Covid is more like polio than a flu

And if morons say it’s just a flu, tell them it’s more like polio, you better hurry up and get the shots.

I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me “it’s just like the flu — just catch it and get over it”. Noooo! COVID is about 20× worse than the flu, if you go by US mortality rates in the last several years.

Omicron might be only 10× worse than the flu — we don’t know yet — but it’s still gonna be wayyy worse than the flu.

And even the flu isn't "just" the flu.

Yup.. it depends on the strain.. apparently there’s a nasty avian (H5N1) version kicking around.. 10% to 30% fatality rate if no prior exposure or not vaxxed. But it’s “just the flu”, right? smdh

I have been reading a book about pandemics and potential pandemics.  The last chapter was about Avian flu.  Wow.  The CDC tracks these very carefully.  One year it hit in the U.S. millions of turkeys and chickens had to be destroyed.  Devasted farmers.  Then it hit in the midwest, even worse it was evolving so quickly.  The thing is they have to get control of it fast because it can spread to the human population.  It could make this pandemic look like a walk in the park. We owe a great deal to the CDC and health departments that work so hard to protect us. 

Same with Mad Cow disease, hoof-and-mouth/foot-and-mouth. Every time there’s one or two cases, they tighten ranks because they can spread quickly.

Think about this: Obama had set up an office in the WH of scientists with the job of tracking these kind of viruses. That group was connected to EVERY health system and more in the world so they can catch these things early. One of the first things Trump did when he got into the WH was to eliminate that early warning system. In the last year of his COVID malfeasants was to talk about establishing such a team. He was so bent on getting rid of anything Obama that he caused great and unnecessary suffering and deaths. 

He was then and is now a danger to our country. That includes his followers. 

Every forgets about flu, that it wasn’t fun, it was lethal to many who didn’t take care of themselves, Malaria, doesn’t necessarily kill you outright, it invites a a friend or two over and they all trash the place.

But for many years, the Flu was feared, and it was so easy to get.  So it just being the flu, ya, the Flu ain’t just the flu either.

And people say “I have the Flu” when in fact they have a cold. You hear it all the time.

That is a pet peeve of mine: people calling a cold the flu. 

It never bothered me until I got the flu. I couldn’t move my eyeballs without hurting for about 5 days.

Been there! January, 1978. Couldn’t go outside for almost a month because cold air would set off a coughing fit.

i had that crazy “eyeball” flu a few years ago. Trying to look at my phone would make me want to cry. Never had that along with all the other symptoms. Googled it after I was well and found it was an H1N1 symptom, as I recall. I always lose my sense of taste/smell with bad flu bugs too, for an extended period of time. Last time 6 months. It’s only one reason why I’ve been so paranoid about covid. When you’ve lost your ability to taste/smell for that long you are super scared that the next time it will never come back. 

Got hit back in ‘98.  Woke up feeling great, went to work… by lunch, I was staggering into the ER — not entirely certain how I managed to drive myself there. And the Dr was debating whether to keep me in the hospital, or let me go home.  I wanted my own bed, so he let me go. Drove 50 miles to get home, not sure how I managed that. Spent most of the flu sleeping, thankfully. I woke up long enough to take the meds the Dr prescribed, or to use the toilet. Managed to force down plenty of clear liquids, but eating was pretty much out of the question. Not because I lost my sense of smell/taste — like a normal person would. No.  Being the freak of nature than I am, mine supercharged. Even bland stuff tasted too strong.  But, fortunately, after a week or two, the senses returned to normal.

With Covid?  Not so much. Again, the senses became supercharged, and this was back in January of 2021. It is now January of 2022 — and while not quite as bad as when I was sick, my sense of taste/smell is still overly sensitive. Frex: the cleaner we use around the house used to have a subtle smell of fake lavender, and you could only mostly smell it in the area it was used. Now it just smells strongly of chemicals, and through the whole house. Garlic is almost overwhelming, and I can’t enjoy Tabasco sauce quite like I used to.

