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

There's no reason to put the COVID vaccines in that category though.

Yes there is. Same reason flu and cervical cancer etc should be.

I wouldn't make it compulsory per se but if you don't you should pay for hurting others and the added health care costs you cause.
 
Yes there is. Same reason flu and cervical cancer etc should be.

I wouldn't make it compulsory per se but if you don't you should pay for hurting others and the added health care costs you cause.

Not vaccinating children against covid doesn’t hurt anyone. Especially now we’re dealing with a relatively benign variant and prior infection is basically a given. Giving children vaccines they don’t need will definitely hurt children (even if only with the needle)

Putting pressure on children to get vaccines they don’t need would be a terrible decision. Which, as I said, nobody who understands the science is advising. And that’s important for the roll out of vaccines that children really need. Making obviously poor decisions about childhood vaccinations only undermines faith in the whole system.
 
Terrible opinion.

The risk benefit of vaccinating kids against the current (and, almost certainly, future) covid variants doesn’t add up at all. Making it mandatory for these age groups would be an awful decision. Which, thankfully, will never happen because it would be medical malpractice.

It wouldn't because it would protect society by further reducing transmission amongst kids, teachers and other kids families. COVID is still a huge drain on our medical services even if you just want to limit economic damage.

But of course it won't be compulsory for young kids, or indeed anyone most likely. Indeed no vaccinations are compulsory in most countries but should be strongly encouraged in various ways. But here we are with measles making a big comeback.
 
Not vaccinating children against covid doesn’t hurt anyone. Giving children vaccines they don’t need will definitely hurt children (even if only with the needle)

Putting pressure on children to get vaccines they don’t need would be a terrible decision. Which, as I said, nobody who understands the science is advising.

An unvaccinated kid will catch covid more often and when infected and pass it on more often to others including the most vulnerable. Teachers and child care workers die more often from covid, so anything we can do to protect them is a good idea. You have a duty for the benefits of being part of society and being vaccinated against everything is part of that. You might as well say getting the cervical cancer vaccine shouldn't be strongly encouraged (as nobody will be held down and injected). Free riding is a social evil.
 
An unvaccinated kid will catch covid more often and when infected and pass it on more often to others including the most vulnerable. You have a duty for the benefits of being part of society and being vaccinated against everything is part of that. You might as well say getting the cervical cancer vaccine shouldn't be strongly encouraged (as nobody will be hekd down and injected). Free riding is a social evil.

Sorry, Wibble, but you’re not doing yourself any favours here. I really don’t think you understand the science. Comparing covid vaccination in young kids with the HPV vaccine is a woeful analogy.
 
Yes there is. Same reason flu and cervical cancer etc should be.

I wouldn't make it compulsory per se but if you don't you should pay for hurting others and the added health care costs you cause.

Pretty impossible to implement something like that. If you start punishing people for it why not do it for people going to work with the common cold? Statistically with the cervical cancer thing you'd never prove conclusively that individual cancer was caused because of the lack of the HPV vax.
 
Not vaccinating children against covid doesn’t hurt anyone. Especially now we’re dealing with a relatively benign variant and prior infection is basically a given. Giving children vaccines they don’t need will definitely hurt children (even if only with the needle)

Putting pressure on children to get vaccines they don’t need would be a terrible decision. Which, as I said, nobody who understands the science is advising. And that’s important for the roll out of vaccines that children really need. Making obviously poor decisions about childhood vaccinations only undermines faith in the whole system.

No need for kids to be vaccinated anymore. Probably no need for healthy adults to be, i certainly haven't heard anything about future boosters here. Last winter the Covid booster jab was being rolled into the flu jab campaign as one vaccination.

That chat aside, I would use somebody's opinion on the vaccine as a future job interview question.
 
Yeah, the unnecessary use of masks and vaccines in the US is clearly politically, rather than medically, motivated. They’ve managed to make it part of their culture war.
This was something I noticed last year when watching bands from the US playing in England. All of those I like fall into the left side of the spectrum and they were taking mask wearing incredibly seriously up until the point where they were on stage sweating and singing/screaming for 90 minutes in front of an almost entirely unmasked audience. Then the masks were back on, despite the fact by then it was a futile effort to reduce transmission, by the time they were packing up their gear.
 
