'Covid Has Overrun Our Apartment Complex & Likely Me. "Hit By A Truck" Is What "Mild" Feels Like'

[appalachiablue]

- Daily Kos, Dec. 20, 2021. - Ed.

Our apartment complex is a series of buildings, and in mine, Covid has wedged its way onto the lease. We are all sick and isolating. I have a range of symptoms, low grade fever, scratchy throat, unable to ambulate, keep food down or stop sweating. At first I thought it a flu, then I talked to my next door neighbor. She is dealing with much worse. Low oxygen, hoarsey cough, can barely move. She is a 70 year-old nurse that is not boosted. My whole family is boosted. I have a confirmation test scheduled tomorrow but so long as my fever does not spike and my oxygen does not drop, I am not going to overreact and burden the healthcare system.

In other words I will monitor closely and hope the booster does its job.

I can tell you two things with a high degree of certainty, given my numerous health challenges: 1. Had I not been vaccinated I could well be dead, seriously. I say this because even writing this with the help of my wife feels like trying to move a mountain. I can’t lift anything, even a toilet lid easily, which is bad because my stomach has a spring in it right now. 2. “Mild” is a relative term. Mild is something akin to feeling like you have been hit by a truck. Now I will allow the possibility this is a flu, because I pursue facts not conjecture, but confirmed Covid is all throughout the building.

How did this happen? In my case it is likely because I interacted with my neighbor before she was sick but still contagious. But the complex sponsored a Holiday party with no mask requirements earlier this month, and many people from that are reporting ill. We went, but ate outside, and did the whole lift the mask cover the nose thing while eating. Another thing to consider is if the “Omicron” is mild crowd goes around saying its nothing more than a bad flu, they apparently have never had a bad flu. I have.

Say that for whatever reason it turns out everyone in my building has Covid but for some strange reason I picked up a flu, which of course I also vaccinate against. I promise you, this is not mild. Constant cold sweating, nausea, raw throat, headache, body aches like I am being used as a ping pong ball on a football field, a complete inabilty to concentrate. The list goes on. I am well familiar with these symptoms having dealt with them before.
*This would be my 2nd g-round with Covid. But that is something else people are failing to understand-I could get through this, then another variant could come along and hit me again. I can only take so many punches.

But we are full of sick bastards in this country who think this is ok, to protect the economy, or create herd immunity, when we don’t know what this thing is capable of.

“Mild” Omicron has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands more. It is moving with a speed that is unprecedented in virology history. In the past week there have been 2 ambulances take tenants to the hospital...

- More + Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/20/2070218/-Covid-Has-Overrun-Our-Apartment-Complex-And-Likely-Me-Hit-By-A-Truck-Is-What-Mild-Feels-Like
________
- Select Comments:

- "Claws and paws crossed for you, Rule of Claw, and for your wife, that she stays well. Sounds like you did nothing wrong. And yet. Thank heaven you are vaccinated. Small footnote: it could be that the building ventilation system bears some responsibilty, unless the apartments have old-fashioned radiators or separated HVAC units?
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- Do call your primary doc, just to check in, maybe do a telehealth visit if they offer that — even before you have test confirmation. That’s not a burden, that’s what they’re for. You're right to stay away from ER/urgent care unless it gets worse, but primaries and phone calls are OK. Or there may be a health department or insurance company nurse line. Ask about OTC meds.
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“I fear the unvaccinated are going to be firewood for this variant.” The unvaxed and their fascist leaders have so enraged me I don’t fear this at all. I actually hope it will rip through the unvaxed and kill many more of them. They are the most selfish, childish, petulant, angry little children amongst us trapped in adult bodies, and they are holding us all hostage.
And this doesn’t make me feel good because I am in most ways a kind and sympathetic person. But the antivax movement has also morphed into being part of the fascist movement currently infecting our country. My father fought the Nazi fascists. Our whole country did. Hundred of thousands of our greatest generation died fighting fascism, and most are turning over in their graves that so many so called ‘Muricans have become fascists, and become the evil they fought, bled and died against.

[RKP5637]

1. K&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[appalachiablue]

2. Serious situation, I hope the writer and his wife come

thru this ok, and the others. His post raises some hair raising issues. If it's Covid again, the impact of double exposure, Omicron and more variants, risks of social gatherings even if distancing and and outdoors, HVAC systems in buildings... Sheesh! Stay well folks!

