PlagueWatch - Coronavirus

Worst flu season since at least 2010...


My little one was out with the flu for 10 days with a fever every day getting as high as 105....I took her to the doctor day 1 and they said just to rest and let it play its course (no tamiflu). She did get the flu shot this year. Finally back at school. For her, way way worse than COVID symptoms/duration. The other one also got it and it took him out for 3 days. Also vaccinated.

Be careful out there.
 
Bluedog said:
Worst flu season since at least 2010...


My little one was out with the flu for 10 days with a fever every day getting as high as 105....I took her to the doctor day 1 and they said just to rest and let it play its course (no tamiflu). She did get the flu shot this year. Finally back at school. For her, way way worse than COVID symptoms/duration. The other one also got it and it took him out for 3 days. Also vaccinated.

Be careful out there.
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Between this and norovirus, schools have be closing across the country.

www.today.com

The flu season is so severe that it's forcing schools to close across the country

Schools around the U.S. are closing due to surges of flu and other illnesses, which are sickening students and staff. Here's what parents need to know.
www.today.com www.today.com
 
Have fun in Cameron's petri-dish! For the past three years, once a year when I've been my most dead, has always been after being in attendance for a game. It's the only large capacity/close quartered venue that I voluntarily go in, for the rest of the winter we avoid those places like the plague. (Because of the plague)
 
CameronBornAndBred said:
Have fun in Cameron's petri-dish! For the past three years, once a year when I've been my most dead, has always been after being in attendance for a game. It's the only large capacity/close quartered venue that I voluntarily go in, for the rest of the winter we avoid those places like the plague. (Because of the plague)
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Cameron. Middle school. About the same...

-jk
 
-jk said:
Cameron. Middle school. About the same...

-jk
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Yes, but you have to go to school, while Cameron is voluntary.

Every game I go to I hear from my wife "If you come back dead, I'm gonna be pissed at you!"

Unfortunately I come back only mostly dead, so I have to hear a lecture about my bad decisions while suffering.
 
CameronBornAndBred said:
Yes, but you have to go to school, while Cameron is voluntary.

Every game I go to I hear from my wife "If you come back dead, I'm gonna be pissed at you!"

Unfortunately I come back only mostly dead, so I have to hear a lecture about my bad decisions while suffering.
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If you come back dead, you're dead, so her being pissed at you won't have an impact on your life!

I had a nasty flu in early February, despite having gotten the flu shot. I can only imagine what it would have been like if I hadn't gotten the flu shot. My wife was on an overseas work boondoggle for much of the time, so that made it even more fun! The flu definitely seems to be going around.

Much less worse than the flu, but there also seems to be a lot of lice going around - it is all over my son's elementary school, and my whole family had it in December. Not fun.

The 10 plagues are real.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
If you come back dead, you're dead, so her being pissed at you won't have an impact on your life!

I had a nasty flu in early February, despite having gotten the flu shot. I can only imagine what it would have been like if I hadn't gotten the flu shot. My wife was on an overseas work boondoggle for much of the time, so that made it even more fun! The flu definitely seems to be going around.

Much less worse than the flu, but there also seems to be a lot of lice going around - it is all over my son's elementary school, and my whole family had it in December. Not fun.

The 10 plagues are real.
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My wife is a child psychologist, so she works with little germ factories alllll day. A silver lining of COVID was the introduction of telehealth. Since the 'rona outbreak, if her patients aren't feeling well, even with a cold, she sees them remotely. Her health has improved dramatically since then, with a great reduction of time that she's not feeling up to par. Before, she was seemingly always coming down with something, nowadays it's pretty uncommon.
That being said, she's been knocked out for this whole past week, which is very rare for her. Usually when she gets sick, even from the two COVID cases she's had, she's been back on her feet fairly quickly, but not this time. She's taken multiple COVID tests, all neg, so it's likely the flu or a close relative. Knock on wood, so far, I've been ok, including two recent Cameron trips.

I read where NC recently crossed like over 120 deaths from flu this month; that's awful.

Side note, every time I think about scratching my head now, I'm going to think about you.
 
It's been a bad year for the flu. Or a good one, if you're viewing from the perspective of the virus. The flu shot kinda missed the mark this year. Choosing which strains to focus on each year is a guessing game and sometimes they don't guess exactly right. That said, having the flu shot still helps.

Example: My friend and I both went to the figure skating championships in January. We both caught the flu. She wound up having to go to urgent care and was sick for more than week. She did not get the flu shot. I did get the flu shot and felt really sick for about 36 hours. I did not have to go to urgent care, so, I don't know for a fact that I had the flu but given that my friend and I both came down with symptoms at the same time, - the day after returning home from Kansas - I am making the assumption that we caught the same illness. Given the timing of the onset of my symptoms, I was contagious on the plane flight home. I feel bad about that but also - that's why you get the vaccine. I wouldn't have traveled if I had known I was contagious but I didn't know. Is it possible that I killed the older man sitting next to me from Wichita to Denver? Yeah, it is. I genuinely hope not, but he did proceed to tell me how terrible vaccines are after he asked me what I did for a living. He was polite about it and I am too tired to have that particular fight anymore. When he said that you can't force people to get vaccinated, I merely responded with, "True. But you can't force people to stay home when they are spreading deadly diseases either and those are the folks you need to worry about." Oh, the irony. I really hope he isn't dead. I'll never know. We mostly talked about horses and dogs because, again, I'm tired of discussing vaccines so I asked about how he trains his Australian Shepherds to stop him from continuing with any anti-vaxx arguments.

