Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2022 10:11:16 GMT
You can still get LFTs but there's a catch.
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Post by Chopsen on Mar 21, 2022 10:12:05 GMT
One in a hundred are set to explode on insertion?
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richardiox
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Semi proficient
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Post by richardiox on Mar 21, 2022 10:12:06 GMT
Exciting, what's the catch? £££? Price poor people out the market?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2022 10:13:31 GMT
You've got to open mouth kiss ecosse.
Or you can pay a small fee.
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Post by Dougs on Mar 21, 2022 10:19:49 GMT
£7 a pop at Boots. Bastards. Most won't bother testing - if you feel shabby, don't see people unless you have to. Which of course will mean those in lower paid jobs without adequate protections.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Mar 21, 2022 11:06:50 GMT
Pleased to hear that my company will be offering LFTs for free to colleagues who can't work from home (including customer facing roles).
The government strategy is basically wash it's hands of the whole affair and put the onus onto the public, which is irresponsible and spineless. So totally in their M.O.
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X201
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Post by X201 on Mar 21, 2022 11:13:53 GMT
The case figures for Birmingham are interesting. If you look at the map, the areas that were absolute hotbeds of infection in the previous waves are now hardly registering a case. I wonder what could be causing that? Surely it's not a lack of testing.
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Mar 21, 2022 11:22:33 GMT
You likely won't be able to get PCRs either - full details are going to be announced tomorrow for England. Testing for education has stopped, so your school shouldn't be asking for a test result after this month (ours stopped recently).
General public will no longer need to test, and if you have symptoms advised to behave like you would with any other infectious illness.
LFDs are available through private market for those who want to continue testing - Boots and Lloyds are selling now, I think Superdrug and Morrisons will be too, and there's some online retailers selling too.
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Post by Chopsen on Mar 21, 2022 11:53:24 GMT
The expectation, which has been sign-posted for months, is that we're just going to live with it and covid-19 is going to become just another illness people get from just another coronavirus.
It has always been a numbers game, when looking at UK policy. It stats on the risk of overwhelming ITU beds which was what prompted our govt to initiate the first lockdown. Your average reasonably sized ITU has low double figures beds, and they'd be based in hospitals covering high hundreds of thousands of people. You can see how something that has only a fraction of a percent risk of causing severe disease if it is likely to spread to the majority of those people in a short period of time is going to be a problem.
Now, thanks to vaccination numbers, we're not seeing that level of severity, and we're going to have a rolling vaccination programme going forward with repeated exposure among the lower risk contributing to protection.
And it probably is vaccination and not variant severity that's at play. HK are having a terrible time currently, due to lots of unvaccinated elderly.
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Post by Reviewer on Mar 21, 2022 12:29:44 GMT
Testing at all at the moment does seem pretty pointless for most people. So few are needing serious treatment in hospital that there’s little reason to be concerned for 99% of people right now.
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richardiox
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Post by richardiox on Mar 21, 2022 12:44:31 GMT
Unfortunately, especially with how contagious Omicron BA2 is, that remaining 1% is like 700k people.
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Post by Chopsen on Mar 21, 2022 12:52:09 GMT
....who are mostly all vaccinated or had contact with the virus before now or both.
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Post by dfunked on Mar 21, 2022 12:55:05 GMT
Please don't summon him...
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Post by Dougs on Mar 21, 2022 12:56:26 GMT
All absolutely right of course. My only concern is how employers will expect unwell people in work. But then that's nothing new.
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Post by Chopsen on Mar 21, 2022 13:00:23 GMT
That's really something the govt should have done something about tbh. you already have rights as an employee to take time off sick, but some employers take the piss. The govt could have increased sanctions against employers who take advantage of employees.
See it all the time: same shitty employers put pressure on their employees to go back to work. Refusing to give permanent hours and instead opt for zero hours or contractors so they don't have to honour it.
It's been a problem for ages, COVID or no COVID. Just wish they'd seized this opportunity to change things for the better
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Post by drhickman1983 on Mar 21, 2022 13:03:23 GMT
There was never any chance that this government will do anything to improve working conditions for the common folk.
