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

[McGrathsipan]

My boy does have it but he's not one bit sick.
Barring waking up with a mild temperature last Friday he's been very energetic and playful. The usual. We play Royal Rumble wrestling and he beat the shit our of me last night. No stopping him.

Going to test ourselves again now

 

[Pogue Mahone]

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Very cool graph/animation. Vindicates the return to (basically) normal life in countries like Uk and Ireland.

 

[Wolverine]

Slightly annoyed still about upcoming U-turn on mandatory NHS staff vaccinations because the mainstream press will continue to platform the covid/vaccine skeptics which might hinder booster programme

But i think they must have done analysis on workplace needs and with shortages in maternity health and other places, not wanting any rota gaps won out against the principle of vaccinating.

Sucks because amongst the vaccine hesitant I have seen them cite the belief of "even the doctors and nurses hesitant to get it" with regards to safety which isn't the case vast majority of doctors

 

[11101]

Slightly annoyed still about upcoming U-turn on mandatory NHS staff vaccinations because the mainstream press will continue to platform the covid/vaccine skeptics which might hinder booster programme

But i think they must have done analysis on workplace needs and with shortages in maternity health and other places, not wanting any rota gaps won out against the principle of vaccinating.

Sucks because amongst the vaccine hesitant I have seen them cite the belief of "even the doctors and nurses hesitant to get it" with regards to safety which isn't the case vast majority of doctors

Is the U-turn confirmed? It is a shame because I think its important for patients. I would not want my life in the hands of somebody who can be easily misled and illogical in an area in which they are supposed to be highly competent.

 

[horsechoker]

Where are we now with the pandemic?

There's news of a sub-variant but it seems like people just don't really give a shit.

I wonder if we are in the transition towards just living with the pandemic.

No doubt they'll be another variant before the end of the year and it'll be telling if people even care as much as they did about omicron which largely seemed like an inconvenience compared to the previous ones.

 

[McGrathsipan]

Where are we now with the pandemic?

There's news of a sub-variant but it seems like people just don't really give a shit.

I wonder if we are in the transition towards just living with the pandemic.

No doubt they'll be another variant before the end of the year and it'll be telling if people even care as much as they did about omicron which largely seemed like an inconvenience compared to the previous ones.

its a massive inconvenience now.
My boy has it and hes not one iota ill - not a bit.
But he has to miss a week of school and stay in. Its madness on the face of it

 

[horsechoker]

its a massive inconvenience now.
My boy has it and hes not one iota ill - not a bit.
But he has to miss a week of school and stay in. Its madness on the face of it

For society at large its carrying on as normal and when compared to 2020 this feels much more "normal".

On an individual level it's inconvenient to get it but on a societal level people can do most things they were doing pre-pandemic.

 

[McGrathsipan]

For society at large its carrying on as normal and when compared to 2020 this feels much more "normal".

On an individual level it's inconvenient to get it but on a societal level people can do most things they were doing pre-pandemic.

last thing is the masks - then we are back to full normal

 

[Pogue Mahone]

its a massive inconvenience now.
My boy has it and hes not one iota ill - not a bit.
But he has to miss a week of school and stay in. Its madness on the face of it

To be fair, that’s more of a minor - rather than massive - inconvenience. Assuming he doesn’t catch it again this academic year (which is hopefully very unlikely)

If missing a week off school every year or so is the worst we have to put up with then that’s pretty good really.

The next big thing for me is getting rid of masks at school. Little or no upside now we know how easily this is spread but a big imposition in an environment where non-verbal communication is so important.

 

[horsechoker]

last thing is the masks - then we are back to full normal

I think masks will stay in form even if not mandated. I'm of the belief that European and North American cities will look more like the far-East in winter with many donning a facemask.

It won't be the majority but a significant minority.

As I said before, how much will people care about the next variant?

 

[Bosws87]

I think masks will stay in form even if not mandated. I'm of the belief that European and North American cities will look more like the far-East in winter with many donning a facemask.

It won't be the majority but a significant minority.

As I said before, how much will people care about the next variant?

Judging from the current state of getting public transport since the Thursday the rules were relaxed in England there basically non existent already.

 

[McGrathsipan]

To be fair, that’s more of a minor - rather than massive - inconvenience. Assuming he doesn’t catch it again this academic year (which is hopefully very unlikely)

If missing a week off school every year or so is the worst we have to put up with then that’s pretty good really.

