How has the Pandemic affected you as a cancer patient/survivor
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wrenn - Hope you heal soon.
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Here's the definition of a bully: "a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable."
A strongly worded opinion, even one that includes name-calling, does not a bully make. I'm of the opinion that the disparaging labels we hear thrown around in social media (covidiots, sheep) are immature, deliberately insulting, and contribute nothing in an adult conversation. But bullying is a word that's become a catch-all for "I don't like what you said."
If I don't like what you said in this thread, as has been wonderfully demonstrated here, I'm welcome to write a rebuttal and defend my own position.
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Glad nothing broke, but bruises still hurt. Is there a device to save me from being a klutz? I've always been a klutz. Just this week I jammed my fingers in the kitchen drawer and rammed my foot into a wooden bench. Can't even blame the pandemic or cancer.
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I chose to get vaccinated as soon as I qualified. As I stated before. However, there really is not good data yet, peer reviewed and published, on people who have had prior Covid. And what additional vaccine means to this group for severe disease. As with the general population, the pool of Covid survivors include people with varying levels of immune response. Some human beings just do not mount sufficient immune response. Within the fully vaccinated population, there will be breakthrough cases, just as in the population who previously had Covid. That is how vaccines work. The efficacy rate of vaccines is certainly not 100%. How do we predict who the outliers are, aside from people who are obviously immunocompromised? I would be fascinated to see the percent of severe disease in previously infected patients and in fully vaccinated patients, and see how they compare. So to me, the big question is, for all people who get reinfected (with significant disease, more than asymptotic or cold) or significant breakthrough infection post full vaccine, how can we help prevent that from happening? I would think that if significant reinfection was happening with any degree of statistical significance that we would really be hearing about that. Still, I personally believe better safe than sorry. Every reputable study I have seen published show that well over 90+% of people hospitalized and/passing from Covid were unvaccinated and without having had the virus. I have not seen the peer reviewed studies/information that say that all people who had Covid need 1 vaccination. I do know that people who have had Covid cannot get a vaccine for at least 90 days. Again, I believe in vaccines and I believe in being safe and respectful of others. I know I would not use a cloth mask anymore. I am interested to see if the CDC/FDA/pharma companies adjust the dosing schedule to help improve efficacy. And I hope we see continued improvement in the numbers of people who get the vaccine (especially if they have not had Covid). Vaccines have been proven to be pretty darn safe for most and pretty darn effective for most.
I have been reading the Friday night updates from Dr. Mike Silverman on Facebook throughout the pandemic. He is the head of the ER at Virginia Hospital Center. I find his posts to be very informative from a frontline doctor.
The pandemic is bad enough. It would be nice to see more people focusing more on all we have in common, and be more kind to each other. On the greater BCO Board, I have observed so much kindness and support for each other.
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wrenn sorry to hear about your fall. I'm glad you weren't badly hurt.
I fell on Sunday and I broke my arm. only lucky thing was that the hospital ER was eerily quiet at that time & I was in and out in just a few hours with a cast. All the details are in my blog so I won't repeat them here ..
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Idiots, CovIdiots, Maskholes, Okay Boomer.... “Angry, passionate, sad are all acceptable, disrespectful is not.” Am I missing something?
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Simone - "Bullies"
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For peer-reviewed studies on vaccination after infection, please see references in this article in Science Magazine.
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abj2258
I have never had a FB account. I see he has a YT channel, but I don't use YT for news, mainly music and how-to stuff.
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moth - Sorry to read you broke your arm. Glad it didn't take too long to get the cast. Hope it heals well.
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All the best to the bruised, battered and broken boned! I am a class A klutz and though I haven’t broken anything, I am definitely in the bruised category. I am currently sporting a very ugly colorful bruise on my neck from a thyroid biopsy, 4 samples taken. No due to my clumsiness but another addition to my multicolored bruise collection.
Simone,
I know that the current situation fills many with frustration and even anger which sometimes makes us say things born of that frustration, particularly using broad generalizations. The last year and a half has made everyone tense and hasn’t always brought out our best. I have been practicing calming breathing techniques a lot!
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I'll reply directly to you, SimoneRC. I also normally deplore shaming and name calling. But, and there is a but, in my view anyone who initiates a confrontation after being asked to wear a mask is a maskhole. Anyone who bullies someone else for wearing their mask is a maskhole. Anyone who tries to legislate against mask wearing is a maskhole. These are, as wrenn said, truly deplorable people who revel in being ignorant, rude and confrontational. I have no desire to placate these people.
In the same vein, anyone who tries to convince others not to get a vaccine, whether due to misinformation, willful ignorance, superstition or running some sort of money making scheme, is a covidiot. Again, nearly two years on I have lost the desire to molly coddle morons. I'm done.
I do appreciate your input, SimoneRC, and I hope you will continue to participate in the thread. Like you, I don't want it to become strictly an echo chamber.
Be well.
Trish
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So sorry to hear about your fall, wrenn. I would imagine it's incredibly scary to have that happen when you live alone. Just remember that sprains and strains aren't always immediately apparent, especially when you have loss of feeling from neuropathy. You may want to get checked out, just as a precaution
BTW, I am so stealing your line "I'm not fat, I'm well protected". Perfect.
