Ok so I've been knocked out really badly. I've had colds before but this time it's different.
I know a few people that are also sick with the same symptoms. Is there another wave of covid in Australia?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/…
I can't say for sure, but anecdotally I also know lots of people getting sick (largely by their kids) and as you noted, all negative for covid and seems to be some flu/virus.
sounds like a normal flu season!
Flu season is like shaving your chest. Comes back meaner each time round. It’s never just normal
"Neg on a RAT doesn't not negative for covid make"
- Yoda
Many of the rats are crap at picking up current variants and even those that can pick it up are 50:50 at best of actually picking it up, especially if only the nose and not mouth are tested
doesn't not negative
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False negatives happen but they are unusual. To claim they’re 50:50 is simply not true and not in line with any sensitivity studies. As well, TGA regularly re-check them for new variants to maintain their ARTG registration.
In fact, one of the main reasons for false negative is the test window period, not sampling or variants at all.
Far more likely than not, negative RAT simply does indeed mean no COVID.
NSW Health can say for sure.
COVID-19 is at high levels. Influenza is at moderate levels. RSV remains at high levels.
They put out a epidemiological report every week based on all sorts of sentinel testing and different surveillance mechanisms (stuff they've been doing forever, long before covid). I'm sure the other states do something similar but NSW is close enough to the ACT that this is the one I follow.
They put out a epidemiological report every week
You can also check NSW stats (and other Australian states) here -> https://covidlive.com.au/nsw
Vic Gov does the same thing. They've recently changed from fortnightly updates to weekly, given we are in another little Covid peak right now in Melbourne
https://www.health.vic.gov.au/infectious-diseases/victorian-…
This report mentions weekly updates on hospital numbers, deaths, covid-in-sewerage data. Actual number of infections in the community can't be measured anymore, but hospital numbers don't lie. This report also shows which are the dominant strains (currently changing to a new one as we speak.
I bet most of those people are not doing a covid test, who is buying tests for covid? Obviously some people might need to know so they can access anti virals etc but most people have no need to know. If you are sick, whether it is covid, RSV, influenza, what you do is the same, rest and manage your symptoms at home. I think there is still a stigma around being sick and people feel the need to clarify that it is or isn't covid but I highly doubt they are doing tests.
Guess it depends on the person. We have no requirements to test at work, but loads of my colleagues still are testing when sick, and many have had tested positive in the last few weeks. Some have also used the combined tests and have tested positive for RSV not covid.
Testing and knowing what you have can help in the event you need to seek care now or later on. I know a few long covid sufferers who likely wouldn’t have received the same care months later if they didn’t test at the time, or would have had to have fought a lot harder for the right care if they couldn’t have answered “have you had covid recently” with a “yes”.
I'm doing tests- I have bursts of crazy non-allergic rhinitis that don't keep me out of work, but testing does help with peace of mind for myself and colleagues if I'm having a particularly bad run and show up to work looking like a Demazin ad - plus I work in medicine academia, so people are a bit more wary.
This happened to my wife and kid both sick with ear infections, i wasnt as bad but it seemed to linger in all of us for over a month.
All tested negative for covid.
How are you testing this ?
All of my RAT kits at home, have expired :-\
my wife tested positive recently, we used a test kit with a 2023-04 expiry date, the positive came up straight away. worth using if you've got nothing else around imo.
On a separate note, when is the health system NOT under great strain? If it is under great strain every single year, and most of the year, it really needs to be looked into, sooner than later.
It's always under strain right before they negotiate an EBA lol
The answer is no because nobody cares that you know the name of your flu any more. COVID is just a flu and is not treated any differently. Thank god, we all had enough of lock downs.
I guess the only real difference is that people are less inclined to think you're chucking a fake sicky if you say that you've tested positive for COVID.
Which of those papers are you referring to specifically? Because the search term you've used doesn't mention small lipid particles. I assume you're trying to imply the RNA vaccines have made us sicker. If so please direct me to a specific paper to read, I'm interested.
So, you're drawing a definitive conclusion from a research paper doing statistical analysis, that the writers of the research paper themselves did not.
Impressive.
That paper says nothing about cytotoxicity due to vaccines.
It says that excess deaths have not fallen even though COVID containment measures were put in place and that governments should probably put some effort towards figuring out why. Maybe its due to the vaccines, maybe its due to COVID infections, maybe its due increased DV/suicide. There is no way of knowing when looking at all cause mortality.
Imbecile is the first word that came to my head.
Are you implying the SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn't have a SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and it's only in the Vax?
but it was never tricked into entering the cells mitochondria ;)
lol you're making it sound like the virus is a polite little fella who doesnt really want to spread and grow in a host. It's more the other way, our host cells are tricked into attaching to the spike protein on the virus.
No one is denying there is excess deaths. If you're implying your linked research says it's due to the vax, you might want to re-read.
@whyisave: It wasn't good research or reading for sure.
If you blindly agreed with him, you're pretty much a sheep yourself.
Nothing makes sense when you start redefining words to suit your agenda.
@Ughhh: I don't know enough to agree or disagree.
