Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[tsubaki]

If everything goes well for the similarly effected European countries then there is no logical argument against relaxing things here.

We need things to be back to as close to normal ASAP. We will not be able to reduce risks to nil any time soon so we need to mitigate the risk as best we can.

There is - the lockdown should be released as soon as we have the best possible chance to identify and deal with new infections. If we have that, then we make it much less likely that we will have to go through another full lockdown with all the damage done to society and the economy.

The worrying thing is that there isn’t that much evidence to suggest we do have that - the app hadn’t been released yet, and they are still recruiting tracing staff (and FWIW I don’t think they’ve staffed that with anywhere near enough people even when they are all in post).

For us to be ready those two things would have had to been done weeks ago, as well as working out all the other organisational aspects of setting up a new body of that size (phone lines, HR, desk and building locations, transport etc etc).

Lifting it just because everyone else is will, if we aren’t careful, kill another 30-40000 people and probably permanently wreck the economy.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

You're calling me out for being irrational???

The Chinese paid you to say that.

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

Thousands of people with Covid-19 in the UK are being missed – expert

The NHS is grossly underestimating the incidence of Covid-19 and encouraging infected people back to work while ignoring key symptoms, a leading expert has claimed.

Professor Tim Spector, head of the department of genetic epidemiology and leader of the Covid symptom study app at King’s College London, said 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK with Covid-19 are not being told to self-isolate.

He blamed Public Health England (PHE) and the wider tracking strategy, saying an insistence that only temperature and cough were the major symptoms was missing thousands of cases.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that 1.5 million people were logging onto the King’s app and tracking a wide range of symptoms and changes.

“It tells us that we’ve got at least 100,000 cases at the moment of people who are infected,” he said.

“And this is from our data, although the NHS would underestimate that because they’re not counting all the symptoms.”

He said the NHS was failing to track all symptoms of coronavirus, including loss of taste and smell.

“We list about 14 symptoms which we know are related to having a positive swab test, and these are not being picked up by the NHS.”

He said 17 other countries including the US had altered their list of symptoms, but not the UK.

“At the moment, people are being told to go back to work if they’re a care worker, and they’ve got something like loss of smell or taste or severe muscle pains or fatigue – things that we know and we’ve shown are related to being swabbed positive,” he said.

“This country is missing the ball in underestimated cases but also putting people at risk, and continuing the epidemic.

“So we really do need to tell Public Health England to get in line with the rest of the world, and make people more aware.

“There’s no point telling people to be alert if they don’t know the symptoms.

“At the moment they’re not really being offered tests, and they’re being told not to self isolate if they don’t have the fever and the cough and it’s probably around half of the people in the population who are in that situation.

“We are probably missing at the moment between 50,000 and 70,000 people out there who are infected.

“We know that their swab tests will be positive.

“Someone has got to urgently ask this question of why we’re the only country in this crisis that isn’t really widening our group of symptoms and get on with it and do something.”

 

[davek]

We need international help here in this country. The UK is a failed state on Covid19. Look at all of the comparative studies and stats. Apart from the US - another country badly let down by its political class - we are sinking in a sea of incompetence and it's killing our people on a scale unimaginable in any civilised European state.

An appeal needs to be made via the Labour Party, trade unions and other progressive forces for global assistance in bringing pressure on this government to abandon it's covert strategy of herd immunity and to adopt the means and measures which have seen good results elsewhere in Europe.

 

[davek]

The Chinese paid you to say that.

I thought you'd made the decision to stay off your bike?

Does this the issues surrounding mean your principled stand of staying off it...

a) there is a risk of injury (however small) that would require medical attention
b) there is a risk of mechanical that would require you to get help to get home
c) a degree of solidarity towards those whose exercise of choice is not 'permitted'

...is at an end?

 

[mill]

I’m still massively in two minds about the school thing.

As a parent do I want to risk my daughter being exposed to a virus we can’t combat yet? (No matter how low the odds are for her). Do I want to expose others? Expose children with vulnerable people at home? Expose teachers? Plus she’s of an age where she cant go to school and given the geography round here the drop off and pick up side of things will be problematic (and difficult to fix really).

However, on the other hand I’m really concerned about the effects this will have on her if it was long term. She needs to be around peers first and foremost. In a classroom setting. Taught by professionals. It’s a great little school and I don’t want her missing out on those experiences at all. Plus I’m looking at it from a privileged perspective. There are a lot of vulnerable children out there. It reminds me of my old primary school headteacher. She hated school holidays because she worried about the vulnerable kids. She said at least she knew that they were getting a proper meal each day when they were in school. It’s easy to think that everyone’s experience of lockdown is similar to our own.

I’m massively conflicted by it all. If I’m honest, I don’t really have any confidence in this government that their actions are well intentioned. I’m not trying to get into a political debate here, this is just my personal opinion. They’ve shown in the past their intentions and the lengths they are willing to go to and so I don’t feel particular comfortable with their decision making. At least that their motives are right.

This isn’t a political view by the way. It’s not about ideology. I know there are lots of valid economic, social and political philosophies and we all just pick the ones that suit us most closely.

It’s that those people, particularly the inner circle, are callous and self serving. They don’t care about the working classes. They are on record what they think about them. Also on record what they think about vulnerable people.

That’s the issue for me. I don’t have faith they’ll do the right thing which makes it harder.

I’ve changed my mind. She’s being a little ****.
I’m sending her back in as soon as humanly possible.

 

[COYBL25]

I’ve changed my mind. She’s being a little ****.
I’m sending her back in as soon as humanly possible.

Can you give mine a lift on the way in too lol

 

[Barnfred 55]

The school near us has gone to a partial return.
The kids are as normal in the classroom - yet have to social distance in the playground ????????

