How has the Pandemic affected you as a cancer patient/survivor
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I have a love and hate relationship with twitter. On one hand, I get most of my news and stay up to date, on the other hand I find it plays on my emotions. So I have to control my viewing.
They can plea to billionaires all they want, but it's governments that need to reverse the travel bans! I'm tired of everyone thinking money is the answer to everything. Anyone can tweet anything they want, sometimes emotionally-charged, so I can't get swayed or get excited by any tweet.
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Serenity, it's funny, because I think we disagree very little on this subject, but there are some philosophical differences in our thinking and you don't seem to be very flexible and want to have the final word. No hard feelings, as I think your intentions are noble and I respect our differences and am interested in hearing your point of view even if I disagree with it, but I am no longer willing to continue on this particular topic!
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Fair enough, but you have a friend in Malawi who is there because of money. And the person in the tweet isn't a random person, but one of the scientists who outed omicron.
I love these posts about my inflexibility coming from others with the same affliction.
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ErenTo, I appreciate the clarification.
I'm not sure where I stand with regard to the poorer countries supply issue. I know that Canada placed orders for a lot of vaccines, many more than we would need, with the specific intent of donating this supply to developing and poor countries. I think that is absolutely the right thing to do, and in a global pandemic, I believe that wealthier countries do have a responsibility to help poorer countries.
Have developing/poor countries received enough supply to meet their roll-out capabilities? In some cases 'yes' and in some cases 'no'. Are there logistical problems on the ground in these countries? In some cases 'yes' and in some cases 'no'. Is corruption hindering vaccine distribution in these countries? In some cases 'yes' and in some cases 'no'.
It's complicated and the information we get is often contradictory. Should developed countries do more? Yes, where it would help. But in some places the problems have to be addressed locally and by locals. There is no one answer to this problem but I know I don't feel comfortable when I see people from rich countries turn away and say "Not my problem". (Not pointing the finger to you - your position is more nuanced.)
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Serenity, its a different topic, so I'll engage. Not sure why you made the assumption that my friend is there because of money? And not sure what this has to do with anything.
Actually, she is not there for the money! So far from it that I burst laughing when I saw your comment. She is a very interesting woman. She's hired as a teacher at a local school and was adamant that she'd get paid local wages in the name of fairness. Although, she brings skills that locals don't have (she was a trained teacher back in England). She is very much integrated in the local community and lives in a house that the bathroom is a hole outside. When she sent me the pictures, I told her she was mad! She says locals are furious about travel ban and think they're punished. She has been living there for over two years now and has a local boyfriend and helps wherever she can, esp. lately with vaccine transport. She couldn't be any more cliche bleeding heart liberal, in a good sense
Of course compared to locals, she is rich and can get out any minute, but I'm not sure why this should be her fault for being born in the West. It's just the luck of the draw.
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ErenTo - I’m sorry. From your post about her helping with the vaccines, I assumed she was there as part of a vaccination campaign (that requires money). I never assumed she was there to get rich herself.
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Oh no problem!
Actually she flew back a week ago to see her mom who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and of course she gets stuck with the travel restrictions. They subjected her to numerous useless tests, didn't accept her vaccine for some stupid reason that I can't remember and asked her to self-isolate for an extended period of time and she's shocked that nobody wears masks and thinks the country has gone crazy with nonsensical rules! The perspective was interesting to me as she's returning from a less fortunate place, but thinks England sucks!
I think this pandemic has shown how disappointing most governments have been in handling such an emergency, some worse than others.
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I hope the best for her mother. Wish she didn't have to isolate for so long when vaccinated.
The pandemic definitely showed how terrible many government officials are. The QC government seemed ok at first. I was willing to give them a chance, but they've been making poor choices. They still won't make policies based on the virus being airborne.
Mask wearing differences - Yes! I don't remember the show, but they were in Africa with Jane Goodall. I noticed that everyone was wearing a mask even outdoors. I didn't know if that was required by the show or if it's commonplace. But based on your friend's reaction, it must be commonplace. We still have mask mandates for the most part. I expect QC will drop them once 5-12 are vaccinated. Under 5 and immunocompromised will be on their own.
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I think the vaccine issue was related to where it was manufactured? Or something equally as stupid.
"They still won't make policies based on the virus being airborne."
Oh yeah, same thing in Ontario, I really don't get the resistance. Ford government was a joke for the most part, always ended up giving in to public pressure and filling his friends pockets, instead of proactively leading.
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Yay! I'm boosted! I came in with my DH for his booster and mentioned that I'm booked for Tuesday. Since I'm more than 168 days since my second dose, they offered to do it today. Currently sitting through the 15 minute post-vaccine wait time.
