How has the Pandemic affected you as a cancer patient/survivor
Comments
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Simone - You are lucky & fortunate. I live in Texas. My community has NOT embraced any protections. My statei is fighting for the right not to have vaccine or masks. A parent ripped the mask off a teacher right in the school room. Another person who wanted priority service made a point of coughing & spitting at someone & laughing. LOTS of unkindness, It's great that you have such a neat community - but the rest of us occasionally need to RANT about the insensitive assholes that surround us. While I wish we lived in a nicer, kinder world - it just ain't so right now - no matter what we do.
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I don't know how this is real, but if it gets vaccines in arms...
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Meanwhile if you look closely, the venom extractor is being demonstrated on the inner aspect of the forearm. Don't know any nurse worth her salt that would identify this as an intramuscular injection site (not used for subcutaneous sites either). However, most venomous snakes probably wouldn't bite your deltoid. I wish the morons luck with that product. Why is it people will spend more time plotting a work around then it would take to just do it correctly? Cheaters abound.
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I wish it said they had 20 minutes. That way they can wait the required 15 minutes and then leave the facility to do this nonsense.
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minus two,
I live in CA and most folks are supporting masking and vaccinating. My county, Santa Clara, is doing well with controlling disease spread. Maybe that’s why I can still be civil about non-vaxxers, but certainly not in my head! Seriously, I think I would be more outraged if I didn’t live in a community* that was trying so hard to put the brakes on this nightmare.
* Please do not use this post to “deduce” that I do not care about other people, communities, countries etc. -
Hi Serenity,
Thank you for posting the article from Science. Good summary review. What I did see in the summary article you posted was that vaccination of previously infected and recovered individuals boosted their immune B and T cell activation levels. This is completely unsurprising since every re-exposure to viral antigens whether natural or in the form of a vaccine produces such a boosting effect. There is however no suggestion that vaccine boosting of previously infected persons is necessary for those individuals to be protected against recurrence of the disease. In general natural immunity against infections is more widely distributed against a broader range of viral antigens than vaccine induced immunity and is highly efficacious in protecting against re-infection. There’s no reason to think that this coronavirus behaves differently from the thousands of others viruses with which we have extensive experience and the article you posted makes no such suggestion.
On a strictly personal level, my husband and I both donated Convalescent Plasma for almost one year after we recovered from Covid. Our antibodies were tested at each donation and we both retained more than sufficient levels of antibodies to be Convalescent Plasma donors for that entire time. We only stopped making donations as the science moved away from Convalescent Plasma to monoclonal antibodies.
Thank you again for posting the summary!
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exbrn - Ah ha.... I grew up in Palo Alto - MANY years ago when there was no Silicone Valley and lots of green hills (or brown as the season would dictate.)
No - I won't mis-interpret that you don't care. I too care. I was active in a number of things before COVID and expect I will be again when I feel comfortable in groups again. But considering where I live - not now.
BTW - does your name indicate Brown? My DIL graduated from Brown.
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Simone - I have not read that prior COVID infection works against variants as well as vaccination. Please provide links? I did read that convalescent plasma did not work well as a treatment, but I appreciate the time and effort it took to donate.
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Nope, it’s exbrnxgrl, brnx as in the Bronx. Born and raised there though I have not lived there since my twenties. Despite time in TX and over 30 years in CA, I’m still a gal from the Bronx.
I think I’ve mentioned this before but I lived in Houston for almost 9 years. I lived mostly in the Heights and then bought a home in the Woodlands. My older dd was born at Spring Branch Memorial Hospital but that was 37 years ago so it might not even exist.
Yes the Santa Clara Valley was once the valley of the hearts delights, i.e. acres of fruit trees in bloom. One of the last remaining orchards in Los Gatos is blooming with new homes and fruit production is no longer profitable here. Change, whether we like it or not, is inevitable.
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Even with prior COVID infection, vaccination is warranted against variants.
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This academic has an interesting long version of "Get vaccinated!".
https://twitter.com/jamesheathers/status/144104427...
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I live in Missouri, a state that is fighting its way to the bottom of the cess pool under Gubner Evil Goober Parson. The majority of vaccines were sent to small towns when they first became available, because those are the areas that mostly support GEGP. Those hicks didn't want the vaccines, so the state registry notified people in St. Louis and Kansas City that we were welcome to drive hours to get vaccinated. I had also signed up through MyChart, and got my shots locally. But people who had no option except the state distribution had to travel. They didn't care about poor people without cars, or those who couldn't take a whole day or two off work. It took several weeks for government-distributed vaccines to hit the urban areas. But now the anti-vaxxers have the Delta variation and they are being shipped to hospitals in the urban areas to save their damn lives.
My husband works for the state and has been playing hide and seek for a year and a half with coworkers who ignore building rules (that aren't enforceable anyway under GEGP, who doesn't believe in mandates) with masks under noses or chins, and reports to me every day how many tested positive. I'm furious that he, and I, and other sensible people, have to live like this and I reserve the right to call anti-vaxxers any fucking name I please.
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Lots of familiar people here, so fertile ground for another article I'd like to write for Health Union, who publish the US-based cancer websites.
