[COVID-19] General Discussion

[TRF_heineken]

If you don't mind me asking:
How many of your family have had a jab yet before catching Covid? And how is the vaccination program going in SA?

Only my parents had the first jab of the Pfizer vaccine as they are over 60 years old. But they got the jab 3 days before they tested positive, so the jab didn't work yet as it needs about 10 to 15 days to kick in.

The vaccinations are going slow and steady, I drive past the local public hospital everyday after work and there's always a queue full of people waiting in line to get vaccinated.

Our biggest problem at the moment is the FDA not approving the J&J vaccine, so we can't roll it out yet, even though we have millions of doses in storage. So at the moment we can only give the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine, of which we have a limited supply.

With that said, I think we are also now in our third wave. The numbers have been climbing the past 2 weeks.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Yep, shows just how it is important to
get the 2nd dose and then also wait at least 2 weeks for immunity to build to the max.

I know J and J only needs one jab and also uses the same tech as the Oxford AZ as opposed to the Pfizer/Moderna which uses mRNA. But like the other jabs although it is one jab, I am sure it will still need a booster at some point to deal with variants.

 

[McTallshort]

Only my parents had the first jab of the Pfizer vaccine as they are over 60 years old. But they got the jab 3 days before they tested positive, so the jab didn't work yet as it needs about 10 to 15 days to kick in.

The vaccinations are going slow and steady, I drive past the local public hospital everyday after work and there's always a queue full of people waiting in line to get vaccinated.

Our biggest problem at the moment is the FDA not approving the J&J vaccine, so we can't roll it out yet, even though we have millions of doses in storage. So at the moment we can only give the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine, of which we have a limited supply.

With that said, I think we are also now in our third wave. The numbers have been climbing the past 2 weeks.

Yeah third wave hitting the UK right now, although ours was sadly predictable and easily avoided

 

[Bada-Bing!]

 

[TRF_heineken]

Yeah third wave hitting the UK right now, although ours was sadly predictable and easily avoided

That avoidable part is the thing that is baffling me about how I got COVID. Me and my parents have been trying to rack our brains as to how we got it, and the only conclusion we could come up with is that my brother got it while playing at a golf day as he's the treasurer of the club. But none of us had physical contact with him, and only had a Sunday braai with him prior to testing positive.

My personal opinion is that it can't be avoided, you get it, no matter whether you are sanitising and wearing a mask, just go through it and hope you don't die.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

That avoidable part is the thing that is baffling me about how I got COVID. Me and my parents have been trying to rack our brains as to how we got it, and the only conclusion we could come up with is that my brother got it while playing at a golf day as he's the treasurer of the club. But none of us had physical contact with him, and only had a Sunday braai with him prior to testing positive.

My personal opinion is that it can't be avoided, you get it, no matter whether you are sanitising and wearing a mask, just go through it and hope you don't die.

Of course it can be avoidable, nz and aus have managed it largely, lots of reasons for that obviously, not the least being lockdowns until zero cases

 

[ncurd]

Yeah third wave hitting the UK right now, although ours was sadly predictable and easily avoided

I do get the impression this third wave will better in terms of deaths but yeah I simply don't understand why we couldn't keep the breaks on until the vaccination program (not mention the screw up with Delta) was in the final stages. Which I think we more or less will on this stage now just we shouldn't of moved on from the last when we did.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Of course it can be avoidable, nz and aus have managed it largely, lots of reasons for that obviously, not the least being lockdowns until zero cases

You guys did do a great job, and mostly because you had so few initial infections, that it was easier to contain in the beginning.

But a third-world country like SA it's much harder, and when it was initially in SA, it spread like wildfire, and we've been playing catch-up ever since.

But what I mean by avoidable, is that if the virus is in your town, at some point you will get it, especially if you work in an office, go to shopping centres or attend social events, which what most humans do.

 

[McTallshort]

I do get the impression this third wave will better in terms of deaths but yeah I simply don't understand why we couldn't keep the breaks on until the vaccination program (not mention the screw up with Delta) was in the final stages. Which I think we more or less will on this stage now just we shouldn't of moved on from the last when we did.

Yeah the way the Delta variant was handled was and is the most frustrating part of this for me. We seem to have a government that seems totally incapable of making the correct decision. Apart from the Kate Bingham appointment they have made an utter shambles of this whole crisis.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

You guys did do a great job, and mostly because you had so few initial infections, that it was easier to contain in the beginning.

But a third-world country like SA it's much harder, and when it was initially in SA, it spread like wildfire, and we've been playing catch-up ever since.

But what I mean by avoidable, is that if the virus is in your town, at some point you will get it, especially if you work in an office, go to shopping centres or attend social events, which what most humans do.

…but that's kind of the point…if you kept a strict lockdown you wouldn't be in offices or shopping centres or social events…that's are the places you catch it

 

[ncurd]

We seem to have a government that seems totally incapable of making a decision.

FTFY

And thats my viewpoint we have a government that doesn't actually want to govern or lead, they just want to be in charge.

 

[TRF_heineken]

…but that's kind of the point…if you kept a strict lockdown you wouldn't be in offices or shopping centres or social events…that's are the places you catch it

We've had strict lockdowns, several of them, but our economy can't survive if we stay in strict lockdown.

