When will this shit end?

[JoeyT]

 

[zahidf]

The rock says wear a mask

 

[Padjeq]

2 hours ago, zahidf said:

Not sure if this is the most convincing way to get me back in the office...

 

Hearing an alarm. Achingly pulling on a sock. Weeing in the shower. Harrassing the receptionist. Holding close on the lift doors when someone is running for it. Getting out your other phone and calling your second family. Tedious jokes. Office affairs. Spreading rumours. 19th wee break of the day. Smoking out a window. Deleting emails unread. Contemplating ending it all. Filching £10 from petty cash. Avoiding the office whip round. Shredding instead of filing. £3 Tesco meal deal that seems like value but is 3 unenjoyable elements. Watching every instagram story. Leaving early for the pub. Not booking a pub table and getting turned away.

 

[eFestivals]

12 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

Hancock's only being kept on now as a human shield. At what stage does someone have to intervene and put him out if his misery? He's so shit it's almost starting to feel cruel 

same as with Williamson, Spaffer is keeping Hancock around to sack later.

He can get away with sacking a health (and education) minister once, but if he has to sack two from the same position it starts to look as tho Spaffer is incompetent.

Yeah, I know.  

Edited September 3, 2020 by eFestivals

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

same as with Williamson, Spaffer is keeping Hancock around to sack later.

He can get away with sacking a health (and education) minister once, but if he has to sack two from the same position it starts to look as tho Spaffer is incompetent.

Yeah, I know.  

he will fail with attempts to get any bills of clean health though  problem is hes running out of competent or seen to be competent people to replace them with ....

[stuie]

16 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

Hancock's only being kept on now as a human shield. At what stage does someone have to intervene and put him out if his misery? He's so shit it's almost starting to feel cruel 

I feel as much compassion for him as he’s shown for the victims of this virus.

[squirrelarmy]

38 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

Isn’t this the correct version ? 
 

 

I chose not to choose corporate bullshit. 
 

I chose something else

[Toilet Duck]

On a more serious note: REACT2 data now up on pre-print server. Estimates over 3 million people have been infected in England up to the end of June. London obviously with the highest prevalence and disproportionately impacting Black and South Asian communities. 18-24 age group was also the highest prevalence, so not sure how much has changed in terms of the dynamics of infection transmission over the last while, younger people still caught it a lot during the peak (better shielding now? better testing?). About 1/3 of infected individuals were asymptomatic. The main caveat is that the seroprevalence test used searched for IgG antibodies, however has no data on IgA antibodies (which are the principal antibodies involved in mucosal immunity and are one of our first lines of defence against respiratory virus infection...so it may be a significant underestimation of how many people contracted the virus since those that clear the virus before it gains any kind of foothold would be more likely to be asymptomatic or only have mild disease, so are probably slipping under the radar here as well). Also estimated the infection fatality ratio at 0.9% (which again, is probably an over-estimation due to still missing quite a few people that have contracted the virus). 

 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.12.20173690v2

[HalfAnIdiot]

36 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

 

Its an ad for Detol. Still bizarre tho. 

 

[Zoo Music Girl]

5 minutes ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Its an ad for Detol. Still bizarre tho. 

 

Wow the idea that riding the tube in the morning is "getting an hour to yourself". Try overheating, feeling claustrophobic and desperately trying to drown it all out. Just me?

[Sdsm123]

Wow 40 downvotes in one night... your all so supportive

[Toilet Duck]

Also, a very useful table below explaining the differences between the gold-standard PCR diagnostic test we have been using up to now and the rapid tests that will start to be rolled out over the next while. Time to shift the question from "am I infected" to "am I infectious"! I know I've been banging on about this for a while (sorry), but without a vaccine (and even with a vaccine it's going to take a while to vaccinate everyone), this is our best shot of really getting back to normal...rapid tests can be used for screening, confirmation by PCR if necessary, but it supports cheap, repeated testing to longitudinally monitor what is happening in our communities...

Edit: Additional visual that helps explain...(the text in it is a bit facetious though, in theory, you should be self-isolating while waiting on test results and the rapid tests give more false positives and negatives, but are useful for routine monitoring)...

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Toilet Duck

[SwedgeAntilles]

Fk Dettol, man. I'll be sure to be using one of their competitors to wash the image of those ads out of my eyes.

[Leyrulion]

13 minutes ago, SwedgeAntilles said:

Fk Dettol, man. I'll be sure to be using one of their competitors to wash the image of those ads out of my eyes.

I thought everyone just bought whatever was on offer at wilkos for £1 that week.

[fraybentos1]

17 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

Also, a very useful table below explaining the differences between the gold-standard PCR diagnostic test we have been using up to now and the rapid tests that will start to be rolled out over the next while. Time to shift the question from "am I infected" to "am I infectious"! I know I've been banging on about this for a while (sorry), but without a vaccine (and even with a vaccine it's going to take a while to vaccinate everyone), this is our best shot of really getting back to normal...rapid tests can be used for screening, confirmation by PCR if necessary, but it supports cheap, repeated testing to longitudinally monitor what is happening in our communities...

 

Edit: Additional visual that helps explain...(the text in it is a bit facetious though, in theory, you should be self-isolating while waiting on test results and the rapid tests give more false positives and negatives, but are useful for routine monitoring)...

