Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

^ this is exactly where I am right now. Going to go for a very gentle short jog and see how the bellows are doing later on.

First run back was good. Well, felt like I was coming back from a bad cold and a few weeks sitting on my arse so as good as could be expected.

Unlike last time round, no heart rate going crazy and no gasping for breath. Hope you guys come out the other side similarly unscathed.

Just got latest ONS results back. I'm negative but MiniGB tested positive. Mrs GB hasn't got her result back yet.

However, it's not very helpful for us (*) as today is the 10th full day after we did the swabs (24th December) so nothing we can do now. Unsurprising given the Christmas holidays.

If we'd known (or any of us had tested positive on a LFT - which we weren't doing) then we/she may not have met people in the pub on Christmas Day, gone to a big family party on Boxing Day, gone to a cafe and a pub on the 28th, gone to the ballet on the 29th, visited my elderly parents 30th/31st, gone to the pub on 31st and then out for a meal, gone for a sleepover on the 1st, met friends on the 2nd, or gone back to school today (3rd).

Current guidelines say:

"
If a child or young person aged 18 or under tests positive for COVID-19, they should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days. This starts from the day after they did the test.
"

(Luckily that means she was hopefully not infectious when we went to see my parents...)

Also no idea if she was ever infectious enough to trip an LFT. The PCR tests from the ONS are obviously way more sensitive...

No symptoms to speak of (we've all had coughs and sniffles on and off for the last few months it seems), second time she's tested positive asymptomatically, she's had all (two) jabs that an otherwise healthy 13yo can have. Her last day of school was the 16th so it's unlikely to be from that, but she did a fair amount of stuff between then and the 24th though.

* I get that it's a country wide prevalence study, not a testing programme for individuals.

You don't need to buy a new Garmin to get graphs, if it helps.

You could use the Visible app, which is designed for people with long covid, but uses pretty basic HRV algorithm.

If you're not into using something explicitly for sick people, you could also use an app like HRV4Training which does the same thing but also connects to Strava. There's also EliteHRV, which is what Visible uses under the hood.

They're all free, and they all give you a daily "how fucked are you today then, fam?" score, plus graphs and other useful bits and pieces.

I also have a garmin with body battery functionality, but I find the HRV tracking more useful day-to-day (I have a long-term illness). Here's links to screenshots of today's scores from HRV4Training and for Visible for your interest - the recorded numbers aren't quite the same, but they're testing at different times, and are better for looking at overall trends anyway. HRV4Training has more historic data for me than Visible, which might also be a factor.

(edit: moved the inline attachments to imgur coz they massive innit)

I live with my Dad and he is testing positive for Covid. I’ve had cold symptoms for 2-3 days and testing negative. Could the lateral flows not be working? Or just coincidence I’ve got a cold the same time he has Covid?

In my experience, and that of a few friends, LFDs worked great for our first infections but seem to be fair less sensitive for second and third.

I had COVID over Christmas and only had a faint pos test on day six or seven but was neg for other days. Same for my wife. Total guess but I wonder if you generate/replicate as much of the virus when you're on your second or third infection...

Personally I'd assume that you have COVID.

That’s interesting as this would be my second infection. I will keep testing just to be sure and have gone back to mask wearing.

Symptoms are very mild (so far) compared to my first infection in January last year.

Interesting but very much not scientific. Just know a bunch of people who have tested positive for COVID but only barely in terms of lack of bold line recently.

Also not scientific (anecdotal between what I’ve read on here and friends getting Covid and at work), it looks a bit like some brands of test pick up the current variant and some don’t. Would be keen to hear if this is what other people have noticed this too.

Well I’ve tested positive this morning. I’ve been testing since last Wednesday and first noticed symptoms on Thursday. I’m using the blue NHS kits, that were free.

Will boosters ever be available to under 50s?

I had mine ages ago, are you likely to be in contact with anyone at risk?

I’ve had three jabs, but haven’t been offered a fourth. I do some volunteering that involves going into care homes.

Book it and tell them that, when I've got mine or taken my daughter the people doing seem happy to find any excuse to get people jabbed up.

But don't book it for a while now as you need to wait a while after getting got.

it looks a bit like some brands of test pick up the current variant and some don’t. Would be keen to hear if this is what other people have noticed this too.

Yep when we had it in December (very mild, as @Stonehedge describes above) only one brand of test kit picked it up.

As he also says everyone should always assume you've got it if in doubt - statistically lots of false negatives but very few false positives is what you'd expect.

How your first brush with COVID warps your immunity
The immune system responds more strongly to the strain of a virus that it first met, weakening response to other strains. Can this ‘imprinting’ be overcome?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00086-1

only one brand of test kit picked it up.

Probably the ones this guy sells. God bless him for the good work he does.

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/23/conservative-health-minister-stake-covid-nick-markham-cignpost-investments

If anyone has become interested in pathogen genome sequencing since covid made us all armchair epidemiologists, here's a new (free) MOOC
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/pathogen-genomics-a-new-era-in-global-health-surveillance-and-strategy/1

It finally got me, fuck this is rough.

Can anyone suggest covid tests that are any good at detecting current variants? IIRC people had mentioned the old free ones are not good at detecting the more recent variants?

Which brand picked it up?

I tested positive in December quite definitively on the Flowflex ones from boots.

SureScreen - purple and white box.

I've been under the weather for two weeks but have got rapidly worse since Sunday afternoon. Did a test last night (blue and white NHS box which IIRC is Innova) and a very very faint line but annoyingly I'm definitely not imagining it :/

Did a Flowflex this morning and it seems to be negative, but they were the ones I tested positive on for months after I had it once before so I can definitely confirm they're sensitive. We're out of SureScreen now so that's not an option.

I think that's #4 for me - possibly #5, last just before Christmas. lol.

#2 for me, very mild symptoms if anything.

Had contact with some people last week who subsequently tested positive but I'd tested negative on a couple of lateral flows since then.

However I happened to have my latest ONS PCR test on Saturday and it just came back positive.

Without that PCR test I would have assumed I'd dodged it.

Hopefully it just means I've got it mostly asymptomatically (seemingly had an occasional cough or runny nose for months now) and that I've not got to the point of being infectious. Will still curb my activities (no co-working space tomorrow, no 5-a-side, etc) for the next few days just in case.

[EDIT] Faint line on today's lateral flow. Bugger.