770 students at Northumbria test positive.

[Gobacktothe90s]

770 students test positive at Northumbria

https://www.ladbible.com/news/uk-outbreak-at-uk-university-sees-770-students-test-positive-for-covid-19-20201002?c=1601655033701%3Fsource%3Dfacebook&fbclid=IwAR2zpVljTZshbUGlHRo4MKwmTHiJtZxUoCjj_MUX3n2FobXOJLbw-gl3G-Y

Isn’t this what we wanted? We needed to get the youngsters away from the old and infirm and get some herd immunity. It’s almost like this has been planned! 😬

@justanotherneighinparadise

Isn’t this what we wanted? We needed to get the youngsters away from the old and infirm and get some herd immunity. It’s almost like this has been planned! 😬

But medical experts say herd immunity won't work as immunity is short lived, and the virus always tracks back to vulnerable people. Plus 10% with long covid - some students will be badly affected so off for months.

If this were planned it would be a huge scandal and an ethical disgrace. Governments can not tell people there are measures in place to prevent spread if the intention is to allow it to spread.

@thingsarelookingup

I don't understand how the UK apparently has such an issue with false positives. Why don't countries that have the virus under control have the same issues? For example how can New Zealand and Australia test many thousands of people with no or very few positives. Are they using a different test?

I'm sure I read that spain have changed their criteria because of false positives. Something to do with the amount of cycles, if it was over a certain amount they're not classed as a case. Will try and dig it out

How’s herd immunity working for Sweden at the moment?

"Send all the students back home for god's sake. Remote learning is the only way now for them otherwise this will be a continuing theme for god knows how long"

Alot of degrees can't be done from home espscially vocational ones. I did my teacher training at northumbria uni. Even when we weren't on placement we were on site 9-5 everyday as there was so much content. I was on the health and education campus with people training to be midwives, nurses, etc. These things can't be done from home.

Where has 10% long covid figure come from? That seems very high.

I've read that as the students were privately tested by the uni then these cases won't count in daily figures as not pillar 1 or 2 cases.
That is shocking if it is true

@thingsarelookingup

I don't understand how the UK apparently has such an issue with false positives. Why don't countries that have the virus under control have the same issues? For example how can New Zealand and Australia test many thousands of people with no or very few positives. Are they using a different test?

I don't know and I am by no means an expert. But if you target testing to settings or communities where prevalence is expected to be higher, false positives are much less of an issue. Which is why I think mass testing of healthy people is a silly strategy. But I'm willing to find out more and change my tune.

I wonder if covid tests are a bit like full body scans.

Most of us living with stuff that's never caused us any bother and same aitg civud we are possibly all living with it unknown and now its been discovered you don't know what to do.

@IwishIwasyoda

I think this aptly highlights how ridiculous all the rules are and it may need a rethink re everything we think we know.

If only 10% of a younger population are showing symptoms, there is frankly a good chance that many many more people have had Covid between Feb-March this year than the predictions. I do wonder if the same thing happened in Italy and far more of the population were infected early on, hence no second wave.

I accept for some people Covid is and will remain a worry but increasingly I think we need to monitor the situation, treat people as adults and relax some of the frankly contradictory rules

Flip this the other way around.

If this percentage of a young population who might reasonably be expected to have been partying in March were susceptible enough to catch it now then either they didn't catch it in Feb-March or immunity isn't lasting.

My dd is an Uni, sharing a flat with 3 others. She and I are both vulnerable with compromised immune systems. There are student at her Uni who are ill with COVID, there are students who are behaving idiotically vis a vis masks, distancing etc etc etc. There have been loads of complaints locally to her about students piling on trains to go to the beach on the last nice days we're like to have this year.

I would nevertheless rather she stayed where she was and continued to study and was able to access the Uni library. I am really worried they will close and there'll be no library access. I think she's safer in her flat, which she shares with 3 others (at least 2 of whom are as sensible as she is - together they'll get the 3rd to behave) than that she comes home where she'll have 4 hours of f2f tuition a week (ffs, for 9K!) and be bored, lonely, and stressed about our shitty broadband, like she was all summer.

@Jrobhatch29

"Send all the students back home for god's sake. Remote learning is the only way now for them otherwise this will be a continuing theme for god knows how long"

Alot of degrees can't be done from home espscially vocational ones. I did my teacher training at northumbria uni. Even when we weren't on placement we were on site 9-5 everyday as there was so much content. I was on the health and education campus with people training to be midwives, nurses, etc. These things can't be done from home.

