There is sunshine, and modest warmth, now here where I live. Yesterday I went outdoors and stripped down, exposing a large portion of my body to direct sunlight for circa fifteen minutes. There were no worries my nakedness would be seen by neighbors or passers-by. The objective was not exhibitionism, it was Vitamin D . . . you know . . . to ward off the virus.
Plan to execute a repeat exposure today once the sun reaches the correct position in the sky. Vitamin D is a good thing in a pandemic. And with old sol giving it away for free, I am happy to oblige him.
Did try for this earlier indoors when it was colder. But window glass messes up the UV you need to trigger the vitamin. It has to be direct sunlight, outdoors.
Just checked the CDCās Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and there are still no deaths listed for a 65+ year old woman in Kansas in March. The most recent death after receiving the vaccine is from February in which a 96 year old woman got the vaccine on 2/3, caught COVID on 2/15, and died on 2/23. Iām no medical professional, but Iād say that wasnāt likely an adverse reaction to the vaccine, just an old lady exposed to COVID after getting the vaccine and it not doing her much good, for whatever reason.
Agreed. Iām sitting here only just commencing to put in my one month waiting period while my body (I hope) gets around to synthesizing the antibodies I will need to achieve a much hoped-for level of resistance to COVID-19 by sixth of May.
Meanwhile nothing has changed and you sit and you wait.
I have a tad less than two weeks to go before I get my Pfizer booster, and I wasnāt particularly looking forward to it given the reported second dose side effects. I second guessed myself, thinking I should have waited for the J&J. This seems to confirm my decision.
Aside from some initial apparent allergic reactions to the mRNA shots, Iāve seen little in the way of big problems or issues with the Pfizer and Moderna shots. Itās ironic given the angst around them that they seem to be the safest ones to take given J&Jās manufacturing mishap, and AZNās complete disaster of a vaccine.
Well, letās face it, all of the vaccines are a crap shoot . . . with the odds certainly very much in your favor . . . but still a crap shoot.
I read an article yesterday (now lost) about some of the stuff they put into the mRNA vaccines that cause allergic reactions. Those substances are not in the J&J vaccine. I was allowed to leave the premises immediately after receiving my J&J shot, no worries. With the two shot vaccines they keep you around. And for some people the allergic reactions take longer to develop:
The Colorado Department of Public Health said some patients experienced nausea and dizziness after getting the J&J vaccine, while Centura confirmed that nine individuals were monitored on-site and were sent home and two individuals were taken to nearby hospitals out of an abundance of caution.
Massey told the Denver Post that the number of people who experienced adverse reactions was about 0.8 percent.
Pfizer continued observing its trial participants. I recall reading that Moderna had something similar, but didnāt dig it up.
The further analysis suggested the vaccine worked effectively against a variant first identified in South Africa, Pfizer and BioNTech said. And the companies said they havenāt found serious safety concerns so far.
The further analysis suggested the vaccine worked effectively against a variant first identified in South Africa, Pfizer and BioNTech said. And the companies said they havenāt found serious safety concerns so far.
Some 800 trial subjects were enrolled in South Africa, where a more contagious variant of the virus was first identified. Among those volunteers, there were nine cases of Covid-19, all in people who got a placebo. Sequencing confirmed six of the nine cases were of the variant. The findings, the companies said, support earlier analyses that have shown the vaccine generated a slightly lower immune response against the variant than the more common strain circulating in the U.S., but was still effective at neutralizing the variant virus.
The adenovirus vector is a problem - these who have a strong immune response to the adenovirus may not get the intended vaccination response. See the HIV adenovirus vaccine. That said, J&J did use a different type of adenovirus that is not likely to elicit an immune response in humans for its covid vaccine.
Use of adenovirus type-5 vectored vaccines: a cautionary tale ā¦
Yeah, I think Janssen has a larger QC problem than J&J has so far let on. I mean, the situation in Baltimore was bad enough. They fessed up to that one only because they caught it in time. You have to wonder how many other batches went out with human errors and all!!
Course I have their mistakes inside me now; itās too late to change or maybe filter all my blood somehow. But my yesterdays are wildly more numerous than my tomorrows. So I have much less on the line than younger folk. Go ahead and spin that roulette wheel. Iām playing with house money and maybe Iāll still yet come up a winner!!
