4 ms·

I eagerly await the travel ban on Norway. In late December 2019, my family and myself, in California, caught a really bad respiratory illness. I isolated as so

I eagerly await the travel ban on Norway. In late December 2019, my family and myself, in California, caught a really bad respiratory illness. I isolated as soon as I got symptoms, but everyone else got it anyway. It was tested to not be influenza. One of us spent a day in the hospital. And I wonder if it was in fact COVID. Most papers suggest it hadn’t made it to the US yet. But here we are with a variant that caused outbreaks on other continents a week after first detection, and testing is everywhere. With all our supposed defenses and travel bans, this is the best we can do? Anyway, no way to know for sure now. We’ve all had three doses so we would have a strong immune response.

richardwhiuk 5y ago
Travel bans are being removed for Omicron as most countries already have intra-community spread anyway.
- ssl232 5y ago
  That hasn't stopped Germany announcing new restrictions on visitors from the UK from tonight. Notably tests in the UK are free and the public are encouraged to do 2-3 tests per week, versus Germany where tests were up until recently chargeable, and there is a shortage of test kits. Makes you wonder whether the difference in cases between the two is really that stark.
  - orra 5y ago
    I’m sure in a few weeks we will discover there was already widespread domestic transmission of Omicron, in Germany. When Omicron was initially discovered, the United Kingdom promptly closed its borders to several African countries—but oddly not whiter infected countries like The Netherlands. This was of course pointless politicking, and did nothing to stop the spread of Omicron in the UK, which was already established. If only the UK had instead chosen to implement decent sick pay, or immediately ramp up the booster program, or implement work from hone guidance. Instead the UK let it rip fir three weeks, before suddenly panicking.
  - nkmnz 5y ago
    This is not really true. Tests taken by professional test centers have only been chargeable for sth like 2-4 weeks in November for unvaccinated people - this attempt to let unvaccinated people pay for their play did not work out very well, so tests are free for all again. There also is no shortage in test kits, you can buy them by the hundreds in regular supermarkets.
    - ssl232 5y ago
      I live there and there was a shortage where I was up until recently, and prices for home kits are higher than they used to be. Free tests are free but you must go to a testing center, potentially having to book beforehand. In the UK you get a set of 7 free tests via mail if you ask, and you can ask once per day, so effectively you can test every two waking hours if you feel inclined. There's definitely a difference in testing going on between the two countries.
      - nkmnz 5y ago
        Where are you? I’ve been to 7 cities in the past month and I could get a professional test every day with 10-30min waiting time, and supermarkets were stocked with hundreds of tests everywhere. If you live in Bavaria, maybe some crony CSU politicians created an artificial shortage of supply in order to extort higher kickbacks? :)
        ssl232 5y ago
        Niedersachsen, but I think you're missing my main point: the mental and physical effort for doing a test is much lower in the UK. As I said, you can order a set of 7 lateral flow tests for next day delivery to your door. The free tests in Germany involve either booking a slot, or at least risking to turn up and wait for a slot, at a test center. The home kits cost money and, as I pointed out, are often out of stock (though apparently this is a highly localised phenomenon). It should also be noted the free test kits in the UK say the user must submit their result whether positive or negative. This surely pushes up the number of positive tests included in UK figures. In fact, I suspect the UK's high case rates since the summer - part of the reason why Germany has had it on its list of high risk areas since July - are simply an artefact of huge rates of testing going on and not because it's "plague island" as some like to brand it.
  - odiroot 5y ago
    Maybe the decision is purely political? As you explain, it's not logical at all.
- cedilla 5y ago
  Germany just announced a travel ban for people coming from the UK. Which seems quite late to me as a layperson, almost a week after Omicron became predominant...
  - labster 5y ago
    Not too late for politicians to be seen doing something. Just remember, in times of crisis, they did something, and they did it in public!
ssl232 5y ago
"John Dee" has access to NHS data for a region of England and recently posted this: [1]. Take with a pinch of salt given the anonymity but it shows a much larger spike in respiratory illness admissions to hospital in December 2019 compared to March 2020 when cases shot up in the UK. [1] https://jdee.substack.com/p/trend-in-emergency-admissions-respiratory https://jdee.substack.com/p/trend-in-emergency-admissions-re...
- orra 5y ago
  We should definitely treat this with skepticism, given the source anonymity. Such statistical data is freely available under Freedom of Information law in the UK. (Privacy laws obviously protect individuals, but not public bodies.)
  - ssl232 5y ago
    The data in question is anonymised patient data. I believe this is not available publicly, only statistics. Apparently this person is a retired NHS manager of some sort, probably got the data via an old colleague. If the data were public this argument could be definitively proved or disproved, but until then we need the pinch of salt that I noted in my comment.
    - orra 5y ago
      You didn’t listen to me fully. Let me repeat myself. Freedom of Information law provides for the publication of statistical information. It provides for the publication of patient-anonymised data. A&E waiting times are periodically published, but anybody living anywhere can request other information held by a public body. There is zero need for the public body to be anonymous.

