Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[zora]

Actually, I did go , but then remembered that when I went to the dentist in May he said he would usually clean my teeth for me, but that he couldn't because of covid and I should book an appointment with the hygienist.
So effectively I paid a £60 surcharge..!
I now wonder if I have been had, and it wasn't because of covid but because of the practice's general push to privately charged treatments...

 

[Chilli.s]

I think this charge is at all dentists now, including mine

 

[Artaxerxes]

Actually, I did go , but then remembered that when I went to the dentist in May he said he would usually clean my teeth for me, but that he couldn't because of covid and I should book an appointment with the hygienist.
So effectively I paid a £60 surcharge..!
I now wonder if I have been had, and it wasn't because of covid but because of the practice's general push to privately charged treatments...

Happened before rona to me - depended how lazy the dentist felt I guess.

Went in June/July and it was fine, all done in one

 

[SpookyFrank]

Actually, I did go , but then remembered that when I went to the dentist in May he said he would usually clean my teeth for me, but that he couldn't because of covid and I should book an appointment with the hygienist.
So effectively I paid a £60 surcharge..!
I now wonder if I have been had, and it wasn't because of covid but because of the practice's general push to privately charged treatments...

To be fair to the dentists, they can no longer break even on the funding they get for NHS treatments. But a clean should still be available for the standard level 1 NHS fee of 23 quid or whatever.

 

[platinumsage]

Band 1 only includes a scale and polish if necessary for clinical reasons, not for cosmetic reasons.

 

[Sue]

Yeah, I was also charged for both the dentist and the hygienist (separate appointments). The hygienist was more and they also had to do some stuff manually that they normally wouldn't. My sister mentioned this to me too. So sounds like you weren't done, bimble.

 

[LDC]

I just went to the dentist. £15 Covid Surcharge is that normal? It meant they gave me a pair of those blue plastic shower caps to put on over my shoes.

Just been to the dentist this morning, no extra 'covid surcharge' there. Sounds like a proper con tbh.

 

[bimble]

Just been to the dentist this morning, no extra 'covid surcharge' there. Sounds like a proper con tbh.

i was a bit pissed off, i think that by now we do know that putting disposable shower caps on my feet will not have been very useful.

 

[clicker]

In a similar vein, I made hairdresser appointment last week and got a text 2 days later saying they are adding a £2 surcharge for ppe??

I rang abd queried what it was for and was told it was a mistake and would be removed from my bill....we shall see.

 

[LDC]

i was a bit pissed off, i think that by now we do know that putting disposable shower caps on my feet will not have been very useful.

Maybe you misheard and it was a carpet surcharge rather than a covid surcharge?

 

[l'Otters]

Actually, I did go , but then remembered that when I went to the dentist in May he said he would usually clean my teeth for me, but that he couldn't because of covid and I should book an appointment with the hygienist.
So effectively I paid a £60 surcharge..!
I now wonder if I have been had, and it wasn't because of covid but because of the practice's general push to privately charged treatments...

IME it’s never been an option to get my teeth cleaned by the dentist, it’s always been a hygienist, prices from £40 - £70 per session at different dentists.

 

[_Russ_]

IME it’s never been an option to get my teeth cleaned by the dentist, it’s always been a hygienist, prices from £40 - £70 per session at different dentists.

Same here

 

[miss direct]

Glad I got mine done at the dentists while Im here in Turkey. £28 for a full check up, X-ray, clean and polish. Felt v. strange to have my mouth wide open with no mask on. Dentist wisely had not only a mask but a full shield.

 

[elbows]

Attempts to spin the situation in recent months as involving 'equilibrium' are coming undone.

And what better a source to demonstrate that than fucking Nick Triggle, via the BBC live updates page today. He even mentions the same thing as I did last weekend, that the number of cases in older people rising will impact hospitalisations:

Since July, infection rates have been bobbling around - with periods of increases followed by drops.

That is a sign we have reached an equilibrium whereby the amount of immunity in the population keeps the virus in check.

However, it is now clear we are seeing the most sustained rise since July, with more than 45,000 new cases reported in the UK today.

There was always a concern the autumn could prompt a significant rise.

A combination of an increase in mixing with waning immunity could unbalance that equilibrium.

What is noticeable about the latest figures is that there are signs infection rates are going up in older age groups and not just in teenagers, certainly in England. That is a worry because of the impact it will have on hospital cases.

(from the 16:59 entry of https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-58908381 )

It includes a basic graph of cases by certain age groups but I'll be doing my own version of that again soon using more recent data.

 

[elbows]

Unfortunately the rise in cases I mentioned the other day was indeed still a reliable indicator of what would happen to the hospital admissions/diagnoses figures.

The figure for admissions/diagnoses in England for the 12th is all messed up on the official dashboard right now. Its showing 13 but it should be 760, the highest number its been for well over a month. Correct figure comes from a spreadsheet at Statistics » COVID-19 Hospital Activity

I'll do my admissions by age graph later if that data is intact on the dashboard, but in the meantime here is the regional picture via data from the aforementioned spreadsheet.

