Horrible cold & flu virus spreading that isn't covid - yet no restrictions?!

[BlueLens]

AIBU to point this out. There's a wave of illness going about, which is not covid, that is flooring people. Twice recently I've caught it and both times have tested negative for Covid. It's hit me really hard - sore ears, blocked sinuses and persistent cough, aches, chills and fever.

The same symptoms seem to be making a sweep of my local area, at school and at work. Hospitals and old age residential homes must be experiencing similar. Yet no restrictions are put in place like they were in 2020? Or were the lockdowns and restrictions all for nothing?!

I'm genuinely bewildered by this, hence the post looking for some insight.

Well here's a hint - are hospitals running out of ventilators? Are mass graves being used in major cities?

I think we're good.

My DD got diagnosed with earlier this year. She was sent straight into isolation as she was already in hospital.

We were very much like you in thinking it affected animals only.

Hope he's better now

You surely don't expect 'restrictions' for every illness??

And what 'restrictions' would you want?

Are death rates any less than in 20/21? You can still die of flu not needing a ventilator. There are still clinically vulnerable individuals needing protection from complications and death and as this is a particularly nasty strain of flu doing its rounds, why aren't restrictions put in place?

Some minor restrictions on for example visiting hospital patients may be imposed for severe outbreaks of E. coli type infections etc, but there has never, to my knowledge, in recent times been restrictions of the type seen in covid due to a cold/ flu like virus that isn’t causing excess deaths

Because it’s not flu. You seem to have a very basic grasp of infectious disease and a very selective memory when it comes to the impact that Covid had.

What are you bewildered about?

Are you honestly expecting restrictions due to a cold/flu virus? Seems a tad disproportionate. 😆

Oh FFS, we do not need restrictions for any of these types of illnesses, Covid included. We should never have had lockdowns during the pandemic, and some people do not appear to have learnt from that experience.
Life involves risk, OP. If you enforced restrictions every winter for flu etc, we'd all be locked away for months every year, the economy would collapse and we'd all go nuts.
Maybe I'll catch flu, maybe I'll be sick, maybe I'll die..... and that's absolutely fine, because at least I'm living my life and not being scared about every little thing.

Only on mumsnet 😂 😂 😂

I’ve got Covid right now. I only tested as I found an old test in a drawer. It’s no worse than a head cold and I certainly can’t stay home until it’s gone.

Clinically vulnerable people existed before covid and nobody was wailing about protections and restrictions then. I don’t expect the world to bend to my rules, most immunocompromised people like me just get on with it.

Op what restrictions do you want?

We've never had restrictions for flu. Some people have always been vulnerable to flu and other illnesses. We can't lock down for every illness. Flu jabs are given to people for free over / under a certain age and are available to buy for anyone else. People are vulnerable to all sorts of things but we can't have a society that lives in permanent restrictions because some are vulnerable to some illness.

Our whole family had it already. Even if we get it twice or three times, I still don't want any bloody lockdown.

exactly

Flu, and D&V. Bad enough to shut down schools for several days to have deep clean and affecting hospitals.

You cannot seriously suggest restrictions because you saw them during Covid?
Maybe care home could ask visitors to be careful, or even test, I have no idea what the current set ups are, but everything else is the same common sense as always?

Because lockdowns don't work ?

My husband and I both have covid at the moment, so far it's not too bad for me but he's having a touch time, severe headache, weakness, fluctuating temperature, pain, etc, definitely cannot go out anywhere and wouldn't in case he'd spread it, thankfully I'd shopped and stocked up before we got sick. My brother, sil and their three children had it last week, they live 120 miles away and we hadn't seen them lately. My brother was badly effected by it. Our father is currently in hospital, catching covid could be fatal for him and the fact that people aren't testing, and some of those who do test positive aren't taking precautions is scary for us. I witnessed so many hospital visitors not sanitising their hands before using the lifts etc in the hospital, thankfully it's a private hospital and he's in a room on his own so hopefully less chance of contamination. Our local hospital cancelled all visitors two weeks ago due to the increased covid numbers which is scary. Coincidentally I now need to lie down so maybe it is effecting me more than I thought.

We had restrictions during Covid because so many people were getting very, very sick and dying from a novel virus which no-one had immunity to, and there was a fear that hospitals would be overwhelmed. In fact they were overwhelmed, for a while.

An overwhelmed hospital cannot treat sick children, or broken legs, or deliver babies by c section. It affects everyone who needs treatment, it's not solely about the infectious disease causing the overwhelm.

A bad cold or flu is not in any way the same.

Just stay indoors and live your life in fear. Sounds great.

I'm genuinely really not sure if you're being serious. Or if you're trying to make some sort of point along the lines of "we never should have locked down for covid, and I'll demonstrate how ridiculous that was by suggesting we lockdown for this other virus".

How many people do you know with this illness? 4? 10? Hundreds? Thousands?

You can't keep going into lockdown or putting restrictions out every time there is an illness going round.
The country would be crippled financially for a start.

How on earth do you think people build up their immunity to bugs and viruses like this. We were never so paranoid.

Some people are desperate for the pandemic / lockdown to return.

I get it, on the whole it was positive for me. I worked from home, had all my family nearby, my elderly relatives didn’t get Covid, I got lots of talking and socialisation with colleagues via Teams, had the time to cook lots of healthy food and lost a lot of weight.

But it wasn’t a good time for the country and I wouldn’t wish for a lockdown again.