Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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Clogs
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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UK update: masks - social distancing - fines for non-compliance. I don’t know whether to laugh or weep or just keep my fingers crossed.

Personally, I’m hoping not to perish of hypothermia at work. There’s just a handful of us in, spread well apart, and shivering like whippets. We must keep our air con on and have our north-facing windows opened; this will apply, we’ve been told, all winter and it’s only autumn yet. It’s damned parky, I can tell you. Yesterday, one of our three portable heaters blew out a wall socket and crashed a bank of computers, so we were warned that all three may be removed to prevent this happening again. We may be at risk of hitting an iceberg and sinking come November.

I’m just off to find a couple of chunky jumpers and a deck chair 🥶
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Tantrum
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Clogs wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:32 amWe must keep our air con on and have our north-facing windows opened; this will apply, we’ve been told, all winter and it’s only autumn yet.
What's the reason for this? I could see the fresh air helping reduce covid spread, but that wouldn't require the AC. Or is it for some other, non-covid reason?

I was in the kitchen this morning, so I didn't clearly hear the DJ on the radio in my bedroom when he said the President and First Lady had tested positive. At first, I just heard White House and coronavirus, so I figured he was talking about Hope Hicks, who'd tested positive last night. Then, he wished Melania a speedy recovery, so I thought only she'd tested positive. It wasn't until I got into work and checked the news that I realized they'd both tested positive. I should've figured something was up when the DJ dedicated "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "You Give Me Fever" to the President.

As of now, Trump's gone to Walter Reed hospital and been given Regeneron, an experimental drug not yet approved by the FDA. This sounds serious, but we have been assured that this is a mild to moderate case by the same White House physician who said Trump weighs 239 pounds. It would sound even more serious if "Regeneron" didn't sound like medicine for Transformers.
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Clogs
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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@Tantrum:

The reason? Our air con is not really a proper one - it’s like a super reverse air vent, really. It brings in air from outside, whatever the temperature, and redistributes it through four ceiling vents containing fans. It does cool hot air, but makes cold air, well, colder. Every day this last week, it’s been colder inside our room than outside in the street!

You can guess the theory behind this, can’t you? We’ve been told that circulating fresh air is A Good Thing and ordered to keep it on.

Hadn’t heard that your dear leader has been diagnosed with C-19. Sorry to say, I’m hoping that he gets a fairly good dose rather than comes out smiling in a couple of days and announces that it’s nothing more than a mild cold and everything can go back to normal...
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Concur with those who don't think it's a hoax but probably got covered up for a while, hence the quick escalation -- Trump wouldn't willingly admit illness. Best case scenario is incapacitated for a few weeks or longer.

Ventilation's good but they still have a responsibility to heat to minimum temperatures so it's still an HSE matter if the environment's unsuitable. Personally I've got a query in as to what fresh air replacement rates have been determined as in specific offices (old building, sealed secondary glazing etc -- stuffy and gets worse the more people are in) which if not responded to before the point they try to get people back in will go that route; I think it's likely a lot of places will be doing things similar to what DWP in Leeds got sanctioned by HSE for as well.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Clogs wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 2:30 am .
What on earth do you do that they won't just let you work from home? Sitting in the winter with the air conditioner on to reduce the risk of covid would just increase the risk of pneumonia, so there's no real gain that I can see.
Denyer wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 4:37 pm Concur with those who don't think it's a hoax but probably got covered up for a while, hence the quick escalation -- Trump wouldn't willingly admit illness. Best case scenario is incapacitated for a few weeks or longer.
Have to admit that my kneejerk reaction to it was that he's faking it to get out of the followup debates, along with touting a miraculous recovery thanks to some new snake oil he has a stake in.

