Surviving Covid-19 - Yak Support Network!

[almic85]

Punktakku at 9:47 PM: I believe that such things are still often underestimated nowadays!

But if you constantly inhale too much dust or chemicals, it makes you sick in the long run. Sometimes only after 20, 30 or more years. In the past, people used to refer to this as pneumoconiosis or black lung (disease), today it is often more COPD. COPD is also a new widespread disease.

I would definitely recommend that you check your lungs regularly yourself. There are very simple peak flow measuring devices for this, which are also inexpensive to measure the "peak expiratory flow". For example, monthly and to note down the values so that you can determine whether it has perhaps deteriorated.

When someone has a chemical, dust or elsewhere burdened workplace, from the age of 40 or 50, a yearly pulmonary check-up might not be a bad idea.

COPD sounds very like my “asthma that isn’t asthma” diagnosis about 10 years ago.

Down here in Australia it’s common practice if you work for a construction company that they give you a medical check up every 12 months, which includes lung capacity, to get a baseline of what your lungs are like just in case you end up getting asbestosis, silicosis or anything else that can get into your lungs and cause issues.

The big one being focussed on at the moment is dry cutting of stone or concrete as it throws very small particles of stone into the air which get into your lungs and can cause silicosis. It’s also extremely common to see a number of tradespeople and general handy people using a grinder on tiles, benchtops, concrete slabs, etc. to try and make things work on site, which is a massive no no.

I think the UK has already started this. I don't know Israel safe anymore and in Germany a third vaccination is recommended from September as a booster for certain risk groups.

The good thing is we have vaccinations NOW that are working just fine. And then we will see how it goes on.
That probably depends on whether and how the virus mutates further and how much it spreads somewhere.

The virus is in the world and will not go away. The world is far from vaccinated enough. I therefore assume that we will hear about it in 2022 as well.

it really depends on if your government actually has the vaccines. They have only just become available to people over 30 in Australia in the last few weeks. No news on when people between 18-30 are going to be able to register to get a vaccine.

 

[Hawkins44]

...dry cutting of stone or concrete as it throws very small particles of stone into the air which get into your lungs and can cause silicosis...

If unchecked, or overlooked, dust in lungs can cause serious lifetime issues to ones's health.
It's what my grandfather suffered from, after being locked up in a forced labor stone quarry by communist government as a young adult.

On the other point:
I'm getting my first shot today along with my SO. We are calling feeling sick (it was from the vaccine, surely!) tomorrow, so we can be at home together and relax.

 

[almic85]

And I finally got my first jab booked in for 14 September. Hopefully that means I will be fully vaccinated by the end of October.

 

[Tiny]

Before anyone thinks ill of @Tiny ’s employer, I’m fairly sure he’s self-employed. But that’s just based on Yak posts….

He is indeed. Although if I employed more people than the one I do currently I'd be just as libertarian with policies as I am now. Wear a mask if you want. Get a vaccine if you want. Don't if you don't. I'm not your dad. If you're not comfortable with co-workers choosing not to wear a mask or get a vaccine, there are plenty of jobs at McDonalds or Amazon.

On a lighter note, I finally recovered (mostly) from contracting Covid 3 weeks ago. Yay. Was pretty rough for about a week and then just achy and gross with partial taste and smell loss for the next 2 weeks. Just feeling a bit more tired than usual now.

My younger brother and his wife also got it around the same time. They are fully vaxed. I am not. We had the exact same symptoms and the same recovery time. Make of that what you will.

Mrs Tiny (also un-vaxed) told me she didn't want me to isolate from her as she "doesn't get Covid". She remains true to her word. Some kind of voodoo no doubt.

 

[Punktaku]

Got my booster. Just in time for the religious nut neighbor whose kids my kids hang out with, to call and say that they’ve got Covid. My 8 yo is now under two-week quarantine….

 

[Ardavion]

Got my booster. Just in time for the religious nut neighbor whose kids my kids hang out with, to call and say that they’ve got Covid. My 8 yo is now under two-week quarantine….

There isn't a "like" reaction that captures the essence of "booster shot good, religious nut neighbour exasperating, wish they (and people of their ilk) would just allow common sense into their life like the god (or gods) they worship".

 

[Gunkaiser]

On my end it's such a weird thing... spent the last two weeks thinking I'd got Stage III colorectal cancer but never once really believed I'd get Covid-19. Which isn't to say I haven't been taking recommended precautions, but I just don't believe it's a risk to me for probably human reasons.

 

[Punktaku]

Woot! My daughter’s Covid test came back negative! However, due to state guidelines, she still has to stay home for a couple more days. The state is reviewing those guidelines since our positivity rate is so low, but they haven’t done it yet. Probably on the day she goes back to school…

 

[cainex1]

Woot! My daughter’s Covid test came back negative! However, due to state guidelines, she still has to stay home for a couple more days. The state is reviewing those guidelines since our positivity rate is so low, but they haven’t done it yet. Probably on the day she goes back to school…

Woohoo!

