Thread: Covid Mk ll

I can report the antiviral seems to have worked as I'm feeling much better. Finish the 5 days of antivirals tonight. Will take a RAT tomorrow to see how it's going.
So, my advice is - take more drugs!

So one of the Grandkids(6yr old) came home from school with it Friday before last.Cough and running nose,school advised to do a RAT test,which was confirmed with a PCR two days later.
She was over it totally in two days,her brother didnt get it.
Both had the shots.
Mother caught it and still cant get out of bed,high temp,lots of coughing,lethargic,nausia.Temp is down a bit today.
Father didn't catch it.
Both parents had had the three shots.

I have had 4 shots,havent caught it yet,nor has SWMBO.
Thats just luck,no doubt it will turn up sometime soon.

Thats just luck,no doubt it will turn up sometime soon

Sounds more like Good management than sheer dumb luck

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I can report the antiviral seems to have worked as I'm feeling much better. Finish the 5 days of antivirals tonight. Will take a RAT tomorrow to see how it's going.
So, my advice is - take more drugs!

Out of curiosity, ask them What CT they use...
- Over 35 and it's in fantasy - land.

I'm told one State was using "...40 to 45" at one stage. (F.O.I. request early on this year.)

Yep, at a - 3 digit price per test, it is / was a GREAT little earner !

Background;- WHO Finally Admits PCR Tests Create False Positives

So my RAT is negative, which is a good birthday present.
I assume 4 vaxes plus an antiviral can only have helped.
Might go out and celebrate, in a mask of course.

Yep we are over it. only a few hundred died last week or so!

I am NOT ordering any of the old vax! I suspect millions of them will go in the bin now!

I am suggesting DO NOT GET a Vax booster over the next few weeks! Yep I am anti vax!

Why ? as I have the old vaccine in my fridge and the new one is going in my arm some time soon!


"For the first time, the United States is rolling out Covid vaccines updated to match variants that are currently dominant, as well as the original strain. This bivalent character will provide a better response not just to the most threatening variants today but probably to future variants too, because when the immune system faces different versions of the same virus it generates broader protections overall.This is terrific news, and there’s more. Not only will a booster with the new vaccines decrease the likelihood of infection and severe illness, and help reduce transmission of the virus; it could also decrease the likelihood of developing long Covid.
The bad news? The boosters are getting so little fanfare, and so much unfounded skepticism, that too few people might get them, and lots of people who need not get sick, suffer or die will get sick, suffer and die.


." cut from NYTs it is pay walled so link might be a PITA sorry

The new one which is NOT in your Doctors Fridge yet is my choice. You get to choose what you do. Make it a smarter choice.

PS I have yet to get Doctors go ahead on my devious scheme, Check with your Doctor not me of course People at high Risk might get better advice and possibly old now and new later anyway!

​​""We are not there yet. But the end is in sight," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference.
That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing COVID-19 as a pandemic three months later."

Others at WHO seem to be less optimistic, and appear to regard Covid becoming merely endemic as a step forward.

End of COVID pandemic is '''in sight''' -WHO chief | Reuters

The spike in Northern as it cools is like its starting all over again. Happily some of them have had vaccines and boosters and the newer updated vaccine. ( I will have one in a few weeks)


The odd bit with it is one claim our Southern Hemsiphere flu season was very bad? The worrying part re Covid was "Right now in the U.S., there are around 400 people dying a day from Covid" We only fill a 747 with dead people weekly

The tricky bit is IF the northern Numbers keep going up and they are traveling here or you are traveling there


