Something strange is going on… winter bugs

[Hazless]

Is it just me or is something strange going on? Nearly everyone I know is sick. Levels are off the chart. My son had 10 in his class last Friday.

I’ve just had a really awful respiratory thing. It started with an awful sudden sore throat (not the usual place, lower down) then progressed to fevers for 3 days (I never get a fever, I’m an adult and can’t recall the last time), pain all over, chills, body tingles, the worst headache of my life that two types of painkiller didn’t touch.

Day 5, Now I’m left with a lingering cough and snotty nose and everything smells and tastes disgusting. Even air from outside stinks like the inside of my rotting nose! It’s gross. I’ve lost weight because everything tastes so disgusting. I look awful… grey skin and dark Circles. All my kids are poorly too but seem not as bad as me.

i also felt extremely delirious and depressed during this bug. I’ve never felt so down. It was like something switched in my brain. It was very sudden and hit me like a train. I’ve not had that before.

not covid as both tests I took negative.

im not one for conspiracy theories but is something going on? Is there a new strain of covid? I’ve never had a bug like this before. And I’ve never known so many people sick at one time. What on earth is going on? It can’t just be from lock downs many months ago.

And people truly believing that masks are unnecessary
i was on a train yesterday and was the sole masked passenger. Many people coughing, and quite crowded. PLEASE MASK UP, PEOPLE- it’s the responsibile public health practice! Tories are too afraid to mandate it again

No I don’t think it’s particularly strange, it’s normal for this time of year.

As a child I would get a horrible chest infection every winter, and have memories of watching the other children playing out in the snow out my bedroom window, and being stuck indoors having to take disgusting medicine.
Yet everyone is acting like chest infections are suddenly a new thing!

Same with colds and flu, surely it’s normal this time of year? I think people have just forgotten because of lockdown so there were less bugs circulating. This year everyone is mingling, nobody is wearing a mask or sanitising every 5 minutes. There’s nothing weird about it.

I had the worst ever virus (cough and vomiting and body aches) which floored me for 3 weeks back in 2019, it was much worse than when I had Covid.
Flu and viruses have always been around!

For those rather confused individuals who think getting colds is 'good for your immune system': publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true

m.youtube.com/watch?v=jCWfytQXpEs
a ‘kosher’ source from February. Not mainstream yet but there is only so long you can solely blame previous social distancing.

Last week there were 19 kids away in my oldest son’s class of 30. For background, this a top ten English state secondary school which doesn’t have a truancy problem. I have never experienced anything like this in his whole time at school.

How can YouTube be a "kosher" source?

It's the same at my son's school. As I posted earlier, he was off for 2.5 weeks in all, not in 1 go. I absolutely hate him having time off, but couldn't send him in, he was really poorly.

There is also a vomiting bug doing the rounds, and 1 boy has mumps, even though he's vaxxed.

I read something very interesting in medical journals about this.
There are studies showing that Covid has caused T cell exhaustion. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole reading about it, but the basic gist was that it’s similar to how the immune system acts with some other viruses, like HIV. The immune system is weakened, so the body can’t fight off simple viruses and infections (strep, for example) as easily. Strep has been around forever, yet the current major issue is that children are struggling to shake it off. Same with other viruses, like flu and RSV. Nobody knows how long T cells will take to recover (as we keep being re-exposed to covid) and studies haven’t had enough time. It could be permanent, which is very frightening.

More worry is that we need a strong immune system to keep cancer away. There are already studies claiming that Covid can increase the likelihood of cancer, like other viruses such as HPV and glandular fever. That terrifies me.

Here is one article, if anyone is interested.

aapm.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acm2.13628

If a scientist/doctor wants to come along and dispute this, please do as it’s filled me with fear!

On the other hand, I can recall when my eldest was in primary (so about 7 years ago) there was a vomiting bug in the autumn that ripped through the whole school and at one point about half her class was off, parents were asking for the school to be shut!

So yes I can remember this kind of thing happening before.

You do build immunity to colds and flu though. As a population we have reduced immunity to the flu as we’ve not been exposed for the past 2 years. Which means more people are susceptible. Many didn’t have a cold for 2 years..

Quite often we are exposed to colds and fight them off without realising but you have built some immunity to that cold. That’s why young children get more colds per year (6 in average) versus about 2 for adults. Adults have had more lifetime expose.

Quite often we get ‘cross immunity’ with coronaviruses so you are exposed to one, produce antibiotics and then are protected for a certain time against others.

It’s complex but the lack of social contact over the last 2 years has been cited by many scientists and immunologists as the reason for this years issues with high levels of illness.

The Covid link? Fighting off any illness will temporarily weaken your immune system. For how long will vary from person to person.
Many young people have weakened immune systems following glandular fever for example. It’s not unique to Covid and not as black and white as many are making out.

I think it’s far more complex than we realise but we all know that hiding away from germs and anti-baccing everything in sight is not good for our immune systems.

Antibodies not antibiotics- that would be impressive.

Nobody is calling for a lockdown? We have to live with it as we do flu etc. People are just pointing out that it may be a new strain that is evading LFT's or not showing positive for several days after symptoms start due to their own recent experiences. There does seem however to be some on this thread who are determined that this is not the case... why? It makes no difference we won't be locked down again.

Exactly the same here. Faint line then gone, but ill for a good week after that. Left with horrendous sinus pain.

My sinuses are crackling and so sore! Every time I put my head down it hurts!!!

This is not how immunity works. The amount of times I’ve seen this myth expounded…

medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/05/all-social-distancing-weakening-our-immune-systems

I think we're all ill as a result of the cold spell. I know I certainly wasn't opening many windows for a good week or so both at home and in my classroom, it was just too cold. As a result we were all shut indoors in a germ soup.

Several new strains of covid due to expected mutation and rampant spread in China now they have dropped restrictions. I feel we've gone back 3 years and learned nothing.
Wishing you a speedy and full recovery soon.

I felt very down when I had covid, it was probably my biggest symptom, I literally felt it lift away from me on day 5. I can get anxious but haven't felt depressed before, this was very close to depression I think or the nearest Ive been!

Still swallowing whatever the papers tell you, I see.
Who knows what is true these days.

OP I’ve had proper flu twice in my life, various cold viruses and covid twice. For the past fortnight my entire family has had this (very contagious) virus. It’s been awful. We’ve tested negative for covid and it hasn’t been like the flu. GP and a Dr at the hospital both said it’s a very nasty virus and they’re seeing a spike in these ‘super viruses’ most likely due to lack of socialising since covid. We’ve had fever, cough, nausea and vomiting (at beginning), body aches, dizziness and headaches. All our chests have been clear despite this awful cough. I’ve now developed a sinus infection.

Did your BO absolutely stink too? That’s one thing I’ve noticed I have and DC has the pong too despite showering regularly when sick.

Absolutely foul BO. It’s not something I’ve noticed as bad before with a virus.

Could it Boris’s Bank-Breaking Brexit Britain Bio Boosters were Basically a Bunch of Bollocks?

It’s good old fashioned flu. We’ve all had it here, it’s flawed us one by one since the end of Nov. It takes at least two weeks to start feeling human again. People forget how fucking awful flu is. It’s an evil, drawn-out virus that makes you feel like death warmed up for half a month.

I came down with it two weeks ago & it’s been horrid. Children caught it, & were each off school for a week & a half. Husband caught it & literally lay in bed for four/five days. We all had the flu jab this year & it’s done zilch -I’ve had flu before but this is the worst we’ve felt