Half vaxxed friends getting Delta

[Porridgeislife]

Has anyone had a notable uptick in friends getting Delta over the last week? I’ve now got 4 friends infected - one very sick (full week off work), two a bit under the weather and one only found out due to a PCR for foreign travel.

We are all mid to late 30s so half vaxxed with Pfizer or Moderna. One has a fully vaxxed mother & husband who haven't been infected whilst her unvaccinated young children have. All working from home and have been for 15 months.

I’ve been quite relaxed about Covid and just taking the usual masks, hands, space precautions suggested by the government (given my age) plus got vaccinated as soon as allowed. However throughout it all, I’ve never had so many friends sick at once - it seems Delta is much, much more contagious?

I have two friends who are double vaxxed with Pfizer and are unwell (think flu-type unwell) with Covid, caught from their primary school age child. They are in their 30s and healthy, yet one has had to go in to hospital this week for treatment.

It is not 100% effective against symptomatic infection or severe illness. It just reduces the chances, but doesn't totally eliminate them. We must still be careful, for others as well as ourselves.

I wonder if any of those with the Delta variant have previously had Covid ?

Kind of freaking out at the idea of having Covid (plus long covid), being vaccinated and then still the possibility of getting the Delta variant.

@osbertthesyrianhamster

How uncanny. Don't know anyone recently who's been positive as don't know people who test if not ill.

Most of my friends test before socialising atm. The kits come free from the NHS and are easy to administer. I also test 2/3 times a week routinely. I care for my elderly mum and don't want to risk infecting her (or anyone else). My DH tests before he visits the office rather than WFH.

This scares the hell out of me, tbh. I'm high risk if I catch it. After July 19th I won't know if the person next to me has it and if they don't socially distance or wear a mask, then they are very likely to give it to me. I may be double vaccinated, but the vaccine clearly isn't 100% protective.

I'm going to be socially isolated again until next spring by the looks of it. Just how I wanted to spend my retirement.

What I find really hard is the fact that I work in a face to face role. I have older people coming to me face to face who completely disregard the rules of social distancing, then when I explain that they need to step away - they reply with its ok ive been double jabbed.

Now that is great that they have been, but the selfish twats don't think about the fact they maybe carrying it and give it to someone else...who may have not been jabbed (this has been happening since May when we reopened)

With July 19th and this type of attitude its going to be rife

It’s notoriously difficult to make vaccines for respiratory infections owing to the anatomy of the lungs.

Which is partly why the flu vaccine is only around 50% effective and why, although there is a vaccine for TB for example it’s more effective at preventing infection getting into the blood than preventing it affecting the lungs.

So I’m not particularly surprised at the numbers of vaccinated who are ending up in hospital. I think Pfizer in particular over-promised. AZ were more realistic.

If I were vulnerable, personally I would be as careful now as ever.

Not much of a freedom day at this rate on the 19th, as we'll all be ill at home.

I think people have the wrong idea of what the vaccine does. Flu has had a vaccine for years. Do vaccinated people have full immunity against flu? No. They just generally get it milder if they do get it, but they have less chance of catching and spreading it. Before COVID existed I heard of a lot of people saying they'd caught flu even after being vaccinated.

The COVID vaccine tells your body to make the necessary defense against the disease should you catch it. There are certain factors that increase the risk of catching it after vaccination such as obesity, and people's immune responses will differ.

It isn't ideal to catch it again but this virus isn't going anywhere, so this is how it is. Given the science on it, it seems ludicrous to not continue mask wearing indoors in public spaces. If restrictions continue to be free and we drop the masks and distancing there is likely to be a big boom in all kinds of viruses, not just covid.

Yes half our office of 30 or so is out now with it. 20 somethings in the main, and tbh the severity does seem directly correlate with whether they got even one jab. We were comparing notes about it on the zoom call this morning. Those younger (the majority) who got a jab at least two or three weeks ago have are having fewer symptoms, if any. Those very recently jabbed suffering a bit more but still OK. The two antivaxxers are having a worse time of it and I'm not exaggerating on that. Given the size of the team if you plotted it on a chart the vaccinations work really blooming well. In however long it's been no one in the office had it up to now so yes, definite uptick and get your vaccinations!

Yeah, in the last 3 weeks about 10 people I know have got ill at once - more than at any point in the last year and a half. Only one seriously so (in hospital and it isn't looking great), a handful very poorly like with flu, and the rest various symptoms but nothing major.

It does worry me a bit.

Double vaxxed (AZ) for months now and am currently isolating after a positive PCR test. Slowly recovering but had a week of feeling like had really bad flu. Had Covid symptoms early on but when no tests were available, so don’t even know if this is my first or second bout! Definitely not as bad as the last (presumes) Covid infection, so, yay for vaccines?!

