NWR new zero tolerance covid thread

I'm a little sceptical of all these supposed colds, I think it's more likely to be covid not being picked by LFTs. Saying that, other rhinoviruses must bounce back sooner or later and when they do very few people will have immunity from previous infection.
 
Phil David said:
I'm a little sceptical of all these supposed colds, I think it's more likely to be covid not being picked by LFTs. Saying that, other rhinoviruses must bounce back sooner or later and when they do very few people will have immunity from previous infection.
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What makes you think that it's Covid? "other viruses are available". I agree with the second part of what you say, though!
 
Phil David said:
Simple probability - as a more infectious virus (particularly current variants) covid has been pretty much the only rhinovirus game in town since the pandemic really took hold.
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Yes, but plenty of people I know with this have had proper PCR testing done and STILL come back negative. If it's a new variant, it's a massively different spike. However, I have heard it labelled "Coldvid"
 
Isn't it extraordinary how quickly we've gone from the national debate on should we/shouldn't we relax restrictions, to Covid having dropped completely off the news and political agendas? No more reporting of stats, no more statements in parliament. Of course a new wave or variant could still emerge, but it seems like we've gone to 'living with covid' very swiftly and uncontroversially. Is it now 'just like flu'? Any talk of 4th or annual boosters for the general population?
 
Tom Cannavan said:
Isn't it extraordinary how quickly we've gone from the national debate on should we/shouldn't we relax restrictions, to Covid having dropped completely off the news and political agendas? No more reporting of stats, no more statements in parliament. Of course a new wave or variant could still emerge, but it seems like we've gone to 'living with covid' very swiftly and uncontroversially. Is it now 'just like flu'? Any talk of 4th or annual boosters for the general population?
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Still 20 times deadlier than automobiles, although happily the death rate seems to continue to fall.

1653653536119.png

(This from google - uses the same data as worldometers.info but a slightly nicer visualisation).

I have to say that the long term effects of the virus on the population are quite worrying - but to me, personally, that is more than offset by the flurry of research that has gone into both vaccines and antivirals. The thought that there might be a vaccine for Epstein Barr and thus maybe MS, for example, seems like a wonderful thing.
 
Tom Cannavan said:
Isn't it extraordinary how quickly we've gone from the national debate on should we/shouldn't we relax restrictions, to Covid having dropped completely off the news and political agendas? No more reporting of stats, no more statements in parliament. Of course a new wave or variant could still emerge, but it seems like we've gone to 'living with covid' very swiftly and uncontroversially. Is it now 'just like flu'? Any talk of 4th or annual boosters for the general population?
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download.jpg
 
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Leon Marks said:
Still 20 times deadlier than automobiles, although happily the death rate seems to continue to fall.

View attachment 25648

(This from google - uses the same data as worldometers.info but a slightly nicer visualisation).

I have to say that the long term effects of the virus on the population are quite worrying - but to me, personally, that is more than offset by the flurry of research that has gone into both vaccines and antivirals. The thought that there might be a vaccine for Epstein Barr and thus maybe MS, for example, seems like a wonderful thing.
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I'm not relieved to hear it as I'm being driven to Wales by an 80 yo next week.
 
New research from Tokyo:
www.biorxiv.org

Virological characteristics of the novel SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants including BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5

After the global spread of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 lineage, some BA.2-related variants that acquire mutations in the L452 residue of spike protein, such as BA.2.9.1 and BA.2.13 (L452M), BA.2.12.1 (L452Q), and BA.2.11, BA.4 and BA.5 (L452R), emerged in multiple countries. Our statistical analysis...
www.biorxiv.org www.biorxiv.org

There is no real world seriousness data yet, so let‘s wait and see. Just a reminder that the evolution of virus is not one-way in sense of virulence.
 
I was/am on the shielding list so, when the first lockdown began in March 2020, I stayed at home and rarely ventured beyond the garden fence. We got food deliveries from supermarkets and my favourite butcher for the first time. If I needed to escape cabin fever I would go out in the car and drive but at that point we weren't allowed to cross regional borders, so didn't get far. When I got the first vaccine in March 2020 I began to venture out - supermarkets late in the evening when they were quiet and a rare meal out where restaurants were sensible about cleaning, screening and social distancing. Got a bit braver after my second and 3rd vaccines using public transport and going to more crowded places like church. I always wore a mask when amongst other people and didn't shake hands with firends etc. However, I did avoid going to events, like football matches and concerts, where mask wearing and social distancing was completely ignored. Fortunately, being probably over-cautious I avoided catching Covid. I tested regularly and was meticulous about registering my negative results on the NHS website.
I was out for a meal with current and ex-work colleagues a week past on Thursday and on the Saturday one of the group sent a message out to say she had tested positive. I was siting next to her at the table and I was aware that I was feeling quite bunged up (I already had a persitent cough due to a chest infection last August but this seemed to be getting worse). I tested negative on Saturday and Sunday but the cough and bunged up feeling was getting worse. I was also getting mild headaches, which is something I never get. I then tested positive last Monday and was off work, returning on Tuesday this week, having gone back to test negative on Monday. Fortunately while my symptoms were worse than a 'bad cold' the infection was really confined to my nost and throat and, to my great relief, didn't advance to my lungs.
However, due to the main message coming from both governments being an implication that we had 'beaten' covid I didn't bother registering my test results. However, I probably know more people in the past two weeks who have contracted the virus (including Mrs A and one other attendee at the meal) than I did over the whole 2 years+ when it first arrived in the UK. Even our First Minister, who applied a lot more caution than the UK government, caught it last week (and I had noticed when she was recently amongst people she had dropped the mask-wearing).
It does seem to me that Covid is still around as much as it ever was, but the latest variants, combined with the vaccination programme, aren't as dangerous as they were pre-vaccine. It is also still a very contagious disease (my only contact with the lady most likely to have passed it on to me was to sit next to her, maskless, and handle wine bottles that she past to me). I also suspect that, like me, nowhere near as many people are reporting test results, probably because the governments are giving the message that they are no longer interested. They have also stopped issuing free test kits so the number of people actually testing will be dwindling rapidly as their test packs are used up. Any stats we get about infections in the population must be wildly inaccurate and the only stats worth noting must be of those who are hospitalised by Covid.
 