Other folk have had the same impression, but have partitioned out the ramifications of him being contained in the hospital during the final stretch of the election due to the disease he's been ignoring as being a net loss (no campaigning, no fundraising, etc.), so it's far more likely that he does have it and isn't fibbing. Their reasoning is pretty sound and convincing, except that all reduces down to Trump and his campaign not being that stupid and short-sighted... so... I dunno. If I've learned anything in the last four years, it's that there is no bottom to how awful, stupid, and short-sighted Trump can be.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Denyer wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 4:37 pmVentilation's good but they still have a responsibility to heat to minimum temperatures so it's still an HSE matter if the environment's unsuitable.
Yep, I’ve mentioned this... I’m H&S trained, but not one of the official reps where I now work nor am I in their union, so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens. If nothing is done this coming week, I’m firing off an email to our top boss and hang the consequences.
Clay wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:41 pmWhat on earth do you do that they won't just let you work from home? Sitting in the winter with the air conditioner on to reduce the risk of covid would just increase the risk of pneumonia, so there's no real gain that I can see.
We’re an information and switchboard team. Two colleagues with health problems are working from home using our only two remote laptops and ‘phones; like me, they rely on public transport. There are plans afoot to set up three more laptops to enable half the team to work from home each week, but (I do not joke here) we will have swap them in our own time over weekends. Team consensus is ‘frag that’ hem-hem.

It’s been suggested that I get a pneumonia jab. It’s expensive, but might prove vital!
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Taken a test this afternoon... Aching, dry cough, breathless if not resting. Very tired. Started, I suppose, late Saturday, but hit me hard on Monday and I hung on, hoping it would be a short, sharp cold. We shall see...

So many people now donning a mask to enter a bus, building or other public space - taking it off once inside - putting it back on to exit. So many literal people, given the signs say: you must by law wear a mask to enter this (whatever). Literal or ignorant.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Clogs wrote: Tue Oct 06, 2020 6:43 pm Taken a test this afternoon... Aching, dry cough, breathless if not resting. Very tired. Started, I suppose, late Saturday, but hit me hard on Monday and I hung on, hoping it would be a short, sharp cold. We shall see...
How long will it be until you get the result?

Feel well.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Clay wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:17 pm How long will it be until you get the result?

Feel well.
Thanks, mate; I’m no worse today, but dizzy and my ribs are ouch. Results due Thursday afternoon or Friday morning...
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Good luck, Clogs. Sorry to hear about your (hopefully minor) illness. And the jerks taking their masks off.

My plan of grocery shopping Friday to avoid crowds didn't work out so well last week. I went right after work, and it was quite crowded. There was a line for the ATMs, and an employee with his mask down was pushing carts in. I left and went back later, around 7 pm. It was much less crowded, though I still ended up in an aisle between someone going against the arrows and someone with his mask pulled down. I asked the guy to pull his mask up, and he did, though I'm not sure for how long.

The president and his followers are trying to spin his covid diagnosis not as a result of carelessness, but as leadership be example. You see, now Trump has first hand experience dealing with covid that Biden lacks. Trump 2020: He has to learn the hard way.

They're also saying this proves the virus isn't that bad, since Trump is out and about and not quarantining. Apparently all you need to beat covid is to be airlifted to a top notch medical facility where you'll spend 72 hours being administered experimental drugs by doctors skilled enough to keep Dick Cheney alive.

Herman Cain announced his positive diagnosis July 2, and died July 30. So, it can take a month for covid to kill you. I assume the 2 week recommended quarantine/isolation period is for people not showing symptoms.

I'll be watching TV and think about checking the news for updates. But, I'm pretty sure they'd interrupt a rerun of Sliders if the President dies. News updates tend to be about who in the President's inner circle has tested positive. Last I checked, it was mostly his media spokespeople who'd tested positive. His Cabinet members and children had tested negative, presumably because Trump doesn't send as much time with them.
Last edited by Tantrum on Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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(double post I can't figure out how to delete)
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Okayyyyy.... results time. According to the test, I don’t have Covid-19, but my youngest son, now 21, does. Cue all sorts of messages, telephone calls, questions about mental health in lockdown and advice about major symptoms.

Called my doctor in case I have bronchitis, then. Nope, he told me I have classic mild C-19 symptoms and asked how I’d been since testing; getting a lot better, in fact! Told to ring the surgery if I get worse again, but I’m expected to recover as I have no underlying health issues.

