COVID restrictions gone........................

[NicoleC1971]

I am not sure if that is what you were suggesting but despite social media claims the new Pfizer drug is not related to Invermectin.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-067310377629

Who fact checks the fact checkers?

this is a useful discussion by Dr John Campbell (not an anti vaxer) in which he analyses' comparative paper indicating that momopuravir is more potent than ivermection by both have similar mechanisms...The drug approved by the UK is Pfizwer' version but similar mechanism of action.
They are all protease inhibitors so similar class of drug - pharmokynetic anti virals. You would imagine that class of drug that is at least very safe (used for many decades in developing world to prevent river blindness) and possibly a pretty good anti-viral would have been advocated by the authorities as it is off patent and therefore cheap. First Do No Harm. Instead there has been a huge attempt to vilify it e.g. horse de wormer, false claims that people were overdosing on it and the demonization of Joe Rogan because he took it, amongst other treatments, rather than the vaccine. You might ask if anyone benefits from doing that? Pfizer and Merck certainly do because just as their stock prices fall they have a new and expensive anti viral to roll out given that the use of booster vaccines will likely fall off due to the omricon effect.

 

[zand]

So, the OP asks what we feel about Covid restrictions being lifted. I have already said what I think re the vulnerable, now I will talk about what it mean to me and my family.

My closest family members (6 people) and myself have all had Covid. I got it very early on and had it much worse than the others. The others (except 1) had all been double vaccinated when they caught it, so only had a flu like illness, lasting 10 days. 4 months on the one who hadn't been vaccinated at all still has no sense of taste or smell. The others regained theirs quickly. So, for me and mine I am glad the restrictions have been lifted. It's a relief to be able to plan things again and not have them cancelled at the last minute. I do wish LFTs were still going to be available free though, as regardless of what others have said, my family have always found them to be accurate. No false positives, all positives were backed up by PCR tests. It was interesting to see the pink line gradually fade when they tested towards the end of the infection too.

Yes, the restrictions have caused chaos in people's lives, and some won't ever get over the effects of them. I wish we had waited maybe a month longer to give the NHS more chance to catch up with the ever growing waiting lists for urgent and not so urgent care.

Re masks. I understand that they aren't 100% effective against covid but I am convinced they do help to lessen the severity of the infection. I read a comment months ago saying that if you could still smell cigarette smoke through a mask then covid could also get through. Agreed, but I will still take my mask to use in public places where people are smoking. I have found that even my cloth mask cuts out enough smoke (and vapes too) to stop me having an asthmatic wheeze. At a football match a few years back someone let off a flare about 10 metres away from me. I struggled to breathe. A few weeks ago someone let a flare off just 2 metres from me (boy was that close!) and I managed to hold my breath until I hurriedly put my mask on. I found that although I could still smell it, a large amount of the smoke was kept out by the mask and it didn't affect my chest and airways at all. So, I don't subscribe to the research/opinions that masks don't protect from covid at all. They don't offer full protection, I agree, but partial protection may well be enough to reduce the viral load enough to stop someone getting seriously ill with covid.

The problem I found with masks when they were compulsory was that in places that you really needed them (on the tube and in a crowded museum for example) they were uncomfortable and made breathing difficult, so I sympathised with anyone who needed to use crowded public transport regularly. In the open air it was easier to wear a mask, but we didn't really need them there.

My mask is also useful in the supermarket, it stops me getting a cough in the freezer aisle lol. So I won't be disposing of it anytime soon.

So all in all, for myself, I am glad we are getting back to 'normal' - whatever that is.

 

[markpj31]

The others (except 1) had all been double vaccinated when they caught it, so only had a flu like illness, lasting 10 days. 4 months on the one who hadn't been vaccinated at all still has no sense of taste or smell.

I know of many people who were fully vaccinated and have still not regained smell/taste. Some have been going on for 18months+ with still not being able to regain smell at the very least. It came to light that people who suffered mild illness, for some reason were more than likely going to suffer long-term loss of smell/taste. That symptom was more the result of the Alpha and Delta variants.

I was one of them. Unvaccinated. My covid infection was very mild, the only two things I had was not being able to sleep and the reduced sense of smell and no taste (which came right at the end of the infection). My sense of smell was not fully lost and has mostly returned now (6 months) - My sense of flavour in food is still not fully there, but it's better than it was.

What was by far the worst for me, and caused me long-term issues was the fact that all my diabetes related appointments/eye screening were cancelled for 2 years.

