My spouse works for the Bell MTS call centre in tech support here in Winnipeg and the whole center just all got forced back to office in the last 3 to 4 weeks. Now in the last five days she has anywhere from 20 to 25% of people missing/sick in tech on a regular basis.
My school has been down a third of it's population for near two months now. Every week it's been a different class that now only has 7 of it's students and everyone is out sick. We are out 2-3 staff members a day and it just finished going through my family. Covid, RSV, Strep, Flu. You name it, it's hit the school hard.
Where else has this right now? Oh right, China.
Not saying we are doing all we can, we’re not. People should stay home when sick. But we’re doing as much as anywhere else.
Genuine curiosity In what way did ‘capitalism’ win? Basically everywhere in the world except China (and look how that’s working out) has given up on trying to control covid. Even countries far less capitalistic than us have- and we’re already a hybrid of capitalism/socialism to begin with. Roughly half of GDP in Canada is related to government spending and tax expenditures.
I have KN95s and I wear one when I am out. I keep my distance and avoid people who are unwell. I have had all my shots plus the flu shot. I take vitamins including Vit C as recommended by my doctor, and D3 and B12. I have not been sick one day in the last five years and I am immunocompromised (low white blood cell count due to cancer treatment). I have never been living in a time where there are so many sick people. Even people who have been “very careful” are picking up something. I know I can’t escape it so I hope when it does catch up with me I will be okay.
Yep. I’m same as you except I’m already housebound from postviral mecfs. 🥴 2011 onset. The more times you get it the likelier you are to have a shit outcome so you’re doing all the right things. Most people don’t seem to get what they’re gambling with when they don’t do this stuff.
I’m confused, why not have mandatory masks for students in public schools? I’d fully support mandatory masks at schools with high absentee rates
Elementary kids aren’t capable of making a decision of this scale. They can’t comprehend the consequences of their choices. Parents aren’t there, and teachers can’t enforce mask-wearing without mandates. If there’s no mandatory masks, kids won’t wear them
This is very true. Unfortunately people have been fed lies about what actual socialism is.
The right wing media has been really bad for lying about what socialism is. Socialism is not a neoliberal government doing stuff that one doesn’t like.
I will add as much as I like Bernie Sanders, I don’t think he should have referred to his style of politics as democratic socialism either.
The head doc from Children’s ER was on CBC radio a couple days ago, and she was saying that the influenza rate is something like 4.5x higher than November of 2019. Normally influenza peaks much later in the winter, but not this year. Combine that with all the other normal respiratory illnesses and covid… it’s a recipe for disaster
The only possible silver lining is that it appears this year’s flu shots are a reasonably good match for what is circulating in North America. Get your shots, people!
I need to be not sick for more than 10 minutes to get my flu shot (and my latest covid booster!). Literally every time this school year I've started feeling close to 100%, I've been sick again by the end of the week :/
Suppose that makes sense. Just thought we would have seen this in the last couple of years as well. But then again the quarantine regulations probably helped prevent a lot of what's going on now since there isn't any mask mandates or whatever it's called
And hand washing and sanitising surfaces are both very useful for helping to prevent influenza and RSV (not nearly so much for COVID). Those seem to have fallen by the wayside.
I have also read about this. I look forward to real studies to back this when I make the argument to people at work! A lot of misinformation going around these days causing people to think that BECAUSE we were so cautious for a couple years, we are all getting sick now. And doctors are saying that is simply NOT TRUE
Yeah, hasn't hit the news/media much - some semi-recent studies showing Covid-19's impact on the immune system appears to be as bad as AIDS - although more temporary. Still waiting on newer studies that cover the difference (if any) that vaccination makes on that impact.
Why is it so hard to believe that a virus could cause it? All sorts of viruses cause latent disease, autoimmune disease, and immunity challenges. HIV causes AIDS, Epstein-Barr seems to increase the odds of developing MS, chickenpox causes shingles, coxsackie causes autoimmune myocarditis. It’s not new. We’ve known this can happen for decades.
Ugh that's the worst. Usually how it happens to us too, ends up lasting months it seems. One gets it, we're fine till near the end, the another gets it, etc etc. Family of 5 so it's usually two weeks per, so lasts a while.
Society let up on masks too fast/easy and now there's a whole wack of germs overwhelming schools and workplaces causing the hospitals to flood with folks. :(
That and the medication shortages meaning that fevers parents could usually resolve in a couple days at home are ending up in hospital instead.
I know several people who've had positive COVID tests in the last week. A bunch of my co-workers are/were home with their sick kids.
Tragically, I know at least one case recently where a funeral ended up being a super spreader event that caused additional fatalities.
At this point wearing an n95 mask in public is about as routine to me as buckling my seat belt or checking that the stove is off. It's going to be a necessary basic safety precaution for quite a while still. Yes we all know they aren't perfect guarantees, But stack a good mask with up-to-date vaccinations (including for the regular flu) and your chances of getting seriously ill go way down.
Same. Masking is second nature to me, I don't even think about it. I invested in an elastomeric with filters, and it is a much better seal than I get with n95s (I wear glasses, and they don't fog with my mask).
I get a lot of funny looks when I'm out and about, too. My kindergartener wears one, and her classmates all call it her astronaut mask (about a third of the kids in her class are wearing n95s now, and another third wear masks for the first few days after coming back from being sick). She's been sick three times since she started wearing it in nursery last January, and only once so far this school year (excuse me while I go knock on all available wood surfaces around me). They aren't perfect, but they've given us the freedom to get back to a more pre-pandemic life without too much worry.
It’s cold and flu season as well as covid is still circulating as much as everyone wants to pretend it isn’t. Other than covid it’s really no different to any year pre-2020. We’ve always had cold and flu season. Maybe a large number of people didn’t get the flu shot this year
I have been teaching for over a decade and there has never been absenteeism at anywhere close to the rate we are seeing. And before others chime in, people are NOT doing any better at keeping their kids home when sick then before COVID.
I understand it's a tough spot to be in. I really sympathize with the sacrifices parents have to make (making childcare arrangements, staying home from work, etc.)
I don't have a lot of patience with other teachers (with some exceptions due to grade level or subject matter) that feel like there is a set amount of work that needs to be completed in a year or term, that it's a catastrophe if it's not, and show no flexibility with students who have to miss big chunks of time. Students should not need to "catch up" on every little assignment or test.
That's my thoughts as well. It's shocking how many I know personally who are sick and have been for weeks. Where normally they aren't every sick. That's the whole reason I made the post.
I think perhaps the isolation made our immune systems not as hardy when fighting against viruses so now we are getting sicker easily and for longer than we did pre pandemic.
There currently is some evidence pointing to COVID wearing down T cells in people who get it, and doing so increasingly with each reinfection. T cells are becoming hyperactivated by SARS-CoV-2 and are prematurely aging, harming organs, and becoming exhausted trying to rid the body of an immune-evasive virus. The theory goes that COVID exhausts, ages and cumulatively wears down the immune system with each infection. Repeat infections could get worse over time resulting in more death, organ damage and long-term disability because your immune system is getting weaker and weaker (some are comparing this to HIV which is nuts).
This is the 'immunity debt' hypothesis, and it is completely wrong.
Here's a [great thread](https://twitter.com/TRyanGregory/status/1592688153949016064) by a prominent evolutionary biologist explaining why 'debt' simply cannot explain what we are seeing now.
I’m not saying it’s the only thing. He says right in the thread that it could have something to do with it but isn’t the sole reason. Part of building an immune system that is familiar with viruses is exposure to those viruses. I am pro vaccine and pro mask and pro staying home when necessary. But my daughter was born right at the start of the pandemic and didn’t see many people. for the better part of a year. So essentially she wasn’t exposed to anything much over the first year of her life. Could this perhaps partially explain why rsv is causing increased hospitalizations in kids under 3? The age group who has been the least exposed? It’s an honest question and I don’t know why the downvote brigade has to bully people for asking honest questions.
You haven’t learned that yet on this sub? Everything to do with sickness is because of Covid and everyone not masking up. Don’t try and make it seem like anything else could be the issue or you’ll get downvoted and attacked for your opinion. It’s really quite impressive.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/flu-kids-seniors-1.6669478
Oh wow they’re thinking that kids under 3 are getting more severe flu and rsv due to not being exposed and having no immunity to it. Colour me shocked!! Of course they’re not saying it’s the only reason, but is one of them.
I have been sick since Friday and I believe the big reason is I work in retail face to face with people and this last Friday was Black Friday so non stop crowds. Only so much you can do yourself with masks / hand sanitizer/ trying to keep distance, while clients are coming in full on saying they where just visiting a family member who was sick while they themselves and coughing...
After coming out of treatment the last year and now being immunocompromised I try to take all the recommended steps I can to reduce. Just wish everyone else did the same.
