COVID-19

[Zed Head]

The data and news over the last few months seems a little bit contradictory.  Supposedly the therapeutics are better, so fewer people that get sick are dying.  But the dats plots show deaths as about level while cases and hospitalizations drop.  Seems like the data gatherers are just collecting numbers and reporting them but not really examining what's happening. 

They're backsliding to poor messaging, I think.  Like the demands that teachers get back in the classroom, but nobody can give a simple explanation about how the teachers are safer.  The new head of the CDC seems tone-deaf about it.  They're still talking about sacrificing teachers for students.  They should just come out and say it, or show the data that shows that teachers are safer.  Things change but they stay the same.

https://covidactnow.org/?s=1575515

[Zed Head]

Just explain why.  Pretty simple.  Define "safe". 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cdc-director-teachers-vaccinated-order-reopen-schools/story?id=75662299

"There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters at a briefing. "Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools."

[siteunseen]

Okay I can get the 1st Maderna whenever I want, 8:30am tomorrow. Just checking with you genius type guys beforehand. Do it?

I'm wanting to. Alabama doesn't have any age restrictions so I'm good to go and it's free. Just nervous after J&J halted their's. This would be Maderna. Thanks for any confidence, the flu shot makes me dog sick everytime. 

Cliff

[Zed Head]

Moderna has been around for almost as long as Pfizer.  It's one of the originals.  J&J and Astra Zeneca are the two that have had very minor issues.

I got a Pfizer shot last week.  My upper arm was sore for a day, that was it, but I don't feel a thing from flu shots so not sure that helps.

I would have done any of the three others too.   I vote get it.

[siteunseen]

Thank you! That's good to hear and I'll get the initial shot in the morning. Thanks again.

Added info: 10a.m I get poked!

Edited April 14, 2021 by siteunseen

[Pilgrim]

Good call. More people probably got hit by cars than had the serious responses reported.  My daughter got the J&J shot last week and is one of millions who is fine.  Others in the family got the Moderna and Pfizer. All fine, a couple felt lousy the day after but were fine within a couple of days.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Pilgrim

[Racer X]

I still haven't been notified if I can have one yet, and when I checked a few weeks ago the online checker said I wasn't eligible yet.

So here is where I am.

Or where I am not, I dunno . . . . . . 

 

I have never gotten flu shots. I never get the flu.

I dislike needles, always have, and probably always will. In spite of my feelings about needles, after having my hip replaced I had to give myself Lovenox, to prevent blood clots during the healing of the prosthesis. Six weeks, once each day. The needle was the same size as those used by diabetics, and I had to do it myself. 

Yuk.

Mrs. Racer is older than me, and she got the two step shot, Moderna I think but I could be wrong. 

After both shots, she was ill for a day or two. She said it wasn't like any other bug that she's had.

Her two sisters, and her brother, have all had the two step shots, and they all reported malaise, nausea, fatigue, overall achy feeling.

A couple guys at work said they got the shots, because they had multigenerational households. Neither reported anything more than soreness at the injection site.

 

So there's the needle thing.

Strike one.

And then there is the "I never get the flu" thing. (not sure if this is a valid excuse)

Strike two.

Then there's 4 out of 6 people I know who had the shot and experienced negative symptoms post injection.

Strike three.

Then we have these things with Johnson & Johnson and Astra Zenica.

Strike four.

 

So I'm not sure . . . . . . . . . . ask me again later on, eh?

[Pilgrim]

Getting a shot is easy. Look AWAY from the shot and find something in the room to focus on.  Example: "Hey, that crop-in ceiling panel is crooked. Maybe someone was in there messing around. What do the ones next to it look like?" 

By the time you have looked carefully at them, the shot is done.  

[Racer X]

22 minutes ago, Pilgrim said:

Getting a shot is easy. Look AWAY from the shot and find something in the room to focus on.  Example: "Hey, that crop-in ceiling panel is crooked. Maybe someone was in there messing around. What do the ones next to it look like?" 

By the time you have looked carefully at them, the shot is done.  

Thanks, I do that, if I can.

