SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

[golden_blunder]

Girl at work tested positive and I have the same symptom as you. Waiting on pcr but lateral flows negative so far.

Can I still pick up a normal run of the mill cold with 2 vaccines and a flu jab?

Normal code, absolutely

 

[Solius]

My parents are on their way, luckily both tested negative multiple times and my gf, gf's mum and me have all tested negative too. Nice not to have to worry after last Christmas.

 

[Dumbstar]

or perhaps it's d) You have reduced the effectiveness of the mask to zero. Enjoy your covid over Christmas.

Merry Covid's Mess to you too.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Girl at work tested positive and I have the same symptom as you. Waiting on pcr but lateral flows negative so far.

Can I still pick up a normal run of the mill cold with 2 vaccines and a flu jab?

Definitely possible but (unfortunately) covid more likely. Hopefully PCR negative. You could definitely get lucky.

 

[arnie_ni]

Definitely possible but (unfortunately) covid more likely. Hopefully PCR negative. You could definitely get lucky.

I done the pcr yesterday, negative lateral flow yesterday, will do another this evening and think I'll hold off going home until the morning and do another one before going up home instead of tonight, provided all are negative.

 

[esmufc07]

And do you not understand that omnicron is just getting started and things will rise in proportion?

You’re forgetting this is unprecedented. The vaccines were developed before Omnicron raised its dirty head. Let’s see how it pans out. At this point they are rightly being cautious because if it’s super transmissible then the hospitals will be under more pressure during the winter months when they are already pushed from winter virals. And their own staff are isolating more too

Wonder does that mean you and the chap above caught delta. I thought I’d read somewhere that omnicron doesn’t cause loss of taste and smell

What’s the incubation period for omnicron?

Geebs if you say omnicron instead of omicron again I am going to have to ban you.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I done the pcr yesterday, negative lateral flow yesterday, will do another this evening and think I'll hold off going home until the morning and do another one before going up home instead of tonight, provided all are negative.

Sounds like a good plan. A negative PCR will be very reassuring. You should still be careful about ventilation, keeping your distance etc. As you’ve just seen for yourself catching a virus is a massive pain in the arse right now, even if it isn’t covid!

 

[Conor]

It's amazing how easily your body can manifest symptoms in the few hours up to taking an antigen, which then magically disappear once you get the negative. It's constantly happening to me, around the time of my near daily antigens

 

[arnie_ni]

Sounds like a good plan. A negative PCR will be very reassuring. You should still be careful about ventilation, keeping your distance etc. As you’ve just seen for yourself catching a virus is a massive pain in the arse right now, even if it isn’t covid!

Thanks for the feedback pogue. Great work.

Nice to be able to get a bit of advice in a maddening time

 

[Wibble]

Is there any reason to believe that further variants of the disease will continue to weaken? Or is it just as likely to mutate into a more virulent and/or dangerous strain?

There is little or no selection pressure to make covid more or less virulent because all variants to date haven't killed fast enough or often enough to prevent transmission. So what has happened so far is that more infectious variants keep replacing previous variants. The mutations that enable increased infectiousness may also make the severity of disease somewhat more or less. So if a new variant is more infectious it will replace the previous predominant variant unless it is so harmful that increased fatality inhibits the spread more than the increased infectioness increases the spread.

Given how infectious Omicron is and hopefully that it Is a bit milder, new variants will occur less often as a) worldwide vaccination will increase reducing the chances of a new variant arising and b) any new variant will need to out-compete Omicron to become the predominant new variant.

New variants may well arise but the chances of a new dominant variant reduceces every time a new one takes over.

 

[Volumiza]

Geebs if you say omnicron instead of omicron again I am going to have to ban you.

 

[Pexbo]

Geebs if you say omnicron instead of omicron again I am going to have to ban you.

 

[golden_blunder]

Geebs if you say omnicron instead of omicron again I am going to have to ban you.

Omnicron

it’s transformed

 

[esmufc07]

Omnicron

it’s transformed

Right, where’s my ban button.

 

[golden_blunder]

Right, where’s my ban button.

Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron

 

[RoadTrip]

 

[horsechoker]

Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron

Is this the new pedal stool?

 

[Anustart89]

Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron Omnicron

Is this like when someone reported 32 posts and got banned for frivolous reporting?

