PSA from commentor Chris T, November 30:
I’m in hospital recovering from pneumonia. What I thought was the flu, was the onset of something apparently starting to be called Post COVID Organizing Pneumonia. It commonly kicks in about 8 weeks after recovering from COVID (even a mild case stopped by Paxlovid), using the damage trail from the original COVID to invade the lungs.
So, if you seem to be getting a flu or something roughly two month after COVID, it might be this. There is no one specific pathogen here, it’s just opportunistic invasion from whatever bacterial colonies live in your head.
Scientists who have studied #H5N1 #birdflu for years are flummoxed by the lack of severe cases among the 55 human cases the US has confirmed this year. I talked to lots to explore the theories of what's going on. www.statnews.com/2024/12/02/b…
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 8:10 AM
The pandemic russian roulette continues.
It is alarming that #H5N1 is being detected in the human food chain. I don't know how to say this more clearly, raw milk has absolutely ZERO benefits that make deliberate human exposure to a pathogenic zoonotic virus worthwhile
www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn…— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 5:48 PM
I spoke to @Alan_Yu039 @whyy for this story about the devastating impact avian influenza has on poultry, as well as the risk of a human pandemic in the context of the US dairy cattle outbreak.
Our response is bad now. I fear it will get worse on Jan 20.https://t.co/W5q4ll3EL5
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) November 25, 2024
It's 5yrs since the first cases of COVID were reported in Wuhan China. It is clear that we will never fully recover from the collective trauma inflicted by a global pandemic. I had hope we would be trying to avoid another one, sadly that's not the case #H5N1 #airborne
www.nature.com/articles/s41…— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 11:10 AM
#USDA confirmed 6 more #H5N1 #birdflu infected dairy cow herds in California today. State's total is now 481. Cumulative national total is 695 in 15 states. www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-po…
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 8:05 AM
[email protected] announced a broad recall of Raw Farms LLC raw whole milk & cream on store shelves & has suspended distribution of additional products after multiple positive #H5N1 #birdflu tests. It advises avoiding other Raw Farm products for now. www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA…
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 11:24 PM
⚠️ BREAKING:
WHO Warns of H5N1 Outbreak Risk, Urges Stronger Global Surveillance of Animals to Prevent Spread to Humans
WHO epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove has warned of the H5N1 threat, calling for urgent global surveillance of animals, including wild birds and poultry. pic.twitter.com/lHkxlVO8XU
— SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@COVID19_disease) December 2, 2024
We have so much to be grateful for in our recovery from COVID.
At the time, it was very frightening, and we're forgetting that.
We would do well to do more remembering. There is a lot unresolved.— Cheryl Rofer (@cherylrofer.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 6:13 PM
Link to paper here (thanks Elon) https://t.co/s6n5vUiyaz
— Pinboard (@Pinboard) December 4, 2024
And I will never forget the day I took the kids to get their first Covid shot at a county clinic, with lines out the door and far into the parking lot. The relief from every parent in that line was palpable.
May 15, 2021.
— Anne S Kim (@anne-s-kim.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 9:07 PM
it imposed restrictions on the rich and powerful and they became determined that that could never happen again.
— BeijingPalmer (@beijingpalmer.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 8:16 PM
======
NHS excess sickness absence continues to remain precisely dictated by the prevalence of Covid infections.
NHS England staff as a group took a staggering FIFTY PERCENT more sick days in July 2024 as July 2019. pic.twitter.com/GrAimNMgtE
— tern (@1goodtern) December 2, 2024
======
Study finds #SARS-CoV-2SpikeProtein persists in #brain tissues for years, potentially causing long COVID neurological effects. mRNA vaccines reduce spike accumulation, highlighting need for further therapies. https://t.co/27wJZ1Kyd5 https://t.co/4tvjFQZNXy
— Medical Xpress (@medical_xpress) November 29, 2024
Air pollution may boost risk of longer-term #long-COVID symptoms, research suggests
Vaccination conferred a protective effect, with 15% of vaccinees developing long COVID, compared with 46% of the unvaccinated.https://t.co/O4Ak6iswAi pic.twitter.com/FaFJp1BODk
— CIDRAP (@CIDRAP) December 3, 2024
Men more likely than women to develop COVID-19 pneumonia, research suggests | @CIDRAP #Covid19 #pneumonia https://t.co/kZTBx0kZiJ
— aponia_analytics (@AponiaAnalytics) November 28, 2024
The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can persist in the brain—in the skull bone marrow and meninges—to induce neurologic damage
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi… open-access— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 10:39 AM
Analysis of 25 studies shows reduced risk of long COVID after vaccination
In 15 studies, two doses of COVID-19 vaccine before infection resulted in reduced odds of long COVID by 24%.https://t.co/quTxnrJROS pic.twitter.com/bpwaeHb0mH
— CIDRAP (@CIDRAP) November 27, 2024
Blood vessel wall (endothelial) inflammation as a key to multi-organ complications of Covid and #LongCovid
@science.org
science.org/doi/10.1126/…— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 3:33 PM
I think many people really underestimate how likely a new pandemic is to occur in the next four years.
Even if you think of a pandemic as a once-in-a-century event, that's a 4% chance over the next four years. And I think in the world we live in a pandemic is far from a once-in-100 years event. ??— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 3:33 PM
In the past 24 years we have had one flu pandemic and one almost and one actual coronavirus pandemic. We have had mpox travel around the world – twice. We have had a regional Ebola outbreak that threatened to spread to many more countries, and avian influenza keeps inching closer to humans.
