COVID-19 vaccines: medical concerns and recommendations

[mtnbkr]

It’s my understanding that the rapid tests are much less accurate than the PCR tests.

That's my understanding as well. I view it as "negative, you might not have covid, positive, you DO have covid".

Chris

[LittleLebowski]

POSITIVE this morning. I feel fine. I was told that there’s a shortage of monoclonals in my state and they’re prioritizing those for unhealthy people with comorbidities and that’s not me, apparently.

I’m on the I-Mask+ protocol as much as I can, plus famtodine. I feel pretty good, like I’ve got a cold, but nothing bad. I want to go cut and split firewood later.

I’m still fine, it still feels like a cold. I cut and split firewood for hours yesterday. The kids have it now, despite me quarantining, so FUCK IT.

[HeavyDuty]

I’m still fine, it still feels like a cold. I cut and split firewood for hours yesterday. The kids have it now, despite me quarantining, so FUCK IT.

This is the one we are all likely to get. I’ve been hearing of Covid parties where people are purposely exposing themselves to get it over with. I can see the appeal.

[Crow Hunter]

I'm getting the very unscientific impressions that there's a lot of false negatives with Omicron.

My friend and two of the people he was with both tested negative on rapid tests when they had initial symptoms. The follow up rapid tests once they had significantly stronger symptoms tested positive. I am not sure if it is a sensitivity issue with the test to omicron or just the rapid tests in general.

My area is getting hammered right now with it. I know of one person that has died from it (unvaxed with health issues). I have two vaxed friends who have mild cases. Hopefully it will burn out here soon. The manufacturing facilities that my wife and i both work at are having major slowdowns due to people being out sick on top of all the material shortages. My facility is 40% vaxed but that doesn't really seem to be helping. Everyone I know that has it right now is vaxed.

What a time to be alive.

[idahojess]

Here is a good article on rapid tests and Omicron from the WSJ.

Preliminary data from a real-world study comparing more than 700 people’s PCR and rapid test results from the BinaxNow test in January at a San Francisco community site found that the rapid tests performed on par with Omicron as with previous variants, detecting over 95% of people with high viral loads. The study, which was published as a preprint and hasn’t been peer-reviewed, found that as with previous variants the rapid tests weren’t as sensitive in picking up infections when viral load was lower, missing about 35% of people who had a positive PCR with any level of virus.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-rel...series_omicron

(By the way, the WSJ is still a pretty good newspaper).

Edited to add: There is other pertinent info in the article itself -- the part I cut and pasted was not the entire summary -- it is worth a read.

[luckyman]

Here is a good article on rapid tests and Omicron from the WSJ.

Preliminary data from a real-world study comparing more than 700 people’s PCR and rapid test results from the BinaxNow test in January at a San Francisco community site found that the rapid tests performed on par with Omicron as with previous variants, detecting over 95% of people with high viral loads. The study, which was published as a preprint and hasn’t been peer-reviewed, found that as with previous variants the rapid tests weren’t as sensitive in picking up infections when viral load was lower, missing about 35% of people who had a positive PCR with any level of virus.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-rel...series_omicron

(By the way, the WSJ is still a pretty good newspaper).

Edited to add: There is other pertinent info in the article itself -- the part I cut and pasted was not the entire summary -- it is worth a read.

I vaguely remember (could have learned from some post here, not sure) that the Binax test is still pretty good, but other tests that look for a different protein are basically useless against Omicron.

[Jakus]

Israel seems to have data showing 4th shot isn’t effective at stopping Omicron.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle...on-2022-01-17/

[pangloss]

I vaguely remember (could have learned from some post here, not sure) that the Binax test is still pretty good, but other tests that look for a different protein are basically useless against Omicron.

I might have posted that. Binax looks for nucleocapsid protein. The Omicron spike protein has dozens of mutations, which means that antibodies against he parental virus spike protein won't recognize it as well. This impacts sensitivity of some tests and, of course, vaccine efficacy. If I had any tests looking for presence of the parental virus's spike protein, I'd throw them out as they are essentially useless now that Omicron has taken over.

[Totem Polar]

Israel seems to have data showing 4th shot isn’t effective at stopping Omicron.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle...on-2022-01-17/

LoL. You can’t cure the (un)common cold.

So long as almost nobody who wasn’t already critically ill is getting severely ill, operation warp speed remains a resounding success.

JMO.


(I can’t believe that I actually used “LoL” in a comment about omicron getting past boosters, but that is what it is too. I’m with Bari on this… https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR...EegQIAhAF&ep=6 )

[EricP]

If I had any tests looking for presence of the parental virus's spike protein, I'd throw them out as they are essentially useless now that Omicron has taken over.

Do the various home tests specify what protein they test for?