People… wear a mask if you go to an event like this… easy-peasey!
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Patients recovering from COVID-19 who presented with anosmia during their acute episode have behavioral, functional, and structural brain alterations
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Paxlovid is no longer subsidized/paid for by the US gov’t, so whether you can afford it or not, insured or not, is now a healthcare “decision” 
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Or very unattractive.
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oh, fuck you marge, fuuuuuuuuuuuuck YOU!
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Is anyone else counting masks at the convention?
We’ve seen quite a few, not enough, but more than we were expecting.
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My wife got billed about $900 for a 1/2 hour consult at an immediate care clinic and was given the paxlovid course. Our insurance will cover 80%
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There were so few that it made them much more noticeable during the crowd shots. I hope nobody who attended gets bad news later because of it. 
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Good news (for a sad reason):
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Moron says what?
Not sure how a covid vaccine protects against West Nile.
The west Nile thing is true though.
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It’s important for those in high-risk groups to get vaccinated, but vaccine protection wanes after a few months. Those who run to get the new vaccine may be more likely to fall ill this winter when the next wave hits, said William Schaffner, an infectious disease professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
This is not the kind of calculation we should be having to make. “Is it riskier to go unprotected in the current wave, in order to be better protected in an anticipated winter peak?” I got no answers, just frustration. Damnitall…
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I was at the Worldcon, as were a lot of friends of mine. I think there were a few who got Covid, but most, myself included, didn’t get sick.
@anon29537550 - here in Finland, the covid vaccinations are starting. Currently it’s only people over 80, or who have serious immunodeficiency; in September, people 75-79 years old can get combined covid & flu shots; and in October, it’s the turn of people over 65 or who belong to medical risk groups (I’m in this category).
The over-eighty people will have to get the flu shot separately at a later time.
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Zuckerberg has tried to change the company’s perception on the right, going on podcaster Joe Rogan’s show in 2022 and complimenting Republican nominee Donald Trump’s response to an assassination attempt as “badass.” He sent Monday’s letter to the House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Jordan, is a longtime Trump ally.
Kowtowing to the fascists is not the winning move Zuch seems to think it is. Fuck off you stupid asshat, you!
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“The timing is really unfortunate, because we don’t yet have the 2024-25 versions of the COVID shots generally available yet, so the Bridge program will end before those are available to uninsured individuals,” Dr. Nathaniel Hupert, an associate professor of population health sciences and of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, told ABC News.
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The 
COVID forecast is “severe”, back over 1000 people per week dead with COVID likely the second or leading cause of death.
The subject of how to respond to a slow burn pandemic remains taboo because most public health officials have already declared the emergency over. They’ve also stopped collecting critical data. COVID-19 deaths in Canada are not reported in a readily publicly accessible fashion. And most of the media pretends that an immune-destabilizing virus that can harm the functioning of your organs including your brain has little more import than a benign cold.
As a consequence, authorities can’t now turn around and admit to the breadth of their mistake, let alone acknowledge the growing disorder in public health. Nor do they dare collect critical data documenting the scale of their errors including the relentless march of long COVID.
Referred to in the above article is:
Nature, 28 August 2024
Fibrin drives thromboinflammation and neuropathology in COVID-19
…Here we show that fibrin binds to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, forming proinflammatory blood clots that drive systemic thromboinflammation and neuropathology in COVID-19. Fibrin, acting through its inflammatory domain, is required for oxidative stress and macrophage activation in the lungs, whereas it suppresses natural killer cells, after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fibrin promotes neuroinflammation and neuronal loss after infection, as well as innate immune activation in the brain and lungs independently of active infection. …
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I can understand the rationale of waiting, but for personal & largely unscientific reasons I decided to go ahead and get mine a couple days ago. Seems like everyone I know has been getting it lately, and with school starting back up here I expect the wave to continue for a bit. I got COVID for the first time at this time last year & do not want a repeat. I am waiting on my flu shot until my employer offers it in a couple months, though 
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If this is true, it could be a real game-changer:
THIS IS HUGE! Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered and isolated a broadly neutralizing plasma antibody, known as SC27, which has been shown to neutralize ALL known variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Researchers say a newly discovered antibody could pave the way for vaccines or treatments that provide universal protection against all SARS-CoV-2 variants, along with other related viruses.
For this study, researchers collected the blood of infected individuals and analyzed the antibodies they produced. SC27 was isolated from a single patient, but researchers were able to identify the molecular sequence of the antibody. This paves the way for it to
be replicated, opening the possibility of manufacturing it on a larger scale for future use in COVID-19 treatments.
Researchers say SC27, however, has the ability to recognize differences IN the spike protein from variant to variant. As SARS-CoV-2 has evolved into new variants, some treatments for the illness have lost their effectiveness, such as monoclonal antibody treatments. Due to its remarkable ability to potently neutralize even the most recent variants, SC27 could fill this void.
Edited to add: For those who wish to avoid anything remotely hellsite-related, the thread is also available on Bluesky… but I haven’t yet found a thread reader/unroller for that platform, so I worked with what I could use. This news is too hopeful not to share.
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