I predict another rise of covid

It was Johnson that mentioned barbecues was it not. To the horror of the 'advisors' who then had to point out that people needed to not use the same serving spoons etc as everyone else.

I am taking part in the Kings College Hospital monitoring of the virus.

After going down day on day It has remain steady from about 8th May.

I am now watching it slightly up tick day on day.

This virus is beginning to spread again.

ladymuck The level of infection in my town has hardly decreased for weeks. I've been reading on Facebook about people planning BBQs. The outdoor market has re-opened. I despair.

I shall be staying very firmly within my own four walls.

Obesity, hypertension and T2 diabetes are linked and tend to be age-related and more prevalent amongst males and people from certain ethnic backgrounds. They're all implicated in the severity of the effects of Covid-19. The British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK both stress the importance to people with the above to observe social distancing and to try to adopt healthy lifestyles.

Nobody seems to know why there's a correlation, although it is known that most people who have died from Covid-19 or been very severely affected have blood embolisms, which often cause pulmonary embolisms - hence the breathing difficulties.

It's known that ACE2 is the "receptor" for the coronavirus. Some evidence suggests that ACE2 may be higher in patients with hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Whatever the research eventually shows, the message is quite simple … continue to keep away from others as far as possible and try to get/keep fit.

I've just looked out of my window onto the playing fields opposite my house. The warm weather has brought out everyone and their dogs. It's obvious that social distancing is no longer being practised. People seem to think the threat has passed.
This particular town has not been badly affected....but it only takes one person suffering....

maddyone The trouble is that it's not just the beaches you will need to avoid, but the people who have been to a beach (or similar) in the last few days - and their contacts.

Anything which encourages people to mingle unnecessarily before the numbers come right down and there is an efficient track and test system in place is, IMHO, foolish in the extreme.

Luckily I'm so fat that nobody wants to hug me.

Obesity mentioned again today in the briefing so it is still a prime factor. Our neighbours went out with friends last night and they were all hugging each other when they got home. Now seem to have gone out for the day. Not sure what’s happening elsewhere as haven’t left the house for weeks (apart from trip to the vets(thankfully over a week ago so I don’t seem to have caught anything: phew).

A local paper printed a photograph of our Promenade absolutely packed with people. Accompanying a warning about future problems with the virys.. The photo also showed people sitting happily at cafes and had been taken on a hot Bank Holiday weekend three year ago! !!! They never mentioned that anywhere though.

They don’t seem to be quite so sure about the link with obesity now. But one of the first lists I saw showing Covid deaths and co morbidities had obesity near the top. Sometimes wonder, though if one of the reasons we’re having a pandemic is that half the world is obese and/or poor and malnourished and the other half is starving.

We’ve been told that overweight people have a greater chance of dying from Covid19 but the biggest factor of all is age. Then there’s ethnicity, other conditions, gender, and so in. For anyone who happens to have two, three, or four of those factors the possibility of death if infected is great. Our very own Prime Minister was a good example, he had two factors as far as I could tell, he’s male and overweight. And he had a struggle to stay alive. Imagine if he had been older or had another condition or black, his chances would have been far less for recovery even if just one of those factors was present.

Just a thought. We in the UK have the dubious honour of being the fatties of Europe.

The overweight have a far greater risk of dying from Covid than those of a normal weight.

That could go some way to explaining our relatively high death rate.

Johnson said he doesn't read scientific reports he just goes by what his advisors tell him. But sage are advising him not to open schools yet. So who are [is] the advisor that is shaping the way that we deal with the pandemic?

Ah well Maybee, somebody agrees with me at least. For what it’s worth, I’m worried about another spike because the rules are relaxed and there are idiots out there. As I said on another thread, I’m weary of it all, but I know that I will keep the rules despite being weary. Others may not. Those pictures of beaches full of people do scare me. I guess I shouldn’t worry, I won’t be going anywhere near a beach.

I am sad to see the children's playgrounds in parks all locked up. Wonder why three or four wash hand basins could be put just outside of these, rules that children have to use these both before and after they enter the play area. Parents can ensure that these youngsters are not too close to one another when playing - although many young children or more scared and stick closer to the rules than adults.

With the debate about mental health of course it would be on the rise because lots would have used gyms or exercise classes to help maintain an healthy outlook. It's also a good release for certain emotions especially anger.
There has been online classes and lots out jogging and of course the packed out door gyms!! But the gym and classes also provide a chance to be with others. Like everything else this industry will change when it opens again whilst a vaccine is being sort.

maddyone: the independent sage group agree with you, certainly regarding children going back to school. They say the government is actually ignoring the advice given by the official sage group. Lockdown shouldn’t be relaxed until track and trace is running properly and the way things are now that could be a long way off. And areas where the R number is higher ( eg Barrow in Furness/ the NE) should be treated differently, something that was put to Matt Hancock a few days ago and he brushed it off saying the country should act as a whole.

For what it’s worth, I think the R number is still too high to relax things. But I’m not a scientist, maybe I know nothing.

Pantglas, the hygiene rules as were were far from ideal. There was never any need to lock up public open spaces, and childrens play and exercise spaces should have been organised from the beginning.

It would have been possible and still is possible to dedicate streets as play areas and install play apparatus and potted trees.

Public hygiene during a pandemic was always relative to what hygiene measures are possible and what the public would tolerate.

If coronavirus had been traceable to a carrier like Typoid Mary then that carreir coiuld have been detained indefinitely by law. But coronavirus is literally everywhere not just in one carrier's gall bladder or in one contaminated water well.

The people need simple easy to understand rules.

Mr Cumming's government risks public health for the sake of economic growth. Ask ourselves "Who benefits?" Not the poor who always did take the strain and will die in greater numbers without hygiene rules !

I was referring to the Governments handling of the whole crisis Growstuff as a debacle, the Cummings escapade being yet another item in a long list of things they got wrong.

Regarding mental health, I have friends who suffer from different things from mild anxiety to full blown paranoia, depression, mourning loved ones etc in ‘normal’ times and from FaceTime I can see the deterioration in their wellbeing.

A lot don’t have the resilience to weather difficult events which didn’t have to be as bad as they are.

I agree MissAdventure.

Long-term anger caused by frustration and powerlessness at the way the public is being treated as fools of no importance is more likely to lead to long-term mental health problems.

Are you concerned about the physical health of those who will undoubtedly be infected as lockdown is lifted without adequate safeguards?

Righteous anger is fine.
Expressing it is good for mental health.

I must admit I'm at a loss to understand how the Cummings debacle (as you call it) will have affected anybody with genuine mental health problems - and, yes, I do know what I'm talking about.

It has made many people genuinely angry and frustrated that somebody has got away with arrogantly behaving in a certain way and has lied, despite being somebody who wrote the rules, while they are powerless. That's not being obsessive and bitter. Anger in those circumstances is a perfectly normal reaction.