ONS saying that there is an estimated 60% increase in Covid cases in England with numbers at 3,200 daily.

[Goldistheanswer]

On Sky news just now. 60% increase and 3,200 new cases daily. It’s very worrying.

If you are over 55 your chances of dying if infected with covid are slightly more than your chances of dying during the next year anyway, I.e. if you have covid younger twice as likely to die this year than you otherwise were.

Clearly if you were already highly unlikely to die in the next 12 months you'll be less concerned than if you're older, or have a health condition.

Very different to 'almost certain to live regardless how vulnerable you are' alectrevelyan

@SheepandCow

Deja vu. I'm going to go back and reread posts from March. The same desperate denial and downplaying then had at least the excuse of no experience. We now have the benefit of hindsight.

This. It's like a parallel universe where we didn't all just live through March 2020 and see what exponential growth of a virus looks like

In January I said that I didn't think I would get to go on my holiday to the Canaries in June. Nobody believed me.

I did see this interesting article which suggests that face masks may be partly responsible for reduced deaths and hospital admissions due to a lower viral load.
theconversation.com/cloth-masks-do-protect-the-wearer-breathing-in-less-coronavirus-means-you-get-less-sick-143726?

@herecomesthsun

I think one of the independent SAGE profs may just have said Moonshit rather Moonshot

Obviously he values accuracy!

@Oakmaiden

On the positive side, the increase is mostly in younger people, who do not suffer such ill effects (hence the lack of rise in figures re hospitalisation/intensive care) and hospitals now have a much better idea of how to treat those who do have severe symptoms, increasing their chances of survival above those of someone who caught it in March.

So, while it is worrying, it is not a crisis at this point.

Yes, but a) they don't stay in some isolated bubble - it spreads rapidly through all parts of the community b) so NOW is the time to take preventative action!

I really hope some of the posters on here are bots and shrills because - if not - if these are ordinary mumsnet mums, then my goodness this bodes badly for sick and dead in coming months in England. And if it is bots and shills then I hope it is Russia/China/Extinction rebellion and not Cumming’s government.

This. It's like a parallel universe where we didn't all just live through March 2020 and see what exponential growth of a virus looks like

I think we all know what it looks like, its just that some of us think we just need to get on with it (with reasonable measures in place) because that is preferable to total economic ruin. The virus is doing what viruses do. It aint going anywhere!

I think we all know what it looks like, its just that some of us think we just need to get on with it (with reasonable measures in place) because that is preferable to total economic ruin.

Because of the lockdown last year you didn't get to see the tatters our economy would have been left in allowing the virus to spread rapidly. It's really not people or economy.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54064347

Not “downplaying”

We know it’s increasing. Hence why restrictions are being tightened. What else do people expect to be done? Some people just enjoy drama and worry. There is nothing you can do other than abide by the rules.

Whilst lockdown came from good intentions, locking everyone away from each other for months and preventing people from coming into contact with all the usual run of the mill bugs that you need to be exposed to in order to keep your immune system ticking along (thanks handwashing/face masks/non contact), in addition to lower fitness levels due to being less active than normal, and then unlocking and sending everyone back out into wider society on mass with a hugely depleted immune system and fitness level - it was never going to play out well. All that has happened is all those healthy younger people who would have fought covid off without issue are now more susceptible to catching it and their bodies having to work harder to fight it off.

So researcher can take a large sample of population and do testing in it, and then extrapolate to the community, to get around the difference in tested populations from March and now. Also the % of positives gives an indication of the relative wideness of the net being cast and whether more positives are popping up just because more people are being tested

Well yes, but even processes such as that which are rooted in science are guesswork. I'm not denying they're increasing, and I agree everyone should be sticking to guidance, I certainly am. But I also don't think people should be just reading the headlines and panicking.

the increasing number of infections, did they learn nothing from a few months ago?

Learnt to wear my mask, work from home, not go to mass events, socialise outside as much as I could. Use handsanitiser at every turn. Keep my kids at a distance to my elderly parents.

