If we've all been jabbed and millions have had the virus at least once - why are so many of us being poleaxed by a bout of Covid?

Elderly patients have been brushing off COVID-19 in recent weeks but younger fit and healthy people are being struck down with the 'worse flu ever'

• Mio, a keen runner, and his wife Karen had been fully vaccinated and then boosted in January.
• Due to the severity of Mio's symptoms, even the GP they called for advice did not suspect it could be Covid
• They prescribed antibiotics, concluding that it was probably a bacterial chest infection
• Just to be sure, Mio took a lateral flow test which was positive
• The whole episode left Mio shaken - and baffled

+5

• More than two years after Covid first appeared, are so many of us suddenly being laid low?
• Alison Peek, a 64-year-old nurse, said her bout of Covid - her first despite working in a nursing home during the pandemic - left her in bed for ten days.

Why are so many of us suddenly being laid low?

• Experts agree that the decision to offer all adults a third jab last winter, in response to the arrival of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, was a success.
• The reintroduction of Covid restrictions were avoided, and despite infections rising to record highs, the number of people hospitalised and dying with the virus stayed extremely low.

More than 2 million Britons have the virus

• Two mutated versions of Omicron have been the cause of most cases in the UK

Covid is now acting as two different diseases

• Most people are experiencing an upper respiratory tract infection, which means it's their noses and throats affected, and it doesn't get into their lungs.
• In reality, if you caught flu now you'd be more likely to get seriously ill than you would with Covid.

The most crucial factor is when people had their last booster

• Vaccines create antibodies which prevent the virus entering the body, but they also encourage the production of other protective immune cells - including T cells, which attack invaders before they can do too much damage.
• Since the over-75s had a booster jab in the spring, experts say this age group is, in fact, less likely to get very ill

A survey of UK antibody levels found that more than 90% of people over the age of 75 have a high level of antibodies.

• However, just 60% of those aged between 65 and 74 had similar levels

Kristian Jenson

• 40-year-old furniture seller from London caught the virus for the first time
• Had his third jab in December
• Never expected to catch it again
• Suffered a headache, sore throat, loss of sense of smell and taste, and had to take two weeks off work

Genetics play a role in the infection's severity

• More than 90% of people over the age of 75 have high antibody levels, but just 60% of those aged between 65 and 74 have similar levels
• Men are more likely to suffer worse symptoms than women, possibly because their immune systems tend to react more slowly to the virus

Covid affects how sick you get

• The amount of COVID you are exposed to during the course of a day could also be a factor in how bad it is
• Having a recent cold reduces the severity of a Covid infection
• Most colds are also forms of coronavirus
• People are still being reinfected because the virus is mutating to evade our immunity
• Even though the vast majority of Britons have high levels of antibodies, they are still liable to get quite sick with the virus

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11108521/Covid-19-weve-jabbed-poleaxed-virus.html#comments