Fansy posted:

Anyone know of a good deal for RATs?

Steve Yun posted:

did you get your free 2023 tests

https://special.usps.com/testkits

mahler_biryani posted:

Found on amazon the other day, but have not used it yet so YMMV. Under $3 per test. https://www.amazon.com/FaStep-Rapid-Minutes-COVID-19-Antigen/dp/B0BQXB8W5T

quote:

Nearly four years after Covid’s emergence, plenty of people have tested positive at least twice. But an unlucky group has been hit with reinfection after reinfection.

“I’ve seen a few patients with five infections,” said Dr. Grace McComsey, vice dean for clinical and translational research at Case Western University. “Sadly, they were immunized and they still got Covid five times.”

Reanna Sunford Clark, a 47-year-old day care teacher in Portland, Oregon, says she has gotten Covid six times.

“It does make me concerned that I have this predisposition to it,” Clark said.

Given that the age group she works with isn’t known for clean hands, Clark added, “it makes sense that I am exposing myself to a more likely source — but on the flip side of that, I feel like I’ve had it so many times, I should have more immunity than I do.”

After her first infection in November 2021 — which landed her in the ER with shortness of breath — Clark’s subsequent illnesses mostly brought cold-like symptoms that resolved within three or four days, she said.

“Every time I’ve gotten it, I’ve had a sore throat,” she added.

Clark is one of five people interviewed by NBC News who described what it has been like to get Covid at least five times. All five either tested positive at home, received a positive antibody test later or were diagnosed by a health care provider each time. They provided images of test results, medical records or correspondence with friends or family as verification. Overall, they said, the experiences have left them confused and curious about the reasons for their frequent illnesses.

Three people said their later infections were all less severe than the first — though there wasn’t necessarily a clear pattern of milder symptoms with each new illness. Even so, having Covid was still mentally and emotionally exhausting each time, they said, since it disrupted their work and time with loved ones.

Brenda Keele, a 38-year-old resident of Casper, Wyoming, said her symptoms got worse with each round of Covid. Keele recently endured her fifth and most severe coronavirus infection, which she said caused body aches and trouble breathing.

At the height of that illness, she said, Keele could barely walk and felt “like every single one of my lymph nodes in my body is swollen and painful.”

In the two weeks since she stopped testing positive, her symptoms have improved, though she still has lingering congestion, Keele said.

Although each reinfection should theoretically be milder than the previous one for most people, doctors said, cases like Keele’s do happen. McComsey estimated that about 20% to 25% of her patients report that their reinfections are more severe.

Keele has chronic heart failure and adrenal insufficiency, so she takes medications that compromise her immune system. Her heart condition has declined over the last year and a half, she said, but doctors aren’t sure if Covid is responsible.

Severe reinfections could be more likely if lots of time has elapsed since a person’s last Covid shot or if they were exposed to a high viral load, McComsey said.

Keele was vaccinated but did not get booster shots. The others interviewed each said they got at least one booster after their original vaccines.

Emily, a 36-year-old singer in Brooklyn who asked that her last name be withheld to maintain her privacy, said all five of her infections were relatively mild. But she noticed that her symptoms tended to be more severe if several months had passed since her most recent Covid vaccine.

Emily’s third infection in May 2022 — six months after her booster shot — was the worst, she said.

“This was more of a body ache, feverish feeling,” she said. “I felt laid out for about a week.”
Why do some people get Covid so many times?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified more than 2.7 million Covid reinfections from September 2021 to December 2022 across a set of regions containing about 45% of the U.S. population. But because some states stopped tracking reinfections or never recorded them, it’s not clear how common it is to be infected multiple times.

Doctors who study Covid say it’s not surprising that some people have gotten Covid more than once a year, given how widely the virus has spread and how frequently cases surge.

“The virus continued to mutate, so it has a way of escaping immunity,” said Dr. Miriam Merad, chair of the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

mahler_biryani posted:

Found on amazon the other day, but have not used it yet so YMMV. Under $3 per test. https://www.amazon.com/FaStep-Rapid-Minutes-COVID-19-Antigen/dp/B0BQXB8W5T

Indoor Dying posted:

Lol, I don’t think the box takes selfies? I could be wrong

Glumwheels posted:

My biopsies all came back negative

I went to an outdoor event this weekend and wore a mas but saw a family member who had covid last week there Said she was testing negative withRAT while still taking paxlovid and after she finished. I just don’t know anymore.

Glumwheels posted:

I just don’t know anymore.

mahler_biryani posted:

Early in the covid days, https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus used to be a good source. Surprised to find it still exists tbh.

