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?

@toocold54

I also wonder if part of it is because we’ve done so well socially distancing, wearing masks and sanitising that we’ve not caught any bugs for 2 years but now things have got more slack and are returning to normal we are picking the normal bugs up again but because we’ve not had them for 2 years then they seem worse.

Yes. I read an article last week (while I was in the depths of The Cold which said our immune systems have had little work to do so have gone into overdrive with this one.

Remember the symptoms of a cold is actually your body fighting it off.

Does it even matter if it’s covid or another virus? Everyone who wants to be is vaccinated, hospitalisations are manageable, why focus on what this virus is called now? There’s a nasty bug going around, that’s it.

I completely agree, i also get the sensation that covid isn't getting picked up on LTF/PCR. I wonder if it could be due to the vaccine.

My husband and I started having pretty much the same symptoms on the same day. He had been mixing with work colleagues and I work from home, shopping is delivered and basically I only go out for a run every couple of days. We have no children living at home. 2 days after onset of symptoms he showed positive on both LFT and a couple of days later on PCR and I showed negative on both. I have kept doing LFT every day but not showing positive.
People will say he has covid and I have a cold but come on, that's not likely.

I did use to have a cough and a runny nose occasionally in the past but usually I was functioning perfectly well with it. I don't know that it was that usual to have something this virulent.

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?

Yes I know it's a cold. But what is a cold? It's a collection of symptoms caused by numerous different pathogens. Just interested in the science and whether there's any cross protection after the cold virus, which could of course be a rinovirus.
Apologies for being curious about viruses, I work in a scientific field so actually find them really interesting.

As I said I've had a couple of colds during the pandemic having worked out of the home throughout so was never really in lockdown but my recent cold left me with a cough lasting nearly 6 weeks which I've never had with a cold before.

There was a link on here about a variant in france or Belgium that is not picked up by either test.

Forgive me for being thick but if its not picked up on LFT or PCR how are they identifying it as covid? Was this patients in hospital? Are there other lab tests they're doing?

my recent cold left me with a cough lasting nearly 6 weeks which I've never had with a cold before.

I've had several bad colds like that in the past. Also colds that have left me really fatigued and unwell.

Colds aren't always just a minor sniffle. Some are really bad and in vulnerable people they can lead to chest infections and pneumonia. It's always been like that.

I think everyone is just hyper aware of COVID at the moment and it feels like people have forgotten what being unwell without COVID actually feels like.

It's what happens when you turn a population into a load of germphobe recluses for over a year. Wait till flu gets going.

We had it doing the rounds around here. I had it. It is just the old strong cold! It is back.
But covid is doing the rounds here too, so almost everyone is having tests at present, just to figure out which one!

LFT may fail for new variants, but PCR should not.
The genetic team will be sequencing samples, and finding new variants. They will build the PCR profile from a sample of each variant.
There could be a delay between a new variant appearing and it being identified, but it should not be long, as you would expect them to watch it closer when it comes to similar viruses, and UK's team was praised for identifying the second variant quite quickly, if you remember.
The PCR has a set of several lines, no only one like the LFT. It is very unlikely that a variant results in changes in all the lines, so the test will be positive or void. If they start getting lots of void ones, missing lines, slightly darker or lighter lines, slightly higher or lower lines, that should trigger them having a closer look to the virus itself, and likely sequencing it, so that would identify it as a new covid or not.
I do have hope that the goverment has not yet managed to fuck this one up.

@MushMonster so do you think a positive LF followed by a negative pcr likely means it's not covid ?

Something is up though with the increase In LFT positives followed by negative pcrs. Dodgy batch of LFTs/PCRs would explain it. It is certainly being looked into as reported by several news outlets. Time will tell.

[quote tiddlysquat]@MushMonster so do you think a positive LF followed by a negative pcr likely means it's not covid ?[/quote]
I do not think. I know it is not covid.
The 119 will tell you this. The reliable result is the PCR. LFT is only a quick easy way to check. That is why when positive, it is followed by a PCR.

Playing devils advocate here but surely if this is ‘just a cold/ flu’ and last year we didn’t see this surge it makes a point in the effectiveness of face masks?

I guess most posters here are insinuating they do work after all in lowering transmission of viruses and in that case would be the sensible choice of mitigation against Covid.

DPs PCR came back negative which is good, but also still a worry incase this anomaly is widespread…

A batch of PCR could fail, yes.
That is not impossible.
What I say is if the techniques are in working order.
Equipment and processes can fail in any lab. They tend to start flashing up in bright colours, and make some noise.
But, they wil fail in one lab, for a space of time till it gets picked up. They cannot all fail in different labs across the country at once. That defies statistics!

@Thewiseoneincognito

Playing devils advocate here but surely if this is ‘just a cold/ flu’ and last year we didn’t see this surge it makes a point in the effectiveness of face masks?

