Beware of Covid re-infection

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/health-risks-of-covid-19-reinfe…

Many people are being re-infected with Covid variants that are more contagious than the original wild-type virus. The prevalent Omicron BA.5 variant has a nasty twist – it can evade the immune system.

A very large study from the VA hospital system shows that people who are re-infected with Covid often get less sick but have a higher risk of serious long-term health problems. The VA population is older and more likely to have multiple co-morbidities so that may not apply to younger, healthier people. The great thing about the VA is their massive database – the analysis is very reliable. The researchers compared the electronic health records of three groups of people: more than 257,000 people with one confirmed Covid-19 infection; more than 38,900 people with two or more infections; and a control group of more than 5.3 million who didn’t have a Covid-19 infection.

“The risk of developing medical issues such as lung and heart problems is most acute in the first 30 days after an infection. Those risks remain elevated for up to six months for most conditions and increase with each subsequent infection. For instance, out of 100 people with a reinfection and 100 who had only one infection, five more people with reinfection developed a lung or respiratory issue or heart problem within a six-month period.”

In 2020 and 2021, the Covid caseload rose during the summer after the Memorial Day and July 4th holiday gatherings and travel. That’s happening now. Covid cases rose in May and leveled out at a higher steady state.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html…

I am continuing my Covid precautions – shopping early, socially distancing, wearing a mask indoors even if I am the only one who is masked. So far, so good.

If you have already had Covid, be aware that you could be reinfected and that the later infection could cause new problems.

Wendy

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Yes. The covid can be very mild.

I got covid exactly 2 weeks ago.
I rode in a car for 4 hours with my 90 yo cousin.
He lives an hour away, and we had a date to eat breakfast and go riding around.

My cousin is a gregarious extrovert, who NEEDS social connections, especially family. He lost his wife (60+ years together) a few months ago, and now lives alone.

When I arrived at his house, I found he had some congestion.
Ie, I knew he was sick before we started, but, I went ahead and CHOSE to do it.

My symptoms started Friday night.
He tested positive Saturday. I tested positive (at home test) Sunday afternoon.
He started antivirals Sunday (official test at a local hospital diagnostic clinic. He’s 90, and has several comorbidities).
I tried to get antivirals Monday (I’m 65 and 50 lbs over weight, no other co’s), but the local death panel representative was reluctant. Next day, Tuesday, he wanted to do kidney function tests since the antivirals are hard on the kidneys. I was already feeling better, so I declined. I also felt he was trying to add tests so that Medicare could be billed more.

I’m 2 vaxed in 2021, and 1 booster March(IIRC)2022.

Five (5) days after first symptoms I was symptom free.

While ill, I felt like I had a MILD cold, mostly a very light fever.
No flu misery ever.
No lost taste or smell.
No congestion or lung issues.
Monday, day 3, had FEROCIOUS COUGHING. That was the worst symptom.
By Wednesday, all symptoms were gone.
I did Nyquil 4 nights, and slept very well all night - 10 to 11 hours.
I also did nasal saline rinses and saline gargles.

I quarantined, and Monday, 2 days ago, an at home test was negative.
I’ve had NO symptoms for 8 days, and I feel completely well.

I did NOT get an official, hospital administered test.
Therefore, for official reports, I was never ill, it’s a covid infection that didn’t happen, and is not part of the statistics reported.
But, since I contacted the hospital, they have recorded that I was “positive due to association with a confirmed positive”. It’s part of my personal health record.
But no record of which variant I got.

My cousin finished the antivirals last Thursday.
Today, I picked my cousin up, and we went riding around again. Other than seeming to get tired more quickly, he also seems to be over the covid.
He’s 90. It may just be daily variation?

He’s 2 vaxed and 2 boosted. He and I had Moderna for all vaxes and boosts.

FWIW.
:alien:
ralph still plans to get second booster in August prior to September travel.

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I am continuing my Covid precautions – shopping early, socially distancing, wearing a mask indoors even if I am the only one who is masked. So far, so good.

PHYSICAL distancing, not social distancing!

