1 in 1700 has the virus

[Wowthisisreal]

How do you feel about this figure?

For me it makes a lot of my fears and concerns be about the virus feel redundant (I'm quite chill but also cautious).

It also makes me feel like some people's reactions are now OTT.

Surely this is now a similar figure to people to have a cold? Or chicken pox? Or cold sores? (I have no idea but just an observation)

It kind of makes the fact it's still illegal to go in someone else's house a bit mind boggling as well.

[quote Wowthisisreal]@embracelife quite.

But the factory has a capacity of 1500 odd and BBC news article said that adhering to social distancing was "virtually impossible" and there had been concerns from staff raised.

Not really a standard workplace. [/quote]
Yes, however that is what happens. Workplaces open, some of them unable or unwilling to effect sufficient measures. People feel obliged to go back- afraid they will lose their job etc.

Even if no one who's clinically vulnerable is in that factory, some of them live with the clinically vulnerable. Suppose a factory worker lives with a postman? Or a supermarket delivery guy? That's an opportunity to see figures shoot up pretty quick. You can imagine the contact/tracer's face hearing that.

The 1 in 1700 figure also includes care homes and hospitals. Even lower in the community.

Official figures from my area show that there were 2 new cases out on 108,000 people last week. That's WAY more than 1 in 1700.

It seems that way until you remember that last year there were 3,571 customers in a Morrison's supermarket each day, on average. Bearing in mind some days are slow, others are heaving. On a busy day that means maybe 3 people with CV moving through the store

Also I very much disagree with that - I'd like to think the overwhelming majority of people who have Covid19 are decent enough to stay at home, rather than wander round a supermarket. Plus walking past someone in a supermarket isn't enough contact to infect you anyway.

To be frank I think it is now time to start opening up and getting the economy moving again. I'm a director of a large company- we've been trying everything possible to avoid redundancies so far including managers taking 70% pay cuts, stopping all recruitment and closing offices.

Even if the govt announced all precautions can be cancelled, plenty of people (mostly the millions of vulnerable, but others too) won't be going back to normal any time soon. They will need to be sure that "normal" is safe - that will take months of low infections/deaths to give that assurance. Just look at the holiday threads where the vast majority of posters are clear they're going nowhere this Summer. Look at the shop re-openings - yes queues at first but now that the novelty has worn off for the desperate, they're pretty quiet again. Until people have confidence the virus has effectively gone (or most people are accinated), there's no return towards normal, whatever changes are made to the rules.

I'd like to think the overwhelming majority of people who have Covid19 are decent enough to stay at home, rather than wander round a supermarket.

Back in March, people with symptoms went to football matches, pop concerts, horse races and holidays. Why would you think they wouldn't go shopping?

@kazzyhoward

We know a lot more than we did back in March. The government has done a great job of scaring the cr*p out of people.

Surely this is now a similar figure to people to have a cold? Or chicken pox? Or cold sores? (I have no idea but just an observation)"

How many people die from a cold, chicken pox or a cold sore each year in the UK,? Because unless it's over 45,000 for each of those diseases the comparison is a bit irrelevant.

It’s good news as considering 80% of those will have mild to no symptoms

You can't have it both ways. If it's mild or asymptomatic for most people, then most of the 1 in 1700 are going to be out and about.

I'm not suggesting everyone stay home all the time.
I am shocked that the government suggest shielding people start going out (I won't be).
I still think we should be pretty careful.

I think in the future we’ll look back on all this and realise we trashed the economy and destroyed the life chances and health of millions to save people over 80. Whether people think that level of destruction was worth it to save the lives of people nearing the end of theirs remains to be seen. The answer was surely to protect and shield that group after an initial lockdown and not keep everyone else locked down.

So what if its it's higher than cold sores, cold sores can't kill you. The UK is still doing terribly compared to other countries and we should all still be cautious. Don't trust the Govt guidelines to protect you, use common sense instead

to save people over 80.

Such a glib and silly statement.

Really?
The amazing young consultants and doctors we lost...the nurses and other key workers . bus drivers young and dead.
Their families would beg to differ.

I think in the future we’ll look back on all this and realise we trashed the economy and destroyed the life chances and health of millions to save people over 80. No you didn't. You trashed the economy to save the NHS being swamped.