It seems to be getting better, albeit very slowly, or maybe I’m just getting used to it?

Maybe you & PadreMellyrn can help me: how can you tell the difference between a very bad cold and a mild flu? I’m really asking. Pardon my ignorance. 

Rather than try to explain something I'm not that familiar with, I found this for you:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/coldflu.htm

I’m not sure if it will bring up the site if you click on it, or if you will have to copy and paste it.

Here, just in case:

Cold Versus Flu

What is the difference between a cold and flu?

Influenza (flu) and the common cold are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. Flu is caused by influenza viruses only, whereas the common cold can be caused by a number of different viruses, including rhinoviruses, parainfluenza, and seasonal coronaviruses. Seasonal coronaviruses should not be confused with SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Because flu and the common cold have similar symptoms, it can be difficult to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. In general, flu is worse than the common cold, and symptoms are typically more intense and begin more abruptly. Colds are usually milder than flu. People with colds are more likely to have a runny or stuffy nose than people who have flu. Colds generally do not result in serious health problems, such as pneumonia, bacterial infections, or hospitalizations. Flu can have serious associated complications.

How can you tell the difference between a cold and flu?

Because colds and flu share many symptoms, it can be difficult (or even impossible) to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. Special tests can tell if a person is sick with flu.

I am talking about people having the sniffles and a fever of 99. If you are barely sick, all you have is a runny nose, than it doesn’t matter. Treatment is symptomatic. People get blown away by the flu. It hangs in for weeks. It is immobilizing.

Is It A Cold Or The Flu?

WHAT'S THE SAME

Both colds and the flu come from respiratory tract infections in your nose, sinuses and throat.

Cold

• Symptoms that build over 48 hours
• Runny nose, watery eyes
• Stuffy nose and congestion
• Sneezing and coughing
• Symptoms may last 3-10 days

Flu

• Fast onset of symptoms (especially fever and chills)
• Fever and chills
• Body aches and pains
• Weakness and fatigue
• Symptoms may last 7-14 days and may linger for up to 3 weeks

I’ve had colds for 3 weeks.

No, a cold only lasts about a week. Plus, the important symptoms are fever, chills and body aches, A cold is a nuisance, the flu is stay-in-bed sickness.

I disagree. I know the difference. I know I’ve suffered bad congestion, no fever, for more than a week. Nose red and sore, long enough to go to the Dr and have them do nothing. I have allergies which would often turn into a cold. Maybe they were sinus infections.

Yes, that does sound like a sinus infection. 

Could’ve been a sinus infection, like you said.  But also, I have caught colds that seemed to linger for weeks, but the fact is, it wasn’t the cold that was lingering, it was just a cough because of left-over crap in my lungs. Most of the gunk was gone, but there’d be a little remaining that would trigger coughing fits.  Especially if I tried to breathe in cold air, and when I’d lay down. And because of all the coughing I did when sick, and afterwards, I had a lot of muscle aches. And because of constant nasal allergies (I think I’m allergic to the air, itself, since my allergies are not seasonal), a runny or stuffy nose is not any indicator of illness for me.

But, this is me.  YMMV.

As a fellow sinus sufferer, I’d suggest seeing an E.N.T. (ear/nose/throat) dr. I, unfortunately, progressed through bronchitis (which is what your coughing sounds like it could be) and now I have COPD. You should really check into this, possibly saving yourself from future trouble. It’s a pain having to have supplemental oxygen to carry around everywhere. Good luck & take care!

Unfortunately, that ship has long sailed. Fellow COPD sufferer, here.

It last longer if you don’t take care of yourself.

I think it’s hard to tell if you haven’t had the flu.  There has been some good info in response to your question but here’s my answer.  
When I had the flu, I was afraid I was going to die for the first day then it got so bad, I was afraid I wasn’t going to die.  

Coughing, chills, horrible body aches, diarrhea, vomiting and feeling like your head is going to explode are all symptoms.  