 

[golden_blunder]

The wife and I just got negative LFTs. Look forward to tickling my brain again tomorrow morning. Meanwhile the in-laws are locked up in the box room

 

[FootballHQ]

Been having a lot of discussion with friends and family naturally over COVID and pretty much all of us are now boosted. Some have had COVID too and some (like me as far as I know) haven't

But a lot of them, especially people my age, are now saying that's it for them in terms of vaccines for at least a year. If after 3 vaccines and COVID (for some) is still not enough then nothing is. I was indifferent initially and was just doing what seemed to get this to an end quickly but it has made me wonder what is the end point and how much more people are willing to do

Big problem really. I mean the studies are suggesting boosters are waning 10 weeks in which isn't long at all if I've interpreted the data correctly. Israel on verge of administrating a fourth dose so UK will follow soon enough.

Again it's a question of how long before the virus recedes to just needing a vaccine once a year in the winter to protect rather than having to get a top up every 3-4 months.

As I've said many times it's an issue when over 50m of any population is doing what they're told and still it's nowhere near enough to push the virus into manageable day to day life levels. We'll see what 2022 brings I guess.

 

[arnie_ni]

Does anyone know why someone who got their pcr 3 hours after me at the same test centre would have her results and I wouldn't

 

[golden_blunder]

Does anyone know why someone who got their pcr 3 hours after me at the same test centre would have her results and I wouldn't

You’re about to get bad news

no idea

 

[GDaly95]

Has anyone had no reaction to the initial two jabs but then an adverse effect from the booster?

I had the booster 2 days ago and have slowly felt worse since. Symptoms are achy bones (by far the biggest symptom), a runny nose and a small bit of coughing.

I did an antigen test and its negative.

Also I think I might be improving a bit now but I might just be trying to persuade myself.

 

[golden_blunder]

Has anyone had no reaction to the initial two jabs but then an adverse effect from the booster?

I had the booster 2 days ago and have slowly felt worse since. Symptoms are achy bones (by far the biggest symptom), a runny nose and a small bit of coughing.

I did an antigen test and its negative.

Also I think I might be improving a bit now but I might just be trying to persuade myself.

You’ll be fine after a few days

 

[Pexbo]

Has anyone had no reaction to the initial two jabs but then an adverse effect from the booster?

I had the booster 2 days ago and have slowly felt worse since. Symptoms are achy bones (by far the biggest symptom), a runny nose and a small bit of coughing.

I did an antigen test and its negative.

Also I think I might be improving a bit now but I might just be trying to persuade myself.

I had my booster on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon/evening: standard achy arm.
Wednesday: woke up with a dry throat.
Wednesday evening: bit of a cough developed.
Yesterday: Fatigue in the morning, still a bit of a cough but went out with friends in the evening and wasn’t too bad.
Today: Still got a cough and feeling really low on energy, been on the sofa or in bed all day. Not feeling ill really just drained of any energy and motivation to do anything. Turned down the offer to meet friends again as I don’t want to push it and ruin tomorrow.

I’ve done two LFT, one on Wednesday and one yesterday and both negative so it’s either the vaccine has wiped me out or I’ve been unlucky and picked up another bug.

 

[DOTA]

Has anyone had no reaction to the initial two jabs but then an adverse effect from the booster?

I had the booster 2 days ago and have slowly felt worse since. Symptoms are achy bones (by far the biggest symptom), a runny nose and a small bit of coughing.

I did an antigen test and its negative.

Also I think I might be improving a bit now but I might just be trying to persuade myself.

I don't think a cough is common side effect?

Could be too early to show on the test, as often don't show until after 2 days of symptoms. Or it could be a cold. People ill at the moment is about 50% covid and 50% colds.

 

[GDaly95]

I don't think a cough is common side effect?

Could be too early to show on the test, as often don't show until after 2 days of symptoms. Or it could be a cold. People ill at the moment is about 50% covid and 50% colds.

Yeah I'll lay low but hopefully it'll work out.

You’ll be fine after a few days

Here's hoping.

I had my booster on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon/evening: standard achy arm.
Wednesday: woke up with a dry throat.
Wednesday evening: bit of a cough developed.
Yesterday: Fatigue in the morning, still a bit of a cough but went out with friends in the evening and wasn’t too bad.
Today: Still got a cough and feeling really low on energy, been on the sofa or in bed all day. Not feeling ill really just drained of any energy and motivation to do anything. Turned down the offer to meet friends again as I don’t want to push it and ruin tomorrow.

