Given it is 70% more transmissible, what are you doing to protect yourself from Covid? Has this changed?

[loveyouradvice]

So at the moment we are:

• social distancing and wearing masks
• feeling fairly relaxed if outside in uncrowded spaces
• doing as little "inside stuff with other people" as possible ie minimal supermarket, vet or shopping trips
• walking with one other friend or chatting in the street
• hand washing when come back

We are not:

• wiping down things as we did before or leaving them 48 hours before touching if not
• being too worried about what we touch when out and about

BUT does 70% more transmissible mean we should be doing more?

What are you doing? And what do you think makes the difference?

This was posted on another thread. It was filmed before the publicity about the new strain.
www.rsm.ac.uk/resources/covid-the-festive-season-expert-advice-for-staying-safe/

It's Dr Chris van Tulleken who's brother was very seriously ill with covid. The precautions he is taking are probably more stringent than most. In particular with touching things. So I think I'll be going back to more wiping down which had lapsed.

Dreading January as I can’t protect myself working as a TA with no mask.

Thanks Phyzzy good viewing....

Still not sure how long to leave things before touching them - like Amazon deliveries - we'd moved to 24 hours or washing our hands after opening....

Same as ever.

I’m in an area where cases are rocketing. We’re staying inside and only walking in the evening when there are very few people out and limiting shopping to once a week.

Well as both my DC have to self isolate until after Christmas due to a positive case at school on the last day of term, we are all staying at home for a while. And then we will no doubt all be in tier 4 anyway

I'm relieved we are finally all at home safe.
I don't know what we will do when we are all mixing again with 3 school between.
Try and pull back from shops, etc.

I am sure the new strain is much more infectious, but does anyone scientific know how they came up with the number 70%?

No idea but Peston tweeted an extract from the NERVTAG advice if that helps?

twitter.com/peston/status/1340673477561511936?s=21

Nothing

I had in May

Given sars 1 has immunity 18!years later and this is more similar to it than any other corona virus, I’m confident of my survival - yes some people have caught it twice but that is the same as any other virus of their immune systems are not 100%

I’m 45 and obese but I had a mild infection.

But I’m not prepared to live in stasis and artificial life just because something bad may happen

Taking vitamin D. Everyone should be taking 4000 iu per day, and maybe taking a loading dose of 10,000 per day for the first fortnight to give levels an initial boost, according to these articles in the national press this week

www.thenational.scot/news/18943999.increasing-vitamin-d-levels-help-reduce-covid-19-deaths/ (Open letter co-signed by over 100 prominent scientists and doctors)

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201215063124/www.thenational.scot/news/18944118.treat-taking-vitamin-d-like-mask-wearing-medical-professionals-urge/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20201215063124/www.thenational.scot/news/18944118.treat-taking-vitamin-d-like-mask-wearing-medical-professionals-urge/

Also - taking zinc, which helps prevent viral replication.
Drinking green tea - EGCG helps transport zinc into the cells.
Taking high strength vitamin C.
Trying to minimise sugar and alcohol, but less strictly over the festive period, they can really dampen the immune system.

Going to buy some (dark chocolate) Brazil nuts for the selenium, which is also anti-viral.

I'm doing the same as before, deliveries only, don't go into shops, wipe stuff down (food shop) or open parcel tip contents onto chair in my porch then straight into the bin with the packaging and wash my hands.

Disinfect my gate and letterbox every other day.

Only get takeaways and hand-wash as soon as I get in the door.

It might seem OTT to some but I'm asthmatic and the fittest guy in the office ended up on a ventilator he's mid 40's. I prefer not to play covid roulette

Pretty much exactly the same as you, OP, but I did get my haircut at 4pm yesterday(!), which I am feeling a little concerned about as we are a tier 4 area. I was umming and ahhing about it but hadn't had my hair cut for a year...

Oh and had only ever wiped down shopping once!

You can't speak for everyone here. That is what you're doing and not doing. Not everyone.
That's why OP asked what you were doing

Nothing different to before here.

Been taking vitamins including vitamin D since last January following an operation. I've got a haircut tomorrow and then we'll do a late evening trip to the supermarket to get all the final bits for the Christmas period.

So apart from a medical appointment on Wednesday (I feel safe at the clinic and never seen another patient when I go) and a good few walks on the beach, we will be staying home. I wfh and hubby is on mandatory leave until January.

We are in T4
DH is a keyworker and will be commuting to central London until Wednesday.
I shall be going to Sainsburys
Wash hands regularly
Went to work two days a week since 18th June
DS gets home from uni in T4 tonight.
If there's a 70% greater chance of catching it that's 70% more of a very tiny percentage chance. Therefore I am not unduly worried.
If we do catch it as a 59 and 60 year old our chances of dying are infinitesimal.
We have lost all proportionality.

What we are doing:

Not going out except for walks and doctor/dentist
Wiping groceries/parcels or leaving them for a while

This is pretty much what we’ve been doing since March.

Except one time in summer we went to a Starbucks drive thru for iced coffee.