Bugger

[Peter Ward]

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?

[Zuts]

Hi,

That's good news for you that the symptoms are so mild. It must have been extremely worrying when the test came up positive. I hope you make a full recovery.

That being said, I have a heart condition and stupidly still smoke, but your news and the fact that 50% of cases in ICU are unvaxed (i.e. 50% from 5% of the population who are unvaxed) gives me some hope.

It may be a strange request but can we keep this thread open so people who get it can report the severity of their symptoms?

Cheers
Paul

[sheeny (Al)]

I don't know of anyone studying daytime television... and surviving.


Al.

[PeterM]

How fortunate are you (and I) to be fully vaccinated, good you are recovering Peter.

Your thought "As for the unvaccinated, I expect they will receive a well earned Darwin award (or honorary certificate) in due course." might have been better worded... perhaps you meant to direct at those who deliberately chose not to get vaccinated when there was absolutely no valid medical reason not to. To take a paint brush to all unvaccinated seems unfair as there are people who for health reasons could not be vaccinated and of course the many millions in 3rd world countries who are unvaccinated.

Lets hope we don't get a deadlier variant that spreads just as fast as Omicron......
"However, Omicron is likely the fastest spreading virus ever studied, according to experts including epidemiologist William Hanage, co-director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard University. This is because the time it takes for an Omicron case to become infectious is shorter than for measles"

We may yet be shocked by the virus itself.

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by sheeny

I don't know of anyone studying daytime television... and surviving.

Al.

GOLD ....Your right there Al ....

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by PeterM

...perhaps you meant to direct at those who deliberately chose not to get vaccinated when there was absolutely no valid medical reason not to.....

Indeed. However Darwin will apply in either case. It is sad that other, much older and totally preventable diseases, such as Polio still exist.

Does the name Djokovic help?

[DarkArts]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

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?

Yes; recent studies show you start voting for One Nation.

[MortonH]

The actual number of outlier cases may well be enough to overwhelm the health system, which in turn would jeopardise treatment for non-Covid illnesses. That concerns me more than covid itself.

Plus there could easily be a much worse strain to come before the world is fully vaccinated.

[PCH (Paul)]

hi Peter,

Hope your recovery is progressing well.

Can you pls clear something up for me?

When we talk about moving into isolation, does that mean you have to be kept entirely seperate, as in ‘living in a different section of the house reserved especially for you’? Is that how ‘isolation’ works?

Cheers and good luck 👍

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by PCH

hi Peter,

Hope your recovery is progressing well.

Can you pls clear something up for me?

When we talk about moving into isolation, does that mean you have to be kept entirely seperate, as in ‘living in a different section of the house reserved especially for you’? Is that how ‘isolation’ works?

Cheers and good luck 👍

Good question. We have a large home and I have been relegated to the "granny flat" downstairs and have my own bathroom etc.

If you share living space, the authorities want your close contacts to also isolate.

I can see this being very problematic for many. I'm actually feeling almost back to normal today, and can understand why some choose to "do the shopping/ nick out to Bunnings" as they feel fully recovered. I did a RAT test this morning which said this would be a very bad idea.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by MortonH

The actual number of outlier cases may well be enough to overwhelm the health system, which in turn would jeopardise treatment for non-Covid illnesses. That concerns me more than covid itself.

Plus there could easily be a much worse strain to come before the world is fully vaccinated.

I doubt it.

As I write, according to the Dept of Health, there are about 3800 COVID affected people in Australian hospitals.

Non-evidence based isolation rules have caused staff shortages which are not helping, but Australia has around 100,000 hospital beds so we are well short of "running out of room" for outlier patients.

[JA]

Ok take it easy Peter and get well soon. Also all the best to anyone else who's COVID'd out there. I'm sure we'd all love this thing to stop with Omicron, but unfortunately there are more letters in the Greek Alphabet.

Best
JA

[multiweb (Marc)]

+1 Triple vaxed and typically asymptomatic if I have it. Getting tested tomorrow morning first thing. All chemists ran out of testing kits here and finding it very hard to get a testing site that's open now. My kids got it both, daughter in law, grand daughter, etc... so extremely unlikely I'm in the clear. The whole testing system is in complete chaos at the moment. All you can do is get vaccinated, minimise exposure if infected and hope for the best.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by multiweb

+1 Triple vaxed and typically asymptomatic if I have it. Getting tested tomorrow morning first thing. All chemists ran out of testing kits here and finding it very hard to get a testing site that's open now. My kids got it borh, daughter in law, grand daughter, etc... so extremely unlikely I'm in the clear. The whole testing system is in complete chaos at the moment. All you can do is get vaccinated, minimise exposure if infected and hope for the best.

Yep. If it had not been for the RAT test I would have been in the community while infectious and none the wiser until my PCR result.

