When I was developing a diagnostic test it has to pass certain criteria to be accepted. I generally it was greater 97% that it would diagnose a disease correctly. And greater than 95% that it would diagnose a negative correctly.. We run weekly validation tests...and the world would collapse if the weeks tests failed the 97/95 cut off. We would scrub the week results and redo the whole week. I fully accept the number of Covid tests that are being run, makes it difficult. But these figures on the lateral flow test are ridiculous. The Covid PCR test is now getting towards 97% on positives and over 90%.... Far far better...
Alright Comrades, Just another quick pop in to give you an update. As I said I had my vaccine on Wednesday and during the evening felt ‘achy’, flu like and generally drained......all to be expected. What wasn’t expected was the cough. This didn’t get any better and started to feel breathless on any exertion and got a few heart palpitations.....nothing that worried me but due to the cough did the right thing and got a COVID test....got it Thursday night and results came back Friday morning as NEGATIVE for COVID. To be honest I was more than surprised as after speaking to a few colleagues who had it, my symptoms were almost identical....so decided yesterday afternoon to get another test done. Must say the tester definitely put the swab further up my nose than the first............so just got the results BLOODY POSITIVE !!! I’m relieved in a way ‘cos now I now know why I’m feeling like this and it ain’t something more. I’m pretty fit, got my family with me to bring me coffee and biscuits and I’ve finally got time to watch the entire Breaking Bad. Moral of the story...if you know you ain’t feeling great...always get a second opinion. Balla Ciao Comrades
Wow, amazing story Stainesey. Best of luck with the illness. I guess after being vaccinated that you should be ok and won;t get a severe dose. Best of luck and get well soon.
Bella Ciao Stainsey... I was worried about you, you being front line troops and in the direct firing line. Stay strong, and watch those Oxygen saturation levels..and don't take any chances if they are dropping. We do need to meet up again in a field near Ottery St Mary, with you dressed as Alex from Clockwork Orange and me as as a flower
The thing is Beth I know exactly the patient on Sunday night who I got it from...he was COVID positive and we took him in. Coughed in my vicinity before I got him to put on a mask...my schoolboy error. Oxygen sats are fine...98-99%.......HR has strangely enough gone brady at about 46-52 BPM. I’ll should live......it’s sad that other weaker people have not. Thanks to all for their kind words...very much appreciated.
Get well soon mate, I'm sure you'll see it off. I've just done another home test before my tattoo procedure on Wednesday. Do you reckon making yourself puke invalidates the test?
Good use of the Nightingale hospital in Glasgow... Covid in Scotland: Mass vaccination of health and care staff begins please log in to view this image The exercise marks the start of the government's rollout of mass vaccinations for front-line care staff More than 5,000 health and social care staff have been taking part in a mass vaccination exercise at Glasgow's emergency coronavirus hospital. Up to 500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were due to be administered every hour at the NHS Louisa Jordan until 19:30 on Saturday. The exercise was part of the rollout of the vaccine to front-line care staff. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55688152 5000 in a day at one location is pretty good going - hopefully the mass vaccine centres down there can get as many done too and we can finally start to see an end to this
I’ve no reason to doubt the figures and according to the government well over 300,000 doses were delivered on Friday, which is an outstanding total, will get them over the 2 million a week target if it can be maintained. Interesting focus for the ‘public education/propaganda’ push at the moment, which the media seem to buy into fully. Every TV station seems to have a team getting in the way in a hospital, and they all stress that younger people are in ITU. True, but only as a result of the massive increase in numbers in hospital, the proportion is the same as the first wave, and some might be getting into ITU as older patients have been ‘deprioritised’ for access to an increasingly scare resource. The other focus is ‘scary new variants’ something we didn’t talk about at all until just before Christmas, even though mutations/variants of the virus have been happening since day one. It is possible that one of these could be genuinely nasty but until we know, why the racket? In both cases I’m assuming that it’s to scare people into following the rules, which is fair enough. If it works.
Raab saying today that every adult will be vaccinated by September, which is pretty impressive. They've made a lot of **** ups throughout all of this, but you've got to give them credit on this. Question for you or Beth....they are calling this a "vaccine", but is it really? As I understand it, a vaccine prevents you from actually catching a disease/virus whereas this just gives your body the tools to fight it when it comes, it doesn't prevent you from catching it, or passing it on, it just reduces the effects and risks. I know it's all in the terminology, but is it misleading to call it a vaccine?