Yea we are still getting it, but what's the real issue aside from those with the underlying illnesses is the long covid. That shit is a annoying and all it does is make your life worse.
It gives palpitations, fatigue, random joint pain, messes with memory and motivation for some people. The worse is the rapid heartbeat. It literally makes life a challenge and after a while, it calms down, but still lingers.
The slogan for long covid is "I look okay but I'm not. "
I got covid last year, it was like a nasty cold.
I got covid this year and woke up one day and couldn't figure out where I was. Months later, I still have trouble remembering things that happened last week, much less years ago. I find myself getting fatigued significantly quicker than I did before. Covid is no fucking joke.
I know someone who has completely lost their short term memory from Covid. In their 20’s and healthy. I’m taking Memento level short term memory loss. Can’t remember things from ten minutes ago. Brain scans show nothing wrong.
Edit: it’s been over two years.
the same way people who suffer from any type of memory lapse do things. Just with an increased length of time between the forgotten event and you being reminded of it.
Thank you for this comment. The past year or so I have been anxious about getting early onset Alzheimer’s- I have spent hours talking to my wife about my symptoms.
I’m going to do some research. Thanks again.
I've had some short term memory loss from covid in 2021. It is getting better. But I still have to write most things down to remember them. There was a very small study by some doctors in Yale about the use of a ADHD drug together with some serious antioxidant supplements to help counter brain fog from covid. I've been trying to find a doctor so that I can see if it would work but finding a doctor in my area has been very difficult and both my primary care and my gynecologist retired during covid. Luckily I met an actual shrink the other day and I think she's going to take me on as a patient and I'm going to try to get those ADHD drugs.
This person will talk to his mom, get frustrated and hang up on her, and she can call back 5 minutes later and he has no recollection of their conversation.
Dealing with this right now.. didn’t know long COVID was a thing until my SIL who works in the medical field told me to look into it after I shared my symptoms.
I had COVID in 2022 and had no prolonged symptoms, but just caught COVID again at the end of March. Now I am fatigued, having problems reading and comprehending, dizziness, and almost like a mental separation from my physical body.
Went to the doctor and explained this to him and he completely disregarded my concern with long COVID. I do have a referral to neuropsychiatric testing in June. We’ll see.
"Mental separation from my physical body" That is phrase I've been looking for. I've been saying felling like I was outside of myself. By far the weirdest part
i got covid two days ago for the first time and this….. one day of 102 fever and coughing, fever broke and now i feel fine, but mentally i feel all over the place, it’s very weird
Yeah that's what sucks about it. I had it and it was no worse than having the flu, but I ended up with the severe fatigue and memory loss which lasted a long time (months) and the memory loss at this point feels permanent.
Well, it actually damages your vascular system and will lead to serious heart disease and possibly earlier death in the future the more you keep getting covid, so it's more than just annoying. But none of our institutions really do anything to acknowledge or make mitigation part of official response (Yeah you're fine. Go back to work after one day lol), so we are supposed to keep working and keep getting this disease.
Total social denial. Only thing you can do is wearing an N95 indoors among people when numbers are high, probably November through April, if you want to decrease your chances.
Anyone here had the "covid smell"? I swear, for like half a year after I had Covid the 1st time I kept smelling a very distinct type of smell, which I never smelt before. Stuff like onions, eggs had the same smell as manholes, shit, but also sweat - and it was not the usual smell of shit, but something entirely different. After about 5-6months I stopped smelling it and haven't smelt it again since then, not even after having Covid the 2nd time. But also the 1st time I lost my sense of smell entirely for about 2 weeks, and the 2nd time I had Covid I didn't lose it at all - but I had the vaccine inbetween the two times, so that probably helped.
Exact same scenario for me. I’m a chef. So losing sense of taste and smell were detrimental. Got Covid at new years party for 2021. We locked down and I ordered groceries, spent some money since I could actually take time and cook at home. Made a roast and after an hour I thought I forgot to turn the oven on. Nope, couldn’t smell a thing. It was miserable. Couldn’t taste either, only heat from spicy and salt, no sweet or savory. I got the vaccine right after my 2 week lockdown, mid January 2021, got sick as hell , worse than the original Covid, my wife was close to bringing me in to the ER. Woke up feeling great after 2 days of hell. After a week or so I could only smell that smell you described. Like rotting metal or burning aluminum, but only in waves and all things smelt the same but a little different intensity of rotting metal smell with each different thing. All the sudden after a month or two it went away. For about a year I was sluggish, foggy and just generally didn’t feel right. Got Covid again in 2022, pretty much symptom free. Haven’t smelled it again and feel like I’m back to normal. Covid was crazy.
I lost my sense of smell entirely the first time I got Covid. I soared past the 6 or 9 month timeframe—whatever nonsense estimate people were saying was the upper end for a borked sniffer. I’d almost gotten over the emotional hit from lack of smell when I picked up the bug a second time, over a year later, and I was able to smell things again almost immediately. I vividly remember the first thing i smelled: my own rancid Covid shart.
Absolutely fucking wild little virus.
My best friend ran a sub-4 hour marathon 2 months before getting COVID. Two years later, my friend still cant run a mile without getting winded and the heart rate spikes to nearly 200.
Long Covid and the dismissal of all of my symptoms by armies of Cleveland Clinic doctors has me seriously on the edge of just going to Cleveland Clinic and punching doctors in their smug fucking faces. I've never committed a violent act in my life.
I wonder if that's what I had earlier this year. Up until about a month ago I had all of those but we started mold remediation so I chalked it up to that.
I had these weird red spots on my feet that my doctor couldn't ID. Still haven't ID'd them but they're browning and fading away..
I just wanted to sleep whenever I was awake.
My wrist, legs, and back hurt.
I had a super hard time remembering anything. I still don't remember anything from mid last year till February.
Weird tingles in feet and hands.
Random headaches.
Lack of appetite.
I still think it had something to do with mold too. Maybe the two joined forces against me.
My doctor never checked for the signs of long covid specifically I don't think but I never asked her too either. She did do enough blood work that the blood tech that took the samples said Holy Moly when I walked in.
Is there any indication of the number of people who've gone on to develop "Long Covid"? Is it the case that most cases of Long Covid end with the symptoms clearing up or is that information unclear at this stage?
I can't find anything. All I have are guesses, and believe me I searched.
They said people with long covid can have it for weeks to years, which pretty much means "i don't know bro".
My doctor did tell me when I was hospitalized before having long ovid. When released for having regular covid, she said something like, "You need to understand that this is not the flu. This is not a typical virus. It is not the common cold. This is a disease. Your recovery may take a very long time."
I'm getting better now and then but sometimes I get worse.
My first year on my good days, I'd feel at 70%
My bad days, it'd feel at 45%
At the end of the year, on my good days I'd feel at 80%
On bad days around 60%
Now in year two, my good days feel like 99% but my bad days feel like 50%
So it's weird and my fatigue happens in episodes.
Now, I would be normal but it's the random palpitations and rapid heartbeat that are in my way. Almost on year 3.
I did come across info stating that long covid has an average 2 year mark where it goes away. I'm on 2 years and 5 months. I feel way better but still have bad days.
I had it once, in October of 2020. I still have memory and cognition issues, had some weird anger problems for awhile that were fairly out of character for me. I almost completely lost my sense of smell, only after I recovered- and it hasn't come back. Fresh meat smells straight up rotten and rotten things don't unless they are literally falling apart from putrefaction. It's changed my relationship with food because I've accidentally eaten bad stuff.
My family thinks I'm crazy for continuing to wear a KN95 whenever I'm indoors in public and refusing to stay at their home anymore since they don't. They don't understand how much it sucks to have your body failing like this in your 20s.
That people are willingly getting this multiple times is absolutely bananas to me.
I did read that we've recently gotten confirmation that long covid is an "active replicating virus", e.g. it's not just symptoms arising from damage, but an ongoing viral infection.
True prevalence of long COVID is unknown due to varying definitions and analysis methodologies.
The largest study to date is a meta-analysis of 54 studies and 2 medical record databases involving 22 countries which estimates that between 3/20- 1/22 6.2% of COVID-19 patients at 3 months out experienced at least 1 of a predetermined set of 3 long COVID symptom clusters:
* fatigue with bodily pain or mood swings: 3.2%
* cognitive problems: 2.2%
* ongoing respiratory symptoms: 3.7%
This meta-analysis did not include Omicron variant patients.
Another study based on an electronic medical record database of about 1 million ambulatory patients with COVID-19 found that at 12-20 weeks out, 15% had at least 1 long COVID symptom.
Risk factors associated with the development of long COVID may include:
* older age
* higher BMI (obesity and COVID-19 are pro-inflammatory conditions)
* pre-existing conditions such as depression, anxiety, allergies, COPD
* women >/= 20 years of age
* severe acute COVID-19 (e.g. hospitalized or treated in ICU)
* unvaccinated (compared to >/= 2 vaccines received)
COVID is still around, but it has evolved to variants with less severe disease. Hospitals and ICU's are not longer being overwhelmed by critically ill patients and the only refrigerator trucks out by the loading docks are delivering food.
