To ask if anyone else feels that their immune system has gone to pot this autumn / winter?

[Sunshineismyfriend]

I’m guessing it’s down to covid as I got that in September and since then I’ve been on and off with colds, coughs etc. I think im on my fourth illness since September when I’d usually get a cold or cough maybe once a year or less.

I take a vitamin every day and am upping my fruit, veg and exercise but just want to stop feeling unwell so regularly. Anyone else in the same boat?

DH gets some weird virus after covid...fatigue, aches, groin glands sometimes painful, lots of tests and nothing ever found, now about to request a scan on the gland area to see if anything lurking there...gp is good but says rest and take paracetemol and that examinations and tests show nothing !

Yep me. I have a toddler at nursery so it's to be expected I suppose but everything I get seems to last so long. DP and DD get better within a week from whatever cold/flu thing it is and I end up streaming snot and coughing all night for weeks. It's miserable. Everyone at work is always commenting on how I'm always ill but there's sod all I can really do about it!

Covid twice and all the jabs. Kids in different schools. We both work with lots of people. I have been ill within my usual window of October to January and that's it.

I think people are catching me things partly because hygiene has gone back to pre covid levels.

Looking forward to tree pollen season though.

It's quite common to get a period of dampened immune function after a viral infection.

What's different is that covid is really rather good at it, and there is a growing body of evidence that the dysregulation can last up to at least 6-8 months (actual duration isn't fully known because of length of follow up, not because it's definitely righted itself by then). It's more marked in those who have had severe disease, but it occurs after mild and moderate cases too.

So with 3-4 covid waves a year, and people catching it multiple times, it's possible that they simply never have time to return to normal functioning. And that's not allowing for the effects of flu and RSV and all the other winter lugies and tummy bugs.

What to do? Try to avoid repeat covid infections - wear a mask, press for better ventilation in public indoors places (think what the rich did for themselves in Davos, it's needed for everyone), normalise staying at home when symptomatic as far as possible.

There definitely seems to be more viruses flying around (after being suppressed?). My doctor friend firmly believes in this theory.

Yes, if people who haven't has 'virus X' don't come down with it because it doesn't circulate one year, then there will be twice as many vulnerable people in the population the next year. Lockdowns ended early 2021 (and DC had been mixing in schools well before that) so we should have seen that rise in the winter 21/22 (things like RSV has reasserted themselves in the southern hemisphere ahead of that, so it's not a question of seasonality across the globe not being fully reastablisehed)

And although one would expect more cases, it should not lead to a higher proportion of severe cases. It looks quite possible that that's what we're seeing (probably need to get to the end of the season to get the full number crunching done, but child deaths - whilst still very rare - do seem to be up to an extent that may prove significant)

A higher proportion in the population with post-covid dysregulated immune systems (following a year of several waves, where more people had covid than in previous years) would account both for more people becoming ill and also become more ill

I've never had a problem seeing my GP. Not once, in my life.

The problem is, we've been isolated from illness as we've not been seeing people. That's why there's a lot of illness about.

As one of my closest's friend's son had a stroke ten years ago, I don't know how you think this is new.

I hope I don't jinx myself but I've got the opposite.
I had covid early last year and not even had a cold since.

I've been around numerous ill family members, and caught nothing.

I'm also triple jabbed.