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

[F-Red]

Think it's still a way off, back during lockdown they did change to only testing those admitted to hospital/carehomes/Nhs staff and those rich enough.
Now anyone can get a test which is why it's overwhelmed but obviously testing shortages and still unlikely catching most assymptomatic cases.
A few weeks like this and could reach those levels again.

That's not correct, they're only testing people who have symptoms or areas where their local authority have asked people to have tests (in hotspot areas for the last 1-2 months). It's overwhelmed primarily through an increase of the demand (from schools re-opening, and the common cold being transmitted), and a challenge with testing capacity at labs. The latter causing a return in testing to be around 14% in 24hrs.

 

[Buster15]

Nearly 5000 new cases and deaths up to 37. The only tangible change Boris has made is to shut the pubs and restaurants by 10pm.
Is that really going to reverse the rapid increase in covid cases?

If face coverings are beneficial, then why not make them mandatory. And for the large numbers of people who have a so called medical problem, they should wear a face shield, just like the medical staff in hospitals or dentists or hairdresser.
Too many people are ignoring are ignoring the law. That way, those choosing not to wear a face mask will become marginalised and easier to identify.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

Did we ever get a realistic estimate of the number of infections a day in the height in march/april.

If we peaked at roughly 1,000 deaths a day, and the CFR is estimated to be around 1%, then presumably we had something like 100,000 infections per day at the peak. Back of the fag packet anyway.

 

[Penna]

Nearly 5000 new cases and deaths up to 37. The only tangible change Boris has made is to shut the pubs and restaurants by 10pm.
Is that really going to reverse the rapid increase in covid cases?

If face coverings are beneficial, then why not make them mandatory. And for the large numbers of people who have a so called medical problem, they should wear a face shield, just like the medical staff in hospitals or dentists or hairdresser.
Too many people are ignoring are ignoring the law. That way, those choosing not to wear a face mask will become marginalised and easier to identify.

I absolutely agree with you. Make it mandatory when you are outside too, we had to do that in Italy. And because it's not always that comfy to have a mask on all the time, people don't go wandering around so much.

 

[Brwned]

Just got off a 4hr plane journey where at best 50% of folks were wearing masks, the pilot had to threaten to stop off en route because some folks were abusing the staff...some people are idiots

 

[Paxi]

Just got off a 4hr plane journey where at best 50% of folks were wearing masks, the pilot had to threaten to stop off en route because some folks were abusing the staff...some people are idiots

Glad you made it to your destination without delay. Why were people abusing the staff though?

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

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37 deaths today too.

Weren’t they up to nearly 1,000 a day a the peak though?

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

Weren’t they up to nearly 1,000 a day a the peak though?

Yeah, but the infection rate increasing will signal a higher death rate but that will take time to come through, Infection rates will continue to increase as the "flu" season starts to kick in.

 

[entropy]

Just got off a 4hr plane journey where at best 50% of folks were wearing masks, the pilot had to threaten to stop off en route because some folks were abusing the staff...some people are idiots

Absolutely insane.

 

[Josep Dowling]

Less than a million people dead worldwide, of which most are well into old age. Our daily death rate is nothing in the grand scheme of things. If things continue many more will die from not being able to see a doctor for basic problems and operations being cancelled.

Hospitals were never at full capacity during lockdown. The whole thing is becoming a joke, changing rules from lenient to strict on a monthly basis. At this point accept people are going to die and protect those most at risk. Precautions can be put in place but so many people are going to lose their jobs in the next 12 months. Our government can’t cover the cost of all these people. It’s going to become a mess.

The media keep over scaling the drama. When I go out other than wearing a mask and sterilising your hands not much has changed. And I’ve seen few instances of people not abiding to current rules.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

Less than a million people dead worldwide, of which most are well into old age. Our daily death rate is nothing in the grand scheme of things. If things continue many more will die from not being able to see a doctor for basic problems and operations being cancelled.

