I asked yesterday but no-one responded, (theoretically speaking) could a household all swab but then extract say 4 swabs into one vial and run that as one test?
I think the problem with that is if there's a mixture of positive and negative people being swabbed then there might not be enough of whatever is being tested for in the sample to generate a positive result.
why not - would be same amount of positive stuff eluting up the chromatographic column, just more negative stuff as well?
I asked yesterday but no-one responded, (theoretically speaking) could a household all swab but then extract say 4 swabs into one vial and run that as one test?
interesting suggestion, but that does allow people being a bit timid with their nostril probing to give a false negative. If only 1 person has gone deep enough to trigger the control line it could be giving them a true result but not the other 3.
I think that's a clever idea and can't see why it wouldn't work. You'd need to bulk-buy swabs from somewhere though.
why not – would be same amount of positive stuff eluting up the chromatographic column, just more negative stuff as well?
Apologies, I'd misread that you said extracting all swabs in the same vial and had imagined they'd be extracted in separate vials with less from each vial being applied to the test. Assuming there is enough "stuff" in a single vial to extract whatever is needed then I can't see a problem.
I asked yesterday but no-one responded, (theoretically speaking) could a household all swab but then extract say 4 swabs into one vial and run that as one test?
Something similar was done in WW2 testing for venereal disease. Samples from e.g. 10 men were mixed. If the test came back positive, all men were re-tested individually. If negative all were clear. You need to have a pretty good idea of prevalence to select the right number. For instance if 25% of the population on average are going to be positive this is a waste of time, if 2% it's brilliant.
I think More or Less covered it some time ago
<edit>link to explanation</edit>
Junior sick last week, me this week. Both of us negative on LFT but as it's nasty don't want to contaminate anyone with whatever it is so have kept ourselves to ourselves for the required week. Neither of us felt well enough to leave the house to go for a PCR to find out what it was for days and there wasn't much point by the time we were feeling better. I've mentionned on here that I don't have much faith in negative test results whether LFT or PCR so have behaved as positive even without a positive test.
In order:
Back ache 6/10
shivers, temperature and soaked with sweat
headache and general aches
2.5 days in bed for me, junior 5 days.
Nausea, junior vommited anything he ate, I stopped eating
sore throat, junior really sore me like a cold
other mild cold symptoms
So Covid or not?
Whitty on Omnicron…
“ The idea that this is a mild disease is easily demonstrated to be incorrect. “
Emphasising that vaccination/booster reducing hospitalisations across all age groups.
Yeah, watched the press conference and the only highlight was Witty subtly dropping stuff in that contradicted what Johnson had said only minutes ago. Also struck me how much Johnson was trying to claim credit for the win but then immediately said that it was down to the public using their common sense that further restrictions weren't necessary. He also lost his calmness when he had to go to the public questions.
The science does look promising but I can't help but think that the current lot will find a way to cock it all up in the next week or so. The critical thing will be to watch admissions and how long each one stays. I've been told by NHS friends that while fewer people are being admitted they are staying there for a lot longer. At the beginning an admission was there for 2 weeks, either leaving to recover or going to the morgue. Now admissions are staying in for 4+ weeks therefore tying up beds for longer and limiting capacity. Add in the staffing shortage due to isolations and people leaving and it's still very worrying.
Hearing the opposite in the NW… shorter stays on average, but also younger. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks as infections are spreading through the older age groups.
Jinx - Vallance just made the same point.
Shorter stays being reported in Scotland too.
Now admissions are staying in for 4+ weeks
Well at least they won't be Covid deaths if they die after 4+ weeks.
I’ve been told by NHS friends that while fewer people are being admitted they are staying there for a lot longer
That contradicts pretty much every report I’ve seen or heard since Omicron was identified. Which is a bit odd
Cab only agree with above, I've only seen reports starting hospital stay is generally shorter with omicron.
Daily cases reported at 218,724 (+79,893 on last week...).
****ing hell!
300,000+ by the end of the week then?
That peak better arrive pretty damn soon...
Well at least they won’t be Covid deaths if they die after 4+ weeks
I think the numbers are pretty representative and there's likely some false recording or goes both ways and roughly evens out.