Australia to buy extra 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ā Australia said Friday that it has finalized a deal to buy an extra 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine as it rapidly pivots away from its earlier plan to rely mainly on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Australiaās pivot came after the European Medicines Agency said this week it had found a āpossible linkā between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots, though regulators in the United Kingdom and the European Union emphasized that the benefits of receiving the vaccine continue to outweigh the risks for most people.
Even before the change, the government was facing criticism for a rollout program thatās lagging behind those in most other developed nations. So far, Australia has administered just over 1 million vaccine doses.
It is interesting. Both Australia and Canada are having a lot of problems getting their vaccination programs off the ground.
On the plus side, you did not have adverse reaction to it. Maybe you dodged a bullet, but thatās irrelevant now. You have better immunity now than if you waited until a clear winner emerges for sure. Itās hard to second guess things with little long term data for any of the vaccines.
Also nothing says you cannot get a booster down the line from a mRNA type vaccine. Especially if one type of booster is more effective against some variants. IIRC thereās been a precedent using different pneumococcal vaccines.
That is correct. I have had virtually no reaction whatsoever now after three days, not even significant injection site soreness.
I am pleased with my decision to have gone with the one shot J&J and, so far at least, would do it again in a heartbeat. Couple of things:
Iām at some considerable pain admitting this, but I agree (groan) with Dr. Fauci that the best vaccine is the one you can obtain most quickly. J&J may not save me from some illness, and indeed I have just posted on the hot deals board another measure I am bringing to bear alongside the vaccine, but I am counting on it to save me (as advertised) from serious illness, hospitalization, and death. Anyway, that is the game plan.
Just because Iām vaccinated does not mean, for me, that in a month life goes back to ānormalā. āNormalā will not return for a long time, in my opinion. But with the vaccination and my new masks I expect to be able once again, albeit with great care, to shop in person for food. And that will be a wonderful help.
Youāre in a minority, or so it seems locally. Maybe because of the ass of a governor, though.
Itās good youāre still taking limited precautions with current conditions and also makes sense you recognize the vaccine significantly improved the personal part of a risk calculation.
JNJ - weāre up to 4 sites around the US shut down after seeing (so far not that serious) adverse reactions. One of them was suspected of being more heat related (fainting) perhaps unrelated to the vaccine.
Put out enough stories like this and people will start getting psychosomatic issues. I got my first MRNA shot, and, when given the paperwork on possible side effects to look out for, told the pharmacist I wasnāt going to read it since it would just make me more likely to imagine problems .
Recap on the main US available vaccines vs variants and such.
PFE
AFTER 2 DOSES: 95% effective at preventing illness; 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 death; 87% effective at preventing hospitalization
AFTER FIRST DOSE: (not recommended) ~46% effective at preventing infection seven to 20 days later; 57% effective against against symptomatic illness; 72% effective at preventing death; 74% effective against hospitalization; 62% effective against severe illness (based on real-world data from Israel)
UK - B117: No significant impact
South Africa - B1351: 10% less effective; still protective
Brazil - P1: 10.4-fold weaker antibodies; still protective
MRNA
AFTER 2 DOSES: 94% effective at preventing illness; 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 death; 89% effective at preventing hospitalization
AFTER FIRST DOSE: (not recommended) ~80% effective, based on trial data
UK - B117: No significant impact
South Africa - B1351: 10% less effective; still protective
Brazil - P1: More data needed
JNJ
AFTER SINGLE DOSE: 72% worldwide; 86% in the US
UK - B117: No significant impact
South Africa - B1351: 64% effective
Brazil - P1: 85% effective
AZN blood clots looking increasingly confirmed as a rare vaccine side effect, with a serious case rate of around 1 in 300k and a death rate of 1 in 1-1.5M. The mechanism, as expected, is accidentally causing an antibody type that interacts with your blood platelets to cause the dangerous and potentially fatal blood clots. More countries are stopping use of the AZN vaccine, and especially in younger adults who seem to be at somewhat more risk of these adverse outcomes and also have much less risk if they get covid.
PFE vaccine in contrast appears to have much lower, possibly not elevated blood clot risk.
.