Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

[road2ruin]

A bit of positive news on the case numbers front with numbers down for the fourth consecutive day with 36,000 logged which is down from 46,000 odd on the 20th July.

Looks like another of Professor Dooms predictions of 200,000 per day is heading down the swanny.

 

[need_my_wedge]

We did a caravan holiday about a month ago. Was quite good, better than expected. Would do centre parks as well, but we had our last one cancelled eventually and rebooking it was double the price.

Not been in a caravan since a scarred holiday as a kid some 50 years ago. Heading up to Dornoch in September, our normal Airbnb spot already taken, have resorted to booking a static caravan ?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Not been in a caravan since a scarred holiday as a kid some 50 years ago. Heading up to Dornoch in September, our normal Airbnb spot already taken, have resorted to booking a static caravan ?

Statics are a world of difference from the caravans of 50yrs ago. They really are very nice now and I wouldn't worry about staying in one ?

 

[larmen]

They are basically 2 bedroom flats that can wobble a bit.
Just like a normal 2 bedroom flat in this country ;-)

It was bigger than my partners apartment in London. The kitchen was a bit limited but enough to make pasta and breakfast.

Take your own salt, dish soap and sponge, … . You can but everything on side, but it’s probably cheaper just to take a little with you.

 

[road2ruin]

A bit of positive news on the case numbers front with numbers down for the fourth consecutive day with 36,000 logged which is down from 46,000 odd on the 20th July.

Looks like another of Professor Dooms predictions of 200,000 per day is heading down the swanny.

Shade under 32,000 new cases today, yet another day dropping so going in the right direction.

 

[williamalex1]

They are basically 2 bedroom flats that can wobble a bit.
Just like a normal 2 bedroom flat in this country ;-)

It was bigger than my partners apartment in London. The kitchen was a bit limited but enough to make pasta and breakfast.

Take your own salt, dish soap and sponge, … . You can but everything on side, but it’s probably cheaper just to take a little with you.

Don't come Knockin when the caravan is rocking , Oh the memories? Lol

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I was out in Newcastle last night for a Chinese. Lovely too ?. Signs in the restaurant asking for masks to be worn. We wore them but others didn't. It jarred but that was our issue, we need to psychologically adjust.

Tonight we went to a pub where we live for a drink. We walked in with masks but we were the only ones walking around with them. I felt daft and so took it off, as did others in our group. It felt nice to be honest.

My default will still be to wear masks in places but if others are not then I'm not going to be the only one. I'm getting the vibe that daytime will be masks on, nights out will be masks off.

 

[Billysboots]

I was out in Newcastle last night for a Chinese. Lovely too ?. Signs in the restaurant asking for masks to be worn. We wore them but others didn't. It jarred but that was our issue, we need to psychologically adjust.

Tonight we went to a pub where we live for a drink. We walked in with masks but we were the only ones walking around with them. I felt daft and so took it off, as did others in our group. It felt nice to be honest.

My default will still be to wear masks in places but if others are not then I'm not going to be the only one. I'm getting the vibe that daytime will be masks on, nights out will be masks off.

I’ve noticed during the last couple of days that the vast majority round these parts not wearing masks appear to be in their 20’s and 30’s. Those most likely to have been double jabbed are, in the main, still wearing them.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I’ve noticed during the last couple of days that the vast majority round these parts not wearing masks appear to be in their 20’s and 30’s. Those most likely to have been double jabbed are, in the main, still wearing them.

That would have been my assumption of how it would be but my experience of last night and today was an equal spread across the ages going mask free.

Saying that, in shops I'm seeing a universal wearing of masks, all ages.

 

[SocketRocket]

I’ve noticed during the last couple of days that the vast majority round these parts not wearing masks appear to be in their 20’s and 30’s. Those most likely to have been double jabbed are, in the main, still wearing them.

That seems to make some sense of the infection demographics.
Re: #20,687

 

[Hobbit]

Restrictions starting to be applied locally. Curfews coming back, limited opening times for some places and table number drastically reduced.

Same as last year, let the tourists in and numbers rocket.

 

[road2ruin]

So PHE’s update today is that case numbers have dropped again to a shade under 30,000. This means the last 7 days look like this….

