Do you still have any "side effects" from the pandemic. It's 2025 now so...,,🙂‍↔️

[BJintheUK]

I have one question regarding the number of known deaths from Covid. How old were the people involved?

I remember reading somewhere that of all the deaths attributed to Covid, a large proportion (in the UK at least) were people in their 80s and older. At the time I remember there was an outcry about the number of older people who were shunted out of hospital and into old people's care homes, taking the virus with them and thus leading to a much higher incidence of deaths in those homes.

I can understand why the older patients were moved out of the hospitals though, the NHS was frightened that they would be overwhelmed by huge numbers of people of all ages with Covid. In the event, that didn't happen, and although several 'Nightingale' temporary hospitals were set up in anticipation, they were never used and were soon shut down again.

Obviously some people who were in the front line of the medical profession did die, and they would have been considerably younger than 80, but I've no idea how many, so I can't say that they were a significant number of those who died.

 

[EmptyCup]

I have one question regarding the number of known deaths from Covid. How old were the people involved?

I remember reading somewhere that of all the deaths attributed to Covid, a large proportion (in the UK at least) were people in their 80s and older. At the time I remember there was an outcry about the number of older people who were shunted out of hospital and into old people's care homes, taking the virus with them and thus leading to a much higher incidence of deaths in those homes.

I can understand why the older patients were moved out of the hospitals though, the NHS was frightened that they would be overwhelmed by huge numbers of people of all ages with Covid. In the event, that didn't happen, and although several 'Nightingale' temporary hospitals were set up in anticipation, they were never used and were soon shut down again.

Obviously some people who were in the front line of the medical profession did die, and they would have been considerably younger than 80, but I've no idea how many, so I can't say that they were a significant number of those who died.

I asked ChatGTP. 70-80% of deaths over age 65. That is for both US and U.K. covering the whole pandemic.
I believe in the last couple years it’s been closer to 90%, but I don’t have the citation.

 

[TeePee]

I have one question regarding the number of known deaths from Covid. How old were the people involved?

I remember reading somewhere that of all the deaths attributed to Covid, a large proportion (in the UK at least) were people in their 80s and older. At the time I remember there was an outcry about the number of older people who were shunted out of hospital and into old people's care homes, taking the virus with them and thus leading to a much higher incidence of deaths in those homes.

I can understand why the older patients were moved out of the hospitals though, the NHS was frightened that they would be overwhelmed by huge numbers of people of all ages with Covid. In the event, that didn't happen, and although several 'Nightingale' temporary hospitals were set up in anticipation, they were never used and were soon shut down again.

Obviously some people who were in the front line of the medical profession did die, and they would have been considerably younger than 80, but I've no idea how many, so I can't say that they were a significant number of those who died.

We'll never know. Things just happened so fast, it was hard to keep up with what was going on. You're right. Alot of the elderly did die because their immune systems were down. There was quite a bit under 80 that died also in the US, at least in my neck of the woods. Actually, anyone immunocompromised was at risk regardless of age.

 

[BJintheUK]

The weird thing for me is, I've got PMR, that's PolyMyalgiaRheumatica. It's an autoimmune disease. I've had it since Oct 2009, and since July 2010 I've taken Prednisolone tablets to keep the inflammation under control. In theory because of my PMR I would have been immunocompromised when I got Covid in Oct 2021, yet I didn't suffer as much as many others have, and I had just turned 71 in Sept 2021, so I was no spring chicken.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I didn't have the vaccine before I got Covid, and I haven't had it since. My logic being that to me it would be like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, and perhaps oddly, I've not had any repeat bouts of Covid either. So I wonder if my immune system being haywire has meant that it's actually being far more effective than normal, rather than being immunosuppressed.

I've also not had any flu vaccines, but that was because I got PMR as a direct result of having the flu in Oct 2009, and I've been told by many others that if you have the flu vaccine you'll suffer from flu like symptoms afterwards. So my thinking is that if I were to have the flu jab I'd suffer flu like symptoms, which might set off something even worse than the PMR I have at the moment, and I don't want to do that. So I refrain from kicking the hornets nest, so to speak.

 

[Michael Z]

For years, anything with rutabaga, turnip, or something similar tasted very foul to me. Not sure if I am over that or not since I have avoided such things for the last year or so.

 

[EmptyCup]

The weird thing for me is, I've got PMR, that's PolyMyalgiaRheumatica. It's an autoimmune disease. I've had it since Oct 2009, and since July 2010 I've taken Prednisolone tablets to keep the inflammation under control. In theory because of my PMR I would have been immunocompromised when I got Covid in Oct 2021, yet I didn't suffer as much as many others have, and I had just turned 71 in Sept 2021, so I was no spring chicken.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I didn't have the vaccine before I got Covid, and I haven't had it since. My logic being that to me it would be like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, and perhaps oddly, I've not had any repeat bouts of Covid either. So I wonder if my immune system being haywire has meant that it's actually being far more effective than normal, rather than being immunosuppressed.