 

[Lamont D]

Apparently there are more covid variants of omicron been found in North America and other variants in the far East.
With one SAGE scientist predicting another surge in either late July or in August.
My local hospital still has two full wards of covid hospitilisations. It did get up to four in April gone.
The local health care team are already in preparation for winter.
The restrictions are gone, but many like myself are still wearing masks in enclosed spaces.
The restrictions are gone, but covid hasn't, the number of excess deaths is still growing, the numbers of long covid are growing, the lack of trained staff for this has not grown sufficiently, especially in the neglected metropolitan areas, where poverty is growing at an unbelievable rate. The pressure on surgeries hospitals and clinics have grown to breaking point due to staff shortages in all branches of the health service.
The question you have to ask yourself is, why is it that in surgeries, hospitals and clinics, you are still asked to wear a mask? What is infectious in the hospital entrance or in the waiting room of A&E, or in the various outpatients departments?

 

[lucylocket61]

Apparently there are more covid variants of omicron been found in North America and other variants in the far East.
With one SAGE scientist predicting another surge in either late July or in August.
My local hospital still has two full wards of covid hospitilisations. It did get up to four in April gone.
The local health care team are already in preparation for winter.
The restrictions are gone, but many like myself are still wearing masks in enclosed spaces.
The restrictions are gone, but covid hasn't, the number of excess deaths is still growing, the numbers of long covid are growing, the lack of trained staff for this has not grown sufficiently, especially in the neglected metropolitan areas, where poverty is growing at an unbelievable rate. The pressure on surgeries hospitals and clinics have grown to breaking point due to staff shortages in all branches of the health service.
The question you have to ask yourself is, why is it that in surgeries, hospitals and clinics, you are still asked to wear a mask? What is infectious in the hospital entrance or in the waiting room of A&E, or in the various outpatients departments?

here in Powys all and every masking even in a medical setting has gone, except for the masks always worn in theatre etc. I am still wearing my mask indoors and in shops. My immune system doesnt work properly so I am being extra careful.

 

[markpj31]

Apparently there are more covid variants of omicron been found in North America and other variants in the far East.
With one SAGE scientist predicting another surge in either late July or in August.
My local hospital still has two full wards of covid hospitilisations. It did get up to four in April gone.
The local health care team are already in preparation for winter.
The restrictions are gone, but many like myself are still wearing masks in enclosed spaces.
The restrictions are gone, but covid hasn't, the number of excess deaths is still growing, the numbers of long covid are growing, the lack of trained staff for this has not grown sufficiently, especially in the neglected metropolitan areas, where poverty is growing at an unbelievable rate. The pressure on surgeries hospitals and clinics have grown to breaking point due to staff shortages in all branches of the health service.
The question you have to ask yourself is, why is it that in surgeries, hospitals and clinics, you are still asked to wear a mask? What is infectious in the hospital entrance or in the waiting room of A&E, or in the various outpatients departments?

People just don't care, that or are extremely uneducated on the subject. I see people queuing outside Specsavers with no masks knowing full well that an optician has to sit right in their face.

I have no idea how I got infected back in December. I was working from home with no contact and the only time I went out (fully masked) was in Supermarkets where I sanitised my hands entering and leaving the shop.

 

[Lamont D]

People just don't care, that or are extremely uneducated on the subject. I see people queuing outside Specsavers with no masks knowing full well that an optician has to sit right in their face.

I have no idea how I got infected back in December. I was working from home with no contact and the only time I went out (fully masked) was in Supermarkets where I sanitised my hands entering and leaving the shop.

According to the latest infection rate, it is one in 41 people who have tested positive in a clinical situation.
the virus is airborne, the government lied to us about it being about touching even though it does very slightly reduce the viral load.

 

[bulkbiker]

People just don't care, that or are extremely uneducated on the subject. I see people queuing outside Specsavers with no masks knowing full well that an optician has to sit right in their face.

I have no idea how I got infected back in December. I was working from home with no contact and the only time I went out (fully masked) was in Supermarkets where I sanitised my hands entering and leaving the shop.

Blue masks then are fairly obviously are completely ineffective.. it even says so on the box.

Cloth masks are worse than useless too.

 

[Lamont D]

Blue masks then are fairly obviously are completely ineffective.. it even says so on the box.

Cloth masks are worse than useless too.

I wouldn't go that far, it is something that will effect the amount of viral load from an infected person.
No one is disputing that most masks are not the treatment or a complete protection against the virus.

The government got in a lot of trouble because they didn't get the right advice over the most effective face mask for hospitals, never mind anyone else, that was typical at the time!

There is some face masks that are better than others. And other face products can be found at different outlets!

 

[Jaylee]

Blue masks then are fairly obviously are completely ineffective.. it even says so on the box.

Cloth masks are worse than useless too.

Have you tried using one as a “pop shield” whilst recording vocals.. I found myself “bench testing them during lockdown, with cancelled gigs. We got creative with what we had…

They can counteract the more percussive breath control whilst singing. Should work for the chit chat too…

 

[bulkbiker]

Have you tried using one as a “pop shield” whilst recording vocals.. I found myself “bench testing them during lockdown, with cancelled gigs. We got creative with what we had…

They can counteract the more percussive breath control whilst singing. Should work for the chit chat too…

I have tried to avoid wearing them at all costs thanks.