COVID State of Affairs: Oct 5 - by Katelyn JetelinaPasted the whole yarn

Influenza, a guide

By Jonathan Wolfe
Flu season in the Northern Hemisphere is nearly here, and experts are warning it could be a particularly bad one.
It’s also arriving at an inopportune moment. We’re starting to see early signs that another Covid-19 wave may already be starting: In Western Europe, infections, cases of severe disease and hospitalizations are on the rise.
Before flu season begins in earnest, I turned to my colleagues Carl Zimmer, a science reporter, and Melinda Wenner Moyer, who writes the Well Newsletter, for insight and advice.
How does flu season unfold?
Melinda:The exact timing of flu seasons varies, but it can start ramping up in October and usually dies down by mid-March. Peak flu activity spans from December through February. But during the pandemic, the spread of flu has been much more variable.
In fact, last year we saw a lot of flu activity really late, like into April, May and June. We don’t really know why, but it could be because Covid restrictions started easing more around that time and people were traveling more.
What do we know about this flu season?
Melinda: We can look at what’s happened in the Southern Hemisphere — their flu season is usually finishing up when ours is getting started. And it has been a pretty bad flu season down there, which does not bode well for us.
Experts are also worried that because we’ve had such a mild flu season the last few years, there’s not a lot of immunity in the population, especially in very young kids, who may not ever have encountered the flu. So the worry is that without much immunity, it’s going to spread like wildfire, and it might even be a little more severe for people who haven’t encountered it recently.
Carl: People are also starting to relax Covid measures, and it looks like those measures worked very well against influenza. For a couple of years, influenza rates were very low in the United States, Australia and a lot of other countries. So low, in fact, that it’s possible that one type of the flu went extinct.
While a lot of work goes into understanding the flu, it’s still a lot of educated guesswork. Part of that guesswork is the question of how well vaccines will work each year, because they have to pick a strain months in advance.
What do you mean?
Carl: The World Health Organization has a special group of scientists who keep track of flu cases around the world. They’re getting information about how different types of the flu are becoming more common or less common. And when it’s time for new vaccines to be made, they look at all the research that’s been done and make a recommendation for companies that produce them.
How good are the guesses?
Carl: Some years they’re pretty good and some years they’re not. Last year, we actually had a badly matched flu vaccine.
Even in a year where it’s a bad match, it’s still a good idea to get the vaccine. In a year that it’s a good match, the vaccine is going to do a good job of keeping you from getting infected, and if you do get infected it’s going to reduce your odds of going into the hospital. In years where it’s not a good match, you may not get that much protection against infection, but you’re still much less likely to end up in the hospital.
How else could we do it?
Carl: There are scientists who are working on universal flu vaccines, but they’ve been working on them for a long, long time. These vaccines would teach the immune system to recognize parts of the flu virus that don’t change year to year. A universal vaccine would give you protection for years, perhaps decades. I’m still hopeful that they will be working in our lifetime, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
What’s stopping us from making a universal flu vaccine?
Carl: The biology is very complicated, but there is one in clinical trials. Now the hope is that they work the way we want them to. Unfortunately, there’s no Operation Warp Speed for the flu. If there were, we might have a universal flu vaccine by now. But it’s been a pretty low priority.
Advice for flu season

What’s the best way to protect ourselves against the flu?
Melinda: Getting a flu vaccine. The vaccine also protects other people around you by possibly preventing you from getting it and spreading it — so you might even end up saving someone’s life. The things that work with Covid help with the flu as well, including wearing masks and social distancing.
Hand washing is also potentially more important for the flu than it is for Covid. The virus is known to transmit through touching surfaces, so during flu season we should make sure to wash our hands regularly and use hand sanitizer more frequently.
When should I get my shot?
Melinda: So that is a little tricky. The experts I talked to said you want to have the vaccine before you encounter the flu, but you don’t necessarily want it months before.
They suggest keeping track of the flu in your area. The C.D.C. has a website where you can see where flu activity is high. For example, Texas, Georgia and Washington, D.C., look pretty bad right now. So if you see that the flu is starting to spread where you live, then getting a flu shot as soon as possible is smart.
Some researchers I spoke to said that unless there’s high flu activity where they live, they will wait until mid-October or sometimes even early November to get their flu shots. Some were timing it to get a little more protection over the holidays. They also said that since they were delaying their shots, they were wearing masks more and social distancing more now to reduce their risk of infection.
What should I do if I get the flu?
Melinda: If you think you might have the flu, it’s important to stay home and rest so that you can get better and minimize the chance of infecting others.
Also, if you think you might have it, call your doctor and consider getting a flu test, because if you get diagnosed with the flu early enough, you might be eligible to get antivirals that can reduce the length and severity of the illness.
How should we think about the flu in terms of Covid?

Carl: Right now in the U.S., there are around 400 people dying a day from Covid, and death rates are much lower than during previous moments of the pandemic. That would still add up to more than double the deaths from the flu in a year. Covid also has a lot of impacts on the body that the flu doesn’t. It can lead to all sorts of issues in other organs in a way that we do not see so much with the flu.

That being said, we know that the flu can surge into a pandemic. We’ve seen it happen several times in the past 150 years. The worst was the 1918 flu pandemic, where over 50 million people died. These are both viruses that you don’t want to play around with.