Coronavirus on a Personal Basis

[scirreeve]

So sorry PG.

[Phoenix520]

It’s not fair, at all.

[Sequoia32]

Just found out my neighbors, the ones in the other half of our duplex, who have the code to my door and come in unmasked, all came down with Covid a couple of weeks ago. I wondered why it was so quiet over there.

Last month I asked the mom, Jennifer, if they were all vaxxed as I was worried about her 3 month old nephew that she was babysitting 3 days/week. Jen said "no".

Teen daughter's boyfriend got it from his mom who got it at work. His dad is still having problems with clots. Mom is back to work after losing 2 weeks.

Teen daughter is the only one vaxxed but she and boyfriend still missed 2 weeks of work, Jen said: "Marissa wasn’t as bad as Ryan probably because she was vaccinated." Ya think?

Jennifer spent 3 nights in the hospital. She said: "Because I just had it I can’t get the vaccine for a certain time now. They told me I have to wait."

NOW she'll take it.

[Foggy]

So sorry, Patagoniagirl, hugs and love coming your way!

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Unsurprisingly, my mom has tested positive and is now symptomatic. I'm going to guess my dad was exposed the day after we met up, and then gave it to my mom. It's closing in on us: one of my mom's long-time friends, who is like an honorary uncle to me, just tested positive, and the entire family of my wife's sister-in-law has it (because antivaxxer/antimasker cousins). SIL is incoherent with rage right now.

I wish the best for you PG.

[John Thomas8]

It's intensely maddening that morons and outright liars are causing this anti-vax crap.

We've enforced getting vaccinated since BEFORE we were a country (thank you George) and STILL idiots are allowed to drive the bus off the cliff.

[Sam the Centipede]

Best wishes to all with Covid in their nuclear and extended families. I too would be furious if my family were exposed and infected wholly through the negligence of others.

It's understandable in an individualistic society that individuals reject the principle that they should act for the good of strangers, for the benefit of the wider community.

But the refusal to act for the benefit of family, friends and close neighbors, for actual people with faces you know, not abstract others, is disgraceful.

Denmark credits its population's samfundsind (sense of community) with a generally good response to the pandemic.

France changed its Covid motto recently to Dedans avec les miens, dehors en citoyen (Inside with my own [people], outside as a citizen) to encourage compliance with regulations and guidance.

Good citizenship is a precious asset in these times.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Update on Dr. Vicklund's sister-in-law's family: doctors have informed the family they can't do anything more for her Aunt and to make their farewells. Uncle was in ill health, including COPD, before CoViD and was basically hanging on to be Aunt's caretaker, so not expected to survive her by long. Meanwhile, antivaxxer/anti-masker Cousin (son of Aunt and Uncle) is asking for prayers while still spreading misinformation - and guess who was Patient O? Aunt and Uncle are her favorites. I let her vent at me for half-an-hour so she could say what she needed to say without it causing problems (I have never met her family other than her Dad, so I'm close enough that she can vent without having to worry about consequences).

[sugar magnolia]

Update on Dr. Vicklund's sister-in-law's family: doctors have informed the family they can't do anything more for her Aunt and to make their farewells. Uncle was in ill health, including COPD, before CoViD and was basically hanging on to be Aunt's caretaker, so not expected to survive her by long. Meanwhile, antivaxxer/anti-masker Cousin (son of Aunt and Uncle) is asking for prayers while still spreading misinformation - and guess who was Patient O? Aunt and Uncle are her favorites. I let her vent at me for half-an-hour so she could say what she needed to say without it causing problems (I have never met her family other than her Dad, so I'm close enough that she can vent without having to worry about consequences).

Why is she converned about consequences? Her cousin obviously wasn't.

Fuck them all. Call them out in public. Shun them.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Update on Dr. Vicklund's sister-in-law's family: doctors have informed the family they can't do anything more for her Aunt and to make their farewells. Uncle was in ill health, including COPD, before CoViD and was basically hanging on to be Aunt's caretaker, so not expected to survive her by long. Meanwhile, antivaxxer/anti-masker Cousin (son of Aunt and Uncle) is asking for prayers while still spreading misinformation - and guess who was Patient O? Aunt and Uncle are her favorites. I let her vent at me for half-an-hour so she could say what she needed to say without it causing problems (I have never met her family other than her Dad, so I'm close enough that she can vent without having to worry about consequences).

Why is she converned about consequences? Her cousin obviously wasn't.

Fuck them all. Call them out in public. Shun them.

