[tomtom]

Sounds like the experience I had over the summer Gav.

Glad it’s working better - not heard of any long delays getting a test for a week or so, possibly the back to school peak has passed.

Don’t know what it’s like where you all are - but here in Manchester it’s seemed noticeably quieter in the last week or so. Roads, shops etc...

[Johnny Brown]

Got an oil worker on the course this week, he gets tested every fortnight so has had ten or twelve so far. He said some are absolutely fine, others are horrendous, depends on the tester and how keen and clumsy they are. So probably best not to write others' experiences off based on a single one of your own.

[gme]

We did them ourselves. Seems sensible as then no contact between you and tester.
Rolled window down an inch and was given test kit in sealed bag with instructions. No idea how you could get it wrong.

[sdm]

I've had 8 swab tests so far. The swab kits themselves are not the same, I've had them from 4 different suppliers so far.

On a rating out of 10, I would say the immediate discomfort has ranged from 1 up to about 4.

Half the time, the discomfort is over more or less instantly. Sometimes, there is a dry irritation at the back of my throat for 10-30 minutes. And one time, I felt like I was going to be sick for about 5 hours.

I don't know if the difference is the different kits, how far down your throat it goes, or put luck.

[gme]

The throat bit on the one me and my kid used was nothing more than a tickle. He’s got tonsillitis as well but was fine. The nose bit just makes you sneeze. No after affects at all.

How come you have had 8? I guess work related.

[tomtom]

One of my nasal ones made me giggle uncontrollably! The fella doing it said to his pals in the portacabin (imagine in a Scouse accent) “eh lads, we’ve got a laugher here” 😃

[James Malloch]

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/01/snp-mp-margaret-ferrier-took-train-after-positive-covid-test

When will MPs learn to not be dicks?
MP has symptoms, gets tested, decided to go ahead with a trip to Parliament, gives a speech. Somewhere in all that she tests positive for Coronavirus and the gets back on a train from London to Scotland.

And Corbyn going to a dinner party breaking the rule of 6.

Added to the list of other past offences of other MPs.

No wonder people don’t listen to Parliament!

[sdm]

How come you have had 8? I guess work related.

Taking part in a study.

[gme]

Test results back in 14 hours.
Both negative. Joel still has a temp but guess it’s to do with tonsillitis

[Oldmanmatt]

Interesting take in the Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/09/k-overlooked-variable-driving-pandemic/616548/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20201001&silverid-ref=NjIxNjQ3MzAxMjc4S0&fbclid=IwAR3hfXUtd5OQXmqMPKLu988bBhpExf9Fo5BfKFzSeJrpkR86RT9NWfDacgU

[chris j]

f. where neither c, d, or e can be shown, then it’s acceptable to blame the public, as long as it’s made clear we’re talking about ‘idiots’. Not nice people like us.

You forgot g. Where f. comes into effect, it's still the fault of Boris and the Tories because Thatcher made everyone selfish and not considerate of other people.

[Oldmanmatt]

f. where neither c, d, or e can be shown, then it’s acceptable to blame the public, as long as it’s made clear we’re talking about ‘idiots’. Not nice people like us.

You forgot g. Where f. comes into effect, it's still the fault of Boris and the Tories because Thatcher made everyone selfish and not considerate of other people.

Actually, I thought it was always “h” : Centrist Dads not being left/right wing enough.

Edit:

Forgot the most important one:

“i” The opposite of whatever Pete said it was.

[tomtom]

Well I’m glad Pete and Chris have got that off their chests

🤗 🤗 🤗

Now moving on...

Given the POTUS present diagnosis - and that it may or may not worsen. Do people think BJ would have responded differently over e last few months if he hadn’t had a close brush with Covid?

[tomtom]

Apparently (linked tweet quotes the daily mail - so pinch of salt etc..) the reason why there was an issue with updating UK CV19 cases with the correct number - and some were missing (and didnt go to track and trace..) was because the data is kept on Excel spreadsheets - and the number of columns had exceeded the maximum.

