Come on, if you cared about your readers you would have livestreamed it!
Well, those readers that don’t pass out at the sight of needles, or needles piercing flesh. But that’s my brother, not me.
Wow, Mass beats CT again. We aren’t even on the radar yet for 65+ in CT
You’re so special Neo. Good for you. I just know that my wife and I will be that last people in the USA to get a dose. Maybe the last in the G20.
Bad and good vaccine news of late: The current vaxs do work against the new UK and S. Africa strains, but not as well. Moderna says that they will have booster shots available very soon that are specifically tailored for the new strains. Then California can deny me the booster shots too.
I plan to either avoid the vaccine entirely or delay it as long as possible. If I bet wrong, so be it.
The moderna or pfizer covid vaccine? Which did you get?
I got my first Pfizer 10 days ago. According to some reports I am now 50% protected.
My wife got hers last Thursday evening. She wanted to see if I survived–although she says that wasn’t the case. Thursday morning our daily RAG had massive front page headline reporting that a local man died 2.5 hours after getting the shot. Apparently, no risk factors; but, they have not reported the cause of death. My wife swallowed hard, and still went for hers.
I have seen reports that two people–one a Congressman– tested positive a couple of weeks after their second Pfizer. I don’t think everyone understands that you can still be a carrier since the vaccine simply triggers an immune system reaction once it detects the virus in your system.
Congratulations and best of luck and health! My folks have had both and never had any side effects, although my mother had brief, COVID-like symptoms that lasted about 48 hours 2 weeks after the second shot. Seems it’s possible she got it then, but the vaccine kept it from being worse?
My wife (a health care professional) has had her first and is due her second next week. Several of her co-workers got quite ill for 1-2 days after the second shot.
I currently have 3 family members in the hospital due to COVID. One is 80 and the other two are 60. None had comorbidities as far as I know.
Stay safe, people!
Ken:
Moderna.
Rufus T. Firefly:
Hope your relatives recover soon.
Congrats, Neo! I’m glad you’re getting the shots, since I think you’ve said you’ve got a possible comorbidity.
Here in NC, at age 72, we are not likely to get the vaccine any time soon. UNC has no appointments; our doctor’s office doesn’t have the vaccine; we are on our county’s waiting list, but they are prioritizing by zip code, which means, not our zip code. Fortunately, we have no other risk factors other than age.
Rufus T. Firefly, I hope your family members will recover.
What physicsguy said; I think CT has been infected by Cuomo virus.
Your lucky to get in today with the bad weather. If it snows here in east texas we shut everything down! Thank God for 4+4 trucks!
jack:
Actually, I was originally scheduled for tomorrow. They have canceled operations for tomorrow – huge snowstorm expected – and somehow managed to switch all of (or at least many of) us to today. I had been worried that I’d have to start from scratch again because of the storm. Fortunately, not.
Congrats! My sister got hit hard by Pfizer #2. She felt like she had the flu, including fever and aches, for about 48 hours. I might have had a little feeling like I was getting sick after #2, other than that, just arm pain.
84 year old mom got Moderna #1 with only arm pain. Now we’re hoping that the city comes through with her appointment for #2. Dodgers’ Stadium city-run site worked astonishingly well. We were in and out in an hour, including the 15 minute post-injection wait.
Good news, Neo — may you stay well! Mr Whatsit and I have an appointment in mid-March. The location is two and a half hours from here, but it was the best we could do short of waiting until April or May. The vaccine is also supposed to be available at certain drugstores and through county health departments, but good luck finding any availability. NY does seem to be doing better than PA — we have an inlaw there in his mid-70s with respiratory issues, who cannot get an appointment for love or money.
Good for you, Neo. The pace of vaccinations is glacial here in the People’s Republic Of Puget Sound. At the present rate, Snohomish County will get to 70 % of our population vaccinated in 32 months. It’s government after all.
I am working on getting standby prescriptions for HCQ or Ivermectin from AFLDS.com, as we may be another two or three months before getting a shot. Better safe than sorry. I just heard about AFLDS a week ago. They apparently have a source for HCQ.
By the way, has everybody seen this from Roger Simon:
“I accuse—in no particular order—Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ nominee and frequent Wuhan, China visitor/collaborator Dr. Anthony Fauci; the Democrat Party (aka the “party of science”) and their nauseating, self-congratulatory leadership; the mainstream media and all their pompous, even more self-congratulatory “ships at sea” from the New York Times to CNN; Dr. Birx and whatever bureaucrat from the CDC was showing his/her face this week; the endless echo chamber in practically every health department in all fifty states; the foreign health departments that largely echoed that echo chamber; Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York (more of him in a moment); Governor Whitmer of Michigan; that atrocious governor of Nevada whose name I can’t remember or bother to look up…. I could go on… all of whom participated in what has emerged to be what is indisputably the greatest national, no, international, health disaster of our time—the Hydroxychloroquine Scandal.
This shameful distortion of medical science was emblematic of how politics not only crept into the treatment of the CCP virus, it bludgeoned that treatment and resulted in untold thousands, perhaps millions, of deaths while simultaneously making life unbearable for an even greater number across the globe—in fact, for practically everyone.
All of those mentioned above either dismissed or heavily downplayed “hydroxy”—a cheap anti-malarial drug, also used for lupus, that had been around for decades and is known to have minimal side effects—for the treatment of COVID-19. Why? As most of us are aware, a man they thought an ogre, whom they despised, who knew nothing of science, recommended it—President Donald J. Trump—so it had to be disdained.
And yet hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) apparently did and does work in many instances, if taken early in the illness.
This was known way back in June 2020 when the esteemed British medical journal Lancet retracted its support of a dubious study it had published opposing the use of HCQ. “We all entered this collaboration to contribute in good faith and at a time of great need during the COVID-19 pandemic. We deeply apologize to you, the editors, and the journal readership for any embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused.”
This apology, made eight months ago, was largely ignored by the mainstream media because it didn’t fit their narrative. And, worse yet, it might have benefited the nefarious Trump.
At the same time, many independent doctors were insisting that HCQ was working for them with real patients. They were similarly dismissed by a rabid press that had neither the inclination nor skills to investigate. (Laura Ingraham, to her credit, featured several of these doctors on her cable show.)
Meanwhile, thousands, if not millions, died across the globe who needn’t have.
How many we will never know but it’s a safe assumption a good number could have been spared.
The pervasive use of this drug might not have entirely saved us from COVID, but it could arguably have reduced the pandemic to the level of a bad year of flu.
Whatever the truth, an apposite description for what happened might be outrageous.
And now the equally-esteemed American Journal of Medicine in its January 2021 edition has finally admitted the same thing. HCQ often worked. Immediate administration of the drug while the patient was still at home showed significant benefits, they said.
Where were they during the Year of the Pandemic?
Oh, never mind. Politics is more important.”
The MSM will never report this. Never. Pond scum is what they are.
Oldflyer,
One possibility for that congressman you mention is that two weeks after Pfizer #2 maybe isn’t quite long enough for the full immune reaction.
Also, Fox’s Doc. Siegel suspects that the positive test result for that Rep. could have been one of those hyper sensitive PCR tests that shows the presence of the virus without an actual infection. Of course, he doesn’t really know. But technically that would mean he is carrying the virus, but he is not carrying a meaningfully large quantity.
Secondly, the vaccine triggers an immune response immediately upon injection. Within minutes or hours anyway. But the full response is not fast. Within 6 or 10 weeks from the first injection, you should have a strong complement of protective antibodies irrespective of whether you encounter the SARS-CoV-2 virus or not.
