fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
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deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
As I'm taking part in an ONS infection survey, I can get tests without any problem. I had my second swab in 8 days today. But the results don't seem to come through within the 7 day time span that the survey worker told me was the turnaround time. So even when you get the tests, it's no use until you get the results. I suspect that there's a swab swamp building up and many of the lab techs who were working on them have returned to their normal jobs.
My daughter had to get my grandson (6) tested, as he had sneezes and snot, before he could return to school. She drove in, got him swabbed and received the results, by text, 2 days later.
That was on Brackmills industry, Northampton. There is also a walk in centre in the Market Square a few miles away that hasn't looked rushed off its feet whenever I've passed by.
Maybe not everywhere is like this, though, or it's just the dissatisfied 'customers' reporting in?
classic33
Leg End Member
Last test, I just walked.
Those running the test centre weren't rushed off their feet, by their own admission, for the four days they were there.
Wheels fell off the wagon, when it came to the results. Someone else's details.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Probably, as they've not much else to do until they can get a test result.
There seem to be enough of them to suggest problems, don't there?
Wobblers
Euthermic
- Location
- Minkowski Space
You are cherry picking. You're ignoring the fact that the majority - overwhelming majority in fact - of epidemiologists and health professionals are saying the opposite of your beliefs.
There is no shortage of high quality data showing that face coverings, even simple improvised cloth ones, significantly reduce droplet spread. Since this is a major transmission route for CV19 it is hardily surprising that masks should become recommended as a means to reduce transmission. Further, there is evidence from a animal model (hamsters, if IIRC) that mask wearing reduces the chances of becoming seriously ill. It's thought that this is due to the mask reducing the viral load, so meaning less serious illness is experienced. Yes, humans aren't hamsters, but our respiratory systems aren't that different. Besides, it wouldn't be ethical deliberately infect people to see if we could replicate this...
In short, wearing a mask protects others, by reducing the chances that an infected person will spread the disease. But it also protects you, by reducing your viral load. There is no good reason not to wear one in an enclosed space.
Lockdowns certainly work to reduce CV19 transmission. Every single country which has stopped an outbreak hs done so with lockdown. There are no exceptions - the evidence is absolutely unambiguous. In all my time as a professional scientist, I can't recall ever coming across a dataset so clear. The corollary is just as clear: where lockdowns have been relaxed, cases have increased - India is the unfortunate proof of that observation.
It certainly could be argued that lockdowns cause immense economic damage. They certainly do: a lockdown is the bluntest of blunt instruments, therefore they should only be used when there is no other recourse. The other viable option that we know of is test, trace and isolate those who have the virus and those who've been exposed to it. But that strategy only works when cases are low. For most countries, the best strategy (once CV19 is established) is lockdown followed by rigorous test and trace. This is the strategy China followed, and it clearly worked.
I'd far prefer to see a rigorous test, trace and quarantine policy in place rather than wholesale lockdown. Unfortunately we don't have that - and the consequence is all too obvious, with an exponentially rising number of infections. Which leaves us with what? Remember that just leaving the virus to run its course through the UK with hundreds of thousands of deaths and many left with long term disabilities is a policy which itself comes with severe economic consequences, never mind being politically unthinkable and ethically repugnant.
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
Yet keeps getting air time from the right wing press. Whoda thunk.
qigong chimp
Guru
Bumbles is a fascist?!!
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
The North East is looking at a more strict lockdown from this evening 
Tanis8472
Guru
The self-gratification artists just not caring are they.
daffodils
daffodils
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
In Westminster or the North East?
I believe people would be more inclined to comply if the rules appeared to make sense and not have exceptions for hunting, lacrosse, salmon fishing and other "posh" pastimes, as well as seemingly anything involving payment, including many subscription sports clubs. It's difficult to accept not being able to see all your family in one visit when there's groups of 22 sweaty panting Sunday League footballers kicking lumps out of each other in a very not socially distanced way each week and their helpers and families shouting over each other on the touchline - and as far as I know, that's legal because the Football Association has submitted some approved plan and risk assessments to DCMS even if there's no sign that anything has changed on the ground.
There's also the stupidity of allowing different groups of six to meet in the same unventilated room as long as they don't mingle but with no time limit, or for someone to be part of unlimited different groups of six during the day, with not even advice to limit that as far as I've seen.
matticus
Guru
Are you really lumping together "posh" pastimes such as salmon fish, lacrosse, and Sunday League football ???
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
No. Two categories: "posh" pastimes; and things you have to pay for, which includes Sunday League football. Apparently Coronavirus is scared of payment and toffs.
matticus
Guru
Ah OK (i haven't seen any hunting or lacrosse this year, so I was bit off the pace there).
Free sport is in there too - cycling groups (arguably a middle-class sport these days, but no fees required).
Parkrun are still aiming for October (which will be an astonishing achievement, but we'll see ...)
I might agree that it's only *organised* sport which has come back. An unfortunate side-effect of the exemption system
Free sport is in there too - cycling groups (arguably a middle-class sport these days, but no fees required).
Parkrun are still aiming for October (which will be an astonishing achievement, but we'll see ...)
I might agree that it's only *organised* sport which has come back. An unfortunate side-effect of the exemption system