Before I found the thread, my main source was nakedcapitalism.com. The website has taken covid seriously since the beginning and one of the few that continues to. However, they do occasionally boost borderline anti-vaxx views (sometimes clearly so) and they have a history of boosting ivermectin though less so now I think. None the less, their daily Links posts and the every weekday "Water Cooler" posts have a covid section. Some of the covid news ends up in other sections (Politics, Healthcare) too. I had stopped reading the site since I found the thread because I found the thread was a superset of relevant topics covered, and I didn't want to support the pro-ivermectin and vax/pax skeptical bend. I have reluctantly gone back to reading it recently partly because I've realized the thread is no longer a superset. I think an ex-poster here (ibid) had either a similarly curated twitter feed or was reading the same site (or both). Anyway, I guess I am mentioning it for purely selfish reasons. I wish I could commit to filling this gap, but I am fundamentally a lurker not a poster .

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.01.560365v1.full posted:

Abstract
Highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2.86 emerged in July 2023. We investigated the neutralisation of isolated virus by antibodies induced by earlier infection or vaccination. The neutralisation titres for BA.2.86 were comparable to those for XBB.1 and EG.5.1, by antibodies induced by XBB.1.5 or BA.4/5 breakthrough infection or BA.4/5 vaccination.
(..)

_{Figure 1.
Immune evasion potential of BA.2.86 A) Spike mutations of SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.2, BA.5, XBB.1.5, EG.5.1, and BA.2.86 relative to the spike protein domains of SARS-CoV-2 index strain. Amino acid changes unique to BA.2.86 are indicated in red. B-D) Relative neutralising antibody levels for individuals following a breakthrough infection with an XBB.1.5 spike protein variant (B), a breakthrough infection with an Omicron BA.4/5 variant (C), and recipients of the bivalent Omicron BA.4/5 mRNA vaccine (D).}
(..)

Bastard Tetris posted:

If you’re masked outdoors and if they’re honest about being on antivirals your risk of infection is incredibly low

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/10/09/long-covid-in-children-rare/ posted:

_{BIG NUMBER}
Only 1 percent of children had long covid through last year, CDC says

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

It wasn't until much much much later that the thought occurred to me "Wait, if I had loving whooping cough why did my parents bring me to the mall?"

Pingui posted:

Live virus titer study:

Pingui posted:

WaPo sending some mixed messages here:

Platystemon posted:

(..)
e: My take on those titers are that imply poor protection for you, me, and everyone from infection and PASC, but they’re high enough to suggest that Eris and Pirola are not “Omicron reborn”.

I would have liked to see Fornax in the panel.

https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Update-of-SA-sequencing-data-from-GISAID-06-Oct-2023.pdf posted:

Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA)
SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing Update 06 October 2023
(..)

(..)

Pingui posted:

WaPo sending some mixed messages here:

Archived link: https://archive.li/00DQq

Bastard Tetris posted:

hey man they skimped on advertising that makes sense and passed the savings on to you

If you’re masked outdoors and if they’re honest about being on antivirals your risk of infection is incredibly low

blue squares posted:

what the gently caress. I tested positive exactly two weeks ago, was sick for 10 days, during which I took Paxlovid (which didn't make me feel better one bit), felt great for 3 days and then felt sick again and tested positive this morning. Back to back infections or the same one?

Indoor Dying posted:

eXXon posted:

You're almost certainly experiencing a rebound of the same infection, sorry. Well, that's probably better than consecutive infections, anyway.

I don't remember seeing recorded cases of completely separate reinfection within two weeks but from a quick search three weeks is possible.

eXXon posted:

You're almost certainly experiencing a rebound of the same infection, sorry. Well, that's probably better than consecutive infections, anyway.

I don't remember seeing recorded cases of completely separate reinfection within two weeks but from a quick search three weeks is possible.

blue squares posted:

My wife is out of town and coming back tonight. She and I were sick at the same time, her a few days ahead of me. She is currently totally healthy. Since she infected me, and she’s doing well, should we be worried that I could reinfect her right back, or would it not work like that since she was the original source of my infection? trying to decide if she should isolate from me or just come home

if it’s the same infection and she’s fully cleared it I’ve gotta imagine she will be fine, otherwise cohabitating people would just be infecting each other back and forth constantly on the same infection

The Oldest Man posted:

Your mistake was believing most of the people around you hold any kind of ideology or philosophy at all.

blue squares posted:

what the gently caress. I tested positive exactly two weeks ago, was sick for 10 days, during which I took Paxlovid (which didn't make me feel better one bit), felt great for 3 days and then felt sick again and tested positive this morning. Back to back infections or the same one?

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

My local supermarket has cut hours again. It used to be open 24/7 then a few years ago it started closing at midnight, then because of the pandemic it started closing at 11pm, then tonight when I dashed over there to buy a loaf of bread for my morning toast I found out too late that they now close at 10pm.
I tried the local 7-11 and the 24hr gas station which has a store attached but it turns out they don't sell loaves of bread any more, even though they definitely used to.

Shady Amish Terror posted:

GRANTED. However,

Most people think they do, which is often a useful lever for encouraging better behavior (or any desired behavior, look at propaganda generally lol). However, masking I guess is just irritating/weird-looking enough that it didn't have a prayer there, at least not the nano-instant capital interests came to the conclusion covid wasn't the immediate world-ending threat of the virus from Carriers or whatever