NOT Coronavirus COVID-19

[psn]

Cool anecdotes. 

[TubularCorporation]

You mean the Johns Hopkins data I already linked in my last post that showed PCR false negative rates of 20%-44%? That's from a year ago, before the more recent strains that PCR tests are less sensitive to?

 

Or do you mean this anecdote?

  

1 hour ago, psn said:

Here

 

[psn]

I contradicted your anecdotal reasoning with a single anecdote, implying that you were hung up on anecdotes. When you kept anectdotizing I spelled it out to you.

Of course home tests have false negatives and false positives, that's the trade off vs the cost and the time it takes to perform a test.

Sorry to hear you're down with it now, hope you get well soon! 

[psn]

@TubularCorporationNo idea why I was being so pedantic and aggressive. That was uncalled for, sorry for being a dumbass.

[YEK]

Anyone else still wearing masks in public?

[ignatius]

29 minutes ago, yekker said:

Anyone else still wearing masks in public?

indoors or in a big crowd yes.  i went to a show last friday. first in long time. saw some friends hadn't seen in a long time. was good. i had my mask off in the venue until more people started showing up. then i masked up. 

[J3FF3R00]

1 hour ago, yekker said:

Anyone else still wearing masks in public?

100% of the time if it’s indoors (unless it’s a small group and I know everyone has been tested/cleared recently and that they haven’t been around risky situations) and outdoors if it’s crowded or if I hear someone coughing or sneezing nearby. 
Haven’t gotten covid yet gonna keep doing what’s been working. 

[YEK]

Yeah I'm still wearing a mask too. It's surprising how little I see people doing it. Maybe because it's summer and it's hot annnd excuses. I have yet to catch covid and I would hate to spread it to family and friends.

[ignatius]

i'm worried about long covid. i have enough problems w/o adding that to the list. it's a crap shoot. chances are healthy, vax'd and boosted people will get over the initial infection but the chance for long covid is always gonna be there and that shit can vary wildly in seriousness and some people basically become disabled from it. 

also, a crap shoot for me because compromised immune system so if i can be a little more careful and aware then that's that. it's not a big deal to wear a mask for me. 

 

[custom knob]

I think a lot of people don’t realise that you need to get epithelial cells on the swab for it to be accurate 

I’ve seen plenty of people tickling their nose hairs rather than doing it properly - if your eyes aren’t watering it’s not in far enough

[Rubin Farr]

N. Korea finally admits Kim had the rona, and apparently “dirty leaflets” sent over the border can cause an epidemic?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kim-jong-un-sister-threatens-015352120.html

On 8/8/2022 at 6:13 PM, ignatius said:

i'm worried about long covid. i have enough problems w/o adding that to the list. it's a crap shoot. chances are healthy, vax'd and boosted people will get over the initial infection but the chance for long covid is always gonna be there and that shit can vary wildly in seriousness and some people basically become disabled from it. 

also, a crap shoot for me because compromised immune system so if i can be a little more careful and aware then that's that. it's not a big deal to wear a mask for me. 

 

I’m in the same boat, did you get your 4th shot? I wear a mask everywhere, and I seem to be the only human being in Florida to do so.

[ignatius]

14 hours ago, Rubin Farr said:

I’m in the same boat, did you get your 4th shot? I wear a mask everywhere, and I seem to be the only human being in Florida to do so.

yeah.. back in march. i hope they come out w/the "all the variants" vaccine sometime.  still lot's of mask wearers in grocery stores and stuff but probably half as many as when it was mandated. still plenty of places requiring masks though. 

[zkom]

I was around the Nordics, Germany and the Baltics in July and basically the only place where people were wearing masks anymore was the German public transport where it was mandatory. Also in Germany as soon as the people got off the vehicle most of them took the masks off which was a bit silly because there can be hundreds or thousands of people at the station but then if you're the only passenger in a local bus the driver ogles at you for not wearing a mask. (I did it by accident once because I didn't remember the rule coming from Denmark).

Anyway, I don't know what's my point. No masks in Northern Europe I guess. I don't know how the rest of Europe currently is.

[TubularCorporation]

I was really not prepared for the pain in my teeth and gums and the itcy, dry skin.  I hadn't even heard about those symptoms until I got them, and apparently they're fairly common.

[Rubin Farr]

33 minutes ago, TubularCorporation said:

I was really not prepared for the pain in my teeth and gums and the itcy, dry skin.  I hadn't even heard about those symptoms until I got them, and apparently they're fairly common.

Was your hearing affected?

