The place I go to for medical care is part of a chain of low income clinics and it's actually good considering the abysmal state of healthcare in the US. Mine keeps sending me texts every few days and has fliers up around town about select days this month where they're giving free flu shots.

This is fine and I appreciate that they do it but nowhere is any mention of Covid! It's like it doesn't exist. But a Covid vaccine is what I really want. I want a flu shot too, but I'm much more worried about spreading Covid or getting long Covid, which terrifies me since I already deal with health issues like what long Covid causes. So I guess I'll have to call and see if they even are giving Covid vaccines at all and if they are also free like the flu shots they're advertising or if I'll have to pay for the vaccine for the virus that's still causing a pandemic no one talks about.

I'm posting this here because I'm not sure which Covid vaccine I should be asking for, and hexbear seems like the only place left that still takes this seriously. I saw in a comment here a little while back about how we should be asking for one vaccine in particular that works better for the more recent variants and making sure we aren't getting an obsolete vaccine. So what should I be asking for when I call to find out if they even offer it during their flu clinic days?

Edit: I just called them and they said no they don't even have any of the Covid vaccine and I'd have to ask my doctor at my next appointment about getting one in the future if I want to get it through the clinic. Fucking useless. Why do a vaccine drive at all if you're not going to include the one that is causing magnitudes more harm than the flu?

“We may not know the exact illness affecting the Macbeth cast, but we do know that Covid is a serious vascular disease requiring extended recovery times,” noted Charles Waltz, founder of Protect the Heart of the Arts:

Reinfections weaken immunity to other pathogens, so without measures like air purification and adequate recovery time, we risk ongoing illness cycles that could impact health and stability across the industry. Clean air and flexible recovery policies are essential to protect the performance community’s long-term health.

Not a single mention of masking though.

Think the nerds will finally revolt if Covid kills Tennant?

Why is this important... because with each of the periods of dominance of a new strain has come a major new wave of cases.

But if or when this phase ends, and Covid starts to dominate again with a variant with H69/V70, it will mean, as always, that it brings another major wave.

Not a lib

Original Link

Board members at Southwest District Health, outside of Boise, questioned the vaccine’s safety during their Oct. 22 meeting and narrowly voted to stop providing the shot in the six counties they serve.

Health departments in Texas, Florida and Michigan that led vaccination campaigns in their communities at the height of the pandemic have also pushed back against the COVID-19 vaccine.

Last year, Texas policymakers banned health departments and other organizations funded by the state government from using funds to promote their vaccination efforts.

The Florida Department of Health issued guidance in September warning Floridians not to get mRNA COVID-19 shots after Joseph Ladapo, the state's surgeon general, recommended people avoid them in 2023.

In Michigan, commissioners in Ottawa County turned down a $900,000 grant for their health department in September. Joe Moss, chair of the commission, said at the time he was “opposed to accepting any COVID grants,” according to the The Holland Sentinel. The revised budget came a year after threats to slash funding sparked local protests.

This is a deeply unserious country.

Maternal COVID-19 infection increases the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in offspring, although the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. This study demonstrated that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy disrupted the balance of maternal and fetal immune environments, driving alterations in astrocytes, endothelial cells, and excitatory neurons. A risk score was established using 47 unique genes in the single-cell transcriptome of gestational mothers. The high risk score in CD4 proliferating T cell level served as an indicator for increased risk of offspring NDDs. Summary-based Mendelian randomization and phenome-wide association study analyses were conducted to identify the causal association of the transcriptional changes with the increased risk of offspring NDDs. Additionally, 10 drugs were identified as potential therapeutic candidates. Our findings support a model where the maternal COVID-19 infection changed the levels of CD4 proliferating T cells, leading to the alterations of astrocytes, endothelial cells, and excitatory neurons in offspring, contributing to the increased risk of NDDs in these individuals.

Browsing reddit because I hate myself and I come across this post on /r/GenX that describes not being able to recall words. Most of that thread is describing this as a normal part of being in your 50s. It's kinda not! That's not normal, it's a bad thing.

Covid affects the brain. Pretty badly! Even mild Covid is linked to brain damage. That hasn't stopped happening, there keeps being more research confirming it.

