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

Vidic_In_Moscow said:
Thanks, how were your symptoms if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve managed to test positive right before I was due to fly home from Dubai, what a bastard! Had a negative test on Tuesday but then positive ones Sat/Sun. 10 days stuck in my room but apparently after 72 hours I can release myself with a negative PCR test. It’s given me some optimism but maybe I’m being too optimistic hoping to get some negative results so soon already :(
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I had a high temperature, bit of a headache, then a few bouts of vomiting, with no appetite for about 3/4 days. First day was pretty rough, feverish, but then probably by the end of the second day I was feeling mostly fine, bit of a cough occasionally but nowhere near as often as I would have expected.
 
Dumbstar said:
Is anyone from who had Omicron a few weeks/months ago suffering from covid-cough? A dry annoying bastard that seems to affect people with underlying allergies.

My 21 y.o. daughter (not the long covid one) has it chronically. The wife has it at a much lesser intensity.
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Do you mean after generally recovering from COVID? Or while having COVID? I had a much more severe cough in the more acute phase - and now since around 2 weeks ago (tested negative since then) have it occasionally. No allergies known. Very annoying. Intensifies in cold weather and when doing a little bit more than normal walking/sitting around.
 
Rektsanwalt said:
Do you mean after generally recovering from COVID? Or while having COVID? I had a much more severe cough in the more acute phase - and now since around 2 weeks ago (tested negative since then) have it occasionally. No allergies known. Very annoying. Intensifies in cold weather and when doing a little bit more than normal walking/sitting around.
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That's probably it. My wife and daughter recovered from covid in December but the daughter gets bad fits when exposed to cold (which is a lot in the UK and she's a teaching assistant so has to get outside early).

Or when she's walked around a fair bit, again job requires it. I try to get her to see our GP but she keeps putting it off.

Let us know how you get on in the next few weeks. Hope you get better soon.
 
Currently on day six. Feeling ok really with a bit of a cough and tiredness. My smell has completely gone though now which is really strange to experience. Taste has definitely been impacted too but I've literally lost my ability to smell anything.
 
I finally got it. Bone and muscle aches all over, neck and back stiffness plus some high fever and violent coughing as a matter of fact so violent it ruptured my stomach muscle lining so the intestines are trying to leave my body. Two days of fevers well into 40°C. And now after two days a sore throat like I have never experienced before. Three Pfizers shots, but on immune suppressants because of my auto immune condition. This is an absolutely terrible fecking disease Omicron or not.
 
Think I’ve finally recovered about 8 days after I first tested positive. Started with a sore throat and I thought I was avoiding anything else but then I got back aches and bouts of just feeling really tired in the afternoon which was a pain for work as up until then I’d think I was fine. Eventually got what felt like an average cold. So not too bad all and all, I think the worst was the fact that it lasted so damn long, but thankfully I didn’t experience any loss of taste or smell.

in typical fashion my fiancé avoided getting it off me the whole week and just tested positive yesterday, the first day I tested negative.
 
Day 5 of covid and thankfully the cough and sore throat seem to have gone now. I do feel a tad bit achy, but hoping I should feel all good tomorrow. Unfortunately I did pass it on to my missus who is experiencing the worst of it now, but nothing overly concerning.

Generally the coughing wasn't too bad, even if it was pretty consistent but the sore throat was fecking horrible, certainly a the type of sore throat I've never had before.
 
So I've been negative since Saturday (5 days after I first tested positive) and I decided to play football today - the first bit of real exercise I've done after having covid. I'll be honest, I've never had such a miserable time at football ever - I was so out of breath, after about 5 minutes in. This is the "easy" game of the week that I play as well - it's with a bunch of old timers, but I felt horrible. My heart felt like it was trying to drum out of my chest after any sprint or a bit of intensity. I've got my actual competitive 7 a-side game tomorrow, and I don't feel like playing now.

How long did it take you guys to get anywhere close to normal fitness again?
 
Skills said:
So I've been negative since Saturday (5 days after I first tested positive) and I decided to play football today - the first bit of real exercise I've done after having covid. I'll be honest, I've never had such a miserable time at football ever - I was so out of breath, after about 5 minutes in. This is the "easy" game of the week that I play as well - it's with a bunch of old timers, but I felt horrible. My heart felt like it was trying to drum out of my chest after any sprint or a bit of intensity. I've got my actual competitive 7 a-side game tomorrow, and I don't feel like playing now.

How long did it take you guys to get anywhere close to normal fitness again?
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It took me 3 weeks or so to get back to normal and even now after 6 weeks I still have moments that I think to myself “I shouldn’t be this fecked after doing that”
It will pass just have to be patient!
 
miked99 said:
Hope you soon feel better matey.

