Covid Choice

[horizon]

I was fully vaccinated, the actual 6 day fever wasn't so bad, like a normal flu, but since then I've had a veritable deluge of problems, some of them embarrassing to talk about. Make no bones about it, COVID is the virus that keeps on giving....

Thank you for that. I queried it because you so strongly (I think) recommended a vaccination but in fact it doesn't appear to have worked out as you may have wished in your case (which is why I concluded you hadn't had one).

[Dingdong]

I was fully vaccinated, the actual 6 day fever wasn't so bad, like a normal flu, but since then I've had a veritable deluge of problems, some of them embarrassing to talk about. Make no bones about it, COVID is the virus that keeps on giving....

Thank you for that. I queried it because you so strongly (I think) recommended a vaccination but in fact it doesn't appear to have worked out as you may have wished in your case (which is why I concluded you hadn't had one).

To be absolutely frank, I have been diagnosed with low level asthma since my initial infection. That's down to lung damage. I've been for all the scans and x-rays imaginable. My lung consultant showed me a catscan of my right lung, featuring the scarring and tissue damage and said quite candidly that if I had not been vaccinated, the evidence of first stage pneumonia was already present, and at my age/condition, it would have certainly killed me.

He said the vaccine was the only thing standing between me and the grave.

He also showed me several other scans (I think he was trying to educate me), showing nascent tumour cells on patients who had developed full blown pneumonia, which is apparently 8 times more likely in the unvaccinated. Like you, I was not concerned of the 'seriousness' of COVID, and the benefit of vaccines. The vaccine almost certainly saved my life. I genuinely hope that no one contracts COVID, because it's an extremely unpredictable and adaptable disease. The associated pneumonia is so severe that it can permanently debilitate people to either a state of long term immobility, and in some cases malignant lung cancer, in people who have not previously smoked. My consultant knows his onions, 40 years experience, and even he says the long term effects of covid are a country almost no one has this far explored.

I'm lucky to be alive. But now I've got permanent impairment to my lungs, a condition my consultant says will never improve. I've lost about 7% of my previous lung capacity (due to dead tissue), which will never return. I am starting to feel the effects of it out cycling already. For the past 4 weeks I've had a very bad catarrh problem, producing a lot of it, with no other symptoms present, and no cause detectable by my GP. To be honest, the whole scenario is becoming very scary. And I'm someone who was previously untroubled by any health issues,b other than the odd cold/flu.

Without the vaccine, I would have developed the pneumonia stage (I was a previous smoker) and I would not have survived it. I know my own body, and I have always fared badly with flu/cold infections. In my own social circle, I've lost 4 people to the virus in the past 2 years. All of them previously healthy, and unfortunately all of them unvaccinated.

Please do carry on in your 'COVID denier ', dream world, but please do make a comprehensive will.
Your kids will thank you for it.
.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Covid is well and truly endemic now. All you can really do is maintain your vaccinations, and hope for the best. It’s sensible not to tempt fate, and avoid deliberate contact with an infected person, if possible, especially if you’re in a vulnerable group, so I think you did the right thing here.

[horizon]

Please do carry on in your 'COVID denier ', dream world, but please do make a comprehensive will.

Dingdong: thanks again for the comprehensive reply. I'm not a "covid denier" (not sure where you got that from) but the dream world you mention happens to be my reality. My experience and that of the people around me doesn't match what you describe so I'm obviously concerned to find out more. Clearly if someone has the vaccine but then goes on to develop covid, it engenders me to check out again what was said about why we might be encouraged to have the vaccine - your post has filled in some of those details.

[UpWrong]

I had my 3rd bout of COVID just before my seasonal booster was due. First couple of times I barely noticesd but this time my asthma was markedly worse so it was a bit worrying for 3 days or so. I seem to have recovered. My asthma is troublesome but it's a long term condition. Anyway, the experience is incentivising me to lose some weight.

[mjr]

I had my 3rd bout of COVID just before my seasonal booster was due. First couple of times I barely noticesd but this time my asthma was markedly worse so it was a bit worrying for 3 days or so. I seem to have recovered. My asthma is troublesome but it's a long term condition. Anyway, the experience is incentivising me to lose some weight.

In general, the second bout of COVID is the biggest risk increase and then it plateaus, says https://www.reuters.com/business/health ... 022-11-10/

[thirdcrank]

I've just made the appointments for mrs thirdcrank and me to have our covid boosters. A cunning plan by somebody because I found the app(?) so confusing I fancy it's combined with a dementia test.

