Coronavirus 666: The Number of the Delta Variant (but in an entirely scientific context)

[ShadySands]

We're still waiting on our official results but I took a home test and got a positive result. Combined with the fact that we're all sick I'm expecting those to come back positive as well.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

7 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

We're still waiting on our official results but I took a home test and got a positive result. Combined with the fact that we're all sick I'm expecting those to come back positive as well.

That's awful. Hope yall come out ok.

[majestic]

Well, isn't that fun.

An hour ago a text message woke me up (it is 07:00 right now). Colleague from work says he's positive. Yay. Luckily we stocked a whole bunch of rapid COVID-19 tests and it came out negative, since my last contact with him was both extended and on Wednesday I figure I'm somewhat safe, but I'll just isolate myself for the time being. Looks like the vaccine actually did its job, who would have thought?

Man, really... and I thought I'd get through this crap without having to jab a swab up my nose, which very predictably lead to "some" unpleasantness. It's my usual dirty rotten luck too, having a total of two colleages I come in contact with regularily and one of them gets a breakthrough infection.

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, ShadySands said:

We're still waiting on our official results but I took a home test and got a positive result. Combined with the fact that we're all sick I'm expecting those to come back positive as well.

How sick  are you guys? I really want to understand if the fact you are fully vaccinated has helped ...I hope it has?

[ShadySands]

Honestly, it was much worse the first time I had it but it's not exactly pleasant this time around either.  Wife got her official positive diagnosis so I'll be surprised if the others don't come back the same. Yes, we're all vaccinated but it was about 6 months ago and I've seen studies saying the efficacy drops a lot around 6 months. I was going to go get my booster shot next week too.

[BruceVC]

26 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Honestly, it was much worse the first time I had it but it's not exactly pleasant this time around either.  Wife got her official positive diagnosis so I'll be surprised if the others don't come back the same. Yes, we're all vaccinated but it was about 6 months ago and I've seen studies saying the efficacy drops a lot around 6 months. I was going to go get my booster shot next week too.

Thank for sharing, this is a very important story and the longevity of anti-bodies will wane. The ongoing unanswered question is " how long will they last after you have been vaccinated" and 6 months is more or less when you need your booster

Interestingly enough last night at the local bar I was chatting to  a guy from Austria, married now to a SA women and SA resident ,who lives in my complex and had double Pfizer in May and he went for an anti-body test this week  and his anti-body count is high despite being over 6 months ago he was fully vaccinated 

So it seem to vary how long they last, get better and keep us updated 

[majestic]

31 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Honestly, it was much worse the first time I had it but it's not exactly pleasant this time around either.  Wife got her official positive diagnosis so I'll be surprised if the others don't come back the same. Yes, we're all vaccinated but it was about 6 months ago and I've seen studies saying the efficacy drops a lot around 6 months. I was going to go get my booster shot next week too.

Yeah, my breakthrough colleague's vaccination was a bit more than six months ago too. Hope everything turns out fine for you guys.

Can't say I'm looking forward to getting a booster shot, but perhaps I can switch to the Comirnaty instead of Spikevax, unless the latter has a smaller dosage in its booster shots than its regular ones. Assuming the booster shot causes at least as strong a reaction as the second shot (if not worse), then... ugh.

Speaking of reactions, my cousin's wife has Crohn's disease and didn't get vaccinated until recently, because her doctors cautioned against it. The government recently introduced a new sort-of lockdown for the unvaccinated, and that includes only being allowed to go to work either vaccinated or with a negative PCR test. Her boss apparently doesn't want to deal with the hassle of having to check test results every three days so he told her she can either get vaccinated or fired.

First shot knocked her out cold for a week. Honestly, would have probably been better to refuse and let the lawyer's handle that, there's no way firing her over not being able to get vaccinated based on her health status would stick. It's not like she's an anti-vaxx dweeb.

