COVID-19 updates comments and concerns

[Tha_Phantom]

Agreed. People react differently, you could be fine. My mate had it just before me and he's been fine.

Yeah, turns out I didn't experience much in the way of side effects other than feeling tired. Had a mildly runny nose and a bit of pain in the arm that got jabbed, but probably wouldn't have noticed either if I wasn't trying to look for things.
Either way, relieved to finally be double dosed.

[griffin]

If you are having one of the American vaccines (phizer or moderna), you are more likely to have a reaction to the second shot if you have a weaker/less responsive immune system, especially in states that have shortened the gap to just 3 weeks (from the recommended 6 weeks), as your immune system might still be processing the first dose when you get the second dose.
For me it was really swollen glands, in the armpit of the arm that got the injection and in the neck.
Since vaccines are injected into the flesh and not into an artery/vein, it travels through your lymphatic system to your glands, which then processes them and spreads it through the body... same as with snake bites, which is why the treatment of snake bites is immobilising the person and their bitten limb (with compression bandages), as it slows the lymphatic system (powered by muscle movement) from spreading the venom to the rest of the body, giving you enough time to be treated.


It is a shame that Victoria's numbers have spiked to NSW peak levels... but not surprising once you reach a certain saturation point, as well as the bad timing of some events in the last week (crowds at protests and group viewings of the grand final).
The numbers in NSW are worth boasting to show that the vaccine is working. Lockdown, masking and tracing measures on their own wasn't reducing the spread, because of the more contagious delta variant... but just like in America during the alpha variant earlier this year, once the vaccination rate got high enough, the transmission rate dropped below 1 (the figure relating to how many people an infected person infects before they recover enough to not spread it anymore).
Hopefully with VIC being fairly close behind NSW with vaccination rates, the daily numbers won't be going too much higher, and the spike was limited to just a few days.

As for the deaths and hospitalisations, today's VIC announcement claimed that everyone in hospital and ICU were unvaccinated... which I'd be surprised if it is true, as the NSW numbers have pretty much always had people in hospital who were vaccinated, which goes with the statistics of the vaccine, in that it doesn't completely prevent everyone from going to into hospital, but does significantly reduce the number, which frees up more hospital resources and beds for those people who need it (like non-covid issues).

It was unfortunate that during the week, a particular day reported 7 deaths in NSW, and only one was unvaccinated (three had one shot, three had both shots), as it gave anti-vaxxers ammunition that getting the vaccine increased your chance of dying from covid. It would have been useful to clarify how recently those six had been vaccinated, because if they caught the virus within 3 or 4 days of their vaccination, the single shot people wouldn't have had enough active anti-bodies yet to tackle the virus, and the double shot people would have been the equivalent of a single shot, which is only half protection and more likely to end up in hospital or die compared to fully vaccinated people a couple weeks after their second shot.


Finishing on a positive note, our vaccination rate in Australia appears to have now over-taken America.
As of October 1st, both reporting sites cover 12+ ages, and Australia is at 56.0% fully vaccinated compared to America having 55.9%.
While our first shot rate is at 79.0% compared to America at just 64.8%.
And since America was vaccinating their 12-15 age group a month or so earlier, ours is only at about 2% fully vaccinated, but 40% of ours have already had the first shot, which could see that demographic rapidly add to our total vaccination rate in the next 3-4 weeks as their second shot is due.
The ACT has to be commended, as they have hit 92% first shot... one of the best rates in the world, especially if all of them get their second shot, and more still get their first.
And by the end of this next week, we expect NSW to be the first state to hit 70% fully vaccinated, and also be more vaccinated than every USA state (their best state is at 69.5%), despite their significant headstart.
But since the vaccine has been less politicised in Australia (we didn't have one of our two major parties dismissing the virus and vaccine like they did in America, leading to five times more Republicans dying from covid than Democrats), and Australia has been tougher with restrictions (lockdowns, border closures, mask mandates, gathering limits), our deaths rate is also significantly less than America - 13,270 died in the last week in America (equals 40.2 per million) compared to Australia's 103 in the last week (equals 4 per million).
In other words, the stats (science) doesn't lie... vaccines and preventative measures work, preventing deaths and clogged hospitals that need to be available to help other life-threatening emergencies.

[Tha_Phantom]

It's simply too contagious, all we can do is slow it down.
Let's put NSW aside for a second, both Vic and NZ locked down as soon as they got a whiff of delta and yet their numbers are still going up.
Vaccinations really are the only path out of this. And yes we need to lockdown for the meantime.

Nearly two months on and this is still the situation. NSW's cases have been declining thanks to vaccinations and Victoria has overtaken us in the daily numbers (they haven't beaten our peak though).
Although they've kept their daily numbers pretty low, NZ has accepted that entirely eliminating covid is unrealistic.
Roll up those sleeves people!

Edit: spoke too soon, Victoria has overtaken NSW's peak daily case number as of today.

[griffin]

Lockdowns do impact on everyone, especially businesses, students and many workers... and agreeing with an earlier sentiment they are necessary to insulate the hospitals from being swamped until vaccination rates are high enough, like childhood vaccines need to be to reduce or eliminate things like whooping cough and measles. We already have states unable to do elective and non-urgent surgeries, blowing out already long waiting lists, and states like QLD had all this time to increase resources at hospitals ready for borders to be opened in the next few months and they know that living with covid means a certain amount of daily cases, which will result in people in hospital.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Tassie's had a breach. 1x exposure site (some 15-year-old breaking quarantine to go to an IGA with his older mate/brother, I forget which) in Newnham, Launceston. 2.20-2.45pm yesterday. The kid had come from Victoria and was confirmed positive.
So far most of the contacts are returning negative, which is good, but it's early days. Fingers crossed we get lucky with this one.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Jab #2 today. So far so good, sore arm again with a little heat around the injection site, slightly tired but have been that way all day so it's likely due to being slightly busy lately/a little run-down, possible slight fever but very slight.
Fingers crossed for the next few days.

Day #2 - slight fever, very mild pain in the arm around the injection site, yesterday's heat in the arm has gone. :-)

[G1Optimal]

Has anyone heard any updates of the omicron variant as in how severe the sickness is?