[Misc] COVID… again

[Han Solo]

I've had it once, maybe twice. As a regular cold but a little bit more intense but also a little shorter duration.

Obviously I've not worn any mask, taken any jabs, gone into lockdown or anything. Think being a chain smoker has helped though, none of my smoking friends have had any big issues - its like we're creating an unpleasant environment in the lungs that just make covid go "thanks but no thanks". Maybe.

I have a friend suffering from long term covid though. Nasty nasty stuff. Going from being a promising actress and dancer to struggling to breath several times a day. She has no idea if she's been brain damaged by it or if its other stuff in the body causing it. Very frustrating for her.

If we have another virus, I think Sweden would be taking the same approach as last time.

Of course in countries with rich religious and cultural history, people value the concept of living in a different manner. Life is a little bit holy. Over here we're a people that spent 1000 years doing collective farming in the rough north. Sacrificing lives for the larger benefit of society is just the nature of this country. Not the right or wrong way to do things, just the way we do things.

 

[carlzeiss]

No jabs and no Covid as of course being self employed I have natural immunity

 

[Bry Nylon]

I work in a school with lots of immune compromised children. The extension of covid leave has been extended for such schools as a safety measure.

I would strongly disagree that it is a waste of time and money, given the ease at which many of our students contract viruses and other illness and the hospital treatment that this often entails.

Unless the pupils at the school and their parents - plus anybody they may come into contact with - has zero association with the world outside of the school and are living in a hermetically-sealed bubble, then I’d maintain it is a futile exercise.

 

[jcdenton08]

Update: I somehow feel worse. Sake.

 

[BadFish]

Unless the pupils at the school and their parents - plus anybody they may come into contact with - has zero association with the world outside of the school and are living in a hermetically-sealed bubble, then I’d maintain it is a futile exercise.

Well, everyone is allowed an opinion.

 

[Sorrel]

How do people tell if they have Covid rather than something else these days? Back in the early 2020s there were the testing kits - but that isn't a thing anymore is it?

 

[golddene]

Been lucky as I am getting on a bit (70), had five jabs so far and I have them whenever offered, I have never contracted covid (yet) though Mrs G caught it months before the vaccine roll out but still never passed it on to me ?

 

[fork me]

Woke up this morning feeling like absolute shite - did a test and sure enough, COVID again. My third time despite being triple jabbed. Currently having to isolate from my vulnerable elderly Mum who I’m caring for.

How many times have you had it? Three other mates (ones I haven’t seen in person recently, but have a WhatsApp group with) all have it too, two for the first time. Is there a new strain going around or something?

Never as far as I know. However, "covid", as in coronavirus, has been around forever. The lockdown stuff was because of a mutation that was particularly troublesome. The current versions aren't as serious, so since testing stopped being obligatory I haven't tested myself every time I have a cold...

I'm also triple jabbed. Vulnerable people are just as vulnerable to flu as they are to the current strains of covid.

 

[jcdenton08]

How do people tell if they have Covid rather than something else these days? Back in the early 2020s there were the testing kits - but that isn't a thing anymore is it?

I have a few kits on hand which I bought from Amazon, because I care for my Mum and if she gets covid it could be fatal, so I make sure to test whenever I have symptoms in order to self-isolate/take extra precautions to minimise risk of infecting her.

But I wouldn’t need tests to know I’ve got it if I didn’t have them, it’s all the same symptoms as the first time I had it but even worse.

Tight chest, asthmatic sounding constant cough, whistling when breathing and hurting to breathe/short on breath, on top of the sore throat, dizziness, fatigue and weakness.

I feel f***ing terrible.

 

[golddene]

I have a few kits on hand which I bought from Amazon, because I care for my Mum and if she gets covid it could be fatal, so I make sure to test whenever I have symptoms in order to self-isolate/take extra precautions to minimise risk of infecting her.

But I wouldn’t need tests to know I’ve got it if I didn’t have them, it’s all the same symptoms as the first time I had it but even worse.

Tight chest, asthmatic sounding constant cough, whistling when breathing and hurting to breathe/short on breath, on top of the sore throat, dizziness, fatigue and weakness.

I feel f***ing terrible.

Sounds dreadful JC, you have my sympathies. Get better soon mate.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Jan 2021. I died or wanted to, never felt as bad as that in my life, it knocked me bandy for nearly nine weeks....wouldn't even wish it on a palace fan. Jabbed a few times but stopped as it was making me ill!
I've had a couple of days since when I felt I was coming down with something, but a few sneezes and that it.
Anyone who gets it I wish them a speedy recovery

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Was hospitalized first time., prior to the vaccine being available.
had the jab 3 times.
Have had Covid twice since.
Both times have been mild, but felt generally very weary with it.

 

[jcdenton08]

Sounds dreadful JC, you have my sympathies. Get better soon mate.

Thanks mate, really appreciate it. This is no fun!

 

[Weststander]

Since covid was such a killer before the vaccines I think it was a legitimate concern that lives were more important than the economic prosperity of millionaires and billionaires. They are back to increasing their wealth. Trump was the idiot who let lives be lost!

I will say Trump was helpful in getting the vaccines developed more quickly once he truly accepted that the covid virus was not going away on it's own.

The rich got richer from the Pandemic. Way beyond PPE crooks.

The wealth gap grew. Half the UK used it to save £338b, whilst the other half saw any savings wiped out.

