COVID-19 (Coronavirus) discussion

[Puzzled]

I think a lot of the complacency comes from people who have either had it themselves and it was mild or know people who had it mild. They then assume it will be the same again the next time they catch it.

But it's looking like previous mild infections are no guarantee of how your body will react and don't reduce the chances of long covid. So yeah potentially catching this every 3 - 6 months doesn't look great and hopefully the vaccine trials for wider protection will be successful. Thankfully the current vaccines are still protecting against severe illness so we are in a much better place.

Think the average for flu is that you catch it once every 5 years, so not really a fair comparison.

 

[Freefaller]

I think a lot of the complacency comes from people who have either had it themselves and it was mild or know people who had it mild. They then assume it will be the same again the next time they catch it.

But it's looking like previous mild infections are no guarantee of how your body will react and don't reduce the chances of long covid. So yeah potentially catching this every 3 - 6 months doesn't look great and hopefully the vaccine trials for wider protection will be successful. Thankfully the current vaccines are still protecting against severe illness so we are in a much better place.

Think the average for flu is that you catch it once every 5 years, so not really a fair comparison.

Agreed. Complacency is so easy to happen. I'm guilty of it. Also agree about comparison with flu. I mean I've never had flu but I'm sure I've had covid a few times (asymptotically). And catching a disease and being battered by a disease regularly must be tiring for the body.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Last night I got a call off a fellow musician who said he had been kicked out of his band because he refused to have 5x lateral flows and a PCR test.
I asked who ordered him to do this and he said "Russ, he won't have me on stage unless I do what he asks".
I asked "Is this the same Russ who all through 2020 was posting covid is fake videos and on Christmas Eve when a friend of mine was rushed into ICU and had a Priest with her he was sending videos so I told him to **** *** and blocked him?" - "Yes That's the one.
It seems that around July 2021 he watched his Dad suddenly catch Covid and he watched him die with it over a couple of days completely changing his outlook on the virus.
For the record I know at least 10 people this happened to, raving anti covid rhetoric, they witness a family member or friend die of it then change their stance.

 

[Uther]

Unfortunately some people have to learn the hard way.

 

[Tephnos]

And that amount of hatred will do you no good either.

Some people get this, some people don’t.

I never disputed this is not a real virus, I simply didn’t want to take a RNA vaccine personally.

I am ok and please god your partner is also.

We will all be ok. The anger and hatred will kill you before any virus does.

So you have taken your AstraZeneca shots?

 

[Tephnos]

I guess as the novelty of the virus decreases the long term impacts will lessen? I.e. our bodies become less long term affected by it. Or is that not quite how it works? Seems logical to me but then again our bodies aren't logical!

It depends. The main problem is that this virus infects ACE2 cells, which are found all over the body, so every infection can end up slightly different from each other. You may get one that just resides in the lungs, you may get one that goes for the heart, may get one that infects the kidneys, etc. This kind of damage can all keep building up. With how widespread this virus is, your body barely gets the chance to recover from it before it may end up dealing with another bout of it.

Quite frankly, I don't think we should be taking the chance on exposing it to ourselves dozens of times for the immune system to 'work it out'. The strain on the already collapsing-behind-the-scenes medical industry would just be too great from those who come down with long term issues. At this point, it seems that a universal vaccine is our only way out of this. Thankfully, Pfizer are actively working on one now.

 

[Freefaller]

Presumably they need to make a new vaccine based on new variants?

 

[Philtor]

So you have taken your AstraZeneca shots?

I never got anything in the end. Been ok thank god.

 

[Trig]

Missus has caught it again, I'm 1100 miles away though so all good

 

[dave28]

Nephew went on holiday to Greece and low and behold has Covid for the first time.

Cant stop coughing non stop, he has very bad asthma so i really worry.

 

[cheesefest]

It's like the flu now, we're going to have waves of new strains every year forever.

I've noticed more people wearing masks again, still have no idea why people wear them outside

I don't understand mask wearing outside. Even drove through a small village in the middle of nowhere and there was a couple wearing them having a walk.

Everybody I knew when they wear/wore masks, they took them off as soon as they able to - going outside, sitting at a table in a restaurant etc,

 

[cheesefest]

Most people i know who got covid, have got it abroad. Parents - Madeira, A Friend - Italy, Another friend's BIL - Med cruise, colleague's son - Cyprus. Then if someone living with them didn't go on holiday with them - caught it from those who did.

How many of the new cases originally came from abroad??

All it needs is ONE person on the plane with covid and everyone gets it within 10 days. My dad tested positive yet feeling better. Last physical contact with both my parents was Tuesday.

Some people are thinking summer colds don't exist. Explain why a few days after going to the cinema during the summer holidays as a kid, I had a cold?

