ADs and their very long lists!

[LivinLaVidaLoki]

We were up to 999 posts so thought we needed a new thread!

PCR tests are known to be unreliable and can provide false positive results. I work for nhs and if we get a positive on a home pcr we have to get it confirmed by a lab test. However home negative are accepted.

I need to stay on this thread, the talk to tier 5 and curfews is scaring me. I’m not a criminal, and I don’t want to be treated as one. Went shopping today, most people in masks in shops and social distancing but that was because Tesco was very quiet.I am so bored, couldn’t remember what day it was today. I feel quite dead inside, nothing is interesting.

@AcornAutumn

dingit Am I being thick - can you really see London fireworks from there or is it a jokey reference to Primrose Hill?

I'm not sure about the fireworks but you can see the London skyline clearly. We've talked about going up there for years but when it comes to it don't as it's freezing and a muddy walk

dingit funny, it's on my list of places to visit but it would be quite strange to see the home skyline from far away.

@AVictoryProduct

I need a sensible view on this. Nothing to do with mutant strains or "My friend's uncle has had it 3 times" ideally.

OH had positive antibody test mid October. He didn't have symptoms.

He's a carer so he had a routine PCR swab test on Boxing Day. Came back positive for Covid, i.e. he has it again. No symptoms. So we all have to isolate again for 10 days. Everyone says he has been reinfected by the mutant strain.

Not sure I believe it. What do you think?

Isn't the point of antibodies that they can quickly zap (to use the technical term) the virus next time they meet it?

If that is the case, wouldn't a positive PCR show that the virus had found its way into his throat and the antibodies smashed it up (another technical term) and the PCR detected viral fragments?

I can't imagine that antibodies would be able to do anything with the virus until it was actually on board.

Would you say that having inactive Covid viral particles in your nose/throat meant 'having' Covid?

DS has a friend whose wife works in child social care in a northern city. She has been working from home since March, apparently she is going round the bend at not being able to help people physically, she dreads and struggles with what she will find when finally allowed back to work. It has broken their marriage, she is trying to plod on with the children and work, her OH has given up on the marriage. So sad.

@amicissimma

I think the poster said her DH had routine PCR tests in the last few months which were negative and then he tested positive in December. He has antibodies back in October and those may have "expired" by now, and that means no immunity any longer. However, there is also something called T cell immunity which is another way our bodies fight infections and this is also a large part of our response to covid... immunity is quite a large area of science and there's still a lot of unknowns.

But If the PCR was picking up left over viral fragments from the original infection that generated antibodies then it would have been testing positive all along, not negative then positive....

@amicissimma

Would you say that having inactive Covid viral particles in your nose/throat meant 'having' Covid?

We wouldn't normally say that having Meningitis particles in the back of your throat was having Meningitis. Active in your brain is another matter.

Likewise Strep B is not normally an issue unless you're a baby being born in an affected birth canal.

A couple of things I really don't get - tell me, am I being stupid?

"7pm curfew" - how would that help? My husband always does the supermarket shop late because it is quieter. A lot of people round our way go for early runs or walks before they sit down to wfh, because it's quieter. Wouldn't having a curfew just make it, um, busier within the permitted hours?

"I caught it at school and I've been unwell for weeks", "I caught it from my friend who hadn't been obeying the rooollllllz" etc. How they hello can anyone know where they caught it from? You could have caught it at the post office, on the tube, in the office, standing in a queue somewhere...

Jourdain yes, 9pm is my shopping time.

I thought a curfew would be announced today because of NYE.

It doesn't have any infection control benefit; none of these measures do. I think it's useful for scaring people frankly.

The people puzzling over where they caught it probably think a one way system in a supermarket is infection control.

I'm very surprised this is going on in London but it might be like theatre reopening - will just be stopped at the last minute.

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/patti-smith-new-years-eve-london-piccadilly-circus-b551781.html

I've been shopping around 9pm for months. I went later once shopping hours went back to normal.

I used to go in the day when I was passing by, but the queuing in lockdown #1 put me off, and I CBA to be in busy places, do the social distancing ettiquette and risk anyone getting arsey about any face covering ishoos.

Curfew is a riduculous idea and just concentrates people into few places on a restricted timescale... oh and wonder why infection rates go up

There was a logic to it in March when there were issues getting stock onto shelves, less was known about the virus and "covid secure" measures weren't in place.

9pm has been my normal supermarket time for literally decades.

I think Spain has an 11pm curfew.

I managed the day resisting the C board.

The epidemic of hysteria is bad.

Particularly weird is more posters who are terrified by how ill they feel, saying they can't move from their bed, but somehow capable of posting constantly.

I think they are in the grip of serious panic and I don't say that lightly as I have raging anxiety myself. Either that or they're loving the drama.

@AcornAutumn epidemic of hysteria ? How patronising. Have you read the thread asking HCPs to describe what's going on at the moment ? It's pretty eye opening and I doubt they are all drama queens or trolls...

Loads of idiots on Twitter calling for an 8pm curfew How is that going to work for unpaid family carers. If they cant get to their family member who will do it instead. Thick as fucking mince.

@MercyBooth

Loads of idiots on Twitter calling for an 8pm curfew How is that going to work for unpaid family carers. If they cant get to their family member who will do it instead. Thick as fucking mince.

I talked to a contact in Melbourne about that. She said carers were exempt.

[quote Schonerlebnis]@AcornAutumn epidemic of hysteria ? How patronising. Have you read the thread asking HCPs to describe what's going on at the moment ? It's pretty eye opening and I doubt they are all drama queens or trolls...[/quote]
My late father specialised in infectious disease.

I know HCPs are doing a grand job as ever. I know doctors and nurses working on covid wards right now as I type. They know that we can't wreck people's health, lives and livelihoods any more.

That doesn't alter the hysteria I see here. Much less in real life thankfully. There are posters here who would have expected my dad to sleep in the garden shed after his hospital shifts in previous pandemics, they're that hysterical about a virus.

No one reacted like this in previous pandemics. I wonder why!

@AcornAutumn My parents had a really bad flu in the late Sixties. My dad told me about it. They havent had a flu illness since then. Both he and my mum were fine one minute and then around midnight they both got really ill.

Awake at 5 am- perma headache at the moment from how much tension I’m carrying in my neck and jaw (I catch myself clenching my teeth a lot these days) - the constant stress of what is going to be thrown at us next has burned me out completely I think.

@Ghostlyglow I received one for Christmas. One with a children's (albeit retro but still) cartoon character on the front. Sigh. Merry Fucking Christmas.

Oxford vaccine approved

In some good news, the Oxford vaccine has been approved.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55280671

So hopefully there will be light at the end of the tunnel and it won't be an oncoming train. (Not that I'm desperate to have it, but I'm delighted that so many people are!)

Cross post @Sonicthehedgehogg!