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Bunnyhop
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Rusty – a relief for you that Sue is now safe. I hope she recovers quickly.
Thank you. She's on the mend, better every day.
Much appreciated.
Could someone critique this
The last line, which is what it's all leading up to, makes the classic covid-denier's error of using the statistics that reflect the effects of intervention to suggest that intervention wasn't necessary. That's like saying that since you haven't crashed your car it was a waste of money getting the brakes serviced.
WHO estimate that Covid has probably caused 15Mn excess deaths !
Yeah but it was all old people who were about to die anyway...
Being in Canada it’s hard to figure out what’s going on in the UK at the moment but I am coming back in a couple of weeks to see various old people. Mainly rural Shropshire and North Wales.
Are there large crosses over half the doors, and the streets looking like a scene from the Walking Dead, or are cases coming right down? Looks like they are but I’m thinking hardly any testing is happening either?
Sane, rational people are just getting on with their lives. So its all good. No masks needed and everything back to normal. Everything open as it should be. Enjoy.
[s]Sane, rational[/s] [b]people who don't understand that there are medically vulnerable people in society[/b] are just getting on with their lives.
FTFY
Mrs_OAB has had three weeks of Covid, in an out of hospital, still testing positive and still struggling. Has just been signed off for all of May and advised may not work until summer at this rate - and has been put back on list for her lung CT scan.
All because 'sane, rational people' had 210 people at a wedding with no masks, so giving it to 60% of the hotel staff that were waiting on that night. Including our son, who gave it to mrs_oab.
So yeah, all is good apart from the few who die or have life changing illness from covid, no worries.
Ignore anything he posts, a piss poor ignorant troll
matt-outandabout - you have done everything you can to protect your wife, what you can't do is get through to some people that THIS IS NOT OVER and we need to take EASY precautions which don't cause any inconvenience at all.
Bill Gates was on the news this morning taking about learning lessons from this pandemic, to bring forward and use for the next one, which he predicts will be in 20 years time.
I'm hoping that we can all get a second booster soon, but I'm not feeling confident.
Interesting to see that the WHO are now reporting the UK had a lower covid excess death rate than many countries - including the “poster boy” comparator - Germany.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61327778.amp
So for all of the noise about the government getting it wrong and hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths - it looks like the scientific advisers made reasonable decisions albeit quite often having to do so using low quality / limited data.
I'm not sure that anyone was really doubting the scientific advice.
Sadly the Govt's approach was a combination of economics, politics, pseudo-behavioural science (that was about as robust as homeopathy) and then a small dash of science.
FTFY
Mrs_OAB has had three weeks of Covid, in an out of hospital, still testing positive and still struggling. Has just been signed off for all of May and advised may not work until summer at this rate – and has been put back on list for her lung CT scan.
All because ‘sane, rational people’ had 210 people at a wedding with no masks, so giving it to 60% of the hotel staff that were waiting on that night. Including our son, who gave it to mrs_oab.
So yeah, all is good apart from the few who die or have life changing illness from covid, no worries.
Right ok, I seem to have hit a few nerves. First of all - Sorry to hear your wife is ill and suffering. I hope she makes a full and speedy recovery.
Couple of points.
Even if everyone had worn their non medical masks covid would still have spread most likely, if indeed that wedding was the event that they all caught it. I'm not sure anyone has ever claimed wearing masks completely prevents covid from spreading, it may well help but not prevent. So your son may have still caught it.
How do you know it was caught at the wedding?
Hotel staff would have been exposed to many people over many days. That's impossible to know surely, he could have caught it anywhere before or after as could the others. As far as I'm aware no one ever really knows where and how they got an illness, unless I've missed something.
The blame game is a hopeless road to go down and will only result in you being bitter and angry at something you will never know for sure.
I'm not sure blaming people attending a wedding and not wearing masks is entirely rational and sensible either. Were they doing anything wrong? No.
Were they breaking any laws or rules? No.
We cannot stay locked down and mask wearing forever. It had to end at some point, for some it seems this day should never come. People bang on about masks as if they are the be all and end all, which is madness.
People will get ill and die and catch all sorts of viruses, illnesses and diseases, thats a fact that was here before covid. Covid has just added to that (unfortunately) but now some seem obsessed to the point of becoming paranoid and irrational and desperate to point the finger of blame without any evidence or thinking it through.
obsessed to the point of becoming paranoid and irrational and desperate to point the finger of blame without any evidence or thinking it through
I think you should go and think through what exactly you are writing, and who you are addressing those words to, and what they are going through.
I am not even going to answer all that.
You are right a balance has to be struck. But 'crack on, all is fine' is not really a balance.
People bang on about masks as if they are the be all and end all, which is madness.
That works both ways. Some people seem to bang on about masks as if they are far more than a trivial inconvenience.
They are likely to have a modest protective effect, which is no guarantee of safety, but may help you if you have a fleeting contact with an infected individual, and perhaps even reduce the severity of any infection by reducing the viral load you pick up. That may be meaningless in the context of people who've been jabbed and had the real thing multiple times, but for someone like me, classed as extremely vulnerable, with my current booster potentially waning, it could mean the difference between a relatively mild illness and something a bit more problematic. Thanks to vaccines, I've moved on from being worried about dying from it, to being worried about being laid out for weeks and being unable to ride for months.