I got Pfizer #1 a week and a half ago, but only because my wife is in a dementia unit and they kindly gave the shots to spouses too. The next one is due in a week and a half.
I’m hoping that this means they will lift visiting restrictions soon after. I’ve raised the issue but they’re being coy. Right now I have to wear a mask, a shield, a gown, and gloves and be seated at the other end of a table. I’m only allowed to visit for thirty minutes twice a week.
Paul in Boston:
I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with so much. Hopefully, in a few weeks you’ll be able to visit more normally – although who knows, the authorities of these places don’t always do the logical thing.
Never had a Flue shot, never had Flue . I will be “dead” last for a vaccine. Macron announced the other day vaccine , maybe Moderna , wasn’t working very well. The thought of Injecting plastic into my bloodstream gives me the heebijeebis .
Low dose ivermectin, and doxycicline both well known and safe every two weeks. Liposomal Vitamin c, vitamin d , and zinc every day.
Mass quantities of high quality Cabernet . ( this is key)
Take the shot, it’s free country, so far. I will pray for you all.
Paul in Boston,
Very sorry about your wife and your inability to visit her more normally. I hope the situation improves very soon. It must be especially disconcerting for her.
Here in CO they are on the +70’s. Wife and I have had the first shot and hope that there is enough vaccine to get the second one in Mid Feb. Of course there is still time for our own Dictator and the one elsewhere ( not St. Elsewhere) in the country to mess things up. We got the Moderna and have had no problems except for a sore arm for me.
Glad to see that some are getting it. Hope they rest of you manage to get one too.
Almost said “get yours too” but that might have been read wrong.
Moderna #1 , just four days ago.
Only the slightest soreness in the arm/shoulder. More an awareness that I’d been poked than an actual pain.
My understanding, in this lay person’s terms, is that if the subject contracts covid, and has been vaccinated with both #1 and #2, then that subject’s covid symptoms will be less severe, possibly/probably significantly less severe.
But the vaccine does nothing to alleviate the transmissibility of covid (according to my understanding).
What that’s telling me is that we-all still will be expected to mask up and socially distance, because the masking and distancing have to do with transmissibility, not alleviation of symptoms.
It’s truly great that covid symptoms can now be alleviated, no question, but if masking and distancing will continue to be expected, then it’s not great that so many people’s lives and livelihoods will continue to be dampened / depressed / in jeopardy.
Somebody tell me I’m mistaken (please?) . . .
MJR:
Because the health risk of those infected even after vaccination won’t be zero (0)?
You say the risk can never be zero (impossible to have 0 risk).
Well you will have to just comply with whatever we tell you to do.
Win win for those in control. It’s for the public health and safety, don’t you know.
What was the case fatality rate again? Nevermind.
Just think how much you will accomplish when that 3rd arm grows in!
(just kidding, I am pro jab)
I have never had a flu shot Really don’t want to be a test subject for them. https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/03/what-vaccine-trials/
I read that this is not a flu vaccine but an RNA gene therapy, which is completely different from what a vaccine is for. No, not anti-vaxx. Just no need for flu shot for healthy people. Good luck with all that.
Tommyjay, that may be true. But, it is also true that the vaccine does not prevent you from being a carrier, or testing positive at certain times. I don’t know what the elapsed time is after exposure in either case.
Since I am universally critical of California, I have to say that the vaccination process went better than expected for me and my wife. Our medical provider is U of Cal Irvine, however, and I think they out performed most of the state–for >65 group. The process was superbly organized–once an appointment was obtained. There’s the rub, but even that improved in the week between my wife and me.
All health care professionals in the family have had first shot, and most have had the second. One grand daughter ( a leukemia survivor) ran a fever for several days after the first Moderna; but not the second. A niece did as well. All other reactions were fairly trivial.
A few dozen anti-Vaxxers shut down the huge operation at Dodger stadium a few days ago. Apparently stoppage of vaccinations was the only response considered by City officials. I am not confident that this country could now defend itself against Swiss aggression. Hopefully, the Swiss will be satisfied to remain in their beautiful Alps.
M J R,
om is on the right track. Yes, the vaccine is not a 100% preventative but it’s pretty damn good; 96% effective for the standard virus. Maybe only 40 or 50% effective for the new S. African strain.
The vaccine does not just reduce symptoms. It blocks the virus from growing in your body.
Without the vaccine, your infected body becomes a big factory for manufacturing virons by the trillions, while destroying your body’s cells by the millions. When your sick body has a huge viral load, then every breath and cough spreads them around your environment. This is called viral sheading.
If the vaccine is working well for you, you might get some virus in your nose and either it won’t multiply at all, or will multiply only a little instead of a lot. In the first case you won’t transmit it. In the second case, you could transmit it but only at a very much lower amount. Bottom line: Vaccines reduce transmission enormously, but don’t eliminate the possibility.
If politicians want to mess with your life or livelihood, they can focus on the fact that a vaccinated person could transmit the virus. But the fact is that these vaccines are as close to a silver bullet as we are going to get, in terms to stopping the spread of the disease, if most of us get vaccinated.
Oldflyer,
Yes, you have to be careful about this “carrier” vs. transmission business. One could have 100% immunity and be carrying the virus around on your skin and in your nose. In fact something like 20+% of us carry the deadly MRSA bacteria around on our skin or in our nose, but it’s usually not a problem.
But the major spreading of COVID-19 happens when a body is loaded full of the virus and in the lungs. A healthy carrier might spread a few picograms of the virus whereas the sick person might spread several micrograms of virus. The difference is a factor of a million or so. I’m guessing at numbers of course, but I think the idea is correct.
Funny comment on a Swiss invasion. That should be more difficult now that the EU has partially disarmed the Swiss.
Gwoog,
1) The flu virus is a very different virus than the corona virus. Even though some call it the WuFlu, it is the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus.
2) These vaccines are real vaccines, even though they operate through some RNA gene trickery. The end result should be very nearly the same as old style vaccines would have done, except they are safer or at least more consistent.
Paul in Boston, my heart breaks to think of what you are going through. I hope you will be able to visit with your wife soon.
Getting #1 tomorrow. About 9% of Utah residents have gotten at least one vaccination. Infection rates are back down to early October levels.
Cheers! Hope there are no issues or symptoms.
Thanks for all the good wishes. I’m hoping that things will ease up soon. It shouldn’t be a hard decision once everyone has been vaccinated and since virtually all the residents have had Covid and recovered, sort of double protection.
Come on, if you cared about your readers you would have livestreamed it!
No can do. They kept telling her to put the bloody apple down.
I’ll be holding off getting the shot since I had an allergic reaction to sulfa drug (hives over all of my body) as well as having allergic reactions to insect bites (bees & mosquitos). My doc is watching the literature for allergic reactions. And I got a fresh batch of epi-pens for the “low” generic price of $334. for two pens.
I’m eligible for the shot (over 65), but there are no appointments within 100 miles. But, I have an issue with going to another county to take their “allocation”. I can wait.
Today my 93 year old mother in law slipped the bounds of earth and is in heaven with Jesus. Congestive heart failure combined with COVID got her. She lost the battle but won the war.
She was born in Galicia Poland now part of the Ukraine in 1927. Her earliest memory of WWII was when her brother was strafed by a ME109 and he lived because he jumped into a ditch. Her father being a minor official and mother, a school teacher, they were deported by the NKVD to Archangel Siberia in Jan 1940 and allowed to pack one trunk for all of them. There in the Gulag, they chopped wood for the glory of the Soviet state. When Germany invaded Russia in 1941 Stalin, under duress, allowed all Poles to leave the Gulag as long as they formed an army to fight the Nazi’s. When they came to get her brother they told the camp to start walking south. And south they walked through the Urals, Steppes of Russia almost starving to death, rode a boat on the Volga, rode a camel through Azerbaijan desert and eventually to Basra Iraq. The balance of the war she lived in a camp in what is now Tanzania. They tried to set up a Polish town existence there, but it was tough with the leopards, monkeys and tropical diseases. Every year another group of young men left the camp to fight in the war.
