The Coronavirus Discussion Thread.

Hope you get sorted soon.

Seems to be another little surge of it going round, a few at work have had it again

We’ve found the number, so wait for them to call us back. I’m not sure if they will issue more anti-virals, as she has had one lot and at the time we were told ‘only one lot’…

Tested positive on Boxing day and still not right

I feel like I’ve been ill since Christmas Eve but have only just tested positive! 🙄 Suspect it’s been a lingering Bronchitis up until now, compounded by finally starting to feel better and going out for a couple of more ‘spirited’ road rides.

Feel like I’m back to square one again now, but strangely relieved to test positive as was beginning to think it was something more chronic like EBV or something…

Worst winter ever, that’s a fact, will be shelving a few ambitious gravel rides planned for Spring and summer 😖

Suspect it’s been a lingering Bronchitis up until now, compounded by finally starting to feel better and going out for a couple of more ‘spirited’ road rides.

Sounds familiar. Had very mild symptoms just before Christmas, didn’t test positive (wife did), then followed it up with two weeks of antibiotics for a nasty chest infection (which I suspect got established while my immunity was compromised). Trying to gradually increase my exercise now, but suffering horribly, no power, breathing terrible etc….

The Life Scientific : Danny Altmann on how T cells fight disease

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001jkqn

It’s very light on the science… an easy listen.

please excuse the ignorance, whats the view on lateral flow testing these days?
mrssoob had a nasty cough last week, seems i eventually became symptomatic on saturday, pretty covid-y symptoms and currently self treating as per any other coronoavirus, sleep, hydrate, eat, vit-c and any/everything to stop the coughing..

im ‘not’ vulnerable, i can do some of my work from home and so avoiding the office, work would pay me limited sick if i really couldnt do anything useful

there remains one old LFT in the cupboard – do i use it? if im positive do i do anything different? if its negative, its unlikely to change my approach…

WWSTWD

Ding ding, round four for me! Probably either XBB.1.5 or CH.1.1. Tested positive after a poor week last week with chest and muscle pain. The acute sinus pain and vomiting on Saturday evening (which I put down to alcohol consumption). Tested positive twice from two boxes of kits on Sunday 🙁 . This is three months since vaccination with Omicron/Wuhan mixed mRNA vaccine booster. Perhaps being a plasma donor had some deleterious effect on removal of humeral immunity.

Oscillations in prevalence in England with an increase in hospitalisations outside of peak influenza season.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare?areaType=nation&areaName=England

The last time daily admissions fell below 400 was July 4th 2021. That long ago. This does look more endemic with strain replacement.

Prevalence is increasing, again after peak respiratory virus season.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/24february2023

WWSTWD

I test with lateral flow if it will affect interactions with others. Son2’s girlfriend is over from Netherlands and needs to avoid COVID due to exams, so I tested and am isolating. I can and do work from home, so not a big deal. Mrs TiRed has tested negative but has a cold and is acting as such. I’ve notified the friends I had lunch with on Saturday and colleagues I saw on Thursday at a work social (when I had tested negative but was clearly infected – and possibly infectious).

Ding ding, round four for me!

By heck…

please excuse the ignorance, whats the view on lateral flow testing these days?

We managed to swipe a pile for the office when we could – and currently staff are using them if they have a concern.

At home we still get LfT due to Mrs_OAB’s condition, as it is important to know and then seek treatment ASAP.

please excuse the ignorance, whats the view on lateral flow testing these days?

I’ve been trying to use them as an early warning system if nothing else, to try and avoid doing anything silly if I’m positive. Case in point last week, my wife tested positive so I started testing regardless of lack of symptoms, as I didn’t want to go out training on the bike and make myself more ill than needed.

Unfortunately three negative tests all approx 48hrs apart convinced me I was clear so went out for 60km in the cold air and within hours was laid out on couch with fever and tiredness and testing positive by Monday 🙄

In conclusion, a waste of time (for me) although work at least respect them so no expectations for me to come in this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/26/covid-virus-likely-laboratory-leak-us-energy-department

US energy department joins the loony ranks of tinfoil hatters by concluding this most likely came from the lab where they were producing viruses similar to Sars-CoV-2.

And the level of abuse and conspiracist trope insults ‘some’ got for suggesting this in the beginning…

Even in that third hand report they mention “low confidence”… looks like a small news story oversold with a big headline to me.

” It follows a finding reportedly issued with “moderate confidence” by the FBI that the virus spread after leaking out of a Chinese laboratory.”

What research have you conducted Kelvin, out of interest?

What research have you conducted Kelvin, out of interest?

I haven’t “done my own research”. Why would I?

