Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[mordant]

Booster COVID 19 shots will become annual LIKE flu shots.  What idiots don't get THOSE?

There was some talk back in the spring that the mRNA technology would make a superior flu shot and could be combined with the Covid vaccine potentially.

That would be great, but I am fine with getting two shots like I did when I got my booster and a flu shot on the same visit.

Yes I would prefer to keep them separate and I suspect that will be an option. Don't want to overload the immune system on 2 or 3 things at once. I got the flu shot and my Moderna booster about 2 weeks apart.

[mordant]

People don't want to neglect getting their flu shots. There's some real nasty flu viruses out there. I got a high potency flu vaccine last month and a few days later I got the booster.

After having covid at the end of 2020, I'm not messing around this year.  I got my flu shot in October for the first time in decades.  I got the covid booster in November.  And I'm getting the two shingles vaccines, the first one this Friday.  My brother-in-law got a painful and prolonged case of shingles this year, so that's nothing to neglect either if you are older.

My wife and I both got Shingrex shots some months into the pandemic. Sore arm, no other effects for us.

[Astreja]

Considering the nasty back to back colds I have had this season, I suppose it might be prudent to get the flu shot next year.

I'm getting older and I can't just shake the sickness off anymore.

The flu that laid me low for three solid weeks hit me near the end of February.  If you're currently unaffected by a cold, go get the shot ASAP.  Within a couple of weeks your immune system should have built up dossiers on this season's prime suspects.

[Phaedrus]

I'm still sick for the second time. Just got sick, which means a few more weeks before it clears.

The first time was just about a month ago. I wasn't even clear of the cold for a week before I got hit with another one.

This sucks because I haven't been sick in two years, and now all of a sudden the viruses are ganging up on me.

[SYZ]

On another note. Don't forget to ask your doctor for Viagra. In the news: The Cleveland Clinic has found that Viagra is 69% effective in preventing Alzheimer's disease. I'll be thinking long and hard on that one.

Hmmm... a permanent stiffy versus forgetting my own name, or what old episode of "Seinfeld" I last watched?

Decisions, decisions...

[SYZ]

...Yes I would prefer to keep them separate and I suspect that will be an option. Don't want to overload the immune system on 2 or 3 things at once. I got the flu shot and my Moderna booster about 2 weeks apart.

I got my first AstraZeneca shot and the seasonal flu shot on the same day, 90 seconds apart.    

[Mr Greene]

Got my appointment for the booster tomorrow morning.
Going to have to rearrange my weekend a bit in case of side effects. Previously I had a sore arm but I did stock up on flu remedies.

[Dom]

I'm still sick for the second time. Just got sick, which means a few more weeks before it clears.

The first time was just about a month ago. I wasn't even clear of the cold for a week before I got hit with another one.

This sucks because I haven't been sick in two years, and now all of a sudden the viruses are ganging up on me.

I suddenly started catching every flu and cold virus in existence in my 40s. Then I started getting the flu shot and disinfecting my hands before getting back into my car when out in the world. Haven't had a cold/flu for decades since.

[Vera]

Far-right using COVID-19 theories to grow reach, study shows

"The mugshot-style photos are posted on online message boards in black and white and look a little like old-fashioned "wanted" posters.

"The Jews own COVID just like all of Hollywood," the accompanying text says. "Wake up people."

The post is one of many that white supremacists and far-right extremists are using to expand their reach and recruit followers on the social media platform Telegram.

The tactic has been successful: Nine of the 10 most viewed posts in the sample examined by the researchers contained misleading claims about the safety of vaccines or the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing them. One Telegram channel saw its total subscribers jump tenfold after it leaned into COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

"COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for radicalization," said the study's author, Ciaran O'Connor, an analyst at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue. "It allows conspiracy theorists or extremists to create simple narratives, framing it as us versus them, good versus evil."

Other posts downplayed the severity of the coronavirus or pushed conspiracy theories about its origins. Many of the posts contain hate speech directed at Jews, Asians, women or other groups or violent rhetoric that would be automatically removed from Facebook or Twitter for violating the standards of those sites.

Telegram, based in the United Arab Emirates, has many different kinds of users around the world, but it has become a favorite tool of some on the far-right in part because the platform lacks the content moderation of Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.

O'Connor said he believes the people behind these posts are trying to exploit fear and anxiety over COVID-19 to attract new recruits, whose loyalty may outlast the pandemic.

Indeed, mixed in with the COVID-19 conspiracy posts are some direct recruitment pitches. For example, a Long Island, New York, chapter of the far-right Proud Boys group posted a link to a news story about a local synagogue and added their message urging followers to join them. "Embrace who you were called to be," read the post, which was accompanied by a swastika.

The researchers found suggestions that far-right groups on Telegram are working together. ISD researchers linked two usernames involved in running one Telegram channel to two prominent members of the American far-right. One was a scheduled speaker at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white supremacist deliberately drove into a crowd of counterdemonstrators, killing one and injuring 35.

That channel has grown steadily since the pandemic began and now has a reach of around 400,000 views each day, according to Telegram Analytics, a service that keeps statistical data on about 150,000 Telegram channels on the site TGStat. In May 2020 the channel had 5,000 subscribers; it now has 50,000.

The data is especially concerning given a rash of incidents around the world that indicate some extremists are moving from online rhetoric to offline action.

