[Oldmanmatt]

     A cynic might note that about half the population are, necessarily, below average intelligence; however you measure it…   

Depends what you mean by average, and assumes everyone doesnt have identical intelligence

People are all quiet different, I think. I’m afraid I’m really very cynical on this subject. It’s not about me thinking that half the population are thick, it’s more about many years of watching people who might excel in a particular field, assuming that they have some enhanced abilities and insight into every other field of human knowledge.  You know, the “I can sing good, so I is as good as any Doctor, innit” at base, right through to “I have multiple higher degrees in Eastern Siberian literature of the early 12th century, therefore I am confident in my ability as an Epidemiologist” at the other end.
Yes, I’m aware of my own shortcomings in that department; it seems to be a basic human trait. However, unless feeling particularly cantankerous (which is more frequent than I care to admit, generally) I am reasonably aware of my own bullshit. Many people seem blissfully unaware.
There must be some underlying, evolutionary, advantage to being able to convince yourself that you’re better off/at less risk p/better prepared/stronger than you really are…

[chris j]

SOS.

Same Old Shit, different day.

The same people, or at least different people, who are virtually indistinguishable from these people, except by virtue of passing fashion and styling; have been with us since at least the start of the industrial age.

Pre-internet though, they might be the harmless crazy bloke who wrote endless letters to the local newspaper, or they might once in a while realise they were the only person in their circle with such special views and think perhaps it's me that's out of step. Or they'd be safely in their mum's basement with a CB radio... Whereas now they get reinforcement and affirmation by connecting with other special people and the confidence that they are right to foist their nonsense on the rest of the world. And easily influenced people who never would have encountered their ideas are a casual google away from getting sucked down a rabbit hole... Social media has a lot to answer for.

[SA Chris]

I've said before Confirmation Bias + Dunning Kruger is a lethal combination.

[kelvin]

I've said before Confirmation Bias + Dunning Kruger is a lethal combination.

Exactly that.

Confirmation bias? Cognitive dissonance? Motivated learning? All present and correct.

For me the latter one is the biggest issue. When you're searching to find things wrong, then it's really easy to miss the context. It's no wonder psychologists sometimes call it the evil triplet.

[petejh]

This graph from the ONS site gives some perspective on current Covid deaths.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/monthlymortalityanalysisenglandandwales/july2021

Thanks, as you say this provides useful info to put the risks of covid in perspective.

[TobyD]

People are all quiet different, I think. I’m afraid I’m really very cynical on this subject. It’s not about me thinking that half the population are thick, it’s more about many years of watching people who might excel in a particular field, assuming that they have some enhanced abilities and insight into every other field of human knowledge. 

On observation,  I'd say that more than 50% of the population are f ing stupid.  (If I was being inflammatory I'd flippantly say 52% but I won't). I'm constantly amazed when I'm out road cycling at the number of drivers who don't wear seatbelts,  hold a phone in their hand while driving, throw rubbish out of the window, are clearly not looking at where they're going etc etc. Not to mention people walking into a road while looking intently at their phones; its bloody amazing how few road accidents there are. 

Or, specifically covid related, wear masks but completely wrongly.  I mean,  even if you haven't been told, how hard is it to figure out that you need to cover your mouth and nose? Wandering around the supermarket with a blue paper beard cover helps noone. 

[andy popp]

Local news for local people: Denmark announced yesterday that it will shortly lift the final remaining internal restrictions (though, in reality, there have been very few for a long time now). The pandemic has been declared not over but not currently a "critical threat" to society (this is technical term that triggers certain government powers, I believe). Over 80% of the population aged 12 and over are fully vaccinated. We'll see how it goes, and I guess others will be watching. A colleague I shared a relatively small meeting room with on Tuesday tested positive on Friday - the closest I've knowingly come to an infected person. I feel I can at least trust the government to reverse course if necessary.

[Oldmanmatt]

Well, it found us.

Youngest (12) developed a fever last night. She’d done a lateral flow earlier in the day (neg), but it didn’t go and didn’t feel right, despite no other symptoms. So late last night we booked a test slot for this morning.
I really thought we were being way too cautious as we’ve been very careful etc.
Results just came back positive.
She feels shit, but only a fever.
Meanwhile my Aunt (78) was taken into hospital this evening with Covid and chest pains, plus a dodgy ECG. Devon is not a great place to be right now…

Now wondering if the vertigo I’ve had the last few days is, perhaps, not down to a dodgy free dive I did earlier in the week, after all.

[TobyD]

Well, it found us.

Youngest (12) developed a fever last night. She’d done a lateral flow earlier in the day (neg), but it didn’t go and didn’t feel right, despite no other symptoms. So late last night we booked a test slot for this morning.
I really thought we were being way too cautious as we’ve been very careful etc.
Results just came back positive.
She feels shit, but only a fever.
Meanwhile my Aunt (78) was taken into hospital this evening with Covid and chest pains, plus a dodgy ECG. Devon is not a great place to be right now…

Now wondering if the vertigo I’ve had the last few days is, perhaps, not down to a dodgy free dive I did earlier in the week, after all.