The only thing you can have some certainty on,
is something you witnessed yourself.
Everything else we spout, is just copy & paste.
I'm just wary of someone saying:
I don't know what it is, but I know what it is not.
@whyisave: For the above example, all you need to know is to how to read. The user gave his 'evidence' to support his claim, except the article linked did not at all say what he claimed. It's either being dishonest or genuine comprehension issues, possibly blinded by confirmation bias. He since hasn't responded to explain himself. Is drawing conclusions from half assed 'research' and telling you what to think something you agree with?
The only thing you can have some certainty on,
is something you witnessed yourself.
Do you believe in other planets? Do you believe DNA? Do you believe that Antarctica (or some other country/continent you haven't' been to) exist? You haven't been or seen/witnessed any of those. The conclusions you draw from what you witness is a narrow view, based on what you know, and you (and I) really don't know much because we don't spend our whole life researching (and I don't mean looking up youtube or blogs) into said topic.
Hahaha… Zing !
Yes, just like the thousands of scientists who have disproven OP. Wear your badge of misinformation and lack of critical thinking proudly!
@7ekn00: Would you like a badge as well? I don't think what you're posting says what you think it does. 😉
Unless you twist it a certain way to post conspiracy theories, in which case you're welcome to the same badge of misinformation and lack of critical thinking!
@Clambabula: If you can't attack the argument, attack the person. Classic ad hominem! Nice one. And then straight into a strawman argument. Why use critical thinking when you can just argue badly?
Let's get back on topic - are you saying you disagree that the science overwhelmingly supports covid vaccines @Clambabula? As my position is that the science does support it and there is plenty of evidence for it. I'm yet to see any strong systematic evidence against.
gen Z under 30's you will realise their opinions are worth precisly nothing.
Even as an older dude I thank god that your /our lot are losing relevance in the modern world and it will belong to these people soon. I trust they won't fck it up as bad as we did.
Sorry younger folks that you need to put up with this.
Covid vaccine scepticism is silly and irrational, but recent studies also indicate that long Covid is much less prevalent than previously thought; do you accept the science of that as well, or do you dispute it? You can't have it both ways.
My view - the covid vaccine is perfectly safe and covid is of extremely low threat to anyone under 60, who is vaccinated, and without comorbidities. I would far prefer to get covid than influenza.
@justworld: Are you qualified to decide what is silly and irrational to others or is it only your personal thoughts?
Can you link me to a peer reviewed study to back up your opinion on this?
Thanks in advance
precisely, majority on here neg with fingers in ears, saying 'lalalala'…despite ever increasing research showing the jab's damage
@redfox1200: Not covid. Vax.
If there were health issues, either with yourself or your co-workers, the automatic reaction would be that they would be unrelated to the countermeasures or traditional vaccines. A lot of people never make the connection. Or refuse to.
We should start making connections.
We should DIY research on if there is a link between a friend being vaxed can cause another to have cancer.
@redfox1200: As I said, if there were health issues, either with yourself or your co-workers, the automatic reaction would be that they would be unrelated to the countermeasures or traditional vaccines. A lot of people never make the connection. Or refuse to.
As the user also mentioned "but am in close constant contact with many who took multiple. Also noticed this year bodily signs that may indicate cancer.". Would be a little unhinge to bring up cancer if not related to the topic in question.
When you realise most people on here are gen Z under 30's
JFC, the level of delusion you need to resort to this blatant lie, just so you can swallow that copium…
Public trust of the government regarding things like Covid should rightfully be low. Fauci lied about not doing gain of function research at Wuhan and profited off a hastily rushed vaccine that was verified in record time. Detractors who pointed out these suspicions early on were cancelled and banned online.
As it stands the best source of truth is probably from research papers that aren't likely to be censored by the US or China.
Only took two comments for the crazies to come out. And i don't have enough downvotes to give…
Which one are the crazies? The ones that took the vaccinations?
People like you.
COVID never went away. It continues to evolve and spread. There's an added mix of RSV and Flu A/B circulating on top too.
There's 3-in-1 tests you can pickup to see what you have: https://www.coles.com.au/product/touchbio-3-in-1-home-test-k…
$ 20 for a kit sounds expensive.
This reminds me of those AI tools that tell me if a picture is AI or not.
Basically, I need to believe in a tool, which tells me how much to believe in something.
I have no idea what youre trying to say here. Of course we need something to test another thing.
Tools are made to specifically test a certain thing. What are you on about?
Testing kits in the supermarket vs laboratory-grade testing equipment
Knowing what you have in this situation, won't change the treatment, because there is no cure,
but just a management schedule, ie. which is isolate, rest, hydration and some tablets (eg. Paracetamol)
What else can you do, whether you paid $20 to know or paid $0 to not know what you have ?
I think the point is why spend $20 to test if you're sick when you already know you're sick? Considering there's no specific treatment (unless older/immunocompromised) for covid, influenza, RSV, parainfluenza, metapneumovirus, rhinovirus etc why do a test… It's like the "line" validates the illness. Or when people come to work with snot streaming out saying "it's not covid" - Sure but it still looks bad!