Offered to be allowed to go back to Poland at the end of the war the family said “no thanks” and in 1948 her family went to London which she just adored. There she reunited with her brother and his best friend from the Polish army who vigorously courted her and they fell in love. In 1951, the family got sponsored to the US and she left with them because her mother was in bad health. She didn’t want to go loving London so much, but she obeyed her family duty. Her fiancé followed the next year and in 1953 they got married. Their first child, my wife, was born in 1955 and two other children followed. They became proud American citizens in 1957. In 1968 with the night sky burning orange from the Detroit riots they moved into their 980 SQ FT house. Their American dream realized. She lived there for 51 years happy in her garden and house.
Her first husband passed away in 1986. When going through his personal effects when we sold her house, we found he was decorated for bravery in the battle of Monte Cassino. He never spoke of this with his children. Like so many men of that generation, he put the war behind him and got on with ordinary life.
She met her second husband another Polish refugee who fought as a partisan against the Nazi’s and was captured in the Warsaw Uprising. They married and had a happy 25 years together doing what retirees do traveling, puttering in the yard and enjoying grandchildren. He passed away two years ago and she greatly missed him.
A remarkable lady with a remarkable life. Her thread has now been fully woven into the fabric of the human tapestry. I shall miss her.
This is my first draft of her obituary.
This makes two wonderful ladies that were taken away too soon by this bio-engineered Chinese virus partially funded by Fauci. I am beyond angry. I will not forget and I will strive to make sure that his name will go down with ignominy and disgrace. I can only hope he is alive when it happens.
I am Spartacus:
Thank you.
I am Sparticus:
Condolences on the passing of your mother in law, now with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To OldFlyer & Ann in LA –
I read about the Dodger Stadium “peaceful protest” – but, depending on where you get your news, either the anti-vaxxers “shut down the entry line” or the police voluntarily, and unnecessarily, closed the gates themselves.
I report, you decide.
But I trust nothing DeMedia tells me.
Some people just don’t get a vaccine to take. We have a young family member who is one of the few who *both* got a chicken pox vaccine *and* got chicken pox. It causes him some issues, since schools now all require the vaccine, and don’t take into account that someone might have actually had the disease.
Yes, I am Spartacus. Thank you for sharing your mother in law’s remarkable life.
Obituary writing is a lost art — or, at least, a neglected art. And yet a life affirming one.
Francois Truffaut, the French New Wave director’s least successful film was “The Green Room.” He play’s the lead himself.
It is about an obit writer after The Great War. He becomes devoted to memorialising the dead to the point of obsession.
While obviously unbalanced, the deep question effectively raised and meditated upon through “The Green Room” is this one: what do we the living owe to the dead? If anything?
Giving an earnest and honest account of their significance, like in a good obituary, is where I come down.
And I am Spartacus has, indeed. Thanks again.
I am Spartacus, deepest sympathy on your loss. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.
We are 66 and 64 with co-morbidities, in Texas, and got our first Pfizer dose about two weeks ago. No side-effects worth mentioning.
Registration was a phone call and answering a couple of questions. I was telling the truth about the co-morbidities, but they really didn’t care; when we arrived, no one even asked to see i.d. Although we are fully open statewide for Phases 1a and 1b, the priority clearly is to get those doses into as many arms as will show up at a mass vaccination event.
I have mostly ignored vaccinations all my life, beyond the obvious things like tetanus, but I’m starting to pay more attention as I age: a flu shot once, shingles shot, things like that. I don’t have strong feelings for or against vaccination. COVID, however, is a disease I take very seriously, which is not to say that I believe most of the nonsense I read about how it should best be treated or prevented.
I am Spartacus–Thank you for sharing this memory of your mother-in-law, may she rest in peace. Trusting that the Comforter will indeed bring the peace that passes all understanding to those that will miss her.
I am Spartacus,
What a wonderful account of a remarkable woman! Thank you for sharing that and your obituary will obviously go well and be well received. God bless her and all her loved ones!
TJ,
“… the deep question effectively raised and meditated upon through “The Green Room” is this one: what do we the living owe to the dead? If anything?”
“Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?!” – Groucho Marx (no relation)
Congrats. I get mine on Thursday. Make sure to get the next dose in the opposite arm (that is the way the trials were run and it will hurt less).
Also, do pushups and work out that day to get the stuff through your system. I have heard nothing but pain for the second dose.
Best,
Bill
I am Spartacus, that was great. A happy repose to her!
TommyJay, that Moderna slide that you found on that Korean site looks like a wonderful thing, but I feel I need some words to direct me through all that I’m seeing.
I am Spartacus:
Condolences on the death of your mother-in-law. She sounds like a wonderful woman with a blessed life.
I am a very healthy 61 y o. I have never had the flu, nor the flu shot. A doctor told me a year or so ago that I had no reason to ever get the flu shot since my immune system obviously was very strong. I will not get the corona virus vaccine. I note with a lot of interest reports that up to 50% of nurses and/or nursing home staff are refusing to get the vaccine. My reservations are the lack of extensive testing before the vaccine was issued. I understand the urgency, but the lack of testing means that we have no idea what short- or long-term side affects may ensue.
One might argue that those nurses and staff at nursing homes who refuse the vaccination are putting their patients at greater risk; the elderly in such settings aren’t a low risk cohort after all. I hope the patients get a chance to be vaccinated, but that’s not my decision. You be you.
Wear the maxs to the max! Avoid the wax, and especially the waxy yellow buildup.
Philip Sells,
No kidding. David Foster’s ChicagoBoyz web site had an article 2 or 4 weeks ago mostly about the actual genetic mRNA coding that was good, though narrow in scope. Here is the article by Bert Hubert.
So Moderna makes mRNA strings that are encoded to make the spike protein (S-protein) on the SARS-CoV-2 virus only. From the Hubert piece, they also must modify that code so that the S-protein can be free standing alone. Otherwise it collapses into useless goo.
Then they package the mRNA string in a lipid package, which is a very special thing. This is the corona virus looking thing in the upper left corner of the slide. It is the stuff they inject into your arm muscle. Our body’s cell membranes usually do a good job of keeping foreign junk out, and this lipid package must defeat the membrane to gain entrance. That’s what’s happening right below the words “Muscle cell.” This lipid package is also why the vials must be frozen, even cryogenically for the Pfizer.
Once inside the muscle cell the mRNA string hijacks the cell’s protein manufacturing machinery and cranks out lots of S-proteins. I previously thought that this continues until the cell bursts. (I still would not be surprised if this does happen some of the time.) The Hubert piece suggests that the mRNA code is constructed to limit the number of S-proteins made per cell maybe to gain more consistency or to not burst the muscle cells.
The above paragraph shows up in the upper slide frame: Ribosome –> Viral protein chains –> Viral antigens. Viral antigens = slightly modified S-proteins.
In the slide we see what Hubert says: The S-proteins present themselves on the surface of the muscle cell. (Not bursting the cell.) Some of the S-proteins just sit there on the surface and some are sloughed off into surrounding fluids. Lymph fluids? The free S-proteins make their way over to the lymph nodes and encounter APC cells in the nodes.
In the lower frame we see both the vax lipid packages and the free S-proteins entering the APC cells. Both processes get S-proteins inside the APC cell, but they are packaged differently inside the cell.
