Broom cupboard 4 - soon be time to think about heating this place

[TheHoneyBadger]

Will post this on the end of the other thread too but I have just found this:

If you are identified as a contact and asked to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace, including by the NHS COVID-19 app you may be entitled to a payment of £500 from your local authority under the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme. If you are the parent or guardian of a child who has been told to self-isolate you may also be entitled to this payment.

^Presumably that is all of the 'thought' that has gone into the situation I've been talking about. Still doesn't tell us if we would be seen as taking unauthorised leave or able to work from home or anything - need union specific advice on that.

Oops not recently. March! But if they’re overwhelmed…

@JanglyBeads

This morning on Parents Utd some suggestions that the number of ppl getting pos LFT but neg PCR might be due to a new variant.... no idea whether that idea has any scientific merit or not though?!

It’s such an adaptable virus, I don’t think it is straying into the realms of Science Denial to think so!

Wasn’t the poor practice in the lighthouse labs more to do with h&s and protecting the staff from getting covid from the samples? It’s possible that might also stretch to their ability to carry out assays too but I don’t know if it would cause a change.

There’s always been a sizeable false negative on the PCR. Somebody with better understanding of probability than me might know what increased prevalence of Covid might do to the chances of a positive LFT and neg PCR meaning you have covid.

There is also precedence for a new variant doing this. There was a cluster of cases in Brittany at the start of this year that had a mutation that meant it wasn’t picked up on any of the different PCR tests at the time.

Different manufacturer’s PCR tests look at different loci so theoretically it would be possible to take 2 different PCR tests and have 1 come back positive and one negative if you have covid. Although unlikely I would think.

I’ve been wondering about whether or not all new varieties would show up, unless new tests were regularly created.

However. At home with cough, sore chest and generally blergh. PCR done this morning at a rammed local centre. Apparently around 48hours for results instead of the previous 12-24. Work will be thrilled.

Thanks Rafa. Yes I was thinking re Brittany. Loci in this case meaning what?

But don’t test centres always say 48 hrs no matter what’s actually happening on the ground? Hope you feel better soon.

It’s the part of the coronavirus genome the PCR tests are looking for. I think 3 in this case. Different manufacturer’s tests will be primed to look for different parts.

One of the reasons the alpha/Kent variant was identified because they were finding a lot of test results with a drop out on one of the genes the test used in the U.K. looks for.

We’d never have spotted that from testing at home because the test they used there uses different areas of the genome that hadn’t changed. It was the number of contacts that went on to get Covid that gave the clue that our second outbreak was alpha.

Test centres were much busier her this week than last and last week saying 24hs, this week 24-48hrs.

If it is starting to be ancross country thing then it can't be a lab issue. I can only think of two options.

1 - a virus that isn't covid but triggers lfds
2 - a new covid varient that doesn't show up on pcrs

My head is being amazing. Keeping me out for an extra day or two, one as extra sick day and one as ppa from home day to make sure I have been out for at least 7 days since symptoms starting. Couldn't ask for better. She really is taking her duty of care for the pupils and staff very seriously indeed.

On another positive note. Having no sense of smell is a real bonus when you realise you accidentally shut the cat in the house overnight!

Hasn’t one concern been that as older cohorts get vaccinated, the confinement of infection to younger people in environments that enhance and encourage transmission is likely to generate new variants that thrive in such conditions?
Cue panicked headlines in 3..2..1..

Pcr 4 is positive! Trying to work out wtf to do now!

@JanglyBeads

This morning on Parents Utd some suggestions that the number of ppl getting pos LFT but neg PCR might be due to a new variant.... no idea whether that idea has any scientific merit or not though?!

Any variant that avoids tests is going to evolve simply because then people Gp out and spread it rather than isolating. Is my basic answer!

I wouldn't be surprised

Sorry, Any variant that evolves to avoid tests is going to spread simply because then people go out and spread rather than isolating (is what I meant!)

@SquashedFlyBiscuits

Pcr 4 is positive! Trying to work out wtf to do now!

Ah sorry!

That's exactly what happened to my Colleague. Get well soon.

My vote is for a new varient. It is going to go round schools even faster than we thought if we have a varient that doesn't show up well on pcrs!

I am completely illiterate on mn when typing on my phone. I really am not like this in the classroom. I promise!

Well that’s interesting, Squashed because that suggests you do have covid and the LFTs picked it up and the “gold standard” PCRs didn’t, until it had really developed.

That suggests we shouldn’t be allowing a negative PCR to overrule a positive LFT (particularly several positive LFTs).

Was it the new style LFT?

Would the efficacy of the LFTs wane as they got older? They paid out a lot of money and are still giving them out to schools (the older type tests).

Just in case anyone fancies a bunfight on another thread of dread:

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/21/more-than-100000-pupils-off-school-in-england-last-week-amid-covid-surge

And this can't be because of contacts SIing!!

Although, you may note, we have now become heroic.

Old style lfts blue and white box.

Just taken dh for pcr no 4. Will be interested to see his result. Did an lfd on him and it is a stronger positive than my lfd was today so he should come back as pcr positive - we shall see.

An extra bit of info is that at pcr no 4 for me (the positive one) the testing team said they had just switched processing labs to one north of us. I think pcrs 1,2&3 for the family (the negative ones) would have gone to the lab south of us. I asked at dh's pcr test 4 (at a different test site) which lab it was going to and they said the South one. Dh are wondering whether he will come back negative and it is the way the pcrs are processed there. We shall see.

I am finding all very interesting. Sort of like an isolation escape room challenge!

Love that Zahawi says there are more pupils in school now than at this time last year because of all our hard work. Nothing to do with the change in the isolation rules then?

Well my pcr came back negative and lfts were all negative so I'm reassured that this is just a cold. However I have completely lost my voice so I wouldn't have been any use in the classroom anyway. I know I shouldn't feel bad about missing work, especially atm. My classes will all have managed fine without me and we aren't struggling for cover yet. Do all teachers get the guilt?

@Fenelladepompom

Love that Zahawi says there are more pupils in school now than at this time last year because of all our hard work. Nothing to do with the change in the isolation rules then?

Masters of spin, the lot of them. At least the Guardian didn't fall for it!