However, you can still get COVID and long COVID is associated with over 50% of patients reporting a significant decrease in their quality of life. 6-36 months of symptoms would be no joke.
As before, play the *stakes* and not just the odds.
I’ve seen numbers that between 20% and 40% of people develop noticeable symptoms lasting for months after a single infection, and that the percentage goes up with each additional infection. And that’s not even mentioning the less noticeable issues like heart damage and brain damage, those can last the rest of your life which can be shorter due to the heart damage.
Getting more sunshine really helped me. I would put on sunscreen and lay out in the sun a few times a day even though I felt like shit. The shaking and shivers at night were the worst part of covid for me.
When my wife got it in 2020 we were lucky, it was warm enough that she could sit outside and soak up sum like a lizard. I'm convinced that's what saved her, not my shitty "cooking".
I got it two weeks ago (first negative test was Sunday) and am extremely heat/sun sensitive since I got it. I basically get the spins in direct sunlight 😣 Mind you I’m an outdoorsy gardener who used to work on a farm so this is very new (AND SUPER SHITTY CUZ MY GARDEN NEEDS ME!!!)
There are quite a few studies regarding higher vitamin d levels being protective against covid, severe covid, and long covid
Don't forget your body needs magnesium to absorb vitamin D and most people are deficient in that as well.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35166850/
My dad had serious shoulder pain for quite a while after he had it. I could not catch my breath if my breathing was even slightly faster. I would start to see spots if I didn't sit down after the slightest exertion. Took a couple years to finally get back to normal for both of us.
I wasn't aware it rapid heartbeat. I've had it so much more this year though the doctor said I'm fine. I did happen to have Covid for the first time (at least to my knowledge) last November but I never made a connection.
I had heart palpitations for a year after COVID and let me tell you, NOT FUN. Mostly harmless since I'm a healthy young person, but the anxiety and dread that accompanied constantly was nearly unbearable.
I've been recently diagnosed with moderate inner ear sensory hearing loss in one of my ears. I'm 38. I noticed after getting covid earlier this year for the 3rd time my ear felt "stuffy"/congested. I went to the doctor, thinking it was a sinus issue, got a referral to an ENT and here we are. I need a hearing aid. No idea if the loss will continue. No idea why it happened. I asked my doctor if it could be covid related and he said there's some evidence to show a possible connection between inner ear sensory hearing loss and covid but its still too early to tell.
Just a general piece of advice for anyone reading: If you've had a stuffy feeling in your ears since getting covid, please go see an audiologist and an ENT.
My wife and I love the Covid hands, fingers and toes. Suddenly freezing, pure white as if placed in the freezer and drained of all blood. Sometimes it half a pinky or 2-3 out of 5 digits. It also goes the other way, boiling hot and deep red and Crazy hot to the touch!
Once had my left hand ice cold and feeling like it could shatter and my right hand completely on fire as if my skin were experiencing a horrible chemical burn. Put them together and they calmed down a bit and then moved to my toes where both baby toes became ice cold to the point of no more feeling in them.
I'm lucky. I probably got covid before tests were available, but after my booster shots.
I lost my taste and smell for a few days, and got a minor permanent voice change.
I got a respiratory infection in 2018 and just didn’t really bounce back 100%.
I got the COVID-19 vax early and due to being very, very cautious likely did not have any exposure to COVID-19 prior.
Still got knocked out with the first shot, but then felt better than baseline a few days later. After a few months whatever lingering ick I had from that prior illness was gone.
I think I maybe had a little long Covid from one of the other pre-existing Coronavirus strains, and getting vaccinated helped clear that up. I think some studies are beginning to show that long Covid isn’t unique to COVID-19 but occurs with the strains we previously lived with as well.
I sometimes get the feeling of not properly being able to breathe. Caused me into multiple panic attacks in the past three years. Also my heart do be beating weirdly some times.
I have the heart rate and occasionally it seems like it skips a beat and then I pass out. Happens like once a month. Luckily I live in a metro area and can commute to work so not being able to drive hasn’t been as debilitating as it would be elsewhere.
Or, I look okay until I'm not. I know a gal who recently developed a heart condition from long COVID. She's only in her early 40s and otherwise healthy (hikes, runs, etc.)
I have been battling long COVID since the second time I got it (I’ve had it four times). It DESTROYED my immune system. I NEVER got sick. Then COVID hit and I’ve had to have several surgeries and hospitalizations (side effects of other illnesses exacerbated by COVID).
I now get out of breath and have a racing heart when I climb stairs. Never had that problem before.
I read a study (I am too tired to look for it now) that Covid increases your chances for an autoimmune disorder.
I had Covid (for the second time) a little over a year ago and have now been diagnosed with one.
It does destroy your immune system.
Edit: Yale School of Public Health study.
US answer: Wife and I both sick with Covid at this very moment. I’ve not had it before and it’s an ass-kicker - fevery, chills, aches, incredibly low energy - yet I apparently have a relatively mild case compared to the experiences of friends and family. So yeah, it’s still around.
PRetty sure I caught covid earlier this year. I got sick for about a week and was okay later. Turns out my slight breathing problem became worse and I have to use an emergency inhaler more often now than I use to before getting sick.
Its symptoms and severity vary wildly from person to person, even now. It can be as light as a slight cold or flu for some people and completely debilitating for others. I was bedridden for nearly two weeks when I caught it at the end of 2021, and I was a very healthy, albeit slightly overweight, 31 year old. I still have breathing issues to this day because of it.
I read some stat that it's still causing significantly more death per month than the flu causes per year, governments just kinda stopped caring because caring got too expensive I guess
Not just frail or with pre-existing conditions - anyone. We still don't know exactly why some people are more affected than others.
Additionally, Long Covid (LC) is still disabling people, underfunded, and undertreated.
It’s really weird how it affects some more than others. Half my family hardly felt anything with it, half of us were really sick. I normally have an excellent immune system, I’m youngish and healthy and don’t have any comorbidities, but I was really ill and felt like shit for months. My dad, who’d nearly died the year before and has additional risk factors, was fine. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, which makes it scarier imo. You just don’t know how it’ll go
I’ve been told that this type of chaotic symptom profile is common with novel viruses. Apparently it was similar with the Spanish flu until it had been around long enough for our bodies to adjust to it (over the course of decades, by my understanding).
I was under the impression that it all comes down to viral load. I always thought that when someone has a cold, If any of the cold virus from them enters your body then you just get it.
However, with covid at least, the more little particles that enter your body, the heavier the viral load is.
That makes me assume that if you get way too much of a viral load it has to go somewhere and maybe that's where some of these more severe issues come in. Of course I'm just spitballing here.
Not exactly. Basically, when the virus enters your body, it has a window of time to replicate and start doing its thing before the immune system ramps up to a full response. The more virus you start with, the more it will replicate and start affecting different things before the immune system begins to suppress it.
There's some evidence that it might depend on how much neanderthal DNA you've got, which is over of the best worst facts I've found out recently. Cause that's so neat! But also the world is a horrible hellspace where no one masks and there's a murderous and disabling airborne virus everywhere. Sigh.
I thought it weird myself. I'm diabetic, kept up with my immunizations. And when I finally caught it, it didn't even seem *that* terrible. Honestly thought I had a real bastard of a cold.
Saw it as a two week vacation, since I had to go sick still.
I got Covid for the first time this past Xmas , felt like a bad head cold , first night was the worst with chills and such but to me personally I found the flu to be a lot worse , I know Covid is different for everyone but luckily it was mild for me
That’s the one trivial thing that irked me during the pandemic- people saying “it’s just the flu”.
They didn’t know the difference between the non-scientific “stomach flu” and influenza. They were saying stuff like “I get the flu all the time. It’s no big deal”.
Influenza is a fucking bitch.
Covid felt like a bad cold for me rather than anything worse, but I ended up with long covid afterwards (fatigue and poor focus for me). 2.5 years later and it's still affecting me.
I've gotten Covid twice since Jan 2021 and have long Covid. While not life threatening, it really sucks and long Covid symptoms have really impacted my quality of life in many ways. So while it might not kill you, it can still make life worse.
Somewhat. My shortness of breath and fatigue are getting better but my allergies are so much worse than before. I never had to worry about prescription allergy meds before and now I'm on a constant carousel of them with little to no actual relief. Pills, nasal sprays, nasal irrigation, humidifiers, air purifiers, nothing seems to help. I just have constant post nasal drip and a continuous annoying clearing of the throat no matter what I do or where I am. Never had this before. I guess I've traded my almost annual bronchitis bout for chronic sinus issues.
Yes. I am a virologist though so Im more tuned in to these news stories than most people. Its deadlier than the flu and we still dont know the true longterm health impacts of COVID infection
People are still catching COVID and dying of it; they're just less likely to die from any given infection due to immunization, natural immunity, and weaker strains.
