quote:

Dr. Susy Hota, medical director of infection prevention and control at University Health Network in Toronto, agreed both that the cheeks and throat should be swabbed in addition to the nose and that rapid testing will be less accurate right after illness begins.

Hota said vaccinated people are now understood to have an earlier immune response to COVID infection, prompting earlier symptoms, which arise before a rapid test is able to detect the virus.

“It might take up to four days (after symptoms begin) for your rapid test to be positive,” she said, adding that a PCR test would likely catch an infection sooner.

“Probably the most important message is, if you start to get symptoms, don’t go anywhere. Self-isolate immediately. Don’t believe a negative rapid test right away.”

Further testing advice, taken from Ontario Health’s latest rapid test sample collection guide, is that test-takers avoid eating, drinking, smoking, vaping and chewing gum for at least 30 minutes before collecting samples. As well, people should blow their nose before swabbing their nostrils.

Oracle posted:

Took some notes on this in case people wanted to know what tests to ask for.
Most doctors when confronted with shortness of breath/fatigue/chest pain do:
d-dimer
and if that's raised (or just to CYA even if its not) will do
ct-pa test
for profusion issues.
If both those are fine, most doctors stop, tell patient 'all in your head get some rest cut down on caffiene/lost weight/insert common sense advice here'
What this doc found however is that these findings are deceptive and if you then do
V/Q scan looking for profusion issues
you will find these microclots that are causing these issues
HOWEVER
these covid-caused clots do not act like normal blood clots, because covid is predominantly a vascular disease of the microvascular blood vessels.

blood vessels are getting hit by a maladaptive immune response tossing out cytokines which causes the immune system to be chronically stimulated, which results in immune exhaustion which results in chronic diseases and contracting more diseases/being more prone to even minor infections you would normally shrug off or not get, as well as causing inflammation that causes all sort of issues.

The inner linings/endothelium damage triggers coagulation cascade which results in microclots that aren't normal clots, fibrin becomes misfolded into an amyloid formation (that should sound familiar, amyloids are the plaques found in Alzheimer's patients) which traps other enzymes within them, like a hair trap on a drain. These covid-clots resist anticlotting meds we use for normal clots. They build up and obstruct flow of oxygen to every organ, causing long covid. These clots themselves are immunogenic, capillaries are affected become less protected, become inflamed, disruption of capillaries leads to leakage which leads to organ damage, gut issues, neuroinflammatory damage in brains and hearts which leads to heart attacks, and strokes.

Other tests that have been used to indirectly find long covid:
SPECT-CT scans identify clots indirectly, based on blood flow abnormalities.
Looking at PPP with the stain thioflavin T under a simple fluorescence microscope helps find amyloid microclots if present
this might also help convince your doctor that something is definitely going on that they can't detect with the usual biomarker tests

Hatebag posted:

gently caress you put the mask on you dumb sack of poo poo. gently caress your stupid fuckin face

Platystemon posted:

Tip for buying foreign PPE: sometimes Amazon will ship internationally for free if you shop at another country’s site because what else is a zaibatsu good for?
Obviously there’s the usual provenance problems with their inventory, but when the alternative is obscene freight quotes from businesses that never ship across the Atlantic, it starts to look attractive.

zegermans posted:

Goon parents group linked this google sheet which at a glance is the most useful thing I've ever seen w/r/t kids and useful masks
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Q24Vv8MPk#gid=0

jetz0r posted:

This is the list of ppe sites I check for masks:
https://www.industrialsafetyproducts.com/
https://www.magidglove.com
https://www.rshughes.com/
https://www.zoro.com/masks-respiratory-protection/c/4451/
https://www.digikey.com/ (mostly half mask level stuff)
https://www.fastenal.com/
https://industrialsafety.com/ (I have canceled an order from here because it was taking too long to ship)

Zodium posted:

Assessing the effect of beard hair lengths on face masks used as personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Death of Innocence posted:

We probably should have a set of recommendations for people to prepare for the possibility of getting sick and what to do after potential exposure, developing symptoms or testing positive. This is at best a rough draft.

Ideally, Have on hand:

Thermometer, in case you get a really high fever and need to go to the hospital

Pulse oximeter, they sell these at Walgreens and CVS, use them to monitor your blood oxygen saturation, if it’s down to the low 90s or below call your doctor or go to the hospital.

