Cases have dropped without the number of PCR tests dropping…

Because the kids aren’t faking their laterals now they’re off. 🤣

The health and social care secretary told MPs on 10 June: ‘It saddens me enormously that around 1,500 people from health and social care lost their lives in this pandemic.’

The figure cited by Mr Hancock is almost double the number published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) earlier this year. More than 850 health and social care staff died from COVID-19 between 9 March and 28 December 2020, according to ONS figures published in January – and GPonline understands that at least 15 practising GPs have died from the virus.

How many teachers? How many other public servants and crucial workers?

99.7% doesn’t describe this.

And all in The ‘line of Duty’.

Had an interesting meeting at work. Basically we can provide an environment that will allow ‘covid secure’ occupation but what will keep it open and operational is people/the occupants sticking to the ‘rules’.

Ignore them and we’ll be back to shut buildings. It’s really up to us all. Stop wearing masks, stop social distancing and close the windows. It’s only going to go one way from there, isn’t it…

MCTD I get your point but it’s a bit disingenuous. If you’re unvacced and over 80 a better analogy would 330 sweets with blank wrappers and dozens that are toxic. If youre 25 fit and healthy, more like 1 or 2 might make you a bit queasy and they are clearly labelled. But if you’re in the former group 99.7% doesn’t look so great.

A fair point. I’m 52, double jabbed, and not sure what my individual odds are now.

We will need to get on with our lives, but not quite like we used to and not quite yet, unfortunately many have decided the time is now and it’s party time.

Absolutely though out and about today and masks and sanitiser still in use by the vast majority

Had an interesting meeting at work. Basically we can provide an environment that will allow ‘covid secure’ occupation but what will keep it open and operational is people/the occupants sticking to the ‘rules’.

Yep my offices planning to open on a rota of 2 days in 3 days out,I’m not sure the real benefit it’s going to bring TBH.

We’ve managed to work reasonably effectively for the last year remotely and are now part of a group of companies on 3 continents so most communication would be remote anyway.

Only thing I can think is that some opportunist slackers need a bit of whipping.

Only thing I can think is that some opportunist slackers need a bit of whipping.

You can still slack in an office, you just do things differently.

This is coming from an experienced slacker.

Insightful.
Would you care to explain the difference between case fatality rates and the effect of longer term morbidity on public health and the effect of nhs capacity on non communicable diseases such as cancer survival

I doubt it. He’s probably got a white van to drive to a cash in hand job bodging some hapless pensioner’s roof tiles back in with epoxy. Before driving, maskless obviously, to the pub with his mates shouting ‘oi-oi’ out of the window every so often.

Steady on, he hasn’t even called you a bedwetter yet or accused you of hiding behind the sofa.

Pre-emptive strike seems to be the new way

Pre-emptive strike seems to be the new way

Antagonise first, ask questions later.

Life is too short to spare the feelings of Flat Earth Brexity types who don’t understand basic probabilities.

🤷‍♂️

If you’re in the ‘former group’, you’ve been given the opportunity to get vaccinated by now which reduces your chances of death or serious illness to somewhat less. For the vaccinated risks are now IMO acceptable. Time to work on measures that mean the vaccinated can get on with life (with masks where appropriate) if they so wish but make life complicated for those who aren’t.

In France this strategy is perhaps more acceptable because everyone over 12 will have had the chance to get fully vaccinated by the end of July. Those that aren’t haven’t used available slots. That will soon be the case in the UK too.

You can’t help people who won’t help themselves so exclude them.

You can’t help people who won’t help themselves so exclude them.

Yep. And looking at the demographic of the anti-vax, anti-lockdown mob, it will improve the ambience of a lot of places if they’re not allowed in. Keep them in the flat-roofed shitholes. 👍

We’ve managed to work reasonably effectively for the last year remotely and are now part of a group of companies on 3 continents so most communication would be remote anyway.

Only thing I can think is that some opportunist slackers need a bit of whipping.

or… maybe just maybe people actually want to be in the office. As someone that has spent the last 18 or so month either working from a sofa or kitchen table i cant wait to get back in the office. My house is my home not where i wish to work.

or… maybe just maybe people actually want to be in the office.

For me personally it’s fine – I have my darling wife to keep me company, and there’s always the dogs. Oh, and the children if I need someone to tell me how useless I am.

But for people I work with:
– One person has pretty much lived completely alone for the past 18 months since he’s terrified of getting infected and has no immediate family
– Several people live in rented rooms, so they live in a bedroom surrounded by company equipment (TVs, monitors, computers, test kit, blah, blah).
– Several people have really hard home lives. Not everyone lives the idyllic dream home life. It’s not much fun working at home for these people.
– One person has got so fed up that he’s gone back to Romania, which is kind of a PITA.