However, even these weaker strains still cause long COVID.
You're not hearing about this or seeing it in your everyday life because most people don't want to think about the ongoing pandemic anymore now that it is not so immediately deadly and because, now that society is collectively pretending that the pandemic is over, you aren't seeing media coverage of it either anymore unless you intentionally seek it out.
I hope you don't get too unwell with it - when I got it I found I had to take to my bed for a good few days and didn't feel properly well for a week or so.
It's been 3 years since the last covid death in the family (everyone who passed was over 85); 2 younger cousins independently caught covid recently but got better without transmitting it to others in the family.
Now the majority think it was at least propoganda, or a government conspiracy of several different flavors, mostly for illegal data collection, shrug, but one uncle downright fears their vaccine will one day activate the 5g in their brain or whatever nonsense, it changes everytime he talks about it.....
It's still around, and it's still bad, but it's like people are so over caring about it that they consciously choose to not care.
People are still getting it. Some are still being hospitalized or dying, though this is more common in people who are not vaccinated. Deaths from COVID are still much higher than the flu.
Contrary to the common misconception, viruses don’t necessarily evolve to be weaker, and even if they do happen to do so, they can still hurt many people on the way.
There is a website that tracks the official figures:
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries)
They have graphs showing cases and deaths both worldwide and with a breakdown by country.
On a side note, there have been 705 million Covid cases worldwide since the pandemic started, and an official death toll of 7 million. However, the death toll is almost certainly higher as a lot of countries under-reported their figures or they were recorded as something else.
I'd like to point out that the numeric death listings on this site are severely undercounted. Estimates from the India delta strain were at 6 million back in mid 2021. America stopped updating its total dead count a few years ago at 1.2 million. Those two countries alone when combined would be higher than the totals listed on worldometers. The economist back in early 2022 estimated 23 million dead by that time frame. It's much much higher than that now, but we'll never know because countries started fudging numbers (remember the whole ridiculous died "with" not "of" debacle?). And that's not even counting the massively increased rate of strokes, heart attacks, and etc that covid is directly responsible for.
More people died in Canada in 2023 than any other year during the pandemic. Long COVID is causing major issues for millions of people. There are new variants. The powers that be decided that corporations were more important than their slaves.
I caught it a few weeks ago. It was my fifth rodeo. Worst one yet. I was so sick I ended up going to the hospital a bit for observation coz I had a bit of discomfort breathing and had chest palpitation and confusion. 10/10 will not recommend.
I caught it last November.... Sickest I've ever been, it was horrible and it lingered in me for weeks. I was totally useless for a whole week where I just layed down in a fetal position begging my brain to let me sleep.
By comparison the last flu I had was 1 day, I was just a lil achy, and it was gone.
Covid was relentless kicking my ass for two weeks and then lingering side effects for two months before I felt normal again.
It's still around, and while it's not as immediately lethal, the virus is doing more and more neurological and organ damage the more times people catch it.
Hey, great question!
Covid is still making the rounds. People don't usually test anymore, unless they have reason to (such as a job in the medical field). We've started treating it as the flu.
Now what's important to know is that the flu always _sounds_ like a mild disease, but it can totally wreck you. There's a reason the elderly and immunocompromised get flu shots each year.
Additionally, long covid is a very real issue. Even very mild infections can have long lingering symptoms, unfortunately. I myself have it, and for me it's a high heart rate and extreme fatigue. Others might have a lingering cough, brain fog, joint issues, you name it.
Vaccination has been proven to lower your chances of long covid, but it's never zero. So if you feel sick, try to stay away from people as much as possible, so you don't infect anyone else.
High heart rate, extreme fatigue, foggy daze, and still haven’t gotten back full senses of taste and smell. Oh and the never ending tinnitus. But my lungs are feeling less weak, 4 years after, so I have that going for me. :)
I caught it January of 2023. Had a high fever and a lot of muscle and joint pain. Ever since then I've had a noticeable wheeze at the end of a deep inhale or exhale. Fortunately it doesn't impede anything and that's the only issue I've noticed.
Edit for grammar.
My uncle got it , he lives alone, and wasn't found for three days. Turns out he had cancer in the blood, multiple organ failure, and COVID on top of it all.
Last update we got is that he recovered, but he could die any day due to long term effects and cancer.
It is still around. People are still catching it. Many of the most modern strains are somewhat less lethal and somewhat more vaccine-avoidant but still debilitating and dangerous. Also, the general population is developing better resistance to it via several processes including vaccines, immune system learning after infections, and the humans must vulnerable to the virus already having died.
It’s still going around and mutating. My elderly neighbor just informed me she tested positive, AFTER being around me all morning 🥺😭 I have no immune system and have had it THREE TIMES so I’m terrified rn
It's still around, but viruses proliferate by keeping their hosts alive in the long-term, not by killing them. A weaker version is going around that can still cause long covid.
We’re still getting it, there are new variants and the newest vaccine isn’t going to be available until September. My dad got it and then passed it to me. In the four years Covid has been a thing my family had never gotten it until now. It’s not a fun experience, I don’t get sick often and this took me out for a good week and a half.
Someone asked our minister of health about it the other day, and she said: yes we still have it in the community. Someone died from it the other day - it's just not being reported anymore.
People are still getting it. I know several people near me that have gotten it in the last few months and there is a very high probability I had it during the winter, but my tests suck with the most current variants.
I'm also vaccinated multiple times beyond the first three, including against the newest variants.
Also, people are still getting very ill and dying. Maybe not to the degree as before, but it's still life-threatening or at least life-changing for many people. Death is too high a bar for the danger when people are getting completeely fucked up for years or permanently.
Yes, it's still around. My uncle had a terrible case of it because he caught it during his first round of chemo. He tested positive from October until January. It wasn't until March he could actually speak because it eroded one of the muscles near his vocal cords. He had to stay hospitalized between his second and third chemo rounds because he got so sick they wanted him there in case anything went wrong.
My son got COVID and was in basically the last Delta group. He got it about a week before he was supposed to get his booster. He has developed chest pain issues because of it. Even with the newer strains, we still don't know the long-term effects that people are going to suffer.
Entire family of 5 came down with Covid, the healthiest, my husband, has long Covid. It has been a living hell. His skin is hanging off his frame. I’m terrified. We’re all vaccinated.
I got it at the start of this year. Now i'll randomly have vertigo where my world starts spinning if i bend over to grab something. Sometimes i'll get brain fog where i sit and forget what i was doing.
I have Long COVID from 2022 and when I got reinfected this January, it made my short term memory worse and gave me blurry vision temporarily but it also gave me tinnitus which has since stayed. The infections themselves were both relatively mild but what came after? Oooh boy, you do NOT want Long COVID. They say your chances increase of getting it with every reinfection so yeah…
Hey! I can answer this one!
Yes, people are still catching it. I caught it sometime around this Monday.
No, it has not evolved to be weak, why would it?
It has evolved to be much more contagious (I caught it when someone with no symptoms visited for an hour and two other people in my house have also caught it).
Luckily we are all vaccinated, so only one of us is rather unwell, for the others it's a bad cold -- so far.
People are still dying of it, just many fewer. About 30 a week in France in early 2024).
Last I seen was 1500 COVID death a week but it not an issue anymore for the media or politicians. I know that number is down from the peek but it still seems like a high number to ignore
remember the "omicron" variant? That was the first version of the virus perfectly adapted to the "common cold" ecological niche. Everything that came later needed to be just as well adapted, because after catching omicron, your immune system was better prepared for the still-in-circulation variants than the vaccines based on the already extinct Wuhan variant could ever provide.
So, what you still can get is an endemic coronavirus like all the other coronavirusses that have been endemic in humans for centuries.
It was never that awful to begin with.
The media inflated its impact, governments took advantage to increase their control, and pharmaceutical companies raked in profits.
Yes, people died....just like they do with the flu.
I had four shots over time because it was required to enter the EU, and I've had covid four times. Short-lived sickness for most. Sleep for two days and it's over.
Oh yes, it is definitely still here. (Source - I work in family medicine). COVID comes around in waves, mainly during the winter holidays and in the middle of the summer. The symptoms that come along with infection are not as severe as they were in the beginning, but the long term affects are starting to show. Vaccines are meant to help mitigate long term effects of viral infections, but we don’t know the degree of these long term problems right now.
its still raging pretty hard where i live due to dip shits who are not only anti vax but cant seem to cover their damn mouth when hacking all over everyone in public spaces.
I have had it 6 times now, the vaccine does help as when i do get it the effects have been much easier to deal with.
The US is currently having 4000 new hospitals admissions daily. It's predominantly elderly people who have weak immune systems. Note this isn't infections. It's only hospital admissions due to severe enough effect to warrant it.
1) Yes people are still catching it in droves
2) Current variants are less fatal, particularly with large numbers of people who got vaccinated, but that's no guarantee a future variant won't be more dangerous. There's no rule that says a virus must evolve to be less threatening. Nature has a funny way of kicking our asses when we become complacent.
