Darkoshi

I'm eligible for the 2nd COVID-19 booster shot, but have debated getting it now versus waiting a month or two. From what I've read, for people without risk factors, there's no urgency in getting it, and there may be benefits to waiting. (In case there's another big surge several months from now, or in case they come out with new boosters/vaccines based on the latest variants.)

In my area, the current case/hospitalization rates are very low, as low as they were in the very early days of the pandemic.

In two articles, I read something like the following, which I was curious about:

How Long Does It Take for the COVID Booster to Be Effective? (2021/12/21)

There's one other factor that can impact the effectiveness of a booster: time between doses. According to Penaloza-MacMaster, the longer the interval between your original vaccine series and the booster dose, the better antibodies your memory cells can create.

Why would the memory cells work better with a longer interval? So I tried to find an answer (I don't believe I did), and more info on these memory cells...


What to know about booster shots and third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (2021/12/22)

COVID-19 vaccines create high levels of antibodies that can block the virus from ever infecting our cells. As time passes after your vaccination, however, you also develop memory B cells and T cell immunity and antibody levels go down. With fewer blocking antibodies, the virus might be able to start an infection. As viruses evolve, strains that can bypass those antibodies have an advantage and some people have such a high-level exposure that it can overwhelm the antibodies they do have. When this happens, we call it a “breakthrough infection,” but memory B cells and T cells are able to respond quickly and stop the infection before too much damage is done.

Breakthroughs, Boosters, and B cells … Oh My! (2021/10/12)

Over time, as the infection resolves and these antibodies fail to find virus, they will diminish in number. However, what doesn’t go away are the cells that can produce antibodies against the infecting virus. They are called memory B cells. We also have memory T cells that remain after an infection. If we are exposed to the same virus again, those B and T cells will recognize it and become activated.

The memory B cells will change into another type of B cell, called a plasma cell, and quickly start producing large quantities of antibodies. The antibodies produced by these cells are significantly more effective at stopping the virus than antibodies produced during the first encounter with a virus.

Activated memory T cells will cause the production of chemicals critical to our immune response, called cytokines.

This page has a nice simple chart:
Viral Attack: Memory Cells

Toward the end of each battle to stop an infection, some T-cells and B-cells turn into Memory T-cells and Memory B-cells. As you would expect from their names, these cells remember the virus or bacteria they just fought. These cells live in the body for a long time, even after all the viruses from the first infection have been destroyed. They stay in the ready-mode to quickly recognize and attack any returning viruses or bacteria.

Quickly making lots of antibodies can stop an infection in its tracks. The first time your body fights a virus, it can take up to 15 days to make enough antibodies to get rid of it. With the help of Memory B-cells, the second time your body sees that virus, it can do the same in thing 5 days. It also makes 100 times more antibodies than it did the first time. The faster your body makes antibodies, the quicker the virus can be destroyed. With the help of Memory B-cells, you might get rid of it before you even feel sick. This is called gaining immunity.

B cell memory: understanding COVID-19 (2021/02/09)

If the amount of Abs [antibodies] in circulation drops, or if the pathogen varies from the initial infection, the shield may not be protective, and a re-run of the response would be required. This response, triggered by re-exposure to the same or a closely related pathogen, uses the memory B and T cells, incorporating the information acquired in the first response by starting with cells that have already been selected as being strongly reactive. This head start makes memory responses faster, larger, and of higher affinity than the initial response, allowing for rapid negation of the pathogen, often before symptoms develop.
...
Within GCs [germinal centers], B cells rapidly proliferate and, remarkably, deliberately mutate the DNA encoding the epitope-binding component of their antigen-binding receptor, potentially changing its affinity. This occurs as repeated cycles of proliferation, mutation, and selective survival of those B cells with improved binding affinity to antigen. This “selection of the fittest” continues for the duration of the response or until antigen receptor binding strength reaches a maximum, meaning that B cell affinity is improving as the response progresses.