[...]

"COVID-19 has created fertile ground for recruitment because so many people around the world feel unsettled," Miller-Idriss said. "These racist conspiracy theories give people a sense of control, a sense of power over events that make people feel powerless."


The ugliness that this pandemic revealed about us surprised even me. And sadly, I mean supposedly normal, non-radicalised people...

[Thumpalumpacus]

Got my J&J booster today, will probably grab an mRNA booster next week.

[Dancefortwo]

Got my J&J booster today, will probably grab an mRNA booster next week.

Huh?  Are you getting two booster shots?   I wasn't aware there were two different kinds.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Got my J&J booster today, will probably grab an mRNA booster next week.

Huh?  Are you getting two booster shots?   I wasn't aware there were two different kinds.

Yeah, the three different vaccines have two different methodologies, J&J being traditional by inducing inactive virii into the bloodstream while Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA to program the immune system to look for protein markers. They're two different vaccinations altogether, and each has their own booster.

I want to be fully armed, fully fueled, capable of addressing any incoming strike while dealing out death on an epic scale when we get down to the microbial level. Here, let George tell us a little about it, go to about 1:42 for the money-shot:



I know you with your free-range childhood will enjoy this.

[Tres Leches]

Got my J&J booster today, will probably grab an mRNA booster next week.

Huh?  Are you getting two booster shots?   I wasn't aware there were two different kinds.

Yeah, the three different vaccines have two different methodologies, J&J being traditional by inducing inactive virii into the bloodstream while Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA to program the immune system to look for protein markers. They're two different vaccinations altogether, and each has their own booster.

I want to be fully armed, fully fueled, capable of addressing any incoming strike while dealing out death on an epic scale when we get down to the microbial level. Here, let George tell us a little about it, go to about 1:42 for the money-shot:



I know you with your free-range childhood will enjoy this.

Whoa, you're getting 2 booster shots a week apart? That doesn't seem.... advisable. Will the vaccine provider do that?
The video link you posted above isn't working so I'm not sure what that says.

-Teresa

[Deesse23]

Got my J&J booster today, will probably grab an mRNA booster next week.

Ill have fries with that, this time.

[Dom]

I didn't know they did J&J boosters, I thought J&J was boosted with Moderna. That's what I was told.

[julep]

I didn't know they did J&J boosters, I thought J&J was boosted with Moderna. That's what I was told.

With J&J you are allowed to get anything as a booster, or at least that was true when I got mine back in November.

[Dom]

I didn't know they did J&J boosters, I thought J&J was boosted with Moderna. That's what I was told.

With J&J you are allowed to get anything as a booster, or at least that was true when I got mine back in November.

Right, but not another J&J?

[abaris]

Study from South-Africas biggest private health insurance company (November to December, ca. 200.000 people, so not really extensive) about Omicron:

Biontech protects 70% from severe case / need of hospitalization
Biontech prevents 33% from infection

Glad, I'm on Biontech. Although I still have to get my thrid shot next week.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Whoa, you're getting 2 booster shots a week apart? That doesn't seem.... advisable. Will the vaccine provider do that?

Oh, I forgot about that. It'll be two weeks, which is the standard waiting period.

The video link you posted above isn't working so I'm not sure what that says.

It's a routine from George Carlin, nothing terribly serious.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I didn't know they did J&J boosters, I thought J&J was boosted with Moderna. That's what I was told.

With J&J you are allowed to get anything as a booster, or at least that was true when I got mine back in November.

Right, but not another J&J?

Mine is definitely J&J. That's what the firefighters logged on my record.

[Alan V]

I didn't know they did J&J boosters, I thought J&J was boosted with Moderna. That's what I was told.

With J&J you are allowed to get anything as a booster, or at least that was true when I got mine back in November.

Right, but not another J&J?

The CDC has now recommended people get a Pfizer or Moderna booster instead of a J&J, since they work so much better.  I'm not sure whether than means J&J will be unavailable.  My wife wants to get a J&J booster.

[Dom]

With J&J you are allowed to get anything as a booster, or at least that was true when I got mine back in November.

Right, but not another J&J?

The CDC has now recommended people get a Pfizer or Moderna booster instead of a J&J, since they work so much better.  I'm not sure whether than means J&J will be unavailable.  My wife wants to get a J&J booster.

My pharmacy said they don't do J&J boosters at all, so I got the Moderna. There is talk of abandoning the J&J entirely, since it has less efficacy and has made some people (younger women) quite sick.

[Mad Hatter]

On another note. Don't forget to ask your doctor for Viagra. In the news: The Cleveland Clinic has found that Viagra is 69% effective in preventing Alzheimer's disease. I'll be thinking long and hard on that one.

Hmmm... a permanent stiffy versus forgetting my own name, or what old episode of "Seinfeld" I last watched?

Decisions, decisions...

It's worth a try. If anything, you'll have fun finding out.

[julep]

I didn't know they did J&J boosters, I thought J&J was boosted with Moderna. That's what I was told.

With J&J you are allowed to get anything as a booster, or at least that was true when I got mine back in November.

Right, but not another J&J?

Nope, I was allowed to get any of the three, and a second J&J is what I got.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Looking at my vaccine card, it appears that they simply gave me a second vaccination instead of a booster, as the ID numbers are identical.