COVID-19 updates comments and concerns

[griffin]

Children without pre-existing conditions are still proving to be unaffected by Covid-19, but in places that have had high concentrations of the virus, like the UK and New York, a new type of sickness is occurring, and only to children.
It is a type of body-wide inflammation, and seems to only be affecting children after they have had the virus (they are being tested, and found to have the anti-bodies that people get after they have had the virus, and as such they are showing up as negative for the active virus).

It is still only new, and there are still a lot of questions as to what it is and why it is happening after they no longer have the virus in their system, but it looks like it could be similar to an allergic reaction people develop to things like insect bites or foods, in their childhood... often after they have been exposed to it once without a reaction, but their body mistakenly creates anti-bodies to it, and then they have to avoid contact with it for the rest of their lives.
These kids are in areas that are heavily infected, so keep coming into contact with the virus, but now that they have an immunity to it, their bodies might be over-reacting with the new anti-bodies, overwhelming their weaker bodies.

At least here in Australia (so far), we don't have huge clusters of highly concentrated infections, so for those with young kids we shouldn't see this happening here, but for as long as the virus exists in Australia, there is still a very remote chance a child who has had the virus (without any symptoms), comes into contact with someone else later who is infected, and could set off their immune system... so be mindful of the symptoms - a fever, rash, upset stomach, swollen lymph nodes.
(it is being compared to Kawasaki Disease, which is said to be caused by the auto-immune system attacking the blood vessels in the body, and the heart)

[DELTAprime]

Finally got my flu shot yesterday. I hope it's an effective vaccine this year cause I don't want to spend 2 weeks in quarantine.

[1AZRAEL1]

Not sure how effective the flu shot would be against COVID. Honestly I've never taken the flu shot, I rarely get sick. And if I do it's usually only a few really bad days then on the mend again. Always happens though when we have funky changing weather. 15° one day, 40° next. Funny that I was running around Germany most of the time in a t shirt with temperatures ranging 1° to 10° over the 2 weeks and didn't get sick, come back to Aussie weather and within 2 weeks got sick.

[griffin]

The "flu shot" is usually just a vaccine of the 2 or 3 strains that are most likely to hit the country in the winter, so it can be a bit of a guessing game (which is why they choose a few different strains in the one jab), but it usually depends on what strains were most prominent in the winter of the northern hemisphere.
As such, it will only protect you from those selected strains in the current year's jab. If you travel somewhere more exotic, or someone brings a less common strain to your neighbourhood, you won't be protected from any strain of the flu or cold not in the needle (including viruses like Covid)... so that's why it has always been a good idea to wash your hands often, not to touch your face, and avoid physical contact with strangers (including handshakes or (bro)hugs).

One of the reasons why the government (and sports) are really pushing the flu jab this year is so that it reduces the number of people needing to be hospitalised by the regular flu, so that resources are free for Covid patients... and so that people hit by the regular flu don't then catch the covid virus more easily (from others, or from the hospital if they have to go in for the regular flu).

[DaptoDog]

Perhaps DELTAprime meant that if you don't catch the flu then you won't exhibit symptoms that would require the COVID test? Because if you do get tested they still require you to quarantine yourself for up to 14 days regardless of the result since the test is not 100% accurate (as happened with my wife).

[Autocon]

Now that i know the flu shot only lasts 3 months not sure if i should bother.

Im wondering if cases are down because people are not getting tested as regularly as before

[griffin]

If businesses or employers are to be allowed to send home anyone with flu-like symptoms, it certainly would be a good idea to prevent the regular flu, so you don't freak out others unnecessarily. Unfortunately for people like me who gets hayfever allergies over just about everything, I am constantly sniffling, sneezing and coughing, and it gets worse in winter as the cold air makes my sinuses and lungs more irritated. I get a lot of bad looks these days, at work, and when I'm out (like at the shops).

Now that i know the flu shot only lasts 3 months not sure if i should bother.

Im wondering if cases are down because people are not getting tested as regularly as before

Even if it does only last for 3 months, that covers most of the high-risk months, and if enough people have the vaccine, it means less people who aren't vaccinated will catch it, as they will come in contact with less people who are infected.
It's important for the young and old to get it, as they are the ones most affected by the symptoms, but just like with the Covid virus, people who are less likely to be sick from it could still be carriers and pass it on to someone who is more vulnerable.

As for testing, if you are referring to covid testing - testing numbers are supposed to be at record numbers every day (according to the graphs on the ABC), but it does come down to who they are testing... particularly if they are only testing people with symptoms, as that would miss the majority of infected people who show no symptoms.
The QLD government website even says that if you don't have any of the listed symptoms (like dry cough, runny nose or fever), they won't test you. The only exception is if you know that you have been in contact with someone who is infected, or have just returned from overseas.

In New York city they did anti-body testing of 3000 people three weeks ago, and found that 20% had anti-bodies (which means that they already had the virus, and it was already dead in their system). That meant that about 2.7 million people in NYC could have already had the virus, even though official stats (from official testing) is only at 185,000 cases (as of today). This is because they have limited testing materials and potential. Every country is like that. Unless you are testing EVERYONE weekly, you won't have an accurate number of cases. Our state governments are boasting about 10-30 thousand tests each day, but that's still less than 0.1% of the population being tested each day. At that rate, it would take 3 years to just test everyone once, so how can we know for sure how many people are currently infected, or know when people get infected later after they have had just one test.

[Unicran]

Finally got my flu shot yesterday. I hope it's an effective vaccine this year cause I don't want to spend 2 weeks in quarantine.

Well done. I strongly advocate everyone to get their yearly flu shot. It's an insurance policy & for less than $20 (some employers provide free of charge), it's a no brainer.

[DELTAprime]

Yeah. If you get Covid like symptoms, AKA the flu, you're supposed to quarantine for two weeks. I'd prefer not to do that.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yeah. If you get Covid like symptoms, AKA the flu, you're supposed to quarantine for two weeks. I'd prefer not to do that.

Where does it say that?

If you get Covid like symptoms, AKA the flu, then you should get tested for Covid-19. Whilst awaiting the results, you should self-isolate. Once you're given the all clear, you're good to go.