The Lounge Covid Vaccination Discussion Thread

[meeera]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

And why are Variants of Concern being given names, why not VoC-1, VoC-2 etc.

Because they're easy to remember, hard to muddle up, and largely uncontentious.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01483-0

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

They could name variants after world leaders who screwed up badly in managing Covid

If they did Trump would think they were honering him with the trump version.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Got my Pfizer booster today. I had some slight discomfort in my arm and a very mild headache that some hot coffee chased off. I had planned ahead and cooked meals for the weekend yesterday, so it was a mostly restful day.

Update - I am most fine today, just tired. My wife got hit with the full body aches and fever/chills in the middle of the night. Really glad today's pre-prepped meal is soup!

[ianthe06]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Update - I am most fine today, just tired. My wife got hit with the full body aches and fever/chills in the middle of the night. Really glad today's pre-prepped meal is soup!

I remember the same from my second shot (Biontech/Pfizer): fever started in the morning after the shot, combined with a strong pain in my arm and generally feeling unwell.
The pain lasted for a couple of days but the fever was gone the next day.

My first shot was without any symptons and the booster (Moderna for a change) only brought a bit of pain in the arm.

I am grateful for the vaccination and feel much safer since the booster, especially since the numbers in Germany are currently very high again and still rising.

[issybird]

Bumping the thread to note that in the last four nights, I’ve eaten indoors at a restaurant as many times as I did in all of 2021, i.e., four. Fools’ paradise, the land of denial, given the surge in Europe? Taking advantage while I can? Or both at that?

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by issybird

Bumping the thread to note that in the last four nights, I’ve eaten indoors at a restaurant as many times as I did in all of 2021, i.e., four. Fools’ paradise, the land of denial, given the surge in Europe? Taking advantage while I can? Or both at that?

Apparently, there is a start of a surge now in NYC with yet another variant (per my Mom). That just sucks for people who have waited for many months for procedures that keep getting cancelled because of no ICU room at the hospitals. We're just trying to get basic stuff done by the end of next week like haircuts. I'm less about the dining in (rarely did before COVID) than wanting to go to the movie theater. It will be nice to sit outside and read soon - snow is melting fast.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Tarana

We're just trying to get basic stuff done by the end of next week like haircuts.

I’m planning a haircut next week. I need one desperately anyway; I’d got to the point where it’s so long and unkempt that week to week it didn’t seem that pressing. But I can’t go on like this and maintain my self-respect, such as still remains, and I have to take advantage of this window after blowing earlier opportunities. My hair hasn’t been this long in decades, think college years. My last cut was in December 2020!

[Deskisamess]

We are shopping, dining, etc. normally. The only places now (that we use on a regular basis) that still have mask mandates are some medical offices/facilities, so we mask then, but nowhere else. Church has been fairly normal for months, but there are still rooms set up for social distancing and streamed in video. Not too many are using it now, maybe 20 at most on any given Sunday. Attendance has been way up, the main sanctuary is 95% full most Sundays. That's about 300 people, not counting the 140+ kids in various areas of the building. (Newborn to high school)

I don't think any retailer around here is mandating masks anymore. It's been a couple of months since I went to Michael's Craft Store, and they still demanded masks, so I didn't shop.

I've gotten my regular every 4 week hair cuts the entire time, except for the first 8 weeks of the shut down. They reopened in May of 2020. We wore masks into the salon, but took them off for the wash/cut. The stylists wore them the whole time. Since the whole cloth mask thing has been proven to be not very effective, it seems it didn't matter much.

My son and wife who live in Kentucky took their first flight in 2 years to visit her family in Florida. So masking at the airports and planes is still in force. Not sure about Florida mandates etc. This son has been crazy careful, and a little overboard in some things, so it's good to see them doing some normal travel. Their daughter has a severe egg allergy, which has prompted them to be super vigilant about many things.

Hubby and I didn't get boosters since we both had Covid in January. It was pretty minor, except for the long lasting fatigue and no energy.

[arjaybe]

Now is the time for the places that used to have "Please Wear a Mask" signs to put up "Please Feel Free to Wear a Mask" signs.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Now is the time for the places that used to have "Please Wear a Mask" signs to put up "Please Feel Free to Wear a Mask" signs.

Why? It's still fine for private premises to have a dress code, so long as that code doesn't discriminate on the basis of gender/race/whatever else is protected under discrimination law in your jurisdiction.

(side note: masks remain mandatory in shared spaces where I live.)

[DNSB]

When my wife, daughter and myself went to dinner at a local restaurant, we had to wait a few minutes for a table. While waiting, we got to listen to a couple (mid-forties at a guess) throw a snit fit when they were refused entry since they did not have proof of vaccination. Evidently, they translated removing the mask mandate for public spaces as being all restrictions are immediately removed so, despite not being vaccinated, they could again go to restaurants.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by meeera

Why? It's still fine for private premises to have a dress code, so long as that code doesn't discriminate on the basis of gender/race/whatever else is protected under discrimination law in your jurisdiction.

(side note: masks remain mandatory in shared spaces where I live.)

Because it might help lessen the abuse people are going to get for wearing masks now.

[Deskisamess]

I can't imagine going into a restaurant, and being asked for proof of vaccination. For one thing, we are both vaccinated, and we still got Covid in mid January. While we didn't get seriously ill, we both ran low fevers for a day or day or so, and were sick with cold like symptoms for a week-10 days after.

As it happened, we weren't around other people the day before we each ran the fevers, but easily could have been. Having proof of being vaccinated means very little. Not to mention I wouldn't show it to a Host/Hostess at a restaurant.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Because it might help lessen the abuse people are going to get for wearing masks now.

Right

I thought you were saying that no premises should be displaying a "Please Wear A Mask" sign anymore.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I can't imagine going into a restaurant, and being asked for proof of vaccination. For one thing, we are both vaccinated, and we still got Covid in mid January.

Here vaccine mandates have been used for two reasons: firstly as an incentive to get vaccinated to protect our public hospital system from collapsing under the weight of unvaccinated people with severe disease, and secondly to try to protect those unvaccinated people from the highest-risk transmission situations (unmasked indoor venues where substantial time is spent). Vaccination also reduces but obviously does not eliminate transmission; you're less likely to get sick in the first place, and when you do your period of high viral load drops away faster.

There are no vaccine mandates for essential activities (shopping, library, school etc). Exemptions are available for genuine medical contraindications.

So far it the strategy has worked extremely well. Over 98% of eligible people have had at least one dose, over 95% of adults have had at least two doses, and last I looked we'd cracked 70% with boosters.

We're on the verge of peaking in our first wave. We have 33 000 active infections, 134 cases in hospital with COVID, and 4 in ICU with COVID. (Doctors are opining that about half the hospitalised and ICU cases aren't there for severe COVID complications, but those aren't formal stats.)