Covid testing in Cozumel

[drrich2]

And how many other disease’s are you aware of that a vaccinated person becomes a host carrier?

One comes to mind, a bacteria rather than a virus so limited applicability. Staphylococcus aureus is a common bacteria that can do terrible things inside the human body, like cause septic joints (like if it gets in a joint and causes sepsis, then destroy it within 24 hours). Some strains are antibiotic resistant - often called MRSA (methicillin resistant Staph. aureus).

Problem: Some years back, it became common knowledge in health care settings that MRSA is fairly common in colonizing people's noses. Including staff. Oh, crap! How serious is this, and what to do?

It got a lot of attention for awhile...then over time seems like much less.

The E. coli common in the human colon can cause bad infections should it get in wounds.

People form antibodies to the HIV virus, and at least at times to the Hepatitis C virus, without ever clearing them from their systems, and can transmit them to others.

So, to address your question, a person can carry a potentially harmful microbe without suffering overt disease from it and may do so chronically.

Now, the applicability of bacterial samples to viruses, or HIV or Hep. C virus to this coronavirus, is quite a stretch, but my point is we can carry dangerous germs without being sick ourselves. I hope this coronavirus won't be one of them.

We also don't know how long effective immunity from vaccination or prior infection lasts, and how variable that duration is across individuals. What if it lasts a year for you but only 3 months for me? What if old people lose immunity much faster than the young?

Edit for clarity: Obviously people with HIV, and many with Hep. C, do suffer (at times fatally) from the infection, though in both cases presently asymptomatic people can transmit it to others.

 

[MMM]

Yes. The quarantine requirement has been in effect almost from the outset. The app is newer, however. It automates officials of your entry and follow up.

Canada has had that for pretty much the whole time right? They just added the testing?

....

 

[uncfnp]

One comes to mind, a bacteria rather than a virus so limited applicability. Staphylococcus aureus is a common bacteria that can do terrible things inside the human body, like cause septic joints (like if it gets in a joint and causes sepsis, then destroy it within 24 hours). Some strains are antibiotic resistant - often called MRSA (methicillin resistant Staph. aureus).

Problem: Some years back, it became common knowledge in health care settings that MRSA is fairly common in colonizing people's noses. Including staff. Oh, crap! How serious is this, and what to do?

It got a lot of attention for awhile...then over time seems like much less.

The E. coli common in the human colon can cause bad infections should it get in wounds.

People form antibodies to the HIV virus, and at least at times to the Hepatitis C virus, without ever clearing them from their systems, and can transmit them to others.

So, to address your question, a person can carry a potentially harmful microbe without suffering overt disease from it and may do so chronically.

Now, the applicability of bacterial samples to viruses, or HIV or Hep. C virus to this coronavirus, is quite a stretch, but my point is we can carry dangerous germs without being sick ourselves. I hope this coronavirus won't be one of them.

We also don't know how long effective immunity from vaccination or prior infection lasts, and how variable that duration is across individuals. What if it lasts a year for you but only 3 months for me? What if old people lose immunity much faster than the young?

Edit for clarity: Obviously people with HIV, and many with Hep. C, do suffer (at times fatally) from the infection, though in both cases presently asymptomatic people can transmit it to others.

Thoughtful post but I think the MRSA analogy is not valid. We all host bacteria. Up to 80% of individuals will have staph on their nasal mucosa. For some it is MRSA. And while we do mount an immune response when the bacteria becomes invasive we do not develop an immunity.

 

[drrich2]

More fun for everyone; from Reuters accessed via Apple News Plus,
HEALTHCARE & PHARMACEUTICALS
JANUARY 20, 2021 / 01:02 PM
New COVID-19 variant defeats plasma treatment, may reduce vaccine efficacy

I'll copy & paste a few snippets:

"The new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa can evade the antibodies that attack it in treatments using blood plasma from previously recovered patients, and may reduce the efficacy of the current line of vaccines, scientists said on Wednesday."
"“This lineage exhibits complete escape from three classes of therapeutically relevant monoclonal antibodies,” the team of scientists from three South African universities working with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) wrote in a paper published in the bioRxiv journal.

“Furthermore, 501Y.V2 shows substantial or complete escape from neutralising antibodies in COVID-19 convalescent plasma,” they wrote, adding that their conclusions “highlight the prospect of reinfection ... and may foreshadow reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines.”"

"The 501Y.V2 variant is 50% more infectious than previous ones, South African researchers said this week. It has already spread to at least 20 countries..."

So, even if you're immune (to standard COVID-19)...maybe you're not (to the variant).

Ain't 2021 just fun?

 

[Manatee Diver]

So, even if you're immune (to standard COVID-19)...maybe you're not (to the variant).

Ain't 2021 just fun?

2021 isn't the year we are going to defeat COVID.

 

[tridacna]

Easy solution: Post political comments and off topic advice to a new thread. Problem solved!

 

[P-Dog]

The CDC.gov wesite (updated today) states:
When do I need to get a test to travel to the US? And what kind of test do I need?
Get tested no more than 3 days before your flight to the US departs. Make sure to be tested with a viral test (NAAT or antigen test) to determine if you are currently infected with COVID-19. Also make sure that you receive your results before your flight departs and have documentation of your results to show the airline.

This looks like the low cost rapid antigen test is allowed for the US, not limited to the more expensive and more time consuming PCR test required by Canada.
Costamed's website (last updated in December) lists the rapid test for $999MXN ($50 USD). Since the rapid test does not require a lab and takes about 15 minute I would expect the local walkin clinics to also offer it at reduced cost (last few times I went to see a doctor at these clinics the cost was under $5 a visit).
Back in December in DFW AA was doing free tests for selected flights that required testing and allowed quick tests so l expect either the local governments and / or clinics or the airlines in partnership will step up to the plate. There is simply to much of the fragile economy at sake here.

I FINALLY FINALLY convinced my partner to go to Cozumel (end of March) and we paid for the whole trip yesterday. We'll already be vaccinated, and we had to rearrange our flights to go through Portland, OR so we could get an instant PCR test at the airport in order to return home to Hawaii and now we need to get another test the DAY BEFORE in order to return to the USA? What the actual bleep. When I tell him he's going to want to immediately cancel the trip.

I hope you are right that the airline will step up to the plate and offer the tests. That would be nice.

 

[chillyinCanada]

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[yle]

A few years back when flying back from St. Croix, at the St. Croix airport I had to go through Customs with our bags as though I were coming to the U.S. from another country (I didn't know that, and someone came to get one of us at the departure gate to go back and do this; hurried and stressful, but blessedly it got done and I made the flight).

Are you sure it wasn't just for agricultural inspection? Customs only inspects bags on arrival to a country, not when departing. But every time we've flown from Puerto Rico back to the US, we've had to put our bags through agricultural inspection before departing. It was still a domestic flight, though, and no customs inspection required once we arrived on the mainland.

 

[yle]

The entry test alone should indicate that travel to a US territory is simply not the same as traveling to another state.

But since last spring states have been creating their own rules for travelers coming from certain other states that have been perceived as higher risk. I distinctly recall around last May Texas had a list of about a dozen states from which arriving travelers would be required to quarantine. So... the arbitrary state-to-state travel rules aren't much different than St Croix requiring a neg test to enter.