Trish
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On Tuesday I took the train to and from the hospital for a dermatology appointment. I haven't been around so many people in such close proximity since March 2020. No one gave me a hard time about my masks. There were 2 men on the train who weren't wearing any, but I was there with my younger daughter. She flew past them to put distance between us. She might have done that to keep me from making a scene. 😂 But they were also talking in the Quiet car! 🤫
Everyone else except that one hospital employee wore masks when appropriate.
I've decided on a response if anyone questions my mask wearing: "I have cancer, and it's contagious."
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Men! 🤬
I slipped walking down an icy driveway. Landed on my back with my backpack. As he helped me up, he laughed saying I looked like a turtle.
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Trishyla,
Ignorant, rude, confrontational are quite different than name calling. Just my 2 cents. Who gets to decide what name calling crosses the line? In my humble opinion, name calling is just bad and this thread specifically asked that participants not be disrespectful. And, I agree with many of the posters content. It is just the language and ganging up on that I find inappropriate.
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So you've decided you're the decider?
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Serenity,
Nope, not even a little bit! The OP asked that this thread not be disrespectful. I was asking who draws the line. Yes, in my personal opinion, I feel name calling is disrespectful and not productive. That is my opinion and as part of a community, again in my opinion, this is an appropriate question.
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The Mods draw the line.
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If the language has been allowed from pages 1 to 14, the Mods clearly allow it.
If you don't like it, you have the power to block the thread or individual members. You don't have to read any of it.
If I don't like what someone writes, I can choose to reply or ignore it, but I won't ask the Mods to remove it.
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wrenn, sorry about your fall.
moth, sorry about the broken arm. Holy crap, that was a dramatic fall. When you go for it, you go for it! Glad in the end it was just the arm.
exbrnxgrl, hope the thyroid biopsy results are good. I'm guessing I may have one of those in my future. We'll see what my next 6-month ultrasound shows.
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I am the OP, SimoneRC, which is why I replied directly to you regarding my personal feelings on the people who actively undermine our efforts to get past the worst of this Pandemic. At some point I stopped feeling the need to be polite to horrible human beings. I wish I didn't feel that way, but as I said earlier, my patience with them is now nonexistent. I think many on this thread are just as frustrated.
Trish
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Update: IL's test positivity rate (% of positive test results) is 3.8%, but its positivity rate (% of individuals testing positiv) is now 3%. Chicago's is now 2.9%. This proves that the mask mandate is working--at least in the northern third of the state.
The 88-yr-old father of one of Bob's colleagues died downstate of a breakthrough infection. But as tragic as that (and Cowgirl's friend's) experience is, it is still the exception to the rule--albeit one that proves it, in that it's possible for fully-vaccinated people to contract and spread the Delta variant before their vaccine-bolstered immune systems can neutralize the viral load. So it's imperative for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to mask up in indoor public settings. Further precautions should depend on local COVID rates and other personal risks--including immune-system impairment due to chemo, radiation and immunotherapy.
Ever since our favorite restaurant (with dependably-available patio dining) closed, we've been cooking and ordering out more (picking up, though, in order to spare the restaurants a third-party delivery-service fee). Whenever I have any service person in my home--exterminator, cable, etc.--I wear a mask and make them do the same.
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Thanks beesie. I am happy to report that the biopsy results are benign. I have dealt with thyroid nodules on and off for several decades and things have usually gone well but there was still a bit of worry until results came back.
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Sandy, have you seen anything on break through covid/delta with people who have had both shots plus the booster?
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Wrenn, Moth, I'm so sorry about your falls. Heal quickly! I've had a couple myself, due to "shoe malfunctions" (L wrist TFCC tear falling up the stairs when a clog slipped off in 2018 and a bruised toe when a sandal sole stuck to chewing gum on a theater carpet this past July; and fractures of the L scaphoid and both ends of the R radius when a rubber-soled shoe stuck to a terazzo floor and sent me sprawling. The latter occurred in a hospital, while I was en route to the orthopedist for a cortisone shot anyway). But for the pandemic, Wrenn, you'd likely have been able to be safely & timely treated. And as for "padding," it sure didn't help me in 2018 when I was 60 lbs. heavier than I am now. (I once asked an orthopedist if my flat feet and metatarsal stress fx were due to my then-obesity, and he tactfully replied "we won't discuss that on the first date").
I am grateful for the strict protocols at UIC Health's Eye Center--not only do they require masks to enter (and hand them out to those who are unmasked), they insist that those wearing cloth masks don the center's surgical mask beneath or instead of the cloth ones). I do wear cloth masks in lower-risk settings, but always either 3-layer ones or with an R25 filter installed in the "pocket." On public transit and at medical appts., I wear KN95s.
