BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 12:01 PM

Thank you!

I have occasional bursts of an uncontrollable hacking cough and pretty sore sinuses, but I feel well and am doing loads of gardening. Mrs Steve isn't doing as well and is watching a ton of tennis, the poor thing. We're hoping and praying that we'll be clear by a week tomorrow, the next Memory Café meeting. We're supposed to avoid contact with the most vulnerable for ten days after testing positive. We're just about within spec for that as long as we recover promptly and test negative a couple of times each. We'll still be in that smallish room, but at least we have a solo singer and not a huge choir, unlike last Friday. As I sat in that room I was wondering whether we were being wise...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 10:30 AM

Here in the US the states are not reporting cases as diligently to the CDC and COVID has dropped off of the front page, so to speak, so the newest outbreak (that is growing rapidly) of the newest variant BA.5 is coming as a surprise to people.

The most transmissible variant yet of the coronavirus is threatening a fresh wave of infections in the United States, even among those who have recovered from the virus fairly recently.

The subvariant of Omicron known as BA.5 is now dominant, according to federal estimates released Tuesday, and together with BA.4, another subvariant, it is fueling an outbreak of cases and hospitalizations.

Though the popularity of home testing means reported cases are a significant undercount of the true infection rate, the share of tests that come back positive is shooting upward and is now higher than during most other waves of the pandemic. According to the C.D.C., the risk from Covid-19 is increasing in much of the country. (emphasis mine)

Just when I was thinking it would be safe this time to go to outpatient physical therapy for the knee, I'm rethinking that option.

Get well soon, Steve and Mrs. Steve. You'd be a lot worse off if you hadn't had the vaccines that were already available. It looks like there will be a new one here in the fall to cover these recent variants.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 07:49 AM

Best of health to yourself and Mrs Steve. Touch wood [puts forefinger to forehead], we neither of us have had the Bug, but I suppose I should add "yet": it's slowly making its way through our congregation.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 06:49 AM

Cheers for the kind thoughts, good people! I'm fine today except for this horrible cough (worst I can remember having) but Mrs Steve is still under the weather.

As I said, we have a supply of test kits that we amassed when they were still free. I think that the withdrawal of free test kits was a huge mistake (last I heard, four tests at Boots cost £17). Our symptoms have been very different from each other's since we both tested positive on Monday, so, had we not had test kits (and let's face it, the vast majority of people are not going to want to pay that kind of money in these tough times), how would we have known who had or didn't have what? There must be droves of people out and about who feel a bit unwell, or not even that, untested, spreading the virus. I'm sure that's how we caught it at the Memory Café. I don't know how the science works for this, but let's say I'm not exactly surprised that infection numbers are currently as high as ever. I think that withdrawing the free kits was a false economy for the country. I know that the strains are not the same, and that other factors were involved and that the public mindset was far more cautious, but the two summers before this one had tiny numbers of cases compared to this summer...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 02:33 AM

Get well soon Steve and Mrs Steve.
My poor sister has got 'it' again. She has had Long Covid for a couple of years, but was slowly getting her strength back. Now she's very poorly, and has tested positive. Luckily she's a retired doctor, and has a pulse oximeter etc, so can monitor herself. Her two daughters live in Edinburgh (she's near Perth) and will keep an eye on her.
My village is riddled with the new mutation. I'm a bit wary now of going to the village bingo, or the village coffee morning. All you hear is yet another name is laid low. I still wear my mask when shopping.
I'm also worried about my estranged husband. He cleans in two schools now, and pupils are 'dropping like flies' all over Norfolk. But he does wear a mask and a visor at work, and must test twice a week. He has bad hayfever, so I hope he can tell the difference between those symptoms and Covid.
I'm up for any vaccination, and am awaiting The Call. They seem to have started with the very aged people. (I'm not as old as them!)

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jul 22 - 09:00 PM

Oh, Steve, I am truly truly sorry and unhappy for you and your family.
PLEASE get better. Soon.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Jul 22 - 08:42 PM

Cheers, Nigel.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Jul 22 - 07:49 PM

Get well soon Steve (and the boss)
I just ordered some more free tests on Tuesday, we are on our last box.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Jul 22 - 06:25 PM

