Covid news and views

[Roger Mexico]

I heard on the radio yesterday that about 75% of people in the US dying from Covid in the last few months are unvaccinated.

[Buttrock as zen]

I think I have omicron.
Rapid test negative.

I too got the 'cron. One kinda scary day with a 102 degree fever and confusion, I guess my brain was being boiled in my skull. I'm just glad I was double vaxxed and boosted, it's a shitty fucking disease. I had the swine flu back in ought whatever and that was my benchmark for how shitty an upper respiratory disease can be. One month on from initial symptoms and I still have shortness of breath and a frog in my throat. Weird shitty stupid illness.

Yeah I tested negative too, not a rapid test either. The urgent care doc said "It's probably covid, and you'll probably test negative".

OH GOD SINNY THERES MORE PROOF FOR YOU

[Roger Mexico]

I think I have omicron.
Rapid test negative.

I too got the 'cron. One kinda scary day with a 102 degree fever and confusion, I guess my brain was being boiled in my skull. I'm just glad I was double vaxxed and boosted, it's a shitty fucking disease. I had the swine flu back in ought whatever and that was my benchmark for how shitty an upper respiratory disease can be. One month on from initial symptoms and I still have shortness of breath and a frog in my throat. Weird shitty stupid illness.

Yeah I tested negative too, not a rapid test either. The urgent care doc said "It's probably covid, and you'll probably test negative".

OH GOD SINNY THERES MORE PROOF FOR YOU

West Coast swine flu epidemic was 2009-10. I had it too. Sucked ass.

Haven't had Covid.

[jyng1]

Like the so called climate crisis, this 'pandemic' is being used to justify big government, high tax, loss of personal freedom as the only way to protect us. It smells fishy.

Yeah, the "so called climate crisis"... There's a town on the West Coast here which used to rely on coal mining and is really skeptical of climate change. They've just had their second 100 year flood in 6 months with the remnants of a tropical cyclone coming this weekend. One woman being evacuated yet again was on the news tonight and said she was sick of it so it can stop now.

It hasn't stopped since Manabe and Wetherald first accurately modelled the effect of doubling CO2 in 1967...

2020 was the deadliest year in the UK since the 1918 flu pandemic btw.

[Madrigal]

I think I have omicron.
Rapid test negative.

I too got the 'cron. One kinda scary day with a 102 degree fever and confusion, I guess my brain was being boiled in my skull. I'm just glad I was double vaxxed and boosted, it's a shitty fucking disease. I had the swine flu back in ought whatever and that was my benchmark for how shitty an upper respiratory disease can be. One month on from initial symptoms and I still have shortness of breath and a frog in my throat. Weird shitty stupid illness.

Yeah I tested negative too, not a rapid test either. The urgent care doc said "It's probably covid, and you'll probably test negative".

OH GOD SINNY THERES MORE PROOF FOR YOU

Wait, what? You tested negative on a PCR? I tested negative on a PCR too and I never found out what happened. Why did he say you'd test negative?

I have had plenty of food sickness events in my 20s, eating pizza and empanada takeout as a student, I know what it's like and I never got a fever like that on the night after the last night of food. If I had thought it was food sickness by that time I'd have been more worried than if it was omicron.

I had been in a closed space 4 days prior when I took my cat to the vet for a blood test and me and two doctors were all holding the cat down together. I thought it could have been that. I really don't go anywhere.

[jyng1]

Prince Charles tests positive again two days after a meeting with the 95 year old Queen... The man will do anything to become King

[elfsprin]

Wait, what? You tested negative on a PCR? I tested negative on a PCR too and I never found out what happened. Why did he say you'd test negative?

The false negative rate on PCR tests is small but not negligible. IIRC it’s around 7%. This is why I always co-test with my spouse, who is now fully cohabitating with me. The chances of a double false negative are very low.

Where your test gets sent is also relevant. They need to test the sample at the right parameters or it’s not going to be a super accurate test.

At-home rapid tests have a dismal false-positive and false-negative rate. Basically if you test positive you almost certainly have it (enough to shed it and thereby infect others), and if you test negative you might have it but can’t be sure. But if you test negative, you probably don’t have enough viral load *at that time* to shed it in sufficient quantities to infect someone else.

There’s no data on this but IMO (biology degree and high level of scientific training), given how quickly Omicron replicates, if you test negative you have like a 6-8 hour window where you can be confident that you’re not shedding enough virus to infect someone else. Maybe more like a 5-7 hour window, even.

[Madrigal]

The false negative rate on PCR tests is small but not negligible. IIRC it’s around 7%. This is why I always co-test with my spouse, who is now fully cohabitating with me. The chances of a double false negative are very low.

Thanks for the info. It's blown over now. I may have been at the highest risk of contagion when I went for the test, the place was full of people with covid symptoms. :/

[Buttrock as zen]

Wait, what? You tested negative on a PCR? I tested negative on a PCR too and I never found out what happened. Why did he say you'd test negative?

She said that they only got reliable info on mild cases when they tested at intervals, so like every day for a week in some cases.

The false negative rate on PCR tests is small but not negligible. IIRC it’s around 7%. This is why I always co-test with my spouse, who is now fully cohabitating with me. The chances of a double false negative are very low.

Where your test gets sent is also relevant. They need to test the sample at the right parameters or it’s not going to be a super accurate test.

At-home rapid tests have a dismal false-positive and false-negative rate. Basically if you test positive you almost certainly have it (enough to shed it and thereby infect others), and if you test negative you might have it but can’t be sure. But if you test negative, you probably don’t have enough viral load *at that time* to shed it in sufficient quantities to infect someone else.

There’s no data on this but IMO (biology degree and high level of scientific training), given how quickly Omicron replicates, if you test negative you have like a 6-8 hour window where you can be confident that you’re not shedding enough virus to infect someone else. Maybe more like a 5-7 hour window, even.

Interesting. FWIW I never felt like I was shedding at all. Just a scratchy throat and fever. No cough. The reason I was so sure it was covid is because it was JUST like how the second vaccine felt.

(Sinny, I have a theory that this means a 5g windows computer was activated in the apartment buildings behind me, triggering the virus to engage. Let me know if this matches your research)

[Madrigal]

Interesting. FWIW I never felt like I was shedding at all. Just a scratchy throat and fever. No cough. The reason I was so sure it was covid is because it was JUST like how the second vaccine felt.

(Sinny, I have a theory that this means a 5g windows computer was activated in the apartment buildings behind me, triggering the virus to engage. Let me know if this matches your research)

Do you know what was really weird, the site of the injection on my left arm started hurting while I was sick.