Hospitals were never at full capacity during lockdown. The whole thing is becoming a joke, changing rules from lenient to strict on a monthly basis. At this point accept people are going to die and protect those most at risk. Precautions can be put in place but so many people are going to lose their jobs in the next 12 months. Our government can’t cover the cost of all these people. It’s going to become a mess.

The media keep over scaling the drama. When I go out other than wearing a mask and sterilising your hands not much has changed. And I’ve seen few instances of people not abiding to current rules.

These types of posts irritate me greatly, in Spain and Italy they had to sedate people and let them die as they had to assess who had a better chance to live and give them a respirator. You can say "these people were old so well that is acceptable collateral damage" I don't. you also have to remember the number of "nightingale" hospitals were built.

One thing I do agree on is the media are not helping during all this.

 

[Paxi]

It's a question that ends up getting a strange answer. We definitely saw less presentations of other medical problems. I recall seems much less heart attacks, strokes, surgical issues etc. We all found this quite bizarre because these medical/surgical emergencies are ticking time-bombs for everyone - they shouldn't have "paused" or had a low incidences of these. For that reason, the hospital didn't really have many non-COVID related issues. For example, my hospital would normally have 4 wards for General Surgical, Orthopaedic and Trauma and Gynaecological patients. During COVID, all patients managed to fit into 1 ward - which goes to show how little acute emergencies we saw in these specialities. Obviously, the lack of elective surgeries played a role, but the actual amount of surgical "emergencies' that presented via the Emergency Department definitely dropped.

Long winded answer to basically say - most of the hospital was COVID, COVID, COVID. My hospital didn't get particularly overwhelmed, because it practically turned into a COVID hospital without even meaning to. I can't say for sure what it was like in April because in all honesty, the last 7 months have genuinely blended into each other. Was it overwhelmed? Not in the sense as it was in Italy - but that was because we had the benefit of foresight and opened up more areas in the hospital that could become an intensive care area.

Another massive factoid in trying to avoid overwhelming the hospital was to change our threshold for admitting a patient into hospital. This felt incredibly uncomfortable at the start and we'd normally have to tell people who'd normally require further investigations or more intense treatment for non-COVID related issues to go home with advice on how to manage at home, (with a prescription of course). For example, we'd send people home with horrible cellulitis, that would typically need 48 hours or so of intravenous antibiotics, with oral antibiotics with advice to return if they basically develop sepsis. It was a dangerous time and ethically it felt very discomforting that people were not being treated properly - but at the end of the day, the hospital was a riskier place to be in than their home.

The days were 700+ would die daily - we're fortunate that those days haven't been seen for a while. But it's unfortunate in the sense that people have lost the fear-factor of it now.
There is so many selfish people in the world who now seem to think that we've got this all under control and that it isn't half as bad at what it's reported to be.
If people are more relaxed about it, more people will catch it - and when more people catch it, the difficult decisions on who deserves an ITU bed becomes an issue again.

I'll always remember a 50-odd year old gentleman who was probably one of the first few COVID patients that I had. He was able to tolerate just high-flow oxygen on the ward for a couple of days after coming in. But decisions had to be made early, no matter what state they were in, on what their ceiling of care would be. Do they go to ITU? If not, do we even try to resuscitate them if their heart stops? I had to write a "Do-not-resuscitate" form for this guy without even discussing it with him because we were told that we didn't have to have these discussions with patients at this stage of COVID if they were deemed not appropriate for ITU.

Slightly off tangent to what was asked, but these last months have been incredibly hard and I haven't really reflected on much of it until recently. I've had severe bouts of depression during the last few months and I've had to stomach it all up because I've felt as if i've had to. It's very easy to ignore how COVID indirectly affects people. As I said in my post from earlier, it's horrendous seeing how quickly people can deteriorate in front of your eyes - and sometimes, there is literally nothing that can be done apart from chuck the kitchen sink at them and hope that it works.

@Josep Dowling Read this post you absolute melt.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

@Josep Dowling Read this post you absolute melt.

I missed this Maxi, great post.

