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

At least I now feel like the tax payer is getting their money's worth as I try to milk my finger(s) for 5ml of blood once a month. There is no way either of my kids (6 and 9) would do it even if they understood what £25 would buy in the real world!

They won't get extra for the finger stabbing. She already gets the £25 because she does the PCR test.

Haven't asked her about it yet, she was home from school, eating, and then out again for ballet.

Several of my daughters classmates are off with Covid (positive PCR). My daughter has mild symptoms but also had a flu and Covid jab on Thursday. On Sunday, Monday and today she has had a positive LFT. On Sunday she had a PCR which came back as 'unable to be read'. On Monday she had another PCR which has come back negative which seems really unlikely. 3rd PCR? Send her back to school?

Someone asked Tim Spector the other day about child with multiple positive LFT and negative PCR and he suggested that you were more likely to be positive and the LFT's correct given the background infection rates in schools but it all seems very non-intuitive for the lay person

A friend had a stomach bug last monday tuesday, off work but wanted to go back wednesday, their boss told them to get a pcr which they did on wednesday.

on thursday their boss told them i they had a negative LFT to come in (hadnt got their pcr back)

they had negative lft weds, thu, fri, sat, mon but yesterday evening got their PCR from wednesday back positive (5 days later??)

I had dinner with them in Sunday, so am now quarantined in our basement bedroom, they got another pcr done yesterday so will see.. hope it doesn’t take 5 days..

Negative LFT but positive PCR is expected some of the time as the PCR is a lot more sensitive. Terrible it took 5 days to come back.

Given the first PCR was 'unable to be read' I'd consider that void so yes probably another PCR makes sense.

Although it took nearly a week of being sick to get my first positive after that I was basically a positive LFT machine - finally gave a negative one yesterday. But PCRs 11 and 12 days after came back negative after the NHS lost my day 8 PCR test.

Non-intuitive is the word (or perhaps unintuitive).

Still have a slightly sore throat, more sneezy than normal and feel completely knackered - day to day activities are exhausting me at the moment.

I had dinner with them in Sunday, so am now quarantined in our basement bedroom

Are you double vaccinated? You don't have to self-isolate if so.

Also are you getting your own PCR test? If that's negative you don't have to either (and a good idea anyway).

yeah i dont have to, just for safety, not doing much this week anyway, getting a PCR today..

is it normal that they take 5 days for results to come back at the moment?

I do think that's sensible, you may be allowed to not self-isolate if you've had close contact and are vaccinated but I'm not saying that's a good idea!

is it normal that they take 5 days for results to come back at the moment?

Not in my experience, the two recent PCRs which came back for me I got results the next day.

It was after 4 days of not getting a result for the first one we started thinking something had gone wrong then when we got re-tested realised the guy never scanned the bar codes on our phones at the end to match them against the test kits..!

People who've been double vaccinated, caught it and were sick - how long did it take you to get your energy back?

Chronomics fucked up our day 2 tests. They gave us two identical passenger locator numbers (they're supposed to be unique apparently). Because the website is shit this meant we had to submit both tests for the same testee. We sent an email early on Monday and the service person's advice many hours later was "refresh the page" - big fucking surprise when this did not magically change the internal locator reference numbers - then the customer service person immediately closed the ticket and asked for a positive review so that they can have a performance bonus. After several more emails that received no response we had no choice but to post off the tests anyway. I hope I get a fine so that I can force them to pay it, fucking dickheads.

The website is dogshit as well. I clicked the "go back a step" button three times which is apparently too many - this broke my account for half an hour and registered my test without any kind of confirmation. Don't dare use your back button or refresh unless you have no choice.

Fortunately for everyone else Clown Command announced the rule change in the middle of my holiday so day two PCR tests will no longer be required. Either way, highly recommend you don't use fucking Chronomics.

C19testing.co.uk were fine for the lateral flow

We are now 4 LFTs (all positive) and 3 PCRs (void, negative, negative).

There may be something going on: https://twitter.com/Kit_Yates_Maths/status/1445674420513636356

Interesting if true - is that guy legit? He seems to be a mathematician and hasn't revealed the source of that email...

I found the Tim Spector tweets which @greentricky was talking about

https://twitter.com/timspector/status/1443591038958915609

https://twitter.com/timspector/status/1443135845251358720

Based on these it seems I should assume I had it.

Do any of you have full access to Jstor articles and feel inclined to sort me out with a PDF copy of a book I need from there?

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(cross post from 'any question..')

I can't verify the source and PHE doesn't exist anymore but then someone might be using PHE as shorthand for whatever has replaced that bit of it.

I started to feel normal again about 5 weeks from onset of symptoms. Was speaking to someone about it recently who downed tools completely for 2 weeks whereas I tried to keep working for various reasons, he suggested if you still don't feel normal after a few weeks just take 2 weeks off and rest.

Oof, that was longer than I was expecting anyone to say :/

I had gone back to work but was feeling worse again so I've taken the rest of the week off and not planning to go back until I'm actually feeling better this time.

We're supposed to be going to Italy on holiday the week after next so I'd really like to be better for that but I suppose if necessary I can treat it like Victorian-style recuperation at the seaside sort of thing.

Still churning out those positive lateral flows, lol. Sending off another PCR today but not expecting much.

PHE doesn't exist anymore

Hah, I hadn't spotted that bit. A few people have asked him on Twitter where that came from and he's not replied which is a bit suspicious, although maybe he's just busy...

Edit: He is on Indie Sage which I hadn't clocked. The i have now covered the story, it seems to be a very lazy cut and paste of Twitter posts (including not actually seeing the original email, which is some very shonky journalism!) but they did get a comment from PHE the UK Health Security Agency:
https://inews.co.uk/news/covid-lateral-flow-tests-negative-pcr-1236141

In a statement, Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Adviser at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “We have been made aware of some areas reporting positive LFD test results with subsequent negative PCR tests and we are looking into the cause.

“If you get a positive LFD test it’s important to make sure that you then get a follow up PCR test to confirm you have COVID-19. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, self-isolate and take a PCR test.

“With any test it is important to carefully read and follow the instructions for use on the test kit so as to avoid any incorrect readings.”

Well they're going in to my daughter's secondary school (SW20) to vax the 12-15 year olds on Monday 11th. A few months to go until my daughter's 12 though, so she won't be done yet.

Started to get ill 11 Sept, and only just getting my energy back. Although have now also caught the cold that's going around. Hope you're getting your vim back soon.

On the plus side, assume I'm pretty bullet proof until early next year.

My completely arbitrary markers were
3 weeks I cut a desk top out from ply and was absolutely spent afterwards - sofa bound after
4 weeks I walked up the stairs in waterstones and and could feel my heart really thumping but not out of breath
6 weeks I walked up a munro and felt 95% a little tight chested

On the main road I saw a guy riding an electric scooter who was wearing a face mask, but no helmet.

I walked to the local Sainsbury, I only have a mask on, but no helmet.

It's fine as long as you do not lean.