The energy department’s updated findings run counter to reports by four other US intelligence agencies that concluded the epidemic started as the result of natural transmission from an infected animal. Two agencies remain undecided.

That BBC report is just a report of a Wall Street Journal report, of a confidential update that none of us can yet read… so without seeing any of the details, what are we discussing? There’s nothing much to be gleaned from the BBC’s third hand report… nothing that lives up to the big headline anyway… literally the only detail they give us is that the findings were of “low confidence”.

Dong ding! Another reinfection here.

I’m in week 151 of long COVID, and I just tested positive today. Round 2. Hoping this doesn’t set me back too far.

So far, just feels like a bad head cold, and a horrible taste in the mouth. Tired, achey, sinusy. A couple of rough nights of no sleep, but not TOOOOO bad. So fingers crossed.

Ironically, it seems I caught it from the MiL who came to visit at the weekend. She’d had a hospital appointment last week and then came up on a busy train. We’ve spent nearly 3 years desperately trying to make sure we don’t bring any germs to her, and then she ends up infecting us! Tchah. It’s like 10000 spoons when all you need is a knife.

Sorry, I hope it’s not a painful subject, but how is long COVID manifesting itself?

I’m a bit worried about the random feverish symptoms I seem to get after certain rides, there never seems to be a consistent cause.

Have a listen to the BBC programme with Altmann I posted up there. Is long Covid related. Not sure there’s one simple answer to your question though.

And the level of abuse and conspiracist trope insults ‘some’ got for suggesting this in the beginning…

I thought the conspiracy theories were based on covid either not existing or not being any worse than a cold?

I don’t think the “lab leak theory” has ever been described as a conspiracy theory, just as a theory.

The only way the word conspiracy can reasonably be thrown in, the case of a lab leak, is if it was deliberate or part of some sort of secret weapons programme, something which is refuted in the very first sentence of your link.

im currently on multiple doses of prescribed steroids (8 pills and a spray) for ” covid negative ” – covid symptoms.

If they don’t work it’s chest x-rays time.

My colleagues wife is on the same for COVID positive – covid symptoms + confirmed pneumonia like things going on in her lungs .

Theres 4 of us work together. 1 (and. His wife) were confirmed covid positive and she’s still suffering – another colleague home tested negative through out but was heavily ill . I was off for 2 weeks with “flu” according to docs who tested for COVID to no avail. Confined to bed for a week. And the last 11 weeks a cough I can’t shift sinus pain and severely restricted breathing. The 4th guy is completely unaffected.

We all work equally close together on the same workload almost all the time being on the same project. ….no rhyme or reason.

Sorry, I hope it’s not a painful subject, but how is long COVID manifesting itself?

I’m a bit worried about the random feverish symptoms I seem to get after certain rides, there never seems to be a consistent cause.

It seems to be different for everyone, but in my case it’s basically now just chronic fatigue, with a bit of brain fog. Post Exertional Malaise is a big one (might be worth looking up to see if that’s related to your symptoms?) – if I keep my heart rate down I can manage 8000 slow steps in a day. But last week I assembled a large IKEA desk and it wiped me out for the next 36 hours!

COVID seemed to set off ankylosing spondylitis for me – which is a real bummer and has complicated things. It can cause fatigue itself, so we don’t really know what’s what. On the plus side, they’ve put me on some strong anti-inflammatory for the joint pain, and it’s really helped my brain fog. So there’s that!

I’m on round 2 or 3 of covid, this bout is more like a bad cold than the first two, but the tight chest on climbing the stairs yesterday was a “hello old friend” moment. Bloomin’ virus!

Sorry, I hope it’s not a painful subject, but how is long COVID manifesting itself?

Huge range of stuff. I was getting PEM (Post Exertional Malaise) usually the day after exertion, for me it manifested as a really unpleasant sort of buzzy shakiness. Danny Altman – as per the R4 link above – has written a long covid handbook with a YouTuber called Gez Medinger that might be worth a look.

I get the same. Inflammatory response after any serious exercise. Not walking and zone 2, but anything harder and the next day I suffer sinus pain, chest pain and certain muscles that were hurt the first time I was infected.

Of course I haven’t had any smell for nearly three years either. And the chest pain (very bad last week during presumed COVID incubation) is likely myocarditis as I had my lung gas diffusion checked together with a chest MRI, and all fine. Blood oxygen levels look fine, but can tank on occasion. I’ve had fatigue, but it comes and goes, but never had brain fog.

