Covid testing in Cozumel

[gopbroek]

Google turns up dozens of articls. Here's one:

Immune T Cells May Offer Lasting Protection Against COVID-19
Much of the study on the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has focused on the production of antibodies. But, in fact, immune cells known as memory T cells also play an important role in the ability of our immune systems to protect us against many viral infections, including—it now appears—COVID-19.

An intriguing new study of these memory T cells suggests they might protect some people newly infected with SARS-CoV-2 by remembering past encounters with other human coronaviruses. This might potentially explain why some people seem to fend off the virus and may be less susceptible to becoming severely ill with COVID-19.
...
Next, they looked at blood samples from 23 people who’d survived SARS. Their studies showed that those individuals still had lasting memory T cells today, 17 years after the outbreak. Those memory T cells, acquired in response to SARS-CoV-1, also recognized parts of SARS-CoV-2.

Here's another: Singapore study finds virus-specific T cell immunity in recovered COVID-19 and SARS patients

Might help explain the lack of a mass die off of frontline medical workers, grocery store workers, airline workers, ect. The sections of society that are routinely exposed to the public and the common infections they carry may have a stronger immune system due to past exposure than the folks that work in cubicles or relative isolation.

 

[ReefHound]

Hey @ReefHound

This is NOT peer reviewed yet, but Cleveland Clinic is thinking you are right, past infection is pretty darn good. Just popped today!

Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals

"The cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection remained almost zero among previously infected unvaccinated subjects, previously infected subjects who were vaccinated, and previously uninfected subjects who were vaccinated, compared with a steady increase in cumulative incidence among previously uninfected subjects who remained unvaccinated. Not one of the 1359 previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated had a SARS-CoV-2 infection over the duration of the study."

Yup. Everyone has an anecdotal story to tell but the aggregate data is clear. There is no factual basis to vaccinate the recovered. There is no factual basis to view the recovered but unvaccinated as vulnerable. Every argument to vaccinate is based on questions and speculation, the exact same questions and speculation that could apply to vaccinations. It's like coming to a fork in the road where we don't know where either path leads, and insisting we must go left because we don't know where right will take us.

My biggest concern is that the government and the "Experts" working for the government are pushing sooooo hard for vaccinations that I don't trust them to be fair and objective in their studies and interpretation of the data. Look at the CDC, recently deciding to not track breakthrough cases of the vaccinated (just hospitalizations and deaths) after a year of focusing on number of "cases" for the unvaccinated. Or the fact we have 40 million confirmed recoveries in the US (200 million worldwide) and they act like they don't know if the recovered are protected or not.

The best part of the report you cited is the line "There was no funding for this study."

 

[ggunn]

My biggest concern is that the government and the experts working for the government are pushing sooooo hard for vaccinations that I don't trust them to be fair and objective in their studies and interpretation of the data.

But surely you are not arguing that the vaccines have not been effective at quashing the pandemic in the US among the vaccinated; that data is plainly obvious. Possibly it is better to have had the disease and survived it than to be vaccinated against it, but in my case the demographics were stacked against me. I can remember back in the 50's when parents would bring their kids over where there was measles or chicken pox to intentionally infect them. I don't think there was much if any at all of that going on this time around.

 

[RayfromTX]

Just got tested by the practice of Dr Juan Jose Arellano. His technician came to our apartment at the scheduled time and did a throat swab antigen test which is far more civilized than the Russian mind probe offered elsewhere. The negative results were emailed to us in less than an hour. He was easy to deal with and the cost was 800 pesos. His email is urg24hrs@gmail.com. They offer 24 hour house calls for many medical procedures and they speak like 6 different languages.

I asked the tech how many positive results they get and he said he get about 2 out of 1000 but that the lab gets way more positive results. The island is getting a surge of covid cases right now.

I fly home on Thursday and get my first vaccine stick on Friday. I've been here since Christmas and since then almost everyone I know has gotten vaccinated. More people here on the island are getting vaccinated. 40-50 year olds are getting vaccinated starting tomorrow. There is rumor of corruption in the distribution of vaccines with some of the eligible people that were signed up not getting vaccinated because they ran out. The scuttlebutt is that the connected people jumped the line but that could be just sour grapes.

I may be imagining it but it seems that mask adherence is going back up after falling off the last two months. It will be good to be home but I really have fallen in love with the island more in the last six months than in the years before. Being here without the cruise ships made all the mask wearing and other precautions totally worth it. I guess I have to come out of temporary retirement and go back to work now.