On the right side of both of the large frames we see internal MHC units presenting to the surfaces of the cells. MHCI units package the antigens in the muscle cells and present to the surface; MHCII units package the antigens in the APC cells and present to the surface.
Finally, immunity is actually built up as shown in the little frames: MHCI units interface with CD-8 T cells; antigens sitting on the muscle cell membranes interface the the B cells; MHCII units interface with CD-4 T cells.
Whew! I have no idea how many mistakes I’ve made, but it’s fun no?
I just noticed that the slide is from 2017, well before there was COVID and an interest in spike glycoproteins.
Another thing is that antigens that sit on the surface of a muscle cell will, given enough time, cause the immune system to kill the cell. But for all I know, maybe the muscle membrane antigens disappear and the cell survives.
The limited data I have seen suggest a rather rapid decline in the vaccine-induced antibodies. The absence of long-term post-vaccine follow-up also concerns me, as does the emergence of “strains” of the virus in which immunization is said to be only ~50% “effective”.
We have in fact been living under government-imposed restriction of our Constitutional liberties for almost a year now. And this will worsen under the Bidens. The best way to convert the US, full of passive sheep, into a communist country where citizens may not do many things and become increasingly dependent on payments from DC, is to keep us under the COVID suppression for a lot longer.
I have not been tested nor will I accept vaccination.
The data on COVID are extremely suspicious. The numbers of “cases” are reported, not the number of illnesses. A “case” is a positive test (maybe false-positive, especially with the PCR test), not an illness. Johns Hopkins only tabulates “cases” and COVID deaths. It is amazing their data show a lower death rate in Asian Indian “cases” than in American. Which is really not credible unless one delusionally believes Indian health care is superior to America’s.
We know many positives are asymptomatic, never become ill. Since the elderly, with multiple chronic illnesses aka co-morbidities, are all tested on hospital admission for one or more of their illnesses, and if test positive, they are coded with an admission diagnosis of COVID…Since Medicare, which pays a single lump-sum payment to a hospital for diagnosis X in fact pays more for a COVID diagnosis, even if that ailment did not bring the old geezer to the hospital.
Previous vaccine studies in nonhuman primates with recombinant chimpanzee-derived adenovirus vector vaccine from Oxford [AstraZeneca] (ChAdOX) or DNA vaccine showed protection against lower-airway viral replication and against pathologic changes in the lung after challenge with approximately 106 TCID50 (for the ChAdOX vaccine)10 or 104 PFU (for the DNA vaccine)7 of SARS-CoV-2. However, these studies provided no evidence of a reduction of viral replication in nasal tissue, raising questions as to whether these vaccines could affect virus transmission. In contrast, our study [with Moderna] showed early prevention of viral replication in the upper and lower airways after a high-dose challenge (approximately 8×105 PFU) with SARS-CoV-2. The ability to limit viral replication in both the lower and the upper airways has important implications for vaccine-induced prevention of both SARS-CoV-2 disease and transmission.
. —
The mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate induced higher ACE2 binding inhibition (348 times as high), more potent receptor-binding domain and N-terminal domain antibody responses, and higher neutralizing activity (12 to 84 times as high) than was measured in a panel of convalescent-phase serum specimens obtained from patients with Covid-19 of various levels of clinical severity.
So it looks like one could have a vaccine, like the Oxford-AstraZeneca perhaps, that does a good job keeping you healthy, but not such a good job in preventing transmission and spread of the disease. Although to be fair to the OAZ vax, some of the transmission probably starts deep in the lung alveoli, based on other things I’ve read, and that would be stopped by the OAZ vax.
They are also claiming that the Moderna vax greatly reduces all the obvious viral replication and should be excellent in preventing transmission. And that viral binding to cells, the first step of replication, is reduced 300 times better than for recovered COVID patients macaques with antibodies.
Let’s hope the authors are not Moderna shills.
Cicero,
Nobody knows how long the immunity will last. The vaccine immunity is very similar to the convalescent immunity, but not identical.
My county offers a daily blizzard of COVID data, most of it garbage. The only useful thing I look at is the current number of people hospitalized with COVID.
I’ll bet that most of us here have already encountered the SARS-CoV-2 virus, if only a tiny bit. I’m tempted to spend the money to get the high quality antibody test before the vaccine, just out of curiosity. That won’t stop me from getting the vaccine.
Does anyone know if you receive a vaccination certificate after the second dose?
TommyJay:
I got a card after my first dose that says what I got and when I got it. There’s a space for the second dose and I assume the card will be completed at that point and will constitute proof of my vaccination. No one explained that to me; I’m just assuming it.
I’m generally a proponent of vaccines, don’t mind needles. I have no problem giving blood and generally listen to Drs.’ advice, but I’ve gotten flu shots maybe 5 times and happened to get rather ill with fluish symptoms on at least 3 of the occasions. So, I have started avoiding it.
Since I have had COVID and my white blood cells appear to have figured out it is an enemy I am sitting back and waiting. Much more important for others in my region who have not been exposed to get the shot so their white blood cells get the training.
When my wife got her 1st shot she asked the technician if she would still have to follow protocols after getting the 2nd. The tech answered yes. Still have to quarantine if exposed to someone who comes down with it, etc… My wife asked, “what’s the point?”
I know there is a chance someone with the antibodies or vaccine can be a carrier, but at that point we are talking fractions of fractions. There have to be graver, more real threats than someone vaccinated against COVID passing on COVID to someone who will contract COVID and be unable to ward it off.
Thanks for that Neo.
I suppose it is predictable but sad that being vaccinated won’t obviate things like masks and quarantines. It won’t help when we have 3 or 4 different vaccines being used with some real differences.
My inclination is to get the Moderna vaccination certificate, wear it around my neck, and tell any political or social safety warriors to f_off. Sue me pal!
Rufus T. Firefly:
I don’t think the person giving your wife the shot really knows what the rules will be once most people are vaccinated. Then again, maybe the Biden administration will try to EO us into permanent lockdown. Maybe that was the secret master plan he kept alluding to.
Hi, TommyJay. It turned out that that article by Hubert is already in my bookmarks. I have a protein science background, so some of it is not hard to grapple with for me. Molecular biology as such was never my strong suit, but I can manage the basics, I guess. Maybe. On a good day.
So, in theory, someone who has been vaccinated can neither contract nor transmit the virus. So, they should not need to wear a mask anymore. Right?
But, that isn’t what will happen.
Roy Nathanson, according to an interview with a Chief Medical Officer of Moderna, the clinical trials could confirm neither that transmission of the virus would be abated nor that you would not require hospitalization as a result of the shot. I linked to the article in a previous comment. From what I can surmise, you stand the same chance of a negative response as you would if you contracted the virus. In other words, 98% of people are fine.
Jesus Christ … just when you think these covid shot people have their act together. I get a text which I have to reply …
#peyc11= Yes
#peyc12= No
First many people in my area don’t have phones they can even get a text!
Second there is no time or date in the text (other than on the card given for first shot when we got the first shot).
I called the place we got the first shot and was told to just show up the same time and place.
Now I was able to navigate this but I’m sure some of our older members of the community will not and just give up!
Nothing can be easy …
New vaccine news this morning. The Oxford AstraZeneca people are touting their new data that suggests that COVID-19 transmissibility is reduced by about 75% with their vaccine.
This news appears to contradict what I said above (February 2, 2021 at 5:34 pm) based on a few months old research paper. Although, it is possible that it’s not a contradiction, and that the 75% improvement is at the lower end of improvements that we will experience. Maybe the Moderna vax has something more like an 85+% improvement (in reducing transmissibility).