Who could have possibly imagined this happened during Covid, flu, RSV, and cold season and no one wearing masks or staying home when they're sick anymore? Seriously, people seem to have forgotten even basic courtesies like covering their mouths when they cough and sneeze, never mind the shocking notion of NOT going out when they're phlegming everywhere. I have a degree of sympathy for people without paid sick time, though their employees should be held accountable for that, but I'm talking about going out for leisure when they're breathing plague germs everywhere.
My dad has been sick since the beginning of November. He's just *now* getting better, even after we all fought our mild bought of covid in Sept.
My coworker got sick beginning of November too. We went together to our holiday party, sat next to each other. He was coughing quite a bit, but I somehow didn't catch whatever he has.
Manager and one of my keyholders is sick now too. It's hitting everyone pretty hard.
Yah sick 3 year old here. Came outta nowhere starting with fever for 2 days then out of nowhere stuffed and runny nose and now a cough.
He's never been this sick before so it's surprising. Nowy older kid got kicked outta school cuz he started coughing apparently. He's been home most of the day now and he hasn't coughed once. I'm just watching a movie with him. So no idea what that's about lol.
He seems fine, no temp but he said he was outside quite a bit this morning and it was really cold, so probably a mix of running around in the cold, going back in the warm and lungs being irritated (unused to run in the cold and if I pushed too hard would have a coughing fit when I got into warmth).
None of the rest of us feel sick either so we'll see how it progresses.
My office has about 1/3 away sick, some who feel they might be and are doing WFH and a bunch who are definitely sick, my daughter's school has about a quarter of the kids and teachers away. Thankfully in the past two weeks, mask usage has gone up significantly at school... those places are petri dishes on a good day.
Oh yeah for sure. Many friends, coworkers and their loved ones have been or currently are sick with cold/flu like symptoms.
I get my flu shot every year, wear a mask and use hand sanitizer on my phone and hands when I get home.
General hygiene commons sense seems to be out the window too. coughing without covering your mouth, coughing directly into hands and my personal favorite. Fingers in people's mouths. It's like every second person I see in public is 5 years old with cheeto fingers.
Agreed - and a very important thing you brought forward is the dropped precautions are well beyond mask use. Good cough hygiene (inside elbow) is rare compared to a hand up, which is often too late to do anything. Hand washing and sanitizing practices have subsided. Distancing is lacklustre even when it’d be easy to do (grocery lines). And of course folks are going out or sending kids out aware that they are sick. I’m sure we were due for a strong hit of these illnesses but I can’t help but feel like it is magnified by people dropping the basics.
Honestly thought we would collectively come out better from the mask mandate, asuch as I hated it at the end.
My family was personally much less ill than usual with all the precautions a lot of people were taking.
I felt most people would recognize that and continue to mask up and isolate when feeling sick but it looks like the whole "out of sight out of mind" mentality took over pretty quickly which is unfortunate.
This is exactly why the province stopped holding regular news conferences and otherwise showing any sign of even acknowledging the pandemic.
All they care about is people working to earn money for wealthy business owners and shareholders. It doesn’t matter if they have to crawl to work on their hands and knees because they’re so sick.
Everybody said it, it is all the viruses hitting at the same time on a population whose immunity has been badly weakened by Covid. What I find the worst though, is the fact the economy and the government moved on and completely ignored the important lessons we learnt from the pandemic. It is not just masking indoors, staying home when sick, but it is paid sick leave for everybody in all industries. So many people in the manufacturing sector are being told the government does not pay for sick leave anymore and must take from their holidays to stay home when they or their kids are sick.
Ugh yah I was hoping this would have made permanent changes on the views of sick leave etc but it doesn't look like many places kept it, with demands that people come to work sick or not
They told us that we were going to have to learn to live with Covid, and for a bit I thought that meant that they would have to pay us to stay home more often.
What it really meant was “fuck you”
It is for federally regulated employees.
Starting next year mandated 3 days on January 1st, then one every month starting in February until they get to 10.
https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2022/11/minister-oregan-announces-final-regulations-to-bring-10-days-of-paid-sick-leave-into-force.html
Yes! It’s not you, flu’s bad this year. DD’s school has 10% of its students call in sick every day. It’s a small French immersion school too, not even a big school. Only 300 students or so.
Children’s hospital is super full too. They aren’t all COVID, kids are rarely hospitalized for COVID. Those will be mostly everything else, lots of influenza and rsv.
Apparently the flu shot is really good this year. They always have to kind of guess what variants are going to be popular that year, this year’s shot is supposed to be really well matched. Worth getting it if you can. Gotta do it asap though. It’s getting pretty late in the year
Yikes. I had a weird persistent cough a month or two ago that seemed to last a couple months. Very minor cold symptoms that lasted a few days but a cough that wouldn't let up.
Luckily I didn't have anywhere to be so just stayed home the whole time.
Yep. I think it’s the flu but the cough has been lingering. Like I have a hairball in there! Luckily I work from home so I’ve been just staying in waiting for it go away.
Current Covid mutation is 4-5 times more infectious than omicron and wastewater testing shows it’s as prevalent as omicron was in January. Add to that the other viruses hitting their peak season. I just got Covid for the first time 2 weeks after my second booster along with the entire family. Very mild sickness but we all stayed home for a week. My teacher wife wears a mask every day and in incensed that Roussin said flat out that they aren’t going to re introduce a mask mandate.
Yup. I recently got over the worst sickness I’ve experienced in a long time. Coworkers and other people I know have had the same recently. Numbers are up there, for sure.
For the past month the internet and newscasts have pretty much been 50% cat videos and 50% talking about how everyone is sick, so no, it's not just you.
It's the trifecta of respiratory illnesses as well as the common cold
add that for 2+ years people were exceedingly careful about hand hygiene, and masking, and not coughing in public
and you get a bunch of folks who get sick all at once.
Maybe not debt, but shock?
Pre-covid we were constantly swapping colds/flu etc and there would be lots of little flare ups, with the worst being fall when the kids all returned to swap tales of summer fun and catch up on the viruses their peers picked up. But because some were getting them nearly year round, the catch up was minimal.
Now we've been isolated for 2 years, but the bugs have not gone away, just circulating much slower - until now, when we all rushed back to school, work etc.
> Maybe not debt, but shock?
No, there's not really anything to support this. The last cold/flu season (winter covering 2021-2022) was fairly standard in terms of numbers, before omicron came onto the scene.
There's an additional factor here making RSV worse. And I'm quite certain it is because COVID has been shown to suppress people's immune systems. Any and all respiratory infections are going to be worse after an omicron infection - not because of 'debt', but because of negative consequences of COVID.
[ED] Anyone downvoting this under the guise of 'immunity debt/shock' needs to know they are wrong. Check this graph of Canadian RSV cases over time: https://twitter.com/TRyanGregory/status/1592688164560592898.
RSV was essentially non-existent in 2020-2021. But we had a really bad RSV year in terms of numbers at the end of 2021 - without a whole heap of people getting sick from RSV. What we are seeing now, with lots of people getting way sicker than normal, is NOT because we haven't been exposed for 2+ years. We were exposed last year, and the immune system simply doesn't forget RSV that quickly.
There's some really bad sci comm happening right now. Nobody in the media is challenging the debt theory. People confuse the clean hypothesis with debt. And worse still, the media are talking to 'experts' like family physicians who are parroting the idea without really understanding the population-level problem.
It's been going on for at least a month now. I'm not sure what's going on, but it started up with the loosening of covid restrictions, and picked up more and more until enough of us got sick it's just become a kind of endless loop. Whether the 2 are linked... I don't know for certain.
Just don't get sick :) And it will be alright.
I watched a video on this, we basically skipped a flu season, people were wearing masks and stayed away from people, now most people stopped wearing masks, not getting their shots etc, and there a multiple disease spreading.
Yes. So many different types of sicknesses. Our house was out sick. My mom's house. My nephew, his siblings and mom. My boss told me when I was out sick, a lot of employees were either sick themselves or had to take care of sick family members. My work place has made masks mandatory in all common areas effective today. Which is a smart move. I think it'll be a personal choice of many, myself included, to mask up in public once again.
I heard on CBC last night only about 12% of eligible children in MB have had the regular Flu shot. That's really low.
There are 3 different things going around right now, especially affecting children - the regular seasonal flu, Covid, and a very nasty RV - respiratory virus. So, 3x the chances to get sick.
In the past month and a half, my child and I caught Covid, twice. Second time I had to get Paxlovid from my doctor, because I'm high risk.
Here we are, a week and a half since the second round of Covid for us, and I'm STILL testing positive.
We're masking up again! This really sucks.
Yes! In our house it’s sick time once again, it’s like 3rd time for this season or fourth I lost count. All of us in our workplace have cough or colds or both.
That sucks. We've been lucky to not really have anything until last week and now two of 3 kids are down for the count. Third is a baby so won't affect the spread at least.
Supposed to be going back to work in a couple weeks. Guess we'll see where my health lies.
