SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

I hate when people say shit like this as soon as anyone even remotely suggests that we shouldn't just go full throttle back into lockdown or take extreme measures, as if to say I don't care about people's health and wellbeing, when it's the total opposite. I never said we don't need to worry at all, far from it. I've been taking more care than most when it comes to Covid-19. Since cases started going up again we've cancelled all visits to friends and family, don't go out for food or drink or whatnot. I don't want to catch it, or my partner to catch it, or my family, I know how much of a bastard it is.

But stopping it outright at the cost of all else can't be the endgame here, it's going to be around for a while and I just think we need to figure out a way to live with it. Keeping vulernable people isolated, cancelling cancer screenings and outpatient appointments, and delaying surgeries endlessly that are already massively delayed is a fecking dangerous situation to be in, never mind the economic effects. Right now our hospitals have never been quieter and that's a really BAD thing, because when things start to go back to normal, it's going to be horrendous. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are terrified of how bad things will get again once this is over.

For the record, I fecking loved lockdown. If another lockdown was announced tomorrow, from a personal perspective, I'd be delighted. Work from home full time, no commitments, save a fortune, no commuting, not have to go to stupid rearranged weddings, it's the best! But I think another one would be very, very bad for the country overall, is all.
Great post, especially the final paragraph. Lockdown was awesome from my point of view.
 
Why does Australia take any outbreak so seriously and go into full lockdown again? They do this with even relatively few cases. Yet here in the UK, we've got cases popping off left and right and everything is opening again here? The difference is incredible.

I'm not saying we should live in full lockdown until it's gone, but we seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. I was in the supermarket the other day and only half the people had masks on.
I think it might be because they have relatively few cases and the possibility of eliminating the virus from the everyday community which in turn. leads to back to normal life. Also its one state thats locked down and largely focussed on one big city.
 
I work in a shop between Salford and Bolton (the two most infectious areas in the country) and we still have people coming in without masks, paying cash. Amazes me.

I think a lot of people are simply not arsed about being alive.
Was at a petrol station yesterday with the missus and it had a massive sign up before you go into the store basically saying no mask, no service

Most people were great apart from 3 or 4 I saw in a 15 minute window. Just marching in with a look on their face spoiling for a fight if anyone mentions masks to them
 
Italy 1,108 cases and 12 deaths. It's not shooting up as I thought it might, which is good news.

Other news on quarantine for travellers entering England (BBC):
Travellers arriving in England from seven Greek islands will have to self-isolate for 14 days from 04:00 BST on Wednesday, Grant Shapps has said.

The islands affected are Crete, Lesvos, Mykonos, Santorini, Serifos, Tinos, and Zakynthos (also known as Zante).

Mr Shapps said "enhanced data" allowed the UK to pinpoint risk in islands, providing flexibility to add or remove them as infection rates change.
 
Don’t think I’ve read any John Cambell stuff. Do you have a link? Could do with some positivity!
He only does videos but he was very good at tracking the pandemic back in January/early February and explaining things in simple English before we all became virus ‘experts‘ :lol:

His video today is on a randomised trial in a Spanish hospital showing very good results using vitamin D combined with standard treatment. It’s something he’s been talking about for months and could possibly explain why certain groups are more vulnerable. Like a lot of these studies though the sample size is small.



Like I say he certainly isn’t a good news merchant. He said this was bad from the start and he’s been very critical of the WHO, the US, the publishing of poor clinical studies in previously respected journals and in particular the UK in dealing with the pandemic.
 
2 local schools in the last half hour in my town have announced years having to isolate for 14 days after 1 day of opening.
 
2 local schools in the last half hour in my town have announced years having to isolate for 14 days after 1 day of opening.
Yeah, our youngest went back on Thursday and today the school have 2 classes that were sent home because of a case.
 
Wow, off your rockers over there.
It's just the way the school has set things up. The year groups are each split into two for "bubbles", they have outdoor breaks together and have the same entrance/exits, so there will have been some interactions between the two classes.
 
