Having escaped COVID all this time ...

[Mick F]

Had our Covid booster on Saturday.
We're now quadruply vaccinated.

Had our 'flu booster at the same time too.

[Mick F]

PS:
Having had Covid in August 2021, my sense of smell still has some issues.

[Cowsham]

BTW coronavirus isn't a flu -- flu is influenza virus and covid-19 is a coronavirus.

Flu is much more serious condition than a coronavirus which is responsible for the common cold as well as the novel virus covid-19.

The difference is that it is novel ie it is a new virus so no one is immune to it but that means many people catching it at the same time which is a problem.

As said upthread 3 or 4% of a large number of people having life threatening injuries from it is still a large number of people.

Another problem is vaccines -- flu is a much less complex virus to make a vaccine for -- have you ever wondered why there's never been a vaccine for the common cold ? That's because it's a much more complex virus hence the skepticism of many scientists about how long it would take to make a vaccine for c19.
Also the common cold isn't a novel virus so not everyone catches it at the same time so 3 to 4 % of a small number catching it is a very small number indeed.

The common cold is not caused by a single virus, or even a single family of viruses.

Dozens of different adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses etc cause symptoms we call the common cold.

I've no idea how you are classifying virus "complexity".

The length of the RNA strand is much longer and more complex than in influenza virus. Covid-19 is a corona virus.

[Dingdong]

Well, I'm heading off to bed now. Dosed up with cocodamol, I'm hoping at least to get a few hours sleep tonight. Last night was awful, and I'm extremely tired now, so there's no excuses!

Temperature is back down again, as is my pulse so everything seems to be heading in the right direction. I've gone a bit deaf in my right ear and my sense of smell is completely gone. We've got this very strong lavender soap in the bathroom sand even holding it right under my nose, absolutely nothing. It's quite disconcerting.

[foxyrider]

I too avoided it until mid August, took me out for a few days but back to normal rides in under a fortnight. I'm triple jabbed, waiting my turn for #4, i mask up in shops and on the few buses i travel on and don't otherwise have much contact with others. I've no idea where i got it but i did and i'm over it and i continue to take the same precautions which apparently worked for two & a half years.

[Psamathe]

... and my sense of smell is completely gone. We've got this very strong lavender soap in the bathroom sand even holding it right under my nose, absolutely nothing. It's quite disconcerting.

It's interesting how different people react to loss of smell. I (apparently) lost my sense of smell 3 years ago and never missed it. That's according to my consultant, done the proper tests and scored zero (or rather effective zero as it's multi-choice and you have to random guess if you don't know the answer so 20% right = zero).

Ian

[Tiggertoo]

Mick F,

I have sent you a PM on a different subject.

[Dingdong]

Managed a good 6hrs sleep last night! Which is in contrast to 1-2hrs a night for the previous 6 days. I do feel a little bit better, but there's an incredible amount of catarrh and fluids still to get through. My head feels about 5 feet thick

This is the first morning I've woken with an appetite for food, which I'm thinking is a good thing!

Onwards and upwards.

[djnotts]

I've had 4 covid jabs so far, no. 5 next Monday. Nil reactions so far, fingers crossed....
Getting a flu jab proving less easy.

[Pebble]

Finally got it. I'm gutted, moreso because I kept my guard up quite rigourously over the past two years and only this summer when I've been daft enough to let it down.

I think this is day five and I've got a terrible cough and just lost my sense of taste and smell. The worrying thing is that I assumed (wrongly of course) that the virus had pretty much gone off the boil, so I guessed a sore throat last Friday was just a bit of a cold coming on. I went to the pub on Saturday, God knows how many people I might have infected.

I feel really stupid now. So, keep your guard up, especially in public places and on public transport (I'm pretty sure I contracted it on the train) and do wash your hands whenever you get the chance.
I don't feel desperately bad, but the 'COVID timeline' says that days 5-10 can be the worst and when serious complications develop. Hey ho.

Thanks for the reminder - I have not had it so far, have totally let my guard down as if it is something not to worry about, and I'm going on a train today.....

[roubaixtuesday]

BTW coronavirus isn't a flu -- flu is influenza virus and covid-19 is a coronavirus.

Flu is much more serious condition than a coronavirus which is responsible for the common cold as well as the novel virus covid-19.

The difference is that it is novel ie it is a new virus so no one is immune to it but that means many people catching it at the same time which is a problem.

As said upthread 3 or 4% of a large number of people having life threatening injuries from it is still a large number of people.

Another problem is vaccines -- flu is a much less complex virus to make a vaccine for -- have you ever wondered why there's never been a vaccine for the common cold ? That's because it's a much more complex virus hence the skepticism of many scientists about how long it would take to make a vaccine for c19.
Also the common cold isn't a novel virus so not everyone catches it at the same time so 3 to 4 % of a small number catching it is a very small number indeed.

The common cold is not caused by a single virus, or even a single family of viruses.

Dozens of different adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses etc cause symptoms we call the common cold.

I've no idea how you are classifying virus "complexity".

The length of the RNA strand is much longer and more complex than in influenza virus. Covid-19 is a corona virus.

