Corona Virus: How Are We Doing?

[Ajax Bay]

was supplied with Vitamin D without asking

Likely the Vit D tabs are 400IU: pretty anodyne. Well worth a bottle of 400 (@?£15) of 4000IU, especially now the sun is lower at midday.

 

[mistyoptic]

Cousin and her hubby are over from New Zealand, hoping to come to us next week.

Just had her on the phone from Edinburgh to say that hubby has tested positive this evening. They’ve been bumped off their organised tour and will have to hotel quarantine until he’s over it (assuming she doesn’t succumb).

We might get to see them, or they may end up going straight home 🙁

Mrs Optic and I also went down with it after a trip to Edinburgh, last year. Must be something in the water…

 

[DCBassman]

In late 2019, not long before all this malarkey got going, my wife was at a computer course here in Tavistock. The tutor's daughter ( if I remember correctly) had just returned from...China. Almost everyone on the course got a 'bug', me also, and it was pretty much identical to what became described as SARS-Cov-2. Other Tavi residents were also ill with some new bug, although I cannot generally see the connection, unlike the tutor's daughter.
These things travel faster that we know.

 

[PaulSB]

But the evolved beast is very different from the original beast plus the vaccine mitigates against serious disease.

PLUS :Not everyone with a compromised immune system has been as careful as your friends appear to have been.

I'm on daily Chemo meds, was supplied with Vitamin D without asking, was sent special "to be couriered" PCR kits, and have had 6 jabs plus covid in the very first wave.

We have been very relaxed all through - locking away in complete isolation (as a very good friend did) we viewed as a living hell. we followed the rules to the letter but did not hide away.

The couple I'm thinking of one has rheumatoid arthritis, the other a rare incurable cancer and is part of a drugs trial which has proved successful. This involves three monthly hospital visits for blood tests prior to each batch of the drug being issued. Currently very unwell and positive he can't travel to or visit the clinic for this week's bloods. This is extremely difficult.

As we live in a small rural village isolation and lockdown for ourselves wasn't difficult. Other than staying a sensible distance from others outside and not going to town no real changes in life were needed. The friends above live five doors away - we could easily talk in the garden from a distance. A very, very fortunate situation.

 

[PaulSB]

In late 2019, not long before all this malarkey got going, my wife was at a computer course here in Tavistock. The tutor's daughter ( if I remember correctly) had just returned from...China. Almost everyone on the course got a 'bug', me also, and it was pretty much identical to what became described as SARS-Cov-2. Other Tavi residents were also ill with some new bug, although I cannot generally see the connection, unlike the tutor's daughter.
These things travel faster that we know.

My wife had a similar situation. Late December 2019 she became extremely ill with all the symptoms and didn't recover fully till May 2022. In 42 years I had never seen her so unwell. This is a woman with 39 years in the NHS, whose response to anyone she feels has misleading opinions is "show me the research." She remains 100% convinced she had Covid before anyone knew what it was. Her GP agrees.

When we discussed why I wasn't infected Mrs P said "You realise you isolated yourself?" It was only at this point I understood I had done so. We were due to travel to Vietnam in late January 2020 and I wanted to avoid illness. I slept in the spare room for three weeks, Mrs P had a horrendous cough, I cooked all our meals, sat the opposite side of the room etc. Just instinctive really to protect my holiday.

 

[PaulSB]

Yes, but.
People are catching it. Both people who don't think they've previously been infected (rightly or wrongly) and people for whom this is a repeat infect.
What measures or changes do you think we (society) should take this month, or next?
This virus, in various variants of increasingly transmissible form, has been 'out there' for 31 months. The more people (as in proportion and actual) that at any time infected, the more chance there is that those close to them, as knowns or strangers, will catch it. Vaccines have reduced the chance of, once infected, developing serious illness. The chance of this was very low under 50 and increasingly low younger than that, in those without co-morbidities or other vulnerabilities.
The danger to society (as opposed to each individual) is a health service overwhelmed by this one illness and the knock-on effects of the disproportionate burden caused: hence the 'excess deaths' not due to C-19, which, together with Long Covid, will be with us for years, as the NHS will never catch up, and there is no society/political appetite for limitless NHS funding.
The various measures adopted reduced transmission, but the increased transmissibility of eg Omicron means that even with the extraordinary restrictions this and other nations imposed on personal freedoms etc in (eg) 2020, the rate of transmission is higher now (with minimal NPIs) than in (say) May 2020 (citation required).
So this will remain an endemic illness and noone is likely to avoid it. And society can 'go forward' in a rejuvenated, relatively relaxed way, where individuals can assess, with a good basis of knowledge, their own risk, and take mitigating measures accordingly.
Better ventilation in schools would be good as children are significant vector.

None. I agree with all you say. My observation was nothing other than society has relaxed, I believe the measures we took largely worked and now we live with Covid in society. The large majority of people I know who are currently positive are first-timers. I do know others who've had more than one infection. My son and his partner have tested positive four times. The first infection they were unwell, flu like, but the following three very mild. Both regularly use planes and trains for work.