Third and fourth infections have been post vaccination. Sinus pain, chest pain, muscle pain, light cough, headache. No temperature increase. Oh and I did lose my taste too, but my colleague said I had none anyway in my Teams meeting this evening 🤣

I avoided COVID long enough (despite working in a hospital) for me to miss the Delta and earlier variants and so got Omicron (very likeyl anyway, not typed)
I was washed out for a week at the time and then thought I’d recovered but post-exertion crapness plagued me all summer.  I *think* my T2DM may be a bit worse too.  I think I’m now past the washed-out stuff but I’m in the habit of zone2 trundling and maybe a just too lazy to kick on.  Need to at least see what happens.
Real sympathy for those ^ who’re still suffering badly

Having read the recent medical studies and reports regarding covid infections and ms I’m continuing to do all I can to avoid it, my spms is utterly shit enough to live with without adding to my immune response issues by throwing a covid infection into my body.

Hope all who’ve recently posted regarding their issues come out the other side with minimal/zero complications.

So I notice that an MP has raised a concern about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. Seemingly all backed up by official government data:

Parliamentary Debate

Yet this MP seemingly has been bought into disrepute by raising such matters. So, ignoring the man himself, is there any non-biased official data that counters that which he presents?

Is he right to raise such concerns or does the science not support him?

Andrew Bridgen [ for those curious who is being talked about but reticent to hit a random link ].

Yes, I think he is right to ask. I personally think that the benefits to harms ratio is still far in favour of the vaccine, but I am not denying that some will have had adverse effects, and given the scale of the programme those numbers in absolute terms will be significant, even if not in %

That’s what scientists do. Look at the evidence and learn from it.

Yes, I think he is right to ask.

Then why is he not being taken seriously by his fellow MP’s etc?

I personally think that the benefits to harms ratio is still far in favour of the vaccine

That’s good to know. What evidence is there to support this, particularly in the younger age groups?

kelvin
Full Member
Andrew Bridgen [ for those curious who is being talked about but reticent to hit a random link ].

Cheers.👍

The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has been suspended by his party after comparing the side effects of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust.

Yeah, a guy we can all believe in.

Yeah, a guy we can all believe in.

I asked you to comment on the actual data he presented. All official stuff. Whether he is or is not reputable personally, has no bearing on the official data.

It’s simple… he was brought into “disrepute” for reasons other than than the ones you claim. Yes, raising concerns about vaccine safety and efficiency is a valid thing for an MP to do, and they can do so without losing their party whip. He was disciplined for the his comparisons to the holocaust and spreading nonsense conspiracy theories despite being elected to a position of responsibility where he should be representing his party and constituents.

Yet this MP seemingly has been bought into disrepute by raising such matters.

I think that he might have brought disrepute on himself by claiming that the vaccine programme was “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”.

As someone who has been covid vaccinated on multiple occasions I don’t feel that the experience is similar to being a victim of the Holocaust.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/vaccines
Not a full risk/benefit analysis but gives plenty of data to support the use of vaccines in age groups

Oooh – hello new member!

It’s very lucky you found this website to spout shite on!

Now, have you been here before perchance!?

As someone who has been covid vaccinated on multiple occasions I don’t feel that the experience is similar to being a victim of the Holocaust.

You might feel very differently about that if you yourself had been vaccine injured but were now being ignored by the government and the media.

Bridgen is an idiot conspiracy theorist. You can choose to believe his drivel if you want, I don’t care and don’t consider his nonsense worthy of discussion. You can easily find debunking on the internet if you want, if you don’t want, that’s your choice.

grahamt1980
Not a full risk/benefit analysis but gives plenty of data to support the use of vaccines in age groups

That data is only relevant to Covid-19 related deaths and illness. What does the all-cause mortality data tell us? Very little actually since governments around the world seem reluctant to release it in a transparent non-edited form where vaccine status is included.

Would seem important perhaps considering the large non-Covid excess mortality we are currently seeing in the Western world. I wonder what could be causing this? The delayed impact of lockdowns? Poorer population health? NHS delays? Ambulance delays? Vaccine injuries? Or a combination of all of these to greater or lesser extents? Would be good to know wouldn’t it, but our MP’s do not seem remotely interested.

Bridgen is an idiot conspiracy theorist. You can choose to believe his drivel if you want, I don’t care and don’t consider his nonsense worthy of discussion. You can easily find debunking on the internet if you want, if you don’t want, that’s your choice.

I asked you to comment on the official data he presented. Whether he is or isn’t this or that is not relevant to the official data.

You might feel very differently about that if you yourself had been vaccine injured but were now being ignored by the government and the media.

And you may feel very different if on of the main reasons your wife of 27 years is still here is the vaccine and the protection it gives someone who is vulnerable. Twice.

Have you arrived at a cycling forum to pick an argument over Covid? If so, please go away.