Oh hell no. If you don't get your eyes fixed (hearing fixed, teeth cleaned) it affects everybody you care for--your children, the people you serve at work, the people who encounter you on the road, the people who pick up the pieces after you have an accident or heart attack due to endocarditis (<<undealt-with tooth decay) or stroke (ditto, also uncontrolled diabetes). The neighbor who has to mow your lawn or live with the eyesore after your stroke makes it impossible for you to care for it (yes, this is a real case in the US right now, though it was cancer). Overburdened paratransit and other disability services who have to cope with you, because some dumb ass wasn't willing to put in the much smaller amount of money/effort upstream, before you became permanently disabled.
Could well be. But then, my wages as a PhD working as a proofreader (a few years ago) were just over 13$ an hour. My wages as an adjunct college instructor were probably half that. I couldn't find housing here for that amount, and I am not sanguine about going home to California.
Oh hell no. If you don't get your eyes fixed (hearing fixed, teeth cleaned) it affects everybody you care for [..]
Sure, but it's a different level of connectedness.
I'll agree with you that any time you make decisions like "we're not going to let people die in the gutter" then it becomes much cheaper to treat their problems before they get to the dying-in-the-gutter stage. Medical care free at the point of use, funded through general taxation, is just better.
But Americans tend to be resistant to that idea.
My point is that you can make a solid case for freely-accessible healthcare for communicable diseases even to the sort of people who dismiss subsidized insurance as raging communism.
Oh, no doubt. Health insurance is soon (or now? I don't know) going to be required to reimburse people for up to 8 rapid covid tests a month, but that means you have to a) front the money, and b) figure out how to get reimbursed.
Apparently, each household can now order 4 rapid tests free from the government. So I'll need to choose which of the members of my household to test, and just assume that the other household members would test the same.
Oh hell no. If you don't get your eyes fixed (hearing fixed, teeth cleaned) it affects everybody you care for [..]
Sure, but it's a different level of connectedness.
I'll agree with you that any time you make decisions like "we're not going to let people die in the gutter" then it becomes much cheaper to treat their problems before they get to the dying-in-the-gutter stage. Medical care free at the point of use, funded through general taxation, is just better.
But Americans tend to be resistant to that idea.
My point is that you can make a solid case for freely-accessible healthcare for communicable diseases even to the sort of people who dismiss subsidized insurance as raging communism.
Please, please don't be lumping all Americans into the stupid category. I'm an American. There are plenty like me that see the need to care for everybody. Just because fuckers scream loudly in the media doesn't mean the rest of us want to see our neighbors go to hell medically speaking without doing anything about it.
And really, we've had people attempting to make your case for two years now, and the loudest screaming fuckers don't care and won't listen. Because they aren't reasonable people.
Could well be. But then, my wages as a PhD working as a proofreader (a few years ago) were just over 13$ an hour. My wages as an adjunct college instructor were probably half that. I couldn't find housing here for that amount, and I am not sanguine about going home to California.
I'm not saying it would make financial sense for you to move here or that you'd be happy with your rent-to-paycheck ratio if you did. I'm saying you could "afford" to.
My point is that you can make a solid case for freely-accessible healthcare for communicable diseases even to the sort of people who dismiss subsidized insurance as raging communism.
I've argued this solid case to such people without changing their minds. Drug-resistant TB doesn't care whether you're in the country legally, but these folks sure do.
Rent where I grew up was well over 1000 a month for a studio apartment in the 80s. No doubt there are areas even within California where it is possible to live on poverty wages and not actually starve to death, but that is not what I'd call "affordable" and "livable." Nor would it be "going home." Family of three? Single income? No.
Forgive me for getting het up over this, but I've lately had family members (with well over a million in equity) criticizing me harshly for not returning to California and living close by--and about five years ago, actually pulling a bait-and-switch on me suggesting that they'd help out, only to watch in amusement as I attempted to accept an offer they denied ever making.
I could afford a cardboard box under an overpass in San Diego. Maybe.
Oh, no doubt. Health insurance is soon (or now? I don't know) going to be required to reimburse people for up to 8 rapid covid tests a month, but that means you have to a) front the money, and b) figure out how to get reimbursed.
Apparently, each household can now order 4 rapid tests free from the government. So I'll need to choose which of the members of my household to test, and just assume that the other household members would test the same.
According to this siteeach individual is entitled to eight tests per month. I know around here, one test per month would be hard to find right now.
Also, it's not quite as easy for Medicare recipients. Unfortunately.
At this time original Medicare cannot pay for at-home tests through this program. Medicare Advantage plans may offer coverage and payment for at-home over-the-counter COVID-19 tests, so consumers covered by Medicare Advantage should check with their plan.
I hope this problem gets remedied for the elders who can't go out to get a script from their doctor, then go to a testing site.
Apparently, the site above was incorrect! One of my friends who is also on Medicare texted information for all of us old fogies to order tests to be sent to our homes. I did so and was not asked any information at all about what medical coverage I have.
Let's see how long it takes to get these tests delivered.
