Covid - news and views
Comments
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I think it’s in the same territory as seasonal flu now. You could choose to lock yourself away every winter to avoid it, but few do as we don’t fear it in the way we do with Covid..
Rather puzzled by the reference to Covid being as benign as flu.
I would rather avoid it, if at all possible, than spend time in hospital being an unnecessary pain to the NHS.
Indeed i would suspect that it would be a considerable inconvenience to myself. I would rather err on the side of caution.
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Mrs C has received five emails just tonight to say they are self isolating from tomorrow, she says it is getting to critical point. Three schools are shut in Newcastle.
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Brue
I think there were a handful of countries that did really well initially and they were able to close it down by measures such as shutting borders. The problem is that as the mutations have become more transmissible they appear to be caught on the hop.
David
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I read the post from SB as saying that with the reduction in hospitalisations and deaths we are nowhere near the state that caused the, justified, concern and restrictions.
My question would be what, aside from the control you have over where you go, who you mix with and what precautions you take do you consider as being to “err on the side of caution “?
If it’s staying at home then statistically one is more at risk of accidents according to ROSPA.
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It would seem that Government policy now is Herd immunity, or at least they feel they can risk opening up because the consequences are likely to be no worse than Flu? One should of course remember that in some circumstances Flu can also be a killer!!! The major difference seems to be that Flu tends only to thrive in winter conditions whereas Covid seems to be all seasons?
David
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I think the idea is to get as many vaccinated as possible with the two doses and hopefully this will lock out the possibility of serious mutations getting a grip. So far we haven't quite got to the level we need but by the time 18 year olds get the second dose hopefully we'll be nearer the goal?
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I think you’ve missed my point. Flu is not benign, it kills many frail and vulnerable people each year. So will Covid, but based on current data, not on a dissimilar scale. That makes then equal so why treat them so differently now? In both cases those most at risk tend to be protected by highly effective vaccination. Are you advocating caution or irrational avoidance & inertia?
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Beyond the pandemic phase, just like Flu, Covid will thrive in conditions that best facilitate it’s transmission and mutation e.g. indoors, with lots of hosts in extended close proximity,
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And every day the reservoir of new hosts diminishes as young people infect and immunise themselves in relative safety separated from more vulnerable sections of the population by mass vaccination. Eventuality that source of propagating the new strain burns itself out.
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I don’t think Covid recognises geographical areas DT, just opportunities to infect & replicate🤷🏻♂️
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well it will be if the age range as quoted by the BBC is true, some will have had no vaccine and most only 1 dose
"About 90% of the cases were male, with three quarters of the total - 1,470 cases - being aged between 20 and 39"
but this age group are unlikely to need hospital treatment or die, and that is going to be the next phase, people will become infected but not put a burden on the NHS, and we will have to live with that or stay in lock down for ever
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A record 12 supply teaches were needed today, now a supply teacher costs the school £140 - £180 per day depending upon agency. You can see how some schools who cannot afford such costs are simply closing.
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Maybe true except that is not what I posted upthread that is causing the absence staff.
The vast majority of these staff are not infected but self isolating due to track and trace and certainly not one of those teachers has caught Covid from pupils.
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We recently experience senior Londoners who came on holiday travelling by public transport ( train). Arriving Friday, showed symptoms on Sunday. Proved positive by test on Wednesday. Returned to London again by public transport before their quarantine time was up, So not just the young are feckless.
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Wearing face coverings will no longer be compulsory but the public and businesses will be urged to apply “common sense” and consider using them in enclosed spaces. The public will also be warned that some shops, restaurants or public transport will decide to continue to require them.
I am sure removing the speed limit on motorways and urging folk to stick to 70 mph would work equally well.🤔
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I consider this issue poorly dealt with and agree with the statement from BMA "The BMA said that the number of people admitted to hospitals in England with Covid-19 had risen by 55% in a week.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chairman, called the jump in cases alarming - fuelled by the spread of the Delta variant and increased social mixing.
"It makes no sense to remove restrictions in their entirety in just over two weeks' time," Dr Nagpaul said.
The BMA called for the continued use of face masks and new ventilation standards, among other measures."
I believe that daily infection rates in the West of the country are falling as they rise in the East. Presumably the virus is starting to run out of easy victims in the West. The government talk of tackling the backlog of patients in the NHS waiting lists. With Covid patients hospitalised doubling weekly good luck with that. If all the other areas are to have regulations removed then there will likely be a greater increase beyond that. How people deal with that (on a personal level) is their choice. Mask wearing in public areas inside buildings is, for me, a totally different issue.
Each business premise needs to undertake its own risk assessment whether serving the public face to face or not. Would I choose to visit a pub restaurant that removed all its current mitigation measure. For me the answer to that is a resounding "No". This is at a time when the Delta virus appears to need far less contact time to transmit a load such as to infect.
In offices the management, who have a duty of care to its employees, can do its own assessment and undertake mitigation measures accordingly. The government know full well that even with the mask policy in place there will be additional rises due to the removal of other restrictions. To probably add to it further seems ludicrous. All situations that I deal with I can either mitigate or totally avoid except buying food. If the management of supermarkets are to remove the need for masks I suspect that the screens at checkouts will remain.
The daily rates of vaccination have been no more than half of what they were and have been low for best part of a month.
Remains to be seen what the Welsh Government will decide on 15th July
Sorry for the long reply
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I think the reason vaccination rates have been lower is not that the facilities are not available but the population who are/were willing to be inoculated have now almost been exhausted and it is those who seem to think as many things these days dsoe not need to apply to them
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The rate dropped to around its present level a while after India supply of AZ stopped as they needed it themselves. Th UK government said that they were expecting supplies in a month or so. The rates never increased. I have seen a similar drop off in other European countries with no shortage of arms available.
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