COVID-19 (Coronavirus) discussion

inogen said:
I have no other covid infection to compare with, but I've just about recovered from it, I tested positive just over 2 weeks ago. I'd say it's not as bad as flu in that it didn't have the longevity. I had 12-24 hours of feeling very flu like though. Fever, vivid dreams, night sweats for a few nights and about a week or so of dizzy spells, headaches and now I'm just exhausted after doing anything. Walk around the park is still a 1hr recovery and an early night. I reckon I've got a few weeks before I'm back to normal. I really wish I hadn't have caught it but my other half is a teacher so really, there was no escaping it.
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It seems to vary so much doesn't it? I've had both delta and the first omicron - but wasn't aware of it, only found out through antibody check. I feel no different now, i.e. my energy levels are typical for me (high, and always active). But the reaction you had is similar to a few of my friends/colleagues. Hope you get well soon :)
 
Talk of boosters for the over 50's in the autumn that'll be me then. Still got to get one sourced for mother (75+, has COPD) and step father maybe his daughter will do something for once she is a doctors receptionist afterall...

AndyT said:
I didn't say I wanted this thread closed. I did say a while ago that I thought an entire sub-forum dedicated to COVID was overkill though, before that got shut down. I think most rational people agreed on that.

Of course COVID "interests" me, of course it concerns me. It's been of significant importance over the last 2+ years for everyone, but now the importance of COVID in the grand scheme of things is waning, along with the risk it presents. I didn't realise this was a thread just for COVID Hobbyists.

Although, admittedly, what interests me most are COVID bores (hobbyists) who appear to thrive on the doom of it all, and seem as though they would miss it when its gone. Certain people give the impression that they are eagerly awaiting the next bad wave/mutation/research of long term effects so they can go "Ah! See! I told you so!".

I don't happen to think that's healthy at all.
Uther said:
I keep up with the thread as I am immuno compromised so the disease is of particular concern for me. Hence I have had 4 jabs (so far) had to retire from work earlier than planned, and curtailed my social life a fair bit. Sounds like a **** hobby.
Pretty sure if I was fit and healthy I would be nowhere near this thread.
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Sounds like the only one obsessed here is him?
 
Freefaller said:
It seems to vary so much doesn't it? I've had both delta and the first omicron - but wasn't aware of it, only found out through antibody check. I feel no different now, i.e. my energy levels are typical for me (high, and always active). But the reaction you had is similar to a few of my friends/colleagues. Hope you get well soon :)
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You had no symptoms from delta? You lucky so-and-so!
 
Unsurprisingly got a message from work today that COVID measures are being put back into effect "temporarily" although some aspects they can't enforce due to no longer being a legal requirement asking people to be considerate etc. with isolation back at a company level for those testing positive and work will cover any isolation/testing costs.

Last ~10 days has hit us as hard as the whole rest of the pandemic combined apparently in terms of impact from staff sickness due to COVID.
 
Jokester said:
No, what I mean is at 1 U/ul, they can't say with any certainty that the measurement is correct.
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I discussed my 1 U/ul result with the study head. He was pretty clear that a result of 1 (and not 0.1 or something) very likely means you came into contact with the virus, but antibodies/t-cells blocked it from spreading into a proper infection.

The second scenario is that you caught it, generated a weak response, and it is no longer detectable. In my situation, this is unlikely.

It's not likely to be an inaccuracy of the test.
 
Tephnos said:
I discussed my 1 U/ul result with the study head. He was pretty clear that a result of 1 (and not 0.1 or something) very likely means you came into contact with the virus, but antibodies/t-cells blocked it from spreading into a proper infection.

The second scenario is that you caught it, generated a weak response, and it is no longer detectable. In my situation, this is unlikely.

It's not likely to be an inaccuracy of the test.
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I think you're being palmed off with that explanation. Specific anti-bodies to covid take time to develop, certainly substantially more than the time it would take for vaccine anti-bodies to snuff out the virus before it could infect your cells and cause an infection
 
Jokester said:
I think you're being palmed off with that explanation. Specific anti-bodies to covid take time to develop, certainly substantially more than the time it would take for vaccine anti-bodies to snuff out the virus before it could infect your cells and cause an infection
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Didn't know you were a qualified doctor. Think you're getting a bit in over your head at this point.

'he doesn't agree with me therefore he must be lying to you'. Come on dude. You're basically saying that an immune response can only be generated via infection, and that a virus that has been neutralised by antibodies (studies have discovered t-cells may play a big role in neutralisation of COVID as well before infection, not just antibodies) will be ignored. I'm not so sure on the validity of this, because the immune system is still going to clean up a neutralised virus when it comes across it, and I don't see why it couldn't generate a (fairly weak) antibody response to that.