The economy would have been trashed anyway, albeit to a lesser degree, by people being sick at a very high rate..

@SockYarn most people with covid are asymptomatic. 70%.

Sorry, wrong thread! Have reported for removal

@Ibake i got a gp registration form for my baby through post and forgot to hand it in. They rang me and asked me to drop it off so I did and you would think I had ebola judging by the reaction of the receptionist. How dare I press her buzzer on the other side of a locked metal door whilst she was behind a shield in a completely empty gp surgery. I was told to put it on floor and leave. Would hate to see the reaction to a genuingly ill person

The vast majority of those who die are over 80. It makes no sense to lock up the economically active and well to save those who aren’t. The answer is to protect those groups better. I agree that lockdown in the first instance was necessary but it’s gone too far now.

I'd like to think the overwhelming majority of people who have Covid19 are decent enough to stay at home, rather than wander round a supermarket. Plus walking past someone in a supermarket isn't enough contact to infect you anyway

You might like to think that but the reality is someone with no access to decent sick pay has no choice but to carry on working, they won't contact track and trace for a mild illness and will carry-on going out and about.
My company has halted our full sick pay for 4 weeks and said there will be none, its SSP only and those told to isolate but no positive test get nothing.
Walking past someone/or sitting nr someone on the tube or bus, who has just coughed, may well be enough to get an infection.

The vast majority of those who die are over 80. It makes no sense to lock up the economically active and well to save those who aren’t. The answer is to protect those groups better. I agree that lockdown in the first instance was necessary but it’s gone too far now.

There are millions of people under 80 who are vulnerable or shielding. They've not died BECAUSE OF the lockdown, i.e. they basically hid indoors! You can't "protect" millions of people by keeping them virtually prisoner in their own homes for ever. Everywhere else needs to be reasonable safe for them to exercise, shop, visit relatives, get medical treatment and maybe even do a few fun things. Yes, the vulnerable can make their own decisions about avoiding places that appear risky to them, but they can't control people who randomly get too close to them or cough/sneeze next to them, or don't wash their hands and leave the virus on door handles, shopping goods, etc. We have to find the middle ground where life gets back to normal, but with EVERYONE taking the most basic of hygiene precautions and respecting other peoples' personal space. When there were idiots going to football matches, horse races and pop concerts with symptoms back in March, I'm not holding my breath and fully understand why the vulnerable don't trust the general public to take the simplest of precautions.

you would think I had ebola judging by the reaction of the receptionist.

Covid does kill people you know! And those who get it and survive can be left with long term complications. Just because you don't care and assume it won't harm you, doesn't mean that other people are low risk - for all you knew, the receptionist may be in the vulnerable group. Even if she wasn't, Covid was rampaging through hospitals etc in the early days, being passed between staff. If the receptionist had tested positive, because of close contact with you, then not only would she have been sent home for a week or two, so would other staff working in the building, and the entire building would need to be closed for deep-cleaning. Jeez, what's so hard about just following directions to keep people safe and keep services operating???

I'd like to think the overwhelming majority of people who have Covid19 are decent enough to stay at home, rather than wander round a supermarket.

But if you’re pre-symptomatic and infectious, how would you know? That’s how many infections are passed on...

I think some people have become muddled between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic, and have taken very false assurance that assymptomatic people are generally very infectious.

Covid or not, most people don’t tend to go to supermarkets with a raging fever.

I agree that lockdown in the first instance was necessary but it’s gone too far now.

We’re no longer in “lockdown”

The economy would have been trashed anyway, albeit to a lesser degree, by people being sick at a very high rate.

This... The idea we’d have sailed through without lockdown and that we’d have carried on regardless is ridiculous.

With 40-50,000 dead with 7% or so with antibodies... even if there’s some natural immunity mixed in (and NYC has 25% antibodies so we’re not close even it NYC has complete herd immunity on that number which it doesn’t seem to!), we’d be well into the 100,000s dead and quite plausibly approaching the 500,000 figure. No economy would have continued merrily along through that.

For those saying a cold doesn't kill. It does. Elderly people and those with compromised immune systems can die from a cold or a fever and do. Every year. A close family member died because someone visited a care home with a cold, she became ill and passed away shortly after. Colds can turn to pneumonia. Flu also kills large swathes of people every year.

Similar to COVID.