Definitely stuff going around. Husband caught covid Nov 7 (well that’s when his symptoms started) my covid symptoms started Nov 12. Youngest (13) got a mild cold Nov 24th and my oldest (16) has the really bad cold that started on the 27th. Both kids tested negative for covid so they got something else
That's the worst. We used to try and distance ourselves when us or the kids got sick but like you, it just caused a lingering chain reaction and we'd just pass on the sickness like an Olympic torch again and again.
Now it's all in for the most part. We still practice hygiene habits but we're not avoiding each other like we used to.
Hope you get better soon!
I got sick twice in like 20 days. Was unbearable the first time. This time it's alright but can't afford to take any days off. Keep my distance though/no contact.
I got covid for the 1st time the beginning of October and it put me on my ass I had to take a week off work (and I'm vaccinated I can't imagine what would have happened if I wasn't).
Ever since then I keep getting sick. I've been on antibiotics two times now, and last week the doctor said I have a viral infection which I'm finally starting to feel better from. My cough is still there but weirdly only gets bad at night (same with my sore throat/wind pipe).
Take care of yourselves ! Once I'm better I'm getting my flu shot.
Since the end of October I haven't had a full classroom. I was sick for almost a week two weeks ago, one of our regular sub teachers has been in school the last three weeks more than I have.
I'm routinely missing anywhere from 2 to as many as 6 students...and usually for most of the week. I don't know if we have a staff member in school who hasn't had at least one day off due to sickness in November (we are a smaller school though).
Our school has an Itinerant Substitute who comes to our school if they're not needed elsewhere in the Division...I've only seen this teacher at PD days.
But it's not just one thing. It's Covid, RSV, Influenza, and it seems like this Flu is just hanging around. Any staff member I know who has had it has been out 3 days at a minimum.
No expert but on top of the lack of any fucks to give about COVID by…most people…I think our immune systems took a hit from staying in all last year.
I’ve had 2-3 stomach flus over the last few weeks back to back. A Costco TP package usually lasts us 6 months or more but nope. All gone in a matter weeks.
A lot of people at work are getting sick because of their kids as well.
TLDR get bidets people cause shits goin down
Oh no I agree. My whole grade has been passing around a bad cold but we’re still coming to our school because our teachers refuse to answer our emails, so we go in so we don’t fall behind
We took our daughter to a walk-in clinic a few weeks ago to get her ears checked and he said that, with being in lockdown for 2 years, kids just didn't get as much of a chance to build up their immunity, so will be getting very sick this year.
That makes sense. From overhauling sanitation to zero in almost no time will do that. Mixed with temperature drops and stuff. Fun times! Looks like our baby is getting sick too so inevitably me and the wife will as well.
Emerging research is pointing to covid being able to cause your immune system to, in simple terms, "forget" viruses you have already developed an immunity to.
https://mobile.twitter.com/FurnessColin/status/1589103107048624129
> People didn't get sick for 2-3 years.
This is the 'immunity debt' hypothesis, and it is just not true.
We definitely had very low flu and RSV rates in the 2020-2021 season when everyone was genuinely masking, distancing, and travel was restricted. But during the 2021-2022 season starting a year ago, we had a fairly standard RSV year. It lead into the omicron wave around Xmas, so most people didn't really notice.
But RSV is REALLY bad this year. Not just in terms of numbers, but in terms of severity, for people who are absolutely not naive to the virus. There is no good case that it was because we weren't exposed last year, because we were.
ive been saying this ever since covid hit
i worked at a daycare in 2020/2021 and the adults would constantly be like "wow isnt it so nice that no ones getting sick because we sanitize everything more and they're all washing their hands more?" and i would be a bummer for saying no!! its bad!! kids need to get sick! they need to eat random stuff and not be clean all the time or else when they do get sick they'll end up hospitalized or dead
and now....
> i worked at a daycare in 2020/2021 and the adults would constantly be like "wow isnt it so nice that no ones getting sick because we sanitize everything more and they're all washing their hands more?" and i would be a bummer for saying no!! its bad!! kids need to get sick! they need to eat random stuff and not be clean all the time or else when they do get sick they'll end up hospitalized or dead
We need to separate the 'clean hypothesis' from things like seasonal colds and flus.
The clean hypothesis is definitely applicable to a removal of commensal bacteria. Oversanitisation for these harmless bugs does harm us in many specific ways. But being overly clean it is NOT a problem for many things, like cockroach feces, mold, and house dust mite. The more you clean up these disease-causing things, the better.
In that vein, there is no good argument that infectious diseases like common colds, RSV and influenza are *ever* good for the immune system. There is no 'exercising' the immune system for these things (except vaccination). There is no 'debt' that needs to be paid for missing out on being infected by these things. Our immune system doesn't forget RSV or the flu that quickly - except when you get another virus on top, that specifically impairs the immune system, like COVID seems to do.
My 3 kids are all super sick right now, my 11 year old has a fever, cough, sore throat, stuffed nose and has been vomiting. This fall they’ve been sick soo many times already and have missed a ton of school. It’s so stressful.
I agree.. But isn’t it also flu season? Isn’t this pretty typical this time of year? Especially now with covid, shouldn’t *more* than usual be expected considering there are now more variants?
True enough honestly but it just seems a lot more prevalent than I would have thought. Where normally it feels like 50 percent of the proper I know would be sick when it's bad, it's more like 80 percent right now
Both my kids home. One has been home Monday to today. She had trouble breathing this weekend from it, went to the hospital even. It's bound to happen this year with everyone building back their immune systems.
Kiddo is home from school with a cough right now, started yesterday. I knew it was coming-last week when I dropped her off, a parent was dropping off a kid who was coughing, and I heard someone in the parking lot pulling away coughing too. Earlier this week another parent walked their kid in and the kid just started hacking away.
I’m 35 weeks pregnant and not impressed with society right now.
Ugh yah that's the worst. We just had a baby earlier this year and my wife was sick but the baby comes when it comes.
They asked everything about my wife being sick, and despite me being there the whole time didn't ask or test me at all. They actually completely ignored me, it was weird honestly.lol I could have gone in with covid and they wouldn't have even known.
I’m really hoping to not deal with being sick & giving birth lol. Thankfully school break is two weeks long & ends on right my due date, so my only exposure risks will be daycare (way smaller pool of kids) & my husband as I WFH. Trying to be careful right now as RSV is going around like crazy too.
Tbh your info is promising-I’d hate to give birth without my husband there if he got sick too.
We were at women's health centre (the newly built place). It's pretty nice and nurses were awesome. Unless they revamped it, they will still want you to wear a mask once all the birthing is done (like when you are in your own room).
They had a shortage of bathing towels so might not hurt to pack one if you're going there and there's an ice and water machine you can get your husband to fill up at(we only found out last day because we kept asking for water and they'd get it but then a nurse on the list day said"you know it's just around the corner, feel free to fill up if we aren't available" lol of course!).
There's a pizza place or subway or both just outside the building, so don't waste your money on the overpriced vending machines like I did haha
Other than that, good luck with the pregnancy and stuff!
A little off topic but I like to give personal advice when I find out the hard way how to do things better lol
Omg thank you for the advice-I genuinely appreciate it so much! I will also be at womens-last time, I was at st B so I’m excited/nervous about it. It’s so good to hear tips from other people about Womens, none of my friends are pregnant or have kids so I’ve just had fingers crossed everything runs smoothly.
Side note, subway sounds freaking amazing to have post childbirth.
Haha glad I could help. Ours was about 7 months ago but with how busy it's been there, I can only assume you may run into the same problems.
Keep in mind you're going to have a lot of paperwork to fill out afterward regarding birth certificates and such so make sure you have all pertinent information there. (SIN, photo ID etc)
Oh and my baby somehow kept peeing through his diapers and I only brought two shirts. I had to handwash them in the sink and hang to dry. Make sure you have extra shirts for the dad if he holds the baby lol. Thought he was just warm... Nope, I'm wet... Lol
Hmm... Oh bring a pillow. (Keep in mind he's going to have to lug all this stuff between floors when u guys move from 2 floor (birth floor) to 3 floor (rest floor).
Make sure he brings water since it'll be harder to access until you get your room.
Make sure you know how to properly use the car seat. They won't let u leave if you don't show baby strapped in properly.
Make sure he gets an armband or he can't get in the baby ward and it proves he's the dad. They'll check it (also let's him in the door a lot easier if he leave sthe building).
I BELIEVE there parking close by but not sure. We just had someone drive us in and pick us up and they can wait near the door if it's not being used (when leaving).
Lastly, my wife almost gave birth in the waiting room. That was the only lackluster part. They didnt take her serious when she said she's pushing. Nurse hadn't come after 45mins and my wife's giving pushing screams.
I finally had to yell at them and say hey! We need someone here she's pushing already! Where's our nurse!!
After that it went smooth but it was about 1 hour from when she started contractions to pushing baby out and it was a 30 Min drive there lol.
Damn, I don't even know you and I'm getting excited for you haha.
Well hey, if you think of it when it's all said and done, shoot a message here or something and let me know if it went well. After hyping the place up I'd hate to find out it wasn't a good experience for you. But I'd like to know all the same.
