Have You Gotten Your Covid Vaccine? Thread.

[nOOky]

I've only had one booster. I'm traveling to Europe in 5 weeks, I don't think it's required so I'm not going to get the 4th shot yet. I'm training for a very difficult trail running race, and I don't want to get sick and possibly delay my training as I have also been injured and I'm doing my best to get ready. Maybe after the trip.

My question of the day would be if people can get long covid if they have had covid prior with no symptoms. I'm sure I can look it up.

 

[dullard]

I've only had one booster. I'm traveling to Europe in 5 weeks, I don't think it's required so I'm not going to get the 4th shot yet. I'm training for a very difficult trail running race, and I don't want to get sick and possibly delay my training as I have also been injured and I'm doing my best to get ready. Maybe after the trip.

My question of the day would be if people can get long covid if they have had covid prior with no symptoms. I'm sure I can look it up.

Covid infection does provide protection against future infections--but it doesn't eliminate the possibility. That protection wanes after a few months. Data shows that the more vaccinations and more infections you have the less likely your future Covid will be long Covid--but it doesn't eliminate the possibility. Covid keeps changing. Any blanket statement that is true now might become wrong in the future.

Good luck on your race. With the way BA.5 is spreading, I would estimate your chances of getting sick are high right now if you are not careful. Look at the map here, any place in red is at the highest wastewater data that has been recorded for the location. Anything in orange is above average. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance At the moment, across the center of America is a lot of orange and red. Meaning the actual Covid levels are about as high as they were in the winter spike. I like this data since it is hard to fake (people with Covid would have to not flush toilets to fake the data).

Disclaimer: the company that I work at does sell one product that can be used for wastewater Covid data.

 

[pmv]

If anything I think people are excessively credulous of its prevalence. The media plays towards sensationalism and studies that show up to 40-50%(!) of people are afflicted by long COVID probably get a lot of clicks so they keep running them.

I also think over time we will develop a better clinical definition of what long COVID is that will be more stringent than ‘do you feel anxious’.


Sure it is definitely possible but findings like that are cause for skepticism, especially when combined with almost certainly erroneous findings like the bi/gay divide. It is a sign that the survey is probably measuring something other than just medical COVID issues. My guess would be that the pandemic generally has made people more depressed and anxious as well as more aware of their bodies and potential symptoms.

Again, I completely accept that some people have long term, debilitating effects from COVID. I am just very suspicious about numbers this high that rely on implausible survey results and directly contradict my lived experience and to the best of my knowledge the lived experience of almost everyone I know. (And in NYC I can’t think of a person I know who hasn’t gotten COVID.) Maybe I'll turn out to be all wrong about this but I think it's absolutely correct to view these numbers with a large grain of salt.

Yeah, fair enough. Much as with trying to judge the 'case fatality rate' early on in the pandemic, it will take time to tell what the true figures are - clearly it's very early days yet.

 

[fskimospy]

I think you might need to work on your self-analysis skills. You can't even acknowledge your fully misleading statement above that I quoted multiple times.

If it makes you feel better to imagine that I have strong feelings about people's choices on COVID precautions then by all means keep believing it. Really though, if you choose to never go to a restaurant again or choose to hold your breath while eating I am fully supportive of your choice, even if I find the idea of holding your breath during bites sort of amusing.

As for my 'fully misleading statement' I don't know what that would be but again also if this makes you feel better I'll be happy to acknowledge whatever suits you if I think it's accurate.

 

[Homerboy]

I tested positive on 7/3 (first time)

Was "sick" with roller coaster symptoms for 3 days - some where pretty bad like the worst sore throat ever, but it would last maybe 2-3 hours then disappear for 2-3 hours. Weird.
Slight fever. General malaise and pretty deep lethargy. I'd do things while I was feeling better, and then just basically collapse and want to never move again.
I tested negative on 7/7. Worked from home 7/5 - 7/9 and returned to work on 7/11 (wearing a mask). Still have lingering cough (I get that with ANY cold). Still get extremely tired by end of day. Lightheaded as the day goes on to the point of dizziness when I stand up. Ears are constantly "stuffy" too with slight ache/pressure.

Wife and kid tested positive on 7/4. Lots of same symptoms. Took my wife until 7/14 to get a negative test. She still has a cough and same tiredness through the end of the day.

Amazingly I drove 4 hours with my son on 7/1 and another 3 hours on 7/2 and he didn't get sick at all. That kids has dodged COVID for 3 years now taking almost zero precautions (stupid college kids are stupid). Early on, he was even quarantined with a positive roommate for 2 weeks and never once tested positive.

Everyone vaxxed + max boosters. We've generally been very cautious for years now.

Anyways that's my story.