[droid]

38 minutes ago, TubularCorporation said:

I was really not prepared for the pain in my teeth and gums and the itcy, dry skin.  I hadn't even heard about those symptoms until I got them, and apparently they're fairly common.

Yeah, its a thing.
 

 

[Extralife]

I’ve had consistent headaches every day since I tested positive - on July 15.

[TubularCorporation]

Apparently the chances of itching/rash are at least double if you have a thyroid disorder like I do.

 

Meanwhile, while I was in the worst of it, one of the ways I passed the time was figuring out why I and so many other people I know have had so much trouble with false negatives.

 

Turns out the collection method at the testing sites (which have been mostly run by fucking Wallgreens since the majority of the state run sites shut down last year) is completely wrong.  Like, shockingly wrong.  The first tme I went to one I thought it was weird that instead of having a clinician take a sample from the back o fmy sinuses like normal, they just handed me a swab and told me to rub my nostril with it 5 times, but at the time I assumed since they were now the main state-sanctioned test providers there must have been newer data showing a shallow swab was enough.  But it isn't.  According to the CDC and a cuple other sources, even a lot of the deep nasal swabs are done incorrectly, because the angle matters a lot and the swab needs to go as far back as the base of your ear to actually be reliable.

 

For reference when I see my doctor, I took a diagram of correct and incorrect sample collection from the Journal of the American Medical Association and marked where the actual test sites have me swab. It's the part circled in green ("NP" is where the sample needs to come from):

 

Between that and me personally having a deviated septum that means even the deeper end of that green circle isn't always easy to reach with a regular swab, they're essentially useless for me.  And this isn't a new or unknown problem, even when the correct collection methods are used.

 

But the USA has one of the worst healthcare systems in the first world (and that's before it started to really collapse this year because of overload and understaffing during the pandemic), so it probably shouldn't surprise me.

 

Just to make it classy, since I walk to my testing location instead of driving, I also have to do my swabbing in an alley out back near the dumpster.

[TubularCorporation]

16 minutes ago, Extralife said:

I’ve had consistent headaches every day since I tested positive - on July 15.

I've only been fully symptomatic for 6 or 7 days (but I had some early signs as far as 9 days ago, in retrospect - I jsut chalked them up to the heat wave and lack of sleep) so it's too soon to say, but so far the itching, headache and lightheadedness are improving a lot slower than everything else, and the sore gums that started 5 days ago haven't improved at all.  I'm just grateful I didn't get an actual rash, and even though I've ot some tinnitus (worse than my normal tinnitus) I haven't noticed any hearing loss. And I'm not very tired anymore.  If I get away with nothing but itchy skin/eyes/gums I can live with that, and it sounds like so far those symptoms rarely last more than a year.  But fuck sake.

 

Anyhow, it's an election year so pandemic over.  Nobody in this country is going to go anywhere near reinstating any measures in an election year.

Edited August 12, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[TubularCorporation]

1 hour ago, Rubin Farr said:

Was your hearing affected?

I mentioned it in one of the other posts, but more detail (I started keeping a detailed symptom log on Monday when there was no longer any doubt that I had it regardless of how the tests eventually came back):

 

8/8 in the afternoon I started to get sudden attacks of pretty bad tinnitus lasting 10-20 minutes (usually on the shorter end) every hour or two.  I've had mild tinnitus since high school because of loud band practices and cheap earplugs, but this was quite a bit worse than the worst it has ever been.

From 8/9 on the tinnitus got more constant but not as bad - it's more like my typical tinnitus but maybe 50% louder.  I had a clogged feeling in my ears, especially the right one, but there didn't seem to be any wax in them.  I noticed a bit of high end loss in the right ear but that (and the clogged feeling) went away by the 11th.  

Right now, my ear canals still feel kind of itchy and my tinnitus is at least 25% louder than the loudest it got before, but my hearing is fine.  The only thing that hasn't improved at all yet is the sore gums (the tooth pain is much better, except where I have a bridge from a tooth that never grew in as a kid - that doesn't exactly hurt but it feels like it's ITCHY ON THE INSIDE OF THE TOOTH to the left of it. 

 

 

It's too soon to say, but worst case scenario at least I live about a 5 minute walk from the state's only long covid clinic.

Edited August 12, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[TubularCorporation]

PArdon the big text dump, my dad has a rare immune disorder so I've been keeping up with this stuff quite a bit since the beginning, plus I did online research professionally for 7 years in the 00s and early '10s, so finding decent sources quickly is second nature (even though modern search engines are a joke for actual research, and are mostlly an ad-serving platform).  So spewing out all that doesn't seem like a big deal at all, that was maybe 10 minutes of searching and reading spread over 3 days.

