Is there any light at the end of the tunnel

[SummersBreeze]

I know a family who are down with covid for the second time in a matter of a few short months. March was the last time. I had covid last week and it's no picnic.

Covid reminds me of a cold that has married a flu.

This can't possibly be ideal to have a flu type of illness every few months.

I'm someone who's not able to get sick. I don't tolerate sickness well and I don't have time to be sick. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve to help myself. I remember in the winter of 2019 many people arou D me got cold after cold but I avoided them. I looked after myself so much to avoid colds.

But I wasn't able to avoid covid. I dread to think what this will be like every 3 or 4 months.

There has to be some sort of a let up surely. The world and its people needs a break from this.

As it’s a novel virus we’re all a bit like babies and toddlers when they are trying to build up their immunity to colds- they are ill a lot. Which is really not a nice prospect as for many Covid is much worse than a cold.

I had Omicron in Dec and just now again. The second time was much milder, a runny nose and a few days of fatigue. The only explanation is that my immunity is building. DH had a day of feeling ‘off’ that’s his immunity building even better. DS had a runny nose for a few days, he was asymptomatic last time.

Unfortunately individual response and building immunity is different for all of us. So for many we’re in for a rough ride for a few years. I definitely don’t relish being ill every 6 months or so.

I know many will claim that immunity isn’t a thing with Covid. But some people serve it, some people are asymptomatic, some just have it mildly. So something is happening!

I wonder if those that had omicron more severely had Delta or another strain the first time round?

People haven’t been getting normal colds, flus and norovirus and immunity has been further hampered by lockdowns . We will keep getting it , that’s what happens . Just as the Spanish flu didn’t go away but turned into a
wealee virus which makes up many of the colds we have today . There is no silver bullet , if you look at the effacy of the vaccines it’s short lived . Viruses exist, if you are weak and i poor health you are more likely to be impacted but we need to get a sense of perspective. The average death rate is over 82.

I am not remotely worried about dying. I'm worried about the impact on my health, I've developed a chronic illness from Covid with all the attendant work and finance implications of that, and lots of people I know are still affected months later, as well as the ones who had 'just a cold'. I'm a single parent and that's where the stress is, around going off sick, financial worries, I feel confident the vaccines are protective against death for most.

I'm not worried about dying from covid but I do worry about the long-term impact of repeated infections on people's health. My child especially. It is not normal to get a virus that could make you ill for a week or so several times a year. And that is what seems to be happening right now. I know it can be very mild for some but I think those are the lucky ones; most people I've spoken to recently have had at least a few days of feeling rubbish. The unlucky ones are taking weeks or even months to recover and there is no rhyme or reason as to who gets affected the worst. Before covid, you did not get that kind of illness several times a year. So I'm with you OP and that's what I worry about. There does not seem to be a plan to deal with this and as far as the government is concerned, 'living with covid' seems to mean 'pretend it doesn't exist'.

Many people get several colds that last at least a week. Very normal to have a summer cold and a winter cold but it seems we have forgotten about this. Covid will not go away, if you review Pfizer documents you will see effacey is short lived anyway and so you misy weigh that up too with risk of repeated vaccination . That thankfully is a choice for individuals . It’s not nice to have related illness but if we are honest with ourselves there are many illnesses that have left people wiped out months later but we then do recover

I’m not talking about a summer cold and a winter cold. Don’t think the OP is either. I’m talking about potentially getting a flu-like illness every few months. Of playing Russian Roulette with symptoms because you don’t know what you’re going to get or what the long term effects will be. You talk about the “risk of repeated vaccination” - I’m not aware that this carries any more risk than having one vaccination and I’d certainly take that over the risk of repeated infection with something we do not yet fully understand. COVID can cause scarring on the lungs; it can affect your heart or your brain; it is absolutely not the same thing as a cold and I think the mixed and confusing messages from the government have trivialised it. I just hope that isn’t something we come to regret in the years to come, from a public health point of view.

I had it twice within about six weeks late last year and not had it since so I don't think we're all going to keep getting it

Update if anyone is interested. Had Covid in March was on my arse was positive for 12 days and then still weak for a good fortnight afterwards.

Have Covid now - tested positive Sunday - been mild cold - feel fine today - barely positive according to the test. Presume I'll be negative tomorrow. I do think we get immunity over time

What do you propose then?

That we all give in to despair?

No thanks, I'd rather live life as far as is possible.

It’s very strange to be ill like this in the summer.

