Covid has found me

[Ed Caffrey]

Started feeling bad on Saturday night, got tested on Sunday, and it came back positive. I'm fighting this with both hands tied behind by back. (Lupus, immune compromised, Lung & Kidney disease.)

Today my Doctor sent me to the ER, and because our hospitals are overflowing.... it was only in order to get the monoclonal antibody treatment. Guess what....they have none! "We'll put you on the list, but don't be hopeful."

A source told me that those who have refused the vaccine show up at the hospitals with severe cases of covid, and need it to save their lives...so they have none for those of us who have been vaccinated, are cautious, and need it!

If I survive this.... the next person who get in my face with "my body, my choice" BS, or who tells me that them not getting the vaccine doesn't hurt anyone else.... is getting punched in the face!

[vlegski]

What can I say? Praying its a mild omicron and its over in a few days. Hang tough , will send a knee mail.
Vic Legg

[billyO]

Originally Posted by Ed Caffrey

If I survive this.... the next person who get in my face with "my body, my choice" BS, or who tells me that them not getting the vaccine doesn't hurt anyone else.... is getting punched in the face!

WHEN you recover, know that I'll happily contribute to you defense fund if you need to punch said person.

Best wishes to you and yours.

PS - did you ever get to try the induction forge to remove the broken bit?

[KenH]

Originally Posted by Ed Caffrey

A source told me that those who have refused the vaccine show up at the hospitals with severe cases of covid, and need it to save their lives...so they have none for those of us who have been vaccinated, are cautious, and need it!

I've been saying for a long time the folks who didn't get vaccinated should go the "back of line" for treatment since they didn't get vaccinated. I don't understand, smallpox, measles, etc are required to get in school, why not COVID vaccination?

Rant mode OFF: Ed, get well soon and please do keep us updated as you feel like getting online. I've got a few relatives who got COVID (where vaccinated) and had mild cases. One granddaughter who'd not "got around" to it. Never had to be hospitalized but said for a couple of days she was SICK!!! 104F temp type of thing.

Hang in there my Friend - we NEED you, and I know Cindy does

Ken H>

[cdent]

Hang in there Ed, just get over this.

[jimmontg]

I had my first and only case of Covid in 2020 before they even had tests for it. I survived 2 weeks of being the sickest I've ever been and I have severe COPD at 35% lung capacity. Later they used my plasma to save people on death's door. Why are they not doing that now? No money in it? If it worked then it would work now one would think. Worked for Ebola in Africa even.

I've been vaccinated too in 2021 and had a sore throat from it immediately that night, started going away then got second shot, it came back. Sore throat for 4 doggone months from the vax. Don't blame people for not getting vaccinated when nurses and doctors won't get vaccinated from an mRNA vaccine that no one knows what kind of long term effects there may be.

This is not a smallpox nor flu vaccine and the best that can be said about it is, "Well the next time you catch Covid it won't be so bad"? Seriously? Imagine if they said that about the polio vaccine back in the 50s? But to recommend unvaxxed people die because they see doctors and nurses who won't get vaxxed and they do not trust the media nor politicians on the Left? Really?

[M&J]

Prayers and best wishes for your recovery. Sorry to hear and have heard more than enough breakthrough scenarios to have me quite scared. Enough that have been sick with it (mainly anti vax types), some with lasting long term symptoms and a few that have passed. I observe so many that don't take mask usage seriously.

For all of us, remain safe, healthy and aware to reduce potential exposure risks.

[Ed Caffrey]

when nurses and doctors won't get vaccinated from an mRNA vaccine that no one knows what kind of long term effects there may be.

The excuse of there never having been a MRna vaccine.... is no longer valid. Almost 2 years ago, DOD information was declassified concerning this type of vaccine.
I personally got my first MRna vaccine in 1995, when I walked off the plane for my second tour in the middle east. At the time we were simply told "No Questions asked! It's classified!" Later we learned that it was a chemical agent vaccine/protection. I always joked about "Shot A and Shot B" in my shot records, that someday I'd grown a third eyeball because I had no idea what they were for...... now I know. So MRna vaccines have been around and used in the US since at least 1995 for sure..... and who knows how much longer. That's another thing about our current society..... everybody thinks they have a "Right" to know everything.