 

[ROSM]

If there was a similar pandemic in the near future, I suspect that populations wouldn’t accept the wholesale measures imposed in 2020 to 2022. Nor the resulting state debt of $T’s across the West. People won’t accept it, there wouldn’t be enough police to enforce mass civil disobedience.

[Said as someone who pretty much agreed with it all the first time].

Hopefully the UK’s Covid Enquiry has a wide remit to look at what was pretty much pointless too. In hindsight, preventing folk meeting up outdoors was draconian, for example. Perhaps Sweden it right, without crippling the economy and curtailing liberties.

I find it interesting when people quote Sweden (and you will have to forgive me on this as I worked on covid response for a major multi national company with a presence in nearly 70 countries so whilst not an immunologist I did have an informed insight)

Sweden had an effective pandemic response approach that they by law have to stress test every 3 years and had been run in 2018 amd passed with flying colours . (The UK had operation cygnus in 2016 that failed and actually caused the uk pandemic team to be discontinued)

Sweden did implement social distancing and by April had banned private visits to hospitals and care homes.

Uk,us,Italy for example all markedly higher travel rates than Sweden- also by policy any swedes left abroad were required to make their own journey back with quarantine in place.

Swedish infection rates were higher than neighbouring Scandinavian countries. There levels of immuno suppressed and compromised people are the lowest in Europe so death rates were lower.

Sweden claimed their child infection rates were lowest in the world but they didn't test schools routinely whereas other countries did.

By the later waves face masks and a level of case by case lockdown was introduced due to the health impacts on non compromised/immuno suppressed populatoons

Their economy is still heavily impacted.

So in short comparing Sweden and say uk is like comparing an apple and a courgette. They both started from different positions, had different factors and therefore made different decisions that they flexed and changed to suit the situation. Sweden were better prepared and generally made decisions quicker

 

[Vatican Citys No.2 Keeper]

Four times, most recently in July this year and about the same time of year in 2023.

Last couple times I've had the same symptoms that have been a giveaway - getting cold symptoms at times of year when it's not seasonally going round, combined with a very scratchy throat/cough that I've only ever had when testing positive. Tests confirmed it on each occasion.

It's not the cold symptoms that have hit me for six usually but the fatigueness. Just utterly worn down in terms of energy, and while attempting to push through while WFH with work I can do, occasionally the brain fog made it harder to concentrate during that period.

 

[jcdenton08]

Two more mates, separate to one another, have come down with it.

I’m going to make a prediction here - I think another new strain is going around and the media will pick up on it in the coming weeks. It’s gone from very few cases to numerous - and these are just people I personally know - in the space of a week or two.

And I think redoing this thread in a month’s time will be very interesting if this turns out to be true.

 

[vegster]

I'm 64 with no underlying conditions but, not been offered a covid jab since the second one ?

 

[Weststander]

I find it interesting when people quote Sweden (and you will have to forgive me on this as I worked on covid response for a major multi national company with a presence in nearly 70 countries so whilst not an immunologist I did have an informed insight)

Sweden had an effective pandemic response approach that they by law have to stress test every 3 years and had been run in 2018 amd passed with flying colours . (The UK had operation cygnus in 2016 that failed and actually caused the uk pandemic team to be discontinued)

Sweden did implement social distancing and by April had banned private visits to hospitals and care homes.

Uk,us,Italy for example all markedly higher travel rates than Sweden- also by policy any swedes left abroad were required to make their own journey back with quarantine in place.

Swedish infection rates were higher than neighbouring Scandinavian countries. There levels of immuno suppressed and compromised people are the lowest in Europe so death rates were lower.

Sweden claimed their child infection rates were lowest in the world but they didn't test schools routinely whereas other countries did.

By the later waves face masks and a level of case by case lockdown was introduced due to the health impacts on non compromised/immuno suppressed populatoons

Their economy is still heavily impacted.

So in short comparing Sweden and say uk is like comparing an apple and a courgette. They both started from different positions, had different factors and therefore made different decisions that they flexed and changed to suit the situation. Sweden were better prepared and generally made decisions quicker

During the Pandemic people talking the UK down as an obsession often quoted the continent as a paragon of Covid virtue. Including the nordic nations, then NZ was mentioned relentlessly. O’Brien and the NSC left were obsessed. O’Brien lied on a daily basis that the UK had the highest per capital death rate in Europe, he must’ve got bollocked because be revised it to countries with a population greater than 15m. Italy and Spain were worse. Eventually the lies quietly disappeared.

On this forum the Nordic nations and NZ were put forward as paragons of virtue, how was it that the UK didn’t have their Covid death rates.

On a trip to Norway during a break from lockdowns, Norwegians said to us why do Brits keep saying that. We have a low population, low population density, we’re not an international airport hub.

So why did the party politicised about everything bang on about the EU, nordic nations and NZ? When the metrics on much of mainland Europe were awful too, when as you say outlier locations have a different circumstance.

My other point is that people wouldn’t put up with all the tough measures a second time. Sweden can offer small alternative routes. Stuff here or in mainland Europe such as one outdoor walk per day, not meeting up with friends or family in a park, I think they’d be ignored. Quite possibly a lot more besides.

 

[chickens]

Due to recent health issues I’m now considered “high risk of complications” so had a jab last week. Was told it was the latest Pfizer vaccine to cover the more recent variants.

I’ve still never had Covid, despite having been in contact with others who have, so I can only think that my immune system must be in better shape than the rest of me.