N95 masks or P100 respirators for everyone, including the infected person, to try to avoid household spread (assuming only one person is sick). Valveless are preferable in this case because we are assuming at least one person in the household is currently contagious. I recommend the GVS SPR643 (small/medium) and GVS SPR644 (medium/large) they’re comfortable and reusable and waiting out covid can take weeks.

Air purifier or corsi cube, as many as possible to filter the air and help prevent household spread.

Try to isolate the sick person in a different room from others. If you plan in advance you can maybe use box fans and other supplies to make the room with sick person negative pressure, and surrounding rooms positive pressure. Keep the door closed.

A stockpile of food and other supplies so you don’t have to leave home and break quarantine.

These links:

https://cleanaircrew.org/someone-in-my-home-has-covid-how-do-we-isolate-safely/

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html

Monoclonal antibodies, which are being rationed right now, and paxlovid if it ever becomes widely available are most effective if taken at the beginning of the infection, so it’s helpful to research if it might be possible for you to get some right away, even if symptoms at the beginning are mild.

Call your doctor, if you just tested positive you might feel like waiting but it’s better to open that channel of communication early and listen to what they have to say.

Joementum posted:

here's a link to a place that tracks what pharmacies have anti-COVID medications in stock. https://covid-19-therapeutics-locator-dhhs.hub.arcgis.com/

any doctor can prescribe it. if you get pushback, tell them you have one of the CDC's "certain medical conditions" that put you at higher risk of complications from COVID (not judging but you almost certainly have one of these)

you might not even need a doctor: here's the HHS Test to Treat page https://aspr.hhs.gov/TestToTreat/Pages/default.aspx

they have a locator that may have a pharmacy near you that may prescribe after a positive test. there's also a phone line you can call 1-800-232-0233

Platystemon posted:

You don’t want air to get from wherever your roommate is hanging out to wherever you’re eating, sleeping, and doing anything else incompatible with respirator use.

Central air will distribute air throughout the house. MERV 13 is not HEPA; it does not remove enough virosols in a single pass to make it safe.

You can either turn off the furnace, or you can make it heat only part of the house by sealing off vents in the rest of the house.

Let’s say you set up your bedroom as the safe room. Cover the air vent there. Large ziplog bags, with the side seams cut off to get one large sheet, are are good source of plastic for this. You want the plastic to extend past the vent on all sides so you can tape it cleanly to the ceiling, floor, or wall with two layers of masking or gaffer’s tape. The air pressure will try to force the tape off, so be generous with it.

There is likely a large gap under your interior door. Get “door bottom” weather stripping to close up this gap. Seal all around the door frame with weather stripping as well. How exactly you do this depends on the specifics of how the door is constructed and fitted. If the door doesn’t latch after the weather stripping is in place, loosening the screws on the strike plate may give you enough “play” to get it latching again.

By the way, make sure you remove this after this all blows over and you unseal the vent, because the gap under the door is intentional and necessary for conditioned air to make it to the air return.

Now put a box fan in the window to positively pressurize the room. Block the gap(s) this leaves in the window opening with cardboard and if necessary, tape. It doesn’t need to be hermetically sealed, just no gaping holes.

You can put filters on the fan if you’re worried about virosols being sucked in from the sidewalk or whatever, but you’re probably going to have to build a cube out of filters to get the resistance down and ensure the pressure you want. The goal is eight pascals. Your smartphone has a barometer built into it that can measure with this degree of precision. Put the phone on a table with the barometer app running. Note the figure. Now turn on the fan and hopefully you’ll see it go up by at least eight pascals. It’s not much in absolute terms—air pressure at sea level is about one hundred thousand pascals.

The Lasko Power Plus that Home Depot carries is a good fan. Check online for stores with stock because this is not the season when they are generally sold.

The by-the-book operation is to run the fan continuously. It can likely be on its lowest setting, at least when the door to the rest of the house is shut, and still provide enough pressure. Your climate may be warm enough for you to run the fan all the time. If you can’t stand this, you can at least pressurize the room when the door is open. Get radio controlled power plug for the fan so you can turn it on/off as you go in and out of the room, always having it running at full speed while the door is open.

Put one or more Corsi Cubes or other air purifiers around. Sick room, safe room, common areas could all benefit from them. Yes, you’re trying to control air movement and using the respirator anywhere the virus may be present, but the less of it floating around, the lower the chance that there’s any around to capitalize on small weaknesses in your defenses.

