5 ms·

Now that covid is endemic it's just another flu.

lockhouse 3y ago
Not sure why you’re downvoted. It’s not significantly more lethal at this point than seasonal flu. The only difference to the population that I see is that vaccines for COVID have less efficacy than those for influenza.
- Clubber 3y ago
  My concern is that there isn't going to be much research on a proper vaccine since the Pharma companies are making money hand over fist on this half-assed one currently available. It was good when it came out, but based on it's effectiveness, it seems more of a stop-gap than a proper vaccine.
- ghosty141 3y ago
  The big concern with covid is long covid which affects around 5% of people who got covid. Thats what scares me. When I got covid it were only 2-3 bad days and the rest was like a normal flu but I noticed it took me roughly 3 more weeks to feel 100% like I did before, mostly fitness and stamina.
  - MisterBastahrd 3y ago
    I've never recovered. I permanently lost the ability to taste certain things and can literally get 10 hours of sleep the night before and feel exhausted by noon. I look forward to people who pretend that it's the same as the flu catching it for themselves so that they can enjoy this "no big deal."
    - Contusion3532 3y ago
      Sorry that you're suffering this way. It's infuriating to me that people downplay Covid infections when the risk of suffering from long Covid effects is very real.
    - amkkma 3y ago
      Sorry. I have a brilliant, extremely driven friend who did undergrad at an ivy. After getting covid, She had to drop out of her grad school program and her new life is a shell compared to what it used to be like. 2 years later, and there's a tiny fraction of improvement which she attributes to extreme rest. I forward her literature about emerging LC treatments and mechanisms of which her physicians are laughably ignorant. It's a sad state of affairs.
  - ParetoOptimal 3y ago
    > The big concern with covid is long covid which affects around 5% of people who got covid. Where did you get 5%? Last I saw you have a 20% chance of long covid, but it seems that was with older variants. The thing that scares me is: > up to two years after infection, at an elevated risk for many long COVID-related conditions including diabetes, lung problems, fatigue, blood clots and disorders affecting the gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems. https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/long-covid-still-worrisome-2-years-after-infection/ https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/long-covid-still-worrisome-2...
- fer 3y ago
  > The only difference to the population that I see is that vaccines for COVID have less efficacy than those for influenza. So far COVID vaccines seem to confer protection for longer than flu ones, and the initial protection is generally higher. Not sure if it's your case, but people often forget that every year there's a new flu shot per hemisphere, and its effectiveness generally hovers at around 40-60%.
  - lockhouse 3y ago
    The difference is that flu vaccines actually prevent infection in many cases, whereas COVID vaccines do not prevent them, but merely lessen the symptoms and risk of hospitalization.
    - fer 3y ago
      > The difference is that flu vaccines actually prevent infection in many cases OK > whereas COVID vaccines do not prevent them, but merely lessen the symptoms and risk of hospitalization. Is this something I can read on a peer reviewed study, or is it yet another creative definition of what "infection", "vaccine" or "symptom" really means?
      - lockhouse 3y ago
        Here you go… https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02138-x https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02138-x
        fer 3y ago
        Are you aware that this study doesn't really support any of what you said?
        lockhouse 3y ago
        > Irrespective of vaccination and/or prior natural infection, SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections and reinfections remained highly infectious and were responsible for 80% of transmission observed in the study population, which has high levels of both prior infection and vaccination. This observation underscores that vaccination and prevalent naturally acquired immunity alone will not eliminate risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in higher-risk settings, such as prisons.
- throwawayfear 3y ago
  [flagged]
- datadeft 3y ago
  “There were 8996 hospitalizations (538 deaths [5.98%] within 30 days) for COVID-19 and 2403 hospitalizations (76 deaths [3.16%]) for seasonal influenza,” “Compared with hospitalization for influenza, hospitalization for COVID-19 was associated with a higher risk of death (hazard ratio, 1.61 [95% CI, 1.29-2.02]).” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749 What would be interesting is to compare the numbers when flu was first happening vs covid.
nradov 3y ago
In terms of genetics and symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is more similar to other common cold coronaviruses such as HCoV-OC43. It has very little in common with influenza. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30658-0 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30658-0
amkkma 3y ago
Do you know the rate of long term sequalae for flu and how it compares to covid?
- francisofascii 3y ago
  From what I read, for both Covid and Influenza, a certain percentage have lingering symptoms, but you cant say they are similar because some symptoms are much more life altering that others. A nagging cough is not the same as brain fog, for example. The life altering symptoms "seem" to be much worse with Covid.
  - amkkma 3y ago
    Good point
paulmd 3y ago
Which was projected to be the trajectory from the start. Transmissible diseases usually mutate to be less deadly over time, because killing the host is a bad reproduction strategy. Spanish Flu is still here today, it's just not crazy deadly anymore. It's just not guaranteed to be monotonic (particular strains can bump lethality upwards), and it doesn't help the people who die early on to the stronger strains, especially with an overloaded medical system. Like, we don't have hospitals overflowing into makeshift tent farms outside with freezer trucks used to handle the overload of bodies until the crematoriums can get around to them anymore, either. It's definitely trended towards reduced lethality over time.
- soperj 3y ago
  Are you saying AIDS has gotten less deadly over time?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - datadeft 3y ago
    Yes. The latest variants are less deadly. There is a pretty good reason for that. If the infected lives longer it has a higher chance of a successful transmission.
    - soperj 3y ago
      What are you basing this on? Looks like deaths peaked in 2004, but more people in Africa are receiving treatment. Without treatment the avg life expectancy seems to be 11 years, and doesn't look like that's changed.
      - datadeft 3y ago
        I think there are several factors in when the deaths peaked. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-30254697 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-30254697
    - 3y ago
croes 3y ago
A corona virus can't give you an flu like a in-flu-enza virus
johnchristopher 3y ago
> Now that covid is endemic it's just another flu. But it's not. I'd rather get the flu than covid.
- laxd 3y ago
  I wouldn't. For me, covid was just a couple of days of fever with no other symptoms. Strange feeling to get fever isolated like that. But I'd take it multiple times over the typical knocked out for a week flu with multiple flavours of suffering. That said, I did have covid vaccine up front.
  - FredPret 3y ago
    That could be the vaccine doing some heavy lifting for you
  - Ancapistani 3y ago
    I didn't take the vaccine (I decided it didn't make sense for me) and have had covid twice. Once was likely Beta, the other likely Omicron. The first time around sucked. It was basically a very bad flu for about five days. I caught it on a trip to southern Mississippi, and it didn't help that I had to drive >10 hours back home without stopping anywhere that I might spread it. I ordered medicine, food, and supplies for contactless delivery and drove it nonstop. The second time I only knew it was covid because I was testing every time I had an inkling that I might have gotten it. I had a very mild fever and a runny nose for two days and nothing else. I isolated myself in my home office and managed to keep anyone else in my family from getting it, too. Everything I've experienced, heard, or read strongly indicates that each round is significantly less bad than the last.
  - CurrentBias 3y ago
    [dead]
ericmcer 3y ago
I've had covid 3 times. Would rather get it 3 more times than get the flu a single time. Other than paranoia about having it, the actual symptoms have been a mild to bad cold for all my family/friends.