I don't think they have to isolate unless they/their child shows symptoms.
They should.

My kids went back to school last week, and within two days my daughter was sent home with a sore throat and temperature. She got tested on Saturday, and result came through negative this morning, but it meant the whole household had to isolate until that came through.
 
Sounds bizarre. Nonsensical
They should.

My kids went back to school last week, and within two days my daughter was sent home with a sore throat and temperature. She got tested on Saturday, and result came through negative this morning, but it meant the whole household had to isolate until that came through.

That was what the text from the school said anyway, I would hope people would self isolate and I know we will in that situation.
 
That was what the text from the school said anyway, I would hope people would self isolate and I know we will in that situation.

I think the school and class should remain open and parents of the infected kid should isolate.
If anyone else gets symptoms, isolate.
Sending entire classes home for two weeks is a recipe for another utterly fecked semester.
 
I think the school and class should remain open and parents of the infected kid should isolate.
If anyone else gets symptoms, isolate.
Sending entire classes home for two weeks is a recipe for another utterly fecked semester.
Do we know roughly how many are asymptomatic?

I currently work in a school and have been wondering whether it makes sense to just send home close contacts until tested or you need to send classes home. If most people are asymptomatic it might not be good enough to wait for symptoms in terms of controlling spread.
We haven't had any cases I know of yet but it'll probably happen at some point.
 
Do we know roughly how many are asymptomatic?

I currently work in a school and have been wondering whether it makes sense to just send home close contacts until tested or you need to send classes home. If most people are asymptomatic it might not be good enough to wait for symptoms in terms of controlling spread.
We haven't had any cases I know of yet but it'll probably happen at some point.

What age are we talking about?
 
What age are we talking about?
I'm mainly dealing with the 6-10 year olds but we have pupils up to 15 or so.
I'm just imagining a situation where one kid or teacher is tested positive and we take too few people out of the school. And so it spreads to the next kid or teacher, rinse and repeat.
 
I'm mainly dealing with the 6-10 year olds but we have pupils up to 15 or so.
I'm just imagining a situation where one kid or teacher is tested positive and we take too few people out of the school. And so it spreads to the next kid or teacher, rinse and repeat.

But that hasn’t been happening in Europe in those age groups, why would it here?
Schools of young kids don’t seem to be an issue, not sure why the UK is desperate to make them one.
 
But that hasn’t been happening in Europe in those age groups, why would it here?
Schools of young kids don’t seem to be an issue, not sure why the UK is desperate to make them one.
I don't know. It just seems like something that could spiral, it's good it hasn't happened and doesn't seem to though, obviously.
 
I don't know. It just seems like something that could spiral, it's good it hasn't happened and doesn't seem to though, obviously.

The UK just seem to be making way too big a deal out of it, the science and data so far doesn’t appear to make it any big issue.
Schools will never get going if you’re gonna shut it down for 14 days everytime someone catches this virus. For kids they are appear way more likely to catch it at home from parents and don’t look like any significant driver in the spread.
 
I received an invite to have one of those at home antibody tests the government are doing for their research. Has anyone else done one of those?
 
The UK just seem to be making way too big a deal out of it, the science and data so far doesn’t appear to make it any big issue.
Schools will never get going if you’re gonna shut it down for 14 days everytime someone catches this virus. For kids they are appear way more likely to catch it at home from parents and don’t look like any significant driver in the spread.
I agree with that. And I do think schools should be kept open as much as possible.
Although I'm sure we'll see entire classes send home around Denmark with intermittent online teaching as people wait for their test results.
 
I received an invite to have one of those at home antibody tests the government are doing for their research. Has anyone else done one of those?
My partner got one today. Quiet looking forward to finding out if we’ve had it or not, weirdly!
 
But that hasn’t been happening in Europe in those age groups, why would it here?
Schools of young kids don’t seem to be an issue, not sure why the UK is desperate to make them one.

