Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

Just a hunch but I think lots of places will be very strict up until Christmas, as they know people will probably be travelling / gathering.

Which makes it absurd that the UK gov is desperate to get everyone back out spending money ahead of Xmas.

In Northern Ireland the R rate dropped, but they do think you cannot have both schools AND hospitality open, with schools contributing quite significantly too.

Of course the DUP is playing to the "I hate lockdowns" brigade, to try to get some culture war votes... thanks.

So now coffeeshops open again this weekend, then everything opens in 2 weeks even though the NI "sage" advisor thinks this is too early and the health minister advised against it :/

Closing schools an extra week and all hospitality for a month did work, they are also hiring more T&T people and they are also linked with people that help with benefits/other things you need to self isolate.

Once the cases go exponential again though, you cannot keep up with T&T so we have to see what happens here... Ireland still in lockdown for 4 more weeks and border checks as well.

You're right. Hartley jams are shit.

Don't worry, Boris is 'bursting with anti-bodies' so I'm sure he can share some around.

Typhoid Dildo now self-isolating.

It's like they don't know what they are doing.

I wonder where she had a close contact? Head of something feels like the kind of role that can be done 100% remotely so I assume it was in the supermarket.

Per The Guardian her Tory husband also got a notification.

Could be unlucky or shared contact?

Head of something feels like the kind of role that can be done 100% remotely

Ha ha ha ha. No.

I'm all for shopping with your S.O. but I think the supermarkets are requesting one adult per household. Naughty Ms Harding.

Hartley jams are shit.

I'm sure Wallace Hartley could jam a bit.

If you know your subject/business, and you trust the team you have, very possibly.
I can easily imagine a lightweight like Typhoid Dildo,
attempting to micromanage professionals who end up wasting time in unnecessary face-to-face meetings.

Wouldn't Ms Harding's team also be made of managers and therefore they would also be at home? I can't imagine there are very many people doing actual test or track work that have met her.

I should probably call my brother-in-law-in-law who has been contracting for Test and Trace since September. There must be some gossip going round there. Fairly sure he has been working from home the whole time.

Finally some proper tests on the masks.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817

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Maybe I'm mis-interpreting the findings, but do they take into account whether the the rest of the public (not involved in the study) were also wearing a mask? As far as I'm aware, masks are recommended to stop an individual spreading the virus to others when they exhale, rather than stopping them catching it from others when they inhale.

Edit: should've read further.

Here, we report a randomized controlled trial (20) that assessed whether a recommendation to wear a surgical mask when outside the home among others reduced wearers' risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in a setting where public health measures were in effect but community mask wearing was uncommon and not recommended.

I guess it still doesn't answer the question of how effective it is if everyone wears masks though.

You're quite right. However there seems to be a lack of testing regarding the efficacy of masks and the above suggests that they make no meaningful difference in the conditions stated. Hopefully there are more proper test results in the pipeline for a general mask wearing situation.
In my opinion the results do cast doubt on the wearing of masks as a COVID control.

Well, assuming it's all as study shows: 0.3% is 1/6th of 1.8% so about a 13% reduction. Not bad maybe? It in that sense depends on how you look at it.

Now if they would test this with people wearing masks inside and eating 2 meters apart, with most infections spread inside in households, that 16% would be quite awesome.

It certainly dampens the case for the use of masks to prevent catching the virus, but that is not really their primary intended purpose (from the CDC site: 'Masks are primarily intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets '). I agree with you that hopefully there are more tests in the pipeline.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54984297

Coronavirus: Family Christmas get-togethers being considered

This uncertainty isn't helping me decide if I should be ordering a turkey or not

M&S TV dinner, a litre of Vodka and a netflix sub?

https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2020/11/17/Migrant-workers-can-support-Christmas-food-supply-despite-quarantine-rules

In the middle of September deaths were around 3% higher than five year average. November 8th it was up to around 30%. But it has dropped slightly over the last recorded week. Data from here.

Latest data from the above link shows UK at 10% increase.

Not correct. Deaths have been above the 5 year average for the last 4 weeks according to the ONS data.

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