Not sure why you’re downvoted. It’s not significantly more lethal at this point than seasonal flu. The only difference to the population that I see is that vaccines for COVID have less efficacy than those for influenza.

Clubber 3y ago
My concern is that there isn't going to be much research on a proper vaccine since the Pharma companies are making money hand over fist on this half-assed one currently available. It was good when it came out, but based on it's effectiveness, it seems more of a stop-gap than a proper vaccine.
ghosty141 3y ago
The big concern with covid is long covid which affects around 5% of people who got covid. Thats what scares me. When I got covid it were only 2-3 bad days and the rest was like a normal flu but I noticed it took me roughly 3 more weeks to feel 100% like I did before, mostly fitness and stamina.
- MisterBastahrd 3y ago
  I've never recovered. I permanently lost the ability to taste certain things and can literally get 10 hours of sleep the night before and feel exhausted by noon. I look forward to people who pretend that it's the same as the flu catching it for themselves so that they can enjoy this "no big deal."
  - Contusion3532 3y ago
    Sorry that you're suffering this way. It's infuriating to me that people downplay Covid infections when the risk of suffering from long Covid effects is very real.
  - amkkma 3y ago
    Sorry. I have a brilliant, extremely driven friend who did undergrad at an ivy. After getting covid, She had to drop out of her grad school program and her new life is a shell compared to what it used to be like. 2 years later, and there's a tiny fraction of improvement which she attributes to extreme rest. I forward her literature about emerging LC treatments and mechanisms of which her physicians are laughably ignorant. It's a sad state of affairs.
- ParetoOptimal 3y ago
  > The big concern with covid is long covid which affects around 5% of people who got covid. Where did you get 5%? Last I saw you have a 20% chance of long covid, but it seems that was with older variants. The thing that scares me is: > up to two years after infection, at an elevated risk for many long COVID-related conditions including diabetes, lung problems, fatigue, blood clots and disorders affecting the gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems. https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/long-covid-still-worrisome-2-years-after-infection/ https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/long-covid-still-worrisome-2...
fer 3y ago
> The only difference to the population that I see is that vaccines for COVID have less efficacy than those for influenza. So far COVID vaccines seem to confer protection for longer than flu ones, and the initial protection is generally higher. Not sure if it's your case, but people often forget that every year there's a new flu shot per hemisphere, and its effectiveness generally hovers at around 40-60%.
- lockhouse 3y ago
  The difference is that flu vaccines actually prevent infection in many cases, whereas COVID vaccines do not prevent them, but merely lessen the symptoms and risk of hospitalization.
  - fer 3y ago
    > The difference is that flu vaccines actually prevent infection in many cases OK > whereas COVID vaccines do not prevent them, but merely lessen the symptoms and risk of hospitalization. Is this something I can read on a peer reviewed study, or is it yet another creative definition of what "infection", "vaccine" or "symptom" really means?
    - lockhouse 3y ago
      Here you go… https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02138-x https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02138-x
      - fer 3y ago
        Are you aware that this study doesn't really support any of what you said?
        lockhouse 3y ago
        > Irrespective of vaccination and/or prior natural infection, SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections and reinfections remained highly infectious and were responsible for 80% of transmission observed in the study population, which has high levels of both prior infection and vaccination. This observation underscores that vaccination and prevalent naturally acquired immunity alone will not eliminate risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in higher-risk settings, such as prisons.
throwawayfear 3y ago
[flagged]
datadeft 3y ago
“There were 8996 hospitalizations (538 deaths [5.98%] within 30 days) for COVID-19 and 2403 hospitalizations (76 deaths [3.16%]) for seasonal influenza,” “Compared with hospitalization for influenza, hospitalization for COVID-19 was associated with a higher risk of death (hazard ratio, 1.61 [95% CI, 1.29-2.02]).” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749 What would be interesting is to compare the numbers when flu was first happening vs covid.

