The Coronavirus-and Pip (the bird)

My yoga teacher got both - one in December and one in April.  

The Coronavirus and Monkeypox Thread (Pip has forsaken us.)

I need one too... I got my first booster back in September, which feels like foreverrrrr ago.

My only concern with the fourth shot is what it might mean if they roll out a different version of the vaccine, either specific to a different variant or multivalent, in the fall. Will any of us who get fourth shots have a reduced response to that, or anything like that? The FDA is supposedly meeting to make a call on the makeup of the fall booster some time in mid-to-late June, so I guess we'll see how that shapes up.

Damn I had no idea about this. But mid June feels so far away, and won't help for those who want to be protected for 'roo (not me sadly - maybe next year with a better headline and more cash). 

Are you in the medical or science field? You're on top of this in a way even this amateur covid-info-chaser isn't.

My guess is this will be an annual thing. Each spring/summer we alter the vaccine to the recent variant. Administer in fall. Over winter/spring new variant emerges. Repeat.

It really depends on how the virus continues to evolve and mutate. This strategy would be a loser if you look at the past year of viral evolution. In the spring/summer of 2021, the dominant variant was Delta. If we administered a booster for that in the fall, it would have done pretty much nothing to reduce the first Omicron wave in the winter. If we came out with an Omicron booster now, we'd have to decide whether to base it on BA.2, BA.4, or BA.5, because they're all blowing up, but don't seem to provide much immunogenesis vs. the others, if I remember what I was reading correctly. 

It's kind of a mess. This virus, at least over the past couple of years, has mutated faster than our usual processes for vaccine development and rollout can keep up. Multivalent vaccines could help, but currently, I think the regulatory process treats those like an entirely new brew, rather than an iteration of the existing vaccine a la the yearly updated flu shot, which means a longer approval rigamarole. The holy grail is a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine, a few of which are in early stages of development, but it's going to be a minute before we get there, because there's no Operation Warp Speed-like effort in place for it.

There's a lot of conversation currently about intranasal vaccines, so it'll be interesting to see where that goes. Theoretically, they'd provide greater mucosal immunity, which would make them more sterilizing, since that's typically the point of infection for COVID. Most of what I'm seeing bandied around right now is the idea of an injectable primary series with intranasal boosters rather than shots. There are literally 67 intranasal vaccines in various stages of clinical trial, currently. Hopefully, at least one of those pans out, because that would be huge in terms of encouraging vaccination and booster uptake...and cutting transmission is the most desired outcome. 

husband is almost feeling back to normal and now i feel like trash. tested positive this morning after negative tests all week.

Are we not worried about monkeypox? Just me?

…ish? The only real reason to worry would be if we were somehow looking at a new strain that was spreading in a new way, but there’s been no evidence of that so far. The genome sequence of this particular strain has already been published, and I think it’s bog standard. Troubling, concerning, but not something where it’s suddenly aerosolized, or something. Still most infectious during symptoms, which is a real good thing when you’re trying for containment. And it’s the strain with a 1% CFR. It’s not COVID, at least as of right now. And there are vaccines injected and oral that could be ramped up if things really start to get rolling.

I dunno. *Could* it become a real problem? Yes, of course. It’s never good to have community spread of a virus like that. But is it top-of-mind-worthy right now? Not really, by my estimation.

PS- How to avoid monkeypox? Wear a mask, wash your hands. We should have a leg up on this thing.

There are the giant parachuting spiders that are the size of your hand.

Multiple genomic sequences have been conducted, at this point, and there is no difference detected in the virus so far from previous versions of monkeypox. It's not spreading in a *new* way. If it's spreading through sexual contact, it's because that's where contact with the lesions is happening. 

I mean, believe me, I'm not saying any of this is great, especially the fact that there was community spread before health officials figured out it was happening at all. I just think there's a lot of space between "absolutely nothing to worry about" and "the next COVID," and I think a lot of people are thinking of it the latter way. This is not a new version of this virus. It hasn't acquired any new capabilities as far as anyone can currently tell (if that story changes, that certainly changes the calculus). We should all try not to get it, but it's much more containable than something like COVID, and right now, I'm much more worried about catching COVID again than I am that I'll catch monkeypox.

My company is brining all remote workers back into the office for 1 day a week. that's not terrible, but they are bringing in ALL THE STAFF ON THE SAME DAY of the week. this doesn't seem smart to me at all. why not just have people choose their office day instead of everyone coming in on the same day? I know lots of people think covid is over, but it's on the rise again and while I've gone to plenty of festivals lately, I do mask up and stay out of packed crowds for a reason. I feel safer outside with thousands of people where I might only be around someone for a few minutes here and there or a few seconds in passing than I do being packed in an office blowing AC everywhere spreading covid around the building for 8 hours a day.

of course not. Covid is over! I plan on wearing my mask and expect to get a few questions about why I'm wearing my mask.