[rjb]

Thanks for reminding me TC. I reminded Mrs RJB who went online and booked hers for next week. She's immuno surpressed, I'm not quite old enough.
She didn't use an app, just went online to the NHS site, very straightforward.

[francovendee]

After I posted back in November I had a week in Malta. Whilst there I went down with it, possibly from the flight. My wife caught it at the same time and her experience was far worse than mine. I was largely over it after a week but she is only now back to normal.
At the time of catching it I'd not long had a top up injection but she was still 3 weeks away from being eligible for hers.

I wonder if my top up accounts for the difference in our recovery times?

[thirdcrank]

Thanks for reminding me TC. I reminded Mrs RJB who went online and booked hers for next week. She's immuno surpressed, I'm not quite old enough. :D
She didn't use an app, just went online to the NHS site, very straightforward.

With things like vaccinations and check-ups, I just follow the last instruction: I'm a complier doing "what the doctor ordered."

Within the last couple of weeks I've seen national publicity about covid boosters so I checked the local health centre site and the most recent news on the subject was dated October 2022 - although quite bizarrely, the first thing you see is a whole page inviting people to visit the health centre to donate to what sounds like a food bank for cats

https://www.gildersomehealthcentre.nhs.uk/

I decided to await further instructions and we both received texts inviting us to book using an app in the texts. As an IT numpty, I struggled but succeeded in booking us both in. Perhaps I should have taken in a tin of cat food and booked at the desk. My point is that anybody looking for an excuse not to bother my not persist with a system designed by computer geeks or whatever they call themselves

[simonineaston]

I have some sympathy, inspite of having worked in the IT industry. The other day I was witness to an angry lady, roughly my age maybe, railing agaisnt the system at the local medical centre. She had for some unspecified reason missed something or other and began by asking the reception staff how she was going to access the service, having missed it. The staff who are in their twenties, were unmoving in their advice that she go online. Customer was equally unmoving in her explanation that she didn't have access to the necessary technology or skills. And even though I'm totally at ease with my online life, I can see her point... What bothered me most was the apparent absence of an offer of alternative access. None was offered while I was listening. The staff's reaction to her objection was simply to repeat that she go online.

[thirdcrank]

Had the booster jab this AM and as the first patient at the local health centre to have it, I may claim to be an early adopter.

Less good fortune with the IT. When we arrived the computerised booking-in system was down and took some getting back up.

Fully perforated, I called in the Co-op next door to buy some Danish pastries as a treat and the till checkout declined my £20 from the hole-in-the-wall outside. It seems that this is happening with increasing frequency. With a restless queue beginning to assemble, checkout person and supervisor convinced the till of the validity of my folding stuff. I thanked them and mentioned that the IT experts never had to sort things out while trying to serve a queue. I came out with "He's right, you know" ringing in my ears.

[mjr]

[...] mentioned that the IT experts never had to sort things out while trying to serve a queue. I came out with "He's right, you know" ringing in my ears.

Which isn't universally true, although I doubt that co-op digital try to debug things while working on the front line in a food store. I know co-op digital workers spent time shadowing and working in food and funeral businesses when developing new IT systems, to make sure they understand how the served business works in practice and not only the theory of how managers think it works. I expect that continues today.

I don't know what there is to gain by sowing such mistrust among co-op colleagues.

Anyway, my problem with covid policies remain more the rules set by humans, not the implementation of those rules in software.

Customer was equally unmoving in her explanation that she didn't have access to the necessary technology or skills.

Doesn't everyone have access through the library system now, with at least part-time help available? Plus there are also various efforts from Barclays Digital Eagles (open to all), Age UK (aimed at older people) and AbilityNet (aimed at people with disabilities) to support people getting online. It is a shame that the reception staff didn't share any such details.

[simonineaston]

It is a shame that the reception staff didn't share any such details.

That was what I thought. Unfortunately, that's not the first time I've witnessed the reception staff appear to be unhelpful to customers who've described having trouble accessing the appointment process successfully. This has lead to me to be grateful that I'm fairly able still and fairly tech. savvy too. I've got a feeling that a distinct proportion of those registered at my medical practice may be struggling. It's something thats weighing rather on my mind and I would like to try to help, if I could...

[Stradageek]

Just had my second dose of COVID, pretty much equivalent to a very bad cold lasting a week. Each of my three vaccinations left me totally pole-axed for 2-3 days. Now that the latest COVID variants are mild-ish I'm not sure which I'd recommend

And on the other issue, our local NatWest branch has an information desk that is continuously occupied doing online banking for pensioners who can't cope with the online world. They see it as part of their job and enjoy chatting to their regulars, I wonder how long it will last