Yes, that's where this is headed, a sort of super-flu season every damn year, but with even more hoo-ha about a yearly vaccine. Question for you medical folks, and seriously thanks in advance. As some folks here know, I now go into hospitals a lot with my wife. Yesterday, we had to spend about nine hours in a chemo ward and there was one nurse (or nursing assistant) who had a cough that just got worse and worse. We were all masked, but FFS, you have all these cancer patients and this woman coughing everywhere. Is it worth making a complaint or just asking if she confirmed COVID positive in follow-up? Or do I just shut up b/c hospitals are doing the best they can and can barely stay afloat right now, given all the sick employees and intakes? If any of you want a sobering read about the strain omicron's having on the medical system, check out Ed Yong's latest reporting in The Atlantic. If my struggling wife ends up with omicron b/c of that nurse, I'm going to be so pissed, but I don't see how we won't get sick at this point.
I disagree that the fear was irrational during the initial stages of a novel and unknown pandemic, but I do think the more we are exposed to the virus plus the availability of vaccines, the more our bodies will be able to handle new mutations. It could very well mutate to the worst of our fears or stabilize into a known quantity like measles. It's easy for us to armchair and guess, but it's much harder for civil servants who are held accountable for these deaths, whether legally or through social media...
I think the initial fears turned out to be unfounded. Initially we were worried that this could be a REALLY bad pandemic virus with something like a 10% case fatality rate and fortunately at the worst it was something closer to 2%....which is still awful, but the overall numbers were skewed by how absolutely detrimental it was to the elderly. Even better, the numbers are down to something like 0.2% with the delta variant which is somewhere around twice as fatal as the seasonal flu and significantly lower than that with omicron. When I talk about irrational fear, it's those who 2+ years later are still going around acting like COVID is some kind of death sentence for populations with effectively a 0% chance of it being fatal to them. It's those who ignore what is going on to hold on to narratives that died years ago. Since we're going to have to deal with COVID, probably forever, we need to come to terms with the reality of it.
I read a stat that said around 50 percent of new cases are from exposure at hospitals. I got the Moderna booster yesterday. I feel like total crap today. Fun.
So, my stepdad tested positive for covid today with an at home. He went to his doctor and his doctor told him to go get tested and did a chest x-ray. He had been feeling like he did when he last had pneumonia with a cough, etc. He has somewhat bad, non-oxygen dependent COPD. My mom is virtually healthcare illiterate. I know somewhat how the system works due to experience in the field. I'm trying to get her to advocate and she basically won't. Doctor wants to treat him with ivermectin, which I'm on the fence about. My mom says there's nowhere to get antibodies. I told her BS keep calling until they get him in. He's been symptomatic for 3 days. Window is closing. They live in Tomball. Anyone know of anywhere on that side of town? He's a textbook case of someone that should get them, from what I know. He is boostered. Is it truly that hard to get them, even with his comorbidities? I know I've said some things in the past good and bad about covid, but I was speaking for myself. I am worried about him. Any info is appreciated.
Sorry to hear that. While Ivermectin has not been shown to be effective I don't think it's shown to cause any harm so as long as they are still considering other options to treat him with probably not a big deal if they try Ivermectin. If they can't get the Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment has your family talked about getting the Paxlovid Pfizer antiviral treatment?
A close friend of mine has tested positive for COVID, she has also been boosted but was complaining about tiredness and bodyaches this past week. Other than that it doesn't sound like her symptoms are very severe but she is a Type I diabetic with kidney issues also so does have to worry about that.
I'm not sure. I'll have to ask my mom. She doesn't seem very ambitious with this. They're basically the kind of people that will just do what they're told by the doctor, instead of advocating for themselves. She didn't bring it up, so I doubt the doctor did either.
Studies show that Fluvoxamine might work at fighting early COVID. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-antidepressant-fluvoxamine-drug-hospital-death
It has roughly the same efficacy as the molnupiravir from Merck if I recall correctly. Glad we paid thru the nose for that bs when something equally effective with a much longer safety record in fluvoxamine at a much lower cost is readily available.
These days they are prescribing a ridiculous variety of drugs for COVID-19. One of the latest trends I've noticed is giving out eliquis to thin the blood and held fight the clots that form in the lungs.
How well do you trust the doctor? Is this in Houston ? There’s the Israeli doctor they always interview who’s treated many patients with success
Tomball area. I don't know the doctor but they like him. Seems a bit questionable from what I hear from afar. Speaking of costs @robbie380 , the ivermectin prescription is going to cost them $140. Talk about a markup, and an example of why people are fed up with the system.... That script probably costs $4 at most to manufacture....and a year ago, would have cost them $13 or of pocket, per a university of Michigan study.
I got three doses of Moderna and even a flu shot the same time I got my third. My second shot seemed worse than the first or third.
Understand but probably no harm suggesting it. Here's the FDA fact sheet on Paxlovid for providers. https://www.fda.gov/media/155050/download
I was trying to get the flu shot with the Moderna booster but they ran out of flu shots. I wanted to experience a double whammy of feeling bad. Oh well. My two prior doses were Pfizer. The pharmacy said Pfizer booster shots are harder to come by because of the increase in children getting vaccinated using Pfizer. The closest appointment I could find for a Pfizer booster was two weeks out.
https://healthdata.gov/Health/COVID-19-Public-Therapeutic-Locator/rxn6-qnx8/data Use that link and use the filters to search for therapeutics in the area. They'd have a hard time getting the Pfizer pill, but the Merck pill seems to be available. Even though its not as effective, it could be better than nothing. This one also shows Evusheld availability which is a monoclonal antibody for prophylaxis in immuno suppressed people...so it doesn't apply in this case.
