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

Sent from a newbie

Hey mate, hope you’re good.
Ive been lurking in the covid thread since March (before I even made an account) so I’m heavily invested in it all. I finally ended up having my own experience with it all and thought it would be interesting for others to hear about this all, a reminder of the stupidity and incompetence and why it’s gotten so bad:

Hi all, thought this would be of interest of people invested in the UK and the approach of the people and government. If I could also get one of the smarty pants to let me know what they think of my symptoms and results.

I work in a law firm (you’d have thunk they would be a clever bunch then eh?)they made everyone come back the second they legally could and have pretty much been completely against the idea of WFH the entire time since (even through this second “lockdown” that just went past). We had positive results - not even closed the office for a day. No social distancing, no mask, no temperature checks - they all thought it was one big joke. I’ve been entirely uncomfortable with the whole situation especially considering my family all live together and my parents are over 70, BAME, overweight and my dad has very bad diabetes. Unfortunately I needed this job, so I’ve just been wearing a mask at home and avoiding my parents since I started back in September- thats 5 whole months.

Anyway, I digress. Last Friday, my manager was coughing at work. No one else was taking it seriously but I asked him why he is still in if he has a cough. He started to make a joke about it and even pretended to try and come closer to me as I was doing my best to avoid being anywhere near him.

Of course, the very next day I wake up with a dry cough, I don’t freak out, yet. Sunday, I woke up and the cough was even worse, I still felt completely fine in every other way but was starting to get worried. I then woke up in my sleep at around 5am on Monday with very bad body aches and shivers, and a temperature of 38.7. Boom, it came out of nowhere and I knew I had it at this point.

I then proceeded to find out the next few days at home that my manager who was joking around and someone else both tested positive over the weekend, and there was one individual whom tested positive last week who we had no idea about. Even after the positive test from last week, these dimwits decided it was a good idea for someone with a cough to stay at work. Yeah.

On to my peculiar situation and the shitshow that is our government. I booked my test that Monday (walk thru) and went back home and begin my isolation and waited. Kept waiting. Finally Thursday morning I get a text with my results! Yay!

Except... they forgot to send my actual results. For anyone who has had a test, you know they send you two texts. The first is the confirmation of a -/+ result, and the second is just a template of standard information of COVID. They sent me the second text and literally forgot to text the actual results (didn’t give them my email). So I rang up 119 and told them you guys fecked up and I need a way to find my results, which they informed me they cannot legally chase my results until the 26th December (5 days after test) so I’ve got to twiddle my thumbs and call back tomorrow to finally get the result they’ve had since Thursday morning. Thank you so much Boris and co for all your hard and sensible work!

Sorry for the long post but now I just have one quick question for the ones more knowledgeable than me. Whilst I await confirmation of my test results tomorrow, there is a small code in the second text to register your test in the app - I done so and the app told me my result was negative. I’m still awaiting proper confirmation, however if this is true, I genuinely cannot believe it. I was around people who tested positive and had symptoms - and then the very next few days I get 2 out of 3 of the major COVID symptoms. I am almost certain it was a false negative and that worries me. Anyone care to let me know their thoughts?
 
I would get a second test for sure, even if I had to pay for it. If his parents are high risk, there should be no messing about. From the story told, it’s almost certainly Covid anyway so I would treat it as such and isolate for 14 days anyway, even if I had 10 negative tests!

My friend has it, has had zero symptoms, hasn’t been around anyone at all. It’s a false positive, 99%, but because he’s had a positive, he’s isolating. Same should go for people who have symptoms but get a negative result.
 
I think for people who believe the reaction has been disproportionate; one key reason is the opportunity cost of the trillions that as a result have either been spent on Covid or not earned due to measures introduced.

Had the world wholly ignored the virus* and focused this spend / loss of income on tackling issues such as world poverty or climate change; there's an argument that the years of life saved would be many, many times larger.

If you're sympathetic to that view then we've essentially spent trillions replacing the carpets when the roof is collapsing and the foundations are subsiding.

Truthfully if someone explained the Western reaction to this virus without giving details about the virus itself I'd have assumed the mortality to be several times greater and the average age of death to be much younger (e.g. the very young being disproportionately at risk)

*Not say this was a viable political strategy of course.

