Coronavirus: General discussion (see opening post for rules)

[mavhc]

Why do I have mandatory training in a cramped room with 400 other people during a global viral pandemic?

 

Because....checks the case numbers....people are idiots and being forced to be in the same room as them requires hazard pay

[tmoon-mint]

If its like our MAT who spent thousands on Google equipment during the pandemic for virtual meetings, now has decided to hold all meetings face to face and will invite people to attend but never tells the host school how many are turning up so on previous meetings there has been three people using our main hall and when they booked out a meeting room for another meeting on previous numbers we had 50 turn up!

 

I have noticed this trend too. People seem to want face to face meetings now just because they can. Most of the time the meetings could have just been an email instead.

 

"Just because you can doesnt mean you should."

[mavhc]

1 in 13 people are infected, so out of 400, that's 31 people

[BOOT]

1 in 8 infected where I live.

[Ditto]

Just back from Norway and from a covid perspective it was 'interesting'. Plane of about 300, I'd say about 5 - 10 masks. Bus with 80+, maybe a couple. Daily buffet breakfast and evening meals, shared serving utensils - mask wearing at the buffet bars, maybe 1 in 100. Using the hand sanitisers - I didn't see anyone use one all week. Plane back, maybe 3 - 5 mask. The skiing was lovely, but with the coughing and spluttering, those numbers means a good few are pumping out the virus. I can only presume it is weariness or a belief we have reached a level of herd immunity and low enough death figures. In the UK, when hospital admissions on 30th March were only exceeded previously in December 2020/January 2021 and the original surge in April 2020, there feels like there is a disconnect of some sort. Delay of about an hour on landing at Heathrow due to staff shortages. I can only hope we are moving downwards as some are suggesting. Tested negative this morning, will try again midweek.

[Andrew_C]

I'm in Italy. No idea what the country's numbes are, but mask wearing is better than at home. Using the local train a lot; the only ones not masked are the ' too cool for school' yoof. Same for shops and museums etc.

[Ditto]

I wonder how much if the data on https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ is of real use now. Certainly the number of tests taken and the number of cases reported is less informative post April and with the coming bank holiday, 4 days of data will be blurred in to one update on Tuesday. I would suggest only the Healthcare and Deaths data is truly informative with the vaccination numbers perhaps only warranting a weekly update.

[jthompson]

Ars Technica - Autopsies suggest COVID’s smell loss is caused by inflammation, not virus

Researchers concluded that inflammation—not the virus—is behind the loss of smell and taste during a bout of COVID-19, which is good news in some ways. It suggests that treatments with anti-inflammatory drugs could prevent severe or long-term damage to those critical senses.

[mavhc]

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing?areaType=nation&areaName=England overlays number of tests with percentage that were positive, when the test numbers go down and the positive rate go up, it would indicate the true case rate is much higher.

[Rob_D]

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing?areaType=nation&areaName=England overlays number of tests with percentage that were positive, when the test numbers go down and the positive rate go up, it would indicate the true case rate is much higher.

Or the correlation is caused because a drop in testing means people are only testing when they have symptoms or otherwise think they might have the virus. Rather than all the people (like school and NHS workers) who when they are doing twice weekly testing must have made up a good portion of the total tests, and were far more likely to have a negative result than someone testing because they're worried they might have covid.

[Ditto]

Another vaccine approved. It's a more traditionally developed vaccine, using a deactivated full virus. Apparently outperforms AZ in some ways.

[mavhc]

Or the correlation is caused because a drop in testing means people are only testing when they have symptoms or otherwise think they might have the virus. Rather than all the people (like school and NHS workers) who when they are doing twice weekly testing must have made up a good portion of the total tests, and were far more likely to have a negative result than someone testing because they're worried they might have covid.

 

Indeed, so it only catches those who have obvious symptoms, but not all the people with few/generic symptoms, so there's more people who have it than the case numbers suggest. That was the whole point of mass testing, to find those people.

[Ditto]

Hospital admission numbers from gov site show below 1000 per day for last two days of April. This is the lowest since mid December 2021. I'll be keeping an eye on that figure to see if it drops a further.

[nicholab]

Don’t fly Aer Lingus they are not enforcing face masks between the UK and Ireland.

[Steve21]

All of EU are dropping it under their new EASA plans, so doubt any will continue tbh

 

Steve

[nicholab]

All of EU are dropping it under their new EASA plans, so doubt any will continue tbh

 

Steve

 

So no Airlines are safe to fly with but they could choose to keep it going so why are they not. Why does the EASA not care out passenger safety?

[Steve21]

So no Airlines are safe to fly with but they could choose to keep it going so why are they not. Why does the EASA not care out passenger safety?

 

"Insert normal legal/medical spiel"

 

It's ironic as their update still says it's the best way to prevent it, however it's no longer mandatory "just" recommended. No doubt just a way to stop arguments and planes turning around because of the minority

 

Steve

[elsiegee40]

So no Airlines are safe to fly with but they could choose to keep it going so why are they not. Why does the EASA not care out passenger safety?

 

There’s a difference between recommendation and enforcement and pretty much everyone is choosing to avoid confrontation by recommending. The NHS is probably the only organisation that will insist, but even that is probably changing

[HarryMonkey]

There’s a difference between recommendation and enforcement and pretty much everyone is choosing to avoid confrontation by recommending. The NHS is probably the only organisation that will insist, but even that is probably changing

 

My partner works in a hospital. She has to wear a mask on the wards but can take it off in the corridors (or anywhere else that's not a ward).

[mavhc]

Comparing cases at https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases with infections at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/infections

 

Shows that: the last March 2022 peak was actually much higher than the cases show.

And the current rate which seems to be back to only 10000/day is really probably more like the July to Nov 2021 levels of 40000/day.

 

We're doing 4x fewer tests and getting 4x fewer cases reported, spooky.

[Ditto]

Gov case data in my view is of very limited use nowadays. I tend to only review the health care data, which of course allows the impact of immunity whether from infection or vaccination, and will also reflect the impact of waning immunity. Daily admissions is steadily dropping, but when you look at all the data, is still relatively high and whilst a long way from the peaks, it's not close to the troughs either. It's similar with the total number of patients in hospital and unsurprisingly, death figures follow a similar path. Mechanical ventilation numbers are interesting as they are currently at levels not seen since June last year - I wonder if that reflects other treatments.

[HarryMonkey]

I'm sure it must be an age thing however, I'm confused.

 

Teacher: Are you able to fix my laptop today?

Us: The part hasn't arrived yet.

Teacher: Oh. I'm not sure what to do then as I need to take it home with me at the end of today as I will have to self isolate on Friday and Monday!

 

Why just Friday to Monday? Why not today as well? Can we now book appointments sometime in the future to self isolate when we fancy a long weekend?

[StevieM]

I'm sure it must be an age thing however, I'm confused.

 

Teacher: Are you able to fix my laptop today?

Us: The part hasn't arrived yet.

Teacher: Oh. I'm not sure what to do then as I need to take it home with me at the end of today as I will have to self isolate on Friday and Monday!

 

Why just Friday to Monday? Why not today as well? Can we now book appointments sometime in the future to self isolate when we fancy a long weekend?

 

Hospital appointment on Monday or Tuesday, perhaps?

[Ditto]

NI to stop daily publication of Covid data - see https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/whats-new/record/4d64ce27-f18c-4908-b204-23c11da2da9c, so UK data goes too. It looks as though weekly reporting remains. Full NI statement at https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/news/doh-covid-19-statistics-and-related-publications

[mavhc]

Down to less than half a 9/11 covid deaths per day now.

 

UK has the 3rd highest deaths per day after USA and Germany