UK Covid data

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Covid’s back, you say? As disabled and vulnerable people know all too well, it never went away: Opinion by Frances Ryan

It is 1.35pm and I’m having to explain coronavirus transmission to a nurse. I am due an appointment at 2.30, and I’ve been phoned because I say I’m clinically vulnerable. I ask whether the nurse has an N95 mask (as they’re proved to be most effective). She does not. I ask whether she and the team are taking weekly lateral flow tests, like her colleague said. She is not, and is unsure why that was promised.

“We don’t need to do that any more,” she says breezily. What she means is: she has no official duty to do so any more. Clinically vulnerable (CV) patients still “need” the Covid-19 protections. They just don’t get them.

We don’t really talk about this. We don’t really talk about coronavirus at all. More than three years on from the start of the pandemic, there’s understandably a desire to “move on”, to bury painful memories of lockdowns and watching loved ones dying on iPads. This has only been encouraged by the government, which has honed the message “Covid is over”, as if saying this somehow makes it so.

Since February last year, when Boris Johnson removed all protections, such as the legal obligation for people with coronavirus to isolate and most free testing, there’s been no official strategy or guidance on reducing transmission of the virus. The result is a kind of mass denial – an agreed forgetting. The subject crops up from time to time. A breaking news banner announces a new variant. A friend texts that she’s stuck in bed “with the worst summer cough”. Then we carry on – until we are forced to remember once again.

Watching coronavirus make a return to the headlines in recent days has subsequently felt like a weird deja vu, like the return of your least favourite guest star in a long-running television show. First, the vaccine rollout in England was hastily brought forward in light of concerns over the new variant BA.2.86, which recently caused an outbreak in a care home in Norfolk. Then it was announced that testing and monitoring would be scaled up again after scientists warned the country was nearly “flying blind”.

That sound you can hear is a stable door closing and the horse bolting. Though cases and hospitalisations are thankfully significantly lower than at the height of the pandemic, the daily number of positive coronavirus tests in England has been increasing since the end of June – a trend that is likely to grow in the coming weeks, as we socialise more indoors and children mix at school. It’s hopeful that many cases of Covid-19 are now mild, but that isn’t true for everyone: at last count, 1.5 million people were experiencing long Covid symptoms that adversely affected their daily activities, and the virus still poses a significant risk of death to many people with pre-existing health conditions.

Not that you’d know it. When was the last time you heard a minister even say the word “coronavirus”? As Rishi Sunak’s government lurches from crisis to crisis, Covid is labelled as “job done” because it is simply more convenient that way. Britain’s “Covid policy” in 2023 is effectively King Canute’s courtiers watching another wave coming and insisting sheer will alone can stop the tide.
Covid’s back, you say? As disabled and vulnerable people know all too well, it never went away (msn.com)
 
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I was treated to very hostile manner by a nurse in A&E for reasons I couldn’t work out. One reason on my list of explanations is that I was wearing a mask. I was the only one in a very busy area. Maybe that wasn’t it. But since all Drs look shocked and taken aback when I walk in the room, always wearing one, I can only assume it’s a reasonable guess.
 
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I was treated to very hostile manner by a nurse in A&E for reasons I couldn’t work out. One reason on my list of explanations is that I was wearing a mask. I was the only one in a very busy area. Maybe that wasn’t it. But since all Drs look shocked and taken aback when I walk in the room always wearing one, I can only assume it’s a reasonable guess.
yes several people sniggered at me in the doctors surgery the other day, i assume the N95 was the reason. I take it off in the doctors room because she already thinks i a health anxiety/hypochondria person because thats what she thinks ME is i think. But i'm blowed if i'm sitting in the waiting room with all those people coughing etc. And i keep it on to see the nurses etc i couldnt care less what they think.

On the phone recorded message at my local hospital it says "please be kind to anyone who choses to wear a mask for any reason".

its coming to something when that needs to be in the recorded message when you ring the local hospital isnt it.
 
I was treated to very hostile manner by a nurse in A&E for reasons I couldn’t work out. One reason on my list of explanations is that I was wearing a mask. I was the only one in a very busy area. Maybe that wasn’t it. But since all Drs look shocked and taken aback when I walk in the room always wearing one, I can only assume it’s a reasonable guess.
Last week, as I was leaving the grocery store, someone stopped their car to yell at me, "Psycho! Get the fuck out of here with that Covid shit!" because I was wearing a respirator. So prejudice against mask wearers is a thing here, too.
 
yes several people sniggered at me in the doctors surgery the other day, i assume the N95 was the reason. I take it off in the doctors room because she already thinks i a health anxiety/hypochondria person because thats what she thinks ME is i think. But i'm blowed if i'm sitting in the waiting room with all those people coughing etc. And i keep it on to see the nurses etc i couldnt care less what they think.

