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

No offense intended but it looks like you work with average people who may find you "properly stupid" as you would say.

On a more serious note, I agree that people should respect your choice and stop to judge you.

Nah. No offence taken. You’re wrong.
 
The average person is properly stupid.

In the office today. I’m reasonably young and averagely healthy. No concerns. But when I come into my office once a week I take a Lateral Flow test an hour before cycling in. I wear a sealed medical mask when I go to the toilet.

Why? Because it’s me trying to look after others. I’ve had two doses of Pfizer. But science hasn’t told me with certainty that I can’t be the guy that carries Covid into a space I share with others. It’s close to zero effort and such little impact on me to act as I do.

But the amount of people that challenge me on wearing a damn mask to take a shit as if I’m wearing it on THEIR face. It’s crazy. Obviously I don’t like wearing a mask. Of course I think it’s going beyond what’s necessary to self-test before travel. But equally, why the Fcuk do people make it their business?
The resistance to masks in the west is unbelievable.
 
Had the old covid .. just the one vaccination so far.
Few observations…..

seemed like hayfever at first. All of the same symptoms except had an added cough. Took an allergy pill and when the cough didn’t go I knew I had it and I knew exactly where I caught it from.

Did five home tests (rapid antigen tests), three were positive, two negative. So really conclusive and helped a lot……..
Anyway ignored that shit and Did the PCR and positive. Isolated.
Had a cough and blocked nose for about two days then the cough went and that was it really BUT feck me ive been nasally ever since. It’s been two weeks and I’m still nasally and it’s a bit annoying. I now permanently sound like I have a blocked nose but it’s not actually blocked. It’s really weird. I also can’t smell certain things.

Gonna elaborate. I can’t smell shitty smells. Being at home for ten days, levels of self hygiene wasn’t attended to as frequently but I noticed I never smelt bad. That didn’t add up. Threw bins out and didn’t smell any of the crap.Can still smell nice things though.

Once I uploaded my result. The nhs covid app advised five people I was with to isolate, even though I’d seen them three days before I even had symptoms. Seems very flawed and a bit too risk adverse. I don’t understand it’s logic.
fecking bizarre, its been 2+ months since I tested positive and I still can't smell shit smells, not with the previous intensity anyways. Its a bit alarming because that's an important safety mechanism.
 
The ONS covid report is out. The difference between this and the daily case rates is that this is about a random sampling distribution across the country, and minimises the effect of things like local surge testing, LTFs in schools. The downside is that it can't always see local outbreaks, so it didn't spot the case rise in Bolton initially, and inevitably it's already out of date as soon as it's published.



Cases are highest in parts of Scotland, the North East and North West - but growing across the country. Almost all cases are now Delta variant according to the latest PHE report.

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Massive concentration of cases in the (mostly) unvaccinated 16-25 group now. This really is a race between the virus and the vaccine in terms of case rates across the country now. And we're massively dependant on the vaccines when it comes to keeping hospitalisations down.
 
The ONS covid report is out. The difference between this and the daily case rates is that this is about a random sampling distribution across the country, and minimises the effect of things like local surge testing, LTFs in schools. The downside is that it can't always see local outbreaks, so it didn't spot the case rise in Bolton initially, and inevitably it's already out of date as soon as it's published.



Cases are highest in parts of Scotland, the North East and North West - but growing across the country. Almost all cases are now Delta variant according to the latest PHE report.



Massive concentration of cases in the (mostly) unvaccinated 16-25 group now. This really is a race between the virus and the vaccine in terms of case rates across the country now. And we're massively dependant on the vaccines when it comes to keeping hospitalisations down.


Massive concentration of cases in the (mostly) unvaccinated 16-25 group now but this population section is unlikely to get hospitalised on average.

The comparison of number of cases without putting the numbers of tests undertaken also restrict the value of the data provided... How many are tested? Who is tested? What is the average age of the tested person?

Given the success of the vaccination campaign and the easing of the lockdown (more social interactions...reopening of international travel that requires tests..), the number of cases is no longer the most interesting indicator.

