Covid-19 Virus

Yes, the government's prompt actions earlier in the year have ensured there are fewer residents in the firing line this autumn.

 

Ouch.

 

Has anyone followed the bewildering narrative on testing? I’m lost. What is the actual state of affairs?

 

They seem to have enough kits and testing centres but have maxed out lab capacity. More is coming. Apparently some people are misusing the testing system to pop along and have a test before going on a holiday, or schools have been directing whole year groups to be tested contrary to guidance, causing it to grind to a halt.

On a wider basis, Boris is proposing an eye-wateringly expensive (£100bn+) national daily testing regimen where everyone will wake up in the morning, take a test and then be free to go about their day. This is his moonshine moonshot idea. Personally I'd rather have the Boris island airport or his bridge across the Irish sea - at least we'd have something to show for his daydreaming.

 

Worst blues song ever,

Woke up this morning (DE NER DE NER)
Took my Covid test. (DE NER DE NER)
WELL I’VE BEEN FEELING MILDLY POORLY YEAH!
Hope it’s not positev...

 

Presume a lot of people wear them with nose uncovered out in the open where the's no requirement for a mask and then pop it over their nose when they enter a shop ? Just can't be bothered to keep taking it off, putting it on, taking off etc ? There are of course some ar5eholes who just refuse to use them on principle but presume they are few and far between ?

 

Dunno. I'm not symptemmatic, yet I had a letter through the door yesterday asking me to go on-line, register and request a test for "research purposes" which will be dealt with by courier from home.

I'm pretty certain I had it early on in the year. I'm pretty certain I'm also suffering from a few of the longer term issues some people have reported. Should I get a test, given the reported limited capacity. I've been pretty much isolated since March other than visiting my folks (shielding) in a support bubble bar the odd round of socially distanced golf and a couple of meals in a perspex shielded by table restaurant. I've not visited the shops or anywhere else.
I'm mulling it over.

 

My mum said she had something similar through. I think she said it was from Imperial College. Is that what you've got?

 

Think so but it does have NHS branding all over it. Only had a brief look last night will inspect later. It did say that if found positive it would report to track and trace.

 

I had one of those letters too. It has Imperial College, NHS and Ipsos MORI logos on it.

If it's the same letter as I have, it's for an antigen test, to test a sample of the population to calculate what percentage of the population in England has likely to have had the virus. I had no symptoms at any time so I reckon that it's 99.9% likely that I've not had it to date. My oldest son had a really horrible bout of the flu just before Christmas but I think that was it, just the flu.

 

Ah that's right. She said it was an antigen test so it does sound like the same thing.

I have a good friend whose wife had an antigen test because she volunteers at the local hospital sometimes and they have access to them in the NHS. It came back positive so she'd had it but had no recollection of ever having symptoms. So basically you never know for sure.

 

The letter doesn't make it clear whether I would ever get to see my individual result but the letter does state that it is not 100% accurate at an individual level.

 

If it's an antigen test as well then I'll deffo take it.
I think that's probably more important for me as I am pretty much shielding due to having to support my elderly and at risk parents. Risk or me contracting it now is very small, but I'd like confirmation if I have had it.

 

Actually looking here:
https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/covid-19-swab-test-faqs#nameaddress

It's not a have you had it test

So basically it's a test which might show up whether you currently have it but results aren't guaranteed and if it does show as positive (which might be wrong) you'll be put in the track and trace system and have to isolate with the risk of repercussions if you don't co-operate.

That's a pretty difficult thing to sell.

 

@hornmeister maybe there's more than one study, this is the letter I received:

 

I may well have put 2 and 2 together and come up with 643 as I did a quick interweb search. Will have a look at the letter when I get in tonight.

 

My wife did this one and tested +ve. We were both a bit iffy end of March, but who knows?

 

@Otter do you know my window replacment man Mr. Mole?

https://www.yell.com/biz/mr-mole-double-glazing-repairs-harrow-4784907/

 

That's really naughty as the NHS didn't get any of the T&T 'action'. I *think* I know what the test is (antigen around 72% accurate) so looking at the names the bottom of the letter (and who they work for) it's not part of T&T probably looking mapping to and 'herd immunity' cobblers.

 

So it's not the one I was thinking of.

EDIT: It even said antibody test on the f***ing letter. I'm blaming @Ghost of Barry Endean and his music.

 

Sweden added to the travel corridor list today and so people can now travel to/from there without quarantine.

 

"Professor the Lord Darzi" has to be one of the most brilliantly pretentious names ever.

 

Double checked my letter, it is a do you have it swab test not a have you had it blood test.

 

As I suspected, there are at least two stats tests taking place.

 

I had this. If you accept you get a little blood test thing and you can see your result within minutes. I was negative.

 

Politicking?
https://www.swedenabroad.se/en/abou...-to-sweden/temporary-ban-on-travel-to-sweden/

 

https://jobs.chemistryworld.com/job/30355/laboratory-assistant/

 

Just had another letter through offeting to pay me £50 then £25 for each of 5 weekly visits by someone to conduct have you got it tests on me. Again voluntary.

I think I must be a special case.

 

A short communication in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighting an apparent correlation between mask wearing and asymptomatic (or low symptomatic) infections:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2026913

CAVEAT: My first 'boss' (at the CSL) in his introduction to scientific research told me "...90% of what you read in a published textbook will be correct - 90% of what's published in the literature* will be ********..."

*What 'we' call journals, bulletins, transactions etc.

 

Common sense (!) and looking at the transmission so far would bear out the rationale of this - mask wearing reduces viral load for both the wearer and others, and hence severity of infection.

 

Someone who knows someone who saw something on twitter said that
this is connected with extinction rebellion. And that the destroying of economy's
is down to the reduction of people's disposable income and therefore the reduction
of the spend\consume economy which is harming the environment and turning our
oceans into a plastic soup .
#DontShootTheMessenger

 

I watched the Extinction programme with Attenborough earlier and we really are a disgusting species that are destroying the planet, with Covid being one of the by products of that.

There is unfortunately no way of saying this without sounding preachy and sanctimonious, but it’s the main reason I became vegetarian at the start of last year. Our destruction of nature is unsustainable, destroying rainforests to put cattle on (as well as vast crops just to feed the same cattle, which we could just eat ourselves instead) will only lead to more and more pandemics in the future. So the extinction rebellion lot really do have a point.