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Forums - General Discussion - Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

vivster on 13 May 2020
John2290 said:
vivster said:
So I've come down with the flu for the second time since the pandemic started. Told you guys that the flu is way worse than COVID-19.

Get tested, I mean it's possible to be unlucky enough to get the flu twice in the space of a few months, it's happened to me but that's when I was around hundreds of people a week or working as a cashier and handling peoples filty returns but generally flus are spaced out by 9-12 months if you're not travelling and the likelyhood of the flu spreading now amongst the lockdown is far less than Covid, the flu is a hell of a lot less contiguous. Unless you know someone who has had the flu who has been around you significantly enough to pick it up and they've tested negative get your ass to a swab, I'm not trying to scare you but remind you of the likelihood of either and apparently getting tested saves lives. Tell someone you're sick at least and for them to call in on you daily. 

I can't get tested because it'll make my country look bad.



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vivster on 13 May 2020
Ka-pi96 said:
vivster said:
So I've come down with the flu for the second time since the pandemic started. Told you guys that the flu is way worse than COVID-19.

How? I haven't had the flu in like 20 years!

You're not one of those people that erroneously calls a common cold "the flu", are you?

It probably is just a cold. I have probably never gotten a flu all my life, not that I would know since I was never tested for it. The line between cold and flu is very blurry and it doesn't really matter what it is. Same symptoms, same bullshit.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Pemalite on 13 May 2020
sethnintendo said:

No clue but I also didn't know Mediterranean and Baltic seas counted as landmasses with you plopping Australia on top of them.  Anyways some say there are 5 and some say 7.

One could discuss how difficult or easy virus can spread based on geographic location.  However since humans travel the globe even more than Spanish flu days being geographic isolated doesn't matter anymore.

I googled that image. I didn't make it.
Australia isn't some tiny little dot in the middle of an ocean.

Ka-pi96 said:
vivster said:
So I've come down with the flu for the second time since the pandemic started. Told you guys that the flu is way worse than COVID-19.

How? I haven't had the flu in like 20 years!

You're not one of those people that erroneously calls a common cold "the flu", are you?

There can be multiple strains of a Flu virus that "floats around" during a season... Which is why the Flu vaccine is a multi-viral vaccine these days, so just because you got the Flu once, doesn't mean you can't get it another several times during a season. (Although, highly unlikely!)

The "Common Cold" however can be caused by over 200~ different viruses... Good luck vaccinating against that. Just can't be done.

You can minimize your susceptibility to viruses with good hygiene, good level of healthy exercise and definitely a healthy diet, get a regular physical to see where you are falling short health-wise and bolster/adjust your eating macros to tackle the issue, that will give your immune system the best possible chance to respond appropriately.

Basically, take all the precautions you take with COVID (Social Distancing, Hygiene, Sanitation etc') and add a dash of healthy lifestyle.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

JRPGfan on 13 May 2020
Ka-pi96 said:
vivster said:

It probably is just a cold. I have probably never gotten a flu all my life, not that I would know since I was never tested for it. The line between cold and flu is very blurry and it doesn't really matter what it is. Same symptoms, same bullshit.

hmm, I'd say if you're barely capable of getting out of bed, your stomach hurts and you're puking then you've got the flu.
If you're capable of being a normal functioning person, but don't want to because you feel like crap, you've got a cold.

^ this 100%.

Theres no "blurry line" between a cold and a flu.

A bad case of influenza, is spending a week in bed, with fever, the shakes, barely able to drink water and keep it down (vomiting most of it back up), no appitate (or able to eat and keep it down), diarrea, headaches ect.

While a common cold is like a occasional sneeze/caugh only. Things that dont even prevent you from going to school/work, or haveing a normal life.
Influenze atleast means bed ridden, imo.

They are two vastly differnt things.



JRPGfan on 13 May 2020
Ka-pi96 said:
JRPGfan said:

^ this 100%.

Theres no "blurry line" between a cold and a flu.

A bad case of influenza, is spending a week in bed, with fever, the shakes, barely able to drink water and keep it down (vomiting most of it back up), no appitate (or able to eat and keep it down), diarrea, headaches ect.

While a common cold is like a occasional sneeze/caugh only. Things that dont even prevent you from going to school/work, or haveing a normal life.
Influenze atleast means bed ridden, imo.

They are two vastly differnt things.

While it's true a cold doesn't prevent you from doing those things, I think it's fair to say the idea of "you're not that ill, so you should still go to school/work anyway" that's baked into society, undoubtedly played a role in covid19 becoming as bad as it has.