[ShadySands]

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-11-04/study-shows-dramatic-decline-in-effectiveness-of-covid-19-vaccines

Bruce, here's an article that references one of the studies I was talking about

[Zoraptor]

While the effectiveness against infection drops off a cliff after a few months protection against serious infection- hospitalisation/ death- is largely maintained.

Kind of ironic though, Pfizer has by far the worst drop off of the 2 shot vaccines- a lot worse than the Moderna mRNA vaccine too- so much so that it ends up worse than Astra Zeneca after a few months.

[majestic]

When it rains it pours, my wife was with her family for a birthday party yesterday and what do you know, her sh*t for brains anti-vaxxer brother tested positive today and probably infected the entire sh*t for brains anti-vaxxer family in the process... most likely including her older sister who not that long ago had a rather extensive and hefty chemo therapy plus surgery (breast cancer). My wife should be fine, having had an infection earlier this year that went by without symtpoms before the vaccines were available outside of high risk groups - assuming she even tests positive and has a reinfection, but she's quarantined for now.

To make matters worse he's too dumb to fill out the online preparation form for the contact tracing and too dumb to copy the link. He managed to make a screencap of his phone with only half the link showing, so I can't help him either (not that I want to, but whatever).

FML

[Bartimaeus]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

When it rains it pours, my wife was with her family for a birthday party yesterday and what do you know, her sh*t for brains anti-vaxxer brother tested positive today and probably infected the entire sh*t for brains anti-vaxxer family in the process... most likely including her older sister who not that long ago had a rather extensive and hefty chemo therapy plus surgery (breast cancer). My wife should be fine, having had an infection earlier this year that went by without symtpoms before the vaccines were available outside of high risk groups - assuming she even tests positive and has a reinfection, but she's quarantined for now.

To make matters worse he's too dumb to fill out the online preparation form for the contact tracing and too dumb to copy the link. He managed to make a screencap of his phone with only half the link showing, so I can't help him either (not that I want to, but whatever).

FML

Hope everyone (also including ShadySands here) makes it through okay...and if you're vaccinated, then at least you can feel 99.9% confident that you will, . Guess there is a pretty serious worry for the immuno-compromised sister, though...

All of my direct family is pro-vaccine; meanwhile, also literally all of my extended family is anti-vaccine. It's made for some...interesting conversations over the past year. No, Grandpa, I am not going to go to discover "the truth" on InfoWars or [insert other hack publication here]...and I wish I were joking about InfoWars specifically here, but no, I am not.

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Guess there is a pretty serious worry for the immuno-compromised sister, though...

My wife worries about that, yes. The others, including her sister? No. She should be super-worried right now, but they all think this is a government mandated world wide conspiracy and that there is no pandemic, just a "plandemic" to control people through vaccinations. The nefarious purpose behind the vaccination varies depending on what type of moron they recently listend to and ranges from tracking implants (fun fact, they all have dogs and all of them have tracking chips implanted and not one of them thinks it's odd that they're so large and underneath the skin rather than in their dogs muscle tissue... but hey, never let facts stand in the way of a good conspiracy) to sterilization or outright kill switches so the "high finance" (Nazi code for Jews) can indiscriminately kill people. The most outlandish claim I've heard was that Bill Gates wants to kill all but five million people of the world's elite and then leave Earth to explore the galaxy in their warp capable starship. I wish I would be making this up... and I really wish we would have warp capable starships because that would be totally awesome.

The most hilarious part about this all is that they're watching people like Alex Jones spout their stuff in the open when he claims there's this world wide conspiracy that is so powerful that every last damned government on the planet plays along or is fully involved, even those that hate each other, but one guy on YouTube or Telegram has all the knowledge and is allowed to post it freely without repercussions.

Meanwhile Anonymous hacktivists are always wearing masks and use artifically generated voices because they're really operating in a grey or downright illegal area and would be taken down if the "gobernmint" / teh man / teh police got a hold of them when they leak damning evidence for wrongdoings that should be hushed up. They watch Julian Assange being blasted by (most likely) wrong accusations, spending years hidden inside an embassy, and an army of fascist shills posting everywhere how he's a danger to freedom (like some even on this forum, you guys know who you are ) while watching Attila Hildmann on Telegram (although he is now wanted and fled to Turkey over "exposing" the Jewish part of the Corona conspiracy on grounds of Germany's rather strict laws when it comes to religious and ethnic incitement and Anonymous killed his Telegram presence).

