Coronavirus

[mattyq]

6 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Since me and her tested positive we are both still feeling side effects. She still can't properly taste or smell and for me, my cough hasn't gone and I'm constantly lethargic. Last night in bed I was sweating like fuck. The room was cool, we had the fan on and I woke up about 2am drenched. I feel rough as fuck today more than I have in a few weeks. Its not as bad as what it was weeks ago but I've felt worse and worse since I woke up. 

 

Anyone else whose had it felt constant after effects of it? 

It's a fucking weird disease. Had exactly the same thing. You're fine for a while and then you get 2 days of feeling like shit again

Lasted about 3 months in my case getting progressively better with the shit days happening less frequently and being less shit

[Harry's Lad]

31 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Got a call from the hospital about an hour ago telling me that my little Ma has taken a turn for the worse.

The next 24 hours are critical and given my mam's other ailments, infections and underlying health conditions they're not at all hopeful.

 

I feel completely helpless and broken.

Thinking of you and your Mum mate. 

[Rico1304]

1 hour ago, Skidfingers McGonical said:

I have no doubt medicine has improved from 40 to 50 years ago, however that doesn't mean there shouldn't be questions and concerns about a vaccine that is rushed through. 

Which is one of my concerns. And it's a very valid and fair one to have.

Rushed through...

 

And one of your concerns is skipped R&D. 
 

So, which bits have been missed? 
 

 

[Rico1304]

1 hour ago, Nelly-Torres said:

529 UK deaths in the past 24 hours. 

 

Wednesday reporting delay... 

After all these months...etc etc, funny, not funny. 

[mattyq]

48 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Got a call from the hospital about an hour ago telling me that my little Ma has taken a turn for the worse.

The next 24 hours are critical and given my mam's other ailments, infections and underlying health conditions they're not at all hopeful.

 

I feel completely helpless and broken.

All the best to you & your ma, mate!

Incredibly tough times

[Bjornebye]

8 minutes ago, mattyq said:

It's a fucking weird disease. Had exactly the same thing. You're fine for a while and then you get 2 days of feeling like shit again

Lasted about 3 months in my case getting progressively better with the shit days happening less frequently and being less shit

Yeah same. I haven't felt 100% since I got ill the first time but some days are different. I said to my missus when we got in bed last night that I'm gonna have a shit sleep and if I start sweating etc I'll get in the spare bed. Felt really rough all day and I'm not looking forward to getting back in bed if its gonna be the same again. 

 

But that said, the odd few days of feeling crap is nothing on what some people are going/have gone through. 

[TheHowieLama]

@Carvalho Diablo

Thoughts and prayers pal.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

7 minutes ago, Rico1304 said:

Rushed through...

 

And one of your concerns is skipped R&D. 
 

So, which bits have been missed? 
 

 

Not the same thing though is it? 

[mattyq]

2 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Yeah same. I haven't felt 100% since I got ill the first time but some days are different. I said to my missus when we got in bed last night that I'm gonna have a shit sleep and if I start sweating etc I'll get in the spare bed. Felt really rough all day and I'm not looking forward to getting back in bed if its gonna be the same again. 

 

But that said, the odd few days of feeling crap is nothing on what some people are going/have gone through. 

Yeah, deffo

It got me down a little thinking it'd never go away even though I was fortunate in that it was never acute or serious

But it did go away eventually and I'm sure it'll be the same for you

[Brownie]

1 hour ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Got a call from the hospital about an hour ago telling me that my little Ma has taken a turn for the worse.

The next 24 hours are critical and given my mam's other ailments, infections and underlying health conditions they're not at all hopeful.

 

I feel completely helpless and broken.

Mate so sorry to hear this, thoughts are with you.

[Elite]

I echo all that's been said about your mum CD. 

 

Absolute twat of an illness.

[an tha]

Mate sent this on whatsapp earlier.....pretty good i thought!

 

MERSEYSIDE AREA LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL

 
BOOTLE - you are able to fight your neighbour providing you wear a mask and social distancing rules are adhered to. 

NETHERLEY - burgling homes in your local area is still permitted providing you sanitise before and after the offence. Track and trace technology must also be used. 

CROXTETH - you can only visit your dealer when collecting your children from school. The dealer should wear a face visor and make sure all bags are sanitised. Please use a child buggy for transporting large quantities of any recreational pharmaceuticals. 

WIDNES - having sex with your sister is still permitted but you must be home before 10pm and use approved lubricant. 

HUYTON - Vigilante groups of no more than six allowed outdoors and socially distancing between the hours of 10pm - 2am only. You must wear suitable PPE for any physical contact. All knives should be sterilised prior to use. 