Well, after well over two years of avoiding the bloody thing, Mrs Steve and I both have the virus. The Bude Memory Café last Friday was heaving, in a fairly small room, and we had the WI choir with around 25-30 members. We both tested positive on Monday (we still have a decent supply of test kits, as we were wise virgins when the kits were free). Another of our valued volunteers also has the symptoms, so it looks like the Memory Café was the source. Mrs Steve has had the overall sore body, headachey thing with a cough and runny nose, and feels like a pile of manure (very worrying that she declined a glass of red on a Wednesday!) I've been clammy for three days and I have the mother and father of a cough, and yesterday I was like a zombie, but, oddly, I feel well and have spent all afternoon today in the sun cutting my huge hedges with my pole trimmer (and getting eaten alive by horseflies). So we've got it but we're both OK and looking forward to the barbecue heatwave to come! Well done you vaccine developers!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Apr 22 - 02:09 AM

Good for you Bonzo! Do you know, I have never ever had a sore arm or even felt the needle go in when having an injection. My friend laughed and she wondered if the nurse had injected the armchair I sat in by mistake!
Still haven't been 'summoned', but I don't expect it will be long. I'm up for any booster on offer - seems sensible to me. Also, still wearing a mask when out shopping.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 04:12 PM

Moderna booster for me today, just a very slight soreness at point of entry!! Mrs Bonzo has hers tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 03:25 PM

Got my second booster tomorrow, at a pharmacy near to my workplace.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 03:53 AM

Got my second booster booked for next Saturday. The benefits of being 75 (it was my birthday last week, while on holiday on Lindisfarne)! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 03:19 AM

The delightful family-over-the-road (nice couple with two school-age children) were very worried when the daddy got Covid a couple of weeks ago. He was triple-jabbed, so luckily he wasn't too terribly ill. His place of work (double-glazing company) insisted that he took an LFT test in front of them when he returned to do his job (It was negative - phew!). He's still very tired, but is 'keeping a-troshing' as best he can.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 03:10 PM

The numbers of infections plummeted in the summers of 2020 and 2021. We can hope for similar this year. I think that withdrawing free tests last month was an egregiously-bad mistake. Our hallowed government has made plenty of those.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 02:09 PM

Mrrzy, In the case of the UK government, it is probable drawing a conclusion that it hasn't rained on the grounds that rainfall has not been measured.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 07:53 AM

Covid cases are like Jesus, they have risen.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Rain Dog
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 05:06 AM

Not exactly new news but might be of interest to some who contribute to this thread.

On BBC Radio 4

Preventable - Written and read by Devi Sridhar

"How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One

The World Health Organisation hears about 3000 potential pathogen outbreaks each month. It follows up on 300 of them - and investigates 30. It only took the right one to turn everything upside down. Devi remembers the early days of the pandemic as news trickled out from Wuhan, and focuses on Senegal's surprising response to COVID-19.

Professor Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University, has risen to prominence as one of Britain’s most trusted commentators on COVID-19. Fresh from advising the Scottish and UK Governments, the WHO and UNICEF, the academic uses the timeline of the pandemic to shine a light on how science, politics, ethics and economics affect our health."

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Apr 22 - 08:57 AM

Surprise, surprise the fall in the number of reported infections has matched the fall in the number of tests being carried out.

Um. The number of reported infections being the number of positive tests, isn't this like being surprised the rainfall in inches went down when the number of raindrops did?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Apr 22 - 03:58 AM

Many elderly folk in our village are being called up for the 'Spring booster'. (This will be the second booster.) Our schools were riddled with Omicron just before the Easter half-term holiday began.
I read somewhere that this bad cold that's going around (not Covid) is due to the fact we've been hiding behind masks and keeping apart, so our natural 'herd immunity' against colds and other nasty germs has been depleted.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 13 Apr 22 - 04:37 PM

Now on track for 101K deaths per year.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 13 Apr 22 - 03:14 AM

Surprise, surprise the fall in the number of reported infections has matched the fall in the number of tests being carried out. I suppose johnson will claim that charging for LFTs has reduced the number of actual infections. More of a concern that the current death rate is more than 1,500/week (projects to 70,000/year) and rising.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Apr 22 - 06:04 AM

The vaccines are responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of lives and have been instrumental in getting life back to something like normal in my country. Lockdowns have created misery for millions, wrecking countries' economies and destroying the mental and physical health of countless people.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Apr 22 - 05:43 AM

Happy Halfway point for the pandemic everyone.
Lockdowns in Asia, record infection rates in UK and eastern US cities all owe a debt of gratitude to the vaccines.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 07:28 PM

The Delta omnicron new varient doesn't seem to be causing much trouble.
Just because your neck hurts turning left doesn't mean you should rejoice looking only one way to the right before you cross the street.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 11:37 AM

