COVID or the Flu?

[WyoDoug]

I had the Johnson vax last Tuesday. No side effects whatsoever. One shot and I'm done. Any of you are US vets, that's what the VA is giving. Go for it. Not only is it a one shot deal, but the track record is good. It tested out nearly 100% effective. In the US there were seventeen blood clotting issues from eight million vaccinations and essentially all were women under age fifty. That's one in 740,000 compared to Astra which is now at less than one in 30,000 up here.

I got the Pfizer vaccine with two shots. No soreness, no side effects whatsoever. That is what most in the Cheyenne get and stats are on a downward trend in the state overall. But to achieve herd immunity you need much more than 50-60 percent immunized. In my case, I paid for not getting the flu shot this year. It don't always stop a virus, BUT when you do get it it is usually far less severe than otherwise. I got the COVID shots as soon as I was eligible just from the experience the wife and I had when she was exposed to it at the hospital where she worked.

 

[Bluffgruff]

I've seen a couple deaths from influenza in over 10 years of medical practice. I've seen dozens and dozens of people die under my care from COVID in the last 14 months. There is no comparison from a population level. All strains of the flu combined have done less damage in the last 20 years than covid has done in 18 months, in the US.

I'm glad you weren't that sick, if your antibody testing was accurate. Glad you got vaccinated, a great model for everyone else on here to follow.

 

[maconbacon]

Serious question if theres so many people dead from covid, wheres all the houses for sale? Youd think there'd be more on the market?

Because there are far more variables that go into the housing inventory than just death rate at a given time.
My guess is due to the financial uncertainty of COVID, loss of jobs, etc many are afraid to spend money to buy a new house and thus accordingly aren’t going to put their house on the market, either.

 

[hank4elk]

I got my 2nd shot 3 weeks ago,never had a side effect more than a sore arm the 1st shot.

Have not kept up on flu where I am, but have not worried about the flu since I have stayed away from kids & offices full of people.....6 yrs. And I'd just get the achy/ congestion from that, a bad cold.

I was one of the almost victims of the Hongkong flu in 1967.101-105 temp. for a week,brain fever. Really screwed me up for years. Some say forever....

I do know 10 people who have died from covid 19 in the last year. 4 were healthcare workers. 6 were older & in not so good shape.

 

[noharleyyet]

Had the flu in my 20's that was symptomatically much worse for a shorter period (about 5 days)...Covid hung on for about a month.

 

[nrpate05]

What scares me a little is some of the unknowns of the long term impacts of Covid. It sounds like a small percentage of people get lasting lung/cardiovascular issues. A friends sister caught it about a year ago and is still on an inhaler from complications. She is ~30 yrs old and in good health.

 

[LCH]

I've seen a couple deaths from influenza in over 10 years of medical practice. I've seen dozens and dozens of people die under my care from COVID in the last 14 months. There is no comparison from a population level. All strains of the flu combined have done less damage in the last 20 years than covid has done in 18 months, in the US.

I'm glad you weren't that sick, if your antibody testing was accurate. Glad you got vaccinated, a great model for everyone else on here to follow.

I've been wondering about this. If we had a 12+ month flu season with no flu vaccines, would the deaths likely be comparable?

 

[Cammy]

Was told I would get the vaccine by the domestic supervisor so we could interact with the grandkids. Had Pfizer 2 shot and experienced soreness at the injection site. NOTHING like the 2nd yellow fever shot soreness though. If you have ever had a yellow fever shot you will understand.

I personally do not know anyone who has passed from the virus and only know 2 people who ever tested positive.

 

[Wrong Burgundy]

Ive heard the vaccine leaves you with a brain haze or cloudy ......hard to think.....any such experience?

Zero issues. Sore arm for a few hours, and back to normal and protected. Way better than getting covid.

 

[Wrong Burgundy]

I am beginning to wonder which is worse, COVID or the flu.

I just got released from quarantine today, not for COVID but for the flu. They were not specific on which variant of the flu virus it was, but while I was sent home and asked to self-quarantine, they did not order lab tests to determine which type. They did to the nasopharyngeal swab which was not fun, but that test come back negative. They kept me overnight because of fluid in my lungs but I was breathing and problem was still mild enough that they didn't prescribe diuretics or anything like they would if it was more severe. Went home with advice to take Tamiflu which seemed to work. My wife was in a panic with the way it affected me but you know how wives worry. Usually for the good though.

Way back in February 2020, I was likely exposed to COVID and so was my wife through her work at the hospital but both of us tested negative. The antibodies testing they tried a year later after it became available to us showed both of us positive but I experienced no symptoms and wife only had mild symptoms more like a bad cold except wife had the no smell or taste symptoms. I had no symptoms.

Later, I had to give up my elk hunt because my wife was exposed while I was gone and was going into the hospital. Wife was again exposed during my elk hunt but did not have symptoms and tested negative. Because of her issues, risk factors and experiences she was having, I had to leave elk hunt rather suddenly. I didn't have time to make sure @Wildabeast cabin was properly closed, properly cleaned and shut and left that to my friends I left behind and there were bumps. Still was a really nice way to celebrate my retirement. That cabin is not a cabin, it's a mansion in a compound.

