Yikes! A great motivational speech indeed, although as mentioned I have had my first shot already.
Can you travel and get one?
Travel where exactly? 
Furthermore, travel is currently pretty restricted due to COVID. Traveling inside Finland doesn’t help and traveling outside Finland results in a quarantine. And I don’t know where one should even travel to so that they could get a vaccination.
One of my wife’s favorite treats was a cold Coke. After COVID she now says Coke tastes like rust to her. She can no longer drink it.
The loss of smell and taste is not a leading symptom of Covid. It’s something that comes on, if it comes on, at about day three or four. That’s what happened to me, and I’ve heard it from many others as well. So if you have no other symptoms, it’s unlikely that it’s Covid. But given that you’re “young and healthy”, you might have it but this is the only symptom that’s emerging. It seems to affect everyone a bit differently. My sense of smell and taste returned after a week, but I’ve heard of others that it’s taken six months to get it back.
While I think the vaccine is partly effective and partly placebo based on what is being learned, it really does blow that the European countries aren’t spending the money to get the needed doses of the vaccine for their people. But that’s the issue with national medicine. The government gets to tell you what treatment you’ll get and when. We’re awash in vaccines here.
Rant Warning.
Short version:Get a test! I am saying this as a physician who has treated many patients with COVID and as someone who had COVID themselves.
Long version:
Initial symptoms can vary so much between people- from flu like symptoms, to loss of smell, to upset stomach, to nothing at all. My first COVID symptom was loss of smell (which I discovered sniffing a Gruner) but my smell never came back the same, many things just smelled kind of weird, just like you’re describing. This has happened to many people. But can it happen in reverse, meaning things smell a little weird at first and then you lose smell completely like you. WHO KNOWS! Just get a test- why not?!?!
It’s good that you got a vaccine, but a few points. 1- The vaccines are most protective against severe disease if you get infected, not minor symptoms like smell loss. They do decrease overall infection rate, but since we don’t have universal testing, we don’t really know by how much. 2- You’re only partially vaccinated meaning your risk of infection is higher than if you got both shots. 3- Delta variant is rampant and seems to be infecting even fully vaccinated people at a much higher rate.
Rant time- I appreciate the opinions of everyone on this board, but it is frankly frustrating that people here with zero medical background are advising anything other “Get a test right now”. “Just keep track of your symptoms and maybe get a test later” is irresponsible in my opinion. I don’t know anything about positivity rates in Helsinki, but here in the US, where infections are on the rise, test rates are well below 10%, mostly below 5%. Meaning that statistically, 95% chance you don’t have COVID. But the tests are so quick, have no risk, and you could literally be saving lives if you are positive and end up quarantining rather than spreading the virus around. I’ve had friends and family, as well as patients, die from COVID because of cases like this. Nobody is going around spreading COVID maliciously, it’s always, “eh, I probably don’t have it, I don’t go out much anyway” and then it’s too late.
A family friend passed away a month or so ago from what he insisted was “allergies”. He felt a little weird, was convinced it wasn’t COVID, didn’t get a test, and went into work. He exposed the entire office to COVID and then died two weeks later. The whole office had to be shut down, and several people turned positive, probably bc of him. I don’t know about your day to day life, but if you knew you had COVID, maybe you wouldn’t go to the store, visit go visit elderly relatives, go out to eat or whatever for 2 weeks. Those two weeks could prevent dozens of new infections. But if you were negative, then you could feel free do all those things.
So please get a test.
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I heard this is less common with delta. Small blessings?
DAMN IT! This is totally wrong. Will people please stop posting garbage? What does that even mean “the vaccine is partly effective and partly placebo based on what is being learned”?! Show me a single article that says the vaccines are “partly partly placebo”, that doesn’t even make sense. Something is either placebo or not, it can’t be part one and part the other.
Ugh, I’m so frustrated right now. I have to stop reading this thread…
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What
it really does blow that the European countries aren’t spending the money to get the needed doses of the vaccine for their people.
