To Think People Have No Idea How Covid Messaging Has Changed

[Sunshineguy]

The CDC, HHS, and WHO are warning that Covid infections can get progressively worse and that the risk of Long Covid increases with each reinfection. Are people aware of this change in messaging?

A covid vaccine might save some people's lives, but I won't be leaping to get one again.

I'm now of the opinion that I was damaged by the 3rd Pfizer jab. I'm only in my mid-30s and am now on full HRT after having it. The symptoms started within 2 weeks of having it, and within 2 - 3 months, became almost anorgasmic.

Mainly because it was shown early on that asthmatics are at any serveraly more increase risk. DS who had bad asthma and any cold floors him, has had covid at lest twice and barely had a sniffle with it. Compared to having been in hospital with just a normal cold. It for some reason hasn't been a huge issue for asthma suffers so they took them off the list of vaunrable.

It doesn't mean to say you won't have a problem if you have asthma, but your no more likely to then a regular person.

there are two extremes with this some making it out to be a lot worse than it is and some making out it is just like cold or flu
there has been historic scaremongering about the severity and also scaremongering about vaccines, There is ongoing scaremongering about both postions.
for most people the sensible thing is that you should if at all possible stay home if you are ill ( whether D&V, covid, flu or indeed any infection) if you can't you should minimise contact and definitely should not visit the vulnerable. this was true before covid and still is.
The major problem for most is the pressure to go to work or school when not well ( I have to send my kid to school when slightly sick as no childcare will take sick child and i'll lose my job or be disciplined if i take leave ... regardless of legal position for many on low wages this is the reality) and for others not having someone close by that can get shopping medicine collect child from school etc for them

Any ppiece of information one doesn't like is apparently "scaremongering".

@Justkeeepswimming What do they think you have? See my above post.

I'm technically not in peri-menopause as my FSH is normal, but I do think I'm damaged. In my casd I think it was the vaccine rather than coivd that triggered it for some reason, and I think more consultants are quietly aware of this. I was told by my consultant that the NHS gynaecology department had to double their appointment provision in our hospital for the amount of women coming in with symptoms after they had it.

My autoimmune are mildly positive but don't indicate a straightforward diagnosis. The closest one is Sjogren's syndrome.

Due to have an operation next week, told no need to test for COVID before I go in and they don’t test when you go in. It’s a private hospital if that makes any difference but I was shocked

I just started a thread in health on ME/CFS.

I was a fit and healthy individual. Barely got ill. And then I got Covid once. I then got it again. And the third time I got it, I got it extremely mildly. Not one of those 3 infections made me very ill, just like a bad cold. I was vaccinated too.

Last infection it seems triggered Long Covid/ME.

I worked full time as a C level person and was on the board of 5 Uk companies. I was in the top 5% time for Park Run for my age. I now can't walk to the end of my street. I can't go on holiday because what's the point - i can't make it through the airport without being so exhausted I won't be able to get out of bed the next day.

They don't know the stats yet but it's at least 10% of people who get it will have some sort of long lasting issues.

It's fine to think it won't affect you. I thought that. I was fit, healthy, vaccinated, I was a normal weight, I ate well and I hadn't even needed to go to the doctor for about the last 10 years. And then I got a mild version and it triggered Long Covid and now ME.

As the previous poster said, just be careful because once you get this, you can't get rid of it and your life changes forever in an instance.

What difference do qualifications make here? I'm not putting forward any theory or making stuff up that I need to back up.

Do you realise how selfish it is to carry on like this when you, largely, have absolutely no education in biology at a higher level or any related field?

Do you think people should bow down to your opinion because you have a 'science background' and read a lot of literature?

I literally do not care about living in fear and dread of what covid might bring in future or what other pandemics could do.

I have a psychology background and I don't think that it's healthy to obsess over covid. Of course people with different backgrounds are more likely to worry about covid or warn against this and that, immunologists, virologists etc, and during the pandemic their opinions were very much respected and sought out. However WHO have now said that that COVID is no longer a global health emergency so we don't need to keep seeking out the opinions of people who are educated in biology etc constantly for the latest opinions on covid.....people are allowed to go back to living normally and shouldn't be shamed for that.

It doesn't matter if everyone gets their vaccines as it.

1. Does not stop anyone actually getting covid (unlike the flu vaccine)

1. Does not stop anyone spreading covid (unlike the flu vaccine which does)

The only advantage to the covid vaccine is it helps reduce hospitalisation and serious illness, mostly in the venerable people like you.

So for most healthy people getting more vaccines is pointless. It doesn't help the population overall as it give no hurd immunity. And the current data is showing this so why would the government carry on vaccinating everyone.

I'm curious to see what (if any) longer term effects I might have over the next few decades after my single experience of Covid. It was unpleasant at the time but as far as I can tell I've made a full recovery and don't have Long Covid (I'm fully vaccinated so possibly it was a bit 'less bad' thanks to that).