We choose to take a few extra precautions. For example my son enjoys Supported Living in the Community, shares a house with three others one of whom is positive and so we didn't allow our son to visit on Saturday as he would normally. He was pretty cross! 🤣

In the same fashion we fly to the States next Tuesday. From yesterday we are in what I describe as semi-isolation. No crowded indoor events, outdoor cafe stop, no supermarket shop and a week's meals in the fridge/freezer etc. FFP masks for travel, distance ourselves in the airport, wipe down surfaces etc.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Not technically me (by a long stretch!) but I read the Danish Monarch Queen Margrethe II has tested positive for COVID19 after attending Queen Elizabeth II's Funeral, bit crap for anyone that attends a funeral and then finds themselves ill.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Just instinctive really to protect my holiday.

(David Attenborough) We probably shouldn't approach any closer. Normally a docile animal, the @PaulSB will instinctively go to any lengths if it perceives a threat to its holiday.

 

[Slick]

To be fair, an old boy at work has been planning a cruise for him and his Mrs for the past 2 years now. They must be the only holidays that still require a PCR test and he tested positive.

What a nightmare, especially if you have zero symptoms.

 

[Ajax Bay]

New wave? No new variant (all the other waves (after initial) had a new variant of greater transmissibility as a key driver).
1?) Schools back, but infections started increasing too early for schools to be the primary driver.
2?) People returning from overseas holidays. A recent ONS analysis found travelling abroad was a strong risk factor for testing positive.
3) Probably the main driver behind this current wave is waning immunity.
For most highly transmissible endemic infections the incidence of infection is largely driven by the rate at which immunity is lost in the population. Protection against infection or reinfection following vaccination wanes. Fortunately protection against severe disease is more durable. Hopefully the fourth dose will provide somewhat longer-lasting partial protection against infection for the over 50s.
(49% of over 75s and 35% of 65-74s @6 Oct; goes to under 65s on 16 Oct, walk-in or by appt't)
Most new infections are now reinfections. Almost 90% of England’s population had already had at least one infection by August 2022.
Together with flu, the NHS will have another hard winter season.
ETA: Patients in English hospital beds have doubled in 19 days (low of 4567 to 9000+). IndieSAGE session later today.

 

[PK99]

New wave? No new variant (all the other waves (after initial) had a new variant of greater transmissibility as a key driver).
1?) Schools back, but infections started increasing too early for schools to be the primary driver.
2?) People returning from overseas holidays. A recent ONS analysis found travelling abroad was a strong risk factor for testing positive.
3) Probably the main driver behind this current wave is waning immunity.
For most highly transmissible endemic infections the incidence of infection is largely driven by the rate at which immunity is lost in the population. Protection against infection or reinfection following vaccination wanes. Fortunately protection against severe disease is more durable. Hopefully the fourth dose will provide somewhat longer-lasting partial protection against infection for the over 50s.
Most new infections are now reinfections. Almost 90% of England’s population had already had at least one infection by August 2022.
Together with flu, the NHS will have another hard winter season.

I'm still unclear on the data from various sources.

Are the cases currently reported from hospitals:

A: People arriving at the hospital because of covid

or

B: People arriving at the hospital for other things and testing positive

or, even

C: People arriving at the hospital free of infection and having a hospital-acquired infection

 

[Ajax Bay]

I'm still unclear on the data from various sources.
Are the cases currently reported from hospitals:
A: People arriving at the hospital because of covid
or
B: People arriving at the hospital for other things and testing positive
or, even
C: People arriving at the hospital free of infection and having a hospital-acquired infection

All of the above, on the reporting day. About 30%, 30%, 40%, approximately.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fXwWF4KoG4

 

[Mike_P]

Aldi and Lidl sell vit D tabs a lot cheaper than chemists / Holland & Barratt. Last time I looked Aldi had the 400 ones and Lidl the 1000 ones.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I've been consuming these daily. The K2 addresses the remote risk of too much Vit D.
But for proper effect you need the 4000IU. The 'normal' 400IU doesn't scratch the surface.
https://www.weightworld.uk/vitamin-d3-4000iu.html

 

[byegad]

In late 2019, not long before all this malarkey got going, my wife was at a computer course here in Tavistock. The tutor's daughter ( if I remember correctly) had just returned from...China. Almost everyone on the course got a 'bug', me also, and it was pretty much identical to what became described as SARS-Cov-2. Other Tavi residents were also ill with some new bug, although I cannot generally see the connection, unlike the tutor's daughter.
These things travel faster that we know.

About that same time both my adult sons went down with a mystery cold/chest type infection. Both took quite a bit of time off work although neither of their doctors* had any idea of what it was and neither of them normally miss work.
Fortunately, given our vulnerability, they routinely don't visit us if they are unwell, so we were fine.

*They work many hundred of miles apart and hadn't been together prior to falling ill.