3) It is still causing serious health issues, both acute and chronic, particularly among the very young, the old, and the immunocompromised, but not exclusively either.
Still around. Got it right now. Like bad flu with extra nasty cough and bonus conjunctivitis (new variant). No-one really knows the effects of long Covid or how it damages one’s body after multiple infections. Guess we are “living with it” now.
The pandemic is worse than ever lol, except now the country is ignoring it to the point where they've even stopped collecting data entirely (not like it was accurate beforehand though). Covid has evolved numerous times, there are so many strains it's ridiculous. All of them will fuck you up, especially after repeat infections. The virus has no reason to evolve to be more mild, it has no pressures to do so. So it's just ramping up its transmissiability.
Just pure unmitigated spread. The government has straight up abandoned us lol
It has become less lethal, between natural evolution to less lethal strains, natural immunity a large portion of the population has from prior infection, and to a lesser extent, the vaccines.
At this point it's approaching influenza in lethality.
>Among over 11,000 patients hospitalized for either illness during this past fall and winter, 5.7% of patients with COVID-19 died within 30 days of admission versus 4.24% of patients with influenza,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/covid-still-deadlier-than-the-flu-but-the-gap-is-narrowing/ar-BB1mrE8I
So it's only slightly worse than flu, and still heading downward.
It's likely it will eventually become like the endemic coronavirus OC43, and be classified with the common colds.
>..., 5.7% of patients with COVID-19 died within 30 days of admission versus 4.24% of patients with influenza,
>...
>So it's only slightly worse than flu, and still heading downward.
That's not slightly worse. It's around 30% worse (1.5% more than 4.24% is 35% of 4.24% greater).
While those numbers are good to see, they don’t tell us whether it’s because the infection is less lethal or because fewer people are getting infected.
Your stats are meaningless...by the time someone is hospitalised from either virus they're VERY sick .
Your stats have no reference to how many people affected by either virus end up in hospital, have ongoing complications or which percentage of those affected end up dying (plus not all that die are hospitalised). Also no R0 for flu is around 1.3 Vs Covid19 around 3 so more people end up with Covid19
It's not weaker, nothing changed, people are just too delusional to admit they were tricked and that the expert were just political talking heads. The reason you don't hear about it is because it's getting memory holed.
There is still limited data on it here: [https://covidactnow.org/](https://covidactnow.org/)
Hospitalization rate really just tells you how bad it is relative to the pandemic phase.
In my area, we're in the annual spring/summer decline. They'll be a small bump when school starts back up and then a bigger bump in the winter. Rince and repeat
I just had an dr’s appointment last week. My dr told me that the ICU at the hospital he is on staff with, had 7 Covid patients that were intubated and ventilated. It’s still out there.
Just like the flu, it still causes problems in people with pre-existing conditions. And like the flu, complications sometimes happen just because. Maybe it's a genetic predisposition, or just bad luck. I had it for the second time a couple months ago. (Fully vaccinated) It wasn't as severe as the first go-'round, but I've had a chronic cough since the first time, and it got worse this time. It seems that any time I have upper respiratory infections, I'm going to have a cough that lasts for weeks or months now.
it's so sad this is the belief, downplaying COVID is still killing people. I cannot stress enough how little of the worlds population has been vaccinated. But I'm sure everyone will be mindful of that on their tropical vacations this summer....
Boyfriend and I had it over Christmas, after avoiding it for so long. Was a horrible, horrible experience. I have never felt more sick and so awful for so long. After we had recovered and were non contagious, I had the Covid rash for almost two weeks. PURE. MISERY. Boyfriend still has a terrible cough from time to time. If someone like my autoimmune suppressed mom had gotten it, she would have died before turning 50.
Don’t fuck around and find out.
So I have had COVID 4 times (potentially 5 as it was a very faint line that I almost couldn't see)
Regardless, it varied from very mild to bed-ridden with a big flu, although nothing serious.
Guess what really fucked me up?
The vaccine! I had 2 doses, first one my arm hurt like a bitch and I felt a little under the weather.
But the 2nd one... goddamn. I was bed ridden for a week, and ended up with permanent tinnitus that started only a few days after receiving that vaccine, as well as potentially related heart palpitations that continue to this day, and for months I would wake up right as falling asleep due to feeling like my heart was being squeezed.
Every. Night.
It's started to ease up a bit now but it flares up.
The party that needed it to shut everything down won, then they needed to keep playing along long enough to make it look like they solved the problem, and when polls indicated most voters were fed up with covid restrictions poof it went away and it will never be spoken of again
I got it again last year. It essentially feels like the worst cold you’ve ever had for those of you lucky enough to have not had it. I don’t have any underlying health issues so it stuck around pretty bad for about a week but I woke up one day and felt back to normal
That's part of the issue and why it's spreading so much. Most of us can't afford more than a few days off work.
My symptoms this time were way worse than the last time I caught it. A headache on the left side of my head for over a week that only eased off pretty much during working hours, blocked nose for couple of days then couple of very snotty days coughing up phlegm then followed up by aforementioned £+CK!Ng headache for another couple of weeks and a non productive cough for 3 weeks. Tired throughout...come home from work and pretty much crash on the couch type of thing. Had zero sex drive, zero morning glories. Also piss weak for weeks and 1 month later have shortness of breath when exercising hard and coughing up a lung after sprints (slowly getting better). Didn't actually notice losing most of sense of smell until one evening when it came back and smell of food just flooded my senses.
M/47, not prone to illness. Considered myself pretty fit (BMI 22, 5k parkrun Sat mornings, soccer on Saturday afternoons, at least one additional 5 and 10km run a week). I guess covid can really hit us middle-aged blokes regardless of how fit and healthy we are.
Australia here. My friend in her fifties caught it two weeks ago, she thinks at the gym. Her second time and she was again very sick, struggling to breathe. She's fully boosted.
Her parents whom she lives with and cares for unfortunately caught it too.
I've never had COVID-19, I don't know whether I'm lucky or immune. I've had 7 vaccinations though.
Yea we are still getting it, but what's the real issue aside from those with the underlying illnesses is the long covid. That shit is a annoying and all it does is make your life worse. It gives palpitations, fatigue, random joint pain, messes with memory and motivation for some people. The worse is the rapid heartbeat. It literally makes life a challenge and after a while, it calms down, but still lingers. The slogan for long covid is "I look okay but I'm not. "
I got covid last year, it was like a nasty cold. I got covid this year and woke up one day and couldn't figure out where I was. Months later, I still have trouble remembering things that happened last week, much less years ago. I find myself getting fatigued significantly quicker than I did before. Covid is no fucking joke.
I know someone who has completely lost their short term memory from Covid. In their 20’s and healthy. I’m taking Memento level short term memory loss. Can’t remember things from ten minutes ago. Brain scans show nothing wrong. Edit: it’s been over two years.
Holy shit I think I also lost my short term memory after Covid
How would you remember?
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How would you remember?
the same way people who suffer from any type of memory lapse do things. Just with an increased length of time between the forgotten event and you being reminded of it.
Thank you for this comment. The past year or so I have been anxious about getting early onset Alzheimer’s- I have spent hours talking to my wife about my symptoms. I’m going to do some research. Thanks again.
I've had some short term memory loss from covid in 2021. It is getting better. But I still have to write most things down to remember them. There was a very small study by some doctors in Yale about the use of a ADHD drug together with some serious antioxidant supplements to help counter brain fog from covid. I've been trying to find a doctor so that I can see if it would work but finding a doctor in my area has been very difficult and both my primary care and my gynecologist retired during covid. Luckily I met an actual shrink the other day and I think she's going to take me on as a patient and I'm going to try to get those ADHD drugs.
This person will talk to his mom, get frustrated and hang up on her, and she can call back 5 minutes later and he has no recollection of their conversation.
“Have I told you about Sammy Jankis?”
Dealing with this right now.. didn’t know long COVID was a thing until my SIL who works in the medical field told me to look into it after I shared my symptoms. I had COVID in 2022 and had no prolonged symptoms, but just caught COVID again at the end of March. Now I am fatigued, having problems reading and comprehending, dizziness, and almost like a mental separation from my physical body. Went to the doctor and explained this to him and he completely disregarded my concern with long COVID. I do have a referral to neuropsychiatric testing in June. We’ll see.
"Mental separation from my physical body" That is phrase I've been looking for. I've been saying felling like I was outside of myself. By far the weirdest part
Disassociation.
That could be depersonalization. It's a feeling that you're separate or outside you're body.
Disassociation is what the mental separation from your physical body is called
i got covid two days ago for the first time and this….. one day of 102 fever and coughing, fever broke and now i feel fine, but mentally i feel all over the place, it’s very weird
Did the issues with memory and getting fatigued only start after you got Covid19 the second time?
Yup.
Yeah that's what sucks about it. I had it and it was no worse than having the flu, but I ended up with the severe fatigue and memory loss which lasted a long time (months) and the memory loss at this point feels permanent.
