19 posts were split to a new topic: Higher Ed Costs/Experience in US
I want to continue the discussion we’re having but realized it’s off topic now, so I split it into a different thread
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Thanks Lily \o/
In COVID-y news, a family friend who was part of one of the vaccine trials has gotten her second dose of the actual shot (as opposed to placebo she got before). I’m so glad about this.
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I"ve been wondering when they’d do that!
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Yeah! I can’t remember which one she was part of – maybe Moderna? – but she’s over 65 and in NY, so is eligible officially either way. I’m so glad she’s got a little bit more protection now.
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In other pandemic news. My work has said the earliest we will return to offices is July.
So I’m never going to get to leave my house again. Not that I want to go back to an office in Iowa right now.
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on Tuesday my office said the fall
I used to love WFH, but back then I could work from the library / coffee shop / friends house / etc. I am starting to have a lot more sympathy for folks who want to be back in the office. 
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Yeahhh, I’m contemplating renting a studio space for 6 months just so I have somewhere to go sometimes!
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my understanding is that the vaccine doesnt entirely protect against infection, just illness. so id expect some folks to get infected post-vaccine, but be mild or asymtomatic. do i have this right?
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That is what it seems like, these are breakthrough illnesses they say? They’re doing full sequencing of the viruses to see if they are variant strains.
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It IS expected, but also disappointing- there was some hope still that maybe asymptomatic transmission wouldn’t really bear out, but it appears it’s the case after all. But the vaccine is still valuable, still important. Just not 110% a fairy tale solution lol.
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yes and seems like/hopefully it’s a fairly rare occurrence.
i’m not planning on changing my behavior that much once i’m vaccinated because there’s still the chance of passing it on, but i hope it will at least be enough to go back to the swimming pool, and maybe go to a timed outing at a museum with a friend or something (with a mask). just little stuff like that would make a huge difference in my mental health.
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I’m fantasizing lustfully about things like going to Trader Joe’s (which is too far to walk to and does not deliver) and picking out my own groceries. I’d really like to go to the aquarium again, or the Art Institute.
All of that requires getting on public transport though, and I’m on the fence as to whether that is safe after I’m vaccinated… but, well, at least here it’s the other people who don’t wear masks on public transport, and I’d be in one, likely doubled. So, maybe?
(I was super disheartened to hear from a friend the other day that literally no one but her was wearing a mask on the el line nearest me that I used to take daily. I thought there was a mandate for that now, but nobody seems to care.)
I have a question… if you are vaccinated and still test positive for covid but don’t get sick, does the virus still do all the long term damage to your body? Heart problems and clots and such? There probably hasn’t been time to research that, right?
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my take is that i cant really hold myself responsible for the health of people who at this point are still not wearing an mf-ing mask, you know? but im lucky in that i have a car and dont live in a super dense urban environment like you do. it’s really a different ballgame.
as for the longer term effects, ugh, i dunno. i think we are in uncharted waters and will be for a while. i really wish there was any sense of when little stuff like riding the el to trader joe’s will be mostly safe again. 
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All my friends are getting vaccinated so once everyone is 2 weeks past the second dose we will resume getting together and going out to eat, etc. I will still wear a mask in public of course. It will be nice to have some freedom back.
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Medscape article today:
Cut for length- data favorable that vaccines limit transmission
Fauci: Data ‘Favorable’ That Vaccines Limit Transmission
Researchers know by now the available COVID-19 vaccines prevent people from getting COVID around 95% of the time. But the million-dollar question remains: Are people less likely to spread the illness after they get the vaccine? According to preliminary data, the odds are good.
“The looming question is, if the person who’s been vaccinated gets infected, does that person have the capability to transmit it to another person,” Anthony Fauci, MD, the White House COVID-19 Response Team’s chief medical adviser, said during a White House briefing Wednesday. “Some studies are pointing in a very favorable direction.”
Fauci cited studies from Spain and Israelpublished this month, showing the amount of viral load – or the amount of the COVID-19 virus in someone’s body – is significantly lower if someone gets infected after they’ve been vaccinated, compared with people who get infected and didn’t have the vaccine. Lower viral load means much lower chances of passing the virus to someone else, Fauci says.
“There’s a direct correlation with viral load and transmission,” he says. “In other words, higher viral load, higher transmissibility; lower viral load, very low transmissibility.”
Fauci says that Israel has more thorough data on this than the United States because it has given 78 doses per 100 people – well above the U.S. vaccination rates, which is currently 16.7 doses per 100 people.
These early findings will need to be proved with more studies, Fauci says.
“This is another example of the scientific data starting to point to the fact that the vaccine is important not only to protect people from infection and disease,” Fauci says, “but it also has very important implications from a public health standpoint.”
People who have been vaccinated should still practice social distancing, hand-washing, and, most importantly, mask-wearing, he says. But the data further highlights how important the vaccine will be in the efforts to curb the pandemic.
The COVID-19 Response Team also announced an investment from the federal government of $1.6 billion in three areas: testing in schools and underserved populations, increasing genomic sequencing, and making critical testing supplies.
Genomic sequencing plays a key role in identifying new COVID-19 variants. This is how the United Kingdom and South African strains – now found across the United States – were discovered. The technique analyzes the structure of the virus to spot mutations. The COVID-19 Genomics Consortium has been studying COVID-19’s genetic history for nearly a year.
Of the $1.6 billion, $200 million will be invested in sequencing. The CDC will increase its sequencing efforts from 7,000 samples per week to about 25,000 per week.
An additional $650 million will go toward testing in K-8 schools and underserved settings like homeless shelters.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, reported during the briefing that COVID-19 rates are still dropping – there was a 21% decline in COVID-related hospitalizations over the past week – but that cases are still higher than they were over the summer.
The drop, she says, is not a result of the vaccinations.
“Only 5% of people have received two doses,” she says. “We’re not in the place where the current level of vaccination is driving down surge of disease.”
Sources
MedRxiv: “Initial real world evidence for lower viral load of individuals who have been vaccinated by BNT162b2.”
The Lancet : “Transmission of COVID-19 in 282 clusters in Catalonia, Spain: a cohort study.”
News briefing, White House COVID-19 Response Team, Feb. 17, 2021.
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My province announced that they might start vaccinating people over the age of 95 next week.
Meanwhile the premier, who is known for spending most of the year in his vacation mansion in central america, is suspiciously tan.
I would really like to stop sheltering in place but the government doesn’t give a shit.
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Might.
Can you whine to MPs and PM and party leaders? This is awful.
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