Every time I see a blurb in one of the medical-article-aggregator listservs (e.g., DocWire, DG Alerts MPR Daily, various specialty "Advisors:" Ophthlmology, Cancer Therapy, Oncology Nurse, Neurology, etc.) to which I subscribe mentioning Marty Makary as the source, I immediately discount it. Yes, he holds a high administrative post at Johns Hopkins, but he's on the advisory board (perhaps paid?) of the Wall St. Journal, which not only comes down on the business side of "business vs. science" every time, but is owned & operated by Rupert Murdoch's "Newscorp". Newscorp also owns the NYPost, which ran an op-ed (listed on one of the above aggregators) titled--and I kid you not--"Mask Mandates for 6-yr-olds are Child Abuse." Makary may not be one of the notorious "Disinformation Dozen" responsible for 62% of all online COVID disinformation, but perhaps he belongs in the "Baker's Dozen."
I will not apologize for calling those who refuse to follow mask mandates "maskholes," especially if they physically attack those who ask them to comply. (A Dallas saloonkeeper actually ejected a mask-wearing couple, who have an immunocompromised child at home, for "violating" his mask ban. He claims that as a business owner he has a right to make the rules for customers). I will not apologize for those spreading anti-vaccine lies, disparaging those who take precautions, denying the seriousness of COVID (especially calling it a "flu"), and claiming "Constitutional freedoms" that don't exist in the Constitution and "God-given rights" that don't exist in the Bible (either Testament, Talmud, or Q'uran), hogging precious medical resources that cost the lives of not just the vaccinated but also heart attack, stroke and trauma patients, and making taxpayers foot the bill for the Regeneron treatments that profit GQP politicians "COVIDiots." When it comes to COVID, these folks are ill-informed and selfish and deserve the label "idiot."
Mind you, I will not apply such epithets to those who are skeptical or hesitant and open to scientific persuasion. But they make up a small percentage of the unvaccinated and absolutely NONE of the anti-mask crowd.
I read the admonition "be respectful" as applying to each other on this thread, not to those who fueled the domestic (N. American) spread of the Delta variant (and the politicians who enabled its incubation in India). Trish, correct me if I'm wrong.
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Wren, Moth, I am sorry and I hope you get well soon
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The info below was posted by our provincial government on Tuesday. We don't have data on boosters as we are not giving them yet (just started giving a third shot to those who are highly vulnerable, i.e. transplant patients, etc.). It does show that those of us with two doses are much better covered but not invincible.
Past week cases (Sept. 13-19) – Total 4,367
- Not vaccinated: 2,982 (68.3%)
- Partially vaccinated: 340 (7.8%)
- Fully vaccinated: 1,045 (23.9%)
Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Sept. 6-19) – Total 353
- Not vaccinated: 279 (79%)
- Partially vaccinated: 20 (5.7%)
- Fully vaccinated: 54 (15.3%)
Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Sept. 13-19)
- Not vaccinated: 290.3
- Partially vaccinated: 87.2
- Fully vaccinated: 26.3
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Cowgirl, AFAIK Israel has been administering third Pfizer shots for 3 months now, and thus far reports no breakthroughs among those >2 weeks post-boosters. Not sure if that applies to all breakthroughs or serious disease. Meanwhile. J&J reports from its clinical trials that a second dose of its viral-vector vaccine increases immunity against infection 19-fold, and is "100% effective" against serious cases, (I am inherently skeptical about any claims of anything in the life-sciences being "100%").
I read the same article as others here (forget where) suggesting that delaying the second Pfizer shot to sixteen (rather than three) weeks might provide more durable immunity. Face it, we're all flying by the seat of our pants, but that doesn't justify saying "the hell with it, let's just get on with our pre-pandemic lives." Revising advice in light of evolving data is not "vacillation" or "indecisiveness:" it's how SCIENCE is supposed to work. That's another pet peeve of mine with the "digital generation:" insistence on immediate and immutable answers.
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The use of derogatory words to describe other human beings was not really prevalent in earlier pages. This is one thing about Covid that has really given me pause. I get that many are sad and angry. For me personally, I find calling people names and perpetuating stereotypes to be a bad take away. But, hey, that is just me! I know that my kids could not call a school mate an idiot or a moron without reprimand. I read recently a story of a new student to a middle school. He heard his classmate call the teacher a derogatory name. After class he pointed out that it was inappropriate. The offending student picked up the new student and put him in a trash can. I will be the kid who winds up in the trash every time.
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ChiSandy, lol, I am so glad that there are quite a few fellow ladies saw through Marty Makary. Also, Newscorp owns Fox news.
If this pandemic has taught me anything, it's there are plenty of MDs/PHDs/Economists/Mathematicians/Political pollsters (including some MDs with infectious disease and epidemiology background ) try to capitalize on the pandemic at others' expense. Some of them might have good intentions but their opinions are used by antivax/antimask/anti NPIs. Some, on the other hand, are openly doing this to advance their own political or influencer career. Scott Atlas was a perfect example. there are a couple more from Stanford who are currently advising FL governor. FL's incoming surgeon general is a UCLA MD who supported the GBD. Nate Silver is another one who is constantly tweeting nonsense.
Back to Marty Makar, if my MO is spending more time writing about covid and spreading misinformation than treating patients or doing cancer research, I would have no problem to fire him.
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