KENSINGTON - prostitute services are still permitted to remain open, this is now classed as essential services for fear of the economic collapse of the area. Entry from the rear only. 

BIRKENHEAD - Now declared a NO GO ZONE (in 1984), if you must travel to this area please follow all diversions, traffic cones and signals, remain in your car, do not abandon your car, masks are not required as nothing is open and hasn't been for years. 

SOUTHPORT - Everyone must remain at home and self isolate until manufacturers can distribute gloves with 6 fingers. Please do not go to A&E for digit removal as they are a tad busy. 

FORMBY - Covid in these parts does not exist, therefore you should carry on as you were, house hopping, social gatherings, drunken parties and fireworks until January are mandatory, Survival of the fittest, we're currently testing 'herd immunity' in these areas. 

Stick to these guidelines and we'll get through it together.

[Rico1304]

29 minutes ago, Skidfingers McGonical said:

Not the same thing though is it? 

So rushed and skipped - which bits?  It’s not a trap, if you think it’s not safe because of rushed or skipped elements then I want to know too.  

[Jennings]

2 hours ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Got a call from the hospital about an hour ago telling me that my little Ma has taken a turn for the worse.

The next 24 hours are critical and given my mam's other ailments, infections and underlying health conditions they're not at all hopeful.

 

I feel completely helpless and broken.

Hope you are ok @Carvalho Diablo

[Barrington Womble]

3 hours ago, Nelly-Torres said:

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-7499

 

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Editorials18 November 2020

Of Masks and Methods

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• Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH,
• Shama Cash-Goldwasser, MD, MPH

Author, Article and Disclosure Information

https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-7499

 

 

 

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the most disruptive health event in a century. In less than a year, it will have killed at least 1.5 million people and cost the global economy more than $20 trillion. Although progress toward a vaccine has been fast, core public health interventions remain the mainstay of control and will continue to be essential after vaccines become available. Strategic closure of risky indoor environments, such as bars, restaurants, and choirs, reduces spread. Testing, rapid isolation, contact tracing, and quarantine prevent cases and clusters from spreading. Use of face masks has emerged as a powerful tool to reduce the health and economic harms of the pandemic (1).

The fact that viral loads are highest just before and early in the course of illness provides the theoretical basis for widespread community mask use as source control, and the evidence that wearing of masks prevents spread to others is compelling (1). Observational studies have shown that mask use in the community is associated with a significantly lower risk for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (2). Although evidence suggests that masks protect wearers from infection (3) and there is mechanistic evidence that masks not only block release of respiratory droplets but also reduce wearer exposure (4), whether masks protect wearers from infection has been the subject of controversy. The protection a mask offers the wearer depends in part on the duration, location (for example, home vs. public), and intensity (for example, health care vs. community) of exposure; type of mask; and consistency of use. In addition, the methods used to evaluate whether masks protect wearers affect study results.

The DANMASK-19 (Danish Study to Assess Face Masks for the Protection Against COVID-19 Infection) randomized controlled trial (5) was done during spring 2020 in Denmark, when use of masks in the community was not recommended by the Danish Health Authority but other public health and social measures to limit transmission of SARS-CoV-2 were in effect. Intervention group participants received 50 disposable surgical face masks and instructions to wear a mask while outside home for 1 month. The primary outcome was infection with SARS-CoV-2, defined as 1) positive results of lateral flow testing for anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgM or IgG antibodies at 1 month, 2) positive results of polymerase chain reaction testing for SARS-CoV-2 at 1 month and symptoms compatible with COVID-19, or 3) diagnosis of COVID-19 by a health care practitioner. Participants with positive baseline results on an antibody test were excluded from analyses.

The primary outcome according to the protocol occurred in 1.8% of participants (42 of 2392) in the intervention group and 2.1% (53 of 2470) in the control group. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the intervention group had 0.3 percentage point (95% CI, –0.4 to 1.2 percentage point) fewer SARS-CoV-2 infections than the control group. Across all analyses (intention-to-treat, per protocol, and with multiple imputation for missing data), odds ratios were approximately 0.8, consistent with a 20% reduction in incident SARS-CoV-2 infection if masks are recommended. The sample size was insufficient to determine the statistical significance of a 20% reduction.

The specifics of the study setting limit not only its statistical power but also the generalizability of findings. The study was done in a setting with relatively low transmission: During the first week of May, the daily incidence of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Denmark was roughly one third of that in the United Kingdom and one quarter of that in the United States (6). Furthermore, the study was underpowered for subgroup analyses by occupation, time out of home (although more time out of home was associated with a greater trend toward protection, as shown in Supplement Figure 2 [5]), and other factors. Thus, the potential benefit of mask wearing in particular circumstances or settings could not be assessed.

