DominoKitten posted:

Exhale user seal check pretty achievable--the bottom is a flat circle with a honeycomb grid of holes that can be covered with a cupped palm. I find doing a seal check on it tricky with my smaller hands but can still manage it. (My HF-801SD has a push button seal check, if that's of interest.) I took out the lil filter pad on the exhale and it seems...fine? Slightly easier to breathe out but not a huge difference. I kept the protective cage around the exhale valve on. When I use a phone camera pointed up at my chin, the valve doesn't move as much as my GVS's valve. (Which I actually love to make go thunk thunk thunk as a fidget when I'm wearing it.)

Found someone on Reddit that wears it like I do with pancake filters on the inhales

They don't claim to support 7093 type filters, but I went and ordered some because I'm curious--it would be nice if it could work with something more splash resistant than the pancakes, as winters where I am are quite rainy. Will report back when they come.

Platystemon posted:

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-19-linked-increased-preterm-birth-other-problems-pregnancy posted:

COVID-19 linked to increased preterm birth, other problems in pregnancy

Findings from a large study in California, which distinguished the COVID-19 pandemic period from individual SARS-CoV-2 infections, suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection is tied to increased preterm birth (PTB), high blood pressure during pregnancy, and severe maternal morbidity. The study is published as a research letter in JAMA Network Open.
(..)
Overall, parents with COVID-19 infections were more likely to be Hispanic, have lower education, receive public insurance, and live in lower income neighborhoods compared with the other groups, the authors said.

Infection tied to high blood pressure, severe outcomes
Birth outcomes noted included preterm birth (PTB), high blood during pregnancy, gestational diabetes, and severe maternal morbidity.

Compared to 2020 births without COVID-19 infections, there were higher burdens of PTB (2.8%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1% to 3.5%), high blood pressure (3.3%; 95% CI, 2.4% to 4.1%), and SMM (2.3%; 95% CI, 1.9% to 2.7%) among women with COVID-19.
(..)

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2818495 posted:

(..)
Discussion
This study adds to understanding of the associations between COVID-19 and perinatal health in a large, diverse population by distinguishing the connections of SARS-CoV-2 infection from those of the COVID-19 pandemic period with PTB and birth parent conditions. Our findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with increased PTB, HDP, and SMM, consistent with other studies.2,4 Interestingly, the pandemic period was associated with decreased risk of PTB, but increased risk of HDP and GD; this has been reported elsewhere, but not using designs that could disentangle infection from the pandemic period.5,6 The pandemic period association with decreased risk of PTB was largest for spontaneous PTB, suggesting that it may be explained by socioenvironmental and behavioral modifications, such as commute changes and reduced non-SARS-CoV-2 infections. Increased risk of HDP and GD may be due to stress and reduced and/or remote prenatal care due to the pandemic.
(..)

Insanite posted:

idk, i think there's a shot stuff like this re-ignites the lib ODD with respect to the GOP's extremely pro-covid poo poo. if it's tarred as a republican cause in an election year where it looks like trump might win, maybe it won't spread much.

also, i hate this world. i'm probably putting my job at risk by refusing to travel to NC lol.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/05/north-carolina-mask-ban-palestine-campus-protests-covid-immunocompromised/ posted:

North Carolina’s Protest Crackdown Now Includes a Ban on N95s
It conveniently doubles as a ban on grocery shopping for the immunocompromised.

https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/17/h5n1-bird-flu-do-not-repeat-covid-19-public-health-versus-economy-battle/ posted:

H5N1 doesn’t have to be a repeat of Covid-19’s ‘public health versus the economy’
(..)
Consumers also have a role to play here, by demanding that retailers source their milk from farms that are working with public health authorities.
(..)

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2024/supernova-trial-met-covid-19-prevention-endpoint.html posted:

SUPERNOVA Phase III trial of sipavibart long-acting antibody met primary endpoints in preventing COVID-19 in immunocompromised patient population

Positive high-level results from the SUPERNOVA Phase III COVID-19 pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) trial showed AstraZeneca’s sipavibart (formerly AZD3152), an investigational long-acting antibody (LAAB), demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of symptomatic COVID‑19 compared to control (tixagevimab/cilgavimab or placebo) in an immunocompromised patient population.

The trial met both dual primary endpoints; the first one being the relative risk reduction of symptomatic COVID-19 caused by any SARS-CoV-2 variant and the second being the relative risk reduction of infections caused by SARS-CoV-2 variants not containing the F456L mutation. SUPERNOVA demonstrated the potential benefit of sipavibart in an evolving variant landscape in which COVID-19 cases captured over the course of the trial were caused by several different SARS-CoV-2 variants.
(..)

