Coronavirus thread

[krummholz]

Are those your only symptoms? I thought I had a prolonged cold, or two colds back to back but I'm beginning to wonder. It's nothing serious but I decided to stay home the last week or so. I have no fever. I've had all the vaccinations too. I wonder if I should get tested. I've also heard there are government approved home tests here in Japan. Huh.

Probably best to get tested if tests are available. And yes, staying home was a wise decision. For someone who is up to date on vaccinations, the virus might cause only very mild symptoms. There is no way to know without being tested - preferable with one of the nucleic acid amplification tests (PCR or LAMP).

Karl, wishing you a swift and COMPLETE recovery with no prolonged symptoms.

[Karl Henning]

Are those your only symptoms? I thought I had a prolonged cold, or two colds back to back but I'm beginning to wonder. It's nothing serious but I decided to stay home the last week or so. I have no fever. I've had all the vaccinations too. I wonder if I should get tested. I've also heard there are government approved home tests here in Japan. Huh.

Sore throat, congestion, and at odd times for a couple of days a very mild fever (just enough to prompt donning an extra shirt.)

[vandermolen]

I hope to hear soon that you're feeling better.

Me too.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks! Slow improvement. 

[Spotted Horses]

A few times since the pandemic began I've had what seemed like my typical cold. It starts with nasal congestion and irritation, then post-nasal drip and an annoying cough. Only once I tested myself with a home kit because someone else in the house seemed to have had it hard, but it turned out negative. So as far as I know I've not had Covid, although I've gone through 3 or 4 colds untested.

[milk]

I tested myself at home today after 3 weeks of feeling like I've had a cold with no fever or heavy Sx. Test was negative. Once I got better and then worse. I might have had two colds back to back from the kids or maybe COVID. I'm feeling much better today. Anyway, feel better those of you who are sick. Rest up and take care.

[Madiel]

Canberra is the last place in Australia where you're required to report a positive rapid test result. They're going to wind that back. It'll be recommended to report it, but not a legal requirement.

It's also going to become much harder to get a PCR test (again, we might be the last place where the government is running/funding them but I'm not certain). More signs of moving on to where it's another of the diseases going around and not particularly special.

[Karl Henning]

I tested myself at home today after 3 weeks of feeling like I've had a cold with no fever or heavy Sx. Test was negative. Once I got better and then worse. I might have had two colds back to back from the kids or maybe COVID. I'm feeling much better today. Anyway, feel better those of you who are sick. Rest up and take care.

Keep up that trend of feeling better. I'm at the "I seem to be restoring the energy, but I'm impatient with the progress" stage. After spending a normal morning, I need a nap. Still, it's improvement and therefore welcome. Today closes out the Paxlovid course.

[krummholz]

Keep up that trend of feeling better. I'm at the "I seem to be restoring the energy, but I'm impatient with the progress" stage. After spending a normal morning, I need a nap. Still, it's improvement and therefore welcome. Today closes out the Paxlovid course.

Glad you're on Paxlovid, Karl. Whatever you do, don't try to push it - I have read a recent article on Long Covid that said trying to get back to full activity leveltoo soon might be one of the triggers for the downward cascade that ends in persistent debilitation.

[Karl Henning]

Glad you're on Paxlovid, Karl. Whatever you do, don't try to push it - I have read a recent article on Long Covid that said trying to get back to full activity leveltoo soon might be one of the triggers for the downward cascade that ends in persistent debilitation.

Thanks for the alert!

[Florestan]

I'm at the "I seem to be restoring the energy, but I'm impatient with the progress" stage.

Don't push it, Karl. You are a strong person, both physically and mentally, you'll eventually restore fully --- just don't push it. One step at the time.

[Karl Henning]

Don't push it, Karl. You are a strong person, both physically and mentally, you'll eventually restore fully --- just don't push it. One step at the time.

Warmly appreciated, Andrei!

[Florestan]

Warmly appreciated, Andrei!

I'm sure you're not allowed to drink for the time being, nevertheless, here's to your health, Karl!



(sipping my own homegrown red wine)

[Todd]

From the Graun: Covid-19 likely emerged from laboratory leak, US energy department says: Updated finding a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged and comes with 'low confidence'

Low confidence is a marked step up from proclamations of a conspiracy theory.

[Madiel]

It's not a question for intelligence agencies, but for scientists. It's pretty well established not just that the first cases were centred around the market, but around a specific section of the market.

For it to come out of a laboratory without the earliest cases having a link to a laboratory - or without explaining at all how the careful analysis of the cases centred around a specific section of the market is wrong or incomplete - is little more than people with a hammer claiming they think they saw a nail. If you're an intelligence agency you're used to studying how people plan things, not on studying how diseases jump species on a regular basis.

[Spotted Horses]

The bottom line is that there is no definitive evidence either way and the various U.S. intelligence agencies have been split as to which is more likely from the beginning. The one reliable purely scientific report that I've seen says that statistical analysis of the sequence is more consistent with a natural origin of the virus, rather than engineering. If there is a conspiracy theory here it is just that the origin of the virus is known being covered up.

[Todd]

The one reliable purely scientific report that I've seen says that statistical analysis of the sequence is more consistent with a natural origin of the virus, rather than engineering.

Which purely scientific report was that?  And how is the word "purely" defined?

[Spotted Horses]

Which purely scientific report was that?  And how is the word "purely" defined?

It took me 10 seconds to find this report in the journal Nature.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

Salient quote: "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus."

It is not the one I was thinking of, which came from researcher in the UK (The University of Cambridge, if I recall correctly). This one is primarily from U.S. researchers (the Scripps Institute).

You can debate whether it is purely nonpolitical, but they base their analysis on characteristics of the genome of the original Wuhan virus.

[Todd]

It is not the one I was thinking of, which came from researcher in the UK (The University of Cambridge, if I recall correctly). This one is primarily from U.S. researchers (the Scripps Institute).

I can google things easily enough.  I was interested in the specific article you referenced, though now even you can't recall the original article with a high degree of confidence.  I asked about the word "purely" because that is an unusual word to use when describing scientific research.

The fact is that you do not know whether the Covid virus is zoonotic or man-made.  You apparently choose to believe the articles you googled.  That is fine.  I do not know whether Covid is zoonotic or man-made.  Additional research is needed.  This is reinforced by the findings published by the Energy Department, as well as earlier findings published by the FBI.  Given that around seven million people have died from the disease, trillions of dollars of public money around the world was misallocated to Covid responses (~$25 trillion was spent globally), at least hundreds of billions of dollars of that money was stolen (at least $560 billion of it in the US alone), and authoritarian policies were implemented everywhere, we, as in humanity, need to come as close as possible to determining with absolute certainty what the source of the virus was, and we need to reexamine public health and coercive state responses to the disease.  There is much to do still with respect to Covid.

[Karl Henning]

Don't push it, Karl. You are a strong person, both physically and mentally, you'll eventually restore fully --- just don't push it. One step at the time.

Inching better. Just wanted to report.