Coronavirus: General discussion (see opening post for rules)

[bald_pig]

A stat that caught my attention from the programme was that for every child with a positive covid test in school, on average 20 other children have isolated and over 99% of them did not contract covid. I haven't come to a conclusion about how I think that should be responded to, but it's definitely food for thought.

 

That will be down to the schools' handling of cases, a lot of schools seemed to just send the entire class home if there was a positive case, whereas others were identifying the actual close contacts and sending just those to isolate.

 

I imagine once the national track and trace takes over it will be either the whole class or nobody isolating!

Edited July 20, 2021 by elsiegee40

[Primus]

That will be down to the schools' handling of cases, a lot of schools seemed to just send the entire class home if there was a positive case, whereas others were identifying the actual close contacts and sending just those to isolate.

 

I imagine once the national track and trace takes over it will be either the whole class or nobody isolating!

 

I'm not sure if you meant to but your post sounds a little bit like you're accusing some schools of overreacting?

 

Obviously every school is different but our students have mainly been taught as form classes for everything, in one room and the rooms are quite small as it's a new build school. In those circumstances you can't reasonably say that there are any students in the room that wouldn't be a close contact IMO. They've spent all day together in a small room with relatively limited circulation.

 

Sadly it has been our experience that 1 student in a class testing positive is not the end of the positive tests for that class - we've seen plenty of examples of other students in the same class going on to test positive and some were sitting at the opposite side of the (fairly small) room so it's not always predictable. Obviously you can never be certain where someone contracts it from but we've seen enough incidents of this for it to be a strange coincidence if it's not linked.

[Primus]

 

A stat that caught my attention from the programme was that for every child with a positive covid test in school, on average 20 other children have isolated and over 99% of them did not contract covid. I haven't come to a conclusion about how I think that should be responded to, but it's definitely food for thought.

 

 

It's an interesting stat and totally flies in the face of what we've been seeing. However I am also aware of plenty of families who are refusing to test and how many young people who are meant to be self isolating are going out and about meeting friends etc.

 

Sadly we've even had students trying to get in who've been told to self isolate because they're a contact.

[FN-GM]

We dream of 4!

 

First time we have had such restrictions in place. Im not used to it!

 

Good luck with the vaccine - do you know which one it is?

 

It's Pfizer. Everyone in Australia under 50 is guaranteed Pfizer. I get my second jab 3 weeks later.

[Ditto]

First time we have had such restrictions in place. Im not used to it!

 

 

 

It's Pfizer. Everyone in Australia under 50 is guaranteed Pfizer. I get my second jab 3 weeks later.

 

Three weeks is interesting. I believe most of the early trials were based on this, but I thought opinion had moved to a bigger gap. Still, two jabs is better than one! Or none!

[bald_pig]

I'm not sure if you meant to but your post sounds a little bit like you're accusing some schools of overreacting?

 

Obviously every school is different but our students have mainly been taught as form classes for everything, in one room and the rooms are quite small as it's a new build school. In those circumstances you can't reasonably say that there are any students in the room that wouldn't be a close contact IMO. They've spent all day together in a small room with relatively limited circulation.

 

Sadly it has been our experience that 1 student in a class testing positive is not the end of the positive tests for that class - we've seen plenty of examples of other students in the same class going on to test positive and some were sitting at the opposite side of the (fairly small) room so it's not always predictable. Obviously you can never be certain where someone contracts it from but we've seen enough incidents of this for it to be a strange coincidence if it's not linked.

 

Don't get me wrong, some schools will be in a position where an entire class will qualify as contacts and need to isolate, especially in primaries where you can't really expect KS1 pupils to maintain distancing etc, but those stats do indeed suggest that there are a lot of pupils being regarded as contacts that shouldn't necessarily be.

[elsiegee40]

Me gee40 finished his isolation at midnight on Saturday without incident.

 

It’s been quite handy having staggered pings. We only had 2 days overlapping so he did the supermarket shop on Sunday… he did only buy what I wrote on the shopping list which did make me wonder if he was actually ill

 

Last day of self isolation for me today. No symptoms and every lateral flow test negative so far. I’ll do another Lateral Flow Test tomorrow just to be sure.

[Primus]

Don't get me wrong, some schools will be in a position where an entire class will qualify as contacts and need to isolate, especially in primaries where you can't really expect KS1 pupils to maintain distancing etc, but those stats do indeed suggest that there are a lot of pupils being regarded as contacts that shouldn't necessarily be.

 

They're pretty much damned if they do and damned if they don't.

[StevieM]

As far as I'm aware, PHE has been contacting schools when a positive test is confirmed and advising them on who should isolate. That's certainly what's been happening here.

[mavhc]

A stat that caught my attention from the programme was that for every child with a positive covid test in school, on average 20 other children have isolated and over 99% of them did not contract covid. I haven't come to a conclusion about how I think that should be responded to, but it's definitely food for thought.

 

99% of tests being negative vs 99% of them not contracting covid are different though.

 

In general primary school kids aren't transmitting much I think, as they have small lungs and less ACE2 receptors. Wonder if we know the ratio of primary to secondary pupils isolating

[StevieM]

I listened as well and I agree - it was much more positive than I expected. For context, I'm a long time loyal listener and the presentation style is supposed to be slightly light hearted (which I can see might grate), but they're rigorous on their statistics.