Wonder who will take responsibility for destroying economies and millions of people lives (I know the answer). The first lockdown when it all started made sense because we didn't have enough data about it but after that all the decisions made by the governments were insane.
 
This was something I noticed last year when watching bands from the US playing in England. All of those I like fall into the left side of the spectrum and they were taking mask wearing incredibly seriously up until the point where they were on stage sweating and singing/screaming for 90 minutes in front of an almost entirely unmasked audience. Then the masks were back on, despite the fact by then it was a futile effort to reduce transmission, by the time they were packing up their gear.

Yeah, it’s so odd. Masks have become the left’s version of a MAGA cap.
 
I had to take my better half to hospital for a broken finger and I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that maks for all were still compulsory.
Unsurprisingly I tested Covid positive today, just a few days after masks ceased to be compulsory here. Didn't have as much as a common cold in the past three years.

I'm not forced to go home and can work Covid-positive. Back to using a mask and disinfecting all the time, to try and not pass it on. Covid area in the ER will be shut down next week so everyone will be lumped together anyway.
 
Got a feeling I might have Covid again (would be the third time). Obviously no way of knowing with no testing here in the UK now.
 
You can buy lateral flows in the supermarket, or get them delivered by Amazon, if you want to be sure.
I know but not sure how conclusive they are anyway. Plus I assume that the Government / medical world has decided that it’d no longer worth testing so I’m not going to spend my own money.
 
Caught my first bout of covid last week but it was very light. Was very worried as last Sunday my legs started tingling and I thought my reactive arthritis was coming back. Luckily(?) It turned out to be covid.

Had my last booster 2 years ago so either the vaccinaciones are lasting longer than I thought or the strain is being diluted to a point where the symptoms are less than the common cold.
 
Caught my first bout of covid last week but it was very light. Was very worried as last Sunday my legs started tingling and I thought my reactive arthritis was coming back. Luckily(?) It turned out to be covid.

Had my last booster 2 years ago so either the vaccinaciones are lasting longer than I thought or the strain is being diluted to a point where the symptoms are less than the common cold.
Once vaccinated, even if you don't have the boosters, the protection level against illness remains high, even though we're not really protected from catching it. Combine that with the latest strains being relatively mild and a lot of people won't feel bad at all.

It is still putting people in hospital and some are dying. But we're now in the same territory as we are with diseases like flu that can hit some people hard and colds that can be dangerous to the old, the infirm and the unlucky.

It's a very different place to where we were three years ago. Get well soon!
 
Caught my first bout of covid last week but it was very light. Was very worried as last Sunday my legs started tingling and I thought my reactive arthritis was coming back. Luckily(?) It turned out to be covid.

Had my last booster 2 years ago so either the vaccinaciones are lasting longer than I thought or the strain is being diluted to a point where the symptoms are less than the common cold.
I got a cold on my way home from Manchester last week and its still there. This is something i noticed to, the leg tingling, is it a normal covid/flu sympthom?
 
Once vaccinated, even if you don't have the boosters, the protection level against illness remains high, even though we're not really protected from catching it. Combine that with the latest strains being relatively mild and a lot of people won't feel bad at all.

It is still putting people in hospital and some are dying. But we're now in the same territory as we are with diseases like flu that can hit some people hard and colds that can be dangerous to the old, the infirm and the unlucky.

It's a very different place to where we were three years ago. Get well soon!
Thanks jox3 but I really have nothing in the way of any bad symptoms. Took my first positive test last Wednesday, then another today which is still positive. Very slight runny nose which for me is almost habitual.

I'm still taking all the precautions like mask on at work or public transport but I've noticed many others who could be showing signs of symptoms aren't doing the same which is only going to prolong the situation.
I got a cold on my way home from Manchester last week and its still there. This is something i noticed to, the leg tingling, is it a normal covid/flu sympthom?
No idea mate but maybe better to get a test done in case you're unwittingly infecting other people.
 