Anyway Ed - your and your boy's illness doesn't sound like a common cold does it? Any lingering symptoms this time? You're both boosted, yes?
The reporting is especially up and down at the moment - some of today's cases are covering the last few days in NI and Wales. If you look at the England data for the trend then it's flattish over the last few days. Very high, but not looking anything like the doubling rate of every few days that it was a while back.
Course, there are many potential factors (and more to come with schools returning) so my conclusion isn't that it's definitely turning around, but it's also not definitely going super max crazy either.
An interesting report on the reliability of LFT tests on FR3 a few minutes ago. They presented the results of a few studies. The high reliablity of positive results is confirmed however recent studies say the negative results are even less reliable than previously thought. One study presented stated 45% reliablity for asymptomatic and 65% for symptomatic.
So far so good, Del, ta. Junior went from death's door (he felt bad enough to call out SOS Médecin) to ski de rando (no contact with other people) in a week. I've turned around today. Both triple vaxed. In March 2000 I didn't feel anything like as bad initially but then coughed and was short of breath for over a year - this time no cough or breathlessness(if it's Covid).
Something else to be factored into the daily figures: testing availability. That’s going to suppress quite a few (and didn’t Scotland report a 35% positive result figure yesterday?).
glad to hear you've come through OK Ed. if even only so that it gives the rest of us hope 😉
my partner's parents are positive following on from her daughter in law's +ve on sunday. i think there's a pretty good chance my partner will end up +ve and she has pretty bad asthma. 🙁 possible i'll dodge it but i'm not overly confident of that.
the post ride hostelry has closed again. i think they have the hat-trick now, alpha, delta, and now omicron despite 'following all the guidance'. yeahright.
Well at least they won’t be Covid deaths if they die after 4+ weeks.
Not in the daily "within 28 days" headline figure, but luckily the ONS record cases with Covid on the death certificate, so there's a proper record - which I think is higher than the headline total.
Just to remind is that omicron or not going to be the ladt variant we face... A new "worrying" variant is discovered in France. Not trying to scare anyone, it's just a reminder that even omicron could be old news very quickly.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-new-covid-variant-mutations-b1986241.html
That’s media hype, that variant predates omicron and has only been sequenced 100 odd times not hundreds of thousand times like Omicron.
It’s going nowhere.
MrSmith
Free Member
That’s media hype, that variant predates omicron and has only been sequenced 100 odd times not hundreds of thousand times like Omicron.
It’s going nowhere.
I agree, like I said it's just a reminder that omicron isn't necessity the end point.
Omicron isn't the end point but it's the wave in which nearly everyone will be exposed to the virus. It's the first wave in which the fabled herd immunity can be allowed to happen because it's the first time fatalities and a lack of hospital facilities won't force a lock down of sorts before it's reached.
Vaccination has made the prospect of herd immunity possble without the half a million deaths (for a population the size of france/UK) that some predicted if Alpha had been allowed to run. The report I quoted earlier on FR3 went on to draw comparisons with the flu from 1916 through to 1919. Their optimistic prognostic is that once the Omicon wave has been through the population Covid will become a milder seasonal illness - what many of us on here have been hoping for from the early pages of this thread.
Eldest has tested + this evening by LFT, very mild cold symptoms but no temperature cough or loss of smell. PCR just done at the drive through place.
Both kids had it in mid Aug, so that's 4.5mo between infections. She's had one jab so far, couldn't get the first until a month after the infection and then was waiting 12 weeks for the second so would have been next week. So hoping one jab plus a previous infection is a good enough underlying immunity.
I caught it off them later in Aug but was double vaxxed by then and subsequently had booster in mid Dec as well so hopefully if I catch again I'll be able to deal with it.
Wife never caught it from them or me, works in a school where it's been rife, I think we should be swabbing her and finding out why some people seem impervious.
Hope all goes easily and smoothly Jon.
There's a research thesis for you there, theotherjonv. How come teachers seem impervious? Madame has the constitution of a farm horse. When I worked for Welsh water I used to sample sewage works with sewage aerosols in the air and all sorts of filthy places. After a few months I seemed to develop an immunity to everything, I don't think I had a day off for anything other than broken bones in the whole time I was there.
