Coronavirus (No Politics)

Just returned home from getting my flu shot at a local Lloyd's pharmacy. I went to request it and I was given it right there, on the spot! For just £15 as Ripper mentioned.

Pretty happy with this, so once again, thanks for the sound advice.

For me I usually go to Walgreens but they don't do walk-ins. You have to make an appointment. I got lucky and got scheduled for the co-vid booster and the flu shot.

I recently got my 2nd jab of Pfizer and was unwell for more than a week :/ the day after 2nd jab was the worst - my whole body ached so bad, I couldn't get out of bed.

I'm enjoying my freedom now but I'm not looking forward to a booster shot 6 months later.

purpleblob1 said:

I'm enjoying my freedom now but I'm not looking forward to a booster shot 6 months later.

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With the progress they're making on these new pills, you might not need to get jabbed again.

Yes, hopefully between vaccines and treatments, we'll get to a point where the situation is manageable. The slight problem with the new medication is that it's mainly effective in the first few days of symptoms - to head it off before it really gets going. People will need to be very proactive in getting diagnosed, as it might not help as much once they are headed to hospital.

Hope those getting after effects from the vaccine feel better soon. Remember that it's just your immune system reacting and going to battle-stations. Some of the immune system's responses make us feel pretty grim.

We recently had dreadful news of a friend passing after Covid, she was 36. Not vaccinated due to conflicting advice around vaccinations for pregnant women. Her baby didn't make it either. Heartbreaking.

Our flu jabs are delayed due to lack of stock, we could go to a pharmacy but they get nervous at my allergys and husband being in a wheelchair. Hopefully we can get booster at the same time.

Qayto said:

We recently had dreadful news of a friend passing after Covid, she was 36. Not vaccinated due to conflicting advice around vaccinations for pregnant women. Her baby didn't make it either. Heartbreaking.

Our flu jabs are delayed due to lack of stock, we could go to a pharmacy but they get nervous at my allergys and husband being in a wheelchair. Hopefully we can get booster at the same time.

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I'm very sorry to hear that.

I think the evidence is strong that suggests pregnant women should be getting vaccinated, and most health bodies recommend it. I know someone that works in Maternity, and she says she wouldn't hesitate, because they are seeing extremely bad outcomes for unvaccinated pregnant women with covid, and some very bad effects on babies.

Good job on you folks getting the vaccines, well done! I'd like to see everyone on our forum hang around a bit longer. -)

Qayto said:

We recently had dreadful news of a friend passing after Covid, she was 36. Not vaccinated due to conflicting advice around vaccinations for pregnant women. Her baby didn't make it either. Heartbreaking.

Our flu jabs are delayed due to lack of stock, we could go to a pharmacy but they get nervous at my allergys and husband being in a wheelchair. Hopefully we can get booster at the same time.

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I'm very sorry to hear that :/

I think part of vaccine hesitancy is due to "horror" stories you hear. My brother in law was hospitalised after his 1st shot due to heart inflammation caused by Pfizer vaccine - this made him mistrust vaccine and he's been telling everyone what an awful experience it was, scaring people. I must admit, that happened a day before our 1st jab and made me nervous as hell.

I'm just glad me and hubby are both fully vaccinated without any serious side effects. I'm still suffering from mild allergic reaction in my arm tho (so itchy!)

My first shot caused my arm to swell up and other body pains but it was worth it not to infect my older mother and family. As I caught the virus at a motel after my house fire.

So just remember if you had the virus the shot will have more serious side effects.

Good thing they didn't jab you in the head. Yours already looks kind of fucked up.

Qayto said:

We recently had dreadful news of a friend passing after Covid, she was 36. Not vaccinated due to conflicting advice around vaccinations for pregnant women. Her baby didn't make it either. Heartbreaking.

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Condolences to all those impacted by her death. I also have a few older relatives who wont get the shot. They keep claiming it will kill you, and no type of debate works.

Well, reading how it affected other people, I can say that in my household, both of us count ourselves lucky to have had just discrete side effects to both Covid jabs, in the form of mild pain in the area where the vaccine was administrated, that went away fully within 48 hours. I had a bit of a sore tummy too with the first jab, but I can't tell if it was the vaccine, I get those now and then by default.

The big problem is that humans in general are very risk adverse and, imo, rubbish at risk management/ analysis. Fear is a survival trait that has been very useful over the last 30,000 years when not being afraid/ cautious got you eaten by other predators.

So we have a situation were a tiny minority are actually worse off by taking the vaccine. At an individual level though people think that could be me and then they say, "oh I am healthy it can't hurt me" or "I will not catch it since I will take precautions". Then there are those who believe this is a government conspiracy. All these things skew the perceived risk from the vaccine upwards and the impact of catching the virus downwards. Result is bad decision making (imo). [Did I hear that under 25s are the largest group with covid in hospital at the moment?]

When bad decision are made in your close family and friends circle then it can be (is) frightening as you don't want them to be hurt. But as some posters have said there is little you can do but hope and pray that they are ok. [Of course if they are ok then you are very happy and they will tell you they were right!]

Everything has a price.

When I had the vaccine five months ago now, I felt a little sore at the injection site and briefly wonky for about a day and a half. Kind of like I had maybe a mild case of the flu, I wound up sleeping about double my usual rate, and three days later I was fully back to normal. It might have had something to due with getting the regular flu booster at the same time, it made for slightly two poor days yet, in the end, I'm very grateful that I received both shots. I believe in better safe than sorry!

