Well. it always has to be someone

[Jilly_in_VA]

There's a long-standing joke in my family that someone is always sick on holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. My daughter had strep on Thanksgiving, so I guess it was my turn to be sick for Christmas this year. And it's a besut, too...some kind of viral thing with cough, ears plugged up, runny nose, the works. Yesterday I didn't even get our of bed and couldn't indulge in one of my favorite sick day pleasures, which is reading. Today I am vertical but can't eat---food tastes yucky. So much for Christmas dinner! I will probably spend the day on the couch. The only thing I know for sure is that it's not flu or covid as I had my shots for both, so here's a big razzberry to RFK Jr. and may rats spit in his plum pudding!

[CousinIT]

1. Oh blech! I hope you feel better soon!

Be sure to drink plenty of fluids, if possible.

At first, I thought you might be posting about the lottery, since some lucky person won the big prize: https://www.newsbreak.com/business-insider-562169/4412642059133-powerball-just-announced-the-winning-ticket-of-its-1-82-billion-jackpot

Feel better soon, Jilly!

[Delarage]

2. A friend of mine

Got the flu shot and currently is down and out with the flu, too. She is originally from Australia. Said she read that we usually base our vaccine on what was prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere, but that a lot of that research was cut back due to RFK and Piggy. I had not read that but it is probably true 🤷‍♂️. Hope you feel better soon!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. The actual problem with this year's flu shot is NOT that research was cut

back significantly. It's that not a single type A virus was included in this year's which turns out, apparently, to be the major strain this year. So this year's shot is far more ineffective than usual. The shots will range from 30% - 60% effective most years, so they are helpful.

It's actually not a good idea to get the shot every year, that every other year is perfectly adequate.

[Tetrachloride]

21. curious...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

22. But true, nonetheless.

I think it's extremely important not to claim Trump and his ilk are doing things they are not doing. They did NOT cut research into flu viruses. It's just that making a flu shot requires guessing what version of flu will be around six months or more down the road. Some years the guesses are better than other years.

[Delarage]

23. Good to know!

I'll let her know. He's been too busy dismantling democracy and enriching himself to destroy EVERYTHING, LOL. I did get the shot so I'll just hope I don't run into that strain 🙏

[riversedge]

3. I do wish that you will be able to enjoy at least the spirit of Christmas today.

🎄🎅🏻⛄️

[leftieNanner]

4. Me too!!

Hope it gets better before I have to get on the plane to fly home.

Best wishes for a quick recovery.

And Merry Christmas 🎄

[LuckyCharms]

5. Yikes. Bad timing for the illness, Jilly!

But the good news is, you WILL feel better soon!

I'm sorry that you are feeling so poorly this Christmas.

Please take care of yourself today. Relax, lay on the couch, and rest up.

Today is just one day out of many, and you'll have plenty of other good days.

Please feel better soon, and although you are not feeling very merry today, I'll wish you a Merry Christmas anyway, and wish better days ahead for you!

[cachukis]

6. Best recovery.

[The Blue Flower]

7. I missed all four Christmas parties of the groups I'm involved with

Due to a rotten cold. Just rest, get your chicken soup into your stomach, and wait it out as comfortably as you can. May the spirit of Christmas lift yours today.

[Blues Heron]

8. The shots don't prevent COVID or flu, they just mitigate the disease. Best to test so you know what you have

[biophile]

11. Correct!

The Covid shot was not a traditional vaccine for preventing Covid. It was really designed to keep people from disease severe enough to require hospitalization.

[Blues Heron]

16. No, it was designed to be a COVID vaccine. Vaccines don't prevent infection, it's not a protective bubble

It wasn’t designed with any built in limitations if that’s what you’re saying, it was designed to do the best job possible against this moving target. What you are saying is a persistent myth, that it was somehow purposely limited.

[biophile]

24. I'm agreeing with you; but probably expressing it poorly

What I meant to convey was that the Covid shot was not a traditional vaccine in the sense that it administered a preparation of an antigen- killed, live, or partially attenuated in order to produce a immune response to that organism or virus. The Covid shot was an mRNA - designed to teach our immune systems to recognize the virus, it wasn’t the virus itself. It is supposed to produce the immune response like a traditional vaccine, just like you said. The manufacturers - at least in the first rollout in 2021- did not claim that it prevented COVID symptoms or even COVID infection. The goal during that time was to prevent severe disease to prevent the burden on hospitals. The definition of vaccine was changed to accommodate the new mRNA technology and to dispel the impression that vaccines always provided immunity, which was not true.