First dose was Astra Zeneca, second was Pfizer and today's booster was full dose Pfizer.
I wonder how long before we get 4th doses? We get flu shots every year so it may be the same thing
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Yay! My family is due for boosters next month. I have an appointment next week, but I may delay it because of Ibrance. The only reason I have to keep my appointment next week is that it’s with the same nurse who gave me my first shots. She was very helpful when I had to keep postponing my second shot due to my rash. All I had to do was email her.
I agree that annual COVID vaccines are reasonable. I would prefer nasal sprays though.
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can't seem to get the graph to work but here is the link
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/uni...
our covid case curve is going vertical. how's that for a b or c grade? and this is before christmas. I wonder some of you have noticed there was an aggressive push by twitter MDs for off ramp through social media and main stream media opeds -- unmask school children 8 weeks after >5 vaccine approval regardless of kids vaccine uptake. (even the day before omicron was discovered). now: silence, or the usual bs to forget about case count but use hospitalization, a lagging indicator, as the metric for off ramp, or dead virus in the nose, so don't test asymptomatic vaccinated people despite exposure.
there is also this politico article highlighting the logistic shortcomings of oral antiviral, like some of us have discussed.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/04/who-shoul...
there is nothing more wrong than people who are in power and can do something but have chosen not to coz it does not affect them at all.
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Here you go. I reduced the range to a year.
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You misunderstood my remark--I was criticizing that one small aspect (stringent booster age restrictions): but on the whole, I truly admire (and covet) Canada's healthcare system. Not only do I NOT think "we're #1" (and even as a little kid I chafed at rah-rah jingoistic stuff such as pledging allegiance to a flag and "Americanism" essay contests & awards), i contend the US healthcare system is more like Number Two (and I don't mean "second place").
As to intervals between initial doses in the US, the absolute minimum for Moderna was 28 days--but up to 42 days (six weeks) was perfectly okay. We didn't know back then that even longer than that might make for more robust immunity. And for the longest time we, too, saw demand for vaccines vastly outstrip supply (to such an extent that doctors in private practice who did not treat COVID patients were in a lower priority group). For most of the first 3-4 months of 2021, trying to get a vaccine appointment was like a computerized version of the Hunger Games.
I'm hoping that 3 months post-booster is still protective, and that a fourth shot (heaven forbid) won't be necessary for at least 6 months after the first booster.
As we've seen, donating vaccines is only part of how to achieve global vaccine equity--we also need to donate funds, equipment (maintaining cold-chain and supplying syringes), personnel & training--and mandate that pharma companies open-source their vaccine technology to scientists in developing nations for manufacture over there. Otherwise we're just dumping our stockpile on the tarmac. (The WH may have dropped the ball big time on this--per a NYT article, it was privy to an internal task force report outlining all the above measures, but passing the infrastructure bill was given priority; binary-minded red-and-swing-state and even rural blue-state voters think only about what the government can do for them...without raising taxes. They understand roads & bridges and childcare for working families, but not student loan relief, paths-to-citizenship, or the health of others--much less those on the other side of the world). But the U.S. should not be expected to shoulder all or even most of the burden among fully-developed nations.
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We misunderstood what?
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Chowdog - The QC policy is to monitor hospitalizations, and they lifted mask requirements for secondary school because they weren’t getting hospitalized. Well, those high school kids are showing up in hospitals now.
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wrenn, I think he is saying preliminary data suggests omicron is 3.5x more contagious than delta. He also used another model & based on South Africa data to calculate, Rt, the reproduction rate of omicron. Rt in South Africa is 3.5x, similar to the Rt of the covid before all the lockdown/masking were put into place in us & eu. He also thinks it’s likely omicron can evade immunity. Essentially, us will be screwed with the vaccine only strategy.
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I saw this posted on twitter about patient profile in South Africa. Still early and there could be sample bias, but I'll hang on to anything remotely hopeful:
A significant early finding in this analysis is the much shorter average length of stay of 2.8 days for SARS-CoV-2 positive patients admitted to the COVID wards over the last two weeks compared to an average length of stay of 8.5 days for the past 18 months. The NICD reports a similar shorter length of stay for all hospitals in Tshwane in its weekly report. It is also less than the Gauteng or National average length of stay reported by the NICD in previous waves.
In summary, the first impression on examination of the 166 patients admitted since the Omicron variant made an appearance, together with the snapshot of the clinical profile of 42 patients currently in the COVID wards at the SBAH/TDH complex, is that the majority of hospital admissions are for diagnoses unrelated to COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 positivity is an incidental finding in these patients and is largely driven by hospital policy requiring testing of all patients requiring admission to the hospital.