I've had cocortosteroid shots in my feet. Heels, between the toes, in the toe joints. He sicks a long needle in from the inside about 5mm up from the fat pad, all the way in, until it is almost sticking out the other side, squirts a bit in, backs up a bit, changes angle slightly then shoves it in a bit, squirts some in, then repeats until he is out. For rhe toes it all goes in from the top, the joints, and in between. 

The first time the podiatrist said, "This is gonna smart a bit."

I was looking away.

At first.

Kinda hard to not look when you have to focus on keeping your leg and foot very still.

Every time after that I told him not to bother apologizing or pretending that it wasn't painful.

When you look up painful in the dictionary there is a picture of him with his stainless steel and pyrex reusable syringe with a 4" needle.

I really dislike getting injected.

 

I have however, donated over 3 gallons of blood at my local blood bank. I always looked away, usually reading a magazine.

The orange or apple juice and a cookie made it all better.

Plus you kinda get a buzz when you're a pint low.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Racer X

[Mark Maras]

 Go for it Cliff. Kathy got Moderna and had very mild symptoms. I got J&J a couple of weeks ago and my symptoms were very similar to a two day hangover.

[Zed Head]

30 minutes ago, Racer X said:

So I'm not sure . . . . . . . . . . ask me again later on, eh?

I talked to a lady just yesterday who said the same thing about never getting the flu.  But, this year the flu is almost non-existent.  Nobody is getting the flu because of social distancing and masking.  But they are still getting COVID-19, in very large numbers.  So there is that, contagiousness.  COVID is much more contagious and that's before including the even more contagious variants.

People get the flu and unless they are generally unfit they recover with no long-term effects.  People get COVID-19 and despite being healthy some end up in the ICU, some die, and some have long-term effects even after surviving. Long-haulers.  

And, you might be one of those healthy people who gets COVID-19 with no symptoms but spreads it to your not so healthy friends and family.  Who wants to be that guy?  No offense intended, I just tend to go deep on these types of subjects.

 

So, the flu comparison is worth doing but you need to do a complete comparison.  I'm more worried about long-haul than dying.  I've had a few things I had to recover from that took time and I really hate being sickly.  I can't imagine being sickly for years.  Hence, the shot.

[Racer X]

Thanks for the perspective and encouraging comments.

2 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Long-haulers.  

  I'm more worried about long-haul than dying.  

 

 

Mrs. Racer and I were long haulers this past 4 or 5 days.

We took the oldest grandson's car to him in Fort Bragg, NC.

Left Arlington, WA around 11 am last Friday. Arrived at Fayetteville at around 5 pm local time. 

3,000 miles.

45 hours and change.

Flew home yesterday. Bombardier something, about a third less wide as a city bus, 6 rows of first class, one by one, then two by two, no legroom. 

And no headroom.

Made my knees hurt.

But all seats were leather.

Nice.

From Fayetteville to Dallas/Fort Worth.

A burger and a beer at Dallas, then a Boeng 737-8 to SeaTac. Fairly new, low hours. Wider than the Bombardier, but 2x2 first class and 3x3 coach. 

Still cramped, and made my knees hurt.

And leather seats there too.

Both flights they gave everyone a bottle of water, a moist towlette (70% alcohol!), pretzels for some, a double [str]cookie[/str] biscuit.

 

Both flights were very smooth, nearly turbulence free.

 

Saw a what I think was Talladega. Pretty cool.

I took this picture in turn 4 at 155. Jeffery Earnhardt was driving, a late model Camaro pace car.

 

[url=https://flic.kr/p/iTcxJU][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/3825/11737459356_e2c83a28cc_o.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/iTcxJU]Talladega Banking At 155mph[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/racers_albums/]Racer[/url], on Flickr

 

All in all it was a nice trip, driving nearly straight through (we both crapped out around midnight Saturday and slept a couple hours in an Illinois rest area. I got to take my babe to all the cool places I found to eat when I drove trucks, and grabbed a nice shower at the Oak Grove 70 Petro in Missouri, (Mrs. Racer was impressed) and saw America, in just under two days by car, and 5 or 6 hours by air.

 

Mostly chilling today, then back to The Big Shed tomorrow.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Racer X