Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[garbon]

Yep just such a mess.

[Gaijin de Moscu]

I am sure with the numbers of people getting it, there have been serious side effects in some cases. e.g. I think the AZ clotting thing happens on average every 250,000 cases - that's super rare but still means a fair number of people. Often I think though it is the case of paying more attention to existing health issues and finally having them checked out due to being worried about the vaccine they received.

This makes sense to me. I had pretty serious side effects after Moderna, went to medical emergency twice. 9 months on, still suffering.

But it could be the case of chronic accumulated stress finally catching up with me. The doctors have no idea... so who knows.

[Tamas]

I am sure with the numbers of people getting it, there have been serious side effects in some cases. e.g. I think the AZ clotting thing happens on average every 250,000 cases - that's super rare but still means a fair number of people. Often I think though it is the case of paying more attention to existing health issues and finally having them checked out due to being worried about the vaccine they received.

This makes sense to me. I had pretty serious side effects after Moderna, went to medical emergency twice. 9 months on, still suffering.

But it could be the case of chronic accumulated stress finally catching up with me. The doctors have no idea... so who knows.

Yeah in my father's case, he noticed becoming weaker pre-pandemic but attributed it to age. It kept slowly getting worse though. About  two months after his second Pfizer shot though, it was starting to become serious - he could barely walk up the stairs without feeling exhausted, despite being in pretty good physical shape for his age. Also by this time he was having trouble to sleep as he got severe bouts of coughing whenever he was laying down.

Still I am not sure he would had gone to the doctor if it wasn't for being half-convinced Pfizer did something to his heart. It turned out to be arrhythmia which has been fixed for him since. To me it seems clear he had the condition prior to the vaccine shots. i guess we will never know if fighting the vaccine was a level of stress that escalated the arrhythmia situation or it would have gone worse on its own at the same pace regardless.

It is further complicated by my dad apparently losing his sense of smell for a couple of weeks, just about before the heart and lung things became really bad. It took a while for him to realise that was happening and even longer to tell anyone. So, for all we know his condition got worse at the time because he caught the actual virus, luckily almost perfectly timed after his second shot.

[Sheilbh]

It is further complicated by my dad apparently losing his sense of smell for a couple of weeks, just about before the heart and lung things became really bad. It took a while for him to realise that was happening and even longer to tell anyone. So, for all we know his condition got worse at the time because he caught the actual virus, luckily almost perfectly timed after his second shot.

Yeah that could be it. That's also a factor with the AZ - the blood clotting is very rare (similarly the myocarditis after Pfizer in young men), but in both cases it's far more common that those conditions are complications from getting covid (though still quite rare).

My dad recovered fully but he got onto an experimental trial someone told my mum about. Basically if you're over 50 and get covid then you can sign up for some NHS trial (I think the drug's already been approved elsewhere), not sure how much of an impact it had because it sounds like he didn't have symptoms at any point - or as my mum put it "they say a new cough and he just had the same old cough"

My mum, despite the house locking down and them both self-isolating, had one LFT with a very faint positive line - which I told her meant she had it. She then had to two inconclusive PCR tests and is now coming up negative. So it's not clear if she got it at all, I think she probably did just asymptomatically and very lightly.

[Iormlund]

Still I am not sure he would had gone to the doctor if it wasn't for being half-convinced Pfizer did something to his heart. It turned out to be arrhythmia which has been fixed for him since. To me it seems clear he had the condition prior to the vaccine shots. i guess we will never know if fighting the vaccine was a level of stress that escalated the arrhythmia situation or it would have gone worse on its own at the same pace regardless.

Studies have shown that it is extremely rare for vaccines to cause serious arrhythmias. The highest heart-related side effect is miocarditis in young males at 8-15 cases per million in those jabbed with Moderna (per Spanish and UK studies of their vaccinated populations). Same with Pfizer, but to a lesser degree (I think it was around 5 cases per million).

However, about 0.2-0.3% of patients reported serious arrhythmia events 4 weeks after testing positive according to the same UK study (which is a very significant number). And IIRC the most common symptom reported during the Teddy Roosevelt breakout early in the pandemic was palpitations (which is somewhat ambiguous and can be also triggered by stress).

[Sheilbh]

A sign of the weirdness of the situation with omicron in the UK - cases are at record highs, admissions are starting to climb. But the number of patients on ventilation is at the lowest level since mid-October (so pre-omicron) and apparently several NHS Trusts are having to re-deploy teams from ICU to non-acute wards. Basically a reverse of all previous waves.

Still looks like it might have peaked in London which got it first (and the ONS survey data says it has peaked in London). Hopefully that'll be mirrored elsewhere in the country soon.

[Gaijin de Moscu]

Still I am not sure he would had gone to the doctor if it wasn't for being half-convinced Pfizer did something to his heart. It turned out to be arrhythmia which has been fixed for him since. To me it seems clear he had the condition prior to the vaccine shots. i guess we will never know if fighting the vaccine was a level of stress that escalated the arrhythmia situation or it would have gone worse on its own at the same pace regardless.