I have a work colleague who split up with his wife in lockdown last year, and couldn’t afford to move out. He’s now in the spare room working from home and his wife is in the marital bedroom with her new partner. I count myself very lucky that I have a dedicated office and a harmonious home life but I can entirely see why some people are chomping at the bit to get back in to the office.

He’s now in the spare room working from home and his wife is in the marital bedroom with her new partner.

Patient caring type is she?

Patient caring type is she?

Erm, no. His mental health is a bit **** to be honest as you’d expect. I’ve been trying to get him back in the office as much as possible as it just does him good to mix with others. But he needs help to move out and there’s not much I can do in that regard unfortunately.

Colleague of mine in London has been living and working from his studio flat, which has no windows whatsoever, since the start of the first lockdown. As he said, before that he was barely in there except to sleep. Others have it harder, as illustrated by the above examples.

He’s now in the spare room working from home and his wife is in the marital bedroom with her new partner

I’d have built a new double size patio many months ago.

Erm, no. His mental health is a bit **** to be honest as you’d expect. I’ve been trying to get him back in the office as much as possible as it just does him good to mix with others. But he needs help to move out and there’s not much I can do in that regard unfortunately.

I can’t imagine anything more horrible to put someone through, he needs away from that, if it was me I’d be walking from a burning building with the pair of them gaffer taped to the bed.

I just did a PCR test, negative, got friends coming for a covid free lunch tomorrow, why am I not hearing about everyone doing this? they are free, take 2 mins to do(and wait 30 mins for result) and you just pick them up at most pharmacies or order online, is it not a widespread thing yet?

That’s not a PCR test, it’s a lateral flow and they’re not as accurate.

I just did a PCR test, negative, got friends coming for a covid free lunch tomorrow, why am I not hearing about everyone doing this? they are free, take 2 mins to do(and wait 30 mins for result) and you just pick them up at most pharmacies or order online, is it not a widespread thing yet?

Dear god it’s painful isn’t it!!!

Calling bullshit on the 99.7 percent and doing a full Tim Hatfield on that.
So it kills 3 in every 1000 people
So that’s 30 in every 10,000
300 in 100,000
3000 in a million
Population of uk, 67 million
So by those stats, in total about 201,000 people will die in the uk with it.

Hmmmmmm, but we are already upto 153,000 deaths.so less than 50,000 more deaths to go then, and then no one will have to care about COVID ever again……

Oh hang on, I don’t think in my circle of friends and family 3/4 of us have had it. But maybe that’s just me, think about your own social group?

( government website says so far 5 ish million people have caught it in the uk, which I think is an underestimation, but I very much doubt it’s 1000 percent higher at around 50 million)

( and yes I know covid has killed a greater percentage of the older /co morbidity people
So far, but then people will age and get older and sicker every day

Lateral flow tests are pretty useless. Self tested false negatives are a huge issue.

the only reason we are using them is out corrupt “government” bought twelfty billion of the useless things

We are doing that with lateral flow if seeing anyone remotely vulnerable- as I think many are.

Lateral flow tests are pretty useless. Self tested false negatives are a huge issue.

All 4 manufacturers LF will pick up (at above 70% sensitivity) cases with a high viral load (those folk who will likely spread the disease) so the test will generally find the ones it generally needs to. They’re not fantastically totally accurate, especially used by untrained people, but then they don’t need to be.

The Pharmaceutical Journal May 2021

the only reason we are using them is out corrupt “government” bought twelfty billion of the useless things

Not known as ‘Christmas Cracker Tests’ for nothing – amongst those in the know.

Not known as ‘Christmas Cracker Tests’ for nothing – amongst those in the know.

And in other news, myself and better half tested ourselves, she got a pretty much instant positive. I got negative, the result was mirrored with the PCR test. Mine took a day longer to come back for whatever reason.

I’m double jabbed, she’s only had one so far, she’s ill, I’m fine and still negative on the lateral flow.

Anyway – stop cowering – Sajid’s made a full recovery!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57958538

I think Sajid is clever enough to have picked his words carefully.

Looking for advice please.

All of our household have now tested positive. Me and Mrs Fazzini both double jabbed.

Mrs and youngest end original isolation on 27th confirmed by T&T who rang us about the youngest one, me on 29th. Eldest has just tested positive today despite us all being so careful as he was isolating anyway. When do we all have to isolate to? Cannot find this scenario on any official gov or NHS info. Do we all have to isolate for a further 10 days from yesterday when he first showed symptoms or just our original dates? Thanks.

Lateral flow tests are pretty useless. Self tested false negatives are a huge issue.

the only reason we are using them is out corrupt “government” bought twelfty billion of the useless things

It doesn’t help that it’s easy to do them wrong and get a negative even if you’re full of the virus. There’s loads of info online about how to cheat them so you can go to that festival, gig etc.
A friend’s work group is currently isolating after one of them went down with symptoms and managed to pass it on to all 4 of them despite them all taking lateral flow tests twice a week. The original guy took the test that morning and it came back clear but was showing symptoms by mid-morning, did the PCR that afternoon and it came back positive a few days later. The rest did laterals again in the afternoon and all still came back negative but two have now developed symptoms and then tested positive, the other two positive. All have now tested positive with the PCR tests so the lateral flow tests pretty much completely missed the virus.

