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Post by Kat on Apr 3, 2021 9:04:53 GMT -5
CW: death I only started working for him in January. This afternoon he needed a blood transfusion, and a few hours later I found out that he had passed on. He was one of the first to test positive and I never saw him again since we started working from home.
I'm sitting here in grief and shock and disbelief and a mix of other emotions. He wasn't the perfect model boss, but otherwise he was fine, and he left behind a family. Anyway, on our end, things aren't very good. Patients are turned away from full hospitals and some high profile people who aren't even priority got vaccinated before people who should be priority by cutting in line, so to speak. We're now getting more than 10,000 new cases per day. Joy.
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Post by Celestial on Apr 3, 2021 9:51:30 GMT -5
CW: death I only started working for him in January. This afternoon he needed a blood transfusion, and a few hours later I found out that he had passed on. He was one of the first to test positive and I never saw him again since we started working from home.
I'm sitting here in grief and shock and disbelief and a mix of other emotions. He wasn't the perfect model boss, but otherwise he was fine, and he left behind a family. Anyway, on our end, things aren't very good. Patients are turned away from full hospitals and some high profile people who aren't even priority got vaccinated before people who should be priority by cutting in line, so to speak. We're now getting more than 10,000 new cases per day. Joy. Oh gosh, Kat, I'm so sorry. I cannot imagine what that is like.
Is this the boss who refused to wear masks, or another one? Either one is awful but for different reasons.
Hope you hang in there and stay healthy yourself. You and your family.
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Post by Carolyn on Apr 3, 2021 18:56:44 GMT -5
I asked if I could babble about birds. So I told her about passerine and raptor migration through Cape May and it helped me to stay calm. \o/ Nerd babble for the win.
I'm okay. A bit sore, but okay. I treated myself to a very good cheeseburger and a cup of pickles afterwards. So far, no side effects. My state is doing their best to roll out vaccinations as quickly as possible. To the government's credit, they're racing to get senior vaccinated to (as far as I can tell) good success. The only reason I was next in line was because of my agriculture job. That was deemed as essential employment along with supermarkets and warehouse workers.
~~~
Also, Kat. I'm so, so sorry. D: That's absolutely horrible, especially since it all happened so quickly...
Seriously hoping that things can turn around in the Philippines--quickly. Very quickly. Massive Hugs <3
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Apr 3, 2021 19:03:35 GMT -5
CW: death I only started working for him in January. This afternoon he needed a blood transfusion, and a few hours later I found out that he had passed on. He was one of the first to test positive and I never saw him again since we started working from home.
I'm sitting here in grief and shock and disbelief and a mix of other emotions. He wasn't the perfect model boss, but otherwise he was fine, and he left behind a family. Anyway, on our end, things aren't very good. Patients are turned away from full hospitals and some high profile people who aren't even priority got vaccinated before people who should be priority by cutting in line, so to speak. We're now getting more than 10,000 new cases per day. Joy. I’m sorry Kat. It’s hard losing someone you know and even more shocking if they’re gone so soon.
Grief is a process and nobody gets past it very quickly so please take care of yourself during this difficult time. And I hope his family is doing the same, even though it’s even harder to lose someone they love.
I hope you and your family stay safe during this precarious time. *hugs*
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Post by Kat on Apr 4, 2021 2:05:29 GMT -5
Oh gosh, Kat, I'm so sorry. I cannot imagine what that is like.
Is this the boss who refused to wear masks, or another one? Either one is awful but for different reasons.
Hope you hang in there and stay healthy yourself. You and your family. Also, Kat. I'm so, so sorry. D: That's absolutely horrible, especially since it all happened so quickly... Seriously hoping that things can turn around in the Philippines--quickly. Very quickly. Massive Hugs <3 I’m sorry Kat. It’s hard losing someone you know and even more shocking if they’re gone so soon.
Grief is a process and nobody gets past it very quickly so please take care of yourself during this difficult time. And I hope his family is doing the same, even though it’s even harder to lose someone they love.
I hope you and your family stay safe during this precarious time. *hugs*
(same CW applies) Thanks, everyone. I really appreciate it. Yes, this is the boss who refused to wear masks and claimed that he exercised every day, who teased me and everything, but he wasn't all bad and treated me fairly otherwise.
I'm just waiting for any further updates at this point, trying to keep moving forward and taking this as a lesson for all of us at the office. I managed to cry it out last night so that's probably why I'm weirdly calm today.
