SIL still isolating due to covid risk

Did your relative lack capacity to make their own decision? Were they forced to not wear a mask?

Just like you’d avoid COPD which has a much better quality of life than ME

You haven't met everyone with COPD so I'd rein in such sweeping statements, @MoveOverToTheSea .

An anti masker convinced my relative not to continue masking. They subsequently caught covid and died.

She's not fully recovered as in back to her pre illness self. She doesn't fall asleep randomly quite so much these days though

So if ME is " in the head" why is long covid not considered the same

I have ME agd I can answer that question. And it is NOT because she had ME after the flu (and was very lucky to recover. Only about 5% of people do).

It’s because people with ME are routinely dismissed as fakers, it’s all in your head type od comments.
No one, including most doctors/consultants, take ME seriously. There isn’t even a speciality that deals with ME patients despite being a neuroimmunological illness.
So yay, you’re not going to hear ‘do your best to avoid the flu’….

Id suggest that everyone migut want tomatoes ME like illnesses. Just like you’d avoid COPD which has a much better quality of life than ME (and a lot of LC patients)

A few Points on your comment

• many illnesses do NOT have a blood test to confirm it. It doesn’t mean they’re not ill.
• many people feel ‘not quite right’, children show behavioural problems, fall behind at school etc… and still don’t associate it with LC
• there is NO treatment for it. Even if the number of children affected in the U.K. are around 10.000, it’s 10.000 children who seriously ill with NO TREATMENT at all.

A friend of mine got ME after a dose of the flu long before covid. It took her an awful long while to get to relatively normal.

Strange though there wasn't the hysterics from everyone else in case they caught flu and ended up the same.

Wonder why

Her views did not cause the death of your relative.

To someone who believes all the deaths and overflowing dead bodies shown in Italy were a scam? I don't think so!

And 94 don't. If you're in that group, great! If you're not, thems the breaks.

Approximately 6 in every 100 people who have COVID-19 develop post COVID-19 condition.

Post COVID-19 condition (long COVID) share.google/5roxysBzWu70RhYoP

That’s a really unacceptable comment and you should apologise.

If that makes you feel good ok.

If you take my opinion to be rude, so be it. If you find opposing opinion rude, maybe you are better hiding under a mask in your own home.

As far as Italy goes, you fell for that? Presumably you fell for those videos of people waiting for a bus spontaneously collapsing?

@mumatlast14 There are around 14 million children in the UK. You state millions have long covid which is obvious BS. If it even exists, the ONS claims 1.9 million in total. So even if "millions of children" do have long covid, which I don't believe of a second, "millions" i.e. plural would be 2 million. So you seriously think 14% or more children suffer with a disease that has no test? I'm not buying it.

Next point, we yes, its a discussion forum, OP put up a subject for discussion, so I'm discussing it. Its kind of the point.

It was an awful period where scare tactics were used to enforce compliance.

What I remember are the scenes out of Italy, when the virus first hit there, and the enormous refrigerated trucks brought in to deal with the bodies when the hospital morgues overflowed in New York. Thta could have been every town and major city in the world, were it not for mitigations and mandates.

It's a bit like Y2K, people bitch about it being a non-event, when it was only through the constant work, for years prior in some cases, of people in the field shoring up any problems that meant things were able to flow on as they would do normally.

I am confident that long-COVID paranoia is a far greater disease the the post-viral syndrome often deemed "Long-COVID".

That's really rude, and also ignorant.

What's it got to do with you if someone chooses to protect their health? Why do you get to dictate?

