Where are people contracting covid

[England101]

I work in the NHS treating patients with Covid I wear a face shield, face mask, gloves and apron. I wash my hands, change my clothes as soon as I get home and wear new clean clothes everyday l only go out for work and shopping. I use zoom to socialise and I’ve taken this time to learn ( webinars) and start yoga. lf i do go out I wear a mask, regularly sanitise my hands and sanitise any products like post that comes into my home. I do this because I’ve seen the terrible effects of Covid and I’ve NEVER had covid ( I have access to 2 home tests per week).

A few friends of mine who have been WFH or furloughed since March have managed to contract COVID in the last few weeks/months. They with live along or with a partner (also WFH or furloughed) some other very small children ( ie not in nursery or school) so I don’t understand how they have contracted the virus. Are they not adhering to the rules? Do they not wash their hands? Any thoughts?

@inquietant

I'm really about this type of post.

Basically you're blaming the public for catching covid. Maybe you're just a better person than everyone else and that's why you haven't caught it?.

Interestingly the government push this line a lot when they have been caught out being negligent/incompetent.

I agree. It's smacks of ooooo look me I have been really good and therefore I have avoided it, therefore everyone who catches it must have been breaking the rules.

In the past 3-4 weeks I know of:

1 who caught it in hospital (negative before admission for surgery, came on 5 days later)
1 from giving someone a lift in a car who tested positive next day
2 likely from supermarket as hadn’t been anywhere else
1 from work (positive colleague)
Probably around 8 families whose children had caught it at school and brought it home.

And yet schools are “safe” are they Boris??

I caught it in a supermarket the week before Christmas. It is the only place I have been, there wasn’t a single other shop I physically went into as I did all Xmas shopping online. It was too busy as the shop had let too many people in even though we were all wearing masks. I felt unsafe and people were getting too close to me. 5 days later I came down with Covid symptoms and tested positive. It completely ruined Xmas and New Year.

@England101
Although you are tested every week, do you know for sure that you haven't had it...ie have you had an anti body test?

It seems a lot of people have had it and never knew, despite it causing physical damage. A friend who is a doctor said it is worrying the number of people presenting at hospital or being referred for non Covid symptoms are revealed to have lung damage and clots etc which are typical Covid effects. She thinks the legacy of this will be with us for many years

I think you've been lucky so far, I do also feel this virus is a bit random and something is up with how it can be easily contagious for some, and then not for others. For example, a friends partner caught it after spending 1 day with someone else. But comes back, lives with this other person, only isolates from friend in another room about 2 days later and friend hasn't caught it. He spent all of Christmas Day (probably positive then too) with 3 people in his house, but none of them caught if... Strikes me as odd. But people can catch it just by passing someone in a supermarket.

My mil has been going to shops a few times a week and has worked as a hairdresser, I find it interesting to see how some people seem to visit the hotpots but still not catch it and others are practically isolating and still catch it

We think my dad caught it at a hospital appointment or from a supermarket delivery. He’d done else other then walk outside when he caught it...

My sister caught it working in a bar and my cousin caught it working in a pre school.
I think supermarkets are a hit spot too.

Just to add...my friends husband is a doctor and he caught it...poorly for two weeks. One daughter tested positive with extremely mild symptoms. my friend and other daughter didn't seem to catch it. She suspects they did but were symptomatic as having slept in the same bed as DH it was very unlikely she didn't....unless her vitamin d tablets protected her!!!

Of the people I know who have had it recently:

One caught it in hospital
Two parents wfh but with three kids in school so assume their kids brought it home
A family think they got it from a meal out when restaurants reopened after the November lockdown - they went as a family unit but were seated next to a table of mixed households and the tables were not sufficiently distanced.

So all people who were playing by the rules.

I’m in a COVID-free country, but talking to friends in the UK this very morning....

• kids being picked up from school by their friends and going home for play dates.

• people accidentally ‘meeting up’ for a walk with a load of other friends (and posting about it on FB).

• kids going on weekend sleepovers.

• someone coming down with symptoms after spending time with someone who had a positive result. And then their DP that they live with, popping out to visit her Mum.

This is all stuff that just seems beyond 😳 to me, and I live in an isolated, relatively sparsely populated (COVID-free) country. The UK absolutely is not either of these things.

And people seem to be perplexed that it’s spreading like wildfire.

In fact, this seems to be the irony.

Here we are in our country, with its various natural advantages, and we took it super seriously.

The UK does not have the advantages we have, so the majority of people have thrown their hands into the air, declaring it to be Too Hard, while simultaneously moaning about the ongoing shit show, and ‘we can’t possibly be compared to X or Y country, because yada, yada, yada...’

I find it odd that people talk about supermarkets being hot spots. Neither me or any of my colleagues have had it. I think many people arent telling the truth and are meeting up with people but not saying and catching it elsewhere and saying the only place they've been is the supermarket. I'm sure people do catch it there but not as much as these studies suggest.

I think many people arent telling the truth and are meeting up with people but not saying and catching it elsewhere and saying the only place they've been is the supermarket.

I suspect you’re bang on the money.

My dd had it a couple of weeks ago. Apart from school we don't go anywhere, dh and i wfh since March and been following all guidance on mixing etc. Rare visits to the shops for food. I guess she caught it in school from someone asymptomatic in her class as no one else said they were positive. Her teacher then caught it from her.

1 x school (teacher)
1 x hospital (nurse)
1 x unknown

@TheOneLeggedJockey

*I think many people arent telling the truth and are meeting up with people but not saying and catching it elsewhere and saying the only place they've been is the supermarket.

I suspect you’re bang on the money*.

Yes you are bang on the money. Neighbours in my road are routinely ignoring it in respect of visitors to their houses. Kids have friends around. Christmas maybe not like normal but for most it started xmas eve and continued to at least Boxing Day

@TheOneLeggedJockey can I just say, with significant experience of being an expat, please don’t overplay the anecdata and look on with a superior sense of disbelief when you’re not here. It’s always the exaggerated stories to which people attach themselves, never the hundreds of boring ones like you’re seeing on this thread.

So whilst yes absolutely, too many people are not following the rules to the letter, please rest assured there are not 55,000 people a day running round having sleepovers and play dates and crowded woodland walks. There are certainly a few stories, they’re the ones people latch on to and the ones that will be shared by those who want convince themselves it only happens to someone else, but that’s not causing the majority of the problem.

When daughter returned from skiing in Austria late Feb. There were little other sources of CV infection at the time.

the graph i looked at yesterday which was shared here, showed Shopping to be the top contributor.
i guess Christmas shopping was a huge reason.
otoh perhaps when questioned people were lying about breaking the rules?

oh i see what i have just written has already been said

Perhaps you've had it op and you're not so invincible after all? Get an antibody and T cell test! Then come back here.

Everyone I know who had had it have got it from school/ school aged children bringing it home 🤷🏻‍♀️

one in three cases are asymptomatic.
so apart from work, shopping, household, from a gate?
being in a lift?

Several teacher friends have got it from school. Other friends don't know but it must be the supermarket because they've been no where else.
Is that ok?

I'll hold my hands up here. A lot of my family have had it- on my husband's side.

We weren't following the rules. All of MIL's 4 children visited her regularly, with their respective partners and children. MIL was widowed this year and it's been a tough time for everyone.

MIL caught it from one of them (who doesn't not wfh) and it spread in the family. My household were lucky, we isolated and tested negative. We were the only household that escaped it. We broke the rules and paid the price for it. I believe others are doing the same.