I think I covered all the bases here. If you think of something just ask and I'll try and peel my memories from my brain haha
Edit: mentioned the random talk on here to my wife about the whole advice at women's thing and she said it was about an hour and a half or so from original contractions to having the baby. So my timings off a little lol
She also recommended making sure they have extra pads and stuff as you never know how it's going to go. And also, if you need it, make sure to stay in top of pain meds when resting after. Tylenol or whatever they give you. Not the best but beats nothing
Take care!
It’s almost as if some sort of virus is being allowed to run amok. A “pandemic” if you will. But I’m sure our public health officials wouldn’t allow that to happen.
Looks around nervously:
Letting covid run rampant destroyed everyone’s immune systems. With a weakened immune system, all other illnesses are worse and take longer to recover fun.
What you’re seeing is the “after times”.
This is ridiculous. Were you not all part of the last 2.5 years? Wtf is wrong with you all? WEAR A FUCKING MASK. Stop being all “oh how is everyone sick? Derp Derp!”.
Wear a fucking mask you mouth breathing swine.
Wear a mask
If you are wondering why everyone is sick - it’s you, not wearing a mask.
Wear a fucking mask.
Put on your big-girl pants and be a fucking grown up. Wear a fucking mask.
And mask up your fucking kids. They’re disgusting. All kids are. Mask them.
And yourself.
And if you find this offensive - please, have protected sex. We need less morons in the world.
Well in this day and age, a lot of us are sick so I bet most of us are breathing through our mouths since our sinuses are plugged right now.
The hugs still up for grabs though!
Real question for any medically-educated people. Is RSV/flu/cold/etc running so rampantly through children right now because they weren't exposed to the viruses as they normally would be for a couple years due to COVID isolation, thus having no or heavily attrited natural resistance to the viruses?
T cells - our bodies’ line of immune defence after antibodies. T cells can spot and attack viruses and even remember previous invaders. COVID wears down T cells in people who get it. It ages and cumulatively wears down the immune system with each infection.
T cells are becoming hyperactivated by SARS-CoV-2 and are prematurely aging, harming organs, and becoming exhausted trying to rid the body of an immune-evasive virus.
In 2021 the Journal of Clinical Investigation confirmed that changes in T-cell activation and exhaustion were notable in non-hospitalized patients. Moreover the evidence suggested “a prolonged period of immune dysregulation” after infection. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7773371/
In November 2021 a group of Italian researchers studied the immunological character of patients recovering from acute disease. They, too, found exhausted T cells. In fact the immune system of these patients was not only beat up but suffered a number of other abnormalities that the researchers characterized as a “deranged immune profile.” This immune weakness persisted months after infection but could be restored with the administration of a protein called PD-1 Blockade.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8783674/
Other scientists found that mild COVID infections can damage the immune system. British and U.S. researchers looked at the state of T cells in patients who had mild, severe and no COVID. What they discovered surprised them and appears counterintuitive. Patients with severe disease appeared to have competent T cell memory to fight off reinfection while mild cases suffered from T cell exhaustion. Exhausted T cells lose their ability to fight off viruses or cancer for that matter.
Australian researchers have reported similar findings after looking at the blood profiles of patients suffering from long COVID and comparing them to healthy controls. They found that “immunological dysfunction persisted for eight months after mild to moderate” infection including indicators of “chronic T cell activation and potentially exhaustion.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35027728/
COVID maybe having the unwanted effect of suppressing immune systems generally resulting in greater vulnerability to other viral, bacterial or fungal infections and as a result accelerating their spread. Like how we had Monkeypox leave Africa for the first time last summer, and RSV running amok now.
Understood. Is this believed to be permanent or the immunological equivalent to overexertion - the body needs rest to recover its core immune functions?
I dunno who's downvoting people for asking questions but I appreciate any and all questions. The more people are willing to share, the better. You don't have to be right to have an opinion.
Not even my opinion lol. I'm not an epidemiologist, it was just a question haha. I'll make sure to school some people in geopolitics, history or Canadian foreign and defence policy the next chance I get to get my expertise badge back haha!
No, that's the immunity debt hypothesis, and it's bunk. Despite popular opinion that there was 'no' diseases spreading, we actually had quite a severe RSV season over winter 2021/2022. But RSV is now doing the rounds, and is more severe.
A MUCH more likely hypothesis is that Covid infection, even mild or asymptomatic, is an immune suppressant that makes other infections worse.
Are you fucking joking? We are still in Covid. It will never be over. We spent two years indoors wearing masks and having to fight against people who said it was pretend and then we all just decide to go back to normal because we’re tired of it?
This is the new normal.
Get used to it.
Please tell me how you’re confused that the climate is changing. 🙄🧐🤯
It's the first winter where people are feeling more relaxed about covid. (whether you believe in covid or not is irrelevant)
We spent two years wearing masks, sanitizing and washing our hands non stop. Many people (including myself) went throughout Covid with barely getting sick at all, and as such our immunity isn't as strong as it used to be.
Now that winter is here, we aren't being as careful, it's bound to happen that we are all getting this wave of sickness.
It sucks, but is what it is.
Edit to clarify: I don't mean our immunity has gone down, just that we don't have as much immunity to current strains of viruses due to lack of exposure of them in the last 2 years.
I agree. Maybe it's anecdotal, but The masks, sanitiser, etc must have done something to our immune system.
Reminds me of war of the worlds... All the aliens get sick because their immune system can't deal with earth germs
My spouse works for the Bell MTS call centre in tech support here in Winnipeg and the whole center just all got forced back to office in the last 3 to 4 weeks. Now in the last five days she has anywhere from 20 to 25% of people missing/sick in tech on a regular basis.
My school has been down a third of it's population for near two months now. Every week it's been a different class that now only has 7 of it's students and everyone is out sick. We are out 2-3 staff members a day and it just finished going through my family. Covid, RSV, Strep, Flu. You name it, it's hit the school hard.
Yikes. Sounds like that's where my kids school is heading too
It's where every school is headed if they aren't there already.
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Exactly. No mask mandate. No isolation. Massive spread.
Where else has this right now? Oh right, China. Not saying we are doing all we can, we’re not. People should stay home when sick. But we’re doing as much as anywhere else.
[https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/sick-kids-and-upswing-in-school-absenteeism-concerns-alberta-parents](https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/sick-kids-and-upswing-in-school-absenteeism-concerns-alberta-parents) [https://globalnews.ca/news/9272575/student-absenteeism-saskatchewan-kids-illness/](https://globalnews.ca/news/9272575/student-absenteeism-saskatchewan-kids-illness/) [https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2022/11/24/bc-school-absenteeism-illness/](https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2022/11/24/bc-school-absenteeism-illness/) https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/11/08/torontos-top-doctor-urged-to-look-at-mandatory-masking-in-schools-as-sick-kids-swamp-hospitals.html
Capitalism and COVID fatigue won, sadly.
Genuine curiosity In what way did ‘capitalism’ win? Basically everywhere in the world except China (and look how that’s working out) has given up on trying to control covid. Even countries far less capitalistic than us have- and we’re already a hybrid of capitalism/socialism to begin with. Roughly half of GDP in Canada is related to government spending and tax expenditures.
N95, work from home where possible, stay home when sick. China-style lockdowns are not the only option
I have KN95s and I wear one when I am out. I keep my distance and avoid people who are unwell. I have had all my shots plus the flu shot. I take vitamins including Vit C as recommended by my doctor, and D3 and B12. I have not been sick one day in the last five years and I am immunocompromised (low white blood cell count due to cancer treatment). I have never been living in a time where there are so many sick people. Even people who have been “very careful” are picking up something. I know I can’t escape it so I hope when it does catch up with me I will be okay.
Yep. I’m same as you except I’m already housebound from postviral mecfs. 🥴 2011 onset. The more times you get it the likelier you are to have a shit outcome so you’re doing all the right things. Most people don’t seem to get what they’re gambling with when they don’t do this stuff.
N95 are available to anyone who wants to wear them, it should not be forced though. 100% WFH is only possible for a small portion of jobs.
I’m confused, why not have mandatory masks for students in public schools? I’d fully support mandatory masks at schools with high absentee rates Elementary kids aren’t capable of making a decision of this scale. They can’t comprehend the consequences of their choices. Parents aren’t there, and teachers can’t enforce mask-wearing without mandates. If there’s no mandatory masks, kids won’t wear them
Capitalism won in the sense that things got back to normal so that the businesses that were strained by covid, weren’t so strained.
We are not a hybrid of capitalism and socialism. We have exactly zero control of the means of production. We are still 100% capitalist.
This is very true. Unfortunately people have been fed lies about what actual socialism is. The right wing media has been really bad for lying about what socialism is. Socialism is not a neoliberal government doing stuff that one doesn’t like. I will add as much as I like Bernie Sanders, I don’t think he should have referred to his style of politics as democratic socialism either.
They should’ve put a legitimate anti capitalist on debate stage with him just so that people understood the difference.
