SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)



WTF China. Catastrophic news for the global economy. If only they’d been this decisive when it came to containing the initial outbreak :rolleyes: Thanks a lot.


I've read before that it's not a good look for Chinese leaders to reverse decisions so they never make big changes in CCP congress years and November is the next one. I've seen a lot of people predict that zero covid will be dropped as a strategy after November, but not before.

The article linked alludes to that "But Andy Chen, an analyst at consultancy Trivium China, said Beijing would revise its policy after Xi was confirmed for a third term as the country’s leader late this year."

Hopefully that will be the case.
 
I've read before that it's not a good look for Chinese leaders to reverse decisions so they never make big changes in CCP congress years and November is the next one. I've seen a lot of people predict that zero covid will be dropped as a strategy after November, but not before.

The article linked alludes to that "But Andy Chen, an analyst at consultancy Trivium China, said Beijing would revise its policy after Xi was confirmed for a third term as the country’s leader late this year."

Hopefully that will be the case.

Ah. Ok. Interesting. Fingers crossed.
 
I've read before that it's not a good look for Chinese leaders to reverse decisions so they never make big changes in CCP congress years and November is the next one. I've seen a lot of people predict that zero covid will be dropped as a strategy after November, but not before.

The article linked alludes to that "But Andy Chen, an analyst at consultancy Trivium China, said Beijing would revise its policy after Xi was confirmed for a third term as the country’s leader late this year."

Hopefully that will be the case.

They won't "revise" the policy on surface. But they have been tweaking their definition of zero covid since December. What is likely to happen is they will find a formula to declare victory over covid as they find a way to live with it. May have to wait for their own mrna vaccines to be ready though.
 
Time to swallow their pride and order vaccine doses from the US, or whoever.
They should. Fosun Pharma reached an agreement to distribute and manufacture the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine as early as in the spring of 2020 and should have produce it for the mainland by now. Only Hong Kong and Macau received those vaccines so far, but overzealous national pride from Beijing has held up funds in favor of companies that are not Fosun Pharma. The CCP were relying on Chinese homegrown mRNA vaccines and hoping to not rely on foreign suppliers, but there is a serious lagging behind when it comes to mastering mRNA vaccine technology. It's just horrible to see how far one government can go out of hubris.

Here's an article from May 24 about why this is happening in China: China's Bet on Homegrown mRNA Vaccines Holds Back Nation

edit: And now this! Whoever runs the health ministry over there, what a stupid son of a bitch.

Shanghai orders over half its Residents to undergo covid testing as resurgence fears rise (WSJ)
 
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They should. Fosun Pharma reached an agreement to distribute and manufacture the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine as early as in the spring of 2020 and should have produce it for the mainland by now. Only Hong Kong and Macau received those vaccines so far, but overzealous national pride from Beijing has held up funds in favor of companies that are not Fosun Pharma. The CCP were relying on Chinese homegrown mRNA vaccines and hoping to not rely on foreign suppliers, but there is a serious lagging behind when it comes to mastering mRNA vaccine technology. It's just horrible to see how far one government can go out of hubris.

Here's an article from May 24 about why this is happening in China: China's Bet on Homegrown mRNA Vaccines Holds Back Nation

edit: And now this! Whoever runs the health ministry over there, what a stupid son of a bitch.

Shanghai orders over half its Residents to undergo covid testing as resurgence fears rise (WSJ)
This is what I've heard from my new guru Peter Zeihan, it's become a focal point of propaganda that China can't admit inferiority of vaccine or tactics with Covid.
 
No it’s not. But I would be interested to see if multiple exposures to omicron do eventually prompt more of an immune response in those that had an initial infection with a non-omicron variant. Since this is what is playing out around the world now.

In Australia, most peoples first infection will be omicron, which looking at the the data produces a decent antibody response against omicron. So we are possibly lucky to have stopped those initial waves.

It’s very complicated, the idea of immune imprinting was new to me.
 
No it’s not. But I would be interested to see if multiple exposures to omicron do eventually prompt more of an immune response in those that had an initial infection with a non-omicron variant. Since this is what is playing out around the world now.

