outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

Yeah, the company the local farms out to is biobot, and this is their protocol: https://biobot.io/covid19-report-notes/

their calibration to determine concentration of human waste seems decent tbh, but I have no idea how many companies are doing comparable testing or how they calibrate

the newest thing I've heard, from a friend and her coworker who both tested positive in this last week and both took paxlovid:
friend is lethargic and got both the metallic taste and some nausea from paxlovid. she recently flew to a conference in Portland, Oregon and picked it up somewhere along the way
her coworker did not attend a conference and probably got it locally. took paxlovid for two days but it was giving her mega-nausea and she stopped taking it

I feel like if you're in a higher-risk group due to age, disease, or any other risk group it's worth it but I don't really regret not looking for antivirals tbh

That SF wastewater thing seems unlike anything in the rest of the US.

I have to say that science people I know are skeptical that you can clearly infer what's going on from the wastewater numbers, which are affected by a lot of things (that said, now that testing is rare, it's not clear there IS a way to clearly infer what's going on)

It's still remarkable that home tests don't come with a QR code that would make it easy to log a positive result.

they do in the UK

I think some US ones do.

however, there's a place nearby me that is free with insurance and does rapid PCR testing using a high quality rapid PCR (Accula system), and gets results within hours and reports to FL DOH, so I try to use them instead of home tests where possible so my results are counted.

if I ever test positive on a home test, I will definitely go there to get an official one logged.

btw, on my dad's saga (annoying):

so my brother (who had COVID recently, who knows if it was BA.2, BA.5, etc) went to check on Dad yesterday, using PPE as required, and he said they're saying now they think the roommate might be a false positive, but here is their (stupid) reasoning for that:

1) "hE DoEsN't hAvE aNy sYmPtOms!" - seriously, healthcare professionals saying this in 2022
2) "hE aLrEadY hAd COVID!" - ......seriously?!

so yeah, that plus the fact that I heard roommate cough the day before his positive test = I'm not assuming shit and testing myself regularly.

dad tested negative yesterday, they test him again on Thursday. mom is worried about getting it due to her recent lung surgery, though her oxygen levels are back to above 95 with no oxygen therapy, so at least she's not in the immediate aftermath of the surgery.

I avoided a party on Saturday out of caution and lol looks like it may not matter.

I filed complaints with the state health care association about how this was handled. they still haven't called us with updates - we had to call 5 times yesterday and visit in person to ask (ok, take me out of the equation, I didn't do anything because I was dealing with trying to work and dealing with the Medicaid nightmare).

are they continuing to test the roommate?

and is it PCR or antigen? it’s extremely rare for the latter to be a false positive as i’m sure you know.

if your dad is negative they should get him tf out of there no?

supposedly they don't test every day, though we requested them test OUR father every day. I'm not operating under the assumption that it's a false positive, because that seems like something the nurses say just to make it sound like we were overreacting. I have seen it happen with friends, but it's usually accurate.

as far as moving him out of there, apparently they don't have any spare individual rooms available, which is what they told mom (they called mom back while I was in a meeting to address the complaint we filed). I would just say 'bring dad home and we can wear masks and gloves while assisting him' but mom is extra nervous having just completed lung surgery and doesn't want to get it. but I feel like it'd be easier for us to deal with infection if we were all here than him there and us here.

it's hard to know what to do. I'm just mad at myself for not trying harder to force us to bring dad home after his hospital stay. Mom would literally shout, exasperated "I can't take care of him right now, and neither can you!", and get visibly upset, even when I tried to suggest "mom, we were originally planning for me to do everything myself while you recovered, it's time to let me try". and mom is the authorized decisionmaker and not me.

that isn't to say I blame her for making said decision, we did want him to get physical therapy. what doesn't help is my brother is trying to pressure mom into going in to see dad for a few minutes, I'm like - stop demanding mom expose herself to potential infection. at least with you, you had it recently enough to where you may be at less risk and you're not around us all the time to expose us.

like it's not that we don't want to see Dad, I feel terrible not going.

alright, i'm done, I'm not going to monopolize 70 threads about my folks....sorry :/

but thanks TH, believe me I'm with you on this. oi.....

dad's still testing negative, as are we, but too soon to be out of woods.

