Kryton,
Get hold of some ffp3 masks for your wife. There will be times when you can't avoid being part of a family.
They're designed to protect the wearer, not just reduce transmission from the infected.
They work. Nothings guaranteed to sorry her getting it, but the reduce that chance.
Available from Screwfix style shops
Even though my question way back has been lost. It's sort of been answered by other posts. Thanks.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are on iplayer, JVT and a team of specialists discussing Covid at KS3 level - I'm just about keeping up
@TiRed
Full Member
kryton Your wife is at risk If she should contract covid and is likely to receive treatment on symptom onset. A test should secure that treatment if she should go down with omicron and tested within five days. Hope you are all feeling better soon.
Ill second that kryton, hope you are all doing ok.
Tired, if/ when my old mum contracts omicron and has a +ve PCR, what would my best route be to see if she would be able to receive an anti viral drug? She's 92, dementia,etc,etc.
Sorry, I know it's not directly related to your field but I'm at a loss as to what route I would need to take.
My GP is basically in meltdown and I'm now resigned to the fact mum will be exposed to Covid what with carers coming in daily etc.
Thanks for any info you might give.
@Kryton57, I can confirm if your wife wears a ffp3 mask then she will be protected whilst at home. I too am clinically extremely vulnerable due to chemotherapy for a previous blood cancer. Our daughter contracted covid mid December so she was isolated but both my wife and I wore an ffp3 mask and neither of us contracted covid. Please let me know if you have difficulty sourcing one, if you do I can post you a brand new sealed one tomorrow. Take care.
my best route be to see if she would be able to receive an anti viral drug? She’s 92, dementia,etc,etc.
IANAMD, but the pill count with Pfizer is 30 pills and carries some drug interaction liability so may not be managed by primary care. Molnupiravir is twice a day but has no Drug interaction issues. Access is mainly via the trial I linked to. An antibody infusion (one and done) is more attractive but I don’t know the route of access. Most likely via hospital. I’d hope it doesn’t come to that.
TiRed thank you for the advice - I'm not confident because of my T&T experience they would link all the info together and they would know, so might we be best phoning 111 if she has a positive PCR? Or GP? It could be a struggle personally as she hates labelling herself as disadvantaged at all so carries on with a "normal" approach to life.
Thanks for the FFP3 advice and Juanking thank you for such an incredible and generous offer. I manage to get some to arrive tomorrow morning. I wish you all the best and you keep that one for yourself. Poopscoop, best wishes for your Mum.
Got dozens of ffp3 in my sf branch
Mostly valved so the exhale is not filtered mind.
If you need a few Kryton pm me and ill grab a few
These recent pages are a stark reminder of the realities of allowing such high levels of Covid to circulate.
It seems when expedient surgical masks have magical properties though. They are considered PPE in the vaccination centres and we are told to turn off the Covid App, and never had to isolate if we have any reported cases of +ve patients coming through - out of 2500 people/day........
Has this guardian article been discussed yet?
Yep it doesn't say much new, without any alternatives from government we ended up in lockdown
And that the covid deniers who wanted to end all restrictions would've caused a much higher death toll:
Woolhouse is at pains to reject the ideas of those who advocated the complete opening up of society, including academics who backed the Barrington Declaration which proposed the Covid-19 virus be allowed to circulate until enough people had been infected to achieve herd immunity.
“This would have led to an epidemic far larger than the one we eventually experienced in 2020,”
Earlier this morning, but it got shut down on the basis that he's promoting his memoirs and consequently the arguments are not worth discussing
It wasn’t “shut down”. People just said the article said nothing new and as a tease for his book didn’t work at all for some of us. He detailed mistakes made early on, and emphasised the costs of social restrictions in the UK without any real description of the alternatives an potential costs of them. Yes, the vulnerable were let down. Protecting them without using state led and supported social distancing measures still looks like it wasn’t really possible, in the UK. We are too interconnected. The people who live with and work with vulnerable people are spread throughout society. I’m sure the book should reveal more of his thinking, but nothing in that article teases me into finding out. What actually grabbed you?
In an ideal world we'd never have needed lockdowns and kept schools open throughout
But a decade + of underfunding left the NHS, social care, local councils etc in no position to deal with covid
Also references Sweden, which in comparison to other Nordics fared terribly, and still ended up closing schools etc
And Sweden financially supported those isolating far more than we did, and spent far more on school measures. There was no “cheap” way though this pandemic. There may well have been cheaper ways, but the idea that the state stepping back and not leading and supporting social distancing in the UK would have been in itself an economically positive move is for the birds. As is the idea the vulnerable could have been protected without any such measures. Yes the young missed out, and in the main (but not exclusively) to benefit the older generations. Yes there is a large economic cost to bear (it needn’t be a cost born more by the young though, that’s a political choice). Make it up to the young from here on… for example we should have been preparing school and college buildings and moving to mixed teaching programmes (and spending big to facilitate all this) in July/August/September last year, to try and give students a full academic year of teaching at last, after two highly disrupted years. Telling them to wear masks and open windows this month is the cheapest and poorest response imaginable. Reacting on the cheap when we knew enough a long time ago to actually make schools genuinely safer ready for the winter wave, and to ensure that once many pupils were isolating, teaching could still be continuous for those with milder or no symptoms.