[RKP5637]

3. Where I live people seem think it's all over. Minimal masks, little social distancing and

even functions/dinners scheduled with lots of people to attend. Pretty much business as usual. Someone told me the other day the booster is worthless, must be a Fox news viewer or some other crap media source. I think they're going to be lots of sick people. Too bad people/organizations can't be prosecuted for spreading lies and distortions. I don't bother to present facts anymore, some people appear to have dug in with erroneous beliefs cast in cement, all you get into is a pissing contest. It's not worth the hassle and emotions. I will protect myself, it sounds cruel, but it's really their choice if they want to ignore everything and get sick or possibly die.

[appalachiablue]

4. Sorry to hear that, you're right to stay clear and

avoid trying to explain well known facts and realities to the die-hard brainwashed and/or unaware.

Many of them, when they fall ill, also fill up hospitals and take up critical medical services needed by responsible others who have been vaxxed, are masking, etc.

Lately I'm recalling scary scenes in the movie 'Contagion' with Matt Damon about a global pandemic. People are practically fist fighting over viles of medicine and wrestling to get the last of supplies in bare stocked stores.. I hope we don't descend to that level, but anything's possible.

[Rebl2]

5. Husband read

the other day-maybe Washington Post-that the flu vaccine for this year isn’t as effective as hoped it would be. Guess the virus changed some since they made the vaccine.

[appalachiablue]

7. Interesting, not so great if true. Tx for the post.

I'll try to check WaPo for info. on this years flu vaccine.

Your 'Santa' is very cheerful and festive, good choice.

[appalachiablue]

8. CNN: A main flu strain has mutated is why; vax still prevents hosp, death.

CNN, 'Flu vaccines don't match the main circulating flu virus strain, researchers find,' Dec. 17, 2021. - Ed.

*(Seasonal flu vaccines still prevent hospitalization and death studies show).

(CNN) One of the main circulating influenza viruses has changed and the current flu vaccines don't match it well any more -- an indication they may not do much to prevent infection, researchers reported Thursday. But they are still likely to prevent severe illness. "From our lab-based studies it looks like a major mismatch," Scott Hensley, a professor of microbiology at the Univ. of Penn. who led the study, told CNN. It's bad news for the vaccine, he said. Influenza vaccines protect against 4 different strains of the flu: H3N2, H1N1 and 2 strains of influenza B. Hensley's study only covers H3N2, but that happens to be the main circulating strain.

The vaccine mismatch may help explain an outbreak of flu at the Univ. of Mich. last month that affected more than 700 people. More than 26% of those who tested positive had been vaccinated against flu -- the same percentage as those who tested negative. - That indicates the vaccine was not effective in preventing infection. It's what flu viruses do, Hensley said. "We have been monitoring this virus for several months," he said. Flu viruses mutate all the time—far more than other viruses, including the coronavirus. And different variations can circulate at the same time. - But this version of H3N2 has changes that help it escape the antibodies the body makes in response to vaccines. (Flu and Covid-19 cases rising in much of the US).

Antibodies are the 1st line of defense against invaders like viruses, & the current vaccine doesn't seem to generate any of the right antibodies against this new, mutated version of H3N2, called 2a2 for short. Luckily, the changes are unlikely to affect the 2nd line of defense offered by immune system- T-cells, so even if the vaccines don't protect against infection, they are likely to protect people against severe disease & death, Hensley said.
* "Studies have clearly shown that seasonal influenza vaccines consistently prevent hospitalizations and deaths even in years where there are large antigenic mismatches," Hensley and colleagues wrote in a report posted online as a pre-print. It's not published in a peer reviewed journal. Influenza vaccinations will be crucial for reducing hospitalizations as SARS-CoV-2 and 2a2 H3N2 viruses co-circulate in the coming months."

The CDC has said influenza virtually disappeared last year, but it's coming back this year. The big fear is a "double whammy" of flu and Covid-19. Population immunity against influenza viruses is likely low since these viruses have not circulated widely during the COVID-19 pandemic," Hensley's team wrote. "Social distancing, mask wearing, and decreases in international travel have likely contributed to reduced global circulation of influenza viruses. Once COVID-19-related restrictions are eased or lifted, it is possible that influenza viruses will circulate widely due to lack of infection-induced population immunity over the past 2 years."

Flu vaccine efficacy changes from year to year. Part of the problem is the lead time needed to make influenza vaccines...

More, https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/health/flu-vaccine-mismatch/index.html

[Skittles]

6. these accounts always seem to describe completely unnecessary behavior

apt complex holiday party with no mask requirement? STUPID.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

9. Ambulances

Show up every few days here.
There were 4 here last week.
Yep I'm scared. Dispite being
Vaxxed and boosted.

Btw the cat with the mask on is adorable.

I hope I never get covid If I infected Othello my kitty I could never live with myself,I love him so much.