 

[Dogsauce]

From the BBC:

NHS Test and Trace has suspended testing operations provided by Immensa Health Clinic Ltd at its laboratory in Wolverhampton.

It follows an investigation into reports of people receiving negative PCR test results after testing positive with a lateral flow test.

Investigations are under way into the precise cause but NHS Test and Trace estimates that around 400,000 samples have been processed through the lab.

The vast majority of these will have been negative results, but an estimated 43,000 people may have been given incorrect negative PCR test results between 8 September and 12 October, mostly in south-west England.

 

[Dogsauce]

Let’s see the slippery vermin use this as an excuse for increased spread of the disease rather than their own ‘don’t give a fuck’ policies.

 

[wtfftw]

Covid test lab in Wolverhampton suspended over wrong results

Health chief says it's not clear what went wrong as 43,000 in England and Wales potentially affected.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Brainaddict]

I know of three people in the south west who had positive lfts then negative pcrs so I'll be sending that link on.

 

[Teaboy]

Let’s see the slippery vermin use this as an excuse for increased spread of the disease rather than their own ‘don’t give a fuck’ policies.

They have two approaches to dealing with the unrelenting chaos and misery they are presiding over. First tactic is just to pretend its not happening and when that no longer works just blame someone else, anyone else.

 

[bimble]

I just got my negative result from day2 travel PCR test which i posted off to whichever private company. How are people like me supposed to know if it was done in that dodgy lab, the website just says 'We have partnered with a network of private laboratories, all accredited blah'.

 

[Teaboy]

I just got my negative result from day2 travel PCR test which i posted off to whichever private company. How are people like me supposed to know if it was done in that dodgy lab, the website just says 'We have partnered with a network of private laboratories, all accredited blah'.

Why worry?

Seriously, there's nothing you can do about it anyway. Do another LFT and get on with your life. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh but there are things out of our control and this is one of them.

 

[bimble]

Why worry?

Seriously, there's nothing you can do about it anyway. Do another LFT and get on with your life. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh but there are things out of our control and this is one of them.

I'm not massively worried just wondering. I paid £50 for the test, would be nice if it worked. Was planning anyway to do couple of LFs in a couple pf days, just because the luton airport immigration queue/mosh pit was by far the riskiest place i've been since this whole shitshow began.

 

[elbows]

Mistakes happen, but the hugely unimpressive thing here is how long it took them to notice there was some kind of problem and then discover the nature of it.

September 8th is quite a while ago, and the scale of the problem was not small. I believe that there are likely numerous fairly simple ways to analyse data that should have flagged up the issue really quite quickly after it began, but that didnt happen.

Just to give one example, the graph that someone tweeted the other day that I mentioned in post #42,476 was not exactly subtle, the phenomenon was clearly visible from September 8th.

 

[bluescreen]

Oh, and note that the lab where the error occurred was one of those instant companies that secured a massive contract.

£119 Million COVID-19 Testing Contract Awarded to Four-Month-Old DNA Analysis Firm

A company incorporated on 18 May was awarded a huge Government contract to ramp-up Coronavirus testing, reports Sam Bright

bylinetimes.com

 

[zahir]

Thread from Deepti Gurdasani

 

[Thora]

I'm in one of those areas where there has been a large number of positive LFTs followed by negative PCRs (children & staff in all three of my kids schools returning to school with symptoms).

We've just had an email from the secondary today saying a positive LFT = isolating, masks are back for kids and staff, no more assemblies and extra curricular clubs and sports all cancelled.

 

[Dogsauce]

Seems to be loads of cases within my wider circle here in Bristol and surrounding area, heard of four cases today among people I know. They’ve lost control of it again, the fucking dunces.

 

[elbows]

They’ve lost control of it again, the fucking dunces.

Well there havent been very many mechanisms left in place to control it since July, so in some ways they are probably surprised they got away with it for this long.

Depending on what happens next we could go round the loop everyone already got used to earlier in the pandemic, the one where we have to go through a seasonal merry-go-round of mood music. Where things are said and planned in spring and summer that have little hope of being sustainable in other seasons. This time around that included various people wanking on about 'endemic equilibrium' which is a pretty pointless thing to dwell on if it turns out that the equilibrium only works in summer.

Meanwhile the Guardian have been poking around with some of the other history of the company who ran the lab that fucked up all those results.

UK ministers face questions over firm linked to suspected Covid test errors

Immensa’s sister company already being investigated and a related US firm sent out used DNA test kits

www.theguardian.com

There have been further questions over the management of Immensa itself. Earlier this year, the DHSC promised to launch an investigation after the Sun on Sunday found workers appeared to be fighting, sleeping, playing football and drinking on duty while working at Immensa’s Wolverhampton lab. The government said at the time it would speak to Immensa as it took “evidence of misconduct extremely seriously”.

 

[kalidarkone]

IME it’s never been an option to get my teeth cleaned by the dentist, it’s always been a hygienist, prices from £40 - £70 per session at different dentists.

Same