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Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Sat 03 Apr, 2021 13.55
by thegeek
gottago wrote: Sat 03 Apr, 2021 11.23
Was this the Walthamstow queue that I saw on Twitter? My friend was about to join but they closed off the queue after absolutely massive demand.
It was, yes. When I got there the queue was officially 'closed' pending a review of how many doses they had left, but as the review was only 15 minutes away, I thought I might as well join the queue for the queue, and not long afterwards they started handing out tickets to us too. I think they completely closed at 5.30, and finally cleared off by 9pm.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Fri 09 Apr, 2021 22.21
by Martin Phillp
I finally had my vaccination today as an unpaid carer, but it was a hassle trying to get it done.

First of all, I met the NHS criteria for getting the jab, so booked my jabs on the website, easy enough. Then when I got to the vaccination centre, which was run by a pharmacy, they refused on the basis I didn't have a letter from the GP.

I then called 119 to explain what happened and they couldn't do anything and couldn't rebook as the system doesn't refresh for 48 hours!

In the end, I went through the GP and they were able to refer me to their shared vaccination centre at the local health centre with other nearby surgeries which was ran professionally as they know my status.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Sat 17 Apr, 2021 17.44
by TRWBUK
I had to have some work done in the house so following the government advice regarding fresh air etc, I opened the two large windows in the front room. Coincidentally the next-door neighbour was working on his car at the same time which combined with the open windows led to a lovely smell of diesel wafting in and now my house smells like a bus garage.

I registered on this forum entirely to tell this story.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Sat 17 Apr, 2021 20.00
by thegeek
TRWBUK wrote: Sat 17 Apr, 2021 17.44
I registered on this forum entirely to tell this story.
That seems entirely reasonable. Hello, good evening and welcome.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 22.34
by all new Phil
Can somebody clear up for me just how we have a “failing test and trace system that’s not fit for purpose” whilst simultaneously having a huge number of people being told to isolate right now. Surely both those things can’t be true.

I’m not really sure why test and trace is being undermined so much. Cases are rising rapidly so naturally more people are being contacted. It’s being treated like an inconvenience (the “pingdemic”) rather than something to limit the spread of covid. I don’t really know what point I’m trying to make here other than I think we’ve reached peak complacency.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 23.37
by allwillbewell
all new Phil wrote: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 22.34 Can somebody clear up for me just how we have a “failing test and trace system that’s not fit for purpose” whilst simultaneously having a huge number of people being told to isolate right now. Surely both those things can’t be true.

I’m not really sure why test and trace is being undermined so much. Cases are rising rapidly so naturally more people are being contacted. It’s being treated like an inconvenience (the “pingdemic”) rather than something to limit the spread of covid. I don’t really know what point I’m trying to make here other than I think we’ve reached peak complacency.
I think it is more a case of the app pinging too many people. Clearly before the app existed there were not so many isolations and numbers of infections were the same. But an important point is, is that testing capacity has increased since the last time we were at this level of cases. So the scale is larger, meaning perhaps the number of infections are not as bad as before. Because before capacity for testing was not as high, so now the filer is bigger and of course it will catch more infections. In addition the number of infections are irrelevant, what matters is deaths which are still low. The constant daily updates of cases only aims to create fear. Death numbers and perhaps hospital numbers are the only numbers that matter.

Once every citizen is jabbed which will occur around mid September, I cannot support any further lockdowns. There are apparently three million or so over 50s who don't want the jab. So be it. They have had a chance at the jab, we cannot lock down any longer after all have been jabbed or offered it.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 23.52
by Jonwo
Test and Trace is only really effective when it's a low number of cases. In Australia, they were able to contain small outbreaks because they could find the links but as we've seen both here and elsewhere, harder to do with larger case numbers.

I think they'll be a move towards Daily Testing if you're a close contact so that people don't have to isolate if they're healthy because it's hurting many industries at the moment which cannot work from home, I wouldn't be opposed to the daily numbers
stopped being reported but it's a while off.

