If Delta variant is just like a cold ...

[Dustyboots]

Why all the fuss?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/14/delta-variant-covid-symptoms-include-headaches-sore-throat-and-runny-nose

Data suggests that the Delta variant is at least 40% more transmissible than the Alpha variant first detected in Kent, and appears to double the risk of hospitalisation. It also renders vaccines somewhat less effective, particularly after only one dose

This is just not true. There have been several NHS spoke persons from the NHS stating otherwise. Stop scaremongering people.

Sorry I'm tired and a bit grumpy from the heat.

Yes the vaccinations are really helping. We just have to be a little bit more patient (and not let any new strains in). Particularly as it's not just about hospitalisation and death. Long Covid remains a very real risk

We need to get the majority fully vaccinated (and possibly boosters for the vulnerable). We're doing well. So it would be a shame to fuck it all up at this stage. If we do it right, we won't need to go through this again and again.

I had it at start of may, it’s not just a cold, I’m young and very fit and had one az vaccine about 5 weeks before got virus (phe told us we had the Indian variant as it was then called) they wanted to check how we were doing, also asked to have blood tests etc to check antibodies over days weeks after as we had two adults in house with diff vaccines, I was really ill in bed never been so congested and couldn’t breathe properly, off legs for a week and took a week of barely doing anything after that before could attempt proper walk with dog etc and not be exhausted and that’s for me who usually runs miles every other day, just how I am, can’t drink don’t smoke and low bmi, do weight train etc, am fitter than I was in my twenties and I’ve had colds, this wasn’t one,
The symptoms were in this order, tiredness, very sore throat, high temp, aches, massively congested, extremely weak, felt sick, headache but like a bad sinus congestion pain, tight chest like someone standing on it,
No cough at all, lost smell for a week or so then it came back, very weak and had to lie down if did too much (eg hung washing!) once main other symptoms had gone. Now six weeks later am finally doing near normal excercise intensity but can’t do every other day, need to have two days off inbetween for now, back to full busy daily life though, maybe my one vaccine helped the recovery and that I was very fit to start with, dh had two vaccines and was barely a sniffle:but tired, kids were all poorly in bed with high temps and same heavy congestion headache etc no one had a cough but it was very different progression and feeling to a
Cold

@Scrambledcustard

Data suggests that the Delta variant is at least 40% more transmissible than the Alpha variant first detected in Kent, and appears to double the risk of hospitalisation. It also renders vaccines somewhat less effective, particularly after only one dose

This is just not true. There have been several NHS spoke persons from the NHS stating otherwise. Stop scaremongering people.

That is a direct quote from the article the OP posted - about 2/3rds down the page. Link again: www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/14/delta-variant-covid-symptoms-include-headaches-sore-throat-and-runny-nose

[quote Dustyboots]Why all the fuss?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/14/delta-variant-covid-symptoms-include-headaches-sore-throat-and-runny-nose[/quote]
One of the symptoms of a brain tumour may be a headache. That doesn’t mean both illnesses are of equal severity, so I’m not sure what your point is?

@Tealightsandd

I have family in Australia and New Zealand. Australia is not rife with any strain. My family's lives are mostly as normal pre pandemic. Australia is rolling out the vaccines. Not as fast as us but the need is less urgent. One (in their 40s) had their first Pfizer a few weeks ago. Another has just booked their appointment.

Not sure Australia is the best example tbh. Their vaccine rollout is being really slow and that means that it’ll take them longer to reach herd immunity. They’ve got delta in the country and despite they have nearly 2019 life some areas keep having lockdowns every now and again. Also thousands of Australians aren’t allowed to go back to their houses because of close borders. So whilst their day to day life might look perfect in our eyes how long are they going to carry on closed whilst the rest of the world opens to the rest of the world ? Do they plan to be closed until every single person in the world is vaccinated ? Do locals really want to be closed to the rest of the world until then? Specially if the rest of the world has opened up locally as well? www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/13/vaccine-hesitancy-and-variants-mean-australia-may-not-reach-covid-herd-immunity-researchers

Do you have a source for that? I could only find a statement from phe saying that it may increase it and a reported study that it may double the admission rate

Sorry to reply late - and sorry also as I’ve got myself confused a little here.

It was in the Lancet today, (using PHE data I understand), and then reported in the Times this afternoon as 85% increased risk of hospitalisation compared with alpha.

@Tealightsandd

It still got in

A big difference between a few cases leaking through (real) quarantine and then swift action to contain. Versus the UK approach of wide open to any and all new strains - and then let them freely spread.

Re Australia having a handful of cases of the Delta variant. See my post above.

Do they plan to be closed until every single person in the world is vaccinated ? Do locals really want to be closed to the rest of the world until then?

They're opening up to New Zealand, and have plans for Singapore next. Of course high risk countries like the UK won't happen anytime soon. Understandably.

They might be slower with their vaccine rollout but like I said it's a less urgent need. They're not a high risk country like the UK.

And they are getting there. Slower but it's happening. My family are getting jabbed. One in their 40s had their jab a few weeks ago. Another (also 40s) has just booked their appointment.

