[Pestilence] https://youhavetoliveyour.life/

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Pestilence] https://youhavetoliveyour.life/

(Thread IKs: PoundSand)

Bardamnu: Jan 23, 2020

Covok posted:

I think we have a kind of "invisible" COVID death situation. Boomers took down most trackers and ghouls want news coverage to a minimum. They realized keeping us informed meant we collectively bargained for better conditions. They can't return us all to the office so they can pump up real estste values if we fear the office collectively. However, there are loads of people invisibily dying of COVID all year around. The flu was always contained to a particular season but COVID is forever. I legit think we will experience near flatlined worldwide population growth compared to before as the virus endlessly ravages us. In time, I think it will contribute to the end of civilization.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Why did this post trigger so many people. Everything in it is objectively true.

# ? Jan 3, 2024 19:15

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# ? May 26, 2024 21:09

Why Am I So Tired: Sep 28, 2021

Awkward Davies posted:

I mean, I'm with you. I've postponed going back to the gym for a little bit, back to masking in grocery stores, trying to minimize exposure.

That said, I feel like we've had big waves each holiday season, and then it subsides a bit. If you look at the NYS covid chart that was posted below the last three peaks are all in January.

This peak will pass also.

That's not to say that our entire covid "strategy" (or the absence of one) isn't totally hosed, but these peaks have happened the last few years and then dropped off.

The peak will pass, and it will have left in its wake 1) an amount of preventable death that would previously have been considered mass death and b) hundreds of thousands if not millions new maimings / disabilities.

We'll also be left with a higher baseline of cases - a baseline that at one point would have been considered a peak itself. And of course, new dangerous variants that are more transmissible, more immune evasive, and more able to bind to our receptors.

# ? Jan 3, 2024 19:30

Awkward Davies: Sep 3, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Why Am I So Tired posted:

The peak will pass, and it will have left in its wake 1) an amount of preventable death that would previously have been considered mass death and b) hundreds of thousands if not millions new maimings / disabilities.

We'll also be left with a higher baseline of cases - a baseline that at one point would have been considered a peak itself. And of course, new dangerous variants that are more transmissible, more immune evasive, and more able to bind to our receptors.

Oh yeah, I mean it's All Bad. I was just trying to slightly take the edge off the feeling of doom that poster was experiencing. I in no way think anything about this situation is good, and I think we should do everything we can to improve it (lol).

# ? Jan 3, 2024 19:36

Dren: Jan 5, 2001; Pillbug

Pingui posted:

Yeah, there was an extremely noticeable drop in COVID news coverage after the White House declared the pandemic over (immediately halving it at the very low end and it only went down afterwards). That is a large part of why my news posting has become much more erratic since then.

In November it started picking up a tiny bit, start and middle of December was markedly increased (to then drop to trickle between Christmas and New Years).

Biden is president we cannot scare number. Please think of number in this trying time. And good President. Aren�t you glad we have good President instead of bad President? If number gets scared, bad President might come back.

# ? Jan 3, 2024 19:40

Nothus: Feb 22, 2001; Buglord

Covok posted:

I think we have a kind of "invisible" COVID death situation. Boomers took down most trackers and ghouls want news coverage to a minimum. They realized keeping us informed meant we collectively bargained for better conditions. They can't return us all to the office so they can pump up real estste values if we fear the office collectively. However, there are loads of people invisibily dying of COVID all year around. The flu was always contained to a particular season but COVID is forever. I legit think we will experience near flatlined worldwide population growth compared to before as the virus endlessly ravages us. In time, I think it will contribute to the end of civilization.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

banned for truth

# ? Jan 3, 2024 19:42

DirtyRobot: Dec 15, 2003; it was a normally happy sunny day... but Dirty Robot was dirty

The Scientific American article is new, but the most interesting study they cite is old (last October), so apologies if posted.

TL:DR: Multiple jabs help protect against Long Covid.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/

Scientific American posted:

At least 200 million people worldwide have struggled with long COVID: a slew of symptoms that can persist for months or even years after an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. But research suggests that that number would likely be much higher if not for vaccines.

A growing consensus is emerging that receiving multiple doses of the COVID vaccine before an initial infection can dramatically reduce the risk of long-term symptoms. Although the studies disagree on the exact amount of protection, they show a clear trend: the more shots in your arm before your first bout with COVID, the less likely you are to get long COVID. One meta-analysis of 24 studies published in October, for example, found that people who�d had three doses of the COVID vaccine were 68.7 percent less likely to develop long COVID compared with those who were unvaccinated. [study below] �This is really impressive,� says Alexandre Marra, a medical researcher at the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in Brazil and the lead author of the study. �Booster doses make a difference in long COVID.�

It is also a welcome departure from earlier studies, which suggested that vaccines provided only a modest defense against long COVID. In 2022 Marra�s team published a meta-analysis of six studies that found that a single dose of the COVID vaccine reduced the likelihood of long COVID by 30 percent. Now, that protection appears to be much greater.

