[abarro81]

Without wanting to put a downer on good news, I really don't think that's how it will work apart from "key workers". The alternative of applying it to everyone would be fraught with difficulty and danger - people faking the result, people going out attempting to get infected so they can "pass" the test and get back to work/Malham etc.

[gme]

Miserable bastard. I thought you were one of the positive ones on here among all the miserable doom mongers. It might mean you can get out and ruin some more classic problems with your knees and even If i had one sneaking to malham wasnt really what i had in mind.

Agree with the implications if do it ourselves but should be easy to set up test centres or licences for business etc. The test is surely a positive thing and the logistics could be worked out.

 

[abarro81]

Surely the risk of everyone going out at trying to get COVID at the same time would be too great though? I bet most young people would think "fuck it, I'll get it sometime so it may as well be now adn I can get on with life"... you'll have queues at the shops just to lick the trolley handles 

[SA Chris]

ttps://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-briton-21-with-no-existing-health-conditions-dies-after-contracting-covid-19-11963451

It's just like getting flu right....

And while I'm on it, a lot people don't know what proper flu is. Pharma companies have made things like lem sips calling them flu remedies, meanwhile they help you feel a bit better and clear your sinuses when you have a nasty head cold.

Proper flu will lay you out flat for a week, your eyes hurt so much you can only be in the dark, every muscle in your body aches and even breathing is painful, and you are drained of energy for about a month afterwards, by all accounts CV-10 is like this only worse.

[gme]

I have had real flu only once in my life, i tried to work through it and ended up on a drip in hospital for a week with pneumonia.

Really isnt something you can just take a lemsip for.

[Falling Down]

What Gav and Chris said.  I’ve had it twice, the first time I could only lay in bed hallucinating for ten days.  Didn’t go downstairs or move further than the toilet for a week.  Horrible.

I read that the severity of CV-19 symptoms is dependent on the initial viral load at the point of infection and your own health/age and probably numerous other factors.

[Duma]

Agree how shit flu is.
Re healthy folk and CV19, viral load is apparently hugely important, so eg health workers at much greater risk.
Re the test, can't see how they can just sell it over the counter, there'd be riots for access, faking results etc.
But. Mass testing is still huge. Testing for medical professionals would make a big dent in transmission and health service capability immediately, and then rolling out targeted testing into the community and isolating cases would further help. Once you have a good idea of centres of infection they can be targeted for strict measures and you can start relaxing rules for others (not to normal obvs). Easy quick testing means further outbreaks can be quickly found and isolated, massively reducing the risk of uncontrolled spread and the NHS being overwhelmed. All that should get us to a point of bearable restrictions that are manageable for the months until a vaccine is ready.

[SA Chris]

During the Rugby World Cup in South Africa in 1995 there was a massive flu outbreak due to SA being in isolation from the rest of the world for years, and then a sudden influx of foreign visitors. Half our company was off at one point with it, and  kept going around the population for a few months afterwards.

This viral load part is especially important if you get it and are sharing a house with others. Quarantine yourself as far away from the rest of the family as you can.

[gme]

More good news.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/licences-added-list-shops-allowed-stay-open-during-coronavirus-lockdown-2517989

[Will Hunt]

I read that the severity of CV-19 symptoms is dependent on the initial viral load at the point of infection and your own health/age and probably numerous other factors.

I also saw this but was sceptical as it was just in some copied and pasted text on Facebook. It seems to make sense, but I've no idea whether it's actually true. Anyone care to confirm?

[SA Chris]

i saw an interview with an doctor on this, he seemed clued up, I will try track it down.

[cheque]

Agree how shit flu is.

  It’s an absolute bastard. I haven’t had it since Christmas ‘99 and I can still vividly remember how bad it was and how long it was before I was fully recovered. We’ve somehow progressed to using the term to mean a heavy cold but that’s not the flu.

It’s interesting how many people will hear that the best case scenario of getting the virus doesn’t feature bad symptoms and almost completely disregard all the other horrific things about it. A bit like when Jez gets chlamydia in Peep Show but cancels his plans to tell past and future sexual partners as soon as he’s told that it’s symptomless.

[abarro81]

It’s interesting how many people will hear that the best case scenario of getting the virus doesn’t feature bad symptoms and almost completely disregard all the other horrific things about it.

