Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[correcaminos]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

Just got mine Friday! My dad got notice his shipped this past week too and should get them in a few days.

We both ordered the first day it was live. Not Chinese made as someone claimed earlier. CA made here.

 

[Heppenheimer]

How efficient! I guess the tests will be ready for the next wave since the Omicron wave is pretty much done. Hopefully these tests that they spend however many billions purchasing will have sensitivity to whatever the next variant is.

Omicron is certainly not "done" yet. Yes, we're in the downslope, but we only passed hospitalization numbers lower than the delta peak about a week ago. I don't think we're likely to see another surge with this variant, but "not as terrible as previously" is still not the same as "good" or "done". People are still getting severely ill with omicron in fairly large numbers. They're just not stressing the medical system to the same critical degree.

Back to the question, I have not yet received my tests, but a whole lot of tests were delivered to primary care clinics across the country. We've been giving them away to every patient, kind of like dentists give a little toy to every child.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Still have not received tests and signed up on launch day. I’ve also given up on understanding how the Post Office works. For awhile now I’ll mail things same day to family and friends who live rather close to each other and have wildly different delivery dates.

 

[drizgirl]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

You can have mine. They arrived in a late mail delivery and sat overnight in the mail box in single digit weather.

 

[drizgirl]

Probably not. Unless she gets severely ill, I doubt they would risk unproven treatments, when the approved medical therapies work pretty well.

What is different for the Queen is that she will probably jump to the front of the line if the UK had a shortage of the approved treatments. I have no idea if availability is a problem there right now.

Fair point. But let's hope they aren't holding off with it out of concern for unknown long term side effects.

 

[Incomudro]

"Mild cold like symptoms" in what her team is describing , but for someone who is 95 years old is a concern.

Right.
But most of us aren't 95.
If a 95 year old can weather this, so can most people.

 

[TehPuddingMan]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

I did a few weeks ago. It ended up being some from Korea.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Fair point. But let's hope they aren't holding off with it out of concern for unknown long term side effects.

The chances of a one-time monoclonal antibody infusion causing delayed, long-term side effects are almost nil, and I'm sure the Queen's personal physicians do not have this concern (if they did, this would place them outside the medical mainstream). Same thing with a vaccine, if they don't trigger an autoimmune reaction very soon afterwards, they never will. We use monoclonal antibodies to treat all kinds of other diseases, and these are mostly very well tolerated medications, and these are regular injections, not on-offs like with COVID.

I have my doubts too that a short, time limited course of Paxlovid could also have long term toxicities, unless it's given inappropriately. The medication has a surprising number of contraindications.

 

[drizgirl]

The chances of a one-time monoclonal antibody infusion causing delayed, long-term side effects are almost nil, and I'm sure the Queen's personal physicians do not have this concern (if they did, this would place them outside the medical mainstream). Same thing with a vaccine, if they don't trigger an autoimmune reaction very soon afterwards, they never will. We use monoclonal antibodies to treat all kinds of other diseases, and these are mostly very well tolerated medications, and these are regular injections, not on-offs like with COVID.

I have my doubts too that a short, time limited course of Paxlovid could also have long term toxicities, unless it's given inappropriately. The medication has a surprising number of contraindications.

It was a joke.

 

[Lilofan]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

Ordered the free stuff over a month ago, still waiting. I don't know if the porch pirates cruising the neighborhood grabbed it.

 

[Heppenheimer]

It was a joke.

Sorry, internet sarcasm can be hard to detect.

Especially after the last two years

 

[correcaminos]

Ordered the free stuff over a month ago, still waiting. I don't know if the porch pirates cruising the neighborhood grabbed it.

We received notification when shipped. It also fit in our mailbox.

 

[Communicora]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

Yes, I got my free tests a couple weeks ago.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

Got them 2 weeks ago. As some have said, they fit in the mailbox. Well standard mailboxes that is. If you have a small opening or not regulation size it won’t fit.

 

[BuddyThomas]

How efficient! I guess the tests will be ready for the next wave since the Omicron wave is pretty much done. Hopefully these tests that they spend however many billions purchasing will have sensitivity to whatever the next variant is.

More contagious version of omicron spreads in U.S., fueling worries

The omicron BA.2 variant spreads about 30% more easily and has caused surges in other countries. Its steady increase in the U.S. raises questions about the wisdom of rolling back COVID restrictions.

www.npr.org

 

[DisneyCane]

More contagious version of omicron spreads in U.S., fueling worries

The omicron BA.2 variant spreads about 30% more easily and has caused surges in other countries. Its steady increase in the U.S. raises questions about the wisdom of rolling back COVID restrictions.

www.npr.org

From the article:

Some experts think it's unlikely BA.2 will trigger a massive new surge because so many people have immunity from prior infections and vaccination at this point.

"The most likely thing that's going to happen is that it might extend our tail, meaning it might slow down the decrease in cases. But it's probably not going to lead to a new wave of cases," says Grubaugh.

It seems the extended tail is exactly what happened in South Africa where the article says that BA.2 became dominant. The spin of this article is basically trying to counter the rapid removal of mitigation measures across the US with frightening predictions.

As soon as the CDC revises mitigation recommendations so that they are based upon hospitalizations and other health care system metrics instead of case counts, it will basically mark the official end of at least 70% of people caring at all about COVID.

 

[mellyf]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

Still waiting. I ordered on January 19. Three people that I work with ordered theirs the same day or within a day and got their test kits within a week.

 

[KaliSplash]

Got mine last week after ordering in mid-January

 

[correcaminos]

More contagious version of omicron spreads in U.S., fueling worries

The omicron BA.2 variant spreads about 30% more easily and has caused surges in other countries. Its steady increase in the U.S. raises questions about the wisdom of rolling back COVID restrictions.

www.npr.org

Some articles are out to scare people. This one really is full of that.... read some quotes like this

"A lot of us were assuming that it was going to quickly take off in the United States just like it was doing in Europe and become the new dominant variant," says Nathan Grubaugh, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.

So far that hasn't happened. Instead, BA.2 has slowly, but steadily spread even as the omicron surge continued to dissipate.

Denmark also was the ones who removed mitigations right at the height of omicron. Claiming it was the subtype of omicron is a guess. Plus if it caused a wave it was incredibly short lived and on the way down

 

[sullyinMT]

Out of curiosity - has anyone yet received their free test kits from the US government? It's sure been a while and I haven't gotten mine yet.

We received ours maybe 2 weeks ago. My wife used a set in the days leading up to a recent trip to Tulsa when she was exhibiting symptoms of something. Negative x2.