Tango in times of pandemic
- Thread starter rafaelomondini
- Start date
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Wow, home testing. We're nowhere close over here. Now, they've actually cut back testing and are only testing people who have been admitted to hospitals. If you're sick but not in the hospital, they are asking you to stay home. The problem (drumroll): lack of reagents for the test kits, lack of swabs to take samples, lack of PPE for the doctors and nurses. What a country.Great news!
UK coronavirus home testing to be made available to millions
Test to be validated this week, then made available to healthcare workers and general publicwww.theguardian.com
Once you've tested positive for the antibodies, and have been isolated long enough to know you are no longer infectious, you'll be able to resume normal life. Including dancing. :-D
Snap. It all depends what you read.
We have a similar story in the UK. Testing for those who are sick only, lack of ventilators, and lack of PPE. Government claims PPE available and military are delivering it. I'm unclear whether the military were needed to liberate it from some warehouse first; there would have been a queue of van and lorry drivers to deliver it + loaders if it was sat somewhere waiting. Heart-rending reports of med staff with DIY solutions.
Antibody test kit still needs validation, so scientists playing it down until proven. Lack of reagents for other test type.
Good news on ventilators - alternative manufacturers have a design, but I'm concerned since they moved their production out of UK - and it all takes time.
We read of your problems - and how the rest of the world is being scoured to resource local needs. I suspect similar here.
On the plus side the online AT lessons are going well.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
I expect that the availability of validated antibody tests will be a game changer as there will be "anti-milongas", maybe first time more or less private.
And indeed a fast start business advantage for "anti-teacher".
And indeed a fast start business advantage for "anti-teacher".
I agree it will be a 'game changer' - dividing the positives and negatives, the ones and zeroes, the noughts and crosses. It could also lead to a further spike in deaths, as the Imperial College model predicts as the lockdown is relaxed.
If you've had it, and are immune (still a question), then you can invite anyone. What certification process is robust? No ID system in the UK!
There's still no validation - remember those dodgy explosive sniffers someone sold to some military during some recent war.
It's hopeful, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much yet. It's realistically weeks away for the general public.
If you've had it, and are immune (still a question), then you can invite anyone. What certification process is robust? No ID system in the UK!
There's still no validation - remember those dodgy explosive sniffers someone sold to some military during some recent war.
It's hopeful, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much yet. It's realistically weeks away for the general public.
JournalInTime
Forum Master
I am very sorry to hear how close to home this has hit for you and your family, but happy that they seem to be recovering well. Please take care!
TTanguero
Forum Master
I think most people will have at least one form of government-accepted ID: driving licence, passport, military ID, etc.
Sadly not the case - from the recent stupid, Amazon refused to deliver some alcoholic drink to someone's elderly mother because no driving license, no passport, etc., etc. through to the many who don't go abroad and don't drive, and the young, and some immigrants, notably the Windrush generation. They're even going to have issues identifying some claimants (no bank account, cash only, not paid enough to travel abroad) resulting from this lockdown.
It misses the point anyway - there's no central system to record such info, apart from your private health records (even those may be local and not shared nationally), and a piece of paper is pretty valueless these days. As the man (Louis Mayer, MGM?) once said, 'A verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on.' It's all down to what we all agree to trust, until someone shows it to be a forgery.
Why you'd falsify such information is anyone's guess - to get benefits by isolating, or to earn money by working irrespective of the dangers?
There is hope, it's just not yet the time to get excited about it.
TTanguero
Forum Master
Hence me saying most people, not all. The most recent data I can find shows 45 million out of an adult population of 52 million hold a driving licence, for example. Add in other ID and my bet is you're going to get close to 50 million.
What I envisage is something like this:
- Go to pharmacy with government-approved ID
- Get the test, and get a certificate saying you were positive with your name and ID details
- Then be able to produce slip and corresponding ID when required
What I envisage is something like this:
- Go to pharmacy with government-approved ID
- Get the test, and get a certificate saying you were positive with your name and ID details
- Then be able to produce slip and corresponding ID when required
That's the part I wouldn't trust. And concern for the future of those who aren't positive.
It may still omit too many key workers, especially the ones suddenly discovered to be 'key'.
Douglas Adams had it right about the value of the telephone sanitizers and hairdressers.
TTanguero
Forum Master
Well, I won't go round in circles, but the bottom-line for me is it's going to be pretty practical to set up a system that copes with most use-cases. It won't be perfect, sure, but nothing ever is.
Milongas are a simpler matter, as I doubt there's a Tanguer@ in the UK who doesn't have a passport, and the vast majority of people at any given milonga are known regulars.
Milongas are a simpler matter, as I doubt there's a Tanguer@ in the UK who doesn't have a passport, and the vast majority of people at any given milonga are known regulars.
We don't want to create a perverse incentive for people who haven't been infected yet to deliberately ignore all precautions on the basis that if they get infected and recover they can at least get their "freedom" back though...
The antibody tests are very important, however, because they'll give us a much better idea of what the actual infection numbers are (estimates range from 10x the number of currently tested positives, or ~0.2%, up to 50% of the population)
The antibody tests are very important, however, because they'll give us a much better idea of what the actual infection numbers are (estimates range from 10x the number of currently tested positives, or ~0.2%, up to 50% of the population)
TTanguero
Forum Master
Yes, I think enough people of all ages have experienced sufficiently serious symptoms that you'd still have to be crazy to deliberately try to get infected.