Paul Anderson said:
I was/am on the shielding list so, when the first lockdown began in March 2020, I stayed at home and rarely ventured beyond the garden fence. We got food deliveries from supermarkets and my favourite butcher for the first time. If I needed to escape cabin fever I would go out in the car and drive but at that point we weren't allowed to cross regional borders, so didn't get far. When I got the first vaccine in March 2020 I began to venture out - supermarkets late in the evening when they were quiet and a rare meal out where restaurants were sensible about cleaning, screening and social distancing. Got a bit braver after my second and 3rd vaccines using public transport and going to more crowded places like church. I always wore a mask when amongst other people and didn't shake hands with firends etc. However, I did avoid going to events, like football matches and concerts, where mask wearing and social distancing was completely ignored. Fortunately, being probably over-cautious I avoided catching Covid. I tested regularly and was meticulous about registering my negative results on the NHS website.
I was out for a meal with current and ex-work colleagues a week past on Thursday and on the Saturday one of the group sent a message out to say she had tested positive. I was siting next to her at the table and I was aware that I was feeling quite bunged up (I already had a persitent cough due to a chest infection last August but this seemed to be getting worse). I tested negative on Saturday and Sunday but the cough and bunged up feeling was getting worse. I was also getting mild headaches, which is something I never get. I then tested positive last Monday and was off work, returning on Tuesday this week, having gone back to test negative on Monday. Fortunately while my symptoms were worse than a 'bad cold' the infection was really confined to my nost and throat and, to my great relief, didn't advance to my lungs.
However, due to the main message coming from both governments being an implication that we had 'beaten' covid I didn't bother registering my test results. However, I probably know more people in the past two weeks who have contracted the virus (including Mrs A and one other attendee at the meal) than I did over the whole 2 years+ when it first arrived in the UK. Even our First Minister, who applied a lot more caution than the UK government, caught it last week (and I had noticed when she was recently amongst people she had dropped the mask-wearing).
It does seem to me that Covid is still around as much as it ever was, but the latest variants, combined with the vaccination programme, aren't as dangerous as they were pre-vaccine. It is also still a very contagious disease (my only contact with the lady most likely to have passed it on to me was to sit next to her, maskless, and handle wine bottles that she past to me). I also suspect that, like me, nowhere near as many people are reporting test results, probably because the governments are giving the message that they are no longer interested. They have also stopped issuing free test kits so the number of people actually testing will be dwindling rapidly as their test packs are used up. Any stats we get about infections in the population must be wildly inaccurate and the only stats worth noting must be of those who are hospitalised by Covid.
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The ONS survey does test I think, so that data continues to give a useful picture.
 
Sorry to hear it finally got you Paul. But glad it passed over relatively lightly.

Two things. The ONS data comes from a sample group who test regularly and pass on their results fairly faithfully. Have volunteers across the UK. Their results do show a continuing decline in infections. The other reasonably hard data is that from hospital admissions with Covid (not simply admissions because of Covid). They also track downwards.

But you are right that more of us who had been Covid free due to marked caution are now being caught out due to increased social activity and mask etc precautions diminishing rapidly. Hardly see a mask on the trains now.
 
I had covid in January and haven't felt terribly well since. I recently went to the doctor: my blood pressure is through the roof (I bicycle a lot so before covid it was at the low end of normal despite being fat) and I now have diabetes type 2 (despite blood tests just a year ago being just fine). What of this is covid and what is just being fat catching up with me despite biking a lot is impossible to say. But the doctor says she's seen a few too many cases like this for it to just be just bad luck. The skeptical part of me still says it's just a coincidence. But I'm still interested in research into bp and diabetes and covid.

On the good news, bp and diabetes medications seem to be working wonderfully and I'm back to biking 90 mins / day 5 days a week and feeling better than I have all year so far. Unfortunate things: despite drinking even more moderately and eating even more healthy I am just not losing any weight. Grrr! Oh well, biking is fun again and science based medicine seems to work just fine so I guess I'll just go as is.
 
I'm a bit surprised that anybody would expect to see Covid disappear completely. Many of our common colds are from other coronavirus strains (there was a C19 type pandemic in the late 19th century), it will just become part of our expected infections in the future. I'm a bit sceptical that "long-covid" exists as a unique phenomena to this particular strain, having experienced "long-flu" in 2005.
 
And there are new strains or sub strains coming around. People catching it for the second or third time. Seems as if they’re weaker strains or that vaccination is working, but it not over, just in a different phase.
Fingers crossed it stays milder.
But otherwise I can see a time when some of the public health measures have to be reintroduced.
 
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