My mum tried to wear a mask on the plane. The mixture of the mask and plane pressure made her skin under mask itch like crazy

 

[Tephnos]

Presumably they need to make a new vaccine based on new variants?

That is what they're doing for this winter with a targeted Omicron jab, but it is not a magic bullet to ending SARS-2 for good, that is where the universal vaccine comes in.

I don't understand mask wearing outside. Even drove through a small village in the middle of nowhere and there was a couple wearing them having a walk.

Everybody I knew when they wear/wore masks, they took them off as soon as they able to - going outside, sitting at a table in a restaurant etc,

It is entirely situational. Some people wear masks that may attach via around your head and so are a hassle to take on and off if you are dipping in and out of buildings. I agree you don't need it on if you're outside and nobody is around, but taking it off to seat in a restaurant is stupid and is a great way to catch it. I just wouldn't bother with seated dining.

Most people i know who got covid, have got it abroad. Parents - Madeira, A Friend - Italy, Another friend's BIL - Med cruise, colleague's son - Cyprus. Then if someone living with them didn't go on holiday with them - caught it from those who did.

How many of the new cases originally came from abroad??

All it needs is ONE person on the plane with covid and everyone gets it within 10 days. My dad tested positive yet feeling better. Last physical contact with both my parents was Tuesday.

Some people are thinking summer colds don't exist. Explain why a few days after going to the cinema during the summer holidays as a kid, I had a cold?

My mum tried to wear a mask on the plane. The mixture of the mask and plane pressure made her skin under mask itch like crazy

It doesn't matter, because it is here now and spreading. And you'll catch it on a plane because you were too stubborn to properly wear said mask on a plane because, oh no, your skin itched.

Summer colds do exist, but you are having an absolute laugh if you think a summer cold is in any way as contagious as BA.5, it is a blip on the radar in comparison.

 

[Trig]

Mate of mine was self employed so didn't get anything from the government when they were doing their furlough handouts and such, so he had to keep working his 3 jobs, caught covid and died..
Missus has had it 3 times now, daughter twice, all either caught at school or work, me, I fly around the world, meet loads of people, nothing...

 

[Alex_6n2]

It depends. The main problem is that this virus infects ACE2 cells

Not quite. The ACE2 receptor is an Enzyme

SARS2 binds to ACE2 and uses it as a "Key" to unlock the "Door" into your bodies cells. ACE2 is found in different areas of your body, genetics and lifestyle both drive variation amongst individuals.

As you rightly point out, better vaccines will improve things further. Personally to me it seems we are best focusing on inhalable vaccines

Having vaccine induced antibodies in your blood stream (igM and igG) is great for reducing infection within your organs and reducing hospital visits/death.

But lasting igA antibodies within your mucosal immune system (i.e. the stuff that lines your nose/throat) appear to be the key to reducing spread of SARS2 infection. Which you don't get as much of from jabs or they fade over ~6 months.

 

[cheesefest]

That is what they're doing for this winter with a targeted Omicron jab, but it is not a magic bullet to ending SARS-2 for good, that is where the universal vaccine comes in.



It is entirely situational. Some people wear masks that may attach via around your head and so are a hassle to take on and off if you are dipping in and out of buildings. I agree you don't need it on if you're outside and nobody is around, but taking it off to seat in a restaurant is stupid and is a great way to catch it. I just wouldn't bother with seated dining.



It doesn't matter, because it is here now and spreading. And you'll catch it on a plane because you were too stubborn to properly wear said mask on a plane because, oh no, your skin itched.

Summer colds do exist, but you are having an absolute laugh if you think a summer cold is in any way as contagious as BA.5, it is a blip on the radar in comparison.

I bet you will take your mask off if your face starting to itch crazy

 

[dowie]

I think a lot of the complacency comes from people who have either had it themselves and it was mild or know people who had it mild. They then assume it will be the same again the next time they catch it.

But it's looking like previous mild infections are no guarantee of how your body will react and don't reduce the chances of long covid. So yeah potentially catching this every 3 - 6 months doesn't look great and hopefully the vaccine trials for wider protection will be successful. Thankfully the current vaccines are still protecting against severe illness so we are in a much better place.

Yeah if anything reinfections could have more risk, especially if you've not recovered from the hit to your immune system + other damage from the previous one.

It seems that infection from the initial omicron variant doesn't provide much protection against the latest omicron variant, that's what's screwed me, I'd hoped I'd have had 6 months+ of immunity post-infection (and should have with the previous variants) but have had a second infection now in < 6 months. Fortunately, both have been mild but still, I don't particularly want to have this every year or twice a year going forwards. Really it's the vaccine booster that offers more protection against the latest variant.

