Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[klang]

Roman plumbers created and refined many fine systems eg hypocaust and aqueducts.

classic plumbing

 

[2hats]

Pass the shared tersorium (great for avoiding the next loo roll shortage).

 

[Teaboy]

So what about that covid, eh?

 

[Teaboy]

dp

 

[Elpenor]

classic plumbing
View attachment 291712

Indeed if you extend plumbing to include central heating, as many plumbers do both, then you have a forerunner to underfloor heating.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Mrs Frank knows classical Greek. I'd definitely prefer it if she were a qualified plumber.

 

[Yossarian]

This March 2020 piece on what we could learn from Thucydides' account of the Great Plague of Athens now seems quite prophetic.

In his account of the Great Plague, Thucydides looks frankly at the practical and moral weaknesses that the disease was able to exploit. He sharply notes how crowding in Athens, along with inadequate housing and sanitation, helped the disease spread more quickly and added to the number of casualties. He is aware that a lack of attention to important public-health and safety measures allowed the Plague to take root and made its effects much worse than they would have otherwise been...

Gone were the days when they could comfortably see themselves in the words Pericles spoke in his famed funeral oration at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, before the Plague carried him off to a less-than-glorious death: “We are not suspicious of one another … a spirit of reverence pervades our public acts; we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for the authorities and for the laws.”

The Great Plague tested this Athenian self-conception and found it wanting. Who people collectively believe they are is of the utmost importance, particularly in a democracy where the people are tasked with the grave responsibility of government. Self-government requires self-confidence. A democracy is unlikely to survive when the people have grown unsure of themselves and their leaders, laws, and institutions.

What the Great Plague of Athens Can Teach Us Now

Disease changed the course of the war, and shaped the peace that came afterward, planting the seeds that would destroy Athenian democracy.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[David Clapson]

Current COVID Pressures 'As Worrying as Peak': NHS Staff Poll

An NHS Charities Together/YouGov poll finds 8 in 10 NHS staff feel current pressures are as concerning now as they were during the peak of the pandemic. More than 1000 staff were surveyed in August:

• 81% said there's still a significant growth in problems
• 96% believe pressures will continue for years
• 75% are concerned about a rise in respiratory illnesses this winter
• 39% reported exhaustion
• 44% experienced anxiety since the start of the pandemic, 23% experienced depression
• 66% were able to access support at their workplace
• 89% said the NHS had done 'the best possible job tackling COVID-19'
• 84% were proud to work for the health service

Charities Together Chief Executive, Ellie Orton, said the survey findings highlighted "the huge mental toll the pandemic took and continues to take".
NHS Backlog
The survey also found 73% were concerned about the backlog of NHS treatment and diagnosis after the pandemic.

Separately, Acting General Medical Council (GMC) Chair, Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen, said the long waiting lists are "deeply distressing" for doctors, leading to many considering reducing their hours or leaving medicine.

She told the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow conference: "Not being able to give patients what they need has a cumulative effect, one that undermines patient trust and wears doctors down. We know that doctors experiencing severe workload pressures are more likely to consider stepping back from practice."

She quoted GMC research involving 13,000 doctors who'd quit: "Doctors who left UK practice between 2004 and 2019 gave dissatisfaction and burnout as two of the main reasons for doing so. And this was before the start of the pandemic."

Workplace issues were behind dissatisfaction for 36% of respondents, burnout for 27%, and bullying for 5.5%, all of which the GMC is seeking to address.

"This matters. Not just because bullying, burnout and bad culture are a moral stain on our health services. But because they have a material impact on the number of doctors available to staff them and to look after our patients," Dame Carrie said.

"Simply put, poor working environments lead to poor outcomes for patients. That's the main reason this work is a strategic imperative for us."

Current COVID Pressures 'As Worrying as Peak': NHS Staff Poll

An NHS Charities Together/YouGov poll finds 8 in 10 NHS staff feel current pressures are as concerning now as they were during the peak of the pandemic.

www.medscape.com

 

[kabbes]

We’ve had an email today ordering us all back to the office for at least 3 days a week from 18 October. Covid? There is no Covid, the government says so.

(Whether people will do as they are offered time will tell. I was planning to do 2 days a week anyway from next week so I’ll stick with that.)

 

[smmudge]

We're in 2 days a week, pushed by the company as "this is what the people want!". (They asked us our opinions but expect they did not care what we said)

Yesterday our director emailed the team to say, I'm working from home Friday, so if you don't want to go into the office, you don't have to either.

