General Coronavirus (COVID-19) chat

[Yossarian]

I might have to take a break from social media soon because the contrast between the gradual reopenings my friends in Britain and Hong Kong are seeing and the situation here in Ontario is too jarring.

We are now at the worst time so far in the pandemic, with record high case numbers every day, hospitals at full capacity, and a lockdown getting stricter by the week - the useless Conservative premier, Doug Ford, announced Friday that police are being given new powers to stop, question, and fine people suspected of leaving their homes for unauthorised purposes.

Ford is the fucking idiot who loosened restrictions less than a month ago while cases were rising and the British variant was spreading - he's the poster boy for what happens when you take reactive instead of proactive measures.

 

[Boudicca]

Very interesting article in the Guardian about 'brain fog'

"Simons’ advice to us all is to get out into the world, to have as rich and varied experiences and interactions as we can, to maximise our cognitive reserve within the remaining restrictions."

We have to do this.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Very interesting article in the Guardian about 'brain fog'

"Simons’ advice to us all is to get out into the world, to have as rich and varied experiences and interactions as we can, to maximise our cognitive reserve within the remaining restrictions."

We have to do this.

I mean that would be nice wouldn't it. Not sure that "do the things you can't do and are miserable for not being able to do" is all that helpful advice.

 

[Boudicca]

I mean that would be nice wouldn't it. Not sure that "do the things you can't do and are miserable for not being able to do" is all that helpful advice.

I don't think that is what he is saying.

I feel my brain has atrophied so much during lockdown. Zoom gives me a headache and I've done virtually no socialising since restrictions started easing because I have forgotten how.

He is saying I need to force myself out there, find something on the 'not forbidden' list, do something to to re-engage my brain, otherwise dementia beckons.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I don't think that is what he is saying.

I feel my brain has atrophied so much during lockdown. Zoom gives me a headache and I've done virtually no socialising since restrictions started easing because I have forgotten how.

He is saying I need to force myself out there, find something on the 'not forbidden' list, do something to to re-engage my brain, otherwise dementia beckons.

This isn't news though is it? You knew that being stuck in with Zoom meetings pretending to be life wasn't cutting it, and that you needed to do other things. Christ knows I did. The problem was, and is, how.

 

[BigMoaner]

Feel immensely grateful for living in London and that meet up groups are back open. Feel like I've been thrown a life line. Most of my mates have moved out or are married with kids. Recommend meet up.com

 

[BigMoaner]

Meetup | Find Local Groups, Events, and Activities Near You

Find Meetup events, join groups, or start your own. Make new friends and connect with like-minded people. Meet people near you who share your interests.

www.meetup.com

It's only these last few weeks I've started to feel I am getting on an even keel again. So long just living with NOTHING to look forward too. My kids kept me busy when I have them but outside of that, jesus it was like treading thick treakly water. This has traumatised so many people.

 

[Boudicca]

Feel immensely grateful for living in London and that meet up groups are back open. Feel like I've been thrown a life line. Most of my mates have moved out or are married with kids. Recommend meet up.com

Yes, I'm thinking of starting my own. It's going to be called 'Tea with a View'. Meet somewhere nice outdoors, bring mug and chair. Short walks will be encouraged, but it will mainly be about the tea and the view.

 

[Orang Utan]

I feel so grateful that I've gone to work throughout all this (apart from the first month). I also work with the public, which I think has helped.

 

[rubbershoes]

I feel so grateful that I've gone to work throughout all this (apart from the first month). I also work with the public, which I think has helped.

I thought you hated the public

 

[Orang Utan]

I thought you hated the public

Dunno why you thought that

 

[glitch hiker]

I mean that would be nice wouldn't it. Not sure that "do the things you can't do and are miserable for not being able to do" is all that helpful advice.

Sounds nice, doesn't it.

For me, lockdown ending means society has missed an opportunity to fundamentally change which I think it should.

Instead it means going back to worrying about DWP demands (I have a telephone based work focused interview next Friday, no idea what they want me to say) and stressing about when they are going to next call me in for a WCA. You can be sure they'll want to have those back up and running ASAP. Back to business as usual. WIll the state and capitalism make any allowances as we readjust?

Don't as me how I think society should fundamentally change. I have no clue, I just feel that this horrible period ought to yield some good. Rather than racing back to queue up outside the shops and buy all the useless shit we never needed anyway

 

[Aladdin]

In Ireland, today the acting CMO stated that they've found that symptomatic children have been sent to school....which is really despicable.

They've also announced that the Indian Variant has been found in three cases here.

 

[Yossarian]

New field hospital has gone up about 5 minutes walk away from me, which makes shit seem pretty real - on the brighter side, I might get vaccinated a lot sooner than expected because Ontario is apparently getting unwanted AstraZeneca vaccines from elsewhere.

Looks like a lot of other places will soon be dealing with similar exponential case growth numbers as the B117 variant spreads - Thailand has recorded almost a quarter of its pandemic total COVID cases in the last week.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Finally managed to get my hair cut for the first time since about September.

 

[Sue]

Harold Hill Deer Aid. Who knew?

Deer graze on east London housing estate

Surprised residents wake up to find a herd of deer grazing on their doorstep.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[William of Walworth]

Finally managed to get my hair cut for the first time since about September.

Wales allowing haircuts came earlier -- I had mine cut in the week straight after Easter .... by a man called Atilla who never does small-talk!

But my (radical!!) cut was for the first time in at least eighteen months ....