Better wash and save those masks. The safety warriors won’t be satisfied with anything less than a 99.9% reduction in transmissibility. Because they follow the science!
OK … Got my second dose of Moderna vaccine. It’s been 3 days and NO side effects … none. Not even a sore arm. The original card they gave me was updated and was told to keep it for proof that I’ve received the vaccine.
Mission accomplished!
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Come on, if you cared about your readers you would have livestreamed it!
Well, those readers that don’t pass out at the sight of needles, or needles piercing flesh. But that’s my brother, not me.
Wow, Mass beats CT again. We aren’t even on the radar yet for 65+ in CT
You’re so special Neo. Good for you. I just know that my wife and I will be that last people in the USA to get a dose. Maybe the last in the G20.
Bad and good vaccine news of late: The current vaxs do work against the new UK and S. Africa strains, but not as well. Moderna says that they will have booster shots available very soon that are specifically tailored for the new strains. Then California can deny me the booster shots too.
I plan to either avoid the vaccine entirely or delay it as long as possible. If I bet wrong, so be it.
The moderna or pfizer covid vaccine? Which did you get?
I got my first Pfizer 10 days ago. According to some reports I am now 50% protected.
My wife got hers last Thursday evening. She wanted to see if I survived–although she says that wasn’t the case. Thursday morning our daily RAG had massive front page headline reporting that a local man died 2.5 hours after getting the shot. Apparently, no risk factors; but, they have not reported the cause of death. My wife swallowed hard, and still went for hers.
I have seen reports that two people–one a Congressman– tested positive a couple of weeks after their second Pfizer. I don’t think everyone understands that you can still be a carrier since the vaccine simply triggers an immune system reaction once it detects the virus in your system.
Congratulations and best of luck and health! My folks have had both and never had any side effects, although my mother had brief, COVID-like symptoms that lasted about 48 hours 2 weeks after the second shot. Seems it’s possible she got it then, but the vaccine kept it from being worse?
My wife (a health care professional) has had her first and is due her second next week. Several of her co-workers got quite ill for 1-2 days after the second shot.
I currently have 3 family members in the hospital due to COVID. One is 80 and the other two are 60. None had comorbidities as far as I know.
Stay safe, people!
Ken:
Moderna.
Rufus T. Firefly:
Hope your relatives recover soon.
Congrats, Neo! I’m glad you’re getting the shots, since I think you’ve said you’ve got a possible comorbidity.
Here in NC, at age 72, we are not likely to get the vaccine any time soon. UNC has no appointments; our doctor’s office doesn’t have the vaccine; we are on our county’s waiting list, but they are prioritizing by zip code, which means, not our zip code. Fortunately, we have no other risk factors other than age.
Rufus T. Firefly, I hope your family members will recover.
What physicsguy said; I think CT has been infected by Cuomo virus.
Your lucky to get in today with the bad weather. If it snows here in east texas we shut everything down! Thank God for 4+4 trucks!
jack:
Actually, I was originally scheduled for tomorrow. They have canceled operations for tomorrow – huge snowstorm expected – and somehow managed to switch all of (or at least many of) us to today. I had been worried that I’d have to start from scratch again because of the storm. Fortunately, not.
Congrats! My sister got hit hard by Pfizer #2. She felt like she had the flu, including fever and aches, for about 48 hours. I might have had a little feeling like I was getting sick after #2, other than that, just arm pain.
84 year old mom got Moderna #1 with only arm pain. Now we’re hoping that the city comes through with her appointment for #2. Dodgers’ Stadium city-run site worked astonishingly well. We were in and out in an hour, including the 15 minute post-injection wait.
Good news, Neo — may you stay well! Mr Whatsit and I have an appointment in mid-March. The location is two and a half hours from here, but it was the best we could do short of waiting until April or May. The vaccine is also supposed to be available at certain drugstores and through county health departments, but good luck finding any availability. NY does seem to be doing better than PA — we have an inlaw there in his mid-70s with respiratory issues, who cannot get an appointment for love or money.
Good for you, Neo. The pace of vaccinations is glacial here in the People’s Republic Of Puget Sound. At the present rate, Snohomish County will get to 70 % of our population vaccinated in 32 months. It’s government after all.
I am working on getting standby prescriptions for HCQ or Ivermectin from AFLDS.com, as we may be another two or three months before getting a shot. Better safe than sorry. I just heard about AFLDS a week ago. They apparently have a source for HCQ.
By the way, has everybody seen this from Roger Simon:
“I accuse—in no particular order—Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ nominee and frequent Wuhan, China visitor/collaborator Dr. Anthony Fauci; the Democrat Party (aka the “party of science”) and their nauseating, self-congratulatory leadership; the mainstream media and all their pompous, even more self-congratulatory “ships at sea” from the New York Times to CNN; Dr. Birx and whatever bureaucrat from the CDC was showing his/her face this week; the endless echo chamber in practically every health department in all fifty states; the foreign health departments that largely echoed that echo chamber; Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York (more of him in a moment); Governor Whitmer of Michigan; that atrocious governor of Nevada whose name I can’t remember or bother to look up…. I could go on… all of whom participated in what has emerged to be what is indisputably the greatest national, no, international, health disaster of our time—the Hydroxychloroquine Scandal.
This shameful distortion of medical science was emblematic of how politics not only crept into the treatment of the CCP virus, it bludgeoned that treatment and resulted in untold thousands, perhaps millions, of deaths while simultaneously making life unbearable for an even greater number across the globe—in fact, for practically everyone.
All of those mentioned above either dismissed or heavily downplayed “hydroxy”—a cheap anti-malarial drug, also used for lupus, that had been around for decades and is known to have minimal side effects—for the treatment of COVID-19. Why? As most of us are aware, a man they thought an ogre, whom they despised, who knew nothing of science, recommended it—President Donald J. Trump—so it had to be disdained.
And yet hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) apparently did and does work in many instances, if taken early in the illness.
This was known way back in June 2020 when the esteemed British medical journal Lancet retracted its support of a dubious study it had published opposing the use of HCQ. “We all entered this collaboration to contribute in good faith and at a time of great need during the COVID-19 pandemic. We deeply apologize to you, the editors, and the journal readership for any embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused.”
This apology, made eight months ago, was largely ignored by the mainstream media because it didn’t fit their narrative. And, worse yet, it might have benefited the nefarious Trump.
At the same time, many independent doctors were insisting that HCQ was working for them with real patients. They were similarly dismissed by a rabid press that had neither the inclination nor skills to investigate. (Laura Ingraham, to her credit, featured several of these doctors on her cable show.)
Meanwhile, thousands, if not millions, died across the globe who needn’t have.
How many we will never know but it’s a safe assumption a good number could have been spared.
The pervasive use of this drug might not have entirely saved us from COVID, but it could arguably have reduced the pandemic to the level of a bad year of flu.
Whatever the truth, an apposite description for what happened might be outrageous.
And now the equally-esteemed American Journal of Medicine in its January 2021 edition has finally admitted the same thing. HCQ often worked. Immediate administration of the drug while the patient was still at home showed significant benefits, they said.
Where were they during the Year of the Pandemic?
Oh, never mind. Politics is more important.”
The MSM will never report this. Never. Pond scum is what they are.
Oldflyer,
One possibility for that congressman you mention is that two weeks after Pfizer #2 maybe isn’t quite long enough for the full immune reaction.
Also, Fox’s Doc. Siegel suspects that the positive test result for that Rep. could have been one of those hyper sensitive PCR tests that shows the presence of the virus without an actual infection. Of course, he doesn’t really know. But technically that would mean he is carrying the virus, but he is not carrying a meaningfully large quantity.
