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

So, guys whats your take on Primary kids going back to school, in terms of 10 v 14 days? (Ireland)

My kids came home from school sick on Friday 4th, with runny noses, sneezing, and then over the weekend a slight cough. They peaked with their symptoms over that weekend but we kept them off the entire next week and yesterday. They’ve been grand for a few days. We didn’t test them because we couldn’t get through to our gp and pretty soon it became apparent it was most likely only a simple cold
 
So, guys whats your take on Primary kids going back to school, in terms of 10 v 14 days? (Ireland)

My kids came home from school sick on Friday 4th, with runny noses, sneezing, and then over the weekend a slight cough. They peaked with their symptoms over that weekend but we kept them off the entire next week and yesterday. They’ve been grand for a few days. We didn’t test them because we couldn’t get through to our gp and pretty soon it became apparent it was most likely only a simple cold

Any fever?

The reason being you only need to isolate for 10 days from start of symptoms, providing no fever over last 5 days. So if they’ve been fever free since middle of last week you can send them in to school tomorrow.
 
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Any fever?

The reason being you only need to isolate for 10 days from start of symptoms, providing no fever over last 5 days. So if they’ve been fever free since middle of last week you can send them in to school tomorrow.
Not for 4 or 5 days. My wife thought one of them had a temperature today but I’m not convinced, he’d been playing in the garden today and it was very warm. Neither of them have had nurofen or the likes for about 4-5 days.

Edit: I think we’re gonna keep them off the full 14 days to be sure. Our school has a confirmed case though supposedly the child hadn’t been in school
 
Not for 4 or 5 days. My wife thought one of them had a temperature today but I’m not convinced, he’d been playing in the garden today and it was very warm. Neither of them have had nurofen or the likes for about 4-5 days.

Edit: I think we’re gonna keep them off the full 14 days to be sure. Our school has a confirmed case though supposedly the child hadn’t been in school

Dude, you need to get a thermometer. Solid investment for any parent at the best of times but absolutely essential in a pandemic!

No harm erring on the side of caution re return to school. If only all parents were that sensible :(
 
Seen this on reddit. A graph of hospitalisations in the last 49 days up to 12/9

n14m2zunj5n51.jpg
 
Seen this on reddit. A graph of hospitalisations in the last 49 days up to 12/9

n14m2zunj5n51.jpg

Presume that’s the Uk? Grim but utterly predictable. It was crazy the way so many people managed to kid themselves this virus had completely changed the way it affected people since we were watching Italian intensivists in floods of tears about having to let patients die for lack of ventilators. That was just 5 months ago ffs.
 
Presume that’s the Uk? Grim but utterly predictable. It was crazy the way so many people managed to kid themselves this virus had completely changed the way it affected people since we were watching Italian intensivists in floods of tears about having to let patients die for lack of ventilators. That was just 5 months ago ffs.
Yeah its the UK

Totally agree though. People just want to move on and forget about it. Peoples attitudes have turned pretty selfish.
 
Dude, you need to get a thermometer. Solid investment for any parent at the best of times but absolutely essential in a pandemic!

No harm erring on the side of caution re return to school. If only all parents were that sensible :(
I do have one but I don’t trust it’s accuracy. Need to get a better one sourced
 
To ignore the long term effect experienced by those who survive is irresponsible. Death rate is far from the only consideration.

The mayo clinic must also be irresponsible
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases...th/coronavirus-long-term-effects/art-20490351

The lancet must also be as they openly acknowledge the effects and want more research to better understand the issue - which is of course a great idea. Not fully knowing something doesn't mean it doesn't exist so you can pretend that it isn't a problem.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30701-5/fulltext

Easy reading versions of this sort of info are all over the place as well.
https://hmri.org.au/news-article/what-are-long-term-symptoms-covid-19
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ovid-19-s-lingering-problems-alarm-scientists
Ironically the article you posted says this
And this....



I think @Bullhitter is just making a point about not speaking in absolutes which you maybe are sometimes guilty of.