On the phone recorded message at my local hospital it says "please be kind to anyone who choses to wear a mask for any reason".

its coming to something when that needs to be in the recorded message when you ring the local hospital isnt it.

It really is.
I’m so sorry to hear it.

The drs and nurses, who expect us to defer to their supposedly superior understanding of infectious disease and human biology?

It’s beyond ridiculous and deep into tragedy.

This is stuff they all knew but two years ago. Before the great forgetting.

Is it the accumulated brain damage from their many many exposures,
or is it deadly ideology?

I know what my money is on.

But I also know whichever it is they’re taking me and maybe most of us down under the brine along with them.
 
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I see less and less people wearing masks here. I wear a mask in stores and elsewhere indoors.

COVID infections are on the rise again, with outbreaks in hospitals etc. It's of course, not a done deal.

I haven't had anyone yell at me about wearing a mask, but I sometimes get the vibe: "What's wrong with you...?" People don't engage much with me while I'm wearing a mask. It seems to make them feel uncomfortable. Me too.

I haven't had COVID. I have asthma. I'd know if I had COVID. I really dread getting it. What with ME, and asthma.

Anyone here had COVID who has asthma?

I've had 6 vaccinations so far. Going for #7 in a few months.
 
I see less and less people wearing masks here. I wear a mask in stores and elsewhere indoors.

COVID infections are on the rise again, with outbreaks in hospitals etc. It's of course, not a done deal.

I haven't had anyone yell at me about wearing a mask, but I sometimes get the vibe: "What's wrong with you...?" People don't engage much with me while I'm wearing a mask. It seems to make them feel uncomfortable. Me too.

I haven't had COVID. I have asthma. I'd know if I had COVID. I really dread getting it. What with ME, and asthma.

Anyone here had COVID who has asthma?

I've had 6 vaccinations so far. Going for #7 in a few months.

Yes, I have. Pre-vaccine definitely and almost certainly after this several times. I can’t isolate. The one time I was able to during a period post my first and worst Covid case I felt much better with my ME due to total isolation from humans. No interaction other than phone. Emotionally it was awful. But physically good, I hadn’t felt so much like myself in a long time. When I saw people again it was like the best feeling ever, but about three weeks in I started catching infections again and splat I’ve been getting worse ever since.

However from all my exposures I can say having 2020 Covid with asthma one of the the worst things that ever happened to me, thinking I was going to die multiple times a day for something like two weeks was deeply traumatic. I was absolutely fine then suddenly couldn’t breathe, 1.5 hours thinking I would die, then completely fine again for an hour or so then cycling again.

Second and possibly third exposures still no vaccine, again thought I was gonna die. Although I think I actually did still have some immunity then cause so close to original infection before all the rapid changes to new variants. So acute illnesses over very quickly. Since vaccines still breathing difficulties but absolutely nothing like pre vaccine exposure. I would say that you are unlikely to be in danger of dying after your all your vaccines, of course none of us know, but from general experience I think you can relax on this one, which will help if you do catch it to get yourself through. But am so angry that we have no precautions now because it’s such a dangerous virus and among many other things it can leave you with a worsened asthma.

You’re doing the right thing to take your precautions so seriously. But it’s hard because we can only do so much for ourselves, we need society to act like a society not a collection of individuals. To work in the project of keeping each other safe and healthy together.
 
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Thanks very much @Ash for your reply!

Hope you are doing better after your COVID infections.

I'm not sure where we're at here (Canada), with returning to precautions or not.
After the early precautions, public health officials have just handed it over to all individuals to do what they want in this instance.
There have been warnings from some doctors about the latest variant, and individuals taking precautions, but certainly not an umbrella directive.
There probably won't be a new overall directive.

Our hospitalizations for COVID are climbing, as well as some deaths.
Of course without a mask mandate in the hospitals, people in there for other things are catching COVID, which is naturally, not a good thing!
And, as an aside costs the health care system (ultimately us) more; people's stays in hospital may be longer due to the COVID infection in addition to whatever they went in for.

The whole COVID thing has unmasked (pun intended) so many problems in society, including the dislike, and mistrust of disabled person.
To be yelled and sworn at as @RedFox has been, reveals the deep seated negative view some people have of disabled people, and those who don't appear similar to people who harbour these negative views.

Thank you very much for your support about the asthma/COVID thing. I really wish there was a more reliable, long term vaccination - maybe someday!
:)
 
I still wear a mask indoors. I haven't gotten many comments on it except "Oh I don't think about covid anymore". But people I work with know I'm ill (some know it's ME, some not). My boyfriend was stopped by a woman who felt the need to tell him the pandemic was over and masks are useless. A friend has however been asked a lot when she will stop masking, and have recently made the choice to cut back on work hours to get some rest from comments and being judged for her choice since it has mostly happened in the office.
 