Secondly, the vaccine triggers an immune response immediately upon injection. Within minutes or hours anyway. But the full response is not fast. Within 6 or 10 weeks from the first injection, you should have a strong complement of protective antibodies irrespective of whether you encounter the SARS-CoV-2 virus or not.
I stumbled across this Moderna slide some weeks ago. It has more than you want to know about how the vaccine works, all jammed into one slide.
I got Pfizer #1 a week and a half ago, but only because my wife is in a dementia unit and they kindly gave the shots to spouses too. The next one is due in a week and a half.
I’m hoping that this means they will lift visiting restrictions soon after. I’ve raised the issue but they’re being coy. Right now I have to wear a mask, a shield, a gown, and gloves and be seated at the other end of a table. I’m only allowed to visit for thirty minutes twice a week.
Paul in Boston:
I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with so much. Hopefully, in a few weeks you’ll be able to visit more normally – although who knows, the authorities of these places don’t always do the logical thing.
Never had a Flue shot, never had Flue . I will be “dead” last for a vaccine. Macron announced the other day vaccine , maybe Moderna , wasn’t working very well. The thought of Injecting plastic into my bloodstream gives me the heebijeebis .
Low dose ivermectin, and doxycicline both well known and safe every two weeks. Liposomal Vitamin c, vitamin d , and zinc every day.
Mass quantities of high quality Cabernet . ( this is key)
Take the shot, it’s free country, so far. I will pray for you all.
Paul in Boston,
Very sorry about your wife and your inability to visit her more normally. I hope the situation improves very soon. It must be especially disconcerting for her.
Here in CO they are on the +70’s. Wife and I have had the first shot and hope that there is enough vaccine to get the second one in Mid Feb. Of course there is still time for our own Dictator and the one elsewhere ( not St. Elsewhere) in the country to mess things up. We got the Moderna and have had no problems except for a sore arm for me.
Glad to see that some are getting it. Hope they rest of you manage to get one too.
Almost said “get yours too” but that might have been read wrong.
Moderna #1 , just four days ago.
Only the slightest soreness in the arm/shoulder. More an awareness that I’d been poked than an actual pain.
My understanding, in this lay person’s terms, is that if the subject contracts covid, and has been vaccinated with both #1 and #2, then that subject’s covid symptoms will be less severe, possibly/probably significantly less severe.
But the vaccine does nothing to alleviate the transmissibility of covid (according to my understanding).
What that’s telling me is that we-all still will be expected to mask up and socially distance, because the masking and distancing have to do with transmissibility, not alleviation of symptoms.
It’s truly great that covid symptoms can now be alleviated, no question, but if masking and distancing will continue to be expected, then it’s not great that so many people’s lives and livelihoods will continue to be dampened / depressed / in jeopardy.
Somebody tell me I’m mistaken (please?) . . .
MJR:
Because the health risk of those infected even after vaccination won’t be zero (0)?
You say the risk can never be zero (impossible to have 0 risk).
Well you will have to just comply with whatever we tell you to do.
Win win for those in control. It’s for the public health and safety, don’t you know.
What was the case fatality rate again? Nevermind.
Just think how much you will accomplish when that 3rd arm grows in!
(just kidding, I am pro jab)
I have never had a flu shot Really don’t want to be a test subject for them.
https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/03/what-vaccine-trials/
I read that this is not a flu vaccine but an RNA gene therapy, which is completely different from what a vaccine is for. No, not anti-vaxx. Just no need for flu shot for healthy people. Good luck with all that.
Tommyjay, that may be true. But, it is also true that the vaccine does not prevent you from being a carrier, or testing positive at certain times. I don’t know what the elapsed time is after exposure in either case.
Since I am universally critical of California, I have to say that the vaccination process went better than expected for me and my wife. Our medical provider is U of Cal Irvine, however, and I think they out performed most of the state–for >65 group. The process was superbly organized–once an appointment was obtained. There’s the rub, but even that improved in the week between my wife and me.
All health care professionals in the family have had first shot, and most have had the second. One grand daughter ( a leukemia survivor) ran a fever for several days after the first Moderna; but not the second. A niece did as well. All other reactions were fairly trivial.
A few dozen anti-Vaxxers shut down the huge operation at Dodger stadium a few days ago. Apparently stoppage of vaccinations was the only response considered by City officials. I am not confident that this country could now defend itself against Swiss aggression. Hopefully, the Swiss will be satisfied to remain in their beautiful Alps.
M J R,
om is on the right track. Yes, the vaccine is not a 100% preventative but it’s pretty damn good; 96% effective for the standard virus. Maybe only 40 or 50% effective for the new S. African strain.
The vaccine does not just reduce symptoms. It blocks the virus from growing in your body.
Without the vaccine, your infected body becomes a big factory for manufacturing virons by the trillions, while destroying your body’s cells by the millions. When your sick body has a huge viral load, then every breath and cough spreads them around your environment. This is called viral sheading.
If the vaccine is working well for you, you might get some virus in your nose and either it won’t multiply at all, or will multiply only a little instead of a lot. In the first case you won’t transmit it. In the second case, you could transmit it but only at a very much lower amount. Bottom line: Vaccines reduce transmission enormously, but don’t eliminate the possibility.
If politicians want to mess with your life or livelihood, they can focus on the fact that a vaccinated person could transmit the virus. But the fact is that these vaccines are as close to a silver bullet as we are going to get, in terms to stopping the spread of the disease, if most of us get vaccinated.
Oldflyer,
Yes, you have to be careful about this “carrier” vs. transmission business. One could have 100% immunity and be carrying the virus around on your skin and in your nose. In fact something like 20+% of us carry the deadly MRSA bacteria around on our skin or in our nose, but it’s usually not a problem.
But the major spreading of COVID-19 happens when a body is loaded full of the virus and in the lungs. A healthy carrier might spread a few picograms of the virus whereas the sick person might spread several micrograms of virus. The difference is a factor of a million or so. I’m guessing at numbers of course, but I think the idea is correct.
Funny comment on a Swiss invasion. That should be more difficult now that the EU has partially disarmed the Swiss.
Gwoog,
1) The flu virus is a very different virus than the corona virus. Even though some call it the WuFlu, it is the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus.
2) These vaccines are real vaccines, even though they operate through some RNA gene trickery. The end result should be very nearly the same as old style vaccines would have done, except they are safer or at least more consistent.
Paul in Boston, my heart breaks to think of what you are going through. I hope you will be able to visit with your wife soon.
Getting #1 tomorrow. About 9% of Utah residents have gotten at least one vaccination. Infection rates are back down to early October levels.
Cheers! Hope there are no issues or symptoms.
Thanks for all the good wishes. I’m hoping that things will ease up soon. It shouldn’t be a hard decision once everyone has been vaccinated and since virtually all the residents have had Covid and recovered, sort of double protection.
Come on, if you cared about your readers you would have livestreamed it!
No can do. They kept telling her to put the bloody apple down.
I’ll be holding off getting the shot since I had an allergic reaction to sulfa drug (hives over all of my body) as well as having allergic reactions to insect bites (bees & mosquitos). My doc is watching the literature for allergic reactions. And I got a fresh batch of epi-pens for the “low” generic price of $334. for two pens.
I’m eligible for the shot (over 65), but there are no appointments within 100 miles. But, I have an issue with going to another county to take their “allocation”. I can wait.
Today my 93 year old mother in law slipped the bounds of earth and is in heaven with Jesus. Congestive heart failure combined with COVID got her. She lost the battle but won the war.