Not to mention worries over yellow fever spreading to China during the 2016 Angola outbreak or what happened with Zika or MERS. There is Nipah virus, Rift Valley fever, Lassa fever, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, there are resistant strains of Candida auris and numerous other pathogens emerging.
The list goes on and on. And of course there are things we don’t even know we should be worried about yet.
And, yes, there is the risk of lab accidents, of bioterrorism.
Individually none of these things may seem very likely. But the idea that we will be able to avoid all of these seems naive.My point is that any reasonably rational look at the evidence must conclude that there is a risk of a pandemic that is big enough to warrant attention and preparation.
So any new administration that decides to largely bypass infectious disease expertise is taking a really really dangerous gamble.All of this triggered by this important piece by @ddiamond.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/…— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
======
How Trump’s Failed 2020 COVID Policy Birthed His 2024 Public Health Nominees https://t.co/6QbdOpztD0 via @TPM
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 30, 2024
Kash Patel, Donald Trump's pick to run the FBI, has repeatedly hawked "detox" supplements that can supposedly "reverse" the Covid-19 vaccines, promoting the kits in a series of Truth Social posts that spread false claims about vaccine safety and "shedding."
— Bill McCarthy (@billmccarthy.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 3:43 PM
The Covid wars are still raging in 2024, and now the Covid contrarians are in charge. How their critiques have fared:
www.politico.com/news/2024/12…— Tim O’Brien (@timobrien.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 7:36 AM
I’ve been seeing some classic Monday morning quarterbacking as the necessity of #COVID19 lockdowns are being discussed once again. As usual, we’re seeing a lot of hyperbolic statements and attempts to create conversations around comparative suffering which is always just a 1/
— Putrino Lab (@putrinolab.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 11:31 AM
garbage response to anything. The reality is that we had a once in a century pandemic. The virus was spreading like wildfire and we had limited options to keep the public safe. Not just from COVID but from #LongCovid. In March and April of 2020, New York City was the epicenter 2/
of the global pandemic. Things were rough and we still hadn’t shut down. My whole team was pulled into the hospital and deployed to provide support to stretched inpatient services since outpatient services were closed down, Central Park was a triage tent, the refrigerated 3/
trucks were on Madison Ave storing bodies, an average inpatient unit was losing ten patients a day and sitting in our outpatient center, the Abilities Research Center, was a whiteboard where we were counting down the number of free beds we had. When we hit the double digits, 4/
the state government made the decision to lockdown and we held our breath. You have to understand that once we ran out of beds we had no plan B: we were just out of beds. That was it. After lockdown, we watched our free bed number dip into single digits…and then it held. The 5/
lockdowns had worked. In the meantime, from day 1 we were concerned about social isolation and loneliness from the lockdowns, but with the shortage of hospital beds, the death rate and the emerging threat of #LongCovid, lockdowns were the *least worst option*. Don’t get me 6/
wrong – this doesn’t mean you stick your head in the sand about lockdown problems: with the help of our friends at @LogitechG, our team coordinated the distribution of hundreds of iPads to hospitals all over NY so that people could say goodbye to critically ill loved ones. 7/
— Putrino Lab (@putrinolab.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 11:31 AM
We worked with @SamsungUS and @Take2Interact to get hundreds of workbooks and free wifi out to low income kids in NY and NJ who didn’t have devices to engage in remote schooling, and we partnered with the incredible @socialcreaturz to start building out programs to address 8/
— Putrino Lab (@putrinolab.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 11:31 AM
loneliness and social isolation head-on: launching @sitgrit so that folks with disabilities could engage in free, remote exercise programming just like everyone else because the big fitness chains were NOT accommodating (and still haven’t). We launched Bonded by Baby to build 9/
social ties for new parents who were at risk of loneliness, and many other programs to educate people about the health risks of loneliness and social isolation. To this day, we have continued these programs, because the effects of loneliness and social isolation are still 10/
being seen and felt. To this day, we fight for the idea that social health should be viewed as a crucial dimension of overall health: as important as physical and mental health. To this day, we continue to fight for people with #LongCOVID and many other chronically ill folks 11/
for whom lockdown has never ended due to their heightened risk of reinfection and the consequences that such a reinfection brings to their health status. We continue to build social and peer support programming for these folks to combat loneliness. Anyway, all of this is to 12/
say: lockdowns saved lives. If we had locked down earlier, many of my colleagues would have been spared the repeated trauma of losing patient after patient, many of my colleagues would have been spared horrific #LongCovid that has ended their career and torn their lives apart 13/
and many people in NYC might still be alive and many more still not living with #LongCovid. This is not to say that lockdowns were not without cost, but to frame it as though it was the wrong choice in the face of what we faced in the beginning is either an uninformed or 14/
intentional misread of the situation. So to anyone lamenting the psychological effects of the lockdowns, ask them: what did they do for people suffering from loneliness and mental health issues during COVID? What are they doing now to create government sponsored programs for 15/
people who are still struggling and what do you plan to do for people with #LongCovid and other chronic illness/disability who still face considerable risk from the ongoing pandemic? If they don’t have good answers to these questions, it’s likely that they’re criticizing 16/
these policies for political expediency rather than any real concern for public health, and tbh we need a lot less of that sort of performative chatter and a whole lot more action. We’re in this together and the people we SERVE deserve better. /end
On The Road – UncleEbeneezer – Eastern Sierra Fall Foliage 2024- Bridgeport/Twin Lakes, CA (Part 4/8)
Suzanne
Chris T, I hope you’re doing better. Best wishes for full and quick recovery.
