The big Coronavirus thread

rick_chasey

Oh no they weren't.

skyblueamateur

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

kingstongraham

TheBigBean said:

I'm late to the party, but I'm not sure I understand school closures. Just did a zoom call where three of the teachers were huddled together on the same computer.

Sounds like it definitely wasn't a party.

pblakeney

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Unclear. As usual.
My point was that we are now entering the time window when the consequences will become clearer.

skyblueamateur

pblakeney said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Unclear. As usual.
My point was that we are now entering the time window when the consequences will become clearer.

Definitely. I'm still trying to clutch at straws for better news.

orraloon

Not going to hear 'better news' in UK. Spaffer needs attention and clicks on the bug to distract from #toryscum sleaze, corruption and paaarteees.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

pblakeney said:

Omicron optimism may have been premature. First recorded death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-59632655

From all the downplaying of Omicron, I presume it was a "mild" death?

mrb123

Anyone else had a text asking for one of these to be filled in?

rjsterry

mrb123 said:

Anyone else had a text asking for one of these to be filled in?

No, but if it's just asking you the questions that were previously asked in person that seems like a good way to speed things up and reduce people talking to each other.

briantrumpet

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Badly reported by Reuters, using the "from"omicron" formula, when the original report was "with omicron". Words matter.

joe2019

briantrumpet said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Badly reported by Reuters, using the "from"omicron" formula, when the original report was "with omicron". Words matter.

Meanwhile, quite a few have died from flu.

focuszing723

joe2019 said:

briantrumpet said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Badly reported by Reuters, using the "from"omicron" formula, when the original report was "with omicron". Words matter.

Meanwhile, quite a few have died from flu.

The difference is the NHS has been able to cope with flu admissions over the years, it's a known quantity. This variant isn't yet, especially at this rate of infection.

If you were part of the core team dealing with this and your name was on it, would you just throw caution to the wind?

I really doubt it, if you're honest.

rick_chasey

Think it's important to remember the gov't was rightly criticised for moving too slowly the last 2 big waves, and this is doubling every 2-3 days which is incredibly fast, so any delay has the potential to be incredibly costly if they get it wrong.

It is clearly a different equation with high levels of vaccination which were not present previously, but you can see the concern, right?

And even if a much smaller proportion of cases end up in hospital, if a massively greater amount get it then you end up with the same result.

kingstongraham

joe2019 said:

briantrumpet said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Badly reported by Reuters, using the "from"omicron" formula, when the original report was "with omicron". Words matter.

Meanwhile, quite a few have died from flu.

flu is reported to be very low this year

Jezyboy

skyblueamateur said:

pblakeney said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Unclear. As usual.
My point was that we are now entering the time window when the consequences will become clearer.

Definitely. I'm still trying to clutch at straws for better news.

I think it can still be a fair bit milder whilst having a non zero fatality rate.

kingstonian

Had my booster jab this afternoon- there was also an enormous queue for walk-in jabs and people were happily stood in there for 2+ hours waiting to be seen.

pblakeney

Jezyboy said:

skyblueamateur said:

pblakeney said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Unclear. As usual.
My point was that we are now entering the time window when the consequences will become clearer.

Definitely. I'm still trying to clutch at straws for better news.

I think it can still be a fair bit milder whilst having a non zero fatality rate.

The key figure regarding restrictions is hospitalisations.

TheBigBean

First.Aspect said:

TheBigBean said:

First.Aspect said:

kingstongraham said:

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Whole 'nother uni here.

Is also a myth that you get longer holidays at Oxbridge. Terms are shorter, but student lets aren't. If you are paying rent and have a sh!t ton of work set, why go home?

The current Oxford student I know has been home for a week.

Well that settles it definitively then.

You get turfed out of college rooms so they can rent them out to conferences, but you only get a college room in your first and if you are lucky your third year (out of 4, normally) and not at all if you are a postgrad or postdoc. So there's a pretty decent tlyear round student population in Oxford. Cambridge might be different, except it.just isn't.

