[Racer X 69]

Over the Thanksgiving weekend my son, DIL, granddaughter and 10 month old petri dish (AKA grandson) were here. My cold symptoms from that encounter are almost gone.

We had a granddaughter and her 6 year old over for Thanksgiving. No one, including the great-grandaughter, had any cold or flu symptoms.

The Friday after I came down with a cold, no fever, no aches and pain. Just congestion, cough, whatever.

I also did a barium swallow that Friday, and did a Covid test just prior (negative).

The effects of that cold linger today.

Of course I was a smoker once, quit about 25-30 years ago, and colds evolve into chronic bronchitis.

Good times.

[swanlefitte]

has enough time past for studies on Omincron to be sure its effects are that benign ?

I don't know

I hope it is as you describe

Not sure yet.
Just read this from reuters.com

Already on page 182. I only read to the bottom of page 181. My bad.

[RobA_Oz]

Of course I was a smoker once, quit about 25-30 years ago, and colds evolve into chronic bronchitis.

I reckon there’s a lot of people glad they quit and regretting ever taking up smoking, me among them (I quit 40 years ago). Still, I do find that since I’ve been having annual flu jabs, my propensity to succumb to colds and flu seems to have lessened. A sample of one doesn’t amount to much, and I know other people haven’t had so much relief.

[Fontan]

Wow - it has been one year since my first shot. A year later look where we are. Interesting times. My best regards to those who are not vaccinated.

[BigMackCam]

has enough time past for studies on Omincron to be sure its effects are that benign ?

I don't know

I hope it is as you describe

The concern over here right now seems to be focused more toward the strain on our health services. Even with the reduced severity of illness we're seeing for many people with this Omicron variant (especially those who've been vaccinated), it seems to be highly virulent and hospitalisation numbers are high enough that there's a real risk of facilities being overwhelmed. Added to that, despite every reasonable precaution, health workers on the front line are still becoming infected, resulting in staffing issues... and when hospitals are overwhelmed and staffing is reduced, the ability to treat people with other serious health conditions is severely compromised. There's still a huge backlog here of folks waiting for treatment, operations and associated post-procedural care. This new surge of hospitalisations is making that situation worse again and putting people's lives in jeopardy. So even though Omicron does seem to be less deadly when considered in isolation, the bigger picture doesn't look quite so positive...

[Benz3ne]

The concern over here right now seems to be focused more on the strain to our health services. Even with the reduced severity of illness we're seeing for many people with this Omnicron variant (especially those who've been vaccinated), it seems to be highly virulent and hospitalisation numbers are high enough that there's a real risk of facilities being overwhelmed. Added to that, despite every reasonable precaution, health workers on the front line are still becoming infected, resulting in staffing issues... and when hospitals are overwhelmed and staffing is reduced, the ability to treat people with other serious health conditions is severely compromised. There's still a huge backlog here of folks waiting for treatment, operations and associated post-procedural care. This new surge of hospitalisations is making that situation worse and putting people's lives in jeopardy. So even though Omnicron does seem to be less deadly when considered in isolation, the bigger picture doesn't look quite so positive...

This is exactly it. My fiancé works in the NHS (but not front line, a la nurses), and yet she's picking up Saturday shifts because of staffing issues in a nearby hospital.
She's also been asking whether she wants to do the drawing up (into a syringe) of the vaccines, but not administering, in order to speed up the booster process. That would be another 4 hours as/when she can find the time around her full-time job and additional Saturdays.

I'm just glad she's vacc'd and boostered as she suffers with asthma (though that doesn't stop her running almost 5 miles every Sunday). I, too, am boostered and vacc'd which is relieving now working a local university.

[Rondec]

My hunch is yes.

I think it is too soon to know. The early data is out of South Africa which has a very young population (only about 13 percent over 65) and has had most of the population get Delta fairly recently. We already know that if you are young and have had a recent COVID infection (or are fully vaccinated) that you have milder disease from COVID than if you are older and are unvaccinated. I just don't know how it will affect people who are unvaccinated/haven't had COVID and are older.

The only thing we can say for sure is that it is more contagious and it doesn't seem worse than previous strains.