The problem is that argument relies on some assumptions that can never be proven because they haven't been tested. It's just a nice thing to believe because it confirms your worldview without ever providing evidence to confirm it or contradict it. How could the grass not be greener if the grass is set in a fantasy? The closest thing to ignoring the virus is the US under Trump in the last few months and it doesn't at all align with the notion that non-corona things would be significantly better if you just ignored it. But that is just swept under the rug because it is inconvenient.
 
"UK Coronavirus" - is this not the equivalent of Trump calling it the China virus? Did we not just spot the variant as we do 45% of the world's sequencing?
"UK Coronavirus Variant" I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. If they said "UK Coronavirus' then yeah it would be a bit wrong but they didn't.
 
"UK Coronavirus Variant" I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. If they said "UK Coronavirus' then yeah it would be a bit wrong but they didn't.

I think it's more the attribution to the UK I guess that bothers me. I know it was discovered here, but is that not due to the UK doing more testing/sequencing? Or was it actually a strain that came from the UK? I thought that would be a stretch considering cases were spiking across Europe before us
 
I think for people who believe the reaction has been disproportionate; one key reason is the opportunity cost of the trillions that as a result have either been spent on Covid or not earned due to measures introduced.

Had the world wholly ignored the virus* and focused this spend / loss of income on tackling issues such as world poverty or climate change; there's an argument that the years of life saved would be many, many times larger.

If you're sympathetic to that view then we've essentially spent trillions replacing the carpets when the roof is collapsing and the foundations are subsiding.

Truthfully if someone explained the Western reaction to this virus without giving details about the virus itself I'd have assumed the mortality to be several times greater and the average age of death to be much younger (e.g. the very young being disproportionately at risk)

*Not say this was a viable political strategy of course.
Like that carpets and roof analogy tbh.
 
Quality control
The median age in ireland is 37 btw. It’s not right for people to keep believing it’s an old person thing
For cases which is irrelevant. Plus the fact that basically any death now is being put down to covid. I’m not denying that it’s a problem but the scaremongering about case numbers is helping no one.
 
The test is horrible man. I had to take it twice and gave it a proper scrub on my tonsils and my right nasal passage. Now I have a blocked nasal passage and my tonsils are sore.
 
For cases which is irrelevant. Plus the fact that basically any death now is being put down to covid. I’m not denying that it’s a problem but the scaremongering about case numbers is helping no one.
If there was no lockdowns do you think the hospital's would be able to cope with covid surges and flu surges, if covid is surging with a loosing of the lockdown, who knows someone you know might be dead from it and you would be giving out about no lockdowns.
 
If there was no lockdowns do you think the hospital's would be able to cope with covid surges and flu surges, if covid is surging with a loosing of the lockdown, who knows someone you know might be dead from it and you would be giving out about no lockdowns.
I've asked him basically this same question numerous times every times he pops up and says Covid is an exaggeration or we should just let it so it's thing or whatever and he never responds. Guy hasn't a clue. Just peddles shite and can't back it up.
 
For cases which is irrelevant. Plus the fact that basically any death now is being put down to covid. I’m not denying that it’s a problem but the scaremongering about case numbers is helping no one.

Sad but so true.

Heard 2 stories from people who know my family and they put down to covid for people who died for other reasons (tuberculosis, and chronic respiratory insuffiency). In one of these stories, one hired a lawyer and made the necessary for the deceased person to pass a covid test - negative

Excess death still remains the best indicator by default to demonstrate the real impact of covid on life expectancy imo
 
Sad but so true.

Heard 2 stories from people who know my family and they put down to covid for people who died for other reasons (tuberculosis, and chronic respiratory insuffiency). In one of these stories, one hired a lawyer and made the necessary for the deceased person to pass a covid test - negative

Excess death still remains the best indicator by default to demonstrate the real impact of covid on life expectancy imo
And excess deaths are higher than "covid deaths" in most places. France seems to be an exception, but difference is small. So it isn't true.
 
I've asked him basically this same question numerous times every times he pops up and says Covid is an exaggeration or we should just let it so it's thing or whatever and he never responds. Guy hasn't a clue. Just peddles shite and can't back it up.
It's not just him, its all the right wing pages on Facebook repeating the same shit without using there brains to figure out we'd be fecked if we let it run free, the thought process is covid had replaced flu deaths, without realising if we hadn't locked down there flu here as well, and in Ireland most of these pages have links to farrage and his cronies spreading misinformation.
 