That said, I am taking more precautions this year than I was at this time last year. Case numbers should be ignored, because reductions in official testing have deflated the figures. I look at the wastewater viral load, which is at least 10 times the levels of a year ago, just barely down from the recent peak, and still within shouting distance of all of the biggest pre-omicron peaks.

Yet people are acting as if the pandemic were over.

For the rest of my life, I’m making sure to get enough Vitamin D to maintain that 60 to 80 ng/mL level, and I’m making sure to get enough selenium every day. (When I travel again, I will bring my Vitamin D and selenium supplements with me.)

I never stopped masking up in stores and other indoor public places. It’s been at least 2 years since I last ate junk food. (I should take bets on which of my old favorites will no longer taste good to me.)

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Yet people are acting as if the pandemic were over.

The pandemic probably is over. We’ve likely entered the endemic phase. There’s a very good chance that the level of Covid in the population right now is the level of Covid we’re going to have going forward, continuously and for the foreseeable future. At least here in the U.S.

That’s terrible, of course. Covid’s killing a little more than 300 people per day, or more than 100,000 per year. Vaccination and booster uptake probably won’t get better from here - there’s a good chance it gets worse, as the population loses focus on getting regular shots. So there’s a good chance that Covid takes a permanent spot among our leading causes of death, somewhere in the bottom half of the top ten, and represents a continuous reduction in our overall life expectancy.

I think we’re all close to the point where we can no longer think of precautions that we’re taking as interim measures that we’re going to engage in today, but discontinue at some point in the future. Instead, we all need to figure out what types of measures we’re prepared to follow for the rest of our lives as ‘normal’ in a world with Covid. For some people, that will include masking and distancing - others aren’t prepared to do that forever. But given where we are, it’s hard to see a future in which Covid prevalence in the U.S. population is going to be significantly lower than it is now. It will ebb and peak (we might be at a near-term higher level right now), but it’s not going to disappear, and probably won’t ever fall to a point where a precaution you think is necessary today will not be necessary then.

Albaby

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My husband got Covid. He was contracted to sing the amazingly gorgeous Neruda Songs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neruda_Songs

with the Malaga Symphony Orchestra at the historic Teatro Cervantes, and we were unwilling to cancel. We made it past that in good health, and then revisited our honeymoon haunts in Granada in good health, but upon returning to Mallorca he got sick and I did not.

He is now quarantined upstairs and I slip him food.

Some

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For the rest of my life, I’m making sure to get enough Vitamin D to maintain that 60 to 80 mg/mL level,

walking on sunny days

and I’m making sure to get enough selenium every day.

three or more Brazil nuts a day

The Captain
people complain that healthcare is expensive. Nature provides most of what you need

Health Benefits of Brazil Nuts

A 1-ounce serving of Brazil nuts has nearly 1,000% of your recommended daily allowance of selenium. A single nut has 96 micrograms, much higher than many other types of nuts. Other nutrients in Brazil nuts include:

Vitamin B1
Vitamin B6
Vitamin E
Calcium
Copper
Magnesium
Manganese
Phosphorous
Zinc

https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-brazil-nuts

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A 1-ounce serving of Brazil nuts has nearly 1,000% of your recommended daily allowance of selenium. A single nut has 96 micrograms, much higher than many other types of nuts.

The Tolerable Upper Intake for selenium is 400 mcg per day. 4 Brazil nuts have a combined total of around 400 mcg. The US RDA is 55 mcg per day.

I eat ONE Brazil nut per day and take a 100 mcg supplement. That’s about 200 mcg per day.

While selenium is an essential nutrient, too much can be harmful or deadly.

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The Tolerable Upper Intake for selenium is 400 mcg per day. 4 Brazil nuts have a combined total of around 400 mcg. The US RDA is 55 mcg per day.

WHAT!!!

I just ate probably 30 of them. And yesterday I ate 15 of them. And last week one day I ate a whole bunch of them too, maybe 40 of them.

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WHAT!!!

I just ate probably 30 of them. And yesterday I ate 15 of them. And last week one day I ate a whole bunch of them too, maybe 40 of them.

Earlier today I looked it up based on the dire warning. The National Institutes of Health.