The government have put all of their bets on the lateral flow tests, track and trace and good old common sense working and all 3 have major flaws. Put all 3 together and it’s easy to see how the virus can bypass it all, let alone when people are not doing it correctly or deliberately trying to avoid getting ‘caught’ with it.

Looks like Javid has deleted that tweet. Still, a nice signal to those anti-bedwetter types that someone is thinking of them.

come out and play

It doesn’t help that it’s easy to do them wrong and get a negative even if you’re full of the virus. There’s loads of info online about how to cheat them so you can go to that festival, gig etc.
A friend’s work group is currently isolating after one of them went down with symptoms and managed to pass it on to all 4 of them despite them all taking lateral flow tests twice a week. The original guy took the test that morning and it came back clear but was showing symptoms by mid-morning, did the PCR that afternoon and it came back positive a few days later. The rest did laterals again in the afternoon and all still came back negative but two have now developed symptoms and then tested positive, the other two positive. All have now tested positive with the PCR tests so the lateral flow tests pretty much completely missed the virus.

Having done tens of lateral flow tests now I do wonder if I am the weak link in the testing regime. In reality it relies on you wanting to do a thorough job of making yourself gag down your throat then sneeze up your nose. I’ve caught myself a few times not doing a proper job as subconsciously I’d rather not do either.

But….PCR’s better…..my one experience of a PCR at a drive in it was still me unsupervised in my car performing the same joyous acts. Does the PCR do a substantially better job with the same mediocre sample? It’s still an untrained idiot poking a stick in an orifice.

Yep. And looking at the demographic of the anti-vax, anti-lockdown mob, it will improve the ambience of a lot of places if they’re not allowed in. Keep them in the flat-roofed shitholes

Strange that, the few people that I know that have decided not to have the vaccine yet are really nice people

And the surrounding groups of friends that have been vaxxed don’t shout them down, chastise, or exclude them from anything. They let them get on with living their life how they see fit and carry on being friends with them.

All people that I’d much rather spend time with than some on here with the views they express

Still, this is a group of people on here that agree with throwing someone out of a house party because thay have a different voting bias to them, so I wouldn’t expect it to be much different tbh

…And a full apology https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57961870

deleted that tweet.

I don’t believe there is any such thing now. From Twitter, maybe.

My friend is a widow. Her husband didn’t cower – he caught COVID in hospital when he was admitted for something unrelated due to his progressive MS.

Playing with data to try and make sense of the recent downturn in cases…

Strange that, the few people that I know that have decided not to have the vaccine yet are really nice people

Aye, there’s a small group on here that like to think that antivax = Brexiteer, Tory, petrol head, lager swilling, right wing, blah blah blah.

Which is obviously utter horseshite.

Aye, there’s a small group on here that like to think that antivax = Brexiteer, Tory, petrol head, lager swilling, right wing, blah blah blah.

Which is obviously utter horseshite.

Whilst there maybe some truth in this, of those in my acquaintance who I know have not taken the vaccine offer they fall rather precisely into two categories – those that make a habit of making very unwise or not though through life choices that come back to bite them on the bum and those that ply their trade in sales. Again, only from a very small sample set but the former group have been swayed by the social media untried/test stuff and the latter group have made a personal (and in my mind self centred) choice that cost/risk benefit of them taking it is not worth it especially as the ‘sheeple’ are all taking it so the risk to them has come down anyway without having to add any personal risk from the vaccine.

Neither group has a huge number of brexity nobbers specifically . They have not been shunned by their peers but I’d say relationships have cooled with their vaccinated friends and neighbours. The former group are considered ill informed, the later just plain selfish (but they always were).

Aye, there’s a small group on here that like to think that antivax = Brexiteer, Tory, petrol head, lager swilling, right wing, blah blah blah.

Nope.

Aye, there’s a small group on here that like to think that shouty, loudmouthed chavvy antivax = a bit dim and entitled therefore more likely to be Brexiteer, not necessarily Tory, petrol head Well if driving a souped-up Citroën saxo mens petrolhead, lager swilling as well as prosecco and chardonnay, right wing in the new selfish sense, blah blah blah.

FTFY

I only know of one person who refuses the jag tbh, my sis in law, she’s a worrier who really, really wanted kids, struggled and had to work at it, then one of her kids spent a long time in hospital as a baby. She really looks for things that may harm her kids, as it’s all she thinks about.

She’s not any of those other stereotypes.

An even smaller sample than you though convert!

Edit – citreon saxo? **** me, you’ve been isolating for a long while dannyboy! 🤣🤣🤣