England drops all covid restrictions this week

[H-O-W-L]

Should never have opened this thread. Been playing on my mind since.

[Fambo Number Mive]

According to the Oxford Mail Boots will charge the following for lfts

The tests will be available to purchase online for £5.99 per test or £17 for a pack of four, including delivery.

In-store tests will cost £2.50 for a single test and £12 for a pack of four and will be available in more than 400 Boots stores.

I'm not sure why buying a pack of four in store costs more per test than buying a single test - unless the Oxford Mail or Boots have made a mistake.

If these prices are typical, we are going to see a massive drop in testing. How many people can afford to pay £2.50 per lft?

[Huxleys Babkins]

Boots overcharge like fuck for everything, so I'll presume there'll be cheaper options available elsewhere.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Good to see an MP (whose name I did not catch) raising the issues the 2 million immunocompromised face under England's covid plans at PMQs.

[Jasha]

Boots overcharge like fuck for everything, so I'll presume there'll be cheaper options available elsewhere.

Can't wait for the pound shop version with Arabic instructions covered over with an English sticker. Work are still supplying mine free but I could well understand people just sacking it off

[Mr_Rich]

Can't wait for the pound shop version with Arabic instructions covered over with an English sticker. Work are still supplying mine free but I could well understand people just sacking it off

Pretty sure most people have already sacked them off, free or not.

[flotemysost]

I've been doing them daily for the last week or so because my flatmate had covid, which has eaten into my stash. And doing them before going to the office, though my work have said they'll supply them once they're no longer free. Reckon I can squeeze a couple more gratis packs in before the end of the month.

Wonder what'll happen in the winter when cases inevitably go up - are they still gonna adopt a slap-on-the-wrist "well, it was up to you to act responsibly, now look what you've done!" attitude, even though millions of people can't afford to do so? It was disingenous enough the last few times, but now they've literally obliterated several of the means of "acting repsonsibly" for many people.

[Proactive]

I do a couple LFTs a week as my dad's in a nursing home, so we're ordering them as often as the system allows so we've got as big a stash as possible. I've noticed that the last few batches we've received are the old ones where you have to a) transfer the liquid into the tube yourself and b) take a sample from your tonsils as well as your nose. Am I being cynical or are they just trying to make it as much as a pain in the arse as they can so people tire of doing them? With the better, nose only ones I could practically do the whole thing in 2 minutes flat with my eyes closed.

[flotemysost]

I'm guessing it's just a supply chain thing? I got the NHS nose+throat ones when I first started ordering them last year, then for a while it changed to the stubby FlowFlex ones, recently it's back to NHS. I was picking them up from my local library too sometimes and I think they had both types, depending when you went.

I became such a dab hand at doing a tonsil swab with the short ones (wanted to be absolutely sure I was free of it before I stopped isolating last month) that I'm struggling with the longer ones now, they're too bendy. Doing the second nostril always made my eyes water though, glad it's just the one now.

[Ferris]

I seem to get a new version/manufacturer every time I get some, each with slightly different instructions so I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same in the UK.

[Fambo Number Mive]

nm

[Proactive]

1 in 20 people in England have it this week, 1 on 14 in NI and Scotland. It's just never going to go away is it.

[Old Thrashbarg]

1 in 20 people in England have it this week, 1 on 14 in NI and Scotland. It's just never going to go away is it.

No, it's going to be endemic. But at this point it's not really any more noteworthy than flu. Not that flu isn't noteworthy, but we largely just accept its prevalence and try to mitigate against it in vulnerable people, healthcare workers, children, etc. And I imagine it'll be much the same with Covid going forwards.

[jamiefairlie]

No, it's going to be endemic. But at this point it's not really any more noteworthy than flu. Not that flu isn't noteworthy, but we largely just accept its prevalence and try to mitigate against it in vulnerable people, healthcare workers, children, etc. And I imagine it'll be much the same with Covid going forwards.

Big difference, COVID will kill more people if they don't get vaccinated every 6 months/year.

[Proactive]

No, it's going to be endemic. But at this point it's not really any more noteworthy than flu. Not that flu isn't noteworthy, but we largely just accept its prevalence and try to mitigate against it in vulnerable people, healthcare workers, children, etc. And I imagine it'll be much the same with Covid going forwards.

Yep. I guess what I'd like to know is how long the current rate of prevelance is going to last, because I'm guessing 1 in 20 people don't have flu.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Big difference, COVID will kill more people if they don't get vaccinated every 6 months/year.