The Covid was the opportunity to see the vast majority of the population does not how to analyse, understand and interpret data in a very careful and rigorous manner, which requires some skills, a form of intelligence and humility.

The population at risk is largely vaccinated so what would be interesting to see is the evolution of both the number of deaths and hospitalisations in the last weeks.

_119174141_uk_daily_deaths_with_ra_1jul-nc.png



When I see this picture, I just believe life should go on...
 
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I had that same shit. Legit couldn't smell or taste absolutely anything for 1 week. Happy it went away so quickly because my dad makes some incredible food and everything just tasted bland. It's crazy how so many people get different bizarre symptoms. I've heard about that tongue symptom on forums.
My test came back negative, and I have no desire to get that swab stuck back up my nose to confirm but I definitely have it.
No blocked nose and I have COMPLETELY lost smell, it is the worst ever, I can't enjoy a meal, it's depressing. How long did it take for you to get it back? How long for others who've had it?
I don't know how much longer I can take this, I love my food and not being to enjoy it is utterly depressing. I'd rather have the body pains and other stuff that to lose my smell and partially taste.
 
My test came back negative, and I have no desire to get that swab stuck back up my nose to confirm but I definitely have it.
No blocked nose and I have COMPLETELY lost smell, it is the worst ever, I can't enjoy a meal, it's depressing. How long did it take for you to get it back? How long for others who've had it?
I don't know how much longer I can take this, I love my food and not being to enjoy it is utterly depressing. I'd rather have the body pains and other stuff that to lose my smell and partially taste.

Unfortunately, I know somebody in the same situation after several months: some progress over time but very limited :(
 
Massive concentration of cases in the (mostly) unvaccinated 16-25 group now but this population section is unlikely to get hospitalised on average.

1. The comparison of number of cases without putting the numbers of tests undertaken also restrict the value of the data provided... How many are tested? Who is tested? What is the average age of the tested person?

Given the success of the vaccination campaign and the easing of the lockdown (more social interactions...reopening of international travel that requires tests..), the number of cases is no longer the most interesting indicator.

2. The Covid was the opportunity to see the vast majority of the population does not how to analyse, understand and interpret data in a very careful and rigorous manner, which requires some skills, a form of intelligence and humility.

The population at risk is largely vaccinated so what would be interesting to see is the evolution of both the number of deaths and hospitalisations in the last weeks.




When I see this picture, I just believe life should go on...

I assume you fall into the group in bolded point 2 considering what you wrote in bolded point 1?
 
:( :( :( That is just terrible. I really hope mine comes back after a week or 2, it's only been like 3 days and I can't take it already.

In most of the cases, from what I read, people get it back relatively quickly but there are some people who do need several months unfortunately.

She was tested positive a long time ago and I am not sure you both had the same Covid variant so you need to be remain positive!
 
Massive concentration of cases in the (mostly) unvaccinated 16-25 group now but this population section is unlikely to get hospitalised on average.

The comparison of number of cases without putting the numbers of tests undertaken also restrict the value of the data provided... How many are tested? Who is tested? What is the average age of the tested person?

Given the success of the vaccination campaign and the easing of the lockdown (more social interactions...reopening of international travel that requires tests..), the number of cases is no longer the most interesting indicator.

The Covid was the opportunity to see the vast majority of the population does not how to analyse, understand and interpret data in a very careful and rigorous manner, which requires some skills, a form of intelligence and humility.

The population at risk is largely vaccinated so what would be interesting to see is the evolution of both the number of deaths and hospitalisations in the last weeks.

_119174141_uk_daily_deaths_with_ra_1jul-nc.png



When I see this picture, I just believe life should go on...

Tells us that mass testing is a mistake. Rather all testing resources should be concentrated on the vulnerable groups, not on for example teenagers. You can do some random ones too for genetic analysis. Even the deaths are with Covid as opposed to from it. Need the expected deaths numbers to see if any significance.

