COVID-19 thread for 2022
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A preliminary study from Israel shows that a fourth vaccination only offers limited protection against omicron.
Keep in mind this isn't just 3 shots, as many Canadians now have, but with an additional (4th) shot. The people receiving the 4th shot did have higher antibody levels, but it still probably is not enough to stop omicron.
4 shots did not prevent the spread of omicron. We have to start rethinking the value of vaccinations in this war. I'm not sure there's much value beyond the primary vaccination series. And society has been giving people the wrong message, that they can get vaccinated and then keep partying and pretending the pandemic doesn't exist.
This also isn't the only study that showed limited benefit of vaccines against omicron. A recent Ontario study showed something similar and significant % of triple vaccinated people catching omicron.
Myself, I am holding off on getting my 3rd shot as it's of questionable value at my age. I'll get another shot some time this year but I'm in no hurry.
Keep in mind this isn't just 3 shots, as many Canadians now have, but with an additional (4th) shot. The people receiving the 4th shot did have higher antibody levels, but it still probably is not enough to stop omicron.
4 shots did not prevent the spread of omicron. We have to start rethinking the value of vaccinations in this war. I'm not sure there's much value beyond the primary vaccination series. And society has been giving people the wrong message, that they can get vaccinated and then keep partying and pretending the pandemic doesn't exist.
This also isn't the only study that showed limited benefit of vaccines against omicron. A recent Ontario study showed something similar and significant % of triple vaccinated people catching omicron.
Myself, I am holding off on getting my 3rd shot as it's of questionable value at my age. I'll get another shot some time this year but I'm in no hurry.
I've been saying this for almost a year now.
It still reduces your chances of hospitalization or serious illness.
I'd get it if I can (I did).
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True, it does reduce probability of a bad case of covid. But I also expect more boosters will be required this year and I want to space these out.
I had quite severe side effects from the last shots and the last thing I want is another shot a few months from now. Because there are very harsh on the body, I need to space them out. My guess is that we're all looking at getting another vaccination in the Oct/Nov time frame.
If you are young, healthy, etc. I wouldn't be in any rush. Your chances of a severe outcome with 2 doses is minimal, especially with Omicron. Likely close to the risk of a piano falling out of the sky and landing on you! The boosters should be reserved for those that really need them - elderly, immune compromised, other countries with low vaccination rates, etc.
Pfizer is already talking about yearly boosters, etc. Time will tell whether or not this is even necessary. What they need is a better treatment options. Chasing COVID with a yearly vaccine is futile. We all know how accurate they are with influenza. And we all know how few people actually get the yearly jab.
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I should add that I am in my 30s, don't have children, and work from home. So I really am not at high risk here. I do think it's smart to preserve the boosters for people who really need them. All the seniors in my family have gotten the boosters and I'm glad they did, but it's a whole different situation for a 75 or 80 year old, versus me.
Yeah I'm concerned about that. Already I think the boosters chasing the variants has been futile. Notice how we barely boosted people in time for delta, and just about as soon as we rolled out the boosters, omicron appeared and changed the whole game.
Remember: it was discovered that 2 shots had limited effect with delta, and that's why we started boosters. The booster campaign was to bring the population back up to full immunity with delta. That pretty much illustrates how futile "keeping up" with boosters is.
Basically, by the time we started boosting in time for delta, we had already progressed from delta to omicron, which it turns out does not respond to the vaccines. In desperation, Israel gave 4 shots of the same original vaccine to people, but still can't stop omicron with it.
It was never really expected that a vaccine would stop the pandemic. It was shocking that they got an effective vaccine at all.
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I had no reaction to the 3rd shot after 2 moderate reactions to 1 and 2. (fever, chills).
the new omicron variant vaccines are likely available in a few months (I’d guess late summer/fall for mass distribution).
Quebecers are a different lot. Quebec has experienced the worst outcomes for Covid and imposed some the most intrusive restrictions. 1 +1 doesn't always make 2.
Interesting article I saw today.
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... only thing going for him atm to make himself "stand out".
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... first half of the article looks like it was written by our medical genius on the forum and then the second part starting withInteresting article I saw today.
... stopped me from reading his
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Another update Covid experience update and my reflection (will have my learnings but will be long)
Spouse (out of isolation since last Thursday) had lingering cough, but managed to get out and exercise, it was hard at first, but then it seemed to clear out his lungs and he feels almost a 100%, other than the cough.
Youngest - We rapid tested her again on Sat (day 5) because she wanted to go to her practice (first major comp this weekend) and she was still negative. Tested again for school yesterday, still negative, so kept her home. She had not had any symptoms since the day before she tested positive. She is also officially out of isolation since Sunday, and is just bouncing around.
Oldest - She was feeling better by Saturday, still had a little sore throat and was fatigued. I had her come with me for a PCR test as I am eligible and there is an option to add other family members on. So she had a PCR on Saturday, and was POSITIVE.
Myself - I was still off on Saturday, and decided to get the PCR due to my eligibility. Showed up POSITIVE. When my results on my PCR came back I received information for that early treatment and was trying to figure out if I was eligible. You have to take it within the first 5 days of symptoms. Since I had a negative PCR even though I had symptoms, we could tell when I actually had COVID symptoms. Only sometime after that. The healthlink calculated it was mostly like when I had the really bad two days, which now would be over 5 days. It also means that my isolation is officially over. I still have symptoms, but they have gotten better. It's pretty normal for me to have very long colds during times, I don't sleep very much.