As for our collective trauma…. yeah. That’s a thing. I have been interpreting our politics since 2016, but even moreso since the pandemic, as really being driven primarily by how much Americans hate one another. The pandemic really clarified for me that we live in a low-trust society and I should behave accordingly.
And yes, I realize that ever genuinely believing that Americans were mostly good and wanted to make this country a better place was a white privilege.
TBone
Once again I am fighting endothelial inflammation of my lips and tongue (and losing so far) but this time it has started to attack the roof of my mouth and ability to produce saliva. I have again been using the steroid ointment prescribed, but so far it’s ineffective (it’s to be used twice a day for 7 days and I’m on day 4). Every time this happens (this is the third or fourth go round with mouth) it gets a bit worse – it’s actually a full body inflammation event but my mouth gets the worst of it. Had to remove all rings as my fingers erupt in open sores and blisters anywhere metal touches skin. Fuck you, long Covid.
Princess
I’ll admit: as I read these stories of Long Covid cognitive decline, especially among the unvaccinated, and I look at the election results and the peculiar “reasoning” people give for the way they voted, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a long covid effect making people stupider. Making them forget stuff about Trump they disliked. Kind of the way crime has gone way down since we stopped using lead paint, which causes cognitive problems.
im not discounting at all the effect of being just plain racist; I’m trying to figure out that group that isn’t the core 40%.
”Forget it, Princess, it’s Chinatown.” Yeah, you’re probably right.
Baud
I’ve completed stopped eating raw humans.
Suzanne
I will note — and I should add in the caveat that I got pretty depressed during my first Pittsburgh winter, and I couldn’t go to the gym, and I felt terrible — the psychological aspects of realizing that my fellow Americans would happily toss other Americans into the garbage before giving up a dinner at Chili’s were much harder on me.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Jeezuz, I’m sorry. I wondered where you’d been. Fuk long covid indeed.
Baud
@TBone:
Sorry to hear that. Hope it gets better soon.
Suzanne
@TBone: Lord, that sounds terrible. I’m so sorry. Hang in there.
satby
Putrino Lab’s narrative just made me revisit the rage I felt during that time, because I spent it dealing with the vile ignoramuses who constantly argued back at every single small and large attempt to reduce the risks. Including people who would cough in our faces at the eye doctors office when we insisted they wear masks. And at the farmers market. How many of them have died in the past 4 years none of them wants to admit; they still pretend the whole thing was just a hoax.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: thanks! At least I have one doctor, my dermatologist, who takes this very seriously instead of telling me to “take water pills.” She prescribed a round of oral steroids last year (prednisolone) so I know that, if the ointment doesn’t get it under control by day 7, at least I can get medical attention by a serious professional and not be treated like a malingerer as my former G.P. has done. Dermatologist recommended a new G.P. as well (but of course the office is 45 minutes away). It could be worse – at least it’s not in my lungs!
Elizabelle
The Putrino Lab posts are especially interesting. How soon many forget.
TBone
@Baud:
@Suzanne:
Thank you – every single bit of emotional support helps!
Suzanne
@satby:
YES THIS.
My “lasting psychological effects” are from this shit.
TBone
@Suzanne:
When one realizes that even some medical “professionals” (and it’s contagious) feel this way, it’s heart-deadening.
Elizabelle
@TBone: Good to have a doctor who takes you seriously. The “she” part is not incidental. Wishing you a return to better health.
TBone
@Elizabelle: amen, sista! It is indeed, most very definitely not a coincidence. I nicknamed my beloved dermatologist Hawkeye for her eagle eye AND her ability to make me laugh as if I’m in an episode of MASH.
Thank you!
p.a
@TBone: Hope things get better asap!
re: Cheryl R’s post about people forgetting: it was only 3 fucking years ago! Are they all living in the movie Memento?!?!
TBone
Speaking of “it could be worse.” Our Josey Wales of the Nicked Ear had to be rushed to vet for emergency appointment yesterday because he’s only eating sporadically and lost too much weight. He had a full checkup and full body x-ray that shows his lungs have been ravaged and he was trying so hard to breathe that he’s been swallowing air and has pockets of air in his digestive system. You can’t really see the breathing struggle, he hides it well. But he’s been coughing since we’ve known him, and I was hesitant to put him on steroids permanently because cats don’t do well with that (have been giving him Albuterol with a rescue inhaler whenever he had really bad spasm coughing fits with a special kitty asthma tube that has a rubber fitting that goes over his mouth and nose). He’s been prescribed oral steroids and will go back in two weeks. He’s also getting Gerber baby food and as many plates of food as I can put under his nose to try to tempt him with.
Gah!
TBone
@p.a: thank you!
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: There’s that laughter thing again.
greenergood
Chris T – I hope you’re feeling better soon! But your description of post Covid organising pneumonia explained something to me. I had Covid in summer 2022 – not too bad, just tested positive for a coupld of weeks and felt lousy. But bang on 8 weeks later, I started coughing and coughing and shaking and coughing to the point of vomiting (and I’m a complete emetophobe); I never really connected it to Covid until I read your 30 November post. To this day, I eat very small meals, taking very small bites for fear of coughing/vomiting – oh well, it meant I’ve lost 20 pounds I really didn’t need, but where that had come from was a mystery until your post. Again, I hope you’re better soon!
And TBone, the same get better wishes to you, too! Agree w/ Elizabelle: it’s good to have a doctor you can trust!
New Deal democrat
The frankly amazing late autumn lull in COVID continued through the week of November 23, with both Biobot and the CDC continuing to show near record lows of COVID particles in wastewater. The CDC’s result ticked up slightly from 1.73 to 1.76 parts per mL. By contrast, one year ago the level was 5.94. The absolute low was 1.14 in late spring 2023. At last winter’s peak it was 12.63.