People shouldn't be expected to go into work if they're unwell, but unfortunately the system we're in very much encourages this. I've seen some fuckwits argue that people go to work with a cold, why should Covid be any different?
And frankly people who have colds should fucking stay at home too. Fucking disease bags.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2022 13:05:27 GMT
They're not really a seize the opportunity kind of government. Unless it's seizing the opportunity to make their mates rich.
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cubby
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doesn't get subtext
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Post by cubby on Mar 21, 2022 13:07:25 GMT
They've run out of tests.
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Post by Jambowayoh on Mar 21, 2022 13:09:47 GMT
There was never any chance that this government will do anything to improve working conditions for the common folk. People shouldn't be expected to go into work if they're unwell, but unfortunately the system we're in very much encourages this. I've seen some fuckwits argue that people go to work with a cold, why should Covid be any different? And frankly people who have colds should fucking stay at home too. Fucking disease bags. I've always hated people who have to come into work when they're sick because "they need me". It's not a badge of honour you tool.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2022 13:12:50 GMT
Name one employer who wouldn't fire someone if they went on the sick everytime they got a cold.
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Post by Jambowayoh on Mar 21, 2022 13:15:46 GMT
Name one employer who wouldn't fire someone if they went on the sick everytime they got a cold. Civil service mate, you'd be surprised the amount of people who took the piss when it came to sickness because they knew the right people. There's having a cold and there's people visibly ill coming into work but getting nothing done. Obviously I'm not going to mention shit employers like Amazon who will fire you if go to the toilet.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Mar 21, 2022 13:19:21 GMT
This is where places that actually engage with flexible working are paying dividends. Our absence through illness stats our way down even with covid and, personally, I have worked through things I normally would have taken to my bed over purely because I didnt have to drag my arse to the office.
And I dunno what the actual granular stats are but most people on our team are having just two, maybe three at a push days off with covid.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2022 13:24:47 GMT
This is where places that actually engage with flexible working are paying dividends. Our absence through illness stats our way down even with covid and, personally, I have worked through things I normally would have taken to my bed over purely because I didnt have to drag my arse to the office. And I dunno what the actual granular stats are but most people on our team are having just two, maybe three at a push days off with covid. Yeah, the thresholds for going into work and just being able to do work are vastly different. Last week I would have had 5 days off work normally as I was sneezing, coughing, generally unwell etc. But as I now work from home I only took 3 full days off as sitting at my laptop was okay, but driving 2 hours, infecting people etc would have killed me
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Post by elstoof on Mar 21, 2022 16:15:39 GMT
Just booked my boosta, not sure I’d have bothered if it weren’t a requirement for entry to some places. Hope there’s no mandate for a 4th in the works
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Post by dfunked on Mar 21, 2022 16:17:55 GMT
Haven't they only just announced the next booster rollout for over 50s/vulnerable? Will probably roll out to us slightly younger folk later in the summer.
/edit Over 75s, rather. Starting today in England.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2022 16:23:57 GMT
Just booked my boosta, not sure I’d have bothered if it weren’t a requirement for entry to some places. Hope there’s no mandate for a 4th in the works Where they asking for boosters? Thought that was pretty much scrapped now.
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cubby
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doesn't get subtext
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Post by cubby on Mar 21, 2022 16:31:45 GMT
I'm getting my boostas fortnightly.
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Post by elstoof on Mar 21, 2022 17:09:34 GMT
Just booked my boosta, not sure I’d have bothered if it weren’t a requirement for entry to some places. Hope there’s no mandate for a 4th in the works Where they asking for boosters? Thought that was pretty much scrapped now. France and some other european countries require it for entry. Second dose is only regarded as full vaccination for 9 months there
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EMarkM
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Well, quite...
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Post by EMarkM on Mar 21, 2022 18:43:04 GMT
The government strategy is basically wash it's hands of the whole affair… Presumably while singing Happy Birthday twice. We’re all still doing that…right?
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Post by rockavitch on Mar 21, 2022 18:47:37 GMT
Second/booster only valid for 270 days in Spain, think that's an EU requirement and not just Spain but I've only checked them as that's where I'm going.
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