It does. In the UK excess deaths in 2020 (up until 11 Dec) are running at somewhere between 70 and 80k depending on how you analyse the numbers. That compares to the 68k being reported now (positive test within 28 days) or 79k (death certificate gives covid as main or primary contributory factor). With the recent rise in case numbers - those figures are likely to be up by another 10k+ by new year. If anything in the UK, there's an under-counting of deaths at present.

I don't know the equivalents for Ireland, but I can't imagine there's much incentive to make it look worse than it is.

I'm not unsympathetic to the "it's happening anyway, whatever we do, why delay it?" - warn the old/high risk, then just let it rip perspective. If there was no advantage to mitigation then I'd understand the reasoning. However there is an advantage:
- vaccines on their way
- improved treatments being identified
- collapse of health services and health service personnel reduced

Patience is difficult, but death is forever.
 
If there was no lockdowns do you think the hospital's would be able to cope with covid surges and flu surges, if covid is surging with a loosing of the lockdown, who knows someone you know might be dead from it and you would be giving out about no lockdowns.
Maybe if the billions that have been spent on furlough and eat out to help out whatever other shite the government has poured money intowhile neglecting the health service for decades was actually spent bringing hospitals up to scratch they would be able to cope.
 
And excess deaths are higher than "covid deaths" in most places. France seems to be an exception, but difference is small. So it isn't true.

Each country has its own methodology.
 
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It does. In the UK excess deaths in 2020 (up until 11 Dec) are running at somewhere between 70 and 80k depending on how you analyse the numbers. That compares to 68k (positive test within 28 days) or 79k (death certificate gives covid as main or primary contributory factor). With the recent rise in case numbers - those figures are likely to be up by another 10k+ by new year.

I don't know the equivalents for Ireland, but I can't imagine there's much incentive to make it look worse than it is.

I'm not unsympathetic to the "it's happening anyway, whatever we do, why delay it?" - warn the old/high risk, then just let it rip perspective. If there was no advantage to mitigation then I'd understand the reasoning. However there is an advantage:
- vaccines on their way
- improved treatments being identified
- collapse of health services and health service personnel reduced

Patience is difficult, but death is forever.

Good post.
 
Each country has its own methodology.

This is where I feel WHO have let us down again (as far as I know). I know they have no real enforcement power but if feel they should have got the nation's together and set out what counts as a positive case (the type of test) and what counts as a COVID death.

I feel each country doing their own thing is not helpful and just confused an already chaotic matter
 
There's a lot of unknowns in this arena, including scientific models based on so many assumptions that the outputs are all over the place.

If we're currently making decisions based on a lot of unknowns and were making decisions back in March based on even more; then I'm sure pontificating on different possibilities isn't beyond the pale.



That's the point of an opportunity cost though isn't it? It's about the opportunity.

But to answer the point more directly if given a binary choice to save a million years of wealthy white western life or tens of millions of years of poorer non-white lives; then the latter is obviously preferable.

What a strange comparison. The choice is not saving 'wealthy white western life', all countries which are in the same boat are having to do roughly similar things. India in their lockdown weren't trying to save wealthy white western lives.

It also isn't about some theoretical saving of lives. Currently, across the whole of London, we are really struggling for ICU beds. A lot of places are cancelling elective surgeries again and I imagine this will continue. We're going to be making VERY difficult decisions about who can go to the intensive care unit soon, if some hospitals aren't already. Especially if god forbid you fall unwell with something needing the ICU, which isn't Covid related. Ambulances are taking absolutely ages to arrive at genuine emergencies. The system is swamped and that's with lockdowns. And it isn't just the NHS before someone pipes in with an ideological point. France, Belgium, USA, take your pick of other countries. With health systems which have been close to being overwhelmed or which essentially have.

People still seem to think these measures are put in place to protect 90 year old Doris or Francine or Juana, even though they've got only a few months to live.
 
"UK Coronavirus" - is this not the equivalent of Trump calling it the China virus? Did we not just spot the variant as we do 45% of the world's sequencing?

Its a bit of the boy who cried wolf with this one sadly. Our government have spent so much of the past 9 months proclaiming our 'world beating' response to Covid, when the only thing world beating about it has been in its utter shitness.