She was born in Galicia Poland now part of the Ukraine in 1927. Her earliest memory of WWII was when her brother was strafed by a ME109 and he lived because he jumped into a ditch. Her father being a minor official and mother, a school teacher, they were deported by the NKVD to Archangel Siberia in Jan 1940 and allowed to pack one trunk for all of them. There in the Gulag, they chopped wood for the glory of the Soviet state. When Germany invaded Russia in 1941 Stalin, under duress, allowed all Poles to leave the Gulag as long as they formed an army to fight the Nazi’s. When they came to get her brother they told the camp to start walking south. And south they walked through the Urals, Steppes of Russia almost starving to death, rode a boat on the Volga, rode a camel through Azerbaijan desert and eventually to Basra Iraq. The balance of the war she lived in a camp in what is now Tanzania. They tried to set up a Polish town existence there, but it was tough with the leopards, monkeys and tropical diseases. Every year another group of young men left the camp to fight in the war.
Offered to be allowed to go back to Poland at the end of the war the family said “no thanks” and in 1948 her family went to London which she just adored. There she reunited with her brother and his best friend from the Polish army who vigorously courted her and they fell in love. In 1951, the family got sponsored to the US and she left with them because her mother was in bad health. She didn’t want to go loving London so much, but she obeyed her family duty. Her fiancé followed the next year and in 1953 they got married. Their first child, my wife, was born in 1955 and two other children followed. They became proud American citizens in 1957. In 1968 with the night sky burning orange from the Detroit riots they moved into their 980 SQ FT house. Their American dream realized. She lived there for 51 years happy in her garden and house.
Her first husband passed away in 1986. When going through his personal effects when we sold her house, we found he was decorated for bravery in the battle of Monte Cassino. He never spoke of this with his children. Like so many men of that generation, he put the war behind him and got on with ordinary life.
She met her second husband another Polish refugee who fought as a partisan against the Nazi’s and was captured in the Warsaw Uprising. They married and had a happy 25 years together doing what retirees do traveling, puttering in the yard and enjoying grandchildren. He passed away two years ago and she greatly missed him.
A remarkable lady with a remarkable life. Her thread has now been fully woven into the fabric of the human tapestry. I shall miss her.
This is my first draft of her obituary.
This makes two wonderful ladies that were taken away too soon by this bio-engineered Chinese virus partially funded by Fauci. I am beyond angry. I will not forget and I will strive to make sure that his name will go down with ignominy and disgrace. I can only hope he is alive when it happens.
I am Spartacus:
Thank you.
I am Sparticus:
Condolences on the passing of your mother in law, now with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To OldFlyer & Ann in LA –
I read about the Dodger Stadium “peaceful protest” – but, depending on where you get your news, either the anti-vaxxers “shut down the entry line” or the police voluntarily, and unnecessarily, closed the gates themselves.
I report, you decide.
But I trust nothing DeMedia tells me.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/31/dodger-stadium-standoff-protesters-did-not-block-vaccination-entrance-police-acted-as-if-they-did/
Some people just don’t get a vaccine to take. We have a young family member who is one of the few who *both* got a chicken pox vaccine *and* got chicken pox. It causes him some issues, since schools now all require the vaccine, and don’t take into account that someone might have actually had the disease.
Yes, I am Spartacus. Thank you for sharing your mother in law’s remarkable life.
Obituary writing is a lost art — or, at least, a neglected art. And yet a life affirming one.
Francois Truffaut, the French New Wave director’s least successful film was “The Green Room.” He play’s the lead himself.
It is about an obit writer after The Great War. He becomes devoted to memorialising the dead to the point of obsession.
While obviously unbalanced, the deep question effectively raised and meditated upon through “The Green Room” is this one: what do we the living owe to the dead? If anything?
Giving an earnest and honest account of their significance, like in a good obituary, is where I come down.
And I am Spartacus has, indeed. Thanks again.
I am Spartacus, deepest sympathy on your loss. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.
We are 66 and 64 with co-morbidities, in Texas, and got our first Pfizer dose about two weeks ago. No side-effects worth mentioning.
Registration was a phone call and answering a couple of questions. I was telling the truth about the co-morbidities, but they really didn’t care; when we arrived, no one even asked to see i.d. Although we are fully open statewide for Phases 1a and 1b, the priority clearly is to get those doses into as many arms as will show up at a mass vaccination event.
I have mostly ignored vaccinations all my life, beyond the obvious things like tetanus, but I’m starting to pay more attention as I age: a flu shot once, shingles shot, things like that. I don’t have strong feelings for or against vaccination. COVID, however, is a disease I take very seriously, which is not to say that I believe most of the nonsense I read about how it should best be treated or prevented.
I am Spartacus–Thank you for sharing this memory of your mother-in-law, may she rest in peace. Trusting that the Comforter will indeed bring the peace that passes all understanding to those that will miss her.
I am Spartacus,
What a wonderful account of a remarkable woman! Thank you for sharing that and your obituary will obviously go well and be well received. God bless her and all her loved ones!
TJ,
“… the deep question effectively raised and meditated upon through “The Green Room” is this one: what do we the living owe to the dead? If anything?”
“Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?!” – Groucho Marx (no relation)
Congrats. I get mine on Thursday. Make sure to get the next dose in the opposite arm (that is the way the trials were run and it will hurt less).
Also, do pushups and work out that day to get the stuff through your system. I have heard nothing but pain for the second dose.
Best,
Bill
I am Spartacus, that was great. A happy repose to her!
TommyJay, that Moderna slide that you found on that Korean site looks like a wonderful thing, but I feel I need some words to direct me through all that I’m seeing.
I am Spartacus:
Condolences on the death of your mother-in-law. She sounds like a wonderful woman with a blessed life.
I am a very healthy 61 y o. I have never had the flu, nor the flu shot. A doctor told me a year or so ago that I had no reason to ever get the flu shot since my immune system obviously was very strong. I will not get the corona virus vaccine. I note with a lot of interest reports that up to 50% of nurses and/or nursing home staff are refusing to get the vaccine. My reservations are the lack of extensive testing before the vaccine was issued. I understand the urgency, but the lack of testing means that we have no idea what short- or long-term side affects may ensue.
One might argue that those nurses and staff at nursing homes who refuse the vaccination are putting their patients at greater risk; the elderly in such settings aren’t a low risk cohort after all. I hope the patients get a chance to be vaccinated, but that’s not my decision. You be you.
Wear the maxs to the max! Avoid the wax, and especially the waxy yellow buildup.
https://youtu.be/bhlZdP1uKyc
Philip Sells,
No kidding. David Foster’s ChicagoBoyz web site had an article 2 or 4 weeks ago mostly about the actual genetic mRNA coding that was good, though narrow in scope. Here is the article by Bert Hubert.
So Moderna makes mRNA strings that are encoded to make the spike protein (S-protein) on the SARS-CoV-2 virus only. From the Hubert piece, they also must modify that code so that the S-protein can be free standing alone. Otherwise it collapses into useless goo.
Then they package the mRNA string in a lipid package, which is a very special thing. This is the corona virus looking thing in the upper left corner of the slide. It is the stuff they inject into your arm muscle. Our body’s cell membranes usually do a good job of keeping foreign junk out, and this lipid package must defeat the membrane to gain entrance. That’s what’s happening right below the words “Muscle cell.” This lipid package is also why the vials must be frozen, even cryogenically for the Pfizer.
Once inside the muscle cell the mRNA string hijacks the cell’s protein manufacturing machinery and cranks out lots of S-proteins. I previously thought that this continues until the cell bursts. (I still would not be surprised if this does happen some of the time.) The Hubert piece suggests that the mRNA code is constructed to limit the number of S-proteins made per cell maybe to gain more consistency or to not burst the muscle cells.