Why are T cells called T cells
T cells (thymus cells) and B cells (bone marrow- or bursa-derived cells) are the major cellular components of the adaptive immune response.

I wasn't even familiar with this organ of the human body:
Thymus
The thymus is located in the upper front part of the chest, ... behind the sternum, and in front of the heart. It is made up of two lobes


Update, 2022/05/29:
Here's another article that mentions memory B and T cells benefitting from delaying the booster, if you've recently had a COVID infection:

Is a second COVID-19 booster right for me?

“An infection acts as a kind of ‘immune boost,’” Ferullo explains, “Getting a booster shot too soon thereafter runs the risk of interrupting and restarting an immune-building process that the infection began,” he explains. “The longer those memory B and T cells have to mature, the better equipped they will be to fight a new infection, so it makes sense to delay a booster for a few months after recovery.”

Why must so many news reports about COVID-19 include video clips of vaccine needles being pushed into and pulled out of arms? I'm only a little needlephobic (I avert my gaze when getting shots) and a little bothered when I see those videos. But I imagine many people are a lot more disturbed by seeing it, and might avoid watching the news because of it? Seeing all those needles may be adding to their anxiety about getting vaccinated instead of relieving it.

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Another thing that oddly irritates me is hearing or reading the British term for it, "jab". The word "jab" makes me think of 2 friends walking down the street, and one of them giving the other a friendly shove of an elbow in the side. (Why do I associate it with that? Dunno.) So when I hear it used about the vaccine, it sounds like an attempt to downplay the fact that it's a needle piercing your skin. It sounds like a word you'd say to a small child to keep them from being afraid of it.

I have this reaction even though I know that's simply the term used in Britain and not a euphemism. And I know the word "shot" doesn't really describe an injection better than "jab".

WSJ has this intriguing-sounding article, but it requires a subscription to read: ‘Jab’: A British Term for a Covid-19 Shot, but Born in the U.S.A.

The newly imported name for a vaccination actually originated on this side of the Atlantic ...
It might not be the most important point of contention in the pandemic era, but a British-style, three-letter word for a vaccination shot has proved irksome to many Americans: “jab.”

So I'm not the only American irritated by that word?

Here I found a screenshot of the article on twitter.

Hah, so just like that flu of 1918, the word "jab" started in the U.S., spread out in Europe, and then came back.

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Damn:
SC tops entire country for COVID case rate as hospital reports record COVID patient count

The sneezing and runny nose only lasted that one day. That is unlike any cold I've ever had, so I still suspect it was a flu instead. I'm feeling pretty much back to normal now.

Sudden-onset cold. I woke up this morning after 4 hours sleep, feeling a scratchiness in my throat, realized my head wasn't feeling so great either, and pretty much around then, my nose started running.

I was really feeling lousy at that point, but finally fell back asleep for a few more hours. That helped a lot, except for the runny nose. Hopefully this cold will go away as quickly as it arrived.

Usually when I start feeling the inklings of a sore throat, I start taking garlic and vitamin C pills. That way, it generally doesn't go beyond a scratchy throat. I haven't had a runny-nose type of cold in so long that I don't even remember which medication is best. If I recall, all the ones that clear up my nose also make me drowsy.

My mother was right about something. She'd been telling me about how wonderful "facial tissues with lotion" were, when you have a cold. I thought that meant that the tissues were damp, and that it was like rubbing lotion into your skin while using them. That didn't sound good to me. But she gave me 2 boxes anyway - this was a while back. It turns out to be dry tissue like normal, but feels smoother, with less friction. Definitely good to keep your nose from getting sore when you're blowing it all day.

Two other good things about this winter compared to previous years:

1. The skin on my hands has been much less dry and chapped. Probably largely due to the warm, wet weather we had up through the end of December. But I've also been using ShiKai "Borage Therapy" Dry Skin Lotion on my hands before bed when the skin is dry, and it really seems to help. Maybe there really is something special about the borage oil.