I’ve done two LFT, one on Wednesday and one yesterday and both negative so it’s either the vaccine has wiped me out or I’ve been unlucky and picked up another bug.

Very similar to my experience! Was offered the chance to go to the pub today with a few friends but thought better of it.

 

[Mihai]

Fair enough, I agree it's a stretch.

Other than our general risk tolerance / preference, I think the main place we diverge here is our assessment of vaccine efficacy. You're sure there's going to be a shit-load of breakthrough infections post-booster, and if that is the case then my entire argument is at least redundant, and probably stupid. Inevitably booster + mild infection would be better than 2nd dose + mild infection.

I'm much more optimistic that the booster will prevent infection in the short-term. I've just not seen the evidence that the risk of breakthrough infection post-booster is that high. We'll definitely find out soon!



Not really, mostly for practical reasons. From the PHE study (pages 6-8) we saw immunity start to wane 10 weeks after the second dose, which echoes what they're saying now about the booster. We don't have much data after 10 weeks as the booster roll-out started properly in the beginning of October, 12 weeks ago.

While that makes for an interesting headline, it doesn't tell us much. Even though the level of protection against symptomatic disease started to drop 10 weeks after the 2nd dose, it didn't drop by much: for AZ it dropped from 65% to 60%, for Pfizer it dropped from 90% to 80%. And more importantly, protection against hospitalisation hardly dropped at all: from 95% to 90% for AZ, and from 98% to 96% for Pfizer (or thereabouts). Or as PHE put it:


When you get to 6 months the declines were more substantial after dose 2, and no-one in the UK has been boosted for that long. Israel might have some data on that but I've not seen any.

One other thing worth mentioning about the "immunity begins to wane after 10 weeks" headline is that we know immunity wanes quicker among more vulnerable populations, and it's the more vulnerable populations that got boosted first. So we should assume it'll wane slower for the general population than whatever the waning is now. And given how much the booster multiplied the number of antibodies, it's waning from a much higher bar so it seems reasonable to assume protection will last longer post-booster than post-dose 2. Even with Omicron's capacity for immune escape, from what I can tell. EDIT: Maybe not with Omicron.

It's worth saying that immunity isn't really a binary thing either, so there won't be a point that immunity will last until. There'll likely be some level of immune response for years to come from that second vaccine dose - that's what they saw post-MERS trials - it just becomes less effective as the volume of immune first responders (antibodies, B-cells, T-cells) declines. The dose of infection we get varies so a low-dose infection can still be fought off by a low-dose immune response.

The figures about waning immunity look at the average person with the average dose of infection, which is useful at the population level but less useful at the individual level. In other words we shouldn't think about those timings as cut-off points for when we suddenly stop being immune to covid, it's more complicated than that.

Thank you for the detailed reply. Much appreciated.

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

Anyone have any information the drug that can be given to early on to people who are vulnerable and have tested positve for Covid? Mainly how long after exposure is it is worth having?

Long story short, my brother has had issues with low platelets for unknown reasons since May this year, had transfusions, injections every week, etc, white blood cells also affected, anyway he has managed to pick up Covid, certain he got on Saturday, tested positve on the lateral flow on Tuesday, no PCR confirmation 72 hours on, which apparently flags up this sort of treatment, but time is getting on now surely.

 

[jojojo]

Anyone have any information the drug that can be given to early on to people who are vulnerable and have tested positve for Covid? Mainly how long after exposure is it is worth having?

Long story short, my brother has had issues with low platelets for unknown reasons since May this year, had transfusions, injections every week, etc, white blood cells also affected, anyway he has managed to pick up Covid, certain he got on Saturday, tested positve on the lateral flow on Tuesday, no PCR confirmation 72 hours on, which apparently flags up this sort of treatment, but time is getting on now surely.

Is he waiting for a PCR test or a result, if it's a result how long ago was the test and was it done at a centre or was it a postal one? I'm only asking because it sounds like something has gone wrong and he needs to test again.

The earlier the better is the rule for most of these early treatments and they aren't available for every condition. If he can get in touch with the specialist team managing his bloodwork, he should do that, even if it's just off the back of a couple of lateral flow tests. I don't know how the system works for people in his position, but it may be that it can be bypassed when there's a delay in getting a PCR result.