Can I ask you about the back pain? I started feeling really ill last night in bed, waves of nausea, like acid reflux kinda thing, a headache and a dull ache in my stomach. This morning the pain in my stomach had gone and been replaced by this absolutely awful pain in my back and chest. Like I've been kicked in both places. Agony, pretty much and there's no way to find a comfortable position. I've barely got the energy to move, ache from head and foot and anytime the pain subsides my body tries to fall asleep. No desire to eat or drink anything. Thought this would surely be the time I finally tested positive, but nope. Does this sound like the sort of pain you were experiencing? Because I've never had chest pain like this before and I don't know if I should be ringing 111.
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I had this exact symptom - seemingly out of nowhere. It initially felt like a really bad stomach ache that also made my chest hurt them moved to my back. Was terrible for two days or so but when I took some naproxen (strong anti-inflammatory, recommended by the Doc) and by the end of the day it was gone. Came back slightly the day after and I took more tablets and they that was it.
 
Skills said:
So I've been negative since Saturday (5 days after I first tested positive) and I decided to play football today - the first bit of real exercise I've done after having covid. I'll be honest, I've never had such a miserable time at football ever - I was so out of breath, after about 5 minutes in. This is the "easy" game of the week that I play as well - it's with a bunch of old timers, but I felt horrible. My heart felt like it was trying to drum out of my chest after any sprint or a bit of intensity. I've got my actual competitive 7 a-side game tomorrow, and I don't feel like playing now.

How long did it take you guys to get anywhere close to normal fitness again?
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It really does differ from person to person. A very good friend of mine who is a cross country runner got it and was in bed for two weeks,she was very, very poorly. However she went out for her first run after a week of testing clear and complained about tight chest, lack of stamina etc... She's now beating her personal best every week and winning regional competitions against people almost half her age.

I was really poorly with it for about a week but got my strength and stamina back after about a month. I'm walking 8-10 miles a day whenever possible. Yet I have anoter freind who I work with and he's stlill struggling for stamina months later. So it seems it varies from person to person. I will add that most people I know seem to recover on the quicker side, with many being back to normal in a couple of weeks to a month.

The only serious after effect I can notice personally after 3 months is I have developed severe insomnia and an extremely fecked up sleeping pattern.

Hopefully you recover quickly and get back to your footy best asap.
 
DavidDeSchmikes said:
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Is that less lethal than Influenza in people who’ve also been vaccinated against Flu? If that makes sense… or is it just across society as a whole?

And if so (the latter), what percentage of the population are Influenza vaccinated vs what percentage are Coronavirus vaccinated?

Sorry for all the questions.
 
Rhyme Animal said:
Is that less lethal than Influenza in people who’ve also been vaccinated against Flu? If that makes sense… or is it just across society as a whole?

And if so (the latter), what percentage of the population are Influenza vaccinated vs what percentage are Coronavirus vaccinated?

Sorry for all the questions.
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The latter. And only a tiny % of the population are influenza vaccinated.

So, in a world without vaccines there’s absolutely no doubt that covid would be a hell of a lot more lethal than influenza right now.

But that’s mainly because influenza’s been around for ages so even without vaccines there’s a good level of population immunity. As more and more time goes by the same will happen with SARS-CoV-2.
 
Rhyme Animal said:
Is that less lethal than Influenza in people who’ve also been vaccinated against Flu? If that makes sense… or is it just across society as a whole?

And if so (the latter), what percentage of the population are Influenza vaccinated vs what percentage are Coronavirus vaccinated?

Sorry for all the questions.
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They're population level stats. If you go to the linked article they go deeper into how the pattern looks in different age groups. Broadly, some combination of infection and vaccination has moved us from a position where the IFR was worse than flu in every age group (and much worse for anyone over 40) to a position where the IFR is lower than for flu, even amongst the oldest.

The flu IFR is based on data from a study in New Zealand, where flu booster jab takeup is typically around 70% in the 65+ group. Keep in mind though, that's annual booster takeup - the number that have had a flu jab sometime will be higher, and almost all of them will have had flu multiple times as well. Covid vaccine takeup in the UK in the 65+ group is more than 95% and close to 100% in the over 70s.

What that means, looking at the UK whole population:
https://www.ft.com/content/e26c93a0-90e7-4dec-a796-3e25e94bc59b
"For every 100,000 Omicron infections, 35 will result in death, while the equivalent number of flu infections will lead to 40 fatalities, the data showed. Even among the over-80s, where about one-in-200 Omicron infections still results in death, this figure is now lower than the equivalent for flu."

They are using "infections" in their analysis (rather than cases), and they base their infection numbers on the weekly ONS random survey, which means they pick up asymptomatic and unnoticed infections, as well as the recorded kind.