Pingui posted:

This is nominally good news, but the highlighted framing gives me pause.

F456L is half of what defines the FLiRT variants, which are gaining prominence...

quote:

The first evaluated the efficacy of sipavibart against any confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive symptomatic illness occurring post dose prior to day 181 caused by any variant (i.e., all cases regardless of if the variant has the F456L mutation or not, which sipavibart is not expected to neutralise). The second dual primary efficacy analysis was conducted using only the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the trial where the variant causing the COVID-19 cases did not have the F456L mutation, referred to as a “matched” variant analysis.

ColdBlooded posted:

Congrats to NC on being the first state to end lockdowns.

Platystemon posted:

Pingui posted:

This is nominally good news, but the highlighted framing gives me pause.

F456L is half of what defines the FLiRT variants, which are gaining prominence...

Rescue Toaster posted:

AZD3152 is loving ancient. They've been working on that since Evusheld 1.0 was rendered useless by omicron. So it's at least two years old.

I would compare carefully with Pemgarda with current strains before getting one of those. I'm not sure I will bother though, I know when I got original evusheld, there was all kinds of billing bullshit even though the drug itself was free. I still had a bunch of bullshit to deal with for 'administering' the shot and it sucked.

Insanite posted:

wish there were an up-to-date list of places like this.

can't be many like it. :\

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(24)00253-2 posted:

Highlights
• Improvement from post-COVID-19 cognitive impairment (CI) is slow
• Post-COVID-19 CI is molecularly distinct from Alzheimer’s disease
• Post-COVID-19 CI is associated with CSF monocyte recruitment and gene alterations
• Improvement from post-COVID-19 CI is linked to greater CSF interferon responses

Summary
Natural history and mechanisms for persistent cognitive symptoms (“brain fog”) following acute and often mild COVID-19 are unknown. In a large prospective cohort of people who underwent testing a median of 9 months after acute COVID-19 in the New York City/New Jersey area, we found that cognitive dysfunction is common; is not influenced by mood, fatigue, or sleepiness; and is correlated with MRI changes in very few people. In a subgroup that underwent cerebrospinal fluid analysis, there are no changes related to Alzheimer’s disease or neurodegeneration. Single-cell gene expression analysis in the cerebrospinal fluid shows findings consistent with monocyte recruitment, chemokine signaling, cellular stress, and suppressed interferon response—especially in myeloid cells. Longitudinal analysis shows slow recovery accompanied by key alterations in inflammatory genes and increased protein levels of CXCL8, CCL3L1, and sTREM2. These findings suggest that the prognosis for brain fog following COVID-19 correlates with myeloid-related chemokine and interferon-responsive genes.

Graphical abstract

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-profile-clinical-gene-protein-brain.html posted:

Researchers profile clinical, gene and protein changes in 'brain fog' from long COVID
(..)
Scientists previously had proposed that long COVID may display molecular features of Alzheimer's disease, but in the most recent study, Rutgers Health researchers found that long COVID doesn't elicit Alzheimer's-type changes. Instead, they found that cerebrospinal fluid immune cells in persistent brain fog from long COVID bears a closer resemblance to viral infections than to Alzheimer's disease or post-infectious processes.

"The findings from our study lead us to believe that interferon—the body's natural antiviral—and other drugs which target COVID-19 will be most beneficial in people with long COVID," said William Hu, director of the Center for Healthy Aging Research at Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and senior author of the study.

Researchers also found that recovery from long COVID symptoms is often very slow, with 50 percent of the patients experiencing cognitive improvement after two years.

"Because brain fog—nine months after initial COVID-19—shares gene signatures with acute infections, future clinical trials should focus on interferon- and antiviral-based therapies instead of rehabilitation or brain training to expedite the recovery time for patients experiencing brain fog and other long COVID symptoms," said Hu, an associate professor and the chief of Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Clinic at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS).

Insanite posted:

wish there were an up-to-date list of places like this.

can't be many like it. :\

The Oldest Man posted:

Remember when everyone was talking like there would be mask-required shopping business hours to "protect vulnerable people" and that idea lasted for all of five seconds after it stopped being a useful rationalization to end mask mandates?

