The other C word (Covid)

Callistemon, they weren't that strict in Australia, at least not all of Australia. I've not long returned from visiting my son there. Some regions were lockdown free, as the regions were relatively remote. However, those in these remoter regions weren't allowed to visit those that were in lockdown, so it had pretty much the same effect.

Romola

A cousin of my late husband and his wife have recently been staying with me, having arived from Australia. He's another anti-vacxer.
I asked if either of them had ever had Covid, to which the answer was no.
I asked if they had had any colds, coughs or flu-ey illnesses since the outbreak started. They said they had had one or two, as normal and usual.
So I asked if they had tested themselves for Covid. They said they hadn't.
I was really shocked. How did they know they weren't infecting others with Covid?
Even if they didn't want the vaccine, the very least they could have done was test to see if any infection was Covid, so that in the case of a positive test, they could isolate until testing negative.
How arrogant and selfish can people be?
By the way, I had Covid recently. I woke up feeling cold-ey, realised I had a dentist appointment that day, LFT very much positive so I cancelled the appointment and isolated for 7 days until testing negative.
Covid19 has not gone away.

Test kits weren't free in Australia, they did cost quite a lot so perhaps that's why people were reluctant to test.

Let's hope they stayed away from other people when they weren't well, which is likely as lockdowns were very strict in Australia..

Mr C has just returned home after heart surgery. Pre admission instructions were that covid testing was not necessary. The first thing the admission nurse did was a covid test. The majority of staff were wearing masks - as did I to visit. Made us wonder.

I had a sore throat yesterday, I had a bad feeling a cold was on the way. Lo and behold, woke up with a slightly blocked runny nose. No other symptoms so am assuming its just the common cold. I do have a pack of covid tests if I develop a headache or any of the other symptoms more common with covid than a cold. Bit annoyed as I haven't had a cold (or covid) in at least 5 years. I think its because I have been travelling by bus more often of late.

I wonder if its the miserable weather we have been having? More bugs than usual seem to be around this summer. As for boosters, so far as I know they will be offered for vulnerable groups in the autumn. I vaguely remember reading something about it in the last couple of days.

So your five vacs didn't work

You can still check up on the latest Gov.uk figures here:

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

You will notice that there has been a 40 % increase in hospital admissions over the past week, that's quite a jump. You can enter your postcode for the picture in your local area.

Several people have had covid round here recently. My husband (dodgy heart) and some of our older neighbours have had a booster recently but I've not been offered one. Not really sure what's going on now, hope they give me a jab when I have my flu vaccination this winter.

I know a few people who have had covid lately and they all think they caught on hospital appointments. So if I have to go to hospital I'll be wearing a mask again.

I’m CEV, so was my late husband last year after cancer diagnosis and treatment.
We agreed with close friends and family we’d LFT before meeting.
I’m relieved to be retired

Yeah, I tested positive 3 weeks ago; a week in bed, a week at home feeling crap, a negative test, a week of no energy at all, and counting. I know a couple of other people locally with it, none of whom caught it off each other. Doing the rounds again...

sazz1

I caught covid a few weeks ago probably from a kid coughing a lot in a crowded lift. I had temperature for 1 day, slightly sore throat for 1 day and very bad cold. Bad chest infection needing steroids and antibiotics followed probably due to having lung disease anyway. I've had 3 vaccines and can't have anymore due to serious side effects.
OH caught it off me and was very ill. Repeated temperatures for over a week, cold, v bad cough, mood swings, and brain fog for 3+ weeks where he thought he had dementia and so did I. Didn't know what he was doing or even what room he was in! He's now ok weeks later.
But he had a 4th vaccine so I'm pretty convinced that these 'vaccines' are not helping at all. He was fit and healthy when he caught it but still has a cough now.

It was proven early on that, sadly, the vaccines didn’t prevent people from catching covid. Also that herd immunity was never going to happen. What the vaccines did do was stop most people from dying of it. I honestly believe that people have forgotten what it was like pre vaccine: how Italy were saying to our government, see what’s happening to the people of Italy and do something now to prevent it happening to you. And they ignored it. Because they were too busy looking the other way and we had a PM who didn’t believe in restrictions of any kind. People were even given notice of lockdowns so they could have a weekend partying thus spreading it even more. They ignored scientific advice because we had a government who had told people not to listen to experts. And No 10 itself continued to party during that time. The whole approach at the beginning was shambolic. No good testing and tracing. No closing of borders. I just hope all of this eventually comes out in the enquiry. Not that it will affect Johnson in his £3 million home. It might have affected the economy of this country but he and the rich mates that were handed lucrative contracts did well enough out of it.