Florida wastewater, per Biobot's update this week, seems to be flat or mildly decreasing in most counties (except the one I live in, ho ho ho).

but I've noticed sometimes it looks like that one week, only to show an increase the next.

so exhausted by how high the transmission has been here. We've been at a plateau in FL for about 6-7 weeks now, at a very high level of transmission, never experiencing a decline like other states that got BA.2 outbreaks earlier.

I really hope the Omicron boosters are game-changers, starting to fear they might just be 'kicking the problem down the road a bit'.

and now what's the latest on BA2.75? is thata going to take over shortly after BA.5 did?

We've been at a plateau in FL for about 6-7 weeks now, at a very high level of transmission, never experiencing a decline like other states that got BA.2 outbreaks earlier.

Tourism.

there's that, but I think it's also due to timing. some states like NY that got BA.2 earlier than we did experienced a decrease before things plateaued due to BA.5, but I think by the time we were due to hit our drop, BA.5 had offset the BA.2 decrease to where we didn't experience one.

as of yesterday, reported cases (ha!) were actually 7% lower than the week before, but curious to see today's numbers. positivity rate hasn't really declined noticably.

Same here in MDC.

It looks like we got BA.5 instead of the earlier variants, no? We had a rather long lull b/w Jan and late April.

Anecdotally, it's all around me. Three coworkers out with it right now and I haven't had a conversation with anyone in the last two weeks that hasn't involved someone coming up positive.

More than slightly annoyed at the coworker that decided to come into the office (KN95 masked at least, thankfully) Monday and Tuesday, despite their spouse having been positive. In the least surprising development ever, they tested positive on Wednesday.

I got boosted with Moderna yesterday. I had previously had two jabs of J&J and just a few weeks ago Maryland finally opened up mRNA booster shots to us.

Australia set a new daily record for COVID deaths today. (Previous record was set yesterday.)

Boosters are still free regardless of insurance status! Got my 2nd today. Not really changing anything tho, still wearing a mask into stores most of the time. Still covid-free somehow.

Probably due to the mask! Hope the luck keeps up.

By the time my third booster wears off I hope we have the noo-boosters

Me too! I've been careful-ish but not EXTREMELY careful. Plenty of people have done more and still gotten infected. Who really knows.

Yep. Plenty of people I know who were like "I have fucking idea how I got this, I didn't leave the house this week"

I know a half dozen people (all fully vaxxed + boostered, in a region that is generally highly-vaxxed) who are in some stage of COVID infection atm. And a couple more who just got past it. One of these people is a critical care pulmonologist who has been working in a severely undervaxxed community throughout the pandemic and has had a ton of previous exposure without getting infected. I hardly even know more than a half dozen people so this shit is NUTS.

Just tested positive. With the fun twist that three weeks ago I got bitten by a dog and they put me on antibiotics and the antibiotics destroyed my gut flora and today I also tested positive for c.diff. So this will be an interesting medical situation to navigate. Not crazy about the way this summer is going, tbh.

Aw shit :(. I'm sorry Lily

Thanks, Neanderthal!

"C. diff summer"

Hang in there, Lily.

Good luck Lily, that's no fun at all.

Oof sorry.

Oh man, Lily that is a bad run of rotten things. Really hope all starts coming right for you soon.

Today I ran home to grab some boxes of Covid tests for work because we were out and a coworker who recently returned from vacation was a bit sniffly but wanted to come in for an insurance walk-through. She'd ordered tests but they hadn't shown up. I gave her one to take while she sat in her car. And yep - positive.

