Covid-19 discussion thread

[fishman65]

If I'm completely honest, after my second vaccination and the expected four weeks for it to bed in, I went into smug mode. I thought 'well this is all over now, I'm safe so that's OK'. So the anxiety switched back to traditional pursuits including social, generalised etc.

But as 'The Grand Opening' approached and cases started shooting up, I'm back to analysing stats, watching Dr Campbell and wondering whether I might be in that small percentage of the double vaccinated that has a bad outcome. Not just me of course but Mrs F with her catalogue of comorbidities and my Dad with his very advanced age/comorbidities. Though I'm hardly alone in this. Most of us have vulnerable people in our families and/or are vulnerable ourselves.

So is it just me, or does this feel like the most dangerous phase of this pandemic so far? The vaccination has proven efficacy after all. I don't know whether to stick or twist.

[.Poppy.]

My county has been pegged by the CDC as an emerging hotspot. We are not a large county by any means - I live in the largest "city" and the population is still just 50,000. But only 40% are vaccinated and students are coming back soon. We are expected to start transitioning back into the office August 1st and were granted some leeway with expectations that we'll be there most/all of the time by the end of August. But, IMO, pretty much everyone who is going to get vaccinated already has, and restrictions are just opening up - it just seems like it's the perfect chance for more variants and greater spread.

My town only does weekly numbers reports now, so I'm waiting to see what they report tomorrow. Last week there were 120 new cases, which is more for us than even at the "peak" last year.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Thing is, Cummings has ZERO credibility. It all sounds like the pathetic mewling of someone who thinks he's far smarter than he actually is, a bitter and twisted little man who discovered the hard way that he was disposable. His failure to provide any evidence to back up his many claims serves to illustrate this.

Absolutely this. He sounds like someone who's been dumped. He thought he was Teflon and now his pride is wounded.

[MyNameIsTerry]

If I'm completely honest, after my second vaccination and the expected four weeks for it to bed in, I went into smug mode. I thought 'well this is all over now, I'm safe so that's OK'. So the anxiety switched back to traditional pursuits including social, generalised etc.

But as 'The Grand Opening' approached and cases started shooting up, I'm back to analysing stats, watching Dr Campbell and wondering whether I might be in that small percentage of the double vaccinated that has a bad outcome. Not just me of course but Mrs F with her catalogue of comorbidities and my Dad with his very advanced age/comorbidities. Though I'm hardly alone in this. Most of us have vulnerable people in our families and/or are vulnerable ourselves.

So is it just me, or does this feel like the most dangerous phase of this pandemic so far? The vaccination has proven efficacy after all. I don't know whether to stick or twist.

No, I think you are one of the many thinking the same. As Delta ramped up around here we discussed keeping shopping trips to the minimums we did early last year and later when we were put in tier 3 and then again early this year.

Being complacent could mean you are the unlucky one. I think when you have vulnerable people in your life this is normal. I think we take the flu jab for granted but we always know we can still get it. But that is different when your vulnerable loved ones get a cold. But pre flu jab it was a bigger killer and more feared. Maybe the difference is more that this still new to US all and in our faces daily? Even during the bad flu years we didn't have a daily forcefeeding of news about it.

It's Delta that is doing this because we are seeing huge numbers again and the media are happy as Larry churning out the doom. Pre Delta the odds were much more against coming into contact with infected people.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I was correct that cases would probably go back up again today (46k vs 39k yesterday), but still below 50k, whereas on Saturday (17th July) cases reached 54k.

In fact, I half expected today's cases to be above Saturday's 54k, but luckily not to be.

Yesterday's drop to 39k is still rather baffling. I wonder if it's the footie effects starting to wear off coupled with the hot sunny weather over the past few days that caused the drop?

However, I completely expect cases to skyrocket again from later this week onwards.

My area is starting to go up again after dropping last week (566 cases today vs 533 last Tuesday), but that won't as yet be caused by yesterday's easements.

But has Tamworth really increased?

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/deta..._specimen_date

Look how your last 5 days have gone. Click the data tab in the first graph.

I think yours appears artificially high due to reporting day cut offs in the schedule (both the BBC site and the gov ward tools have this) and you've had the odd spike day which inflates your average. You were up & down but then had the spike day over a hundred. But the last days show a big difference that you would expect indicates passing the peak.

