Coronavirus Thread

[z-layrex]

10 hours ago, Parafox said:

All frontline ambulance staff have to self test every 2 days that they are on duty. Her last test was the 23rd Dec and was negative but it does show you can't be complacent. There were 7 of us on Christmas day (4 of us and 3 of them) and we kept it fairly short, in that we ate at 5pm and they left at 10pm. Worry is though that we were playing card games and obviously we all were touching the cards. We'll see what happens but so far no one other than her has shown any symptoms.

 

Just remember those lateral flow tests are only about 50% right when the person is asymptomatic. They're bloody good if you have symptoms though, approaching 95%.

[z-layrex]

10 hours ago, Parafox said:

All frontline ambulance staff have to self test every 2 days that they are on duty. Her last test was the 23rd Dec and was negative but it does show you can't be complacent. There were 7 of us on Christmas day (4 of us and 3 of them) and we kept it fairly short, in that we ate at 5pm and they left at 10pm. Worry is though that we were playing card games and obviously we all were touching the cards. We'll see what happens but so far no one other than her has shown any symptoms.

 

Double post.

Edited 28 December 2020 by z-layrex

[Md9]

Surely could keep primary schools closed for 2 extra weeks to see if it slows it down

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

377 people under the age of 60 with no underlying health issues have died of COVID from April to December in hospitals.

I’ve borrowed this stat from a politician, who  suggests we should be focusing purely on protecting the vulnerable and not trying to protect everybody.

 

[Guest Harrydc]

There's talk of a tier 5... Give me strength 

[Strokes]

44 minutes ago, Md9 said:

Surely could keep primary schools closed for 2 extra weeks to see if it slows it down

It’s difficult with primary schools as they need adult supervision at home.

As we found with the first lockdown, parents also struggled setting up the remote learning. Teachers were also needed in to care for the children of key workers. It’s very difficult to come up with a workable solution for primary school kids.

[Strokes]

38 minutes ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

377 people under the age of 60 with no underlying health issues have died of COVID from April to December in hospitals.

I’ve borrowed this stat from a politician, who  suggests we should be focusing purely on protecting the vulnerable and not trying to protect everybody.

 

Hospitalisation is the required figure surely? If that is really low, it might be a valid point.

[adejo92]

I tested positive for the Corona-virus on the 21st December and still have it now. It's certainly ruined Christmas, and my daughters first Christmas, but i guess there's always people even less fortunate.

Must admit, for me it has felt like a bad cold, the most annoying thing being the complete loss of smell / taste for 5 days now.

 

The whole Corona-virus reporting, whether by the government, or media, has been full of inaccuracies and as such, its hard to take anything they say now seriously. 

Edited 28 December 2020 by adejo92

[Guest Kopfkino]

42 minutes ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

377 people under the age of 60 with no underlying health issues have died of COVID from April to December in hospitals.

I’ve borrowed this stat from a politician, who  suggests we should be focusing purely on protecting the vulnerable and not trying to protect everybody.

 

It’s like Groundhog Day. Has said person explained how the logistics of that work yet? Given we’re doing a pretty poor job of protecting the vulnerable whilst trying to limit its prevelance elsewhere, it seems rather ambitious to think they could be protected with even less effort to stem its spread.

[Md9]

7 minutes ago, Strokes said:

It’s difficult with primary schools as they need adult supervision at home.

As we found with the first lockdown, parents also struggled setting up the remote learning. Teachers were also needed in to care for the children of key workers. It’s very difficult to come up with a workable solution for primary school kids.

I agree it is difficult to find the right thing to do, I know with my kids school they have been sorting out remote learning for a few weeks before end of term  before Xmas making sure everyone had laptops and internet of some sort. If the cases are still high when they go back no doubt with in a week there will be plenty of classes having to isolate for 2 weeks And will be at home anyway. It’s crap all round. 

[WigstonWanderer]

8 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Hospitalisation is the required figure surely? If that is really low, it might be a valid point.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare
 

About the same number if COVID patients in hospital now as there were at the peak in April. I would expect that they might be better distributed amongst hospitals than back then though, and only about half of the number on ventilators.

[Legend_in_blue]

13 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Hospitalisation is the required figure surely? If that is really low, it might be a valid point.

Current numbers in comparison to this point last year (Dec 20th).  Most telling numbers are those beds available but unoccupied.  There are more of those this year than in any location in the UK at this point last year.  I suspect the problem lies in having the numbers to man the beds which shares many similarities with schools where there are not enough staff to man the classes as soon as absences are taken into account.  

 

Kind of runs against the opening BBC scaremongering headline this morning though.

 

[Alf Bentley]

1 hour ago, Legend_in_blue said:

Current numbers in comparison to this point last year (Dec 20th).  Most telling numbers are those beds available but unoccupied.  There are more of those this year than in any location in the UK at this point last year.  I suspect the problem lies in having the numbers to man the beds which shares many similarities with schools where there are not enough staff to man the classes as soon as absences are taken into account.  

 

Kind of runs against the opening BBC scaremongering headline this morning though.

 

 

You could well be right on that first point - that a lack of qualified and available staff is more of a problem than lack of beds. Your graphs show that, in most regions, there has been a big increase in critical care beds within a year. I wonder if that includes the Nightingale Hospital beds, which were largely unused during the 1st wave - due to insufficient qualified staff, reportedly? Many health staff being off ill or isolating would exacerbate that problem.

 

Or might the big increase in critical care beds be due to internal reorganisation within hospitals - more beds set up for critical care, fewer for more routine levels of care?

