I read a Twitter thread from someone who’s involved in tracking all the variants and there’s already been a load of new ones since omicron. However the mutations are constantly trending towards being either less contagious and/or less virulent. So all the signals are we should be able to stop worrying about this stupid virus in the very near future. The latest tweaked vaccines should be the nail in its coffin.
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
I read a Twitter thread from someone who’s involved in tracking all the variants and there’s already been a load of new ones since omicron. However the mutations are constantly trending towards being either less contagious and/or less virulent. So all the signals are we should be able to stop worrying about this stupid virus in the very near future. The latest tweaked vaccines should be the nail in its coffin.
2.5 years into the pandemic and I’ve finally been collared by COVID.
My two baby kids (16 months and 3 months) have both been coughing like crazy last few days. Ive developed a cough but I ache like crazy - I only joked this morning to my wife that I feel like I’ve suddenly got old, the jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to do the feeds and I’m hobbling down the stairs / the duvet feels heavy when I pull it up in bed - I was like wtf has happened to me.
Hopefully it’ll pass and it doesn’t get any worse but I feel like I’ve been hit by a car.
Weirdly my wife who started feeling rough on Sunday has tested negative so maybe she’s had it and over the worst of it?
I blame my lad bringing it back from nursery but honestly who knows!
My two baby kids (16 months and 3 months) have both been coughing like crazy last few days. Ive developed a cough but I ache like crazy - I only joked this morning to my wife that I feel like I’ve suddenly got old, the jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to do the feeds and I’m hobbling down the stairs / the duvet feels heavy when I pull it up in bed - I was like wtf has happened to me.
Hopefully it’ll pass and it doesn’t get any worse but I feel like I’ve been hit by a car.
Weirdly my wife who started feeling rough on Sunday has tested negative so maybe she’s had it and over the worst of it?
I blame my lad bringing it back from nursery but honestly who knows!
Ireland preparing for the worst
Are we?
The minister for health was saying they are putting in place plans for rapid testing, wearing masks in public transport etc, all the usual stuff again. They also turned my warfarin clinic into a covid respiratory ward at Connolly hospital, away from the main building
Better to have it all in place and not need it I suppose
Winter is coming….
Seriously though. This is no big deal. Our hospitals get absolutely hammered every winter, since long before the first sneezy Chinese bat. And this winter will be worse than most because lockdowns have taken the edge off our immunity to the usual seasonal viruses. So it’s likely to be a more hectic winter than usual in our hospitals. That’s the main reason why the health service is gearing up for a rough few months.
I don’t think anyone is particularly worried about covid. We’re deep into the middle of our latest big wave and there’s hardly anyone in ICU with covid. The lowest number in years. I’d say the chances of any of us being told we have to mask up again in shops etc are slim to none.
@Pogue Mahone @jojojo you guys seem to be on top of the latest, is covid still classed as a pandemic at this stage, and if so how far away do you think we are from it being “downgraded” for want of a better word?
You’re right. I don’t think they are worried about it on its own as such but more on top of the usual winter viruses, they are worried about capacity
Yeah, there’s a good chance it’s going to get grim enough in the hospitals over winter. Which has been a depressingly regular occurrence going back for years and years. But most people have been blissfully unaware unless they’re unlucky enough to end up in A&E themselves. It will be same again this winter.
I actually have no idea. I get the sciencey/medically bits but know very little about global public health.
Yep. I think I’ve got a dislocated little finger and I’ve put off going into A&E as I can’t face a 12 hour wait. It’s not causing me huge hassle apart from when I wake up and it’s locked in a weird position and I have to correct it
Our health system collapses pretty much every day, a resurgence of Covid won't do much more.
It's funny, I've talked to numerous frontline nurses and doctors and most of 'em said that the first year of Covid was easily the quietest their hospitals had been for years because people just weren't going with normal injuries and flus. They'd probably love another clamp down! As I'm sure would the HSE.
It's funny, I've talked to numerous frontline nurses and doctors and most of 'em said that the first year of Covid was easily the quietest their hospitals had been for years because people just weren't going with normal injuries and flus. They'd probably love another clamp down! As I'm sure would the HSE.
I think we are approaching the transition from pandemic to endemic. We will see how this winter goes. My (non medical, purely scientific) guess is that we end up with a flu like endemic status for COVID, but a level or so worse, with sporadic transitions to “epidemic” status (like flu did in 200?? With H1N1).
