So many seem to be ill?

[Thewiseoneincognito]

I’ve lost count of the number of people I know who have this ‘mystery flu’ with coughing and classic Covid symptoms and yet seem to be testing negative on LFTs and PCRs, surely it’s not just me noticing this?

DP is now ill awaiting PCR results, I have several colleagues at work ill but all have negative PCRs and LFTs. Friends of friends all in the same situation, FB has plenty of anecdotes with the same scenario too.

Every shop or business I’ve been in today had numerous people with hacking coughs and sneezes. I appreciate there will be a surge of colds and flus as we head to autumn and winter but the cold weather hasn’t really hit yet and the people I know who have been ill the last two weeks or so are all healthy young people.

I’m wondering has Covid changed and is now undectable by the tests? It’s even more maddening that no one has a mask on hardly either but let’s leave that one for another thread.

I just find it hard to believe this sudden surge of sickness is a result of lower immunity to everyday normal illnesses and that it’s a resurgence of the common cold. I don’t remember pre-covid hearing so many hacking coughs, does anyone else?

This seems pretty normal to me. Before covid my kids would start picking up bugs as soon as they started back at school in the autumn term. My daughter more so as she's in nursery so always seemed like she picked up something new each week. This year's cold are nothing new from previous years before covid. Kids have had some nasty bugs over the years previous.

I just think we are more aware of coughing and illness than we used to be.

I think you’ve just forgotten what the start of term is like

I had something similar this time last year that wasn’t covid - I have small children at nursery, my husband is a teacher, I work across education settings. People like the OP were just more sheltered from normal colds last year

@sugarandtime
Reading some threads lately it seems that some people are desperate for a positive test result. It’s very odd.
Somebody once wrote “ some people are addicted to fear like a drug addict to drugs”

absolutely I have been posting this on other threads - if you are ill - you know you are ill (at least I do) unless people need a negative test for work reasons or travel - stop testing and re-testing. It is costing the NHS and the economy to assume a test is required because you have a nasty cold.

It doesn't strike me as odd. Every single year my dc get a bad cold in Sept/Oct. We've just forgotten. I've had "proper" flu twice in my life and it feels like you're dying, i've often told the kids that. We've been out of lockdown and mixing, it's bound to happen. Two years ago I wouldn't have given it a second thought if I saw someone coughing. We've been burnt once and are probably over cautious because of it. Interestingly, on my fb memories, nearly every day this week, in some year, I had posted that both dc were rotten with something.

Every October l go away with a group of friends for the weekend. This year l am just recovering from Covid and was just thinking l hope l am up to the weekend energy wise as l would hate to miss it. Then l remembered that 4 years ago l had a horrible virus and , although l was over it, l was very low on energy at that weekend and chose to rest in the hotel when they all went walking. It took me weeks to get back to normal. So Covid is not the only virus that can knock you flat. My GP said l was suffering from post viral fatigue and it was quite like Covid in every way.
As a teacher l am always very aware of all those sicknesses that hit every year around Autumn time so it's normal enough but we are more heightened in our reaction.

Jeez come on, approaching winter, people have coughed for generations

My how times have changed.
Back in January 2020 there was an awful lot of people in the region where I live going down with a bug. When people posted about it in March saying they thought it might have been Covid the overwhelming response was "no, it was just the usual viruses that circulate during Autumn/Winter don't be so dramatic". Now, according to some, getting ill and having a negative result means that Covid must have mutated and it couldn't possibly be just one of the many 1000's of other viruses that are still about.

I’ve had this OP. I was very ill for 3 weeks. It’s been a month and I’m still coughing a bit. I’ve had two rounds of antibiotics and I’m still struggling with fatigue.

It's not covid. Stop with
The catastrophising. It's a cold
Like virus going round. Put your thinking cap on and remember that last year everyone wore a mask. Nobody had colds. Now no masks are being worn the common cold is going round like wildfire along with other bugs like D&V. Infection rates are not converting to hospital admissions.

There is a lot of coughs and colds around and as a primary teacher I am seeing and hearing it every day. We are going through boxes of tissues and it does seem to be lingering. I have four children who started a cough in the first week and it is still going. They are not so bad Monday and Tuesday but by Thursday are coughing loads and sipping water. The have had LFTs and pcrs all negative. I have had a constant sore throat and cold which seems to be going today but who knows what next week will bring.