2. When I blow my nose, there's not been any dried blood in my snot so far this winter. Again, the warm, wet weather probably kept my nasal passages from drying out and cracking and bleeding like they usually do.

2017/04/29 Update:
As suggested in the comments, the Kleenex "Cool-Touch" tissues feel even better on a sore nose than the regular tissues with lotion do. They are my top choice now for that.
But, (note to myself) - don't get Puffs brand "Plus Lotion" tissues. I have a box of them, and they are fine for normal usage, but when I had a cold, they felt pretty rough on my nose, almost just like regular tissues.

Working in the yard last weekend, I got a blister right in the palm of my hand. I was wearing gloves, and the blister was popped open already by the time I noticed it. (Jeez, my hand is feeling achy. I better check to make sure I'm not getting a blister... D'oh!)

*But* I had the bright idea to try out these waterproof bandages. They are wonderful. I can wash my hands without the band-aid getting all wet and coming loose! The first one of these that I put on lasted about 10 hours before coming loose. The 2nd one lasted nearly 24 hours before coming loose. If I hadn't been vacuuming and trimming grass, they probably would have lasted even longer.

The bandages themselves are rubbery-feeling, translucent and quite inconspicuous.

It's nearly 3am, and I haven't yet been coughing uncontrollably. Maybe I'm getting better!

I ended up going to the CVS MinuteClinic. Their website listed prices, which I appreciated.

My diagnosis was a sinus infection and viral conjunctivitis. The prescription was antibiotic tablets and eyedrops. I'm not clear why they prescribed antibiotic eyedrops for a viral eye infection, but the nurse made reference to my having been sick a week already, and my still having fevers, and that a viral infection wouldn't last that long, and that therefore they would treat both (the sinus and eye infection) with antibiotics.

The eyedrops seem to have helped - the redness was reduced greatly by the next day.
The sinus infection was a surprise to me, since I haven't had much nasal discharge or congestion. But looking up my nostrils in the mirror with a flashlight, I could see yellow gunk, unlike the more usual white gunk. So I presume that the diagnosis was correct.

After the diagnosis, I debated whether or not to do neti again. I had done neti two times when I first got sick. Sometimes when I do neti, the water doesn't drain well out of my nostrils, and I end up having a runny nose for much of the day. That happened the 2nd time. I wondered if that might have even caused the sinus infection.

This morning, I had a very bad headache, but no fever. Does headache without fever indicate sinus pressure? Tylenol cured the headache in 45 minutes. I decided to do neti again. It went well today.

Qiao got sick 3 days before me, and he's still not completely over it. I think I'm doing better than he is. He didn't have the misfortune of an eye infection, but neither has he had the benefit of antibiotics.

*It startled me to see "flat affect" written in my examination notes after I left the clinic. Admittedly, due to feeling sick, I was probably even less facially expressive than usual.

These are some of my initial thoughts on the reports of brain-eating amoeba danger from neti-pot use.


"If you are irrigating, flushing, or rinsing your sinuses, for example, by using a neti pot, use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution," Louisiana State Epidemiologist Dr. Raoult Ratard said in a statement.

Dang, that sucks. Using a neti pot is enough of a hassle (when I do it) using tap water. Having to buy and store distilled water, and heat it to the right temperature first (rather than turning on the hot & cold water taps), would make it even more of a hassle.

I suppose that heating the water in the microwave wouldn't be as much hassle as heating it on the stove, at least. But if you get it too hot, you can't just pour in extra cold tap water to cool it down... you'd have to either wait for it to cool, or cool it off with more of the precious store-bought distilled water.

Sometimes store-bought distilled water smells like plastic from the containers it is stored in. Pouring plastic-smelling water through ones nose likely isn't good for you either.

If you use boiled water instead of distilled, how long do you have to boil the water for it to be safe?


"The amoeba, formally known as Naegleria fowleri, destroys brain tissue and kills victims in about one to 12 days"

Death in 1 to 12 days... that doesn't sound so bad. Compared to other possible deaths, anyway.

