How has the Pandemic affected you as a cancer patient/survivor
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This is deeply disappointing but not surprised. CDC either doesn't really know what its job is, or just doesn't give a damn anymore.
buried at the bottom of this article
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/number-omicron-cas...
" The CDC director dismissed the idea of a nationwide mask mandate when Raddatz asked and said she'd "rather see people get vaccinated, boosted and follow our recommendations." "I'd rather not have requirements in order to do so," she said. "People should do this for themselves." "
and here is the CDC mission statement on its website
https://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/mission.htm
"Mission
CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.
CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation's health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise."
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Beesie - The French school boards were replaced by school service centres. My kids graduated many years ago so I don't have personal experience dealing with them. In their weekly media appearances, the provincial leaders are the ones saying that improving air quality in schools is not needed. The English schools and private schools found the money.
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A friend's dad died of Covid last night.
He was not vaccinated. I'm heartbroken for my friend but angry as hell. A family has to bury their dad and suffer this terrible grief right here at Christmas, and it could have been avoided so easily.
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It’s such a terrible loss. I’m sorry for your friend.
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Just saw my MO. For the third dose he said I can wait until I'm 6 months from dose 2 (end of January) and get Pfizer, not Moderna. Will cancel my current appointment.
Masking - I forgot to make paper football triangles. I saw the same clerk still maskless so I asked for blank paper. I wrote out my complaint and gave it to the charge nurse. I saw her show it to the clerk team leader and the clerk put his mask on. There's a cancer patient support centre that I will email with a fresh picture. It shouldn't be this hard.
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More on masking - There was a patient who had his mask under his nose. But he had a big wart on the tip of his nose. I kept my distance.
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I talked to the patient advocate about the problem of unmasked patients and caregivers in the cancer center. And even an employee or volunteer the other day. I told her that the folks who made the policy do not know it is not being enforced. I think every employee should speak up every time they see a person not wearing their mask properly. No mask, no admittance. It is not fair to the rest of us who give a damn about other people.
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Press secretary Jen Psaki is getting slammed on twitter today. a reporter asked why not just make rapid test free, and she kind of mocked the reporter saying "should we just send one to every american?, then what happens after every american has 1 test, how much does it cost?"..
https://twitter.com/oni_blackstock/status/14679809...
Alice, you are so right about people like fauci and those in charge of covid response at WH are completely clueless about what's actually happening on the ground.
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I could’ve sworn I saw Fauci on the news the other day saying that there were plans to make home tests available for free upon request? Maybe I’m confused or maybe thes people in the administration don’t talk to each other?
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Olma, Biden's plan (he announced last week) is you have to pay for these tests first, then jump through hoops with your insurance and get reimbursed. also, it doesn't kick in until Jan 2022, so kind of useless since most of people would want to have these handy for the holiday.
In EU and even India, you can buy these tests for like $1 to $3/test, but in the U.S, the cheapest is $12 for 1 box of Binaxnow (comes with 2 tests), from Walmart. walgreens & CVS still charge $24 for the same1 box of Binaxnow test.
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thanks for the correction, maybe it was the President I saw speaking about distribution of tests. So “free” means covered by insurance then? I can walk over to the urgent care place and get a test covered by insurance and be more confident it was done correctly
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Olma,
I think the rapid test is more useful to have it at home for just in case, especially if you have school aged kids or can't work from home, and also before any type of gatherings. these tests expire too. I was lucky to get 2 boxes back in Sept, and they will expire in Feb, so it's not like I can stock up a dozen of these and just file 1 claim with insurance. furthermore, with a lot of people on high detectible plans, I wonder if insurance will deny claims if you haven't met your detectible? Anyway, why do we have to make things so complicated? it shouldn't be.
Edit to add, rapid test is important if once those oral antiviral meds are (Merck's already got EUAed) approved since these have to be taken within like a few days symptom onset.
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Thank you Chowdog, I just brought two Binaxnow kits to my kids in Chicago as a guest gift (what has the world come to?) and now that I am back home, I was going to pick some up for my family here to use WHENEVER. I look for expiration dates on everything else, but forgot to look on the rapid test kits!! I will text them to look for the expiration dates.
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agree that the home testing can be useful and even essential for people who are home bound or can’t easily access a test another way. I thought it was a good idea when I saw (whoever it was) speaking about distributing tests to every household
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Preliminary lab data regarding Pfizer vaccine against omicron
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-07...
"In the first reported experiments gauging the effectiveness of Pfizer and BioNTech SE's vaccine, researchers at the African Health Research Institute found omicron infection results in about a 40-fold reduction in virus-blocking antibodies compared with the strain detected in China almost two years ago. The loss of immune protection is "robust, but not complete," said Alex Sigal, head of research at the Durban-based laboratory, in an online presentation late Tuesday."
Edit to add this is a small study of 12 people, half of which had prior covid + vaccine, and those people fared better than vaccine only.
