The big Coronavirus thread

Ben6899

Had the Pfizer bivalent booster, this morning. And the 'flu jab.

Ben6899

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

I thought I was paying the price for too much riding volume increase in the weeks before my hol, along with developing a sore throat on the first night that seemingly turned into a head cold.

Still cycled everyday, just had to cut back on intensity and duration.

Got back home, took a test this morning, instantly positive.

Hope you're feeling better soon.

laurentian

briantrumpet said:

A bit of a surge going on... consultant friend said it's now 60 cases *with* covid in Exeter's RD&E, which is putting an additional strain on managing its control (protocols, and all that). I'll be happy to get my booster in a couple of weeks' time.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/01/latest-covid-surge-a-heavy-straw-on-camels-back-for-every-hospital-in-uk

Yep! Anecdotally there seem to be quite a few people I know getting Covid now compared to a month or so ago

briantrumpet

laurentian said:

briantrumpet said:

A bit of a surge going on... consultant friend said it's now 60 cases *with* covid in Exeter's RD&E, which is putting an additional strain on managing its control (protocols, and all that). I'll be happy to get my booster in a couple of weeks' time.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/01/latest-covid-surge-a-heavy-straw-on-camels-back-for-every-hospital-in-uk

Yep! Anecdotally there seem to be quite a few people I know getting Covid now compared to a month or so ago

Indeed - heard that friend of mine who has a kidney transplant, boosted up to the eyeballs for obvious reasons, has now caught it for the first time, not feeling at all well, and off into hospital for some sort of transfusion (hopefully precautionary rather than life-saving...)

Pross

It was my wife's on-call week last week and the one care scheme she is managing has 5 of the team off with Covid. Strange thing is I heard it mentioned on the news for the first time in ages last week or the week before and they were saying rates were really low. I guess outside of certain environments no-one is testing anymore so it's hard to get any sort of accurate information on rates.

briantrumpet

Pross said:

It was my wife's on-call week last week and the one care scheme she is managing has 5 of the team off with Covid. Strange thing is I heard it mentioned on the news for the first time in ages last week or the week before and they were saying rates were really low. I guess outside of certain environments no-one is testing anymore so it's hard to get any sort of accurate information on rates.

It's all a bit confused at the moment in this neck of the woods as there's a pile of colds doing the rounds too... teacher friend of mine has had one of them, testing daily for a fortnight, all negative, so is assuming it really is a cold.

sungod

laurentian said:

briantrumpet said:

A bit of a surge going on... consultant friend said it's now 60 cases *with* covid in Exeter's RD&E, which is putting an additional strain on managing its control (protocols, and all that). I'll be happy to get my booster in a couple of weeks' time.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/01/latest-covid-surge-a-heavy-straw-on-camels-back-for-every-hospital-in-uk

Yep! Anecdotally there seem to be quite a few people I know getting Covid now compared to a month or so ago

^^^this

i've heard a few friends got in the last week, overall probably a combination of schools back, vacations over, colder weather

had the latest booster last week, moderna spikevax bivalent with a flu jab at the same time, by far the strongest reaction, i'd previously had two novavax also with flu jab and three pfizer

this time after twelve hours felt rough, aches, nausea and fever for a few hours, then aching joints and fatigue rest of the day, the day after felt fine again

ugo.santalucia

sungod said:

laurentian said:

briantrumpet said:

A bit of a surge going on... consultant friend said it's now 60 cases *with* covid in Exeter's RD&E, which is putting an additional strain on managing its control (protocols, and all that). I'll be happy to get my booster in a couple of weeks' time.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/01/latest-covid-surge-a-heavy-straw-on-camels-back-for-every-hospital-in-uk

Yep! Anecdotally there seem to be quite a few people I know getting Covid now compared to a month or so ago

^^^this

i've heard a few friends got in the last week, overall probably a combination of schools back, vacations over, colder weather

had the latest booster last week, moderna spikevax bivalent with a flu jab at the same time, by far the strongest reaction, i'd previously had two novavax also with flu jab and three pfizer

this time after twelve hours felt rough, aches, nausea and fever for a few hours, then aching joints and fatigue rest of the day, the day after felt fine again

Yes, this new Moderna packs a punch, both my wife and I weren't well the day after. All good now, hopefully it means a strong immune protection... or maybe it just means nothing at all...

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Pross said:

It was my wife's on-call week last week and the one care scheme she is managing has 5 of the team off with Covid. Strange thing is I heard it mentioned on the news for the first time in ages last week or the week before and they were saying rates were really low. I guess outside of certain environments no-one is testing anymore so it's hard to get any sort of accurate information on rates.

There's a fair discrepancy in the Covid rates between ONS and Zoe Study, at least partially due to the ONS date/data lag.
IIRC, one of Dr John Campbell's latest vids quoted something like 1 in ~60 vs 1 in ~30 in England.