So now I am wondering which is the worse experience. I have heard war stories and everyone's experience is different in this regard. I am just glad to receive the release from the doctor so I can venture back out and get stuff mailed I sold on here and finally get some of the bird houses I made out of reclaimed lumber to the people that bought them.

Interested in hearing experiences others have had and how it affected everything around them. With me, the flu experience I just got out of was more severe. That is without the politicized explanation, just real life experiences.

My doc during a recent visit mentioned that flu symptoms, etc. run the risk of being worse for those who have had Covid.
The "long haul" issues even with those who had a mild experience with Covid are the other worrisome unknowns.

 

[Wrong Burgundy]

I've seen a couple deaths from influenza in over 10 years of medical practice. I've seen dozens and dozens of people die under my care from COVID in the last 14 months. There is no comparison from a population level. All strains of the flu combined have done less damage in the last 20 years than covid has done in 18 months, in the US.

I'm glad you weren't that sick, if your antibody testing was accurate. Glad you got vaccinated, a great model for everyone else on here to follow.

Well said. Mitigate risk where you can. I am damn thankful for medical science.

 

[dcopas78]

I got the Pfizer vaccine. First shot felt like Tyson had punched me on the shoulder for the next couple days. The 2nd dose got about a 1/4 of the soreness, and I was draggy for a few days. Other than that, no other side effects.

 

[Bluffgruff]

I've been wondering about this. If we had a 12+ month flu season with no flu vaccines, would the deaths likely be comparable?

No, first, flu vaccination is still not what I would consider widespread, semantics, but around 50% in the 2019-2020 flu season. And, excluding a few notable examples, deaths are much much lower to the point that it would take more than a decade for cumulative flu deaths to reach the number of COVID deaths in the US so far. The data from the most recent 10 years of flu seasons (2010-2019) show an estimated 359k total flu deaths per CDC, vs 586K cumulative COVID deaths.

 

[LukeDuke]

What scares me a little is some of the unknowns of the long term impacts of Covid. It sounds like a small percentage of people get lasting lung/cardiovascular issues. A friends sister caught it about a year ago and is still on an inhaler from complications. She is ~30 yrs old and in good health.

Has she been vaccinated? My Dr at Mayo said they are seeing great results when patients who have some sort of lingering issue from COVID get vaccinated...it has been helping to reduce/eliminate the complication. I shared this with a coworker as I know her husband had been on an inhaler for months. She called me today and told my that after he was vaccinated his breathing issue went away and he no longer needs the inhaler. Might be worth a shot.

 

[Bucksnuff]

Went ahead and got the vaccine myself. My daughter worked in the COVID ICU and I heard too many first hand stories. Had a couple of friends that lost their fathers that were healthy in their 70’s. Got a friend in his 30’s that has it right now and his wife is in ICU with kidney failure from it.

 

[Hammsolo]

My long time mentor and hunting partner Wayne drew his first bull moose permit in Montana this year. He and his family were Covid doubters. His three sons got together for the hunt. One son arrived sick with covid symptoms. They didn’t worry. They went hunting. He got sicker and another 40 year old healthy son got so sick in the field he had to go to the hospital where he was diagnosed with Covid. Wayne started showing symptoms that night, went to shower, and that’s where he died from Covid. He was 68 and had some typical health issues, but nothing that threatened his life. To the best of my knowledge I don’t know anyone that’s died of the flu.

 

[Hammsolo]

Ive heard the vaccine leaves you with a brain haze or cloudy ......hard to think.....any such experience?

I had one night with a fever. Next day, back to as normal as I can be.

 

[Hammsolo]

I am not talking numbers. I am more interested in individual experiences. The stats are there and no denying them nor am I trying to minimize the seriousness of COVID-19. Everyone's experience is different. In my case I was exposed but never had symptoms of COVID itself.

Death is a pretty telling symptom.

 

[DouglasR]

I know a 55 yo guy who drinks like 6 Busch lights a night and has almost no feeling in his feet because he took a header on the concrete about 5 years back when he fell off of a fertilizer sprayer who survived covid.
I was super sad this fall when I found out he had it because I thought I was never gonna see him again.
This guy will run a sprayer 24hrs a day if you let him.
I remember thinking to myself
“Damn, I always wondered what would get old Dan out of the seat of that thing, never would’ve guessed it’s be a global pandemic.”
sure as shit, about 14 days later there he was behind the controls again.
“I was sick as a dog for about 2 days, but I didn’t need 14. Really gets into a guys ass pocket”- Dan

2 high skill educated friends in their 30’s who have an infant who are pretty adamant about not getting the vaccine got it.
They were fine.
I ate dinner in a little bitty camper trailer with them 1 day before they tested positive.
I guess my single dose of Pfizer worked.

If it turns out this was created in a lab I’d prob be more inclined to get my second dose.

 

[WyoDoug]

Death is a pretty telling symptom.

I do. Seniors that get the flu are just as vulnerable as with COVID in that regard. Seniors that have flu sometimes develop very serious cases of pneumonia. Per capita wise the Spanish flu actually killed more nearly wiping out half of San Francisco. COVID has far greater numbers than flu otherwise and that is obvious. However, states got federal money to deal with COVID so I wonder how much of the numbers is greed and how much is real.