The Coronavirus Thread

[Cunt]

Yeah, the tunnel's easy, but you never know who it is on the other end.

[Joe]

Yeah, we've got dozens of tunnels like that.

[Cunt]

I've met some of my best runs at the end of that tunnel. I've run through when it's shrank so much I have to crouch (ice buildup) and found ptarmigans startled at my exit.

I watched pretty young city workers paint over the graffiti, and it re-decorated within days. The city workers didn't even clean up the spray-cans that were still sitting there as they did their work.

We only have 2 tunnels.

[Joe]

We have a lot of big mountains in Colorado, but our local peak probably has the best trail for running and hiking. If you get a chance to run Barr Trail, take it. It's a hard run, but really awesome.

You'll be able to impress your running buddies by saying, "yeah, I ran up that."

[Cunt]

I'm not very experienced with hills. I did the Klondike Relay, took the long leg, and while I don't remember the elevation, it was running up a hill for the first 19km, then another 5 or 7 to down to the finish line.

Here we get no real hills to speak of, but the stairs and rock in the trails make a suitable training simulator.

Except the altitude. Can't fake that.

They used to sell a bit of athletic gear, that was a mask. It was supposed to make it hard to breathe, to simulate high altitude training.

I never believed it.

[Scot Dutchy]

This would not suit the American mindset one bit: Cooperation.

Go Dutch? UK and EU may share Netherlands Covid vaccine supplies to ease tensions

Sources raise possibility of sharing jab supplies from Dutch AstraZeneca plant as diplomacy blitz begins


Ministers will seek to calm tensions over a potential EU ban on vaccine exports to the UK in a diplomacy blitz this week as sources raised the possibility of sharing jab supplies from a Dutch plant.

Sources said the UK government was keen to offer support and expertise at the AstraZeneca vaccine production plant in the Netherlands, run by the subcontractor Halix, to help scale up production.

The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has mooted blocking exports to the UK amid claims that AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish manufacturer, is favouring supplies to the UK. EU officials have said the bloc could ban exports from the plant until AstraZeneca provides the doses they say it is contractually obliged to supply.

One Whitehall source said there were early talks on what the UK could offer to avoid a major international dispute, but it was too early to say whether supplies were likely to be shared. Sir Tim Barrow, the former ambassador to the EU, is among the senior advisors trying to negotiate a solution to the dispute.

Sources in the Dutch government said the instinct of its ministers would be to permit any export request to the UK from the plant in Leiden but that the decision could be taken out of their hands.

“There hasn’t been a request but the system means that whatever decision we make it has to go to European commission and if they want to block it they can,” said one source. “It would be better if we didn’t get to that point and AstraZeneca, the British government and the European commission could just find an agreement. AstraZeneca has oversold what they could do to everyone.”

[Tero]

[Fletch F. Fletch]

The vaccines protect you from serious illness, but not necessarily asymptomatic infection, which is why we should still wear masks until it's better known. The idea of wearing the mask after vaccination is to protect others around you, who may be unvaccinated.
I've been rewearing N95 masks for years when sanding and fumes, without an issue. Not the same masks for years, but use them until they break. I used to launder them, but now I steam them since it maintains their integrity better. I put one of the thin tissue masks underneath them now, both for more protection (if that works), and because it helps keep the N95 from getting damp from my breath. Therefore I don't have to steam the n95's as often. I had the n95's from before the pandemic. I can throw away the cheap thin ones after use ane rewear the n95. I can't find any new ones now except for online at exorbitant prices for something I'm not sure is even what it says to be. There are a ton of counterfeits on the market.

[JimC]

In Victoria, the vaccine roll-out has just started, but we've had around 3 weeks with no new cases, and currently have no active cases. To the annoyance of other states, we've suspended any overseas arrivals (returning Australians, mostly) for a few weeks; that may resume soon, once any remaining bugs in the hotel quarantine system have been ironed out. From this Friday, masks will only need to be worn on public transport, nowhere else...

[JimC]

Cunt, this post: http://www.rationalia.com/forum/viewtop ... 1#p1901221
is yet one more example of trolling by deliberate misrepresentation in bad faith. There are many similar posts of yours in recent times. You have received previous reminders for such trolling. This is a final warning that continuing to post in this vein will result in a lengthy suspension.

[Cunt]

Doesn't make sense to me, but I'll get out of this thread.

[JimC]

Doesn't make sense to me, but I'll get out of this thread.

