Main Coronavirus / Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[Swansman]

Top story on BBC news site currently

'UK Covid infections climb by a million in a week'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60872687

"We're all gonna get nuked to death" is out, "we're all going to die from plague" is back in.

Very strange how the media (and govts all over the world) after two years of doomsday stuff one day just made a complete stop and said "'tis all good, no problem anymore" and everyone just bought that narrative just like a lot bought the doomsday shit. Reality is as usual somewhere in between... its not over and its not all done with...

Too bad people have the attention span of goldfish, cant keep two thoughts in the head at the same time. The whole "lets all be locked up" shite was dumb and bad but the whole "its alright now, I can go to parties and work and the gym despite having a cold" is equally retarded.

 

[beorhthelm]

Just seen on a local Worthing FB page that Boots the Chemist are now charging for Lateral Flow test kits. So, a major disincentive if you are doing a poorly paid job with no sick pay, pay for your test kit then lose your meagre salary when isolating ....I wonder what will happen ?

this is covered by no longer being required to isolate. we will now treat covid the same as any other illness.

 

[vegster]

this is covered by no longer being required to isolate. we will now treat covid the same as any other illness.

Great situation to be in eh ? no requirement to self isolate so.... if you feel absolutely shite you still drag yourself in to work as a, No statutory Sick Pay and b, if your company ( loads nowdays as we know ) do not pay sick pay you either stay home and don't get paid or come in and give it to colleagues and cutomers !

Maybe it needs a delivery driver with a bad case to come off the road at a bus stop and mow a few people down or a train to miss a stop signal and cause a crash ?

 

[A1X]

Huge thanks to whoever it was who had it but didn’t isolate last weekend meaning I now have it (worse than any cold I’ve had in years) and have to miss another Mother’s Day as a result (because some of us are still responsible enough to isolate)

 

[moggy]

Me and the wife now onto day 5 and still testing positive.
Still staying away from our respective workplaces.
2 of the teachers at the wife’s school are off again with it having both had it at Xmas.
An old guy we know has it at the moment and had it only 4 weeks ago.
Immunity once you’ve had this very seems very short-lived unfortunately

 

[dsr-burnley]

Great situation to be in eh ? no requirement to self isolate so.... if you feel absolutely [deleted] you still drag yourself in to work as a, No statutory Sick Pay and b, if your company ( loads nowdays as we know ) do not pay sick pay you either stay home and don't get paid or come in and give it to colleagues and cutomers !

Maybe it needs a delivery driver with a bad case to come off the road at a bus stop and mow a few people down or a train to miss a stop signal and cause a crash ?

You still get statutory sick pay for covid, and I doubt there are any railway operators don't pay full sick pay. So two of your doomsday scenarios are clear.

There's still a requirement to self isolate. It's no longer a criminal offence not to, just as it has never been a criminal offence not to self isolate with flu or other infectious diseases. But it's still recommended/required that you do.

 

[Weststander]

Omicron-2 has not filled ICU’s or led to increased fatalities “with Covid”. This was predicted by scientists who likened the numbers at worst as similar to those of the normal winter flu, albeit this time in a vaccinated population.

 

[darkwolf666]

I love how, for so many of you things are so black and white - whichever side of the argument you are on.

I never thought I would say this, but I actually agree with our resident mad Swede, who understands there is some middle ground between "we're all going to hell in a hand cart" and "Covid, no worse than a cold".

It appears some find it difficult to break out of one of the two camps, and points of view attached!

For some (many) Covid is a long way from over, emotionally and physically!

Have a little respect for them, whichever way you lean.

 

[beorhthelm]

I love how, for so many of you things are so black and white - whichever side of the argument you are on.

I never thought I would say this, but I actually agree with our resident mad Swede, who understands there is some middle ground between "we're all going to hell in a hand cart" and "Covid, no worse than a cold".

It appears some find it difficult to break out of one of the two camps, and points of view attached!

For some (many) Covid is a long way from over, emotionally and physically!