Well guess how many of the team went into the office!

 

[Sue]

We’ve had an email today ordering us all back to the office for at least 3 days a week from 18 October. Covid? There is no Covid, the government says so.

(Whether people will do as they are offered time will tell. I was planning to do 2 days a week anyway from next week so I’ll stick with that.)

My ex-company imposed three days a week from the start of September. Lots of folk have been ignoring it and I have it on good authority they've started checking who's swiping in when and it's about to become an HR issue.

Given how buoyant the job market is at the moment and the number of people who've already left for jobs with more flexibility, feels like a very bold move on higher management's part...

 

[kabbes]

My ex-company imposed three days a week from the start of September. Lots of folk have been ignoring it and I have it on good authority they've started checking who's swiping in when and it's about to become an HR issue.

Given how buoyant the job market is at the moment and the number of people who've already left for jobs with more flexibility, feels like a very bold move on higher management's part...

Yeah, it’s the ego and authoritarian narcissism of the CEO driving this, not any kind of sober analysis. Why else would you go to war with a bunch of contented and productive employees for no gain?

 

[Sue]

Yeah, it’s the ego and authoritarian narcissism of the CEO driving this, not any kind of sober analysis. Why else would you go to war with a bunch of contented and productive employees for no gain?

What a coincidence, same.

 

[Steel Icarus]

These lads will sort your central heating while defending the Pass at Thermopylae to the last man.

Home - Spartan Mechanical Ltd

www.spartanph.co.uk

Making sure your gates are hot, presumably

 

[little_legs]

You've misrepresented that. A message being directed at a certain demographic is not the same as blaming that demographic for the message.

If it wasn't in part a message for others in addition to employers than why did they weirdly conflate working from home with their woke nonsense?

 

[magneze]

I'm fairly surprised by the Yes percentages in all age groups there tbh.

 

[two sheds]

65+

I'm also in favour of bringing back National Service now that I'm too old for it

 

[quimcunx]

I suppose some will have been unable to work from home, some will rely on office workers for their jobs, some will miss being at the office, some will be stay at home parents sick of their partners being home.

 

[BCBlues]

65+

I'm also in favour of bringing back National Service now that I'm too old for it

I'm with you on this. Get rid of some of these 20+ "children" who hang about my house smoking dodgy cigarettes listening to crap music

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

65+

I'm also in favour of bringing back National Service now that I'm too old for it

been there, done that, it was all good being kicked out after 12 days.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Looks like the government is considering following in the footsteps of France & Germany, by scaling back free covid testing.

I can understand the appeal in doing so, but now is not the time, what with us having far higher number of cases compared to France & Germany, and winter about to arrive. There seems to be a battle between different government departments, hopefully they will kick the decision into the long grass, and review it in the spring.

Mass free Covid testing could be scrapped and limited to high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools due to high costs to the taxpayer, it is reported.

The government is said to be considering scaling back the current arrangements where everyone has free access to lateral flow tests and some people can get hold of PCR tests.

A Whitehall source told the Telegraph: “It’s agreed that universal access isn’t sustainable or necessary given high vaccination levels. We now need to decide what the parameters should be that reasonably qualify access to free testing.”

The Treasury and Cabinet are understood to support ending free mass testing, with one insider quoted as saying that the cost is the equivalent of 1p on income tax and that taxes could rise if the scheme continues.

Number 10 and the Department of Health and Social Care are believed to be more cautious as discussions take place between the DHSC and Treasury of announcements on all future departmental spending made in the Budget on 27 October.

Downing Street is understood to be playing down the chances of mass free testing ending over the winter and the PM is expected to have the ultimate say on the whether the scheme should change.

Mass free Covid tests could be scrapped amid fears of winter surge in cases

Some figures in government are hesitant about ending the free Covid testing scheme at a time when Covid cases could surge this autumn and winter, it is reported

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[andysays]

Looks like the government is considering following in the footsteps of France & Germany, by scaling back free covid testing.

I can understand the appeal in doing so, but now is not the time, what with us having far higher number of cases compared to France & Germany, and winter about to arrive. There seems to be a battle between different government departments, hopefully they will kick the decision into the long grass, and review it in the spring.

Mass free Covid tests could be scrapped amid fears of winter surge in cases

Some figures in government are hesitant about ending the free Covid testing scheme at a time when Covid cases could surge this autumn and winter, it is reported

www.mirror.co.uk

Might inspire a run on free home testing kits...

