Good News Part 6 - we're gonna need a bigger boat. Yeah Science!

[InterfectoremVulpes]

Good news and vibes only please

Some little, local good news from me. The hospital in which I work, and my role means I go to all parts and compile figures, and speak to staff, is doing much better than we were before Christmas, when we were in serious jeopardy of running out of Covid beds and not having enough staff. At our worst (and we are a fairly small DGH) we had between 40 and 50 Covid patients over 3 wards and only 3 wards to look after non Covid patients, had to cancel cancer surgery due to inability to safely care for them in ITU, and staff sickness was high with poor morale.
Now, we have less than 20 Covid pts on wards, with patients on ITU who have been there for some time (not suggesting this is good news per se) and have tentatively restarted cancer surgery, adapting ward based care to be higher dependency. The mood is palpably better and I feel better going to work
I am in the UK but not England.

@Confusedismyname

Some good news. Our town has a new vaccine centre opening Monday with a capacity for 20,000 a week. Dh is CEV and we’re just waiting for that letter.

My very lovely CEV friend is having hers tomorrow. She's a solid organ transplant recipient. I'm so happy for her. I hope your DH gets his appointment soon.

That’s so good to hear, Sprouts.

I've just come on for my good news fix and to say several things:

I have ALWAYS wanted a pet baby elephant but my AWFUL family will not let me have one. We have a frigging gerbil.

I have a huge soft spot for Chris Whitty too, but sorry Ladies, he's taken. He works with a friend - he is apparently as lovely and devoted as he looks on TV.

Anyway, the real reason I'm here is I've been doing a bit of reading about the Israel vaccination study on Twitter and the results are probably even stronger than they look. They compared a group of over 60s who had the vaccine early on with a group who had not at that point had it. They then watched them over the next couple of weeks. However, during those weeks, quite a few (don't know how many) of the 'control' group ended up having the vaccine too. So, what they ended up comparing is a group of people who all had the vaccine, with another group, some of whom had and some of whom hadn't. This will almost certainly have reduced infections in the control group and will have made the reduction due to the vaccine (cited at 60%) look smaller than it really was. Second, they only followed them for a couple of weeks and it looks to me as if the lines on the chart were still diverging. In a few more weeks, and especially after the second dose, you would expect a bigger difference still. I don't know if I've explained that very well, but long story short, 60% reduction after the vaccine is probably an under-estimate!

Thank you Clarexbp. I love hearing about these things, especially when someone else has done the hard work of researching it all!

Definitely should be Sir Chris. I’ve heard he’s lovely from people who’ve worked with him.

I may have mentioned I think Sir Simon is quite interesting too .. 😳

Thank you for all the continued good news.

[quote tootyfruitypickle]@TheCountessofFitzdotterel. That is exactly the kind of husband I have in mind. The last one was under my feet too much .[/quote]
That really made me laugh.

Oh god - just read some of the schools/Easter thread and really wish I hadn’t.
Thank you ok for your post @clarexbp for some balance.

My take from the press conference was that there was some cautious optimism but they really need people to stick to the rules so are playing it all down. Which is sensible I think.

Aww I like Witty too. Every time I see him on TV I think God that poor chap looks like he needs a good nap bless him.

@tobee I have tried scrolling down on John Campbell videos on my phone 😳😆

Why did I just check tomorrow's papers? Just why? Quick last look in here before bed to make life worthwhile again. I just want it all to get better.

Sorry it's not good news, but getting it out helps.

@OrangeBananaFish just concentrate on the headlines about vaccines. I believe we are now officially on track for the middle of Feb target even if we don’t accelerate further (which we hope we will of course!)

[quote TeaInTheGarden]@tobee I have tried scrolling down on John Campbell videos on my phone 😳😆[/quote]
Lol

[quote pollyhemlock]@PopcornAndWine you will like these threads. They are very helpful. Avoid almost all the others on this topic![/quote]
Oh I do! Full of dementors.

DH and I have a bottle of Prosecco in the fridge that I got for my birthday. We have decided we will crack it open when the daily case rate drops below 2000 (we're in Ireland).

Something to look forward to

Did you see this on coronavirus good news Twitter? Or has it been posted already?

I just wanted to say this thread isn't about ignoring the bad things happening and being in denial. I had a really down day the other other day and several posters acknowledged my fears but made me feel better. I really appreciated that. Thank you everyone

What a wonderful thread.
So needed. I've tried to be glass half full throughout the pandemic. But it's started to become really challenging to do so, and I was just starting to feel a really dark cloud descending over me. An awful feeling of impending sorrow and of giving up. But I've just found this thread, just in time, and the dark cloud is dispersing again, and the hope returning. There is light.
Thank you so much

@WanderingFruitWonderer - welcome! I’m a long-time lurker. Definitely don’t bury my head in the sand, but this thread is just great. It helps balance out some of the madness elsewhere.

IMO it’s the best thread for those that are fully aware of the risks, understand WHY measures are in place, but can still feel frustrated by them - and don’t want “hysterical” thrown at them for feeling either way.

I’m still mostly going to be a lurker, but am grateful to all those who take the time to post the good news that needs to be seen and understood.

Aww, thank you @Furries. Yes, I definitely fit the profile you describe.
I've seen the title of this thread, while scrolling through others, several times. But for some reason not actually opened it before today. Though I possibly didn't need it so much before. I clicked on it at exactly the right time for me I think. It was the latest news about the new strain possibly being more deadly that tipped the positivity/negativity scales in the wrong direction for me. But, I'm feeling a bit more positive again, after reading comments on this thread. I think I'll be a regular from now on...

I love this thread and its keeping me sane - can I request a positive opinion on Hancock saying the vaccine may be up to 50% less effective on the SA variant? Are they trying to keep people behaving?

@Northernbeachbum

I love this thread and its keeping me sane - can I request a positive opinion on Hancock saying the vaccine may be up to 50% less effective on the SA variant? Are they trying to keep people behaving?

To be honest I think most people are ignoring him at the moment. He is talking about something that the research is not complete or clear on.

The general impression I get is the scientists don't know enough yet. So he is right in that I wouldn't be banking on a holiday abroad quite yet. However wrong to be mentioning figures based on uncomplicated information.

Also personally I think he is probably a very nice man that is out of his depth. Never struck me as understanding what half the stuff he has to announce means.

@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum thank you. I've had a really upbeat few weeks after lurking on these threads but that was a bit too much this morning so needed a kick up the ass and your reply was perfect

@WanderingFruitWonderer

Aww, thank you *@Furries*. Yes, I definitely fit the profile you describe. I've seen the title of this thread, while scrolling through others, several times. But for some reason not actually opened it before today. Though I possibly didn't need it so much before. I clicked on it at exactly the right time for me I think. It was the latest news about the new strain possibly being more deadly that tipped the positivity/negativity scales in the wrong direction for me. But, I'm feeling a bit more positive again, after reading comments on this thread. I think I'll be a regular from now on...

Yeah, I think it’s easy sometimes to get dragged in by other thread titles (and constant questions of “when will .., etc). This thread is a grounding point for me. Any new news will generally be broken down and explained (ie the 30% more “deadly’ that’s probably over the headlines won’t quantify that what they said was based on a 60 year-old etc). And that’s not me saying that anyone over 60 should worry, more that the press can focus on the first half of a sentence and leave off the final part.

In my head, my summary is always - it’s a huge pile of 💩, but there’s a thread I can go to that will help me find chinks of light.

That helps - as does the odd 🍷🤣