If I had only one air purifier, I would prioritize the safe room, then the common area, then the sick room, but I don’t really know what’s optimal. Is it better to capture virosols near their source, or better to ensure that the air you are most exposed to is absolutely clean? I don’t know. Someone should model it.

You can totally shower in a 6200 with 7093 cartridges. For a couple weeks, you’ll have to towel off your face on the patio. What’s more annoying is having to shave without running water.

olives black posted:

ATTN: Apartment Dwellers

Get a security bar on your door.

Example of a security bar.

After telling my office multiple times that no one gets in without an N95 (and that I would provide one if necessary), the barefaced knuckledragger that they sent over to fix poo poo waited all of 10 seconds after knocking before unlocking my door.

It might save your life. Go get one.

Steve Yun posted:

quote:

A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right? And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.

Trixie Hardcore posted:

Do you have any idea how much I hate knowing loving anything about covid? I don’t want to know any of this dumb covid bullshit but my brain is stuffed with it. Dumb loving shithead pandemic, viruses are gross and I hate them.

Nocturtle posted:

TLDR: long-term COVID impacts ie "long COVID" or "Post-Acute Sequelae of SARs-COV-2 infection" (PASC) affects ~10-30% of people with symptomatic infections. >1%-10% of COVID infections result in “significant” long term impacts, with large uncertainties in actual rates but these are likely lower bounds. Vaccines did not protect against all PASC conditions (estimates vary between 50% reduction to no protection).

PASC overview
-PASC encompasses a range of conditions that might occur after a COVID infection
-conditions include cardiovascular, neurological and immune disorders
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.698169/full
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/19/science/long-covid-causes.html
-PASC rate post-infection highly uncertain, estimates vary between 10%-30% at ~6 months
-the impact of potentially relevant factors like vaccination also have large uncertainties
-several large scale studies and labor force analyses attempt to evaluate PASC rate, severity
-PASC isn’t COVID mortality, mortality is better understood and effectively reduced with vaccines

PASC rate estimates from major studies
-focus here on PASC rates for mild cases in <65 year olds where possible
-ideally account for vaccination impact, most large completed studies done pre-vaccine

Post-acute symptoms, new onset diagnoses and health problems 6 to 12 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection: a nationwide questionnaire study in the adult Danish population
-large scale study, 152880 participants, evaluated at 6-12 months, pre-vaccine availability
-long-term symptoms maximal for 30-60 year old
-”significant” post-infection symptoms:
-~40% risk of physical exhaustion, 35% risk of mental exhaustion
-~28% chance of memory and concentration issues
-~8% fatigue

Long COVID in a prospective cohort of home-isolated patients
-followed 312 home-isolated (non-hospitalized) Norwegian patients from the early pandemic
-52% (32/61) of home-isolated young adults, aged 16–30 years, had symptoms at 6 months
-”significant” post-infection symptoms:
-impaired concentration (13%, 8/61)
-memory problems (11%, 7/61)
-fatigue (21%, 13/61)

Physical, psychological and cognitive profile of post-COVID condition in healthcare workers, Quebec, Canada
-~6000 COVID positive HCWs in Quebec between July 2020 and May 2021 pre-vaccines
-had controls, claims less bias than similar studies because participants recruited pre-COVID
~40% reported at least one post-infection symptom at 12 weeks
-10-20% described at least one “severe” post-infection symptom, did not decrease with time
-”significant” post-infection symptoms:
-cognitive dysfunction ~15% at 25 weeks
-fatigue ~25% at 25 weeks

Incidence, co-occurrence, and evolution of long-COVID features: A 6-month retrospective cohort study of 273,618 survivors of COVID-19
-analyzed health records of 81 million US patients, idenitified 273000 COVID cases
-cases would have been for people that sought treatment, so worse than overall population
-”significant” post-infection symptoms:
-fatigue/malaise (12.82%; 5.87%
-cognitive symptoms (7.88%; 3.95%),

Prevalence, determinants, and impact on general health and working capacity of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 six to 12 months after infection: a population-based retrospective cohort study from southern Germany
-persons aged 18-65 years with PCR confirmed infection between Oct 2020 and March 2021
-11,710 subjects, reported symptom rates before, during infection and at later time
-”significant” post-infection symptoms:
-neurocognitive impairment (PD 31.3%)
-fatigue (PD 37.2%)

