Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[BlueToff]

You have, in fact you’ve just done it again here.

I’ve nowhere said this causes symptoms in everybody - what I said was they’d have a better idea who to test, which they would have if they were effectively contact tracing (as the asymptomatic people would be contacts of the symptomatic).

Also what I’ve repeatedly said is that people have to be encouraged to get tested whenever they feel ill with symptoms that might be this, for that to be seen as everyone’s duty. People have to be made to understand that’s the only way to deal with this.

Finally again they don’t have people to organise and deliver tests like this; they organise them to be sent out, and they had surge testing, but neither of those are effective at what this needs to be able to do.

Okay, sorry I don't want to come across as ignorant or arrogant here.

But people have a cough or a cold or body aches all of the time. Sometimes you wake up feeling crap and then are fine within 10 minutes, maybe had a bad night's sleep. A hell of a lot of people are just unhealthy, don't get enough fresh air or exercise or good nutrition.

It just isn't going to happen. It's actually more feasible to just tell everybody they have to do a test every two days tbh - and that's not really feasible, but it's more feasible than telling every person they must isolate for a morning or whatever while someone in a hazmat suit comes around to theirs to test them and their family.

I'm telling you, because it was literally what I was going to be doing for a job. The person delivered the test, would then go to wait in the car, and then wait for the person who was taking the test to leave it back on the doorstep. They would do that in a certain area every day and then drop off all the tests at the collection centre for deliveries to the labs.

I'm not saying it's exactly what you're suggesting because obviously they aren't administering the tests themselves but that's what is happening through this government contractor.

 

[Amw79]

Ah no worries.

Maybe my maths is bad, but 1% of 40,000 is obviously 400

Now if the cases are higher (say 80,000 going off the Prof Hayward quote), but the hospitalisations from COVID aren't higher (because we know that the hospitalisations from/with COVID are accurate as they are accurately recorded) then surely that is going to be 0.5% of 80,000?

So recorded cases = 40,000
So hospitalisations = 400 (1%)
But actual cases = 80,000
Hospitalisations are still staying at 400 = 0.5% ?

Ah, no a misreading on my part, thought you were showing the calculation for the number of hositaliations, rather than the rate.

 

[BlueToff]

After nearly 2 years - finally had my first brush with Covid

The missus' son had cold symptoms so we all went up for PCR tests the day before yesterday - His test was 'inconclusive', mine was negative and hers was positive!

Not even sure how that's possible with this hugely infectious virus but there you go

Doesn't have any rhyme or reason to who it infects mate. Just hope you and your family stay well!

 

[BlueToff]

Ah, no a misreading on my part, thought you were showing the calculation for the number of hositaliations, rather than the rate.

No probs.

I fully agree with the wider issue. Omicron is so infectious that it's gonna be hitting hundreds of thousands of cases per day, and even 0.5% of that is a big number.

 

[navidson]

Doesn't have any rhyme or reason to who it infects mate. Just hope you and your family stay well!

Did they never work that bit out?

 

[BlueToff]

Did they never work that bit out?

Don't think so.

Obviously if you're vaccinated you have more chances of not being infected at all.

It could be delayed exposure and you will get it in a few days (I hope not!). It could be that you've had COVID, not known about it, and have the antibodies that are preventing infection.

My mum was in the house with four people who all had COVID at the same time, and she didn't get it at all. Tested every day too through it. It wasn't even like we were even to stay separate from each other. She was in my sister's room helping to look after a newborn and my sister was the sickest she'd ever been.

 

[Amw79]

No probs.

I fully agree with the wider issue. Omicron is so infectious that it's gonna be hitting hundreds of thousands of cases per day, and even 0.5% of that is a big number.

Oh aye. Pains me to say it but think the gov approach is generally correct, cautious measures short of closures and lockdowns. Get people boosted, wait for more data.

 

[navidson]

Don't think so.

Obviously if you're vaccinated you have more chances of not being infected at all.

It could be delayed exposure and you will get it in a few days (I hope not!). It could be that you've had COVID, not known about it, and have the antibodies that are preventing infection.

