Covid vaccine

[Gabes-Apg]

Thanks jennifer

I am doing my best to manage the unsettlement and stress
part of my sanity is that i am breeding budgerigars - I breed select rare colourings.
like the joy of planting seeds and watching flowers bloom, it is amazing to watch how quickly the babies grow and the joy of the çolour reveal as they start to get their feathers

[jennifer]

Interesting.....Do you breed them in your backyard? What do you do with all the babies? Do you sell them?
Jen

[crervin]

Tex,
I am so very sorry to hear about your friends! Covid is rampant here. Our schools are trying their best to remain open. Our wonderful governor outlawed mandating masks in schools. Last year masks were mandated in my area. I am in the school system, elementary, it is all we can do to keep up with who we need to send home next to be quarantined. We can't keep teachers at school to teach because their own children are being quarantined and can't be left alone. Our school district is now pleading with parents to "help us help your children" by putting a mask on their child so we can stay at school. They completely stopped virtual learning, so now hundreds are at home quarantined and expected to keep up with work by their self. I haven't taught a full class since I have started. Actually, the class with the most masked kids remains our most populated class.....It's an absolute mess here! Parents want kids in school but don't want to mask them or get them a vaccine. I am not sure what they are expecting from us

I am still trying to get my teenagers vaccinated. Both have gotten abscesses from their wisdom teeth removal, even though my dentist said the odds are 5%. My middle son is on 2 very strong antibiotics ( one that caused me colitis). That's really stressful! We are hoping they can get this under control and get the shots.

I hope you all stay safe and well!

[tex]

Martha,

Thanks, I appreciate your kind words. Regarding the schools, we're in the same situation here. Our illustrious governor outlawed mask mandates for schools, businesses, and everywhere else in the state. He came down with the disease himself, a week or two ago, after attending a meeting, even though he sat in the back of the room. I'm not sure if he's out of quarantine yet, or not. But as you say, the schools are a mess. Some are defying the governor's order, and mandating masks anyway, while waiting to see what the Texas Supreme Court decides. Others are following the governor's orders, but some of the larger schools already have hundreds of students and teachers out with the disease. They're trying to keep their doors open, anyway, but it appears to be a losing battle, and the pediatric wards, and pediatric hospitals, are filling up much faster than they did during last year's surge.

Old codgers like me are still wearing masks, and laying low, despite being vaccinated, while all the younger people are running around in public without masks, as if they don't have a care in the world, and the hospitals are rapidly filling up with them. Older folks can't afford to get the virus, because in another week or so, there won't be a bed left empty in any of the hospitals around here.

The biggest problem I can see is that hospital staffs are getting smaller and smaller. Doctors and nurses are leaving at unprecedented rates. My own doctor is leaving at the end of this month. If this keeps up, eventually there won't be anyone in the hospitals, but patients. I guess they'll have to try to take care of themselves, and each other, but that's hard to do, when you're in a coma.

And because of personnel shortages, and shipping problems, etc., were going to have a lot of shortages of certain food items, and other products, by this winter. We're headed for some pretty tough times, I'm afraid, especially in parts of the country where vaccination rates are still low.

I hope your teenagers will be able to get vaccinated soon. The vaccine is apparently only about 60% effective against the Delta variant, but that's a heck of a lot better than nothing.I have all the respect in the world for teachers these days, because they definitely have their work cut out for them. I'm sure you'll have plenty of challenges during this school year, because there's no telling what will happen before this is over. You'll have to tackle each new day as it arrives, because it probably won't be a repeat of yesterday.

Best of luck to you in your academic career, and I hope you can stay safe.

Tex

[Gabes-Apg]

Thankfully we do not have major supply issues here in Aus, there are noticeable delays compared to 2 years ago

Like you Tex, our hospital system is drowning. Staff in 14 day isolation after suspected contact with Delta. The volume of patients that are in ICU has impacted heart surgery schedules at major hospitals, and general patients with Delta Covid in the wards, ambulances with covid patients are waiting up to 10 hours before a bed is available
due to stress of hospital system, there is an increase of people dying at home that have delta covid.

thankfully Masks are mandated here in Aus

One of the key stresses, is that each state is adopting different rules - and have placed HARD borders so it is near impossible to travel interstate.
for people that live on border regions it has become very problematic. ie a nurse can not travel over the border to work at her workplace.

based on the current rules that were released yesterday - I have to be fully vaccinated before I can socialise with friends and family.

[brandy]

Tex,

I'm very sorry about the loss of your friends.

I'm temporarily in Maryland for awhile. The State of Maryland vac rate is around 80% but the county and several
counties around where I am staying have vac rate of 38%. Due to low vac rate this area is predicted to get hard hit by Delta. I'm staying in a very poverty stricken part of Maryland.

There is a severe, severe shortage of workers in this area. Trash does not get picked up. The Food Lion shelves have looked like Soviet Union shelves in Communist times for the last 8 weeks. Food Lion does not have stockers. They are having to send stockers from neighboring counties. Gluten Free bread is hard to come by. Food Lion does not stock it and Acme has been out for 6 weeks. I'm not a fan of Walmart but I was able to pick up 6 loaves from Walmart and throw them in the freezer.

