COVID-19: SHIT'S JUST GOT REAL

Testing positive with LFTs

Yesterday I went down to the river, wishing Merry Christmas to many of the people I passed.  Most returned the wishes.  But one man said "Hopefully next year will be better than this year".  I added "or last year".  To which his response was "And hopefully we've got rid of that clown, Johnson."

That clown has allowed infection rates to rise to silly levels, making infection by Delta or Omicron almost inevitable if you leave your house, such as for essential food shopping.  The consequences of infection are broad and potentially severe.  Not just potential hospitalisation and death, but a whole host of personal and societal issues that could be as bad if not worse.  Madness.  And now I am caught up with it, having tested positive with two brands of  LFTs, as in the photo, and waiting for a PCR result.

SO YOU TOO HAVE TESTED POSITIVE

Shit's just got real, as it will for many of you too.  So what does it mean to test positive?:

• Self-isolation for at least 7 days, legally unable to leave the house or garden
• Potentially longer, 10 days or even longer
• Worrying myself about serious illness, ongoing lethargy and not wanting to lose my sense of taste and smell.  Also worrying about more serious LongCovid symptoms, and whether the virus has been passed to other people who end up having serious symptoms
  

According to the NHS  website, today 26 December 2021, the self-isolation rules for when tested positive are::

What isn't explicit in these words, and needs to be tweaked is:

• The 10-day count starts the day after a positive test or first symptoms:
• So are days 6 and 7 are on that same basis?  Many people will count the day of test/symptoms as day 1, and finish self-isolation a day too early (if day 1 is the day after)
• Indeed do you have to wait until day 8 before going out, 8 days after test/symptoms?  From 26 December as day 0, day 8 is 3 January.  After New Years Eve. 
  
• Whether to stop taking LFT tests until day6?  How about after that?
  

 THE CONSEQUENCES OF INFECTION

I'm on annual leave this week, but was supposed to be helping with my local Food Bank.  I'm now not available all next week, till the following Monday. If I was working for any other organisation, and had passed on the virus to colleagues before realising I was contagious, it is quite likely that organisation would have to close for lack of staff.  For example my local pub has closed for the last two weekends for lack of staff, with New Years Eve "in the balance", even if we are not into actual lockdown.  Supermarkets?  Other essential services?  Imagine!  

ACTION REQUIRED

The Government and media must stop focussing totally on hospitalisations, it seems.  High case rates are madness in any case, and the Government should take immediate steps to get rates down.  If that means a form of lockdown, then so be it.