If the Holiday wave results in a 2.1* increase as did last year’s, that would forecast a peak of about 3.70 per mL this January. If there is an arithmetic increase of 6.70 per mL, that would take us to 7.50 per mL. Either way, as an initial guess this suggests that this winter will peak at a level no higher than 2/3’s of last winter, and possibly much lower.
The story is the same for deaths. As of the last full week of reporting, November 2, there were 560 deaths. The preliminary number for the week of November 23 was 161 deaths, suggesting a final number between 320-400 deaths. This compares with the lowest on record of 283 deaths during the week of June 8. The wastewater data suggests that deaths will make a low somewhere in the 300+ level in about 4 weeks.
Last winter’s Holiday peak was 2,580 deaths in the 2nd week of January. Based on the likely trend in wastewater particles, an early guess is that this year we will see a peak of somewhere in the range of 1,250 to 1,500 in January.
For the last 52 weeks, the total death count is 56,400, the lowest ever. If we are lucky, we could come out of this winter with a death count no worse than an ordinarily bad flu season.
The next variant update will be on Friday. So far there is no sign of any new scare-iant.
Splitting Image
@p.a:
Their memories are selective. The crisis that led to the lockdowns is completely forgotten. But the fact that liberals were able to get their way and impose their will on them is an insult that they will remember to their dying days.
Baud
@Splitting Image:
Correctamundo.
JoyceH
I’m still in the midst of my first case of Covid and this follow-on pneumonia sounds alarming. Does anyone know, does it help to have the pneumonia vaccine?
Chris T.
Whoa, I’ve been front-paged!
Anyway, I got sent home shortly after that with some fairly high power broad spectrum antibiotics (doxycycline and cefdinir) plus a somewhat wacky cough-easing drug called “Tessalon Perles” (funny spelling, generic name benzonatate; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzonatate). These have to be taken every 12 hours, on a mostly-empty stomach. I have about two days of this left. Those plus the IV antibiotics that I got in my short hospital stay seem to be doing the trick.
Basically, if/when you get post-COVID pneumonia—and it’s more common in “over 65” and/or “diabetic” (I meet one of those two, getting close to meeting both)—they try to knock out whatever has caused it. It’s hard to find the specific bacterial source: one of the rotating doctors (you get a different one each morning) was a bit chatty and mentioned that sputum samples tend to come from too high up. In my case the pneumonia was specifically in the lowest right lung lobe. (Aside: unless you’re left/right reversed internally, you have just two lobes in the left lung, leaving more room for the heart, and three in the right lung. The pneumonia doesn’t show on a simple X ray but does show something with a CT scan with contrast dye.)
Meanwhile your lungs fill up with goop (sticky frothy mucus, similar to what cystic fibrosis sufferers endure). The bronchi get all irritated, hence the cough. The irritation lasts a lot longer than the infection.
These “perles” can cause sleepiness so I’m not supposed to drive or operate heavy machinery. It’s also important not to let a pet or child eat them. (Again, see the Wikipedia link.) I’ll see if I can get off them when I finish up the antibiotics (which also have certain annoying side effects—not surprisingly, since they kill off all your good gut bacteria along with everything else).
WereBear
@TBone: People are given the wrong advice about anti-imflammatory diets, because it’s based on advertising. Figuring that out has helped me very much with the autoimmune on the brink of killing me. But two years in, SO much improved, and stellar blood test numbers that made my Dr create charts for me, he was so impressed. My inflammatory markers at their lowest point EVER.
It was the Sally K. Norton plan. And it feels wrong not to share when it worked so well for me. I’m not where I should be, but I hope I can be. She has a book but everything you need to know is on the website. I recommend the book if one is really sick, it’s invaluable. Based on her own research to get back her health.
Ms. Norton has a Master’s in Public Health from Cornell and used to write grants for science, so this is solid stuff… that has been forgotten.
Britain used to have deaths every year, when the rhubarb came out and people couldn’t stay away and ate too much at once. Ironically, the plants highest in antioxidants… can also be the highest in other toxins.
I know, it’s not what we are told. But I found mega-studies that emphasized that with new techniques based on bio-available nutrients, our picture of food changes. Like how real food delivers what supplements cannot, because of the Food Matrix. And those antioxidants are only a theory… with no scientific support.
We take it as health advice. But it’s marketing to sell UPF “plant-based food” and possibly dangerous supplements. New science says “you can’t outrun a bad diet” and I am living proof.
I wouldn’t feel right not mentioning it. And here’s some information from Britain’s Health Service, because food corporations have flooded the academic zone with paid-for bad science in the US.
It wasn’t the saturated fats. The sugar industry took over the science and so the famous Seven Countries study that started us on seed oils… should have had 22 countries. And it wouldn’t have been pushed on us by the food corporations. Who make tons of money from one of the most inflammatory substances we can eat.
The Britons did a massive food study with decades of their population database, which they can easily do because they take care of everyone in the nation.
And plant-based diets don’t come off well in this massive study. Vegans have the worst nutrient profile, followed by vegetarians. It’s omnivores that lead the healthy pack.
Baud
@WereBear:
I’m happy they solved that problem.
Fair Economist
@TBone: Wow. Hope your doctors can get a better handle on what’s going on and I wish you a speedy recovery.
WereBear
@JoyceH: That can prevent opportunistic infections from common sources. We get the Respiratory something one every year for Partner.