Have a little respect for them, whichever way you lean.

my views, along with the virus, have changed. it was very serious, then vaccines made it a problem managable with care, now the virus become so weak its cold like. its important to recognise this isnt the same disease as we faced two years ago because it affects public policy and indeed peoples emotional state. i read in China they had a city in lockdown after a surge in cases, turns out of ~980 case in few days, ~960 were asymptomic. they are now reviewing their policy because it no longer reflects the severity of the disease. if it changes for the worse, we should change policy, until then we should deal with what we have not what it was. im sure it will still be harmful to many, who'd be laid out by a regular cold or find flu life threatening. its not black and white, just the grey got alot lighter and wider.

 

[Weststander]

my views, along with the virus, have changed. it was very serious, then vaccines made it a problem managable with care, now the virus become so weak its cold like. its important to recognise this isnt the same disease as we faced two years ago because it affects public policy and indeed peoples emotional state. i read in China they had a city in lockdown after a surge in cases, turns out of ~980 case in few days, ~960 were asymptomic. they are now reviewing their policy because it no longer reflects the severity of the disease. if it changes for the worse, we should change policy, until then we should deal with what we have not what it was. im sure it will still be harmful to many, who'd be laid out by a regular cold or find flu life threatening. its not black and white, just the grey got alot lighter and wider.

Children referred to mental health services in the last two years have increased by 26% to > 1m.

For all age groups up 15% to 4.3m.

Sauce: official figures per the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

We must look at the effect of a closed down society in the whole.

 

[darkwolf666]

Children referred to mental health services in the last two years have increased by 26% to > 1m.

For all age groups up 15% to 4.3m.

Sauce: official figures per the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

We must look at the effect of a closed down society in the whole.

Ah, mental health figures... what about the mental health of those who were told to shield by the government, pretty much told they were going to die if they caught Covid, spent 6 months locked indoors. - no hours exercise, or walking the dog or such, no visits to the park, no seeing ANYBODY from outside their own home, excepting for medical reasons. For many, no working vaccine and no belief for them, that Covid is now no worse than a cold.

What about their mental health?

Like I said, no black and white from either side, it would just be nice to have a little compassion for those who can’t return to normal or have the confidence that things can ever be “normal” for them.

 

[Weststander]

Ah, mental health figures... what about the mental health of those who were told to shield by the government, pretty much told they were going to die if they caught Covid, spent 6 months locked indoors. - no hours exercise, or walking the dog or such, no visits to the park, no seeing ANYBODY from outside their own home, excepting for medical reasons. For many, no working vaccine and no belief for them, that Covid is now no worse than a cold.

What about their mental health?

Like I said, no black and white from either side, it would just be nice to have a little compassion for those who can’t return to normal or have the confidence that things can ever be “normal” for them.

I have someone close, diagnosed now as “actively suicidal”.

It all started in Lockdown 1. I saw the joie de vivre sucked out of kids and young folk. Classrooms and unis shut down at the drop of a Covid case for 22 months.

It’s not a competition I realise, but the lockdowns/closed opportunities, sent vast numbers into unexpected and life threatening darkness too.

Btw [MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION] was vehemently against lockdowns and restrictions on healthy people’s way of life throughout, I can’t recall his views on masks. Perhaps when all’s said and done, in the round, Sweden got more right than wrong. Taking into account mental health, education, economy and livelihoods not be crushed?

Always worth looking at, conversations shouldn’t be shut down.

 

[Swansman]

I have someone close, diagnosed now as “actively suicidal”.

It all started in Lockdown 1. I saw the joie de vivre sucked out of kids and young folk. Classrooms and unis shut down at the drop of a Covid case for 22 months.

It’s not a competition I realise, but the lockdowns/closed opportunities, sent vast numbers into unexpected and life threatening darkness too.

Btw [MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION] was vehemently against lockdowns and restrictions on healthy people’s way of life throughout, I can’t recall his views on masks. Perhaps when all’s said and done, in the round, Sweden got more right than wrong. Taking into account mental health, education, economy and livelihoods not be crushed?

Always worth looking at, conversations shouldn’t be shut down.

Masks never really caught on over here. At peak times maybe 2 out of 10 wore masks on the bus etc. And I havent seen any numbers that indicate masks would make a significant difference.