@Drj55: What if you aren't properly sick, but just have that run down feeling for over 2 weeks and the symptoms fade in and out daily, and align with covid?
@Mechz: So what will you differently with a positive vs negative test? I mean I kind of get the fascination of these tests. Getting a name to the virus which is making you feel so sick is kind of satisfyingly, but they are also generating a huge amount of waste for minimal value.
@Drj55: Depends on what you do with the information.
If your not an antivaxer it's beneficial no point getting a covid jab if you just had covid etc.
I've also got 4 odd family ready to drop off the perch any moment. Covid, flu, it RSV could probably kill them.
This. In SA, 280 hospital health workers out on COVID sick leave at the moment and unvaccinated/out-of-date vaccinated are adding to the number of patients comingin with respiratory and relatedproblems. Flu is the icing on the cake.
https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+conten…
If hospital workers don't trust the vaccine why should we? I'm not anti vax. I just don't want to be a guinea pig. I'll take a vaacine for the small pox, Meningococcal , influenza vaccines but not COVID per se.
Hospital workers have the jab. You can still get covid after getting vaccinated, it's just not as severe and your less likely to infect people.
You can't work in most hospitals without being vaccinated against a hell of a lot.
How did you live through the pandemic and not understand how the vaccines work..
I wouldn't recommend touchbio.
Meanwhile, it found BTNX, PCL, Medriva, Medomics, PanBio (Australia), PanBio (Canada), SDBiosensor, StandardQ, and Touchbio to be the least responsive tests.
If you can get your hands on the Fanttest 3-in-1 Combo Rat Test that would be better.
It found the six best performing RATs included the Canadian-approved BTNX Cassette, Flowflex, and Medsup, as well as the Australian-approved Fanttest, Innoscreen, and Juschek.
Also, do note:
There were actually two RATs in this latest study which are designed to detect influenza A and B as well as COVID-19, but neither of them detected influenza proteins particularly well.
Touchbio worked for my COVID and Flu that I had in the last 6 months
remember that as the covid virus mutates, which test "works best" most likely will change, potentially in a short period of time.
The tests are not and have never been accurate. This has been proven multiple times. Who do you think benefits from the kits at the end of the day?
It doesn't need to be proven that swabs aren't accurate, it was known they weren't accurate when they first hit the market. The only reason the media reports when swabs are 'proven' to be 'ineffective' (what medical test is 100% accurate?) is because there is a captive audience of antivaxers who love collecting and sharing these stories as it reinforces their feelings of superiority over the 'sheep'.
Meanwhile the medical community has to work in the real world where swabs are $5 a piece, a lab test is $100 each, and money is not unlimited
Your comment was making sense until you diverted to sheep and antivaxxers.
@AussieDolphin: I'm sure I would get a lot more votes if I told you the simple story of government lying, because that's what governments do, they lie because they want to control you. Having control of taxes and laws isn't enough, and of course both sides of politics are in on the lie.
Understanding the pressures that a public health system works under is too much to expect people to understand apparently
@AussieDolphin: He's not wrong though. Those guys try to use any small bit of information to reinforce their "truth"
There is a soup of viruses out there, apparently.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/virus-soup-making-victorians…
Winter….soup. That makes sense. Cheers.
Duck soup
Wabbit season!
Stop talking about it and we'll be just fine
Don’t look up ;)
Herd Immunity for the win, yo
Did you check if it's covid? It can also be a really bad flu. There is this one very persistent coughs even weeks after.
I'll be checking later today as I don't have any test kits
l did the maths. That gives you 23 hours and 10 minutes to check.
its called Flu, been around for hundreds of years, there's no instant cure for it, your immune system will fight it.
persistent coughs
That could be sign of a whooping cough infection too.
Many of these respiratory illnesses all share the same symptoms,
but caused by different triggers (eg. coronavirus, influenza, etc.)
Whooping cough is vanishingly unlikely if vaccinated, and very, very unlikely even if not.
Possibilities and probabilities are intertwined labels.
So, there's still a chance, it "could" be ! :-D
Your vaccine needs to be up to date. My other half got Whooping cough in his fifties because he hadn’t had a booster since he was a kid. I recommend people get a booster because it is a nasty infection to get. Especially if you are likely to be around children too young to be vaccinated yet.
My other half got Whooping cough in his fifties because he hadn’t had a booster since he was a kid. I recommend people get a booster because it is a nasty infection to get. Especially if you are likely to be around children too young to be vaccinated yet.
2013 animal model study
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24277828/
"The observation that aP, which induces an immune response mismatched to that induced by natural infection, fails to prevent colonization or transmission provides a plausible explanation for the resurgence of pertussis and suggests that optimal control of pertussis will require the development of improved vaccines."
@mrdean: In summary from snippet: whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine is better than the acellular vaccine.
Were you trying to use this research to say any whooping cough vaccine doesnt work?
It's a mix of both rsv and covid. In April-May, my whole family got Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or some variant of influenza. Some of us got ear infections.
All tested negative for covid.
The health system is under great strain right now, with SA hospitals having to cancel elective surgery and my local GP is taking an extended break since their admin staff members are all sick.