Good luck to him.

 

[Blackwidow]

Do you make Covid tests prior to meeting the family over Xmas? Our test center in town has extra times over Xmas so that you can get a rapid test without any cost. We all did today before the gathering around the tree at Xmas eve (in Germany we open the presents Xmas eve).

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

Is he waiting for a PCR test or a result, if it's a result how long ago was the test and was it done at a centre or was it a postal one? I'm only asking because it sounds like something has gone wrong and he needs to test again.

The earlier the better is the rule for most of these early treatments and they aren't available for every condition. If he can get in touch with the specialist team managing his bloodwork, he should do that, even if it's just off the back of a couple of lateral flow tests. I don't know how the system works for people in his position, but it may be that it can be bypassed when there's a delay in getting a PCR result.

Good luck to him.

Yes he's waiting for the PCR result, it was a drive through one, and it was on Tueaday night, it does seem like a long time ago, but just assuming they are very busy, maybe staff off with Covid, and the Christmas period, etc. three lateral flow tests all positive, so he''s got it for sure.

The specialist just said it's early days for the treatment and was a bit vague, and also said a positive PCR should flag him up on the system, he is well known to the hospital now and they have been excellent, so I'm sure they are doing their best for him, but it seems a bit slack at a potentially critical moment.

Anyway he's got fairly mild symptoms so far, so hopefully things will be fine.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[jojojo]

Yes he's waiting for the PCR result, it was a drive through one, and it was on Tueaday night, it does seem like a long time ago, but just assuming they are very busy, maybe staff off with Covid, and the Christmas period, etc. three lateral flow tests all positive, so he''s got it for sure.

The specialist just said it's early days for the treatment and was a bit vague, and also said a positive PCR should flag him up on the system, he is well known to the hospital now and they have been excellent, so I'm sure they are doing their best for him, but it seems a bit slack at a potentially critical moment.

Anyway he's got fairly mild symptoms so far, so hopefully things will be fine.

Thank you for your reply.

I've read that tests in some areas are taking 3-4 days to process, so a Tuesday night test result could arrive anytime now really.

They're being honest when they say it's still early days for the treatments - a lot of them are only really being used on a trial basis while they work out who does benefit from them and who doesn't.

Fingers crossed it stays mild.

 

[Tarrou]

You ok buddy?

yeah, feeling a bit better now thanks.. hoping I'm over the worst

got myself a pulse oximeter which has been very helpful, thanks for the tip @Pogue Mahone

the reading was at 95/96 for a little while and the doc told me if it worsened I should go to A&E but it's recovered to 97 this past 24 hours or so..

 

[arnie_ni]

Negative pcr done on Thursday. Negative lateral flows (1x Thursday 3x Friday) but just done another this morning incase and it was positive. Shiteeee

 

[peridigm]

Son and his GF came to visit. She just learned after arriving she was exposed earlier in the week while visiting family who KNEW they had covid but did not tell anyone. I found some LFT which my son and I took yesterday. Both negative. His GF is staying at her parents house but tested positive. They shared a 12 hour car ride before arriving. It's inevitable that we all get it now I guess. We're all triple vaxxed so not expecting anything bad.

 

[kiristao]

Son and his GF came to visit. She just learned after arriving she was exposed earlier in the week while visiting family who KNEW they had covid but did not tell anyone. I found some LFT which my son and I took yesterday. Both negative. His GF is staying at her parents house but tested positive. They shared a 12 hour car ride before arriving. It's inevitable that we all get it now I guess. We're all triple vaxxed so not expecting anything bad.

There is stupid, then there are anti-vaxxers and then there are these. How inconsiderate do you need to be to do something like that at this point of time.

 

[golden_blunder]

Ireland 13,765 cases, new record
378 patients < 15 on yesterday
87 in ICU <2 on yesterday

 

[McGrathsipan]

Negative pcr done on Thursday. Negative lateral flows (1x Thursday 3x Friday) but just done another this morning incase and it was positive. Shiteeee

How does that happen ?

Hopefully you'll be OK.

 

[McGrathsipan]

Ireland 13,765 cases, new record
378 patients < 15 on yesterday
87 in ICU <2 on yesterday

This is mental. Cases proper exploding and hospital figures dropping