They watch journalists being cut up and partially dissolved in acid or shot on the street. Watch opposition politicians disappear or being killed. See Chinese citizens in "reeducation" camps for not being decent Chinese citizens. Then they watch Russia Today report every possible and suspected cases of vaccination side effects except for Sputnik V because the other mainstream media has "an agenda" and clearly Russia Today hasn't.

Alex Jones' only worry in the world is the revenue stream he's missing since YouTube cut him off. He's safe and sound, just like every other vaccination conspiracy nutjob. Safe from companies that are so powerful that they're allowed to infect the entire world for profit or are unscrupulous enough to kill millions - if not billions in cold blood.

So what is it, then? Is there no powerful conspiracy that would try to shut him up like Assange, or are they all actually in on it and just looking to obfuscate things further?

 

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

All of my direct family is pro-vaccine; meanwhile, also literally all of my extended family is anti-vaccine. It's made for some...interesting conversations over the past year. No, Grandpa, I am not going to go to discover "the truth" on InfoWars or [insert other hack publication here]...and I wish I were joking about InfoWars specifically here, but no, I am not.

Man, I remember a couple of years ago the usual suspects here on the forum (you get one guess who that was) linked to InfoWars vidoes with severely mistranslated German interviews to try and prove that Germany is going to create and mobilize a European Union army against the bastions of freedom in Eastern Europe, just because someone said the parilament should fight for the freedoms and rights won by past generations if need be. That's all it took, taking "to fight for something" and turning it into potential combat action.

You know, I like watching Flat Earther videos. Those guys don't harm anyone by exposing how dumb they are, but these other guys? Where IS that conspiracy that should make them disappear? Guys, a little help here, please MAKE them disappear. Unmarked vans would be fine, you already have some experience with that.

Edited November 9, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

8 minutes ago, majestic said:

The most outlandish claim I've heard was that Bill Gates wants to kill all but five million people of the world's elite and then leave Earth to explore the galaxy in their warp capable starship. I wish I would be making this up... and I really wish we would have warp capable starships because that would be totally awesome.

Hell yeah, sign me up! I'm assuming I have at least a fighting chance at being one of the five million since I took his vaccine very early on and he would presumably want sensible and agreeable people on his starship. Definitely don't want brainless, gun-toting "rebels", anyways.

41 minutes ago, majestic said:

You know, I like watching Flat Earther videos. Those guys don't harm anyone by exposing how dumb they are, but these other guys? Where IS that conspiracy that should make them disappear? Guys, a little help here, please MAKE them disappear. Unmarked vans would be fine, you already have some experience with that.

Yeah, but any kind of anti-science position really seems like a leaping point for any number of other insane positions. Today "global warming is a hoax" or "the Earth is flat", tomorrow it's "**** your vaccines" and "give me the horse paste". People are nuts. Hope everything works out.

[rjshae]

44 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, but any kind of anti-science position really seems like a leaping point for any number of other insane positions. Today "global warming is a hoax" or "the Earth is flat", tomorrow it's "**** your vaccines" and "give me the horse paste". People are nuts. Hope everything works out.

Yep. Once you reject evidence-based reasoning, all you have left is unhinged fantasy. The rug is ripped out from under you and even the most crackpot conspiracies seems plausible.

[Hurlshort]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/big-bird-vaccine-announcement-sparks-backlash-conservatives-gop-n1283425

I had no idea Big Bird was only 6 years old. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

No, Grandpa, I am not going to go to discover "the truth" on InfoWars or [insert other hack publication here]...and I wish I were joking about InfoWars specifically here, but no, I am not.

Don't you want to turn red?

