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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1568 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for December 18, 2024

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Is anyone having a suddenly overwhelming flu season? I barely got a cold in the two years since the end of the Covid pandemic and now I’ve got sick three times in six weeks. Literally a quarter of my office (rotating) has been sick for the last month. Our ‘out of office’ slack channel looks like a record of the plague.

I feel it a little bit. I do jal neti regularly and take some anti infection meds sometimes, so far no sore throat issues. Sleeping on time, avoiding stress, contact with other people, being covered up has helped me a lot.

Have you gotten checked for allergies?

I'm afraid this comment will lead to selection bias. People who have gotten sick recently will post. Those that haven't wont.

So, for science, let me say that no, the rate of sickness among my circle is no higher than usual.

Was normal for me so far. I did get some light cold, but that often happens to me when I travel, and I have been traveling more than usual for the last couple of months. If anything, the last cold was lighter than I usually get. Haven't noticed also any inordinate amount of people being sick at work (I'm working in highly remote company so a person taking sick time off usually publishes a note on the common slack channel) though with a lot of people being out for holidays anyway it may be harder to notice. So another data point here towards null.

Mine is lower than last year, we are involved with fewer childcare situations and got everything last year. Currently I have a cold, but this is the first one and fairly mild.

In the interest of countering selection bias, I'll say we haven't had much this season, and our oldest kid is in elementary school, so we're exposed to everything that goes around. Kids have had some mild sniffles and coughing for a couple of days and I developed a scratchy throat today, but that's all so far. Husband hasn't been sick at all yet, though he'll probably catch whatever it is the kids and I have.

Very true. Thank you for supporting the null hypothesis.

I had a friend who was going for a Masters in Education and he proposed, in all seriousness, to find participants for his survey on "Barriers to Women in Science Education" by asking female friends if they knew anyone who would like to talk about it. I had to give him a real chewing out and walk him through how to do a survey that isn't pissing in the pool of Science. I dread to think what rubbish is getting produced in that area.

I've had what seem to be more colds than usual, but none of them particularly bad. That said, maybe its like this every year and it just doesn't stick in my memory.

This guy has a theory that the vaccine for COVID caused a shift in the antibody response away from the normal viral response towards something more akin to an allergic reaction, which allows the virus to stick around a low level, mutate, and damage our immune systems through persistent reinfection. I can't pretend to understand the virology, but I think there's at least something there: there's such high levels of COVID in wastewater suggesting some kind of persistent low-level infection.

https://www.rintrah.nl/how-the-innate-immune-system-manages-to-cope-with-antibody-resistant-sars2-varieties/

FWIW half of my office is out sick, enough people that we've had to cancel end of year events due to lack of attendance. Seems like it's really getting around this year.

Team,

I will be out of the office this Friday. It's a real shame, because we all know what a dedicated employee I am. Navigating icy roads? Doing boring work for hours on end? No problem. I live for that stuff.

But sadly, I am feeling under the weather. For the public good, I am forced to stay home. One can never be too careful with all these new variants! Stay safe, everyone, and I'll see you all after the holidays.

Best regards,

-Todd Warner, logistics.

I don't blame Todd. His sick days don't roll over.

Seems like covid did lasting damage to people's immune systems.

Maybe, but everything was fine till this flu season. My theory is that lockdowns drove down infections and it took a couple of years to get them circulating normally again, but I can’t back that up.

Covid itself or the covid jab?

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