The Covid-19 Thread: News, Preparation Tips, Etc

dancinstallion

Well-Known Member
I’m not understanding what he is applying. Shingles is contagious and he said 4 family friends (not random individuals) contracted the virus. What is he getting at? They might have other incurable viruses going on that are dormant or active to make them more susceptible. Help me understand please?

He and a few other doctors are saying something is triggering shingles in a large amount of people that are under 50, which is odd. They are saying they haven't seen this before the amount of people under 50 with Shingles. One or two cases here and there yes but this no.
 

dancinstallion

Well-Known Member
Thank you for clarifying. I was not able to see the string since I don't have a twitter log on...just the main link. If he is saying it is not covid do you know if he mentioned what the "on thing was"or if he mention vaccination trends at all?

He didn't mention what the other thing is.

Other people are alluding to vaccination but he didn't state it.
 

PatDM'T

Well-Known Member
He and a few other doctors are saying something is triggering shingles in a large amount of people that are under 50, which is odd. They are saying they haven't seen this before the amount of people under 50 with Shingles. One or two cases here and there yes but this no.

Unless I have
been living under
a rock, I did
wonder early last
year and end of
2020, why there
was a sudden
prodding from
CVS by way of
texting to go
get the shingles
vaccine.
That is not
something I recall
ever being in
my radar.
Flu shots, yeah;
not shingles.

A friend in her
70s was dealing
with a flare
up of shingles
while the rest
of the world
was focused on
Covid but she
did not immediately
know what she
was dealing with.
Around the time
it was confirmed,
shingles vaccines
were now being
advertised as much
as Covid ones.

I do remember
wondering whether there
was a connection
because it seemed
as if the disease
was suddenly in
the limelight out
of the blue.

I dismissed my
suspicions but now
I am back to
thinking it all
boils down to
Covid messing with
people's systems and
just leaving folks
more vulnerable than
before, except my
friend did not
have Covid...unless
the vaccines whose
MOA is to mimic
a virus has the
same effect? :scratchchin:
 
Last edited:

dancinstallion

Well-Known Member
Unless I have
been living under
a rock, I did
wonder early last
year and end of
2020, why there
was a sudden
prodding from
CVS by way of
texting to go
get the shingles
vaccine.
That is not
something I recall
ever being in
my radar.
Flu shots, yeah;
not shingles.

A friend in her
70s was dealing
with a flare
up of shingles
while the rest
of the world
was focused on
Covid but .

I do remember
wondering whether there
was a connection
because it seemed
as if the disease
was suddenly in
the limelight.

I dismissed my
suspicions but now
I am back to
thinking it all
boils down to
Covid messing with
people's systems and
just leaving folks
more vulnerable than
before.

In that same twitter thread a MD said her T cells are low and she has caught covid five times. She and her followers believe covid weakened her immune system and is leaving her open to more infections. She said no one else seems to be concerned but she is and she had to requests the tests to be done by herself.

 

PatDM'T

Well-Known Member
And this is why
Covid will be
with us forever:


A couple of
people I know
have had Covid
then been sick
every other week
since they tested
positive that one time
except now they
are not giving
the ailment a name.

Either we are
back to the days
when folks did
not admit to
being HIV because
of the stigma, or
they just won't
test to find
out because they
think like the
person mentioned in
that tweet above.

The folks in
question will not
mask or practice
social distancing
because "fear is
of the devil". :wallbash:

I am so over
the BS, ya hear.
Done!
 

lavaflow99

In search of the next vacation
No he said only one had covid.

Ah interesting. I didn't realize it was a thread. I thought he was implying that they all had COVID.

So now I'm confused what he is implying....
I’m not understanding what he is applying. Shingles is contagious and he said 4 family friends (not random individuals) contracted the virus. What is he getting at? They might have other incurable viruses going on that are dormant or active to make them more susceptible. Help me understand please?
My PSA:

Shingles is reactivation of chicken pox. Once you had the chicken pox, the virus lives in the nerves. And when you are immunocompromised (high stress. poor diet, ill for example), it can cause the virus to reappear as shingles. It is contagious to those who aren't previously immune to chickenpox (by vaccination or prior infection).


Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Although shingles can occur anywhere on your body, it most often appears as a single stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or the right side of your torso.
Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you've had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles.

