Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) (SARS-CoV-2) [2020]

Do PTAs even exist in the UK, by the way? First I've ever of such a thing and I've got a teenage niece (who has left school) and nephew and a wife who is a secondary school teacher!
Yes. In my area...

https://w.sjb.school/parents/pta/
https://www.hoevalleyschool.org/pta/
https://horsell-village.surrey.sch.uk/pta/

And hopping randomly around Google Maps:

https://www.earlsdonprimary.co.uk/pta/ (Coventry)
http://www.southgosforth.newcastle.sch.uk/web/sgfs_parent_teacher_association/503060 (Newcastle)
https://www.millburnacademy.co.uk/parents/parent-council (Inverness)

In the absence of an official PTA, there's still the classic 'mums net' of connected families. If you face issues with your child getting too/from school, typically the families pitch in ad hoc, proving especially useful for single parent families.
 
The problem over here in the UK, milk, is that our medical staff aren't provided with proper PPE - even 2 years into the pandemic! They are given the crappy, loose-fitting surgical masks instead of proper FFP2/FFP3 masks. If you're in a room or cubicle being assessed by an infected doctor, I'd imagine there is a reasonable chance of catching the virus. The virus is also airborne, of course, so it wouldn't even take particularly close contact if enough people. From my own experiences, I know that ventilation and filtration isn't much of a consideration in our local hospital (crappy design built during the 1980s), so I think we're likely to be seeing lots of infections picked up by patients admitted for other reasons. It would be nice if these could be kept to the minimum.

Unfortunately thats what happens when the politicians are trying to gradually make public health care fail in order to find arguments to privatize it and move everything under private insurances.
I have friends who work at NHS (one a doctor the other a nurse) and they have been challenged with under staffing and undersupplying even before the pandemic.
The government could have done a lot more to be prepared but they didnt.
I remember reading last year an article about a research that has been done in the UK years before the pandemic, that predicted the challenges of the health care system. It found its weaknesses in case of a pandemic but it was just put in a drawer.
 
Just to follow up to milk's other comment, I'd imagine it will be incredibly difficult to determine just how much exposure to the virus it might require for somebody to become infected. Some people have stronger immune responses to the vaccines and past infections than others. It all varies by age and gender as well. Some people when infected probably don't emit as many viral particles as others (and this might affect accuracy of LFTs as well, I suppose?). I certainly read a number of articles which explained why some people are 'superspreaders' whereas others might not infect anybody - not sure how much this has changed since the more transmissible Delta/Omicron emerged, however.
 
Incidentally, here's a really interesting thread from Michael Mina:


Points out that it may be that the LFTs aren't necessary failing for people with symptoms, it might be that they are simply not yet infectious.

My caveat is that, for an airborne disease, a nasal-only swab from an LFT might not pick up the infection early enough, even when levels in the throat are high. I don't know if the tests referenced in the thread are nose & throat ones or not.

It could just be really bad luck with the timing that the tests now widely distributed in the UK use nasal swabs only which could inadvertently lead to greater spread of Omicron as people are given a false sense of security after using them!
 
I agree with your concern. But is that really "almost certainly"? Legit question. Do we have solid understanding at this point of chances of infaction given exposure time/conditions. That would be extremelly interesting...
There were challenge tests planned last year. Assuming they still went ahead, we should at some point get to hear something about actual measured loads etc.

Even then, getting infected with omicron isn't the concern - it's whether it has a serious affect or not. For the majority of patients in hospital, especially if they've been vaccinated, omicron will add a cold to their woes. They're the ones who will most benefit from infectious staff presence over no staff present and inadequate care. You then have a subset of {all the patients} who run the risk of being infected who will be {patients for whom omicron poses a problem}. They would ideally need to be cared for in omicron free conditions, but that might logistically not be possible. In which case, you have to choose the needs of the many or the needs of the few.

It's worth noting that cancer patients who have their immune system knocked for six aren't then isolated from infections. Quite possibly one of my brother's visitors, maybe myself, brought in an unknown infection that he caught and which killed him. That's suggestive of a need for an aseptic environment during times when a patient's immune system can't protect them until such time as their immune system is strong enough for normal encounters again, but this is likely cost prohibitive or plain uneconomical - if the plan is to save lives, the same money spent on food and clean water for some destitute parts of the world would save far more lives.
 
My brother in law had a stem cell transplant the best part of a decade ago and, of course, patients have to be kept in a completely aseptic environment as that procedure takes place. It why he remains CEV as his immune system was effectively rebooted and it is likely he will require another transplant at some point in the future due to his ongoing illness. This is perhaps one of the most shameful failings of the government since Delta/Omicron came about. 'Freedom Day' telling everyone to get on with things (which is fair enough), then shielding and paid furlough ended, but no way for his children to become vaccinated earlier than classmates, even after the JCVI recommended this should be done. No other support available for vulnerable people, either. The government isn't even trying to help as a massive wave of infection spreads across the country. We're in a situation where they've admitted parts of the NHS are likely to collapse and it is still a gamble that things won't become very bad indeed. Having a heart attack? Get a mate to take you to the hospital instead of an ambulance! That's what they are recommending right now, long before we're at the peak of infection and hospitalisation in most of the country.

