How is the corona virus affecting you?

Yesterday the government confirmed we will be going into a new lockdown starting thursday. Lockdown measures will be announced on wednesday. While a new lockdown is absolutely necessary I am naturally anxious about what will come. My first lockdown in March was not too bad, on one hand because I genuinely enjoy spending time at home and didn't have any issues keeping myself busy, on the other hand because I was sure the pandemic would end in the Summer so it would be just a couple months of sacrifice and we'd be done. I'm a lot more anxious about a second lockdown. Like many people I know, we're starting to get a bit desperate that we're in the second year of the pandemic and it just keeps getting worst. My living situation is also different: I moved into a new place I don't like and I don't enjoy my house as much. Back in March I had friends who lived next door and I could walk to their street and they'd come to their balcony and we'd chat a bit; I don't know anyone in my neighborhood now. I have a lot of work right now; I usually work late couple days a week but whenever I have things planned after work (my dance class, dinner with boyfriend) I close my laptop and I go; now that there's nowhere to go I will need a different discipline to keep myself from working day and night, but I feel I'll probably want to work long hours just to keep myself distracted, which isn't necessarily a health way to deal with the extra free time. I also have a boyfriend now, and I'd like to spend time with him.

On top of that I'm a bit afraid that I'll be spending my birthday in lockdown for the second year in a row. I know I shouldn't be worried about that since my birthday is only in March, but I'm not seeing any of this improving soon. Vaccination is continuing here in Portugal but I should only be getting the vaccine later in the year, and I seriously doubt that in March there'll be enough people vaccinated to allow us to resume a bit of normalcy.

All things considered I'm very fortunate that I don't know anyone who got Covid or lost their job during the pandemic, I'm definitely luckier than most, but naturally I'm not at all excited about what's coming in the near future.
 
I just read some bad press that the US Vaccines are not working. But then, today, you can't trust what you hear from the US overly politicized press. I'm glad I already survived COVID19 and that's as good as having been vaccinated. I believe I had a second encounter with it some time ago and it was very mild compared to the first encounter back in February of last year. In another 40 or so days, it'll be my COVID19 anniversary as far as my having been infected with it.

The worse that can happen with COVID19 is to be infected via the sinuses and lungs. That's the source of fatalities. If you are lucky you will get infected orally and gastro-intestinally, which will get you some diarrhea, a heavy dose of weakness and fatigue, all connected with a severe immune response which inflames tissues, but you will survive it. The immune response to COVID19 is incredibly strong and painful, causing more difficulty than the virus itself.
 
epicuric said:
Yes it is true. The initial plan was to give two doses, 7 days apart. Supply problems caused the government to change the plan and give two doses twelve weeks apart, so that more people could be vaccinated. Given that the first plan had been developed by the scientists who created the vaccines, and the second plan made on the hoof by politicians I do have concerns.
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The Pfizer plan called for a 2-stage vaccine to achieve the ~95% efficacy. However, it was also revealed that just getting the first stage would still have ~80% efficacy, which is very good (and 80% better than no vaccine). The US is now rethinking the vaccine rollout to try to get as many people vaccinated as possible: rather than 50 million people having a 95% effective vaccine, 100 million people could have an 80% effective vaccine. I don't think the UK (or any other country) is bungling the rollout quite as badly as the US has: those targets are much higher than the reality (something like 6 million have been vaccinated so far). The ideal state would be following up with the people who only had the first shot much later, after a lot of other people have gotten that first shot.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine (the trial I'm in now) is nearly ready for FDA approval. That's a single shot vaccine. Once that's available, a massive number of vaccines will be available. Then again, we still need the infrastructure to make sure enough people are available to administer the shots.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
The Pfizer plan called for a 2-stage vaccine to achieve the ~95% efficacy. However, it was also revealed that just getting the first stage would still have ~80% efficacy, which is very good (and 80% better than no vaccine). The US is now rethinking the vaccine rollout to try to get as many people vaccinated as possible: rather than 50 million people having a 95% effective vaccine, 100 million people could have an 80% effective vaccine. I don't think the UK (or any other country) is bungling the rollout quite as badly as the US has: those targets are much higher than the reality (something like 6 million have been vaccinated so far). The ideal state would be following up with the people who only had the first shot much later, after a lot of other people have gotten that first shot.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine (the trial I'm in now) is nearly ready for FDA approval. That's a single shot vaccine. Once that's available, a massive number of vaccines will be available. Then again, we still need the infrastructure to make sure enough people are available to administer the shots.
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Confidence in government is key to getting through this, but I admit I'm struggling at the moment.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I think we can trace the rise to the sheer volume of Hemulen's recipes. :wink:
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All of which are excellent!

