COVID 49 - Are We Done Yet?

[Underfoot]

My sister tested positive for covid last night ,first time she's gotten it. I was planning to stay with her while visiting family and now I won't even get to see her Rearing it's ugly head everywhere this year. 

[mcbigski]

5 hours ago, Underfoot said:

My sister tested positive for covid last night ,first time she's gotten it. I was planning to stay with her while visiting family and now I won't even get to see her Rearing it's ugly head everywhere this year. 

Sorry your missing out on family for the holidays.

If you've had covid and believe in the power of natural immunity, you should not be afraid to stop by for a visit, even if she can't make the holiday party.  Assuming you yourself are not over 80, obese, immunocomprimised or work in an environment with the previous traits.

On the other hand, if you believe in the power of mega cap pharma to make people healthy and are up to date on boosters, nothing to fear there either.

Or look at it this way, if you really do want to see your sister in person, do you really think you haven't been exposed to covid at all in the last 4 years?  There's likely some small fraction of the population that somehow is still both covid unexposed and non vaxed, but why is that stopping a one to one at least?  I get it that if she's covid positive she wont go to Christmas dinner with great aunts Gladys and Agnes, but don't live in fear.

[Zorral]

Congratulations on this splendid demo of how to exercise one's social skills to win hearts and friends, and be The One nobody wants to see at the groaning board of the holiday feasts.

Edited December 22, 2023 by Zorral

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Two of my favorite comments

"Do they have Chlorine flavor?"

and

"I'm holding out for Lemon Pledge."

Edited December 24, 2023 by DireWolfSpirit

[RhaenysBee]

I had Covid last week, waited out my 10 day isolation and got to visit family for Christmas today. I felt shittier than the first time in 2021, but it was still okay. I only felt actually particularly crap for one day, the rest was all right. It was both similar and different than my first Covid experience. Still not a regular flu (at least I did get the creepy symptoms again), still don’t know if the first Covid or the vaccine contributed to my breast cancer earlier this year. Still wouldn’t recommend. But my Covid anxiety definitely passed over the years and I didn’t experience the mental hell I did with the first Covid. So there’s that! 

Edited December 24, 2023 by RhaenysBee

[IheartIheartTesla]

After 3.5 years, I too caught Covid (finally!) over the break, coinciding very nicely with my vacation. Anyway, 10/10 would not recommend, although my symptoms were relatively mild. I think I only had fever for 1 day, and the rest of the time it was confined mostly to a sore throat. 

[Zorral]

Another covid wave hits U.S. as JN.1 becomes dominant variant

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/01/04/covid-2024-us-jn1/

Quote

 

.... covid remains one of the leading causes of death as well as the top driver of respiratory virus hospitalizations — worsening the strain on hospitals also seeing influxes of flu and RSV cases.

“Of the three major viruses, it is still the virus putting people in the hospital most and taking their life,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in an interview Wednesday. ....

....  “If you look at the different peaks in cases since the beginning of the pandemic, every one of them coincided with the emergence of a new variant,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “Too many people are attributing this to seasonality.”

Few Americans are staying up to date on their coronavirus vaccines to train their immune systems to keep up with an evolving virus. According to CDC estimates, just 19 percent of Americans have received the latest version of the vaccine that lab experiments show offer better protection against the JN.1 variant than the previous formula.

Medical professionals and public health officials say they’re facing growing skepticism of coronavirus vaccines, particularly among conservatives. The latest pushback came Wednesday from Florida’s top health official, who urged people to stop receiving mRNA coronavirus vaccines, citing debunked claims that they could contaminate patients’ DNA. ....

 

 

[Zorral]

Covid kills nearly 10,000 in a month as holidays fuel spread, WHO says

This article is free to access.
Why?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/01/11/covid-deaths-holidays-world-health-organization/

 

Quote

 

Almost 10,000 coronavirus deaths were reported in December, and admissions to hospitals and intensive care units surged, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said — with data indicating that holiday gatherings fueled increased transmission of the virus.

“Although covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency, the virus is still circulating, changing and killing,” Tedros said at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday.

There was a 42 percent increase in hospitalizations and a 62 percent increase in ICU admissions from the previous month. Trends are based on data reported to the WHO from fewer than 50 countries, mostly in Europe and the Americas, said Tedros, who noted that this is not the full picture.

“It is certain that there are also increases in other countries that are not being reported,” he said. The WHO said in an email Thursday that Russia appears to be reporting the most cases to the health body but stressed that “many countries have reduced or stopped reporting, which is part of the problem.”

The JN.1 variant is now the most commonly reported globally, Tedros said. The new dominant variant appears to be much more adept than earlier ones at infecting those who are vaccinated or who have been previously infected, The Washington Post reported.

“Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable death is not acceptable,” Tedros said as he urged governments to carry on close surveillance and to provide people with vaccines and treatments.

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

I have been trying to get some reliable news about the current Covid situation in Canada, but there’s not a lot of coverage. Last week I developed a bad cold and was worried it might be Covid, so I checked on line to see if you can still get tested. I hate the idea of shoving a stick up my nose, though I have done it before. None of the damn pharmacies answer their phones, but I got hold of a couple that state in their website that they test. All of them said they don’t anymore. I put on a mask and went to one, and they had Benylin for dry coughs on sale so I bought some. I decided my symptoms were so obviously a cold I was getting freaked out by Covid.