I'm hoping the first oral Covid treatment arrives either later this year or early next as that would be a way of dealing with outbreaks or having something that anyone who's a bit unwell can take fairly quickly and recover sooner.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Wed 21 Jul, 2021 00.28
by all new Phil
allwillbewell wrote: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 23.37
all new Phil wrote: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 22.34 Can somebody clear up for me just how we have a “failing test and trace system that’s not fit for purpose” whilst simultaneously having a huge number of people being told to isolate right now. Surely both those things can’t be true.

I’m not really sure why test and trace is being undermined so much. Cases are rising rapidly so naturally more people are being contacted. It’s being treated like an inconvenience (the “pingdemic”) rather than something to limit the spread of covid. I don’t really know what point I’m trying to make here other than I think we’ve reached peak complacency.
I think it is more a case of the app pinging too many people. Clearly before the app existed there were not so many isolations and numbers of infections were the same. But an important point is, is that testing capacity has increased since the last time we were at this level of cases. So the scale is larger, meaning perhaps the number of infections are not as bad as before. Because before capacity for testing was not as high, so now the filer is bigger and of course it will catch more infections. In addition the number of infections are irrelevant, what matters is deaths which are still low. The constant daily updates of cases only aims to create fear. Death numbers and perhaps hospital numbers are the only numbers that matter.
I’m sorry but what baloney. The app is pinging too many people? The app is, presumably, pinging exactly the right number of people, unless they’ve changed how it works without telling us. It’s causing an inconvenience but that’s literally the point of it.

As for deaths - they are clearly on the rise. Nearly a hundred in today’s update. It doesn’t take much for that number to get out of control.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Wed 21 Jul, 2021 00.32
by james2001
When it comes to the current debate on masks, I have to say not too many people on either side of the debate are covering themselves with much glory. You have one side saying people still wearing masks are terrified and compliant, and the other side are saying the people who have stopped wearing them are being selfish and effectively as good as murderers.

I think people have to accept it's a personal choice now, and some people will wear them, and some people won't and to just leave everyone else be. While people hadwere right to be annoyed about people flouting the rules while the mandates were in force unless they had a genuine exemption (though far too many people with genuine exemptions have been harrassed), now it's no longer mandated, I don't think bullying, guilt tripping or harrassing people is the way to go about things at all. While it's understandable why people want mask wearing to continue, I don't think the aggressive attitude adopted by many is remotely helpful, and isn't likely to sway minds.

There is indeed the fact that continuing lockdowns and restrictions aren't the answer, we're already seeing some usual viruses that usually circulate in the background starting to cause problems (outbreaks of RSV and norovirus have both been in the news over the last week) due to immunity dropping over people's lack of exposure and constant warnings we're going to have a bad winter for flu for the same reasons (as well as the lack of flu seasons all over the world making it harder for scientists to work out what strains to put in this year's vaccines), at best re-imposing lockdowns is just holding that problem over to next year, and possibly making it even worse due to even further lack of exposure and waning immunity.

After a while you're going to be stuck in a cycle of having to continually re-impose lockdowns or suffer a major health disaster once you finally do end restrictions because even viruses that don't usually cause a massive problem are going to become significant issues because the immunity in the population that usually reduces their severity will be severely dented. While lockdowns and other restrictions were needed until enough people had been jabbed to stop the health service being overwhelmed, you get to the point where they're only at best deferring cases and deaths, not stopping them. Accepting a bad flu season is likely the price we're going to have to pay to break out of this cycle. Bringing back lockdowns, masks and distancing over the autumn and winter means we'll just be back in the same position next year with cases ready to explode as soon as restrictions get lifted again.

Maybe it was too early for Boris to lift all restrictions regardless of case numbers and he should have waited until cases were lower and more people were vaccinated, but it's something that would have to be done sooner or later and other countries are going to have to grapple with over the coming months. Countries can't just keep pulling the shutters down every time case numbers rise, especially once vaccination means they're not leading to the same level of hospitalisations and deaths as they were before.