No, you said that. And then one other person agreed with you. Not 'people'.
But, and my opinion, you (Kelvin) are too quick to reject counterviews nowadays. I posed some questions but your closedminded attitude stifles debate, and consequently why I'm on here much less nowadays.
Open your mind.
Then tell us what interested you about that article, and what was attributed to Woolhouse in it that grabbed your attention? There’s nothing new in it. What was your takeaway from it…? Open minds… go ahead.
I find it interesting that he feels we locked down because we could, due to the connectivity and capability to wfh, for example.
I find it interesting that he feels we panicked, and might do the same again.
I find it interesting that he feels we could have spent the money (or a fraction of) on targeted measures for the elderly and the at risk.
IANAMD, but the pill count with Pfizer is 30 pills and carries some drug interaction liability so may not be managed by primary care. Molnupiravir is twice a day but has no Drug interaction issues. Access is mainly via the trial I linked to. An antibody infusion (one and done) is more attractive but I don’t know the route of access. Most likely via hospital. I’d hope it doesn’t come to that.
Thanks for taking the time to reply TiRed, I'll keep that trial link as a tab on the mobile, "just in case".
And so debate ended.
Get it going then. Interesting “feelings” there, but how do you plot a path through the last two years without government led and supported social distancing? If it’s something new in that article that helps us see this path… spell it out and people can debate it.
I find it interesting that he feels we locked down because we could, due to the connectivity and capability to wfh, for example.
All the furlough payments and assistance for business suggest we couldn’t all work from home. That’s a big chunk of the cost of these so called “lockdowns”. We didn’t ask people to stay home because it was the easy path, we did so at great expense because we needed to reduce social contacts to reduce the spread of the virus. Does the article help paint, even with the great benefit of hindsight, an alternative path? Spell it out for us.
The Telegraph are reporting push back from back benches, a (singular) scientist on Sage and some others on mask wearing at school because...
...infections are reducing?
Did I miss a memo or something?
The Telegraph are reporting push back from back benches, a (singular) scientist on Sage and some others on mask wearing at school because…
The objections must be because it's wrong to expect our children to take up the slack (again) and compromise their learning by wearing masks all day in lessons, so that the grown ups can go to pubs and restaurants entirely unburdened by such inconveniences.
Nah, only kidding.
^^ I totally see the illogical mess this is, I really do.👍
It's really that the Telegraph are claiming infections are reducing that surprises me.
They seems to be entirely referencing a single day of declining infections, Sunday, and taking that as meaning we are past the peak?
The scientist quoted said that the secondary school mask mandate should be on constant review, rather than waiting ‘till the 26th to review it. Which seems fair. A lot more should be known by mid January, or even sooner.
Agree about your little joke. Schools and colleges haven’t exactly been prioritised in “planning” over the last few weeks, have they.
The Telegraph can do one with it's focus on masks, to distract it's readership from some other government failure no doubt.
Masks are not ideal, may not even work that well to restrict transmission in a classroom. But the Telegraph's opinion means nothing. The only opinion that matters is the kids. My daughter just shrugged it off. Talking to other parents, same reaction.
Seems to me that the majority of kids are far more relaxed, pragmatic and grown up about what restrictions have meant for them than a lot of the grown ups claiming to speak on their behalf.
I can’t get over how absurd it is that basically two years into this every classroom hasn’t been fitted with an air cleaner, I expect this level of shit baggery from work but this would have been a real easy headline grabbing win I’d have thought.
^^It’s always been the same, children are far more robust and accepting than they ever get credit for, especially when it comes to stuff right whingers get het up about, you only have to look at stuff like gender terms to see it.
Does the article help paint, even with the great benefit of hindsight, an alternative path? Spell it out for us.
No, it doesn't. His book might, the article just reports that he thinks that we didn't get everything right. It's 600-odd words, and might not even have been an interview, just the journo's comments after reading the book.
I don't have the answers, I don't even have a particularly strong position on this but I'm interested to ask and find out. Part of a debate is facilitating the discussion, and hearing other's views, as well as expressing your own.
For example because we can WFH nowadays (granted not everyone) that was implemented. At cost not just to furlough payments, but eg: to the a part of the economy by removing all the lunches and coffees and so on from that sector. Because it was available that path was taken without properly thinking whether it was the right thing to do.
I agreed at the time, probably still do. But hindsight and reflection allows us to rethink that - do you think we should? Because when you say things like "He offers up very little that hasn’t been long since discredited" it sounds like you don't.