I believe it was more out of respect for her Dad. She was adopted (native biomother, germanic biofather), so she has strong feelings about family, which were intensified when biomom refused to reconnect when she tracked down her tribe a few years ago.

[p0rtia]

So sorry to hear this, Kevin.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[Jim]

I have a friend who has been battling the COVID for a couple months now, she's been to the Mayo Clinic since the virus has caused her neurological damage to her legs and feet and she can no longer feel them.

From ballerina to wheelchair bound in just a few months. Just like the flu my ass.

[Uninformed]

That’s terrible.

[sugar magnolia]

So my friend with scleroderma and I have apparently been exposed by her sister. We're not even getting tested unless we start showing symptoms. Everybody (including her sister) is vaxxed so we're hoping to escape. I'm giving it another 48 hours before I take that deep sigh of relief.

[AndyinPA]

Good luck.

[Resume18]

Good luck.

[Lani]

[Baidn]

So my friend with scleroderma and I have apparently been exposed by her sister. We're not even getting tested unless we start showing symptoms. Everybody (including her sister) is vaxxed so we're hoping to escape. I'm giving it another 48 hours before I take that deep sigh of relief.

Well wishes and prayers. Some positive experience news as a fully vaxxed person who got a breakthrough case: if my experience is the norm for the fully vaxxed it felt like a very mild cold. I almost didn't get tested bc my symptoms were so mild, luckily the wife insisted bc the mil contractor I work for wanted me to keep working unless I developed a fever (have to make up production time dontcha know ) hoping you all are negative and failing that it's so mild you barely notice it

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Turns out there was another side effect from the jab Dr. Vicklund got a week and a half ago. Guys, if female health squicks you out, don't read any further.

► Show Spoiler

Dr. Vicklund started her period a couple days before getting her vaccine. It stopped the day after, long enough for her to act on the randiness that accompanies the post-cramp portion of her period, but started again a few days later. Lasted a couple of days, stopped for a few more, then on Wednesday started up full force with no warning after we thought it was over. Very heavy flow, still ongoing.

[Phoenix520]

Aunt Flo is so unpredictable.

That’s the first I’ve heard of that particular side-effect.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Aunt Flo is so unpredictable.

That’s the first I’ve heard of that particular side-effect.

Disruption of the first cycle post-vaccination isn't that uncommon, even for other vaccines.

[Sam the Centipede]

Aunt Flo is so unpredictable.

That’s the first I’ve heard of that particular side-effect.

There have been a lot of grumbles about disrupted menstrual cycles (timing, heaviness, etc.) together with complaints that these issues have been ignored because the historically male-oriented medical establishment is not interested, and tends to assume that women's bodies are capricious with their cycles anyway.

The current view is that the disruption is probably caused by the immune response to the vaccines rather than by the specific contents of any vaccine.

I have seen chatter that suggests that disruption of cycles is an under-reported or under-recognized side-effect of other vaccines too. Perhaps we will get more investigation now as a result of this unprecedented mass vaccination campaign, similar to how the prevalence of Long Covid will probably improve understanding of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and other post-acute viral sequelae. Small silver linings!

[Lani]

A few decades ago, men were used for testing pharmaceuticals that would be used by women. IIRC, this was a big problem re estrogen for birth control pills and menopause. And then the number of women having breast and cervical cancer increased.... Doses are much lower now.

[Sam the Centipede]

For those interested in the menstrual cycles and immunity issue, here's a straightforward pre-Covid article which gives some good general background: The immune system and the menstrual cycle [by Maegan Boutot]

As it says, and as I am sure many women here know, susceptibility to health problems can vary during a cycle. (I don't have the requisite equipment to have personal experience!)

It's not a complete surprise that an ongoing strong immune response might affect the heaviness of bleeding for a short time. The bleeding involves an inflammatory response, and inflammation is very much an immune system process.

But the disruption of the cycle implies the immune response is interfering with hormone levels, which is less obvious. It would be interesting (and maybe research will identify) if menstrual disruption is associated with experiencing other known short-term side-effects of the vaccine (feeling lousy, joint or muscle pain, headaches, etc.) or is an independent. My guess? Probably both.

One remote possibility is that the antibodies to spike can have some small affinity to something connected with the hormones, but that seems very unlikely. Antibodies are quite precise and the body has complex safeguards to prevent the immune system attacking its owner (of course, those safeguards can fail in autoimmune diseases). The hormones themselves look absolutely nothing like the SARS-CoV-2 antigens: the antigens are proteins (long chains of amino acids, folded up) whereas the hormones are four joined carbon rings (phenols) with some extra fiddly bits.