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?

Could it be a reaction to the vaccine if you have all had vaccines?

GreenPebbles

You said "There has to be some measures put in place now to minimise this"

What measures are you suggesting?

But it did really, that was kind of the whole point.

I tested because my tutor at college is immuno suppressed and has asked us to if we get ill. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

Well I wear masks everywhere and I don’t catch Covid do 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
I also dint get colds, the flu and the many other viruses that are around.

And otherwise, you can use air filters, UV lights like they do in Parliament or at the Ministry of Defence (because it works!).

Id recommend reading the research litterature aroubd all of those. You’ll find they work and have been proven to work too. Like in classrooms. Or in hospitals.
A very recent one was in a U.K. hospital. They found the air filter got rid the virus.

The very well know layering approach.
Vaccines for all (you chose! Just like the flu vaccine)
Air filters
Ventilations and low CO2 levels in buildings
UV lights
Masks when necessary.

Like they do at Westminster.

Starting with the two big hot spots that schools and hospitals are.
Then any potential cluster events such as concerts, football matches etc etc….

On a very personal pov, vaccines have been shown to protect from death but not much else. Maybe LC a bit. So that wouldn’t be my first step unless really vulnerable.
Masks I use all the time because nothing else is in place. They work but imo should only be necessary in specific conditions (like a very busy outdoor market). Otherwise, clean air measures should be plenty.
And they would also stop the flu, colds, any other viruses like this. Air filters help during the pollen season with hay fever and asthma too.

It’s going to keep mutating forever. Just need to get on with it now. No one really cares any more.

The air filter got rid of the virus? How did this happen?

Love it when people care enough to comment that they don't care.

I don't support another lockdown
No one I know does
And no one talks about Covid or tests

To be honest people can get serious complications from any viral infection. I knew a man who had a viral cold affect his heart and he sadly ended up dying a few years later in his mid 40's from heart failure related to this. Its just with covid people are more aware of these issues.

It’s a virus. Nothing can be done. Time to live with it now. I’ve had it 3 times that I know of, always very mild, so I’m hopeful the vaccines are doing something to at least stop severe illness. Last time I had a runny nose for one day and was negative again by about day 4

Everyone sarkily saying 'so lockdowns and masked worked last time eh?' are being pretty dim.

They did work. They slowed the spread so the NHS didn't collapse.

Because. there. were. fewer. infections.

Lockdowns did but I didn’t think there was evidence face coverings did. No wonder given the manky looking ones that most people seemed to recycle for weeks on end at a time.

You're right about that, sorry i meant to delete 'masks'. But actually, that's because the masks in general usage weren't good enough (thanks Bozza) - other countries had a higher specification which did prevent the spread in close quarters, or slow it.

Hmm. I am not sure why you are panicking @GreenPebbles . It is not a variant of concern, is it? Twitter is not a good place to get information from.

HEPA filters get rid of viruses in the air. Masks and social distancing work so well that an entire flu strain has gone extinct. So yes, we can indeed do things about viruses, things other than lying down and accepting continuous infections. It's sad that most people don't have basic scientific knowledge. I don't blame them, but I do blame public health communication.

Why is it that COVID causes such an irrational, aggressive backlash against anyone who dare suggest we shouldn't accept unmitigated transmission? I wonder why that is. Cognitive dissonance? Trauma from the lockdowns?

"It's time to live with it"- but we are not living with it. That would imply learning some lessons and doing some things differently now that we've added a new disease to society. Currently we are just ignoring it, sticking our fingers in our ears and singing LALALALALALA like silly children.

That explains why so many have started wearing masks again then.

Personally I don't have the headspace to worry about this one.

I hated lockdown with a passion. I'd rather get Covid - as I have now - than lockdown again. If people are vulnerable they can lock themselves down.

People can get serious issues from other infections, but look at the sheer volume. 1000 kids per week last year developing long covid - how many other infections are doing that? Measures would help reduce other infections too.

I am not sure what we as individuals can do, apart from try not to infect others if we get ill?

The cost to society, health and wellbeing, the economy of social distancing has to be weighed against the benefits though of stopping Covid spreading, given there’s a vaccine available for it and it’s not as much of a strain on the NHS now. It doesn’t come at no cost and there’s more to life than stopping viruses spreading. People are free to purchase quality face masks if they wish to reduce their own risks.

There have been studies showing that FFP2/3 masks work to protect both the wearer from other people, and other people from the wearer. Fit testing helps but it is not absolutely necessary, most people get good protection even without fit testing. During one study, for example, Addenbrooke hospital in Cambridge reduced in-house Covid transmission to zero by replacing surgical masks with FFP3. (You can google this and find the Cambridge university study link.)

It's true that fabric face coverings don't do anything, but then again we are far enough into this that the correct information should have more prominence. "Face coverings" are not medical masks.

But when people talk about “masks” they mean face coverings as that’s what we had to wear. Many of the ones I saw people wearing looked gross. I had to wear FFP2 masks when I had to go anywhere for work and got some of my own to wear too but most people won’t buy those.

Try and think about the cost to society and the NHS of long Covid.

There are more than 100.000 children with LC
Millions if people with LC unable to work. Some who can only work part time.

How much do think all that cost in healthcare, benefits, social care, lack of productivity, days off etc etc..?

Most economists would tell you doing that investment is worth it. Because it’s not ‘just’ like any other old virus.