I had a party to attend recently, two months ago I thought my friend was ridiculous to suggest covid could affect it. Cases were low and we were going in to the warmer months - guess who caught it and couldn’t go - me!! Thankfully she was ok but I saw her less than 48 hours before symptoms started so it’s lucky she didn’t get it (unlikely she will now).

All 4 of us in our immediate family have had it now. The only people I know who haven’t are those who barely go out for whatever reason (health or elderly) or don’t use public transport (and don’t have school aged children). I spoke to someone earlier on the phone for work who told me her 30 yr old grandson was so careful, went to a wedding and got it so as soon as you put yourself in the public arena you have to face you may get infected.

OP I'm not sure what you expect anyone to do about it? It is what it is.

I am wondering if the Chinese know something that we don't seeing that they are still trying to maintain a zero covid policy .Something doesn't add up.

Not sure how much more China or other countries know. Different countries have different priorities. There's much to learn, but there are numerous studies on organ damage, damage to the immune system and other longer term issues. School absence is high, lots sick off work, lots with long covid, but we don't seem willing to try v much to reduce rates/height of waves at all beyond vaccine and weirdly talk about post covid.

China has an immune-naive population, a very large one, and their vaccine isn't very good. If this spreads they're up shit creek.
The same vaccine in a different country won't have anything like the same impact.

I genuinely don't understand what measures people want. We did the lockdowns and the mitigations, and they came at a very high financial and social cost, there's really no more scope.

*Variant my previous post should read, not vaccine.

Plus they didn't work.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the CCP's zero Covid posturing is so they can remind their population that they better not get any silly notions of freedom into their heads.

The Chinese government have never given a fuck about their population in the past, so why on earth would they start with concerns about Long Covid in the population?

Infection with flu also provides cross immunity to different strains. I used to have flu very frequently as a child and then colds. I got so fed up with it I changed my diet and it made a lot of difference. I stopped getting constant colds. I now take high dose Vitamin C alongside a very healthful diet and I've seen colds decrease in length to a day, and flu (you know when you have flu if you are used to having flue, one of my markers is my little finger aching, your whole body aches but only flu ever made my little finger ache), to a week maximum where it would have been up to three weeks.

Your immune system is constantly learning though. You can't shut yourself away for two years, eradicate the microbiome on your skin with constant scrubbing in, take an injection that instructs your body to produce a viral spike protein, then go back into the world.

You will get constantly sick.

And there is evidence to show that people who have a healthy plant based diet are suffering less.

I agree @ihavenocats and I think that’s why people shutting themselves away and thinking they can avoid this is a bad idea.

That is not how we build immunity to viruses. We need exposure. There was an interesting study that showed Health Care Workers who had worked throughout the pandemic had high circulating, protective t-cells for Covid despite never actually testing positive. So some constant, low level exposure may have built up
their immunity.

I also read that having healthy gut biomes can be protective/lead to milder disease. So @HesterShaw1 that could support the plant based diet. Those that eat the biggest variety of plants - veggies/fruits have the healthiest guts.

I've had COVID twice, Delta in November which was like a cold and Omicron now, which made me feel a bit rough for 1 day (mild flu like symptoms but nowhere near actual flu which was 10 x worse) and then back to normal. Unfortunately I'm still testing positive on day five which is really annoying because I feel fine and want to go back to work

It's more of an inconvenience than anything in my experience. I'd rather get COVID several times over than Norovirus/Flu/Tonsillitis, all of which have made me far iller in the past

I eat a healthy plant based diet (all veggie, a good proportion vegan) but I've still been slammed really hard gastro-wise with it. I'm on day 7 now and still being sick, still can't eat, still dizzy and faint. My experience of it has been so horrible that yes I am worried about the future, about more variants, about the effects on the population of getting it over and over. It doesn't always work that the second time is milder (didn't for my DD or my friend who got long covid from the second bout). And what they are saying now is that immunity means very little in the light of fast moving variants.

No idea what the answer is. Although lockdowns worked in terms of bringing down serious disease and death, they caused havoc in other ways and we can't afford them. I think the government is just going to have to invest in covid research and long covid, and look at the issues around taking time off work etc and how it affects people who simply can't.

I do feel nervous about it. This has been painful and harrowing for me and resulted in a hospital admission.

Yep, on all points. Additionally, China made a lot of political capital out of the West's sufferings with covid earlier in the pandemic. Bit fucking rich, but they certainly had a go at milking it. If and when it spreads further amongst their population, there are going to be political consequences the regime won't like.

I'm feeling quite down about it. I read yesterday that new variant can be caught a mere month after last infection

It is pretty shit. Very unpalatable truth. I can well understand people being fed up.