In either case, I'm going to trust the head of the study over this one. He could've easily just said 'we can't tell for sure', but he didn't.
 
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Tephnos said:
Didn't know you were a qualified doctor. Think you're getting a bit in over your head at this point.

'he doesn't agree with me therefore he must be lying to you'. Come on dude.
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Well, believe what you like, but the same tolerance is used for the vaccine induced antibody concentration (which they can tell with absolute certainty if you've been vaccinated or not!).

I'm an instrumentation engineer, so no, I'm not over my head - I'm literally a professional in measuring things.
 
Jokester said:
Well, believe what you like, but the same tolerance is used for the vaccine induced antibody concentration.
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I specifically queried whether it was a tolerance of error, or if it meant something. He clearly said it likely meant something with a figure that high, when he could've just said 'yup, can't tell for sure'. There was no palming me off since my question gave him an easy out.
 
AndyT said:
Excuse me, this thread isn't the place for rational thought. Here, we try to ensure the fear is maintained. by either meticulously selecting and highlighting doomsday statistics so that we can extrapolate the findings; or, we rely on personal anecdotes of misery. We must also lash out at large swathes of the population.
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It's like an arms race: between the sniffles and folks striving for their 15th vaccination. All whilst avoiding the most obvious questions. Not sure how people survived before covid tbh.
 
FirebarUK said:
It's like an arms race: between the sniffles and folks striving for their 15th vaccination. All whilst avoiding the most obvious questions. Not sure how people survived before covid tbh.
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Obvious questions eh?
Is this a novel virus?
Is this worth keeping an eye on?
Should we be prepared and plan if it did spring something new?
Should we listen to the hard lads who would go to work with norovirus and think vaccination is for wimps?
 
Well...I've yet to test positive however all of my immediate family now have. Wife and father were the last bastions. Wife had symptoms for 4 days before she tested positive last weekend, dad 2 days. Two mates of mine whom I spent time with lately have also just tested positive today.
 
Did anyone else on the trial have issues bleeding?

I used all 4 of the lances on 3 fingers and got about 150 out of the required 400/600 they ask for so complete fail...

Maybe I'm just dead..
 
Trig said:
Did anyone else on the trial have issues bleeding?

I used all 4 of the lances on 3 fingers and got about 150 out of the required 400/600 they ask for so complete fail...

Maybe I'm just dead..
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I used 3 lancets and three fingers, it was carnage :p
It took a lot of finger squeezing. I wondered why they included 4 lancets, but they wanted quite a lot of blood.
 
Trig said:
Did anyone else on the trial have issues bleeding?

I used all 4 of the lances on 3 fingers and got about 150 out of the required 400/600 they ask for so complete fail...

Maybe I'm just dead..
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Lol, my wife always has issues when donating blood, it just doesn't want to leave her body. She used all four of her lancets and I used three of my spare ones to perforate her more to help with the flow. Her fingers were pretty sore afterwards and she only just about managed to get to the minimum level required. She had three jabs at one point on one finger and as soon as she stopped squeezing the blood seemed to go back in...!

For me I just used one lancet and eventually stopped at just below the 600 mark.

not sure what they will make of that, I don't think you are supposed to squeeze.

Got an email yesterday to confirm that they have the test samples.
 
A little tip is put your fingers in warm water for a few minutes before lancing them. It encourages blood flow to that area and makes these type of things much easier
 
Trig said:
Did anyone else on the trial have issues bleeding?

I used all 4 of the lances on 3 fingers and got about 150 out of the required 400/600 they ask for so complete fail...

Maybe I'm just dead..
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I struggled until I hit my right ring finger and it gushed out.

I've used these style of tests quite a lot for general health screening and to be honest it's very hit and miss on how easy it is to get enough blood out on a given day.

Ideally you want to do it towards the end of the day where you've been up and about and nice and warm, unfortunately some tests require being done first thing in the morning. Those ones are a pain.

This is also the second time I've had at least one of the lancets appear to be Friday afternoon specials that didn't seem to fire out enough to tickle the skin.
 
Trig said:
The 3 fingers I used are all sore and I'm nowhere near enough blood so complete waste of everything from my end :(
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You need to drink plenty water before doing it, you need to do it standing up so your finger can be much lower than your heart, it helps if you ***** the side of your finger near the tip and then massage your other hand down your finger towards the *****, I don't bleed much but these are the techniques I use for the blood testing of the ONS study
 
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