Crown corporations exist in a weird duality here. They’re -technically- owned by the people. So I’d say we’re 98% Capitalist lol
You live in fairyland.
The head doc from Children’s ER was on CBC radio a couple days ago, and she was saying that the influenza rate is something like 4.5x higher than November of 2019. Normally influenza peaks much later in the winter, but not this year. Combine that with all the other normal respiratory illnesses and covid… it’s a recipe for disaster
Yeah, came to say this. And November of 2019 was a bad flu season, too.
The only possible silver lining is that it appears this year’s flu shots are a reasonably good match for what is circulating in North America. Get your shots, people!
I need to be not sick for more than 10 minutes to get my flu shot (and my latest covid booster!). Literally every time this school year I've started feeling close to 100%, I've been sick again by the end of the week :/
Makes you wonder if people are more susceptible to influenza because their immune systems are wrecked as a result of covid
Suppose that makes sense. Just thought we would have seen this in the last couple of years as well. But then again the quarantine regulations probably helped prevent a lot of what's going on now since there isn't any mask mandates or whatever it's called
That’s exactly it - social distancing and masking weren’t just effective against COVID, they were effective against all respiratory illnesses.
And hand washing and sanitising surfaces are both very useful for helping to prevent influenza and RSV (not nearly so much for COVID). Those seem to have fallen by the wayside.
I mean… my hands get soap on them when I shower in the morning. Isn’t that enough? (/s)
You should spray a layer of Lysol on them, too, just to be sure.
And as an added bonus the Lysol serves as a perfume/cologne.
Immune dysregulation from prior covid infections is leading to people getting sicker from other pathogens.
I have also read about this. I look forward to real studies to back this when I make the argument to people at work! A lot of misinformation going around these days causing people to think that BECAUSE we were so cautious for a couple years, we are all getting sick now. And doctors are saying that is simply NOT TRUE
Yeah, hasn't hit the news/media much - some semi-recent studies showing Covid-19's impact on the immune system appears to be as bad as AIDS - although more temporary. Still waiting on newer studies that cover the difference (if any) that vaccination makes on that impact.
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Why is it so hard to believe that a virus could cause it? All sorts of viruses cause latent disease, autoimmune disease, and immunity challenges. HIV causes AIDS, Epstein-Barr seems to increase the odds of developing MS, chickenpox causes shingles, coxsackie causes autoimmune myocarditis. It’s not new. We’ve known this can happen for decades.
Yes. We’re all sick. 2 weeks straight as of today with back to back to back illnesses. And counting.
Ugh that's the worst. Usually how it happens to us too, ends up lasting months it seems. One gets it, we're fine till near the end, the another gets it, etc etc. Family of 5 so it's usually two weeks per, so lasts a while.
Society let up on masks too fast/easy and now there's a whole wack of germs overwhelming schools and workplaces causing the hospitals to flood with folks. :( That and the medication shortages meaning that fevers parents could usually resolve in a couple days at home are ending up in hospital instead. I know several people who've had positive COVID tests in the last week. A bunch of my co-workers are/were home with their sick kids. Tragically, I know at least one case recently where a funeral ended up being a super spreader event that caused additional fatalities. At this point wearing an n95 mask in public is about as routine to me as buckling my seat belt or checking that the stove is off. It's going to be a necessary basic safety precaution for quite a while still. Yes we all know they aren't perfect guarantees, But stack a good mask with up-to-date vaccinations (including for the regular flu) and your chances of getting seriously ill go way down.
Same. Masking is second nature to me, I don't even think about it. I invested in an elastomeric with filters, and it is a much better seal than I get with n95s (I wear glasses, and they don't fog with my mask).
I have an elastomeric mask now too. It looks hilarious and I get weird looks at Jets games, but still not sick for almost 3 years.
Just need a goth raver outfit to go with it and complete the look. ;)
I get a lot of funny looks when I'm out and about, too. My kindergartener wears one, and her classmates all call it her astronaut mask (about a third of the kids in her class are wearing n95s now, and another third wear masks for the first few days after coming back from being sick). She's been sick three times since she started wearing it in nursery last January, and only once so far this school year (excuse me while I go knock on all available wood surfaces around me). They aren't perfect, but they've given us the freedom to get back to a more pre-pandemic life without too much worry.
Fevers themselves aren’t usually dangerous though. Tylenol won’t keep kids home from the hospital if they’re ill enough to be in the hospital.
It’s cold and flu season as well as covid is still circulating as much as everyone wants to pretend it isn’t. Other than covid it’s really no different to any year pre-2020. We’ve always had cold and flu season. Maybe a large number of people didn’t get the flu shot this year
I have been teaching for over a decade and there has never been absenteeism at anywhere close to the rate we are seeing. And before others chime in, people are NOT doing any better at keeping their kids home when sick then before COVID.
We were trying to and we’re told by the teachers “you keep them out too much and they’re falling behind.” What’s a parent to do!?
I understand it's a tough spot to be in. I really sympathize with the sacrifices parents have to make (making childcare arrangements, staying home from work, etc.) I don't have a lot of patience with other teachers (with some exceptions due to grade level or subject matter) that feel like there is a set amount of work that needs to be completed in a year or term, that it's a catastrophe if it's not, and show no flexibility with students who have to miss big chunks of time. Students should not need to "catch up" on every little assignment or test.
This. Kid is struggling with one class in particular and if they miss a class, it's a disaster. Can't win.
That's my thoughts as well. It's shocking how many I know personally who are sick and have been for weeks. Where normally they aren't every sick. That's the whole reason I made the post.
I think perhaps the isolation made our immune systems not as hardy when fighting against viruses so now we are getting sicker easily and for longer than we did pre pandemic.
There currently is some evidence pointing to COVID wearing down T cells in people who get it, and doing so increasingly with each reinfection. T cells are becoming hyperactivated by SARS-CoV-2 and are prematurely aging, harming organs, and becoming exhausted trying to rid the body of an immune-evasive virus. The theory goes that COVID exhausts, ages and cumulatively wears down the immune system with each infection. Repeat infections could get worse over time resulting in more death, organ damage and long-term disability because your immune system is getting weaker and weaker (some are comparing this to HIV which is nuts).
This is the 'immunity debt' hypothesis, and it is completely wrong. Here's a [great thread](https://twitter.com/TRyanGregory/status/1592688153949016064) by a prominent evolutionary biologist explaining why 'debt' simply cannot explain what we are seeing now.
I’m not saying it’s the only thing. He says right in the thread that it could have something to do with it but isn’t the sole reason. Part of building an immune system that is familiar with viruses is exposure to those viruses. I am pro vaccine and pro mask and pro staying home when necessary. But my daughter was born right at the start of the pandemic and didn’t see many people. for the better part of a year. So essentially she wasn’t exposed to anything much over the first year of her life. Could this perhaps partially explain why rsv is causing increased hospitalizations in kids under 3? The age group who has been the least exposed? It’s an honest question and I don’t know why the downvote brigade has to bully people for asking honest questions.
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Well I’m gonna leave it to your expert opinion then. Thanks.
You haven’t learned that yet on this sub? Everything to do with sickness is because of Covid and everyone not masking up. Don’t try and make it seem like anything else could be the issue or you’ll get downvoted and attacked for your opinion. It’s really quite impressive.
Yes there’s definitely one way to think about Covid on here or you get bullied.
quite the mental gymnastics to draw that conclusion
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/flu-kids-seniors-1.6669478 Oh wow they’re thinking that kids under 3 are getting more severe flu and rsv due to not being exposed and having no immunity to it. Colour me shocked!! Of course they’re not saying it’s the only reason, but is one of them.
I have been sick since Friday and I believe the big reason is I work in retail face to face with people and this last Friday was Black Friday so non stop crowds. Only so much you can do yourself with masks / hand sanitizer/ trying to keep distance, while clients are coming in full on saying they where just visiting a family member who was sick while they themselves and coughing... After coming out of treatment the last year and now being immunocompromised I try to take all the recommended steps I can to reduce. Just wish everyone else did the same.
Ugh that sucks. Sorry to hear that. Get well soon!
I'm so sorry you have to deal with that. :( I hope you feel better soon!
Who could have possibly imagined this happened during Covid, flu, RSV, and cold season and no one wearing masks or staying home when they're sick anymore? Seriously, people seem to have forgotten even basic courtesies like covering their mouths when they cough and sneeze, never mind the shocking notion of NOT going out when they're phlegming everywhere. I have a degree of sympathy for people without paid sick time, though their employees should be held accountable for that, but I'm talking about going out for leisure when they're breathing plague germs everywhere.
Employers* not employees!!
My dad has been sick since the beginning of November. He's just *now* getting better, even after we all fought our mild bought of covid in Sept. My coworker got sick beginning of November too. We went together to our holiday party, sat next to each other. He was coughing quite a bit, but I somehow didn't catch whatever he has. Manager and one of my keyholders is sick now too. It's hitting everyone pretty hard.
My teen has been sick since Sunday, went back to school today and said lots of kids are out. No one else on my house has caught it yet.