Things like syphilis (bacterial, not viral) can have an initial infection and then - if not completely treated - a latent infection with no symptoms before it reappears in a different form https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphilis

Thankfully I've never had syphilis (!) but I did get chicken pox (virus) in childhood and although I'm fully recovered with no apparent long-term effects the virus remains dormant for decades and can reactivate (shingles) https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/apr/discovery-explains-how-chickenpox-and-shingles-virus-remains-dormant

Cold sores / herpes virus or HIV / AIDS (both viral) also have recurring effects after an initial infection, with longer periods of no symptoms between them.

No idea if the coronavirus has the same features though. Hope not!

Jo 😷 <-- accurate depiction of me on public transport or in shops etc

Thanks for that, that's interesting.

It's crazy you can't pay for a vaccine - what is the issue with doing so?

We don't have an NHS equivalent in Ireland - while there's a medical card system for low-income individuals / families & certain other categories, the majority pay for GP visits, prescriptions and any optional vaccines so it doesn't seem unusual for us to have to pay.

It isn't scaremongering to state the current scientific evidence.

@CwmYoy This. It's information, not scaremongering.

The ad posted is from an American public health campaign (CDC) and is not something we are even seeing in the UK.

Yes this

There’s no point in me having it due to these reasons

It is true that many, many viruses can cause complications. I had chest/lung problems for years after what was then called 'swine flu'.

It's also true that Covid appears to have particularly high rates of particularly insidious and, in some cases, particularly severe complications.

The one doesn't cancel out the other.

In terms of what to do? The requirement for people to go to work with Covid in the UK (I'm not there but this is how I understand it) is utterly bonkers. Changing that seems an obvious thing. Healthcare workers where I am continue to be banned from working if they get a positive test, until they are reliably negative or a certain time period has elapsed.

Much more investment in air filtering, too. That would help more than the Covid issue.

As the previous poster said, just be careful

But what does that even mean? I have to go to work, I have to send my kids to school (even when slightly unwell), I have to take public transport.
I could stop occasionally going out for drinks or dinner with friends (not doing that) or get all food shopping delivered, but I’m in contact with people daily, and so are many others.
I think most people a aware of long Covid, but since Covid isn’t going anywhere people just get on with their lives.

I don't think it's a bad thing to point out to people to not get complacent about covid if they are eligible for a vaccine. The latest variant does seem to be knocking people for 6 more and if it reduces pressure on the NHS as the vaccine means a less serious illness then its not a bad thing.

Quite a few people also don't realise they are eligible for it due to conditions.

I have been dealing with long covid for years it's definitely difficult and life changing (in my mid 30s). The initial findings with the vaccination is it had a small reduction of people then getting long covid which can only be a good thing of not developing a long term health condition nobody knows how to treat.

It’s just drug company advertising/propaganda🙄. That’s not to say I disbelieve everything - so no I’m not stupid, and drug companies need to be there. I worked at one and a lot of the people working there genuinely wanted to help. But ultimately, we live in a capitalist society and everything comes down to profit.

THIS

Can we all please use our own eyes and ears this time please (unlike during lockdown when the hysterical media frenzy differed so very, very much from our actual experience)? Everyone I know who has had repeated Covid infections gets them less severely each time.

Or not...

A friends wife (89) died of breast cancer, well, sepsis killed her, the death cerificate stated breast cancer, sepsis, organ failure, Covid 19 - her husband couldn't understand the covid part and asked me to query it for him.

The doctor confirmed to me that she had NOT been tested for covid, but that as there were covid infections in the hospital it was routinely put on geriatric death certificates - so thats one error, i suggest that multiplies many times.

Add to that the fact that no one knows how many covid infections, or indeed deaths (not every death will have been recorded) there have been globally - certainly many more than positive tests, the case fatality rate will be much lower than the figures suggest, simply because the true numbers cannot be known.

Also anecdotal evidence doest make something true, I teach in a school of 1200 pupils, roughly 200 staff, and have quite a broad circle of friends and know a lot of OAPs, but, I don't know anyone who has been hospitalised or died of covid, nor do I know anyone who has long covid (if I do they havn't said) - then another person may know multiples who have died / got long covid, neither experience proves very much as the sample is too small.

@BeaRF75

where did you get that idea from?

Well many people also consider that the vaccine may also carry risks and so make a decision based on personal circumstances. Like myself- had covid right at start of pandemic- got better.
had vaccine - developed a reaction, which then ‘turned into’ a severe life limiting autoimmune disorder. I’m on the severe end of the spectrum but you get the idea.

@inamarina just means be careful when you get it. Don't think it's mild when it feels like it is mild. The specialist I saw said a lot of people race back to work, race back to the gym when they are not 100% recovered. I'm sure I did. Like you, i had a busy life, kids out and about. I thought it was nothing, I treated it like nothing. But it wasn't nothing inside my body. I wish I had taken a week off work and rested. Maybe I wouldn't have what I have today.

Okay, that makes sense. I thought you meant to be careful and try to avoid getting it in the first place.
I agree that ideally people should take the time to recover properly.

no sorry @inamarina I should have been clearer :)

Do you think many other people have the ability to take a week off work for a mild illness?