Honestly, Moriendor, I think we all might wind up taking a booster(in some form or other) for the next several years. That's really the only way to guarantee ongoing protection as the virus itself mutates. And good on you, mate, getting that shot to not only ward yourself, but your parents as well. I only wish the entire world took a similar approach, if they did we might lick this thing yet.

SleepingDog said:

So we have a situation were a tiny minority are actually worse off by taking the vaccine. At an individual level though people think that could be me and then they say, "oh I am healthy it can't hurt me" or "I will not catch it since I will take precautions". Then there are those who believe this is a government conspiracy. All these things skew the perceived risk from the vaccine upwards and the impact of catching the virus downwards. Result is bad decision making (imo).

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Yes, and of course many safety decisions aren't completely black and white, but overwhelmingly in favour of one course of action over another. If you consider seatbelts, there are crashes where the seatbelt was a contributory factor in the fatality. But, if we look at the data, the chances of a seatbelt saving you in a crash are orders of magnitude more likely than harming you.

There's a term, which I can't recall just now, for our cognitive bias that overrates the significance of positive action (a thing we do) and underrates the risk of negative action (a thing we don't). We need to bear in mind that we're making choices between options - and "do nothing" is an option with consequences like any other.

I have a lot of sympathy for pregnant women, as they're so bombarded by different views on what's good for their baby, or not. But the fact is that around 20% of our severe covid cases are unvaccinated pregnant women. And when mum gets critically ill, that is really not good for baby. This is why it's so important for people to get the best possible information.

I am one of those not getting the vaccine. Not because i dont think the vaccine works in preventing infection, but rather my family has a history of heart disease and i dont think it is wise to take a vaccine that can cause myocarditis even if a minor possibility.

I also think we need a vaccine that works better in stopping the virus from mutating.
https://www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/covmt/

I was thinking looking at that that maybe the virus is mutating due to the vaccine but i see India in the dark red there, and they are only 25% vaccinated last i looked. That said India being only 4x the amount of mutations as opposed to Australia despite being 100x more populated is interesting.

China and Russia being 1/2 of the mutations of Australia is a bit suspect and i doubt we can get data from those areas accurately from those areas.

Finally US has ~16(dodgy math)x the variants of India. And UK has 7x India. France has similar to India and Germany has double the mutations of India.

If the information from China and Russia are accurate however, what are they doing different from the rest of the world?

Ripper said:

Yes, and of course many safety decisions aren't completely black and white, but overwhelmingly in favour of one course of action over another. If you consider seatbelts, there are crashes where the seatbelt was a contributory factor in the fatality. But, if we look at the data, the chances of a seatbelt saving you in a crash are orders of magnitude more likely than harming you.

There's a term, which I can't recall just now, for our cognitive bias that overrates the significance of positive action (a thing we do) and underrates the risk of negative action (a thing we don't). We need to bear in mind that we're making choices between options - and "do nothing" is an option with consequences like any other.

I have a lot of sympathy for pregnant women, as they're so bombarded by different views on what's good for their baby, or not. But the fact is that around 20% of our severe covid cases are unvaccinated pregnant women. And when mum gets critically ill, that is really not good for baby. This is why it's so important for people to get the best possible information.

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I like the seatbelt analogy because it is true, but it's even more than that. Afterall, when you don't use the seatbelt, only you suffer the consequences of it (I mean, unless you fling out the windshield and hit some bystander with your flying body or something like that, if that has ever happened at all?). When you don't get the vaccine, you impose the consequences of your own negligence upon everyone, loved or stranger, who ever comes in contact in you while you're subject and vulnerable to the virus, and put others at risk, like elderly people who can have a bad time even after vaccinated, or those who can not take the vaccine themselves because of other underlying conditions. It's so selfish that I find it honestly offensive when someone says "It's my choice to take the vaccine", because morally it should not, even if legally was.

I truly understand the case of pregnant women, sometimes it's really hard to know what is right, but in other cases, it's pretty clear cut. When someone doesn't take the vaccine because well, they're young and healthy and at most, they'll get a cold, or just believe that Covid is a hoax or whatever, they're not saying "It's my freedom whether I wanna be safe or not" they're also adding to that "and I don't care how many people I will harm or kill because of it."

Anyone doing something like that in about any other scenario in life (say, driving in the opposite direction in a highway), would be instantly thrown in jail for many years.

Ripper said:

Yes, and of course many safety decisions aren't completely black and white, but overwhelmingly in favour of one course of action over another. If you consider seatbelts, there are crashes where the seatbelt was a contributory factor in the fatality. But, if we look at the data, the chances of a seatbelt saving you in a crash are orders of magnitude more likely than harming you.



There's a term, which I can't recall just now, for our cognitive bias that overrates the significance of positive action (a thing we do) and underrates the risk of negative action (a thing we don't). We need to bear in mind that we're making choices between options - and "do nothing" is an option with consequences like any other.



I have a lot of sympathy for pregnant women, as they're so bombarded by different views on what's good for their baby, or not. But the fact is that around 20% of our severe covid cases are unvaccinated pregnant women. And when mum gets critically ill, that is really not good for baby. This is why it's so important for people to get the best possible information.

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The trolley problem is a good example of the doing nothing versus doing something being harder for people.

I'd recommend to watch Michael Sandels Harvard Justice lecture on YouTube. Very well explained problem.