Got Covid ! My experience...

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Cowsham
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by Cowsham »

Here's the IOM's isolation rules -- maybe a bit more clear -- but there are some anomalies there too.
https://covid19.gov.im/general-informat ... on/#period
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Mick F
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by Mick F »

Thanks Cowsham.
That is clearer and seems couched in common sense.
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

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thirdcrank wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 4:55pmSelf-isolating again in accordance with the instructions received. No ifs or buts.
Fine.
No arguments from me other than what I keep harping on about.

What happens if the previously positive person tests again and is negative, and the rest of the household are still negative?
The rules don't even consider that a positive person could re-test and be negative.
Mick F. Cornwall
Psamathe
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

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Mick F wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 4:35pm ....
Sorry to keep labouring the point ................
If I decide to test again tomorrow 9th August and I'm negative, and she tests and is still negative, is that the end of it?
...
You cannot keep taking daily tests in case you get a negative one and end lockdown early. They cost money and you have been tested and you have been found to have Covid
https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test wrote:You should not use this service if you’ve received a positive PCR test result in the last 90 days, unless you develop any new symptoms.
If everybody just kept getting repeat daily tests to end their lockdown early the system would be swamped and cost massively more than it already does.

You know you have Covid so travelling to a test site just risks exposing others to infection. You have tested positive so you need to self-isolate not keep rolling the dice again and again in case the test misses your infection!

Ian
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

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I'm at a total loss to see under what circumstances they might test again? I suppose somebody with some spare lateral flow tests might use another or even a dozen, but I don't think there's provision for another PCR ie more reliable test. I suppose you could shell out for a private one. (I only decided to post about my family's experience to show it doesn't need page after page of banging on.)
=====================================================
PS Psamathe beat me to it. Bearing in mind his covid-related bereavement I admire his patience here.
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

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Mick F wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 5:08pm Thanks Cowsham.
That is clearer and seems couched in common sense.
Precisely why they are and mostly have been ahead of the game and why I've always followed their updates. It cuts through all the BS -- the latest sloppy stuff to hit the fan is the numbers in hospital as highlighted by one of the journalists questions.

Now that was something I didn't know up to now but makes sense once you hear the reason why the figures given may not be the correct number at that snapshot of time . Peculiar to the IOM because of the low numbers but it's what makes these updates interesting.

The journalists don't hold back on controversial questions which sometimes highlight something or uncovers something the journalist themselves haven't even considered and sometimes don't catch on during the update but others do.

No doubt come the next update I'm waiting for someone to ask the question that's been on my lips and they invariably do.
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Mick F
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

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Psamathe wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 5:17pm
Mick F wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 4:35pm ....
Sorry to keep labouring the point ................
If I decide to test again tomorrow 9th August and I'm negative, and she tests and is still negative, is that the end of it?
...
You cannot keep taking daily tests in case you get a negative one and end lockdown early. They cost money and you have been tested and you have been found to have Covid
https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test wrote:You should not use this service if you’ve received a positive PCR test result in the last 90 days, unless you develop any new symptoms.
If everybody just kept getting repeat daily tests to end their lockdown early the system would be swamped and cost massively more than it already does.

You know you have Covid so travelling to a test site just risks exposing others to infection. You have tested positive so you need to self-isolate not keep rolling the dice again and again in case the test misses your infection!

Ian
Utterly agree with you.
No arguments from me.
I accept the rules, I've said that repeatedly.

What I am asking, what happens if the previously positive person becomes negative?
Fine, picking an arbitrary 10 days from first symptoms but that isn't re-checked.

How do you know that at the end of the ten days, I'm still not positive?
The rules don't allow for re-checks.
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Lateral flow tests are *not* for use by people with symptoms...
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

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But the ten day isolation period isn't arbitrary, but based on what's known about about what I'll term the usual timetable of infection by this virus. It cannot possibly be infallible. Without going back to look you (MickF) have referred to asymptomatic infections and if such a case wasn't diagnosed by some other route - eg testing of contacts - it wouldn't be diagnosed. Resources are inevitably limited so regular universal testing of the entire population is not feasible. It's believed that in general the prescribed self-isolation period is effective without tests to confirm that in every case. AFAIK, Anybody unhappy with this can stump up for whatever private tests they want.
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by Vorpal »

Everyone, Mick F takes things quite literally. He's not trying to get out of anything, just understand rules that are not very well described.
thirdcrank wrote: 9 Aug 2021, 7:45am But the ten day isolation period isn't arbitrary, but based on what's known about about what I'll term the usual timetable of infection by this virus. It cannot possibly be infallible. Without going back to look you (MickF) have referred to asymptomatic infections and if such a case wasn't diagnosed by some other route - eg testing of contacts - it wouldn't be diagnosed. Resources are inevitably limited so regular universal testing of the entire population is not feasible. It's believed that in general the prescribed self-isolation period is effective without tests to confirm that in every case. AFAIK, Anybody unhappy with this can stump up for whatever private tests they want.
The 10 day isolation period is based upon evidence. There have been a very few cases of people remaining infectious, or coming down with symptoms slightly outside that window, which is why the period was originally set at 14 days, rather than 10. But the vast majority of cases fall within the 10 day window.
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by Jdsk »

Mick F wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 1:59pmWhat happens, if they are all still negative, and you take another test and you are negative?
...
If I'm missing a point here, please explain.
I'm mystified.
Mick F wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 5:11pmWhat happens if the previously positive person tests again and is negative, and the rest of the household are still negative?
The rules don't even consider that a positive person could re-test and be negative.
I'll try and explain, but like all explanations whether it's successful or not depends on the body of knowledge on which it builds.

So two questions to confirm that body of knowledge, please.

1 Do you agree that the method of analysis (not the method of specimen collection) is different between lateral flow tests and PCR tests?

2 Take a person who has recently tested positive. Do you think that a later lateral flow test that is negative excludes them from being infectious to other people.?

Thanks

Jonathan
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by Psamathe »

@MickF
Lateral Flow tests are unreliable - they miss a lot of infections i.e. they say "no infection" when there actually is infection. That is why you don't use them if you have symptoms and why you take a PCR test which is far more reliable.

The shortcomings of Lateral Flow tests is why everybody continues with the more expensive, more work, longer turnround PCR tests. However Lateral flow can play a part in mass screening and detecting asymptomatic infection where the individual would otherwise be completely unaware they were infected and without the lateral flow result would just continue spreading - it might miss a lot of cases but will also stop a fair number from spreading.

Hence why in your (@MickF) situation now lateral flow is irrelevant.

Ian
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by thirdcrank »

Vorpal wrote: 30 Mar 2021, 8:31am Covid conspiracy theories & related arguments removed from thread.
Is there a reason for the latest removal of posts? Whatever the reason, it's hard to see why everything posted since the thread was resuscitated here shouldn't be binned.

viewtopic.php?p=1627945#p1627945
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Re: Got Covid ! My experience...

Post by Vorpal »

thirdcrank wrote: 9 Aug 2021, 10:48am
Vorpal wrote: 30 Mar 2021, 8:31am Covid conspiracy theories & related arguments removed from thread.
Is there a reason for the latest removal of posts? Whatever the reason, it's hard to see why everything posted since the thread was resuscitated here shouldn't be binned.

viewtopic.php?p=1627945#p1627945
Yes. I will post about it later. In the meanwhile, I am going to lock the thread.
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