In Australia, most peoples first infection will be omicron, which looking at the the data produces a decent antibody response against omicron. So we are possibly lucky to have stopped those initial waves.

It’s very complicated, the idea of immune imprinting was new to me.

Perhaps we really do need an Omicron specific vaccine? Apparently UQ are going again with a redesigned clamp approach as well.
 

No mention of disease severity. We’ve known for ages that vaccination/prior infection gives fairly limited protection against reinfection with omicron. What seems likely though, is that recurrent exposure lowers the risk of a bad outcome to fairly trivial levels. The IFR is currently a fraction of what you see from influenza and it’s trending lower all the time. That’s really all that matters now we have to live with this virus.
 
No mention of disease severity. We’ve known for ages that vaccination/prior infection gives fairly limited protection against reinfection with omicron. What seems likely though, is that recurrent exposure lowers the risk of a bad outcome to fairly trivial levels. The IFR is currently a fraction of what you see from influenza and it’s trending lower all the time. That’s really all that matters now we have to live with this virus.
Understanding the biological info underlying that paper is way beyond me, but the headlines do relate to immunity boosting, rather than to the question of whether the immune system does its job once infected. Also, it's studying a substantial group of triple vaccinated workers but by the time you get to individual cohorts being compared (eg: infected with Wuhan v infected with Alpha etc) the numbers of people in each group get really small. In other words - I don't know whether to care or not.

The thing I did wonder about is whether we're just seeing what we already know from other coronavirus infections? We do keep catching the "common cold" from (amongst other things) variations on previous coronavirus, including presumably ones we've seen before.

COVID's damage capability remains much higher for most people so we will have to keep an eye on variants, and maybe keep updating boosters, but maybe that's just how it is.

Also... Maybe it's a good thing that the body can sort out Omicron using its existing response, and it just can't be bothered to come up with something new? Dons rose-tinted spectacles.
 
Have there been any studies on post-covid common colds etc.? I feel like since I had covid in December I’m getting colds far more regularly and they’re hitting me far worse too. Had one for a couple of weeks now and it’s been rough. Went to the doctors and they told me it was just a common cold. Doesn’t feel like it.
 
Took 2.5 years and here we are...fever, chills, body ache and sore throat. Not pretty. Hopefully goes down soon. It's already seeming lesser than yesterday which was possibly the 2nd or 3rd day.
 
I’ve had it for about 10 days now. Started as a fever then turned into the worst cold I’ve ever had. I’ve been feeling fine but sounding terrible for the last few days but I think I’m through it now.

It’s not fun to have, even with three jabs. Feels like it starts in your head and moves its way down into your chest.
 
Have there been any studies on post-covid common colds etc.? I feel like since I had covid in December I’m getting colds far more regularly and they’re hitting me far worse too. Had one for a couple of weeks now and it’s been rough. Went to the doctors and they told me it was just a common cold. Doesn’t feel like it.

You've had 2.5 years of handwashing, masks and distancing. Your body has forgotten some of its skills in preventing and fighting the various common colds.

This coming winter will be quite brutal for the regular flu I imagine.
 
What are the chances of getting that blood clot related issue if I boost using the AstraZeneca vaccine? First two were AZ as well
 
What are the chances of getting that blood clot related issue if I boost using the AstraZeneca vaccine? First two were AZ as well
No expert, unlike @jojojo, but I believe I read that the reaction was more likely to occur after the first one than any subsequent jabs.
 
What are the chances of getting that blood clot related issue if I boost using the AstraZeneca vaccine? First two were AZ as well
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...irus-vaccine-summary-of-yellow-card-reporting
Up to 8 June 2022, the MHRA had received Yellow Card reports of 444 cases of major thromboembolic events (blood clots) with concurrent thrombocytopenia (low platelet counts) in the UK following vaccination with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca. Fifty-one of the 444 reports have been reported after a second dose. Of the 444 reports, 221 occurred in females, and 218 occurred in males aged from 18 to 93 years. The overall case fatality rate was 18% with 81 deaths, six of which occurred after the second dose.
It mostly happened with first shots. If you were fine with that - and still fine after your second shot - I wouldn't worry too much about the booster. The already tiny risk will be even smaller for you at this stage.
 