Thanks jox3 but I really have nothing in the way of any bad symptoms. Took my first positive test last Wednesday, then another today which is still positive. Very slight runny nose which for me is almost habitual.

I'm still taking all the precautions like mask on at work or public transport but I've noticed many others who could be showing signs of symptoms aren't doing the same which is only going to prolong the situation.

No idea mate but maybe better to get a test done in case you're unwittingly infecting other people.
They recomend us not to get tested here. I have stayed home as i always do anyway when im sick and getting much better now. Was just curious about the tingling thing as i never experienced that before.
 
So...the conspiracy theorists were right?

Yeah looks that way although this has been a fairly credible theory for quite some time now I think, pretty sure the Biden admin has been open to it lately. But I do remember initially there was a real reluctance to accept the possibility, despite the obvious circumstantial implications of the location of that lab.
 
Yeah looks that way although this has been a fairly credible theory for quite some time now I think, pretty sure the Biden admin has been open to it lately. But I do remember initially there was a real reluctance to accept the possibility, despite the obvious circumstantial implications of the location of that lab.

That article is paywalled. We’ve known for ages that the lab was in Wuhan and what experiments they were doing there. Does the Times investigation turn up any new information?
 
That article is paywalled. We’ve known for ages that the lab was in Wuhan and what experiments they were doing there. Does the Times investigation turn up any new information?

If you open the thread it gives the main points of the article.
 
Yeah looks that way although this has been a fairly credible theory for quite some time now I think, pretty sure the Biden admin has been open to it lately. But I do remember initially there was a real reluctance to accept the possibility, despite the obvious circumstantial implications of the location of that lab.
Yea, my comment was slightly tongue in cheek. I do remember the prevailing narrative when it first came about was that it's due to the wet markets in China and there's been some pathogen that jumped from bat to human or whatever.
 
I don't really get that article, it seems to imply that the virus was natural but found in caves and not disclosed. They then worked on the virus and engineered a version of it with a very high kill-rate. Then the virus escaped, but it was the original one rather than the "super virus", but able to transmit between humans.

It still seems far more likely to me that the virus mutated to transmit between humans based on the scenario he puts forward. It's not like viruses don't do that all the time anyway.
 
Had to wear a mask for the first time in years on Saturday as my Mum is just beginning chemo and masks are still mandatory on chemo/cancer wards. Not a big problem and entirely understandable - one of my mates from work's Mum had leukaemia and actually died from Covid rather than the cancer as her body's defences were so low.
 
Yeah looks that way although this has been a fairly credible theory for quite some time now I think, pretty sure the Biden admin has been open to it lately. But I do remember initially there was a real reluctance to accept the possibility, despite the obvious circumstantial implications of the location of that lab.

The US want that to be true but all independent analysis that I've read points to it not being bioengineered and patient zero being at the wet market with a jump to humans from an intermediate host that caught it from a bat (or possibly another intermediate host).

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00584-8
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9348752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9348750/
 
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Government TV ads in Australia are now urging all adults who haven't had a jab in 6 months to get a booster.
 
All adults? Everyone >18? That’s nuts. Or incredible marketing by Pfizer et al. Kudos.

Yes.

They are treating it like they do the flu. Trying to keep hospitalisations down especially in winter and minimise the economic/productivity impacts. I'll be getting 2 a year indefinably. The only difference is that the flu shot is only free for kids, the retired and those on social payments and covid is free for everyone. That said the flu shot it is only $15/20 and a huge number of businesses pay for it as it has a big productivity benefit.

And loons aside anti-covid measures are very popular. WA had the biggest election landslide for labor at the last election based on their almost total pandemic lockdown. They acted fast enough to keep it more or less out until vaccinations arrived which made the restriction for those in the state before the borders closed minimal. Even in Victoria where the lock-downs were the worst due to the huge outbreak needing to be controlled it turned out to be electorally popular despite everyone hating the actual lock-down.
 
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