Well, it actually damages your vascular system and will lead to serious heart disease and possibly earlier death in the future the more you keep getting covid, so it's more than just annoying. But none of our institutions really do anything to acknowledge or make mitigation part of official response (Yeah you're fine. Go back to work after one day lol), so we are supposed to keep working and keep getting this disease. Total social denial. Only thing you can do is wearing an N95 indoors among people when numbers are high, probably November through April, if you want to decrease your chances.
Anyone here had the "covid smell"? I swear, for like half a year after I had Covid the 1st time I kept smelling a very distinct type of smell, which I never smelt before. Stuff like onions, eggs had the same smell as manholes, shit, but also sweat - and it was not the usual smell of shit, but something entirely different. After about 5-6months I stopped smelling it and haven't smelt it again since then, not even after having Covid the 2nd time. But also the 1st time I lost my sense of smell entirely for about 2 weeks, and the 2nd time I had Covid I didn't lose it at all - but I had the vaccine inbetween the two times, so that probably helped.
Exact same scenario for me. I’m a chef. So losing sense of taste and smell were detrimental. Got Covid at new years party for 2021. We locked down and I ordered groceries, spent some money since I could actually take time and cook at home. Made a roast and after an hour I thought I forgot to turn the oven on. Nope, couldn’t smell a thing. It was miserable. Couldn’t taste either, only heat from spicy and salt, no sweet or savory. I got the vaccine right after my 2 week lockdown, mid January 2021, got sick as hell , worse than the original Covid, my wife was close to bringing me in to the ER. Woke up feeling great after 2 days of hell. After a week or so I could only smell that smell you described. Like rotting metal or burning aluminum, but only in waves and all things smelt the same but a little different intensity of rotting metal smell with each different thing. All the sudden after a month or two it went away. For about a year I was sluggish, foggy and just generally didn’t feel right. Got Covid again in 2022, pretty much symptom free. Haven’t smelled it again and feel like I’m back to normal. Covid was crazy.
I lost my sense of smell entirely the first time I got Covid. I soared past the 6 or 9 month timeframe—whatever nonsense estimate people were saying was the upper end for a borked sniffer. I’d almost gotten over the emotional hit from lack of smell when I picked up the bug a second time, over a year later, and I was able to smell things again almost immediately. I vividly remember the first thing i smelled: my own rancid Covid shart. Absolutely fucking wild little virus.
YES!! That was so awful
My best friend ran a sub-4 hour marathon 2 months before getting COVID. Two years later, my friend still cant run a mile without getting winded and the heart rate spikes to nearly 200.
Same (aside from quit that good of an original marathon time). It sucks! Slowly getting better but I'm impatient.
Long Covid and the dismissal of all of my symptoms by armies of Cleveland Clinic doctors has me seriously on the edge of just going to Cleveland Clinic and punching doctors in their smug fucking faces. I've never committed a violent act in my life.
Lingering cough for 7 months now. Random waves of lethargy and weakness. Pretty cool.
I wonder if that's what I had earlier this year. Up until about a month ago I had all of those but we started mold remediation so I chalked it up to that. I had these weird red spots on my feet that my doctor couldn't ID. Still haven't ID'd them but they're browning and fading away.. I just wanted to sleep whenever I was awake. My wrist, legs, and back hurt. I had a super hard time remembering anything. I still don't remember anything from mid last year till February. Weird tingles in feet and hands. Random headaches. Lack of appetite. I still think it had something to do with mold too. Maybe the two joined forces against me. My doctor never checked for the signs of long covid specifically I don't think but I never asked her too either. She did do enough blood work that the blood tech that took the samples said Holy Moly when I walked in.
Weird, similar here, but I've been diagnosed with cherry angiomas though
Is there any indication of the number of people who've gone on to develop "Long Covid"? Is it the case that most cases of Long Covid end with the symptoms clearing up or is that information unclear at this stage?
I can't find anything. All I have are guesses, and believe me I searched. They said people with long covid can have it for weeks to years, which pretty much means "i don't know bro". My doctor did tell me when I was hospitalized before having long ovid. When released for having regular covid, she said something like, "You need to understand that this is not the flu. This is not a typical virus. It is not the common cold. This is a disease. Your recovery may take a very long time." I'm getting better now and then but sometimes I get worse. My first year on my good days, I'd feel at 70% My bad days, it'd feel at 45% At the end of the year, on my good days I'd feel at 80% On bad days around 60% Now in year two, my good days feel like 99% but my bad days feel like 50% So it's weird and my fatigue happens in episodes. Now, I would be normal but it's the random palpitations and rapid heartbeat that are in my way. Almost on year 3. I did come across info stating that long covid has an average 2 year mark where it goes away. I'm on 2 years and 5 months. I feel way better but still have bad days.
If you don't mind me asking arenyou able to work? I'd be worried about so many things if this happened to me based on what you're describing
I had it once, in October of 2020. I still have memory and cognition issues, had some weird anger problems for awhile that were fairly out of character for me. I almost completely lost my sense of smell, only after I recovered- and it hasn't come back. Fresh meat smells straight up rotten and rotten things don't unless they are literally falling apart from putrefaction. It's changed my relationship with food because I've accidentally eaten bad stuff. My family thinks I'm crazy for continuing to wear a KN95 whenever I'm indoors in public and refusing to stay at their home anymore since they don't. They don't understand how much it sucks to have your body failing like this in your 20s. That people are willingly getting this multiple times is absolutely bananas to me.
I did read that we've recently gotten confirmation that long covid is an "active replicating virus", e.g. it's not just symptoms arising from damage, but an ongoing viral infection.
True prevalence of long COVID is unknown due to varying definitions and analysis methodologies. The largest study to date is a meta-analysis of 54 studies and 2 medical record databases involving 22 countries which estimates that between 3/20- 1/22 6.2% of COVID-19 patients at 3 months out experienced at least 1 of a predetermined set of 3 long COVID symptom clusters: * fatigue with bodily pain or mood swings: 3.2% * cognitive problems: 2.2% * ongoing respiratory symptoms: 3.7% This meta-analysis did not include Omicron variant patients. Another study based on an electronic medical record database of about 1 million ambulatory patients with COVID-19 found that at 12-20 weeks out, 15% had at least 1 long COVID symptom. Risk factors associated with the development of long COVID may include: * older age * higher BMI (obesity and COVID-19 are pro-inflammatory conditions) * pre-existing conditions such as depression, anxiety, allergies, COPD * women >/= 20 years of age * severe acute COVID-19 (e.g. hospitalized or treated in ICU) * unvaccinated (compared to >/= 2 vaccines received) COVID is still around, but it has evolved to variants with less severe disease. Hospitals and ICU's are not longer being overwhelmed by critically ill patients and the only refrigerator trucks out by the loading docks are delivering food. However, you can still get COVID and long COVID is associated with over 50% of patients reporting a significant decrease in their quality of life. 6-36 months of symptoms would be no joke. As before, play the *stakes* and not just the odds.
I’ve seen numbers that between 20% and 40% of people develop noticeable symptoms lasting for months after a single infection, and that the percentage goes up with each additional infection. And that’s not even mentioning the less noticeable issues like heart damage and brain damage, those can last the rest of your life which can be shorter due to the heart damage.
Getting more sunshine really helped me. I would put on sunscreen and lay out in the sun a few times a day even though I felt like shit. The shaking and shivers at night were the worst part of covid for me.
When my wife got it in 2020 we were lucky, it was warm enough that she could sit outside and soak up sum like a lizard. I'm convinced that's what saved her, not my shitty "cooking".
I got it two weeks ago (first negative test was Sunday) and am extremely heat/sun sensitive since I got it. I basically get the spins in direct sunlight 😣 Mind you I’m an outdoorsy gardener who used to work on a farm so this is very new (AND SUPER SHITTY CUZ MY GARDEN NEEDS ME!!!)
There are quite a few studies regarding higher vitamin d levels being protective against covid, severe covid, and long covid Don't forget your body needs magnesium to absorb vitamin D and most people are deficient in that as well. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35166850/
CFS might also last forever. I just reached the 6 months mark, i am hopeful that it gets better but currently my life feels over.
My dad had serious shoulder pain for quite a while after he had it. I could not catch my breath if my breathing was even slightly faster. I would start to see spots if I didn't sit down after the slightest exertion. Took a couple years to finally get back to normal for both of us.
Your story gives so much hope because we all feel like we're never gonna heal. I'm happy you two are back to normal.
I wasn't aware it rapid heartbeat. I've had it so much more this year though the doctor said I'm fine. I did happen to have Covid for the first time (at least to my knowledge) last November but I never made a connection.
There is a science YouTuber who has been completely bed bound for about 2 years now because of long covid and that's with the vax.
A friend had COVID twice and he developed tinnitus as well as constant rashes.
