Worked. Dumbass MAGAts. If, instead of protesting and causing problems, they’d been patient like the rest of us, we could have been rid of COVID, too.

Health care pros seem to be moving BACK to masking, even though it's optional for patients.

I’m an adult cardiac catheterization lab. My hospital system mandated masking when in patient contact back in December due to increased numbers of COVID, flu and RSV.

I still don’t “go out” if I don’t have to. And that pretty much means just the grocery store, masked.

The masks I've seen recently are in non-medical workers at the hospitals (clerical, occasionally cleaning and food service workers), not the medical professionals. Spent several hours at the ER yesterday with my daughter who is on medications that compromise her immune system. Only one of the medical professionals wore a mask, and that was after her first visit to our room where she saw that my daughter and I masked.

please proceed, fuckheads. I'm totally owned. I'll even shed some libtard tears for you to drink.

I had this weird fluish thing off and on from Thanksgiving Day through New Year's. I mentioned it to my doctor mid-January. She said she had the exact same thing and it was because there was a B that was excluded from the flu shot and she was seeing it all the time in her patients. She was also seeing very little COVID this year. I will reflect on this for a couple of days.

Even though it has not been detected since March 2020. So I'm not sure what testing your doctor is doing, but if she is seeing a B strain of influenza "all the time" that she beleives has been eliminated from the vaccine, she ought to be in contact with the CDC, since they are not aware of any instances in 4 years. My guess is that she is just spitballing, not testing, since the B/yamagata strain has not yet been removed.

I didn't get tested since I just mentioned it to her in passing after it was finally gone and was amazed to hear that she had the same thing and saw others who did, because I personally had not known anyone who did. I only mentioned it to her because it wasn't too dramatic in symptoms but it went on forever. And it was one of those where you feel pretty good, go do a simple errand, and then you're back in bed for days on end again. Inconvenient.

Anyway, when I read your comment, I thought I might remove mine because it needed a lot more editing or research to make sense. Also, I could have misheard the doctor. She is not one to throw around false information at all. (I have had plenty of doctors who do that, so I appreciate her for this.) First, though, I did a little Googling just to see if I could make heads or tails of it.

I looked at what WHO has said about Yamagata. And, oddly, I found the attached that says to include a member of the Yamagata lineage in the 24/25 flu vaccine in the NORTHERN hemisphere. https://www.who.int/news/item/23-02-2024-recommendations-announced-for-influenza-vaccine-composition-for-the-2024-2025-northern-hemisphere-influenza-season#:~:text=For%20quadrivalent%20egg%2D%20or%20cell,Yamagata%20lineage)%2Dlike%20virus.

So then I see this, which says that the CDC is NOT recommending elimination of Yamagata in the NORTHERN hemisphere for 24/25, as of late February. And that the decisions will be made and announced on March 5, as CNN said. https://www.who.int/news/item/23-02-2024-recommendations-announced-for-influenza-vaccine-composition-for-the-2024-2025-northern-hemisphere-influenza-season#:~:text=For%20quadrivalent%20egg%2D%20or%20cell,Yamagata%20lineage)%2Dlike%20virus.

So now I just have more questions, really. We'll see what the CDC announces after today on Yamagata/Phuket.

Re my doctor, I think she must have been talking about a member of either Victoria or Yamagata strain that was not included 23/24. I did not realize until I started reading that there are B/Victoria strains also. Doctor only said "B," not Yamagata. https://www.drugtopics.com/view/2023-2024-flu-season-what-to-expect

We have a lot of anti-vaxxers in our area and we also have people from all over the world coming and going. So if there is only a 50% effectiveness rate, we are all vulnerable around here to things that are more common in the Southern Hemisphere.

IN ANY CASE, thanks for your info, which piqued my interest. I learned a little today--enough to affirm that I don't know much. What an interesting world. I'll ask the doctor about this next time I see her.

Have fun exploring! The more information, the better.

I am concerned about a primary care doc who believes that a B strain was removed from this year's flu vaccine. Vaccines are part of their bread and butter, so I expect them to keep up to date.

Different area, but I just saw her this week and she was so erudite about the Women's Health Initiative studies on hormone replacement (which I have already studied at more length) that I know she's current and as smart as any doctor I've known. Not the same issue, obviously, but she has shown her outside-the-box knowledge on several other things that I've spent years studying for my own or family members' situations.

I am guessing that she really said, "It's one of the Bs that wasn't included this year," (since the CDC and WHO can't include EVERY single one, ever, right?), and I know so little that I thought she meant it had been removed. But I will ask her! I am curious.

That's the primary reason that influenza vaccines aren't more effective. The quadrivalent vaccines include two type As (drawn from two specific lines) and two Type Bs (also drawn from specific lines), based on what is circulating in the Southern Hemisphere during their winter. They guess wrong more than half of the time.

And now you know more! That's the same kind of response I have to puzzles - if something catches me off guard, I go research and find out more!

It was raging November through February higher than it was in summer 2022 and all of 2023. Just because your doctor didn't see it, doesn't mean it wasn't around.

Check out the wastewater covid detection at the CDC:

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

Last edited Tue Mar 5, 2024, 05:15 PM - Edit history (1)

and so does she. They just weren't coming into her office about that as much as about this particular B. And there is always the possibility that I misheard her. It happens.

My doctor, my wife's doctor, her pysch doctor, her pain doctor, & the NP at quick care all told us the same.
Not many COVID positives, but lots of flu & cold.
That said, my wife's BF did get COVID & only lives about 50 miles away.
(All in the Chicago market).
Go figure.

Unless you're in need, why would you? Can't get a regular appointment. Urgent care and ER are full.

It's great that vaccines are making it so that many more aren't getting horrendously sick.

But that doesn't mean it isn't out there. As evidenced by the link and the high death rates for the past six months.

I sense we are doomed to a pandemic of long covid in the next 1-5 years.

This was strictly those going to the doctor. I see that as a good thing, though.
As you said, the severity is greatly lessened.
Vax rates around here were above the national average. At least the first 2 doses. Don't know about boosters. They don't make the numbers as easy to find anymore.
As to long COVID, I'm not as pessimistic as you.

We're all Zombies now, right? And we've been chipped?