Covfefe-19 The 12th Part: The Only Thing Worse Than This New Board Is TrumpVirus2020

[dxmnkd316]

What are people’s thoughts on weddings? There is one we’re supposed to go to in a couple months but not sure what is expected in this brave new world. I’d be happy just to go and wear a mask the whole time but will that potentially upset the bride and groom where it could in theory ruin pictures? Beyond the pictures I know masks are controversial in general and wouldn’t want to cause any drama.

I'd go and I'd wear a mask. If they're upset that you're wearing a mask, **** 'em, that's THEIR problem not yours.

[ericredaxe]

What are people’s thoughts on weddings? There is one we’re supposed to go to in a couple months but not sure what is expected in this brave new world. I’d be happy just to go and wear a mask the whole time but will that potentially upset the bride and groom where it could in theory ruin pictures? Beyond the pictures I know masks are controversial in general and wouldn’t want to cause any drama.

As a resident of the "vaccinated, boosted and done" category, I would probably go and not really worry much about it. I might bring a mask in my pocket on the chance that it seemed so packed and crowded that I didn't feel comfortable and wanted it.

Now if there was some new surge going on at the time of the wedding it could change my thought process.

[ericredaxe]

I'd go and I'd wear a mask. If they're upset that you're wearing a mask, **** 'em, that's THEIR problem not yours.

Also agree with this - someone should not be upset by mask wearing. Maybe if you want to wear one, just take it off for a moment for any photos?

[Drew S.]

As a resident of the "vaccinated, boosted and done" category, I would probably go and not really worry much about it. I might bring a mask in my pocket on the chance that it seemed so packed and crowded that I didn't feel comfortable and wanted it.

Now if there was some new surge going on at the time of the wedding it could change my thought process.

The problem for us isn’t that we might get sick, it’s more that we have vulnerable family on both ends and don’t want to get them sick. With that being said I do worry a little that if my wife or I got it we could have some weird thing come from it like diabetes or something like that(the long term effects still aren’t really known.)

[Swansong]

As a resident of the "vaccinated, boosted and done" category, I would probably go and not really worry much about it. I might bring a mask in my pocket on the chance that it seemed so packed and crowded that I didn't feel comfortable and wanted it.

Now if there was some new surge going on at the time of the wedding it could change my thought process.

I agree with this. It's tough to predict the next few months - seasonal behavioral changes will reduce cases in general but BA.4 and BA.5 are newly noted and gaining ground over BA.2 where they are and they are extremely infectious.


But yeah, I'm going to shows now. And will also be going to a wedding this summer. I'll definitely bring a mask with me, even if I hope not to wear it.

[Scarlet]

I agree with this. It's tough to predict the next few months - seasonal behavioral changes will reduce cases in general but BA.4 and BA.5 are newly noted and gaining ground over BA.2 where they are and they are extremely infectious.


But yeah, I'm going to shows now. And will also be going to a wedding this summer. I'll definitely bring a mask with me, even if I hope not to wear it.

Oh boy. New variants. Extremely infectious. Greeeeeaaaat.

[Handyman]

If they are variants on omicron though you should be fine.

[Swansong]

Correct, they are BA.4 and BA.5, meaning that they are just... Omicron. The jury seems out if they are more or less infectious than BA.2 at this point, but anecdotally they may be? Very unclear yet.

Either way, 3-dose vaccination and/or previous Omicron infection gives substantial reduction in infection to BA.2/4/5 and near universal protection against serious disease or death.

There's also some pre-print studies that I'll look up later discussing the amount of live virus in a vaccinated person (as opposed to the total viral load).

[Swansong]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01816-0

TL,DR stolen from another forum I read:
Neutralizing antibodies from vaccination cause there to be 80% less infectious virus in people that are infected. This will reduce onward transmission. It’s academic at this point, but documenting this is important. This difference is not detectable by pcr. A few other highlights:
-Omicron (BA1) produced less total virus than Delta
-2 doses reduced infectious virus by 80% in delta infections compared to unvaccinated
-3 doses are needed to reduce (80% again) infectious virus for Omicron, 2 dosed have same amount of infectious virus as unvaccinated
-pcr viral loads were approximately 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than infectious viral loads
-this fits with our knowledge that Ct<30 can be infectious and correlates with pcr viral loads of >100,000


So this piggybacks on last summer's media nonsense about viral loads being about equal between vaccinated and unvaccinated people (which, naturally, the morons grabbed as reason not to get vaccinated). The quantity of virus may be the same, but the quality of that quantity is very different.


Key takeaway: get vaccinated and boosted (jury still out on efficacy of 4th doses for non-immunocompromised folks).

[Handyman]

As of now I am not even really considering a 4th dose as it seems rather pointless unless you are old or compromised.

[Kepler]

As of now I am not even really considering a 4th dose as it seems rather pointless unless you are old or compromised.

I'm not sure either way. It will come down to whether it is recommended by my doctor.

Are these doses all the same (assuming you get the same manufacturer) or is the recipe changing?

[Swansong]

I'm not sure either way. It will come down to whether it is recommended by my doctor.

Are these doses all the same (assuming you get the same manufacturer) or is the recipe changing?

Same vaccine juice.


I'm also holding off, as a 4th dose does not seem to have a significant impact on otherwise-healthy immune systems. If I was going to travel? Sure.


What we need is an Omicron/Delta-specific booster for the fall to go into the winter with newly heightened immunity. You know, like we do with the flu shots.

[Handyman]

Same vaccine juice.


I'm also holding off, as a 4th dose does not seem to have a significant impact on otherwise-healthy immune systems. If I was going to travel? Sure.


What we need is an Omicron/Delta-specific booster for the fall to go into the winter with newly heightened immunity. You know, like we do with the flu shots.

I heard rumors they were working on combining the COVID booster and flu shot into one going forward...that would be nice.

[MichVandal]

As of now I am not even really considering a 4th dose as it seems rather pointless unless you are old or compromised.

We are getting it as soon as our health system starts giving them out. More confidence to travel.

[Swansong]

I heard rumors they were working on combining the COVID booster and flu shot into one going forward...that would be nice.

Pfizer and Moderna are and have multiple candidates each going through trials. The FDA, as usual, is in no rush to approve any of it. The (very preliminary) data released indicates that they aren't substantially better than the current vaccines, but again I'm basing this statement on very-much-not-up-to-date info.


Our biggest problem is that Omicron variant is among the most contagious viruses ever recorded. The MMR vaccine took the normal period of years to develop/perfect. I believe we've accomplished a staggering amount getting to where we are now, but infection prevention is incredibly difficult against any malady, let alone a top-3/top-2 contagious one.