 

FTFY

 

(Loyal listeners will get the reference.)

[FN-GM]

Three weeks is interesting. I believe most of the early trials were based on this, but I thought opinion had moved to a bigger gap.

 

I believe people who have AstraZeneca have to wait 8-12 weeks between vaccines.

[LeMarchand]

School closed due to too few staff to look after children. Staff in who are wearing masks, hardly any...

[enbiggen]

Leaving the school yesterday someone in a car shouted "Don't you know you don't have to wear that anymore" as I headed, mask on, to my crowded train journey home. I politely replied that "Yes, and I can choose to wear one too. Thanks, bye".

 

My local paper has a journalist who went to a post office to interview the shop keeper, and instead found themselves writing an article about how they were shouted at and abused by a customer because they chose to wear a mask.

[Garacesh]

Leaving the school yesterday someone in a car shouted "Don't you know you don't have to wear that anymore" as I headed, mask on, to my crowded train journey home. I politely replied that "Yes, and I can choose to wear one too. Thanks, bye".

 

My local paper has a journalist who went to a post office to interview the shop keeper, and instead found themselves writing an article about how they were shouted at and abused by a customer because they chose to wear a mask.

 

I genuinely don't understand the attitude. No, it's not mandatory, but it's still for the greater good, why is that so bad?

It's like people take it as a personal attack. "Oh, you're wearing a mask around me. You must think I'm diseased or something. How dare you?!"

[LeMarchand]

I genuinely don't understand the attitude. No, it's not mandatory, but it's still for the greater good, why is that so bad?

It's like people take it as a personal attack. "Oh, you're wearing a mask around me. You must think I'm diseased or something. How dare you?!"

 

I guess we're starting to get an answer on how much common sense the Great British Public has.

[tg12]

I was quite pleasantly surprised when I was at my local train station yesterday evening. Most people got off the train wearing masks, even though I think South Western Railway aren’t mandating face coverings. And driving around, I’ve still seen people wearing them.

[jthompson]

I guess we're starting to get an answer on how much common sense the Great British Public has.

 

One of the things I've noticed during this pandemic is that whilst the Great British public does have a common sense, it's common in the sense that everyone has one, but not common in the sense that everyone has the same one.

 

The mechanics of airborne respiratory infection mean that we're all bumping up against one another's outlook in a way that we're not used to. It can be challenging.

[mavhc]

I genuinely don't understand the attitude. No, it's not mandatory, but it's still for the greater good, why is that so bad?

It's like people take it as a personal attack. "Oh, you're wearing a mask around me. You must think I'm diseased or something. How dare you?!"

 

"I mean, you're the kind of person who doesn't wear a mask, it's way more likely you are diseased"

 

The world is too complex for most people, we'll have to abandon democracy at some point.

[mikeprice]

Around here I haven;t heard anyone complaining abotu others wearing masks

 

but in the chippie yesterday about half were

None of the staff - but then few were before anyway

 

If someone does shout at me my attitude would be

OK - you may be right

if you are I am wearing a mask for no reason and I don;t like it

but IF you are wrong I could get COVID and take it home

and it could kill my wife

 

 

and funerals are a right pain in the 'neck'

 

so I'll go with the mask for now

[6Foot2]

Silly season kicks off a little early with this contribution:

 

Link: https://twitter.com/GillianMcKeith/status/1417883955462823944 [Gillian McKeith Text Tweet]

 

 

[Garacesh]

Silly season kicks off a little early with this contribution:

 

Link: https://twitter.com/GillianMcKeith/status/1417883955462823944 [Gillian McKeith Text Tweet]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62660[/ATTACH]

 

Y'know, somehow I think I'll refrain from subscribing to conspiracy theories from a lady that sniffs poo for a living..

[paulkerton]

If someone does shout at me my attitude would be

OK - you may be right

if you are I am wearing a mask for no reason and I don;t like it

but IF you are wrong I could get COVID and take it home

and it could kill my wife

Of course, the chances of someone being unmasked and being unvaccinated are incredibly high.

So you're caring for them more than they are caring for themselves. It's quite sad some people have whipped themselves up into this frenzy about "big pharma" making profits by listening to some A grade cranks, but have completely forgot about the opportunities that "big coffin" have had.

[JordanT91]

So the caretaker is back at work today, I wasn't expecting him until tomorrow because his household's isolation shouldn't end until tonight.

I showed him the calendar and counted the days out.

 

The worrying thing is that his wife has been out of isolation since the weekend because the app told her to. I had to explain that the need for a household to isolate for 10 days overrides whatever the app is telling you...

He's going back home to isolate now, in case Test and Trace ring to see if he's still isolating. He said they haven't been in contact at all, no text messages or phone calls.

 

It's no wonder the rate of infection is what it is... First you've got people who don't understand the rules and then Test and Trace aren't actually making sure people are isolating when they should be. The whole thing is a mess.

[6Foot2]

...The whole thing is a mess.

How can you say that? It's cost £37 billion.

 

And it's world-beating.

 

We are told...