Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[BlueToff]

Your right. It is ridiculous. I fully believe, that all patient facing staff should take a lateral flow test everyday.

How the hell is that not happening already? I thought it'd be a basic requirement???

Like, I wfh full -time now but when I was doing a part-time job on top of it for the last year I had to LF every Sunday to go in on the Monday and to be safe I usually LF'd on the Monday too for the Tuesday. And that was going into a well-ventilated office with 3 other people...

 

[woomy]

Depends on the test mate, antigen tests aren’t 100% reliable for a number of reasons, better than nothing. A PCR test in my expierenced, we do them weekly in work routinely, is a two to three day turn around here.

Our policy in the health service here is if you have a symptom that’s it, you self isolate and await a PCR result before you go back on duty. Strangely the PCR result comes back quicker for the ones organised through our public portal, rather than the ones we do weekly in work.

Not sure what theNHS policy, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t self isolation and PCR if they had symptoms.

It is exactly that. If you have symptoms go get tested. If it comes back negative but still have the symptoms then the trust needs to make a decision. For my case. My sense of smell went really weird. Could smell burnt toast. Others are having the same. So cough, change in sense of smell. What do you do?
But then you also get into if family have symptoms, got to stay off till they get a test.
If you got kids, and they are getting a different cold every few weeks. Your looking at 2-3 days off there.

 

[BlueToff]

Depends on the test mate, antigen tests aren’t 100% reliable for a number of reasons, better than nothing mind. A PCR test in my experience, we do them weekly in work as a precaution routinely, is a two to three day turn around here for test - result.

Our policy in the health service here is if you have a symptom that’s it, you self isolate and await a PCR result before you go back on duty. Strangely the PCR result comes back quicker for the ones organised through our public portal, rather than the ones we do weekly in work.

Not sure what theNHS policy, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t self isolation and PCR if they had symptoms.

PCR varies between 12 and 24 hours in England. So still think a 2-day PCR test (i.e. PCR on day 2) and then the results back on day 3 and then daily testing, would be a sensible solution for any Omicron variants - but I also think daily testing is okay... especially if the people are fully vaccinated/boosted?

@woomy is saying yes that is procedure for NHS workers

Just a note, I think there's evidence or a quote from the Dr who discovered Omicron in SA that LFs don't pick it up on the first day you are infected but do from then on until about day 4/5 when the virus has usually subsided.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

So glad I don't have any friends for family waiting on any non-covid hospital appointment waiting lists, as the pm has just trashed them to get a positive story out about him into the papers, and it seems the sheeple are lapping it up.

Pulling his target forward a month for the new third Jab (it's not a booster as clearly, we all have nothing to boost in our systems now) is something the lying prick and his pr spin team have cooked up to get the lockdown party stuff off the front pages - It crystal clear he's politicising this whole thing.

It's been a political endeavour ever since our death rates looked awful against comparable countries.

 

[maccavennie]

Here is the issue though. We are still told to stay off work if we have any symptoms.
So, going into cold season. We have symptoms.
Where I am is decimated for staff at the minute. We have a chest infection going around. Which I had. Pretty nasty, but because it looks like COVID, we have to stay off.
It's going to be a hard winter for NHS staffing.

Don't you get a LAMP test though if you work for the NHS?

So even if my missus has a cough/cold, if that LAMP test comes back negative its crack on with work.

My missus has been bumped up to getting 2 a week (though its taking a day longer to get the results back because of the amount of tests getting doubled) plus she does LFT's outside of work.

 

[woomy]

Don't you get a LAMP test though if you work for the NHS?

So even if my missus has a cough/cold, if that LAMP test comes back negative its crack on with work.

My missus has been bumped up to getting 2 a week (though its taking a day longer to get the results back because of the amount of tests getting doubled) plus she does LFT's outside of work.

Nope.
Never had one, never even heard of it, to be fair.
The guidence we have. 2 lateral a week. But not mandatory. Our trust doesn't even hand these out. You have to go and order and pick up your own. Bet you can gus0ess what most people think to that.
Proper test if failed the lateral or any symptoms.

 

[tsubaki]

but hang on, they introduced 10-day automatic isolation at first, 2 weeks ago or whatever it was, then changed their mind last week when it became clear it would completely knacker the country - and I'm not just talking about the economy.

When we're two years into this, so many have been vaccinated/boosted (especially frontline workers too) then surely daily testing is absolutely the way forward?

Either that, or a two-day PCR with view to release on day 3, and daily testing from then on?

Daily testing might be, but not like this - as mentioned above all the responsibility for doing them is on the contact. I’d hope people would report positive tests anyway but sadly doing it like this gives those who wouldn’t loads of get-outs.

In an ideal world we would be at the stage where T&T would know contacts two levels removed from a positive case (so the recent contacts of the recent contacts of someone who’d tested positive), test them in a systematic way and close it (the infections) down that way but of course our system is terrible and case numbers are way too high to do that.

 

[Neiler]

It is exactly that. If you have symptoms go get tested. If it comes back negative but still have the symptoms then the trust needs to make a decision. For my case. My sense of smell went really weird. Could smell burnt toast. Others are having the same. So cough, change in sense of smell. What do you do?
But then you also get into if family have symptoms, got to stay off till they get a test.
If you got kids, and they are getting a different cold every few weeks. Your looking at 2-3 days off there.