Looking at those figures you are on a downward trend. It will probably show in the next reporting week

For me we have a constant upward trend. Now look at the daily cases and you will see a big reduction.

[Phill2]

Arrests were made during anti-vaccine protests in central London on Monday, July 19, after all lockdown measures across England were removed.
Britain has recorded its highest Covid death toll since March 24.

Ninety-six people died in Britain from Covid-19 in the 24 hours leading to July 20.
That takes the country’s death toll to a shocking 128,823.
It marks a 60 per cent surge in the number of deaths since last week, The Sun reports.
Daily cases increased again on July 20 with 46,558 testing positive for the virus

[Lencoboy]

Arrests were made during anti-vaccine protests in central London on Monday, July 19, after all lockdown measures across England were removed.
Britain has recorded its highest Covid death toll since March 24.

Ninety-six people died in Britain from Covid-19 in the 24 hours leading to July 20.
That takes the country’s death toll to a shocking 128,823.
It marks a 60 per cent surge in the number of deaths since last week, The Sun reports.
Daily cases increased again on July 20 with 46,558 testing positive for the virus

96 deaths does seem high, but remember yesterday was Tuesday and generally plays catch-up following the usual weekend lag where the deaths are almost always underrecorded, so was actually artificial. But yes, the deaths sadly are trending upwards, but thankfully so far not in excess of 1k per day like back in Jan and early Feb.

And it was covered by The Scum after all!!

[Lencoboy]

But has Tamworth really increased?

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/deta..._specimen_date

Look how your last 5 days have gone. Click the data tab in the first graph.

I think yours appears artificially high due to reporting day cut offs in the schedule (both the BBC site and the gov ward tools have this) and you've had the odd spike day which inflates your average. You were up & down but then had the spike day over a hundred. But the last days show a big difference that you would expect indicates passing the peak.

Looking at those figures you are on a downward trend. It will probably show in the next reporting week

For me we have a constant upward trend. Now look at the daily cases and you will see a big reduction.

Thanks for the link Terry.

I guess the media haven't really helped with much of their typical sensationalist reporting plus on another online forum a couple of weeks ago at the height of our local spike, someone posted venomous remarks (now deleted) which read something like 'well it is a chav town after all'!

Another (presumably local person) on the same forum replied in defence stating that my borough's reputation as a 'chav town' has generally lessened over recent years and was largely a 'moral panic', partly fuelled by the local press back in around 2003-05, but nevertheless, still sad that this pandemic is reopening old wounds from the past, and provoking the typical 'town-bashing' which sadly many people still seem to revel in nationwide!

But our local rag, the Tamworth Herald, is a completely different kettle of fish these days to what it was back in the early-mid 2000s, as it's now part of the Reach Group, whereas back then it was part of the Northcliffe Group, who allegedly owned the likes of the Daily Fail (surprise, surprise!!), so kind of demonstrates why they have toned things down so significantly over the past 15 years, probably coupled with people's general changes in behaviours during the same period.

Sorry for digressing and straying off in a tangent!

[Phill2]

I don't know how the count works down here Lenco but that was in todays (Wednesday) paper

[pulisa]

If I'm completely honest, after my second vaccination and the expected four weeks for it to bed in, I went into smug mode. I thought 'well this is all over now, I'm safe so that's OK'. So the anxiety switched back to traditional pursuits including social, generalised etc.

But as 'The Grand Opening' approached and cases started shooting up, I'm back to analysing stats, watching Dr Campbell and wondering whether I might be in that small percentage of the double vaccinated that has a bad outcome. Not just me of course but Mrs F with her catalogue of comorbidities and my Dad with his very advanced age/comorbidities. Though I'm hardly alone in this. Most of us have vulnerable people in our families and/or are vulnerable ourselves.

So is it just me, or does this feel like the most dangerous phase of this pandemic so far? The vaccination has proven efficacy after all. I don't know whether to stick or twist.

I feel the same, Fishman. My daughter's anxiety is really bad too. I'm finding it very hard to cope to be honest..I even took her pregabalin by mistake this morning!!! I don't know why!!