COVID-19: Chapter 9 - OMGicron

In the summer, I could set up an appt for a free pcr test in 24hrs. And walks ups had reasonable waits. Also every pharmacy had Binax in stock.

Ugh. So this sucks.

In the Philippines. Been sick for a couple of days.

Runny nose. A bit lightheaded. No fever. No cough. No sore throat. Based on this. I figured it was fairly unlikely.

Just did a rapid antigen test. Came back positive.

Mrs Rugby in the same hotel. Negative so far on antigen.

Going for PCR test now.

Trying to figure out what the fuck to do now. Where to stay. Who to tell. Etc. Ugh.

Hoping itā€™s a false positive.

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Itā€™s just insane the rate at which people I know are testing positive. Omicron is an absurd beast I guess. Must just be blanketing the globe.

And Iā€™m at work after having off the last two days. Double masked with a well sealed KF94, but the amount of sniffles and light coughs Iā€™m hearing around the room is noticeably higher than 2 days ago so Iā€™m probably a lock to catch it this weekend.

I have this exact problem as well. One of the issues that comes up is that after Iā€™m done being sick is when I sound the worst, because I cough a lot more after Iā€™m over it than during. In a post-Covid world if Iā€™m coughing for a month, itā€™s going to be hard to explain that away with a, ā€œDonā€™t worry, Iā€™m fineā€. Who is going to believe that?

I was all stuffed up and raspy a few weeks ago and definitely made sure to broadcast it to everyone that I was testing negative. Thatā€™s usually good enough

First positive test reported from our Christmas eve party, my cousin is currently visiting my sister and husband, tested positive today, so now sheā€™ll be quarantining in their house. Well theyā€™ll all be quarantining. Probably the first of many dominoes to drop. My uncle, her dad, is set to depart on on a world cruise in 5 days, pending a negative covid test of course :0

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Speaking of cruises, the CDC today issued guidance to not board one regardless of vaccination.

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His is set to go to the South Pacific, India, around Africa, and then back to the US. And somehow itā€™s still set to leave in a few days.

If you test positive on an antigen test, you donā€™t need to worry about getting a PCR test. the antigen tests have false negatives, not false positives.

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Thatā€™s not quite true. You can get false positives on antigen tests. False negatives are definitely a much larger concern, though. Youā€™re right about that.

Wtfā€¦

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1476437555717541893/

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So umā€¦if that wasnā€™t bad enoughā€¦

First two things I see when looking at the replies

https://twitter.com/T_Ball5/status/1476438225396842497

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1476473842059161602

The fuck?

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You can add me to probably Covid positive. Wife just tested positive on the home rapid antigen test and has had symptoms for 2 days. Not sure if isolating from her makes sense at this point. Great start of the new year. Guess we need PCR tests tomorrow.

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Maybe this is naive but if you have symptoms and are positive on an at home test not sure what the point is of standing in line to get a PCR. If anything you are potentially spreading it further.

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I think itā€™s the hope for a negative ā€œreal testā€. Some of it would be people that spent time with others during the holiday season, and those other people are going to need reliable information on whether the person really has Covid. Iā€™m also imagining situations where people arenā€™t allowed to go to work with a positive test but also arenā€™t protected with sick days so theyā€™d be looking at unpaid time off.

Itā€™s mandatory in NSW to get a PCR test after a positive home antigen test. No idea what the point is either. We live in an appartment building so even going to the testing site means an elevator trip. Might make some calls tomorrow to see if omicron changed these rules.

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Yeah, seems like not a great rule in the time of omicron. I guess if workplaces need it then, yeah, OK, but still a dumb rule. If you have symptoms and test positive on an at home, I gotta think itā€™s like 95%+ you have it.

If you end up getting long COVID you probably want to have a positive PCR rest for treatment and insurance purposes in USA

From the preprint I linked to last night

ā€”-3 mRNA doses does provide meaningful (2/3) protection against infection
ā€”-2 doses provide less protection than previous infection, although vaccines appear to provide much more durable protection against severe infection

If this holds, then any sort of two doses for a vaccine passport measure probably isnā€™t justified by science and there are immediate ramifications for reopening schools in January. We probably need early 2020/2021 school year precautions since the unboosted population is essentially unprotected against spread of a mega contagious variant and perhaps remote school until we can boost the school age population or at least until the wave crests.

Starting to happen near me to some extent, towns cancelling sports programs after outbreaks ripping through 80 percent plus vaxxed teams.

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Admittedly anecdotal, but have read about people having trouble accessing long COVID clinics without a positive PCR test.

My thought is that there a lot of uncertainty around long COVID, prevalence, attribution to other issues etc. If it does turn out to be a non rare thing, Iā€™d rather not have to start every medical interaction without being able to at least ā€œproveā€ I had COVID to start.

From an insurance standpoint, I think it is possible there end up being different rules for covering COVID related issues Vs other issues in the medium to long term so would just want to account for that possibility