As an Australian totally gutted that the government has fucked up even the remote chance that I might get to see my family for at least another year, could I please, please beg that this not turn into another Australia Covid thread. There have been so many of them and it’s incredibly well-trodden ground, but quite a few of us are really struggling with the personal implications.

Hopefully Biden's talks with the drugs companies will make progress. His call for a temporary vaccine patent waiver would make a huge difference. It would really help get the rest of the world vaccinated.

It's very important to help get them vaccinated. Their health care systems and infrastructure won't cope with the huge numbers of cases, that might come in from high risk countries like the UK.

I'm sorry you can't see your family Jassy. I miss mine too (although I'm very relieved that they are over there and not here). I'll say no more about it on this thread (except to correct serious misinformation like a PP claiming Aus was 'rife' with the Delta strain).

If it is just like a cold why all he fuss?

Precisely!

@Scrambledcustard do you have data for this please as I have seen news reports of at least 2 dc dying with no pre existing conditions .
42 young people (5 - 19) diedwithcovid and all of them had serious comorbidities - in other words they died of something else but also had covid.

Several of dds friends are very poorly at the moment. These are very fit 17-21 year old kids who usually train every day on an elite pathway.

I'm just not sure that the threat is as bad as some posters are making out. The nhs hospitals are not at threat are they, by recent admissions? Or else they'd open up the closed nightingales.

Who hasn't had one vaccination by now? All vulnerable should have had 2 by now. If they haven't that is surely through choice.

Many young adults haven’t had one jab yet, and this variant seems to impact younger people more (unless that is because they haven’t been vaccinated yet)

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

...because it has killed lots of people?

Deaths in the UK are lower than the average of the past five years.

@Comefromaway

Several of dds friends are very poorly at the moment. These are very fit 17-21 year old kids who usually train every day on an elite pathway.

No ordinary slightly unfit people get sick of this from what I read, it's always athletes and people in the prime of their lives. I'm going to scoff a whole box of biscuits a day, the odds seem to favour that approach better after all.

Errm the Delta variant, or indeed any other, is certainly not rife in Australia!There are currently 121 active Covid cases in the entire country, and zero in Western Australia where I live. The pace of vaccinations is picking up quickly now, I had my first jab on Sunday. Borders will open when most people are vaccinated, that is just fine by me although it does have personal consequences for me, I think it is a price worth paying. And pretty much everyone I know agrees with that view. When I see what my family in the UK and Ireland have had to live through in the last 18 months I wish they could be here too.

www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers#covid19-summary-statistics

*Around 350 children die in road traffic accidents every year.

240 children die of cancer every year in the UK, that's 4 every week.

Chicken pox can have lasting effects including encephalitis and death

Flu is serious for children and can kill them especially the under 5s.

1 in 20 cases of meningococcal disease result in death,1 in 5 survivors have permanent effects such as skin scars, limb amputation(s), hearing loss, seizures and brain damage.

42 young people (5 - 19) died with covid and all of them had serious comorbidities - in other words they died of something else but also had covid.

Please dont try the 'but think about the children' manipulation . There are far far worse very common viruses floating about that attack our kids all year every year.*

Scrambled, I wasn't talking about death at all in that age group. You've given a strawman argument.

We know the data you describe on other diseases from decades of research. This is a novel virus. We know little about longer term effects.

Also due to lockdown and restrictions, it hasn't taken its natural course and infected many it would have.

CP is vaccinated against in the rest of the world for those reasons; it has a R0 similar to delta CV and also appears to generally have life long protection, though children can sometimes get it more than once mildly. Covid doesn't, just like the flu.

That was my point. We have no idea. So we don't blithely assume it's just a cold.

Ultimately though it's the nhs that everything is geared up for and why over 40s are being given option to move second jabs forward.

@Tealightsandd

I'm sorry you can't see your family Jassy. I miss mine too (although I'm very relieved that they are over there and not here). I'll say no more about it on this thread (except to correct serious misinformation like a PP claiming Aus was 'rife' with the Delta strain).

I didn’t say it was rife in Australia but that they had cases. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/04/where-did-australias-first-cases-of-the-delta-variant-come-from-and-how-infectious-is-it

Scrambledcustard said it was "rife" in Australia - blatant misinformation. Here's the quote:

"Australia is rife with the Indian variant despite one of the most draconian border closures. It still got in. New Zealand has around 4 million people - we have 66 million. East Asia were well prepared, this isn't their first rodeo with deals viruses."

No ordinary slightly unfit people get sick of this from what I read, it's always athletes and people in the prime of their lives. I'm going to scoff a whole box of biscuits a day, the odds seem to favour that approach better after all

I know!

Maybe you should read a bit more widely or deeply then @KiaKi and @Bryonyshcmyony because being a middle aged asthmatic woman actually gives you the biggest risk. But who cares about them eh?

Athletes are over represented though, and there is currently research looking into why this might be. Athletes are over represented in certain types of auto immune disease and they think long COVID may be due to a malfunction of the immune system so maybe that. There's also some work being g done in the States about cellular exchange exhaustion that may bear fruit.

Interesting that your first instinct was to sneer. Lucky that for others it's to investigate.