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. 
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.
Medscape article today:
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.”
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.
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.
Might.
Can you whine to MPs and PM and party leaders? This is awful.
Ruling conservatives don’t even pretend to care. Minority NDP is freaking out at them already. My MLA is badass NDP and doing all she can.
I just got the 2nd dose of my vaccine. Had a weird reaction, ended up calling the police and an ambulance of the middle of a bridge.
While I was waiting for the drawbridge to come up my heart started racing, I felt a tingle go down my arm into my hand, and then felt woozy. By the time people got there my pulse, blood pressure, oxygen etc was fine. The EMT said it sounded like an addreline dump. I’m glad he didn’t just pass it off as anxiety. I felt similarly weird (but much less severe) last time and when I turned around to get it checked out, they said I might have just been dehydrated. I still feel a bit weird and brain fuzzy now, similar to a really bad blood sugar swing or something (having trouble hearing Mr. G unless I pay attention).
Obviously no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
My dad is getting vaccinated tomorrow! 
Oh also. Toddlers aren’t yet approved to get the vaccine right? We may be able to get the vaccine for more family next week but Meowlet would still be ineligible right?
No one below 16 (for one, 18 for the other, I forget which is which and I think J&J is 18+)
As far as I know they have only done the research down to age 16. Research down to age 12 should be out by the end of the summer? but little little ones are still quite far down the line. This is what I read in an Emily Oster newsletter.
Last I heard they were hoping to get all school aged kids (down to age six I think?) by September.
I just did a quick search and it looks like age 12 research started in December and age 6 research is starting now.
That sounds very scary!!! I’m glad you’re mostly okay now and being taken care f.
I’m just glad I was able to pull it together enough to drive home. I knew I didn’t want to go to the hospital in an ambulance over something relatively minor. I was a bit freaked out but since my oxygen was fine last time I was pretty sure breathing wise I was fine and that helped me feel a bit calmer.
I’m wondering if federal can pressure provincial because EW
Interesting piece from the perspective of someone with long haul covid. A friend of mine who is another long hauler (but less severe) said similar perspectives.
The hard part of this that is the reckoning that many disabled and chronically ill people have to go through each day and based on her description the systems that make care hard haven’t changed just because it says covid on the tin. She has a lot of internalized ableism that crops up in many suddenly disabled folks.
Essentially covid is here to stay and will have lasting effects on some people and I want to believe we get better accessibility for people with chronic illnesses world wide but we won’t probably
I also had a vasovagal response (but after my first dose). It’s not fun, that’s for sure. I’m glad you sought help and are ok!
We’re having a company meeting and they’re showing video of teachers and students using our projects in hybrid learning
The teacher has a face shield on and her mask around her chin. All of the kids who are in-person have dicknose.
This is… depressing.
Our county dashboard appears to have switched from a two-week rolling average to a one-week rolling average to make the numbers look better. Sigh.