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

Feck me cases went from 1000 new cases a day on the 8th, to 190,000 new cases a day on the 13th?

How does that happen, never seen such a drastic rise before. Is it due to a lack of people getting tested compared to the last few years, but then if it is how did 190,000 new cases suddenly get identified? Are symptoms getting worse again and people are now testing again over the past week?
 
DeGea’sFeet said:
Feck me cases went from 1000 new cases a day on the 8th, to 190,000 new cases a day on the 13th?

How does that happen, never seen such a drastic rise before. Is it due to a lack of people getting tested compared to the last few years, but then if it is how did 190,000 new cases suddenly get identified? Are symptoms getting worse again and people are now testing again over the past week?
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Eh. Where in the world are you? What report are you looking at?

The UK, like most of the world, has pretty much stopped routine testing. It's only really hospital admissions and healthcare staff who are getting tested now. We know from the ONS survey that around 4/5% of the population would test positive for covid this week, but that measure hasn't been below 1% for months.

There is a surge in hospital admissions at the moment, caused by BA5, but the growth is tailing off now and (if the trend continues) could start falling next week.
 
jojojo said:
Eh. Where in the world are you? What report are you looking at?

The UK, like most of the world, has pretty much stopped routine testing. It's only really hospital admissions and healthcare staff who are getting tested now. We know from the ONS survey that around 4/5% of the population would test positive for covid this week, but that measure hasn't been below 1% for months.

There is a surge in hospital admissions at the moment, caused by BA5, but the growth is tailing off now and (if the trend continues) could start falling next week.
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Hopefully you’re right about it falling off. I heard cases were on the rises & noticed more disruption to daily services in the past week or so, didn’t connect it was people off due to covid thou, just had a bit of a heart attack when I checked the stats and saw 190,000 plus infections yesterday Vs 1000 last Friday.
 
DeGea’sFeet said:
Hopefully you’re right about it falling off. I heard cases were on the rises & noticed more disruption to daily services in the past week or so, didn’t connect it was people off due to covid thou, just had a bit of a heart attack when I checked the stats and saw 190,000 plus infections yesterday Vs 1000 last Friday.
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Where did you see those numbers? Basically we are running at about 190k cases/day if you count all the cases (symptomatic and asymptomatic) if you use the ONS random survey and scale up the numbers to get a whole country figure but we haven't been down at 1000 since early 2020
 
jojojo said:
Where did you see those numbers?
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The Google chart page. They show daily infections, 7 day average, deaths, and can also show hospitalisations. The data comes from “Our World in Data” who i think takes it from various gov & health sites.
 
DeGea’sFeet said:
The Google chart page. They show daily infections, 7 day average, deaths, and can also show hospitalisations. The data comes from “Our World in Data” who i think takes it from various gov & health sites.
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That's a database anomaly. Every now and again the government website issues a data correction - if you use the wrong stat (the one based on "report day" rather than the ones based on "test specimen day") that shows up as wild blips on the graphs. They recently went from daily to weekly reporting, and some sites picked up a quirk of the changeover. The current daily dashboard cases stat (hospital tests and healthcare/carehome staff basically) is around 25k.
 
jojojo said:
That's a database anomaly. Every now and again the government website issues a data correction - if you use the wrong stat (the one based on "report day" rather than the ones based on "test specimen day") that shows up as wild blips on the graphs. They recently went from daily to weekly reporting, and some sites picked up a quirk of the changeover. The current daily dashboard cases stat (hospital tests and healthcare/carehome staff basically) is around 25k.
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Yeah. After your message about hospitalisations I checked the hospitalisations stats and for the 8th it showed hospitalisations were way above. Also around that time was a few days with no data available, so what you said about the recent change makes sense.
 
jojojo said:
How are you getting on now? Is it arrythmia or something else that's causing trouble now?

In a way, it's hard for us Europeans to visualise the problem created by the lack of a public health service in the US on things like this. Compensation schemes here can be sluggish to pay out but at least you aren't clocking up medical bills as well while you're waiting.

I know there's a government compensation in the US as well, but I've no idea how quick, generous or inclusive it is.

In terms of the raw averages, we know that vaccines are safer than Covid - in all approved age groups. But certainly by the time you get to people talking about fourth booster doses in healthy under 30s, the numbers aren't nearly so clear cut.

At any rate, there's still a lot of monitoring and research underway, so hopefully we'll know more before any new booster campaign starts in the autumn.

Good luck getting your own health issues sorted.
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Realized I never got around to responding. I appreciate your well wishes, thank you!