Crucially though there is probably seasonality, it's no surprise cases can be high but hospitals empty and deaths low in the summer. In fact more cases in the summer might actually be a good thing if there is more immunity by winter.

It's reasonable to expect a winter wave, this winter and in all following ones. The evolution of SARS-CoV2 and how we manage those waves will be key. We can see in the data there are huge variances between different age and health groups. That must be taken in to account in how it's managed or it'll be lockdown again by end of January at the latest imo.
 
I've got 3 kids. They all live together and two share a bedroom, one of them has to isolate while the other two can go to school. How does this make any sense?
Would you prefer they all had to stay off?

The one who had contact needs to isolate. Should they develop symptoms then you get them tested. If they test positive then you've all had contact and all of you need to isolate. Seems simple enough to me.
 
In most of the cases, from what I read, people get it back relatively quickly but there are some people who do need several months unfortunately.

She was tested positive a long time ago and I am not sure you both had the same Covid variant so you need to be remain positive!
I think they'd rather become negative.
 
Tells us that mass testing is a mistake. Rather all testing resources should be concentrated on the vulnerable groups, not on for example teenagers. You can do some random ones too for genetic analysis. Even the deaths are with Covid as opposed to from it. Need the expected deaths numbers to see if any significance.

Crucially though there is probably seasonality, it's no surprise cases can be high but hospitals empty and deaths low in the summer. In fact more cases in the summer might actually be a good thing if there is more immunity by winter.

It's reasonable to expect a winter wave, this winter and in all following ones. The evolution of SARS-CoV2 and how we manage those waves will be key. We can see in the data there are huge variances between different age and health groups. That must be taken in to account in how it's managed or it'll be lockdown again by end of January at the latest imo.

I don't have a crystal ball.

I just say statistics without details and information about the context and the employed methodology have a limited meaning.

Unfortunately, an increase in the number of cases is the price to pay for an easing of the restrictions.

If there is a high increase in the number of deaths and hospitalisations, then we will have another lockdown.

Otherwise, the debate should be open.
 
Would you prefer they all had to stay off?

The one who had contact needs to isolate. Should they develop symptoms then you get them tested. If they test positive then you've all had contact and all of you need to isolate. Seems simple enough to me.

No it's not simple enough is it. She's had to isolate 3 time's in two months despite taking two test's a week and it always being negative.

We were told the children would have to stay off school last March to protect the vulnerable and old. 33 million are protected now. People are going on holiday and to football games, but a child that has always had a negative can't attend school.
 
What I would give to smell shits even. I can't smell jack shite. :(
True and yeah at this point I don't even 'remember' my pre covid smelling capabilities, I suspect that I've now recovered to smelling most things fine albeit at lower intensity. Just gotten used to it now, but hope it does improve over time. I'll likely see an ENT soon.
 
No it's not simple enough is it. She's had to isolate 3 time's in two months despite taking two test's a week and it always being negative.

We were told the children would have to stay off school last March to protect the vulnerable and old. 33 million are protected now. People are going on holiday and to football games, but a child that has always had a negative can't attend school.
I've got 2 kids as well. They've had to isolate a few times too. It's a massive inconvenience, but I don't have any better ideas. If your child tests negative they still have to isolate because there is an incubation period to consider. Same goes for adults.

But say kids were treated differently and you were able to send them in after a negative test, who's going to teach them? Because the teachers are often having to isolate too when the class they teach gets sent home. I have friends who teach so I know this to be true. I also know how much grief they've been getting from parents who blame them for what is government policy.
 
I don't have a crystal ball.

I just say statistics without details and information about the context and the employed methodology have a limited meaning.

Unfortunately, an increase in the number of cases is the price to pay for an easing of the restrictions.

If there is a high increase in the number of deaths and hospitalisations, then we will have another lockdown.

Otherwise, the debate should be open.
Context and methodology of the ONS survey.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...onaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/2july2021
A national statistically weighted weekly sampling that balances regions, gender, age, ethnic background and relative deprivation. They test around 15,000 people per day to create the survey.