WereBear
@Splitting Image:
But the fact that liberals were able to get their way and impose their will on them is an insult that they will remember to their dying days.
And now they get COVID over and over, but it’s not flu and it’s not a cold. It’s even more dangerous and hits people in poor health the hardest.
Over time, this will take care of “the problem.” If we don’t. Because these are very slow learners.
David_C
@TBone: All I can say is Yikes! My PhD is in toxicology/immunology and the work I’m doing now is very much in the inflammatory response to radiation realm. The immune system is complicated and wild – everything is done to maintain a balance and to react to pathogens and trauma and to repair the damage.
This is a very interesting and timely series of links.
WereBear
@Baud: Rhubarb related deaths don’t come up much anymore, that’s true.
But even now, science didn’t warn the movie star in Australia, hospitalized from the spinach smoothies his vegan girlfriend pressed on him… in the name of health.
Turns out, there’s a reason my grandma boiled vegetables to death. And threw out the water. All those lively antioxidants can also act as toxins.
Plants communicate with each other and put up defenses. We know that now.
WereBear
@Suzanne:
We think we were tested during lockdown? They went insane pretty quick, no inner resources.
Chris T.
Ugh, I posted a comment and FYWP seems to have eated it. Let’s see if I can re-create it.
I got out and sent home shortly after I sent in that original note. They gave me IV antibiotics and a lot of other stuff while I was there, and I had a different doctor stop by each morning. One of them was chattier than others; he mentioned that they usually can’t figure out which specific bacteria caused the specific infection, because the stuff they’d have to culture sits too far down into the lungs. Sputum samples (what people cough up) tend to come from too high up and are just chock full of everything.
They sent me home with two broad-spectrum antibiotics, doxycycline and cefdinir, plus a cough suppressant known by the somewhat wacky name of Tessalon Perles (weird spelling and all). The “perles” are sodium benzonatate: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzonatate for details. They have to be kept from pets and children because taking them wrong can be fatal. But they do a pretty good job of suppressing cough. I have about two days of antibiotics left, and at least another week of the perles left, but I’m going to try to get off them ASAP, as they have some hefty side effects. These all have to be taken every 12 hours, and on a mostly-empty stomach, so they’re annoying in that way.
(The antibiotics also have hefty side effects, since they wipe out your gut flora. It’s a good idea to have live-culture yogurt, kefir, maybe sauerkraut, etc., afterwards.)
This post-COVID pneumonia is more common in old (65+) people, diabetics, and (as noted above) men.
Chris T.
@JoyceH:
No, the vaccine is for viral pneumonia and “post-COVID pneumonia” is an attack by your own body’s bacterial colonies.
Chris T.
OK, this is weird: two attempts to post as a non-reply both got eated. A reply worked. I give up.
WereBear
@TBone: Awww, poor guy. My 15 year old is fading. His appetite goes up and down. Cat help:
Appetite Recovery After Stress
TBone
@WereBear: thank you for sharing that important information with me – I am an omnivore and haven’t been able to trace the inflammatory worsening episodes to any specific foods so far, but an ideal thing would be to reduce my overall intake of pro-inflammatory items and increase my intake of anti-inflammatory items! I appreciate your help very much and will spend some time today looking into what you have generously given. Am very grateful!
Jeffg166
I stayed overnight in the hospital after my first bladder cancer operation in May. The wall in front of the bed had several poster saying to brush your teeth to help prevent pneumonia.
I had my third bladder cancer operation in November. I was given a sheet of instructions. Once again brushing my teeth before the operation was listed to prevent pneumonia.
TBone
@WereBear: your input and generosity are deeply appreciated! It is SO hard when our beloveds who cannot speak are going through illness and aging, my heart reaches out to you with hope for the most peaceful outcome possible. Gentle are my thoughts for you and yours.
Central Planning
@TBone: Sounds like he needs some Gas-X
TBone
@Jeffg166: anti-bacterial measure
narya
I’m getting ready to spend the day among my fellow humans–jury duty. Yes, I am wearing a mask, on public transportation and in every indoor location today. I got the Novavax shot almost two weeks ago, so my immunity should be boosted nicely, but still masking up. The point about how rich people are determined to NEVER BE CONSTRAINED is exactly right; I’ve been musing about this a lot lately.
AL, thank you for this continuing series! And TBone and Chris, I hope you feel better right fking NOW, damnit!
WereBear
@TBone: Good timing: just got back from the doctor, who approved my plan, tested my blood every six months, and kept waving his arms as he showed me all the improvements over this time period.
Now, I thought, I can tell others. I have good data :)
He read the book and was impressed. So I might be an anonymous lecture subject in the future!
Jeffg166
@WereBear:
Everything I eat is on the high oxalate food list. At 76 I don’t think I will worry very much about it.
Central Planning
The second summer after the pandemic started (when we could be outside around people) someone at my company coordinated a give-back day helping build an accessible/equitable playground. I didn’t realize until being around people (family doesn’t count) was something I missed and deeply needed. It happened so slowly it wasn’t even noticeable, especially since I had video meetings ALL THE TIME.
I’m still shocked by how unaware I was about that. I imagine many people are still fucked yo by the isolation and don’t even realize it.
p.a.
Yep.
SATSQ: We freaking evolved as omnivores ferchristsake. One-simple-trick-ism is rampant. The sad issue is that the least processed, most healthfully raised foods, animal, vegetable, mineral, are generally the most costly.
Food Inc. runs the US. I live near a nice all-natural beef farm. $32 for a 1.5lb TBone. Special occasions only. I’m onto grass fed gnd beef & gnd bison from the local megamart for much protein intake. A good fishmonger near me, what I catch, and canned sardines, mackerel, tuna. Issues with those of course.