 

[ReefHound]

But surely you are not arguing that the vaccines have not been effective at quashing the pandemic in the US among the vaccinated; that data is plainly obvious. Possibly it is better to have had the disease and survived it than to be vaccinated against it, but in my case the demographics were stacked against me. I can remember back in the 50's when parents would bring their kids over where there was measles or chicken pox to intentionally infect them. I don't think there was much if any at all of that going on this time around.

Nope, I've never suggested that for the uninfected and unvaccinated, that getting covid and recovering is a wise option going forward. Covid "parties" are idiotic. Again, my issue is how the recovered and unvaccinated are lumped into the same category as the never infected and unvaccinated when they would more appropriately be put into the same category as the vaccinated. This side discussion all began when someone suggested waiving the covid test for the vaccinated and I said to also waive it for the recovered. People took issue with my also saying because recovered immunity was "as good as or better" than vaccinated immunity (we should say protection not immunity). Now you can find experts who say it is and experts who say it isn't and experts who say we don't know. So I'd be happy to amend that to "similar to vaccinated immunity" as whichever one is better may vary according to the individual but seems to be fairly marginal.

As for the objectivity of those pushing hard for vaccinations, that is just basic common sense. It's natural and human to be biased, to look for justification and support of what you support. It's the essence of of "vested interest".

 

[ReefHound]

I asked the tech how many positive results they get and he said he get about 2 out of 1000 but that the lab gets way more positive results. The island is getting a surge of covid cases right now.

Interesting. I wonder why his results are different. Maybe the Russian mind probe is more accurate? Maybe only healthy tourists use his services? I'm also curious how that ratio compares to the general population.

 

[RayfromTX]

Interesting. I wonder why his results are different. Maybe the Russian mind probe is more accurate? Maybe only healthy tourists use his services? I'm also curious how that ratio compares to the general population.

The throat swab isn't less accurate. The lab gets tests from suspected cases. If I suspected I had covid I would likely go to the hospital. That test would go to the lab. I wouldn't call this guy because I suspected I had covid. The sample is different. At the beginning of the outbreak tests were impossible to come by. The few they had all came back positive because they were only testing really sick people.

My doctor friend told me they had 6 tests for the whole hospital and they took a week to get the results which sometimes meant they knew for sure what caused the death of the person they were waiting for the results on. Many people died of Covid that were never tested but the doctors knew what killed them. They all presented similar symptoms. There was also the problem of people not wanting to go to the hospital because that's where the covid was so they didn't go until they were dying. Many were self treating with antibiotics and denying their illness.

I knew one guy that we knew had it but he went to the pharmacy and got a zpack and some other stuff for allergies and slowly got better on his own but he was a competitive body builder and it almost killed him. Because he didn't think he had it and refused the test that I lined up for him he continued to visit his father and sister. The sister contracted it and the father died from it in the hospital in cancun with no family able to be there. There was a lot of suffering around the island that had nothing to do with loss of income.

 

[loady]

Update, verifly garbage phone app is ignored so no point in taking hours to use it. Paper all that’s wanted. CDC tile is test three calendar days before flying .
Check in at airport and get last boarding group. for the second time in 48 hours American Airlines stranded plane loads of people. Line to rebook and get hotel voucher was hundreds of feet long and took up to 6 hours in Miami. Checked bags not returned, claimed will be forwarded to final destination. American has completed its transformation to last place Spirit air. Congratulations.

 

[gopbroek]

Flew out of Cancun yesterday, terminal was crammed full. Checked in at the kiosk and a flag came up for the Covid test. Gate agent came over and looked at my test document and cleared the flag. Went through security and was at my gate about 10-15 minutes after I got off the ADO bus

Edit: Three weeks back same routine in Cozumel, had a paper copy of the test. From the front door to the gate, including checking a bag, about 10 minutes

 

[tridacna]

Update, verifly garbage phone app is ignored so no point in taking hours to use it. Paper all that’s wanted. CDC tile is test three calendar days before flying .
Check in at airport and get last boarding group. for the second time in 48 hours American Airlines stranded plane loads of people. Line to rebook and get hotel voucher was hundreds of feet long and took up to 6 hours in Miami. Checked bags not returned, claimed will be forwarded to final destination. American has completed its transformation to last place Spirit air. Congratulations.

Can you rewrite in English please? What is a CDC tile? Why were people stranded?