It would be good to know why there has been a big increase in critical care bed numbers within 12 months.

 

I don't know which "scaremongering" BBC headline you're referring to? The main one online relates to a surge in 999 calls on Boxing Day in London/SE - to levels similar to the peak of the 1st wave.

That news for 26th December isn't necessarily at odds with your graphs for 20th December, is it? We already knew that the virus was spreading rapidly in London/SE due to the new variant, so it's not unthinkable that the situation has got more serious in that area in those 6 days, is it? The figures for London/SE in your graphs were already pretty high on 20th Dec....

 

Of course, it might be scaremongering - or you might be referring to a different BBC story - but reports of near-record numbers of 999 calls and 6-hour ambulance wait times outside hospitals sound pretty serious on the face of it.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55461390

[Parafox]

6 hours ago, z-layrex said:

Just remember those lateral flow tests are only about 50% right when the person is asymptomatic. They're bloody good if you have symptoms though, approaching 95%.

She was apparently asymptomatic until the 24th then she had the positive result. She thinks she got it from a care home on the 23rd, where there were 16 residents with Covid.

[The People's Hero]

I have felt incredibly short of breath and really struggled to breathe last night.

 

I have historically had issues with asthma and pneumonia. Probably nothing to do with covid since I don't have any other symptoms, other than tiredness/exhaustion, but I had put this down to food and booze induced lethargy.

 

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

6 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I have felt incredibly short of breath and really struggled to breathe last night.

 

I have historically had issues with asthma and pneumonia. Probably nothing to do with covid since I don't have any other symptoms, other than tiredness/exhaustion, but I had put this down to food and booze induced lethargy.

 

 

I'd get tested if I were you. If my work place is anything to go by, the symptoms aren't a great indicator of whether you've got it. We've had a load of confirmed cases and no two have been the same symptoms wise

[The People's Hero]

1 minute ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I'd get tested if I were you. If my work place is anything to go by, the symptoms aren't a great indicator of whether you've got it. We've had a load of confirmed cases and no two have been the same symptoms wise

Can't afford to be hospitalised; but then again I can't really afford not to if I'm ill.

 

I feel pretty good and the overriding message from people seems to have been they didn't feel great?

 

Clutching. (just to annoy that person who doesn't like one-word sentences)

[BKLFox]

Germany have quietly passed the 30k COVID deaths mark, will also assume these are actual COVID deaths and not like our within 28days window deaths.

 

[Leicester_Loyal]

35 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I have felt incredibly short of breath and really struggled to breathe last night.

 

I have historically had issues with asthma and pneumonia. Probably nothing to do with covid since I don't have any other symptoms, other than tiredness/exhaustion, but I had put this down to food and booze induced lethargy.

 

Could be totally different but a couple of years ago on a time scheduled critical job I was working on, I started to feel exactly the same, never felt anything like it before, I thought I was having a heart attack and ended up going to A&E. The blood tests revealed nothing, but upon research (by myself) it seems like I had a panic attack, never had one before that though, although I've always suffered from heart palpitations. As I've gotten older I've realised it's all linked into anxiety, but never taken any medication or anything for it.

 

Like I said it's probably totally irrelevant, but just thought it potentially might be worth mentioning.

[Leicester_Loyal]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13585640/oxford-coronavirus-vaccine-winning-immune-march/

 

'Oxford coronavirus vaccine hailed as ‘winning formula’ with 15million people ‘to be immune by March’'

[z-layrex]

51 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I have felt incredibly short of breath and really struggled to breathe last night.

 

I have historically had issues with asthma and pneumonia. Probably nothing to do with covid since I don't have any other symptoms, other than tiredness/exhaustion, but I had put this down to food and booze induced lethargy.

 

 

Those absolutely could be symptoms, especially as you fall into the vulnerable category. I would certainly get a test. Take care mate.

[ajthefox]

8 hours ago, z-layrex said:

Just remember those lateral flow tests are only about 50% right when the person is asymptomatic. They're bloody good if you have symptoms though, approaching 95%.

Can you shed any light on why this is? What is it about having symptoms that means the test is more effective? Or is there assumed to be some some sort of discernible difference in the infection between those who are asymptomatic and those who are not?

 

[z-layrex]

2 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

Can you shed any light on why this is? What is it about having symptoms that means the test is more effective? Or is there assumed to be some some sort of discernible difference in the infection between those who are asymptomatic and those who are not?

 

I've not read into it to be honest, this is what my sister tells me (she's a bloody good doctor though so I'm inclined to trust her). I'll look into it.

[Leicester_Loyal]

4 hours ago, Md9 said:

Surely could keep primary schools closed for 2 extra weeks to see if it slows it down

Why don't they swap the holidays around? An extra week off or two off now then only 4 or 5 weeks off in the summer?

 

Feel sorry for a lot of these kids, they've missed out on so much education and social interaction, through no fault of their own.

[Md9]

18 minutes ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

Why don't they swap the holidays around? An extra week off or two off now then only 4 or 5 weeks off in the summer?

 

Feel sorry for a lot of these kids, they've missed out on so much education and social interaction, through no fault of their own.

They could do that but I haven’t even seen that been mentioned anywhere so don’t think it’s been an option they just want them open. My eldest is in year 6 this year so wouldn’t want him to miss to much if didn’t need to as don’t want it to be a big issue going to secondary next year, just seems like they could give it a few weeks to see if it helps. Will see next week what they do anyway as if people have been mixing there could be a lot of people isolating anyways