Studies have shown that it is extremely rare for vaccines to cause serious arrhythmias. The highest heart-related side effect is miocarditis in young males at 8-15 cases per million in those jabbed with Moderna (per Spanish and UK studies of their vaccinated populations). Same with Pfizer, but to a lesser degree (I think it was around 5 cases per million).

However, about 0.2-0.3% of patients reported serious arrhythmia events 4 weeks after testing positive according to the same UK study (which is a very significant number). And IIRC the most common symptom reported during the Teddy Roosevelt breakout early in the pandemic was palpitations (which is somewhat ambiguous and can be also triggered by stress).

I'm starting to suspect that at least some "heart issues" people are reporting after the vaccines are stress-related or psychological.

I was absolutely convinced Moderna has messed up my heart. I feel the pain, the irregular heartbeat, I wake up at night feeling it's about to stop.

And yet, after thorough checks at three different Swiss cardiology clinics over the past 6 months, all I'm getting is that my heart is in "impeccable" condition. Really not sure what's going on.

[Iormlund]

I started having issues in Spring 2020. Whether the underlying cause is stress or a Covid infection early on in the pandemic I do not know (I had all the correct symptoms for four weeks in Feb 2020 but didn't qualify for testing as I had not traveled to China).

I would have irregular heartbeats as soon as I was not at complete rest (sitting down or in bed). Not life-threatening, but really spooky. I needed to sleep well for a few weeks before it went away.

It seems triggered by lack of sleep, as it has happened another two times since, and always when I go back to work after vacation/holidays. I tend to drift to being awake at night and sleep in during the morning when I don't work, so the transition back to work usually means less sleep for a few days. It wasn't much of a problem before the pandemic, but now I get this fucking thing. Yay.

[DGuller]

I'm starting to suspect that at least some "heart issues" people are reporting after the vaccines are stress-related or psychological.

I was absolutely convinced Moderna has messed up my heart. I feel the pain, the irregular heartbeat, I wake up at night feeling it's about to stop.

And yet, after thorough checks at three different Swiss cardiology clinics over the past 6 months, all I'm getting is that my heart is in "impeccable" condition. Really not sure what's going on.

Panic attacks and heart attacks can be very hard to distinguish for person experiencing them.  It's easy for the doctors to tell which one is which, however.

[Gaijin de Moscu]

I started having issues in Spring 2020. Whether the underlying cause is stress or a Covid infection early on in the pandemic I do not know (I had all the correct symptoms for four weeks in Feb 2020 but didn't qualify for testing as I had not traveled to China).

I would have irregular heartbeats as soon as I was not at complete rest (sitting down or in bed). Not life-threatening, but really spooky. I needed to sleep well for a few weeks before it went away.

It seems triggered by lack of sleep, as it has happened another two times since, and always when I go back to work after vacation/holidays. I tend to drift to being awake at night and sleep in during the morning when I don't work, so the transition back to work usually means less sleep for a few days. It wasn't much of a problem before the pandemic, but now I get this fucking thing. Yay.

Ugh, very sorry to hear. I hope you recover fully and soon!

I had those bouts of irregular heartbeat for a few months after the vaccine. Nothing pleasant about them.

[Gaijin de Moscu]

Panic attacks and heart attacks can be very hard to distinguish for person experiencing them.  It's easy for the doctors to tell which one is which, however.

Makes sense...

[Iormlund]

Ugh, very sorry to hear. I hope you recover fully and soon!

I had those bouts of irregular heartbeat for a few months after the vaccine. Nothing pleasant about them.

I'm mostly fine now. Got it under control.

Also got a heart study/procedure done a couple months ago and while it wasn't fun it was at least somewhat reassuring.
Part of it was being subjected to almost an hour of artificial, irregular pulses trying to provoke a deadly arrhythmia, which I'm happy to say didn't happen.

[DGuller]

Part of it was being subjected to almost an hour of artificial, irregular pulses trying to provoke a deadly arrhythmia, which I'm happy to say didn't happen.

Do they revive you if it does happen?

[Berkut]

Part of it was being subjected to almost an hour of artificial, irregular pulses trying to provoke a deadly arrhythmia, which I'm happy to say didn't happen.

Do they revive you if it does happen?

Its kind of like determing if someone is a witch by trying a stone around their ankle and tossing them into the lake....

[Iormlund]

Part of it was being subjected to almost an hour of artificial, irregular pulses trying to provoke a deadly arrhythmia, which I'm happy to say didn't happen.

Do they revive you if it does happen?

I would hope so. At this point you are already at the OR with a cardiologist and a cardiovascular surgeon right there, and hooked up to a machine with a bunch of electrodes outside and inside you. So I guess if you're going to have one of those that's when you want it to happen.