Is there an argument that scrapping the need for isolation if they aren’t actually sick would lead to better outcomes?
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
But then who judges that? If a person isn’t sick but is shedding the virus couldn’t a more vulnerable person catch it from them?
Not scrapping but shortening it right down, definitely. It would be also be good to make it less “one size fits all”. It just doesn’t make any sense to keep vaccinated and boosted doctors/nurses stuck at home for 10-14 days when they’ve had a mild head cold that lasted 48 hours (or no symptoms at all)
I’m sure they could. It would obviously lead to more infections but I’m just wondering if the staff shortages cause worse outcomes than the increase in cases.
That’s a problem that’s been around for decades, with illnesses like influenza or various vomiting bugs. One of the (very few) upsides of this pandemic is that it’s made most people a hell of a lot more considerate on this issue than they ever were before. The issue now is how much longer we keep making these lengthy isolation periods for covid mandatory. Especially when there’s loads of indirect harm caused by hospitals unable to run their usual services due to staff shortages.
I suppose it will take a brave person to make that call.
A third of staff including many clinical are off sick too at my GP practice. On-call shifts are a nightmare. There are many in general pubic whose expectations regarding business-as-usual level of care is something I find annoyingly odd too at this stage. I'm not the only one annoyed at having to live like a hermit to avoid catching the damn thing now with self-inflicted lockdown to prop up a cog in our collapsed healthcare system.
Many countries are already doing this, or at least reducing the isolation time down significantly.
And unvaccinated staff?
I wonder how much of this is due to people isolating after getting symptoms and how much is actual virus shedding ability. It’d be interesting to see a similar graph once isolation isn’t required any longer.Many countries are already doing this, or at least reducing the isolation time down significantly.
At this point in time, it seems like it's the restrictions themselves that are causing the problems.
We can't unring the Omicron bell. But we can loosen the isolation rules to get staff back into hospitals as soon as they're fit to do so.
We can't unring the Omicron bell. But we can loosen the isolation rules to get staff back into hospitals as soon as they're fit to do so.
They won't exist in the UK within a couple of months and I imagine the same will be the case across most of Europe too.
Any medical/CV educated posters...
Felt ill, did a home test, positive. Just done walk through PCR and should get result soon (though being a Friday afternoon may not help). Isolating
If I'm feeling rough and assuming +ve is accurate, where am I in the process in terms of passing it on? Is that before symptoms, during or after?
Felt ill, did a home test, positive. Just done walk through PCR and should get result soon (though being a Friday afternoon may not help). Isolating
If I'm feeling rough and assuming +ve is accurate, where am I in the process in terms of passing it on? Is that before symptoms, during or after?
I think you’re most infections within the first few days apparently from the onset of symptoms.
Bleak
We'll need to be patient with these people once they leave school. Horrible conditions to grow up in, and I think it's the same in the majority of the world.
I'm more impressed that was posted by someone in school studying, i would of been absolutely buzzing if none of my teachers were in and i could literally do as i please back in my school days.
Before even mentioning remote learning my instant thought would of been a giant long holiday.
Before even mentioning remote learning my instant thought would of been a giant long holiday.
It’s grim but if they were forced to study remotely you could write a similar rant about on the dystopian cruelty of forcing kids to be separated from their peers and spend all day staring into a laptop on endless video conferences. I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of students (and their parents) would prefer the situation described here to shutting that school down again.
There’s such a crazy culture war going on right now about covid and the exaggerated sense of threat felt by a minority (like the kid who wrote that blog, his peers staying home and, presumably, their parents) is as unhelpful as the “just a flu” crew in early 2020.
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Yeah, 100%. It makes no sense that the onset of symptoms makes you less infective. The exact opposite is much more likely.
Although, having said that I’m sure a lot of that data comes from intra-household spread where proper isolation isn’t really possible.
It's not about the coffee. Regardless of the beans, it's always served too hot. The cup is an accessory, best paired with a dry robe.
That said we are not the coffee wastelands of 20 years ago.
He explicitly talks about not liking remote learning, but finding it preferable to the current chaos. There's a teacher in the replies expanding on his point.
I don't doubt that it's true that parents don't like remote, but it may not be true for students in these circumstances, and very probably isn't true of teachers.
So I had the mildest of throat irritation today morning, and wouldn't have even bothered testing if not for my 5 month old. Turns out I am positive. 10 hours since the onset I feel nothing but that prickly feeling in throat. Wonder if it's really this mild (I had the original variant in September 2020 which did result in 3 days of fever and a persistent cough) or is it because of the vaccines (AZ 2nd dose June 2021).
I had it recently (I’m double-jabbed but not had the booster) and it was incredibly mild - just a dry feeling in the throat.