nradov 3y ago

In terms of genetics and symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is more similar to other common cold coronaviruses such as HCoV-OC43. It has very little in common with influenza. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30658-0 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30658-0

amkkma 3y ago

Do you know the rate of long term sequalae for flu and how it compares to covid?

francisofascii 3y ago
From what I read, for both Covid and Influenza, a certain percentage have lingering symptoms, but you cant say they are similar because some symptoms are much more life altering that others. A nagging cough is not the same as brain fog, for example. The life altering symptoms "seem" to be much worse with Covid.
- amkkma 3y ago
  Good point

paulmd 3y ago

Which was projected to be the trajectory from the start. Transmissible diseases usually mutate to be less deadly over time, because killing the host is a bad reproduction strategy. Spanish Flu is still here today, it's just not crazy deadly anymore. It's just not guaranteed to be monotonic (particular strains can bump lethality upwards), and it doesn't help the people who die early on to the stronger strains, especially with an overloaded medical system. Like, we don't have hospitals overflowing into makeshift tent farms outside with freezer trucks used to handle the overload of bodies until the crematoriums can get around to them anymore, either. It's definitely trended towards reduced lethality over time.

soperj 3y ago
Are you saying AIDS has gotten less deadly over time?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- datadeft 3y ago
  Yes. The latest variants are less deadly. There is a pretty good reason for that. If the infected lives longer it has a higher chance of a successful transmission.
  - soperj 3y ago
    What are you basing this on? Looks like deaths peaked in 2004, but more people in Africa are receiving treatment. Without treatment the avg life expectancy seems to be 11 years, and doesn't look like that's changed.
    - datadeft 3y ago
      I think there are several factors in when the deaths peaked. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-30254697 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-30254697
  - 3y ago

croes 3y ago

A corona virus can't give you an flu like a in-flu-enza virus

johnchristopher 3y ago

> Now that covid is endemic it's just another flu. But it's not. I'd rather get the flu than covid.

laxd 3y ago
I wouldn't. For me, covid was just a couple of days of fever with no other symptoms. Strange feeling to get fever isolated like that. But I'd take it multiple times over the typical knocked out for a week flu with multiple flavours of suffering. That said, I did have covid vaccine up front.
- FredPret 3y ago
  That could be the vaccine doing some heavy lifting for you
- Ancapistani 3y ago
  I didn't take the vaccine (I decided it didn't make sense for me) and have had covid twice. Once was likely Beta, the other likely Omicron. The first time around sucked. It was basically a very bad flu for about five days. I caught it on a trip to southern Mississippi, and it didn't help that I had to drive >10 hours back home without stopping anywhere that I might spread it. I ordered medicine, food, and supplies for contactless delivery and drove it nonstop. The second time I only knew it was covid because I was testing every time I had an inkling that I might have gotten it. I had a very mild fever and a runny nose for two days and nothing else. I isolated myself in my home office and managed to keep anyone else in my family from getting it, too. Everything I've experienced, heard, or read strongly indicates that each round is significantly less bad than the last.
- CurrentBias 3y ago
  [dead]

ericmcer 3y ago

I've had covid 3 times. Would rather get it 3 more times than get the flu a single time. Other than paranoia about having it, the actual symptoms have been a mild to bad cold for all my family/friends.