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

Yes, especially given the upward trend of all of the charts at the moment:-

https://twitter.com/Kit_Yates_Maths/status/1502696230333390855

Hope he recovers ok.

Thanks. He continues to improve. Thank fuck.

Ok I’ll bite. Do you have a link to the docs you mentioned about Pfizer?

Here's a summary (apparently, I've not read the docs themselves). The URL is a good summary of the summary.

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/pfizers-confidential-document-shows-adverse-events-reported-following-vaccination-it-doesnt-demonstrate-vaccine-caused-events-or-is-unsafe/

“ Other serious events, including a form of heart inflammation known as myocarditis, have already been identified following both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations”

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60653946

This is exactly what my wife experienced after her Pfizer booster, lasted about 2 months. Could be coincidence of course

Day 8. Following yesterday's negative lateral flow I thought today was going to be a formality.

Distracted by my daughter at breakfast I drank the glass of orange juice I was going to have after my test. I'd been doing the NHS branded lateral flows that swab both throat and nose, and they say to wait 30 minutes after having anything to eat or drink. No problem, we also have a box of FlowFlex branded LFTs, which only require swabbing of the nose, so did one of those instead.

Of course it turns up with a very faint (but not ignorable) positive, so that's me back in the cage for another 2 days.

(Who knows, the NHS branded test might also have given me a faint positive today. I'm not trying to game the system, I want to make sure I'm not going to infect anyone else.)

Travelled home by train last night. GWR guidance was to wear masks unless exempt. Turns out in the carriage I was in everyone was exempt except myself and one other person!

currently know 3 people who had covid around christmas who have it again this week/weekend.

Pretty concerning, was with two of them yesterday, they have positive test this morning, i only came out of isolation 5 weeks ago, but that doesn’t seem to count for much

Few similar stories round here too. I think Christmas was the Delta / Omicron intersect, so if you got Delta then you're not really getting any protection from Omicron now.

If you had Omicron 5 weeks ago, hopefully you've got the required antibodies to see it off this time.

ONS changing the information you get for the antibody blood tests:-

"
You will be used to getting your antibody results as “positive”, or “negative”. This is how the test was approved early in the pandemic before vaccines were developed and is very accurate at identifying people who have or have not had COVID-19.

In future, we will tell you whether your finger prick blood test is negative, positive, or positive at a higher level for antibodies.
"

Funnily enough my latest blood test results just came through:-

"
The blood sample taken on 06/03/2022 from the participant born on XX/XX/XXXX was positive for antibodies at a higher level.
"

No great surprise as the corresponding PCR was positive so I had an ongoing infection.

Not exactly sure how useful this is. In every previous blood test I've been positive for antibodies, but then I never had a blood test prior to having my first vaccination. I'd also never tested positive for Covid before this most recent test, but that doesn't mean I didn't have it early on (especially after coming back from skiing in Austria in Feb 2020).

Anyway, as they keep saying, it's a population wide study not a testing programme for individuals so I can't expect anything else. Also the £75 we get each month (£25 each) for being part of the study is being donated straight to DEC Ukraine.

Also haven't yet heard whether we're going to be staying in the study or not. ONS is looking to downsize (probably because of a reduction in funding) and supposedly letting us know soon.

Just got the vaccination appointment for our 5yr old - both my wife & I have had 3 doses with generally mild side effects (neither of us has knowlingly had covid either). I know the potential for covid-related side effects are higher than anything vaccine related but i'll be honest, I sighed a little when I opened the letter... dunno why, weird.

Of course it turns up with a very faint (but not ignorable) positive, so that's me back in the cage for another 2 days.

Use another brand of test. Flowflex were still giving me false positives four months after having it when I'd always been clear pre-Covid.

Innova (NHS branded), Orient Gene (who sounds like a character from a panto) and Xiamen Biotime all good for me.

If you wait for Flowflex to give you an all clear you could be waiting for months!

Also I bet the government wish they'd got you out of the ONS PCR testing before you tested positive.

Didn't you get the Covid is over memo?!

Just found out that somebody who was in our flat for an hour yesterday tested positive today.

I'm supposed to be having dinner with a 68 year old man tomorrow night.

Should I be cancelling? I have no idea what the right thing to do is.

If it was me: LFT today and tomorrow evening just before dinner. If you have any symptoms at all even mild even without a positive test, personally I'd cancel. No symptoms and negative tests I'd go ahead.

If it was me: LFT today and tomorrow evening just before dinner. If you have any symptoms at all even mild even without a positive test, personally I'd cancel. No symptoms and negative tests I'd go ahead.

Thanks for that, I think I agree.

Jana and I were both quite poorly a few weeks ago. Like a really heavy cold with total loss of smell and taste. Neither of us tested pos on LFT though so perhaps was just a bad cold. Definitely felt like how other people describe Covid though!

If you didn't test positive on lft it very likely wasn't COVID. The lft tests are every effective.

The lft tests are every effective.

Sure, but at the same time, one of our colleagues is just coming to the end of his third bout of Covid and only found out he had it because he was PCR tested as part of a study. He had symptoms but 5 neg LFTs across a week after symptoms began. Then he had the positive PCR and continued to test neg on LFT.

I know that LFTs are effective, but they are not perfect.

and Xiamen Biotime all good for me.

Is that’s a new smartphone?

My partner hang out with a person who was positive all day, that person got Ill the next day.

She still tested negative but may take a while for it to be positive if it’s in her system.

You know the person was positive at the time they were together? Or they felt ill / tested positive the next day?

I know that LFTs are effective, but they are not perfect.

I think the point is that they're pretty damn good at detecting whether you are infectious or not.

But that's not the same thing as being infected.

Plenty of people will test positive on a PCR but negative on a LFT. The difference is timing, your immune system, and plenty of other factors.

It's also perfectly possible to have quite obvious symptoms and still not be infectious.

As a counter statement to above, flowflex had me crystal clear at 9 days - hopefully the previous 9 days of positives rule out user error on my part.

The next day, apparently you’re very contagious just before you fallen ill

It definitely varies from person to person, I'd love to know why the difference.