US/Canada border closed until???

[MyronL]

No side effects from 2nd shot today. They did refuse to give me a lollypop. Went and got a Supreme breakfast burrito instead.

[C&G in FL]

Some of my Canadian friends and relatives tell me the don’t expect to get vaccinated for months because Canada has to rely on foreign sources to obtain it. I would hope that the most vulnerable Canadians will be able to be vaccinated sooner than what is being projected. And I still would guess that the border MAY open up for “non-essential” travel if one can show proof of vaccination. With the J&J single shot vaccine coming up for approval, there may be hope for greater quantities becoming available.

[Telescopist]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Some of my Canadian friends and relatives tell me the don’t expect to get vaccinated for months because Canada has to rely on foreign sources to obtain it. I would hope that the most vulnerable Canadians will be able to be vaccinated sooner than what is being projected. And I still would guess that the border MAY open up for “non-essential” travel if one can show proof of vaccination. With the J&J single shot vaccine coming up for approval, there may be hope for greater quantities becoming available.

From the epidemiologist's at the Mayo Clinic: "It's also not clear if the COVID-19 vaccines reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As a result, it's not known if a person who is vaccinated could be a carrier of the COVID-19 virus and spread it to others, even if he or she doesn't become sick. More research is needed to determine if you are still contagious after being vaccinated."

"Because of these factors, even once you're vaccinated you could still pose a health risk to unvaccinated family and friends by visiting with them in person."

[Donna D.]

Yesterday, Dr. Fauci says new CDC rules are coming for people who've been fully vaccinated. He told CNN he thought the agency would soon "relax the stringency of the recommendations." Fauci, who doesn't run the CDC, said he would be "comfortable" letting vaccinated households mix.

So... we wait. I'm good with that. I've been waiting a year...

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Yesterday, Dr. Fauci says new CDC rules are coming for people who've been fully vaccinated. He told CNN he thought the agency would soon "relax the stringency of the recommendations." Fauci, who doesn't run the CDC, said he would be "comfortable" letting vaccinated households mix.

So... we wait. I'm good with that. I've been waiting a year...

Hi: Donna D... I'm staying in and weighting!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Jake930]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Some of my Canadian friends and relatives tell me the don’t expect to get vaccinated for months because Canada has to rely on foreign sources to obtain it. I would hope that the most vulnerable Canadians will be able to be vaccinated sooner than what is being projected. And I still would guess that the border MAY open up for “non-essential” travel if one can show proof of vaccination. With the J&J single shot vaccine coming up for approval, there may be hope for greater quantities becoming available.

It’s not only Canadian’s, this side of the boarder also. My wife and I have had no luck in getting an appointment for shots. Than our county health department released a notice yesterday which said that because of the supply distribution from the federal government that Chenango county will have no appointments available for 14 or more weeks.
We called a pharmacy the next county over, and they had gotten 100 vaccines this week, but the slots were already taken and they were expecting 100 more in two weeks . So we wait.

[Ronn]

Originally Posted by Telescopist

From the epidemiologist's at the Mayo Clinic: "It's also not clear if the COVID-19 vaccines reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As a result, it's not known if a person who is vaccinated could be a carrier of the COVID-19 virus and spread it to others, even if he or she doesn't become sick. More research is needed to determine if you are still contagious after being vaccinated."

"Because of these factors, even once you're vaccinated you could still pose a health risk to unvaccinated family and friends by visiting with them in person."

This will likely change as more information is gathered. I am hopeful that further information yields that it does reduce the spread.

[Greg A]

We have been noticing that this is the first winter none of us are getting sick. Our daughter normally gets 3-4 sinus infections requiring antibiotics by this time and we’ll usually have multiple colds, etc among all of us. None of us have had anything this winter or since last March.
The difference is less contact with outside people and we are very good double mask wearers. I’m thinking the masks are the primary reason we’re not getting colds and sinus infections. Anyone else noticing a change in getting colds, etc.?

[brroberts]

Originally Posted by Greg A

We have been noticing that this is the first winter none of us are getting sick. Our daughter normally gets 3-4 sinus infections requiring antibiotics by this time and we’ll usually have multiple colds, etc among all of us. None of us have had anything this winter or since last March.
The difference is less contact with outside people and we are very good double mask wearers. I’m thinking the masks are the primary reason we’re not getting colds and sinus infections. Anyone else noticing a change in getting colds, etc.?

Me too. Same with the flu. Crowded Asian countries have long embraced the mask. Many here try to turn it into a political statement. It’s just me taking care of my neighbor, as I should.

[Jake930]

Originally Posted by Greg A

We have been noticing that this is the first winter none of us are getting sick. Our daughter normally gets 3-4 sinus infections requiring antibiotics by this time and we’ll usually have multiple colds, etc among all of us. None of us have had anything this winter or since last March.
The difference is less contact with outside people and we are very good double mask wearers. I’m thinking the masks are the primary reason we’re not getting colds and sinus infections. Anyone else noticing a change in getting colds, etc.?

Us too. Usually I get sick at least twice during the late winter and once in late summer. This year nothing. Not since January last year. And the wife can get four or five sinus infections in a year. Nothing so far. I think we are going to make mask wearing a permanent thing, at least around crowds and shopping.

[Bobbie54]

It would be nice if we could at least embrace anyone with cold symptoms wearing a mask to work or school. That and keep up the hand-washing. I used to have a sign on my office door to stay outside the door and talk to me from there if the student had a cold. It worked great.

[EdColorado]

An interesting article from the NYT.

