Coronavirus in Massachusetts (home, wedding, military)

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Then I would have been referring to effective measures that also have collateral damage (a very real thing). And those dilemmas are often a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario (while minimizing the overall damage); to the detriment of those who can only settle for a black and white/winner take all answer to everything. If the world was that simple, we wouldn't need leaders.

And the country doesn't have many right now.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

I think this post more or less says it all. Dealing with Covid is similar to dealing with a wave of common colds or at most, a mild flu epidemic. Neither needs to shut down society.

Of course I felt this way at the outset, in April 2020. We as a society, in hindsight, would have been better off with far less lockdown and restrictions. It was depressing seeing everything closed in the name of public health theater.
That is honest, but not politically possible to say at the time. I remember a November 1987 issue of Commentary Magazine made that point. See AIDS: Are Heterosexuals at Risk? But of course that was a "right wing" publication. DM me if you wish to see article and can't read because of paywall, with your email address. I PDF'd article and am happy to send.

To be clear, I was not saying that everything that's been done to counter Covid-19 was a mistake, nor that it's just the common cold. Even with the countermeasures taken, Nearly 1 million Americans have already died from Covid-19, and far more suffer serious long term complications. Covid-19 is by far the most damaging infectious disease of my lifetime (nearly 63 years).

What I was saying was that the situation has evolved since spring 2020, and for the reasons I stated, I am now more optimistic than I have been at any time since the pandemic's onset.

[LeavingMA]

Originally Posted by bostongymjunkie

No, the nonsensical is definitely part of this discussion. Sending people with symptoms home without treatment until they need ICU, not focusing attention on the most vulnerable, keeping young healthy people at home while sending older or unhealthy people out to do their jobs, masking outdoors, zero focus on improving personal health, lots of nonsense to go around.

Add to the fact they gave more money for covid deaths, tried to make everything covid, used ventilators and a death drug (remdesvir) for treatment when people had a better chance without them. If we have a virus that is very that deadly you don't need to force or create a pandemic, it would be obvious. People would actually see young and healthy people dying.

Instead what we have is a medical system easily corrupted and a media that has to censor others cause they can't admit what they did didn't work and we had a cure. Doctors have shown they had thousands of patients with virtually nobody dying but they were considered to be terrorists...or for saving lives doing something unethical.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by LeavingMA

Add to the fact they gave more money for covid deaths, tried to make everything covid, used ventilators and a death drug (remdesvir) for treatment when people had a better chance without them. If we have a virus that is very that deadly you don't need to force or create a pandemic, it would be obvious. People would actually see young and healthy people dying.

Instead what we have is a medical system easily corrupted and a media that has to censor others cause they can't admit what they did didn't work and we had a cure. Doctors have shown they had thousands of patients with virtually nobody dying but they were considered to be terrorists...or for saving lives doing something unethical.

Enough with the ridiculous fallacy. Thousands of physicians, nurses, and coroners independently conspired to gain their hospitals an extra $2000 (or whatever) in reimbursement, at the risk of losing their professional licenses for falsifying records. Very plausible indeed.

And just be lucky you didn't see young & healthy people afflicted and dying. I did.

[bostongymjunkie]

The incorrigible and morally righteous Minister of (all) Truth has arrived to set everyone straight and to hold court for all parties deemed to have committed high crimes against the King.

[OutdoorLover]

Waited a couple of months but got my second booster yesterday. Went with Pfizer this time, the prior 3 shots were Moderna - trying to get a little diversity in antibodies. I am feeling a little soreness in some muscles/joints today, but some temporary inflammation is common, should clear in a couple of days.

[bizcuit]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Waited a couple of months but got my second booster yesterday. Went with Pfizer this time, the prior 3 shots were Moderna - trying to get a little diversity in antibodies. I am feeling a little soreness in some muscles/joints today, but some temporary inflammation is common, should clear in a couple of days.

I'm planning on getting a second booster too. I just can't decide on when.

[Amontillado]

My wife has had some issues with auto-immune conditions, and she thought that was enough to make the second booster a smart thing for her. She was surprised that her reaction to it was much stronger than after any of the previous three vaccinations--a pretty nasty headache and muscle pain lasting all of one day and into the next. I'm like Bizcuit, not really feeling a need to get it very soon. Perhaps in the future the medical advice will change from "It's an option" to "We recommend it" and I'll go for it then.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by bizcuit

I'm planning on getting a second booster too. I just can't decide on when.

Since we're coming into the summer, which normally has lower rates of transmission, there's an argument to be made for waiting until the end of summer/early fall. I didn't have a strong preference therefore, but I'll turn 63 in a few weeks and am overweight and there is still a lot of virus out there, so I thought I'd just get it now. I have read and heard enough cases of people really struggling with long Covid, that I thought I'd feel better tuning up protection. There's a good chance that new vaccines will be available in fall, as there are numerous projects under development right now - including some new vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, as well as others, some taking quite different strategies.

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

there's an argument to be made for waiting until the end of summer/early fall.

Perhaps there will be a booster more effective against currently circulating variants by then.