Reason for shielding?

[chestergirl39]

Interested to know the reasons why people had to shield at home and why these seemed to vary widely across the country. Was it down to individual gp’s? Will the criteria change next time? Will Bmi be a factor?

Visceral fat (round the stomach) is perhaps more relevant than BMI. Particularly as Covid seems so linked to diabetes.

Solid Organ Transplant

This is the US Center for Disease Control updated list of most vulnerable conditions.
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html

Severe asthma

Neutropenia

My dh has to shield due to severe asthma which is treated by a drug which lowers immunity slightly.

3 different types of kidney disease....

One type in particular , Is caused by inflammation and im currently not in remission

Immunosuppressed plus a heart and lung issue.

Stage 4 cancer. The medication I take made me high risk not the cancer.

Severe lung disease (cystic bronchiectasis.)

Severe asthma.

I assume they would use something like the alama assessment if doing it again. It makes a lot of sense and really helped me to understand the relative risks.

alama.org.uk/covid-19-medical--assessment/

Undergoing chemo - not for cancer but another serous condition that means I would quite likely die if I get covid. Also taking steroids and a dmard

Severe Bronchiectasis.

Cardiomyopathy

@FedUpSomeMore

Severe Bronchiectasis.

Sympathies - my mum had chronic bronchiectasis.

Me: t2 diabetes - on insulin but high hba1c history, plus asthma .

Had major Lung Surgery, Asthmatic

I believe the GPs identified these patients.
I know x2 people who didn’t officially fall into any of the official high risk groups, but felt their family members condition was high risk, so both rang GPs and were added to the official sheilding list.
I mean what gp would say no back in March?

I didn't think that it did 'vary widely across the country'?
There was a government list of vulnerable and clinically extremely vulnerable conditions.
My husband got a letter from his GP and another from his consultant.
Prior to that I rang the GP as his condition/s were on the list and they confirmed that he should shield.
He is on biologic therapies and has COPD.
He also got the scary emails in March. And free delivery from Asda.
Oh, and the council rang a couple of times to see if he was okay.
I'm a teacher and I was exempt from going into school when the key worker children were going in.

Lymphoma

Learning disability. Letter from GP We kept him away from shops etc but didn't shield since he wouldn't have coped with that.

My child has a severe learning disability which put them on the vulnerable list as their doctor said they didn’t have the understanding to stay 2 meters away from others.
They certainly didn’t quality to be shielded, does your child have an underlying health condition as well sleepyblueocean

There was no variation across the country, or even between home nations, on who was on the shielding list.

GPs had to identify the qualities flying patents, it was a big task, and (a bit like school return policy) was subject to changing definitions (eg what counted as severe enough in certain conditions where only the most severely affected were included)

I don't think many of the 'vulnerable' list of conditions are likely to be moved to shielded, with the possible exception of type 1 diabetes.

It's currently the 3% of the population who are the most medically vulnerable (substantial risk of death) and as shielding is such a huge ask of people, there's quite an imperative to keep it very much to those who would be most ill, most at risk of severe complications and death

(Do remember that the government did this to avoid them falling ill first and becoming bed-blockers - knowing compliance would be high because of self-interest - not least because of the leak about failing the Three Wise Men test)

Do other countries have a shield list? Or other procedures for the exceptionally vulnerable? If so, who are they for, and what does it mean for the individual?

Interested to know the reasons why people had to shield at home

• solid organ transplant recipients
• people with specific cancers:

- people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy - people with lung cancer who are undergoing radical radiotherapy - people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment people having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer - people having other targeted cancer treatments that can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors

• people who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs
• people with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• people with rare diseases that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), homozygous sickle cell)
• people on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
• women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired
• other people who have also been classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, based on clinical judgement and an assessment of their needs. GPs and hospital clinicians have been provided with guidance to support these decisions

Yellowbutterfly1 no he doesn't. When we got the letter we queried why and they said it was because he would have difficulty complying with/ find distressing medical treatment. He is medically under no greater risk of being very unwell than any other child. We didn't do it because he would have found not going out too distressing.

Ds (10) is on the shielding list, he has severe asthma but also structural issues with his lungs and airways which impact his ability to clear them.