Infection rates falling in London for the younger age groups so they are past their peak, but they are rising rather steeply in older age groups there, so we'll soon discover if the gamble on boosters has been a successful one. When, I say 'successful' in this context I mean 'not disastrous'!
 
At this point they should basically just add Omicron to the list of Covid-vaccines. Seems to provide good protection and a natural version among side the others. Don't even need workforce to inject it. Just add a small print that says:

-some side effects may occur, works best when combined with a vaccine from another brand.

On another news. I got my 3rd Phizer shot on Monday. Very mild side effects this time. The second was worse in this regard. Now almost nothing. Honestly I believe I was already protected well enough. I've had at least half a dozen exposures at my workplace, many of them extended periods of time and never had any symptoms, though I was quarantined once. Never wore a mask outside of work other than on few occasions, don't seem to get it now. I believe I had Covid in Thailand almost two years ago and basically haven't been sick for anything since then.

My brothers daughter tested positive on Saturday (on her Birthday) having been exposed a week ago on Wednesday. No symptoms whatsoever...she was tested, because the parents of her friend turned out to be positive and gave it to her I guess. Oddly enough no other member of my Brother's family (4 people total) has gotten it, they've been living pretty much normally as they worked from home before as well, and been testing regularly.

Tons of cases now among people I know lately, pretty much everyone has had it easy. Only one work mate of mine had three days of high +39c fever .
 
Well, it's almost as if these vaccine things work, isn't it? The problem is that lots of people out there aren't vaccinated still (it's going to get very bad in certain red US states, I expect). Oh, and pretty much no young children are vaccinated at all. The UK has just had the highest number of child hospitalisations of any day of the pandemic. 'Just' 157 but the rate is increasing and schools have only just resumed after the holidays.

Statistically speaking, prevalence is now so high that a randomly selected class of 30 kids is likely to have 1 or 2 pupils infected with Omicron.

Past infection with a different variant appears to give around 90% protection against hospitalisation (sorry, don't have the link to hand), but a tiny percentage of a very large number is going to cause significant issues to healthcare everywhere. I suspect the excess deaths numbers will be the main indicator of exactly what has occurred in a couple of months. Providing we don't get any further dangerous mutations as Omicron rips through pretty much everyone. Still significant numbers of Delta cases around as well, it would seem, which certainly won't help.
 
Kids down to 1st graders are getting vaccinated now, here in Denmark. There were a lot of resistance from parents until an 11 year old died in a neighbouring village in 36 hours from covid in early december. My 10 year old has both shots and my 7 year old is getting her second on tuesday.

Two kids in my oldest daughters' class have had covid. One had a runny nose for two days, the other was sick for 10 days. It's a crap shoot how people react.

Cheers
 
My 6 year old would be vaccinated in a flash, if the possibility was there. Nothing we can do about my 3 year old as it's unlikely there will be any vaccine for that age group for some time.
 
They had to up the scale of that chart I'm following, this is getting insane!

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Do other countries make jokes about our ignorance or just pity our foolishness?
 
They had to up the scale of that chart I'm following, this is getting insane!
The UK map added another colour tier to illustrate things look more pestilent!

Previous darkest...

upload_2022-1-7_9-22-22.png

New upper limit colour...

upload_2022-1-7_9-24-5.png

Do other countries make jokes about our ignorance or just pity our foolishness?
Just strikes me as the US competitive spirit - if there's a pandemic on, they'll be number one for cases, hospitalisations, deaths, money made from it, etc...
 
Do other countries make jokes about our ignorance or just pity our foolishness?
We French laugh at everyone who isn't French. We also laugh at other French people. We know so much better about everything.

That being said what frightens me about the US is how its society has turned which has created hordes of science and truth disbelievers (and other countries are following US steps), but that's not a subject of discussion for that thread.
 
It's not just the US. It shows there's a real world-wide lack of trust in governments, which is really their fault for proving themselves untrustworthy! This does not bode well for future pandemics though. Worldwide education needs to be stepped up a lot, and communication needs to be clearer and better supported all round, in particular when dealing with unknowns where, it seems, in a vacuum of knowledge any idea will gain traction just for simply being an idea expressed. See for example the numerous non-medical treatments proposed to deal with coronavirus.
 
It's not just the US. It shows there's a real world-wide lack of trust in governments, which is really their fault for proving themselves untrustworthy! This does not bode well for future pandemics though. Worldwide education needs to be stepped up a lot, and communication needs to be clearer and better supported all round, in particular when dealing with unknowns where, it seems, in a vacuum of knowledge any idea will gain traction just for simply being an idea expressed. See for example the numerous non-medical treatments proposed to deal with coronavirus.
hmm indeed. A mixture of distrust from the government, the ruling of corporations, and lately, society is just not equipped to properly handle social media and mobile phones.

Most of the time we use tools when we need them. All my tools sit their dormant until I have a problem to solve. Mobile phones and video games are the only things I've ever really used, that demand my attention when I don't want to give it to them. In particular, notifications, and 'daily hand-ins' etc. Easy for people to get lost it in all, lost in misinformation, lost in everything. Mobile phones can suck your attention up more than children, which is hard to believe
 
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