Happy belated birthday, flea!

No-cancer-ma, Pix.

I overslept my alarm this morning, so today has been off-kilter despite not being particularly busy so far.

In short, if you're vaccinated and wearing a mask indoors a breakthrough is still very unlikely even with Delta (1 in 5,000). Also, the emphasis on the higher viral load in Delta was somewhat misleading in that while it does make it more transmissible to unvaccinated people, if you are vaccinated you are still very protected.

My anecdotal problem is I know as many people who have gotten breakthrough infections as who got covid pre-vax. None of them have been seriously ill, but it does make me want to retreat back into my house again. (Although I did go to the movies last weekend.)

Cold Hollow Cider Mill

Sticker shock! Half gallon of sweet apple cider for $11.95? Wow. Locally pressed here [link] it is $7.95, and I thought *that* was high.

My other problem is that they're not counting (obviously) undiagnosed cases of covid, but you can still get long covid with an asymptomatic infection.

I edited an article last week that looked at Covid transmission in an elementary school in Belgium. (The usual disclaimers are as follows: you can't really extrapolate from one small study in Belgium to the rest of the world; the study had ~60 people, which is way too small to make any kind of conclusion; and, of course, we're still learning about Covid, so what this study showed might not mean a goddamn thing.)

Now that I have the disclaimers out of the way, what the study found was: (1) kids tested positive for Covid at more or less the same rate as adults (~23%); BUT (2) out of the group of adults and kids who were positive, 13% were asymptomatic but *46%* of kids were; and (3) they could pretty reliably trace transmission through asymptomatic kids back to their parents/other household members.

We need to get a vaccine for kids approved FUCKING NOW. Because we're going to hit a point (if we aren't there yet) where they're the biggest vector, and damn near half of them are asymptomatic.

(Reminder about the disclaimers above. Maybe this is all very specific to that one school in Belgium.) (But I honestly don't think it is.)

Yeah definitely having unvaxxed kids in the house is a problem.

My anecdotal problem is I know as many people who have gotten breakthrough infections as who got covid pre-vax. None of them have been seriously ill, but it does make me want to retreat back into my house again.

Jesse I feel about the same but am telling myself all my friends are vaccinated so of COURSE I’m hearing about vaccinated people with breakthrough infections?

The Washington Spirit (women’s soccer) just had to cancel a game against the Portland Thorns because they had 4 cases of covid….turns out at least 8 of the players are not vaccinated! I’m aghast that they flew to Portland and THEN discovered this? Yikes. A few other teams have said they’re all vaxxed, some I didn’t see data on. But geez…

Jesse I feel about the same but am telling myself all my friends are vaccinated so of COURSE I’m hearing about vaccinated people with breakthrough infections?

Sure -- I don't know anyone could be vaccinated but isn't, I don't think, but we were supposed to getting infected less!

I'm again pondering Thanksgiving, because my nephew's kids are both too young to get vaxes and both in school again. Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder whether my nephew and his wife are vaccinated?

Can't tell how that all plays out WRT to the odds. I did get the Pfizer vax, so if it's the first one to allow boosters, I'd sure love to get one before I go up. We'll see, I guess.

In non-Covid related news, I signed up for my first 5k! The Sunday before Thanksgiving. My goal is pure: run the whole thing without needing to walk. Don't care about time. That'll be for later goals.

The one true cider donut comes from Goodale Orchards in Ipswich, MA, and every fall I get really sad that I can't go there and get one. (They are significantly better when hot and fresh, so it wouldn't be the same even if I could get them through the mail. Sigh.)

Huh. So my nephew and his wife are not vaxxed. He offered to test before Thanksgiving, though. I'll add that to my calculus. Interestingly, I texted my sister/his mother to ask first -- she has not asked ON PURPOSE in case they gave the wrong answer. I... don't know what to do with that. Head scratcher, that is.

Anyway, he was fine with my asking and offered to get tested. It is far from perfect, but I love the kid beyond all measure, so what am I gonna do? (He's not a kid; he's almost forty. Good lord.)