And the preschooler has COVID. From preschool. Child is fine, but dad and I are so very angry. Here's to another week working from home with a bored child. 2 months ago I was starting to plan a 5th birthday party. Now I'm thinking a festive trip to the doctor to get the first vaccine is all we're doing.
And the preschooler has COVID. From preschool. Child is fine, but dad and I are so very angry. Here's to another week working from home with a bored child. 2 months ago I was starting to plan a 5th birthday party. Now I'm thinking a festive trip to the doctor to get the first vaccine is all we're doing.
Ah, crap. Sorry to hear that @amybo, and I certainly sympathize with "bored kids climbing walls".
Sorry to resurrect an old and unloved thread, but I have a question. I caught Covid 19 in January 2020, ironically in hospital where I was being treated for a chronic heart condition.
It was like a short but intense bout of flu. I survived. A few of my fellow patients didn't.
Subsequently, I had my full whack of vaccine and a 'booster' in the spring this year. I don't think the vaccine does me any good and seems to incease the symptoms of what is called 'long Covid'. Ugh!!
I am now due, according to a letter from the NHS, for my autumn booster. Hmmm .... as I'm only just starting to feel a little better and marginally less lethargic tired and depressed I'm wondering if another lot of vaccine is a good idea.
This is embarassing as I was a doctor of medical research and I don't - I really don't - know what to do.
Has any esteemed shipmate any experience of a recurrence of LC after vaccination? Or any evidence based advice as to what is best/least worst to do?
FWIW people I know who have had covid pre and post vaccine say it’s worse without the vaccine.
Being in hospital at the time you caught it probably resulted in better immediate treatment than being in the community, so that may not have been your experience.
Having said that, I do know people who had pre-existing autoimmune conditions who felt terrible after the vaccine. Is suspect they would also have felt terrible with covid.
I think, if it were me, I would have the vaccine.
My logic for this is:
The vaccine triggers you immune system, over response by your immune system can make you feel rubbish (or in extreme circumstances be life threatening).
Covid causes a disease, that can directly damage multiple systems in your body in ways that are difficult to predict on an individual scale & it triggers your immune system, over response by your immune system can make you feel rubbish (or in extreme circumstances be life threatening).
If you had a good chance of not catching covid again, then the vaccine might not be worth the risk if you have a bad response. But given the current repeated epidemic waves - you are near certain to catch it. Which I think makes the vaccine worth the risk.
IANAD, but I see it the same way Doublethink does. I've had both doses plus the first booster, and the minute I'm offered the second one, I'll be down the stairs* like a shot.
As I commute into Edinburgh every day by public transport, why I haven’t caught Covid yet is one of Life's Little Mysteries™. (I've just taken my twice-weekly test and am pleased to report it's still negative, particularly as I've a family wedding tomorrow, and if I'd picked just now to catch it I'd have been beyond pissed-off and out the other side).
* I work for the NHS in a health centre where they offer walk-in vaccines,.
Best guess is a weird immune response, but the odds of a bad immune response are much much higher for the disease than the vaccine. I’m not aware of any reliable research on whether a bad reaction on one vaccine predicts a bad reaction to the booster.
Ultimately though, we can’t give you medical advice - your best bet is probably to talk to your heart specialist.
Purely anecdotal, but my vaccinations had no effect on my long covid (probably postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a common post-viral dysautonomia, in my case). I had mild flu like symptoms with one vaccine but so did my husband who does not have long covid.
I have had covid both pre (March 2020) and post (3 weeks ago) vaccination and it was much worse the first time with chest pain, tight chest and breathing difficulties whilst the second time it was like a heavy cold, though that probably also reflects the evolution of the virus as well as my increased resistance from vaccination.
If you are worried I would go a chat with your doctor about it.
Many thanks to all who answered heartfelt plea. Having a "chat with your [my] doctor about it" is these days quite difficult and long-winded to arrange, and I'm not sure I would believe their advice anyway.
The consensus here is that having a booster is, on balance, a good idea. My orthostatic tachycardia won't, I trust, get any worse.
Blessings to all (not a phrase one often reads in Hell!).
I understand your reservations about your doctor. Both the cardiologist and my GPs were unhelpful with diagnosing my long covid in 2020, even though I am an ex lecturer in nursing and I was telling them my tachycardia and other symptoms appeared autonomic in origin. They assumed it was due to anxiety, presumably as I am bipolar (quite ironic, as my personal experience was a reason I knew it was not anxiety!). I self diagnosed myself with POTS, luckily I have a medical background that enabled me to monitor and understand my physiological symptoms and do my own research.
It is probable that new viruses are being reported more because we are tracking and detecting more in light of recent events. It does not necessarily mean there is anything to be concerned about (urbanisation, increasing population and increased proximity to animals has always facilitated new viruses).
Comments
And that's just the start.
It depends on how you want to live. I've been living in California on a working-class wage or less my whole adult life.
Sure, but it's a different level of connectedness.