On whether coronaviruses are more complex than viruses causing common colds. As judged from the number of bases in the genetic material.

From wiki

The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from 26.4 to 31.7 kilobases.[6

They [influenza viruses] have a total genome length that is 10,000–14,600 nucleotides (nt).[7]

The adenovirus genome is linear, non-segmented double-stranded (ds) DNA that is between 26 and 48 Kbp.[2]

Rhinoviruses have single-stranded positive sense RNA genomes of between 7200 and 8500 nt in length

Coronaviruses seem to be somewhere in the middle?

[Cowsham]

The common cold is not caused by a single virus, or even a single family of viruses.

Dozens of different adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses etc cause symptoms we call the common cold.

I've no idea how you are classifying virus "complexity".

The length of the RNA strand is much longer and more complex than in influenza virus. Covid-19 is a corona virus.

On whether coronaviruses are more complex than viruses causing common colds. As judged from the number of bases in the genetic material.

From wiki

The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from 26.4 to 31.7 kilobases.[6

They [influenza viruses] have a total genome length that is 10,000–14,600 nucleotides (nt).[7]

The adenovirus genome is linear, non-segmented double-stranded (ds) DNA that is between 26 and 48 Kbp.[2]

Rhinoviruses have single-stranded positive sense RNA genomes of between 7200 and 8500 nt in length

Coronaviruses seem to be somewhere in the middle?

I'm not a scientist but I can see from your figures that a coronavirus is at least 3 to 6 times longer than an influenza virus. Maybe it's 6 to 12 times longer if unpaired bases are counted -- not sure.

The take away fact -- my asthmatic sons consultant ( assigned to him after his stint in icu ) told me ( in an effort to reassure me ) that the H1N1 flu virus my 13y old son had was related to swine flu and was much more dangerous for him than c19 but he'd survived that so c19 would statistically be much less of a risk.

This was in the summer of 2020 when there were no vaccines for c19 but quite a lot was known about it. On the plus side many vaccines were available for flu viruses and she told me why this was the case and why even non vaccinated people benefit from the majority being vaccinated which convinced me to get my flu vaccines.

His near death experience with swine flu gave me a keen interest for knowledge about the c19 virus so I asked a lot of questions.

The constant told me about the advantage his youthful T cells gave him and also the link between obesity and viral load so his slim build was another advantage.

I could look up the science papers I found while, we were hoping for a vaccine, learning about the difference between flu and c19 which cites the length of RNA strand and why a vaccine would prove a difficult thing to make but you've already confirmed that above.

All the press coverage at the time told the public that this would be a massive feat of engineering. Now that it's been done it seems people don't appreciate what's been achieved.

I just about remember the same attitude to the moon landings and now there's a section of conspiracy theorists that don't believe it was ever even achieved ! you have to laugh at how fickle the general public are.

[roubaixtuesday]

The length of the RNA strand is much longer and more complex than in influenza virus. Covid-19 is a corona virus.

On whether coronaviruses are more complex than viruses causing common colds. As judged from the number of bases in the genetic material.

From wiki

The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from 26.4 to 31.7 kilobases.[6

They [influenza viruses] have a total genome length that is 10,000–14,600 nucleotides (nt).[7]

The adenovirus genome is linear, non-segmented double-stranded (ds) DNA that is between 26 and 48 Kbp.[2]

Rhinoviruses have single-stranded positive sense RNA genomes of between 7200 and 8500 nt in length

Coronaviruses seem to be somewhere in the middle?

I'm not a scientist but I can see from your figures that a coronavirus is at least 3 to 6 times longer than an influenza virus. Maybe it's 6 to 12 times longer if unpaired bases are counted -- not sure.

The take away fact -- my asthmatic sons consultant ( assigned to him after his stint in icu ) told me ( in an effort to reassure me ) that the H1N1 flu virus my 13y old son had was related to swine flu and was much more dangerous for him than c19 but he'd survived that so c19 would statistically be much less of a risk.

This was in the summer of 2020 when there were no vaccines for c19 but quite a lot was known about it. On the plus side many vaccines were available for flu viruses and she told me why this was the case and why even non vaccinated people benefit from the majority being vaccinated which convinced me to get my flu vaccines.

His near death experience with swine flu gave me a keen interest for knowledge about the c19 virus so I asked a lot of questions.

The constant told me about the advantage his youthful T cells gave him and also the link between obesity and viral load so his slim build was another advantage.

I could look up the science papers I found while, we were hoping for a vaccine, learning about the difference between flu and c19 which cites the length of RNA strand and why a vaccine would prove a difficult thing to make but you've already confirmed that above.

All the press coverage at the time told the public that this would be a massive feat of engineering. Now that it's been done it seems people don't appreciate what's been achieved.

I just about remember the same attitude to the moon landings and now there's a section of conspiracy theorists that don't believe it was ever even achieved ! you have to laugh at how fickle the general public are.

Nice graphic here from the FT on the relative fatality rate for seasonal flu and covid by age, before and after the vaccination campaign.

Hopefully this works...

https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/im ... &width=700

[simonineaston]

Nice graphic

It is great as it moves... ps I look forward to the combined flu'/ covid seasonal 'jab'.

[Jdsk]