Hopefully half term will help them get rid of their coughs as they just seem so unwell by Friday.

It would be interesting to know what virus is causing these really bad colds. I've had 2 this year, both times worse than covid for me. There's a possibility some of us have pre exisiting immunity to covid due to previous Coronavirus exposure so if this is another Coronavirus it could maybe give some protection. I really don't know but I'd like to, but we don't test for other viruses so🤷‍♀️

My family had three colds last year, no different to normal. Autumn, Christmas and Spring, even with masks. I suspect we can't be the only ones, but you don't hear about colds in the news, you only hear about Covid.

I think you’ve just forgotten what the start of term is like

Next up an outbreak of norovirus.

Every year when the kids went back to school after the summer break they'd get bug after bug after bug

When we moved from one part of the country to the other we got every cold and bug going for bloody months

People haven't really been interacting for nearly 2 years. Get us all together and really who would expect anything else?

I've got family videos going back 20 odd years. Every Christmas one at least one of us and normally more has a hacking cough or is otherwise ill.

The difference now is everyone is noticing every little cough or sniffle whereas before it was background noise.

When the weather changes to a bit colder I’ve always seen the rise in coughs and colds.
That’s why they start the flu campaign in October.

@frumpety

I think you’ve just forgotten what the start of term is like

Next up an outbreak of norovirus.

When Covid first kicked off, an A&E friend of mine commented on how the hand washing and hand gel had drastically reduced the admissions for D&V in children.

I do think that this is the start of us getting back to normal, and absorbing covid into “cold flu and covid” season.

I can imagine by next winter, it will be the case that, as with flu, we vaccinate/boost the vulnerable and we only test those who are hospitalised with the illness, and everyone else gets on with it, unless they clearly so unwell they need to stay at home. As they would with a cold (less so the flu, which generally floors you).

I can’t see how else society or the economy can function for half the year.

I do wish people would wear masks on public transport/ in crowded shops if they’re feeling ill/coughing though. Regardless of which illness it is, it just feels like the responsible thing to do.

@Penfield

Yes - This is happening amongst staff at our school. It's very odd.

Why is it odd for teachers to catch colds, exactly?

Schools are germ hotbeds. If one child in a class has a cold, chances are it's going to spread to everyone.

I used to work in a small shop and if someone got sick, it was only a matter of days before it spread round the entire team. Colds spread easily - that's why they've been around as long as they have.

It's normal for people to have colds and get sick. That's just life - you can't eradicate illness!

Unfortunately there are lots of horrible bugs and viruses! We’re all recovering from hand, foot and mouth, totally wiped us out for a couple of weeks and now I just have horrible peeling hands and feet where the blisters were. Our friends have had tonsillitis and that’s put them out for a week or so. There’s just lots of horrible illnesses, especially if you have young kids!

@VirtualLife

It would be interesting to know what virus is causing these really bad colds. I've had 2 this year, both times worse than covid for me. There's a possibility some of us have pre exisiting immunity to covid due to previous Coronavirus exposure so if this is another Coronavirus it could maybe give some protection. I really don't know but I'd like to, but we don't test for other viruses so🤷‍♀️

It's the common cold.

It's been around for years - why on earth do people think it will have gone anywhere just because COVID exists?

People have colds and some colds are worse than others. I've had colds that have been nothing more than a sniffle and others that have had me off work for several days feeling absolutely dreadful.

Colds will always exist and people will always feel a bit shit when they have one. That's not changed just because we can now test for COVID.

I'm afraid everyone was always going to get ill as we head into this winter. Almost everyone's immune system has met very few bugs over the last 18 months. It's one of the many prices you pay for lockdowns.

People catch colds in winter. Shocker .

Threads like this make me wonder whether people lived in a box before covid.

All the other bugs haven't disappeared. Is there some kind of collective amnesia.

@AnyFucker

Everyone has forgotten all the normal bugs that circulate during the season changes

There isn’t a conspiracy. Stop trying to find a new variant of COVID, ffs. There has been enough hysteria about that fucking virus. Pipe down.

I totally agree.

Several years ago, after many years of working alone at home, I went into an office environment. I was ill constantly for the first year, with perhaps a few weeks' reprieve.

That's what happens after you work in relative isolation for a while.