Sorry to hear that Matt, I hope you're all ok. My parents got pinged the other day too, don't think I'll be going down there soon now.

[andy popp]

Well, it found us.

I definitely feel a sense of inevitability at this point.

Much more importantly, hoping for swift recoveries for all of you

[Oldmanmatt]

The worst part is, that after being very, very careful for so long, she developed the fever on Friday evening.
It was No.1’s 16th birthday. So we’d allowed her to bring one friend over. No.2’s girlfriend pretty much lives with us, now, so she was here. Then, unexpectedly, we had our 15 year old niece, in need of a place to stay, turn up. The add an extra twist, my parents popped in for cake and to give their granddaughter her presents etc.
This all felt really low key and low risk, until running through the whole thing with Test and Trace at 07:30 this morning…🤦🏻‍♂️

No1 is grinding her teeth audibly, because she was due to get her first vacc on Thursday.

Five of us off for a test in an hour.

[slab_happy]

Fuck, sorry to hear it. May it be as mild as possible.

You got a pulse oximeter? Best way of keeping an eye on oxygen saturation levels at home -- Covid is known for "happy hypoxia", where people's oxygen levels tank without them showing signs of respiratory distress.

[Oldmanmatt]

Fuck, sorry to hear it. May it be as mild as possible.

You got a pulse oximeter? Best way of keeping an eye on oxygen saturation levels at home -- Covid is known for "happy hypoxia", where people's oxygen levels tank without them showing signs of respiratory distress.

Yes, actually. Both Polly and I have some training (I’m a Ship’s medical officer  and exped medic) so we have everything short of a Defib (too expensive).
Honestly, we’re pretty pissed off that we let this happen. Pretty sure is boils down to Polly and Lily joining a local pool, to get back into swimming a couple of weeks back, but it could be anything.

[andy popp]

Honestly, we’re pretty pissed off that we let this happen.

I don't think you should be beating yourselves up - even the most monastic of lives wouldn't guarantee complete safety.

[Oldmanmatt]

So, the results are in and it’s 4:2 to the negatives.

No.4 was already quite poorly, but No.2 started to get a fever around 8 last night and is pretty crook this morning (so muggins was up at the newsagents at stupid o’clock to explain why he wasn’t there for his paper round). They’re both positive, results came through around 11 last night (same time the night before for No.4).

It feels a little odd that that the split has fallen this way. 2&4 are Polly’s children and 1&3 mine. Polly and I are both double vaccinated so, it’s good to find out that despite literal physical contact and close living, we’re both negative.
I guess my vertigo really is “leaving it too long to clear my ears at 10 mtrs” related and a coincidence? On the other hand, Polly’s really quite ill this morning despite her result, so…?

Fuck knows, basically.

There really isn’t any obvious distinction, nothing that 2&4 did, that the rest didn’t etc. We’re a pretty “huggy” family, eat together, travel in the same van, crash on the same sofa and so on.

Edit:

There are actually two obvious distinctions, I guess I was trying to gloss over.
Vaccination and genetic lineage. 🤷‍♂️

[User deactivated.]

Currently suffering with covid, but it's not too bad at the moment.

Symptoms began on Saturday evening with some minor aches that felt different to usual training related muscle aches, and some minor chills. Went to bed early and slept well.

Woke up with a very runny nose and still some aches and pains but nothing too bad. Paracetamol in the morning took the aches away and they never returned once it wore off.

Extremely snotty and blocked nose all through the night. Woke up today with slightly blocked ears and a bit of a tickly chest when taking an exaggerated deep breath.

No lethargy or fever. Well, my temperature has risen to 36.5 from my usual 35.5, which I know is quite ridiculous 

Hopefully it remains mild and I can continue training this week or I might go crazy!

[SA Chris]

Sucks guys, ride it out.

Did you get a positive test Liam? Any idea where you picked it up?

I went out to meet some old work colleagues on Friday night (second time out anywhere since first lockdown) and woke with a sore throat, which got worse over the weekend. Did a RAT this morning and it shows negative, but WFH as a precaution. Will test again tomorrow, but feels like classic strep throat, which i get a lot in ordinary times (once or twice a year).

[Oldmanmatt]

Sucks guys, ride it out.

Did you get a positive test Liam? Any idea where you picked it up?

I went out to meet some old work colleagues on Friday night (second time out anywhere since first lockdown) and woke with a sore throat, which got worse over the weekend. Did a RAT this morning and it shows negative, but WFH as a precaution. Will test again tomorrow, but feels like classic strep throat, which i get a lot in ordinary times (once or twice a year).

No.4 did a Lat flow around 6pm on Friday night, got a negative, and then had a positive PCR at 9am Saturday morning. She started to feel ill around 4 pm Friday.

[User deactivated.]

Sucks guys, ride it out.

Did you get a positive test Liam? Any idea where you picked it up?