As somebody who managed a small community hospital and worked alongside doctors and nurses working in some of the biggest hospitals in Northern Ireland during that first year of COVID, I'd like to say that this is not my experience at all. Quite the opposite. It is true that a lot of the 'normal' stuff you would expect to see in A&E perhaps were not there in the same numbers, but the staff's time was taken up by so many people dieing or being severely ill with covid which more than made up for that. Now it is probably the busiest time any of us have ever experienced in the NHS because all those sick people who didn't get treatment over the past few years are now all coming in extremely ill and there isn't enough capacity to cope with it.
Depends where you work. I had friends working in units that bore at the brunt of the covid waves and they were pretty overwhelmed. That’s kind of besides the point though. Everyone who works for the HSE is used to being constantly incredibly busy. During covid they were just busy doing different stuff to usual. With the added stress and anxiety of risking exposure to a disease that everyone was pretty scared of.
The lockdowns did keep a lot of people out of hospitals but everyone working there knew that was just storing problems up that they’d have to deal with eventually. Waiting lists got longer and longer, people with chronic Illnesses slowly got worse and worse without proper outpatient care. All of which is coming back to haunt them now. I don’t think anyone working anywhere in the HSE would actually be pleased if we had another lockdown.
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Interesting, thanks.
But they told me so it must be right? Isn’t that how these things work, or something. Anyway fair enough, obviously it was a different experience depending on the person and location, and good point about the backlog making things worse.
they won’t lock down again anyway so it’s all fine. Wouldn’t be opposed to them bringing back mandatory masks now for winter though. Had to get public transport to work this morning and people were sneezing and coughing away. Definitely going into work with colds the morons. I haven’t had a cold since before Covid and I plan on keeping it that way!
I’m sure they’re right! I also heard about eerily quiet ED’s and GP surgeries during lockdown. But everyone I knew who worked there was more freaked out about what would happen next than enjoying the quiet life while it lasted.After over 2 years of successfully avoiding it I've tested positive today. I don't have a sore throat or a runny nose but I've got a fever, aching bones (especially my lower back and a headache. My sinuses are a bit funny too, I feel like I constantly want to sneeze but so far I haven't. Annoying that I've got so many symptoms, most people I know who've had it recently only had 1 or no symptoms.
This is probably a stupid question: Now that everyone in my house currently has covid that means we can stop isolating from eachother right? We've all tested positive in the last 2 days.
Feeling horny P-Ro?
Yes
Are there any documents which give a full list of those people who may be offered the flu vaccine - at least in more detail than the NHS website?
GPs use public health england's "green book" regarding who should get flu jabs
For definitive list its here page 14 onwards
https://assets.publishing.service.g...luenza-green-book-chapter19-16September22.pdf
Worth keeping in mind that if you aren't eligible for the free NHS flu jab you can still pay for it. Lots of chemists do it, like:
https://lloydspharmacy.com/pages/flu-vaccination
£16.99 (or free) with them, depending on whether you qualify for the free NHS jab.
You can't buy a covid booster (fourth dose or higher) though, you need to meet the NHS criteria for those.
So the Mrs and I finally got covid this week.
Mild cold symptoms so far and its knocked my sleep pattern out of sync.
I think I am the last person to catch it in my entire family.
Missing contact with the kids and grand kids but fingers crossed it won't be for long.
Mild cold symptoms so far and its knocked my sleep pattern out of sync.
I think I am the last person to catch it in my entire family.
Missing contact with the kids and grand kids but fingers crossed it won't be for long.
Thanks
So I got offered both for free on the NHS but I do not fall under any of that criteria. Maybe a family member has some issues which I do not know about... I got offered to do both at the same time and I was like, nah, feck that.
Glad I staggered it.Glad that’s been cleared up and now we can all move on with zero consequences.
Fecking hell, are they serious doing that to a woman in China?
Why are they performing that? Was she not allowing the normal test to take place?
I dunno. Everything related to the zero COVID policy is pure madness when that country can and should do better efforts to improve vaccination rates among the elderly and children.
When Hong Kong had the omicron surge, their main problem behind deaths was about really low vaccination rates in those groups, especially the elderly. Whoever the people running the Ministry of Health over there in China are, they have to get sacked.
But they get their elections done quickly!
Never put zip ties up your arse
Nah it's the anal swab thing. Ashik Jain said so