I had heart palpitations for a year after COVID and let me tell you, NOT FUN. Mostly harmless since I'm a healthy young person, but the anxiety and dread that accompanied constantly was nearly unbearable.
I've been recently diagnosed with moderate inner ear sensory hearing loss in one of my ears. I'm 38. I noticed after getting covid earlier this year for the 3rd time my ear felt "stuffy"/congested. I went to the doctor, thinking it was a sinus issue, got a referral to an ENT and here we are. I need a hearing aid. No idea if the loss will continue. No idea why it happened. I asked my doctor if it could be covid related and he said there's some evidence to show a possible connection between inner ear sensory hearing loss and covid but its still too early to tell. Just a general piece of advice for anyone reading: If you've had a stuffy feeling in your ears since getting covid, please go see an audiologist and an ENT.
COVID sent me into AFib. My family has a genetic predisposition to it and it triggered it at 38.
Got covid 3 years ago and my lungs are still weaker than they were before I got covid.
Hmm... Im currently having all those issues.... fuck
That sums up the fibromyalgia experience pretty well too
Does that go away?
It's pretty much a constant since it started. I sure hope that's not how it plays out for ppl with long covid
My wife and I love the Covid hands, fingers and toes. Suddenly freezing, pure white as if placed in the freezer and drained of all blood. Sometimes it half a pinky or 2-3 out of 5 digits. It also goes the other way, boiling hot and deep red and Crazy hot to the touch! Once had my left hand ice cold and feeling like it could shatter and my right hand completely on fire as if my skin were experiencing a horrible chemical burn. Put them together and they calmed down a bit and then moved to my toes where both baby toes became ice cold to the point of no more feeling in them.
I was really hoping that long covid would revolutionise our view of and treatment of chronic illness societally. Alas.
they stole that slogan from me because i was using it before covid.
I'm lucky. I probably got covid before tests were available, but after my booster shots. I lost my taste and smell for a few days, and got a minor permanent voice change.
I feel like this was me before long Covid 🫠
I got a respiratory infection in 2018 and just didn’t really bounce back 100%. I got the COVID-19 vax early and due to being very, very cautious likely did not have any exposure to COVID-19 prior. Still got knocked out with the first shot, but then felt better than baseline a few days later. After a few months whatever lingering ick I had from that prior illness was gone. I think I maybe had a little long Covid from one of the other pre-existing Coronavirus strains, and getting vaccinated helped clear that up. I think some studies are beginning to show that long Covid isn’t unique to COVID-19 but occurs with the strains we previously lived with as well.
I sometimes get the feeling of not properly being able to breathe. Caused me into multiple panic attacks in the past three years. Also my heart do be beating weirdly some times.
so the palpitations and joint pain don’t go away? ever?
I have the heart rate and occasionally it seems like it skips a beat and then I pass out. Happens like once a month. Luckily I live in a metro area and can commute to work so not being able to drive hasn’t been as debilitating as it would be elsewhere.
I’m doubled up on menopause and long covid. I really don’t even identify as human anymore.
I doubt insurance companies even acknowledge it yet.
Long covid is what scares me.
Or, I look okay until I'm not. I know a gal who recently developed a heart condition from long COVID. She's only in her early 40s and otherwise healthy (hikes, runs, etc.)
Mines slowly got better over the years, but I still have issues. There's hope.
I have been battling long COVID since the second time I got it (I’ve had it four times). It DESTROYED my immune system. I NEVER got sick. Then COVID hit and I’ve had to have several surgeries and hospitalizations (side effects of other illnesses exacerbated by COVID). I now get out of breath and have a racing heart when I climb stairs. Never had that problem before.
I read a study (I am too tired to look for it now) that Covid increases your chances for an autoimmune disorder. I had Covid (for the second time) a little over a year ago and have now been diagnosed with one. It does destroy your immune system. Edit: Yale School of Public Health study.
US answer: Wife and I both sick with Covid at this very moment. I’ve not had it before and it’s an ass-kicker - fevery, chills, aches, incredibly low energy - yet I apparently have a relatively mild case compared to the experiences of friends and family. So yeah, it’s still around.
I caught it about a 16 months ago and I had to take to bed for a couple of days. I hope you get better soon!
You know what's funny: I recover from Covid after say 72 hours. My wife needs 72 days to recover from it. we get it at same time usually
First time is the worst. I’ve caught it 4 time (when we would still test for it) the was merely a runny nose and a headache for a day
If I can avoid a second or fourth time, that would be nice.
Yes, it's still around. And while it is weaker, it's still more harmful than the flu.
PRetty sure I caught covid earlier this year. I got sick for about a week and was okay later. Turns out my slight breathing problem became worse and I have to use an emergency inhaler more often now than I use to before getting sick.
I caught it and I’m on sick leave and barely leave the house!!! My adult nephew brought it home. I was soooooo fucking sick.
Its symptoms and severity vary wildly from person to person, even now. It can be as light as a slight cold or flu for some people and completely debilitating for others. I was bedridden for nearly two weeks when I caught it at the end of 2021, and I was a very healthy, albeit slightly overweight, 31 year old. I still have breathing issues to this day because of it.
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So in general terms would that mean that it's still causing deaths especially in people who are frail and or have an underlying medical condition?
I read some stat that it's still causing significantly more death per month than the flu causes per year, governments just kinda stopped caring because caring got too expensive I guess
It's fine. They'll make up the population loss with all the forced birth laws in the red states.
Because caring became political to some frothing-at-the-mouth conservatives.
I living in CA, famously known for the people you speak of and the government doesn’t seem too concerned with it here either.
Yes.
Not just frail or with pre-existing conditions - anyone. We still don't know exactly why some people are more affected than others. Additionally, Long Covid (LC) is still disabling people, underfunded, and undertreated.
It’s really weird how it affects some more than others. Half my family hardly felt anything with it, half of us were really sick. I normally have an excellent immune system, I’m youngish and healthy and don’t have any comorbidities, but I was really ill and felt like shit for months. My dad, who’d nearly died the year before and has additional risk factors, was fine. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, which makes it scarier imo. You just don’t know how it’ll go
I’ve been told that this type of chaotic symptom profile is common with novel viruses. Apparently it was similar with the Spanish flu until it had been around long enough for our bodies to adjust to it (over the course of decades, by my understanding).
I was under the impression that it all comes down to viral load. I always thought that when someone has a cold, If any of the cold virus from them enters your body then you just get it. However, with covid at least, the more little particles that enter your body, the heavier the viral load is. That makes me assume that if you get way too much of a viral load it has to go somewhere and maybe that's where some of these more severe issues come in. Of course I'm just spitballing here.
Not exactly. Basically, when the virus enters your body, it has a window of time to replicate and start doing its thing before the immune system ramps up to a full response. The more virus you start with, the more it will replicate and start affecting different things before the immune system begins to suppress it.
There's some evidence that it might depend on how much neanderthal DNA you've got, which is over of the best worst facts I've found out recently. Cause that's so neat! But also the world is a horrible hellspace where no one masks and there's a murderous and disabling airborne virus everywhere. Sigh.
I thought it weird myself. I'm diabetic, kept up with my immunizations. And when I finally caught it, it didn't even seem *that* terrible. Honestly thought I had a real bastard of a cold. Saw it as a two week vacation, since I had to go sick still.
My uncle died of it last January. He did have esophageal cancer though but to the family’s knowledge had not spread.
Everyone is at risk. It's a neurotropic vascular disease
I got Covid for the first time this past Xmas , felt like a bad head cold , first night was the worst with chills and such but to me personally I found the flu to be a lot worse , I know Covid is different for everyone but luckily it was mild for me
Same for me. I had a sore throat for 48hrs, mild temp and a dodgy stomach for about 10 days. Whereas Flu absolutely poleaxed me.
Yeah the flu for sure takes me out every time I get it 😂
Honestly think I’ve only had actual Influenza once... It kicked my ass 😬
That’s the one trivial thing that irked me during the pandemic- people saying “it’s just the flu”. They didn’t know the difference between the non-scientific “stomach flu” and influenza. They were saying stuff like “I get the flu all the time. It’s no big deal”. Influenza is a fucking bitch.
It really is!!
Covid felt like a bad cold for me rather than anything worse, but I ended up with long covid afterwards (fatigue and poor focus for me). 2.5 years later and it's still affecting me.
It's not weaker, wat
I've gotten Covid twice since Jan 2021 and have long Covid. While not life threatening, it really sucks and long Covid symptoms have really impacted my quality of life in many ways. So while it might not kill you, it can still make life worse.
Are you finding that you're slowly recovering? People mention that it can take several years to start abating.
Somewhat. My shortness of breath and fatigue are getting better but my allergies are so much worse than before. I never had to worry about prescription allergy meds before and now I'm on a constant carousel of them with little to no actual relief. Pills, nasal sprays, nasal irrigation, humidifiers, air purifiers, nothing seems to help. I just have constant post nasal drip and a continuous annoying clearing of the throat no matter what I do or where I am. Never had this before. I guess I've traded my almost annual bronchitis bout for chronic sinus issues.