Can selenium be harmful?

Yes, if you get too much. Brazil nuts, for example, contain very high amounts of selenium (68–91 mcg per nut) and can cause you to go over the upper limit if you eat too many.

Upper Limit Adults 400 mcg

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Selenium-Consumer/

400 / 75 = 5.33333333 nuts

Americans are mesmerized by numbers. If you can put a number on something that is pure Divine perfection. Just look at baseball! Just look at the stock market, the biggest loss since 1970!!! A number, please kneel and adore!

How did the NIH come up with the 400 number? The same way it came up with the low fat diet? All the covid numbers we have had to suffer through? Is Mathematics the new religion in an increasingly secular world?

Since Brazil nuts are so dangerous, has anyone a statistic about the number of Brazil nut deaths?

The Captain
has yet to die of a Brazil nut overdose

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Can selenium be harmful?
Yes, if you get too much. Brazil nuts, for example, contain very high amounts of selenium (68–91 mcg per nut) and can cause you to go over the upper limit if you eat too many.
Upper Limit Adults 400 mcg
—
Since Brazil nuts are so dangerous, has anyone a statistic about the number of Brazil nut deaths?

www.nutsforlife.com.au/resource/if-i-eat-too-many-brazil-nut…
An upper level of intake (UL) has also been set at 400 µg of selenium a day and relates to intakes from food and supplements. This is based on studies from China and the US indicating that intakes of 800 µg does not cause adverse effects. Studies in native populations of the Brazilian Amazon region have found blood selenium levels ranging from 103 to 1500 µg with no signs or symptoms of selenium toxicity [5]. However, because of gaps in the body of evidence, a safety factor is applied – resulting in an upper limit of 400 µg (equivalent to 21g or approximately 7 Brazil nuts).

[5]
No evidence of selenosis from a selenium-rich diet in the Brazilian Amazon
Lemire et al.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041201…
Abstract:
Selenium (Se) is an essential element and a well-known anti-oxidant. In the Lower Tapajós River region of the Brazilian Amazon, biomarkers of Se range from normal to very high. The local traditional diet includes important Se sources such as Brazil nuts, chicken, game meat and certain fish species…

Participants (N = 448), aged 15–87 years, were recruited from 12 communities…Although B-Se and P-Se surpassed concentrations considered toxic (B-Se: 1000 µg/L (U.S. EPA, 2002)), no dermal or breath signs or symptoms of Se toxicity were associated with the biomarkers of Se status…

In the present study population, where Se intake is mostly from traditional diet, there is no evidence of selenosis. These findings support the need to re-assess Se toxicity…

DB2

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Dr. Bob, thanks for the feedback!

An upper level of intake (UL) has also been set at 400 µg of selenium a day and relates to intakes from food and supplements. This is based on studies from China and the US indicating that intakes of 800 µg does not cause adverse effects. Studies in native populations of the Brazilian Amazon region have found blood selenium levels ranging from 103 to 1500 µg with no signs or symptoms of selenium toxicity [5]. However, because of gaps in the body of evidence, a safety factor is applied – resulting in an upper limit of 400 µg (equivalent to 21g or approximately 7 Brazil nuts).

The 400 number is a CYA number. If 1500 didn’t kill people and 800 µg (half of 1500) does not cause adverse effects, let’s make the CYA number 400 (half of half of 1500).

Then 400 becomes religion! Eat eight Brazil nut and you are dead!

You see this in SEC filings, every last risk, no matter how unlikely, is listed just in case.

Beware of Covid Reinfection!

The Captain
Calvin always worries about the monsters under the bed…

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Since Brazil nuts are so dangerous, has anyone a statistic about the number of Brazil nut deaths?

I just did something crazy. I counted the brazil nuts in a bag that I bought earlier this week. I buy them at Sprouts in bulk, so the amount varies each time. There were 89 of them in the bag. That’s after eating ~30 of them yesterday, and 15 the day before, from that bag. The bag from last week was similar and I ate the whole thing in 4-5 days. So I had 130+ brazil nuts last week, and so far this week another 50+.

Am I gonna die from it? What harm will it do to me?