Anyone hit with the virus out there?

[Willybomb]

As of yesterday, Australia has 13 cases of COVID.  Good luck guys.

[DLW]

Immunologist here. The vaccine data are better than anyone could have hoped for. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are very similar platforms (mRNA), so in essence, they are independent confirmations of each other. While the US has been an absolute shitshow for CoV2, this same shitshow is ideal for clinical trials. You need circulating virus and cases to test a vaccine. The US has plenty of that, which accelerated the trials beyond expectations. The Astroazeneca vaccine is promising, too. Early data  indicate that it has slightly lower efficacy (albeit, really good), but it is more stable and cheaper to produce. It seems this will be the form that much of the world will receive.

It's safe to say that we've moved beyond a vaccine challenge and progress to the second stage- a vaccination challenge.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Stay strong.

[m-Kresol]

Immunologist here. The vaccine data are better than anyone could have hoped for. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are very similar platforms (mRNA), so in essence, they are independent confirmations of each other. While the US has been an absolute shitshow for CoV2, this same shitshow is ideal for clinical trials. You need circulating virus and cases to test a vaccine. The US has plenty of that, which accelerated the trials beyond expectations. The Astroazeneca vaccine is promising, too. Early data  indicate that it has slightly lower efficacy (albeit, really good), but it is more stable and cheaper to produce. It seems this will be the form that much of the world will receive.

It's safe to say that we've moved beyond a vaccine challenge and progress to the second stage- a vaccination challenge.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Stay strong.

thanks for the insight. good to hear

[gordo]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, it's much appreciated.  I'm doing quite well with mostly recurring tired spells and I've totally lost all sense of taste and smell.  Compared to many peoples symptoms/condition I seem to be sliding thru fairly unscathed.  My wife has now tested positive and she's currently on immuno-therapy for lung cancer so am keeping a close eye on her.  Even in her case the fever subsided after a few days and she's been out walking the dog in an effort to keep the lungs cleared.

The boredom of quarantine is setting in but I've been working from home since the beginning of March so it's not too drastic a change.

I've been putzing around  with replacing the blown output transformer in my homemade low power tweed twin and the new tranny should be here before the end of the week.  It's a crazy good sounding amp that's been torched for a few years now.  These cake pan builds are a PITA to troubleshoot and service, but I certainly have the time lately.  I've also had an old Harmony H303B "widowmaker" amp for ages that I've been researching how to make non-lethal and found an iso transformer and new caps that didn't break the bank.  I'm amazed more people weren't killed to death using these things.  It's a noisy but cool little amp with the original Jensen speaker and original tubes.  A lot of bad info out there on how to correct it but robrobinette.com has been a great resource for all things tube.

Stay healthy everyone and again I stress that you really CANNOT be too careful so keep that in mind at all times.  We'll get thru this.

[madbean]

I don't want to freak anyone out, but today I saw this 60 Minutes piece the long term effects some people are experiencing. And, they are worrying. These are people who had rather mild cases but are now suffering from some kind of long term immunological compromise. I think it's important to keep aware of this. Maybe someone here knows more about it.

[youtube width=640]0gLmMPOHDwM[/youtube]

[Bio77]

Glad you are on the mend Gordo. I hope your wife keeps felling better. 

I am super worried about the next month.  I saw on the news that a crazy amount of people are traveling this week, which should mix up the the positivity rates across the US. This virus was doing just fine without the extra entropy.

Previously, I was hopeful. Halloween in LA county was cancelled and people actually gave it up.  My neighborhood usually has an insane number of kids, but this year nobody.  I think the vaccine news gives people a false sense of security.  It's a shame because we are really close to turning this around.

[Strategy]

Re: Madbean's post, I think this will be bubbling up as a major public health issue that may affect a generation of people, the way post-polio syndrome has / had.

I read an article in Wall Street Journal this morning covering post-acute covid syndrome and there was one in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago. This is where I'm at - inflammatory response that has never gone away long after I cleared the virus. For me it comes in the form of new asthma and constant chest pain, shortness of breath. I consider myself one of the lucky ones, the WSJ article describes people with chronic GI dysfunction, chronic fatigue, and more severe memory problems, etc.