Like all viruses schools will be major drivers especially in winter. That very young kids have far fewer symptoms (and thus get tested less so we underestimate infection rates as well) isn't really that relevant as they have older siblings, parents and grandparents.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/14/school-reopenings-covid-19-coronavirus-us

Of course you want schools open but to do it safely you need very low overall infection rates and be prepared to close and deep clean individual schools very quickly combined with very speedy track and trace.
 
I received an invite to have one of those at home antibody tests the government are doing for their research. Has anyone else done one of those?

I have as well from UCL, waiting for the test to come in the post.
 
Why does Australia take any outbreak so seriously and go into full lockdown again? They do this with even relatively few cases. Yet here in the UK, we've got cases popping off left and right and everything is opening again here? The difference is incredible.

I'm not saying we should live in full lockdown until it's gone, but we seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. I was in the supermarket the other day and only half the people had masks on.
I believe it's only Melbourne in Australia who is taking lockdown seriously. The rest of the states who have really low or no cases are simply stopping anyone from coming in but everything else there is pretty much normal. Also, Melbourne's Premier Dan Andrews is being portrayed as left wing looney in the media but I don't know whether that is true considering most of the sites that pop up in my news feed are right leaning for some reason.
 
I received an invite to have one of those at home antibody tests the government are doing for their research. Has anyone else done one of those?
I had one about a month ago that came back negative it's a fingerprick blood test, you get the results within ten minutes.
 
Like all viruses schools will be major drivers especially in winter. That very young kids have far fewer symptoms (and thus get tested less so we underestimate infection rates as well) isn't really that relevant as they have older siblings, parents and grandparents.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/14/school-reopenings-covid-19-coronavirus-us

Of course you want schools open but to do it safely you need very low overall infection rates and be prepared to close and deep clean individual schools very quickly combined with very speedy track and trace.

The link you sent has already been seriously questioned by Pogue, as some states classify kids up to 24. Nor does the report focus on schools and transmission within them, it’s just a report on kids which have been shown to be much more likely to get Covid from a parent than in school.
The “yellow” (0-14) incidence on the report just adds weight to the European findings.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...rus-outbreaks-exception-not-norm-first-major/

They aren’t a major driver. Don’t take my word for it, here’s the ECDC:

The ECDC concluded that the evidence shows that “transmission within schools is not a major driver of COVID-19 incidence”.

There’s no point making a sweeping statement like, “like with all viruses” when plenty of evidence to the contrary is already in and we know without any doubt that this virus is special with kids, the flu is much more deadly to them. Hell, for the vast vast majority of young kids, the common cold is a worse experience.
 
Last edited:
Like all viruses schools will be major drivers especially in winter. That very young kids have far fewer symptoms (and thus get tested less so we underestimate infection rates as well) isn't really that relevant as they have older siblings, parents and grandparents.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/14/school-reopenings-covid-19-coronavirus-us

Of course you want schools open but to do it safely you need very low overall infection rates and be prepared to close and deep clean individual schools very quickly combined with very speedy track and trace.

True, sars cov 2 isn't going anywhere though.

All scientific research points to it essentially being new flu, too mild and mutable for vaccination to ever get rid of it.

We can take these actions and have lockdowns. There will be no end though, they'll continue forever.

I have an eviseral hatred of the mail, so excuse this link below:

It's written by Sir John Bell though, who is highly involved with our vaccine development at Oxford university.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/...live-terror-cut-world-Britain-open-again.html

My view is they've already realised any vaccine will be non sterilising and like the yearly flu vaccine best case scenario. So we must get back to normal life asap. No other choice.
 
Italy 1,108 cases and 12 deaths. It's not shooting up as I thought it might, which is good news.

Other news on quarantine for travellers entering England (BBC):

In Lombardy it has dropped right off again the last couple of days which gives a little hope that now all the August travel has stopped it will get back under control.