Yeah That undoubtably makes covid19 so much harder to deal with.

We're used to ignoreing the "cold" that has us sneezeing or caughing.... and for those people asymptomatic or with very mild symptoms, this might just feel like that to them. Then they go around and spread covid19.



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Nighthawk117 on 13 May 2020
vivster said:
Ka-pi96 said:

How? I haven't had the flu in like 20 years!

You're not one of those people that erroneously calls a common cold "the flu", are you?

It probably is just a cold. I have probably never gotten a flu all my life, not that I would know since I was never tested for it. The line between cold and flu is very blurry and it doesn't really matter what it is. Same symptoms, same bullshit.

What are your symptoms?



Barozi on 13 May 2020
Pemalite said:
sethnintendo said:

No clue but I also didn't know Mediterranean and Baltic seas counted as landmasses with you plopping Australia on top of them.  Anyways some say there are 5 and some say 7.

One could discuss how difficult or easy virus can spread based on geographic location.  However since humans travel the globe even more than Spanish flu days being geographic isolated doesn't matter anymore.

I googled that image. I didn't make it.
Australia isn't some tiny little dot in the middle of an ocean.

Not sure who claimed that but Europe is about 20% bigger than the continent Australia and 30% bigger than the country Australia.



vivster on 13 May 2020
JRPGfan said:
Ka-pi96 said:

hmm, I'd say if you're barely capable of getting out of bed, your stomach hurts and you're puking then you've got the flu.
If you're capable of being a normal functioning person, but don't want to because you feel like crap, you've got a cold.

^ this 100%.

Theres no "blurry line" between a cold and a flu.

A bad case of influenza, is spending a week in bed, with fever, the shakes, barely able to drink water and keep it down (vomiting most of it back up), no appitate (or able to eat and keep it down), diarrea, headaches ect.

While a common cold is like a occasional sneeze/caugh only. Things that dont even prevent you from going to school/work, or haveing a normal life.
Influenze atleast means bed ridden, imo.

They are two vastly differnt things.

Sorry, but that is just absolute bullshit. Maybe the line becomes blurrier when you compare a bad cold with a light flu instead of the other way around. You talk as if the flu has only one mode and is as strong for everyone. Same with a cold.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/03/17/290878964/even-if-you-dont-have-symptoms-you-may-still-have-the-flu

Might as well start claiming that people who only have a sore throat cannot have COVID-19 because they are not dying.

Last edited by vivster - on 13 May 2020

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SvennoJ on 13 May 2020
vivster said:

Sorry, but that is just absolute bullshit. Maybe the line becomes blurrier when you compare a bad cold with a light flu instead of the other way around. You talk as if the flu has only one mode and is as strong for everyone. Same with a cold.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/03/17/290878964/even-if-you-dont-have-symptoms-you-may-still-have-the-flu

Might as well start claiming that people who only have a sore throat cannot have COVID-19 because they are not dying.

It should be obvious there must be many mild cases of the flu, or otherwise it wouldn't spread so effectively each season.

For the US.

If up to 14% of the population was puking in bed for a week each year, more would be done on prevention :/



SvennoJ on 13 May 2020

The fight against misinformation


https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/05/12/facebook-says-it-flagged-covid-19-misinformation-50-million-times-in-april.html

Nearly seven in 10 people who responded to an online survey from the Social Media Lab at Ryersons’ Ted Rogers School of Management said they had personally encountered misinformation about the global health crisis on social media platforms, or on popular aggregator websites like Reddit. The “infodemic” seems to be most acute on Facebook, where 80 per cent of users responded they encounter COVID-19 misinformation “sometimes” or more frequently. But while Facebook users were more likely to encounter misinformation, researcher Anatoliy Gruzd said misinformation is platform-agnostic.

“Misinformation can start as a post on Facebook, morph into an image on Instagram, and then become a part of a YouTube video,” said Gruzd on Tuesday. The survey included 1,500 adult Canadian internet users, and was conducted between April 7 and April 19.

The findings come as Facebook announced it had flagged 50 million pieces of COVID-19 misinformation circulating on the platform in April. Based on the research of independent fact-checking agencies, the social media giant slapped warnings on the false content.

But even a cursory glance at some Canadian Facebook groups show that borderline content — such as articles calling COVID-19 a “political hoax” or conspiracy theories about the nature of the pandemic — remain online with no warning.