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I was going to say that it is a combination of penny pinching (spending on COVID) and serving an agenda ("the NHS is failing").
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But surely it doesn't save money? It costs money. Sick people cost a fortune to treat. A handful of pills or a jab are so much cheaper than someone spending weeks in hospital, or even just spending days off work. The same, of course, is true of flu jabs and it's equally ridiculous that the UK doesn't do that for everyone for free.
It feels like it's inefficient short-termism built around the bullshit macho "you should just suffer through it" nonsense that always had the sniffling and sneezing hordes you always used to see on the tube going into their work.
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Yes, absolutely. It's all about saving money. It's not because of any belief that the disease is now benign.
Unless a particularly virulent strain develops it will be treated in the same way that the 'flu is - harmful to the aged or immuno-compromised, who will be offered free vaccination, but not so lethal to the rest of the population that annual nationwide inoculation is necessary when there are so many other demands on limited financial resources.
I'm not saying that I agree with this approach, but can understand the rationale.
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Im assuming its also driven by penny pinching, which is likely the main driver in Ireland behind not doing a full booster rollout.Last edited by Lang Spoon; 18-12-2023, 15:28.
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Even our spectacularly cynical and shitty US private health insurance system is desperate to get us vaccinated. Just because vaccines are relatively cheap, and sick people are not cheap at all.
I knew the UK was utterly ridiculous about treating Covid with drugs and nobody except the absolutely most at risk can get the treatments even though the treatments work and aren't particularly expensive, but vaccines?
It's like there's some macho bullshit "you should just suffer through it" nonsense. Which I can believe a lot of the idiot public genuinely think - I know that's long been an attitude to flu vaccine - but it's fucking nuts that it's also public health policy.
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People have learnt nothing. I had a chat with my previous manager the other day and she's furious because the senior manager came into the office while sick, coughing and spluttering over everyone, and infected the entire team just before Christmas. Not only that, but she lives with an immune compromised individual who's now at higher risk because of presenteeism.
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Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post"This year even fewer people are being offered the vaccine. Last winter, all over-50s could have one. Now it is only the over-65s, unless you are in an at-risk group."
Um? What? What the fuck is wrong with Britain? Why the fuck don't the authorities want everyone vaccinated? Surely even the most rotten, cynical Tory scumbag still wants their indentured peasants to be able to work their fingers to the bone rather than be stuck in bed getting sick pay or in the office infecting all their other peasants and making them also unable to work for a pittance?
Last edited by Capybara; 18-12-2023, 10:45.
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Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post"This year even fewer people are being offered the vaccine. Last winter, all over-50s could have one. Now it is only the over-65s, unless you are in an at-risk group."
Um? What? What the fuck is wrong with Britain? Why the fuck don't the authorities want everyone vaccinated? Surely even the most rotten, cynical Tory scumbag still wants their indentured peasants to be able to work their fingers to the bone rather than be stuck in bed getting sick pay or in the office infecting all their other peasants and making them also unable to work for a pittance?
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Husband and I both got flu jabs and Covid jabs this year despite being under 50. I get them because of being in an "at risk" group. I'm not exceptionally high risk but bipolar and bipolar medication dampen the immune system and fever can make bipolar medication less effective putting me at more risk of relapse. And then husband gets them because he's my registered carer.
I took the kids to have their nasal flu spray on Saturday morning. They were supposed to get it at school but I forgot to fill in the consent forms so then I've had a massive administrative task to get them booked in somewhere else. But we made it to a nearby village hall. Daughter was extremely easy, sit down, two sprays up the nose, done. Son is very different. That requires chasing him round the hall, bribing him with marshmallows, holding him down for one nostril, consoling him afterwards and then getting him to sit on my lap and play on my phone for the second nostril. Still, I pride myself on the fact that we actually managed to get flu spray up both nostrils this year whereas last year at school they only managed one nostril despite the best efforts of the entire fully trained SEN team.
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Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post"This year even fewer people are being offered the vaccine. Last winter, all over-50s could have one. Now it is only the over-65s, unless you are in an at-risk group."
Um? What? What the fuck is wrong with Britain? Why the fuck don't the authorities want everyone vaccinated? Surely even the most rotten, cynical Tory scumbag still wants their indentured peasants to be able to work their fingers to the bone rather than be stuck in bed getting sick pay or in the office infecting all their other peasants and making them also unable to work for a pittance?
Myself and herself were turned away with a "oh you have to be over 50" last month by the same pharmacist who was surprised and maybe even a little disdainful that we were getting the flu vaccine while not in an at risk category.
https://www.thejournal.ie/covid-boos...34200-Dec2023/
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I tested positive for the first time this weekend. I have slept more in one spell than I have in decades, perhaps my life but - thankfully - seem to be on the finer end of things as my cough and general malaise is starting to clear.
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"This year even fewer people are being offered the vaccine. Last winter, all over-50s could have one. Now it is only the over-65s, unless you are in an at-risk group."
Um? What? What the fuck is wrong with Britain? Why the fuck don't the authorities want everyone vaccinated? Surely even the most rotten, cynical Tory scumbag still wants their indentured peasants to be able to work their fingers to the bone rather than be stuck in bed getting sick pay or in the office infecting all their other peasants and making them also unable to work for a pittance?
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And Covid still kills. The main physical danger remains that direct one. It’s just that it also remains somewhat unpredictable who it’s a danger for.
