Covid-19

[XU_Lou]

A must watch from last night:

[D-West & PO-Z]

Apparently the county in which the Bills play football will be requiring fans to be fully vaccinated in order to attend games in the fall.

Cuomo says he isn't sure they have the power to require that but the county disagrees since the stadium is county property.

[xu82]

Apparently the county in which the Bills play football will be requiring fans to be fully vaccinated in order to attend games in the fall.

Cuomo says he isn't sure they have the power to require that but the county disagrees since the stadium is county property.

The Bills themselves have yet to make a statement on where they stand. I’ve got my shots and hope to be there for the home opener. The wife was planning on bringing our son and DIL, but I’m not sure where the DIL stands on the whole “shot thing”.

[GoMuskies]

Hopefully by the fall that position will be facially absurd and they'll drop the policy.

[xu82]

Hopefully by the fall that position will be facially absurd and they'll drop the policy.

I hope so! Some people are furious, understandably. Some who have had their shots refuse to attend due to the “proof requirement”, including season ticket holders with a significant investment. Others have kids they take to games who aren’t even eligible at this point. It was WAY too soon to open this can of worms, but there is one train of thought that they were trying to push people to get shots.

Can you imagine how long it would take to load a 70k seat stadium having to check for vaccines and ID as planned? It’s bad enough as it is!

[paulxu]

A fascinating article about people who get Covid after being vaccinated.
Doesn't seem like we are set up to do good PCR tests on them and track the results yet...especially in identifying variants involved.
A national standard protocol would seem helpful.
We're still winning if the vaccine is 95%+ effective and preventing hospitalizations and deaths, but boy it has cost us a lot of Americans.

D-West, you might find the part about immunocompromised people interesting.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/t...ve-to-know-why

[Lloyd Braun]

Brief but interesting NEJM article describing some data from Europe on the mechanism of clotting.

Basically these reactions mimic Heparin-Induced Thombocytopenia (HIT), a condition that can cause low platelets and similar clots as the vaccine recipients. The vaccine recipients however did not receive heparin with their vaccine.

If you follow a trail of some references in this article you will see some other incidences of clotting from other conditions, even surgeries in which the patient did not receive any heparin. For instance, a knee replacement patient developed the same blood clot in the brain along with low platelets shortly after knee replacement surgery. It is thought that the tourniquet used during surgery somehow provoked a reaction in the vessels and subsequent syndrome of clotting and low platelets. Another instance is cited here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full...04.2014.979338

Recent studies suggest that a thromboembolic disorder resembling heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), so-called spontaneous HIT syndrome, can occur in patients without any history of heparin exposure. It is likely due to anti-platelet factor 4 (PF4)/polyanion antibodies induced by other polyanions, such as bacterial surfaces and nucleic acids. We describe an atypical case of spontaneous HIT syndrome. A 70-year-old man suddenly presented with acute cerebral sinus thrombosis (CST)

So what does all of this mean? Do we suspend knee replacements because of the extremely low risk of spontaneous HIT syndrome? Well, no of course not. But knowing this risk is present is important. I know I have seen this condition in a covid patient, but it was difficult to connect the disease and the condition as it is common for ICU patients to develop elevated levels of PF-4 heparin antibodies. Because of the situation of rapid vaccine rollout that we have never seen before, every adverse event is under the microscope. My opinion is that the benefit of the vaccine outweighs the current risks associated with it. Hopefully it is exclusive to the virus vector vaccines and remains extremely low incidence.

[D-West & PO-Z]

D-West, you might find the part about immunocompromised people interesting.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/t...ve-to-know-why

Thanks!

[Blue Blooded-05]

Just got my Moderna #1. Do you guys believe me or do I need to post a selfie with my vaccine card while making a duck face?

[Smails]

I could literally make a vaccine card using my office graphics and printing capabilities. It's laughable that those cards would be used as some sort of official document.