It’s horrible.  

It feels like you’re being torn apart from the inside...and yes, you want to die.

Influenza has two distinguishing characteristics that differentiate it from a nasty rhino virus: serious fever (102 or above) and genuine anorexia. You wake up STARVING, but by your second or third mouthful of food, you're done, can't swallow another bite. Flu also tends to last a really long time in comparison to a cold, which never makes you feel rotten for more than a few days: with the flu, you can feel rotten for WEEKS.

general a pretty good fever I think. I’ve never had flu without fever, or a cold with any real fever. 

Can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, the difference is that a cold will creep up on me — it’ll start mild, and grow in intensity over a couple days.  The flu tends to slam into me, suddenly, like a run-a-way freight train.

That in fact seems to be one of the deciding symptoms per the CDC.

Or, “a stomach flu” when they have a gastric upset.  Duh.

Yes!

Pretty sure that is something else — a gastrointestinal bacterial or viral infection.  Influenza is a respiratory virus.

Stomach flu and respiratory flu are definitely different. They put a caveat on the flu vaccine, saying it does not help with stomach flu.

I have never been as sick in my life as I was when I came down with the “Hong Kong” flu during the winter of 1972. One minute I was fine, the next I was coughing my head off and shaking with chills. When I did not get up to go to my nursing classes at a Technical School the next morning, my Mother came in my room to see about me. “I’’m sick”, was all I could manage to tell her. She took my temperature. It was over 103 degrees. Frantic, she put me in the car and took me to a doctor who told her “She has what everyone else has. Take her home and put her to bed”. And, that is where I stayed, for the next two weeks. 

In 1995 my family had what i call the Fresno Flu. It just started locally in the spring when flu season should have been over. My young son caught it first. He had a fever for two weeks. Then my older son. For two weeks. Than my husband. For two weeks. Then me. First flu, then pneumonia, then Bell’s Palsy. During the pneumonia, I was also sent home from the emergency room to cough my head off. After all of that, I took my boys on a little outing and found I could only walk like Tim Conway’s old man. Tiny shuffling, steps. Or I’d be out of breath. I did recover later. 

I had the Hong Kong flu in '72, too. I remember laying in bed, with a 105 temp, watching monkeys brachiating across my ceiling and two hands playing chess on the checkered pattern on my blanket.

The next winter, I got the London flu; it wasn't a day at the beach, either, but I don't think it was as bad.

While no time is a good time to be sick, it could not have come at a worse time for me. I was halfway through the Practical Nursing program at a technical school (now college) when I got this flu. I had missed so many clinical hours that I was in danger of being kicked out of the program and having to start over again. I was still at home recovering (but very weak), when one of my instructors called me and asked me if there was any way possible I could come in and work a four-hour shift at one of the two hospitals we were doing our clinicals. “It’s not my rule, but the State’s rule”, she told me. In order to graduate and take the State Board Exams to become a Licensed Practical Nurse, you have to have completed so many hours of theory and clinical, and she added all I needed was four hours. Besides, it was the end of the quarter, which would give me more time to recover before the new quarter began. So, the next day I dragged myself in. It was me, one patient and my instructor, who worriedly watched me like a hawk, for I was still quite ill. I don’t know how I did it, but I did. At 12:00 Noon, she said: “That’s it. You’re done. Go home”. I did—and went back to bed. 

I will be forever grateful to this lady (wherever she is), for ensuring that I completed that program, which served as a stepping stone for my future career as an R.N. It would have been easier for her to let me drop out, but I think if that had happened, I would have given up. The road to me becoming a nurse was not an easy one, and there were many times I wanted to quit. But, I felt I owed it to myself as well as to her to keep fighting. I will never forget her pulling me aside one day before clinicals and making me promise I would go on to get my R.N. “You’re too smart”, she told me. “You don’t need to be here”. That meant a lot to me. Still does.