Yes Germanshepherdsmum, I’ve been reading this thread with astonishment.
It was well known, in the early days, that people could be asymptomatic. I tested positive, after a few sneezes had me wondering, but I had no further symptoms. I probably wouldn’t have tested had I not been affected by all the publicity.
Fully vaccinated I got it again at the end of last year, this time with absolutely no symptoms, after a few members of my choir, including the choir master who I pick up from the station each week tested positive. Curiosity made me test a few days later, as I was due to meet family. Yup, positive.
Still no symptoms but I’ve since developed Tinnitus, pressure problems in my ears, and changed smell/taste perception.
It’s very unwise to write Covid off and definitely unwise to assume it’s unlikely to seriously affect anyone now.

The last three years have been very difficult for those of us CEV.
I’m sad that my granddaughters A levels and university years have been blighted by covid and the disruptions it brought.
I don’t expect everyone to make sacrifices to protect me and acknowledge that covid is no longer the threat it was to most of the population.
However what I do find upsetting is that the government seems to have decided that covid is over and those of us still vulnerable are left to cope as best we can
I was shocked when attending the surgery the other day that masks are no longer needed even by the medical staff and that sanitizer is no longer provided in shops etc.
Surely such relatively small concessions are not too onerous to help protect those who still face restrictions on their lives through no fault of their own.
I’ve had all the vaccinations offered but have no wish to test their efficacy so continue to take great care.

People say they've 'had it two or three times - yet there's been so many different variants. I haven't been aware of catching it but probably did, with no symptoms. Living in London, it seems unlikely that I wasn't exposed to the virus.

It seems very unfair, to me, that vulnerable people with poor health, have just been left to protect themselves (or not) from now onwards.

Towards the end of May I became unwell on holiday. The symptoms were very unpleasant and varied and I felt more ill than when I had covid in 2022. I tested negative when I got home. I ended up seeing the doctor as my throat was so painful. I was told that a lot of other patients had had the same illness. It would be just as important to keep away from others as if I had tested positive. The emphasis should now be advising people generally to stay at home with any contagious illness. This thread shows so much concern about covid and not enough about other viruses which were always there but never concerned us as much.

A cousin of my late husband and his wife have recently been staying with me, having arived from Australia. He's another anti-vacxer.
I asked if either of them had ever had Covid, to which the answer was no.
I asked if they had had any colds, coughs or flu-ey illnesses since the outbreak started. They said they had had one or two, as normal and usual.
So I asked if they had tested themselves for Covid. They said they hadn't.
I was really shocked. How did they know they weren't infecting others with Covid?
Even if they didn't want the vaccine, the very least they could have done was test to see if any infection was Covid, so that in the case of a positive test, they could isolate until testing negative.
How arrogant and selfish can people be?
By the way, I had Covid recently. I woke up feeling cold-ey, realised I had a dentist appointment that day, LFT very much positive so I cancelled the appointment and isolated for 7 days until testing negative.
Covid19 has not gone away.

I caught covid a few weeks ago probably from a kid coughing a lot in a crowded lift. I had temperature for 1 day, slightly sore throat for 1 day and very bad cold. Bad chest infection needing steroids and antibiotics followed probably due to having lung disease anyway. I've had 3 vaccines and can't have anymore due to serious side effects.
OH caught it off me and was very ill. Repeated temperatures for over a week, cold, v bad cough, mood swings, and brain fog for 3+ weeks where he thought he had dementia and so did I. Didn't know what he was doing or even what room he was in! He's now ok weeks later.
But he had a 4th vaccine so I'm pretty convinced that these 'vaccines' are not helping at all. He was fit and healthy when he caught it but still has a cough now.

growstuff

MissChateline

Am I right in believing that Sweden didn’t lock down, didn’t close schools etc and their outcome was better than here in the UK. They expected the population to take responsibility for themselves and they did. We should never have destroyed our economy or subjected the population to the torture of enforced isolation which has resulted in such a high level of mental health issues and wrecked the education for so many of our children.

