...........   Data from the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics found similar results, with roughly 1 in 10 respondents who tested positive for COVID-19 exhibiting symptoms lasting for a period of 12 weeks or longer.

This means that across the world, there may be more than 5 million casesTrusted Source of long COVID.

One 2021 studyTrusted Source found that more than three-quarters of COVID-19 patients in a hospital in Wuhan, China, still had at least one symptom 6 months after their discharge from the hospital.

This is consistent with a 2020 study from Italy that found that 87.4%Trusted Source of COVID-19 patients reported experiencing at least one symptom 2 months after their discharge from the hospital.

A 2020 Swiss study also notes that as many as 1 in 3 people with milder cases COVID-19 were still experiencing symptoms after 6 weeks.

Using a statistical model, a preprint 2020 study found that long COVID is more likely to occur in older adults, people with a higher body mass index (BMI), and females.

It also notes that individuals who experience more than five symptoms during the first week of illness are more likely to develop long COVID.        ..............

Data from the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics found similar results, with roughly 1 in 10 respondents who tested positive for COVID-19 exhibiting symptoms lasting for a period of 12 weeks or longer.

i think a lot of those symptoms of "long covid" are psychosomatic sprint.

chronic fatigue syndrome , for example, always seemed like a medical term for "lazy bastard".

"fibromyalgia" seems like a term for sooky wimp.

but the vaccine poses no threat at all.

so you would have to be a coward of the highest order to refuse to have it

i think a lot of those symptoms of "long covid" are psychosomatic sprint.

chronic fatigue syndrome , for example, always seemed like a medical term for "lazy bastard".

"fibromyalgia" seems like a term for sooky wimp.

but the vaccine poses no threat at all.

so you would have to be a coward of the highest order to refuse to have it

...........  So the benefit of getting vaccinated (and not getting COVID) is much higher for older people than younger people.         .............

.........   Our expert regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (the TGA) has approved both the Pfizer vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccine under standard (rather than emergency) protocols so we know both are safe and effective.
But all vaccines have some side-effects and sometimes they can be serious. As always, it’s a question of balancing the risks in vaccination against the risks of disease.
So far, based on some 200 million people who’ve received the AstraZeneca vaccine worldwide, between one in 100,000 and one in 250,000 have developed rare and serious blood clots on the brain that seem to be associated with the jab.
Given an infection fatality rate of about six in a thousand for people between 50 and 65 catching COVID, having the AstraZeneca jab is well worth the risk; even more so for the very elderly whose COVID death rate is as much as nine per 100.
That’s why Scott Morrison announced late on Thursday that the AZ jab would only be recommended for people over 50 following updated advice from the TGA; it’s about an abundance of caution.
With more and more people getting vaccinated overseas, our experts have benefited from greater data on which to base this analysis so for us, the delays in shipments of AZ out of Europe has worked in our favour.
But again, perspective is needed. As one commentator put it on Friday: “If you look at the data and see that the chances of getting a blood clot with this vaccine is about four in one million, compared to four in 10,000 for the contraceptive pill, that perspective needs to be highlighted.”
As the government’s medical advisers made clear, it’s not that people under 50 shouldn’t get the AZ jab — health care workers who’ve already had one for instance, are advised to have the second — it’s just that it’s no longer the recommended vaccine for people under 50.
That didn’t stop a predictable spray from an Opposition, desperate to find fault, that the government should have ordered more vaccines and different ones.
Of course, if the government hadn’t placed such a big order with the local vaccine producer CSL, that’s in partnership with AstraZeneca, Labor would have been screaming about lack of support for local jobs. The Prime Minister can’t win, can he?
It’s important to understand that vaccines are being made differently in this pandemic and that difference is relevant.
The AZ vaccine is based on another virus that mimics a COVID infection to trigger the body’s immune response without its life-threatening side effects. Pfizer, by contrast, introduces a genetic code to trick the body into producing COVID antibodies.
At present, CSL lacks the capability to produce these novel gene-based vaccines. To do so, on one academic estimate, would take 12 months and an investment of $100 million.
In fact, just as the federal government was relatively swift to close our borders to the disease in the first place, it was also quick to place massive orders with a range of potential vaccine suppliers — unlike the EU, for instance, which is now seizing the vaccines destined for Australia because it was too late to place orders of its own.
Our initial orders covered Astra-Zeneca and Pfizer, plus the Novavax vaccine that’s yet to be approved, as well the University of Queensland vaccine that’s been discontinued.
Due to the AZ vaccine’s blood clot concerns, the government has just ordered a further 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine which should now be enough to cover the 17 million Australians under 50.
The problem is that these are unlikely to be available until late in the year — and could be subject to more EU-style vaccine nationalism — so what’s now in peril is the government’s October timetable for full population vaccination and what’s now at risk is our future freedom from more lockdowns and ongoing travel restrictions.
If I had a choice between the Pfizer vaccine and AstraZeneca, I’ll be upfront and say I’d go with Pfizer. But if the choice were between vaccination and ongoing border closures, I’d take vaccination.      ..............