It's unreasonable to expect people not to get on with stuff freely at this point, but it certainly isn't over for a fairly large slice of the population who either have health problems, or are trying to protect a relative who has them.
This wasn't really aimed at the wedding scenario described above, just with regard to everyday stuff, crowded places and public transport. I don't think you can make a 200 person wedding safe - if I attended one, I would expect to catch it, masks or no masks, given that the number of infected guests/staff could still be in double digits, going by the ONS survey averages.
But the government's 'Got Covid Done' attitude could yet come back and bite us on the arse if something a bit nastier than Omicron pops up in the autumn.
You are right a balance has to be struck. But ‘crack on, all is fine’ is not really a balance.
jhimwxm’s post was insensitive… but it’s difficult to see what that different balance could be. A covid safe wedding probably entails just signing the bit of paper and going home… i.e. not really a wedding at all. As mentioned above half-hearted measures like wearing masks while not eating/drinking seem unlikely to make much of a difference in that setting. So after 2 years I’ve come round to the opinion there’s not much else to do but crack on with it.
Not alarm bells at this stage, but seems like we could be about to start a wave of two more transmittable Omicron strains (BA.4 and BA.5) spreading through the UK.
As luck will have it, unsurprisingly Southampton is one of the areas showing raised positive numbers, even at these modern lower test levels. ~221/100k on my in my very local neighbourhood.
How will the waning boosters for us older but not vulnerable cope? Time will tell, watch this space.
A recent publication by the Oxford group (link below) and others has charted the loss of neutralisation potency against BA.4 and 5. Not huge but you can see that the virus is gradually slipping away from the population immunity. However based on our previous omicron BA.1 epidemic, and the good weather, I’d say wait for the variant after this one come winter time.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.21.492554v1
COVID is not over and it’s not really endemic. But we are catching up with the virus. Moderna plan an omicron/wild type vaccine for the winter boosting. That’s the first change in vaccine since the beginning, and I think approval of that would signify an important milestone.
My booster was now a year ago. I have had Omicron twice though since, so hopefully that helps.
UK Govt stats are showing a rise in positive tests and hospital admissions since the beginning of June, which does suggest a new variant.
Moderna plan an omicron/wild type vaccine for the winter boosting.
That's interesting, their vaccine is a combination Spikevax and their Omicron specific candidate; I'm part of a trial testing those two against each other (double-blind so I don't know which I've received).
MIL had CV a couple of months ago - no issues despite being 86, fully vaxxed, with multiple health conditions.
Unfortunately she passed away a couple of weeks ago due to a bit of pneumonia, heart failure and multiple other stuff - took a week to pass after withdrawal of treament though. Didn't die of CV, just general knackered body (she's exceded expectations).
Anyway, three of the eight in my sibling family/partners have caught covid on a weekend holiday flight, before MIL died. You'd have think the world had stopped as they felt a little unwell - FFS. My family now blaming covid on the fact not one of them has acknowledged the death of my wifes mum, my kids nana. Not even a card. I may have told them all not to bother sending cards after they all dodged out of the funeral and told them CV isn't anything to get carried away with - you are fully vaxxed, and even MIL had it without 'complaining'.
Too many people thinking its still the worse thing, even those jabbed. My lot weren't even ill, other than feeling a little rough, like a common cold. Didn't stop them WFH, but couldn't even be bothered to 'moonpig' a card.
Get over it, you sat on a crowded fight, no masks, you are vaxxed, and all young enough not to be in any risk group.
COVID is not over and it’s not really endemic.
Someone should mention this to the Secretary of State for Health.
https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1535550146947301378
I'm also annoyed that my family were stupid enough to go on two flights for a long weekend away, then a bit of clubbing, then come back and feel sorry for themselves. Looking at the time it took them to test positive, there was plenty of time for either of my sisters to give CV to my mif 70's mum and dad, yet my mum is defending them for being idiots. My Brother is another that's back fully risking it, yet he's a dentist. His wife was mixing with all sorts all the way through the lockdown (yep they got covid).
How my mum can defend them is something else - their own fault. I've a fairly risky work environment, i.e. plenty of contact with students, but have been careful when in the office since last year. Mi three family that caught covid, all work from home, but a silly vanity holiday weekend, they caught it.
I love to see a plot of posting frequency on this thread and see how well it correlates with case numbers.
I had it last week and purely anecdotally, the GP I spoke to in order to get a sick note (my employer doesn't accept the NHS self-isolation letter) said that all his appointments that day had been Covid-related.
But I only knew I had it because I had some tests left over. Many people are admitting that they won't pay for tests (I guess when you earn £250,000/yr being a cheapskate pathetic arsehole helps), and I suspect I caught it from said test-refusenik.
Still testing positive - faintly - 12 days after the first test.
But I only knew I had it because I had some tests left over.
I do wonder whether, if we didn't have a test for covid, it would still be news in the UK. Based on symptoms alone, would mild cases be assumed to be a bad cold and severe cases be labelled with the symptom, such as pneumonia?