The above paragraph shows up in the upper slide frame: Ribosome –> Viral protein chains –> Viral antigens. Viral antigens = slightly modified S-proteins.
In the slide we see what Hubert says: The S-proteins present themselves on the surface of the muscle cell. (Not bursting the cell.) Some of the S-proteins just sit there on the surface and some are sloughed off into surrounding fluids. Lymph fluids? The free S-proteins make their way over to the lymph nodes and encounter APC cells in the nodes.
In the lower frame we see both the vax lipid packages and the free S-proteins entering the APC cells. Both processes get S-proteins inside the APC cell, but they are packaged differently inside the cell.
On the right side of both of the large frames we see internal MHC units presenting to the surfaces of the cells. MHCI units package the antigens in the muscle cells and present to the surface; MHCII units package the antigens in the APC cells and present to the surface.
Finally, immunity is actually built up as shown in the little frames: MHCI units interface with CD-8 T cells; antigens sitting on the muscle cell membranes interface the the B cells; MHCII units interface with CD-4 T cells.
Whew! I have no idea how many mistakes I’ve made, but it’s fun no?
I just noticed that the slide is from 2017, well before there was COVID and an interest in spike glycoproteins.
Another thing is that antigens that sit on the surface of a muscle cell will, given enough time, cause the immune system to kill the cell. But for all I know, maybe the muscle membrane antigens disappear and the cell survives.
Here’s the link to the slide again
The limited data I have seen suggest a rather rapid decline in the vaccine-induced antibodies. The absence of long-term post-vaccine follow-up also concerns me, as does the emergence of “strains” of the virus in which immunization is said to be only ~50% “effective”.
We have in fact been living under government-imposed restriction of our Constitutional liberties for almost a year now. And this will worsen under the Bidens. The best way to convert the US, full of passive sheep, into a communist country where citizens may not do many things and become increasingly dependent on payments from DC, is to keep us under the COVID suppression for a lot longer.
I have not been tested nor will I accept vaccination.
The data on COVID are extremely suspicious. The numbers of “cases” are reported, not the number of illnesses. A “case” is a positive test (maybe false-positive, especially with the PCR test), not an illness. Johns Hopkins only tabulates “cases” and COVID deaths. It is amazing their data show a lower death rate in Asian Indian “cases” than in American. Which is really not credible unless one delusionally believes Indian health care is superior to America’s.
We know many positives are asymptomatic, never become ill. Since the elderly, with multiple chronic illnesses aka co-morbidities, are all tested on hospital admission for one or more of their illnesses, and if test positive, they are coded with an admission diagnosis of COVID…Since Medicare, which pays a single lump-sum payment to a hospital for diagnosis X in fact pays more for a COVID diagnosis, even if that ailment did not bring the old geezer to the hospital.
Here is a somewhat dated (10/15/2020) article on Moderna vaccine research performed on rhesus macaques.
So it looks like one could have a vaccine, like the Oxford-AstraZeneca perhaps, that does a good job keeping you healthy, but not such a good job in preventing transmission and spread of the disease. Although to be fair to the OAZ vax, some of the transmission probably starts deep in the lung alveoli, based on other things I’ve read, and that would be stopped by the OAZ vax.
They are also claiming that the Moderna vax greatly reduces all the obvious viral replication and should be excellent in preventing transmission. And that viral binding to cells, the first step of replication, is reduced 300 times better than for recovered COVID
patientsmacaques with antibodies.Let’s hope the authors are not Moderna shills.
Cicero,
Nobody knows how long the immunity will last. The vaccine immunity is very similar to the convalescent immunity, but not identical.
My county offers a daily blizzard of COVID data, most of it garbage. The only useful thing I look at is the current number of people hospitalized with COVID.
I’ll bet that most of us here have already encountered the SARS-CoV-2 virus, if only a tiny bit. I’m tempted to spend the money to get the high quality antibody test before the vaccine, just out of curiosity. That won’t stop me from getting the vaccine.
Does anyone know if you receive a vaccination certificate after the second dose?
TommyJay:
I got a card after my first dose that says what I got and when I got it. There’s a space for the second dose and I assume the card will be completed at that point and will constitute proof of my vaccination. No one explained that to me; I’m just assuming it.
I’m generally a proponent of vaccines, don’t mind needles. I have no problem giving blood and generally listen to Drs.’ advice, but I’ve gotten flu shots maybe 5 times and happened to get rather ill with fluish symptoms on at least 3 of the occasions. So, I have started avoiding it.
Since I have had COVID and my white blood cells appear to have figured out it is an enemy I am sitting back and waiting. Much more important for others in my region who have not been exposed to get the shot so their white blood cells get the training.
When my wife got her 1st shot she asked the technician if she would still have to follow protocols after getting the 2nd. The tech answered yes. Still have to quarantine if exposed to someone who comes down with it, etc… My wife asked, “what’s the point?”
I know there is a chance someone with the antibodies or vaccine can be a carrier, but at that point we are talking fractions of fractions. There have to be graver, more real threats than someone vaccinated against COVID passing on COVID to someone who will contract COVID and be unable to ward it off.
Thanks for that Neo.
I suppose it is predictable but sad that being vaccinated won’t obviate things like masks and quarantines. It won’t help when we have 3 or 4 different vaccines being used with some real differences.
My inclination is to get the Moderna vaccination certificate, wear it around my neck, and tell any political or social safety warriors to f_off. Sue me pal!
Rufus T. Firefly:
I don’t think the person giving your wife the shot really knows what the rules will be once most people are vaccinated. Then again, maybe the Biden administration will try to EO us into permanent lockdown. Maybe that was the secret master plan he kept alluding to.
Hi, TommyJay. It turned out that that article by Hubert is already in my bookmarks. I have a protein science background, so some of it is not hard to grapple with for me. Molecular biology as such was never my strong suit, but I can manage the basics, I guess. Maybe. On a good day.
So, in theory, someone who has been vaccinated can neither contract nor transmit the virus. So, they should not need to wear a mask anymore. Right?
But, that isn’t what will happen.
Roy Nathanson, according to an interview with a Chief Medical Officer of Moderna, the clinical trials could confirm neither that transmission of the virus would be abated nor that you would not require hospitalization as a result of the shot. I linked to the article in a previous comment. From what I can surmise, you stand the same chance of a negative response as you would if you contracted the virus. In other words, 98% of people are fine.
Jesus Christ … just when you think these covid shot people have their act together. I get a text which I have to reply …
#peyc11= Yes
#peyc12= No
First many people in my area don’t have phones they can even get a text!
Second there is no time or date in the text (other than on the card given for first shot when we got the first shot).
I called the place we got the first shot and was told to just show up the same time and place.
Now I was able to navigate this but I’m sure some of our older members of the community will not and just give up!
Nothing can be easy …
New vaccine news this morning. The Oxford AstraZeneca people are touting their new data that suggests that COVID-19 transmissibility is reduced by about 75% with their vaccine.
This news appears to contradict what I said above (February 2, 2021 at 5:34 pm) based on a few months old research paper. Although, it is possible that it’s not a contradiction, and that the 75% improvement is at the lower end of improvements that we will experience. Maybe the Moderna vax has something more like an 85+% improvement (in reducing transmissibility).
Better wash and save those masks. The safety warriors won’t be satisfied with anything less than a 99.9% reduction in transmissibility. Because they follow the science!
OK … Got my second dose of Moderna vaccine. It’s been 3 days and NO side effects … none. Not even a sore arm. The original card they gave me was updated and was told to keep it for proof that I’ve received the vaccine.
Mission accomplished!