Their optimistic prognostic is that once the Omicon wave has been through the population Covid will become a milder seasonal illness – what many of us on here have been hoping for from the early pages of this thread.
Amen to that. I'm just trying to delay things in this household till anti virals are readily available for my old mum. It's going to get into the house at some point, it's inevitable now. So it's just delay, delay for me at the mo.
Daughter is 12 on Saturday so I was curious if I’d be able to book her first dose, no joy and it says I’ve got to call 119, hoping this is just ‘cos she’s not actually 12 yet and I’ll be able to book her in. I don’t fancy waiting around for the schools vaccine program or our GP to offer her a first dose.
Has this been mentioned? Why is Prof. Whitty openly contradicting official NHS/government covid guidelines?
It has caused me some grief today. People can get quite stroppy when they think you are breaking covid restrictions. Despite isolating for 10 days starting 12 days ago and not having any symptoms for the last 7 days a LFT first thing this morning was positive.
Which caused a few issues for some people suffering from covid hysteria and wasn't helped by Prof Whitty's comment.
There’s really no point doing LFTs after testing positive on a PCR.
Whitty’s comment was about trying to justify the “two tests to end isolation early” policy, which has confused everything. I took it to mean that if you’re testing to end isolation early, and you’re positive, don’t end isolation early. Keep testing till you have two negative tests, or you get to 10 days. But he didn’t repeat the 10 day bit, because it was implicit because of the question and topic.
Well they are telling people to do LFTs on day 6 and 7, but none after day 10.
It's all confusing enough without Whitty adding to the confusion by publicly contradicting official NHS guidelines.
Edit : Sorry you edited which makes your point clearer. I didn't see the press briefing but his comment has been thrown at me.
they are telling people to do LFTs on day 6 and 7, but none after day 10
Because, the two tests are to release early. If you get to day 10, you don’t need a test to release.
It is a confusing policy.
No problem Ernie. It was clear in the conference, that Guardian article is making a confusing situation worse.
It’s ultimately the government’s fault though, the use of LFTs to end isolation early “feels” completely contradictory to the advice not to use LFTs after a positive PCR for 90 days because of false positives. It is actually logically sound, but so little was done to explain it that it’s confused many people over the last few weeks. Well, it confused me for ages anyway.
It was the Guardian actually. But at least one person has said that I should continue isolating because of what she heard Whitty say on the telly today.
Trying to convince someone that I know more about the covid rules than Prof Whitty has its obvious difficulties.
Edit : lol you keep editing, yeah not the bbc
Ha! Sorry about the edits. Always loads of mistakes and incomplete thoughts when I first hit Submit.
The test to release early policy doesn’t bring an end to the idea that doing LFTs after a positive PCR for any other purpose is likely to be misleading. But it really hasn’t been explained well at all. With a “test before meeting up” strategy also being pushed, this is going to lead to a lot of conflict. The price we pay for a lack of clear leadership and joined up guidance, in my opinion.
Trying to convince someone that I know more about
thecovidrulesthan Prof Whitty has its obvious difficulties.
On FB that's the default position of many.😉
So, in the space of two weeks, we’ve gone from a policy of leaning on testing rather than any other measures, to not being able to get tests, to… tests… what tests?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-covid-pcr-tests-scrapped-25860254
Apparently the PCR change was done last year as well at peak infection point, which I wasn't aware of.
True. But at that point we were using additional measures to slow the spread of infections. The narrowing of the use of testing didn't come days after being told that widening the use of testing was a key plank of our response.
[ to be clear, it seems entirely sensible to prioritise the use of the testing capacity we have while prevalence is very high... it was the plan to rely on widening/additional use of testing when case rates were high and we didn't have the capacity that was nonsensical ]
Sounds like Pre-Travel testing is being scrapped for travelers arriving into the UK (England initially but Scotland and Wales will likely match), that'll be interesting!
It means that had I not just cancelled my Feb 1/2 term holiday to Mexico (booking early last year seemed like a safe bet), we could travel there and back on 2 transatlantic flights without being vaccinated or tested once...that feels a bit mental.
They seem to have decided that the two variants we're currently dealing with now are the last two we need to be concerned about. Not a bet I'd want to take on behalf of the UK at this point. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping though.
That'll get the case numbers down.