Pointless, ineffective virtue signals that protect no-one.

 

[Cobwebs]

When the pandemic first started I researched masks and the covid virus. The medical masks are totally useless, yet thats all they wore in hospitals and shops. They're designed to stop liquids not viruses. Their main purpose is to stop surgeon's spittle or sweat dripping into open wounds and blood and fluids from the patient spurting into medical staff faces.

Cloth masks sold in the shops are totally useless, that is why people who wear them can catch covid.

Cloth masks made correctly are as good as an N95 mask.

So I bought the right fabric, 600 count cotton for the outers and inners, medical polypropylene for the stitched in permanent washable filters, and stainless steel wire that is inserted across the top of the mask so it can be shaped to the wearers face. So I commenced making them. I then advertised them on my social media feed and ended up making so many I was sewing 10 and 12 hours a day every day to keep up with demand and I'm still getting orders from previous customers. There are regulations and advice on how to make masks on the WHO website but even there the specifications are not correct, so the finished mask would be probably the same as a blue medical mask. Whereas mine are 95% filtration.

It was a bugbear of mine that the shops were flooded with masks that were no use at all and some charged extortionate amounts for them. The Government should have educated people on which masks were 'safe' and which weren't but they didn't, they probably didn't know themselves. Everyone with a sewing machine thought they could sew up a mask or two and some sold them online on Etsy or Facebook and the like. And I doubt more than one or two actually made them properly. There was one person selling masks made of 2 layers of gossamer and customer reviews were saying 'I can breath properly in this mask and its so pretty, it doesn't feel as if I'm wearing one.' Well it would feel like that because as you may know gossamer has a minimal thread count and you could drive a bus through the holes in the fabric. Totally useless.

So I would argue if you wore a good properly made cloth face mask to the highest specification not only could you breath easily wearing it, but you would be protected and others around you, so you wouldn't catch covid or any other virus that was floating around.

The whole mask thing has been a disaster in this country, and because the majority of masks for sale are as good as a chocolate teapot, and people were getting infected by wearing them, the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers sprung up. If only someone in authority had researched, as I did, and regulations were put in place for home mask makers and commercial companies had to follow I daresay we'd have hit covid on the head mid 2020 purely by proper masks and the vaccines.

I'm not posting this advertising my masks, but just to make a point. I have enough orders to contend with at the moment.

PS:
Regards the Government getting into hot water because they supposedly ordered the wrong masks, the masks they ordered had ear loops and the WHO recommends head loops. The masks were fine, it was just the way they fixed to people's heads someone thought wasn't correct. Thousands of pounds wasted for nothing. Ear loops if adjustable, are as good as head loops and a lot easier for people to wear and adjust.

 

[Jaylee]

I have tried to avoid wearing them at all costs thanks.

Pointless, ineffective virtue signals that protect no-one.

I wasn’t suggesting I wore one whilst recording.. I covered the mic.
However, just like a pop shield is used in professional recording it balanced out any spikes, pops & clipping caused by plosives on the microphone diaphragm that would have happened without one?

To be fair, I initially tried one of my wife’s pop sock nylon tight? Wasn’t “man enough” for the job…

 

[markpj31]

Blue masks then are fairly obviously are completely ineffective.. it even says so on the box.

Cloth masks are worse than useless too.

Well the blue masks didn't work for me, obviously, although they do have standards marked on the box. Staff in the NHS still use them too. They must, however, do something though, as it is a physical barrier on the face. I think the idea was that it stops you giving viral load out, so in other words, if everybody wore a mask, it would significantly reduce the risk.

 

[markpj31]

the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers sprung up.

I'm not an anti-vaxxer by any means, I have had vaccines before. This one was too new for me and reading the latest papers which had to be court ordered looks "interesting" to say the least, the papers aren't even fully released yet.

Not only that, I knew a few people who had pretty terrible reactions from it which they still live with today.

 

[bulkbiker]

They must, however, do something though,

But we know that they don't.. this constant nonsense about masks simply prolongs the lunacy.

 

[Antje77]

Hi everyone.

Enough is enough..
The team wont play "mind police" on this topic.
Government guidelines are changing regarding C19. & the forum team do empathise with genuine concerns.

However, The DCUK forum ethos rules are still as relevant as the day we all signed up as a member.

The participants on this topic thus far have had their say. It's time for fresh input.
Our challenge is nurturing mutual respect...

No more petty bickering as a start, moving forward.

Thanx in advance.

As @Jaylee said before, enough is enough.
I'm closing this thread for replies.