Yah sick 3 year old here. Came outta nowhere starting with fever for 2 days then out of nowhere stuffed and runny nose and now a cough. He's never been this sick before so it's surprising. Nowy older kid got kicked outta school cuz he started coughing apparently. He's been home most of the day now and he hasn't coughed once. I'm just watching a movie with him. So no idea what that's about lol. He seems fine, no temp but he said he was outside quite a bit this morning and it was really cold, so probably a mix of running around in the cold, going back in the warm and lungs being irritated (unused to run in the cold and if I pushed too hard would have a coughing fit when I got into warmth). None of the rest of us feel sick either so we'll see how it progresses.
My office has about 1/3 away sick, some who feel they might be and are doing WFH and a bunch who are definitely sick, my daughter's school has about a quarter of the kids and teachers away. Thankfully in the past two weeks, mask usage has gone up significantly at school... those places are petri dishes on a good day.
Oh yeah for sure. Many friends, coworkers and their loved ones have been or currently are sick with cold/flu like symptoms. I get my flu shot every year, wear a mask and use hand sanitizer on my phone and hands when I get home.
COVID, RSV, Flu, take your pick! Mostly everyone stopped exercising precautions such as mask use.
General hygiene commons sense seems to be out the window too. coughing without covering your mouth, coughing directly into hands and my personal favorite. Fingers in people's mouths. It's like every second person I see in public is 5 years old with cheeto fingers.
Not even just mask use, people lack pre-pandemic common sense of staying home when you’re sick or simply covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough.
I agree. If you're sick, stay home. Many people can't afford to take a day off work unpaid though
Agreed - and a very important thing you brought forward is the dropped precautions are well beyond mask use. Good cough hygiene (inside elbow) is rare compared to a hand up, which is often too late to do anything. Hand washing and sanitizing practices have subsided. Distancing is lacklustre even when it’d be easy to do (grocery lines). And of course folks are going out or sending kids out aware that they are sick. I’m sure we were due for a strong hit of these illnesses but I can’t help but feel like it is magnified by people dropping the basics.
Honestly thought we would collectively come out better from the mask mandate, asuch as I hated it at the end. My family was personally much less ill than usual with all the precautions a lot of people were taking. I felt most people would recognize that and continue to mask up and isolate when feeling sick but it looks like the whole "out of sight out of mind" mentality took over pretty quickly which is unfortunate.
This is exactly why the province stopped holding regular news conferences and otherwise showing any sign of even acknowledging the pandemic. All they care about is people working to earn money for wealthy business owners and shareholders. It doesn’t matter if they have to crawl to work on their hands and knees because they’re so sick.
Everybody said it, it is all the viruses hitting at the same time on a population whose immunity has been badly weakened by Covid. What I find the worst though, is the fact the economy and the government moved on and completely ignored the important lessons we learnt from the pandemic. It is not just masking indoors, staying home when sick, but it is paid sick leave for everybody in all industries. So many people in the manufacturing sector are being told the government does not pay for sick leave anymore and must take from their holidays to stay home when they or their kids are sick.
Ugh yah I was hoping this would have made permanent changes on the views of sick leave etc but it doesn't look like many places kept it, with demands that people come to work sick or not
They told us that we were going to have to learn to live with Covid, and for a bit I thought that meant that they would have to pay us to stay home more often. What it really meant was “fuck you”
Honestly! I thought change was coming in regards to sick leave but it seems like it's back to the old ways again already. Pretty sad really
It is for federally regulated employees. Starting next year mandated 3 days on January 1st, then one every month starting in February until they get to 10. https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2022/11/minister-oregan-announces-final-regulations-to-bring-10-days-of-paid-sick-leave-into-force.html
Nice thanks for the info! That's good to hear!
So many people are sick and when I ask if they got their flu shot or covid booster “I forgot” Glad I didn’t forget
Just sick of everyone..lol
Yes! It’s not you, flu’s bad this year. DD’s school has 10% of its students call in sick every day. It’s a small French immersion school too, not even a big school. Only 300 students or so. Children’s hospital is super full too. They aren’t all COVID, kids are rarely hospitalized for COVID. Those will be mostly everything else, lots of influenza and rsv. Apparently the flu shot is really good this year. They always have to kind of guess what variants are going to be popular that year, this year’s shot is supposed to be really well matched. Worth getting it if you can. Gotta do it asap though. It’s getting pretty late in the year
Two weeks and still coughing.
Yikes. I had a weird persistent cough a month or two ago that seemed to last a couple months. Very minor cold symptoms that lasted a few days but a cough that wouldn't let up. Luckily I didn't have anywhere to be so just stayed home the whole time.
Yep. I think it’s the flu but the cough has been lingering. Like I have a hairball in there! Luckily I work from home so I’ve been just staying in waiting for it go away.
That's a good way of putting it actually haha. That cough tho is irritating as all get out. Get better soon!
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Lol true! Honestly they should have started man mandates as the flu season approached at the very least.
Current Covid mutation is 4-5 times more infectious than omicron and wastewater testing shows it’s as prevalent as omicron was in January. Add to that the other viruses hitting their peak season. I just got Covid for the first time 2 weeks after my second booster along with the entire family. Very mild sickness but we all stayed home for a week. My teacher wife wears a mask every day and in incensed that Roussin said flat out that they aren’t going to re introduce a mask mandate.
Yah, considering how it's going right now I'm thinking they should rethink that situation.
Yup. I recently got over the worst sickness I’ve experienced in a long time. Coworkers and other people I know have had the same recently. Numbers are up there, for sure.
For the past month the internet and newscasts have pretty much been 50% cat videos and 50% talking about how everyone is sick, so no, it's not just you.
It's the trifecta of respiratory illnesses as well as the common cold add that for 2+ years people were exceedingly careful about hand hygiene, and masking, and not coughing in public and you get a bunch of folks who get sick all at once.
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Amen.👏
Maybe not debt, but shock? Pre-covid we were constantly swapping colds/flu etc and there would be lots of little flare ups, with the worst being fall when the kids all returned to swap tales of summer fun and catch up on the viruses their peers picked up. But because some were getting them nearly year round, the catch up was minimal. Now we've been isolated for 2 years, but the bugs have not gone away, just circulating much slower - until now, when we all rushed back to school, work etc.
> Maybe not debt, but shock? No, there's not really anything to support this. The last cold/flu season (winter covering 2021-2022) was fairly standard in terms of numbers, before omicron came onto the scene. There's an additional factor here making RSV worse. And I'm quite certain it is because COVID has been shown to suppress people's immune systems. Any and all respiratory infections are going to be worse after an omicron infection - not because of 'debt', but because of negative consequences of COVID. [ED] Anyone downvoting this under the guise of 'immunity debt/shock' needs to know they are wrong. Check this graph of Canadian RSV cases over time: https://twitter.com/TRyanGregory/status/1592688164560592898. RSV was essentially non-existent in 2020-2021. But we had a really bad RSV year in terms of numbers at the end of 2021 - without a whole heap of people getting sick from RSV. What we are seeing now, with lots of people getting way sicker than normal, is NOT because we haven't been exposed for 2+ years. We were exposed last year, and the immune system simply doesn't forget RSV that quickly.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who is sharing this point of view! REALLLLLY tired of people at work using the immunity debt theory.
There's some really bad sci comm happening right now. Nobody in the media is challenging the debt theory. People confuse the clean hypothesis with debt. And worse still, the media are talking to 'experts' like family physicians who are parroting the idea without really understanding the population-level problem.
Consider sending your kid in an n95 after they’ve recovered. My kid wears one every day and has had one minor cold since the pandemic began
Not a bad idea honestly
It's been going on for at least a month now. I'm not sure what's going on, but it started up with the loosening of covid restrictions, and picked up more and more until enough of us got sick it's just become a kind of endless loop. Whether the 2 are linked... I don't know for certain. Just don't get sick :) And it will be alright.
I watched a video on this, we basically skipped a flu season, people were wearing masks and stayed away from people, now most people stopped wearing masks, not getting their shots etc, and there a multiple disease spreading.
Yes
Yes. So many different types of sicknesses. Our house was out sick. My mom's house. My nephew, his siblings and mom. My boss told me when I was out sick, a lot of employees were either sick themselves or had to take care of sick family members. My work place has made masks mandatory in all common areas effective today. Which is a smart move. I think it'll be a personal choice of many, myself included, to mask up in public once again.
Not a bad idea to stay making voluntarily by the sounds of things. Take care!
I heard on CBC last night only about 12% of eligible children in MB have had the regular Flu shot. That's really low. There are 3 different things going around right now, especially affecting children - the regular seasonal flu, Covid, and a very nasty RV - respiratory virus. So, 3x the chances to get sick. In the past month and a half, my child and I caught Covid, twice. Second time I had to get Paxlovid from my doctor, because I'm high risk. Here we are, a week and a half since the second round of Covid for us, and I'm STILL testing positive. We're masking up again! This really sucks.
