Yes
No
Yeah, Pineapple's post is pretty much what I meant. Dahamsta is right too though to say 2 weeks is the max incubation time, so there'll certainly be a non-trivial amount of information available in 2 weeks. I expect at least a week of hand-wringing and half-measures even if the numbers rocket though.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Most cases develop in 5-6 days though, that's why 2 weeks is generally a good indicator. Sure let's meet in the middle at 3 weeks, and then double that for Micky to beat down the FF muppets still battling for reopening despite all of the evidence against it?
Yeah, I don't see it being much longer than a month alright. So probably reasonable to say that the 3-week mark is key - you should be able to see which way things are going by then.
I've a persistent cough for a few days, so I rang my doctor yesterday for his opinion. I've no other symptoms - temperature is normal, no loss of taste or smell, energy levels are fine - so he said it was up to me to get the test. I asked him to go ahead and book it, and got my appointment about half an hour later for today at 2:30. It's unpleasant, but only lasts a second; one swab from the back of my throat, and one from the back of my nose.
In all likelihood I've just a cold, I'm not coughing as much today, but I am clearing my throat quite a bit. Should get the results over the weekend.
I hope you get the all-clear tets.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Good luck!
Praise the empty void!
How does the test work with you guys? I've had the nordie one done but curious if it's that different in other places.
How is everyone doing with all of this recently? The prospect of a second lockdown appears to be one without a hint of any kind of blitz spirit. Getting a bit annoyed about how every news story on the topic appears to be an exercise in wondering about the All-Irelands.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
The "we can beat this together" mentality that we had during the first lockdown is definitely not there now. The direction from the government isn't helping - do we have five levels, or five and a half, or five levels and two half levels - and the leaks from NPHET aren't doing them any favours.
My opinion is that, until fines are introduced for breaking the restrictions (e.g. that guy who didn't isolate after coming back from holiday which led to more than fifty cases), it's going to be a series of rolling peaks and troughs of cases for the foreseeable future.
We are just hanging on until a vaccine or treatment is available. I reckon this increase of the levels now is to try and keep it at level 1 or 2 over Christmas and hopefully an end will be in sight then Feb / Mar. That's my reading of it.
The levels were meaningless the moment Dublin went to "Three and a half". Even now they're talking about Level 4 with additional restrictions. This after the Tanaiste acted as if NPHET had gone off the rails just a few weeks ago at the idea of moving the country up.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
The failure to have simple levels with clear criteria to move from one to another is a serious failing of this government.Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter
Personally, I'd have had 3 levels, and a cut-off in terms of new cases in the previous 14 days / 100k population, and it's done. None of this horse trading bull**** as the government argues how many publicans can dance on the head of a pin.
You can't spell failure without FAI
It'll come across as very unsympathetic, possibly even selfish since I have a young family at home, but personally I'm sick to the teeth with the whining. The simple fact of the matter is that it could be a year or more before we get a vaccine, and it could be a year or more after that before it gets to us. The simple fact of the matter is that the best ways to protects ourselves from it in the meantime are distancing, isolation and masks. Complaining about these achieves nothing. People need to stop complaining about closures - especially entirely non-essential closures - and start complaining about supports.
I think this will be trickier in the second lockdown though, especially with (awful as it is to say it) so few deaths at the moment. There was a full-page ad in the Irish Times during the week (I don't know who took it out) noting that the median age of death was 83 (more than the life expectancy), and that 95% of people who died had underlying medical conditions. Fergal Bowers is getting chased on Twitter too to clarify how many of those in hospital or in ICU with covid are there because of covid, or were diagnosed with covid while there for another reason. The question in both cases was what's the point of the lockdown. And on the face of it, they're actually reasonable questions.
But of course once you dig into it, you can see that "underlying medical conditions" is quite a broad term and includes diabetes or obesity, which between them affect 7% and 25% of the country respectively (some will have both of course). Death rates are probably quite low at the moment in part at least because vulnerable people are going out of their way to take care of themselves. And then there's the issue that covid outcomes aren't black and white in terms of dying or not - even if you come through a bad dose of it, you can have permanent lung damage, there's increased risk of stroke and there's plenty of stories of people who have taken months to fully recover their energy levels. It really does sound like something you don't want to take chances with.
But some people are a dangerous mix of stupid and selfish (I saw someone else on Facebook saying that of course going to visit your daughter was an essential journey...). I think for once we need to actually clamp down on that hard. If we don't - and we've shown no real inclination to - then this lockdown will almost certainly last longer than the last one.
There's not a hope in hell we will be at level 1 or 2 for Christmas. Level 3 if all goes well and we are very lucky. The lets save Christmas message has been generated by a communications department to help get buy in. Once we are a few weeks into level 5 expect that message to change, more scare stories and then a restoration to level 3 for part of December through to early Jan, which people will be grateful for. Things will become very sticky from early next year when people realise they won't be booking their foreign holiday they were promised last summer, and NPHET start demanding a level 5 + shutdown. Government may not survive it, increase in civil disobedience beyond the lunatics as well maybe?
The problem is Xmas, getting all the presents lined up is bad at the best of times at Xmas, but the supply chains were only just starting to catch up and in the last few weeks there's been a run again. It's easy to argue that we need to calm ourselves and mind the supply chains, but I'm already down two santa presents now. Our kids are reasonable so we can talk to them about it, but it's still a pain in the ass.
So yes, we dashed up to Cork yesterday to go to Smyths. Sorry for being one of them.
That one's easy. Santa isn't allowed be a big auld super-spreader, going into everyone's houses and touching their stuff. Sorry kids.
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