Non - Pandemic

RobTrent said:
"Next week" looks good. More test kits "next week", better PPE "next week", more ventilators "next week"...
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I know you’re being flippant Rob, but that would coincide with the two week spike expected following the lockdown that they all spoke about.

Rightly or wrong that has been the plan that they’ve been working towards.
 
DJ said:
I know you’re being flippant Rob, but that would coincide with the two week spike expected following the lockdown that they all spoke about.

Rightly or wrong that has been the plan that they’ve been working towards.
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coincide is about right.
 
DJ said:
I know you’re being flippant Rob, but that would coincide with the two week spike expected following the lockdown that they all spoke about.

Rightly or wrong that has been the plan that they’ve been working towards.
Click to expand...

NHS staff have been banging on about PPE for weeks - today they said we'd always had enough so why isn't it where it's needed?

The WHO said we need to massively ramp up testing at least three weeks ago - today they said there's a shortage worldwide but this shortage apparently doesn't affect Germany or South Korea. Wtf is going on with testing for NHS staff? This has been highlighted as an issue for weeks, we're wrecking our economy for months on end so they should stop at nothing to bloody sort the f*cking thing out!
 
SlowDownDerek said:
NHS staff have been banging on about PPE for weeks - today they said we'd always had enough so why isn't it where it's needed?

The WHO said we need to massively ramp up testing at least three weeks ago - today they said there's a shortage worldwide but this shortage apparently doesn't affect Germany or South Korea. Wtf is going on with testing for NHS staff? This has been highlighted as an issue for weeks, we're wrecking our economy for months on end so they should stop at nothing to bloody sort the f*cking thing out!
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Regards getting kit where it needs to be: Logistics is an art form.
Look at Nightingale hospital, and perhaps the Army's logistical assistance could be expanded to other areas of the NHS, get the two working together because clearly the partnership can work.
 
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SlowDownDerek said:
NHS staff have been banging on about PPE for weeks - today they said we'd always had enough so why isn't it where it's needed?

The WHO said we need to massively ramp up testing at least three weeks ago - today they said there's a shortage worldwide but this shortage apparently doesn't affect Germany or South Korea. Wtf is going on with testing for NHS staff? This has been highlighted as an issue for weeks, we're wrecking our economy for months on end so they should stop at nothing to bloody sort the f*cking thing out!
Click to expand...
As much as I have been following this (I now know more about respirators and PPE than I ever would have wanted to), I'm still not clear regarding the tests. Is it binary - you do/don't have the virus - or does it show the presence of anti-bodies .... which would indicate that you had the virus and have recovered.

The former is important in that you can isolate the ill, but those who don't have it today could get it tomorrow. Knowing that someone had it, and then recovered, would be a huge boost because they should be available to go back into the work force.

(on my earlier comment, it reminds me of 2001, when I learned far too much about jihads and the taliban, or 2008/9, when I learned far too much about mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps!).
 
Toronto John said:
As much as I have been following this (I now know more about respirators and PPE than I ever would have wanted to), I'm still not clear regarding the tests. Is it binary - you do/don't have the virus - or does it show the presence of anti-bodies .... which would indicate that you had the virus and have recovered.

The former is important in that you can isolate the ill, but those who don't have it today could get it tomorrow. Knowing that someone had it, and then recovered, would be a huge boost because they should be available to go back into the work force.

(on my earlier comment, it reminds me of 2001, when I learned far too much about jihads and the taliban, or 2008/9, when I learned far too much about mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps!).
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Like you I only know what I've read and heard in the last few weeks but as far as I'm aware they are working on both types of test. The antibody test, described by Johnson as the 'game changer' will possibly allow us to start getting back to normal, especially if the Oxford University study suggesting that millions of us have already had it are correct.

The one that Germany and others seem much more capable of carrying out than we are is the binary 'do you or don't you have it' test. This is the one we want for NHS workers to allow them to get back to work. I can't see any legitimate reason why they've not delivered on this.
 
“especially if the Oxford University study suggesting that millions of us have already had it are correct.”

That’s not my understanding of the Oxford study. If I understand it correctly, they looked at a variety of scenarios which could account for the known distribution of cases and deaths. They concluded that one hypothesis which could account for it was one where a lot of people had been infected but were asymptomatic. So it would be worth (antibody) testing to see if this were the case.

The key point being that this was a hypothesis, or possibility, and not a finding.
 
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Sorry Roger said:
“especially if the Oxford University study suggesting that millions of us have already had it are correct.”

That’s not my understanding of the Oxford study. If I understand it correctly, they looked at a variety of scenarios which could account for the known distribution of cases and deaths. They concluded that one hypothesis which could account for it was one where a lot of people had been infected but were asymptomatic. So it would be worth (antibody) testing to see if this were the case.

The key point being that this was a hypothesis is, or possibility, and not a finding.
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I've not ready their study, all I know are the headlines that it may be possible that loads of people have already had it. As you say I'm sure like the imperial college modeling they had multiple scenarios.

Either way we won't know until they are able to test their hypothesis using the antibody study.

I'd imagine that even if the numbers who've had it are at the lower end of their range it's still going to be bloody useful to have these antibody tests.
 
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