Ya’ll going hate on me. :)  The worst case of flu I ever had was the day after my flu shot, which left me sicker than a dog for two days. Since that time, if I go by the symptoms chart above, I don’t think I have had a case of the flu since  2003. Two of the times I though I did, turned out to be a clog in the Drain pipe, which ex-lax took care of. During the Hong Kong Flu I didn’t get a thing. The only other time I was sick was the Swine Flu Epidemic in 68-69, where I was sick for two days, and was ready to go back to school after the third day.

There is something in the Flu shots that causes my body to over react, and I will get sick with 3 hours of taking the shot, it will last for one to two days, and then three days after that, sick again for another day. I can literally set my watch by the timing.

Otherwise, I religious get every other Vaccine, and currently am waiting to get my booster next week for Covid. None of the Covid shots did anything but make me a little tired, and a sore arm where I got the two shots. I am one of those folks who can walk through an infectious disease ward for Flu and cold, and never get it.

Damn right!   I nearly died from the Asian flu…. 12 days in the hospital on oxygen…. so depleted that nails were blue and was hallucinating due to lack of oxy to brain.  Once released I was pretty much flat on my back for a month recovering my strength…. 

Are you referring to the 1956 — 1958 variety?

Plus, like flu, it is a serial killer.  Immunity wanes and if it didn't kill you in round one, it will keep on trying.  Proof positive that mindless persistence can prove fatal.

Get vaxxed.  Get boostered.  Stay masked, and distanced, and sanitized.  That way you can stay alive.

^^And help others avoid exposure and death! Dammit is that really still too much to ask?

Too many people care only about protecting blood relatives, which is why it was good advice in the article to suggest ads that say, “Don’t let your child grow up an orphan,” or “Don’t let your parents have to bury their kids.”

I have no children and no living parents, and I am vaccinated, boostered, and masked because I care about my fellow human beings whether I know them personally or not.

YES!! This is what everyone should be practicing. We protect not only ourselves and our family but everyone else as well. I just can't and never will understand the ignorance of these anti-vaxxers.

Yes, apparently.

If you are counting death rates, by my calculations covid is 80x worse than the flu

I had the real flu when I was only 26.  I was really sick for three weeks.  I wouldn’t want to share that with anyone. 

BTW antivaxers:  I’m old enough to have gotten those childhood illnesses.  They aren’t a piece of cake either.  I had the mumps for 3 weeks and my sister had mumps had them for three months.  That means we were stuck home.  And that means that a parent had to be home with us.  That means economic hardship, and more, for a family. 

And there are potential complications.

Yes, my ex was rendered permanently sterile by the mumps in childhood.

So was my late husband.  

I have also had all the childhood illnesses and they weren’t at all fun.  I also had the Hong Kong flu in 1969, it was awful.  In 1986 I got the flu strain that was going around then.  I worked at a school, at one point so many teachers, teacher assistants and children had it that they started consolidating classes.  I and my 2 sons got it, I felt like I was going to die.  My husband was at sea on work ups, came home when they pulled into port for a couple days and was greeted by his sick wife saying, “I am so glad your here, we are all sick!”  He looked surprised, confused and scared all in one second.  We got through it.  But since then, I get the flu shot.  

A classmate of mine in high school had the mumps and was out of school for three months. Back in those days we had homebound teachers who came to sick kids’ houses so they would not fall behind in school.

Tell it to Gorsuch — the putz.

I am wondering where the SCOTUS got the flu analogy.  I did check the numbers, and they are at least 20 times higher. If they are relying on FB crap to make SCOTUS decisions, we are all toasst.

It's more like getting hit by a bread truck than a flu.

But why a bread truck?🤔

what's your preference?

Dunno, heard of being hit by a Mack truck or a dump truck. Bread trucks not so much? 

Easy, a beer truck, but please make it craft beer.

You get hit by a bread truck, at least someone can offer you bread after

I have gluten issues.

Goodness!   *prepares the gluten free wafers*

Because it's crummy.