We’re lucky here in the US (until Jan at least) that “certified organic” does have some benefit, it’s not just a label. Although it could of course be much better…
WereBear
The FAFO Youtubers are bringing me joy right now.
It has made me realize these people have to suffer to learn anything.
So it HAD to come to this. It is not our fault.
Elizabelle
@WereBear: Do share some of these douches. They deserve the point and laugh treatment.
BellyCat
@TBone: OMG. Sounds terrible! Sending healing thoughts your way!
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: soul medicine is important. You never fail to make me laugh and remember Anne Lamott: “laughter is carbonated holiness.”
I want to hug everyone here for listening to my rants and helping me to feel better in my soul. This site has helped fight social isolation in a major way!
I hope Chris T is recovering and that everyone finds peace and joy and better health
and another huge hug and thank you to AL!
New Deal democrat
@Splitting Image:
Per Tim Alberta, the Christian nationalists were outraged that lockdowns included bans on indoor church services, certain that this was the opening salvo in a campaign to outlaw the churches themselves.
All of the lessons of public health from the past 200+ years are going to have to be re-learned the hard way in the US. Free-riding works . . . Until it doesn’t.
WereBear
@Jeffg166: Not recruiting anyone to anything.
Someone had a problem very close to mine :)
Chris T.
Since FYWP keeps eating my posts, let’s try a short one: I seem to be fine, I’m on some major antibiotics for a few more days.
Okay, that went through! Let’s try editing it to add info.
I got sent home pretty soon after my original note. The hospital gave me IV and oral antibiotics, did a CT scan with contrast to find the actual pneumonia (lower right lung lobe), and sent me home once my breathing had improved. I had the effrontery to get sufficiently sick (O2 saturation dropping below 90!) on Thanksgiving Day, when even all the urgent care centers are closed, so I had to go to the ER to get the pneumonia diagnosed.
I’m still on some major oral antibiotics, for about another two days: doxycycline and cefdinir. For the cough, they gave me something called Tessalon Perles (funky spelling and all, generic name benzonatate). All of these have to be taken on an empty stomach and all have some un-fun side effects, so while I have extra “perles” I’m going to try to get off them once I’m off the antibiotics.
More info on the perles here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzonatate. They need to be kept away from pets and children. They work pretty well as a cough suppressant, but yikes.
As for the pneumonia: note that this is bacterial, and it’s just from whatever you already carry around safely in your upper airway (nose and throat). The one relatively chatty morning doctor I had mentioned that they usually can’t culture the specific bacterial cause of the pneumonia. Mine was in the lower right lung lobe, visible on CT scan with contrast, but not on plain X ray.
TBone
@Chris T.: never give up, please please please, without your input a lot of us would not know about the pneumonia danger. We need you! Am grateful that you are here and still able to persevere!
WereBear
@Elizabelle: I like this one because it includes — in the middle — a list of corporations we can support and punish.
Trump’s Policies Affecting Everything
As always, do the best each of us can. I’m an indie author, so I have to partner with the big wigs, but I also work through lively startups, like Smashwords, who offer alternate reviewing outlets.
And I’m not going to be buying as much stuff, am I? I can’t, I had to early retire for disability. (Same pay, much less stress and time.)
I warned during the first W admin that the corporations don’t see why they have to supply anything. It’s easier just to make us give them money.
Suzanne
@New Deal democrat:
I saw a lot of this point in the comments at Dreher’s blog. They were aghast that liquor stores were open but churches weren’t.
I know some churches moved to outdoor services. And no one had a problem with that. But you can’t counter emotion and grievance with facts and logic!
lowtechcyclist
Chris T.:
All sorts of weird shit lives in my head, but I gotta admit the bacterial colonies there slipped beneath my notice until now. Hope you get better soon!
@TBone:
Yeesh! Having to put ointment on the inside of my mouth would give me a serious case of the willies. Glad you’ve got a good doc who takes you seriously, and hope this inflammation passes soon!
TBone
@David_C: I am glad to know that serious smart people are at work on this. Very grateful to hear from you! I had to reassure the vet yesterday by saying “WE BELIEVE IN SCIENCE” when she haltingly approached the subject of vaccines for our cat. She must encounter the anti vaxx gawd botherers every freakin’ day here in Pennsyltucky.
WereBear
@TBone: Not that they take their cat to the vet… dogs get better attention, but still…
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: it’s not prescribed for interior use in any way! It goes only on my lips but of course some of it gets into mouth and it tastes like hell. BLECH.
TBone
@WereBear: the reason we even have Josey Wales of the Nicked Ear is because he was abandoned by my neighbors when they got a dog that eats cats. I would like to send them the vet bill (it was huge). I fantasize about reporting their abuse but the retaliation would not be worth it. I have to live here. The “lady” of the house walks said vicious dog on our property line, the closest she can get to our house, every damn day. She only started picking up the feces after I sent a text threatening to report to the municipal authorities, the stench was so bad.
Suzanne
@WereBear:
Right?! Like, did it never occur to them to read books, play games, meditate, learn a new skill, repaint a room, cook?
I will freely admit, though, that I started having a hard time once it was too cold to exercise outdoors. In early 2021, I had to go somewhere, and I was staying in a hotel with a gym. I wasn’t sure if I would feel comfortable using it, but there was no one in it, so I did it. That was the first time I tried a Peloton bike. I was talking to Mr. Suzanne later, and I commented that I had enjoyed it ludicrously. So he signed us up for one and it was delivered months later. Stupidly expensive and worth every penny.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: my manners kicked in belatedly. Thank you is what I should have said!