Keep in mind, we're talking about rates - if you've got lots of infections, you still get lots of deaths. That's where we're at now. Covid infection rates are currently much higher than the flu infections we see in a typical flu season and overall respiratory disease deaths are higher as well - despite the fact that we aren't really "back to normal" in terms of mixing and behaviour etc. As it happens, flu cases are low at the moment, presumably because we aren't actually back to normal.
 
The faintest of lines, but I've just done a positive lft.

Last few weeks I've stopped being as careful, and we went away for a few days this week to the Lakes. Almost everywhere we went for food and drinks was heaving, so I hope that I caught it in one of those places rather than took it in there.

Felt knackered the last couple of days, but if put it down to a long walk. Bad throat last night and a bit snotty, so we came home a little early today and tested. Bugger.

Also felt like I kept getting indigestion the last couple of days, wonder if that is related...
 
I know it's a little route 1 to go down the kids say funny things road, but apparently one of the lads in my daughter's class shat himself and then speculated to the teacher that he might have Covid. Good lad. Don't show weakness.
 



In the current study, most COVID-19 cases among students and staff were acquired from the community and approximately 10% of cases were acquired within school. The researchers found that for every 100 community-acquired cases, school districts with mandatory masking had approximately 7.3 cases of in-school infections, while optionally masked districts had 26.4 cases of in-school infections. In other words, school districts with optional masking had approximately 3.6 times the rate of in-school COVID-19 cases when compared to schools with mandatory masking. These data also show that mandatory masking was associated with a 72% reduction of in-school COVID-19 cases, compared to districts with optional masking.

The study included 61 school districts (kindergarten through grade 12) that provided data from July 26, 2021, through Dec. 13, 2021, a period encompassing the Delta surge and preceding the Omicron surge. In total, there were 40,601 primary infections acquired in the community (36,032 among students, 4,569 among staff) and 3,085 secondary infections acquired in school (2,844 among students, 241 among staff). Of these school districts, six districts (10%) had optional masking policies; nine had partial masking, i.e., policies that changed during the study or only applied to certain grade levels (15%); and the remaining 46 districts (75%) required masking for the entirety of the study.
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Emily Oster, charlatan.
 
The mask mandate in BC ends tonight at midnight. It'll be interesting to see whether cases spike or not. A lot of people here are vaccinated/boosted.
 
berbatrick said:






Emily Oster, charlatan.
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You can take all those mask studies with a big pinch of salt. So many confounding variables. The most obvious is that anywhere with mandatory masks will have a “covid cautious” mindset overall. So they’ll be more careful about testing, self-isolation, ventilation etc etc

To be fair, that does still technically mean that mask mandates are helping keep cases down, just not in the way you think.

Living somewhere where masks were worn in basically every indoor space (with extraordinarily high compliance) for a very long time I’m absolutely loving not wearing a mask any more (other than on public transport). It should be a small thing but life feels so much better now masks are a thing of the past. We’ll only fully realise what an imposition they were when they’re gone for good.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The latter. And only a tiny % of the population are influenza vaccinated.

So, in a world without vaccines there’s absolutely no doubt that covid would be a hell of a lot more lethal than influenza right now.

But that’s mainly because influenza’s been around for ages so even without vaccines there’s a good level of population immunity. As more and more time goes by the same will happen with SARS-CoV-2.
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Australia is normally around the 45% of adults mark. 2020 saw a huge boost with over 70% getting their flu shot.

I also think that many people, possibly most, confuse colds with actual flu. I had H1N1 unvaccinated in 2009 and I was so sick with double pneumonia that I had to refuse medical advice to be admitted to ICU because I was too busy. I have never ever felt so unwell.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Living somewhere where masks were worn in basically every indoor space (with extraordinarily high compliance) for a very long time I’m absolutely loving not wearing a mask any more (other than on public transport). It should be a small thing but life feels so much better now masks are a thing of the past. We’ll only fully realise what an imposition they were when they’re gone for good.
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I wear mine (a P2 mask) in almost all public indoor spaces except when I'm sitting down eating or drinking. I don't find it much of an imposition at all barring having to remember to carry a mask with you.
 
Wibble said:
I wear mine (a P2 mask) in almost all public indoor spaces except when I'm sitting down eating or drinking. I don't find it much of an imposition at all barring having to remember to carry a mask with you.
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Yep me too. If accidentally speak to someone even briefly with us both not wearing a mask, I get really worried.
 
Wibble said:
I wear mine (a P2 mask) in almost all public indoor spaces except when I'm sitting down eating or drinking. I don't find it much of an imposition at all barring having to remember to carry a mask with you.
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UnofficialDevil said:
Yep me too. If accidentally speak to someone even briefly with us both not wearing a mask, I get really worried.
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That was me a few months ago. As I said, you only realise how much better life is without masks when you get to experience it again. I was always in the “it’s just a minor inconvenience” camp but it’s actually quite dehumanising. Really messes with day to day human interactions, that gets you down over time.
 