 

[Vertico]

Infections are creeping up here again and we might face new guidelines.
Since I love working from home, I kinda not regret that aspect.

Also, Infections here are for 80% to 95% due to unvaccinated people. *sigh*

 

[Tiny]

Also, Infections here are for 80% to 95% due to unvaccinated people. *sigh*

80% unvaccinated people, who make up only around 13% of the population isn't that many people. Also once they've had Covid, they're 13 times less likely to be re-infected than if they got two vaccines.. so figures will only drop after that. Also how many of those cases are kids who can't (and shouldn't) get the vaccine?

As long as you're vaccinated, you're perfectly safe by those metrics.

Not forgetting that we actually want healthy people such as kids to catch viruses to avoid proliferation of deadlier mutations. If everyone is vaccinated, they can all carry a deadlier mutation without seeing symptoms and then inadvertently pass it to granny whose vaccine immunity may be waning after 5 months (see the article I posted a few pages back for a better explanation).

 

[Gunkaiser]

Vaccines and viruses do not work that way.

On another note: This thread will continually devolve into disputes over which interventions (or none at all) may be used to improve our situation which might be termed counterproductive.

The virus is endemic; it's not going anywhere. So ultimately we survive until we don't; there's no getting past it back to the way things were. There's just whatever the future evolves into in the months/years/decades to come.

My question mostly: does this thread continue to serve a useful purpose? I'm not trying to silence anyone (as if that were possible) but it seems worth considering the question.

 

[Tiny]

Vaccines and viruses do not work that way.

What way?

 

[Ben_S]

My university has just today moved from face coverings being 'strongly encouraged' (but not required) in lectures to them being required unless someone has an exemption.

I'm not sure whether or how this could really be policed - I doubt anyone is required to prove an exemption - but perhaps the stronger messaging will result in more mask wearing.

 

[Tiny]

I doubt anyone is required to prove an exemption

By the letter of the rules, everyone in the UK is exempt from wearing a mask if they want to be. If wearing a mask causes you distress or you believe it may cause you harm you don't have to wear one. That's not something anyone can really prove either way, short of forcing a mask on them to see if they have a panic attack.

 

[Tiny]

Today's dose of positivity. Despite UK cases being as high as they ever have, hospitalisations and deaths "with Covid" remain comparatively low. For sake of comparison, daily deaths in the last week are similar to the daily deaths attributable to flu during the same week last year. Make of that what you will.

Looks to me like the major threat is behind us. I wonder why the media and government have all of a sudden started worrying about case numbers as opposed to hospitalisations.

 

[Punktaku]

You guys had flu last year? It was practically nonexistent here last year. My physician had zero cases the last couple years thanks to masks, hand washing, and flu shots.

 

[Tiny]

You guys had flu last year? It was practically nonexistent here last year. My physician had zero cases the last couple years thanks to masks, hand washing, and flu shots.

Apparently 20,000 flu "related" deaths. Depends how your country measures it though. Traditionally the UK has lumped together flu and pneumonia deaths into one statistic. Most of those deaths would have been from pneumonia and obviously all pneumonia cases were going on the stats for Covid last year instead of flu.

Sadly experts are predicting up to 60,000 flu related deaths this year in the UK, assumedly because very few people gained natural immunity last year because of lockdowns and other measures. Not sure I trust them though. These are the same experts who predicted 500,000 Covid deaths in the first wave.

Also remember that Covid death statistics are "died within 28 days of a positive Covid test" whereas flu death stats are "died of, or from complications due to flu or pneumonia", so the stats are weirdly quite different. Covid is, as far as I'm aware the first ever respiratory disease where we've kept a public running total of deaths over multiple years as opposed to tracking them seasonally.

 

[almic85]

Covid is, as far as I'm aware the first ever respiratory disease where we've kept a public running total of deaths over multiple years as opposed to tracking them seasonally.

The same thing happened with swine flu and bird flu in the Asia pacific region when they hit. It is just that most western countries weren’t affected by them so it wasn’t highly reported on there.

The reason behind it is that they are new diseases that weren’t previously tracked separately so they like to see how big of an impact it is in its first event/pandemic before it hits a more regular infection cycle.

And yes this is still the first “event” of Covid-19 playing out some two years later despite the fact that each country has faced multiple “waves”.

 

[Tiny]

The same thing happened with swine flu and bird flu in the Asia pacific region when they hit.

Did they track the deaths with big rolling totals on the TV? That just seems like an oddly cruel manipulation of the public to me. Something you'd expect out of China but not out of a western country.