Coronavirus in the UK

I hope the lad recovers, this Delta variant is hitting fit and healthy young people hard.

I had a typo in my reply, they happen all the time I had "you" instead of "your" and I re-proof everything I type here multiple times but I still make mistakes

Tim Spector's ZOE study which I participate in published some data from the ZOE app that of 32,000 new cases 17,000 were in unvaccinated people and 15,000 were in vaccinated individuals, he is suggesting that the fact that the numbers of infections in vaccinated individuals is high that suggests that the the virus is running out of unvaccinated hosts.

He sees this as a positive sign as outcomes in the vaccinated are far better, other data is suggesting that 90% of the UK population has Covid antibodies and this would square with the lower numbers of cases in unvaccinated people.

So maybe I am being overly pessimistic.

edit: Although my main concern with let it rip is still the mutation risk.

If case numbers continue to fall or hover around current numbers for the next two weeks I would finally agree that it had peaked and that things were looking up, we have yet to see the impact of people like me having to return to badly ventilated offices which is happening for me this Monday by the way, the opening up on the 19th is still to have an impact.

Also this is today from the BBC.
Covid infections around the UK continue to rise - BBC News

While I am still reducing my weight it has slowed, I am 15 stone 11 pounds now but at my height that is still classed as clinically obese, BMI currently 31 to 32 given that it was 39.2 on the 1st of January it is vastly improved, a reduction of 45 pounds in 173 days of LCHF or 52 pounds since Jan 4th.

I'm not that worried about me personally as I will be wearing FFP3 masks all day at the start and I will be keeping our room well ventilated at least for the remainder of summer, there will only be 2 of us in our back office until late August.

I'm moving discussion of the winter vaccine booster to here as it is not really right to discuss it in Mattcube's thread.

Experts study viability of giving flu and Covid jabs at same time | Vaccines and immunisation | The Guardian

This article discusses the possibility of two vaccinations at the same time, to me it still looks like early days for this but I can see why they want to do it.

I've checked the Lloyds Pharmacy link you gave me John and there aren't any around here but I found that I can book a free Flu vaccine through Patient Access however it looks like the timeslots are not available yet.

Well several of my colleagues were getting very happy working from home and really didn't relish coming back to the office, me included, my working environment is less effective than what I have at home and the office is more stressful overall.

Sadly none of those cloth masks is doing much against delta the blue surgical masks are doing a bit more but not a lot more and they are back to a fully packed house.

The best those masks achieve is to reduce the immediate velocity of the exhaled air which reduces the distance it travels but given that delta is replicating 1000 times better than the original wild type virus each exhaled unit of breath from each of them if infected contains the cube root of 1000 or 10 times the amount of virus particles per unit volume of air.

It's a statement but to actually be protected in that environment they need to spend some money and get FFP3 masks, they would actually stop spread, still a danger of passing it through deposition on the eyes and it being washed down into the sinuses, but the chances of spread are vastly reduced.

Just £5 for one reusable FFP3 mask that can last up to 16 hours and they don't sit on those benches for that long at one sitting all that often so chances are they would only be spending a fiver per several days, I do exactly that.

BLS Zer031 FFP3 Valved Face Mask - Buy Online - AES (1stopweldingshop.com)

You have to click on the VAT slider at the top by the time you add delivery they can come in at about £6 each, they've gone up a little since my last order.

The name and code on the box is Zer0 31 FFP3 R D, the R and D at the end mean Reusable and Disposable, what they mean by this is you can take them off and put them back on again they are good for up to 16 hours stop start total use in that way or until breathing resistance increases, over time they do get condensation inside and that eventually clogs up the material.

These masks are vented, the exhale value is an extremely light wafer, made of of silicone I think, never touch that part or you have just wasted 6 quid, most of these FFP3 masks including the one you link to on Amazon use a plastic welding process to secure the elastic they do break quite often and quite easily as it snaps at the weld, so be careful not to stretch the rubber strap to quickly, the strap is very tight to start with but loosens over the space of a few days, but often the weld will fail within 2 days, I got a working week out of one last week, but I only use it when entering and leaving the building and when moving to any other room including the loo as no one else is opening the office windows other than me in my office.

These BLS masks are highly rated and claim 99.999 or more filtration of aerosol sized particles, the activated carbon version is harder to breathe through so best to get the normal one the activated carbon one is for gas protection.

One thing any of the vented FFP3's are basically selfish masks, or masks for the selfish and I freely admit in this case that I am being selfish using them, if you are infected you are not preventing virus particles leaving you, the valve vent is designed to disperse your breath to the side but there is zero filtering effect on exhaled breath so you are not really protecting others but you sure as hell are protecting yourself.

Research has shown that medical staff wearing FFP3 grade PPE are the least likely to have been infected with COVID it's now the recommended mask for medical professionals, when I was in hospital last year most people in theatre were wearing valved FFP2 grade masks about the same as the USA N95 standard, 95% protection is not enough in my book.

Last time I had to visit A&E with my backside problem and the heart side effects it was causing I wore one of these BLS masks for nearly 16 hours, they are very good for breathing resistance not vastly different to the blue surgical masks and less clammy because of the shape but like any mask it takes a bit of getting used to.

edit: the one you link to looks quite good they are NR which I think is non reusable, it does say single shift only but I expect you could remove it and put it back on a few times in a single day.

This is the label on one of my boxes.


edit 2: I also have one of these it's a CO2 meter and basically tells me how well ventilated our offices are, CO2 builds up remarkably quickly in an air conditioned office, this pic is at home with the window open and 413 parts per million is the same as outside, in the office with the windows open it stays at 413 in the other rooms with closed windows it goes up to 2000 ppm during the day, that means you are breathing air that other people already breathed while a reading of 413 does not mean you are not breathing the air of others it does mean that it is much diluted air that you are breathing.