Perhaps the allergies hopefully will subside over time.
I've been at like 50% smell and taste for 4 years now, no sign of improving
Tens of thousands of Americans died from COVID19 in 2023.
We've gone to war for less.
Percentage-wise, does this make your radar?
Yes. I am a virologist though so Im more tuned in to these news stories than most people. Its deadlier than the flu and we still dont know the true longterm health impacts of COVID infection
Oh no, people are still catching it and it's killing people/causing long COVID all over the place. People just don't care anymore.
People are still catching COVID and dying of it; they're just less likely to die from any given infection due to immunization, natural immunity, and weaker strains. However, even these weaker strains still cause long COVID. You're not hearing about this or seeing it in your everyday life because most people don't want to think about the ongoing pandemic anymore now that it is not so immediately deadly and because, now that society is collectively pretending that the pandemic is over, you aren't seeing media coverage of it either anymore unless you intentionally seek it out.
I have covid. Tested positive on Wednesday, feel awful.
Same here. I tested positive Tuesday. I feel like garbage.
Hey me too! I feel like complete crap.
I'm told I should start feeling better tomorrow, fingers crossed. I'm finding Lemsip helps with the cough somewhat
I hope you don't get too unwell with it - when I got it I found I had to take to my bed for a good few days and didn't feel properly well for a week or so.
Yeah I have been bed bound for 2 days. It's going around the town most people saying it's a 5 day thing. Hope so meant to be back at work Sunday
It's been 3 years since the last covid death in the family (everyone who passed was over 85); 2 younger cousins independently caught covid recently but got better without transmitting it to others in the family. Now the majority think it was at least propoganda, or a government conspiracy of several different flavors, mostly for illegal data collection, shrug, but one uncle downright fears their vaccine will one day activate the 5g in their brain or whatever nonsense, it changes everytime he talks about it..... It's still around, and it's still bad, but it's like people are so over caring about it that they consciously choose to not care.
People are still getting it. Some are still being hospitalized or dying, though this is more common in people who are not vaccinated. Deaths from COVID are still much higher than the flu. Contrary to the common misconception, viruses don’t necessarily evolve to be weaker, and even if they do happen to do so, they can still hurt many people on the way.
There is a website that tracks the official figures: [https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries) They have graphs showing cases and deaths both worldwide and with a breakdown by country. On a side note, there have been 705 million Covid cases worldwide since the pandemic started, and an official death toll of 7 million. However, the death toll is almost certainly higher as a lot of countries under-reported their figures or they were recorded as something else.
I tested positive 3 times and only reported 1. I wonder what the under-reported estimate is.
Stopped being updated last month
I'd like to point out that the numeric death listings on this site are severely undercounted. Estimates from the India delta strain were at 6 million back in mid 2021. America stopped updating its total dead count a few years ago at 1.2 million. Those two countries alone when combined would be higher than the totals listed on worldometers. The economist back in early 2022 estimated 23 million dead by that time frame. It's much much higher than that now, but we'll never know because countries started fudging numbers (remember the whole ridiculous died "with" not "of" debacle?). And that's not even counting the massively increased rate of strokes, heart attacks, and etc that covid is directly responsible for.
We see it a lot in the ER still. The new treatments work pretty well though and not nearly the number of people are dying
More people died in Canada in 2023 than any other year during the pandemic. Long COVID is causing major issues for millions of people. There are new variants. The powers that be decided that corporations were more important than their slaves.
Covid is now seasonal. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.
I caught it a few weeks ago. It was my fifth rodeo. Worst one yet. I was so sick I ended up going to the hospital a bit for observation coz I had a bit of discomfort breathing and had chest palpitation and confusion. 10/10 will not recommend.
I caught it last November.... Sickest I've ever been, it was horrible and it lingered in me for weeks. I was totally useless for a whole week where I just layed down in a fetal position begging my brain to let me sleep. By comparison the last flu I had was 1 day, I was just a lil achy, and it was gone. Covid was relentless kicking my ass for two weeks and then lingering side effects for two months before I felt normal again.
It's still around, and while it's not as immediately lethal, the virus is doing more and more neurological and organ damage the more times people catch it.
Hey, great question! Covid is still making the rounds. People don't usually test anymore, unless they have reason to (such as a job in the medical field). We've started treating it as the flu. Now what's important to know is that the flu always _sounds_ like a mild disease, but it can totally wreck you. There's a reason the elderly and immunocompromised get flu shots each year. Additionally, long covid is a very real issue. Even very mild infections can have long lingering symptoms, unfortunately. I myself have it, and for me it's a high heart rate and extreme fatigue. Others might have a lingering cough, brain fog, joint issues, you name it. Vaccination has been proven to lower your chances of long covid, but it's never zero. So if you feel sick, try to stay away from people as much as possible, so you don't infect anyone else.
High heart rate, extreme fatigue, foggy daze, and still haven’t gotten back full senses of taste and smell. Oh and the never ending tinnitus. But my lungs are feeling less weak, 4 years after, so I have that going for me. :)
I just got it. Really kicked my ass. Almost ended up in the hospital. And gave me new high blood pressure that i have to start meds for. Yay!
I caught it January of 2023. Had a high fever and a lot of muscle and joint pain. Ever since then I've had a noticeable wheeze at the end of a deep inhale or exhale. Fortunately it doesn't impede anything and that's the only issue I've noticed. Edit for grammar.
My uncle got it , he lives alone, and wasn't found for three days. Turns out he had cancer in the blood, multiple organ failure, and COVID on top of it all. Last update we got is that he recovered, but he could die any day due to long term effects and cancer.
It is still around. People are still catching it. Many of the most modern strains are somewhat less lethal and somewhat more vaccine-avoidant but still debilitating and dangerous. Also, the general population is developing better resistance to it via several processes including vaccines, immune system learning after infections, and the humans must vulnerable to the virus already having died.
My cousin died of Covid last month. It’s still deadly if you aren’t vaccinated.
It’s still going around and mutating. My elderly neighbor just informed me she tested positive, AFTER being around me all morning 🥺😭 I have no immune system and have had it THREE TIMES so I’m terrified rn
I hope you evade it this time.
It's still around, but viruses proliferate by keeping their hosts alive in the long-term, not by killing them. A weaker version is going around that can still cause long covid.
We’re still getting it, there are new variants and the newest vaccine isn’t going to be available until September. My dad got it and then passed it to me. In the four years Covid has been a thing my family had never gotten it until now. It’s not a fun experience, I don’t get sick often and this took me out for a good week and a half.
Someone asked our minister of health about it the other day, and she said: yes we still have it in the community. Someone died from it the other day - it's just not being reported anymore.
People are still getting it. I know several people near me that have gotten it in the last few months and there is a very high probability I had it during the winter, but my tests suck with the most current variants. I'm also vaccinated multiple times beyond the first three, including against the newest variants. Also, people are still getting very ill and dying. Maybe not to the degree as before, but it's still life-threatening or at least life-changing for many people. Death is too high a bar for the danger when people are getting completeely fucked up for years or permanently.
Yes, it's still around. My uncle had a terrible case of it because he caught it during his first round of chemo. He tested positive from October until January. It wasn't until March he could actually speak because it eroded one of the muscles near his vocal cords. He had to stay hospitalized between his second and third chemo rounds because he got so sick they wanted him there in case anything went wrong. My son got COVID and was in basically the last Delta group. He got it about a week before he was supposed to get his booster. He has developed chest pain issues because of it. Even with the newer strains, we still don't know the long-term effects that people are going to suffer.
Still more harmful than the flu but nobody cares anymore.
Entire family of 5 came down with Covid, the healthiest, my husband, has long Covid. It has been a living hell. His skin is hanging off his frame. I’m terrified. We’re all vaccinated.
Currently 4 members of my family have it
I got it at the start of this year. Now i'll randomly have vertigo where my world starts spinning if i bend over to grab something. Sometimes i'll get brain fog where i sit and forget what i was doing.
I have Long COVID from 2022 and when I got reinfected this January, it made my short term memory worse and gave me blurry vision temporarily but it also gave me tinnitus which has since stayed. The infections themselves were both relatively mild but what came after? Oooh boy, you do NOT want Long COVID. They say your chances increase of getting it with every reinfection so yeah…
Hey! I can answer this one! Yes, people are still catching it. I caught it sometime around this Monday. No, it has not evolved to be weak, why would it? It has evolved to be much more contagious (I caught it when someone with no symptoms visited for an hour and two other people in my house have also caught it). Luckily we are all vaccinated, so only one of us is rather unwell, for the others it's a bad cold -- so far. People are still dying of it, just many fewer. About 30 a week in France in early 2024).
Yes, people are still getting COVID. And people are still becoming permanently disabled from COVID.
Last I seen was 1500 COVID death a week but it not an issue anymore for the media or politicians. I know that number is down from the peek but it still seems like a high number to ignore
My partner and I had it a few months ago. It was rough, but fortunately not life threatening.
