehicles have structures such as NASCAR roll bars and be built like tanks. We could require all poles along a highway be wrapped in feet of soft material or that all trees be cut down for 100 feet from all roads. These things are not done. We have come to a compromise between the practical use of vehicles and public safety. The result is some number of fatalities are accepted with the way we use vehicles. Every time we get into a vehicle some level of risk is accepted during a trip.

1,401 road traffic fatalities today

2,598 alcohol fatalities today

5,196 smoking fatalities today

513 flu fatalities today

11,652 hunger deaths today

7,487 covid19 deaths today



I do not think the numbers are in the above link, but saw a report on a TV show in the last few days that more young children died from flu virus than from covid19 virus in the last year. I cannot say if this was only in the USA or not. I get this is not something I can back up this moment, but that statement was made. Yet schools have been closed for covid19 and schools were generally kept open during flu outbreaks over the years. Sometimes schools would be closed for a few days during a bad spell. I have been thru it as a teacher. Not often statewide nor country wide school closures for the flu outbreaks, but usually city or county school systems only. I have gone to work as a teacher knowing I had the chance to be exposed to the flu. No mask mandates. No flu vaccine mandates although I did get a flu shot when I was a teacher. I had the flu a few times. I had colds often and whatever was going around. I was exposed without any protective gear at all.

This pandemic isn't simply some kind of numbers game, with the end result being a mathematical consequence. What part of this don't you understand?

Hello; here is where you seem to have some advantage over me on this site. If I respond in kind to the "what part of this don't you understand?" comment I will likely get another PM from a MOD telling me I have an official ding on my record.

 

[RD.]

The difference is that the "numbers" of seriously ill people during this pandemic put many health care facilities on OVERLOAD. It wasn't a slow daily trickle across the nation of people that were in auto accidents - and health care systems in most jurisdictions, are simply not prepared for those mass numbers coming in over days/weeks- NOT years.




Jeff - if you feel the need to complain, feel free to use the REPORT button, you seem to know where it is. I don't believe that I said anything out of line, but YMMV.

 

[soon hock]

https://www.inquirer.com/phillies/phillies-nationals-covid-19-game-postponed-20210728.html our baseball team has a covid outbreak at least twelve confirmed cases of the twelve only one appears to be unvaccinated.

 

[RD.]

While not a popular decision by many of those working in health care, in our Province many restrictions are now being removed faster than it took for the ink to dry on their initial draft. I don't know what they are thinking, especially considering the results of papers such as this. Those that like numbers will appreciate the fact that a mathematical model was used to help predict the changes found in this study.

Rates of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and vaccination impact the fate of vaccine-resistant strains

Abstract
Vaccines are thought to be the best available solution for controlling the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, the emergence of vaccine-resistant strains may come too rapidly for current vaccine developments to alleviate the health, economic and social consequences of the pandemic. To quantify and characterize the risk of such a scenario, we created a SIR-derived model with initial stochastic dynamics of the vaccine-resistant strain to study the probability of its emergence and establishment. Using parameters realistically resembling SARS-CoV-2 transmission, we model a wave-like pattern of the pandemic and consider the impact of the rate of vaccination and the strength of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures on the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. As expected, we found that a fast rate of vaccination decreases the probability of emergence of a resistant strain. Counterintuitively, when a relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions happened at a time when most individuals of the population have already been vaccinated the probability of emergence of a resistant strain was greatly increased. Consequently, we show that a period of transmission reduction close to the end of the vaccination campaign can substantially reduce the probability of resistant strain establishment. Our results suggest that policymakers and individuals should consider maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions and transmission-reducing behaviours throughout the entire vaccination period.



"Counterintuitively, when a relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions happened at a time when most individuals of the population have already been vaccinated, the probability of emergence of a resistant strain was greatly increased," they added.

"Our results suggest that policymakers and individuals should consider maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions and transmission-reducing behaviors throughout the entire vaccination period."

"When most people are vaccinated, the vaccine-resistant strain has an advantage over the original strain," Simon Rella of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, who worked on the study, told reporters.

"This means the vaccine resistant strain spreads through the population faster at a time when most people are vaccinated."

But if so-called non pharmaceutical interventions are maintained -- such as mask use and social distancing -- the virus is less likely to spread and change. "There is a chance to remove the vaccine resistant mutations from the population," Rella said.

The team used a mathematical model to predict these changes, but their findings follow what is known about the epidemiology of viruses and what's known as selective pressure -- the force that drives any organism to evolve.

The findings suggest that policymakers should resist the temptation to lift restrictions to celebrate or reward vaccination efforts.

This is likely to be especially true with a more transmissible variant such as the Delta variant, said Fyodor Kondrashov, also of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

"Generally, the more people are infected, the more the chances for vaccine resistance to emerge. So the more Delta is infectious, the more reason for concern," Kondrashov told reporters.

"By having a situation where you vaccinate everybody, a vaccine-resistant mutant actually gains a selective advantage."

On Tuesday, the US CDC altered its guidance on mask use. The CDC said earlier this year that fully vaccinated people are very safe from infection and can take off their masks in most situations.

Now, it says even fully vaccinated people can sometimes catch the virus and if they catch the Delta variant, they are just as likely to infect someone else as an unvaccinated person would be. It advised everyone in areas of high or sustained virus transmission to wear masks when around others.