[COVID-19] General Discussion

[TRF_Olyy]

Sorry to hear that @Which Tyler , hopefully she's feeling better soon


Few people I work with have partners who are teachers - one guy tested positive this week, and another his wife has tested positive. Apparently the schools are absolutely riddled with it, as bad as it's ever been.

 

[Reiser99]

Ech

Oh ****.
Sister is in hospital with covid. She's clinically extremely vulnerable, immunocompromised, and operates on about 40% lung capacity at the best of times.

Echoing above, wishing your sister all the best.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Sorry to hear that @Which Tyler , hopefully she's feeling better soon


Few people I work with have partners who are teachers - one guy tested positive this week, and another his wife has tested positive. Apparently the schools are absolutely riddled with it, as bad as it's ever been.

Our schools have been closed for at least two weeks which is probably a reason we don't seem to have ot quite as bad. Britain has always been quicker to it than us at the same time.

 

[Seeker]

It's been almost two and half years and there's no end in sight.

COVID Rises Across U.S. Amid Muted Warnings and Murky Data

CHICAGO — COVID-19 is surging around the United States again in what experts consider the most transmissible variant of the pandemic yet. But something is different this time: The public health authorities are holding back. In Chicago, where the county’s COVID warning level was raised to “high”...

news.yahoo.com

 

[Bada-Bing!]

It's been almost two and half years and there's no end in sight.

COVID Rises Across U.S. Amid Muted Warnings and Murky Data

CHICAGO — COVID-19 is surging around the United States again in what experts consider the most transmissible variant of the pandemic yet. But something is different this time: The public health authorities are holding back. In Chicago, where the county’s COVID warning level was raised to “high”...

news.yahoo.com

And as a death rate of population UK passed 200k for a population of c.67m whereas USA passed 1m a few months ago for a population of c.340m. Working out at around the factor of 5 despite the differences in geography and size of the countries.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Making sense of the latest Covid wave in Scotland is tough as the statistics being used have changed. Seems it has been plateauing at a very high level for over a month and isn't really subsiding. 80 deaths in with Covid mentioned on death certificate in the past week (again a different measurement and likely more accurate than people who died with a usually incidental positive Covid test in the past 28 days). So I make that very roughly about 1/7th of the 7 day average deaths during the worst of times.

No boosters planned for under 50s so I'm in the slightly surreal situation of actively seeking to catch Omicron (in a controlled environment) during this period of mild summer weather rather than risk getting it in the depths of winter with almost zero residual protection and a health service that will likely be buckling.

I genuinely think this is the most appropriate course of action from a medical standpoint given the reported refusal to offer boosters to under 50s. So I've volunteered to drive three colleagues for a couple of hours to sit in an airy room with about 200 folk for 90mins with every second chair empty. By this time next week hopefully I'll be holding off a very mild dose of it and will then feel a bit more comfortable about socialising indoors over the winter. Its so transmissable now that I'm going to get it some time, so I figure I'm best to do it on my own terms.

 

[ncurd]

WrongnThread

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Politics thread?

 

[ncurd]

Politics thread?

Aye brain didn't work.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Making sense of the latest Covid wave in Scotland is tough as the statistics being used have changed. Seems it has been plateauing at a very high level for over a month and isn't really subsiding. 80 deaths in with Covid mentioned on death certificate in the past week (again a different measurement and likely more accurate than people who died with a usually incidental positive Covid test in the past 28 days). So I make that very roughly about 1/7th of the 7 day average deaths during the worst of times.

No boosters planned for under 50s so I'm in the slightly surreal situation of actively seeking to catch Omicron (in a controlled environment) during this period of mild summer weather rather than risk getting it in the depths of winter with almost zero residual protection and a health service that will likely be buckling.

I genuinely think this is the most appropriate course of action from a medical standpoint given the reported refusal to offer boosters to under 50s. So I've volunteered to drive three colleagues for a couple of hours to sit in an airy room with about 200 folk for 90mins with every second chair empty. By this time next week hopefully I'll be holding off a very mild dose of it and will then feel a bit more comfortable about socialising indoors over the winter. Its so transmissable now that I'm going to get it some time, so I figure I'm best to do it on my own terms.