The next big thing for me is getting rid of masks at school. Little or no upside now we know how easily this is spread but a big imposition in an environment where non-verbal communication is so important.

Sure we have come a long way since the start - and if this is it then we can live with it but it seems pointless when its so rampant.
Rules for me as a close contact are to crack on until such a time as I feel any symptom and up to now nothing. My youngest is a huggy child and we have been very close all weekend and so far all my antigens are negative - next one tomorrow morning

agree totally about the masks - my 9 year old is so frustrated

 

[McGrathsipan]

I think masks will stay in form even if not mandated. I'm of the belief that European and North American cities will look more like the far-East in winter with many donning a facemask.

It won't be the majority but a significant minority.

As I said before, how much will people care about the next variant?

unless its proved to be a killer strain then its not going to register with anyone

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I think masks will stay in form even if not mandated. I'm of the belief that European and North American cities will look more like the far-East in winter with many donning a facemask.

It won't be the majority but a significant minority.

As I said before, how much will people care about the next variant?

The de-masking thing is really interesting. At my bouldering gym they said you need to wear masks to check in but no longer need them to climb. That’s been the case for nearly two weeks now and I reckon 90%+ of people still wear masks. I took mine off last week but ended up feeling so self-conscious I put it back on again!

Probably different in the UK though. Mask compliance in Ireland has always been crazy high. So not wearing a mask around other people indoors will feel weird for a while yet.

 

[Red_toad]

its a massive inconvenience now.
My boy has it and hes not one iota ill - not a bit.
But he has to miss a week of school and stay in. Its madness on the face of it

So you expect the school to look after your son while he has Covid? Not sure what your issue is?

 

[McGrathsipan]

So you expect the school to look after your son while he has Covid? Not sure what your issue is?

if you're not sure what my issue is you need to think harder mate.
To get you started - I dont expect the school to do anything.

 

[Red_toad]

if you're not sure what my issue is you need to think harder mate.
To get you started - I dont expect the school to do anything.

Thanks for not really clarifying. I asked as I wasn't sure.

 

[McGrathsipan]

Thanks for not really clarifying. I asked as I wasn't sure.

well you jumped to a conclusion about the school looking after my kid with Covid.

My issue with not being able to send him in is that he is going to miss a week of school having already missed a load of school. He has missed enough and now he is missing more and he's not ill per se. Its my sons education and his wellbeing I am thinking about - he is only 6 and doesnt quite understand why he's not allowed to go out or go to his friends in school even though he is not sick. We are telling him he's "sick" but in his head he isn't, because he isnt.

 

[Rado_N]

well you jumped to a conclusion about the school looking after my kid with Covid.

My issue with not being able to send him in is that he is going to miss a week of school having already missed a load of school. He has missed enough and now he is missing more and he's not ill per se. Its my sons education and his wellbeing I am thinking about - he is only 6 and doesnt quite understand why he's not allowed to go out or go to his friends in school even though he is not sick. We are telling him he's "sick" but in his head he isn't, because he isnt.

I guess the concern is that whilst he might not be “ill” he could pass on to someone else who could become ill? Dunno, things are gonna have to go back to normal at some point.

 

[McGrathsipan]

I guess the concern is that whilst he might not be “ill” he could pass on to someone else who could become ill? Dunno, things are gonna have to go back to normal at some point.

Thats why I am keeping him home, I wouldnt want him to pass it to someone else. I am doing the right thing

 

[Whatsername]

My boy does have it but he's not one bit sick.
Barring waking up with a mild temperature last Friday he's been very energetic and playful. The usual. We play Royal Rumble wrestling and he beat the shit our of me last night. No stopping him.

Going to test ourselves again now

I‘m on Day 7 and in all honesty I’ve had worse colds. The day I tested positive was the worst I felt, since then I’ve just felt like I’m almost over a cold. My husband tested positive two days after me and he’s been pretty ill with it.

I can’t go out yet though as I’m still getting strong positives on lateral flow tests so it looks like I’m stuck in until Friday. I’m so unbelievably bored. With a cold I’d have gone out for a walk and benefitted from some fresh air.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I‘m on Day 7 and in all honesty I’ve had worse colds. The day I tested positive was the worst I felt, since then I’ve just felt like I’m almost over a cold. My husband tested positive two days after me and he’s been pretty ill with it.