Anyways, wear a mask, stay safe, keep your comrades safe.

"We are actively dealing with problems remote learning caused. A whole generation of kids is further behind than they were tracking to be behaviorally, mathematically, and in reading scores."

Gee I wonder what would do that, is it three+ years of unmitigated exposure to a virus that causes brain damage? No, the problem is they stayed home, which makes you developmentally challenged, as we all know. Oh, you don't want to get COVID? Then stay home.

It's because Covid is going away, right? Herd immunity is working?

The World Health Organization (WHO) today published a new report on tuberculosis revealing that approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023 – the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995. This represents a notable increase from 7.5 million reported in 2022, placing TB again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing COVID-19

There is plenty of evidence covid attacks the immune system, and reactivated TB is common with people who have AIDS. Could all just be a wierd coincidence and TB just does that sometimes.

Related: TB cases in Scotland rise by 40% in 'largest annual increase' observed to date

MaskTogetherAmerica on Instagram: "“I am a children librarian. If I get sick, I can’t be in the library for the children. I don’t want to get sick or get anyone sick.” Behind the mask is Librarian Anna @partypossumbeads 💗 Over Anna’s KN95 is a beaded cover she made for herself. Super cool, isn’t it? 📸 Julie #MaskTogetherAmerica meeting wonderful people at @newyorkcomiccon"

Obviously, I would recommend sanitizing the heck out of that between uses. Pretty awesome though!

I found a tutorial on making your own.

https://youtu.be/vH-q5ptBYJs

Oh, they have an Etsy shop.

PartyPossumBeads

Masked costume ideas

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBmpcMYiu8H/

I don’t really leave the house that often, mostly to walk the dog, but I don’t then cuz it’s a huge open air space.

I do on the bus because of how confined it is and how many people use/touch it, but besides that I have no idea.

Do you always have to wear a mask in these places? Or just when there is a covid spike?
How do you even know when there is a covid spike for that matter?

Lol they actually mention, not just masking, but respirators.

People getting the flu shot this year will be vaccinated against three commonly circulating strains instead of four, after one went extinct during the pandemic.

This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade.

That’s because there have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health.

Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.

This surprised many who study influenza, as it would be the first documented instance of a virus going extinct due to changes in human behavior, said Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

“It is such an interesting and unique story,” Wurtz said, adding that if it were not for COVID, B/Yamagata would still be circulating.

One reason COVID mitigation efforts were so effective at eliminating B/Yamagata is there was already a fair amount of immunity in the population against this strain of flu, which was also circulating at a lower level, said Dr. Kawsar Talaat, an infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In contrast, SARS-CoV-2 was a brand new virus that no one had encountered before; therefore, masking and isolation only slowed its transmission, but did not stop it.

The absence of B/Yamagata won’t change the experience of getting this year’s flu shot, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends to everyone over 6 months old. And unvaccinated people are no less likely to get the flu, as B/Victoria and two influenza A lineages are still circulating widely and making people sick. Talaat said the disappearance of B/Yamagata doesn’t appear to have lessened the overall burden of flu, noting that the level of illness that can be attributed to any strain varies from year to year.

The CDC estimates that between 12,000 and 51,000 people die every year from influenza.

However, the manufacturing process is simplified now that the vaccine is trivalent — designed to protect against three flu viruses — instead of quadrivalent, protecting against four. That change allows more doses to be produced, said Talaat.

Ultimately, the costs of continuing to include protection against B/Yamagata in the flu shot outweigh its benefits, said Talaat.

"If you include a strain for which you don't think anybody's going to get infected into a vaccine, there are some potential risks and no potential benefits," she said. "Even though the risks might be infinitesimal, the benefits are also infinitesimal."

Scientists and public health experts have discussed for the past couple years whether to pull B/Yamagata from the flu vaccine or wait for a possible reemergence, said Kevin R. McCarthy, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Vaccine Research. But McCarthy agrees that continuing to vaccinate people against B/Yamagata does not benefit public health.

Additionally, there is a slight chance of B/Yamagata accidentally infecting the workers who manufacture the flu vaccine. The viruses, grown in eggs, are inactivated before being put into the shots: You cannot get influenza from the flu shot. But worker exposure to live B/Yamagata might occur before it's rendered harmless.