 

[wtfftw]

The idea has been to get as many people vaccinated and infected for better immunity over winter, right? They're happy with the death level and if we get quite lot of covid done now (the summer opening plan?) then the NHS will be absolutely fine (creaking at the seams) over flu season.

So sod quarantine and testing.

 

[Wilf]

Making sure your gates are hot, presumably

They'll certainly bleed your radiators.

 

[elbows]

Looks like the government is considering following in the footsteps of France & Germany, by scaling back free covid testing.

I can understand the appeal in doing so, but now is not the time, what with us having far higher number of cases compared to France & Germany, and winter about to arrive. There seems to be a battle between different government departments, hopefully they will kick the decision into the long grass, and review it in the spring.

Mass free Covid tests could be scrapped amid fears of winter surge in cases

Some figures in government are hesitant about ending the free Covid testing scheme at a time when Covid cases could surge this autumn and winter, it is reported

www.mirror.co.uk

I'm rationing my rants at the moment so I dont think I'll bother dwelling on that possibility too much unless there are much clearer signs of it actually happening prematurely.

I'm also not confident in my guesses about what this government will do in this phase, but I would think that they will be nervous about doing it at a stage where they could be forced to rapidly u-turn on the decision if things deteriorate, or where it could have unintended consequences in terms of the psychology of getting people to drift back towards the old normal with any degree of confidence. So I suppose I expect them to wait until the main opportunity for a winter wave has passed.

Also the wording of various differnt things said publicly by government implies that even if they shit the bed by ending some free testing access too soon, it will be lateral flow tests rather than PCR tests that are first for the chop. The likes of Javid already said that PCR tests will remain available over autumn and winter.

Meanwhile this Nick Triggle article isnt too bad by his standards:

Covid: The UK is Europe's virus hotspot - does it matter?

Winter is approaching with infection levels higher than elsewhere, so is the UK in trouble?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[elbows]

And I really do hope the scenario touched on in that article, where the cases in school aged children run out of steam in the coming weeks, followed by a broader decline in case numbers, is the one that happens. This is not a prediction that this is certain to happen, but it seems possible and I would very much like to avoid having to go into doom mode again.

With that in mind I will drill down into case age data for England again around the middle of next week. In the meantime I may get round to creating and post a graph of my own towns positive cases by age since the overall numbers here suck, they've been heading back towards the level seen here in Nuneaton & Bedworth at the July peak.

In the meantime here is the official dashboard graph for my location to illustrate what I just said:

 

[platinumsage]

Yes and then it becomes a question of why there have been more false negative PCR results. The possibilities with the most serious implications, such as changes to the virus itself thwarting the tests, need to be ruled in or out urgently.

I haven’t looked into the specificity of the specific LFTs being used, but couldn’t it be that they are picking up non-COVID coronaviruses, so of course the PCRs are negative:

High incidence of false-positive results of IgG antibody against SARS-CoV-2 with rapid immunochromatographic antibody test due to human common cold coronavirus infection

We experienced a 72-year-old man who developed laboratory-confirmed human coronavirus HKU1 pneumonia. PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 from a nasopharyngeal…

www.sciencedirect.com

Coronavirus colds aren’t necessarily just going to be a runny nose or whatever, and could share many symptoms with mild COVID.

 

[l'Otters]

Didn't they have a glut of LFT's that needed using up? Is that coming to an end?

 

[Dogsauce]

I haven’t looked into the specificity of the specific LFTs being used, but couldn’t it be that they are picking up non-COVID coronaviruses, so of course the PCRs are negative:

High incidence of false-positive results of IgG antibody against SARS-CoV-2 with rapid immunochromatographic antibody test due to human common cold coronavirus infection

We experienced a 72-year-old man who developed laboratory-confirmed human coronavirus HKU1 pneumonia. PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 from a nasopharyngeal…

www.sciencedirect.com

Coronavirus colds aren’t necessarily just going to be a runny nose or whatever, and could share many symptoms with mild COVID.

But quite a few (like us) are eventually getting positive PCRs, so it is picking it up late, but in some cases it isn’t at all - the person I most likely was infected by (at work) never managed a positive PCR.

I don’t think it’s an issue with specific LFTs as we had three different types in the house that came up positive at various points.

 

[Cloo]

A friend's dad died of COVID yesterday, lives in the South West I think. It really feels like every COVID death now really is on the government, it was so avoidable but they just wanted to make the populist move and open everything up ASAP.