A couple people at my work are off with long covid. Has it been identified as distinct from other post viral issues? I had really bad flu a few years back and struggled after for a few months.
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
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South Korea just reported their worst daily deaths. With it rising again in China it looks like we could be in for another wave. It’s only a matter of time here given the dropping of restrictions.
Wahey!
We're in a wave now, it's just being ignored. Zoe app recorded the highest ever UK covid cases yesterday.
Today was an exam for the course I'm a TA for, with a bonus question about whether students would prefer returning to in-person (for lectures, the labs I teach are in-person). I don't know the final tally, but from the papers I collected, it seemed split exactly down the middle.
Neither decision (continuing virtual or going in-person) is going to be a widely popular one.
Question was prompted because a parent (this is a university, not a school!) emailed the professors demanding to know why teaching isn't in person, plus a threat to sue.
Neither decision (continuing virtual or going in-person) is going to be a widely popular one.
Question was prompted because a parent (this is a university, not a school!) emailed the professors demanding to know why teaching isn't in person, plus a threat to sue.
I feel like I’m having the best naps with Covid. I usually can’t nap in the day time.
Among the 1486 vaccinated COVID deaths in Hong Kong, 87% of them took CoronaVac, 12% of them took Pfizer. An effective vaccine matters.
My wife is still testing positive on an antigen test eight days after her first positive result. She hasn’t had any symptoms for about four days now. I’m trying to find the correct guidelines in Ireland - HSE says only seven days isolation is required after a positive test but doesn’t state what to do if you’re still testing positive after those seven days. Anyone here know what the procedure should be?
Stats need context of proportion of the population that took respective vaccines. For example, if ~ 80% in HK took CoronaVac only then effectiveness of both vaccine is similar.
58% of the vaccinated population took Pfizer, 42% took CoronaVac.
Not 100% sure but I think I read that you should still isolate until you return 4(?) negative tests on different days
Official guidance is don’t test! 7 days isolation and you’re done. No test before or after (unless >55 or vulnerable)
If you're still testing positive on a LFT are you still infectious though?
I stopped testing positive on my LFT after 5 days
I'm having some wild dreams, one where I turned into a dinosaur and one where my partner painted the front of my mountain bike blue.
Are you sure that's paracetamol that you're taking
It will be a factor, but overwhelmingly for HK it's failure to vaccinate enough of the highest risk groups that is making omicron hit so hard. In particular it's the low vaccination rates amongst the over 80s that are disturbing. I see that takeup in the higher age groups is starting to rise now - obviously that has come too late for thousands of people in HK but maybe it will have an impact in China.
The figures coming out of HK do seem to confirm that for the unvaxxed over 80s, Omicron severity is similar to what was seen in the rest of the world in the first wave, with the original Wuhan virus. The vaxxed are safer, even if the vax was CoronaVac (Sinovac) though Pfizer is more protective again.
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Like I've said before, the local uneducated elderly is very resistant to vaccination. There's nothing much the government could do to raise vaccination rates other than mandatory vaccination, which is unethical in my opinion. What it could do, however, is to ensure every vaccinated person has been given the maximum protection. This seems a greater failure to me.
Yes the 5th wave has hit Hong Kong hard, but many citizens would rather be hit once and for all than the endless, strict "dynamic zero-COVID strategy". It is estimated that half of the population has been infected and hopefully the social distancing measures can be loosened soon.
I feel mostly fine except being a bit heady with a dry cough, but every time I go upstairs I feel absolutely knackered. I start breathing like I've just done a light jog.
I lived in Hong Kong during SARS.
I'm not surprised given population density sadly of what's happening. I remember compliance to masks being very high and I can't wrap my head around population being vaccine hesitant unless there is anti-china sentiment/suspicion in the mix. Really sad though what's happening given the political turmoil there too. I think population immunity will help for a bit but it wears off soon. Whether breakthrough/re-infections will be less severe remains to be seen.
I have explained the situation a year ago. The vaccine hesitancy indeed originates from anti-US sentiment from the pro-China campaign.
Absolutely shattered here. Just woken up and feel like I could sleep all day though not sure that I should.
7 days of this yeah?
7 days of this yeah?
I'm the same today. Left the house once for a short walk round our garden and been horizontal the rest of the day.
How are the case numbers looking in London, are they completely out of control? I may need to be in London for work at the beginning of April, so I'm getting stressed. Shoutout to @Pogue Mahone who told me to get my booster ASAP, looks like I may need it.