I suspect many people are assuming - as I am - that we'll probably get it at some point over the next 12 months anyway. That's what we've been told to expect after all (though this may have changed given change in gov's strategy). So the main thing becomes not fucking over other people too much by all getting it at the same time, rather than worrying about whether it will suck ass or not.

[Footwork]

I'm not resigned to getting it just yet - sounds shit.

"would you like 100 maltesers"
"ooh yes please"
"3 of them will kill you"
"on second thought..."

It's not exactly something I want to risk so will be doing my best to not spread it into the house and taking care whilst out the house.

[Oldmanmatt]

It’s interesting how many people will hear that the best case scenario of getting the virus doesn’t feature bad symptoms and almost completely disregard all the other horrific things about it.

I suspect many people are assuming - as I am - that we'll probably get it at some point over the next 12 months anyway. That's what we've been told to expect after all (though this may have changed given change in gov's strategy). So the main thing becomes not fucking over other people too much by all getting it at the same time, rather than worrying about whether it will suck ass or not.

The second part of that is the crux, isn’t it.

Things will start to change now, there’s more than one case of otherwise  healthy people in their 20s and 30s succumbing to the virus. Other reports of people recovering but losing 60% or more of their lung function. Etc etc.
I was wondering about this and numbers from elsewhere seem to be simply split into dead or not, since the early stuff from China, anyway.
Surely, the elderly and acutely vulnerable die quickly, the healthier linger longer and don’t start showing up for a few days or weeks after?

Ok. A bit doom and gloom, there’s other, better, news around too.

Edit:
Sorry shouldhave said, stories like this:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/london-woman-36-dies-of-suspected-covid-19-after-being-told-she-is-not-priority
 

[cheque]

It’s interesting how many people will hear that the best case scenario of getting the virus doesn’t feature bad symptoms and almost completely disregard all the other horrific things about it.

I suspect many people are assuming - as I am - that we'll probably get it at some point over the next 12 months anyway. That's what we've been told to expect after all (though this may have changed given change in gov's strategy). So the main thing becomes not fucking over other people too much by all getting it at the same time, rather than worrying about whether it will suck ass or not.

Yeah I agree with you, I was including the infectiousness and the ability to pass the virus on even if you don’t have the symptoms in the “horrific things”. The idea of being responsible for spreading it scares me as much as getting really ill with it does.

[mrjonathanr]

i saw an interview with an doctor on this, he seemed clued up, I will try track it down.

Have read a few articles, can’t seem to find them now. My takeaway was that the virus itself isn’t the issue, it’s  immune system going into overdrive after a slow response initially. This out of control inflammatory reaction precipitates the pneumonia and most serious symptoms.

Logically therefore, viral load would affect the body’s immune response. Equally, the treatment would vary according to the point at which it was caught- immunosuppressants would be needed in a late stage.

This is my understanding of what I read; I can’t vouch for the quality of the science or argument.

[tomtom]

The viral load arguments could explain why health workers are so disproportionately affected in terms of infection rates, severity and hospitalisation themselves.

[Fultonius]

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2020/02/heres-what-coronavirus-does-body

[Oldmanmatt]

Anyone know why there’s no figures released for England today? Scotland and Wales released their numbers around 5pm, as normal.

[JamieG]

The cynic in me suspects the numbers look bad and the slow response by the government is going to criticised. They had warnings of what was coming and were still slow. I really hope I’m just being too cynical.

[teestub]

Anyone know why there’s no figures released for England today? Scotland and Wales released their numbers around 5pm, as normal.

Small print at the bottom of here https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f94c3c90da5b4e9f9a0b19484dd4bb14 says:

"Daily updates are sometimes delayed as data cannot be published until signed off by DHSC."

[tomtom]

500 000+ new applicants for Universal Credit this week apparently....

[chris j]

Anyone knowledgeable who'd care to comment on the Oxford study flagged up that more than half the UK population may already have had the virus without showing symptoms? (feel free to punter me if it's already been posted and i missed it...). Remotely possible or based on poor assumptions?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-if-half-the-population-already-has-coronavirus-

[JamieG]

28 further deaths in England according to Guardian live feed. I was just being cynical. Hopefully the deaths start to trail off, but i should know better than to extrapolate from two data points. Hard not to though.