Absolutely, pardon the pun.

Try reading your own links Wibble from a neutral point of view because what they do is back up my post, not yours. You know next to nothing about how frequent, how severe or how long term the effects are, certainly a lot less than the experts you are referencing in your reach to try and justify your absolute post of "they are frequent and often long term" yet you are the one making statements of a factual nature while those same experts acknowledge that a bigger and deeper sample over a longer time frame as well as analysis is needed.
 
Behind a paywall mate can you summarise it? Can’t even see the title.
With the FT just type the headline into Google and it will come up for free. Basically it's saying richer countries have bagged all the early vaccine production and the poorest countries might have to wait a couple of years to get enough. Whilst neglecting to mention that if a vaccine does prove successful huge further investment in production will certainly follow. This is supposed to upset Wibs in some way, but I haven't worked that bit out yet sorry.
 
Lockdown cycling won't work effectively. At least not in the UK.

If you lockdown then open up then lockdown again, people aren't going to follow the guidelines in between. Any slight relaxation of the rules will lead to people forgetting about the virus altogether. A semi-lockdown is the same as no lockdown in that scenario, because people will take a take a mile when given an inch.

We don't have the requisite sense of social responsibility in this country for it to be viable (just look at the low level of mask wearing). The only self-regulating social force that exists here is public shame (which, again, is why so many people who do wear masks do so over their chins to only make it look like their doing the right thing). But when it's easy to get lost in the crowd, public shame stops being a motivator. That's why social distancing has been so often ignored in the last few weeks. Once it becomes possible to hide in plain sight, that's what we do.
 
With the FT just type the headline into Google and it will come up for free. Basically it's saying richer countries have bagged all the early vaccine production and the poorest countries might have to wait a couple of years to get enough. Whilst neglecting to mention that if a vaccine does prove successful huge further investment in production will certainly follow. This is supposed to upset Wibs in some way, but I haven't worked that bit out yet sorry.
Thanks. Definitely going to be big issues in vaccinating poorer countries. Scale of production being one problem to solve (also applies to rich countries), another being the cold chain. Think the Oxford vaccine requires a -70 cold chain, which doesn’t seem realistic for a lot of countries. Not sure about the Moderna one.

As you say, there will be unprecedented funding for production, I mean there already is with vaccines being produced ahead of approval. But there needs to be more, ideally defence budget amounts of money.
 
Or, you’ll end up in the same position in December with an outbreak. No-one knows, your first lockdown didn’t prevent it and so there is no guarantee the second one will either.

But the countries with the best track and trace will likely be those that do best.

Agreed. There's no long term guarantee's. It's madness to think some people are behind the thinking that once Victoria re-opens then all will be good, and there won't be any more case outbreaks etc.

With these lockdowns set the way they are, you just open yourself up to putting them in place every time there is an outbreak.

Let's just follow the Premier train of thought, cases number are well to high to open up at the minute (there 40-50 cases per day)
When I say open up, I mean remove a curfew that is 9PM-5AM. Nothing is open, only allowed outside for an hour a day and only allowed to leave your home for 4 main reasons, so let's just say he's right and 40-50 cases per day warrants that. He's not putting these restrictions in place to help the healthcare system, he's doing it to get the numbers low as it's too dangerous to open up.

Now let's say the vaccine doesn't arrive till 2022 which is a possibility. Cases go down to under 10 in November/start of Dec as planned. Businesses start to open, people make plans etc etc. Another outbreak, cases start to rise to 20-30. Based on previous choices that weren't decided on a whim but 'backed by data' and 'had to be put in place to save Victorian lives', surely another lockdown is the right way to go? Lockdown again for 2months? Rinse and repeat with 2021 in lockdown for more than half a year.
 
You said this: "What has kept NSW, Western Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany living “normal lives” is widespread testing and track/trace ability, not lockdown."

Which is a brazen lie for Germany. I'm fairly confident it will be a lie for the other countries too, if looked at seriously, but I will only argue for Germany.