Boooo… I mean, nice… but booooo. =)

Actually, fatality and asymptomatic case rates are remarkably similar between COVID and polio.

Also like polio, it can leave a lasting mark—not as obvious as the paralysis and withering of limbs, but often just as disabling.

It seemed to me that people took the polio virus and the vaccines more seriously back in the 50’s. I was in the second grade when the first Saulk vaccine first came out. I don’t recall seeing people making such a fuss and resorting violence against the vaccines and precautions, even when there were SE’s with these vaccines.

I have very vivid memories of visiting my 2 cousins one on each side of my family in iron lung machines. My bestie in elementary school hopped along wearing a brace and a high lift to support her polio withered leg. My college roommate’s sister eventually had her withered leg amputated in her teens because it was better to do this than live with the deformity.

I remember being lined up in elementary school for the sugar cube polio vaccine. There were no anti-vaxxers yammering about tyranny & freedom. Freedom to our parents was knowing their kids wouldn’t get polio like so many parents had dreaded for generations. 

I have to confess that I was so sold on this vaccine that I  joined up with my 7 y/o  girl classmate in tackling one of the boys who attempted to escape out of our line in the school gymnasium. I don’t know if we turned him into an anti-vaxer by doing this. 

I remember the 3rd sugar cube. The Sunday we were visiting relatives & I talked my Dad into taking our family to the local school to get the cube. “Otherwise you will never hear the end of it from Mom (a public health nurse)!!” Our relatives also brought their family to get the cube, when they hadn’t made up their minds to get it yet…

Back then, most people took their health seriously & were very grateful to have anything to fight common diseases!!

And back then we didn't have an orange Ex-president spouting lies about a very real virus and encouraging the public to believe that there was no necessity to vaccinate.

Polio trivia:

Dwight D Eisenhower (R) was POTUS in 1955.

Whoa, those are some memories—I used to show my nursing students pics of those wards trying to impress on them the importance of vaccines. And I agree with you. People had memories of infectious diseases killing of loved ones, of being deathly ill, or having very bad asthma as a result of pneumonia. And so they were perceived as miracle medicines. In a related way in which attitudes have changed, as a boy growing up fluoridation of the water was a “communist plot.” Now when folks argue, it’s our own govt that is doing the plotting, much like the microchips tracking our every movement with covid vaccines. .  How things have changed.

“It’s just the flue.”

No. It’s the fireplace, and you’re in it!

the only problem is that thanks to vaccinations nobody remembers wtf polio even is.

They don’t remember Hitler either

And each new generation won’t remember what the weather patterns used to be like, or life forms etc.  We are so fucked now.

Not for long, so don’t fret about it. Glad I’ve had my life, but sorry for the many who have not had years enough to know: skies full of honking geese in autumn,  wolves in the woods, howling into the dark night, gentle spring rains, hordes of butterfly species; salmon fighting their way upstream to breed, snow enough for snowmen, but not 32 hour snow delays on highways, streams that did not overflow and destroy roads and bridges, small tornadoes tearing only  a narrow path of destruction, and so on and so forth--- as the world changes more each year. Earth, it’s been nice to know you and thanks for the ride, spinning 24/7 forever, and for our quick deaths, whichever way they come, by tide or wind, fire or downfall, in fear or in faith, with our loved ones or without. Millions of years wasted. Maybe next time,,,,,,,,,,,

Nobody? Plenty of people 60 and up absolutely do.

But if the right wing trolls sitting on SCOTUS say so, it has to be true. WT ever loving F.

Why can't Blue State AG's announce tomorrow if SCJ vote to overturn vax\test mandates they will file Criminal Negligent Homicide charges against everyone of these death merchants and that is absolutely what they are.

This is life and death being decided against best medical science so we are perfectly justified in protecting ourselves as a society by pressing charges on them.

Slight correction, Type 1 diabetics are usually obese, but obesity doesn’t cause T2, certainly is a risk factor.