Using the proportion of patients on room air as a marker for incidental COVID admission as opposed to severe COVID (pneumonia), 76% of patients at the SBAH/TDH complex are incidental COVID admissions. This very unusual picture is also occurring at other hospitals in Gauteng. On 3 December Helen Joseph Hospital had 37 patients in the COVID wards of whom 31 were on room air (83%); and the Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital had 80 patients of which 14 were on supplemental oxygen and 1 on a ventilator (81% on room air).
The exponential increase in the positivity rate in these patients is a reflection of the rapidly increased case rate for Tshwane but does not appear to be associated with a concomitant increase in the rate of admissions for severe COVID (pneumonia) based on the high proportion of patients not requiring supplemental oxygen.
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I never said I covet that ONE aspect of the Canadian healthcare system. I never said I believe we’re number one. And I also never said—nor implied—that our case numbers are in any way admirable or superior(so I don’t see the point of your posting that graph). Enough with the hostility.
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And again, the title of this thread asks how the pandemic has affected us vis-a-vis cancer. So let’s get back to that already
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ChiSandy, I think you missed the point of my posts. The reason Canada, and the EU, had "draconian age restrictions" was because the U.S. screwed the rest of the world on supply. So the U.S. could open vaccine eligibility to all adults, while at the same time in Canada and the EU we were limited to people aged 70+. The only difference was vaccine supply, which the U.S. hoarded.
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ChiSandy - The reason for posting the graph was to show you how much vaccine coverage Canada has after you wrote that it was leaving so many of its citizens unprotected. I even quoted your words.
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here is a tweet from another expert I follow regarding omicron. Even if omicron turns out to be milder than delta, more transmissible is not good news. I see a lot of experts saying we have tools, but it is useless if ppl in charge don’t want to use these tools. Cdc director was quoted today saying covid will become endemic and comparing it with flu. I am so tired of the ppl in charge seem to worry more about public panicking then telling it like it is. look at the damn curve already and yes it is time to panic and take action rather than sit on ur butt.
https://twitter.com/billhanage/status/1467349426620583942?s=21
And one of Twitter mds calling off ramp today again tweeted unmasking school kids 8-12 weeks (she extended to 12 weeks now) after approval of kids vaccine. I know her kids go to private school. So sick of the mentality of hiding behind “I care about kids and their education loss” but in reality, she doesn’t give $hit about public school kids. her private school kids most likely wont be affected by omicron.
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Chowdog, I think I saw something in the last week that stated, or at least implied, that the Omicron variant is more highly transmissible, but causing fewer problems in most people who got it. I hope that's accurate and agrees with what you've posted, because my brain and charts/graphs do not get along well.
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Chowdog - That doctor probably sends her kids to a private school that added ventilation and filtration. My old private school did. Public schools didn't.
Alice - Like Chowdog and the twitter expert stated, even if milder (not the same as mild), omicron being more transmissible is still a problem. We don't have enough data yet. Best we can do now is get more people vaccinated/boosted, get masked, and clean the air. Long COVID can result from a non-hospitalized case, so I worry about kids being unprotected.
Our increasingly rising cases are occurring the most in the under 18 with hospitalizations beginning to rise. Our vaccination rate is very high for 12+. Seeing the rising cases in our highly vaxxed teens after their school mask mandates were lifted shows that masks are very much necessary. How many of our cases are from omicron? Don’t know. They stopped telling us cases by variant.
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Re: public schools and air filtration/ventilation
In the US, public schools differ in what they can provide. In CA, there has been some state funding to upgrade air filtration but since these things are ultimately controlled by individual school districts, wealthier districts are able to provide the highest levels of filtration whereas those less well off can not. My former school district was able to provide MERV13 filtration systems via existing HVAC systems and all other measures possible were taken. But, my district has always been fiscally responsible and fortunately had the funds. It’s sad but there is a great deal of inequity under the giant umbrella we call public schools.
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I should remember to specify when I’m talking about local stuff. It’s the QC provincial government that refuses to improve ventilation systems in public schools. They took away the French school board a few years ago. The English school board remains and did improve their systems, but they are the minority of schools. I haven’t seen a breakdown of cases by language, but they do report outbreaks by type of location. Daycares and schools tops the list.
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SerenityStat, ah, I remember back when I was in school, in Quebec (or Montreal at least) we had the Catholic school board (mostly French, all Catholic) and the Protestant school board (everybody else). I didn't realize that now the French school board is gone.
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