I can’t go out yet though as I’m still getting strong positives on lateral flow tests so it looks like I’m stuck in until Friday. I’m so unbelievably bored. With a cold I’d have gone out for a walk and benefitted from some fresh air.

You should go out for a walk and get some fresh air. If you don’t spend time indoors with anyone (or get right up in someone’s face outdoors) there’s no harm done.

 

[berbatrick]

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[Sweet Square]

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At around 0:40 the video tries to frame anti vax protests as people simply worried about lockdowns measures and a sign of healthy democracy.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

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At around 0:40 the video tries to frame anti vax protests as people simply worried about lockdowns measures and a sign of healthy democracy.

Hardly. There have been lots of protests against lockdowns. In lots of countries. Which are distinct from anti-vax protests. Lockdowns (and variants thereof) are obviously a measure that is unpopular with a significant proportion of the population.

I’m sure there are many in China who find their anti-covid measures harsh or unfair. If we’re not seeing any form of public protest at all then that doesn’t exactly speak of a free country, does it?

 

[Drifter]

Rise in Covid cases in England as reinfections are included for the first time | Coronavirus

A further 92,000 Covid cases were reported for England on Monday, a sharp rise on the previous day, after reinfections were included in the statistics for the first time.

Previously, daily Covid case figures – which reflect the number of new infections detected by testing – did not include reinfections for England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, although figures for the country of Wales have done so, provided the positive tests are more than 42 days apart. In other words, most people were only counted once even if they had caught Covid multiple times.

However, as the pandemic continues, the lack of reinfections in case data has raised concerns, with experts noting that prior infection offers little protection against Omicron, whereas – two years into the pandemic – there are more people who have had Covid at least once before.

The scientists noted that it was also important to include reinfections in order to understand the dynamics of the spread of emerging immune-evasive variants, while also shedding light on why some people may be repeatedly infected.

“It’s probably a combination of risk – from exposure – and the inherent likelihood of getting infected, once exposed,” said Professor Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh. “We need to know these things in order to better target interventions of different kinds – how important, for example, particular workplaces are likely to be, and how certain people are therefore going to be at greater risk.”

The new approach means reinfections will now be included in the daily Covid case figures for England and Northern Ireland, with such episodes defined as a positive specimen at least 90 days after the last – a discrepancy that captures the majority of reinfections but ensures those who simply shed the virus longer after an infection are excluded from the data.

Although data from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that some reinfections may occur within a shorter timeframe, this is a relatively small proportion of potential reinfections.

The Guardian understands that data for cases in Scotland will also include reinfections in the coming weeks, while data for cases in Wales will switch in the coming weeks to using the duration of the episode of 90 days of 90 days.

Under the current mixed definitions used, 92,368 new Covid cases were reported for the UK on Monday, down from 69,007 the previous day, with 81,720 reported for England alone compared to 59,559 on Sunday before reinfections were included.

The Guardian understands that reinfections were not initially included in daily case data across all UK countries because at the start of the pandemic it was unclear whether they were occurring and, whether reinfections were occurring. were producing, what was the interval between infections. While reinfection numbers have since been tracked by public health agencies and published in reports, daily case numbers have not – until now – included such episodes.

While including reinfections means the risk of lethality – the proportion of people reported as diagnosed with Covid who die – will decrease, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge, warned the measure remains problematic.

“We have always known that the daily number of reported cases was a substantial undercount of the true number of infections – the ONS Covid Infection survey shows we need to at least double the daily number,” he said.

“Including reinfections will be an improvement and reduce the apparent case fatality rate, but no one should have taken this very seriously anyway. The case fatality rate is inevitably an overestimate of what is the best measure – the infection fatality rate, that is, the proportion of infected people who die, whether or not they become confirmed cases.

 

[jojojo]

Rise in Covid cases in England as reinfections are included for the first time | Coronavirus

Just to make clear - that's not an extra 92,000 extra cases yesterday compared to the day before, that's yesterday's total including reinfections. A total of around 588k additional cases were added to the overall cases stat yesterday, that's pushed the pandemic total for the UK up to 14,845,382.

On a specimen date basis, you can see what that means at:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=nation&areaName=England
Where the "Cases by episode of infection and specimen date" shows people testing positive for the first time and reinfections for each day. Omicron has seen a lot more reinfections than previous waves and around 1 in 9 positives are reinfections at present.