That hypothetically could lead to a reintroduction of a virus that populations have waning immunity to because B/Yamagata is no longer making people sick. While that risk is very low, McCarthy said it doesn’t make sense to produce thousands of gallons of a likely extinct virus.

It is possible that B/Yamagata continues to exist in pockets of the world that have less comprehensive flu surveillance. However, scientists aren’t worried that it is hiding in animals because humans are the only host population for B lineage flu viruses.

Scientists determined that B/Yamagata disappeared in a relatively short period of time, and this in and of itself is a success, said McCarthy. That required collaboration and data sharing from people all over the world, including countries that the U.S. has more tenuous diplomatic relationships with, like China and Russia.

“I think the fact that we can do that shows that we can get some things right,” he said.

My comment: the 27% was my calculation. I got it finding the difference in ED in the COVID group vs non COVID group (55.9% - 44.1%), dividing it by the non COVID group value (44.1%). It's very rough and maybe unscientific, but it demonstrates that COVID does increase the risk for ED. I'll also point out this study is pretty small and the participants' average age was 55.

Abstract

Objectives: To develop a risk prediction model for the identification of features involved in the prediction of erectile dysfunction (ED) at 12 months following COVID-19 recovery. Methods: We performed an observational prospective multicentre study. Participants were classified according to their history of COVID-19: (I) patients with a past history of COVID-19 and (II) patients without a previous microbiological diagnosis of COVID-19. A total of 361 patients (past history of COVID-19, n = 166; no past history of COVID-19, n = 195) were assessed from January 2022 to March 2023. Patients with a past history of COVID-19 were assessed at 12 months following COVID-19 recovery. The primary outcome measure was ED, assessed through the 5-item International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5). Data concerning epidemiologic variables, comorbidities and active treatment were also collected. We performed a binary logistic regression to develop a risk predictive model. Among the models developed, we selected the one with the higher Area Under the Curve (AUC). Results: The median age was 55 years in both groups. The ED prevalence was 55.9% in patients with past history of COVID-19 and 44.1% in those with no past history of COVID-19. The best predictive model developed for ED comprised 40 variables and had an AUC of 0.8. Conclusions: We developed a regression model for the prediction of ED 12 months after COVID-19 recovery. The application of our predictive tool in a community setting could eventually prevent the adverse effects of ED on cardiovascular health and the associated unfavourable economic impact.

My comment: I've been following this researcher for the last few years. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who does Western chauvinism.

Long Covid, the constellation of long-term health effects caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, is a significant global health crisis affecting at least 400 million individuals worldwide, with a cost of $ 1 trillion, equivalent to 1% of the global Gross Domestic Product.1 Long Covid can affect nearly every organ system resulting in various symptoms including fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, post-exertional malaise, autonomic dysfunction, and chronic conditions including new onset diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal and neurologic disorders.2 Long Covid can affect people across the lifespan and across age, race and ethnicity, and baseline health status.3

Chinese scientists were among the first to report Long Covid in people who survived the acute phase of Covid-19.4 However, these early seminal Chinese studies on Long Covid were exclusively from Wuhan – where the pandemic originated. Because of China’s zero Covid policies, infection rates plummeted quickly in Wuhan and were very low and sporadic outside of Wuhan for much of 2020, 2021, and 2022. However, China relaxed its zero Covid policies at the end of 2022 which led to explosion of cases – hundreds of millions of Chinese got infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the weeks and months following the lifting of zero Covid policies.

Now a report by Qin and colleagues provides insights into the colossal scale of Long Covid that resulted from those infections.5 Their large-scale survey of 74,075 Chinese participants, one of the largest studies of its kind and the first from China, shows that approximately 10%–30% of survey participants reported experiencing Long Covid symptoms such as fatigue, memory decline, decreased exercise ability, and brain fog.5 The features of Long Covid in China mirror those observed in studies conducted in other parts of the world.6 This underscores the consistency of Long Covid features across national borders, cultures and healthcare settings.