2 hours ago, majestic said:

The most outlandish claim I've heard was that Bill Gates wants to kill all but five million people of the world's elite and then leave Earth to explore the galaxy in their warp capable starship.

Man that sounds cool. But it doesn't make sense. Where would Bill Gates hide the ship? Why bother killing off everyone instead of just leaving? Why explore when the earth is part of a giant ball of ice and space is a hoax?

Meanwhile the real dystopia is a bad drawing of a monkey smoking a blunt is worth $100000 because it uses the same energy as 5 households do in a year each day to maintain it. Talk about lame.

2 hours ago, majestic said:

The most hilarious part about this all is that they're watching people like Alex Jones spout their stuff in the open when he claims there's this world wide conspiracy that is so powerful that every last damned government on the planet plays along or is fully involved, even those that hate each other, but one guy on YouTube or Telegram has all the knowledge and is allowed to post it freely without repercussions.

Meanwhile Anonymous hacktivists are always wearing masks and use artifically generated voices because they're really operating in a grey or downright illegal area and would be taken down if the "gobernmint" / teh man / teh police got a hold of them when they leak damning evidence for wrongdoings that should be hushed up. They watch Julian Assange being blasted by (most likely) wrong accusations, spending years hidden inside an embassy, and an army of fascist shills posting everywhere how he's a danger to freedom (like some even on this forum, you guys know who you are ) while watching Attila Hildmann on Telegram (although he is now wanted and fled to Turkey over "exposing" the Jewish part of the Corona conspiracy on grounds of Germany's rather strict laws when it comes to religious and ethnic incitement and Anonymous killed his Telegram presence).

They watch journalists being cut up and partially dissolved in acid or shot on the street. Watch opposition politicians disappear or being killed. See Chinese citizens in "reeducation" camps for not being decent Chinese citizens. Then they watch Russia Today report every possible and suspected cases of vaccination side effects except for Sputnik V because the other mainstream media has "an agenda" and clearly Russia Today hasn't.

Alex Jones' only worry in the world is the revenue stream he's missing since YouTube cut him off. He's safe and sound, just like every other vaccination conspiracy nutjob. Safe from companies that are so powerful that they're allowed to infect the entire world for profit or are unscrupulous enough to kill millions - if not billions in cold blood.

So what is it, then? Is there no powerful conspiracy that would try to shut him up like Assange, or are they all actually in on it and just looking to obfuscate things further?

I have a conspiracy theory that governments spread conspiracy theories (some of which is proven, like the evergreen antisemitic screed Protocols being fabricated by the Czarist secret police way back) because it tends to shift focus away focus from institutions and structures (and action against them) and towards well basically cults and snake oil peddlers that may rack up a human cost but won't get close enough to the gears of power to do anything.

Think about it, we've seen governments go hard against Anonymous, environmental activists, Barret Brown, Reality Winner, Donzinger and others who whistleblew about stuff the government and corporations actually did or directly hit them in the profits. Meanwhile the conspiracy crew (with it's usual ties to fascists and other cretins) have not gotten near the same crackdowns despite having done much more real harm to people. The conspiracy guys who claim that they're fighting against an unprecedentedly powerful enemy or enemies not only manage to stay out of prison.(let alone get killed), a good amount of them make enough money where they don't have to wage slave anymore.

[LadyCrimson]

I hope everyone is/stays ok.

I know being vaccinated is supposed to help with covid at least being not as severe if you do then catch it, but does that have any kind of time-reduction too, or would that aspect be a bit more permanent?

I guess it's getting close to six months for us since full vaccination too. Being winter, especially, guess we should see about getting those boosters...

[Gfted1]

I hope you and the fam get well soon Shady.

Im around 6 months since the second shot but Im in no hurry for the booster. Ill let it ride until something changes.

[majestic]

32 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

I know being vaccinated is supposed to help with covid at least being not as severe if you do then catch it, but does that have any kind of time-reduction too, or would that aspect be a bit more permanent?