I went out to meet some old work colleagues on Friday night (second time out anywhere since first lockdown) and woke with a sore throat, which got worse over the weekend. Did a RAT this morning and it shows negative, but WFH as a precaution. Will test again tomorrow, but feels like classic strep throat, which i get a lot in ordinary times (once or twice a year).

I did two lateral flow tests. The first showed a very faint positive, but I probably didn't try hard enough getting mucus on the stick. On the 2nd try a couple hours later I made myself gag and tickled my brain good and proper. A clear positive that one.

Weve had a holiday at home over the last week, visiting theme parks, zoos, farms, etc with the kids every day, so I was probably asking for it to be fair.

My temperature is now up by 2 degrees and I feel fooking freezing, but otherwise OK and most importantly can still do a one armer.

[SA Chris]

Not good. I did a proper make myself gag and no mark at al, will do another before.

I'll check one armers too, if I can do one something must be amiss, could never do one before.

[Will Hunt]

Sucks guys, ride it out.

Did you get a positive test Liam? Any idea where you picked it up?

I went out to meet some old work colleagues on Friday night (second time out anywhere since first lockdown) and woke with a sore throat, which got worse over the weekend. Did a RAT this morning and it shows negative, but WFH as a precaution. Will test again tomorrow, but feels like classic strep throat, which i get a lot in ordinary times (once or twice a year).

I did two lateral flow tests. The first showed a very faint positive, but I probably didn't try hard enough getting mucus on the stick. On the 2nd try a couple hours later I made myself gag and tickled my brain good and proper. A clear positive that one.

Weve had a holiday at home over the last week, visiting theme parks, zoos, farms, etc with the kids every day, so I was probably asking for it to be fair.

My temperature is now up by 2 degrees and I feel fooking freezing, but otherwise OK and most importantly can still do a one armer.

You're better off resting until it's gone. Anecdotally, I think you're more likely to get long Covid by trying to do too much through the symptoms.

[nik at work]

Not sure if I might be mis-reading or misunderstanding some of the previous posts but…
If you are symptomatic a LFT is not an appropriate test to rule out Covid. If you have symptoms get a PCR and await the results.
LFT’s are not great tests, but they are relatively easy and quick. So they make sense as a way of catching a proportion of asymptomatic carriers that will have a reasonable level of compliance and and degree of effectiveness. But the are not the test to use if you are symptomatic.

Will did you just throw down some anecdotal science?? Bold move…

[slab_happy]

Sucks guys, ride it out.

Did you get a positive test Liam? Any idea where you picked it up?

I went out to meet some old work colleagues on Friday night (second time out anywhere since first lockdown) and woke with a sore throat, which got worse over the weekend. Did a RAT this morning and it shows negative, but WFH as a precaution. Will test again tomorrow, but feels like classic strep throat, which i get a lot in ordinary times (once or twice a year).

I did two lateral flow tests. The first showed a very faint positive, but I probably didn't try hard enough getting mucus on the stick. On the 2nd try a couple hours later I made myself gag and tickled my brain good and proper. A clear positive that one.

Weve had a holiday at home over the last week, visiting theme parks, zoos, farms, etc with the kids every day, so I was probably asking for it to be fair.

My temperature is now up by 2 degrees and I feel fooking freezing, but otherwise OK and most importantly can still do a one armer.

You're better off resting until it's gone. Anecdotally, I think you're more likely to get long Covid by trying to do too much through the symptoms.

I believe that's been a known thing for ages with ME/chronic fatigue syndrome (which is probably closely related to long Covid) -- a lot of people describe getting an ordinary virus (e.g. flu), rushing to get back to doing stuff after it, getting very fatigued and then finding the fatigue never goes away.

Obviously not possible to predict whether they would have developed ME/CFS no matter what they did, but I'd err on the side of taking it easy.

Also: this is a nasty fucking virus and Delta is one of the nastiest variants we've seen so far. Let your body save its energy for fighting it off. You want it to stay mild and go away soon!

[Oldmanmatt]

Not sure if I might be mis-reading or misunderstanding some of the previous posts but…
If you are symptomatic a LFT is not an appropriate test to rule out Covid. If you have symptoms get a PCR and await the results.
LFT’s are not great tests, but they are relatively easy and quick. So they make sense as a way of catching a proportion of asymptomatic carriers that will have a reasonable level of compliance and and degree of effectiveness. But the are not the test to use if you are symptomatic.

Will did you just throw down some anecdotal science?? Bold move…

Yup. Our guys have kept up the twice weekly testing over the summer (ish). However, no LFT positives. So, I don’t have much faith in their usefulness.
I do wonder how small that proportion might actually be.

[User deactivated.]

Thanks for the advice. In lieu of proper evidence I'll take the anecdotes, be cautious and relax during this time. I'll call it a deload to make myself feel better about it 

My temperature rose to 38.6 degrees, 3 above my usually frosty 35.5 before grabbing the paracetamol. It seems to have plateaud but I feel a bit spaced out!