What's the likelihood of coming down with a case of brain-eating amoebas from using tap-water neti, compared to the likelihood of getting into a bad car-cash?

When I'm horribly sick with a cold and runny/congested nose, am I really going to care about the obscure possibility of brain-eating amoebas?


The amoeba is usually found in freshwater lakes, rivers and ponds and does not normally survive the water-treatment process, Live Science reports. It must enter the body through the nasal cavity; it cannot be ingested through drinking water.

If it doesn't usually survive the water-treatment process, then why is the focus on neti-pot usage, rather than on the water-treatment process? Is there a problem with Louisiana's water treatment process? Or is it considered normal for some amoebas to make it through the process, and if so, how common is it?

Are there amoebas in my drinking water??? Ewwwww. How many non-brain-eating amoebas and other things like that are there in the tap water?


"While it's uncommon for tap water to contain the deadly amoeba, it may house harmful bacteria, such as e-coli, ABC 4 News reports. "

What? There's e-coli in my drinking water?

::Checks papers:: The city used to send out a water quality report every year, but I haven't gotten any since I started receiving my statements online a few years ago. But Google helped me find the report for 2010. It says that the highest monthly percentage of samples containing coliform bacteria was 2.06%, and that the highest level allowed is 5%.

Oh well.

Oh that reminds me. My throat felt a bit sore during the night. I wanted to take some garlic pills...

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I'd be more likely to boil water for neti than to buy distilled water for it. But how long would it need to be boiled?* I recall reading other articles that you have to boil water for a certain length of time, not just bring it to a boil... but maybe that was for sterilizing other objects by putting them in boiling water, rather than sterilizing the water itself.

CDC - Naegleria FAQs
All it says is "previously boiled water". So maybe you only have to bring the water to a full boil??

This article has some interesting info too:
Identification of Naegleria fowleri in Domestic Water Sources by Nested PCR


* see next post

A couple of weeks ago at work when I was outside for lunch, a mosquito was pestering me, following me from the bench to the picnic table. So I decided to kill it. The next time it landed on me, I swatted it. I felt my hand crushing it briefly, and then jerked away, shaken. Damn world, turning me into a killer.

Starting about a week ago, I seem to have gotten a case of adult-onset allergy against mosquito bites. I hope this is a temporary thing. Instead of having the bites stay pea-sized, they keep getting bigger until the size of a quarter or more, and the skin swells up. Sometimes the swelling itches and burns, sometimes not. Taking anti-histamines helps get rid of the swelling and itching somewhat. Otherwise the swelling goes away in about a day.

I'm wondering if my body's overreaction to the bites is somehow due to the chigger bumps which still haven't entirely faded. Or to the hot-pepper burn I got on my hands while de-seeding some peppers, the day before the swellings started.

This week I killed another mosquito, outside at lunch. Now it's not just defending myself from a bunch of itchy bites, but also from annoying swellings.

Actually, I'm still not entirely sure it's mosquito bites that are causing the swellings, as I haven't seen what's been biting me. The reaction is more like a spider bite reaction, but it doesn't seem likely to me that I've been getting repeatedly bitten by spiders several days in a week, both inside the house and outside.

I'm posting this not to complain about it, but so that maybe Google will index it, since I haven't found much info on sudden adult onset of mosquito allergies. Especially not in relation to chiggers or hot peppers.

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Last night, I saw a pale-colored, unpleasant-looking spider in the house. So I caught it and took it outside. But while descending the porch steps, preparing to release it onto the grass, I stepped on a large cockroach. Barefoot. Squish. Ugh. Poor cockroach. Sigh. Just can't win.

California, hot hot hot.

Very hot for a faintly feverish brow.

Driving in the backseat of cars does not agree with me.

My relatives are doing well.

Nearly all of my cousins have children now.. the one who doesn't yet is pregnant.

Bose noise-cancelling earphones are rather nifty, for earphones.

My Boost cellphone internet access is still working well. But not good for typing posts... using my aunt and uncle's eMac for this post.