I am actually relieved that we had Covid now and seemed to have gotten through the worst of it. The symptoms for us sucked but were manageable. The worst parts that people don't talk about was:
- Not knowing who had what. It was really tough having negative and positive tests. Due to this, isolating from each family member was the worst. It might have been better once one got sick, just to isolate as an unit. That only works one doesn't have to worry about having one person well enough to help the kids if they need it. Isolating together would have been so much easier mentally and physically. The positive is seeing that our teenagers really close to us and missed us. Nice to know that our family is tight.
- Notifying our close contacts. We fortunately didn't have very many because we had decided to reduce socializing over a week before school started, but I don't love notifying the kids' school, close friends from school (school no longer tells anyone), and sports team.
- Trying to figure out the isolation rules for everyone because it was all different days. It took me forever to figure this out, and I needed health link to help me.
Other learnings:
- Once you have covid, rapid and PCR tests are useless for up to 180 days (90 is more normal). I was testing before my kid goes back to school, but I would have been testing for ages. It's important to know and follow the health rules. This means know when things start.
- Monitoring symptoms is one of the most important things one can do even its mild. The symptoms should supersede a negative rapid test. This means stay at home if you have any symptoms, even if you test negative. Health orders ask you to test again if it's negative, before going out. We did it 3 times and still had it.
- If you plan to travel outside of Canada in 6 months of getting sick, and rapid test at home, then you should go and get a PCR test to make it official. Otherwise you may have to isolate again before coming home if you still have the antigens. If I would have know, I would have brought my spouse and youngest one with me when I was eligible for testing so we had official records. This will be very interesting for future travellers.
- I had my booster about a week before exposure. I am not sure if I had it earlier if it would have prevented it. However, I still am glad I had the booster because my sickness wasn't awful. My spouse didn't have his, so he may wait a few months and see what is going on in the Covid world. I don't think he has to worry for a few months at least.
Preparation - My house was really well prepared, I would recommend that people have some of the following supplies and things in place:
- Enough food for 2 weeks, really easy to prepare meals. Ideally things that could be portioned off, reheated and consumed at different times (we didn't eat together). Tea and honey was the most consumed item the last two weeks.
- Vitamins C, D, and Zinc - not sure how much that helped, but it could hurt. The Zinc throat longazes really did help though, and I was running low though.
- Some say tylonel/advil but we didn't use it
- Have someone that can check in a drop of supplies.
- A bin system for people to drop stuff off contactless
- Thermometer
- Nasal flusher
- Rapid tests - we used more than we thought because of all of the negatives.
If you have others at home that you have to care for or isolate from:
- N95 masks,
- disposable gloves,
- Hand sanitizers for each person
- Lysol wipes and spray for each person (so they can disinfect when they leave a room)
- Hepa air filters
- Clear plastic shower curtain liners or table protectors - I used as a barrier barrier for the front and back seat. If I had more, I could have put up the curtain at each door way so we could all see each other, but still have a barrier.
I will update this if I think of anything else. This has been helpful for me to help others and also I had to pull this thread out to give the healthlink dates.
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We stocked up on instant dried soups and instant ramen noodles (chicken and spicy mostly), low sodium V8 juice, and extra spicy Clamato juice.
We figure that will get us through a few days where we don't have the energy to cook and need fluids and vitamins.
I like the spicy stuff because it warms me up and clears out the nose and sinuses.
As an aside, we had a hot tub in the recreation room in one home we owned, and in 10 years whenever I felt a cold coming on I would turn up the heat and soak for awhile.
Never had a full cold all the time we lived there. I don't know the science involved, but it worked for me.
Maybe a hot tub bath or shower would be helpful with covid symptoms ?
Of course.........not if you already have a fever. Cool showers would be better to get the temperature down in that case.
We figure that will get us through a few days where we don't have the energy to cook and need fluids and vitamins.
I like the spicy stuff because it warms me up and clears out the nose and sinuses.
As an aside, we had a hot tub in the recreation room in one home we owned, and in 10 years whenever I felt a cold coming on I would turn up the heat and soak for awhile.
Never had a full cold all the time we lived there. I don't know the science involved, but it worked for me.
Maybe a hot tub bath or shower would be helpful with covid symptoms ?
Of course.........not if you already have a fever. Cool showers would be better to get the temperature down in that case.
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No could eat anything spicy (though they normally do) because everyone had a really sore throat and the spicy really hurt it. For the sinuses it wasn't too bad for covid at all. We did regular nasal irrigation (I added it to my list above), and it really helped. It also helped the throat. Soup was something we ate alot of too. We keep a lot of bone broth in the house and just add in veggies and some noodles.
I tend to take a lot of baths. It is known that baths help relieve symptoms, they won't stop a cold, but it did help with the aches and general well being. My spouse took alot of hot showers because he had the chills for the first two days. You do have to be careful of the temperatures, I was getting a little light headed when it was hot water, but I prefer hot baths normally.
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I was thinking a regular nasal flush would probably exit a lot of dangerous virus from your sinuses, that is about to infect more cells, but of course I also wondered if all it would do was spread the virus around the sinuses more. So I was uncertain.
Did you use the nasal flusher? Did you use Neilmed and/or Hydrasense with it?
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The virus seems to be more elusive and smarter than us humans. If people how had previous variants can get omicron and people who have been vaccinated can get omicron why do we draw the conclusion that this will be endemic. Not being a scientist I am only throwing out possibilities that may be incorrect for a number of reasons. But is it not possible or even likely that with more spread there will be more opportunities for mutations. These mutations will be different. Some stronger, some weaker, some more transmittable, some less transmittable. How long will we be dealing with covid variants. The Spanish flu had a timeline where it eventually went away but that was in a world with much less global integration and a much lower population. I am hopeful that Omni is the last variant and that it is not severely harmful to those who contract it (which looks like almost all of us). However, I would not rule out the possibility of more to come.Interesting article I saw today.
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