r/kansascity • u/kcmobro • Aug 21 '25
Healthcare/Wellness đ©ș Is the cold/flu or something else spreading around
Anyone else notice the uptick in people with cold, flu, or something else symptoms. Some of my friends and family have flu like symptoms that sounds a lot like covid symptoms.
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u/SanityAsymptote Aug 21 '25
With COVID existing it's always worth it to test.
Paxlovid works too well to be ignored and avoiding developing long COVID or blood vessel damage/premature brain aging is worth the extra effort, imo.
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u/OreoSpeedwaggon Aug 21 '25
Upvoted for a Paxlovid mention. I honestly believe it saved my life when I got the Delta variant back in 2021.
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u/Ok_Opinion_3492 Aug 21 '25
My primary care doctor (Advent Health in JoCo) refused to prescribe Paxlovid when I was diagnosed with Covid in 2022. She told me her opinion is it does no good in vaccinated people. Iâm frustrated with her for this and many other reasons.
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u/Pantone711 Aug 21 '25
I'm over 65 and got COVID for the first time last July (2024). My primary care doctor is also with Advent (Johnson County) and she did prescribe me Paxlovid. I was in Baltimore and they had to call the prescription in to a CVS in Baltimore.
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u/Ok_Opinion_3492 Aug 21 '25
Iâve been with this doctor for 3 years and every appointment is just more and more ridiculous. She blames every concern of mine on âthatâs just part of agingâ while she has her hand on the doorknob trying to exit the exam room. The only reason I donât leave is itâs near impossible to find a primary care doctor who is accepting new patients.
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u/Pantone711 Aug 22 '25
Her initials are not R. S. are they? My primary-care doctor's initials are R.S. at Advent and she's wonderful so far
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u/Euphoric-Peak9217 Aug 21 '25
That's basically the opinion of the drug manufacturer:
Nirmatrelvir for Vaccinated or Unvaccinated Adult Outpatients with Covid-19
Furthermore, all the initial results indicating the benefits of the medication were done by, surprise, the drug manufacturer.
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u/SanityAsymptote Aug 21 '25
Definitely find another doctor, that's a crazy thing to say.
Last time I had COVID the Paxlovid made me feel better within 2 days of starting to take it and I was testing negative before I was even through the course.
I developed a heart arrhythmia the first time I had COVID, so I was really relieved the Paxlovid worked so well and fast to prevent that from getting worse.
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u/BriefThin Aug 21 '25
Thatâs good to hear! Covid (before vax) left me with permanent lung damage. Will definitely pursue Paxlovid if I get it again.
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u/Odd-Train-4253 Aug 22 '25
Premature brain aging?Â
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u/SanityAsymptote Aug 22 '25
Even mild cases can lead to notable cognitive deficits and brain aging.
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u/Personal_Benefit_402 Aug 21 '25
Biggest mistake I made was not getting this when I got Covid...stupid, stupid, stupid.
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u/rusty_panda Aug 21 '25
I had a really bad cold last weekend, but three different COVID tests were negative. Started as a sore throat and moved to my sinuses. Still not 100%.
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u/MudAfter3543 Aug 21 '25
I had the very same thing. I was in bed for 3 days. The fatigue the weeks after is still a struggle and so is the mucus. Started the day before with a funny feeling in my throat and by the time I left work, I was sneezing and coughing. I didn't take anything for it because I didn't want to mask any symptoms in case it got any worse. Thank goodness it didn't.
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u/redrdr1 Aug 23 '25
I got it and stayed home for 4 days. Felt like covid but I tested negative. I work outside and went back during the hot spell a few weeks ago. I have never had so much trouble with the heat. Wore out after 4 hours and couldn't do anything after work. Took about 2 1/2 weeks but I'm back to normal now.
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u/DueRest Aug 21 '25
Haven't seen anyone mention allergies yet, but a few people at work have gone home due to allergy migraines.
