Katers87, just for the record, my wife happened to be assistant teaching at a pre-school and had a breakthrough COVID infection (had already been vaccinated and boosted). She had typical symptoms that lasted for a couple of weeks. However, she also had, and still has, some symptoms that are more typical of longhaulers. It is 2 months since her initial infection. We are still waiting/hoping that these symptoms go away. Of course, all the the health care professionals can do at this point is monitor her. Also, I’ve know that an otherwise healthy/fit neighbor of mine became a longhauler, although I’m not sure about whether he’s fully recovered at this point.
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Hi @George49
I appreciate you doing so. I hope your wife starts to feel better soon.
I’ve known several people who developed long covid from an infection in the first year of the pandemic before being vaccinated. One individual is a healthy 40 year old that is dealing with neuropathy still.
I’ve had many friends get covid after being vaccinated and/or boosted, but none of them have reported long-hauler symptoms.
I recognize that the vaccines are not an impenetrable shield and low-risk does not mean no risk- just like every time I get in the car there is a risk of an accident. Unfortunately, I think this is our new normal. Hopefully young kids will be able to get vaccinated in the near future, and maybe more treatments will be available eventually. But I personally don’t think there will be any major changes for awhile- maybe for more than a year.
An individual has to decide what compromises they’re willing to make to mitigate a low-risk potentiality. I’m comfortable with the choices I’m making now given the studies I’ve seen. I’m also not unfamiliar with the failures of our health care system. I’ve experienced them myself.
BTW, yesterday the breaking news was that our newly appointed Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced that he is not recommending that children in Florida get vaccinated saying that if they’re healthy they don’t need it. I disagree totally with that logic. A healthy child may not have a problem with handling the virus BUT they can still spread the virus to anyone they come in contact with. And my wife who has experience with managing children in a group setting such as a pre-school or regular school, says that children don’t understand about “transmission” so they routinely switch pacifiers, baby bottles, soft drinks, food, food utensils with each other. As such, they are the greatest transmitters once they catch something. So if Dr Ladapo were to meet me for a Starbucks this afternoon, I would share my opinion as a layperson that has the ability to apply some simple logic to a problem.
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I disagree with Florida’s choice as well.
The data so far has indicated that vaccines significantly reduce the risk of MIS-C in children. It is a rare condition, but it can be lethal. Why wouldn’t someone want to protect their kid against that risk when it can so easily be prevented by a simple 2 or 3 dose vaccine?
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“what others do is none of my business” is exactly why America leads the world in Covid deaths.
An effective public health policy requires everyone pull together. Some did, and some didn’t. And now nearly a million people are dead.
American individualism indeed.
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In my opinion, taking off the masks should be the absolute last thing we do, and only after the disease has stabilized, like cold or flu. There’s already news about the next omicron mutation being wildly more infectious. Removing masks now feels to me like closing your umbrella because you can’t feel the rain, and then being surprised that you got wet.
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@George49 But with the Omnicron variant, it doesn’t matter whether you are vaccinated to be able to spread it. Anyone, vaccinated or not can spread it. That was true with previous variants, but became especially prevalent with Omnicron. You get a vaccine or wear a (proper) mask to protect yourself at this point.
That is not an accurate statement - America leads in reported world Covid deaths, not necessarily in actual Covid deaths. Remember, in America we are free to say and report pretty much whatever we want as long as we are careful not to violate our very highly regulated society where in other countries we are free to do pretty much whatever we want as long as we keep our mouths shut. Those of us that operate globally are painfully aware of this reality. I have had to close factories in the US, for example, for being “too clean” and have to produce the same products in other countries and pollute there in order to remain compliant in both environments. What is reported and reality, globally can be at totally opposite extremes.
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To you point, considering the vaccine status of children, a recent release from the CDC:
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
Masks are an important part of a multicomponent prevention strategy to limit transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Some school jurisdictions required masks in K–12 schools for fall 2021, while others did not.
What is added by this report?
In Arkansas during August–October 2021, districts with universal mask requirements had a 23% lower incidence of COVID-19 among staff members and students compared with districts without mask requirements.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Masks remain an important part of a multicomponent approach to prevent COVID-19 in K–12 settings, especially in communities with high levels of COVID-19.
Honestly, I won’t change what I’m doing – other than to leave the masks I don’t wear at home. I am not now, nor ever have been afraid of COVID-19. I had it in October 2020 and did not know I had it until my wife lost her sense of smell. Neither of us was sick for more than a week, nor needed medical attention. I thought I had a sinus infection and treated accordingly; my wife knew what she had, but rest, hot liquids and various supplements sufficed for her as well. Neither of us had any long-term impact from our encounters with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (other than lots and lots of antibodies!). We’d both been careful to keep our Vitamin D levels high throughout the past two years, and research coming out of Israel and other laces have indicated that that is a big factor in recovery from this (and probably any) virus.
Note: In the past two years, I had the flu twice and a cold twice – all of which were worse for me than my experience with COVID-19.