Everyone’s experience of remote learning is different. His may have been a lot less negative than many others (even though it was obviously negative) All that closing the schools would achieve is deferring the “chaos” anyway. Omicron is going nowhere (until the next variant arrives) and is benign to the point of irrelevance in this age group.
There comes a point where life has to normalise as much as possible and I think we’ve reached that point. My kids school is similarly strained. Absent teachers and pupils galore. But whatever short term impact this has on learning (and let’s not pretend that remote learning isn’t an absolute disaster for many kids) is outweighed by the benefits of socialising with their friends every day and getting back into a familiar routine. Even a return to school sports (a rarely mentioned casualty of closing them down) has been hugely beneficial for mental (and physical) health.
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My 13 year old hasn't gone back to school this week, as they changed plans at the last minute. But what they did do is to get him and all the other pupils to go in at scheduled times today and yesterday to have a covid test (which we think was just a lateral flow) before returning to lessons next week - by which point the results of tests this week will be utterly irrelevant. They are more likely to have caused cases with this plan than picked any up and prevented them. Who's coming up with these ridiculous ideas?
Been feeling a bit rough the past few days so took a lateral flow test that came back positive, I’ve been and taken a pcr test today and I’m awaiting results (I’m double jabbed)
Weird that a few days ago I was getting heart palpitations it feels like I get an extra beat every so often then the flu like symptoms hit. Strange I hadn’t read about the heart palpitations but doing some research it’s a common effect.
Weird that a few days ago I was getting heart palpitations it feels like I get an extra beat every so often then the flu like symptoms hit. Strange I hadn’t read about the heart palpitations but doing some research it’s a common effect.
To be fair that's true of many infections and illnesses as your heart works a little harder. I often get them when I'm a bit under the weather.
Got the virus in June last year, the week before I had my vaccine appointment, and it wiped me out for 4/5 days.
Took a lat flow on Tuesday before heading back to work and it was positive. No real symptoms, but I did have a dry throat although I didn’t think anything of it. PCR confirmed it and still no symptoms. Got boosted on the 20th, so hopefully nothing as bad as the first round
Took a lat flow on Tuesday before heading back to work and it was positive. No real symptoms, but I did have a dry throat although I didn’t think anything of it. PCR confirmed it and still no symptoms. Got boosted on the 20th, so hopefully nothing as bad as the first round
We don't learn. People forget that in the US, businesses started the lockdown, because this is exactly what happened. Maybe this variant is mild enough that everyone should just get it and keep going, but the point is the same. *If* you're going to require people who test positive to isolate, then you need to go remote as much as possible, because you're going to run out of people as everyone gets ill at the same time.
Even if it is mild, some staggering of the spread seems in order. Masks and no big Indoor gatherings for a month would go a long way at minimal "cost". Subsidize the sports teams if necessary.
We haven't been back to UK/Ireland for about 5 years and then it was better than before but still very poor quality in comparison to Italy and Australia. The US is worse and even finding a not filter coffee is a challenge. A good one even harder.
I have to say, I never knew Australia had a good reputation for its coffee but I was pleasantly surprised when I had a cup at a random cafe in Sydney.
Agree with you that coffee in the US is horrible.
Both Melbourne and Sydney had large scale migration from Italy so now the average small Cafe has a proper machine and tend to make a drinkable cup. The better cafes are world class. Coffee is a bit of a national obsession now.
Intersting fact: Starbucks failed here as their coffee was garbage. There are now only a handful left mainly at airports and the like.
Covid admissions might be rising. But a lot of that is to do with incidental infections.
Overall bed occupancy is fairly level. What's really needed is NHS staff availability.
Apparently, the number of cases in London is now going down. So hopefully the same will get reflected across the country in the next week or two.
(Data taken from here)
Friend of mine is in his 5th day of Covid (i guess Omi), no fever so far, cough, bodyache, he says his eyes are burning, he is a smoker and he got booster in September.
I like how the anti-vaxx crowd have taken this one anaesthetist’s opinion as gospel and are sharing it far and wide because he’s a doctor and therefore a medical expert. But are choosing to wilfully ignore the doctors and immunology experts who are in fairly unanimous agreement that vaccines work and are essential in our battle against the virus.
I'm all jabbed and boosted myself. So certainly not an anti vaxxer.
I personally think him being unvaccinated is not good but he has a point about the boosters for NHS staff being regular, maybe?
Im hoping those more in the know can shed some light on it.
Always good to listen to alternative views and discuss.
This is awful though, I saw this straight away in doctor forums,facebook groups and medtwitter. All in disbelief how the anti-vaxx movement would have a field day with this, but this is a fringe opinion from a doctor that has a private clinic in the woo-woo junk science that is "functional medicine"
http://www.thebreathlessnessclinic.com/about-me/
He charges £250 for a thirty minute consult. I think he's earnt himself a Karol Sikora's esque spot on either talkradio or GB news that will see his private practice boom
"breathlessness clinic"