I can’t speak for the other places but the track and trace in NSW has been a bit of clusterfeck in all honesty. It hasn’t been a roaring success thats for sure.

I’m sure the reasons why NSW and Victoria had different covid rates are due to lots of different factors but I’d guess a big part of it is just variance, to be honest. The strategy of both states was pretty much the same until Victoria spiked.

As an aside, one of the most glaring comparisons is China vs. Hong Kong IMO and i think we can draw some pretty strong conclusions on the effectiveness of masks from that.
 
I can’t speak for the other places but the track and trace in NSW has been a bit of clusterfeck in all honesty. It hasn’t been a roaring success thats for sure.

I’m sure the reasons why NSW and Victoria had different covid rates are due to lots of different factors but I’d guess a big part of it is just variance, to be honest. The strategy of both states was pretty much the same until Victoria spiked.

As an aside, one of the most glaring comparisons is China vs. Hong Kong IMO and i think we can draw some pretty strong conclusions on the effectiveness of masks from that.
What conclusions would these be?
 
What conclusions would these be?

That masks do a good job of limiting the spread. Mask prevalence was close to 100% in HK almost immediately after the outbreak. Despite proximity to China (there is a direct train to Wuhan), a heavy reliance of public transport and being one of the most densely populated places in the world, they’ve had less than 5000 cases and a hundred deaths.

Lots of other factors I’m sure but it’s an interesting real life case study.
 
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Agreed. There's no long term guarantee's. It's madness to think some people are behind the thinking that once Victoria re-opens then all will be good, and there won't be any more case outbreaks etc.

With these lockdowns set the way they are, you just open yourself up to putting them in place every time there is an outbreak.

Let's just follow the Premier train of thought, cases number are well to high to open up at the minute (there 40-50 cases per day)
When I say open up, I mean remove a curfew that is 9PM-5AM. Nothing is open, only allowed outside for an hour a day and only allowed to leave your home for 4 main reasons, so let's just say he's right and 40-50 cases per day warrants that. He's not putting these restrictions in place to help the healthcare system, he's doing it to get the numbers low as it's too dangerous to open up.

Now let's say the vaccine doesn't arrive till 2022 which is a possibility. Cases go down to under 10 in November/start of Dec as planned. Businesses start to open, people make plans etc etc. Another outbreak, cases start to rise to 20-30. Based on previous choices that weren't decided on a whim but 'backed by data' and 'had to be put in place to save Victorian lives', surely another lockdown is the right way to go? Lockdown again for 2months? Rinse and repeat with 2021 in lockdown for more than half a year.
It's a good point. I don't think continuous cycles of lockdown is a viable plan for the future, but do you think that is the plan? I don't think Victoria would go for another lockdown like this one.

I know there are plans to improve testing capabilities to try and address the reasons that caused the last spike. If this lockdown hasn't been used as an opportunity to put systems in place to keep future numbers low then that is a massive failure in planning.

I can see some measures like indoor masks being the norm for years to come.

What level of virus Aus is willing to accept is a difficult question to judge. How would states and territories with months of hardly any cases feel opening up to Vic and/or NSW right now?

Should Australia be giving up its low case numbers to get more into line with what is going on around the world? What are the advantages of that?

What I hope is that this lockdown has bought time to put robust systems and measures in place so that we can handle larger outbreaks going forward and keep the virus suppressed. Allowing internal Australian borders to open up. Maybe that is too optimistic?

Also you would hope other states have learnt from what happened here.
 
Absolutely, pardon the pun.