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Glad to read that you and your wife have both done well when contracting the covid virus. I agree with your take on keeping Vitamin D levels up to help with virus infection.
I’m happy to see you back here, @Thas!
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Technically true – however, recent research indicates that those who are vaccinated are less likely to transmit it.
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Today is the first day in more than 2 years where we can take our masks off at work.
It’s going to be weird to see peoples mouths.
I also wonder how many people will still be wearing them.
I think at my desk, I’ll take mine off but walking around I’ll keep it on.
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It’s not fair to say “that is not an accurate statement”
My statement about the US leading covid deaths is based on data from Johns Hopkins.
Your statement is based upon your own anecdotal evidence.
I’m not saying that there isn’t any truth in your perspective, but when asserting a factual statement, data always trumps anecdotal evidence.
Thas, you speak of your personal experience with Covid as justification for not masking, but ignore the fact that you could be unknowingly spreading the disease to others.
If you don’t care about others, that’s a legitimate perspective but own up to it. Don’t pretend that because you and your wife got lucky that everyone you encounter will be in as lucky.
I am going to continue to wear my mask anywhere that is public, indoors. Since I am vaccinated and boosted, I am really not very afraid of getting covid myself. I think that, in all likelihood, it would be mild. However, I have concerns about long covid, and even more concerns about passing it on to others who are more vulnerable (elderly, immunocompromised, etc.)
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Did you get your fourth shot by just showing up somewhere and requesting in? Did you have a special order from a doctor?
I’m curious because I thought they weren’t doing second boosters.
(No judgment, by the way, just curious about your procedure/thinking about it.)
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Well, this is awkward for me. When I host a thread, I consider it an open invitation for the community to participate. When my guests clash, I feel some responsibility to neutralize the conflict.
We live in a socially divisive era. I can now appreciate what it must have been like in the US in the few decades leading up to the Civil War. Let’s not let that social division spin out of control and lead to more extremism and maybe even ill-considered destructive action.
We must temper any observations or accusations we have with our fellow humans with examination, in full honesty, of our own behavior. While I wore a mask when mixing with my fellow citizens for the almost two-year year period at the pandemic beginning, my mask was either a leaky cloth or a porous surgical one. It wasn’t until the first of this year that I started using an N95 mask.
I could have easily been infected or passed on an infection to a vulnerable person. What was I thinking? It made me realize that none of us are without some responsibility for this social and public health calamity.
I also feel anger towards those who suffer from the worst effects of insidious propaganda. I accept that humans do strange things in an atmosphere of fear and misinformation. A “tough love” stance, however, often backfires.
A little bit of tolerance and kindness are the only things that I can think of that may help. Please exercise some of both as this thread continues!
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This topic, like just about everything in our society now, has everyone very divided on their beliefs.
I feel this is like each of us with our diabetes. We all like to think our way is the the best way but we have all learned my best way is mine now anyone else’s.
So to mask or not mask, is a personal choice. As someone who had to wear a mask all day, everyday for work, I understand how tired we all are. I am very, very tired of it. We have gone to no masks for anyone, vaccinated or not, in any situation except healthcare establishments.
I am still wearing my new KN95 masks everyday at work and whenever I go indoors. I figure I will watch the death numbers and hospitalization numbers. Now that we are all walking around without masks, we will see how quickly it will spread. So I guess I will give it another month and see how things are going.
But as someone who works with the public, it is super scary how nasty we as a species can be. The coughing without doing so it an arm or shoulder. Doing that in your hands and than touching everything I need to work with. Yelling, sneezing, coughing, putting raw food anywhere and everywhere, not washing hands after using the bathroom. It can be very hard watching us go through our lives.
So, I can only control what I do not everyone around me. So I will continue to wear my mask everyday at work. I will work with many coworkers who are not vaccinated and some of them have been infected multiple times and brag they have a great immune system. But I don’t, as it went haywire and destroyed my our body. So I just smile and move on, with my mask on.
We did see out first in theater movie (with mask on), we went to San Diego Wild Animal Park (without mask) and eat in restaurants but always outside (joys of San Diego when you can do this year round!)
So my very long winded answer, you just keep doing you. There is no right or wrong here. There are still many people wearing masks indoors and really who cares what someone else might think if you are wearing one!
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Thanks for your comment, Sally. I also suspect the number of cases will show a bump when mask requirements expire. I get the exhaustion most of us feel with this pandemic. What I don’t get is the magical thinking that permits us to “make believe” that the virus is gone just by acting as if it’s gone.
You have done a stellar job of minimizing your risk throughout this whole pandemic as you worked indoors in a highly trafficked big box store. Your tolerant position characterized by, “you just keep doing you,” is what we need more of.
If we demonize others, it will be the first step in the “othering” process to then permit less humane actions being taken with them.
I’m glad you have survived the crucible of this pandemic working with high volumes of human contact. I’m also glad that you’re choosing to not let your guard down now!
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