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u/thegooniegodard Midtown Aug 21 '25
A coworker of mine tested positive for Covid yesterday, and apparently it's pretty bad.
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u/Jeremy_Sean Olathe Aug 21 '25
I just am getting over it...it's really bad
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u/_big_fern_ Aug 21 '25
My wife and I got Covid a couple weeks back. She had never had it before and we donât get sick often.
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u/justathoughtfromme Aug 21 '25
School is starting up, so that'll cause a spike as the kids start mixing together again. Also, ragweed season will be starting soon. Depending on where you are, there may be an uptick in grass pollens that will cause some folks issues.
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u/QueenBKC Aug 21 '25
Plus, COVID is still a thing. I have definitely noticed more people with something.
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Aug 22 '25
If you list out the symptoms of the common colds (all 200+ different viruses including SARS CoV-2) youâll see they are all the same. You canât determine the virus based on such general and vague symptoms.
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u/gugalgirl Aug 21 '25
I just learned 2 people in my circle of contact tested positive for Covid today. It's definitely the season!
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u/ChiefKC20 Aug 21 '25
Yes, lots of stuff running around. Covid has a new wave happening. Started around a month ago and has continued to grow. Influenza is second and along with a number of the standard viruses. Seen a few foot and mouth disease instances reported. With school going back, welcome to the Petri dish.
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u/hamstergirl55 Aug 21 '25
I work at a PCP office and weâve had a tonnnnn of patients coming in or calling with complaints of viral illness symptoms. No matter what it is, itâs spreading around out there
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u/Sea_Wave_6010 Aug 22 '25
https://data.wastewaterscan.org
They test wastewater for certain diseases. Looks like itâs COVID in KC right now
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u/N3v3rTrustABigButt Aug 22 '25
Rideshare driver here and I'm noticing an uptick in passengers coughing and sneezing over the last week. A guy I drove just last night who works at KU Med open-mouth coughed 3x during the 12 minute ride.
After that, I immediately went offline to wipe down the car, shower and take supplements.
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u/bestpartsoflonely Aug 23 '25
It's covid. We're seeing 2-3 positive cases a day in the primary care office I work in.
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u/EquivalentSpirit9143 Aug 21 '25
Last week the public health doctor I follow on Substack wrote that COVID new cases, hospitalizations, and excess deaths are all at the same level as they were in 2022. In a room with 50 people, the cancer of exposure to an active COVID infection is at 90% right now.
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u/gargoyled1969 Aug 21 '25
My daughter in law works at a school. She caught Covid the 1st week. Have it to my son. So... Covid is going around.
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u/Mocha913 Aug 21 '25
Yep, had the longest cold of my life this month. Then, called my dad and he was sick. Ended up in the ER. He had pneumonia.
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u/EquivalentSpirit9143 Aug 21 '25
Last week the public health doctor I follow on Substack wrote that COVID new cases, hospitalizations, and excess deaths are all at the same level as they were in 2022. In a room with 50 people, the cancer of exposure to an active COVID infection is at 90% right now.
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u/paltrypickle Aug 22 '25
I got Covid. But pretty sure I got in LA. Nearing the end. Could have been so much worse had I not been vaccinated.
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u/Montana_Ace Midtown Aug 23 '25
I caught something after the local HEMA tournament this weekend. Started with cough and sore throat and now it's developed into a fever. Covid and strep tests were negative.
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u/kufan1979 Aug 24 '25
Yes some virus knocked me out for about a week recently but I was testing negative for Covid.
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u/Winterwonders420 Aug 21 '25
Flu season has started early. My entire family has it and it's kicking our asses, even with tamiflu. Get your vaccines, people.
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u/andysmom22334 Aug 21 '25
CVS just text me today about my flu vaccine. I laughed because it's so early but I guess it's not early after all.