From the Office of National Statistics for week 44 (ending 3rd November) of 2023 on UK deaths - 332 mentioning Covid, of which 230 had Covid as the underlying cause. Excess death number for that week was 409.Last edited by Janik; 14-12-2023, 07:53.
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That isn’t the reason put forward about why the late 2020 cold that went around was heavier than normal which I’ve encountered. Almost the exact opposite in fact - more that immune systems were underworked during lockdowns, so had got a bit out-of-condition* (that fits better with those who hadn’t tested positive also being floored). A period of reduced social interaction being followed by worse-than-usual variants of diseases when socialising picks back up again is very standard stuff.
* - metaphorically. Immune systems are resource-heavy. Bodies only devote what is necessary to them. If a body isn’t getting infected much, resources (i.e. t-cells and the like) are not replaced as readily when they age and die off.Last edited by Janik; 14-12-2023, 07:46.
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Hope CS feels better soon, and glad to hear steveeeeeeeee is largely out of the woods. I get the impression from reading stuff by people more expert than me that the main physical danger of it at this stage is, as steveeeeeeeee suggests, more to do with the damage covid does to our immune systems – it basically totally fucks them, leaving us much more vulnerable to whatever next hits them. So a lot of those colds people started catching in (depending when their country opened up / how adventurous they were personally) late 2020 or any time in 2021 that felt 'much worse than any cold I had before but we've all probably just forgotten what having a cold feels like because we've avoided people for so long LOL' actually probably were hitting much worse than before, because if you'd had covid at that point your immune system was much weaker (although this isn't a perfect reason, because some of us had still avoided it at that point and then caught colds, still testing negative for covid, that still floored us).
That's the main physical danger, as I say. The neurological damage it does is another matter entirely. And we're not going to have any sort of measure of the full extent of either for a long time yet,
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To echo the covid still affecting you even with mild symptoms thing, though much less delibilitatingly - last year I caught covid, felt very tired one day and slightly tired for another couple and that was it as far as symptoms went. Weeks later I had a CT scan of my sinuses and they were still noticeably inflamed, even on the non fucked-up side.
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And all the best CS, I'm sure you are doing everything you should be doing and I hope things improve rapidly for you and your wife.
Don't push yourself, if you need to lie down, from my experience your body is telling you it needs more oxygen, so just lie down and give it a chance to recover.
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Had another visit to the lung doctor today. He believes I caught covid, felt ok and then whilst doing normal things, contracted pneumonia, which is where all the damage has occurred. Makes perfect sense as I remember feeling fine 3 weeks ago and taking my daughter out to a very crowded shopping centre to get an ice-cream. It was the day after that when we both felt awful.
My big problem now is the damage the pneumonia has done to my lungs, which will recover, but if I were to get another pulmonary infection now, I would not cope with it well at all. So, I'm masking up everywhere I go for the next few weeks.
So, the moral of the story is that even though you might think your covid symptoms are mild, it clearly makes you more vulnerable to any other bugs going around, especially at this time of year. So, don't be a fool like me and think you're invicible: stay at home, rest, drink liquids and if you still feel awful after 2 weeks, get to a doctor, don't wait 5 weeks like me.
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Thanks for the kind and supportive messages. Intended to return to work today but wasn't feeling it when the alarm went and called in sick again, correct decision as I was unable to stay awake early afternoon. First days off since 2018 as an upside to all the risk averse living is that I haven't been ill with anything at all. Mrs S is 2-3 days behind me with this and has symptoms worse than I did, I'm gutted she's had to miss her sister's 50th and a London show tonight she'd been looking forward to for a long while.
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Bad luck, CS. I hope that you lasted disease free for long enough that the strain has become less harmful and the vaccines have taken to edge off what might otherwise have happened.
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An odd thing to report but since I had my septum correction on the 16th of October which involved the lining inside my nose being detached then reattached, I have not caught any bug. My wife had a very nasty bout of lurgy/covid that knocked her out a fair bit, colleagues at work full of lurgy/covid coughing and sneezing near me...nada, i just sail through it unscathed.
I do wash my nose with saline solution regularly and up until recently used an antibiotic ointment in my nostrils.
Long may it continue....
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That's really unfortunate CS, and I hope you and your good lady come through this relatively unscathed (fingers crossed).
However, you also have to remember you live in a country run by narcissistic kleptocrats, in which public safeguards against catching the bug were abandoned far too soon for political expediency - it's incredibly difficult to function to any degree in the UK and not catch Covid at some point. So try not to berate yourself too much.
Glad stevetc is on the mend.
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Jesus, that's grim. sorry to hear about that CS and Steveeee.
My sister went on holidays with her fiancee down in kerry in late august, and then came up to visit us, and brought it with her. She failed to transmit it to either me or my mam, somehow. Then in september, Mam went down to Kerry with her some retired people's group, and came back feeling a bit under the weather, then two days later tested positive. It took her the guts of 10 days to get over it, and she's still a bit effected, but is mostly over it. She had a serious wobble when she decided that she was tired of being unwashed, and tried to have a shower and wash her hair, and had a weakness, and we had to go to the hospital to get her oxygen and have her checked up. She took to the bed for another few days, and seems to broadly speaking be ok. The fucking miracle is that neither of them managed to pass it on to me, which is truly miraculous since every eight weeks I have to get injections to effectively beat my wonky immune system into submission.
Those vaccines really are fantastic. Not only in protecting me, but also in reducing the likelihood of my similarly well jabbed mam and sister passing it on. .
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