It's hard to quantify something we no longer test or measure but let's go with the figures we have and see how flawed they are. As the quote goes "If we stop testing we'd have very few cases"
It doesn't include those who aren't tested. As an example - only because we forced the hospital to test my relative did they acknowledge they had contracted covid - (in fact it was part of a ward outbreak) so if it hadn't been for us pushing that wouldn't have been recorded, possibly blaming pneumonia instead (which covid causes).
Initial infection itself is now less of a concern (thanks to vacccines), however the damage it causes can lead to death later. As cited by BHF - but will those heart attacks caused by covid damage be registered as a covid death? No.
Initial covid infection deaths have thankfully dropped enormously but haven't gone. But this is the issue people only focus on that initial infection they don't look at the longer term impacts. You mention suicides rates increasing...the stats don't tell us why...is that covid driven? The disabilities/health conditions they are left with - the impact that's had on their ability to work/function? We know disability and sickness is rising to highest levels. Why? Could that be due to covid damage? We've stopped all wastewater testing (although I believe this is being restarted at some point?) If people know the levels of prevalence they could act accordingly.
We have millions of kids suffering Long Covid. Loosing their childhood and their education. These kids will grow up to be our ill workforce - what damage does that do to the to economy? (Not to mention their lives!) US now believes 5.8m kids have LC overtaking asthma - their highest childhood disease.
Remember, covid isn't one and done. Each infection puts you at more risk each time - there's no max limit, and currently no real treatment.
Also we must stop badging this as 'forever' - there is so much research and trials taking place globally with good progress on neutralising vaccines.

I honestly believe if people were more open and accepted that covid isn't just a cold and really should be avoided, and were supportive or even indifferent to those who choose to take precautions then less people would feel forced into shielding. If people could go about wearing a mask without vile comments rolled eyes, being spat at, coughed at etc etc many would be doing even more.

The constant rejection of covid and vilification of those who wish to be cautious being a problem has knock on effects. We're now at a point where kids aren't being vaccinated for anything and we no longer meet our herd immunity targets for other illnesses.

Long Covid Kids | Charity | Post Covid Syndrome https://share.google/P0isVz4614q3z2UDD

I agree. Something for the NHS to fund research on, get better at diagnosing and work on therapies. But not to wear masks to school over, or make your other half quarantine in the spare room with a mask on after a trip to the pub.

No definitely not a reason to curtail life at all. Life is for living.

I think it’s more that we need to be aware that Covid can cause more issues than we previously thought in healthy people. And like I said - people should just use a bit more caution if they think they have Covid. It’s not something you mess about with or try and push though. And I say this as someone who had a very mild case so it’s tricky to judge.!

I'd concede that it is an issue that needs further research and possible therapy. I am sceptical, but the shear prevalence of COVID suggests that the resulting post viral syndrome maybe an issue for healthcare on a population level. But I cannot agree that it is anyway a reason to curtail a full life on an individual level in fear of. And it certainly isn't a reason to drag your spouse down with you over.

I think the issue is that you’re implying here that ‘post viral syndrome’ is nothing too serious. Yes long Covid is a post viral syndrome (I think it’s being renamed as ‘post Covid syndrome?’. And there’s a huge scale from people not being able to get out of bed or leave the house to the less severe where some people just can’t exercise in zone 3 and have to be careful with energy levels.

There is an expert who believes there’s lots of people wandering around with LC and just don’t realise as they’ve not trying to exercise to an intense level.

The problem we are going to have is that for post viral syndrome- with something like flu - most people only get flu once every 10 years.
Covid is constantly circulating and we are not really developing immunity. We have immunity more against serious disease but not post viral issues.

So surely that number of people with Long Covid is just going to grow and grow?

So no, deaths from Covid are no longer an issue. If you are a women around 40-60 then I’d argue you are at elevated risk of Long Covid. More research is needed as to why women of this age are more affected. I think hormones (lack of leading to inflammation- Covid exacerbates inflammation) and the fact that we often have kids, jobs, house to look after and tend to push through when we’re ill.

We can’t hide away but this is a big problem. I’d like to see more research on to causes, why some people are more affected than others and treatments.

Recent estimates according to ONS are 51 COVID deaths in the UK in July. There are unlikely to be millions of deaths this year. Suicide is a greater killer now. Also, ONS estimate 1.9 million people claiming to suffer with Long COVID, which is 2.9% of the population. That is quite a hefty number, but it is a stretch to call that millions. I am open to being convinced on Long COVID, however, it remains diagnosed as a diagnosis of exclusion based on a range of self reporting symptoms. I am sceptical that it is an issue beyond any other post viral syndrome, and is only elevated due to a) its prevalence based on a novel virus and b) the scary name. And as I mention earlier, I am convinced that a non-insignificant number use this as the new bad back.