I thought most at Cambridge were encourage in stay in colleges for their whole time as an undergrad. One of the things that put me off.

There aren't enough rooms for everyone to live in the whole time.

The college dorm rents end at the end of term, so there's a financial incentive to head home after first year and get your mum to wash your grundies. Not sure about college owned houses, because ours had precisely three I think, so everyone lived in dives in Cowley instead. Could be a different experience if you are an old Etonian doing Classics at Christchurch I suppose. But I did know such folk and they also lived out, albeit in nicer parts like Iffley.

Besides, one year in, one out is enough for most people. They are odd places to be.

Edit again Cambridge could be different, but I can't see why. The one time I visited a gf's friends they were living in a private let somewhere in town and if I'd done a PhD there, that would have been the case for me as well.

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/why-cambridge/student-life/accommodation

At Cambridge, rather than choosing a hall of residence for your first year of study, you live in a College for the full duration of your course. The majority of students are guaranteed accommodation in College-owned property for three years, and many Colleges provide for fourth-year students too, so you don’t have to find private accommodation during that time.¹ Your College is where you do a lot of your studying and socialising, and each College community offers pastoral and academic support.

TheBigBean

I can see how this home schooling caused some irritation with people. Told at 8.30am that school was off, but kid in reception was expected to attend a 2pm zoom call (or be marked absent) and then upload his completed work at the end of the day.

pangolin

TheBigBean said:

I can see how this home schooling caused some irritation with people. Told at 8.30am that school was off, but kid in reception was expected to attend a 2pm zoom call (or be marked absent) and then upload his completed work at the end of the day.

What kind of work have they got them doing?

Jezyboy

pblakeney said:

Jezyboy said:

skyblueamateur said:

pblakeney said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Unclear. As usual.
My point was that we are now entering the time window when the consequences will become clearer.

Definitely. I'm still trying to clutch at straws for better news.

I think it can still be a fair bit milder whilst having a non zero fatality rate.

The key figure regarding restrictions is hospitalisations.

Both are somewhat important surely? Along with length of stay.

In other news GP surgery just text me to book my booster. Have to say, despite being awkward when I tried to sign up with them, the overall service around getting jabbed has been tip-top.

rick_chasey

The anti vaccine passport lot would be a lot more credible if they didn’t typically also support restricting liberties of migrants and dual nationals.

pblakeney

Jezyboy said:

pblakeney said:

Jezyboy said:

skyblueamateur said:

pblakeney said:

skyblueamateur said:

Do we know whether Omicron was the cause of death or whether it was someone who passed away while being infected? All reports I can see suggest it was 'with Omicron' rather then 'from Omicron'.

Unclear. As usual.
My point was that we are now entering the time window when the consequences will become clearer.

Definitely. I'm still trying to clutch at straws for better news.

I think it can still be a fair bit milder whilst having a non zero fatality rate.

The key figure regarding restrictions is hospitalisations.

Both are somewhat important surely? Along with length of stay.

Important but not equal when it comes to restrictions. Hospitals filling up results in restrictions. If they don't fill up then no further restrictions.

First.Aspect

TheBigBean said:

First.Aspect said:

TheBigBean said:

First.Aspect said:

kingstongraham said:

First.Aspect said:

rick_chasey said:

Whole 'nother uni here.

Is also a myth that you get longer holidays at Oxbridge. Terms are shorter, but student lets aren't. If you are paying rent and have a sh!t ton of work set, why go home?

The current Oxford student I know has been home for a week.

Well that settles it definitively then.

You get turfed out of college rooms so they can rent them out to conferences, but you only get a college room in your first and if you are lucky your third year (out of 4, normally) and not at all if you are a postgrad or postdoc. So there's a pretty decent tlyear round student population in Oxford. Cambridge might be different, except it.just isn't.