Sunday 48k
Monday 40k
Tuesday 46k
Wednesday 44k
Thursday 40k
Friday 36k
Saturday 31k
Sunday 29k

On the face of it all very positive however how much is due to the schools finishing? Has the testing also dropped with the school term finishing? Are people not testing as much as they have holidays coming up and don’t want to risk the situation of having to isolate?

 

[Beezerk]

So PHE’s update today is that case numbers have dropped again to a shade under 30,000. This means the last 7 days look like this….

Sunday 48k
Monday 40k
Tuesday 46k
Wednesday 44k
Thursday 40k
Friday 36k
Saturday 31k
Sunday 29k

On the face of it all very positive however how much is due to the schools finishing? Has the testing also dropped with the school term finishing? Are people not testing as much as they have holidays coming up and don’t want to risk the situation of having to isolate?

I'm taking those figures with a pinch of salt, mainly for some of the reasons you mentioned.
I know a few people in the village who have been pinged by track and trace and just ignored it, no test or isolating. I'm assuming that could be a country wide issue as well.

 

[SaintHacker]

Sky reporting its rumoured Spain and Greece could be added to the amber plus list. Hopefully just a slow news day so we'll make something up to raise some interest type report...

 

[SaintHacker]

This is quite an interesting read

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cheer-up-covid-is-losing-its-grip-zsxrk2w26

Cheer up, Covid is losing its grip

Doctors and nurses were among the first to be struck down by the virus. The prime minister was incapacitated for weeks, parliament was closed, education was disrupted. In the darkest days of the crisis, Norwood Cemetery in south London held 200 funerals a day.

This was Britain during a pandemic. The year was not 2020, though, but 1890, and the disease was not Covid-19 but Russian flu. It tore around the world, killing 125,000 people in the UK and one million globally.

The similarities between that pandemic and today’s are uncanny. Symptoms reported by doctors 130 years ago included dry coughing, a sudden fever and, for many, a lost sense of smell. Some survivors were struck by a lingering depression and lack of energy that left them debilitated for months. The saving grace of the virus was that children were affected much less than adults.

Many virologists now believe that the 1890 outbreak was caused not by flu at all, but rather by a coronavirus that jumped from cows to humans, in much the same way that Sars-Cov-2 is believed to have leapt from bats to humans.

So what can we learn from that crisis? When was the so-called Russian “flu” eradicated? And above all, what does it tell us about when the current pandemic will end?….

The virus that first struck Britain in 1890 also hit the country in waves. Four big surges swept across the nation until 1894, with further sporadic outbreaks until 1900, when the pandemic fizzled out.

But the virus never disappeared. In fact, there is some evidence it may still be among us, passed from person to person as a key cause of winter sniffles. A Belgian study published in 2005 suggested the Russian outbreak may have been caused by what is now known as OC43, one of four coronaviruses that between them cause 20 per cent of common colds in the UK.

Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia, believes Sars-Cov-2 will follow a similar trajectory and eventually become endemic, a seasonal virus that circulates every winter but does not cause serious problems. “The virus is here for the long term,” he said. “Our grandchildren’s grandchildren are going to get Covid. But for them it won’t be a big deal.”

The question, of course, is how long will that process take? That our distant descendants will no longer be affected by the pandemic is faintly reassuring, but how much more of this upheaval will we have to endure ourselves?

Few experts are willing to gaze into the crystal ball and give a definitive answer — Covid-19 has surprised us too many times — but Hunter believes the process is already under way, driven by the vaccines. “The symptom profile of cases is now changing, resembling less the Covid disease of last year and looking more like a common cold,” he said.

Dr Julian Tang, clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, guesses that it will take three to five years for Covid-19 to become fully endemic in the UK, but stresses we will not be truly safe for the five to ten years it takes to complete global vaccination. David Matthews, professor of virology at Bristol, is slightly more optimistic. “It will take several years to reach an endemic state, but I would say that once this wave is done, that’s probably the worst of it.”

Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute, has an even more hopeful outlook. “If you were extremely optimistic, and not afraid of hurting people’s feelings, you could say the pandemic is already borderline over. If we use a criteria that says if it is not causing more morbidity and mortality than any other virus in circulation, then I will be surprised if it were still the most deadly virus in circulation by next spring.”….