 

[jojojo]

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[Sparky_Hughes]

I think masks will stay in form even if not mandated. I'm of the belief that European and North American cities will look more like the far-East in winter with many donning a facemask.

It won't be the majority but a significant minority.

As I said before, how much will people care about the next variant?

I certainly will. In a weird way Ive grown to kind of like it.

 

[Whatsername]

You should go out for a walk and get some fresh air. If you don’t spend time indoors with anyone (or get right up in someone’s face outdoors) there’s no harm done.

I have done early this morning, I walked the dog on the common behind our street for a couple of miles.

I’ve had to be careful because I can’t afford a fine and we strongly suspect our neighbour of calling the police on other neighbours (three separate houses) when they had visitors during the lockdown before Christmas 2020. His front door is right next to ours so he’d have seen the note I put on it last week warning the Tesco delivery driver that I was isolating but I’m now at the point where legally I can stop isolating if I have two negative tests (they’re not though).

 

[Massive Spanner]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60215200

Quite surprised that they're the first EU country to remove face masks. I know we've eased almost everything here in Ireland apart from them so maybe it's the same in a lot of other countries.

 

[golden_blunder]

well you jumped to a conclusion about the school looking after my kid with Covid.

My issue with not being able to send him in is that he is going to miss a week of school having already missed a load of school. He has missed enough and now he is missing more and he's not ill per se. Its my sons education and his wellbeing I am thinking about - he is only 6 and doesnt quite understand why he's not allowed to go out or go to his friends in school even though he is not sick. We are telling him he's "sick" but in his head he isn't, because he isnt.

As a parent of a 6 year old lad as well, they miss the social aspect. He’s not missing much educationally. Nothing you can’t do at home with him, practising his writing, reading a few short stories and talking about them

 

[Pexbo]

It’s easy to understand why companies might want to enforce vaccination across their staff Anecdotal I know but my employer has nearly 40 staff of which 3 are unvaccinated. All 3 of them had covid in the summer and were off for 2-4 weeks with it plus a few days here and there in the following months due to long covid (fatigue mostly).

All three are now off sick at the same time and have been for the last 8-10 days. All three, despite working remotely are not fit enough to work. In comparison those that have been vaccinated have missed 1-3 days at the most before returning to work remotely.

 

[Wibble]

its a massive inconvenience now.
My boy has it and hes not one iota ill - not a bit.
But he has to miss a week of school and stay in. Its madness on the face of it

How is it madness? Even if he feels ok he can pass it on to other kids and teachers if he attends school, who may not have such a good outcome and they in turn could infect others.

 

[RobinLFC]

Do you still have to take a (pre-booked) lateral flow test on arrival in England, even if you only stay for ~24h (weekend of Feb 19)? Lots of websites with contradicting information.

 

[golden_blunder]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-60162708

 

[Traub]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-60162708

Life got in the way of going for a 5 minute shot according to his partner - after a year of the shot being available. I wonder how many times he managed to find the time for a pint or to pick up a quick cup of coffee.

 

[Dumbstar]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-60162708

She said: "He's not an anti-vaxxer at all, he wanted to get the vaccine but life gets in the way and you think 'I'll do it tomorrow, do it the next day'."

Yeah, right. There's literally vaccinations in nearly every street in the country. I bet life (aka downing beers with his mates) kept getting in the way.

I suppose she had to say the not anti vax part to avoid the ensuing "he deserved it" vitriol.

 

[dal]

How is it madness? Even if he feels ok he can pass it on to other kids and teachers if he attends school, who may not have such a good outcome and they in turn could infect others.

Yes but where does it stop, given the risks are so minimal and most of everyday life is now almost back to normal.

People won’t care soon, most people will soon pass it off as flu/cold like, whether that be ignorant or not.

 

[Bosws87]

I'm intrigued on China's plan now most places are coming out of the pandemic due to vaccinations and natural infections, where do they intend to go from here from what i remember reading the chinese vaccine which has been predominately used hasn't been great since we have moved away from the original virus and the new variants.

Do they intend to keep the zero covid policy then rejab the whole nation again with a more up to date vaccine.

What was considered an excellent outcome at the beginning is now looking like a big problem.

England now looks in one of the most promising positions and lets be honest we have just made it up as we have gone along.