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?

Regardless of those who did sadly die of Covid, including the NHS workers, which was a great tragedy that should not be forgotten. There was a vast over reporting because if someone was positive, covid got put down, my neighbour, who is 90 campaigned to get the coroner to remove Covid from his wife's death certificate, she died of stage 4 breast cancer, was expected to die, was covid positive (apparently) at the time of death, but exhibited no symptoms.

It is very important that the stats are right, because it not only informs data on covid, but other diseases. We now have Medical Examiners between the doctor and coroner whose job it is to make sure the cause of death is correct.

Look at the date on this post (mine).

It should be no shock to anyone that Covid is leading to autoimmune disease. It can also massively accelerate / flare existing autoimmune disease even if the person doesn't know they have it.

"a 'good' immune system means sod all"

Of course it doesn't.

Do you have any evidence for your statement that large numbers of people fake or exaggerate fibro, chronic fatigue or other chronic conditions? Or is that just your own prejudice speaking?

Also, isn't it just a nice coincidence that sickness and absence figures have gone up since 2020 so much? Why are you twisting yourself into inventing other explanations? The shortest path between two points is a straight line. Why is it there that in the six years before the pandemic, school absence was somewhere at around 4% and since the pandemic began it is consistently at around 7% across England, for example?

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9710/

That's not how we live with most diseases as a society though. We don't live with norovirus or salmonella by carrying on as normal as if they don't exist. Restaurants have rules about handwashing, time off with d&v, schools are closed as soon as there's any problem with the water supply because hygiene is seen as so important.

Those diseases are seen as public health issues and get well deserved time and effort spent on fighting back against them because it's generally thought to be a bad thing if the population is getting ill too much. All the while you're still free to not bother with handwashing or cooking chicken carefully in your own house if you don't want to.

We could be using similar everyday precautions with covid too - it's not lockdown or nothing. We could have quite ordinary policies about ventilation and air cleaning in schools and hospitals for a start. That would be win-win because it would also mean kids breathing in less air pollution which is better for learning and asthma.

The covid enquiry takes covid precautions https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/21161640/2023-08-04-Covid-Policy.pdf including air purifiers. Apparently it's worth removing viruses from the air all those politicians are breathing, not so much from children in schools though.

Why are our kids less important than politicians? Children are the ones with most of their lives ahead of them to have to live with the effects of getting covid over and over again, wouldn't it be better if we did a few easy things to make them not have to get it as much?

It's how we live with flu etc. Flu was always a risk for the elderly but life didn't shut down during flu season. No one wore masks at the doctors during flu season etc.

As a society people don't do much for norovirus either, the hospitals might ban visitors but that's it really, yeah people stay off work or keep their kids off school but that's because they probably physically aren't able for work or school and it would be deeply unpleasant and uncomfortable to go in. I don't know anyone who follows the 48 hour rule or whatever it is, most people go back to work or school as soon as they feel better, whether they're still contagious or not. Some of them will even go to hospitals and care homes even though they shouldn't be.

But why do you think life would have to shut down for us to reduce the amount of covid?

The whole point of paying attention to things like air quality is so that we can aim for both - normal life AND less disease, just like we have normal life AND no cholera thanks to clean water.

I've had, I think, 7 vaccinations and have yet to have covid. My exDH didn't get around to having his 7th and recently had covid - mildly. Up until his death at 89 my DH was up to date with his vaccinations and never had it either, despite sometimes sitting next to a resident of his retirement village who tested positive the next day on a couple of occasions. We are all different.

I'm not in the UK btw, anyone can be vaccinated here.

Flu being a risk for older people can arguably be a blessing.

I don't want lock down but testing and self isolating for a few days would keep the population healthier in the long run. And the air filters and proper during peak times.

Covid is a different beast.

proper masks

Flu being a risk for older people can arguably be a blessing

Nice.

Probably 90 % of what you read on X or Twitter simply cannot be taken as fact

This notion that all variants are less severe than the original has been shown to be untrue. This is a few years old, but even then:

Is omicron a sign that SARS-CoV-2 is evolving into a milder virus? : Goats and Soda : NPR

In it it mentions that a study from the Uk found that the alpha variant was 40% more likely to kill a person than the original virus.

I know numerous people with healthy lifestyles who have had covid repeatedly, some who have been floored by it and one who has had debilitating long covid.

Immunisation derived immunity is specific-antibody-based and is in no way comparable to an overall healthy immune system. Your equating of the two is odd and shows a lack of understanding.

Of course a healthy lifestyle is desirable in general, but immunity is complicated.

Telling this

Try and build up your immune system. I've had it twice and enjoyed a day in bed tbh. But I am very healthy generally.

to someone who has been infected repeatedly or affected badly is indeed twattish.

Maybe try being grateful instead of smug?

That's true. However, it is possible (and can be useful) to fact check a considerable amount of it.

