Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[miss direct]

Also be careful of crossing county lines. I live quite near the border with Derbyshire - although I go into the Peak District, I stay on the South Yorkshire side. That was the understanding during the tier system and makes sense to continue it.

 

[gentlegreen]

I try to stay away from Kingswood / South Glos in any case, but I have to brave the dragons to get out anywhere interesting - on the other hand the cycle path is crawling with thieves and vagabonds ...

Worried that they might run out of greens, I just braved the supermarket and it was more crowded at the tills than I like (Tesco)
On the tannoy they were saying "face coverings are not mandatory" ... then something I couldn't make out .. finishing with "please treat others with respect."

Thankfully people were all masked and respectful ...

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Tbh this stuff (like the stuff about the women driving to the reservoir) looks like after the fact justification for saying people shouldn't travel rather than the reason for the rules (or possibly they're not even the rules, who knows). Yeah you could hurt yourself going out for a bike ride. You could hurt yourself staying at home though couldn't you. Is there any actual evidence of the relative risk here?

 

[gentlegreen]

yes I'd forgotten the injury / ambulance thing ...

 

[hitmouse]

Its an entirely inappropriate response for existing diseases such as influenza too. When people ignore what could be flu and carry on with their lives, it contributes to epidemics that kill tends of thousands of people in a country like ours every so many years.

So you are focussing on very important stuff, but I would go further. The mistakes now are based on things we always get wrong, and have been encouraged to get wrong in normal times, the default response to flu is as inappropriate as the dangerous responses to Covid-19.

This is also deep in territory where the establishment, the mainstream, have disgusting double-standards and most people know it. This was demonstrated when a doctor in another country (possibly Australia or New Zealand, I forget), early in the pandemic, caused outrage when it turns out they had been at work treating patients for days despite having symptoms. There was a lot of outrage and empty statements about how we all know that healthcare professionals and others should not go to work when sick, which people would have found to be some kind of sick joke. Because we know that there is always pressure to say the right things but actually the pressure is to do the wrong things. Claims that the system and ethics/values always encouraged people in that situation to stay off work do not ring true to those who have been in that situation in normal times, the pressure has always been in the direction of going to work.

I hope, just like I did at the start of the pandemic, that at least all the focus on wide range of symptoms, disease severity and the large number of asymptomatic cases will at least shatter the common misconceptions about flu that haunt us every season, eg when people think it 'isnt proper flu' unless you are bedridden. Flu is just like Covid-19 in that symptoms actually cross the full spectrum, from none to critical illness and death. So 'man flu' assumptions are fit only for the bin.

Just catching up with this now, but god, remember how back in the before times how many fucking adverts there were for cold and flu medication that were basically pitched at the level of "Got the flu? Will you stay home like A FUCKING WIMP? Or will you BUY OUR PRODUCT and GO TO WORK and SPREAD YOUR GERMS AROUND like a REAL MAN?" Can't remember that many specific offenders off the top of my head, but here's one:

The brand said the TV advert “demonstrates how people can defy their colds with Beechams by their side, tapping into the British attitude of ‘keep going’”.

 

[bimble]

Don’t know which thread to put this in but looking for simple advice: I seem to have a reduced (not totally lost but significantly weaker than usual) sense of smell. Fairly certain am not imagining it, have just gone around and sniffed vinegar toilet cleaner etc all very faint. Might have started yesterday was definitely fine day before.
Apart from lethargy and lack of apetite which tbh not very unusual and could just be ennui that’s it.
ive not been keeping up so I don’t know:
1) is reduced smell a thing or is it just totally gone that’s the symptom?
2) Should I try to get a test?

 

[Orang Utan]

Don’t know which thread to put this in but looking for simple advice: I seem to have a reduced (not totally lost but significantly weaker than usual) sense of smell. Fairly certain am not imagining it, have just gone around and sniffed vinegar toilet cleaner etc all very faint. Might have started yesterday was definitely fine day before.
Apart from lethargy and lack of apetite which tbh not very unusual and could just be ennui that’s it.
ive not been keeping up so I don’t know:
1) is reduced smell a thing or is it just totally gone that’s the symptom?
2) Should I try to get a test?

yes and yes

 

[Smangus]

Get a test , it will help your peace of mind if negative and you can isolate get treatment etc if positive. Best wishes, hope you are ok.