I've had it for the first time this week, triple jabbed, was rough on Saturday, worked through this week, from home, although that's normal now. Only difinitively knew I had it as we also had spare tests, I wouldn't have gone out and bought them.
Spoke to a friend last week who is a nurse practitioner - 4 staff at her practice were off and positive.
It's going to understand again
I've had it again this week. Despite triple jab it's still a beast of a bug. Woke up last night after dreaming I was caught in an avalanche, coughing wildly and soaked in sweat.
My better half has caught it finally after spending the full pandemic as a carer going out whenervery body stayed at home and dealing with people who could not understand why their normality had been curtailed. She is currently on placement in inverness so is stuck in here air bandb for a bit.
Happy Birthday babe!
PS if anyone Inverness feels like dropping off a tub of icecream and some parecetemol you'd probably make her day and i would obviously compensate the endeavor.
I and my household have all had it this week. First time any of us have tested positive. Thankfully it's mild, just a bit snotty and a couple of days coughing for the kids earlier in the week. Hoping we'll be done in 2 or 3 more days.
Timing-wise I feel pretty fortunate we've made it this far without catching it or needing to isolate. 10 or 14 days isolation was always a bigger worry for me than actually having covid. We've been cautious and not had any contact with anyone all week, but admittedly have been out to some quiet places each day which has helped lessen the cabin fever. Fingers crossed the kids will be back to school Monday or Tuesday.
All because ‘sane, rational people’ had 210 people at a wedding with no masks, so giving it to 60% of the hotel staff that were waiting on that night. Including our son, who gave it to mrs_oab.
Firstly, sorry to hear your wife is suffering with it.
But I do hope you have not blamed your son to his face. You could have isolated him from your wife, had him tested etc. Why did he not wear a mask ? I’ve been in quite a few eateries where staff are still wearing masks.
We got back from holiday abroad middle of last week, and the kids wanted to see their elderly grand parents today. So even though they are not showing symptoms , I got them to do a test , which was negative, so I will drop them round to see them tomorrow . Got to take responsibility for our OWN actions rather than rely on others .
It's finally caught up with me. Cough and runny nose last week tested positive on Friday. Happy days
Caught up with me now as well. Nightmare flight back from Italy wed/Thurs night. Started with a scratchy throat late yesterday pm, but naively thought it was probably hayfever. Went to work this morning, got tested whilst there and hey presto, back at home in bed now! Feel pretty rotten right now to be fair, glad to have been sent home!
For the people who think it's just 'a cold', then I'm very pleased for you.
But it hasn't been 'just a cold' for the few I know that have 'long covid'. A family member is still quite poorly after months, he's young too and things aren't showing signs of getting any better. He can't even get his leg over a bike to do a short, easy ride. It breaks my heart.
Two months after covid, Mrs TiRed still has a cough and has developed alopecia areata. Has been reported previously post covid in people who has pre-existing alopecia. Off to a conference on covid tomorrow. Definitely not over.
What does the conference cover? Increased clotting risks after infection? Immune resistance in new (sub) variants? Hep infection post multiple Covid infection in kids? I have no idea what to make of any of those, and there seems to be very little discussion of them in places that use plain language for us non-medical folk.
It's a Royal Society meeting on modelling the epidemic. Much of the basic science is addressed at other disease specific meetings like ATS (American Thoracic Society), CROI (Infectious diseases) and plenty of others.
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2022/06/ramp/
You can register for online attendance still, I believe. It'll probably be geeky and won't cover any of your areas. Paediatrics is particularly notable I think.
Pro riders "dropping like flies" this week in Tour De France warmup races, with 14 days to go until the big one starts.
I'm not a Tour rider, but it's finally caught up with me.
Felt a bit rough yesterday in the office, but put it down to doing my first ever 10 mile TT on Tuesday night.
Woke up this morning feeling a bit achey and tired, and full of coughs and sneezes. Positive line came up on the test pretty instantly, so doing some simple work stuff at home and having an early finish.
MrsMC tested negative for work on Tuesday, daughter has tested negative today, so hopefully we will all avoid each other enough to stop it spreading.
Bugger
Latest World Beating 'Getting all the Big Calls Right' Vaccine Rollout analysis:
https://twitter.com/mac_puck/status/1541329319330553856
Please don't turn this into a Boris/Brexit thread
I won't comment further and open a political debate
Sorry - there was a bit of crossover there, probably would have been better in one of the others.
I think we are about to be in for a shock in case numbers. After a long weekend in Barcelona albeit including masks on planes and in shops, I was shocked at how crowded the airports were - not just passport control but throughout. And behold, of the 5 of us that went 2 have tested positive this morning.
Seems the new Omicron variant spreads like wildfire.
Definitely loads of it about, but still a bit of a lottery - I tested positive last Thursday, so far rest of the household are OK 🤞
Eldest attended his university college ball last Wednesday - several hundred students doing everything but distance - but also seems to be unscathed.
Daughter is about to hit a run of potentially risky events in the next 6 weeks, some of them abroad, be amazed and delighted if she manages unscathed.