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#COVID

119 posts105 participants8 posts today

While I still can, here in the U.S., I got another COVID booster along with Tdap and updated (for me) MMR vaccines.

That's 10 COVID shots for me in 4 years. It's been about 10 years since I had a tetanus shot, I think, and I'm getting scratched and bitten by cats at the shelter where I volunteer, and apparently the original Measles vaccine I got in 1963 has dubious long-term effectiveness.

#Vaccines#COVID#MMR

Bob MacDonald (Quirks and Quarks, CBC Radio) has a very accessible episode that covers a lot of the basic information about Covid-19 and long-Covid that most people are woefully unaware of, in an interesting and non-confrontational way. Worth listening to and reading; worth sharing with people who are important to you.

cbc.ca/radio/quirks/beyond-lon

CBCBeyond long COVID — how reinfections could be causing silent long-term organ damage | CBC RadioScientific evidence is painting an unsettling picture: COVID infections, even if mild or asymptomatic, may be causing long-term cellular and organ damage, as well as increasing your risk of developing long COVID.

Things you can say when people say, "during the pandemic" and mean some point in the past:

"Oh, during lockdown?"

"Oh, the height of the pandemic?"

"Oh, the worst part of the pandemic?"

"Oh, earlly days?"

"Oh, when it was still new?"

"Oh, before vaccines?"

"Oh, before RTO?"

And of course it's cool to follow up with, "Because the pandemic is still on."

It's beyond me how people thought they could slosh a quarter-billion dollars around south Minneapolis and environs without attracting attention.

But then, I evidently lack the creative thinking you see in This Modern World.

Dante, way back when, reserved the lowest circles for fraud, if you go in for that kind of literary flourish.

A prosecutor called it "The shame of Minnesota." But look at it this way. They didn't get away with it.

MPR News: 'In the overall fraud case, 70 people including Bock and Said were charged. A little more than half have pleaded guilty. The trial of Bock and Said was the second to follow the sprawling investigation by the FBI, IRS, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service into fraud in the nutrition programs.

'A separate federal jury in June convicted five of seven defendants at a trial that was rocked by allegations of attempted jury bribery.

'"The Feeding Our Future case has come to symbolize the problem of fraud in our state,” [lead prosecutor Joe] Thompson said Wednesday. “It has become the shame of Minnesota. Hopefully today’s verdict will help turn the page on this awful chapter in our state’s history.”'
mprnews.org/story/2025/03/19/f

MPR News · Feeding Our Future head Aimee Bock convicted on all fraud chargesBy Matt Sepic
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@CoachMark

I hope so!

My equally N=1 anecdata is that whether I have symptoms from a #Covid #vaccine seems to be totally random and independent of the manufacturer. I can't make Covid antibodies, so whatever causes the reaction isn't that. I'm not an immunologist, but I take Covid vaccines in the hope of priming my T-cells. IDEK. I hope it helps. I've had Covid and it wasn't fun.

Being immunocompromised makes me especially glad to hear when other people take vaccines. Thanks for doing the right thing, Tayfonay, and get well soon.

@tayfonay

Replied in thread

@chemoelectric ⬆️ “…letting the virus sweep through poultry flocks unchecked would be inhumane & dangerous… Dr. Gail Hansen… called the idea a “recipe for disaster. Every infection is an opportunity for the virus, called H5N1, to evolve….so far, the virus hasn’t developed the ability to spread among people…if H5N1 were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” It mutates just like #COVID #BirdFlu

I think this is the best writeup I've seen on the (lack of) evidence for the efficacy of nasal sprays as a "layer of protection" against #COVID / #COVID19

There is a lot of misinformation out there about nasal sprays preventing COVID-19. Unfortunately, there are no convincing studies showing that nasal sprays prevent COVID-19. The published studies investigating whether or not nasal sprays prevent COVID-19 each have major issues, which I will detail here.

I have a PhD in biochemistry and one of my PhD projects was on COVID-19. The main takeaway of this post is that there is no sound evidence that nasal sprays prevent COVID-19. Thus, nasal sprays should not be used for COVID-19 prevention in place of effective measures such as high-quality well-fitting respirators, ventilation and air purification.