[Misc] COVID… again

[Hugo Rune]

What symptoms do you have?

I have what I thought was a stinking cold since Saturday night.

A stinking cold! Blocked nose, constant tissue blowing.

I’m also pretty wheezy, achy and lethargic. A bit of a fever also with a slight cough.

I didn’t think this was Covid as it’s different to when I had it before but I only have to loot at a Covid test for it give me the double lines.

Perhaps I have a stinking cold AND Covid!

 

[Weststander]

A stinking cold! Blocked nose, constant tissue blowing.

I’m also pretty wheezy, achy and lethargic. A bit of a fever also with a slight cough.

I didn’t think this was Covid as it’s different to when I had it before but I only have to loot at a Covid test for it give me the double lines.

Perhaps I have a stinking cold AND Covid!

I’ve a dry/hot throat, sneezing, feel cold, runny nose.

We don’t have the testers, could be anything.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

I’m imuno-suppressed due to having Hodgkins at an early age and previously having chemo and radiotherapy.

As a result had all jabs in the initial Covid era.

Developed a 100 day cough over the summer last year and after two courses of anti biotics the doctors were stumped so suggested tests, ecg etc

Anyway lucky they did as the ecg showed an underlying heart issue confirmed after various MRI and CT scans(heart failure due to left ventricular ejection fraction being less than 40%)
I’m in my 40’s so pretty scary stuff but the medication I am on has helped lower my blood pressure and my pulse is also normal range, I’m having a pacemaker fitted early next year to correct my heart beat and increase the EF (hopefully)

Anyway they haven’t been able to diagnose a root cause for the heart failure for sure, it has been suggested it could have been triggered via Covid (which I’ve had twice) where I’ve felt terrible on both occasions.

I’m currently overdue on a Covid booster as have let things run this time
and think I might have had Covid again a month ago ( cough, brain fog, fatigue) but better again.

This thread has made be undecided again as to whether I should take the jabs again, noting ive not been great when I’ve had covid anyway, so what’s the point in feeling shit for a week if I am going to feel shit anyway? The counter is maybe its lessening the worse case despite having a base level of still feeling shit

 

[Since1982]

I’ve a dry/hot throat, sneezing, feel cold, runny nose.

We don’t have the testers, could be anything.

We have all of the above and can test due to my medical history - it's not COVID, at least for us.

 

[BadFish]

So am I right that rat tests are not widely available in the UK?

They are still around over here. I guess it's a different outlook in deciding if it is worth knowing you have covid or not. Given that it is still highly contagious, I would have thought it was worth containing somewhat.

But then as I mentioned I work with a lot of at risk students and my wife works in the hospitals so perhaps we are a little different to others here. I did wait for a negative test, missing a night of a weekend away with mates, although this was also because a mates daughter has just had an op so I didn't want to risk it.

 

[jcdenton08]

Should be released in the morning, o2 levels acceptable now, managed to eat something, just want my own bed

 

[jcdenton08]

I should add my treatment just for those curious, IV antibiotics (what the nurse called the “standard shock course, oxygen when my o2 got too low, and fluid IV for dehydration). Can’t thank the NHS staff enough, even though they’re rushed off their feet. Special mention to the absolute cretin giving the nurses abuse and the endless patience these NHS staff dealing with a selfish, abusive bastard.

 

[kevo]

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?

Hat-trick for me too. Third time was as bad as the first two, which surprised me but sounds like it was a lot worse for you. Best of luck for a speedy recovery.

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Ive only had it once, as far as I know, luckily.
My mate works overseas quite a bit, so does a lot of trips back and forth, and has just returned from a second trip to South Africa this year, and has gone down with covid for a second time, just days after getting off the plane...
Fourth time overall for him now, and hes getting a bit fed up with it!

 

[Braggfan]

This doesn't answer the first big question, did lockdown work? For example, Peru's government followed lockdown in deadly earnest, Brazil had a fruitcake prime minister who thought it was all a hoax - and yet Brazil had fewer excess deaths than Peru. From what I can gather, lockdown would have had to have been taken far more seriously to work with this virus. To the extent of army in hazmat suits delivering food and people being literally banned from leaving the house.

Lockdown did work, but perhaps not in the way that some think. The whole point of lockdown was not necessarily to stop the number of covid deaths, but to reduce the number of infected and therefore reduce the pressure on the NHS. As the number of infections increased the chances of secondary deaths from non covid related reasons.

If there's a highly infectious disease circulating, the big problem is the number of hospitalizations. I know people who died because their Cancer treatments were delayed or cancelled during the pandemic, but these would never be included in the covid deaths, even though they were delayed/cancelled as a direct result of covid infections being so high.

Sadly there was enormous pressure on the NHS and people did die as a result. But without the lockdowns, the number of hospitalisations would have been higher, and so would the number secondary deaths.

 

[Weststander]

I’m imuno-suppressed due to having Hodgkins at an early age and previously having chemo and radiotherapy.

As a result had all jabs in the initial Covid era.

Developed a 100 day cough over the summer last year and after two courses of anti biotics the doctors were stumped so suggested tests, ecg etc

Anyway lucky they did as the ecg showed an underlying heart issue confirmed after various MRI and CT scans(heart failure due to left ventricular ejection fraction being less than 40%)
I’m in my 40’s so pretty scary stuff but the medication I am on has helped lower my blood pressure and my pulse is also normal range, I’m having a pacemaker fitted early next year to correct my heart beat and increase the EF (hopefully)

Anyway they haven’t been able to diagnose a root cause for the heart failure for sure, it has been suggested it could have been triggered via Covid (which I’ve had twice) where I’ve felt terrible on both occasions.