What
For the longest time Finland was the best place after Australia, New Zealand and Iceland regarding the infection rates, and it’s still very good. Still one of the safest countries in the world. Although the infection rates are going up a bit now, the amount of people who have died of COVID is still only less than a thousand (i.e. less than 0,02% of the population).
Here people also go get tested constantly if they show any symptoms, the tests are fast and effective, and I got a confirmation from Ilkka that he not only got tested today but the results were negative. So no COVID this time.
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I think - I hope - that this was well-intended. Nonetheless, here we are, in hell.
Access to the vaccine in European countries has not a single damned thing to do with a lack of willingness to spend money, which is very clearly evidenced by euro countries (along with the U.K., and Canada, all those rascally national medicine types!) having bought… rather a lot more vaccine than the United States: Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Great news. In the grand scheme, a few lousy bottles of wine is a happy result. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
As Otto mentioned I got tested this morning and it came back negative. It was never a question of whether to take the test or not, it’s just too quick and easy and doesn’t cost anything so I don’t see why one wouldn’t do it in a situation like this.
Today I’m not getting any off-notes when it comes to the still wines but I’m not getting any aromatics either. I enjoyed a glass of the Sancerre just fine and found it very pleasant. Somehow the Germain did not drink as well. However the Lassaigne continues to be repulsive both on the nose and the palate - for the autolytic notes I reckon? So, getting better, but still definitely not there.
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Danza’s comments sure seem mighty political for outside of Politics. Just sayin’
FWIW, I have small stretches of a couple days where my nose just doesn’t work right. This has been a recurring (though fortunately rare) thing, long before COVID. And it happens to me with food sometimes too, not just wine.
I also have similar stretches of a few days where my ears just don’t work right, either. I mix music for a living, and a couple times a year I just can’t hear frequency balance the way I usually can.
Never been able to get a good answer on either of those. I have an amazing ENT, I’ve asked her, she’s stumped too.
You probably don’t mean any harm with this post. But it is highly offensive and misinformed in so many ways.
Guys, you need to chill out a bit on my post. I’m just trying to help the OP out.
To Doc Noah, I may not be a doctor, but I’ve been in healthcare related industries for about 40 years. I’ve been deeply immersed in Covid since it started to become a thing 18 months ago, including involvement with the AMA. I likely know more about Covid than the average doc. I won’t provide the articles you sought, because that would likely start to get political, and that’s not what we’re here for. Agree that the OP needs to get tested.
My comment about the OP’s health system is purely based on the fact that the poor guy (sorry to the OP if you’re not a guy) got his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine two months ago (60 days) and doesn’t know when he’ll get the second. This is horrible and unconscionable. The Pfizer vaccine requires the second dose to be administered after 21 days of the first dose, so it’s typically done about 28 days out. After that, the efficacy starts to drop. Basically, one jab is good, but not great. You really need the second jab. However, Pfizer just came out with their own study that concluded the 95% efficacy drops to about 80% between 4-6 months after the second jab. So it’s disgusting that the guy can’t get the second shot that he really wants and needs.
The “placebo” comment was argumentative, I admit. But given the increasing numbers of Covid cases in the U.S. to already vaccinated people certainly indicates an issue relative to the vaccines.
I’m out.
What are you talking about? In our health system we get the date for our second shot at the same time when we take our first shot, if we haven’t got it earlier. Everybody here knows when they’ll get their second - which is approx 3 months after the first shot. Ilkka didn’t say anything about not knowing when he gets his second dose.
The Pfizer vaccine requires the second dose to be administered after 21 days of the first dose, so it’s typically done about 28 days out. After that, the efficacy starts to drop. Basically, one jab is good, but not great. You really need the second jab. However, Pfizer just came out with their own study that concluded the 95% efficacy drops to about 80% between 4-6 months after the second jab. So it’s disgusting that the guy can’t get the second shot that he really wants and needs.