 

Do you think those new tests will soon become the norm in airports soon ish? Surely allow more normal travel if u can quickly tell who is infectious?

Edited September 3, 2020 by fraybentos1
mis read

[Toilet Duck]

Just now, fraybentos1 said:

Do you think those PCR tests will soon become the norm in airports soon ish? Surely allow more normal travel if u can quickly tell who is infectious?

Actually, I think we'll have them at home! (the rapid tests, not the PCR tests...even I don't have a PCR machine in my house!...have a few in the lab though, but I think you meant the rapid tests?). There's an App that goes with the Abbot tests that records your result and when it was performed. Can be used to show on entry to anything to prove you currently don't have a viral load consistent with infecting anyone (it's going to miss some people, but will catch way more than not testing people will!). I entirely agree though, advance testing is the key to opening back up many of the things that are currently heavily restricted. Definitely for travel (and having to pay a couple of hundred quid for a private PCR test is a non-starter on a large scale). If the price of going to a gig was a $5 home test, results to be shown with ticket before I could enter, I'd be ok with that (ticketmaster take more in booking fees!). 

[Ryan1984]

38 minutes ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Its an ad for Detol. Still bizarre tho. 

 

Surely someone high up at Dettol is close to the government to come out with this?

[JoeyT]

8 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

Actually, I think we'll have them at home! (the rapid tests, not the PCR tests...even I don't have a PCR machine in my house!...have a few in the lab though, but I think you meant the rapid tests?). There's an App that goes with the Abbot tests that records your result and when it was performed. Can be used to show on entry to anything to prove you currently don't have a viral load consistent with infecting anyone (it's going to miss some people, but will catch way more than not testing people will!). I entirely agree though, advance testing is the key to opening back up many of the things that are currently heavily restricted. Definitely for travel (and having to pay a couple of hundred quid for a private PCR test is a non-starter on a large scale). If the price of going to a gig was a $5 home test, results to be shown with ticket before I could enter, I'd be ok with that (ticketmaster take more in booking fees!). 

How long are we away from these tests being readily available to use?

I assume if we were really close there would be much more of it made in the general media?

[Zoo Music Girl]

 

[Toilet Duck]

Just now, JoeyT said:

How long are we away from these tests being readily available to use?

I assume if we were really close there would be much more of it made in the general media?

The Abbott one has just received FDA Emergency use authorisation...it's what Trump is currently using to regularly test himself in the White House! They will be released for general use in the US imminently  and outside the US within the next couple of months (currently manufacturing capacity is 50m tests a month, but that will ramp up). And this is only one, there's an entire diagnostics industry with similar tests developed, all with similar Apps etc. In the US, whoever is checking the result needs to register with the FDA and receives a license to scan the QI code that comes with the result...then they can verify that the result is genuine (so, scan ticket on the way into gig, scan COVID test QI, all clear, in you go!...the party line at the moment is that it should be coupled with social distancing, hand hygiene etc, but some studies comparing cluster emergence with and without prior testing will soon put paid to that if it's no longer required...would be really interesting to see one of the sites in the German gig tests use this with and without social distancing to see what happens...). Given that a vaccine looks probable, but that the logistics of manufacturing it in massive quantities means that it will take 2-3 years to vaccinate everyone (if they want to), something else needs to help us move on a bit more safely, and this type of thing is the answer (IMO). 

[Crazyfool01]

17 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

Actually, I think we'll have them at home! (the rapid tests, not the PCR tests...even I don't have a PCR machine in my house!...have a few in the lab though, but I think you meant the rapid tests?). There's an App that goes with the Abbot tests that records your result and when it was performed. Can be used to show on entry to anything to prove you currently don't have a viral load consistent with infecting anyone (it's going to miss some people, but will catch way more than not testing people will!). I entirely agree though, advance testing is the key to opening back up many of the things that are currently heavily restricted. Definitely for travel (and having to pay a couple of hundred quid for a private PCR test is a non-starter on a large scale). If the price of going to a gig was a $5 home test, results to be shown with ticket before I could enter, I'd be ok with that (ticketmaster take more in booking fees!). 

whilst everyone else might have a spud thats growing roots lurking in the cupboard .... toilet duck proudly shows off his test to everyone .... meanwhile outside his front door..... the efests mob descends 

[Toilet Duck]

1 minute ago, crazyfool1 said:

whilst everyone else might have a spud thats growing roots lurking in the cupboard .... toilet duck proudly shows off his test to everyone .... meanwhile outside his front door..... the efests mob descends 

🤣 Is that the queue at Gate A of a Wednesday morning? (I usually don't get there til the afternoon!). I also have some fairly mad spuds lurking in the cupboard!

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, Toilet Duck said:

🤣 Is that the queue at Gate A of a Wednesday morning? (I usually don't get there til the afternoon!). I also have some fairly mad spuds lurking in the cupboard!

not sure which one that was from  ... but it could be any .... google was quicker in this instance 

[priest17]

24 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

🤣 Is that the queue at Gate A of a Wednesday morning? (I usually don't get there til the afternoon!). I also have some fairly mad spuds lurking in the cupboard!

That's about 3% of the morning queue!

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Its an ad for Detol. Still bizarre tho. 

 

think it's a pretty good ad...certainly getting attention.