It does mean though that when something has actually popped up because of an area that we do seem to be genuinely world beating, its going to become known as the UK variant. :D
 
Concentrating on deaths pushes the impact of those who catch it and are sick to the sidelines. A decent number of people are being hospitalised which gets forgotten somewhat. Also whats forgotten is the impact on economies of those who get sick with it and take time off work. The numbers getting sick with it are considerable and the lost productivity etc will be felt further down the track. The far right want to concentrate on just the deaths and minimise that aspect, they are conveniently ignoring the very large impact of those who are made sick with this and the large number who end up hospitalised
 
What a strange comparison. The choice is not saving 'wealthy white western life', all countries which are in the same boat are having to do roughly similar things. India in their lockdown weren't trying to save wealthy white western lives.

It also isn't about some theoretical saving of lives. Currently, across the whole of London, we are really struggling for ICU beds. A lot of places are cancelling elective surgeries again and I imagine this will continue. We're going to be making VERY difficult decisions about who can go to the intensive care unit soon, if some hospitals aren't already. Especially if god forbid you fall unwell with something needing the ICU, which isn't Covid related. Ambulances are taking absolutely ages to arrive at genuine emergencies. The system is swamped and that's with lockdowns. And it isn't just the NHS before someone pipes in with an ideological point. France, Belgium, USA, take your pick of other countries. With health systems which have been close to being overwhelmed or which essentially have.

People still seem to think these measures are put in place to protect 90 year old Doris or Francine or Juana, even though they've got only a few months to live.
Are you on the frontline? What the situation been like recently (say last few weeks). Has it got dramatically worse?
 
Are you on the frontline? What the situation been like recently (say last few weeks). Has it got dramatically worse?

I am indeed. The situation is pretty shite at the moment. Not quite back at 1st wave levels in my hospital yet but we're getting there again. More and more wards are being turned into full covid wards now, we're having problems where patients come in with other problems asymptomatic from a respiratory point of view and ending up having covid, whilst they've been happily sitting there in an open bay with 3-4 other patients for 2-3 days.

Whole teams going down sick with covid at the same time, ITU almost full again despite the surge capacity kicking in. Having to try to divert patients sometimes. Hospital is full. A&E docs having to review patients in ambulances sometimes. Patients telling us they're waiting for hours on end for ambulances for chest pain or stroke like presentations. Horrible bed block. We're having to start thinking about redeploying some doctors (especially the more junior doctors in specialties like O&G, surgery, GP training) into the medical wards and intensive care. Some hospitals in London have already cancelled all elective stuff again.

There's also been a bit of a shift as well in public attitue I think, which has hit some workers. Its not quite aggression as such but definitely a lot more snide comments, snapping etc from patients and relatives than last time. I don't blame them at all but its draining on top of everything else.

I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread but I'm struggling to see how these aren't going to be amongst the grimmest few months of my career so far.
 
I am indeed. The situation is pretty shite at the moment. Not quite back at 1st wave levels in my hospital yet but we're getting there again. More and more wards are being turned into full covid wards now, we're having problems where patients come in with other problems asymptomatic from a respiratory point of view and ending up having covid, whilst they've been happily sitting there in an open bay with 3-4 other patients for 2-3 days.

Whole teams going down sick with covid at the same time, ITU almost full again despite the surge capacity kicking in. Having to try to divert patients sometimes. Hospital is full. A&E docs having to review patients in ambulances sometimes. Patients telling us they're waiting for hours on end for ambulances for chest pain or stroke like presentations. Horrible bed block. We're having to start thinking about redeploying some doctors (especially the more junior doctors in specialties like O&G, surgery, GP training) into the medical wards and intensive care. Some hospitals in London have already cancelled all elective stuff again.

There's also been a bit of a shift as well in public attitue I think, which has hit some workers. Its not quite aggression as such but definitely a lot more snide comments, snapping etc from patients and relatives than last time. I don't blame them at all but its draining on top of everything else.

I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread but I'm struggling to see how these aren't going to be amongst the grimmest few months of my career so far.
Bless you, you poor bastard. I don’t think I’d have the bollocks for the job, even if I had the training and experience.
I think it’s public fatigue that causes the poor attitudes. Back in March prior to the first lockdown there was talk at the time of lockdown fatigue (as a reason to not go too early) and in many cases it was laughed at but it’s definitely happened. People just can’t bring themselves to be disciplined any longer which, with a new more contagious variant in circulation, means things will probably get worse before they get better