The Portland VA is scheduling vaccinations 1/19 - 1/30 using Pfizer-BioNTech. I'm in on the 23rd.

I understand the nervousness but take it from someone who has had the vaccine, I have not had any weird side effects, other than a sore arm which is normal with any injection. I did feel crappy for a few hrs after the 2nd shot, but well worth it.

Just to complicate things on a local level, one of my bubblemates tested positive for covid and the flu today (despite having had a flu shot).

Catching influenza despite receiving a vaccine happens. The formulation of the vaccine is based on predictions of what 3 or 4 strains they expect will reach a given part of the world. These predictions are imperfect.

Yeah, I realize that. But the vaccine reduces the odds....which makes for even longer odds to catch both, at the same time.

....it also means I have to worry and, if I get symptoms, I won't be sure how much I should panic. Flu (despite my flu shot) or the Big C?

Which is exactly why I've never gotten a flu shot. Do plan to take the Rona vaccine when it's offered though

Flu levels are almost nonexistent, so that's surprising. Might be time to, um, re-think your bubble. :rolleyes:

Best wishes for the covid side of things. As miserable as the flu is, I'd take that over covid.

And, just for the record, most years the flu vaccine is pretty effective.

Actually, my bubble's pretty tight. Then again, my state's aflame. The lesson is that even if you're very careful, there's no guarantee. Of course, I knew that.

https://imgur.com/a/Y9jGBVe

not a good look for discraft by posting it on their official page, or for paul and co. in general.

Kona Panis did a video the other day. Played a casual with Colton Montgomery, Dave Dunipace, and Jerry Ross. It was a fantastic video.

They weren't wearing masks, which is whatever at this point. However, she felt the need to step out and explain why that was okay. She said that Dave and Jerry were in her bubble. But given that they all don't live together and that happened upon each other at the disc golf course and that they didn't appear to have any precautions for when you interact with other groups at a crowded park, they are probably exposed to a variety of people. And that isn't how bubbles work.

I hate to single anyone out, but I get more frustrated by that stuff than the people like Luke Humphries that simply don't acknowledge Covid.

I've reconsidered, after everyone I know, including my primary care physician, told me to get the shot. So I signed up, and am getting the first dose on Wednesday. I've talked to a few people who have had Covid and received the vaccine, and they said it caused some of the symptoms to come back, especially after the second dose. So, since I had it pretty bad the first time, I really don't want Covid symptoms again.

I guess all this is to say I'm trying to justify my nervousness. :p

The only person on dg vids I’ve seen seem to be consistently masking is Andrew Fish. So don’t really have to single anyone out. It’s all of them.

The whole masked before their tee shot, stick mask in pocket, throw, go back into group and not put the mask on move was the most used play on tour this year.

Just out of curiosity, how many pro disc golfers have been infected with Covid.

How many have actually been tested...?

Technically, the flu vaccine, to some extent, is always effective. Even if they guess the strain wrong, getting vaccinated for the wrong flu strain still offers some partial immunity to the strain that ends up circulating. Something new I learned recently that surprisingly isn't common knowledge. I always thought like most people that it's all or nothing.

IMO best to just ignore hal... certified troll

At midnight tonight Ohio curfew for bars and restaurants goes from 10PM to 11PM because the numbers have been under 3500 (hospitalizations) for 7 days straight. Under 2500 for 7 days it goes to midnight then under 2000 for 7 days (I think) and it's lifted.

We are heading in the right direction here.

My life is plagued with coincidental correlations; why should this be different?

So the 3 days after I was exposed, a day after he got quite sick and the afternoon after he tested positive for both, I got sick -- but with milder symptoms.

Well, 2 covid tests (including PCR) and 1 flu test later, all negative, it's most likely that I managed to get sick with something else, right after being exposed. Which is the kind of coincidental correlation that constantly throws me off track (usually with mechanical and computer issues). I took the negative results with mixed feelings; if I'm only going to be mildly sick for a week, I'd prefer it was covid, with the hopes of a little immunity.

Meanwhile, my bubblemate is suffering from something far worse than "just a flu", which makes me feel better about the "negative" results.

Glad you are negative, David. I think many of us have hoped that a seasonal cold would be a mild case and confer immunity. But much better to get vaccinated than roll the dice.

And please, try not to die before I get a chance to play your course. ;)

Yeah, even a "mild" case of COVID (meaning, anything short of hospitalization) can be miserable and highly worrisome, from what I hear. Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to your bubblemate.

Since he's my brother and course co-owner, and about 70% responsible for Stoney Hill, your oneday visit might depend more on his recovery than my luck. He's not in the hospital yet, but he's about as bad off as a person can be in this own home.

*

Slightly less personal, I know doctors don't do house calls any more, but my doctor is doing car calls. The office is open for non-covid suspects, but for those of us with exposure, we park in a special parking lot and they come out, dressed like spacemen. With one result that the music in the waiting room was the best I'd ever experienced.

Double extra special best wishes to your brother, and apologies for any of my previous remarks that may have been overly flippant.

That's even how our vets office is operating. I hope your brother recovers well and soon!

No worries. My only offense is at the covidiots. I'm already flippantly thinking that the last 100' of fairway and tee constructed on a steep hillside, may not get finished in time for a March tournament. Odds are greatly in his favor of pulling out of this, but I'm not betting on it being quickly.

One of my other bubblemates is a veterinary surgeon, and I understand they've been meeting petowners in the parking lot since this began. Of course, they take the patients inside, without their humans; my doctor just checked me over through the open car window.

^ Makes me question the test results.

I had my 1st shot last week of the Pfizer, just a sore shoulder the next day. #2 is day after Super Bowl. I still do wonder if I had Covid about a year ago exactly.

Positive results with approved COVID tests are highly reliable.