It is not directly related to the national testing system, but because it has followed a consistent model it's used to see national trends over time.

The headline data from the national system is here:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Most of the raw data is also available for download in csv format.
They also publish detailed reports on the statistical analysis going on behind the headline numbers, those are here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ars-cov-2-variant-variant-of-concern-20201201

If you want to look at the current day by day modelling, you can work from the raw numbers oy you can go with the current best fit on the data which is case:hospitalisation ratio around 2% (with a delay of 10 days). However that's a massive fall in case:hospitalisation ratio compared to the end of the winter wave (when it was 8%) and is mostly down to vaccination in older adults and case growth amongst young adults. However that suggests that hospitalisations will hit 1000/day before case rates fall (which we're hoping they will do due to vaccination and school holidays). It's changing by the day though and the calculations of vaccine v virus are not straightforward.

Sometimes, information overload isn't particularly useful in a tweet or a post.
 
I've got 2 kids as well. They've had to isolate a few times too. It's a massive inconvenience, but I don't have any better ideas. If your child tests negative they still have to isolate because there is an incubation period to consider. Same goes for adults.

But say kids were treated differently and you were able to send them in after a negative test, who's going to teach them? Because the teachers are often having to isolate too when the class they teach gets sent home. I have friends who teach so I know this to be true. I also know how much grief they've been getting from parents who blame them for what is government policy.
Something better needs to be done. They can't go back in September and have another year like this. It will be a massive disadvantage for them in the future.
 
It’s basically the same thing. If you have 100 individuals, each 95% protected against severe illness, then you would expect 5% of them to get severe illness assuming they’re all exposed to the virus.

It’s that last bit where his logic falls apart but he doesn’t say that 25000 will get sick. Just that they’ll be vulnerable. A lot of the time you get people jumping all over “errors” from experts on twitter when all that’s happened is that they’ve tried to dumb tricky concepts down to make them easier to digest for the majority of readers.

At the end of the day, his point is essentially correct. Despite vaccinating (almost) all of our elderly, thousands of them can still get sick and die if case numbers get extremely high. Which is something that’s glossed over by people who like to think all our most vulnerable are definitely protected. There’s a big movement right now to try and claim we should ignore case numbers altogether with the elderly vaccinated. That’s an important point to argue against.
Doesn't the calculation require a more complex form of algebraic reasoning? Almost akin to compound interest?

If 100 people each has a 5% level of risk (950/1000) that doesn't equate to 50% "group risk" (as you would get if you multiplied the decimal value by the principal/number of people present) or even necessarily 5% personal risk. In other words, surely it moves exponentially in the inverse direction? We don't just multiply personal risk by the number of persons in a group to arrive at an answer or probability. Maybe someone better at math can help here.


https://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Relative-Risk

Or just use above ^
 
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My dad is 73, smokes, and doesn't really take care of himself. He has been double-dosed with Astrazeneca.

4 days ago he came down with what seemed to be a heavy flu, accompanied by a chest/lung infection. He has these awful coughing fits every few minutes.

He has taken two lateral flow tests, 2 days apart. Both came back negative.

He went to the doctor who said that there is infection in his lungs, prescribed antibiotics and advised a PCR test for covid.

When my dad said he'd already taken two lateral flow tests, the doctor 'gritted his teeth' and said he really needed a PCR.

Just wondering if anybody can advise about this, are the lateral flow tests not reliable enough? Is there a possibility that despite having two negative results with LF, he's actually positive for Covid-19?
 
Just wondering if anybody can advise about this, are the lateral flow tests not reliable enough? Is there a possibility that despite having two negative results with LF, he's actually positive for Covid-19?

Could be, the turnaround is quick (12-24hrs) so I'd suggest getting one booked for him to put your mind at ease.
 
Could be, the turnaround is quick (12-24hrs) so I'd suggest getting one booked for him to put your mind at ease.

Thank you, he actually took the PCR test this morning. Hopefully we'll hear something back before long.