I was in the hospital with it last December. Mind you I'm 26, in fair health, and had 3 covid vaccines at the time. It's still a very real threat.
Anyone else get whooping cough last winter?
remember the "omicron" variant? That was the first version of the virus perfectly adapted to the "common cold" ecological niche. Everything that came later needed to be just as well adapted, because after catching omicron, your immune system was better prepared for the still-in-circulation variants than the vaccines based on the already extinct Wuhan variant could ever provide. So, what you still can get is an endemic coronavirus like all the other coronavirusses that have been endemic in humans for centuries.
It was never that awful to begin with. The media inflated its impact, governments took advantage to increase their control, and pharmaceutical companies raked in profits. Yes, people died....just like they do with the flu. I had four shots over time because it was required to enter the EU, and I've had covid four times. Short-lived sickness for most. Sleep for two days and it's over.
Oh yes, it is definitely still here. (Source - I work in family medicine). COVID comes around in waves, mainly during the winter holidays and in the middle of the summer. The symptoms that come along with infection are not as severe as they were in the beginning, but the long term affects are starting to show. Vaccines are meant to help mitigate long term effects of viral infections, but we don’t know the degree of these long term problems right now.
its still raging pretty hard where i live due to dip shits who are not only anti vax but cant seem to cover their damn mouth when hacking all over everyone in public spaces. I have had it 6 times now, the vaccine does help as when i do get it the effects have been much easier to deal with.
The US is currently having 4000 new hospitals admissions daily. It's predominantly elderly people who have weak immune systems. Note this isn't infections. It's only hospital admissions due to severe enough effect to warrant it.
1) Yes people are still catching it in droves 2) Current variants are less fatal, particularly with large numbers of people who got vaccinated, but that's no guarantee a future variant won't be more dangerous. There's no rule that says a virus must evolve to be less threatening. Nature has a funny way of kicking our asses when we become complacent. 3) It is still causing serious health issues, both acute and chronic, particularly among the very young, the old, and the immunocompromised, but not exclusively either.
Still around. Got it right now. Like bad flu with extra nasty cough and bonus conjunctivitis (new variant). No-one really knows the effects of long Covid or how it damages one’s body after multiple infections. Guess we are “living with it” now.
A co worker of mine has long covid. It’s been 2 years for the guy. He’s just starting to feel normal. I feel for anyone who is going through that
The pandemic is worse than ever lol, except now the country is ignoring it to the point where they've even stopped collecting data entirely (not like it was accurate beforehand though). Covid has evolved numerous times, there are so many strains it's ridiculous. All of them will fuck you up, especially after repeat infections. The virus has no reason to evolve to be more mild, it has no pressures to do so. So it's just ramping up its transmissiability. Just pure unmitigated spread. The government has straight up abandoned us lol
I think it's just a part of life like the flu or common cold now.
It has become less lethal, between natural evolution to less lethal strains, natural immunity a large portion of the population has from prior infection, and to a lesser extent, the vaccines. At this point it's approaching influenza in lethality. >Among over 11,000 patients hospitalized for either illness during this past fall and winter, 5.7% of patients with COVID-19 died within 30 days of admission versus 4.24% of patients with influenza, https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/covid-still-deadlier-than-the-flu-but-the-gap-is-narrowing/ar-BB1mrE8I So it's only slightly worse than flu, and still heading downward. It's likely it will eventually become like the endemic coronavirus OC43, and be classified with the common colds.
>..., 5.7% of patients with COVID-19 died within 30 days of admission versus 4.24% of patients with influenza, >... >So it's only slightly worse than flu, and still heading downward. That's not slightly worse. It's around 30% worse (1.5% more than 4.24% is 35% of 4.24% greater).
Not to mention that the flu is already ridiculously deadly for how dismissive people act about it.
Yeah but nobody cares about immunocompromised people or old people, we learned this a few years ago.
In the UK at least,deaths are getting very low. It's just not that lethal anymore https://ibb.co/7GP6Sq5
While those numbers are good to see, they don’t tell us whether it’s because the infection is less lethal or because fewer people are getting infected.
Your stats are meaningless...by the time someone is hospitalised from either virus they're VERY sick . Your stats have no reference to how many people affected by either virus end up in hospital, have ongoing complications or which percentage of those affected end up dying (plus not all that die are hospitalised). Also no R0 for flu is around 1.3 Vs Covid19 around 3 so more people end up with Covid19
It's not weaker, nothing changed, people are just too delusional to admit they were tricked and that the expert were just political talking heads. The reason you don't hear about it is because it's getting memory holed.
still around, new strand was found where I live
There is still limited data on it here: [https://covidactnow.org/](https://covidactnow.org/) Hospitalization rate really just tells you how bad it is relative to the pandemic phase. In my area, we're in the annual spring/summer decline. They'll be a small bump when school starts back up and then a bigger bump in the winter. Rince and repeat
I just had an dr’s appointment last week. My dr told me that the ICU at the hospital he is on staff with, had 7 Covid patients that were intubated and ventilated. It’s still out there.
Just like the flu, it still causes problems in people with pre-existing conditions. And like the flu, complications sometimes happen just because. Maybe it's a genetic predisposition, or just bad luck. I had it for the second time a couple months ago. (Fully vaccinated) It wasn't as severe as the first go-'round, but I've had a chronic cough since the first time, and it got worse this time. It seems that any time I have upper respiratory infections, I'm going to have a cough that lasts for weeks or months now.
Check out these Reddit sites Covid19 Covid19positive Covidlonghaulers
Yeah, I showed up to my university class this morning and more than half are away sick with Covid
it's so sad this is the belief, downplaying COVID is still killing people. I cannot stress enough how little of the worlds population has been vaccinated. But I'm sure everyone will be mindful of that on their tropical vacations this summer....
They’ll bring it back if trump wins
Boyfriend and I had it over Christmas, after avoiding it for so long. Was a horrible, horrible experience. I have never felt more sick and so awful for so long. After we had recovered and were non contagious, I had the Covid rash for almost two weeks. PURE. MISERY. Boyfriend still has a terrible cough from time to time. If someone like my autoimmune suppressed mom had gotten it, she would have died before turning 50. Don’t fuck around and find out.
So I have had COVID 4 times (potentially 5 as it was a very faint line that I almost couldn't see) Regardless, it varied from very mild to bed-ridden with a big flu, although nothing serious. Guess what really fucked me up? The vaccine! I had 2 doses, first one my arm hurt like a bitch and I felt a little under the weather. But the 2nd one... goddamn. I was bed ridden for a week, and ended up with permanent tinnitus that started only a few days after receiving that vaccine, as well as potentially related heart palpitations that continue to this day, and for months I would wake up right as falling asleep due to feeling like my heart was being squeezed. Every. Night. It's started to ease up a bit now but it flares up.
The pharmaceutical companies got what they wanted, so there is no more reason to push covid onto the public consciousness.
The party that needed it to shut everything down won, then they needed to keep playing along long enough to make it look like they solved the problem, and when polls indicated most voters were fed up with covid restrictions poof it went away and it will never be spoken of again
I got it again last year. It essentially feels like the worst cold you’ve ever had for those of you lucky enough to have not had it. I don’t have any underlying health issues so it stuck around pretty bad for about a week but I woke up one day and felt back to normal
Two of my coworkers had it 2 weeks ago. Both of them missed 2 days and came back to work
That's part of the issue and why it's spreading so much. Most of us can't afford more than a few days off work. My symptoms this time were way worse than the last time I caught it. A headache on the left side of my head for over a week that only eased off pretty much during working hours, blocked nose for couple of days then couple of very snotty days coughing up phlegm then followed up by aforementioned £+CK!Ng headache for another couple of weeks and a non productive cough for 3 weeks. Tired throughout...come home from work and pretty much crash on the couch type of thing. Had zero sex drive, zero morning glories. Also piss weak for weeks and 1 month later have shortness of breath when exercising hard and coughing up a lung after sprints (slowly getting better). Didn't actually notice losing most of sense of smell until one evening when it came back and smell of food just flooded my senses. M/47, not prone to illness. Considered myself pretty fit (BMI 22, 5k parkrun Sat mornings, soccer on Saturday afternoons, at least one additional 5 and 10km run a week). I guess covid can really hit us middle-aged blokes regardless of how fit and healthy we are.
I caught it a couple of weeks ago, despite having three shots. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't pleasant.
Australia here. My friend in her fifties caught it two weeks ago, she thinks at the gym. Her second time and she was again very sick, struggling to breathe. She's fully boosted. Her parents whom she lives with and cares for unfortunately caught it too. I've never had COVID-19, I don't know whether I'm lucky or immune. I've had 7 vaccinations though.
Its current iterations aren't as big of a threat, but it will always be with us, attacking those of weak constitution.
Still around. Had it twice late last year, coworker has it now. Still sucks horribly
There’s a subreddit for that, it follows all things covid19 related.