A study published in November in the BMJ found that a single COVID vaccine dose reduced the risk of long COVID by 21 percent, two doses reduced it by 59 percent and three or more doses reduced it by 73 percent. Vaccine effectiveness clearly climbed with each successive dose. �I was surprised that we saw such a clear dose response,� says Fredrik Nyberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and one of the co-authors of the study. �The more doses you had in your body before your first infection, the better.� That lines up with the findings of several new studies, which similarly show this ladderlike benefit. Marra�s October 2023 meta-analysis found that two doses reduced long COVID likelihood by 36.9 percent and three doses reduced it by 68.7 percent. And in a study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, other researchers found that the prevalence of long COVID in health care workers dropped from 41.8 percent in unvaccinated participants to 30 percent in those with a single dose, 17.4 percent with two doses and 16 percent with three doses.

These studies were conducted in various countries with differing health care systems, demographics, COVID vaccination uptake and COVID prevalence. As such, Marra notes that the COVID vaccines� effectiveness against long COVID will vary and may not be generalizable to other settings. Still, the consistency of the studies� findings is telling�regardless of their settings, many studies agree that boosters provide potent protection against long COVID. Marra�s recent meta-analysis, for example, showed that the prevalence of long COVID in the early years of the pandemic was consistently above 20 percent. Today rates of long COVID have dropped, likely thanks to increased immunity, milder variants and improved treatment. Yet there is still a sharp divide between unvaccinated and vaccinated people. The prevalence of long COVID is currently 11 percent among those who are unvaccinated and 5 percent among those who have had two or more doses of the vaccine. �It is a significant difference for those who are unwilling to take the risk,� he says.

The question is why. It could be that these vaccines help prevent severe COVID itself, which is a risk factor for long COVID. But that does not appear to be the whole story�in part because the boosters have also been shown to shield people who had only a mild COVID infection. Unfortunately, the precise mechanisms at play are hard to disentangle because the cause of long COVID itself is still cloaked in mystery. One possibility is that the virus lingers in the body, hiding in various organs�such as the gut or brain�and causing chronic inflammation. Another is that long COVID is an autoimmune disease in which the immune response triggered by the initial infection wages an extended war against the body, causing symptoms long after the initial infection has been cleared.

For both scenarios, boosters give people the upper hand, argues Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University who is co-leading a clinical trial on long COVID. That is because boosters enhance antibodies�increasing both their numbers and their ability to bind to the virus�as well as T and B immune cells that help fight the virus. With both components, �people who take the booster shots have an improved ability to fight off infection,� Iwasaki says. And that is key, allowing the booster to quash a growing infection before it spirals out of control. �The more you can prevent the replication and spread of the virus within the body, the less chance the virus has to seed a niche�to establish reservoirs or cause excessive inflammation that leads to autoimmunity,� she says.

Although it will take time to pinpoint the exact reason behind vaccines� protective effect against long COVID, many medical experts are hopeful that the new studies will help counter the spread of misinformation and disinformation about the COVID immunizations that has contributed to vaccine hesitancy. But experts also note that while vaccines reduce the risk of long COVID, they do not eradicate it, and protection may wane over time. �Breakthrough infections can still occur, and the dynamic of the virus�including the emergence of new variants�add complexity to the situation,� Marra says. As such, he notes that it�s important to continue to follow public health guidelines to minimize the impact of COVID, including the risk of long-term symptoms.

Ah, well, too bad about all those new variants though!

That study from above: https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...799857B801D116E (it's open access, PDF of the full study at the link)

Marra et al 2023 posted:

The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine in the prevention of post-COVID conditions: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of the latest research | Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology | Cambridge Core

Abstract
Objective:
We performed a systematic literature review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination against post-COVID conditions (long COVID) among fully vaccinated individuals.

Design:
Systematic literature review/meta-analysis.

Methods:
We searched PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Scopus, and Web of Science from December 1, 2019, to June 2, 2023, for studies evaluating the COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) against post-COVID conditions among fully vaccinated individuals who received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. A post-COVID condition was defined as any symptom that was present four or more weeks after COVID-19 infection. We calculated the pooled diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) (95% confidence interval) for post-COVID conditions between fully vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. Vaccine effectiveness was estimated as 100% x (1-DOR).

Results:
Thirty-two studies with 775,931 individuals evaluated the effect of vaccination on post-COVID conditions, of which, twenty-four studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled DOR for post-COVID conditions among fully vaccinated individuals was 0.680 (95% CI: 0.523�0.885) with an estimated VE of 32.0% (11.5%�47.7%). Vaccine effectiveness was 36.9% (23.1%�48.2%) among those who received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine before COVID-19 infection and 68.7% (64.7%�72.2%) among those who received three doses before COVID-19 infection. The stratified analysis demonstrated no protection against post-COVID conditions among those who received COVID-19 vaccination after COVID-19 infection.

Conclusions:
Receiving a complete COVID-19 vaccination prior to contracting the virus resulted in a significant reduction in post-COVID conditions throughout the study period, including during the Omicron era. Vaccine effectiveness demonstrated an increase when supplementary doses were administered.