Purely anecdotal but I know more people that are getting it now than in any stage of the pandemic so far. Nobody seriously sick though thankfully.
I told work I had Covid and both my managers were like "yeah we've got it too".
Currently about 1:20 people in London would test positive for covid using a PCR test, maybe half of those are currently infectious. Of course, many of them will realise that they've got it and will be staying home and away from other people. That's still a lot of infectious people wandering around though.
Out of control? I don't know how to answer that. The UK is more or less only looking at hospitalisations and deaths right now, and while neither of those are great, they're not outside the "prepared for/expected" range.
The boosters are doing their jobs. If you're under 70 and don't have a serious underlying condition then your chances of being hospitalised are very low once vaccinated, and extremely low after a booster. If you're worried about it interfering with your work and meaning you get stuck in a hotel room, sleeping yourself better - yep, it could, and the same will be true of the people you're working with.
You can protect yourself further by wearing a N95/FFP2 mask, they do work. But you will need to wear it consistently - which will mean wearing it at work, avoiding eating out in crowded indoor spaces etc. Omicron is hard to dodge if it's in the office or at the dining table with you.
Whole family has had it over the last week. I’ve not tested as we’ve ran out of tests and feel fine. Wife tested positive and my son negative. Spent the whole time holding the fort and taking care of my wife and kids. It’s hard but I’m managing. My son was bad one night last week but fine otherwise. Wife was bed ridden for a few days. To be honest they’ve all just been poorly with a covid stamp. No big deal.
We all just need to live with it now.
We all just need to live with it now.
Yeah, same here, mostly mild but a few people with decent doses.
Gah, want this bloody faint line to disappear now! I'm on day 7, not had any symptoms since about day 4/5 but each morning do the test then a faint line appears after 2 or 3 minutes. I want out of my covid jail! The weather is nice!
Thanks this helps a lot. I just got my Pfizer booster (had 2 x J&J before), and I generally wear a KN95 when I go out. Do you think a 3-layer surgical mask at my office desk would be fine?
Get out and go for a walk. Wear an FFP2 mask and the chance of infecting anyone else is basically zero. The fresh air, sunshine and (light) exercise will probably help you get better quicker.
Probably shouldn’t spend an evening in the pub…
Feels like March 2020 all over again. Just when the weather turns nice we can't go anywhere.
The surgical mask is unlikely to do much. They only have a significant impact in "everyone wearing" spaces and most London offices won't be. It's hard to answer though - your mask might encourage others to wear one and it might encourage others to maintain social distancing.
So, hmmm, dunno. Personally I think with Omicron anything other than a KN95 is pretty irrelevant in terms of avoiding infection - in London and most Western European cities. Other people may read the research differently.
I feel your pain mate was just trapped in a hotel room myself for 8 days with no balcony or even a window to open. Seeing that negative test result was easily one of the top 10 moments of my life
Have you seen any current data on the hospitalisations in terms of the incidental covid and admitted for covid? I imagine general hospital admissions for covid vs icu admissions for covid would show a stark difference at the moment. Javid yesterday was commenting some numbers but I don't trust the man as far as I could throw him.
That makes sense. I will probably just wear the KN95 in the office - I'll just have to make an excuse due to the inevitable peer pressure
What are the isolation rules in the UK if you do test positive?
That makes sense. I will probably just wear the KN95 in the office - I'll just have to make an excuse due to the inevitable peer pressure
What are the isolation rules in the UK if you do test positive?
Around 50% of the covid admissions/covid beds are not being treated "primarily" for covid. That can be a bit misleading, some are admitted with strokes for example that were triggered by covid infection, or a fractured hip because a cough or lightheadedness caused a fall, others are admitted with conditions that become more dangerous because of covid. Even so, the general picture is that there are a lot of people who "just happen to have" covid and that ICU covid numbers are staying low.
The other change is that we're seeing lots of "hospital acquired" covid. About 25% of covid admissions are people who are already in hospital being transferred from standard wards to covid positive areas. Basically they count anyone who starts testing positive after 7 days in hospital as hospital acquired - so if anything that number could be even higher, 2/3 days infected to positive is common with omicron. That hospital acquired stat was running at about 5% pre-omicron, but it's not just omicron's impact doing that - from what I've seen, hospital visiting is returning to something more like normal now, so I suspect there's a fair bit of "visitor introduced" infection in there rather than people catching it from staff or other patients.
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