False negative results, on the other hand, are fairly common even with the PCR test. Ability to detect the virus depends greatly on when the sample is taken:

Over the 4 days of infection before the typical time of symptom onset (day 5), the probability of a false-negative result in an infected person decreased from 100% on day 1 to 68% on day 4. On the day of symptom onset, the median false-negative rate was 38%. This decreased to 20% on day 8 (3 days after symptom onset) then began to increase again, from 21% on day 9 to 66% on day 21. The false-negative rate was minimized 8 days after exposure—that is, 3 days after the onset of symptoms on average. As such, this may be the optimal time for testing if the goal is to minimize false-negative results.

Variation in False-Negative Rate of Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction–Based SARS-CoV-2 Tests by Time Since Exposure | Annals of Internal Medicine 18 Aug 2020

Along those lines, my doctor tooks swabs for both the rapid and PCR tests; she explained that if the rapid test was positive they'd throw away the PCR swab, but if the rapid test was negative they'd send off the PCR. Basically, that a low-level of virus would cause a false-negative, but a positive would be believed. (And I got the pleasure of her tickling the back of my eyeball with the swabs 4 times, instead of twice).

Novavax says its Covid-19 vaccine is 90% effective, but far less so against one variant | Stat

The Novavax COVID vaccine was 89.3% effective in a Phase 3 trial of 15,000 participants aged 18-84 in the UK. The “UK variant” (B.1.1.7) caused more than half of the PCR-confirmed symptomatic cases in this trial. This is the first real world trial that demonstrates protection against the UK strain. Protection was calculated to be 95.6% against the original COVID strains and 85.6% against the UK variant.

Novavax also conducted a smaller (4,400 participant) Phase 2b trial in South Africa where > 90% of infections were caused by the emerging “South African variant”. In this trial the Novavax vaccine was 60% effective for people not infected with HIV (49% effective for all trial participants).

The Novavax vaccine is based on the COVID spike protein, and can be stored at refrigerator temperatures. Phase 3 trials are underway in the U.S., which has a contract to buy 100 million doses if the vaccine is approved. Novavax is a small local biotech company so I am rooting for them to succeed.

Laboratory tests suggest that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines protect against the UK variant, but are less protective against the South African (B.1.351) and Brazilian (P.1) variants. The South African and Brazilian variants seem to share similar spike protein mutations, which may enable those strains to reinfect people who have recovered from infection with older COVID strains.

Gosh, getting COVID more than once doesn’t sound fun.

Johnson & Johnson is expected to report vaccine trial results soon, including participants from Brazil and South Africa.

Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax are developing booster vaccines to protect against emerging COVID strains. The big advantage of mRNA and protein-based vaccines is that they can be updated relatively quickly, although it remains to be seen how much data the FDA will require before approval.

In general, vaccines seem to trigger a stronger and more effective immune response compared with getting COVID. If you have the choice, get vaccinated rather than getting infected! :)

For all of you wondering about the variants ... good article here.

My best to Chris for a quick recovery!

Hey David, my best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery for your brother. Stay safe and double down with your own precautions.

Variants.....christ, because we all have not struggled enough. I guess my pragmatic take is that masks, precautions and managing the ignorance that surround us is going to stay a part of our lives for much longer than any of us hoped. Just testimony that we all must come to terms with a "new normal".

I received my second vaccine last week. Things went about the same as the first, for me. Arm was not as sore, but about 4 hours after the shot, I felt awful. Fatigue, loss of appetite, solid headache. The following morning, I had a half day of a back ache. Not such a bad price to pay. Next up...my 80 y/o Mother and 90 y/o Father in Law. Then on two my two sisters, their spouse, their children and spouses. That is 11 people, some very far down the line, that need vaccination before the vaccine mean anything more than I am safe.

I truly fear, that if we thought covidiots were an issue now, just wait until the only thing they have to protect is others. Once they are safe, I can't see where they will suddenly have a concern for anyone else.

I figure we're going to be dealing with this for at least another year. The anti-vax disinformation campaign means that we'll probably never hit more than 50-60% (like influenza vaccination), which as we have actually seen in Brazil is no where close to the numbers needed for herd immunity.

Get used to this being the new normal, or change.. but I rather suspect the former.

Agree. You know my fear is that, given the propensity for mutation that we already seen, we will be chasing COVID around like the flu. Continually working to develop vaccines and boosters to keep pace. All the while, given its newer, higher contagious nature and higher mortality rate (from the flu), that we will just be in a perpetual state of masks, social distancing and such. I need my damn social life back.

Maybe we'll luck out, and any vaccines at least aid in mortality... so it leaves those who refuse to just attrit naturally.

(wow, did I just actually say that? :sick: )

You could be right but I am more optimistic. More vaccinations = fewer infections. Fewer infections = fewer chances for the virus to mutate. Also, fewer infections should = better contact tracing and genomic surveillance.

And if any troublesome variants do show up, suitable mRNA and protein vaccines can be developed very quickly (unlike current flu vaccines, which have a long lead time).

COVID can clearly mutate, but it doesn't seem to be a mutation factory like viruses such as influenza and HIV. Current vaccines are partly effective against the Brazilian and South African variants, and booster shots are in development to target that family of mutant strains.

So I am guardedly optimistic, FWIW.

I'm hopeful that, in addition to vaccines, treatments will improve to lessen the severity of the disease for those who catch it in spite of the vaccine (or even the unvaccinated).

I’m a little more optimistic, I think we’ll see a close semblance of normality by late summer. I don’t think it will be eradicated, more likely it will be somewhat endemic and seasonal Iike flu, but it will be manageable. BTW I’m perfectly cool if we keep up with masking in public places during respiratory virus season and more importantly people with any kind of symptoms staying the frack home long after this is done.

I always liked this whenever I was in Japan.