The only think I would say about intentionally catching it is the risk of long Covid. I am only now recovered from Covid with an occasional cough from the residual phlegm the infection caused. But it’s put me off catching it again.

That’s the issue - you’ll have no control over the amount of virus load you or your colleagues get and how each of you react to it. Plus then you each go back and then spread to your households who have not volunteered to catch the virus - especially if they pass to someone elderly or immunosuppressed or start the chain of transmission that leads to it.

I didn’t go out intentionally to catch it and can only guess it was in indoors and eating at a restaurant on Father’s Day. And I didn’t come down with symptoms for another 4 days. My dad came down with it, but surprisingly not my mum who was eating with us at the time. Both had had their 2nd booster, but not me.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Unvaccinated

Hannah Fry meets seven unvaccinated people to find out why so many haven't had a vaccine.

www.bbc.co.uk

Found this quite interesting.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

The only think I would say about intentionally catching it is the risk of long Covid. I am only now recovered from Covid with an occasional cough from the residual phlegm the infection caused. But it’s put me off catching it again.

That’s the issue - you’ll have no control over the amount of virus load you or your colleagues get and how each of you react to it. Plus then you each go back and then spread to your households who have not volunteered to catch the virus - especially if they pass to someone elderly or immunosuppressed or start the chain of transmission that leads to it.

I didn’t go out intentionally to catch it and can only guess it was in indoors and eating at a restaurant on Father’s Day. And I didn’t come down with symptoms for another 4 days. My dad came down with it, but surprisingly not my mum who was eating with us at the time. Both had had their 2nd booster, but not me.

Yeah, I'm factoring in signs that long Covid appears less commonplace with Omicron (as a proportion of people who catch it) and that in an indoor uncontrolled winter setting I'm likely to get a far higher viral load than if I catch it in a situation I at least have some influence over. Of course, repeat infection is an issue but if I catch it in Jan 2023 I'd have rather had it in July 2022 rather than relying on a jag from autumn 2021. Still not a decision I want to be taking but if vaccines are going to be withheld from folk under 50 years who want them then this is the least bad option as I can see it.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Covid origin studies say evidence points to Wuhan market

One of the researchers said he hoped the studies would correct the false theory that it came from a lab.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Very happy to be wrong. Seems NZ will get through its winter without experiencing anything remotely close to the horrible situation in Hong Kong earlier in the year. This really bodes well for the parts of the world that made the Pfizer and Moderna jags available that you can get through a winter with not too many (any?) restrictions without completely destroying your health service.

COVID infections fall in New Zealand, worst case scenario likely avoided

New Zealand's government said on Wednesday new COVID-19 cases were trending down and it looked likely the country would avoid a feared worst-case scenario of 20,000 infections daily.

www.reuters.com

 

[Bada-Bing!]

GB News faces Ofcom investigation over host’s Covid booster claims

Mark Steyn’s misleading claim that jab was killing Britons was based on ‘inaccurate reading’ of report, says Full Fact

www.theguardian.com

 

[Seeker]

I don't see an end to Covid-19 anytime soon. Every time it looks like we're near the end a new variant pops up. I'm an optimist by nature, but this has been rough.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Well earned retirement for all his service and putting up with BS from the likes of Paul and Trump. At least he doesn’t have to serve a Trump administration if he were to get back in.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Covid: Millions invited for booster jabs from Monday

Health bosses predict a resurgence of the virus and flu during the autumn and winter.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bada-Bing!]

What’s behind the mystery of thousands of excess deaths this summer? | Devi Sridhar

The real reason is as mundane, and tragic, as an underfunded NHS still struggling with the terrible effects of Covid, says Edinburgh University’s Devi Sridhar

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

End of COVID pandemic is 'in sight' -WHO chief

The world has never been in a better position to end the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, his most optimistic outlook yet on the years-long health crisis which has killed over six million people.

www.reuters.com

This is a big deal because WHO would only say this if they felt even the poorest, least well equipped countries are coping with Covid now. The only remaining unknown seems to be China with its bizarre insistence on only using home made, inadequate vaccines and its lack of any natural immunity due to the zero Covid policy. Oh the irony.