Station Break: Vaxman is recovering from COVID. :)

UPDATE(2/25/22): Whew! Finally breaking out of the COVID rut. My fever broke yesterday, and I'm feeling MUCH better today. I slept non-stop over the past 5 days. It's the longest I haven't used a phone or computer since I can remember. In fact, I just learned yesterday that Russia invaded Ukraine! By the way, this is what ACTUAL tyranny looks like, anti-vaxxers! It's not losing your job because you are afraid of a needle. It's having cluster bombs dropping on your head.

I gotta say, even having COVID for a week, and even having the less dangerous Omicron, it really drove home just how wicked this virus can be. I kept thinking of all of these people who suffered for months on their deathbeds simply because they wouldn't get vaccinated. Even if it wasn't life threatening, why not get vaccinated so that you don't have so suffer so much? I still don't understand and don't think I'll ever understand the herd mentality of conservatives that drive them to harm themselves so much.

I gotta say, even having COVID for a week, and even having the less dangerous Omicron, it really drove home just how wicked this virus can be. I kept thinking of all of these people who suffered for months on their deathbed simply because they wouldn't get vaccinated. Even if it wasn't life threatening, why not get vaccinated so that you don't have so suffer so much? I still don't understand and don't think I'll ever understand the herd mentality of conservatives driving them to harm themselves so badly.

As an aside, my constant fever dream over the past 5 days was me scrolling through imaginary anti-vaxxer facebook profiles. It was awful.

Original Post (2/21/22):

First: yes, thank God I'm vaccinated!

Second, this Omicron variant is NOT a cold! Over the past four days I've been more sick than I've ever been. It's definitely the worst sore throat I've ever had. This virus sucks. I don't know why they all say it's "mild"; it's anything but mild. I know two other people who got it at the same time I did; all of us were fully vaxxed and all of us were more sick than we'd ever been. Me -- let's just say I'm an elderly gentleman -- a 40 year old man and a 26 year old woman have all been suffering from this "mild" virus. But this could be the "Stealth Omicron" which is supposed to be worse than the originial.

So, while down with this I got to reading about Omicron, and how almost all of the mutations help it spread better than the other coronaviruses. The best article is from Scientific American. You can read it here. Turns out the other variants use two receptors to enter a cell, the ACE2 you've heard of and TMPRSS2. Not all cells have TMPRSS2, so Omicron can infect a much wider variety of cells. Lung tissues do have this TMPRSS2, so Delta for instance tends to find those cells to infect, but Omicron can still infect lungs. This article says it has but one weakness: Omicron signals the innate immune system, which is done through Interferon response. Well, the lungs use this Interferon response much more readily than the upper respiratory system, so the lungs are more protected from Omicron than the other variants. So, the worst variant would be Omicron without this signaling of Interferon. If a variant like that ever happens: watch out.

Anyway, I guess it really is less dangerous than Delta, but believe me when I say that you don't want this.

Talk amongst yourselves. I should be back posting soon, hopefully tomorrow.