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Post by Celestial on Apr 4, 2021 17:19:19 GMT -5
KatThat is genuinely awful, and especially tragic if he was going around insisting he would be fine. I feel bad for his family and everyone who knew him, yourself included. This illness is no joke, it is not "bad flu", it is a real threat.
Take all the time you need and process this however helps you. We're here if you need us. Hang in there.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Apr 6, 2021 8:30:31 GMT -5
There's a new resource for scientists to note and track viruses that are at risk of spilling over from animals to humans which is important for predicting and trying to prevent or reduce the risk of future pandemics. spillover.globalIf you click the "Ranking Comparison" you'll see quite a few coronaviruses, none of them that serious quite yet. Influenza viruses are not tracked though because there's already a lot of focus on them. It's also important to note that not every spillover virus will cause a pandemic. After all, the first one on there links to a bat version of the human coronavirus 229E that causes a portion of common cold infections.
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Post by Celestial on Apr 7, 2021 17:55:05 GMT -5
I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now, but I was waiting until we got an official ruling. There is believed to be a strong link between AstraZeneca and CSVT, a rare blood clot. Following from that article, the UK at least recommends that all under 30s be offered an alternative vaccine. Other countries are restricting it by age entirely. I have a lot of feelings about this. I'll get the personal stuff out of the way. I am 27 and I got AstraZeneca jab exactly three weeks ago. I am also, for all intents and purposes, female, although the gender link is not as clear as the age link. When I got my vaccine, the blood clot thing was just starting to break in Europe, and I went in with full knowledge that I might be that one in a million chance. I did have some vicious headaches in the last three weeks, which did make me worry, but I am reasonably certain those were caused by other things (I am headache prone and my migraines have a hormonal trigger, among other things). I am exactly the sort of person who should have been affected by this. I was not. And if my vaccine appointment was tomorrow, I would do it all over again without a second's worth of hesitation. I am not saying that there is no risk: there seems to be, and I feel bad for those who lost their lives. But it is hardly a guarantee, as shown by the low numbers. COVID does not scare me. It would suck a lot, and I am worried about long COVID, plus I do have some health things which could put me more at risk, although that has not been proven. But overall, I am healthy enough that I feel like I could get through this virus. I would not take the vaccine to avoid that. What does terrify the living daylights out of me is vaccine hesitancy. My homeland has a very high rate of vaccine hesitancy with only 29% of people thinking it safe. There is a lot of vaccine hesitancy in other European countries, and the pandemic is currently ravaging them. This inconsistent messaging does not help. People are hideously bad at judging risk, and this is in the news. They will be more likely to hesitate when offered this vaccine, this lowering the overall chance of attaining herd immunity through vaccination and prolonging this pandemic. I don't think I have to tell anybody what the effects of that would be. Not to mention AZ is the only vaccine made at cost, and thus the only one available to developing nations and other poor countries (once again, homeland: 129th in the world per capita, and the lowest in Europe (got to link Wikipedia as a source because it arranges everything in a nice table, but it is from IMF)). If this is the only option, and people do not trust it, the overall rollout will be slowed. And that is bad for the entire world. I will not even go into how no other manufacturer will ever make life-saving medication at cost like this ever due to the bad PR AZ got. I do not know how much the vaccine uptake will be affected here in the UK. So far, it has been amazing, but it could easily drop among the young. I do not think it will lead to another lockdown if everyone is vaccinated, but there could still be a lot of damage, especially if vaccine passports are introduced and young people are trapped between a rock and a hard place. Goodness knows we've suffered enough during this, and we're the last in the queue for vaccines (I only got mine because I take a medication normally used to treat diabetes). I have a lot of anxiety right now, but it isn't due to this slim risk of clots. It is due to the ripple effect that this will inevitably cause.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Apr 7, 2021 18:55:20 GMT -5
I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now, but I was waiting until we got an official ruling. There is believed to be a strong link between AstraZeneca and CSVT, a rare blood clot. Following from that article, the UK at least recommends that all under 30s be offered an alternative vaccine. Other countries are restricting it by age entirely. I have a lot of feelings about this. I'll get the personal stuff out of the way. I am 27 and I got AstraZeneca jab exactly three weeks ago. I am also, for all intents and purposes, female, although the gender link is not as clear as the age link. When I got my vaccine, the blood clot thing was just starting to break in Europe, and I went in with full knowledge that I might be that one in a million chance. I did have some vicious headaches in the last three weeks, which did make me worry, but I am reasonably certain those were caused by other things (I am headache prone and my migraines have a hormonal trigger, among other things). I am exactly the sort of person who should have been affected by this. I was not. And if my