[superkuh]

For me it's not over till there's an FDA approved intranasal sars-cov-2 vaccine (mucosal) to complement the intramuscular (humoral) one. Different immune compartments, different antibodies, different tissues/organs protected. It's like we did 2/3 of the race, declared victory and walked off.

5 years on and I've still managed to avoid being infected with sars-cov-2. I was going to continue the extremely burdensome mitigation behaviors till there was an intranasal available... but with how things are in the USA now it seems like this will never happen. I'm just going to have to roll the dice on my car-accident-equivalent sars-cov-2 first infection now, before I get any older, and hope I only come out with minor injuries to my mucosal tissues. My humoral tissues / organs should be fine thanks to the intramuscular vaccinations.

[elif]

There's plenty of commercial products you can use to enhance the antiviral protection of your mucosal immune system. Zicam sells one. It's a goop. you rub in your nose preemptively. I'm also in the no covid club (over 150 negative tests) and I put a lot of credit for that on the nose goop.

[anon84873628]

What is your biggest concern about the mucosal tissues? Loss of taste/smell?

I remember folks making their own intranasal vaccines with research peptides. What is your analysis of that?

[elzbardico]

The upper respiratory tract mucosal tissues are the places most respiratory viruses colonize first upon subject exposure. Intranasal vaccines can trigger mucosal immunity, especially secretory IgA antibodies, right at the site of infection. That’s something injected vaccines usually can’t do well.

Even if an injectable vaccine is able to prevent severe disease from those kinds of viruses, it is not completely "sterilizing" as the virus will still replicate on those mucosas and will be able to be spread even if in a less virulent fashion. Intranasal vaccines have the potential to stop those viruses before they have a chance to take hold.

[superkuh]

The nervous system damage like that is certainly a big concern. Especially with the adjacency of the mucosal tissues of the sinuses, etc, to the central nervous system proper. And then there's the problem that intramuscular sars-cov-2 vaccination has basically zero measurable effect on long-covid syndrome(s). I really just wanted my entire body to be protected before being infected and the viral load as low as possible during infection.

>folks making their own intranasal vaccines with research peptides

I wish the RaDVaC were still available, but around the time of sars-cov-2 delta(?) they were no longer able manufacture the proteins needed for their intranasal protein vaccination (they tried but they could not produce it; a common problem with full protein vaccines). It hasn't been an option for quite a while.

The only real option would be a medical tourism trip to India to get their iNCOVACC intranasal sars-cov-2 vaccine but I do not think I have the money or ability to successfully navigate a foreign medical system.

[0_____0]

Tangent, feel free to downvote but I want to (lightly) rant.

We're finally pulling the copper from the walls.

I don't think we're imminently about to fall to fascism but I see the UK about 50 paces down the path from us wrt gutting public services and investment in any kind of future that operates better than today.

Our country voted for this, eyes wide open. This ain't a fluke.

[WorldPeas]

One has to wonder if this is the outcome of generational wealth becoming too entrenched. At a certain point billionaires aren't interested in generative activity, rather they're interested in preservation of what they have.

[0_____0]

Behaviorally advanced structures of capital will try to entrench themselves (and have, see Standard Oil, Bell et. al.) but what I'm most confused by is the consent of the people for it today.

People voted for Tax Cuts for Billionaires and apparently the dismantling of the administrative state. At this point I feel like a different species from my countrymen on issues of the state. Funny thing is, I work with and talk to Trumpy people often enough and the ones I know are usually pretty on top of things in person. How does my contractor who has good sense in construction, family life etc. run around with a Trump sticker on his car? What does he think is happening? What am I missing?

[WorldPeas]

I wrote about three paragraphs and then I stopped myself (I guess I'm a reasoning model), it's basically 3 things:

1.) The collapse of news networks/mainstream discourse after the pandemic led to further silo-ing of interests and politics

2.) Public perception that Democrats lost their Jon Stewart-esque libertine attitudes and that they're stodgy and judging, that they don't know how to market to people now who want "caught in the act/hidden camera" salacious stuff, they only know how to litigate it afterwards with reports and trials

3.) Oct. 7 is a big one I don't see cited a lot, while most people I know don't know about it, it's caused an internal division in the Democratic party of a magnitude that I've never seen before.