 

[TopCat]

Get a test. Hope you are ok.

 

[bimble]

Test booked for early tomorrow, in bloody Milton Keynes that will be fun.

 

[bimble]

Booking site doesn’t mention how soon to expect your results after your test. Is there an answer to that question?

 

[cupid_stunt]

WTF is wrong with Steve Baker & Co., how can they not get the fact that NHS is at breaking point, and deaths continue to raise?

Boris Johnson has been warned by lockdown-sceptic Tory backbenchers that he will face a leadership challenge if he does not “set out a clear plan for when our full freedoms will be restored”.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker said to a group of Tory backbenchers that “it’s inevitable the Prime Minister’s leadership will be on the table” if the country faces an indefinite lockdown.

The Sun reports that Baker wrote the note to other lockdown-sceptics in the Tories’ Covid Recovery Group of backbench MPs.

A YouGov poll released last week showed that 80 per cent of the UK supported Boris Johnson’s new lockdown measures.

“I am sorry to have to say this again and as bluntly as this – it is imperative you equip the chief whip today with your opinion that debate will become about the PM’s leadership if the government does not set out a clear plan for when our full freedoms will be restored, with a guarantee that this strategy will not be used again next winter,” Baker said.

“Government has adopted a strategy devoid of any commitment to liberty without any clarification about when our most basic freedoms will be restored and with no guarantee that they will never be taken away again.”

Tory MPs warn Boris Johnson to drop lockdown or face leadership threat

Boris Johnson has been warned he will face a leadership threat if he does not "set out a plan for when our full freedoms will be restored".

www.cityam.com

 

[Mattym]

Also be careful of crossing county lines. I live quite near the border with Derbyshire - although I go into the Peak District, I stay on the South Yorkshire side. That was the understanding during the tier system and makes sense to continue it.

Yes, one of my fave you tubers does a lot of wild camping which often straddles the border & he was making a big fuss of not crossing over the border into the dark side.

 

[2hats]

WTF is wrong with Steve Baker & Co.

They are loons, untroubled by evidence, facts and critical, rational analysis.

 

[Doodler]

Putting the cock into Hancock right enough.

The act of irrumatio would at least silence him temporarily.

 

[andysays]

Booking site doesn’t mention how soon to expect your results after your test. Is there an answer to that question?

Depends on the type of test.

If it's a lateral flow test, you get them very quickly (I got mine within half an hour).

But there's a different test (PCR test?) for people who actually have symptoms, which takes longer to process but is also more accurate.

 

[Cid]

WTF is wrong with Steve Baker & Co., how can they not get the fact that NHS is at breaking point, and deaths continue to raise?

Tory MPs warn Boris Johnson to drop lockdown or face leadership threat

Boris Johnson has been warned he will face a leadership threat if he does not "set out a plan for when our full freedoms will be restored".

www.cityam.com

What do they think they're going to do? I mean the lockdown vote was 16 against wasn't it? 42 in November (just off skimming google)?

Labour might be amenable to a vonc (though probably not), but they would be fucking stupid to do it off the back of those shits.

 

[elbows]

As well as all of that, the tentative signs of improvement don't seem to take account of the regional picture.

I've mainly been looking at new cases data for this thought, which is 6 days old before the regional data comes out, but from that it looks like any signs of improvement are mainly in the south east and east (where the new strain hit first) and things are (or were) deteriorating in other areas (Merseyside, the Bournemouth area and some others stand out).

It looks to me like the new strain has spread like a wave across England from (south) east to west, and while its beginning to show signs of having peaked where it hit first (including the most populous area of the country, London), it's still hitting other areas now and could go on to hit other areas yet.

Have you got any data to support or disprove this theory?

When I first replied to this I mentioned that there were some documents which would shed a bit of light on expected regional differences to come. It took me a while to find out which document I was thinking of. Turns out it was an early analysis of the new strain, and they had modelled a few different scenarios based on different tier measures, schools closed or not, amount of vaccines given. Some of their assumptions are now out of date, and if the modelling was done again it would look a bit different as there is more data to feed into it. Also the periods of measures they modelled are not the same as what we actually ended up with. So there is probably rather limited value in looking at it again now, since what will actually happen in the different regions is not going to match what they came up with via modelling a few scenarios back then. But it does provide an example of how much timescales could vary in different regions, which is no surprise given the variations we saw over summer and autumn.