[Jonathan Mac]

Well it's a covid christmas for us - my two daughters both tested positive yesterday following symptoms of cough and mild fever, so we're isolating at home for the next ten days instead of going to my in-laws for the whole christmas period. I'm not worried about covid itself - my wife and I are both vaccinated and we, along with our elder daughter, had covid in March 2020 - but it's put a big downer on christmas as the girls were looking forward to spending it with their grandparents and cousin.

[BigMackCam]

Well it's a covid christmas for us - my two daughters both tested positive yesterday following symptoms of cough and mild fever, so we're isolating at home for the next ten days instead of going to my in-laws for the whole christmas period. I'm not worried about covid itself - my wife and I are both vaccinated and we, along with our elder daughter, had covid in March 2020 - but it's put a big downer on christmas as the girls were looking forward to spending it with their grandparents and cousin.

So sorry to hear that Hope your girls get well soon and you and the missus fend it off... Take care

[Serkevan]

Friend of mine tested positive - she's almost 100% sure she got it in an intercontinental flight (go figure). It's already been about 6 months since she got the 2nd Pfizer dose, but she tells me it's fever, sore throat and headache... so nastier, longer cold so far.

Knocking on wood that that's all there is to it, but it does seem mild (still ruins her trip, which is of course a bother, but oh well... It's not a trip to the ER. Can't complain too much...)

[noelpolar]

It's been pretty obvious for the last week or so how Omicron is going to go through Australia over the next month or two..... so my wife and I are getting our booster this week.... 5 months after our 2nd shot.... I'm not overly enthused about it.... but what can one do.

Still trying to get some relatives across the idea that going out for new years eve isn't something we want to do.

[reh321]

I think it is too soon to know. The early data is out of South Africa which has a very young population (only about 13 percent over 65) and has had most of the population get Delta fairly recently. We already know that if you are young and have had a recent COVID infection (or are fully vaccinated) that you have milder disease from COVID than if you are older and are unvaccinated. I just don't know how it will affect people who are unvaccinated/haven't had COVID and are older.

The only thing we can say for sure is that it is more contagious and it doesn't seem worse than previous strains.

The excuse of the “we’ll wait” scoundrels has always been “too soon” to know about a vaccine. I was vaccinated as soon as it was available for my age group in the U.S., and I’ve been hearing that excuse about vaccines all along. Enough time will never have passed for them. OK - let them continue to wait for a vaccine, while using untried “cure” after untried “cure”.

[reh321]

I think it is too soon to know. The early data is out of South Africa which has a very young population (only about 13 percent over 65) and has had most of the population get Delta fairly recently. We already know that if you are young and have had a recent COVID infection (or are fully vaccinated) that you have milder disease from COVID than if you are older and are unvaccinated. I just don't know how it will affect people who are unvaccinated/haven't had COVID and are older.

The only thing we can say for sure is that it is more contagious and it doesn't seem worse than previous strains.

The excuse of the “we’ll wait” scoundrels has always been “too soon” to know about a vaccine. I was vaccinated as soon as it was available for my age group in the U.S., and I’ve been hearing that excuse about vaccines all along. Enough time will never have passed for them. OK - let them continue to wait for a vaccine, while using untried “cure” after untried “cure”. The only thing that seems to work for them is the grave.

[reh321]

I remember when someone I know commented in public “I don’t know anyone who’s had Covid”. That was October, 2020. Since then, his son brought Covid home to their family from college, and his wife {who had been a jogger} got ‘long haul syndrome’ which made it hard for her to walk across the room. It has been a tough year.

[Rondec]

I remember when someone I know commented in public “I don’t know anyone who’s had Covid”. That was October, 2020. Since then, his son brought Covid home to their family from college, and his wife {who had been a jogger} got ‘long haul syndrome’ which made it hard for her to walk across the room. It has been a tough year.

I have been so frustrated with the deniers. In April and May of last year people were firmly of the opinion that 1 million deaths from COVID was an overstatement and that it wasn't worse than influenza. There are still people out there convinced that it is a fraud.

The Worldometer lists US deaths from COVID since the beginning of the pandemic as 830,000 in the US. That's a lot of deaths and closer to a million deaths than 100,000. Personally, I know at least 20 people who died from COVID, including two people who attended church with me. I would be shocked if the true death toll from COVID in the US isn't over a million people at this point as it feels like we are actually undercounting deaths from COVID.

That isn't even counting the suffering from Long Haul COVID and the people who spent months in rehab just to get the strength to get back home again.