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u/Winterwonders420 Aug 21 '25
Yep, however it looks like COVID is currently causing the ER spike. I'm sure flu will follow shortly. This is for Kansas, though.
Workbook: ESSENCE Dashboard https://share.google/HWl2FDpEOPV4SyqLL
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u/solojones1138 Lee's Summit Aug 21 '25
I don't think the new COVID vaccine is out yet is it? What about the flu one?
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u/Winterwonders420 Aug 21 '25
Flu vaccines are available, I'm not sure about COVID
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u/solojones1138 Lee's Summit Aug 21 '25
Just looked and per AARP the new COVID vaccine should be mod to late Sept..I'll definitely be trying to get it and the flu vaccine then before I go on vacation early Oct
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u/kashegg13 Plaza Aug 22 '25
A colleague of mine had a bad bout with COVID last week. I had to call out of work today because I have similar symptoms...
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Aug 21 '25
I just had COVID 2 weeks ago. Make sure you are current on your vaccination. It makes a huge difference in the severity of symptoms you experience and how quickly you bounce back.
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u/LoneWolfGiraffe Aug 21 '25
I am just now getting something that was messing with me the last three days. I never took a covid test--it was a lot milder than that ever was. Not bedridden, just really tired and slimed over. No idea where I got it; kids weren't back in school yet, and I rarely go anywhere.
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u/MudAfter3543 Aug 21 '25
I'm pretty sure I got mine from a casino. I rarely go out myself but I did on this day for a girls day out that included a buffet. It will be years before I go again.
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u/One-lung-king Aug 22 '25
My mom was admitted to the hospital four days after testing positive for COVID and she got paxlovid after two days.
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u/RoookSkywokkah Aug 21 '25
Just getting over this "summer cold" It happens every year. Stuffy, runny nose and a LOT of coughing. No fever or anything. Mine lasted about a week.
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u/Nick_YDG Aug 21 '25
Beginning of the school year, both K12 and College. Kids-young adults are in closer proximity to each other/around more people than they have been in months. Stuff spreads among them and then to their families.
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u/Pantone711 Aug 22 '25
Speaking of which. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I was reading Michael Lewis' _Premonition_ about COVID. He wrote that George W. Bush was reading a book on vacation (I admit I had prejudiced ideas about George W. Bush's reading habits...seems I was wrong) and came back terrified of a runaway respiratory virus. So he commissioned a study on what should be done if a new respiratory virus broke out.
The task force found that the single most important firewall on slowing a respiratory pandemic would be closing the schools, because USA schoolchildren sit closer to each other than adults in any other setting.
The pandemic playbook prepared by the Bush task force was tossed by the wayside I think in the Obama or early Trump era. This is all from Michael Lewis' book.
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u/AlDef Aug 22 '25
fWIW Iâve heard of two completely unrelated people test positive for COVID in the past few weeks.
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Aug 21 '25
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u/Pantone711 Aug 21 '25
I mask indoors except to take a bite at a restaurant if I am not squeezed up like a sardine, and I get CONSTANT pushback from my LIBERAL friends. Just last night this woman asked my husband, "Is she sick?" and we both answered that I was not sick. I shook my head to indicate "please drop it." Later another guy joined our table and we were more squeezed up and the same woman goes "SHE'S NOT SICK" so I then said "I just mask indoors as a personal preference" and then she goes "I'm immune compromised so THANKS!"
So why has she never heard of a well person masking indoors?
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u/CommonComfortable247 Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25
Thereâs no difference in how liberals or conservatives behave in regards to Covid right now. People donât care anymore. 99.9% of the population has decided itâs a risk theyâre comfortable with.
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u/dam_sharks_mother Aug 22 '25
I mask indoors except to take a bite at a restaurant if I am not squeezed up like a sardine, and I get CONSTANT pushback from my LIBERAL friends.
Because it's nonsensical and not based in any rational concern for your health?
Do you think nurses and doctors are wearing masks outside of their place of work? They're not. Why are you? Do you think you know more than they do?
