Coronavirus General Discussion

I agree the figures are sometimes a millstone around our necks. I drill down to those for the local areas I'm visiting if required. Our local rates are always the key things. The vaccination figures only need to come out when there is a drive and how they will count 4th jabs etc and when the 5 to 11's become eligible for first jabs will cloud things more.

The mortality rates and hospital admissions are still important but with 20k dying with flu on average each winter we never had those figures on a daily basis or even knew what it was per year (20k deaths per year is just under 55 per day btw). We've had 11,700 Covid deaths already this year so far so that is way above the flu average but hugely down on the 47k deaths we'd had for same Jan to Feb 2021 so things are hopefully getting better that way.

The relevant people will have the stats still and can spot spikes and act accordingly so I understand why there is no need for everyone to have it each day.

I would imagine the mask requirement for theatre staff will be dropped by April. 

I did notice while watching Dancing on Ice that they've dropped their Covid secure protocols, Holly and Phil were standing much closer and there was no panel between the judges. 

Yup people are done with restrictions now and London is pretty much unmasked now

Cases back up over 100k for the day but it does include delay from Scotland. Hospital numbers also going up, Cheltenham again this week. Just hope with Ukraine v Russia people don't take their eye off the ball with this.

I’m going to admit yesterday I went to the theatre for the first time without a face mask after months of eye rolling at those who weren’t wearing them. There is something about seeing a full face which I think is really important and especially in a theatre where audience-performer relationships are so vital to the storytelling. Whilst I’m not advocating for everyone to take their masks off, I do think that it’s not necessarily selfish to not wear a mask now.

My housemate (who is triple jabbed) has it as of yesterday, and has been utterly laid low by the tiredness. That seems to be the symptom that is affecting people the most now, albeit not the most common symptom. It sounds very much like an acute version of chronic fatigue, and I worry that this means long Covid (which has been likened to chronic fatigue) is set to become more common.

"It's time" to relax the rules didn't mean "it's safe" to do so.

"We just have to learn to live with it" was interpreted by many people as "it's all gone, go back to normal". When in reality it meant "after 2 years, you should have this figured out... you're now on your own, but that doesn't mean you should stop wearing masks, distancing, taking precautions. It just means we won't be trying to force it on you."

The governments of most countries could have made this clearer, of course.

My housemate works in a school, where the rules, even before the last remaining ones were lifted, said that children had to go into school as normal even if someone in their household had tested positive - and I think even if the child themself was showing symptoms, at least unless/until they tested positive (that's what was happening, anyway - lots of unmasked symptomatic children spreading it around the place). And since the schools were instructed to stop giving out the free lateral flow tests to staff, she's seen a few staff members come in with clear symptoms who just aren't bothering to test any more. None of them wearing masks, of course. Not surprising, then, that she eventually came down with it - but testament to the protective value of mask-wearing to the wearer that she managed to avoid it for so long.

I'm finding myself, strangely, in a position of potentially defending the government. Is this paper able to take into account population differences? We have an older, less healthy population than many other countries.

Mind you below average is where I'd place us. Some terrible decision made at the start of the pandemic followed by some better ones later on. Throwing everything at immunisation was definitely the life-saving decision.

I just tested positive myself on Monday after managing to avoid Covid-19 for two years. Cases in the Republic of Ireland are very high at the moment. Both my parents have also tested positive this week.

The first three days were very rough with the expected flu-like symptoms. Dry cough, chest pain, congestion, body aches and fatigue. The headache that came along with the cough was the worst aspect for sure.

By Friday pretty much all the symptoms were gone aside from the lingering cough which most people seem to report. Fortunately I am feeling myself again and the turnaround was very quick. My boyfriend wasn't so lucky, and he had quite bad lingering symptoms for over two months and is only seeing an improvement now.

I really do attribute my quick rebound to having both my vaccine doses and the booster. Having lost a family member to Covid-19 back in April 2020, I am so thankful that my friends and family are all now vaccinated and protected to the best extent they can be.

Lots of people who dislike the government have a problem with The Lancet paper I think you mean. It really is as simple as that. It’s a peer-reviewed paper in the UK’s leading medical journal, itself edited by someone quite strongly opposed to the government. It’s conclusions are hardly surprising in the case of the UK - why wouldn’t a country with a fast comprehensive vaccine programme rate well in world terms and average in West European terms ?