This is unreal - the new variant - anyone have it

[GreenPebbles]

I am not ill and I don't have it. I had COVID in the summer and I know it's likely only just around the corner again.

Did anyone have COVID recently? How was it?

I came across this on twitter. Apparently there's a new variant called XEN.

It looks a lot like the original Wuhan variant. It appears as if people are getting better and then by the second week there is respiratory distress.

I mean like WHAT THE HOLY FUCK?

I mean like how can this be allowed to spread if this is happening?

I called it wrong above. It is XEC variant.

Mea t to link this too

Meant

I think it's absolutely vital that you don't get your news/health information from Twitter.

I mean, there's not much we can do about it. Unless you want to start wearing masks everywhere and go into lockdown again. And that didn't work so well last time did it.

What do you mean by shouldn’t be allowed to spread? It’s an airborne disease it’s going to spread. Do you want lockdown again?

If it's what we've had all this week, and it probably is although I've not done a test, then it's already spreading fast. DS got it first, then me, then DH & DD. DD said it's spread rapidly through college and where she works.

It's unstoppable, like last time and the many times before with every other variant. Masks, social distancing, and lockdowns didn't stop it spreading before.

She do people think that the lockdowns were to stop an airborne disease spreading? Unless everyone were in their own little hazmat suit it was never going to stop an airborne virus from moving to another host. All lockdown could do would be to minimise the spread. That was the whole point. No one who has an understanding of pathogens would have expected a lockdown to stop the spread.

Do you generally rely on X for news?

I'd like some measures, but then I've always had an issue with doing nothing to reduce the prevalence. Cleaner air in schools for a start, supported isolation when contagious, masking and clean air in healthcare settings.

There's something quite awful about what we are doing to those with no choice - patients, care residents, children in schools. Given last year saw an average of 1,000 new long covid cases in kids a week (England and Scotland), I'd have thought more parents would want that increase slowed.

I'm currently recovering from from Covid it was brutal this time round D and V, blinding headache, very high temperature loss of consciousness, freezing hands. It was NOT fun.

Quite a lot of people at work seem to start with D and V that leads into covid that floors them. Hoping I don't get it as the once I had it left me with long covid 2 years ago.

I’ll just pop my mask back on and stay inside, only venturing out once a day because that worked last time.

But this is very far from the first new variant. Why are you so concerned about this particular one OP? Covid is constantly mutating and has basically become mainstream, like the flu. I know it's nasty and not what anyone wants, but unless you're imuno compromised I don't think you should get hysterical about it.

If the flu were hospitalising as many as covid and leading to as large a number of people with health issues after infection and people catching flu once to twice a year, instead of a decade, yeah can see the similarities..

This is not like a flu so quit comparing it to a flu. I got flue once in about 16 years. Covid is everywhere and there's no immunity. It makes you ill like a flu but that's about the only comparison. We are all going to be open to infections multiple times a year from this. I am vaccinated but I got COVID in the summer time. I read on another forum of someone who had COVID in August and has it again and is sick yet again with COVID. This is not like flu. Flu was once in so many years for me and I suspect similar for other people. There's going to be at least two waves of COVID every year in winter and summer. We are just at the start of a winter wave. It's not right.

This 100%.

Like a lot of people COVID fell into the background for me but it's still there and it's still wrecking havoc.

The screenshot I linked to above giving a description of the current variant - that's scary.

This was aon twitter as well. I found it last night.

It was a study that says COVID is leading to autoimmune diseases.

There has to be some measures put in place now to minimise this.

The thing is OP, people are mostly vaccinated now. So yes it can be a serious illness, but far, far fewer people are dying or being hospital thereby. That was why we had lockdowns at the beginning - not to prevent illness, but to protect the NHS.

People get ill. If they can recover at home, that fine. I do think we need infrastructure around cleaning air in places like schools and supermarkets, but there's probably no money in it.

We are in the fourth or fifth wave this year. Unlike flu.

But what good are the vaccines doing. I'm not anti Bax and I got the COVID vaccines and also flu vaccines every year and I got boosted too. But what good are the vaccines doing. From my family circle who all got COVID in the summer time we were all unwell with it for a few weeks and came down with issues afterwards too. My niece was having nosebleeds after COVID. My SIL was having rashes and cold sores and other stuff. I got GI and reflux and tummy issues. We all have a list of problems after COVID but we were all vaccinated.

And there's only more around the corner for us too because everyone is writing COVID off.

There's no immunity to COVID either. You can get it and get it again within a matter of weeks. I don't know what variemat I had in the summer time but the idea of another wave and more COVID doesn't appeal to me.

I agrees with you mitigate measures should be taken.

I have Covid atm. I have a sore throat and feel a bit shit, but with paracetamol I'm able to be up and about, cleaning my house. I am not worried.

You are only one person out of the population and I am glad that you have it very mild.

COVID is a whole entire mixed bag of crap for so many people.

How are people mostly vaccinated? Are you referring to several years ago? How does that help them now? Some people are vaccinated. It's a narrow list of criteria for eligibility.

We have doctors and nurses with covid treating patients - how is that sensible or good care?

We have some employers that haven't amended sickness policies to allow for a highly circulating virus that makes a lot of people sick!

We have a government saying how awful it was that ventilation in schools wasn't addressed years ago, but who now won't even mention the word covid. Incidentally indoor air has been updated in Parliament, department for education, ministry of defence. Whilst refusing to acknowledge covid is airborne publicly, WHO were updating theirs pretty quickly too.

We have economists ringing alarm bells at how much long covid is costing and will cost.

In the meantime, we are suggesting weight loss injections, removing/reducing disability benefits, having work officers in hospitals...whilst every day more and more people in work become unable to work due to long covid.

There is so much research that shows how harmful it is. Of course we should be doing something.

I'd rather take medical advice from someone who is able to communicate without needing to resort to stupid emojis

How do you even now if you’ve got covid these days? Very few people are testing. MN is the only place I even hear the word mentioned.