How things are going in your area?

[redambrosia]

On 12/24/2021 at 8:06 AM, Evilhalfling said:

I'm having fear fatigue.

I figure at a certain point covid will just be part of normal life, like the flu. Some people will get vaccines, some won’t, but people will get tired of not having social gatherings and start doing them again. 
 

I’ve already read one article that said covid is likely endemic in the population. There’s no going back.

[ced1106]

On 12/25/2021 at 2:22 PM, redambrosia said:

Some people will get vaccines, some won’t,

 

But how many of them are gonna snort? 😀

 

Despite generations of painful jabs, research on nasally administered vaccines started in the 1950's. Those of you who have allergies are probably already familiar with Flonase, Nasocort, and other nasally administered sprays. Well, looks like we're "only" a few years away from a CoVid vaccine, as well as an inhibitor, that can be nasally administered. No special storage, no hollow needles. Note that multiple researchers are working on different nasally administered vaccines and therapies. First article also has a link to a pill-based CoVid treatment.

https://abc7news.com/covid-antiviral-spray-nasal-therapy-gladstone-institutes-research/11336199/

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/11/effort-to-develop-covid-vaccine-nasal-spray.html

 

Meanwhile, in Oz, Australian scientists are researching another treatment, using Australia's well-known deadly fauna as an analogy: "Prof Anderson said Covid-19 first infects cells in the nose by binding to heparan sulphate on the surface of nasal cells. The spray has a very similar structure to heparan sulphate, "so it behaves as a decoy and can rapidly wrap around the virus' spike protein like a python"," : https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australian-researchers-test-nasal-spray-in-fight-against-covid-19

 

Also, the army's working on another nanoparticle vaccine, that's good against multiple variants of CoVid and SARS, which was Asia's major virus a few years ago. "Walter Reed’s SpFN is different from other vaccines. It uses a soccer-ball-shaped protein with 24 faces for its vaccine, which allows scientists to attach the spikes of several coronavirus strains on different faces of the protein." https://wonderfulengineering.com/the-us-army-has-created-a-single-vaccine-against-all-covid-and-sars-variants/

 

Gonna admit that I've skipped out on the annual influenza vaccine a few times out of laziness and because the WHO/FDA haven't always guessed right which strain would dominate in the coming year. But if all I have to do is snort a soccer ball... 😄

 

EDIT: Oops -- I should say that I'm taking care of my 80+ year old parents, one of which refuses to take the vaccine and another with a comorbidity (she's diabetic, so only eats rice, bread, and noodles...), and am close to high-risk myself (prediabetic and overweight), so, duh, I'm living in fear and unpainted miniatures. If your household isn't in a risk group, I wouldn't go as far as we have. A friend of mine has caught CoVid *twice* and is still running about, hopefully not too much. 

Edited December 27, 2021 by ced1106

[Jasper_the_2nd]

We're trying out the self isolating thing.  Not that we think we were exposed, but the boy is having surgery on Thursday, which required him to get a test on Monday, and then he has to self isolate until Thursday. So we all get to self isolate.
Only real impact was that I had a prescription to pick up, but the pharmacy has a delivery system set up.
That and no boxing day shopping, which I'm ok with as our numbers are currently crap.  Averaging around 600 new cases a day for the province, and should break 2000 active cases today, and might hit double our previous "wave 4" peak.....

 

[WhiteWulfe]

I'm curious as to how things are going here, but they've made it a lot harder to get the info reliably, and decided they don't need to do any press conferences during the holidays. 

 

Given how it was looking before the holidays though, I'm hoping we don't see a massive surge in the new year, but the new variant was already taking hold in the province. 

[Cyradis]

BC's testing facilities are overwhelmed and can't keep up. One of them had to shut down during the cold snap too, because they couldn't have sick people lining up on foot outside (drive thru/walk through clinic) in the cold. Low-risk people were being sent home with rapid kits and told to isolate and self-report results from others, because the PCR processing labs have too many coming in. We're in for some serious under-reporting until they get higher capacity.

 

I got a big box of the well sealing N95 masks and gave a bunch to my officemate and her boyfriend. 18 days until 6mo mark on dose 2, so I'd become eligible for a booster (along with ~50% of Canada). **twiddles thumbs impatiently**

 

I donated more blood on Christmas Eve. Certainly made the Christmas day mulled wine pack more of a punch than usual >.> 3 months and a few bottles of iron supplements until I'm allowed to do so again. Apparently the blood supply is precariously low; season already is prone to shortages because of people doing holiday planning and more respiratory illnesses going around, and this season is even worse. So yeah, good reason to go leak a little red juice to help someone out if you can.

[Cranky Dog]

Sadly, with the sudden record number of cases (from around 300 daily cases a few weeks ago to over 16000 today), and to no one's surprise, we're back to extreme measures.