This is the source of the OP's initial post, from a very reputable publication.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53356-5

I don't think the data is truly reflective though is it? Previously people were testing on a huge scale and results were reported, so the % dying was more likely to be low overall. Now less people test, even fewer report, mostly those in healthcare settings because of or who have it as well as- this means a higher % will show as dying because there are less mild infections across the general population being reported.

Also, did you actually read the article?

Also, did you actually read the article?

Yes, of course I read the article that I linked.

Long covid.
When I was in hospital with covid in 2021 the doctors told me to expect a long slow recovery, only after 3 months would they consider any lingering symptoms to be long covid.
They were spot on actually, it was slow but I was fully recovered by 3 months.

I'm not for a minute suggesting that long covid isn't a thing, but a bad dose of covid is more serious than a cold and if you are still fatigued 6 weeks later that's not long covid.

Not written fact, I’d guess the figures are there though because you can find any figures to back up your feelings online. My opinion is formed based on evidence from -
Relatives and friends who work for both the NHS and the DWP.
Listening to the frustration of genuinely chronically ill friends.
Being employed in a very work shy area. Living in todays society and having eyes. Are you telling me it doesn’t happen?!

As well as lifestyle factors the absences are perhaps also higher due to hysteria and people being told they are killing people if they go to work or school? From the mental health impact of the lockdowns? Vaccine injury? But none of these reasons will satisfy those who want to believe that Covid is the be all and end all for all society’s current issues.

But none of these reasons will satisfy those who want to believe that Covid is the be all and end all for all society’s current issues.
And yet here you are hyperbolising. Doubt there are many saying that Covid is the one and only issue but that it is an issue. I am middle aged. I've had plenty of colds and the flu twice. I have had Covid 3 times and have been more poorly than with any of the other respiratory viruses, extremely unwell in fact, for about 6-8 weeks each time. It was the same after each Covid vaccine, high temperature for a couple of days and feel like I actually have Covid, whereas I might feel a bit tired after a flu vaccine. My arthritis has also flared up after Covid. No cold or flu has ever had this powerful impact on my immune system. I think this is the case for many people. 😕

Although this is completely true. What people (I’m not saying you specifically) but the general population who haven’t personally been hugely affected by covid (yet) don’t seem yet to have grasped is:

• we will now all get covid 1-2 x a year forever (unless living like hermits and masking)
• each time it’s a lottery. Sometimes like a cold, sometimes a flu, sometimes heart complications, death if very unfortunate or you have immune issues
• long covid 10% of the time (which is f*ing horrendous. The risk is proven to be with every infection
• we don't hold immunity
• the virus mutates and is not getting weaker (so far anyway)
• repeated infection of anything is not good for our immune systems. Nobody would say ‘oh it’s fine we have flu twice a year now, that’s life’. Because everyone knows flu is horrid and dangerous for many.
• covid is worse than flu for many people.
• the vaccines don’t work effectively and come with risks
• in this country we do NOTHING to reduce spread.
• no anti viral help for anyone unless severely unwell (again a travesty)

I personally HATE talking about this now in real life because people just thing ‘we’ve just got get on with it’ but honestly I think we are all going to be hugely messed up by Covid. There is more the government could do, but they won’t because it costs money. It involves massive changes to air filtration systems and educating people about not spreading illness. It also involves helping people not get too ill (anti virals) so the percentage that get long Covid or major complications from a virus eg heart infections is lower but they’re not going to do it as the cost of Paxlovid is £300 per person.

Exactly! It’s a nasty nasty virus and it’s always unpredictable.
sometimes it will be mild, others you may end up with an autoimmune condition for life.

im 40 in the last 4 years pretty much every single one of my friends has been diagnosed with a ‘new’ autoimmune condition or related conditions . Health, fit, men and women. In the group we’ve got arthritis, raynauds, lupus, recurrent shingles, chronic sinus issues, Graves, MS. This is not normal. All within 4 years, could be due to Covid itself or possibly vaccine but whatever it is it’s not good.

@Atissue123 According to https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/latest-long-covid-research-update, the 10% long covid rate was during the Delta wave, and it reduced to 3% by Omicron (which is still a rate higher than I'm willing to risk, hence I mask). Apart from that, spot on.

But aren’t we on from Omicron now?

I work in health and I’m seeing so many people STILL getting long Covid. It’s not gone. I guess that could be 3% due to infection rates but it feels higher tbh. In my friends alone I’d say it’s at least 5-6%, some more mild than others though. But I do often question it in 15 years pretty much all of us will have Long Covid.

People think that just means ‘tired’ and have no idea what it actually means!

Yes, it's scary. People just think it won't happen to them though, especially if the infections they've had so far haven't caused any ongoing problems. The next infection could always be the one that takes you down. Fingers crossed for a sterilising vaccine in the near future.