 

[dullard]

I tested positive on 7/3 (first time)

Was "sick" with roller coaster symptoms for 3 days - some where pretty bad like the worst sore throat ever, but it would last maybe 2-3 hours then disappear for 2-3 hours. Weird.
Slight fever. General malaise and pretty deep lethargy. I'd do things while I was feeling better, and then just basically collapse and want to never move again.
I tested negative on 7/7. Worked from home 7/5 - 7/9 and returned to work on 7/11 (wearing a mask). Still have lingering cough (I get that with ANY cold). Still get extremely tired by end of day. Lightheaded as the day goes on to the point of dizziness when I stand up. Ears are constantly "stuffy" too with slight ache/pressure.

Wife and kid tested positive on 7/4. Lots of same symptoms. Took my wife until 7/14 to get a negative test. She still has a cough and same tiredness through the end of the day.

Amazingly I drove 4 hours with my son on 7/1 and another 3 hours on 7/2 and he didn't get sick at all. That kids has dodged COVID for 3 years now taking almost zero precautions (stupid college kids are stupid). Early on, he was even quarantined with a positive roommate for 2 weeks and never once tested positive.

Everyone vaxxed + max boosters. We've generally been very cautious for years now.

Anyways that's my story.

Thanks for sharing your story. Hope you keep getting better! Being sick over the holiday must have just made it that much worse.

I know a number of people with very similar stories (including my parents, an aunt/uncle, and many coworkers). They all avoided Covid until late June/early July 2022. BA.5 came around when people have finally relaxed most precautions. Luckily it seems to be one of the more mild versions for symptoms.

 

[UNCjigga]

Saw this thread was bumped and figured I’d ask a question here. I had the corona back at the end of Feb-early March. Since then, I’ve had randomly recurring bouts of vertigo. Basically, when I lay my head down on the bed or lean back far enough and/or tilt my head far enough side to side, the room spins and I feel like I’m falling. Sometimes it’s bad enough that I’ll have nausea for an hour or so afterwards, but not enough to actually hurl. The worst is transitioning from prone on my bed to standing up—especially in the morning. My head can feel like I was partying all night long to the point of acute alcohol intoxication (like worst hangover ever) even though I had not a sip to drink.

I’m not sure it’s related to the rona, as first occurrence was at least 2 weeks after I was feeling close to 100% again. Since then I’ve had it 3 times—going 6-8 weeks with no symptoms and then BAM—and it’ll stick around for a week or so before subsiding. I do notice my sinuses are a bit more active right before the vertigo hits though.

Anyone else experience anything similar?

 

[dullard]

Since then, I’ve had randomly recurring bouts of vertigo.

Anyone else experience anything similar?

A quick search of papers shows about 10% of Covid cases have vertigo. Seems debatable with the data so far if Covid causes vertigo or if it triggers vertigo that you already had but might not have known. The end result is the same: your misery.

Drink more water and see a doctor. Vertigo has medications: no adult should ever actually hurl since we can prevent that with drugs.

 

[Homerboy]

Thanks for sharing your story. Hope you keep getting better! Being sick over the holiday must have just made it that much worse.

I know a number of people with very similar stories (including my parents, an aunt/uncle, and many coworkers). They all avoided Covid until late June/early July 2022. BA.5 came around when people have finally relaxed most precautions. Luckily it seems to be one of the more mild versions for symptoms.

Yeah TONS of people I know that have been super careful for 2+ years have fallen prey to BA.5 and have gotten sick in the past month or so. Like TONS of friends and family.
I think the other problem right now is the actual numbers we're seeing are a sliver of the actual positive cases - everyone taking at-home tests and then those do not get reported and not added to the official tally. The real number of current cases has to be magnitudes higher than the numbers we're being told.

 

[fskimospy]

Yeah TONS of people I know that have been super careful for 2+ years have fallen prey to BA.5 and have gotten sick in the past month or so. Like TONS of friends and family.
I think the other problem right now is the actual numbers we're seeing are a sliver of the actual positive cases - everyone taking at-home tests and then those do not get reported and not added to the official tally. The real number of current cases has to be magnitudes higher than the numbers we're being told.

I think I saw somewhere that from sewage data case estimates are 8x-10x higher than reported ones. Cases have been significantly decoupled from deaths though so I'm not sure they are a particularly useful indicator anymore. Better to focus on hospitalization rates and deaths I think.

 

[Thump553]

Like Homerboy, I also tested positive recently (7/13). Fully vaccinated plus one booster. Started with fever (max 101.7, I usually run low, progressed to weakness, body aches, occasional dry cough. Fever appears to have broken now. I caught a cold earlier this summer that was far worse for me.

