It's just a cold

notgran

Any medical issues I have, experience has told me IT Systems guys are always the best qualified. Any computer issues I have I ring the GP's practice. Who doesn't?

Nasty

MaizieD was only asking for comments on the article.

First of all of course the government isn’t
‘happy’ about Omicron’.
They are trying to deal with it in the best way possible by, among other things, urging everyone to get boosted.

Secondly scaremongering about what may or may not happen in the future is pointless isn’t it?

It's not an article, its a series of tweets by a completely unqualified IT guy with an agenda.

Dibbydod

BlueBelle

Live life the same as you would if there was a winter flu epidemic going on ( most years) live….. stop passing on doomsday messages and stop listening to reams and reams of true/false/maybes

Yes, for 10 years I’d had the flu jab , with posters in chemist / surgery saying Flu Kills …but not advertised anymore since Covid taken over …strange one that …so I think very similar….I don’t take much notice of the news , bypass all the covid scaremongering , I just live life as it comes but take all precautions like social distancing ect ect . This could go on for years yet and we’ve already wasted 2 years of our precious lives .

We have had flu jab a couple of weeks after 2nd Covid vax. And I know that OH's old practice have had 2 days and evening of flu jab vaccinations in the autumn.

Alegrias1

It's not an article, its a series of tweets by a completely unqualified IT guy with an agenda.

Which is why those people are indeed scary, as they have a big following and people actually 'believe' them and quote them as science. The very point Maizie was making, no?

Elless

notgran

Any medical issues I have, experience has told me IT Systems guys are always the best qualified. Any computer issues I have I ring the GP's practice. Who doesn't?

Nasty

MaizieD was only asking for comments on the article.

Elless
This is the News and Politics thread. It comes with the territory.
I thought the comment was warranted ?

He links 'articles'.

Elless

He links 'articles'.

From which he extracts one line quotes with no context.

He does no expert meta analysis.

He's an IT guy. He's a menace.

The OP was asking for opinions on the context of what he was saying, she wasn't asking for jokes, either agree or disagree.
Saying that, why is he a menace and why the derogatory 'He's an IT guy'

Dibbydod

BlueBelle

Live life the same as you would if there was a winter flu epidemic going on ( most years) live….. stop passing on doomsday messages and stop listening to reams and reams of true/false/maybes

Yes, for 10 years I’d had the flu jab , with posters in chemist / surgery saying Flu Kills …but not advertised anymore since Covid taken over …strange one that …so I think very similar….I don’t take much notice of the news , bypass all the covid scaremongering , I just live life as it comes but take all precautions like social distancing ect ect . This could go on for years yet and we’ve already wasted 2 years of our precious lives .

That's because covid has taken the place of flu.

Alegrias1

Elless

He links 'articles'.

From which he extracts one line quotes with no context.

He does no expert meta analysis.

He's an IT guy. He's a menace.

How about checking the 'articles' he links to?

I kind of expected that some people might do that before wholesale condemning.

Lincslass

Really, Twitter, one of the most toxic sites anyone can visit. Not always truthful either, full of conspiracy theorist and anti vaxxers, which Twitter are allowing a platform too.

Hear hear...don't believe anything you read on Twitter, also some press reports are total rubbish.
Regardless of any type of virus, everyone is at risk of a post Viral condition.

"MaizieD" In March or April 2020 I read an interview with a young man who was suffering from long covid. (in the Guardian) He said that he ran 5k about 3 times a week but now he couldn't walk up the stairs without difficulty. I also saw a young doctor (I think he was a surgeon) who also had long covid and was having similar problems.

Because many on here don't read the Graun I posted long covid and suggested that perhaps GNers could just mention the subject of long covid to their DCs and GCs. I was shot down in flames by some who told me I had no right to be telling people what to do. I wasn't, it was just a warning.

Being an asthmatic I am trying very hard to keep clear of covid and I am also very aware of what lung damage can do to the rest of the body by causing shortness of breath.

Yesterday, walking back to our car in the rain, a distance of about 50 m I had to use my Ventolin several times and stop walking to try to get my breath back. By the time I got to the car I was gasping for breath and just had to sit and use yet more Ventolin.

Lack of oxygen can cause tiredness and also mean that one cannot exercise properly which leads to weight problems.

Kali2

At the Tunnel when uploading documents for crossing into France, one lady of about the same age as me kept saying 'all this fuss and it is just a cold' - took all my strength not to challenge her.

'Doomscrolling' really? It is a fact many out there think the same as him and are now wanting to get rid of all precautions, distancing, testing, vaccinating - and THAT is truly scary.

No, many of us, and Maizie too I believe, are not petrified and neurotic, and are living our lives as normally as possible, but feel that it is far too early to stop testing those coming from abroad, for instance- and lifting all precautions. That does NOT make us 'doomscrollers'.

Maybe you should have challenged her Kali2 . It probably wouldn't have had an effect though.

I suppose it's possible that the covid virus is weakening because Omicron seems to be less harmful. On the other hand it could just be because many of us have had 3 jabs so if we do get it, it is likely to be less harmful?

BlueBelle

Live life the same as you would if there was a winter flu epidemic going on ( most years) live….. stop passing on doomsday messages and stop listening to reams and reams of true/false/maybes

We know that flu can kill and if you've actually had it you can be seriously ill. In 1987 I and my DH got flu. I got it first and he shortly afterwards. I'd tried to do an online shop from Tescos but because of snow they were cancelling deliveries and so my DH went to the nearest village to the Co-op. He must have looked as though he was at death's door because people were holding doors open for him and moving him to the front of the queue. Luckily we weren't at the worst at the same time because there was a dog and 2 cats to feed, plus a fire to be lit and hot drinks to be made so we just about managed.

