Coooooovid

[DougHulme]

Brumpone...

but my very inexpert guess would be that case counts in the UK where COVID was not a factor would be comparatively low, or in other words the official figures are probably a slight overestimate, but not by much.

I'm not so sure on that... judging by my own experience I know 8 people that died during the 2 year period of lock downs. 6 were clearly not related to Covid 1 definitely was the last one was debatable. All were recorded as Covid deaths. I reason that if in my own small world with that small experience was replicated nationwide the actual death toll would be considerably lower than the national statistics. I know thats almost anecdotal and there is no statistical justification to apply that theory nationally but it sure is enough for me to be very sceptical on those UK final figures. I also noted that almost no one died of 'winter flu' during that period whereas in 2019 over 20,000 did - what happened to winter flu di it just go away? I cant accept the argument that Covid measures cured it, I'm sure it got lumped in with Covid which would have been difficult to differentiate between anyway.... Doug

[BGuttman]

I was following an English site where a Doctor of Nursing (can't recall his name) was summarizing the world progress of COVID. In the UK there was a statistic called "Excess Deaths" where he used history to predict the number of people who would die and then compared the total death count and considered the balance to be COVID deaths. The statistic followed the apparent course of the disease and was a good way to get around this COVID death inflation. In fact, COVID did increase the overall death toll, and to a large amount. Currently the Omicron variant is a lot less deadly than the earlier ones so COVID and any lasting effects are less severe. I doubt we will ever be totally free of this disease, much like we are not free of flu or the common cold. The vaccines have done a pretty good job of reducing the severity of the peak. We were on the verge of a 1918 "Spanish" flu like pandemic. Incidentally, in 1918 there were deniers and mask refusers as well.

[Doug Elliott]

In my own experience, all that time of mask wearing and social distancing pretty much eliminated flu, colds and even allergies.

[timothy42b]

In my own experience, all that time of mask wearing and social distancing pretty much eliminated flu, colds and even allergies.

Yes. Three people in my household, and we had no colds or flus over two years. Even allergies were down, which doesn't seem to follow. Pollen should go through the cloth masks we used until N95 was available. Maybe there is some interaction.

We did all get Covid, but not until the combination of the latest variant and the lack of distancing as everything opened up.

[JohnL]

Even allergies were down, which doesn't seem to follow. Pollen should go through the cloth masks we used until N95 was available.

Pollen grains are pretty large (10-100 microns); a two-layer cloth mask made from fabric with a high thread count should stop a lot of pollen.

[Matt K]

I can totally confirm that. Been wearing N95 during allergy season for years before Covid. Whatever it is that I’m allergic to gets filtered out very handily with one of those.

I think some of the cold and flu reductions were very much aided by certain institutions finally having sane attendance requirements. When I was in high school, we had this insane policy that if you only had like 3 absences (even with doctors note) you could skip finals for the semester. So people would come in obviously horrifically sick to avoid taking finals. In turn, they’d get everyone around them sick. Every school that im aware of for the last two years replaced all such policies and also did at least partial online schooling so you didn’t have to miss anything.

[Bach5G]

Our principal just let me know she has tested positive for COVID and can’t make tomorrow night’s concert (Bruch, Prokovief).

[harrisonreed]

I am just recovering from a week with COVID. I think the vax helped me a lot -- this was my first time with it. Lost my sense of smell. What a horrible thing to catch.

I can attest that masks did nothing to stop the Japanese spruce and cypress pollen this year. That stuff is like death. Even with N95, it just goes into your eyes, and then it's somehow riddled through your body.