The ABC's Dr Norman Swan (I admit to being a fanboy) made the comment that eventually "everyone will get COVID". Despite social distancing, mask wearing and copious use of hand steriliser. I can now add the statistics of Norman's not so cheerful prognosis. This bug is airborne. Assuming you like breathing air and don't want to live under a rock then you, like me are likely to catch it at some point.
I am triple vax'd. Two Astra, one Moderna booster. Hence when I felt something of a sore throat and on a whim took a rapid anitgen test, was surprised to see a "positive" bar on the test kit. Next day I had a PCR test, which confirmed the result. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 and go straight into isolation. At this stage I had a slightly runny nose and mildly sore throat.
I am now in day three of more obvious symptoms but feel like I'm almost over this infection. The symptoms were hardly bad. Tiredness, some sneezing, coughing and loss of appetite, plus a mild headache on day two which two Ibuprofen tablets made short work of. I'm not sure what was worse in my case of breakthrough COVID, the symptoms or the midday television I ended up watching. I've had worse colds...much worse.
My vaccinations clearly did their job. What could have been a virus that caused my lungs to fill with fluid was transformed into a mild and very short cold.
Having been through this thing I think the media's reporting on COVID has been appallingly pathetic. Crisis! Shock! Horror! A million local Omicon cases! Hundreds in hospitals! The corollary of the headlines is 99.5% of fully vaccinated people will have no or very mild symptoms. Yet it is the outlier cases (read: very rare) that the media sensationalise. As for those who choose to be unvaccinated, I expect they will receive a well earned Darwin award (or honorary certificate) in due course.
Interestingly, the Spanish Flu epidemic of the 1920's saw 40 percent of the Australian population become infected , of whom 15,000 died (75,000 in 2020 population terms) of influenza. Influenza has not gone away, but in the intervening century, modern medical science has seen massive improvements on flu treatments and unsurprisingly, new virus treatment and mortality numbers (currently sitting 2400 COVID deaths...yes 99.99% Australians will get through this).
The facts remain that old world diseases (read not media worthy) will likely get you.
Heart disease, cancer, dementia, cerebrovascular disease etc. accounted for about 3100 deaths in Australia last week, but did not rate a single mention on the mid evening news. My round with COVID was trivial compared to any of the former. So if you are vaccinated and get this bug, ignore the media's daily hysteria and don't panic. Rest up, drink plenty of fluids, maintain a healthy diet while your immune system does its work. The highly likely outcome is, you'll feel well again in a few days. There is also an upside. Your natural immunity will have increased and better protect you against future reinfection.
Getting back to midday television. I suspect there is a much more serious problem here. Does anyone know of studies that link it with self harm?