Fortunately I'm feeling much improved. But we're still uncertain about the actual cause. Seems like I may have had two separate things going on -

svt arrhythmia. Possibly triggered by dehydration + a strong decongestant I had been taking

Chest pain , radiating to arm and neck - cardiologist thinks it's highly highly unlikely to be my heart. My echo and stress test were good. Plus the timeline is just off so he doesn't think it's long covid or vaccine. Imaging shows no visible inflammation. When I do certain exercises I don't have much issue. When I run I seem to exacerbate. He thinks it could be a spine injury impinging nerves.

Now just waiting to get an appointment w the right specialist...huge hcp shortage means it takes months to get seen in some areas
 
Entire family has covid except me. They’ve all recovered now but here I am, covid free.
Is this normal? Can one person avoid bullets in a household like this?
 
Kopral Jono said:
I must have missed the memo as to when the comment section on YouTube became an antivaxx cesspool. I was just watching a video on the latest Covid strain and Jesus H., these idiots talk about being a fecking 'pureblood' like it's an achievement instead of a brain defect.
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Get a browser extension that hides comments on all websites. Your life will be better for it.
 
Moderna vaccines provisionally approved for use in kids over 6 months. Full approval and reccomendations for who needs it to follow soon.
 
Pretty sure I’ve got it again. Exact same symptoms as last time though still tested negative last night.
 
cyberman said:
Entire family has covid except me. They’ve all recovered now but here I am, covid free.
Is this normal? Can one person avoid bullets in a household like this?
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This happened with me on the first wave.

Wasn't as lucky last Christmas.
 
Solius said:
Pretty sure I’ve got it again. Exact same symptoms as last time though still tested negative last night.
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Went through the same last week. Was certain I had it, but tested negative that day & for a few days after.
 
So what do you reckon will happen in the autumn, has the worst part has passed. I havent been keeping track with all the variants and subvariants.
 
Real Name said:
So what do you reckon will happen in the autumn, has the worst part has passed. I havent been keeping track with all the variants and subvariants.
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I'd suggest leaving the variants and sub-variants to the people who work on vaccines and treatments. Some will infect more people than others, some will be nastier than others. We've no real control over them, so we're stuck with viewing it the same as we do flu - constantly around, very dangerous for some people, and sometimes hitting lots of people simultaneously.

For most of us though, infection is much less dangerous now - mostly a product of a primed (by vaccine and/or infection) immune system. Death rates have fallen from something like 1:100 cases to 1:2000 overall (though there are of course big differences between age groups etc)

In terms of what we have to do - the only strong recommendation I'd make is don't ignore coughs and colds. If you're ill try not to pass it on, especially to people who are more vulnerable to serious illness.

I'd also strongly recommend getting rid of politicians who are suggesting tax cuts when the NHS and social care are collapsing.
 
jojojo said:
I'd suggest leaving the variants and sub-variants to the people who work on vaccines and treatments. Some will infect more people than others, some will be nastier than others. We've no real control over them, so we're stuck with viewing it the same as we do flu - constantly around, very dangerous for some people, and sometimes hitting lots of people simultaneously.

For most of us though, infection is much less dangerous now - mostly a product of a primed (by vaccine and/or infection) immune system. Death rates have fallen from something like 1:100 cases to 1:2000 overall (though there are of course big differences between age groups etc)

In terms of what we have to do - the only strong recommendation I'd make is don't ignore coughs and colds. If you're ill try not to pass it on, especially to people who are more vulnerable to serious illness.

I'd also strongly recommend getting rid of politicians who are suggesting tax cuts when the NHS and social care are collapsing.
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Thanks.
Yeah, we can just keep track of the measures and hopefully this autumn wont be as harsh as 2 previous ones. As for coughing and colds I've noticed a lot of people sniffing and coughing in the middle of summer, something I've never seen in this period.
 
I just got back from the vaccination centre, I had dose number 4. It was absolutely bonkers there.

It's 40C here, there was no air conditioning (not that I expected it, it's not a thing here) and the number display was bust. A small woman with a quiet voice was trying to call out the numbers for "you're next", and it was impossible. Everyone was talking with raised voices. It was a delightful way to spend an hour (wearing a mask, too).
 
Just posting this as a nice illustration of "where we were" v "where we are". It's not that Covid has gone away - in fact in the UK maybe half the population have had it since Christmas. It's still having a massive impact on hospitals - and doing it at a time when there's a big backlog of people needing treatment (some of them with conditions that are now much worse than they would have been of they were treated earlier).

Even so, this is a very different disease now. These graphs look at the proportion of people dying each day who are dying of covid as the main or as a major secondary cause. Back in March/June 20 hardly anyone had it, because hardly anyone was meeting other people but covid's impact was huge, and that continued until the vaccination program kicked in.

 
Finally got it after ducking and weaving it for over 2 years.

Getting it in summer is rotten. I am sweltering hot. Laying in bed with an ice pack on my head and chest, and I can barely feel them. Crushing headache too, which painkillers aren't even touching.