Shingles isn't a life-threatening condition, but it can be very painful. Vaccines can help reduce the risk of shingles. Early treatment can help shorten a shingles infection and lessen the chance of complications. The most common complication is postherpetic neuralgia, which causes shingles pain for a long time after your blisters have cleared.

Products & Services​

Show more products from Mayo Clinic

Symptoms​

Shingles rash
ShinglesOpen pop-up dialog box
The signs and symptoms of shingles usually affect only a small section of one side of your body. These signs and symptoms may include:
  • Pain, burning, numbness or tingling
  • Sensitivity to touch
  • A red rash that begins a few days after the pain
  • Fluid-filled blisters that break open and crust over
  • Itching
Some people also experience:
  • Fever
  • Headache
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Fatigue
Pain is usually the first symptom of shingles. For some, it can be intense. Depending on the location of the pain, it can sometimes be mistaken for a symptom of problems affecting the heart, lungs or kidneys. Some people experience shingles pain without ever developing the rash.
Most commonly, the shingles rash develops as a stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or right side of your torso. Sometimes the shingles rash occurs around one eye or on one side of the neck or face.

When to see a doctor​

Contact your doctor promptly if you suspect shingles, but especially in the following situations:
  • The pain and rash occur near an eye. If left untreated, this infection can lead to permanent eye damage.
  • You're 60 or older, because age significantly increases your risk of complications.
  • You or someone in your family has a weakened immune system (due to cancer, medications or chronic illness).
  • The rash is widespread and painful.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox​

Sign up for free, and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID-19, plus expertise on managing health.
Email
Learn more about Mayo Clinic’s use of data.
Subscribe!
Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic

Causes​

Nerves on the back
Shingles affects the nervesOpen pop-up dialog box
Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. Anyone who's had chickenpox may develop shingles. After you recover from chickenpox, the virus enters your nervous system and lies dormant for years.
Eventually, it may reactivate and travel along nerve pathways to your skin — producing shingles. But, not everyone who's had chickenpox will develop shingles.
The reason for shingles is unclear. But it may be due to lowered immunity to infections as you grow older. Shingles is more common in older adults and in people who have weakened immune systems.
Varicella-zoster is part of a group of viruses called herpes viruses, which includes the viruses that cause cold sores and genital herpes. Because of this, shingles is also known as herpes zoster. But the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles is not the same virus responsible for cold sores or genital herpes, a sexually transmitted infection.

Are you contagious?​

A person with shingles can pass the varicella-zoster virus to anyone who isn't immune to chickenpox. This usually occurs through direct contact with the open sores of the shingles rash. Once infected, the person will develop chickenpox, however, not shingles.
Chickenpox can be dangerous for some people. Until your shingles blisters scab over, you are contagious and should avoid physical contact with anyone who hasn't yet had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine, especially people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women and newborns.

Risk factors​

Anyone who has ever had chickenpox can develop shingles. Most adults in the United States had chickenpox when they were children, before the advent of the routine childhood vaccination that now protects against chickenpox.
Factors that may increase your risk of developing shingles include:
  • Being older than 50. Shingles is most common in people older than 50. The risk increases with age.
  • Having certain diseases. Diseases that weaken your immune system, such as HIV/AIDS and cancer, can increase your risk of shingles.
  • Undergoing cancer treatments. Radiation or chemotherapy can lower your resistance to diseases and may trigger shingles.
  • Taking certain medications. Drugs designed to prevent rejection of transplanted organs can increase your risk of shingles — as can prolonged use of steroids, such as prednisone.

Complications​

Complications from shingles can include:
  • Postherpetic neuralgia. For some people, shingles pain continues long after the blisters have cleared. This condition is known as postherpetic neuralgia, and it occurs when damaged nerve fibers send confused and exaggerated messages of pain from your skin to your brain.
  • Vision loss. Shingles in or around an eye (ophthalmic shingles) can cause painful eye infections that may result in vision loss.
  • Neurological problems. Depending on which nerves are affected, shingles can cause an inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), facial paralysis, or hearing or balance problems.
  • Skin infections. If shingles blisters aren't properly treated, bacterial skin infections may develop.

