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I sniff citrus daily
I believe that it has to be the most pungent smell possible. I became obsessed when I completely lost my sense of smell due to covid with getting it back, luckily I didn't feel particularly ill so I spent my time constantly trying smell training. I focused a lot on the Vicks vapour rub tub, sticking my face into the ground coffee container, and sniffing essential oils such as lavender.
I remember the first tiny hint of a whiff of something, it was like hearing an extremely faint sound of someone shouting in otherwise total silence and stillness. As it slowly returned it got louder and louder. Ironically I actually believe that my sense of smell is now more acute than it was before I caught covid, which makes no sense to me. I now regularly comment on smells which other people don't pick up.
I suspect that the longer you are without your sense of smell the more olfactory training it will require to get back, but I don't know that if after a certain period of not having your sense of smell it proves that the damage done by the virus is irreversible. Anyway I hope you eventually get at least some of it back.
Interesting in that if you are an old man
I'm enjoying my first bout at 65. I think slowoldman is a bit older though.
I suspect that the longer you are without your sense of smell the more olfactory training it will require to get back,
Well I get chronic inflammatory sinus pain with the slightest hint of an immune reaction (e.g., post exercise). I think the damage was done to the nasal passages and sinuses and there is no going back. Taste does return after each infection. Vicks has no effect, nor does fresh lavender or rosemary. I have yet to order my sunflower lanyard, and picking up the dog poo is no hardship 😉
To be honest, the fatigue is much worse than loss of smell, and the not infrequent pericarditis.
I still don’t understand why we seem to reluctant to vaccinate people under the age of about 90. It seems like false economy given the impact of long covid
Turns out that if you've got Long COVID, you can badger them to get yourself on the vaccine eligible list! I'll be getting mine in a couple of weeks. Doesn't really make up for 4.5 years of debilitating fatigue, mind...
Combined flu/COVID vaccines are coming. Not this year.
That's interesting - MrsDoris seems to think she's getting a combined vaccine (through her workplace, done privately) in November. Perhaps it's just both at once?
I've been offered 2 jabs at once. But I booked the flu jab weeks ago and only just been offered the covid jab.
Sad that an elderly relative won't take up the offer, when there's so many younger people that would jump at the chance.
I still don’t understand why we seem to reluctant to vaccinate people under the age of about 90.
I don't think we've turned anyone down who's asked for it TBH regardless of their age. or whether they're in one of the vulnerable groups or not. Flu jabs are going to be offered next week, it may be worth contacting your GP and asking if you can have both at the same time.
@doris5000 Getting a jab due to long covid sounds great, considering they changed the rules just before I turned 50 last winter.
I'm still a NOVID as it seems to be called. Haven't had a cold that I can recall since July '22 and that tested negative.
For example the flu vaccine is really multiple vaccines. Twice a year the scientists look at what strains are dominant in the winter of the northern/southern hemisphere and then prepare a vaccine covering what they think will be the top 5 or so strains for the other hemisphere. Hence why its efficiency varies wildly year to year depending on whether the predictions are right. Since if a different strain is dominant then the immune response may be far less effective.
Unfortunately covid 19 also falls into this type.
I read a couple of years ago that there were already a dozen or so actual corona viruses/strains included in the selection for the flu vaccine. And have been for years.
I’m still a NOVID as it seems to be called. Haven’t had a cold that I can recall since July ’22 and that tested negative.
it's so weird. My best mate is a touring DJ. Spends his life on planes and in sweaty nightclubs full of kids on drugs. Has never had COVID!
Last year's Vaccine was XBB1.5. This year includes JN.1
. Novovax was finally approved in the US under an Emergency Use Authorisation, the EMA and UK as the first protein (not mRNA vaccine) and targets XBB1.5. MHRA have approved JN.1 from Pfizer and more recently, Moderna. Which is what you'll get. AZ withdrew their vaccine from worldwide registration.
Combined COVID/flu vaccines will be single shot mRNA vaccines for both viruses. There are no approved mRNA flu vaccines (yet). Next year - everyone is chasing them. Not my area to be honest. therapeutics, however...
Which is what you’ll get
Mrs_oab is waiting on the call...
No. Based on last year's studies, the XBB vaccines were about 50% effective (NEJM: "During this period, the dominant circulating variants changed from EG.5 and XBB.1.16 to HV.1 and then to JN.1, and the prevalence of the XBB.1.5 subvariant decreased from 10% to less than 1%"). This was backed up in another healthcare provider setting study. So not ineffective if you are one or two steps behind the emergent strain. Of course evolutionarily, it is possible that the vaccination pushed the emergence of newer strains, all back in the original BA.2 fold (scroll down to see tree). But I'd expect broadly similar results.
I don’t think we’ve turned anyone down who’s asked for it TBH regardless of their age. or whether they’re in one of the vulnerable groups or not.
That's interesting. Trying to get a sane response from my GP is like squeezing blood out of a stone. The missus uses ongoing immuno-suppressive medication and the last thing I want to do is infect her, but the actual process of being vaccinated round here seems almost deliberately hard to navigate - a lot of 'it's not our problem you'll need to contact xyz stuff'.
it’s so weird. My best mate is a touring DJ. Spends his life on planes and in sweaty nightclubs full of kids on drugs. Has never had COVID!
I vaguely recall reading an article which suggested some people have a very high natural resistance to covid.
Is it known how effective JN.1 based vaccines are against XEC yet?
No numbers, but, "The campaign for autumn booster in the UK will start in October with an updated vaccine targeting the JN.1 variant, which XEC derives from, assuring a good level of protection against severe illness."
THECONVERSATION.COM Utter madness – and then you think back to those days and it’s probably true as well.
True that more people will buy the book...