We are experiencing a surge in cases in Sydney at about the lag time you would expect post compulsory mask wearing stopping and density restrictions in pubs and restaurants were removed. There is a suspicion that the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant is responsible but I'm not convinced.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
That was me a few months ago. As I said, you only realise how much better life is without masks when you get to experience it again. I was always in the “it’s just a minor inconvenience” camp but it’s actually quite dehumanising. Really messes with day to day human interactions, that gets you down over time.
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Not having kids at home probably makes it easier for me and now being 58 the risks of severe disease are getting greater. I actually find people not wearing masks in places where distancing isn't possible very inconsiderate. It will be quite some time before I stop habitually wearing a mask as I don't think we are really in the "living with covid" stage yet. Not until we vaccinate the world and hopefully largely stop new variants arising. That will be great though. The last 2 years have been quite shit in various ways for all.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
You can take all those mask studies with a big pinch of salt. So many confounding variables. The most obvious is that anywhere with mandatory masks will have a “covid cautious” mindset overall. So they’ll be more careful about testing, self-isolation, ventilation etc etc

To be fair, that does still technically mean that mask mandates are helping keep cases down, just not in the way you think.

Living somewhere where masks were worn in basically every indoor space (with extraordinarily high compliance) for a very long time I’m absolutely loving not wearing a mask any more (other than on public transport). It should be a small thing but life feels so much better now masks are a thing of the past. We’ll only fully realise what an imposition they were when they’re gone for good.
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I was referring to an economist who ran a "school covid tracker" or something like that, where, having been told that she was excluding a lot of schools from her analysis, she refused to change her inputs. She then got published (WaPo, NYT) as an advocate for in-person maskless teaching in summer 2020, winter 2020, all through delta, omicron, etc. Agree that mask studies are difficult to do properly, but hers was terrible, and very obviously led to a pre-decided outcome.

Personally, all remaining mask mandates (city and university) ended this Monday, but my boss, the bosses of the course I teach, and my department, have all said they expect us to continue. Teaching 20 students without much non-verbal communication sucks, but I've got used to it at this point, and it's my last month of teaching (possibly forever!) anyway.

...

Also thanks to you and @jojojo for very clear answers you gave me about a booster for my father - he did get one, and the journey went ok.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
That was me a few months ago. As I said, you only realise how much better life is without masks when you get to experience it again. I was always in the “it’s just a minor inconvenience” camp but it’s actually quite dehumanising. Really messes with day to day human interactions, that gets you down over time.
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I feel like I haven't got a personality anymore. Half my face is always covered. No expressions etc. Can't wait till its safe to not wear it anymore.
 
Rams said:
yeah but hardly any get hospitalized now because of the immunity wall. Just about everybody I know has had Covid and is fully vaccinated.
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I'm fortunate enough to not have had covid or a normal cold for 2 years. Thats compared to 4 weeks in total off sick in my first 5 months in the office in 2019. I think that tells us all we need to know about wfh
 
berbatrick said:
I was referring to an economist who ran a "school covid tracker" or something like that, where, having been told that she was excluding a lot of schools from her analysis, she refused to change her inputs. She then got published (WaPo, NYT) as an advocate for in-person maskless teaching in summer 2020, winter 2020, all through delta, omicron, etc. Agree that mask studies are difficult to do properly, but hers was terrible, and very obviously led to a pre-decided outcome.

Personally, all remaining mask mandates (city and university) ended this Monday, but my boss, the bosses of the course I teach, and my department, have all said they expect us to continue. Teaching 20 students without much non-verbal communication sucks, but I've got used to it at this point, and it's my last month of teaching (possibly forever!) anyway.

...

Also thanks to you and @jojojo for very clear answers you gave me about a booster for my father - he did get one, and the journey went ok.
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Yeah, it’s easy to talk tough about life without a mask when you’re not in a lecture room/class room with dozens of youths breathing on you every day!

In other news, think I’ve finally caught the damn thing. Daughter covid positive since the weekend and I’ve woken up with a scratchy throat. Feck it anyway.

Glad your dad’s booster went ok.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, it’s easy to talk tough about life without a mask when you’re not in a lecture room/class room with dozens of youths breathing on you every day!

In other news, think I’ve finally caught the damn thing. Daughter covid positive since the weekend and I’ve woken up with a scratchy throat. Feck it anyway.

Glad your dad’s booster went ok.
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RIP.

I wish you a speedy death.
 
Is the omicron vaccine still planned? I remember they were saying it’s coming in March.
 
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