What a tragedy.

The important thing is that natural selection continues to do it's thing.

Makes NO SENSE, of course! 

Praise the Mother but, at 75, I have never had the flu and have only been getting the jab for about 5 yrs.  No idea why except I seem to have a very robust immune system.  At 4 I had either polio or spinal meningitis.  It wasn’t even diagnosed by the time I recovered sans treatment.  My Dad said I was so stiff he could lift me vertical by the back of my neck!  They only infections I ever had were dental.  Cuts and scrapes … heal overnight.  When I had triple bypass in 2020 they said 5-7 days post op in hospital.  I was home with my feet up in 4.

So I guess I’ve got a kick-ass immune system.  If only I could share it with y’all!

I dunno.  I’m fully vaxxed and boosted.  I tested positive last week.  I have had worse colds than this in the last 50 years.  Granted, I’m speaking as someone who is fully vaxxed and boosted.  If nothing else, my story shows that vaccination works!!!!!

It’s all a game until it isn’t. The disconnection from reality of so many Americans is more than disquieting. It is a threat to all of us.

Remember they’re OK with 1-2% of the population dying every year. They’re OK with 10-15% of the population getting long term illness and suffering. Then realize what they’ll do when sea levels rise and ocean food webs break down. Nothing. They won’t do a damn thing. Well, except complain, call it all a “liberal hoax” and demand President Abbott lower the price of fish sticks at WalMart.

They’re okay with every single American who doesn’t agree with them dropping dead. Simultaneously. 

And thanks to Donnie, they think they are all the smarter for it. 

When a million GOP’ers are dead from Sigma or whatever the hell the next horror strain is.. do we send the Orange Anus a “Thank you” card? Does Hallmark even have a “Genocidal Maniac” card?

Maybe Colbert’s writers will come up with a “first draft”.

I’m sure we will work our way around to an Andromeda Strain if we can’t get more people to vaccinate and distance. 

Apparently omicron can bind to the ACE2 receptors in.. mice. Yup, that means it’s quite likely there are now rodent populations in major cities around the world with omicron floating around. That’s an animal reservoir that won’t go away quickly. Well, unless it’s like 99.8% fatal to the mice. Then we’ll have billions of dead mice and the problems that will create. But assuming it’s just infecting them they’ll keep it around and eventually give us back something as a “gift” a strain that’s mutated so far from COVID-19 we’ll have a completely new pathogen to deal with. Imagine COVID + something like Hanta virus. That’d be up there with the Andromeda Strain for scary.

I thought of Haunta + Covid before I got to that part of your comment. Good to see we’re on the same page. And there was a deadly hauntavirus scare in the Four Corners a few years ago. Fun fact. HV has a mortality rate of 50%. Mix that with the transmission factor of Omicron and we’re well and truly fucked.

“Hantavirus”.  It’s completely unrelated to coronaviruses.  Most hantaviruses affect the kidneys (like Puumala in Scandinavia and Korean Hantaan, which can present as a hemorrhagic fever), and are spread by inhaling dust contaminated by rodent urine.  Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is caused by a very specific hantavirus strain that mostly occurs in Western states.  

I can only see mice spreading coronavirus if they excrete it in their urine, like hantaviruses; and if you have a heavy rodent infestation in your house.  

OK.. this sounds like scifi but it’s not. When coronavirus, or any RNA virus, replicates in a host it has a chance.. not a large one.. but higher than you want to consider.. of blending with ANY other RNA it finds. It’s a freaking genetic blender. That’s how we think COVID started in the first place.. thru two unrelated viruses combining in an animal species then jumping to humans. They didn’t have to be respiratory viruses. Hell, look at the damage COVID does, it acts like no other respiratory virus we’ve ever seen.

If I remember my coursework correctly (and it’s been awhile), hantaviruses are positive-sense riboviruses just like coronavirus.  To thus  say they are “completely unrelated” isn’t quite accurate.