Interestingly, the authors show that despite having milder acute symptoms during reinfection, participants who experienced multiple infections were more likely to experience various Long Covid symptoms with greater severity. The authors show that having two infections is risk factor for many long-term Covid symptoms, and the risk increased exponentially when the number of infections exceeded two. These new data on Long Covid risk after reinfection are remarkably consistent with prior studies.7

Another critical insight from the study is the protective role of Covid-19 vaccines in reducing the incidence and severity of Long Covid. The data shows that vaccination, particularly with multiple booster shots, significantly decreases the risk of developing long-term symptoms. These findings are consistent with other studies showing that vaccines reduce the risk of Long Covid.8,9 Despite this, Covid-19 vaccine policies in much of the world consider effectiveness of vaccines in reducing risks of hospitalization and death during the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection (which are most evident in older adults and people with comorbidities) and ignore their protective effect on Long Covid – a condition that affects people across the lifespan including young adults and children. Consequently, restrictive vaccine policies exclude children, young and healthy adults who may benefit from the beneficial effects of vaccine on Long Covid. Vaccine policies must holistically consider the benefit profile of Covid-19 vaccines including their effects in lowering the risk of Long Covid.

Looking forward, there are several key areas where Long Covid research must focus.1 There is an urgent need for comprehensive—and globally coordinated—Long Covid research strategy to understand the biological mechanisms, develop diagnostics, test therapeutics, characterize the long-term epidemiology and clinical course, evaluate health care delivery, and assess the impacts of Long Covid on patients, care givers, health systems, economies and societies.1

Equally important are policies to prevent Long Covid; support impacted individuals and their care givers; and ensure access, quality and equity of care.1 Policies are also needed to promote public awareness and facilitate professional training for health care providers.1

China, with its rich scientific history, is poised to contribute significantly to solving the puzzle of Long Covid. The international community must come together to identify areas of synergies in research, share data, resources, and expertise to accelerate progress on Long Covid.10 This includes fostering partnerships between governments, academic institutions, and the private sector, as well as engaging with patient advocacy groups to ensure that research is aligned with the needs and experiences of those affected by Long Covid.10

The study by Qin and colleagues offers the first comprehensive view of the state of Long Covid in China. The findings are both sobering and illuminating. Long Covid is clearly a serious public health challenge in China, as it is globally. These insights underscore the urgent need for a coordinated international response to address this significant and growing crisis. The stakes are high. Yet, throughout history, humanity has risen to the challenge of solving complex problems. We must now face Long Covid with the same resolve, ingenuity, and collaborative spirit that have driven our greatest achievements.

A member of my household has a costco membership so we were gonna try and get me vaxxed using their member discount for the $140 price rather than the even more evil $202 price. So I called and confirmed with the Pharmacy that we could pull it off, we could not. I'm gonna have to buy my own membership, but first I wanted to confirm how much it would cost there.

Pharmacy tech: "Cash price is $39 and some change."

Me: "For the Novavax?"

Them: "Oh you're also getting Novavax. That was Flu. Let me check. It's probably the same though."

Me: "Oh, I don't think so."

A few seconds of keyboard clicks go by.

Them: "Nobody ever asks about the cash price. It's. Oh.... It's $201.99"

Yeah, that's what I freaking thought.

The costco membership is $65, but it actually is cheaper for me to buy a membership because I can get a $20 giftcard back if I do it through the veteran's reward program. Guess I'm getting a costco membership.

This bleeping country.

Allegedly this is developed by Naomi Wu

This is a rant.

I shit you not my lib family member is now doing a PSA on the importance of getting the flu shot in our family chat, because there is a medically vulnerable over 65 year old in the family.

And this would be fine if this wasn't the same person who brought themselves and their family to a family gathering in August with an active covid infection and this over 65 year old vulnerable person was in this same party, just recovering from a long course of IV antibiotics! They gave covid to me, my partner (who is also medically vulnerable two times over now, thanks to covid) and my brother (who just got a sleep apnea diagnosis a week ago). Good times!

I mean I am all for flu shots, but this is just... I don't know what this is.

Just got mine...last year it wasn't a big deal, but this year it fucking HURT. I'm already a giant baby who hates getting my vaccines but this was way worse than usual. When I started telling people about my reaction this year a number of people agreed that it hurt way worse this year and/or they had different reactions than previous years.