vaccine appointment was tomorrow, I would do it all over again without a second's worth of hesitation. I am not saying that there is no risk: there seems to be, and I feel bad for those who lost their lives. But it is hardly a guarantee, as shown by the low numbers. COVID does not scare me. It would suck a lot, and I am worried about long COVID, plus I do have some health things which could put me more at risk, although that has not been proven. But overall, I am healthy enough that I feel like I could get through this virus. I would not take the vaccine to avoid that. What does terrify the living daylights out of me is vaccine hesitancy. My homeland has a very high rate of vaccine hesitancy with only 29% of people thinking it safe. There is a lot of vaccine hesitancy in other European countries, and the pandemic is currently ravaging them. This inconsistent messaging does not help. People are hideously bad at judging risk, and this is in the news. They will be more likely to hesitate when offered this vaccine, this lowering the overall chance of attaining herd immunity through vaccination and prolonging this pandemic. I don't think I have to tell anybody what the effects of that would be. Not to mention AZ is the only vaccine made at cost, and thus the only one available to developing nations and other poor countries (once again, homeland: 129th in the world per capita, and the lowest in Europe (got to link Wikipedia as a source because it arranges everything in a nice table, but it is from IMF)). If this is the only option, and people do not trust it, the overall rollout will be slowed. And that is bad for the entire world. I will not even go into how no other manufacturer will ever make life-saving medication at cost like this ever due to the bad PR AZ got. I do not know how much the vaccine uptake will be affected here in the UK. So far, it has been amazing, but it could easily drop among the young. I do not think it will lead to another lockdown if everyone is vaccinated, but there could still be a lot of damage, especially if vaccine passports are introduced and young people are trapped between a rock and a hard place. Goodness knows we've suffered enough during this, and we're the last in the queue for vaccines (I only got mine because I take a medication normally used to treat diabetes). I have a lot of anxiety right now, but it isn't due to this slim risk of clots. It is due to the ripple effect that this will inevitably cause. This is a tough situation. Experts, scientists and doctors, are ethically supposed to share data about any adverse events because it’s important to know the risks. And any medical operation or vaccine would carry an inherent risk so just because risks exist doesn’t mean the process or vaccine is bad. The benefits here clearly outweigh the risks. But I understand that any adverse event can undermine confidence due to how it looks to people. I really hope that at least providing other vaccines for those under 30 and continuing to emphasize that the benefits outweigh the risks and the potential long-term effects of having Covid-19 are far worse than the risk from the vaccine. Shifting gears, I got my second dose of Pfizer today and have developed a headache and chills about three hours later. I will post tomorrow about my experience a day after where most of the side effects will hit if they are going to hit.
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Post by Celestial on Apr 7, 2021 19:26:09 GMT -5
This is a tough situation. Experts, scientists and doctors, are ethically supposed to share data about any adverse events because it’s important to know the risks. And any medical operation or vaccine would carry an inherent risk so just because risks exist doesn’t mean the process or vaccine is bad. The benefits here clearly outweigh the risks. But I understand that any adverse event can undermine confidence due to how it looks to people. I really hope that at least providing other vaccines for those under 30 and continuing to emphasize that the benefits outweigh the risks and the potential long-term effects of having Covid-19 are far worse than the risk from the vaccine. Shifting gears, I got my second dose of Pfizer today and have developed a headache and chills about three hours later. I will post tomorrow about my experience a day after where most of the side effects will hit if they are going to hit. It is a no-win scenario, and to their credit, doctors and experts (at least here in the UK) have been trying to stress that the benefits greatly outweigh the risks. They will also hopefully offer alternatives for under-30s when the time comes. The latter is what concerns me more: the rollout has been reliant on AstraZeneca here. We have some Pfizer, but right now, it is all going to second doses. Moderna is coming online very soon, but it is a drop in the bucket. There are others in the works, but who knows when they will be available. Given the target is to vaccine all over 18s by July, it is looking a bit shaky. And this is just the UK. We're in a good position, relatively: 57% of the adult population has been vaccinated, we have great vaccine deals, and our case rate is going down. Other European countries, in the middle of a third wave and with something like 10-20% vaccinated, cannot afford to be picky, but people are going to be rejecting AZ because of the horrific back-and-forth messaging around. I, at least, will be getting my second dose of AstraZeneca, since I had no serious side effects. They have guaranteed that, so that's good. I expect that will be sometime in June, since they're doing it as far apart as possible. Hope you feel better soon with your own second dose.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Apr 8, 2021 7:57:35 GMT -5
Second dose symptoms after about 18 hours for me have included widespread body aches and a headache. I’ve had worse headaches before so it’s not so bad, but is bad enough that it’s going to interfere with concentration.