Maybe I sounded a bit too much out of sympathy with people unlucky enough to be suffering with long covid. I regret that. However, whilst covid-19 cases are still high, it is a mild disease for almost everyone who's been jabbed and it's causing far fewer deaths, far less serious illness and far less hospitalisation. We had our first Memory Café in Bude for two years the week before last, everyone was incredibly happy to be back (it's nearly all elderly people, even the volunteers), and there was hardly a mask in sight. On Saturday, at the cake-and-coffee morning for Ukraine, hundreds of people piled in and out of our tiny Methodist Hall, again mostly maskless, and it was an absolute delight to go to a community event that felt so bloody NORMAL for the first time in over two years. We all need to keep the jabs up-to-date and treat coronavirus as just another of life's hazards in my opinion, and tell anyone who wants to stay away from people or keep their masks on that it's entirely a matter for them. I'm not going to crowded events like this unless I've tested myself that morning first. We Brits can continue to get free boxes of seven test kits until the end of March. It's a good idea to get some, I reckon.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 08:32 AM

Steve: You guys seem to be obsessing about long covid. It simply is not worth the resort to continue using restrictions. You really can't see how vital it is to get back to normal life, can you?

I'm with you on this. I'm 'back to normal' as much as I can be. But 'long Covid' is, and will continue to be, a problem.
I have been aware for several months (had Covid early 2021) that my breathing was not what it should be, but had not realised the extent.
Last Tuesday I got up in our local club (Cardiff second Tuesday) to sing "Dafydd y Garreg Wen". Within two lines I realised I didn't have the breath support to do it justice. This is not a problem I've experienced before, and I rarely practice in advance, just get up and sing. It was worrying. For my second song I went for something a bit punchier and with shorter lines!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Mar 22 - 09:12 PM

You guys seem to be obsessing about long covid. It simply is not worth the resort to continue using restrictions. You really can't see how vital it is to get back to normal life, can you? I met elderly people today at our Memory Café who live alone and who have hardly been out of their houses for two years. I know of families who have been cooped up in high-rise flats with their stir-crazy children for months on end. We now have a mild variant that is killing only idiots who refuse the vaccine, and (in the UK at least), infection numbers, masks or not, are plummeting. I no longer want to hear about bloody long covid. If you get it, too bad. But the far greater priority for us all is to get back to normal so that we can try to live our lives in a way that makes people happy and secure in the knowledge that, whatever is thrown at us, we can be resilient and we can avoid ghastly mental ill-health issues. Live normally, in other words. Not enough people are dying any more to allow us to sidestep that.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Mar 22 - 08:53 PM

Oh the inhumanity!
Relax, its late in the evening and time to wind down, not up.

I suspect that some symptomless people may still get latent long haul Covid symptoms that involve heart inflamation problems that could resemble angina like feeings of chest pressure.

Its a suspicion and not a fact. Meanwhile the expected number of heart patients that have delayed treatment during the pandemic has grown large.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Mar 22 - 06:46 PM

We had our first Bude Memory Café for two years today. Great turnout, lovely atmosphere, and scarcely a mask in sight. I tell you, those oldies can teach us a lesson or two about how to live! Give it a couple of months, I predict, and those useless, profit-making masks will be no more than a bad memory, just like all the other inhuman restrictions we've been forced to endure...

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Mar 22 - 06:23 PM

In the US one could wander COSTCO and have the equivalent of a nice lunch just from free samples. The combinations could be wierd though.
Lobster and chocolate?

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Mar 22 - 02:26 PM

First sign of returning to normal: my local Costco has samples again!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 02 Mar 22 - 02:06 AM

We have a few masks with the lower half of our dog’s face printed on them. We look hilarious as half-human, half Border Terrier! If ya gunna wear a mask, ya might as well make it fun! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Mar 22 - 05:36 PM

Haha Mrrzy! I've seen many really funny masks worn in the supermarket. Some with strange faces on, and some pretty, flowery ones. My neighbour has one with the Norwich City football logo on it.
Mine are just those blue paper surgical ones. I've got several boxes of them, because I throw each one away after a single use.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Mar 22 - 05:20 PM

I love my mask. It has the beard I can't grow.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Mar 22 - 04:35 PM

Omicron B is more infectious than the original Omicron and is doubling each week, now up to 8% of the cases in the US. The setting aside of masks is probably temporary, until the next wave.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Mar 22 - 01:16 PM