Geo Wilcox
I don’t know why doctors are shocked by the lack of severity in the H5H1 infections. That’s exactly the way the 1918 flu started, although a different avian flu variant H1N1. The first round of infections were mild but oh boy, the second, third, fourth, etc. were BAD as we know.
WereBear
@TBone: Yeah, I had a literally insane-from-hate woman live across the street from me. Don’t know how many of the kids made it into sanity, one committed suicide.
None of us went to the funeral. “So long as she’s gone,” was the consensus.
Steve LaBonne
@Suzanne: UU churches were Zoom only for a long time. We care about saving lives.
lowtechcyclist
@New Deal democrat:
Of course. But somehow nobody remembered to shut down CBN or Trinity Broadcasting Network, or the hundreds (thousands?) of ‘Christian’ radio stations around the country. Gotta say, every time we libruls are coming for their churches, we sure do a lousy job of it.
The thing that I really can’t help but say something about is more fundamental to me: speaking as someone who has experienced something of this, if all this being ‘born again’ and ‘knowing the Lord’ is real for them, then they of all people should have the spiritual wherewithal to deal with some inconvenience like that in order to protect their fellow citizens from a deadly threat. Not to mention, time spent intentionally in the Lord’s presence should pull them back from paranoia and hysteria of this sort.
But that never seems to be how it works for them. So to me, their alleged faith is nothing more than another tribal marker.
Kayla Rudbek
@Central Planning: Terry Pratchett had something about this in Hogfather, about how the assassin Edward D’Eath forgot how to be human because he didn’t have people to remind him how
Ohio Mom
@TBone: Have you been to a Rheumatologist? They are experts on autoimmune conditions, which you may have developed. My rheumatologist is my smartest doctor.
I will warn you in advance though, no one orders more blood draws than a Rheumatologist.
TBone
@WereBear: JFC I’m sorry you (and anyone) has to know what this is like. I don’t know how anyone can live with a heart made of hatred and grievance, goddamn it.
TBone
@Ohio Mom: when fighting Lyme years back, a rheumatologist saved my life. When another tick bite caused a full body rash after we’d moved away from civilization and said rheumatologist, I went to the head lady in charge of rheumatology for our local health system. She said, and I quote, “You are too sick for me to help you.” I was sent to another town where a larger health system exisis, where I was diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome. That larger health system has since swallowed our smaller, local health system.
I have given much blood over the years! Thank you for your suggestion, as that first rheumatologist literally did save my life.
WereBear
@Suzanne: I’d rather spend for good health than bad, too.
WereBear
In the south, fundy Protestantism IS the culture, too. Jobs, dates, career and acceptance, all hinge on Being The Same.
It’s pretty darn culty.
MazeDancer
@TBone: Many sympathies to you for having to deal with mouth stuff.
And if you can find a GP doc that is close enough to reach, will give you an appointment, and “believes” in chronic conditions, count your blessings.
There is no such thing in Upstate NY. Appointments are not available. Not in Western CT or MA, either.
WereBear
@Ohio Mom: Using this logic, I took my autoimmune to a rheumatologist, and he didn’t know why I would.
Also, don’t use Google’s search engine for health advice. Get anything else.
They have been BOUGHT. I get wildly different results from them with anything else.
satby
@Chris T.: correction: the pneumonia vaccine protects against pneumococcal bacteria. It not only protects against bacterial pneumonia, but reduces risks of septicemia caused by the same bacteria. Right now there aren’t vaccines for pneumonia caused by viruses specifically as most pneumonia, like yours, is a secondary infection. The RSV and Covid vaccines can help protect against that too. Pro tip: get ALL the vaccines!
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: I have had a similar thought.
One of the themes of their politics I have observed becoming more salient in recent years, as religious adherence is eroding and the “nones” are rising, is this deep desire to be normative. They express a lot of concern about being a minority in a fallen world, complaints about cultural shift, all that framing about “Negative World“, etc.
If you’re not familiar with the Negative World stuff, this is from the piece by Aaron Renn in First Things:
But, if you’re a good Christian…. who cares? Why would you care if “elite domains of society” accept you? That sounds a bit like pride and idolatry to me, but what do I know.
Christianity should be countercultural. If you have the strength of genuine faith, then embrace that. But, of course, they don’t have genuine strength of faith. It’s a tribal marker, just as you said, and it’s all about social dominance.
TBone
@MazeDancer: so sorry, soooo sorry. A lot of doctors simply will not accept any of us “kooks.” And if they do, they are always in it for money. I traveled back home to my former Lyme doc at Chester County Hospital Tick Borne Disease Center (he helped me through two Herxheimer-induced heart attacks and did a brain scan to get enough evidence that I did indeed have neuro Lyme). He told me to NOT tell any doctors where I live now about having Lyme because they would all write me off as a kook/faker. How right he was…
WereBear
@Suzanne: It’s the fundy Christianity. I know lots of sane Christians. They aren’t fundy.
The Southern Baptists I knew, already too rigid but slowly adapting, have degenerated into what they used to scornfully call snake handlers.
WereBear
@TBone: Herxheimer-induced… oh yeah, those are crushing loads of toxins Partner got when we did the antibiotic therapy for his CFS/ME.
Thankfully there was a forum where people shared their experiences.
“What about the one about aliens taking over your brain?”
Pause.
“It’s in the list. Relax.”
Steve LaBonne
@Suzanne: Christianity started as a countercultural movement- and then the bishops sold out to Constantine. This pattern has been repeated many times over the millenia.