I've also not had any flu vaccines, but that was because I got PMR as a direct result of having the flu in Oct 2009, and I've been told by many others that if you have the flu vaccine you'll suffer from flu like symptoms afterwards. So my thinking is that if I were to have the flu jab I'd suffer flu like symptoms, which might set off something even worse than the PMR I have at the moment, and I don't want to do that. So I refrain from kicking the hornets nest, so to speak.

There are so many things we still don’t know about this virus. I’ve read a couple papers on challenge studies where they purposely infect young healthy people with COVID. For some reason 20% of the participants didn’t get COVID and will probably never get it*.They know it’s a common genetic mutation that involves several genes. Nothing special these people did, they just got lucky in the genetic dice roll. That accounts for half the 20%. The other half is still????-they don’t know why.

* well, technically they are briefly infected, but their body shuts it down while it is still in the nose/mucosa and they never feel a symptom. Not enough to test positive on a PCR test.

 

[January]

I remember reading somewhere that of all the deaths attributed to Covid, a large proportion (in the UK at least) were people in their 80s and older.

I would be amazed if Covid deaths were not proportionately more as age increased - are there any infectious diseases where the burden of mortality is not the very old and the very young? - and since Covid, for some unknown reason, was not high risk for children - then stands to reason the largest proportion would be older adults.

 

[Teacher Terry]

A friend of mine got it and died two months before the vaccine was available. He was 71 and it was very sad.

 

[hollydolly]

I asked ChatGTP. 70-80% of deaths over age 65. That is for both US and U.K. covering the whole pandemic.
I believe in the last couple years it’s been closer to 90%, but I don’t have the citation.

so most of us were in that age group ... so it was wise IMO.. for some of us to opt to have the vaccine...

Someone said they had covid and felt that by having the vaccine later it would be like ''shutting the door after the horse had bolted''..I don't agree.. I got covid.. and had the vaccine some months afterwards, because I definitely didn't want to get it again...

 

[seadoug]

My mother, in her mid-80's when Covid hit, was in assisted living. She had congestive heart failure and was on oxygen. Covid would have surely killed her but the facility remained on lockdown. For at least a year I couldn't enter so I had to stand outside her window and talk to her on the phone. She never contracted Covid so I was more than fine with the precautions.

As for myself, I had the original strain with the awful symptoms before the vaccines were available. It took me months to get rid of the congestion. I've now had it again twice in a more milder form. No long-term effects (that I'm aware of).

 

[GoodEnuff]

Well when being "prepared" fixes it so someone else has nothing to wipe their hind end with then it becomes a problem. Especially considering there was absolutely no need for it. People just panicked. There were times the shelves were so empty I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get enough food to eat. Not cool.

I had no need to buy paper products during the covid shortage because I already had it on hand. It never occurred to me that there would be a "shortage", but it is possible that there would be times when I am unable to get to a store. Snowed in is the top reason here. As soon as I moved to this area, I stocked up on canned foods, too. When covid hit, I didn't have to go out very often because I had food in the house, which reduced my exposure to others.

I also did what @MACKTEXAS mentions. I cut up an old t-shirt into squares, placed an empty coffee can with bleach water in it next to the toilet and used that to save on TP. Wasn't great but it worked.

I never thought about a pandemic. N95 masks quickly became impossible to find. Now that it's all over and they are back in stock everywhere, you can bet I have a good supply of them on hand.

 

[BJintheUK]

In order to reduce our dependence on TP we've had a bidet attachment put on our toilet. It works very well, and means that all the TP has to do is dry one's bum. Here's a picture of our attachment.



It has two settings, one for the bum, and the other aimed slightly lower is for ladies ( ). It doesn't spray, but sends out a stream that's aimed up and forwards, so that it cleans the relevant area, and you can always move yourself around on the seat in order to make sure you clean all the important nooks and crannies.

If I remember correctly, it cost around £21 or £22, and only required a bit of extra copper tube to the plumbing of our hand basin to provide the pressurised water for it. I got it from Fleabay, but I'm sure it's available on Ama zone as well.

You can even buy versions that mix hot and cold water, so that you never have a shock when you turn it on, but we went for the simpler model as it was easier to install, and a bit cheaper as well.

 

[StarSong]

Getting back to life changes as a side-effect of the pandemic:

I'm more aware of hand washing and do so more more frequently and thoroughly.
A KN95 mask lives in a ziplock sandwich bag in my purse and I maintain a good supply in my house and RV.
Am aware of keeping my germs to myself, even just head colds. Friends and family do the same.
My food staples and household necessities remain in good supply, including TP (when the last rolls go into the bathroom cabinets, I buy another Costco 30 roll package).