Agreed. Complacency is so easy to happen. I'm guilty of it. Also agree about comparison with flu. I mean I've never had flu but I'm sure I've had covid a few times (asymptotically). And catching a disease and being battered by a disease regularly must be tiring for the body.

To be fair you can't necessarily know you've not had flu asymptomatically either or a mild case - I mean this whole pandemic ought to kinda highlight things like mild cases and asymptomatic infections, it's not like we have had other lateral flow tests whenever we get the sniffles and know for sure whether it's a cold or flu.

 

[Freefaller]

True I can't say I've never had the flu. I'll retract that and say I've never noticeably been ill. Other than the occasional headache *touch wood* and a few hospital appointments for physical injuries I'm one of life's lucky few, I realise this is probably not common. I'd theorise that my boring healthy lifestyle probably has helped in mitigating symptoms. Though I think I've read somewhere that O type blood has more protective elements for COVID?

That said I'll probably get hit by a bus tomorrow or get come malignant disease and blow that theory out of the window

Anyway I'm completely in agreement that trying to avoid infection is a far more sensible approach.

Did I understand correctly that omicron attaches itself more to nasal cells than lungs which was more what delta did? Is that why they're pushing for inhalable medicines? Some professor on the radio said that masks is more about protecting others through your exhalation rather than anything else too but only accurate if you do a proper F2F (fit to face) element. But if you don't know you've got it then you won't wear a mask. Frankly if I knew I had it I wouldn't leave the house unless I had no choice.

 

[woppy101]

T-cell counts can take a big hit post-infection and they can take several months to over a year+ to recover (AFAIK - obvs I'm not an immunologist, just took an interest in some of the research)... but if you're getting infected every year then... some not too good additional risk, higher-order effects there.

I would question that TBH, my wife is immunocompromised(B-Cell depleted) and she had her Covid immune T-Cells measured in February and the figure was 39.3Pg/ml, she had them tested again 1 week after she cleared Covid and her reading was 33.4Pg/ml, when I questioned it with the scientist running the trial he said that the reading was well within the margin for error for the test and the “level was more than likely the same as the last time in truth” (I questioned it because I was expecting the level to go up after the infection)
February Pre Covid

Thank you for taking part in the COVID-19 immunity research project, run by ImmunoServ Ltd and funded by Innovate UK (UK Government funding agency).

The blood sample received from you was:

SARS-CoV-2 T Cells: Positive
39.3 pg/ml; IFN-g; test is positive if the value is above 22.7 pg/ml and >50% above the negative control
COVID-19 vaccine-/infection-induced antibodies: Negative
0.4 U/ul; test is positive if the SARS-CoV-2 RBD IgG value is above 2.5 U/μl
COVID-19 infection-induced antibodies: Negative
0.1 U/ul; test is positive if the SARS-CoV-2 N IgG value is above 2.5 U/μl

Late April7 days Post Covid
Thank you for taking part in the COVID-19 immunity research project, run by ImmunoServ Ltd and funded by Innovate UK (UK Government funding agency).

The blood sample received from you was:

SARS-CoV-2 T Cells: Positive
33.4 pg/ml; IFN-g; test is positive if the value is above 22.7 pg/ml and >50% above the negative control
COVID-19 vaccine-/infection-induced antibodies: Negative
0.2 U/ml; test is positive if the SARS-CoV-2 RBD IgG value is above 2.5 U/μl
COVID-19 infection-induced antibodies: Negative
0.2 U/ul; test is positive if the SARS-CoV-2 N IgG value is above 2.5 U/μl

 

[One More Solo]

True I can't say I've never had the flu. I'll retract that and say I've never noticeably been ill. Other than the occasional headache *touch wood* and a few hospital appointments for physical injuries I'm one of life's lucky few, I realise this is probably not common. I'd theorise that my boring healthy lifestyle probably has helped in mitigating symptoms. Though I think I've read somewhere that O type blood has more protective elements for COVID?

That said I'll probably get hit by a bus tomorrow or get come malignant disease and blow that theory out of the window

Anyway I'm completely in agreement that trying to avoid infection is a far more sensible approach.

Did I understand correctly that omicron attaches itself more to nasal cells than lungs which was more what delta did? Is that why they're pushing for inhalable medicines? Some professor on the radio said that masks is more about protecting others through your exhalation rather than anything else too but only accurate if you do a proper F2F (fit to face) element. But if you don't know you've got it then you won't wear a mask. Frankly if I knew I had it I wouldn't leave the house unless I had no choice.

I’m the same generally, but got COVID a couple of weeks ago and it really knocked me about. Couple of days of feeling rough but then a week of zero energy which I’m slowly recovering from. Certainly not as bad as some have had it but it’s still debilitating if you’re used to leading an active life.