I guess most posters here are insinuating they do work after all in lowering transmission of viruses and in that case would be the sensible choice of mitigation against Covid.

DPs PCR came back negative which is good, but also still a worry incase this anomaly is widespread…

I'm in Scotland where face masks are still mandatory in public spaces and in schools.

I am recovering from a stinking cold - now in my chest with a cough. Several work colleagues the same. Still doing the rounds here, despite face coverings.

Why is that playing Devil’s advocate? Is everyone here anti-mask in your view?

I do agree that masks will have helped but you cannot separate the lack of masks from all the other things that are different this autumn to last - people going back into office is the biggest difference in my area (London commuterville). Coming into contact with fewer people will make far more difference than having more contact whilst wearing masks

I've had a fun week living with DH's nasty cold (negative PCRs and lateral flows) and DD14's COVID (Positive PCR and lateral flows) both at the same time! No isolating as not enough space. I did get ill with temp/cough/headache/runny nose etc but have had 2 neg PCRs so I'm confident it was the cold I caught rather than COVID. We are all starting to come out the other side now and I am grateful for my jabs!

Thing is we are in RSV and cold season. RSV can be very, very nasty, its just after the age of about 5 we've been in contact with it so often that our original immunity to it (from first time catching it as a baby) is continually topped up. Last year it wasn't, same with all the other colds we'd normally be in contact with.

One of the things that has really passed me off over the last 18months is that no-one cared about children who were vulnerable to respiratory infections pre-covid. Rather than isolating children were expected to go in to school with a mild cold (or if in contact with someone who had a cold). Now it's all "think about the children".

Well the last few days my fb memories have been full if the battles we've had every year to keep my vulnerable son out of hospital as he's caught every cold going. A.fight that we didn't always win, latest memories are of him coming home from a hospital stay where they were at one point considering ventilating him.

My family all had this except me. It was a bad cold that lasted at least a week with a lingering cough. Not sure how I escaped as they were coughing wildly. All negative tests lateral flow and PCR.

Bad colds are bad but they are colds.

@Thewiseoneincognito masks might play a role, yes, but if that’s the case I’m never wearing one again. I’ve spent the last year masked and not catching anything and now my immune system is lowered and I’m catching everything going. I think being isolated and kept away from viruses has made things worse.

@SMBH

Why is that playing Devil’s advocate? Is everyone here anti-mask in your view?

I do agree that masks will have helped but you cannot separate the lack of masks from all the other things that are different this autumn to last - people going back into office is the biggest difference in my area (London commuterville). Coming into contact with fewer people will make far more difference than having more contact whilst wearing masks

Not at all but I would imagine there’s a fair few anti maskers and no doubt the majority are choosing not to wear one now if my local supermarkets and shops are anything to go by.

As someone upthread mentioned time will tell to explain what’s going on, of course there will be a lot of cold and flu going around but it just feels like it’s everywhere at the moment which makes think there could be more to this.

Interestingly the wfh mandate was only reinstated towards the end of September last year so there had been a few months until then that people were slowly heading back to their offices albeit not in the same numbers as today and yet I don’t remember this amount of sickness everywhere I go.

My kids had covid recently - no coughs - funnily enough while I was working from home while they were ill ( achy, tummy aches, no appetite, snotty and sore throats) it was lovely weather so I was in the garden a lot and had all windows open for ventilation and there were constant hacking coughs coming from neighbouring gardens !
My point is covid doesn't always mean a cough and in fact I don't think it's a key delta symptom - I wish the govt would update the pcr symptoms
I also used to work in school nursing and this time of year we always had to do lots of hand washing assemblies as it's when all the bugs go round

“ Interestingly the wfh mandate was only reinstated towards the end of September last year so there had been a few months until then that people were slowly heading back to their offices albeit not in the same numbers as today and yet I don’t remember this amount of sickness everywhere I go.”

I don’t know where you live or your circumstances, but having shared my own (small children at nursery, two parents working in education, live in London commuterville) I can tell you that in the area I live most people were not going back to the office last year. Those of us who were in contact with more normal levels (working in schools, children at nursery) still experienced “start of term” coughs and colds, with negative PCRs

@MushMonster great thanks !

@MushMonster

A batch of PCR could fail, yes. That is not impossible. What I say is if the techniques are in working order. Equipment and processes can fail in any lab. They tend to start flashing up in bright colours, and make some noise. But, they wil fail in one lab, for a space of time till it gets picked up. They cannot all fail in different labs across the country at once. That defies statistics!

Exactly it’s no doubt mathematically impossible for LFTs to fail across the board and PCRs to start failing all at the same time.

Thinking out loud here but could there be a link between vaccination and sickness? Vaccination is to reduce the risk of severe disease so could the antibodies 2X vaccinated people now have be masking the virus on the tests?