Like so many things, that depends on the individual, but in general, yes, while the chance to catch Covid-19 rises a good deal after six months (for some earlier, for others later, obviously) protection against severe cases remains more stable. At least for the vector and mRNA vaccinations, not sure how well the Chinese vaccine works after a while. Still not a bad idea to get a booster shot after six months if you're part of a (high) risk group.

Ever since dropping off my sample today I've been feeling gradually worse. Mild headache, some pain in the shoulder - things that are easily explained by having slept in an awkward position and not having slept enough, both of which happened to me tonight. Still... can't fully prevent my mind from going places right now. I've been on and off imagining a sore throat ever since I heard my colleague tested positive.

Silly brain, really.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm not sure how I feel about boosters, for myself, tbh. I guess I was thinking about once a year, not every six months, maybe using the fact I hardly leave my house as an excuse. But...since...

Hubby ... for me personally he's the largest "vector risk."  Like his work dept. is having a Xmas mingle this weekend (I'm not going) and I was surprised they'd do that. I sort of don't want him to go because that's the kind of situation where he could bring something home to higher-risk diabetic me.  But I don't want to be a stick in the mud, telling him what he can/can't do, either. Sigh.

Edited November 9, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[ShadySands]

I feel like I'm slowly getting better but my wife and son are getting worse. My son has the mildest symptoms but we have to constantly monitor for signs of MIS-C.

[BruceVC]

57 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

I hope you and the fam get well soon Shady.

Im around 6 months since the second shot but Im in no hurry for the booster. Ill let it ride until something changes.

Thats an understandable view as long as you aware of the consequence, it means your corona anti-bodies will be vastly reduced or go away after 6-8 months . So if you exposed to anyone with the virus you will have no protection and can get sick?

I know its frustrating with all these boosters but the reality is the  virus does not change and we will all need boosters to ensure we have anti-bodies every 6-8 months or you might as well not take a jab because whats the point if you arent concerned with the protection you gain from the vaccine in respects to  anti-bodies?

But then in your case you dont seem to socialize in bars, strip-clubs or similar social places so you can probably control your exposure to strangers? 

[BruceVC]

37 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

I'm not sure how I feel about boosters, for myself, tbh. I guess I was thinking about once a year, not every six months, maybe using the fact I hardly leave my house as an excuse. But...since...

Hubby ... for me personally he's the largest "vector risk."  Like his work dept. is having a Xmas mingle this weekend (I'm not going) and I was surprised they'd do that. I sort of don't want him to go because that's the kind of situation where he could bring something home to higher-risk diabetic me.  But I don't want to be a stick in the mud, telling him what he can/can't do, either. Sigh.

In summary what is your issue with boosters? Is it because you feel this will never end in the sense you will always be told " now you need another jab " ?

[Gfted1]

13 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

I know its frustrating with all these boosters but the reality is the  virus does not change and we will all need boosters to ensure we have anti-bodies every 6-8 months or you might as well not take a jab because whats the point if you arent concerned with the protection you gain from the vaccine in respects to  anti-bodies?

But then in your case you dont seem to socialize in bars, strip-clubs or similar social places so you can probably control your exposure to strangers?

I wouldnt say its pointless because I would still have <some resistance> to getting seriously ill. But thats neither here nor there, Im not considered "high risk" so I feel like I dont have to jump at the booster shot. Whenever the next new variant comes about then Ill reevaluate it.

Its been DECADES since Ive gone to a strip club and I honestly cant remember the last time I went to a bar, but I do freely hang out with my friends.

[LadyCrimson]

14 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

In summary what is your issue with boosters? Is it because you feel this will never end in the sense you will always be told " now you need another jab " ?

Per usual I don't really have any technical/moral objection or something like that. I'm just lazy and really don't feel like "having" to get one every six months, just like I rarely go for anything medical/dental unless there's an actual problem already in progress. If I'm considered too high risk, I'd rather never leave the house (which I already am 90-95% there anyway) and if I was single I probably would.

Edited November 9, 2021 by LadyCrimson