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Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

I dropped my daughter off, 1st year, on Sunday. All of her friends are now away as well, no one has changed their minds. They knew back in May that university life was going to be restricted this year, none of what is happening is a shock. They could have backed out come mid August after results, we knew more then than May, and yet still they went.

Universities not having plans in place to deal with isolating students is pretty poor, particularly 1st year ones. They really should have had plans in place to deal with this. My daughters place reckon they do but the test of that is yet to come.

Of her friends that have gone 2 have already tested positive. One just lost his sense of taste, the other felt a bit rotten for 2-3 days. No big shakes. I fully expect my daughter to get it at some point. My son, 3rd year and in a house, has more chance of missing it but we will wait and see.
 
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Friend's kid got into Oxbridge this year. Chose to defer it to next year as he wont get the full Uni experience. So decided to work at Waitrose instead. Kids have a mind of their own.. Parents on the other hand........
 
Too many people have heard too much giving rise to false hope over the last 4-5months - be they students or the many who have been furloughed or already been made redundant.

When you are given hope to cling to - and the alternative looks and feels very difficult, disappointing or both - it is easiest to cling to that hope - the hope that back in March/April and ever since has said that things would be at least OK'ish by September/October - that some form of normality would be resumed. And when you hear such messaging and cling to such hope there can be a denial about what the future might well hold - and so you do what we are often told to do when things get difficult - 'hold tight; it'll be OK; don't do anything drastic; don't panic; it won't be that long'.

And so today we find '000s of students at Uni in a chaotic mess - and many hundreds of thousands of others seeing the veil of denial and false hopes being drawn back on the reality that is almost certain unemployment, and real difficulty finding new work and new purpose and direction in life. Hopes dashed -facing no one knows how many months of pain and struggle. And it's personal. And it's very depressing.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Too many people have heard too much giving rise to false hope over the last 4-5months - be they students or the many who have been furloughed or already been made redundant.

When you are given hope to cling to - and the alternative looks and feels very difficult, disappointing or both - it is easiest to cling to that hope - the hope that back in March/April and ever since has said that things would be at least OK'ish by September/October - that some form of normality would be resumed. And when you hear such messaging and cling to such hope there can be a denial about what the future might well hold - and so you do what we are often told to do when things get difficult - 'hold tight; it'll be OK; don't do anything drastic; don't panic; it won't be that long'.

And so today we find '000s of students at Uni in a chaotic mess - and many hundreds of thousands of others seeing the veil of denial and false hopes being drawn back on the reality that is almost certain unemployment and real difficulty finding new work; and new purpose and direction in life. Hopes dashed. And it's personal.
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Really do not get this. Yes, everyone has hope but the warnings of a second wave have been there throughout with October being the prediction of when it will start. People knew that. I have every sympathy for anyone facing a job loss but, again, it was pretty clear that some industries were going to take a very long time to recover, if at all (travel, airlines, hospitality and quite a few others). I can only say it was naive for people in some industries if they have decided to ride out the furlough period without looking at a career change. I fully expected to have to do that myself but who would have expected a property boom, even if it may be short lived.

As for students, as long as they have access to lectures and tutorials then the basic premise of why they are there has been completed. Even if some of that has to be missed, with maybe 9 hours of lectures a week, it does not take much to catch up. I had to do almost an entire section of my course by listening to taped lectures due to a scheduling issue.
 
Beezerk said:
That's the million dollar question isn't it. If you can get re-infected then theoretically we could be in some form of lockdown for the rest of our lives as it will never go away. Weird times indeed.
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Novel in its name but coronaviruses aren’t new. My theory is it’s here to stay and will become part and parcel with life.
 
Do people really expect a 'Full university experience' at the moment. Surely the reason to go to university is to learn and achieve qualifications, if you have to do that in a different way for a while then that's the reality of life right now. The Open University have been doing it for a very long time now and managing to turn out graduates in large numbers. Yes it great to have a social life as a young person but people throughout history have needed to accept the times they lived in meant a big change in lifestyle.
 
Ethan said:
Herd immunity is a very risky and costly strategy, even in the young.
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I'm talking distinctly about the kids that are locked up now in their student halls as COVID has spread there and they're supposedly not going anywhere the next few weeks anyway. Not about a blanket spread of young people in general. Looking at the numbers up until 18th September, there's 570 people that have died whilst tested positive of COVID in the age bracket between 15-44, which would be just about 1% of all deceased of COVID in England and Wales, so it seems to me that the risk is fairly low, but then again, I'm not a doctor like you.
 
Lilyhawk said:
I'm talking distinctly about the kids that are locked up now in their student halls as COVID has spread there and they're supposedly not going anywhere the next few weeks anyway. Not about a blanket spread of young people in general. Looking at the numbers up until 18th September, there's 570 people that have died whilst tested positive of COVID in the age bracket between 15-44, which would be just about 1% of all deceased of COVID in England and Wales, so it seems to me that the risk is fairly low, but then again, I'm not a doctor like you.
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Its a problem, some only see the Virus as a stand alone problem, which clearly it isn't.

There are going to be 1,000s die from cancer early due to NHS effectively deferring urgent referrals/treatment. Some of those will have 30-40 odd years knocked off their lives, not just a few years(one statistic I have read is that a quarter of the covid deaths had dementia, and dementia isn't nice and a one way ticket iirc:(). That ignores other surgery, diseases, poverty etc that are not being treated now, its going to cause large issues moving forward. All because you cant catch them and Covid deaths are seen as more important. This whole matter is a trade off, not a one way street for covid, yeah I see that covid can go big and big quickly.