We were very ill for a week and it took nearly 2 weeks after before we were fully recovered. After that I got the flu jab every year (I was 40) and our doctor prescribed it for my DH when he was about 45 as my carer. I also had a pneumonia after that.

We've had the flu jab every year since then and not caught it.

I know 3 people with long covid, previously happy active people who are now just existing and struggling mentally and physically.

Dinahmo

Dibbydod

BlueBelle

Live life the same as you would if there was a winter flu epidemic going on ( most years) live….. stop passing on doomsday messages and stop listening to reams and reams of true/false/maybes

Yes, for 10 years I’d had the flu jab , with posters in chemist / surgery saying Flu Kills …but not advertised anymore since Covid taken over …strange one that …so I think very similar….I don’t take much notice of the news , bypass all the covid scaremongering , I just live life as it comes but take all precautions like social distancing ect ect . This could go on for years yet and we’ve already wasted 2 years of our precious lives .

That's because covid has taken the place of flu.

Our GP surgery was encouraging everyone to have the flu vaccine in 2020 and 2021. They were phoning offering appointments.
I sometimes don't but I had both.

MaizieD Because of some of the adverse comments on here I've had a second look at the twitter feed. So what if he's "just" an IT man? He's posted a lot of information with links to further research. Most of his sources are genuine research institutes so for the non believers, why don't they just follow the links before shooting their mouths off?

It will be a long time before covid is dealt with effectively on a global basis and we will have to learn to live it by taking precautions, even if it's only mask wearing and regular vaccinations.

So what if he's "just" an IT man?

It was MaizieD of course, who referred to him as an IT guy. He’s not actually an IT guy, he’s a software architect working in security systems for a company in California. Or at least he was, there’s no information on LinkedIn about what he does right now. Spends a lot of time on the internet, I expect.

He's posted a lot of information with links to further research. Most of his sources are genuine research institutes so for the non believers, why don't they just follow the links before shooting their mouths off?

The reason that the non-believers aren’t commenting on his links is that none of us are medical researchers, I expect. Because papers from learned journals, and especially pre-print servers, are not there for random people on the internet to draw conclusions from. Myself included. I won’t be using terms like parenchyma, or microglia or astrocytes because I have no earthly idea what they are. So IMO, there’s no point in any of us giving our opinion either on the thread or the papers. By extension there’s no point in commenting on the more general publications such as the NYT or Nature because they are reporting things that are probably true, but are chosen to bolster his ideas about Long Covid so they cannot be taken in isolation.

Long Covid and the affects of Covid on internal organs are clearly a “thing” (Not the same thing, I think, but that’s my understanding of the situation). But the person posting these things on twitter has gone out of his way to collect papers which seem to him to be scary, and to support his idea that we should aim for zero Covid, which is impossible now, of course. We can’t believe everything we read on the Internet, especially not Twitter. If you want to know about Long Covid, read the WHO site, or the CDC site or the NHS site. Because they are not scaremongering, or making spurious connections. We may want to know lots of things about Long Covid but the truth is that nobody really knows how big an issue its going to be. So reading long, rambling threads by guys off the internet with no expertise in the matter is not going to help us. Scientific advances don’t come on Twitter.

MaizieD asked for comments. These are my comments. Don’t ask for comments if you don’t want to read answers that disagree with you.

So you’re ‘constantly worried’ MaizieaD and now this Twitter thread has ‘confirmed your fears’.
So, what do you plan to do now, what are your suggestions for mitigation?
Countries, such as France, who have far more stringent covid rules than us have a much higher infection rate, so I’m at a loss to understand your proposals.

It's a cold until proven guilty with a test

We cannot see it, we don’t know where it is! You could be standing next to someone who has it, please try and get on with your life as best you can, but thinking about it day and night is not going to get rid of it, live your life the best way you can, keep safe, wear masks, yes I’m in classed as extremely vunerable. Luckily for me I do not suffer anxiety and am I vaccinated noooooo I can’t have it!

Jaxjacky

So you’re ‘constantly worried’ MaizieaD and now this Twitter thread has ‘confirmed your fears’.
So, what do you plan to do now, what are your suggestions for mitigation?
Countries, such as France, who have far more stringent covid rules than us have a much higher infection rate, so I’m at a loss to understand your proposals.

Blimey, I didn't 'propose' anything. I posted the thread for comments. Which people have done. Fair enough. (Some alternative views from reputable sources might have been nice, though)

I do think that dismissing covid as 'just a cold' is irresponsible because 'just a cold' doesn't cause death and long term debility. We don't know enough about the long term effects (if any) of Omicron to be blase (sorry, never did master accents) about it.

I don't think we can achieve zero covid, but I think we could do a lot more in the way of masking, air purifiers and ventilation to protect people, particularly young people, from it and minimise the spread.

I never mentioned vaccine passports; I don't think they are at all effective because with this variant anyone can still have covid and be infectious despite having triple vaccinations, or 2 plus booster.

Anyway, I shall continue to be very cautious and the rest of you can do what you like...

MaizieD - to type an accent as in blasé switch over your keyboard language to French just before the letter you want to type. é is hold down shift key and type 2. Then switch back to English. (otherwise you'll get dozn for down as I did)

Depends on your device or keyboard Dinahmo- mine has all the accented letters on the ready.

A software architect is an IT guy ! There was nothing deragotary in saying this- the point being that he is not medically research trained!