In the 1890s it took four years for enough people in the UK to become infected for immunity to reach significant levels, and then another five years of sporadic outbreaks until the virus settled into an endemic pattern. This time that process has been artificially accelerated by vaccines. About 88 per cent of adults in the UK have now received a vaccine and 69 per cent have had two doses. Add to that the many young people who have been exposed via natural infection and there is a very high level of immunity in the UK.…..

The consequence of herd immunity is also different to that envisaged last year. “It’s not a case of, ‘We reach herd immunity and the virus will just go away’,” Matthews said. “There is no avoiding this virus now.” The aim, he said, is “a kind of truce. We will all catch it, several times. But because you’ve been vaccinated or you’ve had it before, you won’t die.”…..

In many ways, the country has reached the limits of what it can do to control the virus. Unless the government decides to inoculate under-18s — which its scientific advisers last week cautioned against — vaccination levels are very close to reaching their maximum.

Hunter also backs the lifting of restrictions and believes continuing to lock down could do more harm than good. He also believes the time has come to end the “pingdemic”, by bringing forward the date at which vaccinated Covid contacts are spared from self-isolating (currently August 16). “The requirement to quarantine after being pinged because you are a casual contact has little if any value in controlling the epidemic,” he said.

Ball puts it differently. “Perhaps August 16 is when the pandemic ends in the UK,” he said. Now vaccination has ended the risk of severe disease for most, the biggest fear for many is having to spend ten days in isolation.

Once again, the parallels with 1890 are apt. According to a 1995 history of Britain’s Russian flu outbreak, published in the Social History of Medicine journal, the crisis “touched most sufferers lightly, but it nonetheless cast thousands into an indeterminate, threatening situation”.

The Covid pandemic has undoubtedly been tragic. Yet for those who have not been struck down or bereaved, the biggest impact has been the chaos, the uncertainty, the indeterminate threat.

 

[D-S]

So PHE’s update today is that case numbers have dropped again to a shade under 30,000. This means the last 7 days look like this….

Sunday 48k
Monday 40k
Tuesday 46k
Wednesday 44k
Thursday 40k
Friday 36k
Saturday 31k
Sunday 29k

On the face of it all very positive however how much is due to the schools finishing? Has the testing also dropped with the school term finishing? Are people not testing as much as they have holidays coming up and don’t want to risk the situation of having to isolate?

Maybe the Euros shown in pubs, gatherings at home etc. were super spreader events which are now exiting from the numbers.

 

[Ethan]

This is quite an interesting read

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cheer-up-covid-is-losing-its-grip-zsxrk2w26

Cheer up, Covid is losing its grip

Doctors and nurses were among the first to be struck down by the virus. The prime minister was incapacitated for weeks, parliament was closed, education was disrupted. In the darkest days of the crisis, Norwood Cemetery in south London held 200 funerals a day.

This was Britain during a pandemic. The year was not 2020, though, but 1890, and the disease was not Covid-19 but Russian flu. It tore around the world, killing 125,000 people in the UK and one million globally.

The similarities between that pandemic and today’s are uncanny. Symptoms reported by doctors 130 years ago included dry coughing, a sudden fever and, for many, a lost sense of smell. Some survivors were struck by a lingering depression and lack of energy that left them debilitated for months. The saving grace of the virus was that children were affected much less than adults.

Many virologists now believe that the 1890 outbreak was caused not by flu at all, but rather by a coronavirus that jumped from cows to humans, in much the same way that Sars-Cov-2 is believed to have leapt from bats to humans.

So what can we learn from that crisis? When was the so-called Russian “flu” eradicated? And above all, what does it tell us about when the current pandemic will end?….

The virus that first struck Britain in 1890 also hit the country in waves. Four big surges swept across the nation until 1894, with further sporadic outbreaks until 1900, when the pandemic fizzled out.

But the virus never disappeared. In fact, there is some evidence it may still be among us, passed from person to person as a key cause of winter sniffles. A Belgian study published in 2005 suggested the Russian outbreak may have been caused by what is now known as OC43, one of four coronaviruses that between them cause 20 per cent of common colds in the UK.

Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia, believes Sars-Cov-2 will follow a similar trajectory and eventually become endemic, a seasonal virus that circulates every winter but does not cause serious problems. “The virus is here for the long term,” he said. “Our grandchildren’s grandchildren are going to get Covid. But for them it won’t be a big deal.”

The question, of course, is how long will that process take? That our distant descendants will no longer be affected by the pandemic is faintly reassuring, but how much more of this upheaval will we have to endure ourselves?

Few experts are willing to gaze into the crystal ball and give a definitive answer — Covid-19 has surprised us too many times — but Hunter believes the process is already under way, driven by the vaccines. “The symptom profile of cases is now changing, resembling less the Covid disease of last year and looking more like a common cold,” he said.

Dr Julian Tang, clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, guesses that it will take three to five years for Covid-19 to become fully endemic in the UK, but stresses we will not be truly safe for the five to ten years it takes to complete global vaccination. David Matthews, professor of virology at Bristol, is slightly more optimistic. “It will take several years to reach an endemic state, but I would say that once this wave is done, that’s probably the worst of it.”

Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute, has an even more hopeful outlook. “If you were extremely optimistic, and not afraid of hurting people’s feelings, you could say the pandemic is already borderline over. If we use a criteria that says if it is not causing more morbidity and mortality than any other virus in circulation, then I will be surprised if it were still the most deadly virus in circulation by next spring.”….

In the 1890s it took four years for enough people in the UK to become infected for immunity to reach significant levels, and then another five years of sporadic outbreaks until the virus settled into an endemic pattern. This time that process has been artificially accelerated by vaccines. About 88 per cent of adults in the UK have now received a vaccine and 69 per cent have had two doses. Add to that the many young people who have been exposed via natural infection and there is a very high level of immunity in the UK.…..

The consequence of herd immunity is also different to that envisaged last year. “It’s not a case of, ‘We reach herd immunity and the virus will just go away’,” Matthews said. “There is no avoiding this virus now.” The aim, he said, is “a kind of truce. We will all catch it, several times. But because you’ve been vaccinated or you’ve had it before, you won’t die.”…..

In many ways, the country has reached the limits of what it can do to control the virus. Unless the government decides to inoculate under-18s — which its scientific advisers last week cautioned against — vaccination levels are very close to reaching their maximum.

Hunter also backs the lifting of restrictions and believes continuing to lock down could do more harm than good. He also believes the time has come to end the “pingdemic”, by bringing forward the date at which vaccinated Covid contacts are spared from self-isolating (currently August 16). “The requirement to quarantine after being pinged because you are a casual contact has little if any value in controlling the epidemic,” he said.

Ball puts it differently. “Perhaps August 16 is when the pandemic ends in the UK,” he said. Now vaccination has ended the risk of severe disease for most, the biggest fear for many is having to spend ten days in isolation.

Once again, the parallels with 1890 are apt. According to a 1995 history of Britain’s Russian flu outbreak, published in the Social History of Medicine journal, the crisis “touched most sufferers lightly, but it nonetheless cast thousands into an indeterminate, threatening situation”.

The Covid pandemic has undoubtedly been tragic. Yet for those who have not been struck down or bereaved, the biggest impact has been the chaos, the uncertainty, the indeterminate threat.

We have discussed this idea before, that a more complex immunity builds up over a period of time after initial vaccination/infection, and after a while becomes capable of dealing with new variants - your immunity gets it's eye in, so to speak, and can spot a wrong'un. Older people and people with other illness do this less well, so probably need boosters, but most younger people won't.

That aspect of 'living with Covid' is fine, although I would controlling Covid than living with it, but I am less comfortable with the 'let it rip through the young people for a while, so long as the NHS doesn't crash' herd-immunity lite version we are now experimenting with.

 

[larmen]

Maybe the Euros shown in pubs, gatherings at home etc. were super spreader events which are now exiting from the numbers.

Should have lost against Germany, for the safety of the country ;-)


I think it’s probably a good thing to open up some more whilst schools are closing. But probably opening everything could be too much.

 

[Slime]

Jon Rahm gets struck again, this time forcing him out of the Olympics along with Bryson!

 

[larmen]

Jon Rahm gets struck again, this time forcing him out of the Olympics along with Bryson!

Did he get pinged or did he get tested?