richardwhiuk 5y ago

Travel bans are being removed for Omicron as most countries already have intra-community spread anyway.

ssl232 5y ago
That hasn't stopped Germany announcing new restrictions on visitors from the UK from tonight. Notably tests in the UK are free and the public are encouraged to do 2-3 tests per week, versus Germany where tests were up until recently chargeable, and there is a shortage of test kits. Makes you wonder whether the difference in cases between the two is really that stark.
- orra 5y ago
  I’m sure in a few weeks we will discover there was already widespread domestic transmission of Omicron, in Germany. When Omicron was initially discovered, the United Kingdom promptly closed its borders to several African countries—but oddly not whiter infected countries like The Netherlands. This was of course pointless politicking, and did nothing to stop the spread of Omicron in the UK, which was already established. If only the UK had instead chosen to implement decent sick pay, or immediately ramp up the booster program, or implement work from hone guidance. Instead the UK let it rip fir three weeks, before suddenly panicking.
- nkmnz 5y ago
  This is not really true. Tests taken by professional test centers have only been chargeable for sth like 2-4 weeks in November for unvaccinated people - this attempt to let unvaccinated people pay for their play did not work out very well, so tests are free for all again. There also is no shortage in test kits, you can buy them by the hundreds in regular supermarkets.
  - ssl232 5y ago
    I live there and there was a shortage where I was up until recently, and prices for home kits are higher than they used to be. Free tests are free but you must go to a testing center, potentially having to book beforehand. In the UK you get a set of 7 free tests via mail if you ask, and you can ask once per day, so effectively you can test every two waking hours if you feel inclined. There's definitely a difference in testing going on between the two countries.
    - nkmnz 5y ago
      Where are you? I’ve been to 7 cities in the past month and I could get a professional test every day with 10-30min waiting time, and supermarkets were stocked with hundreds of tests everywhere. If you live in Bavaria, maybe some crony CSU politicians created an artificial shortage of supply in order to extort higher kickbacks? :)
      - ssl232 5y ago
        Niedersachsen, but I think you're missing my main point: the mental and physical effort for doing a test is much lower in the UK. As I said, you can order a set of 7 lateral flow tests for next day delivery to your door. The free tests in Germany involve either booking a slot, or at least risking to turn up and wait for a slot, at a test center. The home kits cost money and, as I pointed out, are often out of stock (though apparently this is a highly localised phenomenon). It should also be noted the free test kits in the UK say the user must submit their result whether positive or negative. This surely pushes up the number of positive tests included in UK figures. In fact, I suspect the UK's high case rates since the summer - part of the reason why Germany has had it on its list of high risk areas since July - are simply an artefact of huge rates of testing going on and not because it's "plague island" as some like to brand it.
- odiroot 5y ago
  Maybe the decision is purely political? As you explain, it's not logical at all.
cedilla 5y ago
Germany just announced a travel ban for people coming from the UK. Which seems quite late to me as a layperson, almost a week after Omicron became predominant...
- labster 5y ago
  Not too late for politicians to be seen doing something. Just remember, in times of crisis, they did something, and they did it in public!

ssl232 5y ago

"John Dee" has access to NHS data for a region of England and recently posted this: [1]. Take with a pinch of salt given the anonymity but it shows a much larger spike in respiratory illness admissions to hospital in December 2019 compared to March 2020 when cases shot up in the UK. [1] https://jdee.substack.com/p/trend-in-emergency-admissions-respiratory https://jdee.substack.com/p/trend-in-emergency-admissions-re...

orra 5y ago
We should definitely treat this with skepticism, given the source anonymity. Such statistical data is freely available under Freedom of Information law in the UK. (Privacy laws obviously protect individuals, but not public bodies.)
- ssl232 5y ago
  The data in question is anonymised patient data. I believe this is not available publicly, only statistics. Apparently this person is a retired NHS manager of some sort, probably got the data via an old colleague. If the data were public this argument could be definitively proved or disproved, but until then we need the pinch of salt that I noted in my comment.
  - orra 5y ago
    You didn’t listen to me fully. Let me repeat myself. Freedom of Information law provides for the publication of statistical information. It provides for the publication of patient-anonymised data. A&E waiting times are periodically published, but anybody living anywhere can request other information held by a public body. There is zero need for the public body to be anonymous.