Prevention​

A shingles vaccine may help prevent shingles.
People who are eligible to get it should get the Shingrix vaccine in the U.S.
In the United States, Shingrix was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017. Studies suggest that Shingrix offers protection against shingles for more than five years. Shingrix is a nonliving vaccine made of a virus component. It is given in two doses, with 2-6 months between doses.
Shingrix is approved and recommended for people age 50 and older, including those who've previously received the Zostavax vaccine or had shingles.
The Zostavax vaccine is no longer sold in the U.S., but other countries may still use it.
The most common side effects of either shingles vaccine are redness, pain, tenderness, swelling and itching at the injection site, and headaches.
The shingles vaccine doesn't guarantee that you won't get shingles. But this vaccine will likely reduce the course and severity of the disease and reduce your risk of postherpetic neuralgia.
The shingles vaccine is used only as a prevention strategy. It's not intended to treat people who currently have the disease. Talk to your doctor about which option is right for you.

 

dancinstallion

Well-Known Member
I saw an old coworker last night at a party. She would check on me from time to time over the years. She called me last year or year before and I didn't get around to returning her call.

I asked her which one of the men here were her husband. She said " I lost my husband last August." :(

I was shocked. My mouth dropped cuz I didnt see that coming.
Of course I asked what happened and she said Covid"

He was around 47 years old. I feel so bad. I am still shook.

It bothers me that Covid can give a person a few symptoms for a few days and they are over it while others lives are taken.

It is still killing men at a higher rate.
 

Everything Zen

Well-Known Member
COVID has finally hit home- but not exactly.

So the stepkid survived long enough to be shipped off to summer camp. Praise all the gods!!!!! Six glorious weeks of a child free home after more than 2 years of living up underneath each other right?! I tried to ship her butt off last summer but her behavior was so terrible that we canceled it. This is her last summer because she will age out and it’s a leadership in training program for kids 15-17 where they’re in charge of the younger kids and they also get paid. She’s foregoing the money and donating it to her grandfather’s church so it can count as volunteer work for school and college applications (because I’m brilliant). I did this more for myself than her because DH and I were on the verge of killing her.


I‘m putting these fools on blast. They bragged about being one of the only camps in America that managed to go through the pst 2.5 years without a single COVID case. I was impressed with their protocols. Vaccines were not required but highly encouraged and she is vaccinated and boosted. You had to have proof of a negative test three days before, and SUPPOSEDLY the parents stay in the car to say goodbye with luggage in the trunk and then the kid gets another rapid test before getting on the bus. The kids have to mask up for the first week and take tests similar to the NBA protocol and then they enter a COVID free maskless bubble for the rest of the summer. Cool right?!

On July 3rd, DH and kid were horrified to see parents and kids mingling together by the bus when he went to drop her off. They didn’t follow any of their rules. A couple of days later we hear that there is a COVID outbreak, they would let us know if our kid was exposed or infected. DH calls yesterday to let the owner know that they broke all the protocols and we learn secondhand that our kid is positive. :swearing:

The rule was if your kid is positive you need to come get them but they changed course since 10 kids and several counselors are positive and don’t want to lose all that money. They are quarantining them per CDC guidelines and if they test negative two times in a row after five days they can enjoy the rest of camp. Well our kid got hit hard. She has all the symptoms and a 102 fever but she wants to try and stay. They want to move the COVID kids to another cabin that is about a 20 minute walk away and she doesn’t feel like she can do it. I ask the director what is her pulse oximeter reading? He was like “Oh yeah, I think we should take a reading.” These fools had a COVID prevention plan but not an outbreak plan. Today her temp is 101 and her pulse ox it’s 97%. They want DH to do one of two things:

1) come get her even though she’s in isolation with the other girls and expose himself and our family.
2) come get her and take her to a hotel for a few days and then she can come back and go back into isolation and then try to have a negative test and continue camp (just stupid unnecessarily exposing him and our family to COVID)

It’s 8 hours one way. We can barely get a hold of the staff and they aren’t letting her have her cell phone. She wasn’t supposed to bring it up there but when she saw a whole bunch of other kids take theirs on the bus we told her to take hers. I went off on the owner saying y’all didn’t follow any of your other protocols and this is an unusual situation. The kids that got sick should be able to speak to their parents at all times if they brought their phones. We contacted her pediatrician for guidance and are just monitoring the situation because if he goes he’s going to have to take time off from work and quarantine with her and I’m going to my parent’s house.
 
Last edited:

BonBon

Well-Known Member
My grandmother had shingles and she was in so much pain. The rash was around her stomach area. I've had chickenpox and hope I never get shingles.