Strategy

[gordo]

Post stuff is worrisome at the very least.  It definitely bugs me that there are a proposed 4M people going air travel ALONE over the next few days.  That's insane.  I get how desperate folks have become but even given the mish mash of info out there I'd think smart people would lay low.  Even before this hit me I snagged a little turkey and figured the wife and I would cocoon.  I'd love to be able to go see family up in Canada this Christmas too but it's just not going to be realistic.  We really are close to containing this with a vaccine but nobody wants to die in the meantime.

The only positive outcome of my situation (barring post-complications) is that I drop off the wait list for vaccine and cease to be an incubator.  Certainly doesn't mean I can raw dog and I think this is an important distinction.

The politics of dancing.

[gordo]

A severe aside to this thread is my mention of the Rob Robinette site.  Some seriously cool info for any tube amp freaks out there.  As I dig deeper into this guys wealth of knowledge I'm jones'ing to build another amp big time...

[DLW]

There is still a lot to learn about the "COVID long haulers" and will be a major scientific investment in the future. One thing that I find interesting is the well-established correlation with severe viral infection (Rhinoviruses) early in life and development of asthma. Although adult onset asthma is pretty rare under normal circumstances, perhaps some of the "long hauler" are experiencing a form of asthma as a consequence of their severe lung infection (i.e. COVID).

[gordo]

You know what I do appreciate about opening this thread is the intense amount of knowledge amongst us pedal geeks.  It would seem that the "pedal" part of us also reflects our quest for knowledge in general.

I don't want to get all gushy here, but it's really humbling and inspiring to be part of such an inspired portion of the population.  Everyone should have this sort of outlet and the resources attached to it.  I'd like to think we represent what "should" happen under troubleshooting circumstances.

I love this place.

[jjjimi84]

You know what I do appreciate about opening this thread is the intense amount of knowledge amongst us pedal geeks.  It would seem that the "pedal" part of us also reflects our quest for knowledge in general.

I don't want to get all gushy here, but it's really humbling and inspiring to be part of such an inspired portion of the population.  Everyone should have this sort of outlet and the resources attached to it.  I'd like to think we represent what "should" happen under troubleshooting circumstances.

I love this place.

You put it perfectly, this place is the best.

[jimilee]

You know what I do appreciate about opening this thread is the intense amount of knowledge amongst us pedal geeks.  It would seem that the "pedal" part of us also reflects our quest for knowledge in general.

I don't want to get all gushy here, but it's really humbling and inspiring to be part of such an inspired portion of the population.  Everyone should have this sort of outlet and the resources attached to it.  I'd like to think we represent what "should" happen under troubleshooting circumstances.

I love this place.

You put it perfectly, this place is the best.

I couldn't agree more. I haven't gotten it, but I do worry about the long and short term memory affects. I have enough issues as it is, as I'm sure others do too.


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[alanp]

DLW, thanks for those encouraging words.

This whole thing reminds me of why anti-vaxxers piss me off so much. My grandmother had polio as a child, and had reduced lung capacity her entire life as a result (didn't stop her smoking, though... ) and if it wasn't for vaccines, we'd still have polio, and all kinds of other viruses that crippled nations worse than even CoVID has, like smallpox. Bubonic plague was bacterial, not viral, IIRC, but it still killed an estimated 30% to 60% of the European population. The modern world was getting dangerously complacent about these things. Even Ebola seems to have been seen as just one of those odd things that only happen in Africa.

[Muadzin]

DLW, thanks for those encouraging words.

This whole thing reminds me of why anti-vaxxers piss me off so much. My grandmother had polio as a child, and had reduced lung capacity her entire life as a result (didn't stop her smoking, though... ) and if it wasn't for vaccines, we'd still have polio, and all kinds of other viruses that crippled nations worse than even CoVID has, like smallpox. Bubonic plague was bacterial, not viral, IIRC, but it still killed an estimated 30% to 60% of the European population. The modern world was getting dangerously complacent about these things. Even Ebola seems to have been seen as just one of those odd things that only happen in Africa.

Ebola will remain one of those things that only happen in Africa because its too potent to travel that far. It kills too quickly. A corona infectee can travel for a much longer time before the symptoms show. And while I agree that anti-vaxxers are the epitome of stupid, with tried and long time proven vaccines that is, these are fairly new vaccines, of which the long term side effects are not known yet. I am kinda iffy on the idea of being forced to be injected with something that might have unknown long term side effects. For now the point is moot anyway as I am probably far down the priority list of people to be injected first. This is a process which will take a long time.