 

[Josep Dowling]

@Josep Dowling Read this post you absolute melt.

So one persons anecdotes means this is the situation around the country? I know plenty of medical professionals with their own views and stories, most saying they have never been quieter at work, even during lockdown where they were preparing for high numbers of COVID patients. It never happened.

 

[Paxi]

I missed this Maxi, great post.

It is a great post and also very sad that @Hernandez - BFA is going through depression because it’s been so tough. Nothing but the greatest respect for him.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

So one persons anecdotes means this is the situation around the country? I know plenty of medical professionals with their own views and stories, most saying they have never been quieter at work, even during lockdown where they were preparing for high numbers of COVID patients. It never happened.

One person? What are you on? Are the medical staff on the front line who have gave interview after interview one person?

 

[Paxi]

So one persons anecdotes means this is the situation around the country? I know plenty of medical professionals with their own views and stories, most saying they have never been quieter at work, even during lockdown where they were preparing for high numbers of COVID patients. It never happened.

Anecdote? You do realise he’s a doctor right?

 

[Josep Dowling]

These types of posts irritate me greatly, in Spain and Italy they had to sedate people and let them die as they had to assess who had a better chance to live and give them a respirator. You can say "these people were old so well that is acceptable collateral damage" I don't. you also have to remember the number of "nightingale" hospitals were built.

One thing I do agree on is the media are not helping during all this.

You’re missing the point though. This is meant to be a ‘deadly’ virus yet it’s death rate is not even 0.001% of the worlds population. Less than 1% of people tested have died and we all know getting tested in this country is impossible let alone somewhere like India.

Be cautious yes, but restrictions causing economic damage isn’t the answer this time.

 

[Wumminator]

8% of the country has had it.

There’s been around 65,000 excess deaths.

how can anyone look at these two statistics and say “let’s carry on”?

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

It is a great post and also very sad that @Hernandez - BFA is going through depression because it’s been so tough. Nothing but the greatest respect for him.

Totally agree, the "conspiracy theorists" who come out with such horse shit show so much disrespect to the people who have had to work through this and have died from it. She arrogance and selfishness.

 

[Dancfc]

I do think a lot of people were just getting tests because they were available and they wanted reassurance to go about doing what they want, rather than due to symptoms, and I also think the problem has been grabbed by the media and turned into a much bigger monster. I can get a test same day through work if I want. They have spare capacity at our work as well for schools, care workers, etc. I think they are just reluctant to use up that spare capacity so some idiot can get a test before flying off to Croatia and infecting themselves.

This is a developed country but it's full of idiots. There was no toilet role in the supermarket again today, and a queue to the tills that was literally backing down four isles and then almost back out of the store. I mean, not only is this stupid in itself, but we've literally already had a lockdown and realised once that panic buying toilet role is a completely pointless thing to do. I don't understand how anyone is this dumb but apparently enough people are just in my area to form a line of idiots as far as the eye can see.

Is the panic buying due to fears of being in a two week isolation I wonder? I remember at the peak there were literally no slots for delivery, if someone had to self isolate and had no support network they were fecked if they didn't enough food in.

I mean surely people aren't stupid enough to think there's going to be a shortage at this point?

The government haven’t covered themselves in glory through this but I think it’s at a stage where literally every single decision or change that is made a whole load of people will moan about and give no thought to the logic behind it.

I said this back in June that people are so far gone in the government must be wrong no matter what that they create problems that weren't/aren't there.

For example when the household bubble was announced, the message was pretty clear in that two households can merge aslong as one of them was a lone occupier and people were taking to forum platforms and social media pretending to be all confused, I mean was I missing something, what on earth was being left open to misinterpretation?

I hate defending Boris aswell as I couldn't stand the little slimeball all long before it was the hipster trend but I find it incredible (in a bad way) that people just want to pass themselves off as complete thicko's just because.

 

[Paxi]

Totally agree, the "conspiracy theorists" who come out with such horse shit show so much disrespect to the people who have had to work through this and have died from it. She arrogance and selfishness.