Same as mate. If your a close contact we’re not allowed on duty and self isolate pending a PCR. Here (Ireland) all bets are off if you return a negative PCR - your back in work the next day. A couple of weeks ago, I had a head cold, took an antigen test, all clear, went to work, sent Home because of my cold symptoms, negative antigen test means nothing over here, I wasn’t allowed practice or have contact with colleagues and went to self isolation, despite the negative antigen.

The other thing is if I go into a patients room for clinical practice, I sign and out date times etc, if there is a query over my Covid status, my chain of clinical contacts patient's and colleagues is analysed and assessed and if I’m positive, they all go into the same cycle, self isolation and for patients all the Covid protocols.

 

[maccavennie]

Nope.
Never had one, never even heard of it, to be fair.
The guidence we have. 2 lateral a week. But not mandatory. Proper test if failed the lateral or any symptoms.

I won't pry into your job so apologies as I thought you worked for the NHS.

The LAMP apparently is classed as one of the more accurate of tests to take, certainly what nurses are doing and my missus who deals with patients with COPD.

On top of them though she'll take a couple of LFT a week as well.

 

[woomy]

I won't pry into your job so apologies as I thought you worked for the NHS.

The LAMP apparently is classed as one of the more accurate of tests to take, certainly what nurses are doing and my missus who deals with patients with COPD.

On top of them though she'll take a couple of LFT a week as well.

I do work for the NHS.
Frontline mental health nurse. Lamp has never been mentioned once where we are.
I actually just sent out a quick message on the a group WhatsApp, to check I am not being an idiot. Nope. Non of us have heard of it.

 

[maccavennie]

I do work for the NHS.
Frontline mental health nurse. Lamp has never been mentioned once where we are.

Grim that, I genuinely thought it had been rolled out to all NHS staff. My sister moved from care home ( where one test per week was classed as good enough ) to a nursing assistant in hospital and instantly moved to a LAMP test.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised as I was rabbiting on last night about lack of ppe for staff.

imo, the one thing we had to get right between April & September this year was to ensure that all staff have everything they need to be able to do their job the best of their ability.

 

[Neiler]

PCR varies between 12 and 24 hours in England. So still think a 2-day PCR test (i.e. PCR on day 2) and then the results back on day 3 and then daily testing, would be a sensible solution for any Omicron variants - but I also think daily testing is okay... especially if the people are fully vaccinated/boosted?

@woomy is saying yes that is procedure for NHS workers

Just a note, I think there's evidence or a quote from the Dr who discovered Omicron in SA that LFs don't pick it up on the first day you are infected but do from then on until about day 4/5 when the virus has usually subsided.

We’ve an uneasy relationship with antigen testing over here mate that will never be reconciled, our public health just don’t trust them, rightly or wrongly. They have their uses, but to be honest they are used informally here, our public health would loose their minds if they thought hospitals were accepting antigen test to determine whether someone should be on duty. Personally I think they have there uses and public health are bring a bit precious, that said I wouldn’t be building them as vital part of a main testing strategy either.

They are used fairly informally here as a reassurance if your having a few mates around, you’d all take an antigen test before as a courtesy, or before a wedding or the like. Antigen testing have their uses, it’s what threshold and for what purpose you are willing to accept them for is the key.

A question for a trust board would be in risk assessing, are you happy for someone symptomatic with Covid practicing after returning a negative antigen, knowing they aren’t 100% and how accountable would we be if it went wrong and someone took a case, which is a sad reality unfortunately.

Haven’t seen that myself mate, I know they found it hard to distinguish Omicron from other variants without sequencing like we were talking about yesterday.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Mad that Omicron doubles at the same rate as scandals involving the Prime Minister.

Utter nonsense. A million vaccinations a day is vastly more than ever happened. Christmas in the middle. Younger age groups not eligible until mid week.

Was just propaganda setting the scene for the week ahead where his authority is shot to pieces.

He looks like me on Friday morning when our work Christmas parties were on a Thursday

Boris off his man boobs He's starting to look quite demented!

 

[Martin Alvito]

I guarantee 50% of hospitality sector business's will closed down within 12 months, its not sustainable, also there will be many many vaccinated people who will refuse to go to places that require vaccine passports.

Lets say you have a 100 people that got to your café each day now but after the vaccine passports are introduced you only start getting 70 people a day because the other 30 refuse to enter or aren't vaccinated, how long do you think the business will last for?

This depends on how financially strong the business was to begin with, and what happens elsewhere. You are correct that you will end up with fewer businesses.

The relevant question is probably whether the government should have accountability for compensating business owners and retraining employees. That has to be financed somehow, which will be unpopular with those who oppose passports.

Public health equally has to be financed somehow, which gets forgotten about in this debate. Is letting people die, and receive expensive treatment prior to death or life-saving treatment due to their refusal to get vaccinated, more or less expensive than the alternative? Someone has to pay for that. Whether you're talking NHS or the US system, at the end of the day it doesn't matter whether those costs come out of a paycheck in the form of taxes or reduced wages and health insurance deductions.

If your take is that you, and others, should be permitted to make selfish decisions that endanger the lives of others (and turn you, and them, into the breeding grounds for the next souped up, more lethal mutation), I would point out that populaces throughout history have eventually acceded to pretty draconian tactics during pandemics...or been forced to accede at swordpoint/gunpoint.

Vaccines have been proven to work well, a quarter of a percent of the population of the United States six feet under is not a trivial number, and the long-term disability of a much more substantial fraction is also a serious problem.

 

[Deleted member 48881]