Chris T.
@satby: Correction happily accepted.
I’ll note that I did in fact get the RSV shot (last year I think, definitely many months ago anyway). Also COVID-19 and flu updates in September…
Central Planning
@Kayla Rudbek: I haven’t read that, but it sounds just like the frog in a pot of water parable. It’s so slow you don’t notice until it’s too late.
The feeling I got being around people was palpable.
MazeDancer
@TBone:
Chronic Lyme is usually the most accepted chronic condition in the NE. “Most” being a very low bar.
But it is so prevalent, docs have to come around, because so many family members, if not themselves, become afflicted.
As we all know, the reason Chronic Lyme is not a universally recognized condition is because insurance companies in the NE couldn’t afford the coverage.
Uncle Cosmo
Didn’t something similar happen with the “Spanish” flu pandemic? Once it burned itself out it seems to have left little to no trace in the cultural history of the Twenties. Can anyone recall any significant work of art (literature, music, painting, sculpture, film) from that period that even makes passing reference to the fact that more people died from the flu in 1917-22 than in all the battles of the Great War? I can’t. Everyone seems to have breathed a sigh of relief and figured the best way to keep it from coming back was to pretend it had never happened at all.
New Deal democrat
@Suzanne:
This is also one of the starting points of Tim Alberta’s critique. That is, if the US is G*D’s Chosen society, and a majority is repudiating G*D’s morality, then it is acceptable, even *necessary*, to fight with no holds barred up to and including overthrowing the Constitutional order, in order to save G*D’s plan.
There is no reasoning with that train of thought.
La Nonna
This week we took our new and improved covid booster, it had been 7 months since our last, just had to wait an extra week after having taken the elder age influenza vaccine. RSV and pneumonia vax already onboard, all cost free, grazie Italian sistema sanitaria. Singing 3 big holiday concerts in the next 4 weeks, better safe than sorry, Italian version of personal space stands pretty close.
lowtechcyclist
@WereBear:
And then when they get a job at their congressperson’s office in DC, they get all upset when librul wimmin won’t date them. :D
wenchacha
@Chris T.: I got an RX for those “perles” once, when I had a persistent cough but had to head across the state to see our son swim in a high school state meet.
Instructions on the bottle were vague. We were headed out the door, and I popped a perle and used it as a cough drop! Whoa! A few miles down the road, I realized my entire mouth was numb! I made a quick call to my Dr. She told me I would be okay, but to just swallow the pill from now on.
I prefer codeine for a cough.
wenchacha
@Geo Wilcox: IIRC, earlier outbreaks of H5N1 have been fatal in small communities, mostly in Asia? Not sure how much has changed in the makeup of the virus since the Dubya years, and I also don’t know how far it got into the mammalian population then.
I do know there was a very high fatality rate, and public health people were concerned about all the things that could go wrong if it got here. Catastrophe was predicted, and I don’t think they calculated for all the disinformation and conspiracy garbage that we saw during COVID. Maybe different if every town across the USA had the same experience as NYC.
Uncle Cosmo
@wenchacha: Reminds me for some reason of the story where the US obtained a copy of the UK’s bird catapult they used to assess windshields for resistance to bird strikes. The first time they tried it the fowl shattered the glass and crashed through to slam into the rear bulkhead. In panic the Yanks asked the Brits if they’d done anything wrong. The reply?
wenchacha
@Uncle Cosmo: hahahaha!
Nora
@Uncle Cosmo:
For the most part, you’re right about the Great Influenza, but there is Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider.
Jacel
Seeing a graph of the number of infected cattle herds by state brings a question to mind… How large are the herds? I searched on “what is the size of a cow herd?” and it appears the average is 50 cows and calves, but it can be over 1000 animals in a herd. That’s quite a spread! The number of reported infected herds is overwhelmingly in California (481). There’s reportedly 1,700,000 dairy cattle in California. If the reported herds match the average size, that’s 24,000 cattle involved. But if the problem is with massive dairy operations, the total cattle exposed to the disease is much larger. And the smaller numbers of herds in other states might reflect bigger problems if the affected herds are at the large end of the scale.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Exactly! If you believe you’ve got the living presence of the Lord of the whole freakin’ Universe in your heart (which you’ve probably gathered by now, that’s exactly what I believe), then why the fuck should it matter what TPTB think of you? You’ve got something far better than their approval.
This. And the thing is, in how many ways did Jesus say that dominance wasn’t the way? How many ways did Paul say it? In the book of Acts, how completely unnecessary was such dominance for the apostles? Jesus said “be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world,” so wtf are they thinking, that they need to do it all over again? Did Jesus botch it, or what? (Cf. Oolon Colluphid, Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes. ;-)
lowtechcyclist
@New Deal democrat:
“You know that in the world, rulers lord it over their subjects, and their great men make them feel the weight of authority; but it shall not be so with you.” – Jesus, Matt. 20:25
I have no idea what these bozos see when they open up their Bibles, but it damn sure isn’t the same stuff I see.
Bill Arnold
@WereBear:
Re Rhubarb: it was one of the few sources of vitamin C available in the UK before synthetic vitamin C was available. Scurvy is was common in the past.
steverinoCT
Got my latest Moderna Covid-19 booster last night. Already got the flu shot a few weeks ago. I talked my wife into getting both at once: she gets sore arms and feels crappy; may as well get it over with at once. As usual, she is resting on the couch, while I whistle through with no issues. It may be that her immune system is more aggressive than mine– I have the American Fat Boy syndrome with hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol, Type II diabetes, sleep apnea, and now afib (in a mild way).