I took the morning off. If I start to feel better for the afternoon, I’ll hop online and make myself available for a meeting that I should be involved in. I’m trying to tough it out without medication.
Update: At the 23 hour mark, I've developed a low grade fever of 99.6 F (taken under the tongue), have a pretty bad headache now and generally feel tired and achy.
Update 2: At 28 hour mark, the fever stands at 100.0 F (under the tongue) in addition to chills, mild aches, headache, and fatigue. My only efforts to mitigate right now are fluids, no medication.
Update 3: 36 hours and most side effects have subsided but I have a mild lingering headache and feel a little bit tired still even after sleeping early last night. I’m guessing I’ll feel better throughout the day though.
Update 4: After 48 hours, I feel normal. It’s all good now!
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Apr 8, 2021 8:53:43 GMT -5
Also, this does seem like a good idea for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I believe Sanofi is doing the manufacturing in France. www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-france-j-j-idUSKBN2BT1W6For those that have difficulty accessing transit - public or otherwise, don’t have a permanent home, or have other situations that may cause them to be harder to reach, a one dose vaccine will likely be easier to get out to those folks. I know in our city, they ran a free bus service and had vaccinations at a stadium. All the doses were J&J.
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Post by Twillie on Apr 9, 2021 14:19:23 GMT -5
Got my second shot today! So far I'm feeling normal, but of course we'll see how that may change in the coming day. I'm hoping it's nothing too bad, if anything at all, but either way I'm glad I was able to get fully vaccinated~
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Apr 9, 2021 17:09:51 GMT -5
Got my second shot today! So far I'm feeling normal, but of course we'll see how that may change in the coming day. I'm hoping it's nothing too bad, if anything at all, but either way I'm glad I was able to get fully vaccinated~ If you’re going to get anything, it may take up to 24 hours. But I am mostly back to normal after 48 hours. Hope you don’t feel too bad though. Glad you got your second shot!
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Post by Gelquie on Apr 9, 2021 22:59:22 GMT -5
Congratulations to those who got their shots! And also, *hugs for Kat.* That is distressing, when it's so close to home (or work, as the case may be). And when it had such a large impact. I hope his family will be okay. -- So a big problem with vaccine distribution in my area is that there's a lot of... location favoritism. "Yay, great, the vaccines are available! On one side of town. And I and other people don't have a car." And I can walk, yay, but some people may have more trouble. (I mean, I have my car back now. But only just, and other people still have problems.) Well, apparently the local newspaper caught on and ran a paper about the low vaccination rates, to which me and a couple others took the opportunity to comment "uh, yeah, you're putting them all in the same place that others may not be able to access." (Though of course, we were nicely nestled in between trolls and people who listen to conspiracy theories and kneejerk reactions sooner than they listen to reputable biology lessons and people who've been actively researching this. I get there are legit concerns, but most of the claims are just ridiculous.) ...Apparently distributors listened, or there were people working on it already, because now there's more vaccines available at closer stores. Not in large batches, but over more days. I think it's still too spread out, in my opinion, but yay, progress. Look at that, complaining works sometimes, who'd'a'thunk? (I wouldn't'a thunk; I expected comments on it to be ignored. Or for it to take a while to catch up to the demand.) On a personal note, as of tomorrow, it'll have been 2 weeks since my vaccination, which is the point after which there is (according to studies) significant immunity compared to placebo. I know I'm not fully in the clear until after shot 2, but maybe I can start doing some small things after that. I have to prepare to move anyway, and it'll be nicer to walk around with that safety net. Just in time for the weather to warm up too. ...Not that I'll do much more than I normally do, but maybe more walks will tie in.
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