Try reading your own links Wibble from a neutral point of view because what they do is back up my post, not yours. You know next to nothing about how frequent, how severe or how long term the effects are, certainly a lot less than the experts you are referencing in your reach to try and justify your absolute post of "they are frequent and often long term" yet you are the one making statements of a factual nature while those same experts acknowledge that a bigger and deeper sample over a longer time frame as well as analysis is needed.
I don't read "frequent" and "often" aren't absolute terms; they're usually with respect to some other quantity.
My understanding is that the point being made was that consideration is needed for more than just deaths vs full recovery, that there are in-between states.
Semantically, one could argue:

1) Other health issues are "frequent" - common with respect to deaths (comparable numerically), and when they occur they are usually longer-term than the typical covid recovery time (~numerically more likely to be >2 weeks).
2) Other health issues are "infrequent" - uncommon with respect to full recoveries (much smaller numerically), meaning that they "rarely" affect people long-term overall.

In my opinion, the first interpretation of the post is more logical, and has support in the articles.
Research is ongoing.
 
@Regulus Arcturus Black

Thanks I read it, can delete it if its gunna get FT lawyers swarming all over the cafe.

Yeah some huge challenges to be overcome manufacturing and distributing vaccines thats for sure. You would hope the world can come together, stump up the cash, and solve these problems but given the current political climate it will probably be every country for itself with poorer countries getting forgotten about.
 
Priti Patel on BBC insisting that Covid tests are available in the high risk areas of the UK...
Just listening to a number of people phoning in to the BBC saying exactly the opposite. One lady in Essex this morning says that the closest available test was in Aberdeen.
Another from Greater Manchester who was told by the NHS111 hotline to get a test was unable to book a test for the last 3 days.

So. Who do you believe??
 
Priti Patel on BBC insisting that Covid tests are available in the high risk areas of the UK...
Just listening to a number of people phoning in to the BBC saying exactly the opposite. One lady in Essex this morning says that the closest available test was in Aberdeen.
Another from Greater Manchester who was told by the NHS111 hotline to get a test was unable to book a test for the last 3 days.

So. Who do you believe??

Maybe it's getting worse in Greater Manchester but my work colleague last week got a test and results and was back in work for Monday. Andy Burnham was claiming that cases have been so high in Greater Manchester because the testing has been very good. I know that previously you could get tests no problem round here (Oldham & North Manchester) from multiple sites.
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54146833

Covid related. Unemployment rose from 3.9 to 4.1% with young people being hit hardest.

What's going to happen here? I can well imagine young people are seen as problematic hires while companies are adjusting to remote working conditions. I don't think it's right myself, certainly not trying to adjust to a 'new normal'.

I've anecdotally seen reports of numerous graduates having their grad schemes cancelled, with more feeling that they're battling a slew of over-qualified people for roles (which a few hiring friends have attested to)

I imagine it'll get worse too with the job retention/furlough scheme ending next month. Just sucks.
 
Presume that’s the Uk? Grim but utterly predictable. It was crazy the way so many people managed to kid themselves this virus had completely changed the way it affected people since we were watching Italian intensivists in floods of tears about having to let patients die for lack of ventilators. That was just 5 months ago ffs.
Yeah, but eat out to help out cured the virus, no?
 
That masks do a good job of limiting the spread. Mask prevalence was close to 100% in HK almost immediately after the outbreak. Despite proximity to China (there is a direct train to Wuhan), a heavy reliance of public transport and being one of the most densely populated places in the world, they’ve had less than 5000 cases and a hundred deaths.

Lots of other factors I’m sure but it’s an interesting real life case study.

Hong Kongers are also very good at following the rules. Social distancing means social distancing over there.

There definitely seems to be a correlation between virus cases and how willing/able people are to follow whatever rules have been set.
 
Hong Kongers are also very good at following the rules. Social distancing means social distancing over there.

There definitely seems to be a correlation between virus cases and how willing/able people are to follow whatever rules have been set.

Yep it seems that way. Though rather ironically masks were banned in HK when Coronavirus started but everyone ignored it
 
Priti Patel on BBC insisting that Covid tests are available in the high risk areas of the UK...
Just listening to a number of people phoning in to the BBC saying exactly the opposite. One lady in Essex this morning says that the closest available test was in Aberdeen.
Another from Greater Manchester who was told by the NHS111 hotline to get a test was unable to book a test for the last 3 days.