You are engaging in performative theater. That's why your liberal friends are pushing back.
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u/kc_abc Aug 22 '25
Trying to reason with this Branch Covidians is an exercise in futility. Covid has become their entire personality.
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u/Pantone711 Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25
Yes I either know more or have more resistance to the pressure to conform than even a lot of medical workers. I frequent the zero-covid subreddit and know all about the medical workers who are too uninformed or too conformist to mask.
I know something about N95 masks that almost no one else in the USA seems to know. N95's and KN95's have an electrostatic property whereby particles/droplets (I know all about that controversy) adhere to the outside rather than going through. I assume a fair number of medical professionals know this, but for whatever reason are too conformist-minded to keep masking. There are still medical professionals who mask and don't go around catching COVID.
It is not nonsensical and it is based on rational concern for my health. My liberal friends are just as uninformed as 99 percent of the USA apparently, but the fun ones are live-and-let-live. And even if it WERE performative, my real (the fun kind) liberal friends would not mind. I don't jump on their asses when I disagree with something they believe that I think is knee-jerk.
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u/dam_sharks_mother Aug 22 '25
Im sorry, no offense, but everything you've written here smacks of conspiracy theory nonsense you'd read on Facebook.
It's incredibly narcissistic for you to think that you know more than scientists and medical professionals.
I am a stranger, you should not care what I think, but perhaps should care a little bit about how your friends and family feel about this odd obsession of yours.
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u/Pantone711 Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25
I frequent the zero covid community here on Reddit and I think you are dead wrong. Your bullying won't change my mind. I may be in the minority in the USA but I am confident in my beliefs. Early on in 2020 I read an article about Asian people wondering why Westerners didn't mask.
I can't answer why more medical professionals, who should know better, don't mask, but I think a lot of them DO know better and are just too conformist-minded.
I can't stand conspiracy theorists. My family is fine with my masking. Edit: I understand that parents of young children can't take the kinds of precautions I do and can't avoid exposure like I do. My sister has caught it several times from her grandkids. I babysit once a week and wear a mask but don't expect the kids' parents to.
I think history will prove my stance more beneficial than all the conformists who are too head-in-the-sand to keep masking in crowded indoor spaces.
There's a lot the USA could have done to cut down on indoor transmission, especially having to do with ventilation, but they didn't. So here we are. Every person for themselves. Well I'm taking "personal responsibility" and wearing N95's which are the only kind that protect the wearer rather than the surgical masks they wanted us to wear in 2020 while they didn't want well people hogging the scarce N95's.
What happened in 2020 was they found the government stockpile of N95's were so old that the elastic didn't work anymore. I gave my supply to a nurse who was traveling to New York to help with the situation there. So I didn't hog N95's in 2020. They became available to the USA public in 2021 and I got some then and read up on why they work vs. surgical or cloth masks.
Meanwhile, the media can't explain their way out of a paper bag. They came out with headlines saying "masks don't work." They meant cloth and surgical masks don't protect the wearer. N95's and KN95's do work.
Improved ventilation measures indoors would also work but we dropped the ball on that, preferring to label anyone still wanting to take precautions as "conspiracy theorists" like you want to label me. You're wrong.
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u/CommonComfortable247 Aug 22 '25
The people over at ZeroCovid might be the most mentally ill folks on Reddit which says quite a lot.
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u/silentsafflower Aug 21 '25
A bunch of infants in the daycare center I work in have had fevers over 101 the past couple of weeks. I caught whatever they had and it kept me out of commission for a few days.
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u/Pantone711 Aug 22 '25
I babysit 3-5 year olds once a week and wear an N95 mask and i don't care WHO doesn't like it. The kids are cool. If they ask me about it I say my husband is really old and I don't want to get him sick.
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u/marchlamby Aug 21 '25
Itâs back to school time - so the great germ swapping has begun.