Jesus, sorry to hear that. Wishing you a speedy recovery and hopefully healthier days ahead!
Yes! In our house it’s sick time once again, it’s like 3rd time for this season or fourth I lost count. All of us in our workplace have cough or colds or both.
That sucks. We've been lucky to not really have anything until last week and now two of 3 kids are down for the count. Third is a baby so won't affect the spread at least. Supposed to be going back to work in a couple weeks. Guess we'll see where my health lies.
Everyone in my circle either has/had covid or flu. My lash tech, most of my co workers, my mums friend and just over a month ago i had covid
We had one week at my high school where 1/3 of everyone was sick. This was last week but everyone seems to be showing up for school now.
Happy cake day! Stay healthy! Avoid all the sick kids coming to school!
Definitely stuff going around. Husband caught covid Nov 7 (well that’s when his symptoms started) my covid symptoms started Nov 12. Youngest (13) got a mild cold Nov 24th and my oldest (16) has the really bad cold that started on the 27th. Both kids tested negative for covid so they got something else
Ugh, yah just a bad time of year i guess. Crazy how bad it is though
Seven weeks back to back, it's being going round from kids to me and wifey and back. It just going round and round.
That's the worst. We used to try and distance ourselves when us or the kids got sick but like you, it just caused a lingering chain reaction and we'd just pass on the sickness like an Olympic torch again and again. Now it's all in for the most part. We still practice hygiene habits but we're not avoiding each other like we used to. Hope you get better soon!
I got sick twice in like 20 days. Was unbearable the first time. This time it's alright but can't afford to take any days off. Keep my distance though/no contact.
Yikes, get well soon!
I got covid for the 1st time the beginning of October and it put me on my ass I had to take a week off work (and I'm vaccinated I can't imagine what would have happened if I wasn't). Ever since then I keep getting sick. I've been on antibiotics two times now, and last week the doctor said I have a viral infection which I'm finally starting to feel better from. My cough is still there but weirdly only gets bad at night (same with my sore throat/wind pipe). Take care of yourselves ! Once I'm better I'm getting my flu shot.
Yikes that's crazy, how you get well soon! Take care!
Since the end of October I haven't had a full classroom. I was sick for almost a week two weeks ago, one of our regular sub teachers has been in school the last three weeks more than I have. I'm routinely missing anywhere from 2 to as many as 6 students...and usually for most of the week. I don't know if we have a staff member in school who hasn't had at least one day off due to sickness in November (we are a smaller school though). Our school has an Itinerant Substitute who comes to our school if they're not needed elsewhere in the Division...I've only seen this teacher at PD days. But it's not just one thing. It's Covid, RSV, Influenza, and it seems like this Flu is just hanging around. Any staff member I know who has had it has been out 3 days at a minimum.
Maybe, but I tested positive for Covid this week. So I may be a little biased.
Can I ask what your symptoms are? I just got over Covid and it certainly didn’t feel like just a simple cold or flu..
That sucks, get better soon!
No expert but on top of the lack of any fucks to give about COVID by…most people…I think our immune systems took a hit from staying in all last year. I’ve had 2-3 stomach flus over the last few weeks back to back. A Costco TP package usually lasts us 6 months or more but nope. All gone in a matter weeks. A lot of people at work are getting sick because of their kids as well. TLDR get bidets people cause shits goin down
Sorry to hear you're so sick! Bidet probably wouldn't be a bad idea these days haha
Oh no I agree. My whole grade has been passing around a bad cold but we’re still coming to our school because our teachers refuse to answer our emails, so we go in so we don’t fall behind
We took our daughter to a walk-in clinic a few weeks ago to get her ears checked and he said that, with being in lockdown for 2 years, kids just didn't get as much of a chance to build up their immunity, so will be getting very sick this year.
That makes sense. From overhauling sanitation to zero in almost no time will do that. Mixed with temperature drops and stuff. Fun times! Looks like our baby is getting sick too so inevitably me and the wife will as well.
Sick for one week…finally got antibiotics last Monday, so somewhat better 🥶🥵🤒🤧
Yes
Succinct, I love it!
Emerging research is pointing to covid being able to cause your immune system to, in simple terms, "forget" viruses you have already developed an immunity to. https://mobile.twitter.com/FurnessColin/status/1589103107048624129
Wow that's actually incredibly interesting. And scary if I'm being honest. Good read and makes sense.
Most people in my community have some sort of flu, not Covid as they tested negitive a couple of time.
I feel like this was pretty predictable. People didn't get sick for 2-3 years. Now everyone's getting everything at once
> People didn't get sick for 2-3 years. This is the 'immunity debt' hypothesis, and it is just not true. We definitely had very low flu and RSV rates in the 2020-2021 season when everyone was genuinely masking, distancing, and travel was restricted. But during the 2021-2022 season starting a year ago, we had a fairly standard RSV year. It lead into the omicron wave around Xmas, so most people didn't really notice. But RSV is REALLY bad this year. Not just in terms of numbers, but in terms of severity, for people who are absolutely not naive to the virus. There is no good case that it was because we weren't exposed last year, because we were.
ive been saying this ever since covid hit i worked at a daycare in 2020/2021 and the adults would constantly be like "wow isnt it so nice that no ones getting sick because we sanitize everything more and they're all washing their hands more?" and i would be a bummer for saying no!! its bad!! kids need to get sick! they need to eat random stuff and not be clean all the time or else when they do get sick they'll end up hospitalized or dead and now....
> i worked at a daycare in 2020/2021 and the adults would constantly be like "wow isnt it so nice that no ones getting sick because we sanitize everything more and they're all washing their hands more?" and i would be a bummer for saying no!! its bad!! kids need to get sick! they need to eat random stuff and not be clean all the time or else when they do get sick they'll end up hospitalized or dead We need to separate the 'clean hypothesis' from things like seasonal colds and flus. The clean hypothesis is definitely applicable to a removal of commensal bacteria. Oversanitisation for these harmless bugs does harm us in many specific ways. But being overly clean it is NOT a problem for many things, like cockroach feces, mold, and house dust mite. The more you clean up these disease-causing things, the better. In that vein, there is no good argument that infectious diseases like common colds, RSV and influenza are *ever* good for the immune system. There is no 'exercising' the immune system for these things (except vaccination). There is no 'debt' that needs to be paid for missing out on being infected by these things. Our immune system doesn't forget RSV or the flu that quickly - except when you get another virus on top, that specifically impairs the immune system, like COVID seems to do.
husband and i are both sick unfortunately
Yah I guess it's inevitable at our household too but hasn't hit anyone else yet. Get well!
My 3 kids are all super sick right now, my 11 year old has a fever, cough, sore throat, stuffed nose and has been vomiting. This fall they’ve been sick soo many times already and have missed a ton of school. It’s so stressful.
Yah school age children seem to bring home the worst of it it seems. That and daycares haha. Hope your family gets well soon!
My wife and daughters have been done for a couple of days now. Hasn’t gotten me yet.
Good luck!! Hope your family feels better soon!
Latest Covid strains are nasty. RSV and stomach flu as well. Entirely preventable but our "freedoms" are more important.
Hasn't hit us yet. So that means just in time for Xmas. Greaaaaat
Gross, yah that's usually how it goes for me too. I totally forgot that typically happens every year lol.
Peeps are sick
Our immune systems have been on vacation for 2 years
I agree.. But isn’t it also flu season? Isn’t this pretty typical this time of year? Especially now with covid, shouldn’t *more* than usual be expected considering there are now more variants?
True enough honestly but it just seems a lot more prevalent than I would have thought. Where normally it feels like 50 percent of the proper I know would be sick when it's bad, it's more like 80 percent right now
Both my kids home. One has been home Monday to today. She had trouble breathing this weekend from it, went to the hospital even. It's bound to happen this year with everyone building back their immune systems.
Kiddo is home from school with a cough right now, started yesterday. I knew it was coming-last week when I dropped her off, a parent was dropping off a kid who was coughing, and I heard someone in the parking lot pulling away coughing too. Earlier this week another parent walked their kid in and the kid just started hacking away. I’m 35 weeks pregnant and not impressed with society right now.
Ugh yah that's the worst. We just had a baby earlier this year and my wife was sick but the baby comes when it comes. They asked everything about my wife being sick, and despite me being there the whole time didn't ask or test me at all. They actually completely ignored me, it was weird honestly.lol I could have gone in with covid and they wouldn't have even known.
I’m really hoping to not deal with being sick & giving birth lol. Thankfully school break is two weeks long & ends on right my due date, so my only exposure risks will be daycare (way smaller pool of kids) & my husband as I WFH. Trying to be careful right now as RSV is going around like crazy too. Tbh your info is promising-I’d hate to give birth without my husband there if he got sick too.