I’m currently overdue on a Covid booster as have let things run this time
and think I might have had Covid again a month ago ( cough, brain fog, fatigue) but better again.

This thread has made be undecided again as to whether I should take the jabs again, noting ive not been great when I’ve had covid anyway, so what’s the point in feeling shit for a week if I am going to feel shit anyway? The counter is maybe its lessening the worse case despite having a base level of still feeling shit

Obviously take professional medical advice. Isn't the key point that the vaccines should reduce the effects/dangers from later catching Covid, particularly in risk groups?

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

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.

Absolutley.

And the cost to the Country was between £310 Billion and $410 Billion (makes the £22 billion 'black hole' seem like small change)

People being paid 80% of their salaries to sit at home.....

 

[Zeberdi]

And it is likely an even more deadly strain of a zoonotic virus will jump into the human species at some point... What we can do, is be better prepared by for example …

• research into potential zoonotic viruses that are already jumping species barriers ( like monkey pox, bird flu etc) and start producing blueprints for vaccines

Given that a doomsday virus is one of a recognisable list of extinction events for humans, it’s actually incredible that we are well prepared for another Covid pandemic but little prepared for any other potential pathogens that could spread as quickly as Covid did. With Covid we were lucky and developed a vaccine in record time because we already had a starting blueprint from SARS - next time we might not be so lucky.

So after posting this yesterday- story this morning on Sky

UK prepares five million vaccine doses in case of bird flu pandemic

The UK has secured a contract for more than five million doses of a bird flu vaccine as part of preparations for any possible influenza pandemic.

news.sky.com

Good to see the Covid pandemic has kick started research into getting ahead of the curve.

Ps Glad you are feeling better @jcdenton08 and heading home.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Absolutley.

And the cost to the Country was between £310 Billion and $410 Billion (makes the £22 billion 'black hole' seem like small change)

People being paid 80% of their salaries to sit at home.....

Followed by people being financially induced to spread a new wave of the pandemic against the express advice of the adult medical experts in the room

 

[The Clamp]

So after posting this yesterday- story this morning on Sky

UK prepares five million vaccine doses in case of bird flu pandemic

The UK has secured a contract for more than five million doses of a bird flu vaccine as part of preparations for any possible influenza pandemic.

news.sky.com

Good to see the Covid pandemic has kick started research into getting ahead of the curve.

Ps Glad you are feeling better @jcdenton08 and heading home.

I believe this was pointed out yesterday.

 

[Algernon]

There have been different contagious viruses over time but there seem to be a few more cropping up over the last few years.
Why? What's different?
Population size?
Crowding when out and about?
Environmental changes?
International travel?
Why now?

Do we have a better understanding of viruses? We've certainly got easier ways of sharing information however we've had that since Twitter/Facecloth etc but could that lead to well intended scaremongering?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I have had 6 jabs so far and never had COVID but made the mistake in October of having the COVID and flu jab at the same time.

 

[Zeberdi]

I believe this was pointed out yesterday.

It only appeared in the news today so it couldn’t have been!

I raised the general point yesterday that we should be working on these zoonotic viruses to prepare blueprints for vaccines in preparation for future pandemics ( and you with no references to anything in particular suggested that ‘all these things’ I mentioned in my post were were probably going already going on anyway - in fact they are mostly not which is why we were not prepared for Covid. Today, this is a new and significant story in the news about a contract for the UK to develop human vaccines to potential strains of bird flu that could jump to humans and cause a pandemic - exactly what I was referring to yesterday which is why I posted it.

The key issue is that all these zoonotic viruses can mutate and cross the species barrier anywhere in the world where humans interact with animals - therefore research into vaccines before they do spill into human populations are a key for being better prepared as a species than we were for the global Covid pandemic -

Pandemics are random events which are impossible to predict but most medical scientists agree: It’s not a case of ‘if‘ there will be another pandemic ( whether it be a new strain of the coronavirus or a strain of bird flu or something else) , but when.

 

[The Clamp]

It only appeared in the news today so it couldn’t have been!

I raised the general point yesterday that we should be working on these zoonotic viruses to prepare blueprints for vaccines in preparation for future pandemics ( and you with no references to anything in particular suggested that ‘all these things’ I mentioned in my post were were probably going already going on anyway - in fact they are mostly not which is why we were not prepared for Covid. Today, this is a new and significant story in the news about a contract for the UK to develop human vaccines to potential strains of bird flu that could jump to humans and cause a pandemic - exactly what I was referring to yesterday which is why I posted it.

The key issue is that all these zoonotic viruses can mutate and cross the species barrier anywhere in the world where humans interact with animals - therefore research into vaccines before they do spill into human populations are a key for being better prepared as a species than we were for the global Covid pandemic -

Pandemics are random events which are impossible to predict but most medical scientists agree: It’s not a case of ‘if‘ there will be another pandemic, but when.

I meant it was pointed out that preparations were being made incase of other pandemics.

 

[Zeberdi]

There have been different contagious viruses over time but there seem to be a few more cropping up over the last few years.
Why? What's different?
Population size?
Crowding when out and about?
Environmental changes?
International travel?
Why now?

Do we have a better understanding of viruses? We've certainly got easier ways of sharing information however we've had that since Twitter/Facecloth etc but could that lead to well intended scaremongering?

It’s not ’scaremongering’, see my posts above. There will be another pandemic but preparation of likely vaccines against the most likely pathogens that could cause a pandemic is key being prepared as are putting in place infrastructures at a global level to deal with a pandemic as a global response rather that the nation-centric, competitive and inegalitarian way we dealt with Covid.