Coronavirus

[Randi]

[Michael]

Good luck!

[Vic]

It's particularly bad in my county right now. Especially with full hospitals and staffing shortages.

[Randi]

Sorry to hear that.
Rates have gone up (again) here in western Pennsylvania, but the hospitals are doing OK so far.

[Hanibal94]

Leipzig's first Omicron case was detected today!
At this rate, there will be another lockdown...

[AvastMH]

We're discovering that Omicron was in the country before the news came from South Africa. This cat is well and truly out of the bag. The poor Christmas hospitality season is getting a belting with people cancelling events, but staff need paying, rents need paying, the provisions need to be paid for.
Two friends went out shopping today and were cheered up to see two Council Covid wardens at the shop door turning people away who did not have masks on. I hope that a cheeky charity had a stand outside - £1 a mask for a good cause

[Morgan]

I love the "Cheeky charity" concept! I got my booster today. Run a few errands, came home, baked the German spice cookies my husband likes and I can't find this year. (Pfeffernusse) Did a load of laundry. Then I sat down..... not sure I am getting up to make dinner. Hmm. We have not had take-out pizza in a long time; I think tonight is the night. At least I have an excuse tonight.
Stay safe everyone.

[Michael]

[arboggs]

Sometimes you do enough running around and cookie baking that the pizza can just come to you even on days you don't get a shot

[AvastMH]

Well said April! Well said. I'm sure that the curative properties of a delivered pizza can be the best medicine available at such times.

[Hanibal94]

I'll keep that in mind when I get my booster on January 12th!

[leelaht]

Learned something new today about the COVID shot (for women only). Because of the immune response, your lymph nodes swell, and on mammograms it looks like a lump. So to avoid extra testing, wait 6 weeks after having a shot before you get a mammogram.
In my case, I got my booster on the way to the women's clinic... and discovered I had to reschedule my mammo for next year.

[Randi]

How to avoid foggy glasses while wearing a mask

[ggordon]

How to avoid foggy glasses while wearing a mask

What I've eventually settled on is a combination of the metal strip on the outside that is mentioned in the video along with a foam strip on the inside. Many masks now include a metal strip inside the mask, but I find that the built-in strips don't help that much and I still add the external strip and internal foam strip.

About a week ago, following the recent guidelines, I started using an N95 mask, which has a better internal metal strip and the foam strip on the inside. I've only been out a couple of times to wear them yet. It is designed to provide better protection by preventing leaks, with the extra benefit of reducing fogging of glasses. Out of the box they seem to be comparable to what I was doing above with my cloth masks. There is still a little leakage. So I might try adding an external metal strip so see if that further reduces the leaks.

[ggordon]

The new Omicron variant is certainly having an impact. I've had two doctor's offices call me this week to cancel my appointments until March. They are shutting down except for emergency cases.

[AvastMH]

Oh gosh - that's not good news Gordon. Having said that it's not always easy to get an appointment here. In some ways it's better for me because I often have little problems that the nursing service can deal with over the phone. It saves me and them tons of time. But for folks with serious problems it must be a nightmare.

[studentforever]

The only time I ran into a significant problem I got a phone chat with a random GP and she referred me to the practice physio who arranged an almost immediate face to face appointment. Problem now controlled (I don't think it's curable). But all the face to face checks which were so important pre-covid have now been abandoned or my own results suffice. I think some of the blood tests have been taken from the annual rheumatology ones which pre-covid the GP repeated a while later. Rheumatology is a phone consultation with separate referral to a phlebotomy clinic in 1 of the local hospitals (site variable).

[Morgan]

So, I understand I am now eligible for a second booster (4th shot.) As I give platelets and sometimes plasma, the Red Cross tells me I still have antibodies and a my plasma can be used for covid treatment. I am guessing that means I should wait a couple months to get the 4 th shot. Guess it is time to call my GP.

[AvastMH]

Gosh Morgan - that's brilliant. It's great that you can give platelets, and nice to know that your blood is full of anti-covid goodies

[Randi]

How Australia Saved Thousands of Lives While Covid Killed a Million Americans

Good work, Stuart!