If anyone here is happy to share their experiences, based on comments posted here, please let me know. -
Hey Traveltext - good to see ya. Thought of you the other day when I posted "women" and remembered to take it back before I submitted. Will you provide questions or an outline - or is it just relating a story?
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An actual COVID party?!? This is why officials/doctors pushing "natural" immunity is so dangerous.
https://twitter.com/fagstein/status/14408237348315...
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The level of protection afforded by vaccines against variants is driven by how far the VOC deviates from the original. The same is true for natural immunity. It is true that vaccines can be engineered to represent a large population of single point mutations in the RBDs of the corona virus spike protein. It is not true that the effectiveness of the immune response is determined entirely or even mainly by the affinity of the antibody for RBDs on the spike protein. Antibodies directed against other epitopes on the virus are important because they allow cell surface signalling identifying infected cells for NK cells to attack. This critical arm of the immune system tends to be ignored by people not well versed in immunology.
For clarity, I strongly support people getting vaccinated, including those who have already recovered from Covid. There is, however, no evidence that natural immunity is less efficacious than vaccine-induced immunity and much evidence, including our entire experience with infectious diseases over many decades, that it is in fact more so.
I will be interested to see, as I have said before, real peer reviewed data on reinfection rates of people who have had the natural infection.
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Simone - I follow a few immunologists and haven't read that. I won't be looking for studies on reinfection rates for prior COVID patients in case you were waiting for it. At this point it makes no difference to me.
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Here is a CDC MMWR cites a study of natural infection vs. vaccine in kentucky during May to June, which covers a period of delta wave
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0806-vacc...
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0806-vacc...
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Chowdog, as devil's advocate, one question I have that arose from the Kentucky study you posted is, although reinfection was greater for natural immunity, what's the severity and duration of the illness? Could it be good enough to stave off serious illness? On the other hand, the study authors suggest that natural immunity does not provide good protection against variants, so while it may stave off current variants, who's to say it will be effective at reducing severity, duration, and hospitalization for any new variant, as opposed to the vaccine which does so far?
I lean towards those with natural immunity getting at least one shot for the hybrid protection, which is thought to be far superior to both vaccine or naturally acquired. At least, it would help to decrease spread by lessening the chances of another infection. Plus what are the associated health risks of catching Covid more than once? I've read some news articles suggesting some people suffer worse side effects and possibly long covid the second time around.
To be fair, I sympathize with the vaccine hesitant. We don't know if there are legitimate reasons for their hesitancy. Usually, it's someone with a negative previous vaccine experience, a person with a not so well understood autoimmune condition, or someone who is very sensitive to medical treatments. The ones I consider hesitant in my associations are very careful to follow mandates, even if it inconveniences them. I also find they are still open to discussion and seem to be on the fence still. There's a clear distinction between those people and the pro Covid Covidiots, maskholes, however we choose to describe them. Those people clearly don't give a damn about spreading the disease. There's no other singular words that encompass their actions. I don't think it's name calling at all to call a bully out on their actions with an all encompassing descriptive word or noun. Would it be more openly acceptible to call those people agressive abusers, or unempathetic narcissists? Is abuser or narcissist really kinder word than idiot? Come on -- It's all arguing over semantics at that point, with one side clearly proponents of being okay with risking their own lives as well as others.
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For many in the U.S., myself included, the debate over mask wearing was immediately politicized when the former president (fp) refused to wear one, refused to advocate wearing them, ridiculed people who wore them, trivialized Covid19, downplayed the severity of its spread, repeatedly referred to Covid19 as the Chinese flu. It was politicized and it didn't need to be. The actual virus itself was called a hoax by followers of the fp, with those in political power as well as those with large media presence spreading lies that Covid19 was made up by opponents of the fp. People I knew personally were telling me that all the coronavirus stuff and the pandemic were going to be over at the end of November 2020, meaning after the election. As the realities and ramifications of Covid19 grew rather than dissipated, many fp followers turned their twisted thinking from hoax-believing to you're-not-taking-my-rights-away non-vaxxers. Maybe they think they're freedom fighters. We personally know more people now who died of Covid19 since the vaccine has rolled out than prior to its availability.
There's lots of data and it's ever changing. I don't research it. But where is the data on people who died from getting the vaccine, not getting Covid19 after the vaccine but the vaccine itself? Of the women who got the vaccine while pregnant, what is the data of the babies delivered afterwards that were adversely affected in some way by the vaccine? Where is the data of women who became infertile because they got the vaccine? These are some of the reasons people and women of child-bearing age are choosing not to get the vaccine. I'm not sure there is data to back up their worries and concerns.
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Well Divine,
I also haven’t researched extensively but our Public Health Officer bluntly stated two days ago that it is physiologically impossible for the vaccines to cause infertility. She also stated that there is no evidence of risk to the child from the vaccine but considerable risk to mother/child from a Covid infection.
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Simone you said "I will be interested to see, as I have said before, real peer reviewed data on reinfection rates of people who have had the natural infection."
It would be helpful if you would include the peer reviewed data on the points you claimed on the two paragraphs before this statement. Thanks.
