Megan wasn’t crying. She had the ‘Rona.
Re diversification coming to a respiratory tract near you
https://twitter.com/johnrossmd/status/1572539106324008960?s=46&t=oZGdB_niBKBSLhFs5WDeGA
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i’ve had two flu A’s this week, it’s comin
My wife’s nephew’s bar mitzvah was last weekend. We decided not to go.
They were going to require everyone to test the day off, but at the last minute decided to cancel that requirement.
You can guess what happened.
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what are the chances i caught covid again, less than 8 weeks apart?
i had covid in early august and recovered/tested negative. and then middle of sept i babysat my 1yo nephew, who had his usual daycare runny nose plague. now i’m pretty sure i have whatever he has.
i took a super old antigen test (~12 months old) and it looked inconclusive to me, because the red line was like way off the strip somehow, not next to blue line. going to take a second test in a bit. kinda mentally prepared to be pozzed again.
eta: well second fresh test says negative. shrug
Even without the negative, the chances of you having covid again 8 weeks later are miniscule.
I think you are correct that worker shortages are not from COVID. 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day. The tsunami of American boomer retirements is the most significant trend in the labor supply/demand dynamics, not COVID deaths or illness. I think the biggest impacts that COVID had on labor supply are more secondary impacts: sending everybody home to think about their lives and many people concluded that work stress wasn’t worth it, deplorables abusing low paid retail workers about public health rules made low paid work less appealing, etc.
Interesting lay article on some of the more complex mechanisms involved in viral infections.
https://www.salon.com/2022/09/21/may-be-watching-you_partner/
I sometimes struggle with personification of biology in lay articles. I certainly do it all the time within my field but lay people can get really confused that a virus or bacteria is “trying” to evolve a certain direction and is “thinking”. Quickly leads to humors and spontaneous germination.
All of these biological mechanisms are the product of evolution. And evolution is a dispassionate scorecard. Give enough time with even a very small chance of an improved change/mutation allows for a lot of complexity to arise. Evolution is what happened. We can make some informed predictions of what’s going to happen (and in my field rig the game for certain things to happen).
This author does a good job of reminding us that viruses are mindless, I appreciate the effort.
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The personification does taint public policy though. When politicians get too comfortable with thinking of the virus as a person with goals and objectives, you start to see the notion of “negotiating” with the virus creeping into public policy measures. I think this is a major reasoning flaw that contributes to ineffective tepid half measures for example. “Maybe if we only close down some of the businesses, some of the time, then the virus will be satisfied with only X cases per day”. No, that is not how this works.
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Completely agree.
Update: My 84-year-old father-in-law is currently en route to the hospital.
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I think I have a weather change induced thin nasal drainage that is irritating my throat.
A sudafed seems to have alleviated most of the problem.
So hopefully only a very small chance I’m losing my team NOVID status.
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Not that it matters but wife on the pax started testing negative about 4 days before I have. Faintest poz line at CDC day 10. Gotta be the science pills.
Feeling pretty much fine, moderate cold symptoms at the worst of it. Survived COVID and all I got is this lousy t shirt that says no bivalent for you for 3 months sucker.
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So my Moderna love was put to the test this week. 90 min round trip to get Moderna. 10 min round trip to get Pfizer. I went with the Moderna.
I’m about 10 hrs post-jab and I’m already feeling it pretty bad. Next couple of days are going to suck. Nevertheless I prefer the short, intense discomfort of jab over my COVID experience which was mild, but lasted about a week and had me coughing for about a month after that (but feeling perfectly fine).
Well big daddy is being sent home. No idea what is going on with him, they thought he was having a stroke but he checked out fine on that and they think he may have just taken too many of whatever anxiety pill he’s on.
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Jfc. No change. A little cough but not progressing so still thinking it’s just irritation.
After 3 years of a very clear head, the first little tickle and I think I’ve got it and I’m going to die.
Paranoia may destroya.
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You’ve described my entire week. I get these symptoms from environmental mold this time every year, but the last three years have brought that lovely extra anxiety of, “OMG what if it’s COVID?!?”.
I’d be so happy if that’s what it is.
No real body ache. My headache seems to be a Benadryl hangover. The mild cough persists. 