I can’t get over how absurd it is that basically two years into this every classroom hasn’t been fitted with an air cleaner, I expect this level of shit baggery from work but this would have been a real easy headline grabbing win I’d have thought.
But, but, that would cost money!!
He offers up very little that hasn’t been long since discredited” it sounds like you don’t.
Problem is that by running an advertorial for his book, with no details for alternatives, it doesn't really add to the debate
Study here reckoned if UK had followed Sweden semi lockdown approach (and Sweden did have to close secondary schools etc) we would be looking at twice the deathtoll we did see
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-95699-9
Intrigued by the lockdown twist to the headline - without some comparisons with prelockdown figures, these numbers are pretty meaningless. Lazy reporting.
BBC News - Covid: Thousands needed hospital treatment after lockdown DIY
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59854919
It's actually a really informative article...
One 90-year-old woman was admitted to hospital after being bitten or struck by a crocodile or alligator.
Despite spending more time at home, the number of people needing assistance after being struck by lightning rose from three cases in 2019/20 to 18 in 2020/21.
Are you trying to tell me it's difficult to infer any useful conclusions from it?
i find it interesting that there are shrieks about the effects on children's learning and development because of mask wearing whereas the colossal churn in teaching staff, high numbers of vacancies across the sector, and the total and utter evaporation of any effort to 'catch up' kids (because there were no teachers and no money to do it) draws no reaction at all. faux outrage at a non-issue. won't someone genuinely think of the children and put some bloody investment in to the education system?
i don't know why we put up with this bullshit.
We now have 10,000 more nurses and 3,000 more doctors than we had last year working in the NHS.
quote from Zahawi on bbc interview this morning. Really??
Are you trying to tell me it’s difficult to infer any useful conclusions from it?
The information is meaningless with without context. For example this :
eight people over the age of 90 who needed hospital treatment after falling from playground equipment, were recorded.
In the absence of knowing the total number of people over the age of 90 who successfully negotiated playground equipment without requiring hospital treatment it is impossible to know whether age restriction would be proportionate response, weighed against the obvious health benefits of exercise to 90+ year olds.
We now have 10,000 more nurses and 3,000 more doctors than we had last year working in the NHS.
Headline headcount figures always need a closer look.
The most usual 'smoke and mirrors' method is to quote total figures, but not full-time equivalents, so it looks like more people, but more of them are part-time, so the overall workforce hasn't swelled the way they suggest.
Another trick is to count doctors and nurses in training as part of the workforce.
A quick google suggests that FTEs has increased over that period, but all of these stats normally need taking with a pinch of salt.
The complexity and the way they fudge the measures make it difficult for interviewers to fact-check in real time, unless this was a pre-prepared question to trip him up.
(Looks like the NHS workforce report is due out in the next few days, so this will presumably the usual method of trying to set the narrative before anyone has the chance to dig into the actual figures)
See also the 40 'new hospitals' that our PM is promising.
Masks.. poor England.. the 'outrage' that our national news was pushing out from England when they were recently asked to wear masks in shops was pitiful. Meanwhile in Scotland we have been compelled to wear masks indoors for over a year now.
This week they announced that English school pupils will have to wear masks, and once again the false "outrage" is peddled on the national media - again in Scotland our secondary pupils have been wearing masks since school reopened in April '20.
In September 2020, indoor mixing was banned in Scotland until a slight easing for Christmas 2020, yet in England you had no such restrictions from Sept-christmas '20, yet when post Christmas restrictions were announced it was as if your world was ending
Get a grip.
The information is meaningless with without context. For example this :
I was being sarcastic with the quotes I picked about crocodiles and lightning, but yeah.
Get a grip.
Its a minority of the populace, but Johnson is beholden to the populist loons on his backbenchers and our own foxnews/talk radio shysters
Get a grip.
Funny cos I’ve not come across many here in England objecting to masks or restrictions. You seem to be conflating your anti-Englishness with covid policy. It’s really nothing to feel superior about.
Funny cos I’ve not come across many here in England objecting to masks or restrictions. You seem to be conflating your anti-Englishness with covid policy. It’s really nothing to feel superior about.
To be fair, he's talking about the media, not sensible folk.
There are a lot of retired nurses/docs working in the vacc centres. I wonder if this is skewing the figures?
To be fair, he’s talking about the media, not sensible folk.
Didn’t come across as anti English to me either. I’m English, and the twin forces of papers like the Telegraph, and Conservative MPs such as Swayne, and the damage they cause due to the influence they have and the policy lines they pursue, rile me just as much.
Get a grip
I don’t think that any part of the country is any worse than anywhere else when you’re talking about resentment of restrictions.
Far from it.
The difference is that the devolved regional assemblies aren’t full of far right libertarian headbangers like the English Tory party is in Westminster
These loons are very vocal but I don’t think their views are representative of anything but a tiny minority
Unfortunately our PM courted them, panders to them, and is now dependent on them, so to the detriment of us all they have a hugely disproportionate influence