Had an NHS health check today, which is a basic check of things like blood pressure and glucose levels, and cholesterol levels, along with a range of questions about my lifestyle. This was at a local health hub, which was also providing covid booster jabs, and I didn't see anybody else who was wearing a mask, not even those people queuing up for their vaccine booster.
 
Had an NHS health check today, which is a basic check of things like blood pressure and glucose levels, and cholesterol levels, along with a range of questions about my lifestyle. This was at a local health hub, which was also providing covid booster jabs, and I didn't see anybody else who was wearing a mask, not even those people queuing up for their vaccine booster.

Yeah has been my experience. I find this heartbreaking. I think some maybe most non- disability-political people who are themselves disabled are following the medical professionals lead as to what precautions they should take. So feel safer than they are, along with older people. Or maybe everyone sees the level of risk but has chosen or been co-opted into a nihilistic stand point. Probably many other reasons too. It’s all to terrifying to contemplate maybe and with masks you can’t forget. So people are shocked. Too much faith in the oversold vaccine for people with access. For people at work exposed every day of through children it’s very much the minority who try to mitigate, it seems too much to manage I guess.

But it particularly disturbing to watch this at play in a healthcare facility.
 
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I see less and less people wearing masks here. I wear a mask in stores and elsewhere indoors.

COVID infections are on the rise again, with outbreaks in hospitals etc. It's of course, not a done deal.

I haven't had anyone yell at me about wearing a mask, but I sometimes get the vibe: "What's wrong with you...?" People don't engage much with me while I'm wearing a mask. It seems to make them feel uncomfortable. Me too.

I haven't had COVID. I have asthma. I'd know if I had COVID. I really dread getting it. What with ME, and asthma.

Anyone here had COVID who has asthma?

I've had 6 vaccinations so far. Going for #7 in a few months.
I see less and less people wearing masks here. I wear a mask in stores and elsewhere indoors.

COVID infections are on the rise again, with outbreaks in hospitals etc. It's of course, not a done deal.

I haven't had anyone yell at me about wearing a mask, but I sometimes get the vibe: "What's wrong with you...?" People don't engage much with me while I'm wearing a mask. It seems to make them feel uncomfortable. Me too.

I haven't had COVID. I have asthma. I'd know if I had COVID. I really dread getting it. What with ME, and asthma.

Anyone here had COVID who has asthma?

I've had 6 vaccinations so far. Going for #7 in a few months.

I have had severe ME for over 20 years and asthma for longer than that.
I caught the first strain of covid at my front door from a delivery driver. This was before they had produced a vaccine.
I was pretty ill, but to be honest I have felt far sicker with my ME symptoms, and whilst I had Covid and a high fever for a week I actually felt better than normal. I felt slightly breathless for about a day, and just doubled up on my asthma medication. Then I was OK. Though sadly about 3 weeks later all my ME symptoms returned again.
So I guess it depends on the individual. I haven't had any vaccines, as from my perspective covid wasn't really as bad as I expected.
One of my friends has just had the current strain of covid. He has quite severe asthma. He is fine.
Hope this puts your mind at rest a little.
 
To one degree or another, whether you're pro-vaccine or against, most feel swindled and lied to. Seems every other person is pissed.

Science was supposed to be society's Great Arbiter, stoic and disinterested and fair, with medicine its compassionate side.

Who with any long term illness unreservedly believes that anymore?
 
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https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/ot...ning-how-covid-still-grips-the-uk/ar-BB1hCfSN

Frankly, I just don't see how they're getting hold of reliable data in the UK. I mean, when I caught Covid (finally) the other week, I couldn't find any way of formally registering that I had it. So what is their information based on, apart from cases serious enough to warrant hospitalisation? Studying sewage? Google searches on things like Covid symptoms? Purchases of lateral flow tests? (You can't report data from ones you've paid for. Huh?).
 
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/ot...ning-how-covid-still-grips-the-uk/ar-BB1hCfSN

Frankly, I just don't see how they're getting hold of reliable data in the UK. I mean, when I caught Covid (finally) the other week, I couldn't find any way of formally registering that I had it. So what is their information based on, apart from cases serious enough to warrant hospitalisation? Studying sewage? Google searches on things like Covid symptoms? Purchases of lateral flow tests? (You can't report data from ones you've paid for. Huh?).

The only UK figures I have seen recently are related to hospital admissions, but then only for relatively small geographical areas, not for the country as a whole. I suspect there is a government desire not to present accurate Covid figures here, because the politicians want the country to believe the pandemic is over.
 
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-and-ons-release-latest-winter-covid-19-infection-study-data

Approximately 26,000 volunteers reported the results of LFD tests, taken whether or not they were experiencing symptoms. Statistical examination of the data by ONS indicates that 1.4% of the household population would test positive for COVID-19, compared to 1.6% in the previous week.

So it seems they are still doing the random testing of those 26,000 and basing their figures on those results
 
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