Learnt loads. And suggestion is that the distancing is meaning lower viral loads are being transmitted which is making it less severe. And the elderly still being careful.

That is nonsense. You don't improve your immunity to viruses by exposure to other different ones. In fact you might just get run down and weakened.

That's why there is a new flu vaccine every year.

If anything lockdown has boosted people's immune systems.

@MadameBlobby

Not “downplaying”

We know it’s increasing. Hence why restrictions are being tightened. What else do people expect to be done? Some people just enjoy drama and worry. There is nothing you can do other than abide by the rules.

ok., for starters

sort out bloody test and trace

support quarantine

treat 1 case as significant and don't fudge it over

treating schools as if they aren't magically immune from covid

more school buses for distancing

looking at more community venues for study to help distancing

may need more TAs (recruit the redundant)

blended learning

homeschooling for those who want it

stop trying to force peeps back to the office

encourage home working

stop prioritising pubs and sandwich bars

And stop making the parents who want to educate remotely for a bit loose their school places or be prosecuted.

And are people writing to their MPs to try and have these measures put in place, or are they just moaning on here and doing nothing about it?

I for one don’t want blended learning anyway. It’s a pile of horseshit.

I for one don’t want blended learning anyway. It’s a pile of horseshit.

Yes totally agree. I can’t even bear the term now.

I just don’t know what some of the posters on here want. Panic? Heads rolling? Another full lockdown?

It is obvious that this is a very infectious disease. It isn’t going anywhere. Locking down every five minutes is not sustainable so we have to live with it to some degree.

Case numbers as a lone measure aren’t particularly helpful. We need to understand hospitalisation/death rates to put reaction into context. It is obvious from the European data that rates of serious illness/death are nowhere near comparable to March. Whether that’s mostly because we.’re picking up lots of milder cases or something else is going on is not clear.

In the meantime we carry on with the current measures to mitigate spread.

Wow! First post about this. Yes, writing to government, MP’s, LEA, schools, anyone who may listen. You probably don’t have someone with a health vulnerability in their family who will probably die or be very ill if they get it.
Home learning is dreadful. I hope schools can stay open. The lockdown was an awful measure due to a lot of bad governmental policy. Let people use their common sense.
Please think of families who have children who are scorned for isolating due to health conditions you may not be aware of in their families. These families are only asking to step out and isolate themselves. Their children want normal too. But they will be punished by no school place to return to EVER, if their school is oversubscribed.

They have to isolate when other people are at school and having fun. And it’s impossible to reassure them it’ll be over eventually and they’ll be back to normal with their friends and security, because the government won’t support them.

I was commenting to MadameBlobby

If people did the bare minimum of mask wearing etc then we might be able to navigate the following months without even more restrictions. Sadly there are enough idiots and/or deniers that mean our best efforts to ensure a slowing if transmission seem to be in vain.

If people did the bare minimum of mask wearing etc then we might be able to navigate the following months without even more restrictions

I’m not sure that’s true. The Spanish are very big on mask wearing, but the spread is rife over there.

@MadameBlobby

And are people writing to their MPs to try and have these measures put in place

Yes, very nice reply and they have taken some action, awaiting further correspondence about the outcome, thank you

I for one don’t want blended learning anyway. It’s a pile of horseshit.

I suppose it depends whether the child and family would be able to use that approach. It would suit us great. I think that ideally there would be an element of choice in this & with coordination and planning that's more possible. It is a shame that we lost so much time over the summer.

I'm more worried about losing my job than I am about dying from this joke of a virus.

@TheKeatingFive
I just don’t know what some of the posters on here want.

Panic? No

Heads rolling? Change of government would be good, now you come to mention it

Another full lockdown? Not if we can help it

I did put some sensible suggestions up earlier though.

....In the meantime we carry on with the current measures to mitigate spread.

Like packing kids shoulder to shoulder into classrooms because we are pretending they can't be infectious till they're 18? la la la