 

[mx wcfc]

Wales allowing haircuts came earlier -- I had mine cut in the week straight after Easter .... by a man called Atilla who never does small-talk!

But my cut was for the first time in at least eighteen months ....

We need photos - before and after.

 

[William of Walworth]

We need photos - before and after.

You'll get neither!!

 

[Teaboy]

So my company sent a professional photographer out to take photos of a bridge over a motorway being built because they were using our products and we thought it would be a good project to highlight for marketing. This was in the autumn of last year.

We got loads of good photos back but the contractor has vetoed us from using most of them because they feature site workers not social distancing. They are carrying out tasks which are simply not safe to do (sometimes not even possible to do) without fellow workers near you.

Covid has brought about lots of these little weird strange moments which will be funny some day but at the moment its just another shrug, shake of the head and move on.

 

[Cloo]

I am starting to wonder what coming out of this all will look and feel like... I guess one thing is 'different in different countries' for a start. I was sure from the off there'd never be one 'grand day of freedom' (sorry Boris), but what precautions will drop first and last? I guess handwashing and sanitising may just be with us for good, if for no other reason than a lot of us having enjoyed having fewer colds etc.

If hospital admissions and deaths continue to drop relative to infections will we just go back to normal or might we, especially in winter, have some sort of midway restriction, like everyone can only have one household over, and reduced capacity in places people gather? Is there any halfway house between lockdown and normal movement, especially when outdoors is less of an option?

 

[LDC]

Had someone come into the house yesterday in a professional capacity (meeting about something) and they did wear a mask, but they said they'd had both vaccine doses and didn't actually have to now. I corrected them and they said no, they'd seen some news that said people could mix freely with others and not wear masks if they'd been fully vaccinated. Anyway, turns out this news was from FB (obviously) and they couldn't remember the source, but said it looked official rather than a friend's post. They did believe me after a chat, and said what they saw must have been wrong, but ffs, who is spreading that stuff?!

 

[LDC]

If hospital admissions and deaths continue to drop relative to infections will we just go back to normal or might we, especially in winter, have some sort of midway restriction, like everyone can only have one household over, and reduced capacity in places people gather? Is there any halfway house between lockdown and normal movement, especially when outdoors is less of an option?

No, 'normal' is a long way off yet. The kind of thing is what we've had mostly over the last year is what you suggest though isn't it? Not a full 'lockdown' but a variety of restrictions. And yes, it's been made clear we're likely to have more of them for the forseeable future, especially later this year.

 

[Yossarian]

I am starting to wonder what coming out of this all will look and feel like... I guess one thing is 'different in different countries' for a start. I was sure from the off there'd never be one 'grand day of freedom' (sorry Boris), but what precautions will drop first and last? I guess handwashing and sanitising may just be with us for good, if for no other reason than a lot of us having enjoyed having fewer colds etc.

I think you're right about the handwashing and sanitising being a longlasting effect - which is weird because infected surfaces, touching your face etc. seems to be a very rare way of COVID transmission, I'm not sure if there's much evidence it has ever happened at all.

Another longlasting effect might be stricter border controls, especially after Western countries catch up with each other in vaccination rates and COVID becomes a disease predominately found in poorer countries - making travelers from countries like India pay for a week or two in mandatory hotel quarantine if x number of cases have been detected in their country in the previous month probably isn't a power anti-immigration governments are going to want to give up in a hurry.

 

[elbows]

I think you're right about the handwashing and sanitising being a longlasting effect - which is weird because infected surfaces, touching your face etc. seems to be a very rare way of COVID transmission, I'm not sure if there's much evidence it has ever happened at all.

I find that very hard to judge because of what counts as proper evidence. Most of the proper science in regards this stuff is implied via theoretical understanding because we dont have a habit of doing real, live testing of modes of transmission in humans, at least not with this virus due to its deadliness.

But certainly it isnt hard to speculate that the emphasis on hand washing was because it was relatively easy to achieve without economic etc disruption, as opposed to various airborne routes that were inconvenient, causing authorities to drag their heels as much as possible.

If I had more time in this pandemic I would have reviewed the existing literature in regards surface touching and other respiratory illnesses, here there should be more existing evidence. But I didnt do that, so I just have some vague sense of this vector being more obviously confirmed for things like flu. But again the bias against inconvenient truths may have been in effect in terms o such established wisdom.

 

[Orang Utan]

People will go back to their old ways

 

[William of Walworth]

People will go back to their old ways

What, all people going back to all of their old ways?

I have some doubts about the 'alls' there!

 

[stdP]

Not strictly news as such, but along with a whole load of extra pfizer jabs...

UK orders 60m more doses of Pfizer Covid vaccine for booster jabs

Health secretary says greater supplies of vaccine will help safeguard progress in tackling coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

...and me walking past a nearby GP surgery-cum-vaccination-centre and seeing some massive new chiller units being installed I've jumped the the conclusion that a large new medical freezer capable of maintaining -80degC is being installed. They're apparently already using the pfizer jab already but I don't know if they're actually storing it on site yet, but certainly looks like they will be.

 

[Sasaferrato]

It looks like a mechanism has been found to explain the AZ clotting.

AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine: Clotting Disorder Mechanism Revealed?

More information has become available indicating that the vaccine may be linked to a condition that clinically resembles heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and seems to occur mainly in younger women.

www.medscape.com

 

[two sheds]

They found that serum from four patients who were tested showed platelet-activating antibodies directed against platelet factor 4 (PF4), similar to what is seen in HIT.

Difficult to see how they could alter the vaccine to prevent this? Perhaps could find which people most susceptible though.