Vaccines have problems, as you would probably know, IIRC Sweden had a scandal from a rushed Swine Flu vaccine not that long ago. EDIT and the swine flu didn't turn into what was predicted.

Even if a vaccine comes along, do you risk a vaccine on the younger people who probably wont be overly effected by the virus and ironically the old people take to vaccines less effectively, so will we actually have a 95%ish vaccine in the next year, who knows there are no guarantees to that.

Can you imagine if a virus called Spanish Flu or like came about now, what the response would be, millions dying from a virus or a really deadly pathogen.

It certainly has opened my eyes and are the West best to deal with another pandemic...….maybe places like China has it right, not that I would like to live there :unsure:

I don't like any of the choices or options, as many will die from any of them....

Its all about balance and at the moment it is not possible to have any kind of sensible risk based discussions or how we really move forward ? as this thread has shown many times....
 
Lilyhawk said:
I'm talking distinctly about the kids that are locked up now in their student halls as COVID has spread there and they're supposedly not going anywhere the next few weeks anyway. Not about a blanket spread of young people in general. Looking at the numbers up until 18th September, there's 570 people that have died whilst tested positive of COVID in the age bracket between 15-44, which would be just about 1% of all deceased of COVID in England and Wales, so it seems to me that the risk is fairly low, but then again, I'm not a doctor like you.
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The risk is fairly low, but not zero, and best avoided. There is little individual or societal benefit in students getting Covid at this stage. Long Covid is now well recognised in community cases and can be nasty.
 
Ethan said:
The risk is fairly low, but not zero, and best avoided. There is little individual or societal benefit in students getting Covid at this stage. Long Covid is now well recognised in community cases and can be nasty.
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Last year I caught a virus in about September that effected my breathing and it wasn't until about May, I felt normal. Still can not blow into the blower thing as well as I could prior.

When I caught glandular Fever when I was younger, it was about a year before I was back to normal. Some people never get back to normal, Robert Soldering was a well know case, top tennis player irrc.

Effects of virus afterwards, are not new and many people suffer from middle to long term virus issues, not surprisingly as your body is taking a right hammering when you are infected.

Maybe more will suffer with long covid than all other virus, time will tell.

We need a balanced conversation, proper balanced information, proper risk based discussions and not just the scare stories, like stupid doubling every 7 days examples.

Spains cases have dropped quickly, I wonder why ;):LOL: and wonder if the UK will follow suit.....
 
DRW said:
Last year I caught a virus in about September that effected my breathing and it wasn't until about May, I felt normal. Still can not blow into the blower thing as well as I could prior.

When I caught glandular Fever when I was younger, it was about a year before I was back to normal. Some people never get back to normal, Robert Soldering was a well know case, top tennis player irrc.

Effects of virus afterwards, are not new and many people suffer from middle to long term virus issues, not surprisingly as your body is taking a right hammering when you are infected.

Maybe more will suffer with long covid than all other virus, time will tell.

We need a balanced conversation, proper balanced information, proper risk based discussions and not just the scare stories, like stupid doubling every 7 days examples.

Spains cases have dropped quickly, I wonder why and wonder if the UK will follow suit.....
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I sense a circular discussion here, but I don't see what your central point is.

On the one hand, you say we need more info, more data (I paraphrase, but agree) but on the other, even though you have personal knowledge of post-viral syndromes, you seem to be OK with Covid spreading though the captive students.

Do you not see a logical inconsistency there?

The doubling time point, presumably the one made by Vallance, was not a prediction but a model of what it would look like, intended to stimulate action to prevent to from occurring. Angela Merkel used much the same strategy today. It is powerful because people don't have a feel for how quickly exponential growth can move.
 
Kaz said:
Since you’re ignoring all the medical experts and government advice I don’t think I’ll waste my time.
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Wasn't aware that wearing a face mask on public transport and other indoor venues, working from home, not shaking hands and washing hands often with soap was ignoring medical experts and government advice. Well, I learn something new each day. Thanks for the schooling! (y)

Ethan said:
The risk is fairly low, but not zero, and best avoided. There is little individual or societal benefit in students getting Covid at this stage. Long Covid is now well recognised in community cases and can be nasty.
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Fair enough. Am I right in thinking then that under the current situation we're in, we've just got to sit tight and wait for a vaccine to be ready?
 
Ethan said:
I sense a circular discussion here, but I don't see what your central point is.

On the one hand, you say we need more info, more data (I paraphrase, but agree) but on the other, even though you have personal knowledge of post-viral syndromes, you seem to be OK with Covid spreading though the captive students.

Do you not see a logical inconsistency there?

The doubling time point, presumably the one made by Vallance, was not a prediction but a model of what it would look like, intended to stimulate action to prevent to from occurring. Angela Merkel used much the same strategy today. It is powerful because people don't have a feel for how quickly exponential growth can move.
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Oh yeah there is inconsistency as such in my ramblings, :LOL::LOL::LOL: This isn't a black/white solution in my eyes, there are so many options and I don't like any of them, all of them take to long and all have to much colleteral damage with each path.

Be shocked if anyone doesn't have inconsistencies or struggle with the trade offs. At this stage, each action is going to kill people, its only a matter of who and how many...……….

Mr Vs example, hmm I would have suggested doing a model for doubling cases daily, that would have looked really scary(and more stupid), like many thought his chart read. Its wrong to use science in that way, as it comes back to haunt you later and anyway the people you are trying to change probably aren't watching the slide show ;):ROFLMAO:
 
Ate in my clubhouse today for first time since. They have an outside table service so been using that

Mask to be work until at table

Track and trace QI scan available so tagged in

Do your hands then they take your temp. If ok in you go..

Waitress in mask , takes your order. Payment by card or clubcard only
 
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