According to a host of doctors — i.e. real doctors treating actual patients, not charlatans in wizard hats preening in front of the media assholes — these are the ailments most associated with the flu-like Omigodicron virus:
- Scratchy throat
- Lower back pain
- Runny nose/congestion
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Sneezing
- Night sweats
- Body aches
As I said: flu-like.
Now before anyone gets all panicky and starts fleeing to the hospital, let me stress that all the above are not mild symptoms (such as can be associated with the normal aches and pains of age, e.g. as experienced by me and my Readers — average age about 95).
No, we’re talking about the above as incapacitating symptoms: “can’t get out of bed” fatigue, night sweats which drench the bedclothes for days on end, a scratchy throat which makes it difficult to swallow, body aches which render any kind of movement difficult if not almost impossible, etc. In other words, extreme symptoms. (Kinda like ordinary seasonal flu, but on Barry Bonds-level steroids.)
If you are experiencing (or in the current revolting medico-speak, “presenting with”) many or all of these symptoms, then yes, you may indeed have the Omigoditron bug, and you might want to seek medical assistance, especially if you’re being treated for the usual age-related ailments. (If you’re a youngin in good health, take two aspirins and get on with your life.)
Remember, however, that Dr. Kim is not a real doctor, doesn’t even play one on TV like Ebenezer Fauci, and that all his “advice” should be taken with a metric tonne of salt.
But all that said (and the hospitalization/mortality numbers seem to bear me out), this Grandson of Wuflu does not seem to be that big a deal — more people are likely to die of influenza this winter than from any of the Covids, and most certainly more than from the new kid on the block.
YMMV, but I think the mild Omigodicron Covid variant is going to end up being the vaccine against itself, and life will soon be able to totter along on its normal uncertain path.