 

EDIT: also worth pointing out that I posted all of that before breakfast, and one of the ost consistent things so far is that every day my symptoms imporve noticeably after my first meal.  So I'll feel a little better when I get up but I don't really know how much better until I eat and move around a bit.  I'd say the tinnitus is more like 10% louder than pre-covid now that I have a meal in me.  Teeth and itchiness didn't change, though.

Edited August 12, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[MaartenVC]

8 hours ago, zkom said:

I was around the Nordics, Germany and the Baltics in July and basically the only place where people were wearing masks anymore was the German public transport where it was mandatory. Also in Germany as soon as the people got off the vehicle most of them took the masks off which was a bit silly because there can be hundreds or thousands of people at the station but then if you're the only passenger in a local bus the driver ogles at you for not wearing a mask. (I did it by accident once because I didn't remember the rule coming from Denmark).

Anyway, I don't know what's my point. No masks in Northern Europe I guess. I don't know how the rest of Europe currently is.

Belgium:
Since 01 October 2021 masks were no longer required at work.
Since 18 February 2022 most restrictions were lifted.
Since 23 May 2022 masks are only required in hospitals, at the doctor's office and in pharmacies.
There was a small wave peaking about a month back. Mostly Omikron BA.5. Right now Rt is back below 1.
https://datastudio.google.com/embed/reporting/c14a5cfc-cab7-4812-848c-0369173148ab/page/ZwmOB
78,5% vaccinated. 62% 1st booster. 4,9% 2nd booster.
Actually the heat/drought might become a bigger concern the next week.

Edited August 12, 2022 by MaartenVC

[Rubin Farr]

22 hours ago, TubularCorporation said:

I mentioned it in one of the other posts, but more detail (I started keeping a detailed symptom log on Monday when there was no longer any doubt that I had it regardless of how the tests eventually came back):

 

8/8 in the afternoon I started to get sudden attacks of pretty bad tinnitus lasting 10-20 minutes (usually on the shorter end) every hour or two.  I've had mild tinnitus since high school because of loud band practices and cheap earplugs, but this was quite a bit worse than the worst it has ever been.

From 8/9 on the tinnitus got more constant but not as bad - it's more like my typical tinnitus but maybe 50% louder.  I had a clogged feeling in my ears, especially the right one, but there didn't seem to be any wax in them.  I noticed a bit of high end loss in the right ear but that (and the clogged feeling) went away by the 11th.  

Right now, my ear canals still feel kind of itchy and my tinnitus is at least 25% louder than the loudest it got before, but my hearing is fine.  The only thing that hasn't improved at all yet is the sore gums (the tooth pain is much better, except where I have a bridge from a tooth that never grew in as a kid - that doesn't exactly hurt but it feels like it's ITCHY ON THE INSIDE OF THE TOOTH to the left of it. 

 

 

It's too soon to say, but worst case scenario at least I live about a 5 minute walk from the state's only long covid clinic.

The clogged ear feeling was really the only symptom I noticed, maybe a little congested but I take an allergy pill anyway. Being stuck inside was like “Great! I’ll do some mixing at the old PC. Damn you earrrrrrrs!”  

[TubularCorporation]

Dry eyes, too.  I think I already mentioned that I stopped sweating almost completely from Monday to Wednesday, during a heat wave where it was in the 80s inside  even with two ar conditioners running.  My gut feeling is that my pores were inflamed jsut enough that it blocked them up but not enough to cause a visible rash, but I don't really know.  I had a similar thing happen to my eyes and face in 2019 because of prolonged, extreme mold exposure in the workplace that summer and this feels almost identical except it was my whole body at its worst and now that it's going away it's mostly my head, upper back, elbows and eyes.  So I don't know if covid can obstruct your pores but it sure feels like it did. The tear and oil ducts around my eyes feel exactly the same as 2019 (but not as bad) and i've been needing to use eyedrops a few times a day for the first time in three years.

But my gums only hurt around my molars today and the lightheadedness and fatigue are improving, so things still seem to be getting better more or less on schedule. f I still feel like this in another week then I'll start to worry.

 

A friend of mine who had it a few months ago told me yesterday that a couple he knows have a newborn and they both tested positive this week and are symptomatic, so it could be a whole lot worse than what I'm going through. I'm just still surprised that the cold/flu-like symptoms were the mildest part.

Edited August 13, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Rubin Farr]

Anyone had any dental problems like this?