The Grand Illusion movie theater in Seattle is still doing mask required weekend matinees

There are a few places left

Pingui posted:

Fundamentally correct, but insanely lib brained article on the current state of H5N1 testing in dairy. Good for the overview and issues, on the solutions. Read the whole thing or not at all, here just a highlight of something that made me stare blankly off into space.

DickParasite posted:

big ups to all the other threads who draw the qcs eye of sauron away from this one.

Insanite posted:

idk, i think there's a shot stuff like this re-ignites the lib ODD with respect to the GOP's extremely pro-covid poo poo. if it's tarred as a republican cause in an election year where it looks like trump might win, maybe it won't spread much.

quote:

also, i hate this world. i'm probably putting my job at risk by refusing to travel to NC lol.

Zugzwang posted:

Finally I'll be free to get arrested for protecting the health of myself and my loved ones.

quote:

The N.C. House on Thursday temporarily shelved a bill that reinstates the statewide ban on public wearing of masks, even for people who are immunocompromised.

The bill — House Bill 237, titled “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals” — also would bar the wearing of masks during a pandemic.

The bill was placed into the gatekeeper House Rules and Operations committee, which typically meets on Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

However, House speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, has the discretion during session to take a bill out of committee and place it on the floor calendar.

The expectation is that the House will reject Senate changes to the bill and send it to a concurrence committee to reach a potential compromise on the language.

Ending the public health and safety masking exemption within HB237 is overshadowing what Senate Republicans say is the main goal of the bill: to expand the criminal penalties for wearing a mask in public while committing a crime, and for blocking the traffic path of emergency vehicles.

The Senate version cleared the chamber Wednesday by a 30-15 vote along party lines.

Senate Republicans approved HB237 even as Democratic opponents claimed a ground-swelling of public pushback against ending the exemptions.

According to Sen. Sydney Batch, D-Wake, about 700,000 North Carolinians are dealing with immunocompromised health issues, including herself following her fight with non-invasive breast cancer.

A Change.org petition urging lawmakers to rethink the bill has already gotten nearly 3,700 signatures. The petition cites concerns about people who wear masks for medical reasons.

Sen. Danny Britt Jr., R-Scotland, told the Senate Rules and Operations committee earlier Wednesday that “we’re still in discussions with the House on how to tailor the medical exception to this mask policy for folks who may suffer from communicable diseases.”

“We want to ensure that this doesn’t violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, so there will be some tweaking along the way.”

Insanite posted:

i do remember that. it was amazing how quickly all of that ended.

the only places i'm aware of around me that are even mask-positive are alternative book stores, tiny craft stores, etc.

DickParasite posted:

big ups to all the other threads who draw the qcs eye of sauron away from this one.

Zugzwang posted:

Yeah, same. The local bookstore has a "masks requested" sign inside and the employees are masked. No other places like this really except the hospital.

Shiroc posted:

Most of the stuff that comes up on SAD comes down to

1) The mods/admins/Jeff aren't actively reassuring me I'm the most special poster, with the funniest jokes and best ideas, this is a forums level crisis
2) Someone is posting on a topic I don't enjoy, this is an immediate societal level crisis that can only be resolved by banning the people and the topic

Fluff closing threads and telling people to go touch grass has been a significantly better approach than the old ways of acting like there must be some serious complaint at the center of things and letting it context collapse into nothing.

tuyop posted:

looks like NC is shelving the mask ban for the moment.

https://archive.ph/2024.05.17-14495...b975009ca1.html

original article with paywall: https://journalnow.com/news/state-r...b975009ca1.html

Bruce Hussein Daddy posted:

It's been said a thousand times but why do I have to be immunocompromised to not want to get sick?

<hippo tweet>

Zugzwang posted:

Yeah, same. The local bookstore has a "masks requested" sign inside and the employees are masked. No other places like this really except the hospital.

Griz posted:

I had surgery last month and the only people in the pre-op waiting area wearing a mask were the ancient anesthesiologist (N95) and one of the nurses (surgical)

The Oldest Man posted:

I think it probably helped that the last couple big kerfuffles were revealed to have been driven by people sockpuppeting or worse

Salt Fish posted:

The actual reason for the change in moderation is that we're at a major lull in covid activity. I expect it will revert if/when the numbers go back up.

Shady Amish Terror posted:

AHHH

AHHHHH

ffffuuuuuuuuck

Griz posted:

I had surgery last month and the only people in the pre-op waiting area wearing a mask were the ancient anesthesiologist (N95) and one of the nurses (surgical)

Insanite posted:

my gut tells me that your average indie bookstore is going to be more responsible WRT disease prevention than your average hospital.