[paul cotter (OP)]

In rural Ireland bituminous coal is no longer available for open fires( antediluvian way of heating-I know ). We now have a mix of lignite nuggets and anthracite ovoids which works reasonably well but the smell of this mixed product is really getting to me. It smells exactly like the sour offensive aroma of a large bank of lead acid batteries on fast charge which I have always assumed to be stibine. Alternatively covid has ruined my snout.

[evan_au]

There is a lot of COVID around here at the moment. I know several people who have caught it for the first time in the last month (including me - fortunately, my case was pretty mild).

[paul cotter (OP)]

Same here in Ireland. The hospitals are at breaking point with covid, influenza a( h1 ), influenza a( h3 ), influenza b, and rsv. I had covid during the summer and it was a dreadful experience, not as severe as full-on influenza but it lasted 7 weeks with intermittent symptoms out to 12 weeks. Currently my wife and visiting youngest daughter are both miserable with a non-covid virus which I seem to also have but my symptoms are minimal.

[Zer0]

A small unrelated Query...

Is Covid never ever gonna go away?

Will WE have to keep dealing with it, live & die with it like ForEver?

[evan_au]

Is Covid never ever gonna go away?

Probably not.

We will just need to learn to live with it (and some people will continue to die from it...).

The best parallel is OC43 (another coronavirus) which is probably to blame for the 1889 "Russian flu" pandemic.
- This had continuing waves for about 6 years.
- Today, it is treated as a "Common Cold", with outbreaks mostly in the winter months.
- It can still be severe in babies, the elderly and immune-compromised individuals, but the death rate is much lower than for the early outbreaks

The early outbreaks of "Russian flu" were not aligned with the usual winter colds
- This is roughly where we are with COVID-19 now
- But we can hope that it later becomes a seasonal cold
- There is one significant difference: Anyone with a genetic susceptibility to OC43 died in the early outbreaks, so today's survivors are less susceptible
- Through masks, testing, lockdowns and now vaccines & anti-virals, we have managed to reduce the number of people who died from COVID-19. But these people (and their descendants) will still potentially have a genetic susceptibility to COVID-19, which may cause ongoing deaths in later years and decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_coronavirus_OC43
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1889%E2%80%931890_pandemic

[vhfpmr]

A small unrelated Query...

Is Covid never ever gonna go away?

Will WE have to keep dealing with it, live & die with it like ForEver?

This doesn't bode well:


Covid.jpg (115.87 kB . 900x648 - viewed 656 times)