Wow, good call.

yeah, I know, right? With all that and getting shingles back in June, I can't decide if I feel like Job or like an entire Oregon Trail team that's been going at a grueling pace since they left Independence. The weird thing is that everything's been fairly mild: the shingles and the dog bite healed right up pretty quickly, and the c.diff feels like it's getting better on its own, though I'll take antibiotics to make sure. Too early to tell on the Covid but it's starting with a mild sore throat so here's hoping it stays mild.

visited dad for an hour only today, didn't touch him or get close, wore gloves and N95. mom and I are still negative (I had a PCR only two hours ago), dad tested negative either yesterday or Thursday.

I bought a home test and administered one on dad today and he's still negative, and he looks well. and his roommate isn't returning to the room per the nurse (I really hope that doesn't mean he passed away - but it doesn't necessarily mean that, they often move them to another room on readmission).

here's hoping my dad had immune system of steel, and ventilation and privacy curtain kept it away from him.

was good to see him today. he smiled and laughed a bunch. my complaints got the bed rails I asked for too. we are likely bringing him home this week regardless. if he somehow becomes sick, we'll wear gloves and PPE in the home. I just want him here.

study out of the UK saying there's a chance people with allergies/allergic rhinitis have lower chance of getting COVID. I've wondered how I've been so lucky. I'm careful but I've taken my risks. I know it's been luck. And it's been being careful. But maybe, just maybe, my inflamed allergic body is extra good at fighting off COVID. Doesn't make a ton of sense, it wasn't good at fighting off any number of other sicknesses. Let me dream.

That's really interesting as I suffer from both. Frankly, I think it's a miracle I have avoided Omicron so far (I had Delta almost exactly a year ago) as I've been at dozens of packed festivals, clubs and gigs and on at least 50 flights this year (I still wear a mask on flights along with about 5% of other passengers). Last week an estimated one in 9 people in Glasgow had it. I guess I could have had it asymptomatically and if not I do think I'll get it at some point but the allergies/allergic rhinitis theory could be a factor as to how I have avoided it so far when almost everyone around me has had it.

yeah that's interesting - I had delta (presumably) in November, and have been in loads of crowded places since then, been pinged by the covid app 4 times and got nothing. but I also have pretty bad hayfever. assumed I've been pushing my luck and just got lucky. it's probably also that.

I found the study which also adds especially if they also have asthma, which i also have. I never thought there would ever be a possible upside to having these afflictions.

The thing is, we've finally learned: good N or K-95 masks....work.

I’ve only been on 4 flights but I’m also commuting to work twice a week and in an office where most people aren’t masked. I put my mask in for the train, when I’m going with the bathroom or riding the elevator etc. following most of the advice which says prob ok to be outside without a mask so long as it’s not crazy crowded but I put my mask on to go indoors. Where most people aren’t masked. And always kn95 now. I worry about when the weather gets cold again and outdoor activities aren’t so easy.

Anyway before this study I was already wondering if my daily spraying of Nasonex somehow helped. Seemed silly but you’re spraying steroids or whatever in your nose seemed like maybe it does something.

FYI, doing the throat swab when testing worked really well for me. I had a mild sore throat start at 4 in the morning, tested sometime mid-morning with just the nasal swab and it was negative. Tested again that afternoon when I was just starting to have cold symptoms, did a quick swab of the part of my throat that felt inflamed, and the positive result came right up.

especially before a Negroni

j/k couldn't resist

i lolled, feel better Lily and all others who got the rona

where is this new study regarding allergies and rhinitis? searching, i turned up something almost a year old.

Curious because this might be how I've still not had it.. even after my wife had a bad week with it, a month ago.

we think dad avoided getting it, somehow, despite sharing a room with an infected roommate (who is now in the hospital).

I am visiting him today and may shove a swab up his nose. and then after thinking about giving him a COVID test.

if we can get him back home with no infection, 80% of my stress goes away.

I think it was this, so maybe an older study, can't remember where I just saw it as if it was new news. https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/allergic-conditions-linked-to-lower-covid-19-infection-risk/

neanderthal is your da eligible for evushield?

also did everyone else know evushield's formulary unbranded name is "Tixagevimab-Cilgavimab"?