My mum was in the house with four people who all had COVID at the same time, and she didn't get it at all. Tested every day too through it.

Yep - we're all at least double jabbed (i'm triple so not sure if that helped it bounce off me!)

We don't live in the same house but see each other everyday - Just boggles my mind that can be simultaneously so selective and so widespread

 

[tsubaki]

'Made to understand' - and as I've said repeatedly, it isn't feasible. Because people have a cough or a cold or body aches all of the time. Sometimes you wake up feeling crap and then are fine within 10 minutes, maybe had a bad night's sleep. A hell of a lot of people are just unhealthy, don't get enough fresh air or exercise or good nutrition.

It just isn't going to happen. It's actually more feasible to just tell everybody they have to do a test every two days tbh - and that's not really feasible, but it's more feasible than telling every person they must isolate for a morning or whatever while someone in a hazmat suit comes around to theirs to test them and their family.

I'm telling you, because it was literally what I was going to be doing for a job. The person delivered the test, would then go to wait in the car, and then wait for the person who was taking the test to leave it back on the doorstep. They would do that in a certain area every day and then drop off all the tests at the collection centre for deliveries to the labs.

I'm not saying it's exactly what you're suggesting because obviously they aren't administering the tests themselves but that's what is happening through this government contractor.

Again, why isn’t it feasible? This is a pandemic that we’ve been dealing with for two years. All people are being asked to do is report when they feel ill with certain symptoms. This is not a difficult ask.

 

[ArtetaMoney]

The people’s manager.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Again, why isn’t it feasible? This is a pandemic that we’ve been dealing with for two years. All people are being asked to do is report when they feel ill with certain symptoms. This is not a difficult ask.

Any system that relies almost entirely on human behaviour is very fallible and in my opinion, is unlikely to be effective. You need a whole cultural change in the UK for your process to work and change like that takes a long time.

People wake up and feel a bit rough, but shrug it off and get on with the rest of their day. I've been there, I've done it and I never used to think anything about it. That's been the way in this country and things don't change overnight. There are so many reasons why people will just carry on as normal when they feel a little bit sick. It could be work related, family issues, a lack of understanding of the virus even. There are so many factors.

Work from home becoming more common will change some of the notion of just going to work anyway when you don't feel 100%, but most people can't work at home.

 

[bluerobert]

 

[tsubaki]

Any system that relies almost entirely on human behaviour is very fallible and in my opinion, is unlikely to be effective. You need a whole cultural change in the UK for your process to work and change like that takes a long time.

People wake up and feel a bit rough, but shrug it off and get on with the rest of their day. I've been there, I've done it and I never used to think anything about it. That's been the way in this country and things don't change overnight. There are so many reasons why people will just carry on as normal when they feel a little bit sick. It could be work related, family issues, a lack of understanding of the virus even. There are so many factors.

Work from home becoming more common will change some of the notion of just going to work anyway when you don't feel 100%, but most people can't work at home.

Again, we’ve got to change how things used to work whilst this thing is a threat. It is going to be a change for people m, but if they are helping everyone else and helped to do it themselves then the vast majority of people will do it, just as they followed the lockdowns and other restrictions.

 

[BlueToff]

Again, why isn’t it feasible? This is a pandemic that we’ve been dealing with for two years. All people are being asked to do is report when they feel ill with certain symptoms. This is not a difficult ask.

But the symptoms are varying from a cough, to body aches, to runny nose, to sore throat, to loss of taste and smell, to fever…

It’s basically any symptom of anything

So as Tim says, it’s going to rely on people to do that. And the example I’ve often cited to you is a parent getting up to take their kids to school. The amount of times my mum must have felt awful and she got up and took me and my sister to school. How will that work for people? That’s just one example

 

[tsubaki]

But the symptoms are varying from a cough, to body aches, to runny nose, to sore throat, to loss of taste and smell, to fever…

It’s basically any symptom of anything

No, it’s symptoms of a cold.