Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Man that's dumb. You can only actually be considered a reinfection if you were officially diagnosed in the first place. Otherwise you got sick with something that might have been covid and then got sick again (or had asymptomatic cases one or both times). There is no way to know for sure unless both cases were officially diagnosed. Your argument actually works against your claim that NI is superior to the vaccine. If there are an additional 100 million people who had covid, then any reinfection those people get isn't going to be counted as a reinfection.

Only one of these 4 scenarios counts as an official reinfection:

Got covid twice but was only diagnosed the first time.
Got covid twice but was only diagnosed the second time.
Got covid twice but wasn't diagnosed either time.
Got covid twice and was diagnosed both times.

That is why the actual percentage of reinfections is likely well higher than the official number you'd see in studies on the topic.

 

Army bars vaccine refusers from promotions, reenlistment as deadline approaches - CNNPolitics

(CNN)With less than one month until the Army's deadline to vaccinate its active-duty force, the service will begin barring soldiers who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 without an exemption from reenlistment, promotions, and other "favorable personnel actions."

In a memo dated November 16, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said soldiers who refuse the vaccine would be "flagged," preventing them from "reenlistment, reassignment, promotion, appearance before a semi-centralized promotion board, issuance of awards and decorations" and more.

The Navy and the Marine Corps issued similar guidance last month, paving the way for the discharge of service members who refuse to be vaccinated.

 

After reading that I feel just like I did watching the debate scene in Billy Madison.

 

Problem is dangole is correct.

 

Being in shape and being healthy are 2 different things. Exercise is critical but the most important factor in being healthy Long term is to eat healthfully. Eat plants. Stay away from meat and dairy and oils and fats empty of nutrition.

 

See post 30385. The answer to obesity is food choices. Eat a whole food plant based diet with no oil or little oil. And you can eat a lot of food and still be thin. Will keep your cholesterol down too and inhibits the development of cancer

 

Yeah, sorry if I don’t take the thoughts of someone who was wrong on lockdowns, school closures and masks. Oops.

 

Wait a sec hoss. For quite some time you've pooh poohed the sensitivity of PCR tests, which would in effect mean that you believe many people who tested *positive* for covid likely didn't truly have it, but were more at simply "exposed."

If I'm reading you right, now you're trying to argue that reported numbers are about 1/3rd of what you're alleging the true number to be?

See the problem?

 

Now you're just making shit up.

 

Cases, Data, and Surveillance

CDC estimates 150 million infections from inception to date. For once gators95 is right and I'm glad he's finally come around to CDC data.

I don't know how any of this has anything to do with natural immunity. While it is an interesting subject, it's applicability and usefulness is limited.

 

I think you are mostly right here, but I would have no used the term "not meaningful". While infections definitely get through in a material way after 5 months, the protection against infection, even if 50%, is meaningful.

But I think you are right vaccines are never going to completely squash this virus. Nor will natural immunity. It incubates too quickly and spreads so easily. Nonetheless vaccines will make the situation far more manageable. Eventually natural immunity will too, but at a far higher cost.

 

No. Don’t see the problem. Most people who get Covid have little to no symptoms. But the PCR threshold are way too sensitive to be taken seriously. That’s a different problem. Still doesn’t mean a lot of people in our country haven’t had Covid that wasn’t diagnosed. I have no idea if I’ve had Covid or not. Never had a test. Doesn’t mean I didn’t have it.

 

Dangole is right about reinfections not being counted among the 100m more who are estimated to have had covid since there is no documentation about those infections in the first place.

 

not at all. That poster and many many others pushed all of those things and wouldn’t admit they were wrong. Don’t remember if you were one of the fear mongers or not.

 

Not a different problem. It goes to how you've suddenly flipped positions in accepting the 150m estimate.

The sensitivity *problem* of the PCR test is exactly about overcounting people as covid infected when they might have barely been at all--not necessarily true false positives but basically not truly infected either, thus perhaps not triggering any immune response. This contributes to problems with defining covid infection rates accurately, and understanding NI protections and reinfection rates.

 

I have no idea either way on this. I'm not sure why it matters.

 

It matters in regard to whether we're undercounting reinfections, thus possibly making NI numbers look better than they actually are.
I was just pointing out that dangole's reasoning is sound toward that end, though much of this is still unsettled.

 

I'd question how many are truly *on the fence* at this late date given the massive effort at mis & disinforming people who might have been on the fence early on but which their opposition has ossified.

Look at it like this, those who had covid and have immunity would still have their immune system improve, offering more protective benefits for that individual and the group, especially when we don't know the long-term durability of natural immunity. Maybe at some point in the future, recurring boosters might not be needed if one was already infected, but right now, I don't see how we're even close to that point yet.

We don't have *control* of this pandemic yet, therefore vaccinating toward herd immunity--to include formerly infected--makes logical sense, in the same way that having had the flu, people should still get seasonal flu shots. The difference, however, is that we're still experiencing pandemic spread, not seasonal and not yet manageable. The pandemic should have been a wake up call, but hasn't for too many, imo.

 

I've actually read and heard several times that between the two exercise is probably the most important.

 

Both are important. Diet more. I don’t care how far or fast you can run of your diet is cheeseburgers and pizza. @NavyGator93 is all over this one. What I post is from personal experience. Over 65 with a family history of early deaths from cardiovascular disease. I eat plant based, Whole Foods, almost no oil, and my total cholesterol is 107.