CV and mad panic behaviour

[LP]

Assuming (and no guarantees ) the worst is over and I keep improving it was like a bad flu..but shorter duration.

Yes, this seems to be the most common trend, people feel pretty ordinary for a short period but recover more quickly than this years flu, this years flu seems to linger for weeks.

Of course, that is perhaps an average response, the extremes are rather more disconcerting because some people don't recover, while others roam around freely while completely asymptomatic and highly contagious.

Of course we all need to be careful how we discuss this, because in pretty much any forum you'll find the whole spectrum.

[kruddler]

PCR test done.

Now we play the waiting game.

[Baggers]

Let's hope governments have woken up to themselves and will invest heavily in health care... both in terms of services and staff conditions/remunerations.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Let's hope governments have woken up to themselves and will invest heavily in health care... both in terms of services and staff conditions/remunerations.

Good luck, won't ever happen, health care staff are always expected to suffer for the good of the community and made to feel guilty if they complain.
Expect the high turnover of staff to continue and ER's to be flooded and one day it's going to lead to what happens in the USA where they have closing times for ER's and you have to line up again  the following day or go the privates where you have to pay a fee..
In NSW now they have standalone ER clinics where you can pay to be seen straight away with full facilities.
Think they are starting down here in Victoria too, guess where the best ER staff will be poached to work at. ?

[Macca37]

In late January I posted that my wife and I had been laid low by a virus for over 3 weeks.  No temperature, no infection but feeling wretched with flu-like symptoms. Tests were negative.  At the time we had just had our third shot.

Three weeks ago we both went down again with the same symptoms but with the addition of a hacking cough which has kept us up at nights.  We were too ill to go out of the house and had to rely on our adult children to supply our needs.  RAT and PCR tests were negative.  We have both had the fourth shot and the flu shot.  As of today I think we have recovered from whatever virus it is.

My concern is that being in the senior age category our immune systems are losing or have already lost protection against Covid, yet there is no talk of a further booster shot.

We certainly live in anxious times.

[Mav]

There are supposed to be new vaccines (rather than general boosters) on the way tailored to the BA.4 & BA.5 variants.

[Mav]

By the way Macca, if you come down with anything in future, the advice is to get a PCR test immediately. That way, you’ll be able to receive anti-viral medications that are available to those who are 70+. Those anti-virals are most effective when administered within a few days of infection.

[Macca37]

By the way Macca, if you come down with anything in future, the advice is to get a PCR test immediately. That way, you’ll be able to receive anti-viral medications that are available to those who are 70+. Those anti-virals are most effective when administered within a few days of infection.

Thanks for the advice, Mav.  I had not kept up to date with the anti-viral medications.

[Mav]

If you ever do test positive, Macca, whether by RAT or PCR, immediately arrange a Telehealth consultation with a GP (perhaps via the Coronavirus hotline?) and obtain a prescription for the oral anti-virals. The GP can send that to your Chemist electronically and the medication can be picked up by friends or family (or maybe even DoorDash or the like). Speed is the key for best results.

There’s an article in The Guardian highlighting the lack of advertising concerning the oral anti-virals and other Covid matters and the Govt says that’ll roll out soon, so you wouldn’t be the only one who hasn’t heard about them.

[LP]

In NSW now they have standalone ER clinics where you can pay to be seen straight away with full facilities.
Think they are starting down here in Victoria too, guess where the best ER staff will be poached to work at. ?

It's a bad situation, because they have no obligation to accept patients.

I know a friend who had COVID recently, went to one of those clinics for express treatment and was turned away to the government run clinic. They then went to a local GP and was also turned away to the government run clinic. In the end they had to do a telehealth appointment to get to the next step. It was just a waste of the fee, because the next step is going to the government run clinic for a PCR test.

The clinics are using telehealth like a triage, and the private ER's are cherry-picking who's money they want to take!

It's all very Americanised, and I can see it causing some major problems in the public hospitals.

Interestingly, when I had my stent fitted I was warned things were heading this way by the public cardiology nurse. Initially I went to a private hospital with it's own cardiology unit and catheter lab as per my insurance policy, etc., but then got transferred to a public hospital as a private patient. The staff at the public hospital says it happens all the time, the less profitable cases and the cases that are likely to be problematic, get handballed to the public system. The cardiology nurse said you are better off going private in public from the get go, because if there are any unexpected problems that is where you end up anyway.

The UK model is much better than the American model, but the American model is what makes private investors wealthy, and politicians take the path of least resistance or cost. The politicians go where their bread will be buttered in the future!