Just thinking

[Dave Plowman (News]

The total number of positive tests for Covid in the UK is given as over

10m. So roughly 1 in 7.

If you go through your address book, does that figure agree?

[alan_m]

It may depend on the age of the people in your address book. 1 in 7 is about correct for the number of people I have in my phone's number book, one of which required hospitalisation for a few days with Covid.

Also, the total number of tests in the UK is 365 million. That's 5 tests for every man, woman and child in the country.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

we had a lady friend the wife of a fellow transplant patient who was shielding her husband and last christmas the children and grand children came to visit with covid and killed her off....'let them die and pile them high' as somebody once said....

[nightjar]

I don't know anybody who has had Covid. I have met one, a delivery man, and my cousin lost a friend to Covid. Apart from that, we all seem to have done a good job of avoiding it.

[Richard]

Same for us. So far...

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I personally think that although most of what Donald Trump said was complete rubbish he did observe that the more you test the more people you find with any given infection. It set me thinking that if each year we all tested for the flu virus if we would in fact get a lock down most years simply from that. The main problem is, how do you test people for whom getting any given virus will be a serious problem. Brian

[Brian]

Which tests? Two ( maybe 3) of my family members are required to do LF tests daily.

1 is a doctor, 1 teacher is required I know. The other ( also a teacher) hasn?t mentioned it but I assume he is.

I assume they report results but I don?t know.

We do occasional ones - eg if we are going to an event where we may infect others. I did one yesterday before going to dinner at my Club. We?ve an event on Saturday, we will do one before that.

We?ve never had a positive so never reported results.

I?m more worried about infecting someone vulnerable than catching it- I?m fully jabbed and pretty sure I had it before the first lockdown or it was even really known here.

[Brian]

Couple of definite cases in close family, plus a couple of probables before testing was readily available or it was even really known about.

3 more definites in extended family.

Symptoms ranging from all but none ( but tester?s via Pcr) to bad cold / moderate flu. Ages about 20s to 60s. All fine, no hospital cases etc.

A couple of friends caught it and recovered.

Another caught it in hospital he didn?t make it. He wasn?t in the best of health but even so he should have been safe from it in hospital.

[RJH]

Yes, quite. Which is a good thing with a highly transmissable and potentially serious disease if you want to avoid spreading it.

From what little we know, Covid is proving to be far more serious than flu.

[The Natural Philosopher]

My nephew, his wife and child caught it. They are young. And double vaxxed. My niece, her husband and all kids caught it. I suspect another nephew had it but he was never tested. A friend has had it with his wife. Another friend had a neighbour die of it. Nephews wife's parents had to friends die of it.,

Anyone who says it isn't happening is in a serious mental illness place.

I had a test every 12 hours in hospital

[The Natural Philosopher]

I get a flu vax every year. I have avoided things like the Tube for 20 years. Always caught some shit there.

[charles]

You obviously don't know me. I thought I'd managed to avoid it, but then, with my 'good deed' hat on, I took an elderly (102) to the Xray dept at the local hospital. I must have caught it in the corridors there.

[charles]

You are certainly asked to.

I have that feeling, too.

[Andrew]

That's a huge profit for Randox and other testing companies.

I have only ever had 1 Lateral flow test and it was negative.

[Andrew]

So she died but her other half (with the transplant) survived ?.

[Andrew]

Ditto. One retired plod aged 80+ further round the estate caught it and died. His wife was in hospital for a few days but got over it. Apart from that I know of no other person who had it.

[Andrew]

Err, hospitals are full of sick people who also have relatives trooping in and out, plus an army of staff. Plus, heating on full blast and windows all sealed up. You were more likely to catch covid in a hospital than any other gathering of unrelated people. And at the beginning the expert advice was wash your hands for 20 seconds. It was quite a while before airborne transmission was admitted to be the main way it was spread.

[Andrew]

Precisely. 80% of the population have a normal T-cell response. These people either have no symptoms or mild to moderate symptoms. The other

20% have a defective or disabled T-cell response (at the outset, no-one had antibodies). It is this 20% who need to be identified and either vaccinated or advised to change their lifestyles.

Andrew

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

yip

[Andrew]

Bad genes = rubbish T-cell response. One of the 20% I'm afraid.