I temporarily visited my home in North Florida. Florida is scary right now. I pretty much stayed in my house and cleaned and only went once to Publix the grocery store. Wow, I'm loving Publix. The store is consistently stocked. There was plenty of gluten free bread. There are plenty of checkout operators. There are baggers. The stores are clean and floors are waxed. The shopping experience is dramatically different from Maryland.

Stay strong everyone.

[brandy]

Note to Americans....I was reading an article in the WAll STreet Journal and food shortages/supply shortages are expected to continue in the US for the next 12 months.

[tex]

Brandy,

Thanks. I appreciate your kind words, and your insight. I noticed that stocking rates in the small grocery store where I usually shop in a nearby small town, are beginning to decline somewhat, but the shelves in the larger grocery stores in the slightly larger towns in this area still seem to be well stocked. The hospitals are mostly filled, especially ICU units. If someone has a medical emergency around here, they're probably In for a long wait before the ambulance driver can get to a hospital that will be able to take them in. And once they're in the emergency department, finding a room, or a hospital in another state with an available bed, often takes many hours. Vaccination rates have really been climbing around here, lately, but of course we were way behind, to begin with.

Tex

[brandy]

Hi Tex,

Yes, vaccination rates have been climbing in rural Florida. My Florida county is running 3000 new vaccine jabs a week. The boyfriend told me some locations are running out of vaccines.

[brandy]

Gabes,

Stay safe and I hope you get to visit with friends and family for Christmas!

[tex]

Thanks Brandy,

I hope you'll be able to enjoy a more normal Christmas this year, too. The hotspots in this area appear to be the schools. We've had some local school districts practically terrorized, as they saw two or three of their teachers die within the last few days, thanks to our governor's "no mask mandates in schools or businesses in Texas" policy. As difficult as teachers are to come by these days, another local district managed to hire a new teacher who moved into the area recently, and after only a few weeks on the job, she died yesterday. She was only 52. Pediatric hospitals are filling up fast. If I were the governor, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

Tex

[Patricia]

I am sorry I have been out of touch and very sorry to hear that your friends passed away, Tex. My heart also goes out to you, Gabes, Brandy, and Martha. Everyone is dealing with such difficult situations!

I wanted to let you know that I finally received my 2nd dose of the Moderna vaccine 5 months after my first dose (which is when I had an immediate allergic reaction: heart rate of 160 bpm within 2 minutes of the shot, tachycardia lasting for an hour, numbness of the throat for a few hours). Initially, my allergist did not want me to receive a 2nd dose. However, a study was published at the very end of July about people receiving the 2nd dose after an allergic reaction to the first dose:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamain ... le/2782348

I submitted the study to my allergist who said he would be okay with me getting the 2nd dose if I took a long-acting antihistamine for several days prior, with a double dose the day before, the day of, and the day after the vaccination. He also said I should have another person with me and get vaccinated either at a hospital or in close proximity to one. That was the hardest part. Most hospitals only vaccinate staff, not outside people, and their vaccination clinics are not necessarily close to a hospital. Giant Eagle pharmacies will not vaccinate anyone with an immediate reaction to the first dose. However, CVS does (unless the first dose reaction was severe and required epinephrine or hospitalization). I went to a CVS a mile away from a major hospital with my husband after taking Allegra for a week with a double dose the day before, the day of and the day after the vaccination and also brought my epipens, just to be on the safe side. It worked! I had absolutely no immediate reaction the second time!! I was so relieved. I did have side effects for a few days (headache and fatigue) starting the day after the vaccination. But no allergic reaction, and also no effect on my gut. It was a total success. I still continue to wear a mask and be very careful but I am less worried knowing that I am fully vaccinated now. Just thought I post this update in case anyone else has or had an immediate reaction to the first dose.

Lots of love and a big hug to everyone,

Patricia

[tex]

Patricia,

Thanks. Getting that second vaccination took a lot of courage. I'm glad it went so well.

And thanks for sharing your experience — that's impressive.

Love,

Tex

[Arleeda]

As a retired virologist, I got vaccinated at the first opportunity, and was eagerly looking forward to traveling overseas again! I have booked 6 trips for 2022. My microcolitis is relatively well-controlled by colestipol so that I no longer fear accidents when abroad (although I was still traveling when I did)..and air travel is mercifully constipating! And now, omicron COVID19 comes along. There aren't really enough data yet to know how well fully vaccinated people are protected from this new variant, which seems at first glance to not be as virulent. This is the way some viruses evolve--after all, if one's host is invariably killed, the virus runs out of sustenance! The main difficulty may be with rapid (and accurate) testing before boarding aircraft, upon arriving in foreign country and upon returning home.

[tex]

Hi Arleeda,

You're a lot braver than I am. It's a dangerous world for older folks. We go and get vaccinated, thinking we can relax and coast for a while, And after a month or 2, we discover that The protection we thought we had has mostly vaporized. Initial vaccine data shows that the vaccines (and the pills, and the monoclonal antibody infusions. etc.) are highly effective. But after a few months, the manufacturers invariably publish new data showing that the vaccines are not so effective after all. And by then, a new Covid variant has come along to kick us back to square one. It's always something, but at least it keeps life from getting boring.

Tex