If you think about it the kids are seated at desks in the classroom. The normal seating means that they will probably be at least 4 feet from the nearest other child. They can't touch each other. They are facing away from other children so will not be breathing over each other. Once lesson ends, they will need to socially distance in the corridors, playground and at lunch.

 

[COYBL25]

We need international help here in this country. The UK is a failed state on Covid19. Look at all of the comparative studies and stats. Apart from the US - another country badly let down by its political class - we are sinking in a sea of incompetence and it's killing our people on a scale unimaginable in any civilised European state.

An appeal needs to be made via the Labour Party, trade unions and other progressive forces for global assistance in bringing pressure on this government to abandon it's covert strategy of herd immunity and to adopt the means and measures which have seen good results elsewhere in Europe.

We could always cut out the middleman and go straight for the cavalry charge ?

 

[Barnfred 55]

Thousands of people with Covid-19 in the UK are being missed – expert

The NHS is grossly underestimating the incidence of Covid-19 and encouraging infected people back to work while ignoring key symptoms, a leading expert has claimed.

Professor Tim Spector, head of the department of genetic epidemiology and leader of the Covid symptom study app at King’s College London, said 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK with Covid-19 are not being told to self-isolate.

He blamed Public Health England (PHE) and the wider tracking strategy, saying an insistence that only temperature and cough were the major symptoms was missing thousands of cases.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that 1.5 million people were logging onto the King’s app and tracking a wide range of symptoms and changes.

“It tells us that we’ve got at least 100,000 cases at the moment of people who are infected,” he said.

“And this is from our data, although the NHS would underestimate that because they’re not counting all the symptoms.”

He said the NHS was failing to track all symptoms of coronavirus, including loss of taste and smell.

“We list about 14 symptoms which we know are related to having a positive swab test, and these are not being picked up by the NHS.”

He said 17 other countries including the US had altered their list of symptoms, but not the UK.

“At the moment, people are being told to go back to work if they’re a care worker, and they’ve got something like loss of smell or taste or severe muscle pains or fatigue – things that we know and we’ve shown are related to being swabbed positive,” he said.

“This country is missing the ball in underestimated cases but also putting people at risk, and continuing the epidemic.

“So we really do need to tell Public Health England to get in line with the rest of the world, and make people more aware.

“There’s no point telling people to be alert if they don’t know the symptoms.

“At the moment they’re not really being offered tests, and they’re being told not to self isolate if they don’t have the fever and the cough and it’s probably around half of the people in the population who are in that situation.

“We are probably missing at the moment between 50,000 and 70,000 people out there who are infected.

“We know that their swab tests will be positive.

“Someone has got to urgently ask this question of why we’re the only country in this crisis that isn’t really widening our group of symptoms and get on with it and do something.”

I thought that loss of taste and smell plus fatigue were now generally accepted as symptoms of the disease. Is that not the case? Are people who have those symptoms not being told to self isolate if they phone 111?

 

[Barnfred 55]

Thousands of people with Covid-19 in the UK are being missed – expert

The NHS is grossly underestimating the incidence of Covid-19 and encouraging infected people back to work while ignoring key symptoms, a leading expert has claimed.

Professor Tim Spector, head of the department of genetic epidemiology and leader of the Covid symptom study app at King’s College London, said 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK with Covid-19 are not being told to self-isolate.

He blamed Public Health England (PHE) and the wider tracking strategy, saying an insistence that only temperature and cough were the major symptoms was missing thousands of cases.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that 1.5 million people were logging onto the King’s app and tracking a wide range of symptoms and changes.

“It tells us that we’ve got at least 100,000 cases at the moment of people who are infected,” he said.

“And this is from our data, although the NHS would underestimate that because they’re not counting all the symptoms.”

He said the NHS was failing to track all symptoms of coronavirus, including loss of taste and smell.

“We list about 14 symptoms which we know are related to having a positive swab test, and these are not being picked up by the NHS.”

He said 17 other countries including the US had altered their list of symptoms, but not the UK.

“At the moment, people are being told to go back to work if they’re a care worker, and they’ve got something like loss of smell or taste or severe muscle pains or fatigue – things that we know and we’ve shown are related to being swabbed positive,” he said.

“This country is missing the ball in underestimated cases but also putting people at risk, and continuing the epidemic.

“So we really do need to tell Public Health England to get in line with the rest of the world, and make people more aware.

“There’s no point telling people to be alert if they don’t know the symptoms.

“At the moment they’re not really being offered tests, and they’re being told not to self isolate if they don’t have the fever and the cough and it’s probably around half of the people in the population who are in that situation.

“We are probably missing at the moment between 50,000 and 70,000 people out there who are infected.

“We know that their swab tests will be positive.

“Someone has got to urgently ask this question of why we’re the only country in this crisis that isn’t really widening our group of symptoms and get on with it and do something.”

Edit.

And not being encouraged to get tested.?

 

[ForeverBlue92]

It just showed how weak as an opposition the Labour party was under Corbyn.

Corbyn and those clowns Momentum have been the worst thing to happen to the Labour Party in decades.

Had Labour gotten rid of them earlier Labour could have had a chance of getting back into power whereas the Tories had literally no competition.

 

[Barnfred 55]

You're calling me out for being irrational???

No idea what he said but I can imagine

 

[DanEFC92]

 

[Barnfred 55]

Rolling out a new approach via our contact tracing teams here, identified close contacts of someone covid positive will be tested twice, on Day 1 and Day 7.

Covid-19: Close contacts will be tested twice - on day 1 and day 7 - whether or not they have symptoms

The move has been welcomed as Ireland starts to slowly ease restrictions.

www.thejournal.ie

That makes sense. Plus given you have got your new infections down to such a low figure it shouldn't prove that onerous a task.