Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Thanks all for weighing in with your experiences. Another question I have is why there are so many widely-experienced side effects from these vaccines? I'm talking about the nausea, migraine, fatigue, etc. I have never had a vaccine reaction in my life, and (knock on wood) same for my kids? But they...

I debated posting about this topic, and I will understand if it's not an acceptable topic. I understand the first-world position I'm in and am aware of the desperation for unavailable vaccines around the world. I hope I do not offend anyone. I am just trying to get more informed scientifically. My s...

I agree 17k is mind-boggling! And according to your linked explanation, it is apparently pretty much the max under ACA (17.1k). It feels like we are buying a catastrophic plan but paying comprehensive prices. Like DH said, we pay a lot* for the premiums, and then pay for healthcare anyway. After loo...

@scott: Thanks for all that, very instructive indeed. Painfully so, as we appear to have made some mistakes! Specifically #5: did not know Cobra was retroactive. DH looked and saw that it was gonna be 2k/mo so we just dismissed it. We definitely should have opted for that for the 60 days. On #4, tha...

Thanks all for your interesting responses. @cs: We did not consider subsidies. I'm not sure how it works if one is choosing not to work as DH currently is. I should investigate. @wheatstate: Your experience is a great case study. The rep did mention that they offered a catastrophic plan but advised ...

I know this topic comes up from time to time so here's a real-world comparison for ya. Our employer-sponsored family health insurance runs out at the end of the month so DH and I looked at both ACA and a Health Share program. For a family of four, the premiums for the Bronze plan vs the comprehensiv...

Chiming in with OTWC and subgard, from what I've read it would be very unlikely if the vaccine did NOT significantly reduce the potential for further transmission, if not completely eliminate it. Similarly, a good guess of the efficacy of one dose of the vaccine appears to 80-90%, although the more ...

Wow, what a strange litany of accusations about his friends’s partners or people’s partners in general. It’s more likely in these cases that the partner just likes socializing and doesn’t like to be left out of socializing. Yes there may be some jealousy fears at work too. But I do not think you can...

Very much a case-by-case basis. In general wives have more leeway to have male friends than their husbands to have female friends. It's not fair but men and women are different. DH used to have a female friend until she confessed she wanted him as more than a friend. This was early on in our relatio...

@UK: Why not just put a moratorium on visiting until you can get vaccinated? Or do you not want to? -- @Ego: That is fascinating information about ivermectin. I had not read about it before. It's perplexing that it has not been widely used or recommended. It makes me lose trust once again in the adm...

Edited for errors, maybe not enough Since I'm here, this also recently got my hackles up: https://unherd.com/thepost/genomics-expert-new-covid-mutation-was-harder-to-control/ "Engelthaler is also one of the few epidemiologists to have publicly spoken out against school closures, for which there...

Since I'm here, this also recently got my hackles up: https://unherd.com/thepost/genomics-expert-new-covid-mutation-was-harder-to-control/ "Engelthaler is also one of the few epidemiologists to have publicly spoken out against school closures, for which there is 'no scientific evidence.' 'Priva...

At the risk of being annoying for repeating a post I made elsewhere, I want to put it here for @Life of FI. I can't remember where it was but somewhere I thought you were alluding to societal projections like these, so here again: Couple articles about the harms of U.S. schools remaining closed on e...

But all this discussion is interesting, because it allows us to see that despite us agreeing on the numbers, we have very different opinion. We often think of disagreement coming from the fact the people live in sorts of paralel realities, but it isn't the case here. I wonder what causes thoses dif...

The upper middle class is reportedly going to spend more than they ever have before on this Christmas, so the numbers this season may surprise you. What is their global plan? If you can't account for why it's making new highs, you definitely can't justify shorting it. (I would personally never short...

I didn't mean to convey that. I was just kind of using ED as an example of hidden things that can go wrong with your body as you age. Aging and death or planned obsolescence of the bodies of human individuals is a feature not a bug. The lifespans of all mammals are proportional to size and frequenc...

@7w5, erytu: That is interesting about ED. It reminded me of reading about some recovered covid patients losing teeth (literally just bloodlessly pooping out) because they had some prior issue with the blood vessels in the gums and mouth. There were also warnings that those with gum diseases who cau...

@7w5: Thanks for that comparison and breakdown. I knew my uncle was lucky but it is interesting to see it quantified. @J: The impression I have is people over 70 or 80, no matter how fit or healthy, all have some level of age-related impairment to their immune systems. It is known vaccines do not wo...

@7w5: Is that statistically sound? I mean, did you run the numbers yourself, as I know you are plenty capable of doing that—just curious. I hold in my mind the images of my 78-yr old asthmatic, skinny as a rail uncle who fully recovered and the 47-yr old German teacher from Wisconsin who had obesity...

I think concerns about protein intake in general tend to be overblown. Remembered this older article, NYT "Can You Get Too Much Protein?" "The vast majority of Americans already get more than the recommended daily amounts of protein from food [...]. "But the average adult can ach...