I have never heard, nor read anything that specifically stated the covid vaccine was "a cure" for anything. Unless it was non-vax lies/propaganda to discredit it. It's always been billed as "a best defense against SEVERE covid infection" from places such as the CDC, at both state and national levels.

As for the current state of affairs, there are so many lies and some much propaganda, which ever side of the fence..... that I trusted what I always have.... my instincts when it comes to being for or against the vaccine... that along with a healthy dose of patriotism and service mindset. I am also living proof, having had 3 doses so far, that it does more good than harm. Otherwise I'd likely be dead right now, versus sitting here clacking away on the keyboard....hoping I get over covid.

I personally get really wrapped around the axle when I hear or read of non-vax individuals, who've never done anything for this nation, other than be an oxygen thief.... wail about how refusing the vaccine is "exercising my freedom" when they've never lifted a finger to earn it, OR.... the one that really chaps my bottom is.... "It's my Right!" Right!? Again, it generally comes from those who've not only never done a single thing to earn it..... but have no clue or idea what the meaning of "Freedom is not Free" might be.

Any thriving society comes together and does what's best for the overall good in time of need.... not the US.....this country is past that, and we are wallowing on the edge of it's death bed. Fragmented, with individual wants and desires placed above anything else. We are past ripe for another power, be that China or someone else, to just walk in a take over. And all because nearly everyone including the mindless knucklehead in the Oval Office... has forgotten how we became the greatest nation on the planet....pulling together and doing what is necessary in times of need....but again, few to none have any notion of what that means. My guess is that if you took away 1/2 of our populations cell phones, they would have mental/emotional breakdowns right away! Not to mention those 30-40 year olds who are still living in Mom's basement, who's only reality is the video game on the big screen TV....which of course is their "Right"....weather they could afford it or not (the TV).

As for the non-vax people not getting medical care. I gotta be down right honest... if they show up at an ER with a severe case of covid, and have refused the vaccine, versus someone who has been vaccinated, no question in my mind. Take care of the one who has been vaccinated....and send the non-vaxed on their way.

It's a matter of choice and consequences...... each and every choice we make, whether that be personal or otherwise, has a consequence. If the individual(s) making the choice cannot or will not see/consider the consequence(s) of that action..... then that's on them, for better or for worse. That's just the way it is....or the way it should be.

OK... I gotta go do something else.... that's at least semi-productive! All the best to everyone!

[vlegski]

Well, based on that diatribe and the mention of doing something semiproductive ... I 'd say ur giving this bug a pretty good run for its money.. just don't to to rambunctious to fast.
Best wishes
Vic Legg

[cdent]

Hey Ed, no arguement, just some conversation. I have a daughter that had covid last year, and when she asked me if she should get vaccinated, I told her no, she has a natural immunity. That is a long known fact of medicine. Just last week, the CDC has finally admitted that those who have had the disease and recovered have significantly higher immune response and protection that just the vaccine.

That does not mean that they haven't doubled down and still advise getting vaccinated. No doubt the science says, vaccines result in significantly decreased symptoms and hospital stays, but it is an example of the hundred percent vax mandate might have little to do with science. A point not often brought up is, the CDC has been including "initial" ahead of infection when they comment about best defense.

I could go on and on about political spinning and contradictions that come out of that agency, but I gladly got the covid vaccination myself. One of the big pharma corps announced an omicron effective booster coming out in about two months, but a new variant has already been identified in the northwest. Another claim for getting vaccinated was that it was the path back to normalcy. Big bro has us by the jingle bells. Sorry about that, rant off.

[Ed Caffrey]

Makes sense Craig. Mandi and Tim just recently got the vax. Mostly for my benefit. However, at the time, Mandi was close to being mandated by the hospital, so she decided to do it. I would not argue that natural immunity is likely the best thing for this infection.

As I said, there is so much misinformation and flat out lies on both sides, trusting one or the other is a tall order. For me it came down to trusting my instincts, which have served me well my entire life, and they seem to have been proven right again in this situation.