I'm also concerned if it's not covid, that his infernal cough is the start of some other nasty like lung cancer or COPD from a lifetime of smoking. Then again, I guess the doctor would likely have flagged that when listening to his lungs.
 
Just wondering if anybody can advise about this, are the lateral flow tests not reliable enough? Is there a possibility that despite having two negative results with LF, he's actually positive for Covid-19?
Yep. LFTs are really for people who don't think they're ill, your dad is ill. PCRs are more sensitive to the virus, so can spot it earlier and later and can usually spot it even when the sample taking technique hasn't been that great.
 
Yep. LFTs are really for people who don't think they're ill, your dad is ill. PCRs are more sensitive to the virus, so can spot it earlier and later and can usually spot it even when the sample taking technique hasn't been that great.

That's great, thanks. I did read that one of the biggest issues with LFTs is untrained users not doing a very good job of obtaining the sample.
 
On the plus side you can always get work on the bin lorries
Haha. When it comes to bad smells, bin lorries would be an upgrade on my current job.
fecking bizarre, its been 2+ months since I tested positive and I still can't smell shit smells, not with the previous intensity anyways. Its a bit alarming because that's an important safety mechanism.
Bloody hell. It is a weird one. Good to not have to smell shit but then like you said it’s quite important in general to be able to smell shit. Have you tried retraining your sense of smell? Apparently that’s what you have to do.
 
I’m now in my last day of the 10 in isolation. Have zero taste or smell. I do hope this isn’t long term. Meant to be going for a pint or three tomorrow and not sure what the point is :lol:
 
My dad is 73, smokes, and doesn't really take care of himself. He has been double-dosed with Astrazeneca.

4 days ago he came down with what seemed to be a heavy flu, accompanied by a chest/lung infection. He has these awful coughing fits every few minutes.

He has taken two lateral flow tests, 2 days apart. Both came back negative.

He went to the doctor who said that there is infection in his lungs, prescribed antibiotics and advised a PCR test for covid.

When my dad said he'd already taken two lateral flow tests, the doctor 'gritted his teeth' and said he really needed a PCR.

Just wondering if anybody can advise about this, are the lateral flow tests not reliable enough? Is there a possibility that despite having two negative results with LF, he's actually positive for Covid-19?
I have been taking LFT every few days for a while now and I’m yet to get a positive result. I’m either doing it wrong, really lucky or got a box of duff kits.
I’m now in my last day of the 10 in isolation. Have zero taste or smell. I do hope this isn’t long term. Meant to be going for a pint or three tomorrow and not sure what the point is :lol:
Guy at work had Covid just after Christmas and the poor fecker still can’t taste anything.
 
I have been taking LFT every few days for a while now and I’m yet to get a positive result. I’m either doing it wrong, really lucky or got a box of duff kits.

Hmm, do you have any reason to expect a positive result?
 
I have been taking LFT every few days for a while now and I’m yet to get a positive result. I’m either doing it wrong, really lucky or got a box of duff kits.

Guy at work had Covid just after Christmas and the poor fecker still can’t taste anything.

I am quite worried about it. Such a normal thing to take for granted, can’t imagine what your man feels like.
 
There was a suggestion a couple of months ago, I believe from PHE, that the Delta variant may be more severe and carry an increased risk of hospitalisation. Has there been any data to back this up?
 
Hmm, do you have any reason to expect a positive result?
I have been going into the office a fair bit and as much as you try and follow the guidance it just ain’t happening in an office environment especially when you have over a thousand people onsite.

I was away for a few days earlier this week at a wedding so that will be the real test, I have
given out some of the test kits to a few of the families who were at the wedding as well so it will be interesting to see what the outcome is.
 
There was a suggestion a couple of months ago, I believe from PHE, that the Delta variant may be more severe and carry an increased risk of hospitalisation. Has there been any data to back this up?

That PHE data is the only I’ve seen. Think they worked it out as 50% more likely to hospitalise someone than alpha.