I was initially, during the first month, calling for more measures here in Sweden. But once it turned out that Covid is "just" a dangerous pandemic rather than on a black death-level, I thought it was sensible to keep things relatively open and it worked relatively well.. worse number than some and better than some. Long term it was probably the right decision in the end but obviously things could have gone terribly wrong if Covid was as bad as some of us thought initially.

 

[darkwolf666]

I have someone close, diagnosed now as “actively suicidal”.

It all started in Lockdown 1. I saw the joie de vivre sucked out of kids and young folk. Classrooms and unis shut down at the drop of a Covid case for 22 months.

It’s not a competition I realise, but the lockdowns/closed opportunities, sent vast numbers into unexpected and life threatening darkness too.

Btw [MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION] was vehemently against lockdowns and restrictions on healthy people’s way of life throughout, I can’t recall his views on masks. Perhaps when all’s said and done, in the round, Sweden got more right than wrong. Taking into account mental health, education, economy and livelihoods not be crushed?

Always worth looking at, conversations shouldn’t be shut down.

I can’t see anyone on here shutting conversations down!

I’m guessing throughout Covid, many people could have a story to tell of a personal nature.

In the same way as I would empathise with your friend and their current situation, I also empathise, from a close personal point of view, with people who are still living in the shadow of Covid and a “no worse than a cold” virus and the effects it could have on their health.

As I said earlier, nothing is black and white. Down the line undoubtedly mistakes have been made, which will have impacted on people’s lives, sadly often for reasons of politics and finances, but this was (hopefully) a one in a lifetime event that we may have learnt from as a human race.

 

[e77]

I think people are beginning to look back at what happened through the prism of what we know now. Certainly in this country the government outright came out and said the restrictions were in place to stop the NHS being overrun and they tended to get rid of them as quick as they could when things returned to anything like normal.

There could have been a genuine national effort to isolate the vulnerable while the rest of us got on with it but that would have taken temporarily accommodating either the venerable or their families and the government stepping in to help bring isolated people shopping, etc.

That aside we can argue the toss about timings but I think the government basically got it right. Two years ago there was a clammer to lockdown.

 

[Marty___Mcfly]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10665073/Lateral-flow-tests-scrapped-England-Friday.html

That’s the end of testing in the general population then. Does seem like a logical step to be fair if we are to treat it like other illnesses.

Assume the case numbers will now drop steeply as very few test results will be recorded?

 

[crodonilson]

Mandatory face coverings to remain in Scotland until Easter

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-60928806

 

[dsr-burnley]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-60928806

That article would be so much more useful if they attempted to explain why Scotland has higher rates of infection than England. They could perhaps refer to the results of the Scottish governments research that justifies the continued rule.

 

[El Presidente]

I can’t see anyone on here shutting conversations down!

I’m guessing throughout Covid, many people could have a story to tell of a personal nature.

In the same way as I would empathise with your friend and their current situation, I also empathise, from a close personal point of view, with people who are still living in the shadow of Covid and a “no worse than a cold” virus and the effects it could have on their health.

As I said earlier, nothing is black and white. Down the line undoubtedly mistakes have been made, which will have impacted on people’s lives, sadly often for reasons of politics and finances, but this was (hopefully) a one in a lifetime event that we may have learnt from as a human race.

Agree totally. When Covid arrived no one knew with any certainty the impact upon the general population as a whole and the NHS as a front line service.

Lockdown bought time to find out more about Covid, which has since metamorphised into a more transmissable but less lethal virus.

That lockdown came with a downside too in terms of education (those who need it most engaged with it least) family life (we are a social beast) child and other domestic abuse and impact on mental health for those isolated/elderly etc.

Crisis creates opportunity though too, and there were many winners in the form of fraudsters claiming income or friends of those in high places winning contracts for substandard PPE. A price that will be paid from the public purse for a generation or more.

 

[e77]

We also still have a highly infectious disease that is more than capable of keeping healthy and vaccinated people off work for a few days and can easily work through an office or other workplace in no time. The fact a lot of places are still at least partially WFH is keeping a lid on it at the moment.

Maybe the time for restrictions to end has come, but we aren't going back to 2019 anytime soon.