"I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

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Freightdog
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by Freightdog »

Alex wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 7:32 pm "At least a third of the business class passengers coughed, sweated and moaned all the way to London, including during the stopover in Hanoi, where a doctor gave some of us oxygen in the business class lounge."

I don't buy this. Sounds like nonsensical hyperbole to me. Which makes me wonder how much of the rest of the story is true, which I would have otherwise accepted at face value.
I’m not saying it did or didn’t happen. Just my twopence worth.

Some airlines are signed up as a go-to option for ambulatory repatriation. When I was shuffled back to the UK, British Airways and Thai airlines were at the top of the list for the insurance company arranging my return.
Patients and ambulatory repatriation passengers may actually be accompanied by portable oxygen. So this may be related to her condition, or may be totally irrelevant. But passengers can be travelling with supplemental oxygen. Whatever the arrangements or details were involved in the “Doctor gave some of us oxygen” circumstance, it would be hard to establish the facts either way.

I’ve been on a fair few flights over the years, before Covid, where it seemed you were surrounded by coughing wheezing zombies. Airline cabins are not a good place to be with respiratory issues in the first place.

A number of my colleagues and myself had fairly nasty chest infections in late 2019. I was actually off work for 5 weeks. No one had really heard of COVID. One fella, a good ten years younger than me, was admitted overnight after his GP sent him to A&E. The common denominator was our regular use of airport hotels (our route structure means that we rarely see each other from one year to the next sometimes), where airline crews from all over will night stop. Our hotel in Paris was a regular haunt for at least 5 Chinese airlines, plus Korean, and several other Asian operators.
There was another very similar nasty bug running around in early 2020, at about the same time that Wuhan was in the news, which I caught also.

I’m inclined to agree that there’s likely to be a good dollop of poetic licence in that piece, but these days, I’m not inclined to dismiss these things so readily.

If you recall, early on the qualifying symptoms to suspect COVID were Fever+New persistent cough. I never had a fever. It was a few months before it was realised that Fever didn’t present in quite a number of cases. I vaguely recall a figure of 25%, but that might be my embattled mind. If you didn’t have a fever, you were discounted as having COVID, and so no testing was conducted, or other precautions taken.
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michele.nayman
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by michele.nayman »

I assure you that everything is correct, whether you buy it or not. In fact, I held back on all the details precisely to avoid people's disbelief. I wrote the article to counter anti-vaxxers in Australia, thinking that lived experience would be the best way to get people to change their minds. I knew that it would spell the end of my career, but I am too ill to work any more anyway.
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michele.nayman
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by michele.nayman »

clutchcargo wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 7:58 pm ^^^
Well, it is an opinion piece..

And..
Three weeks later, I knew I had to return to Britain. Vietnam Airlines insisted I fly business class because I couldn’t sit up properly when I booked my ticket at the Siem Reap branch.
Sorry, sounds a bit fanciful to me but yeah, maybe it's true..
I do not make things up. I suggest that people research medical articles on Long Covid the disease of many frightening facets, as opposed to Covid-19 the virus. I am a textbook case. Yes, I survived. With chronic pain and other dire resulting problems, I'm sometimes not sure I'm pleased I did. Perhaps simular personal ccounts by male doctors might convince some people more. Some naked misogyny in the comments. That doesn't surprise me. I'm 65. Things havent changed much in that department, esprcially among Caucasian males in Asis.
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nemo
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by nemo »

Hope you are soon better!
Anchor Moy
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by Anchor Moy »

michele.nayman wrote: Wed Apr 28, 2021 6:24 am
clutchcargo wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 7:58 pm ^^^
Well, it is an opinion piece..

And..
Three weeks later, I knew I had to return to Britain. Vietnam Airlines insisted I fly business class because I couldn’t sit up properly when I booked my ticket at the Siem Reap branch.
Sorry, sounds a bit fanciful to me but yeah, maybe it's true..
I do not make things up. I suggest that people research medical articles on Long Covid the disease of many frightening facets, as opposed to Covid-19 the virus. I am a textbook case. Yes, I survived. With chronic pain and other dire resulting problems, I'm sometimes not sure I'm pleased I did. Perhaps simular personal ccounts by male doctors might convince some people more. Some naked misogyny in the comments. That doesn't surprise me. I'm 65. Things havent changed much in that department, esprcially among Caucasian males in Asis.
Hey Michele, Many thanks for taking the time to post here. I was also in Sihanoukville around the same time.
Best of luck with your health.
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by nerdlinger »

ExPenhMan wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:56 am A small study shows that vaccinations can turn around the suffering of COVID19 long-haulers. It's believed there are still viral remnants of the infection after "recovery" and the vaccine starts hunting them down.
That’s great news if true, unfortunately having read about their methodologies the study looks very flawed. Specifically it wasn’t placebo controlled and they were relying on patients self-reporting symptoms, so you’ve got a situation where someone gets given a medical intervention and is asked whether they feel any better, and a fraction of them said yes.

The main conclusion given in the paper seems to be that the vaccine didn’t make things worse.
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by BillDoe »

I imagine most of us westerners had it last year anyway
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michele.nayman
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by michele.nayman »

I am the author of the personal piece on Covid-19. My career has included working as a foreign correspondent and on the foreign desk for various publications, including The Guardian in London. I was foreign editor of The National Times on Sunday in Sydney. In 1985, I won the student Pulitzer Prize for best foreign student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York (Class of 1985). For those who do not believe my story, I would like to say the following: 1. Impugning someone's professional integrity is legally actionable. 2. It shows a lack of understanding how journalistic accountability in serious news publications works. 3. It shows a lack of understanding of world events and airline customs. 4. It shows that the people concerned have not read the whole article, which includes an explanation of the difference between long Covid
the multi-faceted disease and Covid-19 the virus that can systematically damage many organs of the body, including the brain (which can lead to cognitive defects) and the liver (which can lead to diabetes type 2), as well as crushing fatigue and pain. 6. It is mean and juvenile. 7. It shows that the people concerned have not bothered to research the stories I mention of similar personal accounts, including by medical professionals. 8. There might possibly be some misogyny here -- would the people concerned believe a man more? I shall be contacting the individuals concerned directly. As far as the administrator of the site goes: would you allow comments that criticise the integrity of other professionals -- a doctor or a lawyer, say? I wouldn't advise it.
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by johnny lightning »

"There might possibly be some misogyny here" - or not. I am growing weary of this word being bandied about when there is no evidence of it, just because. Well you are old and white too, so that will get you some sexism and ageism but the racism is a stretch. If you are a long time follower of this forum you will see that you are not being singled out, far from it. Many people are ridiculed, bullied and made fun of on a regular basis regardless of what they are posting. I wouldn't take it seriously, nobody else does.
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michele.nayman
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Re: "I Caught COVID in Sihanoukville...in 2019"

Post by michele.nayman »

Main point: not acceptable to accuse someone of lacking professional integrity. Legally actionable. Fed up with what is almost always make idiotic bullying un firums like these. That's all.
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