Migrating this from the BoJo thread - it deserves its own place.
3 Likes
âBreaking Newsâ from Sky News 14/7/2020:
âCoronavirus immunity may only last a few months, study suggests.â
âExperts say the study should be a warning to those assuming they are immune because theyâve already had it.â
I know it is likely to be seen as just a straw in the wind by some mask-sceptics, but has @anon30081639 had sight of this, and what does he/you Nigel have to say about it, if anything?
I am still pretty confident I had Covid 19 because of the constellation of symptoms and signs I experienced a couple of which might well have been considered typical of (a) meningism (neck stiffness) and (b) incipient right ventricular failure (pitting oedema of extremities and breathlessness on exertion).
My very compete MT didnât challenge my tentative hypothesis about Covid, and I am neither alarmist nor do I tend to diagnose my own illnesses when poorly.
But I still wear a mask when likely to encounter other people unless wide distancing is possible, and so does my wife. Why take unnecessary risks of spreading illness for the sake of a minor inconvenience?
A senior Conservative commentator complained that sometimes if he wore a mask in a supermarket he got âfunny looksâ from others who didnât. Good to know some Tories still epitomise the Bulldog Spirit that got old Hitler on the run! 
1 Like
Nigel isnât going to have a choice in shops from the 24 th of July in England or he risks being fined ÂŁ100
Maybe he will sling his stethoscope round his neck to get the respect he deserves. He outranks a mere constable, though he might meet his match with an Assistant Commissioner or a Detective Chief Superintendent.
Only teasing Nigel! 
or the casualty tea trolley dolly 
1 Like
Have you any theory about how you became infected?
I suspect the most dangerous people are those who think âIt wonât happen to me!â
We will soon be getting visits from people from Paris and the south of England who will be holidaying in the area. In the present situation I would not consider visiting them because the risk is unquantifiable. But Madame would not consider telling them to keep away (hard to do with much loved family members) so I have to go along with it.
I suppose there is a small chance that they will kill us or we will kill them and possibly others that we donât even know. What are the odds? Maybe about ths same as going for a ride with an incompetent driver. Who knows? But I think that, if enough people are going to take a more relaxed approach, an increased infection rate is inevitable.
3 Likes
Perhaps it because he was recognised as a senior Conservative commentator and nothing to do with the mask at all.
My issue with Nigel wasnât so much the mask,it was the âIâve had it so canât get it again or spread it âattitude. No one knows and for someone who is a doctor to say that to none medical people who may follow is advice because of his background is careless to say the least
2 Likes
We have already established that nobody else in this group has had proven COVID-19 so there is nobody who my my opinion could influence & in any case you have all made up your minds that mask wearing is important so again my opinion seems unlikely to influence anyone.
TBH I donât feel that strongly about mask wearing. I think itâs basically pointless at this stage of the pandemic. It might have been worthwhile 3 months ago but when the prevalence is so low it will make little or any difference.
I wear a mask all day at work because the government mandated it without threatening me with a fine so the most that will happen is that I will be even more reluctant to get dragged round the shops than usual.
The government obviously donât feel that mask wearing is much more than a token as they are not requiring shop staff to wear masks. This is unlike NHS staff who are required to wear a mask at all times in clinical areas, corridors, offices, break room etc
1 Like
Surely you are not claiming to be the expert because itâs only you thatâs had the disease. My respect for your opinion has just dropped another rung or two.
3 Likes
Nigel that is making the assumption that only the people joining in the conversation who havenât had it and so you â wonât influence â them are reading ,lots of people read forums without being members,
1 Like
No. I may not be an expert but Iâm pretty sure that I know an awful lot more about the subject than you do & Iâm the one making a risk assessment about my health just as you are making your own decisions about risks to you.
The odds on dying if you develop COVID-19 are about the same as dying from any other cause over the next 12 months rather lower if you are under 50. A child under 15 is more likely to die in a road accident than die of COVID-19.
This article from the BBC about the risks of catching the virus & dying if you do catch it is interesting. When it was written the prevalence was about 1:400 in the UK & itâs now about 1:8000 ie 20x less common.
Very interesting, but not really relevant to the potential to increase the R rate due to increased social activity.
And we now know that infection carries a risk of long term health conditions as well as death.
4 Likes
Nigel, whaâs your opinion of reports coming from Italian doctors of the long term effects of Covid-19? It would appear to have far more serious and far reaching consequences for many of the people that had Covid, even those that only had mild symptoms, across all age groups! Sorry. Iâm rubbish at providing links but Itâs widely reported on Sky News.
1 Like
But Nigel, itâs not about your health is it? The whole point of wearing a mask is to protect others. Some of us understand a little more about all of this than you give us credit for.
4 Likes
âThe extent of immunity after infection with COVID-19 is uncertain. I certainly wonât assume I am immune when I return to work but will be donning appropriate PPE.â
Who said that ,oh yes the person who states he cannot get it again because he has had it
This is the whole point Nigel, it is not just about you.
1 Like
Itâs all about risk assessment. The risks involved & protection necessary are wildly different between going in a shop without a mask & donning an FFP3 mask & other appropriate PPE while doing CPR or some other AGP