I verified it through home testing. One thing I've noticed is that there is no way (at least in my area) to officially report my case. I called my doctor's office, got some general advice but I doubt it was ever even entered on my chart (didn't get any notice that it has been).

I strongly suspect that the official covid rate now is way, way below the actual rate of infection because of the prevalence of at-home testing. I'm in an at-risk category so I'm very grateful for the vaccine (which I have no doubt knocked my infection down to a minor inconvenience).

 

[Homerboy]

Like Homerboy, I also tested positive recently (7/13). Fully vaccinated plus one booster. Started with fever (max 101.7, I usually run low, progressed to weakness, body aches, occasional dry cough. Fever appears to have broken now. I caught a cold earlier this summer that was far worse for me.

I verified it through home testing. One thing I've noticed is that there is no way (at least in my area) to officially report my case. I called my doctor's office, got some general advice but I doubt it was ever even entered on my chart (didn't get any notice that it has been).

I strongly suspect that the official covid rate now is way, way below the actual rate of infection because of the prevalence of at-home testing. I'm in an at-risk category so I'm very grateful for the vaccine (which I have no doubt knocked my infection down to a minor inconvenience).

see my post above commenting on the reporting rate too.

One thing that my wife and I did is reported it on our phones with the Wisconsin Health Dept app that allows you to report and in turn track if you've been exposed (based on who has reported and their GPS data). I dunno if that works as a "reported positive" but it's something I guess.

It's amazing to me that there's no official, easy and "required" way to report positive cases.

 

[fskimospy]

see my post above commenting on the reporting rate too.

One thing that my wife and I did is reported it on our phones with the Wisconsin Health Dept app that allows you to report and in turn track if you've been exposed (based on who has reported and their GPS data). I dunno if that works as a "reported positive" but it's something I guess.

It's amazing to me that there's no official, easy and "required" way to report positive cases.

Genuine question - is there something that officially reported cases in this way would cover that wastewater data doesn't already tell us?

 

[Homerboy]

Genuine question - is there something that officially reported cases in this way would cover that wastewater data doesn't already tell us?

Sorry, not sure what you're asking.

 

[fskimospy]

Sorry, not sure what you're asking.

Presumably newly reported cases would be used to measure the prevalence of COVID in the country or an area but from what I’ve read wastewater monitoring is a much better way to do that, giving results quicker and not relying on voluntary reporting.

Wastewater monitoring is basically measuring how much COVID people are shitting into the sewer system and since everybody poops it’s a good measure.

 

[evident]

got my kids <5 their second dose today. still have a 3rd one to go but a huge relief and we all already caught it w/ minor symptoms anyways. Will be flying next month. Still don't understand the delay for it. should have came out last year.

 

[eelw]

Presumably newly reported cases would be used to measure the prevalence of COVID in the country or an area but from what I’ve read wastewater monitoring is a much better way to do that, giving results quicker and not relying on voluntary reporting.

Wastewater monitoring is basically measuring how much COVID people are shitting into the sewer system and since everybody poops it’s a good measure.

And sooner since it’s detectable in stool before people become symptomatic and get tested.

 

[dullard]

Genuine question - is there something that officially reported cases in this way would cover that wastewater data doesn't already tell us?

I personally prefer wastewater data over Covid case counts. It has so many benefits. Like you said, everybody poops. It isn't hard to track such as with these problems being discussed regarding voluntary reporting. And like eelw said, you can tell the results sooner. The biggest catch is that not many places have wastewater data. See the map here, there are entire states without any reported wastewater data. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance And of the states that do have wastewater data, it is generally in the more urban areas and isn't much in the rural areas. So until we get a lot more wastewater data, the actual case counts do have value.

Since this is P&N, can anyone tell any pattern on the states with and those without reported wastewater data?

Disclaimer: the company that I work at does sell one product that can be used for wastewater Covid data.

 

[fskimospy]

got my kids <5 their second dose today. still have a 3rd one to go but a huge relief and we all already caught it w/ minor symptoms anyways. Will be flying next month. Still don't understand the delay for it. should have came out last year.

Yes, the FDA has really screwed the pooch here and their entire process needs to be rethought. As it stands we are only now getting approval for updated vaccines that are like three variants out of date. They appear to have belatedly realized that their regular approval process is entirely unsuited to a pandemic but it is infuriating that it took them two years to figure that out.

 

[dullard]

Yes, the FDA has really screwed the pooch here and their entire process needs to be rethought. As it stands we are only now getting approval for updated vaccines that are like three variants out of date. They appear to have belatedly realized that their regular approval process is entirely unsuited to a pandemic but it is infuriating that it took them two years to figure that out.

The FDA's portion itself was handled pretty quickly. It was the companies that took years to ask the FDA for approval. The FDA only requires proof that the vaccines are safe, effective, and usable. That said, it does take quite a lot of time to prove safety, efficacy, and usability.

