So now we have Deltacron.

But there are many on here who do.

So mention it when they do, not when a poster who doesn't says something sensible.

I didn't say she did.
But there are many on here who do.

But M0nica didn't, calli.

Sorry, M0nica, I apologise for being stroppy, but there are a lot of people who do talk about CV people as if they are a separate species.

Thank you, M0nica.

maddyone
As you were so ill with Covid you have more reason than many to understand the consequences and yes, our lives our different.
I hope you can go out to New Zealand before too long.
Thank goodness my DD just missed the floods otherwise I would have been going out there come what may!

Even before COVID, those who were particularly vulnerable had to limit what they did and where they went to avoid infection.
I was careful but didn't avoid living my life as I wanted to and didn't expect others to accommodate me by restricting theirs.

I do wish those who are not CV would keep telling me how I think and what I do.

Then I don’t understand this growstuff?
www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-variants-identified-in-the-uk

I would agree, it is not complacency, but after 2 years of lockdown, we have to learn to live with the disease, as we live with many other illnesses and diseases that could be fatal to some, but not to others.

Even before COVID, those who were particularly vulnerable had to limit what they did and where they went to avoid infection. In many ways COVID has made it easier for such people to protect their vulnerability, no one blinks at seeing someone in a mask, or even gloves, or sanitising their hands.

Here is a link to one of several news outlets reporting this week that flu was now more deadly than COVID. www.ft.com/content/e26c93a0-90e7-4dec-a796-3e25e94bc59b.

It is the question of deaths as a proportion of people catching a disease. You are far more likely to die if you catch flu than if you catch COVID. Far fewer people are getting flu, but they are proportionately more likely to die.

What or who is the source of the claim that more people are dying from flu than Covid because that is not what the numbers from the Office for National Statistics say.

It is important to understand that the numbers reported by the ONS combine numbers for deaths from influenza and pneumonia. Even then, deaths where Covid was the underlying cause still exceeded the combined number of deaths where influenza and pneumonia were the underlying cause.

In response to a Freedom of Information request for influenza and Covid data for 2020 and 2021, the ONS wrote:

We do not currently hold analysis showing deaths from influenza separately from pneumonia in 2021. We intend to publish this information via NOMIS in July 2022.

Provisional ONS numbers for deaths in the week ended 25 February 2022:

Deaths involving respiratory disease (any mention on death certificate): 3351
of which death due to respiratory disease was the underlying cause: 1163

Deaths involving influenza and pneumonia (any mention on death certificate): 1676

of which death due to influenza and pneumonia was the underlying cause: 377

Deaths involving Covid (any mention on death certificate): 766
of which death due Covid was the underlying cause: 503

The week ended 25 Feb 2022 isn't an anomaly. Every week in 2022 has shown more deaths from Covid than from influenza and pneumonia. The good news is that numbers are coming down.

My life is also limited now Callistemon like your life is limited. The things we did without thinking we now don’t do, or we very occasionally and carefully. We don’t go to the cinema anymore, or to theatres or classical concerts which my husband loves. We used to travel, in this country and abroad regularly. We used to visit our family in the north, I’ve been north once only since this began and that was for my mother in law’s funeral. We ate out regularly, now it’s once in a blue moon. Hopefully it’ll be more in the summer. We cared for three of our grandchildren regularly who are now in New Zealand as a direct result of Covid.
On the positive side we see our two sons and their families every weekend again. We do family meals with them and we care for our nine year old grandson. But our life has changed radically, and to be honest, I don’t like it. Nonetheless we continue to take care as we don’t want Covid again.

growstuff

PS. I'm not living a "half life". Are you?

It depends what you define as a half life compared to a full life.

Mine is limited at the moment compared to what it was three years ago.

growstuff

The variant which most people (approximately 80%) seem to be catching at the moment is Omicron BA.2, which is slightly different from the original Omicron. Nobody knows quite how serious it is or how effective vaccines are against it.

Anybody who is complacent really is living in a dream world. The virus will continue to mutate and vaccines won't be able to keep up. We can hope they will become less serious, but that's not guaranteed. Nobody seems to have come up with a plan for "living with Covid" apart from pretending it's gone away.

I don't think anyone is complacent, growstuff but I think they are pragmatic and most people realise that we cannot shut down society for an indefinite time.

If a new variant should prove t be more deadly then we might have to lock down again but for how long? A year? Ten years? Indefinitely?

growstuff you are very brave to volunteer to work in a school because I know you are quite high risk. I hope you’re wearing the ffp2/ffp3 type mask as they will afford extra protection. However children’s education is high priority for those of us who were/are teachers as you are.
I honestly don’t see why a few rules/restrictions couldn’t have remained. Mask wearing, hand sanitisers, social distancing. It’s not a lot, but probably gives some protection. I feel that the removal of these measures may have given out the wrong messages to many people, and they consider it’s all over, but it’s not!

Nobody seems to have come up with a plan for "living with Covid" apart from pretending it's gone away.

This is an unsubstantiated assumption.

The stealth variant.

Yes, that's not scary at all.

PS. I'm not living a "half life". Are you?

growstuff

M0nica

The 'substantial' immunity has come from a mix of vaccination and infection and a week or two ago stood at 97%

How does anybody know that?

Really growstuff? Is questioning the validity of every stat the way that we're going to go with this?

97% is a bit of an underestimate, actually.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/antibodies

volver

No growstuff, I'm not living in a dream world, and no matter how often you say it it doesn't make it true.

Most people know by now that viruses mutate continually and that there is no guarantee that they will become milder, so you pretending that we don't know that isn't valid.

The way we live with Covid is to stop obsessing about it. Despite all the scare stories we are still sequencing the virus and we are able to identify new variants. But we can no longer stop the operation of society in case the next one is bad.

Is it a problem that hospital cases are going up? Of course. Should we continue living half lives because of it? Definitely not.

It doesn't matter how often you come up with the same narrative, it doesn't make it true either.

Jaxjacky

Oops if your husband has had a PCR test, as our grandson did yesterday, they will know which type.

UK labs don't all have the capability to detect Omicron, especially as it has something called S gene drop-off, which means it can't always be spotted. The "stealth" variant BA.2 has a mutation which is difficult to distinguish with the standard tests.

No growstuff, I'm not living in a dream world, and no matter how often you say it it doesn't make it true.

Most people know by now that viruses mutate continually and that there is no guarantee that they will become milder, so you pretending that we don't know that isn't valid.

The way we live with Covid is to stop obsessing about it. Despite all the scare stories we are still sequencing the virus and we are able to identify new variants. But we can no longer stop the operation of society in case the next one is bad.

Is it a problem that hospital cases are going up? Of course. Should we continue living half lives because of it? Definitely not.

M0nica

The 'substantial' immunity has come from a mix of vaccination and infection and a week or two ago stood at 97%

How does anybody know that?

The variant which most people (approximately 80%) seem to be catching at the moment is Omicron BA.2, which is slightly different from the original Omicron. Nobody knows quite how serious it is or how effective vaccines are against it.

Anybody who is complacent really is living in a dream world. The virus will continue to mutate and vaccines won't be able to keep up. We can hope they will become less serious, but that's not guaranteed. Nobody seems to have come up with a plan for "living with Covid" apart from pretending it's gone away.

geez tin hat on

Baggs I put my tin hat each day before I log on to GN…