From the full study:

quote:

Vaccine effectiveness against post-COVID conditions was higher when a third dose was administered. However, no protection against post-COVID conditions was observed with vaccinations given after a person had already contracted COVID-19.

I *think* they're talking about the infection that gave the person the Long Covid. I'm curious how effective boosters are for future infections if you've had COVID once already, but you didn't (as far as you can tell) get Long COVID from that first infection.

# ? Jan 3, 2024 19:58

Raskolnikov2089: Nov 3, 2006; Schizzy to the matic

Fantastic news (if you could only get COVID once): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/

quote:

A growing consensus is emerging that receiving multiple doses of the COVID vaccine before an initial infection can dramatically reduce the risk of long-term symptoms. Although the studies disagree on the exact amount of protection, they show a clear trend: the more shots in your arm before your first bout with COVID, the less likely you are to get long COVID. One meta-analysis of 24 studies published in October, for example, found that people who�d had three doses of the COVID vaccine were 68.7 percent less likely to develop long COVID compared with those who were unvaccinated. �This is really impressive,� says Alexandre Marra, a medical researcher at the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in Brazil and the lead author of the study. �Booster doses make a difference in long COVID.�

It is also a welcome departure from earlier studies, which suggested that vaccines provided only a modest defense against long COVID. In 2022 Marra�s team published a meta-analysis of six studies that found that a single dose of the COVID vaccine reduced the likelihood of long COVID by 30 percent. Now, that protection appears to be much greater.

A study published in November in the BMJ found that a single COVID vaccine dose reduced the risk of long COVID by 21 percent, two doses reduced it by 59 percent and three or more doses reduced it by 73 percent. Vaccine effectiveness clearly climbed with each successive dose. �I was surprised that we saw such a clear dose response,� says Fredrik Nyberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and one of the co-authors of the study. �The more doses you had in your body before your first infection, the better.� That lines up with the findings of several new studies, which similarly show this ladderlike benefit. Marra�s October 2023 meta-analysis found that two doses reduced long COVID likelihood by 36.9 percent and three doses reduced it by 68.7 percent. And in a study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, other researchers found that the prevalence of long COVID in health care workers dropped from 41.8 percent in unvaccinated participants to 30 percent in those with a single dose, 17.4 percent with two doses and 16 percent with three doses.

These studies were conducted in various countries with differing health care systems, demographics, COVID vaccination uptake and COVID prevalence. As such, Marra notes that the COVID vaccines� effectiveness against long COVID will vary and may not be generalizable to other settings. Still, the consistency of the studies� findings is telling�regardless of their settings, many studies agree that boosters provide potent protection against long COVID. Marra�s recent meta-analysis, for example, showed that the prevalence of long COVID in the early years of the pandemic was consistently above 20 percent. Today rates of long COVID have dropped, likely thanks to increased immunity, milder variants and improved treatment. Yet there is still a sharp divide between unvaccinated and vaccinated people. The prevalence of long COVID is currently 11 percent among those who are unvaccinated and 5 percent among those who have had two or more doses of the vaccine. �It is a significant difference for those who are unwilling to take the risk,� he says.

# ? Jan 3, 2024 19:58

bedpan: Apr 23, 2008

Raskolnikov2089 posted:

Fantastic news (if you could only get COVID once): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/

long covid is psychosomatic -> long covid is the result of not being properly vaccinated pipeline

# ? Jan 3, 2024 20:01

Rescue Toaster: Mar 13, 2003

What percentage of people haven't had COVID even a single time yet though?

I know my parents are moderately careful, ie way more careful than 98% of the population but not nearly as careful as the people in this thread for instance, and have managed to dodge it. They've had all their shots on time which is great news according to that, but they're in an awfully high risk age group now.

Anyone have any guesses what the Paxlovid situation will be like on Medicare?

# ? Jan 3, 2024 20:06

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

covok comes in and posts some panicky conspiracy brained gibberish and then a bunch of people who don't post in this thread decide to come in and agree with his terrible take

makes u think

# ? Jan 3, 2024 20:08

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

Raskolnikov2089 posted:

Fantastic news (if you could only get COVID once): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/

Studies included are all predating the finding that pre-monovalent vax shots have no protective effect against JN.1 at all and the monovalent shot is only like 60% effective even against hospitalization so I wouldn't be too happy about this given that the virus is now handily outrunning our vaccine development speed

# ? Jan 3, 2024 20:11

bedpan: Apr 23, 2008

The Oldest Man posted:

Studies included are all predating the finding that pre-monovalent vax shots have no protective effect against JN.1 at all and the monovalent shot is only like 60% effective even against hospitalization so I wouldn't be too happy about this given that the virus is now handily outrunning our vaccine development speed

excuse me have you read this part of the article

quote:

Today rates of long COVID have dropped, likely thanks to increased immunity, milder variants and improved treatment.

# ? Jan 3, 2024 20:12

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

bedpan posted:

excuse me have you read this part of the article

haha i did miss that, they sneak it in everywhere don't they

# ? Jan 3, 2024 20:16

Why Am I So Tired: Sep 28, 2021