Please note I'm not looking for any conspiracies about it being worse or different somehow in a bad way, and I'm not trying to scare people into not getting it; even if it fucking hurt this year please get it, the temporary pain is better than getting and spreading covid.

But it definitely felt different in my arm and in my body this year and I have heard the same from others. Did something change or are we just misremembering? Or are our bodies reacting different somehow this year for other reasons? Or is it just random and this year for whatever coincidental reason I know a bunch of people who had a worse muscle reaction to it.

Jeanne Marrazzo, new leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, everyone:

Can I make a quick digression? We recently had a long Covid [research] meeting where we had about 200 people, in person. And we can’t mandate mask-wearing, because it’s federal property. But there was a fair amount of disturbance that we couldn’t, and people weren’t wearing masks, and one person accused us of committing a microaggression by not wearing masks.

And I take that very seriously. But I thought to myself, it’s more that people just want to live a normal life. We really don’t want to go back. It was so painful. We’re still all traumatized. Let’s be honest about that. None of us are over it.

So there’s not a lot of appetite for raising an alarm, especially if it could be perceived subsequently as a false alarm.

Edit - thanks for the help in bypassing the paywall.

Article text below

More than 1,000 new COVID deaths were reported in the U.S. this week, taking the death toll for the past two months to more than 10,000, according to figures collected by BNO News. New cases, however, are dropping nationwide in the aftermath of the summer wave.

At least 91,800 new cases were reported between September 30 and October 6, down from 117,284 the week before (-23%). Those figures were collected from state health departments and, where necessary, estimated based on hospital admissions.

Actual case numbers are higher because many hospitals and states are no longer reporting detailed COVID data. Laboratory testing is also low as most people and doctors are using at-home tests which are not included in official statistics.

“Nationally, COVID-19 activity has continued declining in most areas. COVID-19-associated ED visits and hospitalizations are decreasing overall,” the CDC said in an update on Friday. “ED visits for COVID-19 are highest among infants and older adults. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are highest among older adults.”

The CDC is also monitoring a new variant, XEC, which is now comprising an estimated 2-13% of new cases in the U.S. The new variant is recombined from two JN.1 lineage viruses, for which vaccines already provide protection. The CDC says there are currently no known impacts on tests, treatments or symptoms.

During the past week, cases increased in only 3 out of 30 states with consistent but limited data. In those states where increases were reported, the changes were only minimal, with longer-term data showing overall declines.

The CDC estimates that COVID cases are currently rising in 0 states (unchanged from last week), declining or likely declining in 45 states (up from 41), and stable or uncertain in 2 states (down from 7). Nationally, COVID test positivity is 11.6%, which is unchanged from last week.

Only 32.8% of hospitals in the U.S. submitted COVID data this week, which is similar to last week. Mandatory reporting is expected to resume next month. Those limited figures reveal that at least 4,187 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID, down from 4,657 last week.

1,209 new COVID deaths were reported during the week, the eighth week in a row with more than 1,000 new deaths. It’s also the 13th week in a row with more than 500 new deaths and the 237th week with more than 400 new deaths.

So far this year, more than 5.6 million COVID cases have been reported across the U.S., causing at least 381,888 hospitalizations (limited data) and 45,132 deaths, according to BNO’s COVID data tracker.

So recently I'm reheating food in the microwave at the staff room, and 4 teachers are having a whine. Students and staff are taking a lot of time off these days. "Don't they know that COVID was over", "we've all had it and we're fine" said white people with well to do parents. Maybe they didn't see me come in or they forget that I'm seeing long COVID every day when I come home. I just gave it a second stare before continuing on, I don't need to fuck with my livelihood. My meals are eaten outside, away from liberals, with a book; and my life is way better for it. Sometimes I chat with the maintenance or cleaning people and the convos are way more genuine, without all the weird bragging that middle class people like to do.

I swear to God, just immediately they dropped the names of 3 other young teachers who have new chronic health conditions. One has persistent low energy, another brand new allergies and asthma, yet another has to go back and live with her parents as she can't cope with work and illness. Everyone's stressing about using up all their sick time.

The less I care about the opinions of comfortable white liberals, the happier I am. Amen.

https://subium.com/profile/dtwyman.bsky.social/post/3l5verrrxfu2s