Covid and Work, Covid Advice and General Chat

zand

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I don't like the stats on Covid deaths. The numbers quoted are for deaths from ALL CAUSES of people that had a positive test within the previous 28 days. That will include anyone stabbed, shot, injured in an accident, with a very short prognosis due to many conditions etc. When anyone is admitted to hospital for any reason they are immediately given a test and if positive moved to a covid ward. That person will have Covid on the death cert, even if, for example, he had life threatening injuries from a road traffic accident or whatever.
And if they had suffered from longer term covid complications they could die months after the 28 days have passed but still have really been a covid death. To my mind the number of covid related deaths is being under reported, not over. My cousin caught covid whilst in hospital for something else. He went home 2 weeks later supposedly fine. He died 4 months after that of a stroke. This could easily have been caused by a covid blood clot, or could have happened anyway, but we'll never know. I do know my own blood remained 'sticky' for much longer than the 28 days after symptoms started.
 

PenguinMum

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I just wish people would not just home in on the deaths from Covid. This is still a new virus and we have no idea how people who survived Covid, even without hospitalisation, will fare years down the line. This can’t be measured till much later but we now know it is not just a respiratory affliction but can affect the whole body. I was lucky enough to get a very mild dose but it took 6 weeks for symptoms to go and any management if BG took 8 weeks. That was after no more than 3 minutes in the orbit of someone coughing their head off. I know this because I hadnt left the house for 9 days previous and my symptoms started 4 days after so 13 days in all.
 

Bluetit1802

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I believe that changed on August 12th and figures were retrospectively adjusted to reflect that. Since then Covid has to be a probable, reasonable and prominent cause of death, according to whoever fills in and signs the death certificate.

Not according to the graphics on the BBC and ITV news every evening.
It clearly say deaths from all causes where a positive test has been made during the previous 28 days.

Rules were amended over the summer to include deaths in the coronavirus total only if they occurred within 28 days of a positive test. Previously in England, all deaths after a positive test were included.
 

Max68

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Well, the Government is panicking about schools. Except for the exam classes, they're starting online in January:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55348886

It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious! Every time an end of term or start of term is on the horizon the government has done this last minute change of tack, but at the same time states that schools are Covid safe so why the need to change their plans?! I can imagine that Headteachers don't know if they are coming or going!!

Interesting today. No delivery or collection slots at all at Sainsbury until after Christmas which is a total change because you could get an online pick up no problem at all a couple of weeks ago. Shop quite busy and saw more people not wearing masks than I have seen over the last couple of months where there was only the odd one. Plenty of people wearing them under the nose which I always find a tad bizarre. It's the mask version of people wearing their trousers halfway down their backside!!
 

HSSS

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I don't like the stats on Covid deaths. The numbers quoted are for deaths from ALL CAUSES of people that had a positive test within the previous 28 days. That will include anyone stabbed, shot, injured in an accident, with a very short prognosis due to many conditions etc. When anyone is admitted to hospital for any reason they are immediately given a test and if positive moved to a covid ward. That person will have Covid on the death cert, even if, for example, he had life threatening injuries from a road traffic accident or whatever.
The ons figures aren’t. They are based on death certificates not raw dates. They are actually worse than the daily media published ones.
 

Hopeful34

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It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious! Every time an end of term or start of term is on the horizon the government has done this last minute change of tack, but at the same time states that schools are Covid safe so why the need to change their plans?! I can imagine that Headteachers don't know if they are coming or going!!

Interesting today. No delivery or collection slots at all at Sainsbury until after Christmas which is a total change because you could get an online pick up no problem at all a couple of weeks ago. Shop quite busy and saw more people not wearing masks than I have seen over the last couple of months where there was only the odd one. Plenty of people wearing them under the nose which I always find a tad bizarre. It's the mask version of people wearing their trousers halfway down their backside!!
I get regular delivery slots at Sainsburys and a friend gets weekly click and collect slots, and for months there have been plenty to choose from. When Sainsbury's announced the release dates of slots for Christmas week, we both went on multiple times day and night, including 12.01a.m each day they were released, and for days after, and there were never any slots available after Sunday. So who got the slots, and how!! A couple of years ago my friend saw these slots for sale on eBay for a lot of money.
 

DCUKMod

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ert

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Ert - If I recall you are on a vaccine trial at the moment? Where does that leave you in the "have I/have I not" been vaccinated conundrum?

I imagine some guidance would be available when it comes nearer your slot in the very long queue.
I was back at the Novavax trial yesterday getting a blood test. They will unblind the result when I'm offered a vaccine on the NHS. I won't get the NHS vaccine if the trial result is positive. It's still not going to happen before March/April based on the above calculator. And that relies on the vaccines being given at a rate of 1 million a week. We will need the Oxford vaccine to achieve these sorts of numbers, based on logistical issues with Pfizer.
 