Persistence, prevalence, and polymorphism of sequelae after COVID-19 in young adults
-501 participants, median age of 21 years (range 19-29)
-compared 177 COVID cases after 6 months with controls, recent infection, asmptomatics
-found a significant trend towards metabolic disorders, higher Body Mass Index (BMI) (p=0.03), lower aerobic threshold (p=0.007), higher blood cholesterol (p<0.001) and low-density lipoprotein LDL levels
-there were no significant differences in psychosocial questionnaire scores

Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19
-157000 VA patients, predominantly older white males
-also includes contemporary and historical control groups
-study period 2020-2021, pre-vaccine
-4.5% elevated risk of any cardiovascular outcome in entire cohort
-roughly 2.5% elevated risk of any cardiovascular outcome for mild cases

Risks and burdens of incident diabetes in long COVID: a cohort study
-181280 participants with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Sept 30, 2021
-note average participant age of ~61 years old
-had contemporary and historical control
-people with COVID-19 had increased risk (HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.36–1.44) of diabetes
-excess burden (13.46, 95% CI 12.11–14.84, per 1000 people at 12 months) of diabetes ie roughly ~1% of cases
-Risks and burdens increased according to the severity of the acute phase of COVID-19

Six-month sequelae of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection: a retrospective cohort study of 10,024 breakthrough infections
-10024 vaccinated individuals, 9479 matched against unvaccinated controls
-no uninfected control group
-evaluated pre-Omicron
-this study is focused on evaluating difference in long-term outcomes between vaccinated vs unvaccinated and not so much the absolute rates
-two doses of vaccine had no impact on “long-COVID” features, several other disorders

Presence of Symptoms 6 Weeks After COVID-19 Among Vaccinated and Unvaccinated U.S. Healthcare Personnel
-participants had COVID-19 with either verified mRNA vaccination or no vaccination
-among 681 eligible participants, 419 (61%) completed survey ~6 weeks after illness onset
-~71% reported one or more COVID-like symptoms 6 weeks after illness onset
-lower prevalence of long-term symptoms among vaccinated participants
-”significant” post-infection symptoms:
-fatigue ~30%
-cognitive symptoms: 25%

Indirect PASC impacts from labor statistics

Is ‘long Covid’ worsening the labor shortage?
-assumes ~100 million workers infected by Oct 2021
-roughly estimates ~1.1 million people out of work due to long COVID at any given time

COVID-19 Likely Resulted in 1.2 Million More Disabled People by the End of 2021
-additional 1.2 million people in the US civilian institutional population with a registered disability in 2021 compared to 2020
-total labor force without disability is down ~2 million since the start of the pandemic
-large increase in workers with disability likely due to PASC, ~1% of infected workers

Summary
-PASC research suggests >10% chance of “significant” long-term impact from COVID infection, esp fatigue and cognitive symptoms (estimates vary around 10-20%)
-additional risk of cardiovascular disease after mild infection is ~2.5%
-vaccines did not protect against all PASC conditions (estimates vary between 50% reduction to no protection)
-vaccine protection has likely not improved with Omicron dominant given relatively worse protection against symptomatic infection
-labor statistics suggest >1% of infected workers either disabled or too sick to continue working at least temporarily
-current overall picture is >1%-10% of COVID infections result in “significant” long term impacts, with large uncertainties in actual rates but these are likely lower bounds

Chamale posted:

https://i.imgur.com/TDgDL64.mp4

Platystemon posted:

Index to C-SPAM coronavirus threads

January through March, 2020 | 2494 pages: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3912152
April 2020 | 1299 pages: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3918863
May 2020 | 738 pages: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3921857
June 2020 to August 2021 | 7193 pages: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3926175
August 2021 to March 2022 | 5819 pages: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3976692

You are here ➡️ March 2022 to <indefinite> | 36 pages: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3997695

Rubby posted:

Iron Crowned posted:

First post

empty whippet box posted:

oh we doomin' here now?

Palladium posted:

Whats the magical number of posts for closing a thread

Chamale posted:

https://i.imgur.com/TDgDL64.mp4

(has sound)

Chad Sexington posted:

But I liked the old thread.

Shifty Nipples posted:

That's a good op op

Shifty Nipples posted:

That's a good op op

actionjackson posted:

I didn't really see a good summary of those valve tests, how would this compare to a KN95?

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v000274871/

Shifty Nipples posted:

oh gently caress me the thread title got the welcome back kotter song in my head nooooooo

gradenko_2000 posted:

(fantastic goddamn OP, op)