So. Who do you believe??

It's probably a bit of both really. We're in the Greater Manchester area and I know my sister in law had to try constantly for a few days to get an appointment for my niece to have a test and they also require photo ID for them (they tell you this after you've booked in btw), which seems a bit unnecessary.
Essex to Aberdeen seems like an issue with the system. :lol:
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54146833

Covid related. Unemployment rose from 3.9 to 4.1% with young people being hit hardest.

What's going to happen here? I can well imagine young people are seen as problematic hires while companies are adjusting to remote working conditions. I don't think it's right myself, certainly not trying to adjust to a 'new normal'.

I've anecdotally seen reports of numerous graduates having their grad schemes cancelled, with more feeling that they're battling a slew of over-qualified people for roles (which a few hiring friends have attested to)

I imagine it'll get worse too with the job retention/furlough scheme ending next month. Just sucks.

I don't think you can blame employers for it, it's not a conscious decision to discriminate against an age group, it's just the natural outcome of the economic conditions. Younger people are competing against many more people with much more experience, and you'd assume it's easier for people with previous employment to try and integrate in a new company in the weird setting of remote working. On top of that, a significant chunk of the jobs that have legitimately gone are the ones which younger people were more inclined to do, in hospitality, retail, etc.

It's one thing about this crisis that is entirely predictable. People coming out of uni now and probably in the next 18 months will have suffer long-term economic effects. We know that from just a decade ago. Still, it has to be said that so far the economic effects have been mitigated pretty well. Governments did learn some things from last time.
 
Yep it seems that way. Though rather ironically masks were banned in HK when Coronavirus started but everyone ignored it
The lack of trust in the government saved our day. As for the rules, they are actually pretty meaningless.
 
I don't think you can blame employers for it, it's not a conscious decision to discriminate against an age group, it's just the natural outcome of the economic conditions. Younger people are competing against many more people with much more experience, and you'd assume it's easier for people with previous employment to try and integrate in a new company in the weird setting of remote working. On top of that, a significant chunk of the jobs that have legitimately gone are the ones which younger people were more inclined to do, in hospitality, retail, etc.

It's one thing about this crisis that is entirely predictable. People coming out of uni now and probably in the next 18 months will have suffer long-term economic effects. We know that from just a decade ago. Still, it has to be said that so far the economic effects have been mitigated pretty well. Governments did learn some things from last time.

Yeah - I don't exactly blame them either. WFH requires a different mindset and adds more pressure so it's understandable that employers would opt for more experienced staff who don't need as much oversight.

However, I would like to see businesses adapt to creating more opportunities because if there's any generation who can handle the challenges of an increasingly digital world, it's this one.
 
Wow, big news here.

After over half a year we can finally visit the missus grandma in her care home without a plexi glas screen like she's in prison. On 1st October the ban on visits will be removed.

The reasons given are the mental health issues many in these homes are suffering, the lower community spread and the systems put in place and lessons learned by care homes since the outbreak March to prevent the virus coming in and from stopping the spread if it does creep in.

Both good news and a little fecking scary too considering how badly they got hit in the first wave.
 
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Wow, big news here.

After over half a year we can finally visit the missus grandma in her care home without a plexi glas screen like she's in prison. On 1st October the ban on visits will be removed.

The reasons given are the mental health issues many in these homes are suffering, the lower community spread and the systems put in place and lessons learned by care homes since the outbreak March to prevent the virus coming into

Both good news and a little fecking scary too considering how badly they got hit in the first wave.

Great news!
 
You to can now snitch on your neighbors.

Coronavirus: Report 'rule of six' breaches, minister urges

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54142699

This bits interesting.

"They come after the UK's reproduction, or R, number escalated to between one and 1.2 for the first time since March."

So all these reports about the "R going back above one" these last few months have been bs upto now.
 
A question..

What is RdRp.. how is it measured.. Does a Covid test measure it.. what levels are fine ? I cant find anything that I can understand when I google.