But your point is correct: we probably do need another official route for emergencies such as this pandemic. We might have to accept vaccines that have not yet been proven effective. That opens up a huge can of worms (see all the debate about vaccines in the past couple of years), but I think only safety is critical: who cares if we get a placebo here or there when trying to stop a major disease? Speed is more important than the off-chance of an ineffective vaccine. We should make this new route fully optional: people could choose to vaccinate themselves before efficacy is proven. The only required vaccines should go through the more rigorous process.

At least going into the future for Covid, the FDA has relaxed any rules regarding efficacy of variant vaccines. That will drastically speed up the ability to provide much more timely vaccines for variants. This is similar to the flu vaccine. We can quickly respond to new variants without having to know the future.

 

[fskimospy]

I personally prefer wastewater data over Covid case counts. It has so many benefits. Like you said, everybody poops. It isn't hard to track such as with these problems being discussed regarding voluntary reporting. And like eelw said, you can tell the results sooner. The biggest catch is that not many places have wastewater data. See the map here, there are entire states without any reported wastewater data. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance And of the states that do have wastewater data, it is generally in the more urban areas and isn't much in the rural areas. So until we get a lot more wastewater data, the actual case counts do have value.

Since this is P&N, can anyone tell any pattern on the states with and those without reported wastewater data?

Disclaimer: the company that I work at does sell one product that can be used for wastewater Covid data.

That makes sense for places where wastewater counts are not available but it really seems like the published counts have little connection with reality. I guess we could probably apply some standard error to them and just multiply whatever they say by like 5 and call it a low estimate.

 

[dullard]

That makes sense for places where wastewater counts are not available but it really seems like the published counts have little connection with reality. I guess we could probably apply some standard error to them and just multiply whatever they say by like 5 and call it a low estimate.

Time for a genuine question for myself: do we need quantitative case counts? Why not just accept that the case counts are qualitative? When the case counts go up, we should be more cautious. When case counts go down, we should be less cautious. Precise quantitative numbers aren't necessary--only qualitative trends are necessary for people to make wise decisions.

 

[fskimospy]

The FDA's portion itself was handled pretty quickly. It was the companies that took years to ask the FDA for approval. The FDA only requires proof that the vaccines are safe, effective, and usable. That said, it does take quite a lot of time to prove safety, efficacy, and usability.

But your point is correct: we probably do need another official route for emergencies such as this pandemic. We might have to accept vaccines that have not yet been proven effective. That opens up a huge can of worms (see all the debate about vaccines in the past couple of years), but I think only safety is critical: who cares if we get a placebo here or there when trying to stop a major disease? Speed is more important than the off-chance of an ineffective vaccine.

At least going into the future for Covid, the FDA has relaxed any rules regarding efficacy of variant vaccines. That will drastically speed up the ability to provide much more timely vaccines for variants. This is similar to the flu vaccine. We can quickly respond to new variants without having to know the future.

Yes, FINALLY they have relaxed efficacy rules for new variants but it's crazy to me it took this long. It's been 19 months since the first vaccine EUA.

I agree that while you can't compromise on safety we should be very comfortable with a potentially ineffective vaccine, just like we are with the flu. The FDA needs to stop playing pop public health psychology and focus on their core mission. Is a covid vaccine safe? If so, let er rip.

 

[fskimospy]

Time for a genuine question for myself: do we need quantitative case counts? Why not just accept that the case counts are qualitative? When the case counts go up, we should be more cautious. When case counts go down, we should be less cautious. Precise quantitative numbers aren't necessary--only qualitative trends are necessary for people to make wise decisions.

I think you're right, direction and magnitude of shift is really what matters now and if anything the exact numbers are misinforming people because case counts now and case counts a year ago mean very different things due to the prevalence of home testing. 100k cases today indicates a much higher level of spread than 100k cases in summer of 2021.

 

[Homerboy]

Presumably newly reported cases would be used to measure the prevalence of COVID in the country or an area but from what I’ve read wastewater monitoring is a much better way to do that, giving results quicker and not relying on voluntary reporting.

Wastewater monitoring is basically measuring how much COVID people are shitting into the sewer system and since everybody poops it’s a good measure.

ah yeah... sorry I honestly forgot about the waste water measuring
I don't think that gives you a solid integer of "X" number of new cases today. I'm sure if gives officials a better picture of the volume of cases, but I can't believe their deriving the chart here from waste water.

COVID-19: Wisconsin Cases

COVID-19: Data Pages Deaths Facility-Wide Investigations Frequently Asked Questions Hospitals Racial and Ethnic Disparities Vaccines

www.dhs.wisconsin.gov