The charts I was thinking of are on pages 11 & 12 of this document, but like I said they wont be a good fit for whats actually happening, so should just be treated as examples that may help understand the sort of dynamics and influences at work. https://cmmid.github.io/topics/covi..._and_severity_of_VOC_202012_01_in_England.pdf

As for taking a proper regional look at what is actually happening now, I'm waiting for data that is hopefully out tomorrow, although it is possible I will have something to say/show later if todays regional hospital data is especially interesting.

 

[elbows]

The UK dashboard currently says 'Due to an issue with the processing of deaths data, the update for 14 January 2021 is delayed.'. Which always makes me nervous, even though this sort of delay is sometimes purely technical rather than being an ominous sign.

 

[OneStrike]

Booking site doesn’t mention how soon to expect your results after your test. Is there an answer to that question?

With my test yesterday (albeit in nearby Kettering) they said as I handed it in they will take up to 3 days, but he said in a friendly way it will be next day. Sure enough, it took 16 hours (got the all clear). This was a drive through place, took less than 20minutes and was quite impressive tbh.

 

[zora]

WTF is wrong with Steve Baker & Co., how can they not get the fact that NHS is at breaking point, and deaths continue to raise?

Tory MPs warn Boris Johnson to drop lockdown or face leadership threat

Boris Johnson has been warned he will face a leadership threat if he does not "set out a plan for when our full freedoms will be restored".

www.cityam.com

Tbf I would also quite like to see some sort of plan other than "lock down and vaccinate and hope for the best", but I imagine this is where my and Steve Baker's similarities end...

 

[Cloo]

I'm getting the increasing feeling that this year is overall not going to be a great deal different from last year, albeit hospital figures, fingers crossed will be better in the autumn/winter wave. Can't see there will be much reason to allow many more people to meet up etc and it'll just be 'rule of six' at best and everything will still have to tighten up for winter.

 

[xenon]

Don’t know which thread to put this in but looking for simple advice: I seem to have a reduced (not totally lost but significantly weaker than usual) sense of smell. Fairly certain am not imagining it, have just gone around and sniffed vinegar toilet cleaner etc all very faint. Might have started yesterday was definitely fine day before.
Apart from lethargy and lack of apetite which tbh not very unusual and could just be ennui that’s it.
ive not been keeping up so I don’t know:
1) is reduced smell a thing or is it just totally gone that’s the symptom?
2) Should I try to get a test?

This isn't much help sorry but I know it's at least possible to get tests in some areas, just as a precaution. I've got family in kent, so admititdly a high case area, they've had a couple of tests now. (negative thankfully) not because of symptoms but because they're available and being encouraged to in that area AFAIK.

If it were me, i'd probably give it a day or 2 and see if further symptoms develop but self isolate for a few days too.

 

[xenon]

Now I read the rest of the replies and see how wrong I am...

 

[xenon]

Test booked for early tomorrow, in bloody Milton Keynes that will be fun.

Good luck. (not just cos enduring Milton Keynes, obv.)

 

[frogwoman]

I saw a meme on twitter with a quote purporting to be from the head of vaccinations at PHE saying that those under 40 wouldn't be offered the vaccine and it was ok to let the virus circulate because Covid 'doesn't do much damage' with that age group. This is bollocks isnt it? Or at least seriously out of context?

 

[xenon]

I saw a meme on twitter with a quote purporting to be from the head of vaccinations at PHE saying that those under 40 wouldn't be offered the vaccine and it was ok to let the virus circulate because Covid 'doesn't do much damage' with that age group. This is bollocks isnt it? Or at least seriously out of context?

Memes are shite.

They've said they want to vaccinate the whole adult population by the Autumn.

 

[killer b]

this clip froggy? looks like she's just talking hypothetically about a specific scenario rather than saying they won't offer it to under 40s

 

[frogwoman]

this clip froggy? looks like she's just talking hypothetically about a specific scenario rather than saying they won't offer it to under 40s

Yep though it was in a written form when I saw it

 

[two sheds]

If that's released by anyone related to the Great Barrington Declaration I wouldn't trust it to speak my weight.