Apparently, about a quarter of negative results are false and somewhere near a tenth of positives!!! So, if Adam hadn’t tested positive, I’ve have returned to work. So much for that, then...!
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Glad you're feeling better -- it can reportedly come and go, particularly days 7-10 in the basic pattern, but I think what's being seen in more serious cases where people haven't had obvious underlying health issues is generally long exposure times or otherwise higher viral loads. (And as with pneumonia, lie on front rather than back).

The testing having fundamentally shite reliability is why I'm not being indoors with older family members. Not worth the risk.

It's the same with antibodies and t-cell response, not having the former isn't really any indication of not having had and I remain fairly convinced it's been around the male part of our office.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Thanks, Denyer! Tell you what: way back in March, me, a few of my work colleagues and my bestie all went down with a temperature, cough and breathlesness and were pretty much done in for weeks. Our doctors told each of us it was a bad viral infection, and we got antibiotics and sick notes. Absence warnings abounded. Now, down the line, we're wondering.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Yeah, as I may have mentioned it was the stubbornness of the dry cough that was noticeable around ours, bad enough to stay far away from anyone who might be badly affected, and a colleague who travels a lot and just doesn't get sick getting it as bad as anyone. Colleague's husband who works for a related org had similar for months. Not necessarily same strain as around at the moment but would infer something in that area. So, still avoiding face-to-face contact and high viral loads but more concerned about creating risk for other people.

Touch wood I haven't had time off in years since I got HIB antibody boosters and started taking high levels of vitamin D3, but it's nice more organisations have had to revise combative absence policies -- if they encourage people in whilst sick they're rightly going to get dunked to their eyeballs in legal shit.

Were they really doling out antibiotics for what they reckoned was a virus? There's no educating some so-called professionals.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Denyer wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 7:47 pmWere they really doling out antibiotics for what they reckoned was a virus? There's no educating some so-called professionals.
In case of secondary infection: possibly to stave of pneumonia?
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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True, it's not to say there can't be benefit, it's just a bit of an arse-backwards approach and half the time they're just guessing between viral and bacterial; if something goes on for a while prescribe -- most GPs would never actually test to make a better decision and we're staring down antibiotic-resistant threats as a result. Likewise pumping antibiotics into cattle as a preventative.

One of the underlying problems is that our generation didn't get vaccinations that were introduced into school programmes afterwards and there's been no catch up programme. So I'd got pneumococcal antibodies, for instance, but virtually none for hameo influenzae type b. But the NHS is structured to wait until people make enough of a stink or become ill enough, refer to consultants and test. Fairly cheap preventative stuff to avoid things have huge impacts on the economy don't get done. The approach of an annual vaccination slot where the population's surveyed for health concerns and then people catch up on new ones or those that only last a few years never gets a look in. It's sort of there for flu but not other stuff.
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Darling, Denyer, I have to wait until I’m 75 for a free anti-pneumonia jab.

Only 15 years and three months to go yee-haw! :swirly:
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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I think it's 65 based on parents and the NHS site. It's a good example -- now routinely given in childhood (one of the two main types is, different one for over-65 vaccinations) and no broader catch up programme.

Versus what they've pissed up the wall this year on unusable PPE and direct-award contracts to newly incorporated entities.

You may find they'll refer if you smoke or have previously smoked heavily, or do any welding. Anecdotal evidence of other people's medical histories can also be useful; sometimes it's a case of working out which questions or buttons need pushing. I only got through the "do tests" gate on HIB (and similar) because I asked on the advice of another family member with specific antibody deficiencies and set out the evidence chain. I think it's that people know that the more indications provided the more chance of a negligence complaint going somewhere, so if there's a reasonable option of proactively handing over to someone else and looking like the good guy...
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Re: Covid 19 / everybody PANDEMIC

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Sweet Primus (with retro-rats) on a pogo stick... while I appreciate that NHS Track and Trace have a job to do, if I get one more call repeating the major indicators for C-19 and advising me to self-isolate, I’ll scream! Yeah, I know some people need constantly reminding and being checked on, but I’m feeling insulted by the assumption that every single member of the public is as thick as lard.

The callers are reading from a script. I have an urge to tell them that I’ve turned purple or whatever, just to find out what response I’d get :wtf: :laugh:
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