Perhaps the most important limitation of this study was the use of antibody tests to diagnose COVID-19. Of COVID-19 diagnoses in this study, 84% (80 of 95) were made by antibody testing. The accuracy of anti–SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests varies widely (7). Although an internal validation study of the assay used in DANMASK-19 estimated a specificity of 99.5%, the manufacturer reported (www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/presentations/maf/maf3285-a001.pdf) a specificity of 97.5% (CI, 91.3% to 99.3). If test specificity was 98.5% and the 1.5% (1 − specificity) chance of a false-positive result was due to random laboratory variation, Bayes' law implies that all of the antibody-positive results in both intervention and control groups could have been false positives. False positivity due to cross-reactive antibodies would have resulted in baseline exclusion, so the actual rate of false positives in participants after 1 month may be low. Nevertheless, given the very low (at most 2%) prevalence of infection, many of the follow-up positives may have been falsely positive and would be randomly distributed between intervention and control groups. This would bias the study's findings toward the null.

In addition, a mask recommendation or self-report of use does not equate with correct mask wearing; among persons who wear masks during high-risk exposures, risk for infection may be reduced significantly (3). In DANMASK-19, only 46% of those in the intervention group reported adherence to the intervention. Women may be more likely to adhere to public health recommendations than men (8). Among female participants, the decreased odds of infection with SARS-CoV-2 among those in the intervention group compared with those in the control group approached statistical significance (odds ratio, 0.65 [CI, 0.38 to 1.12]); this trend could also have been biased toward the null by similar numbers of false positives in both groups.

Community mask use can substantially reduce risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, especially when enough people use them and when mask use is combined with other effective public health and social measures. Multiple observational studies have documented an association between mask mandates and reduced COVID-19 incidence (9). Although randomized controlled trials are often presumed to provide the highest-quality data, observational studies may in some settings be more accurate and can overcome some limitations of other data sources (10).

Although no single strategy can control the pandemic, widespread masking in the community can mitigate spread as part of a comprehensive approach. Masks have been shown to protect others and, despite the reported results of this study, probably protect the wearer. Maximum benefit of masking is likely to result from the combination of source control and wearer protection (1). If everyone wears a mask when near others, everyone is safer.

This article was published at Annals.org on 18 November 2020

 

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CONDITIONS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

I stopped at " the most disruptive health event in a century". FFS, when are people going to realise it's just the flu. 

[Carvalho Diablo]

13 minutes ago, Jennings said:

Hope you are ok @Carvalho Diablo

Had better days mate tbh.

[Rico1304]

 

[Dougie Do'ins]

Jaguar Land Rover tells staff to turn off NHS contact tracing app while working

 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/jaguar-land-rover-tells-staff-19305421

[TheHowieLama]

New York City closing all public schools effective immediately.

 

 

 

[TheBitch]

45 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

Jaguar Land Rover tells staff to turn off NHS contact tracing app while working

 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/jaguar-land-rover-tells-staff-19305421

We got told this too. 
 

Apparently we are a “Covid safe” site so we don’t need it. 
 

*puzzled emoji*

[Strontium]

We had about two thirds of the team missing for 10 days after the tracing app told them to stay at home when one of the team tested positive. Those of us without the app carried on attending work, however. Seems like a bit of a loophole in the whole tracing thing.

[Brownie]

“Missing”.

 

[Mook]

6 hours ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Got a call from the hospital about an hour ago telling me that my little Ma has taken a turn for the worse.

The next 24 hours are critical and given my mam's other ailments, infections and underlying health conditions they're not at all hopeful.

 

I feel completely helpless and broken.

Best wishes CD.

[TheHowieLama]

2 hours ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

We had about two thirds of the team missing for 10 days after the tracing app told them to stay at home when one of the team tested positive. Those of us without the app carried on attending work, however. Seems like a bit of a loophole in the whole tracing thing.

TBF mate that is the one thing you can be sure of - like masks, if you do not use the app you know it doesn't work.

Is there any correlation at yours between mask cranks and those who have not installed the app?

Other than you of course.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

We had about two thirds of the team missing for 10 days after the tracing app told them to stay at home when one of the team tested positive. Those of us without the app carried on attending work, however. Seems like a bit of a loophole in the whole tracing thing.

Of course it is. But no system in the world is selfish twat proof.