Israel, the country that has vaccinated the largest share of its population, offers a case study. One recent analysis looked at 602,000 Israelis who had received Covid vaccines and found that only 21 later contracted the virus and had to be hospitalized. Twenty-one is obviously not zero. Vaccines are almost never perfect. But the Covid vaccines are turning it into the sort of risk that people accept every day.

Here’s a useful way to think about Israel’s numbers: Only 3.5 out of every 100,000 people vaccinated there were later hospitalized with Covid symptoms. During a typical flu season in the U.S., by comparison, roughly 150 out of every 100,000 people are hospitalized with flu symptoms.

And yet the seasonal flu does not grind life to a halt. It does not keep people from flying on airplanes, eating in restaurants, visiting their friends or going to school and work.

The vaccines will not produce “Covid zero.” But they are on pace — eventually, and perhaps even by summer — to produce something that looks a lot like normalcy. The rare exceptions won’t change that, no matter how much attention they receive.”

[Bobbie54]

The seasonal flu is also more easily contained as it knocks you off your feet pretty fast. So you may infect a few people but you aren't likely to go to a gym or restaurant and spread it to many more. The asymptomatic spread (or in many cases, pre-symptomatic) accounts for a lot of the Covid problem. On the other hand flu vaccines are not nearly as good as even the least effective J&J vaccine.

[GregandTeresa]

Originally Posted by EdColorado

An interesting article from the NYT.

Israel, the country that has vaccinated the largest share of its population, offers a case study. One recent analysis looked at 602,000 Israelis who had received Covid vaccines and found that only 21 later contracted the virus and had to be hospitalized. Twenty-one is obviously not zero. Vaccines are almost never perfect. But the Covid vaccines are turning it into the sort of risk that people accept every day.

Here’s a useful way to think about Israel’s numbers: Only 3.5 out of every 100,000 people vaccinated there were later hospitalized with Covid symptoms. During a typical flu season in the U.S., by comparison, roughly 150 out of every 100,000 people are hospitalized with flu symptoms.

And yet the seasonal flu does not grind life to a halt. It does not keep people from flying on airplanes, eating in restaurants, visiting their friends or going to school and work.

The vaccines will not produce “Covid zero.” But they are on pace — eventually, and perhaps even by summer — to produce something that looks a lot like normalcy. The rare exceptions won’t change that, no matter how much attention they receive.”

I've seen that story, and that is excellent news.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by emers382

I think Dave you should have linked to the Niagara Rally thread, not everyone would know what you're talking about "did our jobs"

Sorry Adrian I just get so excited when I start thinking about smoked salmon, ribs and fried fish. Well anyway, I got both of my shots, now I need to renew my passport. Got the envelope out this morning and had forgotten that I had $90 Canadian in there with the passports. Rita is good for three more years but mine ran out last summer since I got it in 2010 when my son and I went on a bear killing mission in Ontario. Joe is hard to get a one on one with but I’ve done my best.
Iowa Dave

[kavm]

Dave - Are you able to travel to Canada after vaccination? I had not read that...

[RangerMan]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Sorry Adrian I just get so excited when I start thinking about smoked salmon, ribs and fried fish. Well anyway, I got both of my shots, now I need to renew my passport. Got the envelope out this morning and had forgotten that I had $90 Canadian in there with the passports. Rita is good for three more years but mine ran out last summer since I got it in 2010 when my son and I went on a bear killing mission in Ontario. Joe is hard to get a one on one with but I’ve done my best.
Iowa Dave

See what happens here!

"Donald is hard to get a one on one with but I did my best"

Five will get you ten I get 'corrected'

[emers382]

Originally Posted by kavm

Dave - Are you able to travel to Canada after vaccination? I had not read that...

Well if by September they open the border to "casual" travellers, i.e. not essential workers, then we'll likely still have onerous restrictions in place. As I've mentioned elsewhere to return to Canada from any other country by air you must go to one of four major cities, and have a negative test done within 72 hours of arrival, then on arrival you must be tested again and go to a government approved (i.e. expensive) hotel until results are back, three days, then if negative may go home for the remainder of the 14 day isolation. If positive then good luck! even if you've had the vaccination as many have done in Fl you still have to abide by this.

My wife is returning next week from KS by land since she cannot fly to our closest Canadian city, at least the American one is the same distance basically from our border town. She must have had a negative test within 72 hours and is already having trouble finding a place for the right test with results guaranteed back in time for her flight. She'll then come by taxi from the airport to the border where she'll take another test, then home to self isolate for two weeks, with another test to be done before the end of that two weeks.

I don't have a lot of faith that we'll have Americans at the Niagara rally nor will we be able to attend the Mississippi Rendezvous where we usually go even if most of the population of both US and Canada are vaccinated by September. Our government right now is scared stiff of the variants.

On edit: I hope this isn't considered political, I'm just trying to tell it as it is!

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

So... we wait. I'm good with that. I've been waiting a year...

My closest family member is my cousin who lives a mile from me. I haven't seen her since January 2020, because I left in February 2020 on a trip out west and didn't return until late March, after the pandemic was underway. My cousin and her husband are in their 70s and I am not about to jeopardize their health, so I've stayed away. They have just received their second shots. I have had my first and will get the second in mid-March. I told her I'd come up at the end of March and pay them a visit. I'm looking forward to it.

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by Greg A

Anyone else noticing a change in getting colds, etc.?

I noticed this effect when I retired from my job eight years ago and moved back home to a rural area. My overall health improved. I was no longer around other people all day, had no job stress, etc. The pandemic has changed my life only slightly, and I recognize that I am lucky in this regard. I wear a mask and goggles when I go into a store, sanitize my hands when I leave, and wash them when I get home. So far so good, for me at least. I feel sorry for extroverts who need to be around other people a lot of the time.