Here we go again . . . pi?

[Blaze]

I guess if people are packing themselves into restaurants and suchlike, where masks aren't possible, it just becomes a lottery

I'm not sure restos are where infections are passed on. We know children are super-spreaders - it's natural because they're generally gregarious and mix closely - because we're getting loads in for PCRs (then the rest of the family wants to be done as well). It's also the socialising without masks. We've several (vaccinated) friends who have tested positive recently and haven't mixed with children and aren't sure where they picked it up. As a result, all our activities have stopped bar the odd meeting when everyone is masked.

I really feel for children having so many tests. One of our nurses said that when one of her children tested positive with an antigène test, she kept him off school for a week rather than get confirmation by PCR. Could children's noses could become irritated with so many tests ? Another nurse said her son had had 13 PCRs fairly recently and she wasn't very happy about it.

Masks do protect if worn properly. Those of us who work in the PCR testing area of our centre are in proximity to positive cases all the time. We wear all the protective gear and everyone who comes in is masked. Obviously those doing the actual testing are mist at risk because the mask has to be lowered to just below the nose. So far, no-one working at the centre has been infected there ....

[Bayleaf]

We'll have to agree to differ on the Restaurant front, as per the attached link. I know it's from 2020, but the same rule applies to passing infections on, vaccine or no vaccine.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/10/heal ... index.html

But I agree, that the constant testing of children can't be doing their mental health any good (or their nose for that matter!).

[exile]

It is also worth remembering that the majority of the severe cases and deaths are those who are unvaccinated or who have not had a complete set of vaccinations. The last statistic I heard was 90% of ITU cases in France were unvaccinated.

I think therefore that a good part of the problem (but certainly not all of the infections) is still down to the anti-vax brigade- for whatever reason that may be.

[Blaze]

I appreciated the sentiment, @Bayleaf but that article, written in 2020, has little relevance to today because those dining in restaurants at that time were unlikely to have been vaccinated !
It's generally recognised (lots of sites on internet) that fully vaccinated people are less likely to contract the virus than non-vaccinated and those who do are contagious for less time than those non-vaccinated.

In France today, everyone eating in a restaurant must be fully vaccinated and they are thus far less likely to spread the virus than those eating in a restaurant prior to the vaccination programmes.

Any activity with other people where masks are not worn could be risky. As it's highly unlikely that confinement will return, it's up to each person to protect themselves as best they can. For the moment, we've stopped all activities where anyone is unmasked (sport, music with wind instruments etc). It's sad, but we'd rather not take any risks, and we can still exercise, practise etc at home/out and about, just not with others.

[Pathca]

I think about the time that US article was written there was the ‘Eat out to help out ‘scheme in the UK which was held accountable for 1 in 5 cases at that point
But ( has has been pointed out ) we are talking ,then ,a completely unvaccinated population and a totally different variant
Last week a 15 year old relative of mine was positive on Monday,her 10 year old sister on Thursday and their Dad for the second time on Friday ,also on Friday my 7 year old next door neighbour went for a PCR due to high temperature , there are a lot of children infected I am hearing anecdotally that a lot of children are ill ill as well and being hospitalised
When you are vaccinated in the UK it is pointed out that they aren’t saying you won’t get it ,but it should be milder

[Bayleaf]

France had the highest new daily cases in the world yesterday (if figures are accurate), despite restrictions not being lifted yet. Oh joy.

[Blaze]

The problem with statistics is they are not conducted under the same conditions. There is massive testing in France so it's hardly surprising that the number of positive cases seems high.
Here is a link to Covid tracker showing daily confirmed figures in different countries. It seems that Greenland has a higher number of confirmed cases than France ! Are we really to believe that China has no new cases ?
https://covidtracker.fr/covidtracker-world/

[niemeyjt]

Another set of figures - maybe France is the highest for a large country - but overall it just makes the top 10.

covid.png

source: https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/co ... on~CHE~FRA

[Pathca]

The UK isn’t testing as much so won’t be has high in the statistics