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zand

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I was back at the Novavax trial yesterday getting a blood test. They will unblind the result when I'm offered a vaccine on the NHS. I won't get the NHS vaccine if the trial result is positive. It's still not going to happen before March/April based on the above calculator. And that relies on the vaccines being given at a rate of 1 million a week. We will need the Oxford vaccine to achieve these sorts of numbers, based on logistical issues with Pfizer.
Yes it says I am March/April too which is good because that will be a whole year after I caught Covid-19, so the chances are I will need one by then.
 

DCUKMod

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I was back at the Novavax trial yesterday getting a blood test. They will unblind the result when I'm offered a vaccine on the NHS. I won't get the NHS vaccine if the trial result is positive. It's still not going to happen before March/April based on the above calculator. And that relies on the vaccines being given at a rate of 1 million a week. We will need the Oxford vaccine to achieve these sorts of numbers, based on logistical issues with Pfizer.

Thanks for clarifying. I do appreciate and understand the logistic challenges around some of the timelines out there.

All I can think is those preparing the timelines have never been involved in one-handed jelly juggling whilst herding cats at the same time. I know folks aren't "doing much", but the jab #1 then jab #2 at +21 will present some challenges nobody ever thought of.
 

Mr_Pot

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I was back at the Novavax trial yesterday getting a blood test. They will unblind the result when I'm offered a vaccine on the NHS. I won't get the NHS vaccine if the trial result is positive. It's still not going to happen before March/April based on the above calculator. And that relies on the vaccines being given at a rate of 1 million a week. We will need the Oxford vaccine to achieve these sorts of numbers, based on logistical issues with Pfizer.
The calculator defaults to 1,000,000 a week but that is probably just an aspiration. A listened to a radio report yesterday from a vaccination site at a GP surgery. I imagined people would line up at 2M intervals and there would be continuous injecting but there were questions to answer, a form to sign, a handout to read, sitting down to be done, and a 15 min wait after the injection. I think they will have to streamline that to get to 1,000,000 a week.
 

hankjam

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The calculator defaults to 1,000,000 a week but that is probably just an aspiration. A listened to a radio report yesterday from a vaccination site at a GP surgery. I imagined people would line up at 2M intervals and there would be continuous injecting but there were questions to answer, a form to sign, a handout to read, sitting down to be done, and a 15 min wait after the injection. I think they will have to streamline that to get to 1,000,000 a week.

Our government does seem to have a workd beating talent for promising without thinking things through...
from the very beginning.
 

Max68

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The calculator defaults to 1,000,000 a week but that is probably just an aspiration. A listened to a radio report yesterday from a vaccination site at a GP surgery. I imagined people would line up at 2M intervals and there would be continuous injecting but there were questions to answer, a form to sign, a handout to read, sitting down to be done, and a 15 min wait after the injection. I think they will have to streamline that to get to 1,000,000 a week.

Good points you make. I'm noticing a lot of stuff has moved online now, like for instance completing your form at the dentist online prior to a visit and bar codes sent to your phone seems to be a new thing but an awful lot of older people don't or can't use that technology and still rely on paper and pen. I used to joke with my mum that she would rule the world after an internet crash because she still used cash, cheques, landline and the like where all the tech minded people would be scratching their heads thinking "Huh, what's a cheque?!"

It will be interesting to see how they do it. As Hankjam says though the government has promised much and hasn't delivered so each hospital/surgery may be better off dealing with their strategy themselves!
 

Jbicheno

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I get regular delivery slots at Sainsburys and a friend gets weekly click and collect slots, and for months there have been plenty to choose from. When Sainsbury's announced the release dates of slots for Christmas week, we both went on multiple times day and night, including 12.01a.m each day they were released, and for days after, and there were never any slots available after Sunday. So who got the slots, and how!! A couple of years ago my friend saw these slots for sale on eBay for a lot of money.

I have had a very similar experience with Ocado. I’ve been having deliveries for 8 years. Earlier this year they placed me on a vulnerable priority list due to the surge in customers after Covid. However, like you I was unable to get a Christmas delivery slot (despite paying for ‘anytime’ slots). I too was checking at lots of different times but slots were not being released. When finally they were, I checked at 4:30am, they had all gone. These were slots up to 18/12/20 so not prime slots. I do not know how they were booked as I could only book 1 week in advance despite being on a vulnerable priority list. So did most of my Christmas food shop on my 13th December delivery. Cream etc coming via my milkman Christmas Eve. Fruit and veg will be from our local fruit shop and my meat order is in at our local butcher (as usual).
 

HSSS

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So what do we think of the school testing plans?

the ones where
  • kids exposed by close contact with a positive confirmed case no longer get sent home to isolate for 10 days.
  • they then get tested daily by lateral flow
  • these tests are performed by non medical as yet unrecruited and undos checked staff and volunteers
  • And these tests find half of those pcr does which in turn finds about 70%. So lateral flow find about 35% of actual cases
  • in the pre symptomatic/positive result infectious 48hrs period they are still in school not isolating as they are now.
  • No other kids tested. With the exception of the first week where there will be a one off mass testing, 2 each, of all vulnerable (not medically but socially), key worker or exam yr 11 and 13 children if they can manage it whilst they are attending in person throughout.

Guess what my thoughts are?