Whether it makes sense or not to you is not important. And it's not just this thread. If you wish be disingenuous enough to pretend you don't know what aspects of your posting are frequently trolling, by misrepresentation or otherwise, fine. But the warning stands. Treat it seriously.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The vaccines protect you from serious illness, but not necessarily asymptomatic infection, which is why we should still wear masks until it's better known. The idea of wearing the mask after vaccination is to protect others around you, who may be unvaccinated.
I've been rewearing N95 masks for years when sanding and fumes, without an issue. Not the same masks for years, but use them until they break. I used to launder them, but now I steam them since it maintains their integrity better. I put one of the thin tissue masks underneath them now, both for more protection (if that works), and because it helps keep the N95 from getting damp from my breath. Therefore I don't have to steam the n95's as often. I had the n95's from before the pandemic. I can throw away the cheap thin ones after use ane rewear the n95. I can't find any new ones now except for online at exorbitant prices for something I'm not sure is even what it says to be. There are a ton of counterfeits on the market.

I'm with you on all of that, though I don't wear my current assortment of N95 masks for COVID since they all have valves, defeating one of the purposes of wearing a mask in public, which is protecting other members of the public. I've been hand-washing my N95s for a long time. At this point I'm going to get some proper elastic from a sewing shop and replace broken rubber bands on them because as you say, they're not available at reasonable prices from reliable sources.

[JimC]

Interesting developments re "long covid"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021 ... /100023114

When Mary Bempeki contracted COVID-19 in March last year, she thought she would get over the disease and continue on with her life.

But two weeks after she was infected, when most COVID-19 patients start to improve, her health took a turn for the worse.

"I started to have neurological symptoms. I had abdominal pain, internal tremors, red and swollen eyes," she said.

She waited for the pain to ease, but 12 months on, Ms Bempeki was seemingly still in the grip of the virus.

She has what is known as "long COVID", a phenomenon experienced by an estimated 30 per cent of people who are infected by coronavirus.

LIVE UPDATES: Read our blog for the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the vast majority of patients recover after about 14 days, for those with long COVID, the nightmare never seems to end.

They report fatigue, breathlessness, being incredibly tired and unable to concentrate, long after contracting the virus.

The phenomenon has intrigued medical researchers, who still don't know how long COVID works and why some people suffer from it.

Until now, modern medical science has not been able to offer much in the way of treatment or advice to patients.

But Ms Bempeki believes she may have stumbled on a solution for her symptoms.

Days after she received her COVID-19 vaccine, something strange happened.

"It almost kind of disappeared," she said.

After a year of crippling fatigue, kidney problems, bleeding gums and other strange symptoms, Ms Bempeki woke up one day and felt "99 per cent improved".

She'd received the AstraZeneca vaccine several days earlier.

"I was suffering every day with internal tremors, which I still feel now, but it's less intense," she said.

"I will try to start to work a few hours every week to see how it's going. But I really feel much, much better."

Ms Bempeki is not alone. Growing anecdotal reports, along with a new — but yet to be peer-reviewed — study have raised the question: Can the coronavirus vaccine cure long COVID?

In the United States, many so-called long haulers — a term people suffering from long COVID call themselves — say they are feeling better after receiving a vaccine.

It also doesn't seem to matter which vaccine the patient receives. Reports are similar among people who get the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca shot.

But individual anecdotal reports are not enough on their own to say if the vaccine can cure or reduce long COVID symptoms.

A British study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a journal, has captured the attention of long haulers, desperate for any good news that could help reduce and rid them of their symptoms.

The study, which followed a small number of people, was set up to track the health outcomes of people hospitalised with COVID-19.

"We noticed that many patients were quite hesitant about receiving vaccines, which sort of surprised us because we thought they'd be desperate to get them," said Fergus Hamilton, one of the study's authors from the University of Bristol.

"We noted that they were very worried. They've been unwell before, they have quite dramatic symptoms, and they felt we were giving them the same thing [with the vaccine]," Dr Hamilton said.

The study found that there is no evidence to suggest that currently available COVID vaccines worsen long COVID symptoms, quality of life or mental wellbeing.

It also uncovered an intriguing possibility. The vaccine might actually help reduce or eliminate symptoms experienced by long COVID patients.

Dr Hamilton is the first to point out the reported results come with many, many caveats, such as a small sample size and lack of peer review. Untangling the placebo effects in these studies is also very difficult.

[Tero]