Handling of this pandemic has been amateur at best. The Feds sniffing at Pfizer and not securing early supply, wildly over hyped risks and associated hesitancy associated with Astra, zero local capability to produce mRNA vaccines, failure to use an existing and well functioning annual influenza vaccine distribution network for COVID vaccination distribution, slovenly approval rates by the TGA and now....RAT tests....which quickly show whether you are infected yet are difficult to obtain.

Sorry for the rant. I'm clearly feeling much better now

P.S.
I see the NSW government will impose fines for not reporting a positive RAT result.
I don't know why you wouldn't report it, but given the ropey government IT systems
can seen why you couldn't.
Next will be a fine for not reporting you may have exceeded the speed limit.....I wish these
clowns lots of luck with detecting and enforcement of both.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Yep. If it had not been for the RAT test I would have been in the community while infectious and none the wiser until my PCR result.

Handling of this pandemic has been amateur at best. The Feds sniffing at Pfizer and not securing early supply, wildly over hyped risks and associated hesitancy associated with Astra, zero local capability to produce mRNA vaccines, failure to use an existing and well functioning annual influenza vaccine distribution network for COVID vaccination distribution, slovenly approval rates by the TGA and now....RAT tests....which quickly show whether you are infected yet are difficult to obtain.

Sorry for the rant. I'm clearly feeling much better now

Not sure anything could have been done better TBH. Hesitancy seems to be linked to social media and more like any other opinion piece. Regardless of supply. The only real blunder was in QLD bad mouthing AZ at a time when we should have switched vaccination in high gear. What a total mess up especially from an official. We're tracking pretty good now. Sure everyone is getting it and testing is all over the place but we're mostly talking headaches, sore throat for the majority. One epidemiologist in VIC said more variants will throw us a few curved ball for sure. So we make do with what we've got and adapt. I think we'll get better at it.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Not sure anything could have been done better TBH. Hesitancy seems to be linked to social media and more like any other opinion piece. Regardless of supply. The only real blunder was that old mole in QLD bad mouthing AZ at a time when we should have switched vaccination in high gear. What a total f'up especially from an official. We're tracking pretty good now. Sure everyone is getting it and testing is all over the place but we're mostly talking headaches, sore throat for the majority. One epidemiologist in VIC said more variants will throw us a few curved ball for sure. So we make do with what we've got and adapt. I think we'll get better at it.

You'll have to admit putting all our (initial) eggs into the Astra basket was not good planning...but
given the USA's experience we certainly are travelling well (not applicable in WA )

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by Zuts

Hi,
...
It may be a strange request but can we keep this thread open so people who get it can report the severity of their symptoms?

Cheers
Paul

So, getting back to the virus...

I think Peter and others have covered the typical symptoms very well but I just want to comment about the spread. I attended the family xmas (superspreader) event on xmas eve (the in-laws are German) where everyone was double vaxed. On xmas day a niece developed symptoms, so went and had a PCR test. The results came back positive, on New Years eve which triggered a further round of tests. We were tested on NYE and got the negative results only on 8/1.

In brief, she infected her two sisters but not her mother, two aunts, their partners, her grandmother and a few family friends. Of 5 children too young to be vaccinated only 2 were infected - despite all the mothers being positive. None of the 5 vaccinated children were infected. I also know of another case of infected parents not passing it on to their young children.

This is not what I expected. The publicity about omicron would suggest that most people present should have been infected rather than just 2 of 12 adults. I fully accept that omicron is very infectious and clearly spreading like wildfire but it is not as infectious as my fear made it.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

So, getting back to the virus...

I think Peter and others have covered the typical symptoms very well but I just want to comment about the spread. ........... I fully accept that omicron is very infectious and clearly spreading like wildfire but it is not as infectious as my fear made it.

Given around 630,000 people in Australia (that's close to 5% of the nation) have now caught the bug in a few weeks, I think Dr. Swan's prediction is on the money.

That said there was an excellent piece in the Guardian today Which should be reassuring for those who are vaccinated.

You will likely catch this, but your symptoms will be mild...leastways my sample of one says this is true.

[h0ughy (David)]

Just a friendly reminder that those that post something political or personal attack on anyone may suffer from omigodibeenbanned virus. Let's keep our social distancing please

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Vaccinations work for the majority my parents both got the virus before Christmas despite being double vaxxed (it was the delta strain. ) They are doing fine bad cough and lethargy for a week though mum still feels lethargic but dad is fully recovered. My uncles all ended up in hospital one is out now and recovered, the other is still there now out of ICU but now in rehab. You may be vaxxed and with Omicron not be so sick but it can still do you lots of harm. (I reckon they'd all have been a lot worse off if they were not vaxxed they are all in their mid to late 80's)