While I've heard lots of people say they're happy restrictions mean they didn't really catch many colds over the last year, the issue is that it's at the price of your body being less prepared to fight them off if you do come in contact with them again, so it's a double edged sword. So while you might not have been ill over the last year, you may well find yourself catching more colds or getting more ill with them this year than you did before all this began because your defences are down. Ironically getting people exposed to these viruses is one of the things that's needed to prevent these sorts of outbreaks and pandemics. Much of the reason why covid is so deadly and spreads so easily is because it's a new virus our bodies aren't prepared for, that's less likely to be the case after vaccination and with future exposure keeping our immune systems primed to it.

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Wed 21 Jul, 2021 02.32
by Laura-1
The problem I see is that with no distancing and no masks, we are literally letting the virus run free, we've got lots of people vaccinated which is fantastic but scientists also say that vaccines make the virus work harder to try and beat them - so it's probably only a matter of time until a new variant comes a long that totally sets everything back again.

I just think that after the lockdowns, all the money spent and the efforts that have gone into trying to save lives - wearing masks was not to much to continue to ask people to do at the very least.

After all we know we have many special people in the UK, at the end of a lockdown it's "the virus has gone away now hence they are lifting the lockdown" or "now we don't have to wear masks the virus is going away" and then if you tell people we are closing pubs on Saturday to stop the spread - even more of them will go to the pub and spread it until then.

We don't have enough responsible people in the UK to not have rules in place, in other countries where they have poor air quality they people have been wearing masks every day for many, many years, the majority of people in countries like that can be trusted to act responsibly.

A vaccine usually takes 8 years to make, while the vaccines we currently have are saving millions of lives, I believe that the pandemic won't be over until a better vaccine comes along which will probably be at least 2025, by then there will be plenty of mutations for scientists to study and they will know a lot more about the virus as a whole and only then will they be able to make a vaccine that really stops the spread and eventually Covid will become rare, this will all depend on getting poor countries vaccinated quickly, back in 1918 people were not travelling country to country like they do today so it would take ages for a virus to spread, now it can take just a week so if 1 country vaccinated everyone - borders being open would mean it never goes away and sadly poor countries with poor hygene will be the ones where the worse variants develop.

All just my opinion of course, I just think that while we are rolling out the current vaccines and they get so much praise (all deserved) people forget that there are probably scientists working away quietly behind the scenes across the world who are trying to improve it and make a better one and eventually they will... I hope :-)

Re: Coronavirus - Strange times

Posted: Wed 21 Jul, 2021 06.42
by allwillbewell
all new Phil wrote: Wed 21 Jul, 2021 00.28
allwillbewell wrote: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 23.37
all new Phil wrote: Tue 20 Jul, 2021 22.34 Can somebody clear up for me just how we have a “failing test and trace system that’s not fit for purpose” whilst simultaneously having a huge number of people being told to isolate right now. Surely both those things can’t be true.

I’m not really sure why test and trace is being undermined so much. Cases are rising rapidly so naturally more people are being contacted. It’s being treated like an inconvenience (the “pingdemic”) rather than something to limit the spread of covid. I don’t really know what point I’m trying to make here other than I think we’ve reached peak complacency.
I think it is more a case of the app pinging too many people. Clearly before the app existed there were not so many isolations and numbers of infections were the same. But an important point is, is that testing capacity has increased since the last time we were at this level of cases. So the scale is larger, meaning perhaps the number of infections are not as bad as before. Because before capacity for testing was not as high, so now the filer is bigger and of course it will catch more infections. In addition the number of infections are irrelevant, what matters is deaths which are still low. The constant daily updates of cases only aims to create fear. Death numbers and perhaps hospital numbers are the only numbers that matter.
I’m sorry but what baloney. The app is pinging too many people? The app is, presumably, pinging exactly the right number of people, unless they’ve changed how it works without telling us. It’s causing an inconvenience but that’s literally the point of it.

As for deaths - they are clearly on the rise. Nearly a hundred in today’s update. It doesn’t take much for that number to get out of control.
Yes, too many people, because the app is telling people to isolate who really do not need to. It also isn't making any real difference to infection rates. The only thing that is working is the vaccine.

Today (yesterday) was a Monday, deaths over a weekend are not registered as quickly, Mondays always have a high count, and 100 isn't high besides. If you have a week of 500/1000 of daily deaths, then we could perhaps consider it high.