In fact posts in general have been rising for quite a long time now. It may be something to do with Covid over the last few months, but in general, stats have been rising for the last few years.
 
Morning Glory said:
All of which are excellent!
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I completely agree. I hope she understands that I felt comfortable enough to make little joke. I feel like, in such a short time, Hemulen has already established herself as one of the top cooks on this forum. High praise? Yes, but well-deserved.

That, and she did post the equivalent amount of recipes for someone who's been here 3 times as long. :wink:
 
Bodies are being stacked on top each other in the county temp morgue in the parking lot. 3 high last report.
91F/33C predicted and if the refrigeration doesn't hold up bad things happen. As they decompose they fill with gas and explode. One did already this month, blew through the body bag zipper and sprayed some close friend RN's.

Nurse wife is working 12 hour over night shifts every day.
We canceled all holiday type trips until I get vaccinated.
Encountering people that say the vaccination is the same as when we faked the moon landing. A sham. Wrestling's real too BTW.

Early morning trips for groceries in an empty of people market and fuel, maybe Starbucks drive thru then back home.
Enjoying You Tube Movies, channels we've subscribed to, Netflix, Amazon Prime and TCM.
All my teams are winning in the NFL playoffs so that's a plus.

Preparing the house for power shut offs coming this summer. Back up 120V powered air conditioning.
Fixing things I've procrastinated on.
Gaining weight at an alarming rate.
 
I departed for groceries this morning at 05:00am (store opens for seniors at 06:00am) and there was traffic like I have not seen in a while at that time. Lots of people, apparently, are going to work at their own risk.

Groceries today, seemed somewhat expensive. But even after being kidded by the checkout girl, it turns out I had some expensive items (2 bags of Postachios, Strip Steaks, Boneless Porkchops, etc. etc.).
 
My wife, who was in the COVID-19 Pfizer trial, was unblinded: they have confirmed that she did indeed get the vaccine (which we figured based on how she reacted). The original plan for the trial was standard medicine trial procedure: don't tell anyone in the trial whether they got the vaccine or the placebo until after the trial ends. But, standard medicine trials don't blanket the globe and threaten the safety of the human race. As a teacher, she was going to be administered a vaccine in advance of a plan to make teachers return to in-person classroom instruction. It would have been dangerous for her to get a second vaccine, so Pfizer had to tell her.

I was told last week that, when Johnson & Johnson gets FDA approval for their vaccine, they are going to unblind everyone in the trial. This should happen by February.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
My wife, who was in the COVID-19 Pfizer trial, was unblinded: they have confirmed that she did indeed get the vaccine (which we figured based on how she reacted). The original plan for the trial was standard medicine trial procedure: don't tell anyone in the trial whether they got the vaccine or the placebo until after the trial ends. But, standard medicine trials don't blanket the globe and threaten the safety of the human race. As a teacher, she was going to be administered a vaccine in advance of a plan to make teachers return to in-person classroom instruction. It would have been dangerous for her to get a second vaccine, so Pfizer had to tell her.

I was told last week that, when Johnson & Johnson gets FDA approval for their vaccine, they are going to unblind everyone in the trial. This should happen by February.
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I hope you got the vaccine, and not the placebo, so you don't have to wait for months to get the real thing.

CD
 
caseydog said:
I hope you got the vaccine, and not the placebo, so you don't have to wait for months to get the real thing.

CD
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Thanks. Then, the ringing in my ears I've had since getting the shot would be worth it. It's not as frequent as it was at the beginning, but it still happens from time to time. They told me that it's not a common side-effect of the vaccine, but I've never had tinnitus before, and now I suddenly have it the day I got the shot for unrelated reasons?
 
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