Covid-19 chaos?

[cee-dee]

I guess everyone is sick to death of hearing about this, that and the other about covid-19?

People are blaming "The Government" for more or less everything BUT....... what do you expect the government to do? OK, so some of them are waffling about like headless chickens but the core advice should be followed?

At the moment there's enormous queues at some testing sites but at others, they're completely deserted. Yesterday I saw pics of at least four sites that were deserted and the testers just hanging around.

People have been told NOT to get a test unles they've got the "right" symptoms but it's been said that at least 30% didn't have symptoms.

There's been a shortage of tests and also a long delay in getting the test result back but there are not enough lab facilities to process them. You can't just magic up a lab, technicians and equipment "just like that".

They set up a drive in testing site here and of nearly 1500 people tested, less than ten were positive.

On top of all that, people have been told that transmission is by close proximity but will they stop crowding together? Will they heck. People just will not do as they're told and follow advice.

So, asking again, what the heck can "The Goverment" do if people just will not follow advice?

[cee-dee]

So, we've more chaos with the "test and trace" thing? Then it's more chaos with counting the cases.

I see lots of people latching on to blaming "The Government" again.

The thing is "The Government" are being let down by the people that dream these things up and are responsible for operating them.

A comparison would be like a software company dreaming up some new program or other, testing it rigidly under every circumstance they can think of and when it's launched on computers by a particular manufacturer, it's hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread and THEN..... problems surface......

The sellers of the items get it in the neck but who is actually "to blame"?

As regards covid-19, what the heck is "The Government" supposed to do??? Doncha think they feel embarrassed and let down by it all?

[cee-dee]

Another unfortunate covid denier bites the dust? :-

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12954262/influencer-covid-dies-virus-turkey/

[theelench]

Replying to the thread.

I have to admit to being more confused than ever now that two people I work with recently tested positive for the virus.

One has a partner who works in a care-home, she tested positive.  He got a test, tested positive.  Both self-isolated for ten days then returned to work.

The second works in IT.  One of his daughters tested positive so again he, his partner, both daughters and his parents self-isolated and all tested positive.  He returned to work after fourteen days.

In both cases, when I asked if they had been re-tested before re-starting normal activity, they said no, they hadn't.  They were both told it would be pointless as they now have the virus antibodies in their system and would again test positive.  (I assume this is a "false" positive).  But as they now had ninety days immunity and were no longer infectious or capable of spreading the virus to others, they were OK to return to work.

That's all fair enough, but with testing now more widespread and results coming back quicker, I ask myself how much of this most recent surge in confirmed cases is due to "false" positives?

The first two lock-downs were never 100% effective.  The two places where the largest numbers of people gathered together in confined spaces, supermarkets and schools, were open with little distancing enforced.  Then we had Christmas with relaxed rules (and from the amount of traffic about even the relaxed rules were widely ignored).

I just wonder how many of these newly confirmed cases are in reality, "false" positives?  Is there any distinction being made, can a distinction be made, between people newly infected and the growing number of people who had the virus up to three months ago, possibly without even noticing it and only now being tested?  

If the new variant is easier to catch, isn't it possible that hospital admissions are rising because distancing and wearing masks just doesn't give 100% protection.  But the apparent huge rise in cases is increasingly more down to false positive test results.  If so perhaps the latest lock-down wasn't the best way forward?

Perhaps better personal protection and more stringent enforcement of the rules would be as effective, would help keep hospital admissions down without another period of social and economic disruption? 

[suzieseaside]

I think your colleague may have been confused. The swab tests for a current viral infection and not for antibodies, which is a different test. The more recent (fast) swab tests look for antigens which are surface proteins of the virus itself, i think, and are also not the same as antibodies which are produced by us in response to the infection and need to be tested with a blood sample.
But the swab test I think is not infallible and may throw up false positives and negatives, although I don't know what percentage accuracy they are estimated to have.

[theelench]

OK, I agree that they, or myself, could be confused about antibodies or antigens.

Both my colleagues have completed their quarantine and been pronounced safe to return to work having been told that a second test is un-necessary as it would still give a positive result (and 90 day immunity).

My confusion is that thousands of new cases are being found every day.  I wonder how many of them are in fact people who have had the virus within the last three months, got over it without ever knowing that they had it, but are still giving a positive test result, after being tested for the first-time.

Neither of my colleagues knew they had the virus until family members tested positive and they then had a test.  Neither went on to develop any symptoms that would have alerted them to the fact that they had the virus.  One did have an intermitent head-ache for a couple of days but working in IT wouldn't have connected that to having Covid.

The fact that hospital admissions are rising might not be so much to do with rising case numbers, if that is the case as those that have had it are no longer capable of spreading the infection.  But because the more easily transmitted variant is simply infecting more people who are liable to need hospital treatment.   

[cee-dee]

I see in the news an old chap who has been isolating and has not left his house for a year now has the virus. He went for a vaccination and claims the only thing he touched there was a pen he was given to fill in a form.

Hmmmmm, I wonder? Isn't it more likely he caught it from someone in the vaccination queue or the waiting rooms before it or after?

Mind you, I've been wondering about all the people catching the virus after going to hospital with some other ailment. They sanitise this, that or the other but what about all those wires and pipes they connect to people and also the oxygen saturation clip they put on your finger?

[margaret*e]

There's something to think about.

My stepmother hasn't been out of the house for years but she was diagnosed with it in hospital.

[suzieseaside]

False positive? Or she caught it there?
Hospitals are unhealthy places to be.

I hope she will be ok.
Poor Captain Sir Tom Moore is in hospital with it too.

[margaret*e]

Whether she caught it there I don't know, she's still in hospital and my sister who she lives with has caught it now.

[bankhaunter]

Hospital appointment times are now longer because of the need to sanitise everything in between patients.

I was there for a scan this morning, I've seen it.

It's almost impossible to be completely isolated, how did the man get his food for example, he may not have been out but others came in.

[suzieseaside]

Off topic but you can sing along to the Marsh family's lockdown song .......
I think they are pretty good 👍

https://youtu.be/vYmSAMcwXA8