Also, the nation has never had the level of fragmentation, along with the deep distrust in government that we have now.
That being said, I will quote something I heard years ago, that is still as true now and it was then.... "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few...or the one." As one of it's principles, that, has always been why this nation was able to thrive, endure, and overcome, when others could not. It's also a key that is missing these days. Like I said..... I suspect that if you took their cells phones away, at least 1/2 of our society would have a mental/emotional breakdown, and simply not be able to function.
Can you say EMP?? Just sayin!

[M&J]

A buddy sent me an opinion piece from the NY Times about the polarization taking place in this country since covid emerged. A snip from the write-up:

GUEST ESSAY
Jan. 26, 2022
By Thomas B. Edsall

Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.
Why did the national emergency brought about by the Covid pandemic not only fail to unite the country
but instead provoke the exact opposite development, further polarization?
I posed this question to Nolan McCarty, a political scientist at Princeton. McCarty emailed me back:

With the benefit of hindsight, Covid seems to be the almost ideal polarizing crisis. It was conducive to
creating strong identities and mapping onto existing ones. That these identities corresponded to
compliance with public health measures literally increased “riskiness” of intergroup interaction. The
financial crisis was also polarizing for similar reasons — it was too easy for different groups to blame
each other for the problems.

McCarty went on:
Any depolarizing event would need to be one where the causes are transparently external in a way that
makes it hard for social groups to blame each other. It is increasingly hard to see what sort of event has
that feature these days.

Polarization has become a force that feeds on itself, gaining strength from the hostility it generates,
finding sustenance on both the left and the right. A series of recent analyses reveals the destructive
power of polarization across the American political system.

[cdent]

Don't mind me Ed, just kick this thing in the tail.

[TexasJack]

First, I hope you're on the mend pretty soon. I had covid and the first 4 days are, by far, the worst. Then comes about 10 days of feeling really, really crappy, followed by about 2 months of being tired.

Second, while I understand your rant about the vaccine, or at least about people who didn't get the shots (what are we up to? 3 now?), however I know quite a few people who had the shots and STILL GOT COVID. And most of them were mask wearing, hand washing, distance keeping, careful people. The virus behaves like a virus and does not read the news that it's supposed to be dead. The disease will continue until the number of vectors has been reduced to a level that it can't be sustained. People will get sick and become immune and when enough are immune, the disease will die out.

My grandfather survived the 1918 "Spanish Flu". It struck an Army camp and the military decided to send everyone home so they wouldn't get it. What happened was that spread the disease everywhere. One of my grandfather's cousins was sent home and got sick but didn't die. His brother was not so fortunate. My grandfather was very sick and at the time the theory was that you needed lots of fresh air, so the doctors said to leave the bedroom window open. It was winter and very cold, and my grandfather complained constantly about it. Finally his mother went in the bedroom, closed the window, and said, "There! If you're going to die at least do it quietly!"

The country fought the 1918 flu almost the same as we've fought Covid, and with about the same success rate. (The 1918 bug was far more deadly and it tended to kill the young, rather than the old like Covid and most other infectious diseases.) The 1918 flu took almost 3 years to go away, and there were 3 pretty distinct outbreaks, with the late outbreak having a much better survival rate. Covid appears to be following a very similar pattern.

[Ed Caffrey]

Well... Saturday at 4:30pm, I got a call from the local hospital, saying they had a couple doses of the Monocolonal antibody treatments inbound, and if I could be there by 5pm..... YOU BET!

Only took about an hour, and last night I slept better than I have since getting covid, and this morning the headache is almost gone, the joint and muscle pain is significantly less, and the best thing, my breathing is much less labored/easier!

Can't be anything other than God guiding things! First, the Docs tell me that covid is likely fatal to me (that was before the omicron version), then last week, they said that being vaccinated likely kept me from being severe/hospitalized, and now, getting one of only two dose of the antibodies available in my area. Humans can't script anything that well! It also confirms that ignoring all the "right" and "left" misinformation, and trusting my instincts is the right move.

I'm still quarantined until 1 Feb, but the corner is turned, in the best possible outcome it could be for me!!