Excel columns end at 16,384 aka “XFD”.

https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1313046638915706880?s=20

Where is SlackLine when you need him

[remus]

Apparently (linked tweet quotes the daily mail - so pinch of salt etc..) the reason why there was an issue with updating UK CV19 cases with the correct number - and some were missing (and didnt go to track and trace..) was because the data is kept on Excel spreadsheets - and the number of columns had exceeded the maximum.

Excel columns end at 16,384 aka “XFD”.

https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1313046638915706880?s=20

Where is SlackLine when you need him

To clarify, they weren't actually using excel as the database for testing results (which would be a crime against humanity) but as part of a data processing pipeline (which is understandable...everyone knows how to use excel). The issue was that test results were sent from labs in a text format, then these were automatically collated in to a single XLS file which has a limit of about 65k rows. Each test actually had multiple rows in the data, so in practice about 1.4k patients would fit in each excel file and then when it went over that the rows were silently dropped. source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54423988

To be honest Im actually pretty sympathetic. It smells a lot like something some overworked PHE programmer setup 6 months ago in the heat of the first wave, and then they've been moved on to some other high priority thing and the pipeline has been chugging along fine in the background until now (because the number of tests has increased enormously compared to the start of the pandemic).

[SA Chris]

Apparently they were using the cases in the columns instead of the rows though, if so, my sympathy is limited.

[tomtom]

Yes - feel sorry for the programmer who maybe didn’t know this would end up being scaled up to what it is now...

Maybe they were just contracted in for a couple of months...

But the project manager - and their management - on a £12 billion job...

[SA Chris]

Exactly..

[Evil]

Apparently they were using the cases in the columns instead of the rows though, if so, my sympathy is limited.

It's interesting how different news sources are quoting different reasons - the BBC quotes exceeding the row limit for .xls files and yet many other places are reporting the columns issue. The Guardian seems to suggest someone loading a .csv file which exceeded the limit into Excel, but anyone who has ever tried to do that would know you get a very obvious notification of the issue which someone would have had to acknowledge and then ignore ... I wonder which it is.

[spidermonkey09]

If I've understood the story correctly, the interesting/damning thing to me is that it was Serco rather than a clueless civil servant who have opted to use Excel for the job rather than database software. Seems pretty unprofessional.

[Bonjoy]

I'm surprised Sheffield hasn't had a local lockdown imposed yet. For a while now it's had steeply rising cases and the 2nd highest case rate of any area not under local lockdown (Nottingham has the highest), higher on both metrics than many of the locked down areas. Seems inevitable and imminent to me, but then I thought that this time last week  .

PS - My son having completed two weeks isolation after two classmates tested positive, is now back at home for a second two weeks after returning to school for one week and another kid in the class testing positive    .

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/06/covid-cases-and-deaths-today-coronavirus-uk-map

[T_B]

Yes, I’m expecting it to be imminent. Youngest went back to school last Friday... oldest self isolating from... last Friday. He’s supposed to be returning on Monday, but for how long?

I have heard some schools in Sheffield are closed?

Will that mean we can’t venture into Derbyshire? Hope not obvs 

[Evil]

Quite a good write up on the Register. They at least asked PHE to confirm the exact cause, but were told to rely on Matt Hancock to make things clearer... 
https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/05/excel_england_coronavirus_contact_error/

[Bonjoy]

There's also a reported outbreak at one of the Sheffield universities, 474 cases as of yesterday.

[James Malloch]

I'm surprised Sheffield hasn't had a local lockdown imposed yet. For a while now it's had steeply rising cases and the 2nd highest case rate of any area not under local lockdown (Nottingham has the highest), higher on both metrics than many of the locked down areas. Seems inevitable and imminent to me, but then I thought that this time last week  .

PS - My son having completed two weeks isolation after two classmates tested positive, is now back at home for a second two weeks after returning to school for one week and another kid in the class testing positive    .

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/06/covid-cases-and-deaths-today-coronavirus-uk-map

That map is quite telling! It makes me wonder why:

1) Our criteria for quarantine upon returning from a trip is that countries have > 20 cases per 100k
2) We haven’t, as far as I know, had restrictions placed on us by countries such as Germany, Especially given they are doing it based on regions rather than full countries.