The figure skating championships were in Kansas. Just over 25% of the population of Kansas got a flu shot this year. Kansas is even experiencing a tuberculosis outbreak at the moment - the worst in the US in a very long time. With apologies to DinK, I do not recommend visiting Kansas if you haven't been vaccinated against everything you can be vaccinated against.

I checked, about 45% of North Carolina's population went for the flu shot this year. That's better than Kansas but not enough to offer protection to the whole herd.
 
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Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
You were the first person I thought of that I "know," in a manner of speaking.

Strange when a terrible tragedy strikes a very specific and niche population.
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I work in a relatively niche industry and two people from my world were on the flight. I had briefly met one of them, didn't know the other. Both based in NYC so I assume they were connecting through DC on their way home.

I am fortunate that they give out the flu shot for free at my office. So it just involves going downstairs at some point on one of a few days. I kept saying "I will do the Covid shot when I get around to it" and finally did it about a week before traveling near XMas. I got a nasty flu shortly after New Year's. My wife returned from travel with a less intense version of the same thing.

As BostonDevil noted, though the flu shot largely missed the mark this year, it likely still helped make it "less bad" for people, which is still a very good reason to get it every year.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
I work in a relatively niche industry and two people from my world were on the flight. I had briefly met one of them, didn't know the other. Both based in NYC so I assume they were connecting through DC on their way home.

I am fortunate that they give out the flu shot for free at my office. So it just involves going downstairs at some point on one of a few days. I kept saying "I will do the Covid shot when I get around to it" and finally did it about a week before traveling near XMas. I got a nasty flu shortly after New Year's. My wife returned from travel with a less intense version of the same thing.

As BostonDevil noted, though the flu shot largely missed the mark this year, it likely still helped make it "less bad" for people, which is still a very good reason to get it every year.
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It is very hard to explain to people that if you didn't die or wind up in the hospital then the flu shot worked. The first job of a vaccine is to keep you from dying from that particular disease. The second job of a vaccines is to lessen the severity of that particular disease. If it also prevents you from becoming infected in the first place - hooray. It's a nice added extra but it's the top priority.
 
Bostondevil said:
It is very hard to explain to people that if you didn't die or wind up in the hospital then the flu shot worked. The first job of a vaccine is to keep you from dying from that particular disease. The second job of a vaccines is to lessen the severity of that particular disease. If it also prevents you from becoming infected in the first place - hooray. It's a nice added extra but it's the top priority.
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it's NOT the top priority. Oops.
 
Bostondevil said:
It is very hard to explain to people that if you didn't die or wind up in the hospital then the flu shot worked. The first job of a vaccine is to keep you from dying from that particular disease. The second job of a vaccines is to lessen the severity of that particular disease. If it also prevents you from becoming infected in the first place - hooray. It's a nice added extra but it's the top priority.
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My only quibble is that it is very hard to explain almost any fact to people these days.
 
I just finished watching "Apple Cider Vinegar" on Netflix. The series focuses on two individuals who ran wellness blogs in Australia, but it is also, more broadly, about the wellness industry in regards to cancer treatment. The anti-vax section of the movement follows the same principles - subscribe to my newsletter, for a fee, and buy my juice so I can make money off of you by telling you that vaccines are manufactured by heartless corporations who just want to make money off of you. The tragic element for me is that basically I do understand why people would want to grasp onto the notion that drinking organic juices will cure their cancer or prevent their children from getting measles. I think fear is perhaps the biggest driving force, but these people are also victims of their own hubris, and, let's face it, they didn't pay attention in science class. If you cannot find a randomized clinical trial that supports an alternative treatment published in the peer-reviewed medical literature, the treatment DOES NOT WORK!!! That shouldn't be as hard to get across as it is. Of course, the mass murderers peddling their juice blends will try to have you believe that their treatments do work but the medical establishment is so concerned about their profits that they won't publish their work. What I would say to anyone who floated that argument with me is this - I would advise them to talk to any oncologist that is also involved in research. They should say they don't want to be examined, they just want to talk about clinical research, what it involves and what kinds of alternative therapies have been studied.
 
Bostondevil said:
I just finished watching "Apple Cider Vinegar" on Netflix. The series focuses on two individuals who ran wellness blogs in Australia, but it is also, more broadly, about the wellness industry in regards to cancer treatment. The anti-vax section of the movement follows the same principles - subscribe to my newsletter, for a fee, and buy my juice so I can make money off of you by telling you that vaccines are manufactured by heartless corporations who just want to make money off of you. The tragic element for me is that basically I do understand why people would want to grasp onto the notion that drinking organic juices will cure their cancer or prevent their children from getting measles. I think fear is perhaps the biggest driving force, but these people are also victims of their own hubris, and, let's face it, they didn't pay attention in science class. If you cannot find a randomized clinical trial that supports an alternative treatment published in the peer-reviewed medical literature, the treatment DOES NOT WORK!!! That shouldn't be as hard to get across as it is. Of course, the mass murderers peddling their juice blends will try to have you believe that their treatments do work but the medical establishment is so concerned about their profits that they won't publish their work. What I would say to anyone who floated that argument with me is this - I would advise them to talk to any oncologist that is also involved in research. They should say they don't want to be examined, they just want to talk about clinical research, what it involves and what kinds of alternative therapies have been studied.
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You are just saying that because you ... know things. Bah, humbug. Testing and verification are for wussies. I prefer my drugs and treatments be supported by loudly asserted claims of unprecedented success, especially if they can be purchased on a monthly payment plan. Down with science! What has it done for us, anyway?
 
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