I'll agree with you that any time you make decisions like "we're not going to let people die in the gutter" then it becomes much cheaper to treat their problems before they get to the dying-in-the-gutter stage. Medical care free at the point of use, funded through general taxation, is just better.
But Americans tend to be resistant to that idea.
My point is that you can make a solid case for freely-accessible healthcare for communicable diseases even to the sort of people who dismiss subsidized insurance as raging communism.
Apparently, each household can now order 4 rapid tests free from the government. So I'll need to choose which of the members of my household to test, and just assume that the other household members would test the same.
Please, please don't be lumping all Americans into the stupid category. I'm an American. There are plenty like me that see the need to care for everybody. Just because fuckers scream loudly in the media doesn't mean the rest of us want to see our neighbors go to hell medically speaking without doing anything about it.
And really, we've had people attempting to make your case for two years now, and the loudest screaming fuckers don't care and won't listen. Because they aren't reasonable people.
I'm not saying it would make financial sense for you to move here or that you'd be happy with your rent-to-paycheck ratio if you did. I'm saying you could "afford" to.
I've argued this solid case to such people without changing their minds. Drug-resistant TB doesn't care whether you're in the country legally, but these folks sure do.
Forgive me for getting het up over this, but I've lately had family members (with well over a million in equity) criticizing me harshly for not returning to California and living close by--and about five years ago, actually pulling a bait-and-switch on me suggesting that they'd help out, only to watch in amusement as I attempted to accept an offer they denied ever making.
I could afford a cardboard box under an overpass in San Diego. Maybe.
According to this site each individual is entitled to eight tests per month. I know around here, one test per month would be hard to find right now.
I hope this problem gets remedied for the elders who can't go out to get a script from their doctor, then go to a testing site.
Apparently, the site above was incorrect! One of my friends who is also on Medicare texted information for all of us old fogies to order tests to be sent to our homes. I did so and was not asked any information at all about what medical coverage I have.
Let's see how long it takes to get these tests delivered.
Ah, crap. Sorry to hear that @amybo, and I certainly sympathize with "bored kids climbing walls".
Has my government been telling me lies?
🙏 for @amybo, though, and for all the families for whom it most certainly is not over.
It was like a short but intense bout of flu. I survived. A few of my fellow patients didn't.
Subsequently, I had my full whack of vaccine and a 'booster' in the spring this year. I don't think the vaccine does me any good and seems to incease the symptoms of what is called 'long Covid'. Ugh!!
I am now due, according to a letter from the NHS, for my autumn booster. Hmmm .... as I'm only just starting to feel a little better and marginally less lethargic tired and depressed I'm wondering if another lot of vaccine is a good idea.
This is embarassing as I was a doctor of medical research and I don't - I really don't - know what to do.
Has any esteemed shipmate any experience of a recurrence of LC after vaccination? Or any evidence based advice as to what is best/least worst to do?
Being in hospital at the time you caught it probably resulted in better immediate treatment than being in the community, so that may not have been your experience.
Having said that, I do know people who had pre-existing autoimmune conditions who felt terrible after the vaccine. Is suspect they would also have felt terrible with covid.
I think, if it were me, I would have the vaccine.
My logic for this is:
The vaccine triggers you immune system, over response by your immune system can make you feel rubbish (or in extreme circumstances be life threatening).
Covid causes a disease, that can directly damage multiple systems in your body in ways that are difficult to predict on an individual scale & it triggers your immune system, over response by your immune system can make you feel rubbish (or in extreme circumstances be life threatening).
If you had a good chance of not catching covid again, then the vaccine might not be worth the risk if you have a bad response. But given the current repeated epidemic waves - you are near certain to catch it. Which I think makes the vaccine worth the risk.
As I commute into Edinburgh every day by public transport, why I haven’t caught Covid yet is one of Life's Little Mysteries™. (I've just taken my twice-weekly test and am pleased to report it's still negative, particularly as I've a family wedding tomorrow, and if I'd picked just now to catch it I'd have been beyond pissed-off and out the other side).
* I work for the NHS in a health centre where they offer walk-in vaccines,.
This is the best I could find as a recent overview of overlap of rare vaccine side effects and long covid: https://www.science.org/content/article/rare-cases-coronavirus-vaccines-may-cause-long-covid-symptoms
Best guess is a weird immune response, but the odds of a bad immune response are much much higher for the disease than the vaccine. I’m not aware of any reliable research on whether a bad reaction on one vaccine predicts a bad reaction to the booster.
Ultimately though, we can’t give you medical advice - your best bet is probably to talk to your heart specialist.
I have had covid both pre (March 2020) and post (3 weeks ago) vaccination and it was much worse the first time with chest pain, tight chest and breathing difficulties whilst the second time it was like a heavy cold, though that probably also reflects the evolution of the virus as well as my increased resistance from vaccination.
If you are worried I would go a chat with your doctor about it.
The consensus here is that having a booster is, on balance, a good idea. My orthostatic tachycardia won't, I trust, get any worse.
Blessings to all (not a phrase one often reads in Hell!).
Is this the cloud the size of a man's hand (1 Kings 18 v44)?