If it wasn't for having some LFTs left over from the free period, I wouldn't have been reasonably certain I had Covid until the last ~48 hours, when the fatigue and slight upper lung discomfort has started. Until then it could have been any general respiratory lurgy.
Just hope my better half doesn't develope the serious breathing issues she had twice in 2020, she's been signed off sick for ~21 months now with Long Covid and can feel this infection on top of her daily pains over that period.

It does beg the question about what I had in late July for two weeks, which didn't give numerous LFTs a single positive. Very similar symptoms including aches and fatigue, but not this chest feeling I now have.

briantrumpet

Flu in left, Pfizer with added omicron in right... for some reason the covid nurse said not to ride a bike. Ha. Comedian, obviously. Even the nurse who diagnosed my cracked radial head a few years ago asked me "If I suggested you shouldn't ride your bike for a while, would you comply?" knew what the answer would be, so just said "Well, try not to fall off again."

Munsford0

I had flu in left and Moderna Spikevax in right arm. Told to sit down for a precautionary 15 mins so I spent it in the barbers. Painful / heavy arms for about 24 hrs but nothing else.

Disappointing because I was looking forward to a day off work, and I thought feeling ill would mean my body was having a strong immune response. Hopefully I was wrong...

Munsford0

Teacher colleague is off for 5 days having tested positive. Sounds like a mild cold, so why she was testing is another question... Close contacts are avoiding the same fate by not testing because we're no longer required to do so and the school have no test kits anyway. I'm thinking we're firmly in the living with the virus phase...

briantrumpet

Munsford0 said:

Teacher colleague is off for 5 days having tested positive. Sounds like a mild cold, so why she was testing is another question... Close contacts are avoiding the same fate by not testing because we're no longer required to do so and the school have no test kits anyway. I'm thinking we're firmly in the living with the virus phase...

Very much this. The staff/nurses at the surgery weren't wearing masks, despite the recent rise in cases. I've just got sore deltoids today.

TBH, had I not actually tested positive on a LFT when I got it in July, it felt like the sort of mild cold that I'd have gone into work with as not being serious enough to make work impractical.

TheBigBean

Everyone in Korea still wears a mask everywhere. At some point, they need an exit strategy. I think the UK is doing better at the exiting bit.

ugo.santalucia

TheBigBean said:

Everyone in Korea still wears a mask everywhere. At some point, they need an exit strategy. I think the UK is doing better at the exiting bit.

which is benefitting the economy big time...

briantrumpet

TheBigBean said:

Everyone in Korea still wears a mask everywhere. At some point, they need an exit strategy. I think the UK is doing better at the exiting bit.

Yup. Some good calls were made here when omicron took over. I suspect that the problem where the lockdowns have been severe and very long is that the fear will be even harder to dispel and the psychological damage long-lasting.

First.Aspect

briantrumpet said:

TheBigBean said:

Everyone in Korea still wears a mask everywhere. At some point, they need an exit strategy. I think the UK is doing better at the exiting bit.

Yup. Some good calls were made here when omicron took over. I suspect that the problem where the lockdowns have been severe and very long is that the fear will be even harder to dispel and the psychological damage long-lasting.

Some of those places have low vaccine uptake in the elderly. And elderly populations.

Even setting aside the convenient excuse it gives for indefinitely imposing more control over your poulation, its tough to see a quick way out without overwhelming health services.

morstar

Colleague of mine and her husband both absolutely floored by covid during the last two weeks.
Colleague says it was the worst illness she has had bar glandular fever at 18.
Much as it generally seems mild, can’t assume anything.

Munsford0

That's the scary thing about it. We all assume we're relatively fit and healthy and we'll shrug it off like a cold or not even know we've had it. But then you read of ultra fit twenty somethings absolutely flattened by it or struggling for months with long covid. Still seems a bit of a lottery so I'm happy to have all the jabs I'm offered.

TheBigBean

briantrumpet said:

TheBigBean said:

Everyone in Korea still wears a mask everywhere. At some point, they need an exit strategy. I think the UK is doing better at the exiting bit.

Yup. Some good calls were made here when omicron took over. I suspect that the problem where the lockdowns have been severe and very long is that the fear will be even harder to dispel and the psychological damage long-lasting.

Korea was thoroughly omicroned. That's what so strange about it. They had something like 700k cases on one day.

Kids 2+ need to wear masks too. No exceptions.

Pross

morstar said:

Colleague of mine and her husband both absolutely floored by covid during the last two weeks.
Colleague says it was the worst illness she has had bar glandular fever at 18.
Much as it generally seems mild, can’t assume anything.

Sure, people are still 'floored' with it but ultimately that really is no different to (real) flu and we haven't made concessions to that for a century so very much just living with it generally.

As an aside, there was an older member of my choir who decided not to return due to the risk to her health as she has COPD. She did come to watch our recent concert albeit masked up. The strange thing is she still smokes heavily which I assume is the original cause of the COPD and likely to make it worse. Some people are odd when it comes to assessing risk.

morstar

Pross said:

morstar said:

Colleague of mine and her husband both absolutely floored by covid during the last two weeks.
Colleague says it was the worst illness she has had bar glandular fever at 18.
Much as it generally seems mild, can’t assume anything.