I thought most at Cambridge were encourage in stay in colleges for their whole time as an undergrad. One of the things that put me off.

There aren't enough rooms for everyone to live in the whole time.

The college dorm rents end at the end of term, so there's a financial incentive to head home after first year and get your mum to wash your grundies. Not sure about college owned houses, because ours had precisely three I think, so everyone lived in dives in Cowley instead. Could be a different experience if you are an old Etonian doing Classics at Christchurch I suppose. But I did know such folk and they also lived out, albeit in nicer parts like Iffley.

Besides, one year in, one out is enough for most people. They are odd places to be.

Edit again Cambridge could be different, but I can't see why. The one time I visited a gf's friends they were living in a private let somewhere in town and if I'd done a PhD there, that would have been the case for me as well.

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/why-cambridge/student-life/accommodation

At Cambridge, rather than choosing a hall of residence for your first year of study, you live in a College for the full duration of your course. The majority of students are guaranteed accommodation in College-owned property for three years, and many Colleges provide for fourth-year students too, so you don’t have to find private accommodation during that time.¹ Your College is where you do a lot of your studying and socialising, and each College community offers pastoral and academic support.

I went to the pauper's college.

But fwiw, "college owned property" = house somewhere in town.

First.Aspect

kingstonian said:

Had my booster jab this afternoon- there was also an enormous queue for walk-in jabs and people were happily stood in there for 2+ hours waiting to be seen.

Did you get the flu jab as well, or are you too young?

I got both on Thursday, and I felt like poo for the next 36 hours. Worse than the Covid I tell ya.

TheBigBean

pangolin said:

TheBigBean said:

I can see how this home schooling caused some irritation with people. Told at 8.30am that school was off, but kid in reception was expected to attend a 2pm zoom call (or be marked absent) and then upload his completed work at the end of the day.

What kind of work have they got them doing?

Andy's Wild Workout on BBC iplayer

Make wrapping paper by Tate

Reading practice

Story time

Only one of those could really be uploaded.

briantrumpet

TheBigBean said:

pangolin said:

TheBigBean said:

I can see how this home schooling caused some irritation with people. Told at 8.30am that school was off, but kid in reception was expected to attend a 2pm zoom call (or be marked absent) and then upload his completed work at the end of the day.

What kind of work have they got them doing?

Andy's Wild Workout on BBC iplayer

Make wrapping paper by Tate

Reading practice

Story time

Only one of those could really be uploaded.

Perhaps combine them all into a piece of performance art to upload.

Actually, I think you've just written a poem, so that'll do.

pangolin

TheBigBean said:

pangolin said:

TheBigBean said:

I can see how this home schooling caused some irritation with people. Told at 8.30am that school was off, but kid in reception was expected to attend a 2pm zoom call (or be marked absent) and then upload his completed work at the end of the day.

What kind of work have they got them doing?

Andy's Wild Workout on BBC iplayer

Make wrapping paper by Tate

Reading practice

Story time

Only one of those could really be uploaded.

In a way I'd quite like school to shut now so we don't get any more bugs brought home before the holidays. Would make the rest of the week tough though.

pblakeney

First.Aspect said:

kingstonian said:

Had my booster jab this afternoon- there was also an enormous queue for walk-in jabs and people were happily stood in there for 2+ hours waiting to be seen.

Did you get the flu jab as well, or are you too young?

I got both on Thursday, and I felt like poo for the next 36 hours. Worse than the Covid I tell ya.

Hmmmm. I got both too and zero effects as per the previous 2 jabs.
I must be lucky as most of my contacts seem to feel sluggish at least.

kingstonian

First.Aspect said:

kingstonian said:

Had my booster jab this afternoon- there was also an enormous queue for walk-in jabs and people were happily stood in there for 2+ hours waiting to be seen.

Did you get the flu jab as well, or are you too young?

I got both on Thursday, and I felt like poo for the next 36 hours. Worse than the Covid I tell ya.

Just the Covid booster jab