Rant away about COVID, the vaccine, etc.

runor, to your comment re lymphedema, the recommendation is to use the other arm (which we all know), and for those who've had nodes removed on both sides (as I have), to use the least affected arm or the thigh. This is no different than what would be done for any other vaccine/shot.

From the National Lymphedema Network https://lymphnet.org/

From Vascern https://vascern.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/PPL-COVID19-vaccination-statement.pd

Melbo - I've had this discussion with runor before when she asked why there were no field hospitals set up in Montreal in the first wave when we were the hotspot in the country. Well, we don't have many open fields here. We do have old hospitals (one is haunted). We have new hospitals that had unused spaces converted to COVID beds.

I've read in Texas the issue with not enough beds is really there aren't enough nurses like you're saying. Beds without HCWs are useless.

All over the world we have lost healthcare workers to COVID by death, disability, or burnout.

I was very happy to learn my doctors were talking 3 weeks off. I don't see as many nurses anymore.

I understand many different views on covid and vaccines but I cannot understand or tolerate the absolute pricks out there harassing people. Wearing a mask when appropriate is not a big ask and I am puzzled and disappointed by this showy defiance, just for the sake of it, it’s a really odd mentality.

illimae - Completely agree.

Right on illimae

Illimae - I completely agree. The showy defiant anti-maskers make absolutely no sense. Add to that those that are willing to take livestock antiworming meds but not the actual vaccine? Makes no sense.

Re lymph node reactions and the vaccine - Elle2 wrote about the risk of lymph nodes increasing in size. This goes away so it is not a long term risk. My oncologist and the radiologist noted it on a petscan I had a couple of weeks after I had my second vaccine. In the following scan (I get these quarterly) it was resolved. This would not be a reason to NOT get vaccinated but perhaps a reason to time it after a surgery or scans etc.

I am doing all I can to survive my stage IV dx. Stage IV cancer is not a virus so I can't spread it depending on what medication I am willing to take in pill or injection form. I appreciate those that went before me that chose to join clinical trials of all the drugs that I am currently taking. This allowed these drugs to become available to me (and many on this thread) and prolong my life.

Thank you Moth. I suspected it was complicated but I do hope it’s something that continues to be studied.

illimae, in Quebec (sorry I bring Quebec every time because that is were I follow the news), fully vaccinated is defined as 2 doses or 1 dose + previous infection. At the beginning they were only offering one dose to those who had prior infection but then because of travel requirements they are offering two doses to everyone:

"For people who have had COVID-19 confirmed by a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), a single dose of the vaccine is required. The infection triggers the immune system's response the same way a 1st dose of the vaccine does. The dose of vaccine given to someone who has had COVID-19 has a booster effect the same way a 2nd dose of the vaccine does. It would be preferable to wait 21 days or more after diagnosis before being vaccinated.

A person who has had COVID-19 may choose to receive a 2nd dose of the vaccine. Giving two doses of vaccine to someone who has had COVID-19 is not dangerous, but the risk of having adverse reactions is potentially higher.

For people with a weakened immune system or who had COVID-19 when they were given the 1st dose or in the days after they were vaccinated, two doses are required."

I wish these posts were numbered so it was easy to refer back to them with less scrolling.

Shetland - I jumped for joy when I read your post because you have struck on something that I think is a MASSIVE issue globally. Fear of Death! You are absolutely correct that I struggle with it. Facing my mortality is an ongoing process that I still fail at all the time. I think what stopped us from getting global perspective and being able to 'take a breath' in our plan was the media immediately began pushing this as a 'deadly' disease, which made humans jump to one conclusion, as it was intended. Everyone thought they were going to die. They thought about their own mortality for perhaps the first time. Or maybe they had thought about it but brushed it aside as a far away eventuality. Here comes a pandemic and people freaked out over dying. Freaked out bad!

[Edited by Mods to remove information without a cited source]

I think I need more information before I believe this is as bad as advertised.


When you are alone at night and scared that you are going to die, your mind can go to bad places. Humans with bottled up angst need to let it out. That is why Steam Room is so popular. Humans have lost the ability to grasp that the universe is random and unfair and want to assign blame. Someone must be at fault for all bad things. If I am harmed then someone else did it and someone else must pay for it. I should be able to get a big stick and beat someone over the head for what they have done to me. It's the anti-vaxxer and anti-masker! They are the reason for covid, variants, loaded hospitals, so any steps taken against those dastardly people is utterly justified. That is the mental rabbit hole that the majority of humans ran down. Not all. But lots. We as a society are very removed from the reality of death. I think this has been the largest contributing factor to the divide in societies. That in the rush to calm their fears people have dropped their civility. Forcing this vax on anyone who does not want it is an act of incivility. An aggression against individual rights. And it is, to me, wrong to the point of criminality. I don't recall this level of vitriol over other vaccines that I had as a kid. Maybe I was too young and not paying attention. But if you take a shot to make you safe, go out and feel safe! And if the shot has not made you safe, then you better question the people who sold it to you as the way out of the pandemic, because they lied. Lining up every 6 months or year for a forced booster to keep your 'freedoms' is not a way out, it's a way into a processing line, like cattle at a slaughterhouse. It is not enough to have 1, 2 or 3 shots but people still want everyone else to mask, distance, stay home. Something in all this does not compute. It is, in my opinion, a moral sickness when violating our neighbour's rights for our own personal fearful beliefs is - a witch hunt. If you have no faith that the shot makes you safe, look at your own inner belief system, not at what your neighbour needs to do for you. Fear of death is steering this particular ship, in my opinion. We got frantic and we got ugly.

Were these two teachers in the acceptable-deaths-to-some-people age range? Do we usually have two teachers in the same district drop dead from random causes every week?

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1033293779/texas-school-system-closes-teachers-die-covid-waco

runor - Yeah, nope.

Ciacarty - Unlike smallpox, there's no scar after the COVID vaccine. It's a tiny needle. Sign of the beast? Which beast would that be?

Alice - These deaths are more traumatic to children than masks.

wrenn - Don't let it get you down.

Mark of a 🦄 would be cool.

I would like to say that despite the overwhelming frustration of arguing the same points over and over again and seeing no budging from the few people dug in on the anti-covid vax side — it has been fairly heartening to see the number of people willing to try and fight the good fight with logic and facts and vetted sources.

Edited to remove the pre print studies per mods' guideline. will repost after the study is peer reviewed.