I too am still wearing a mask when I go out (I only go to the supermarket). Yesterday in Morrisons, I found that my glasses were misting over alarmingly, and then realised I'd put my mask on upside down, so the metal band was under my chin! What a twit, but I'd been trying to concentrate on my driving alone and pushing the trolley etc, so was rather preoccupied.
I'm lucky in that mask-wearing doesn't bother me at all, but I sympathise with those who find it suffocating.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Mar 22 - 12:29 PM

The 1/3 dose of vaccine for 5 to 11 year olds is not working well in its effectiveness or distribution.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Feb 22 - 05:33 PM

I never go anywhere without a fresh mask in my pocket.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 22 - 10:27 AM

I think the CDC is throwing up its hands - they're now watching the pressure on regional hospitals and if the hospitals are full or overwhelmed, the advice is to wear masks. Otherwise, not. This is like they're saying "you fools won't get vaccinated and won't wear masks, and you're going to do what you want to do no matter what we say, so until the hospitals are full of dying people, do what you're gonna do."

This doesn't mean COVID is gone, it means the Omicron variant is dissipating. I plan to continue to wear a mask in public places because I don't want to get sick. I don't know that my area is allowed to go without masks yet, we were hit pretty hard recently, so there is research involved. But when in doubt, the prudent move is to keep the masks handy.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 27 Feb 22 - 07:54 AM

Two Dozen Hundreds!

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Feb 22 - 11:27 AM

Overwhelmingly, it's killing unvaccinated people.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Feb 22 - 11:01 AM

COVID has taken a back burner to the invasion of Ukraine this week, but it's still killing a lot more people. That's what normalization does for you.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Feb 22 - 05:53 AM

All legal restrictions have been lifted here. One or two small shops still insist on face masks. Most people comply, me included, but the few who don't are not challenged (in my experience anyway).

It's over four weeks since the mask edict was dropped and case numbers have continued to fall. The Omicron surge went on unabated despite the mask mandate being restored two weeks before Christmas. I'm not drawing conclusions, nor resorting to bad science, just reporting what's happened. Confounding factors are many and significant and should never be set aside.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Rain Dog
Date: 23 Feb 22 - 09:43 AM

Transport for London drops rules on compulsory face masks

"Passengers will no longer need to wear masks on the tube and other transport in the capital from Thursday, Transport for London has announced.

TfL said it would continue to strongly recommend masks are worn but would no longer make them mandatory.

TfL has previously continued to make mask-wearing a “condition of carriage” on London Underground and other services, even when the government said they were no longer a legal requirement.

However, compliance rates dropped without the threat of enforcement by police or fixed penalty notices. The legal requirement in England to wear masks on transport and other public settings, reimposed during the Omicron surge, was dropped in late January."

And

"TfL said independent testing by Imperial College London carried out monthly since September 2020 had no found traces of coronavirus on touch points in stations and on buses, and revealed that the whole transport network was well ventilated."

++

I was up in London at the start of February. The majority of passengers that I saw on the Tube were wearing masks.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 21 Feb 22 - 05:46 PM

Apologies, Maggie - I’d just got up, feeling very grumpy before my first cup of tea. I’ve recovered my equilibrium now.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Feb 22 - 12:56 PM

No more free lateral flow tests after April 1. It's being predicted that a box of seven may cost £20. That means that the vast majority of people will stop self-testing. To me, the two main tenets of exercising personal responsibility, which is what the government now expects from us, are getting the vaccines and frequent testing (and keeping away from people if you test positive). I also note that boosters for most will not be provided until the autumn. For me, that will mean a whole year between boosters. I can't help thinking that Johnson is making wrong calls again. I think he's counting on a big seasonal drop in infection numbers. He'd better be right. I know that most countries charge big money for tests and that the UK is an exception. So mixed feelings this end.

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Feb 22 - 11:03 AM

In publishing quotes MLA and APA both give a word count - 40 words can be included in quote marks, longer than that should be a blockquote. I don't count the words often, I use just the blockquote because it is generally understood to be quoted material (and you don't use quote marks WITH blockquotes). Other style books give similar rules, but these are the two I work with most. The italics in the blockquote below are for emphasis of a quote within a quote (and I preferred italics to bold that was originally used.)

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 21 Feb 22 - 05:06 AM

Makes sense, Jon. I shall try to be more aware from now on! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: New news on the pandemic COVID-19
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 21 Feb 22 - 04:21 AM

All I can say there BWM, is I usually try (I'm not sure how consistent I am) to use all 3 indicators.