My Mother in law got it in mid 2021 and she still has severe nerve pain. I think there is a vaccine for shingles, but her doctor hadn't told her about it.

Postherpetic neuralgia occurs if your nerve fibers are damaged during an outbreak of shingles. Damaged fibers can't send messages from your skin to your brain as they normally do. Instead, the messages become confused and exaggerated, causing chronic, often excruciating pain that can last months — or even years.
 

dancinstallion

Well-Known Member
You made me
do a search and
I found a vid
that was uploaded
4 days ago:


He does not
look well...
compared to say
how he looked
4 months ago


Wishing him a
full recovery.

He seems out of breath to me and is pausing a lot compared to his other interview. I can hear him take breaths every time he pauses. That's not good.

Another website uploaded an interview 2 days ago but it was of him from a week+ ago.

Hope he makes a full recovery.

This new omicron variant has me on edge. It looks to be as severe as Delta with transmissibility and immune escape of omicron.

I read that the new variant is causing symptoms like viral meningitis.
Dh already had a headache and body aches out of nowhere. He feels better but a week later he says he just doesn't feel right.
 

Everything Zen

Well-Known Member
Update- we left the kid at camp in quarantine because it makes no sense to pull her out if she has mild symptoms and expose the house. The camp is being shady and doesn’t want the liability but sending kids home is unnecessarily spreading the outbreak. We confirmed with her pediatrician that she sounds ok, and we’re not being negligent having her stay put. Plus that camp cost 4k for the entire summer that we would forfeit. :look:
My dad tried to guilt me by saying “If it was you, we’d come get you.” I said, “We ain’t you and she ain’t me. I paid for this babysitter.” :look: :yep:
If she starts dying they’ll let us know. :yep:
 

Evolving78

Well-Known Member
@Everything Zen
You cold as ice! Lol but this is a lesson learned. Covid ain’t over, and we all need to take a page from this and be cautious. Ain’t no new normal. This is a new reality that we cannot go back to the way things were. My child wants to go somewhere and I’m gonna ask if everyone will be tested. I had Covid and contracted it from going shopping with one person that doesn’t share the same beliefs as me and I don’t need that virus in my house again if I can help it.

I got a relative coming to town and they wanna go and do. Well since they wanna come around me, they gotta get a stick up there nose, get their temp checked at the door, and sit here and eat pizza, because we ain’t going and doing nothing out in these streets.
 

SoniT

Well-Known Member
I saw Dr. Fauci on TV this morning and he sounds like his old self. I think he's doing better.

Covid finally got to me. I don't have chest congestion but I have nasal congestion/stuffy head. My first symptoms were a sore throat, body aches, and then sinus pain. I've still been able to exercise and telework. I'm taking it slow but I'm not completely run down. Each day I'm feeling better. I'd say I'm about 95% better.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
A good friend of mine recently tested positive. She thinks she got it at a concert. While it was outdoors, there were a lot of people. At the time she thought she had a summer cold. She had a sore throat, cough, and was feeling a little out of it but she thought it was because of her cycle. A few days later her mother and another person she works with tested positive so she got tested and found out she's positive as well. She's vaccinated so maybe that's why the symptoms were so mild. I'm glad she's ok. I just hope long covid doesn't become an issue.

Her experience really made me question how sure I am that I haven't had covid already. The symptoms have been so broad and are mild or nonexistent for some. I guess the only way to really know is to be constantly tested which hasn't been necessary since I've been WFH the entire pandemic. I think I've been tested 4 times. The first time was after being exposed. The second time was a requirement to see my doctor in the office. The third time was after being exposed. The last time and only self test was for my college reunion.
 

Everything Zen

Well-Known Member
^^^^ exactly and with all the false negatives- why run through all those tests if you never leave the house or if you might have had a 101 fever and a tickle in your throat for an hour bc of allergies if you never leave the house? Those Abbott rapid Ags cost like 120.00 for a box of 8…

I’ve only been tested once as a requirement for surgical clearance.
 

yamilee21

Well-Known Member
DH’s aunt has been hospitalized three times this week after catching it for the second time at his grandmother’s funeral last week.
That’s really awful; why do they keep discharging her though?

I attended a [Catholic] funeral this past weekend. It was way too crowded. The priest referred to the deceased as a “saint” during the service. Since it will be a miracle if no Covid cases emerge from this event, I guess that could count as her first miracle, which could put her on the path to canonization. :lol:
 
Top