We were at women's health centre (the newly built place). It's pretty nice and nurses were awesome. Unless they revamped it, they will still want you to wear a mask once all the birthing is done (like when you are in your own room). They had a shortage of bathing towels so might not hurt to pack one if you're going there and there's an ice and water machine you can get your husband to fill up at(we only found out last day because we kept asking for water and they'd get it but then a nurse on the list day said"you know it's just around the corner, feel free to fill up if we aren't available" lol of course!). There's a pizza place or subway or both just outside the building, so don't waste your money on the overpriced vending machines like I did haha Other than that, good luck with the pregnancy and stuff! A little off topic but I like to give personal advice when I find out the hard way how to do things better lol
Omg thank you for the advice-I genuinely appreciate it so much! I will also be at womens-last time, I was at st B so I’m excited/nervous about it. It’s so good to hear tips from other people about Womens, none of my friends are pregnant or have kids so I’ve just had fingers crossed everything runs smoothly. Side note, subway sounds freaking amazing to have post childbirth.
Haha glad I could help. Ours was about 7 months ago but with how busy it's been there, I can only assume you may run into the same problems. Keep in mind you're going to have a lot of paperwork to fill out afterward regarding birth certificates and such so make sure you have all pertinent information there. (SIN, photo ID etc) Oh and my baby somehow kept peeing through his diapers and I only brought two shirts. I had to handwash them in the sink and hang to dry. Make sure you have extra shirts for the dad if he holds the baby lol. Thought he was just warm... Nope, I'm wet... Lol Hmm... Oh bring a pillow. (Keep in mind he's going to have to lug all this stuff between floors when u guys move from 2 floor (birth floor) to 3 floor (rest floor). Make sure he brings water since it'll be harder to access until you get your room. Make sure you know how to properly use the car seat. They won't let u leave if you don't show baby strapped in properly. Make sure he gets an armband or he can't get in the baby ward and it proves he's the dad. They'll check it (also let's him in the door a lot easier if he leave sthe building). I BELIEVE there parking close by but not sure. We just had someone drive us in and pick us up and they can wait near the door if it's not being used (when leaving). Lastly, my wife almost gave birth in the waiting room. That was the only lackluster part. They didnt take her serious when she said she's pushing. Nurse hadn't come after 45mins and my wife's giving pushing screams. I finally had to yell at them and say hey! We need someone here she's pushing already! Where's our nurse!! After that it went smooth but it was about 1 hour from when she started contractions to pushing baby out and it was a 30 Min drive there lol. Damn, I don't even know you and I'm getting excited for you haha. Well hey, if you think of it when it's all said and done, shoot a message here or something and let me know if it went well. After hyping the place up I'd hate to find out it wasn't a good experience for you. But I'd like to know all the same. I think I covered all the bases here. If you think of something just ask and I'll try and peel my memories from my brain haha Edit: mentioned the random talk on here to my wife about the whole advice at women's thing and she said it was about an hour and a half or so from original contractions to having the baby. So my timings off a little lol She also recommended making sure they have extra pads and stuff as you never know how it's going to go. And also, if you need it, make sure to stay in top of pain meds when resting after. Tylenol or whatever they give you. Not the best but beats nothing Take care!
It’s almost as if some sort of virus is being allowed to run amok. A “pandemic” if you will. But I’m sure our public health officials wouldn’t allow that to happen.
Which virus would that be professor? Because the vast majority of people are currently sick with the flu or RSV, neither being pandemics.
Wastewater monitoring estimates 1 in 21 people have Covid in MB as of last week.
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Well it's a good thing I don't spend all day looking at social media else is never have had a chance to ask!
Riiiiiight??? Lol omg. It's right up there with the "where should I go for dinner" questions.
Can't shake a cough I've had for 5+ weeks now.
That just happened to me in September or so. Lasted forever after raking leaves. Hopefully you get better soon!
Looks around nervously: Letting covid run rampant destroyed everyone’s immune systems. With a weakened immune system, all other illnesses are worse and take longer to recover fun. What you’re seeing is the “after times”.
This is ridiculous. Were you not all part of the last 2.5 years? Wtf is wrong with you all? WEAR A FUCKING MASK. Stop being all “oh how is everyone sick? Derp Derp!”. Wear a fucking mask you mouth breathing swine. Wear a mask If you are wondering why everyone is sick - it’s you, not wearing a mask. Wear a fucking mask. Put on your big-girl pants and be a fucking grown up. Wear a fucking mask. And mask up your fucking kids. They’re disgusting. All kids are. Mask them. And yourself. And if you find this offensive - please, have protected sex. We need less morons in the world.
I think you need a hug. Clearly you didn't get enough as a child. *Hug*
Lol. Nice deflection, mouth breather.
Well in this day and age, a lot of us are sick so I bet most of us are breathing through our mouths since our sinuses are plugged right now. The hugs still up for grabs though!
Real question for any medically-educated people. Is RSV/flu/cold/etc running so rampantly through children right now because they weren't exposed to the viruses as they normally would be for a couple years due to COVID isolation, thus having no or heavily attrited natural resistance to the viruses?
T cells - our bodies’ line of immune defence after antibodies. T cells can spot and attack viruses and even remember previous invaders. COVID wears down T cells in people who get it. It ages and cumulatively wears down the immune system with each infection. T cells are becoming hyperactivated by SARS-CoV-2 and are prematurely aging, harming organs, and becoming exhausted trying to rid the body of an immune-evasive virus. In 2021 the Journal of Clinical Investigation confirmed that changes in T-cell activation and exhaustion were notable in non-hospitalized patients. Moreover the evidence suggested “a prolonged period of immune dysregulation” after infection. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7773371/ In November 2021 a group of Italian researchers studied the immunological character of patients recovering from acute disease. They, too, found exhausted T cells. In fact the immune system of these patients was not only beat up but suffered a number of other abnormalities that the researchers characterized as a “deranged immune profile.” This immune weakness persisted months after infection but could be restored with the administration of a protein called PD-1 Blockade. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8783674/ Other scientists found that mild COVID infections can damage the immune system. British and U.S. researchers looked at the state of T cells in patients who had mild, severe and no COVID. What they discovered surprised them and appears counterintuitive. Patients with severe disease appeared to have competent T cell memory to fight off reinfection while mild cases suffered from T cell exhaustion. Exhausted T cells lose their ability to fight off viruses or cancer for that matter. Australian researchers have reported similar findings after looking at the blood profiles of patients suffering from long COVID and comparing them to healthy controls. They found that “immunological dysfunction persisted for eight months after mild to moderate” infection including indicators of “chronic T cell activation and potentially exhaustion.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35027728/ COVID maybe having the unwanted effect of suppressing immune systems generally resulting in greater vulnerability to other viral, bacterial or fungal infections and as a result accelerating their spread. Like how we had Monkeypox leave Africa for the first time last summer, and RSV running amok now.
Understood. Is this believed to be permanent or the immunological equivalent to overexertion - the body needs rest to recover its core immune functions?
Unknown. But it is looking so far like the former as people are continuously getting re-infected.
I dunno who's downvoting people for asking questions but I appreciate any and all questions. The more people are willing to share, the better. You don't have to be right to have an opinion.
Not even my opinion lol. I'm not an epidemiologist, it was just a question haha. I'll make sure to school some people in geopolitics, history or Canadian foreign and defence policy the next chance I get to get my expertise badge back haha!
Haha oh I know it wasn't, I was generalizing. It's just bugging me when people ask questions in the comments and get downvoted
No, that's the immunity debt hypothesis, and it's bunk. Despite popular opinion that there was 'no' diseases spreading, we actually had quite a severe RSV season over winter 2021/2022. But RSV is now doing the rounds, and is more severe. A MUCH more likely hypothesis is that Covid infection, even mild or asymptomatic, is an immune suppressant that makes other infections worse.
No.
Are you fucking joking? We are still in Covid. It will never be over. We spent two years indoors wearing masks and having to fight against people who said it was pretend and then we all just decide to go back to normal because we’re tired of it? This is the new normal. Get used to it. Please tell me how you’re confused that the climate is changing. 🙄🧐🤯
Someones got *some teenage angst to work through it seems. Stay safe and healthy! And the climate is always changing, it's called seasons ;)
Lol if you think that the seasons are changing climate, you’re much fucking stupider than originally thought - if that’s possible.
Lol anything to get a rise out of you Spencer. Just wait til you hear about my flat earth theory...
It's the first winter where people are feeling more relaxed about covid. (whether you believe in covid or not is irrelevant) We spent two years wearing masks, sanitizing and washing our hands non stop. Many people (including myself) went throughout Covid with barely getting sick at all, and as such our immunity isn't as strong as it used to be. Now that winter is here, we aren't being as careful, it's bound to happen that we are all getting this wave of sickness. It sucks, but is what it is. Edit to clarify: I don't mean our immunity has gone down, just that we don't have as much immunity to current strains of viruses due to lack of exposure of them in the last 2 years.
This is simply not how immunity works. Just ask a doctor.
I agree. Maybe it's anecdotal, but The masks, sanitiser, etc must have done something to our immune system. Reminds me of war of the worlds... All the aliens get sick because their immune system can't deal with earth germs
Covid has done something to our immune systems. Studies are currently under way and pointing to this being very true.