[Blues Heron]

25. The goal with all vaccines is to create the best response possible, lifetime immunity if possible

That’s it.

[NNadir]

35. I really can't believe that people believe this sort of thing.

The "shots" are vaccines, not treatments. If one already has Covid or the flu, vaccines are useless.

There are treatments for both flu and Covid but they are not injectable drugs.

Tamiflu (oseltamivir), Xofluza (baloxavir), Relenza (zanamivir), and Rapivab (peramivir)

for flu, Paxlovid for Covid are oral drugs.

It is true for retroviruses in particular with fast reproduction - and thus evolution - rates, resistant strains to vaccines develop quickly so the disease can still occur, generally in a milder form as the antibodies generated by B cells may have lower binding efficiency, but vaccines prevent disease, they do not cure it.

For treatments this can also occur. We saw this with the early protease inhibitors for AIDS, aspartyl proteases, p55 gag proteins, where resistance developed generally along single nucleotide polymorphisms (and on occasion, multiple nucleotide polymorphisms, for example the M46I/I47V/I50V mutations that showed resistance to Amprenavir).

This is not a place to spread misinformation about the difference between vaccines and treatments.

[Dear_Prudence]

9. Awful!

Feel better soon!

[House of Roberts]

10. My 5 year old step-Granddaughter is sick this year.

The family get together was to be tomorrow, now it's postponed.

[biophile]

12. You could still have the flu

You might have gotten a strain that this years shot didn’t cover. See Blue Heron post above - vaccines don’t prevent everything - they are often just helpful in mitigating symptoms.
That said- RFK can still get raspberries for some misguided policies!

[SheltieLover]

13. Healing vibes on the way to you, Jilly!

I hope you feel better soon & that your left-overs are better than when fresh!

Merry Christmas! 🤶🎄

[rurallib]

14. Trump is back in power and he brings with him another pandemic, methinks.

[TommieMommy]

15. Get well wishes to you 🙏

[Scrivener7]

17. Merry Christmas! I am on day 7 of what sounds like the same thing. The good news:

those acute symptoms were mostly gone by day 5. I almost always go into bronchitis with this kind of thing, and this time I didn't. I'm still clearing a little, but mostly done.

The bad news: I'm still just exhausted. I usually walk 3 or 4 miles a day. The day before yesterday, I walked half a mile and needed to sleep 12 hours. Yesterday it was a mile and and then went to a Christmas Eve party. Was home by 9 and again, slept 12 hours.

That is slowly improving, and I guess all that sleep is good for me.

Feel much better very soon, and try to have a great day in spite of your symptoms!

[Hope22]

19. Sounds like the current variant of Covid.

Make sure to stay hydrated and move around regularly if you are stable on your feet! When we were passing it around they called it a cold but shortly after that it was reclassified as Covid. The tests did not work for it. Take care! I hope you are feeling better soon! Peace and love to you!🙏🏼❤️💐

[LoisB]

20. Bummer. I hope you are much better soon.

[bamagal62]

26. Everyone around me

seems to be sick. I know of people with flu, covid, pneumonia, strep throat, and some respiratory virus.
I'm currently sitting here with a bad sore throat and sinus congestion.

[Skittles]

27. they have never claimed you cannot get covid/or flu if you are vaccinated

only that your symptoms may be greatly decreased

[Irish_Dem]

28. I got Covid after having all the shots.

So keep an eye on your illness, and take a test if it gets worse.

[MIButterfly]

29. Feel better soon Jilly_in_VA.

Being sick is no fun. Get lots of rest and keep hydrated.

I still have a lingering cough from whatever the hell I had last month and it's really starting to get on my nerves.

[halobeam]

30. I had all vaccines and have Flu A, as does my husband.

We both had different symptoms too. Mine has me in bed, 10 days and counting (fever, bad body aches, horrible cough). His had him down and out for five days (no fever, no body aches, but congestion, cough, exhaustion).

You can not be sure you don't have something because you were vaccinated, and definitely can't be sure without being tested.

Please get tested, if you have something, you can still feel better but be contagious.

This season is flooded with all kinds of viruses and there isn't any one I know who doesn't know someone whose family is really sick.

I hope you feel better soon!

[Codifer]

31. There is a new strain.

I have it I think: exhausted, body aches, fever that comes and goes, headache, no appetite. Very thirsty.

I spent Christmas day in bed woke up in the early AM drenched with sweat.

I believe it is called H3B2. I will do more research.

Hope you are better.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2843197

edit to add: That should be A(H3N2) subclave K.

I am not a doctor