It's not binary. Why not send the ones home who don't need to be on campus to reduce the numbers/risks of those who do.

I heard on radio 4 this past week just o.8 per cent are false positive which is apparently 8 every 1000.

That's very low which is good. It really does depend on who is being tested though.

The false positive rate is higher when you’re testing a large group of people who are less likely to actually have it.

If you’re testing a group of people who are really likely to have it (e.g. housemates of a confirmed case) then the false positive rate is much lower.

Nice calculator here - www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1808

Also From Sky News -

A public health source has suggested the figures may need to be reconsidered, however.

They told Sky News: "They (the university) are reporting more cases than the whole of the district of Newcastle.

"We wonder if they are counting all isolating students - including contacts - rather than cases.

The local public health team is investigating. The university only gets self-reported data, after all."

Exactly and the worrying thing for me if it is high false positives then it leads to there being a perception of a high proportion of asymptomatic people

I'm currently a student at a big university, 200 cases so far, another 160 at a different university and students I chat to online say the published numbers aren't even 1/4 of the actual cases. A few have been quite ill with it, in bed for a week etc.

However, I have always thought these young people are better off in halls, where to a certain extent uni's can control their behaviour. They cannot particularly stop the students being in contact with the wider community, but realistically not many have part time jobs yet, they are being controlled when they should be isolating, tested regularly (moreso than if they were in family homes) and many aren't leaving campus. The SU building is open and staffed by students and local shops and bars etc tend to be staffed by students and I imagine, avoided by locals. So they are in effect in their own community. Obviously there are staff and lecturers. I have 4 online sessions a week and 1 f2f tutorial that lasts 45 mins in a large well ventilated room with recorded seat numbers etc.

I can't help but think they are being used as Guinea pigs and were deliberately sent back to protect the wider population and to track how it spreads in closed communities. But do believe its the best place they can be if they are mentally robust enough to deal with it all.

The rte news website has been doing a piece interviewing those who had Covid the long term effects are horrendous for many.
These aren't old people's stories they were active people now with chronic fatigue 6 months later.
One young doctor had no idea he had it as only had a block nose in April 8 weeks later he was in ICU with organ failure white fit 23 y.o.
Another 21 y.o carer tested positive for antibodies she took a stroke in June, fit 53 y.o marathon runner female can only walk 20 steps, 17 y.o no underlying health conditions 2 weeks on life support now needs a walking aid.
It might seem like fear mongering they are real people with genuine stories.

Thanks for that link @JellyBabiesSaveLives that is really interesting.

I'm currently a student at a big university, 200 cases so far, another 160 at a different university and students I chat to online say the published numbers aren't even 1/4 of the actual cases. A few have been quite ill with it, in bed for a week etc.

What published data are you talking about though? The ONS data shows there are a high number of cases in University areas of Manchester, Leeds ,Liverpool but there are a lot of cases in those cities anyway. In many university cities, cases are not higher around universities compared with other areas.

"it's not binary. Why not send the ones home who don't need to be on campus to reduce the numbers/risks of those who do"

Which was exactly my point..its not a binary send them all home either....

They can't "send" anyone home. They can obviously encourage people to go home but that is different. Not everyone will want to go and they certainly can't be made to go . Students at university are not similar to children at boarding school.

@Belladonna12

They can't "send" anyone home. They can obviously encourage people to go home but that is different. Not everyone will want to go and they certainly can't be made to go . Students at university are not similar to children at boarding school.

For a start they can agree to refund rents paid in advance for uni owned accommodation as an incentive for students to go home.

I have always thought these young people are better off in halls, where to a certain extent uni's can control their behaviour.

Some Unis aren't bothering to "control" the behaviour of some students. The campus/college bars are open without students having to give their details for tracing, without social distancing being enforced, etc. There are parties in halls which are being reported to campus security who are doing bugger all to stop them. There are students tested positive who should be isolated still strutting around the campus, going to bars, going to parties, going home, etc., and the uni are doing nothing to police isolation. It's about time the general public realised just how pathetically inept the universities are re enforcing the covid rules & guidance. They've basically made unis safe for their lecturers (by making them work at home) and are idly standing by whilst some students are doing what the hell they want. It's grossly unfair to the majority of students who want to be sensible and abide by the rules/guidance.