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How the pandemic has affected me:
I skipped my March 2020 annual checkup due to lockdown. Had I kept the appointment, maybe my recurrence would have been caught sooner. Instead, it was discovered in March 2021. My biopsy was the first time I was indoors with non-immediate-family members in a year. It was surreal.
All of my cancer doc appts have been in person; I live in a state that has handled things pretty well (Massachusetts). We had lots of restrictions prior to summer 2021; things loosened up in summer; now we're back to an indoor mask mandate. I'm double vaxxed, not sure if I will get a booster. RO and MO both say I'm not particularly immunocompromised and a third shot is up to me.
We were extremely conservative all the way up to summer 2021, but we did then take advantage of things opening up over the summer and had some fun. We traveled to see my parents in Nebraska (both fully vaxxed Fox News devotees) (go figure), and then took a week vacation in Maine last month.
Personally, I feel well protected being fully vaxxed and wearing a mask. Thanks to the mask mandate I'm never indoors with unmasked unvaxxed people. We've eaten at indoor restaurants almost not-at-all. Our public school district has been extremely responsible, and our kids have been able to be at school full time since October 2020. Masking, social distancing, hand washing, fresh air circulation, pooled testing, and contact tracing have prevented any in-school COVID transmissions from occurring.
I teach at the university level and we are back to on-campus classroom teaching. The university has vaccine, masking, and testing mandates and I am comfortable with these protocols.
I am eager for the vaccine to be approved for kids 5-12 so my kids can finally get vaxxed. I do understand we are taking some risks of exposing our kids, but on balance we've weighed out the risks and are comfortable with the level of risk we are currently taking.
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Sunshinegal. I'm sorry to hear about your recurrence and especially at this time and having diagnosis delayed. Thank you for your story on how it going for you. It is good to read about how things usually work out when people are being cautious and reasonable. It just makes it seem so doable and I wish more people could do the same.
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FB anti-vaxxers pushing members to avoid the hospitals? 🤔 OK!
Not OK. We just got hydrogen peroxide in the large bottles again. Don't want another shortage.
"Almost all pregnant moms in this situation lose their babies"
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This is our current ICU bed situation in the province of BC.
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Always, in that cdc study, one of the concerns about natural immunity is the duration. They didn’t go deep about the outcome of those got reinforced. There are might be ongoing studies about that but as you know cdc is slow at releasing data. I did read one news story someone got reinfected for the 3rd time (this time with delta) and ended up on vent. I can’t find the link though.
As for those who had covid receiving 1 dose instead of 2, cdc currently recommends those had covid to get both doses. I suspect one of reasons is operational. I assume those who had covid will provide proof, so here is an extrastep for these people and vaccine administrator to take.
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It does seem easier to get 2 doses than provide proof of infection first. Definitely an issue for travel.
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Pregnant women and women trying to conceive who are refusing the COVID vaccine are buying into the same misinformation problems that other covid anti vaxxers are being sucked into. The fact is all major health authorities and national societies of obstetricians and gynecologists have put out statements saying these vaccines are safe for women intending to be pregnant, and for pregnant and breastfeeding women. They wouldn't be recommending these vaccines if they were not considered to be generally safe.
- ACOG recommends that pregnant individuals be vaccinated against COVID-19.
- Claims linking COVID-19 vaccines to infertility are unfounded and have no scientific evidence supporting them. ACOG recommends vaccination for all eligible people who may consider future pregnancy.
I think the reality is people have a difficult time with risk assessment and that for some some rare theoretical risk becomes almost an obsessive fear. When authorities say that a vaccine is safe that doesn't mean it is 100% safe there will be some people who might have adverse effects. It means it is considered generally safe and the benefits are outweighing any potential risk but there haven't been very many studies to show any potential risk for pregnant or breastfeeding women. And the mechanisms for fertility and the mRNA vaccine are completely unconnected. I suspect it is poorly educated people who are getting confused with RNA and DNA and knowing that these things are somehow important and then conflating that into oh it's changing my genes, it's gonna affect my baby.I'm honestly worried about a larger sort of issue with the erosion of trust in governments, in institutions, in large scientific organisations and something that the author Tom Nichols calls "the death of expertise". It is hard to see how society and civilization continues if we have a large enough sector of people who have zero interest in accepting & pooling knowledge and using that knowledge for similar purpose & goals. -
Wow, nebulizing over the counter hydrogen peroxide!!! Just why would anyone trust that?
In other news, our state (with one of the highest vaccination rates) has not been able to get the full 1600 doses of monoclonal antibodies a week that they have been requesting. It's particularly important because patients need to be given infusions within the 3 to 10 day window after a positive test, and before symptoms become severe.
Guess who is using up most of the treatment, prompting the administration to create a centralized distribution? Seven states - "Alabama, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Louisiana." So even if other states like ours are taking many measures to prevent transmission and keep our hopitals from being overrun, our citizens aren't getting the treatments we need because the states with governments that are refusing mandates are hogging them. They are selfish through and through. A recent Q and A with one of the state physicians even said that the shortage caused some people last week to miss out on that valuable treatment due to timing.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/monoclonal-antibodies-covid-19-treatment-florida-texas-states/
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