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Am I lucky with viruses?

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najaB

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agreed, I was thinking more about office environment than trains.
I wasn't limiting it to trains, the same applies to offices. In some buildings the HVAC system is designed to bring in outside air, condition it and exhaust it relatively quickly. In others it's designed to recirculate the air several times. It's the latter kind that increase the risk of spreading airborne viruses.
 

gingerheid

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Someone in my office died with it, and it wasn't anyone who you'd have thought was notably at risk. One of the other people that got it was seriously ill, and it was a younger fitter athletic person that you'd have thought was one of the safe ones.

Definite wake up call, for all of us :(
 

Requeststop

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I don't think the work should be 'lucky'. Fortunate would be the more appropriate word.

I have never seemingly succumbed to a virus. Maybe a mild virus with the occasional bout of three day flu. I've never had a flu jab ever. Honestly. Though for most of my working life over the last forty years I have been in places where you might not be in contact with influenza viruses. For five years I had a partner who was HIV Positive. We are no longer together but we are in contact and they are still living even after 25 years living with the virus. There were times that I was worried sick that I might have been infected. Happily I have always been tested negative. Each and every job change, during my medical examination, a HIV test has been mandatory. Now I'm out here in Papua New Guinea and again, I seem to be in a very fortunate place. Amazingly, and it's difficult to believe given the nature of the country, we are 208th out of 215 in the list of infected nations. only 8 cases of the virus have been detected, and zero deaths.

I'm fairly sure that if the desperately poor were dropping down like flies since Feb 1st, there would be an outcry of tremendous proportions. Papuans tend to get very worked up and angry when things go wrong. I'm in my 15th week in a semi lockdown here in Port Moresby and can travel around the city fairly easily. Travel out the country is OK, if, you travel to only either Singapore or Brisbane and currently face the 14 day quarantine on arrival. You cannot travel into Papua New Guinea unless you get specail permission from the PNG Government.

Here I'm feeling very safe. I doubt, listening to the BBC Radio, and reading UK News sites, that I'd feel just as safe if I was in the UK. So my fortune with viruses seems to continue.

Stay safe everyone back home in the UK.
 

richw

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When I worked in an air conditioned office I was probably sick 3-4 weeks a year in total. Tonsillitis was a regular occurrence.
Since I left that environment in 2016 I have had a total of zero sick days.
I have a theory the air Circulation methods in an environment is a significant contributor to illness
 

Busaholic

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When I worked in an air conditioned office I was probably sick 3-4 weeks a year in total. Tonsillitis was a regular occurrence.
Since I left that environment in 2016 I have had a total of zero sick days.
I have a theory the air Circulation methods in an environment is a significant contributor to illness
I agree, and Legionnaire's Disease is very much associated with air conditioning, often from poorly maintained systems. As with Covid-19 it can be deadly in many cases, particularly among the elderly.
 

najaB

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I agree, and Legionnaire's Disease is very much associated with air conditioning, often from poorly maintained systems.
That is very different though. It's a bacterial disease for one thing, and it grows in poorly maintained wet systems (heating, cooling, hot water), so once the system is contaminated it can be a source of infection indefinitely. This is unlike Covid-19 which is viral and only replicates inside the body - which means an air conditioning system can only spread it for a few hours at most after an infected person is in the building.
 

Busaholic

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That is very different though. It's a bacterial disease for one thing, and it grows in poorly maintained wet systems (heating, cooling, hot water), so once the system is contaminated it can be a source of infection indefinitely. This is unlike Covid-19 which is viral and only replicates inside the body - which means an air conditioning system can only spread it for a few hours at most after an infected person is in the building.
I realise it's different and was only comparing the effects it can have on individuals to Covid-19 : i.e. most infected will get through it okay, but for those affected badly it can be a particularly nasty killer, and these tend to be elderly.
 
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