And so I had a racking, painful dry cough for a couple of days, and then it moved into my head and I had sore sinuses and a runny nose, and then started coughing up phlegm. Now I sound like I have bronchitis. I swear I have had this exact same cold virus half a dozen times in my life, going through the same phases. Six days later and I almost feel normal again. 

I was also worried about RSV, and am considering getting vaccinated. They haven’t moved the free vaccinations down to my age group yet, so I’m wondering if I should cough up (yes, I said that) the $300 it costs or wait a bit longer. I have to admit during the first couple of days of my cold I wondered how I would fare home alone if I got something as serious as RSV.

eta: actually, to be accurate, my age group does get the vaccine for free, but only under prescribed conditions, you live in a nursing home, you’re on dialysis, you’ve received a stem-cell transplant, or you’re indigenous or Métis, and a few other situations 

Edited February 12 by Fragile Bird

[Zorral]

50 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I have been trying to get some reliable news about the current Covid situation in Canada, but there’s not a lot of coverage

Not just in Canada, either.  Been trying to find out about NYC and the US generally -- nothing specifically, just telling us Covid isn't over, get vaccinated, get tested, wear a mask.  The same for information about this for Spain.

I'm sorry you've been sick -- even if not covid, flu or RSV it sounds miserable as hell.  As I experienced something like that, or just like that -- who knows? -- for November and it took weeks and weeks and weeks for the cough to entirely go, just -- I'm sorry.

 

[Fragile Bird]

Yes, colds can be really miserable!

[maarsen]

2 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Not just in Canada, either.  Been trying to find out about NYC and the US generally -- nothing specifically, just telling us Covid isn't over, get vaccinated, get tested, wear a mask.  The same for information about this for Spain.

I'm sorry you've been sick -- even if not covid, flu or RSV it sounds miserable as hell.  As I experienced something like that, or just like that -- who knows? -- for November and it took weeks and weeks and weeks for the cough to entirely go, just -- I'm sorry.

 

Just about 20 odd years ago, a similar cold or flu bug was going around that knocked you down for a week or so but the cough lingered for weeks. It even had a knickname. The hundred day cough. I had it and I coughed for literally 3 months after.

[The Anti-Targ]

Anecdotally, in this part of the world it appears to me that schools and airports / planes are the main ways COVID-19 is spreading around. Pretty much everyone I know that has had COVID-19 in the last 6 months has got it from school / from their kid who got it from school, or got it from being on a plane. I even got it in Oct last year off my son who had just recently come back from an overseas trip. Fortunately everyone so far has not had it bad.

With some good fortune I should be good for getting my annual booster before the winter risk period hits as I will be 6 months clear from my Oct infection by mid-ish April. I think the free 'flu vax programme starts in May, so that's when I'll be aiming to get the double whammy.

I also know a few people who are 80% sure they have it, but have not bothered testing, so they are not following iso recommendations as strictly as they should, and of course their infection is not featuring in national stats. Kinda disappointing.

[Heartofice]

Time to stop using term ‘long Covid’ as symptoms are no worse than those after flu, study finds

Quote

“We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘long Covid’. They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus. This terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hypervigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”

In a press conference on Friday, Gerrard said: “I want to make it clear that the symptoms that some patients described after having Covid-19 are real, and we believe they are real. What we are saying is that the incidence of these symptoms is no greater in Covid-19 than it is with other respiratory viruses, and that to use this term ‘long Covid’ is misleading and I believe harmful.”

 

[Kalbear]

That is a remarkable paraphrase; what they're saying is that long covid is not particularly different than other long-term massive debilitating effects from other viruses. It's not unique to COVID specifically, but it absolutely is real and given the amount of people who are getting covid it should still be taken seriously. 

[Heartofice]

22 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

That is a remarkable paraphrase; what they're saying is that long covid is not particularly different than other long-term massive debilitating effects from other viruses. It's not unique to COVID specifically, but it absolutely is real and given the amount of people who are getting covid it should still be taken seriously. 

Lots of people have flu too.

[Kalbear]

3 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Lots of people have flu too.

Not at the rates that they had covid, and are still acquiring covid. The number of hospitalizations for covid is still somewhere between 5-10x what the rate of flu is. 

So yeah, lots of people have flu, and we certainly haven't been taking long viral conditions seriously enough, but that doesn't mean (like you implied) that we should stop taking it actually seriously. 

[Heartofice]

5 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

So yeah, lots of people have flu, and we certainly haven't been taking long viral conditions seriously enough, but that doesn't mean (like you implied) that we should stop taking it actually seriously

Think there is a difference between ‘taking it seriously’ and ‘hyper vigilance’

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

8 hours ago, Kalbear said:

That is a remarkable paraphrase; what they're saying is that long covid is not particularly different than other long-term massive debilitating effects from other viruses. It's not unique to COVID specifically, but it absolutely is real and given the amount of people who are getting covid it should still be taken seriously. 

The opening paragraph of that article isn't quite as emphatic as the headline...

It's also bullshit. It's a matter of precision. It doesn't matter if the symptoms are no better or worse.

It's like saying we should do away with the term "alcoholism" or "opiate addiction" and just cover it with a general term "Substance addiction". What a useless conversation. 

"Oh, hey, You sick?"

"Yup."

"What you got?"

"An illness."

Edited March 16 by Deadlines? What Deadlines?