Coronavirus on a Personal Basis

[bill_g]

On MN-S's point: somewhere I saw a screen capture of a fragment of a Twitter argument which was a beautiful demolition job, something like this:

Antivaxxer: So you believe the government about Covid, sucker? Do your research sheeple!

Sane person: Hell yes, I do! The CDC is an organization with an annual budget of about six billion dollars, thousands of staff trained in infectious diseases, hundreds of experts with many years of experience, medical degrees, university doctorates, including world-respected authorities. It has access to experts in the best universities and laboratories in America and the world. You think I should instead trust the incoherent ravings of gullible losers with no medical qualifications, no education in microbiology, no understanding of immunology? You're an idiot!

I recently shut an antivax guy down when I asked him to pull out his wallet, show me his drivers license, his electricians ticket, his health card, his business insurance, all his credit cards, and then tell me again about his concerns for his personal freedoms.

[Sam the Centipede]

I recently shut an antivax guy down when I asked him to pull out his wallet, show me his drivers license, his electricians ticket, his health card, his business insurance, all his credit cards, and then tell me again about his concerns for his personal freedoms.

Hmmm… so only sovcits with no papers can be freedumb-based antivaxers!

[bill_g]

I recently shut an antivax guy down when I asked him to pull out his wallet, show me his drivers license, his electricians ticket, his health card, his business insurance, all his credit cards, and then tell me again about his concerns for his personal freedoms.

Hmmm… so only sovcits with no papers can be freedumb-based antivaxers!

It's a spectrum.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Well, my parents' Covid story took a turn. Mom was doing fine until Sunday night, when she started having some trouble breathing, an elevated temperature, and a bloodox reading of about 90%. She has been having a bad flare of asthma for the past couple of months, so ignored the symptoms. Wednesday, she went to Bells (church handbell chorus practice) in part because if she's not there there's a big gap, and in part because her regular doctor is not getting her messages and one of the members is a doctor. Doctor at Bells said "Get thee hence to the hospital" and she went to urgent care, which immediately said "Go to the ER, do not pass go, do not collect 2 weeks of clothing."

Turns out she has Covid pneumonia. She was put in oxygen, got steroids and remdesivir (and some other stuff, I think), and Thursday afternoon got a bed at the hospital. She was not sent to ICU nor was she intubated, and today they took her off the oxygen. She is doing much better, and thanks to the steroids and three days of oxygen, is breathing better than she has in months. They expect to release her Monday or Tuesday.

Mom is very glad she was fully vaccinated. As she said, what she has endured is nothing compared to those who didn't get vaccinated.

As for me, I'm a little frustrated at her decisions at the beginning of the week, but glad she is recovering.

[Phoenix520]

Whew. I read that with trepidation, WKevin. I’m glad it ended well.

[Foggy]

I love happy endings! You go (home healthy) Mom Vicklund!

[Sequoia32]

Covid can be so nasty! Thank goodness for vaccines, steroids and remdesivir. Oh and O2.

I'm so glad she's on the mend and shudder to think what could have happened without the vaccine.

[Dave from down under]

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Mom is home from the hospital. She reiterated that she's breathing better than she has in months. Also, the doctor told her that the vaccine saved her life. There were several people in her hall that were younger and healthier, but because they were unvaxxed, they ended up going to ICU. The vaxxed patients all went home or were expected to in a few days.

[AndyinPA]

Great news!

[Uninformed]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Yeah, for Vicklund's mom!!

[Volkonski]

Yeah, for Vicklund's mom!!

[Lani]

[bill_g]

We like happy endings.

[Fiascoist]

[Foggy]

Excellent news!

[scirreeve]

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[Phoenix520]

Awww.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Daddy has been sent to his room.

[Dave from down under]

Two week time out…

So next time mummy says wash your hands - do it!

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Dr. Vicklund's uncle passed away last night. While he didn't have Covid, his passing was affected by Covid in several ways.

In late 2019, he had a stroke, likely caused by taking him off a medication for a procedure. During his initial recovery, he went into septic shock from a blood infection. By the time they were ready to release him to an assisted care facility for rehab, Covid had struck (this is in Michigan, so we got hit early and hard). It took some time to find a facility that could take him because of the impact of Covid, and when he did find a place, they were unable to offer the full course of rehab he required due to Covid restrictions. As a result he didn't progress, and insurance stopped paying.

So he ended up going home. Shortly after that, the dam broke (remember that headline?) and flooded his house, so he and his wife had to live in a motel for some time. And then he was hospitalized for septic shock again. They hadn't actually cleared his infection. So back to the hospital, then another stint at the rehab facility, with similar results. Wash, rinse, repeat several times over the past 18 months.

On Friday, he was eating dinner with family (got to see his great-grandbaby for the first time) when he suffered a heart attack. When they went to catheterize his heart, his veins collapsed due to the still-ongoing blood infection and he immediately coded.

So while Covid didn't kill him directly, it certainly made his life the last two years immeasurably worse than it should have been.

[AndyinPA]

I'm so sorry.

[Uninformed]

[Foggy]

He [scirreeve's stepson] is vaxxed. Therefore, this is really, really unfair.

That's the ruling on the field, Jerry. Let's look at the replay.

Yep. Vaxxed. Says so right there.

UNFAIR.