Nobody here gets the second shot we want and need because there simply aren’t enough shots available. Having the interval at 3 months makes sure that everybody gets at least the first shot (and in our system the oldest people get it first and currently the teenagers are getting their first shots while most of the elderly have received their both shots). Otherwise those who got their first shot half a year ago would’ve taken their second shots by now as well, while there wouldn’t have been enough first shots for the rest of the people.
Stop using words like “disgusting” related to things you don’t seem to have a clue about. Especially the “European countries aren’t spending the money to get the needed doses of the vaccine for their people” part was really offensive, as EU has tried to buy every single vaccine available, but there just aren’t enough vaccines to go around because countries like the UK, Canada and Israel have hoarded so many vaccines that vaccines are getting old or they are giving already third shots to their people while most people in the world haven’t even received their first shot, let alone second. We are constantly getting the vaccines that are allocated to us and they are distributed according to the population so that every EU country gets an equal amount of vaccines for their people and the coverage stays pretty much the same in all countries.
Ironically, when you said “We’re awash in vaccines here.” - this is because there are so many people in the US who don’t want to get voluntarily vaccinated. You have less vaccines per population there, but we’re the ones still running short on vaccines because at least here people want to get vaccinated. The thing is that we just have to do with what we get.
The “placebo” comment was argumentative, I admit. But given the increasing numbers of Covid cases in the U.S. to already vaccinated people certainly indicates an issue relative to the vaccines.
If you want to present yourself as some kind of expert on the subject matter, please don’t use terms that feel catchphrases from fake news that don’t make any sense. Takes up all your credibility in an instant.
In regard to your comment on the increasing number of COVID cases, that’s understandable to anyone with basic understanding in biology. The vaccines were created to work against the initial strain of COVID. The new strains that have appeared - especially the Delta strain - are much more infectious. The vaccine gives 95% protection - not 100% protection - against the original strain, so even after two shots you have a 5% chance to get infected by the original strain. As the newer strains are more infectious, the chance of getting an infection is much larger than 5%. All this is just a game of odds.
However, what the vaccines do, is that even if they don’t give you full protection against an infection, your body has already boosted up its capability to fight the infection, so if you get an infection after getting vaccinated, you’re bound to have less complications compared to an unvaccinated person.
But don’t worry, the vaccination coverage is good here in the EU and we use all the vaccines we get ASAP. Concentrate on getting the people on your side of the pond to get vaccinated.
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Well Otto covered most of what i wanted to write.
In Denmark it is more or less the same. Around 75% of the population got the first jab and around 60% got two.
I only got my first and will get my second next week (we do give them with 3-4 weeks interval here). So why didn’t i get my second yet? Because i am 34 years old. It makes so much sense that they vaccinated other age groups first for different reasons.
What we see now in Denmark is an increase in Covid-19 cases because of the Delta variant, but few people hospitalised. And almost everyone who gets hospitalised did not get vaccinated or only got the first jab. So it works and are effective. And that takes me to the placebo comment: half of the cases you see in US at the moment is found in Florida, Texas Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Which is also the states with the lowest vaccination rates.
Furthermore, then i would take studies from companies that have an economic interest with a grain of salt. Moderna stated a 93% efficacy after six months yesterday and it is based on the same technology as Pfizer. Not saying it is wrong or right. But i would wait for proper independent studies before making any conclusions.
I had Covid back in June of last year. I still do not think my olfactory sense has normalized. While my palate appreciates what I drink, it is clear to me that there are some nuances on wines that I have had - some many times before - do not resonate the same. Simply stated, my nose is still a bit off.
I have also noticed a profound distaste for some things that I used to eat regularly, like Gouda cheese, any Greek yogurt (especially Chobani), and ok I’m embarrassed to admit this vice, my beloved cheese puffs.
And I seem to be drinking a lot more whisky. Not a bad thing. 