No, you're not right. Large gatherings (more than 8 people) were banned. Secondary schools and institutes of higher education were recommended to work online and eventually closed for a period. The number of deaths in care homes was high and eventually people were recommended not to visit their relatives and were then banned. Initially, face masks weren't recommended but eventually they were. People were advised to work at home if they could and about 50% did. Social distancing was recommended and there were restrictions on travel.

Yes, what fools my husband, myself and my 4 children were to stay at home and FOLLOW THE RULES. My 2 eldest going through uni and my 2 youngest in their last years of secondary school. All 4 going through exams. How stupid of us to leave my 83 year old Mum practically isolated to try and keep everyone safe.
Of course my Mum went into hospital for an unrelated health problem in 2020 and died of Covid as did others in her ward when there was an outbreak in the hospital. Being allowed to sit with Mum, my husband and I then caught it and passed it on to our family. None of us could attend the funeral.
But I’m so glad you didn’t let Covid affect your life, who knows, maybe you were an a-symptomatic superspreader.
I have never been so angry at a comment before, your unfeeling ignorance has shocked and offended me. Try to actually think before you type thoughtless comments in future.

What is the medical definition of 'herd immunity'? Does it mean that if you catch Covid, then you won't ever catch it again? That has so not happened. Nurses, Teachers, Care Workers have been catching it again and again and again.

We have just come back from a cruise with covid. In the last couple of days of the holiday, I thought I just had a really bad summer cold as I had all the usual symptoms, sneezing, nose and eyes streaming and even a cold sore on my lip. However, we tested on our return 'just to be on the safe side' and immediately tested positive. We have not been outside the house till we got a negative result.
We both had covid last year, but these symptoms seemed much different other than the tiredness, and we have both had all 6 vaccinations that have been offered. I will continue to test whenever I feel it necessary

this has never gone and i read the other day its on the rise again and a new varient has also been confirmed here

MissChateline

The problem put simply, as I see it is that people who are CEV think we should all remain permanently in lockdown to protect themselves and if we don’t, we are being selfish. Alternatively those of us who aren’t CEV think this is unrealistic.

I’m not cold neither am I clinical. I do not think for a moment that I have any power whatsoever. We are all entitled to our own opinions.

Where is anybody saying we should be permanently in lockdown? Your views are leading you to make extreme statements about what other people think with no evidence whatsoever 🙄

Was a total lockdown a mistake? People are going to debate that for years to come. What I do know, through having family in the medical profession, is that in those first weeks hospitals were overwhelmed. Not just with patients needing intensive cate but with staff sickness. Numbers were continuing to rise until lockdown was put into place and then admissions slowed.

Now, you may believe it would have been better to let more people die and suffer long term effects so that you could contine with your normal life.

You may believe that the economic costs of lockdown were greater than the economic costs of an unknown higher death rate and level of disability in the work force. But I suggest that this is a debate, not a fact as you present.

Your beliefs and life ethos are, of course, your own.

The problem put simply, as I see it is that people who are CEV think we should all remain permanently in lockdown to protect themselves and if we don’t, we are being selfish. Alternatively those of us who aren’t CEV think this is unrealistic.

I’m not cold neither am I clinical. I do not think for a moment that I have any power whatsoever. We are all entitled to our own opinions.

MissChateline, I’ve found your comments inaccurate and totally lacking in understanding or compassion.
A friend in his late 40’s, a fell runner, cyclist, non smoker, occasional glass of wine, healthy diet, no underlying health problems etc got covid. A year later he was still in hospital.

The virus can be like a heavy cold or flu but unlike cold/flu this virus can attack your organs and cause life changing health problems.

As for those of us who are CEV ‘choosing’ to self isolate. Your cold, clinical comments could be hurtful, if your views had any power over us.

We are all going to have to accept that covid is here to stay. We can’t control it and never should have tried to the extent we did. Perhaps if we hadn’t tried to suppress it more people would have developed natural immunity and it would not be such a problem now. Who knows? What is clear though is if we hadn’t overreacted the country would be in a much better financial situation than it is and children wouldn’t be suffering from all the severe mental health problems with now have. No cost/benefit analysis was ever done. And not content with ruining the country people are still scaremongering.