I wonder if statistically a thread like this attracts more people who know of current cases? Reading this it all feels quite shocking, but in my area I don't know of anyone who has Covid.

I think hospitality is a much higher driver of infection than what is let on. Whenever the pubs open up, cases sky rocket and we know the damage eat out to help out did.

Getting rid of masks in schools has also not helped at all.

@Dustyboots it's fact that hospitals are seeing far less people and less sick people. This is thanks to vaccines. Look at the data. At 27,000 positives a day, hospitals were crushed and large numbers were vented/on non-invasive ventilation and dying. We have seen an increase, but patients stay for less time and need far less care. Yes new medications work to lessen symptoms but vaccines have transformed hospital admissions overall. It's all actual, verifiable data.

You sound ignorant

@Dustyboots

The double vaxxed colleague was very unwell so although that was a bit scary I guess it's good in a way as presumably he would have been even more unwell without the vaccination.

This mentality strikes me as brainwashed.

Sorry - whoever posted it. I"m not attacking you. I've read it so many times and it seems such a nonsense. It's a way of pacifying ourselves.

What daft nonsense.

You sound ignorant

Why?

@endlesscraziness?

[quote endlesscraziness]@Dustyboots it's fact that hospitals are seeing far less people and less sick people. This is thanks to vaccines. Look at the data. At 27,000 positives a day, hospitals were crushed and large numbers were vented/on non-invasive ventilation and dying. We have seen an increase, but patients stay for less time and need far less care. Yes new medications work to lessen symptoms but vaccines have transformed hospital admissions overall. It's all actual, verifiable data.

You sound ignorant [/quote]
Ignorant and heavily invested in undermining the vaccine, for the usual reasons I guess.

@TeaAndBiscuitsAndWine - thank you for posting and I'm glad to hear it wasn't as bad 2nd time around.

I too was an early adopter of an unpleasant undiagnosed illness (March 2020) and have now had double AZ, so good to hear the vaccines are helping.

Yes, lots.

One of my uni students emailed me today to say she has 40 friends in her social circle at the uni who actually have covid. Lots of other students emailing me saying they have to isolate due to kids having it.

Someone in the village had a party at the weekend (outside) and now they're all having to isolate as a few have caught it. All double vaccinated. Some feeling really rough with it but not bad enough for hospital.

Not really surprising because so much has opened up now. I think it's highlighting how the hands/space/face idea really doesn't give protection. At first, scientists thought it was being passed by touch etc., but it's now clear it's airborne and no amount of washing your hands is going to prevent that! More people than ever have been doing "normal" things for the past 2/3 months, like shopping, going to school, going to pubs/restaurants, getting their hair done, going to gyms, etc. If it's airborne in those places, you're going to catch it.

Many people will end up getting it, but mostly mildly ( especially if they've been jabbed).

I know a Dr who has just tested +ive having had 2 Pfizer jabs. Minor cold-like symptoms.

As Chris Whitty has said, a wave of infections is inevitable, and it's better to do it now. Vaccines are brilliant, but you need 85%+ reduction of transmission against Delta to stop spread, which they don't manage.

@User135644

I think hospitality is a much higher driver of infection than what is let on. Whenever the pubs open up, cases sky rocket and we know the damage eat out to help out did.

Getting rid of masks in schools has also not helped at all.

I think that's obvious re hospitality. If people were being quiet and just drinking/eating, then no problem. But, in reality, people will be laughing/shouting/hugging/kissing etc not just when eating/drinking, but for the entire period they're in/on the premises. There'll be enormous amounts of "particles" being shared around between the participants. Even moreso when they've had a few drinks. It's impossible to try to get semi-drunk people to do otherwise, and if you tried, what's the point of them being out socialising? It's just common sense really that you've got a much greater chance of catching covid if you're in a group or people enjoying themselves in a pub or restaurant. Even if outdoors, you're all sat around a table facing eachother. But we can't stop people socialising, nor should we try. People have to accept the risks though as without closing them down again, it's a risk you're going to have to take if you want to enjoy yourself.

I personally don’t know anyone who has Covid, apart from one person in my team at work (we l work from home) had a single vax and was a bit ill, but not ill enough to go to the doctor/hospital…so reading this thread about all the double vax people getting really ill is quite shocking. But as a previous poster said, wonder if it just attracts people to post who know lots of people who have it.

The vaccine is doing what it’s meant to do!! Giving us mild symptoms, more like a bad dose of flu. Not many people are going to hospital.