Pfizer also said they will have their own lab results coming out later this week.
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The face of the Covid medical response in Toronto has "pre-cancerous cells". DCIS, I would guess.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-medical-officer-of-health-surgery-tomorrow-1.6277148
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A friend's unvaccinated dad died of Covid last week. He and his wife built a beautiful, spacious home in the mountains a couple of years ago. If they were in a difficult financial situation there was no sign of it. Now there's a GoFundMe page, asking for $20k in donations for his funeral. I'm pretty sure I'm a miserable human being, totally lacking in compassion for even having these thoughts, but what the heck?
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SBE - I don’t get it either.
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My sister has a similar type friend. Kitchen caught fire so they "finagled" to get ins to replace all living spaces and a go fund me page so they could have total upgrades and rearrange walls. Nicest house on the block. They don't believe in car ins so when their car got totalled, they set up a go fund me for new $60K car, old one was too small now that they are old and empty nesters? Their logic, "God will provide." Guess as long as there are suckers and they can lie to ins company, that is true.
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ugh, go fund me’s. I understand it in situations of unforeseen and tragic circumstances but most seem to be a result of poor planning and greed.
I see some states having big covid troubles again, which is disappointing. Sure vaccines help but I just don’t get not wearing masks around others in most places. It’s been nearly 2 years now, people should be used to it. The initial adjustment was tough for some, but still? It’s annoying.
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I went to the mall today for the first time since the pandemic started. I needed a replacement battery for a phone. Most everyone had a mask on properly, but all surgical mask. There was one guy chin-masking as he walked with a drink. 😒
We are experiencing a surge in cases, but QC public health is comfortable with more than double the cases because hospitalizations are not rising much. Lagging! 🤬
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My department is having a nice holiday luncheon/staff appreciation kind of thing, and it was originally scheduled to be outdoors. But some staff complained that it was occurring on their day off, so the date was changed to next week, right when a big storm is scheduled to hit! They've now changed it to indoors at a small restaurant and now I am not going, since I'm stage 4 and am not going to sit with 40 other people indoors eating and talking for several hours. Argh. Very sad and frustrated.
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My daughter’s pregnant friend is waiting for her test results after her partner and his father tested COVID+. Caught from an office holiday party. Everyone has had 2 vaccine doses.
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xbrnxgrl,
Sorry I didn't answer until now. Funny, my husband is Italian and we speak some at home and in Italian sorella does mean sister but pronounced differently than my Hebrew name Sorella. Thanks for your kind words and good luck to you.
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sorella,
I am a bit obsessed with the Romance languages so I was struck by your name. How would you pronounce it in Hebrew? I am not a Hebrew speaker (I dropped out of Hebrew school after a year) but grew up in a Yiddish speaking household My Hebrew name is Liebe Shana.
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My father's first language was Yiddish but my mom's English although she understood Yiddish from her grandfather. It was my parents language when they said private things. My sister and I tried to teach ourselves with a book called the Young Yiddish Teacher to no avail. I am also quite interested in the romance languages. My mother pronounced my "Jewish name" as she called it, sir a la with the accent on sir. Yours is pretty. My daughter's Hebrew name is Shana
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It looks like UK might be heading to another lockdown.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/boris-johnso...
but, not in the U.S.. bay area restaurants are fully booked both indoor & outdoor with private parties, new years eve parties,...
I am just wondering have most of people just moved on already?
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Chowdog, I think they have moved on. We only eat outside at restaurants but I’m always surprised how many people are dining indoors. I keep hearing about holiday parties. My in-laws are coming here for Christmas and just posted on Facebook photos of them at their church choir concert
. We just spoke to them on the phone and told them we will probably ask them to get tested before they visit. 0 -
Kikomoon,
same here. I have only done takeout and outdoor dining since March 2020. Tomorrow will be my 5th outdoor dining since Mar 2020 and will be the last one for awhile until Omicron is somewhat under control.
I am glad my company stuck with virtual holiday party again this year. These parties are super spreader events.
It just saddens me that narratives, such as "once you are vaccinated, you will be fine"; "breakthrough infections are not a big deal", "there are always going to be variants", Omicron is "mild", and "it is endemic" have become thoughts of mainstream.
I am just tired of excuses and gaslight from the politicians, WH covid response team and blue check twitter influencer MDs/MPHs.
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We're experiencing outbreaks everywhere here in Quebec. Our public health minister said last Thursday that no one could have predicted the sudden surge of cases (well, except for those who were paying attention to the omicron news!).
When I was at the mall last week, I noticed a few babies. Even without the pandemic, I wouldn't bring a baby to the mall. Today it was in the news that an otherwise healthy baby (2 months old) died of COVID. Heartbreaking loss.
I changed my third dose appointment to Monday. It was going to be 6 months from dose 2, but with the omicron surge I thought I should get it sooner (almost 5 months after). At least the province had made it simple to change my appointment in its portal.
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