Worst of all, I'm on annual leave this week. Get fecked.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Finally got it after ducking and weaving it for over 2 years.

Getting it in summer is rotten. I am sweltering hot. Laying in bed with an ice pack on my head and chest, and I can barely feel them. Crushing headache too, which painkillers aren't even touching.

Worst of all, I'm on annual leave this week. Get fecked.
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You should try to cancel your leave and use your sick leave. If one of my team asked me I'd approve it.
 
Wibble said:
You should try to cancel your leave and use your sick leave. If one of my team asked me I'd approve it.
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I probably would any other time of year. Our leave calendar runs Sept to Aug, and you can only carry forward a max of 5 days (and they're pretty firm on that, ideally they don't want you carrying forward any), which I'm already doing. I don't think I'd be able to squeeze in a week off between now and the end of the month. I think I'll just have to suck it up.


Does anybody know of any studies on people who just don't get covid, and why that might be? I caught it from a small gathering last weekend, and everyone there went down with it this week, except my gf. She also went on a works night out a few weeks back and everyone on her table got it, except her.

She hasn't caught it from me this week either despite me coughing my guts up for a few days. Are some people just impenetrable to the virus?
 
Claim that vaccines doesn't protect people, unsurprisingly, turns out to be bollocks.

https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/bl...-vaccinated-not-more-protected-against-covid/

No. Monkeypox isn't only circulating in countries where Pfizer vaccines are used.

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32FY3CM

No. 3 Canadian doctors did not die from a covid booster.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...accine-and-toronto-doctor-deaths/10178177002/

In related news we still haven't found a cure for stupidity.
 
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Finally have it.
Felt a tingle in the throat and my legs felt a bit heavy last night. Took a test.
Very faint line but it's a line.

Will do another test later to be sure
 
Wibble said:
Claim that vaccines doesn't protect people, unsurprisingly, turns out to be bollocks.

https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/bl...-vaccinated-not-more-protected-against-covid/

No. Monkeypox isn't only circulating in countries where Pfizer vaccines are used.

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32FY3CM

No. 3 Canadian doctors did not die from a covid booster.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...accine-and-toronto-doctor-deaths/10178177002/

In related news we still haven't found a cure for stupidity.
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Imagine the money to be made from a cure for stupidity
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
I probably would any other time of year. Our leave calendar runs Sept to Aug, and you can only carry forward a max of 5 days (and they're pretty firm on that, ideally they don't want you carrying forward any), which I'm already doing. I don't think I'd be able to squeeze in a week off between now and the end of the month. I think I'll just have to suck it up.


Does anybody know of any studies on people who just don't get covid, and why that might be? I caught it from a small gathering last weekend, and everyone there went down with it this week, except my gf. She also went on a works night out a few weeks back and everyone on her table got it, except her.

She hasn't caught it from me this week either despite me coughing my guts up for a few days. Are some people just impenetrable to the virus?
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Hope you're starting to feel better. My neighbour is like your girlfriend, he isolated with his mum and dad who both recently had Covid and he didn't catch it, despite being in the same house with them for about 10 days. The only reason I can think of is that he's in his 30s and very fit, they're in their 70s and have health issues. All fully-vaccinated.
 
Penna said:
Hope you're starting to feel better. My neighbour is like your girlfriend, he isolated with his mum and dad who both recently had Covid and he didn't catch it, despite being in the same house with them for about 10 days. The only reason I can think of is that he's in his 30s and very fit, they're in their 70s and have health issues. All fully-vaccinated.
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Sure my mate has never had it despite it being is his house twice. And both times the person with Covid didnt isolate in the house under assumption that everyone would get it. He's still never gone positive.
 
McGrathsipan said:
Instant positive on test just now.
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Out of interest, why are you testing? Official guidance is not to test. If you feel sick, isolate until you’re 48 hours free of symptoms. Which is a lot less disruptive than the 7 days self isolation you’re now committed to (assuming you follow guidelines, if I was you I’d pretend the test never happened!)
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Out of interest, why are you testing? Official guidance is not to test. If you feel sick, isolate until you’re 48 hours free of symptoms. Which is a lot less disruptive than the 7 days self isolation you’re now committed to (assuming you follow guidelines, if I was you I’d pretend the test never happened!)
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I remember testing a while back, and full on getting positives for 2 weeks. My mate who works in public health had same advice. Just pretend tests didn't happen, and if you're symptom free go out in the world.
 
Big-Red said:
I remember testing a while back, and full on getting positives for 2 weeks. My mate who works in public health had same advice. Just pretend tests didn't happen, and if you're symptom free go out in the world.
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Your mate was just following the same advice that everyone is supposed to follow. It’s confusing and contradictory but it is what it is.
 
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