And even when we had the strict lockdowns, with a curfew of 22:00, we still had spikes in infections. People need to buy food, eat, go to banks etc.

 

[ncurd]

We've had strict lockdowns, several of them, but our economy can't survive if we stay in strict lockdown.

And even when we had the strict lockdowns, with a curfew of 22:00, we still had spikes in infections. People need to buy food, eat, go to banks etc.

Healthiest economies in the world right now are those who had a zero COVID approach.

I appreciate a zero-COVID approach is a lot harder in developing countries that don't have the resources to enforce it properly.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

The frustrating thing is politics played a role in not shutting down the Delta variant coming in in April. Sources I have read state either it was because Bojo was afraid Modi wouldn't have given UK a trade deal or Modi was threatening withholding vaccine supply if the UK shut down flights from India. Apparently this didn't stop Modi stopping UK flights to India in December When the Kent variant was in circulation.

Why did the UK Govt just wait until the variant was a variant of concern before stopping flights? When cases were rising to 100,000 plus cases per day to 400,000 cases in India. What the hell were uk residents doing out in India that was so essential that they couldn't be tested and quarantined before being brought back? What were they doing out there in the first place when we were under lockdown?

 

[Kiwiwomble]

We've had strict lockdowns, several of them, but our economy can't survive if we stay in strict lockdown.

And even when we had the strict lockdowns, with a curfew of 22:00, we still had spikes in infections. People need to buy food, eat, go to banks etc.

But did you keep them until zero or close to zero cases?

we were locked down for 15 weeks straight and another 7 weeks before that, the economy kept going to a large degree you work from home, you wear masks at all times outside if you can't work from home

I understand your principle, your government obviously left it too late to implement lockdowns…but when you say "unavoidable"...you mean unavoidable do you don't want to give up social interactions, you just explained you think it spread from a golf tournament and a bbq

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Time to dig up this old gif of the government deciding policy:

or

 

[Bada-Bing!]

That avoidable part is the thing that is baffling me about how I got COVID. Me and my parents have been trying to rack our brains as to how we got it, and the only conclusion we could come up with is that my brother got it while playing at a golf day as he's the treasurer of the club. But none of us had physical contact with him, and only had a Sunday braai with him prior to testing positive.

My personal opinion is that it can't be avoided, you get it, no matter whether you are sanitising and wearing a mask, just go through it and hope you don't die.

But the fact you said apart from your parents getting the first Pfizer jab, none of you are fully vaccinated yet. It means risk of transmissibility is greatly increased and of catching it.

Don't forget this thing is transmitted via aerosols, through people speaking, singing, shouting in close proximity of next person. If any of you were indoors with him when he was infected then that is also increases the risk of catching it.

Your bro could have been asymptomatic at the time of the Braai? But presumably you were all outdoors at the time? But if he was the original transmitter in your family then it i think it shows how transmissible this virus is even outdoors.

 

[ncurd]

But the fact you said apart from your parents getting the first Pfizer jab, none of you are fully vaccinated yet. It means risk of transmissibility is greatly increased and of catching it.

Don't forget this thing is transmitted via aerosols, through people speaking, singing, shouting in close proximity of next person. If any of you were indoors with him when he was infected then that is also increases the risk of catching it.

Your bro could have been asymptomatic at the time of the Braai? But presumably you were all outdoors at the time? But if he was the original transmitter in your family then it i think it shows how transmissible this virus is even outdoors.

I think mitigating risk is hugely important, my two lengthy indoors encounters were with people double vaxed apart from myself on a single dose and brother in law who was waiting for his first (but does the job at most risk), I've also been out for two meals but that is minimal encounter with people with masked staff. Also done 3 outdoor runs with people but most of those people are older also vaxed. Even then some of it uncomfortable, I certainly didn't enjoy one run where we broke rule of 6 (even though I was told otherwise would happen) which was before I had the first jab.

Its a lot harder with family members and we've been put under pressure from the wifes side a lot to break lockdown rules as they were double vaccinated and no longer cared.

 

[TRF_heineken]

But the fact you said apart from your parents getting the first Pfizer jab, none of you are fully vaccinated yet. It means risk of transmissibility is greatly increased and of catching it.

Don't forget this thing is transmitted via aerosols, through people speaking, singing, shouting in close proximity of next person. If any of you were indoors with him when he was infected then that is also increases the risk of catching it.

Your bro could have been asymptomatic at the time of the Braai? But presumably you were all outdoors at the time? But if he was the original transmitter in your family then it i think it shows how transmissible this virus is even outdoors.

Yeah, we were outdoors the whole time, and we sat about a meter and a half away from each other. My house, my parents house and my brother's house are next to each other so we basically live together.

We all knew the risks, and we've been following the same protocol ever since we had the first lockdown. At the golf event my brother wore his mask the whole time in the presence of others, and only took it off while he was on the course. His thinking is that it might have happened while he was in the bathroom, but he doesn't know how exactly he contracted it.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Headache and runny nose linked to Delta variant

People may need to be on the lookout for different Covid symptoms, according to researchers.

www.bbc.co.uk