 

Starting tomorrow:

• No gatherings, public or private (with few exceptions).
• Restaurants are closing (take-out allowed).
• Curfew from 10pm-5am.
• Back to school date pushed back to January 17th.
• Stores will closed on Sunday for at least three weeks.
• Other little stuff...

 

I have a few relatives and family acquaintances that caught the bug, and most of our holiday plans were already ruined before the new measures. So we're planning a Zoom meeting on the 1st in the afternoon with my brother and sister.

 

 

Did I also mention that with the rapid testing kit made free to the public, people who tested positive at home returned to the drugstore where they got the test instead of the clinics or staying home?

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by Cranky Dog

[WhiteWulfe]

17-22% positivity rates, however in the two biggest cities (Edmonton and Calgary) it's much closer to 1 in 3...  At the moment they aren't bringing in any additional restrictions, but it's only a matter of time.

 

*looks at data post on Reddit, since mikesmith929 posts it in readable format* ... ... ...*jaw drops*  Not even a week to spike over the fourth wave's MAX, and at this rate it won't even be four days to go past the first wave we had in Alberta.

 

EDIT: I'm very, VERY thankful I have a nice backlog of various things I can work on...  And now I'm suddenly acutely aware of why things like Instacart are upwards of three days to get a delivery.

Edited December 31, 2021 by WhiteWulfe

[Cyradis]

Waiting for BC to put in a few more restrictions. I can't imagine they'll have restaurants open much longer. We got MORE snow in Vancouver, which is nutty for here. Meanwhile former-home in CO got nothing, at a time when it usually has plenty.... and now the suburbs there are on fire.

 

I can't go back to all online D&D. I just can't. I just want my tiny bubble safe from plague. Gah 😞

[Dr.Bedlam]

Boulder is on fire. Other than that, I'm pretty good...

EDIT: Actually, Boulder's not too bad. Several communities between Boulder and Denver proper are utterly devastated. Between hundred mile an hour winds and wildfires, a great many people had to scramble for their lives.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Dr.Bedlam

[Aerowiz130]

And the fire is followed by the first significant snowfall for Boulder County.

[Dr.Bedlam]

2 hours ago, Aerowiz130 said:

And the fire is followed by the first significant snowfall for Boulder County.

 

The whole metro area.

Trying hard not to think about how several hundred people got served up a whole lot of suck right after Christmas... followed by a snowfall a day late to do them any good.

[Cyradis]

That fire managed to stop ~3 blocks from mom's cousin's house. The snow coming one day late has to be the biggest insult on injury. Same weather pattern that caused the fire also stopped it; high winds usually precede cold snow storms, as the cold dense air squishes down the mountains.

 

Somehow Vancouver still has snow and ice on the ground. I'm going to have to walk to the lab tomorrow. No way am I getting on a bus with the plague how it is right now. It'll be me and my officemate and that's it.

 

 

[WhiteWulfe]

Yeah, the bus is kind of my big worry right now...  Since that's the only way I can get around without paying $35 each way.

[Cyradis]

I'm lucky that it is ~3.5mi walk, so it is technically manageable. If the city did a better job plowing and salting the roads I wouldn't worry quite as much. I probably would still bike it if it was flat with this level of snow, but there is a major hill to go up.... and down. That downhill has some areas that are ripe for black ice, and the slope is such that even without slippery conditions slowing down is difficult. You have to be ready for some degree of zoomies and go into a sharp turn at the bottom. The turn is also where the ice will be worst >.<

 

Tonight going to see if the sushi place across the street that knows me well can check my vaccination QR code to see if it still works. They've scanned it before and know it worked then, and know I'm an American in Canada, so the request won't sketch them out.

 

My study permit expired on the 31st, and with it, my BC services card and health insurance. My vaccination record is on those. I don't know if the QR code goes into that, or just has a "ding" all good once generated. I got my application in within the timeframe that allows me to stay here while it gets processed, if they're running late (and they're WAY late). But bureaucracy might screw me over. If I don't get an email for my booster shot on time then a friend is going to call an appointment for me like people do for technology illiterate old folks; my US phone number won't do it. BC will vaccinate me - but the system may be messed up.

 

I hate bureaucratic nonsense so much.

[Jasper_the_2nd]

 

The scale has had to change so even our "peak" for delta/wave 4 now looks like a speed bump.
My region had over 1000 cases over the weekend.  Before that we'd only had 3000 cases total since Covid started. We currently have over 2200 active cases in the region, which is over 50% of the cases this region has had since Covid started.

My FLGS has shut down in store gaming for the next few weeks (their choice, regulations still allow them to be open at 50% capacity).

Looking like that purchase of more pj pants was a sound investment.....