Utter madness – and then you think back to those days and it’s probably true as well.
It's absolute nonsense.
Made up nonsense to sell his shitty book.
He wants to appear all Churchillian, thinking outside the box to save the UK.
If it came up at all, it was an idea suggested in a meeting and dismissed out of hand.
He's a fraud.
Well our work (NHS) COVID policy backfired this week. The policy is "if you have COVID but feel well enough to work, come to work, wear mask etc"
One such colleague did as per the advice, had tested positive, came to work......for 3hrs then felt more unwell and went home....over the next 3 days 4 other colleagues are now off with covid, we are already 4 members of staff down so the backlog will now get significantly bigger.
Madness
I got a text Thursday to book for a Covid booster and got an appointment in 2 weeks for it. Was offered if I needed a flu vaccine at the time but I had already booked that for next week.
If it came up at all, it was an idea suggested in a meeting and
dismissed out of handthen they all partied, got pissed together and forgot about itHe’s a
fraud****
FTFY
Mrs_oab is waiting on the call…
I was able to book for both simultaneously online on Monday, I did that off my own bat but in any case got an invite to apply on Wednesday. I'm in England though, I guess Scotland could be different.
@rOcKeTdOg That's one for HSE under the Health part of the employer's duties. Ask for the risk assessment, senior managers like that sort of reminder!
our work (NHS) COVID policy
JFC.
Has a post been removed? What book are people talking about?
Oh, I see, it’s in the Boris Johnson thread. Who knows what nutty plans he had people working on when they had a million more important things to be doing at the time.
Yes, apparently the link had a naughty word in it
Has never had COVID!
Has never had symptomatic Covid.
Well, there’s three of us in this house of five who have/had something this week. 19 year old son complained of feeling at bit off for three days before cheerfully saying whatever it was, it had gone. 17 year old daughter who is 70 days into pertussis recovery and still having random coughing fits got another phlegmy cough and two days off school, having also had temperature, nausea and dizziness. I woke up yesterday feeling really dizzy /vertigo - almost toppling over; never had anything like it. A bit better today but not good. No cough or temperature but have read that vertigo can be an early symptom. Got daughter and me LFT’d but both negative. Although purchased today, the LFTs have an October 24 expiry. So I suspect false negative. Do latest strains still show up on older tests?
Can people who live with diverticulitis have the covid jab?
I can't find any proper answers on line.
Can people who live with diverticulitis have the covid jab?
IANAD
Do you mean on the NHS for free or do you mean can they safely have the vaccination?
On the NHS for free list:
Masks still seem like a terrible idea to me, I've spent the last week in and out of a COVID ward and every single mask wearer is constantly touching their face to adjust the damn things.
Main suggested benefit of masks is to try to reduce onward transmission from you by catching droplets you exhale. There may be some protective effect to the wearer, in conjunction with other hygiene measures - handwashing etc, but they were never going to stop covid by themselves. At the height of the pandemic, in an unvaccinated population, anything that might reduce onwards viral load was worth a go, because even a minor effect would potentially prevent deaths and reduce the overall burden of disease on the health service.
For most people, they were only mildly inconvenient, and, as a community, IMO they helped reassure more vulnerable people, because they served as an outward demonstration that you cared about limiting the spread of the disease, and were prepared to do something to protect them.
It certainly is, new variants are popping up, vaccines offer some extra protection to the most vulnerable, but it is often far from trivial even for fit and healthy folk.
It feels like a lot of people have been really ill recently, anyone else noticed this?
I'm 10 days in to my first ever bout of covid. The first 5 days were really grim, I can't really remember ever feeling that ill before. I'm feeling more or less OK now, but still testing very strongly positive. Almost everyone I've told about this responds with something to the effect that they know a lot of people who have it at the moment and all of them are finding it non-trivial.
timbaFree Member
Can people who live with diverticulitis have the covid jab?
IANADDo you mean on the NHS for free or do you mean can they safely have the vaccination?
Thanks timba. But that was too much for me to trawl through.
My elderly mother told me that her Dr says she's not to have (free to her) the covid jab, as she has diverticulitis. This statement doesn't ring true as nearly half the population of 80+ year olds suffer from this disease. I think she's got mixed up.
I have an idea of what you're going through, I empathise.
Different condition but my mum's practice confirmed that she hadn't been offered/prescribed anything following a consultation where she got bored and wasn't listening to the doctor!
They were rightly not specific about the consultation
I have since got a signed authorisation from her to speak to the practice
Well It hit hubby again. He's pretty poorly atm,(as was the case 18 months ago).
A friend just told me her son has had covid for 3 weeks now. She went into Boot's to get some tests, where the shop assistant says they have to come into work if they test positive.
Mrs_oab had covid again a month ago.
Combined with the other health issues she has, it's kicked hard these weeks later - she's got pericarditis this weekend. It's seriously painful and horribly debilitating. That's on top of Fridays clot caused by a broncospy and biopsy related to investigations.
F*ck covid and anyone who says it's not serious.
F*ck covid and anyone who says it’s not serious.
Indeed.
I hope Mrs starts to get well asap.
After reading some of timba's NHS published material above, it is still hospitalising people and many are dying.
The optometrist wore a mask this morning when I was having an eye test (I told him about hubby), this made me happy, as he has a lot of elderly customers.
And here we have it, a very very good and fairly comprehensive summary of the whole Covid-19 debacle.
Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About COVID-19 But Have Been Afraid to Ask
Nice to know that those of us they called conspiracy theorists have been well and truly vindicated.
that it’s better to stay quiet and have everyone assume you are an idiot, than to speak up and remove all doubt?
Vindicated by Toby Young’s website? Should I waste any time on reading that?