Sure, people are still 'floored' with it but ultimately that really is no different to (real) flu and we haven't made concessions to that for a century so very much just living with it generally.

As an aside, there was an older member of my choir who decided not to return due to the risk to her health as she has COPD. She did come to watch our recent concert albeit masked up. The strange thing is she still smokes heavily which I assume is the original cause of the COPD and likely to make it worse. Some people are odd when it comes to assessing risk.

Not suggesting we should (or could) make major concessions.
Just highlighting that it’s not necessarily a mild illness, which I think you could make the mistake of believing.
Even her two teenagers felt pretty rough, albeit not as bad and for a shorter duration.

Most kids have hardly noticed it.

Munsford0

I'm also speculating that genetics plays a huge role in determining who catches it easily and who doesn't, or how well you fight it off if you do become infected. Both our sons partners have had it and been mildly ill, while neither lad succumbed despite inhabiting the same house / sofa / bed / airspace. Wife and I AFAIK still haven't had it while her niece's family have all had it multiple times. Genetics or pot luck??

Munsford0

"The strange thing is she still smokes heavily which I assume is the original cause of the COPD and likely to make it worse. Some people are odd when it comes to assessing risk."

I think all smokers are odd when it comes to assessing risk. It's not like the jury's still out on this; it's highly likely it's doing something unpleasant and possibly cancerous, but still they think it won't happen to them. Until it does.

Pross

morstar said:

Pross said:

morstar said:

Colleague of mine and her husband both absolutely floored by covid during the last two weeks.
Colleague says it was the worst illness she has had bar glandular fever at 18.
Much as it generally seems mild, can’t assume anything.

Sure, people are still 'floored' with it but ultimately that really is no different to (real) flu and we haven't made concessions to that for a century so very much just living with it generally.

As an aside, there was an older member of my choir who decided not to return due to the risk to her health as she has COPD. She did come to watch our recent concert albeit masked up. The strange thing is she still smokes heavily which I assume is the original cause of the COPD and likely to make it worse. Some people are odd when it comes to assessing risk.

Not suggesting we should (or could) make major concessions.
Just highlighting that it’s not necessarily a mild illness, which I think you could make the mistake of believing.
Even her two teenagers felt pretty rough, albeit not as bad and for a shorter duration.

Most kids have hardly noticed it.

I guess ity depends on what is classed as a mild illness. Arguabaly being bed ridden at home for a few days, recovering with no real medical intervention and no long lasting effects could be considered mild (the last one of those is obviously something that still needs looking into).

Pross

Munsford0 said:

"The strange thing is she still smokes heavily which I assume is the original cause of the COPD and likely to make it worse. Some people are odd when it comes to assessing risk."

I think all smokers are odd when it comes to assessing risk. It's not like the jury's still out on this; it's highly likely it's doing something unpleasant and possibly cancerous, but still they think it won't happen to them. Until it does.

Yeah, the weird thing for me is to then lock yourself away indefinitely because you are scared Covid might kill you.

sungod

Munsford0 said:

I'm also speculating that genetics plays a huge role in determining who catches it easily and who doesn't, or how well you fight it off if you do become infected. Both our sons partners have had it and been mildly ill, while neither lad succumbed despite inhabiting the same house / sofa / bed / airspace. Wife and I AFAIK still haven't had it while her niece's family have all had it multiple times. Genetics or pot luck??

there's early research suggesting genetics may affect vaccine response and subsequent immunity, pre-publication available without paywall... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02078-6_reference.pdf

i think there were also reports last year, perhaps from canada, that people with a certain mutation seemed to be immune to the current virus

briantrumpet

This is a fairly alarming summary about where China is re covid (Do I get a Rickaward for pessimism tonight?):

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/28/china-abandon-zero-covid-protests-mass-vaccination

In summary, well behind in vaccination, low percentage exposed to the virus at all, very few elderly vaccinated (they targeted young people), high vaccine scepticism, a home-developed vaccine that not very effective anyway, and omicron on the loose.

The countries that dealt most successfully with the pandemic, such as New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Denmark and others, did it by successfully moving from containment in 2020 to mass vaccination and treatments in 2021 and 2022. This is the only sustainable exit from this pandemic and we’re likely to see China take this route eventually. It will need to get mRNA vaccines to the biggest priority groups quickly, and also bring an exhausted public along through what is likely to be a jarring shift in strategy – from no Covid at all, to Covid circulation with vaccine protection.

Let’s hope China makes this transition before it is forced, regardless of what the governments wants, to live with Covid before it is ready. China buckling under a wave of Covid would affect the entire world, not just disrupting economic stability but potentially creating new variants that could set progress back everywhere.

First.Aspect

China will need to make vaccination compulsory to get out of this. Their main issue is vaccination in older are groups. Lot of cultural resistance to it, I've read.

rick_chasey

I wonder why they don't trust the state, eh?