Completely anecdotal but it seems to be everywhere at the moment, feel like I know more people with it now than at any other time of the pandemic.
 
Completely anecdotal but it seems to be everywhere at the moment, feel like I know more people with it now than at any other time of the pandemic.

It’s not just anecdotal. There’s another big wave underway. The latest omicron sub variants seem capable of escaping existing immunity and infecting a whole lot more people.

On the plus side they’re already out the other side of this wave in South Africa and it hospitalised/killed fewer people than any of the previous waves.
 
What are the chances of getting that blood clot related issue if I boost using the AstraZeneca vaccine? First two were AZ as well

If I'm remembering correctly, clots were more associated with Pfizer. Moderna didn't seem to have the issue. Not sure about AZ or JnJ.

As an aside, I had two Pfizer shots. Then for a Moderna booster. Couple weeks later I had a trip to the emergency and after ruling out clots been diagnosed w pericarditis. Apparently that and myocarditis being seen more in men.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/myocarditis.html
 
If I'm remembering correctly, clots were more associated with Pfizer. Moderna didn't seem to have the issue. Not sure about AZ or JnJ.

As an aside, I had two Pfizer shots. Then for a Moderna booster. Couple weeks later I had a trip to the emergency and after ruling out clots been diagnosed w pericarditis. Apparently that and myocarditis being seen more in men.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/myocarditis.html

Clots were AZ and were actually quite a big deal at the time. Enough to get it pulled from use in numerous countries.

Heart inflammation was linked to Pfizer and Moderna but was much rarer / less severe.
 
Clots were AZ and were actually quite a big deal at the time. Enough to get it pulled from use in numerous countries.

Heart inflammation was linked to Pfizer and Moderna but was much rarer / less severe.

Ah that sounds about right.

Edit: pardon my venting below. I'm just really exhausted, frustrated from my current health status

I checked out a little then - I couldn't stand the rhetoric from either the pro or anti vaccine side on the issue. As expected, here we are a year onwards and a middle of the road voice would have once again been the correct answer: vaccines were effective but yes there are side effects, albeit rare.

Was reading that the heart complications are 1 in 10,000. That's classified as rare. Shame to fall into it but my biggest gripe was that the US didn't offer to subsidize any medical costs associated with ill effects. We don't have to debate the challenge in connecting the dots to approve payments but it's the principle. I'm nearing $1000 in medical bills and that's with outstanding private health insurance. Not to mention it's months between fecking specialist appointments because of a large hcp shortage.
 
Ah that sounds about right.

Edit: pardon my venting below. I'm just really exhausted, frustrated from my current health status

I checked out a little then - I couldn't stand the rhetoric from either the pro or anti vaccine side on the issue. As expected, here we are a year onwards and a middle of the road voice would have once again been the correct answer: vaccines were effective but yes there are side effects, albeit rare.

Was reading that the heart complications are 1 in 10,000. That's classified as rare. Shame to fall into it but my biggest gripe was that the US didn't offer to subsidize any medical costs associated with ill effects. We don't have to debate the challenge in connecting the dots to approve payments but it's the principle. I'm nearing $1000 in medical bills and that's with outstanding private health insurance. Not to mention it's months between fecking specialist appointments because of a large hcp shortage.
I'm sure if you go back through this thread, you'll find plenty of people saying just that, as it's true in the case of pretty much every vaccine. And I believe that is a pro-vaccine line anyway. Nothing is without risk, but on balance, it works out in favour of the vaccine causing less harm than the virus and its own effects and consequences. This will inevitably be the same when the next pandemic hits us. Sadly, I think you've gone through this one in the country that politicised it more than any other.
 
7 people in my office off with COVID currently. It feels like everyone I know is impacted by it in one way or another at the minute. Not looked at what the reporting/numbers say in over a year though.