Possibly, but we still don't really know the extent of waning immunity for those, for example, who have had a booster, those who have been infected with Omicron or those who have had a combination of vaccinations and infection. We also have more and more treatments available that weren't there when the serious illness and death figures where sky-rocketing.

[olliebean]

1 in 20 people in England have it this week, 1 on 14 in NI and Scotland. It's just never going to go away is it.

Last week. (The ONS figures are delayed by a week.) It'll be higher than that by now.

[jamiefairlie]

Last week. (The ONS figures are delayed by a week.) It'll be higher than that by now.

Possibly, but we still don't really know the extent of waning immunity for those, for example, who have had a booster, those who have been infected with Omicron or those who have had a combination of vaccinations and infection. We also have more and more treatments available that weren't there when the serious illness and death figures where sky-rocketing.

Right, so the potential threat is higher than flu, so why should we throw all caution to the wind?

[Old Thrashbarg]

Why should we? Well, we shouldn't. There are plenty of things we could do to reduce the spread without having a huge impact on people's lives. But the same could be said for flu as well. And much like we, as a society, largely choose not to take those measures against seasonal flu, I expect we'll choose not to take those measures against Covid going forwards.

[MojoJojo]

It does seem like it's not really killing many people anymore.

[vanilla.coffee]

It does seem like it's not really killing many people anymore.

It didn't kill that many people in the beginning either.
People died with it but not that many died of it.

[Fambo Number Mive]

It didn't kill that many people in the beginning either.
People died with it but not that many died of it.

185, 273 deaths with covid on the death certificate in the UK. Even if covid wasnt the only cause of death for some of these people, it clearly contributed to their death.

[vanilla.coffee]

Hundreds of thousands of people die each year from respiratory illness due to air pollution (30,000 each year in the uk directly attributed to diesel fumes alone) but none of you wore masks before 2020 and no one stopped driving diesel cars.
And when covid ends, the above will still kill more people than covid ever will.

[Kankurette]

Perhaps we should have. They did in east Asia.

[Dr Rock]

I'm still wearing my mask in shops.

[MojoJojo]

People should be looking at excess deaths: https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYmUwNmFhMjYtNGZhYS00NDk2LWFlMTAtOTg0OGNhNmFiNGM0IiwidCI6ImVlNGUxNDk5LTRhMzUtNGIyZS1hZDQ3LTVmM2NmOWRlODY2NiIsImMiOjh9

That doesn't look like a link which will work, you can Google it though.

It's clear that covid did kill a lot of people. But it isn't killing many now - less people are dying than we'd expect.

I find it frustrating that more countries don't publish this data.

[flotemysost]

I'm still wearing my mask in shops.

Same, and public transport. I know I could be called a hypocrite as I'm still going to the pub and cinema and all that - just hate the thought of seeming all "oh well, gotta live with it LOL" if there's someone vulnerable on a train/in a shop and that's literally the only thing they're leaving the house for at the moment (though fwiw I went to the theatre last week, and my friend and I were basically the only people wearing a mask throughout the show).

I guess it's probably futile, but I just don't want to give it to anyone else, even if it's highly unlikely they're gonna die at this point. But fully vaxxed people are still getting lingering symptoms; my healthy 34-year-old boostered mate has had arthritis since getting it at Christmas. I've been getting migraines, which I never used to have. And I know there's plenty of examples of people on here suffering from long covid. I don't want anyone to go through that if it can be avoided, but it seems like they're pushing for it to become inevitable.

[Dex Sawash]

Will anyone do a General Ripper-style lay out the full case of the covids manipulation of the public? I think I could be convinced if there were more words instead of the implied elipsis.

[stonkers]

Perhaps we should have. They did in east Asia.

Some people would wear masks during flu season, it's not like constant mask wearing has ever really been a thing in Japan or China. I'm sure some people will keep wearing them in the UK.


Within about 3 months of SARS-CoV-2 emerging we had developed some of the most effective vaccines known to humanity, which will continue to be updated as needed, alongside several very effective antivirals.

Pharmaceuticals are the most effective tools against COVID by orders of magnitude. The idea that we're just doing nothing and letting it rip because we're not mandating masks or lockdowns is basically antivax from another angle - not saying you are saying that, I'm just using this post to make the general point.

Fair fucks if people want to keep masking but I am not convinced it makes a lot of difference at this point. I can't see much justification for social distancing mandates with the level of population immunity we now have.

[jamiefairlie]

We don't have immunity. We still get infected but suffer less symptoms but are still as infectious so that vulnerable are being placed at greater risk by our 'back to normal' attitude. It's I'm alright Jack in the extreme.