Corona Virus

You recognized the quote of course. From the late and great Ed McBain's 87th precinct crime novel Ice:

 

I just read this article this morning which contains some encouraging news related to masks lessening viral load to the mask wearer which may reduce severity of symptoms or produce asymptomatic infection.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/...te=1&user_id=b596856af0a48bf37fcdb73cd764cd88

Here is the research paper on which the above article is based.

https://ucsf.app.box.com/s/blvolkp5z0mydzd82rjks4wyleagt036

 

Had a Covid 19 antibody test yesterday while at the dentist.
Confirmed that I had definitely have had Covid 19.
Also confirmed that I have a longer term immunity rather than short term, although don't know how long that is as such though. Just more than the four and a half months since I had the Covid I guess....

 

Did you know or was it a surprise mate ?

 

No, I was fairly sure I had it back in the middle of March, this just confirmed it and also that I still had immunity from it, which was good to hear.

 

Sounds like you have been very lucky mate. I reckon you are in a great place.... makes you wonder how many others have had it and don’t know about it..

 

Is it standard then to have an antibody test if visiting the dentist? Would be interested to know if that is the case because myself and wife believe we had symptoms back in March.

 

I don't think it's standard as such, depends on individual dentists I think.
Originally was told that I would get a test just to see if I actually had CV19 before they do any work, but when I went in, they weren't actually doing that test but did say they could do an antibody test if I wanted it although not required for the work.
Not sure why they changed their mind but wasn't going to say no...

 

Sorry, but, with "gay abandon", I am posting some more (possible) figures, this time concerning what another contributor referred to as "collateral fucking damage".

Lockdown 'caused up to 21,000 extra deaths - many due to reduced access to healthcare', shocking study claims
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...0-extra-deaths-reduced-access-healthcare.html

I know, it's the Daily Mail. The same story is behind the Telegraph's paywall.


And, re my previous post about doing more to protect the vulnerable

UK Parliament Public Accounts Committee
https://committees.parliament.uk/co...egligent-approach-to-social-care-in-pandemic/

...the “appalling error” committed when 25,000 patients were discharged from hospitals into care homes without ensuring all were first tested for COVID-19 – even after there was clear evidence of asymptomatic transmission of the virus.

 

@garethr ... you can call me by name you know, we’re all mates here.

 

Well we cannot turn back the clock, what has happened has happened. It is unfortunate but you cannot change it. Get over it and move on mate .. just saying

 

It needs to inform our future, that’s the key thing

 

Yep agree with that. We have to learn from the experience

 

mate... as in cellmate... not marrying the correct size piston ring to the bore!

 

I was too lazy to look!

 

Received my NHS Covid19 test kit today
I was selected at random as part of a nationwide test, will do the prick test and send it back in the post tomorrow
Pretty sure it will come back positive as had cough, mild fever in late January

Will see

 

Are the Covid19 tests accurate? I was talking to a fellow online a couple of months ago who is a scientist with one of the major drug companies. He was due to go back off furlough and he was telling me that his company had said that none of the staff would be tested as the company considered the tests to be inaccurate to the extent that they were pointless.

As far as I know and according to my local health centre we haven't had a single diagnosed case of the virus in my village but whether it will stay that way now that the holiday park around the loch has re-opened is another question. I've practiced Social Distancing for most of the last 48 years (because I don't like people much) so I suspect I will be just fine.

 

The "prick test"? Really? There must be a better name for that COVID test, @Red Thunder.

 

Sounds like this social distancing thing is right up your alley, Marty.

Re. the accuracy of COVID tests, there are a number of different tests in the U.S. and the reliability of the the different tests varies. This is quite problematic and if I were to get tested I'd want to take several and see whether the results converge or diverge. The other problem is that you can test negative one day, be exposed the next, and then contract the virus. The number of tests per day in the U.S. is very low relative to our population and it takes a long time to receive results. Hence my general assessment under the current circumstances is that, to some degree, testing is a "feel good" response because it's essentially a crap shoot. I'm listening to the news as I type this and the topic is testing (and schools which is the environment in which I work). A comment was made that for testing to be an effective proactive effort here we'd need to do 20 million tests PER DAY. We're not even at 1 million.

 

Here are two more articles that I read today discussing airborne transmission and related considerations based what we now know. The photo under the header of the second article is something that cannot be unseen.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/...king-more-about-airborne-transmission/614737/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/coronavirus-aerosols.html