I know, this second impeding wave have brought them out of the woodwork. You’d think they’d be a bit more educated on the subject but nah — still pig headed.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

You’re missing the point though. This is meant to be a ‘deadly’ virus yet it’s death rate is not even 0.001% of the worlds population. Less than 1% of people tested have died and we all know getting tested in this country is impossible let alone somewhere like India.

Be cautious yes, but restrictions causing economic damage isn’t the answer this time.

No one has said this is a deadly virus, for everyone, due to its death rate, its due to the silent spread and how infectious it is. The death rate is low because of the measures put in place, or do you think it was all pointless?

 

[Wedge]

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Oh fecking yay lucky me.

 

[Tibs]

The UK outbreaks since lockdown was lifted have largely been in Asian communities and because of spreading in overcrowded homes due to poverty and multi-generational living.

Do you have any facts to back that up?

 

[Josep Dowling]

Anecdote? You do realise he’s a doctor right?

It’s his point of view. I’m sure dealing with the front line isn’t pleasant. I’ve spoken to a few friends who have worked on the front line as well and all of them commented on how quiet the wards were and have remained for months.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

So one persons anecdotes means this is the situation around the country? I know plenty of medical professionals with their own views and stories, most saying they have never been quieter at work, even during lockdown where they were preparing for high numbers of COVID patients. It never happened.

Pretty valid. I can't argue with that.

Equally, you shouldn't generalise by saying that the "media overscaled the drama", "hospitals were never at full capacity" etc. You saying blanket statements like this anger me because you have no idea what some hospitals/hospital staff have seen in that regard. When I saw a fit-and-healthy 28 year old lad die within the space of 3 days of coming into hospital with COVID, I certainly didn't think the "media overscaled".

You may end up being right, and the second wave may not happen. But after seeing first hand what the first wave was and hearing that the second wave can potentially be worse - then I'd prefer if people could just be sensible. I'm not saying that I feel lucky or unlucky that I was able to continue to work during COVID. I sympathise massively with every single person who were financially hit by it all.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

I know, this second impeding wave have brought them out of the woodwork. You’d think they’d be a bit more educated on the subject but nah — still pig headed.

Especially given we have known about this for what 9 months? We know very little about this long term.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

It’s his point of view. I’m sure dealing with the front line isn’t pleasant. I’ve spoken to a few friends who have worked on the front line as well and all of them commented on how quiet the wards were and have remained for months.

Why do you think that is?

 

[Paxi]

It’s his point of view. I’m sure dealing with the front line isn’t pleasant. I’ve spoken to a few friends who have worked on the front line as well and all of them commented on how quiet the wards were and have remained for months.

Because it’s the summer and younger demographic whole are getting infected don’t require as many hospitalisations.

 

[Pexbo]

Boris wittering on about winning and success. Just feck off you bumbling old sociopath

 

[F-Red]

It’s his point of view. I’m sure dealing with the front line isn’t pleasant. I’ve spoken to a few friends who have worked on the front line as well and all of them commented on how quiet the wards were and have remained for months.

Are they based on ICU wards or general wards? Considering hospitals stopped pretty much every other service, bar covid from March-May, it doesn't surprise me that those not on covid duty weren't busy. Non-covid ward capacity is not a measure of how much impact the virus has had.

 

[DavidDeSchmikes]

Boris wittering on about winning and success. Just feck off you bumbling old sociopath

freedom loving country......

 

[Pexbo]

freedom loving country......

Just absolutely tone deaf.

 

[Tibs]

He'd do better if he just read off a pre-planned speech.

 

[F-Red]

He'd do better if he just read off a pre-planned speech.

He is reading a script.

 

[esmufc07]

Boris is a great orator.

 

[Tibs]

He is reading a script.

Needs a better script then, one that the majority will understand what he is saying.

Too much mumbo jumbo

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Boris in.

 

[DavidDeSchmikes]

Narrative set that all this is the plebs fault