Vaccinations and testing

[towny44]

Just spoken to P&O for 100% clarification.

Test can now be taken two days in advance of boarding
Can use either NHS of purchased lateral flow/antigen test kit
No proof of testing required at port


Which what Ray mentioned, makes it a pointless exercise really.

Its not pointless, the majority will still honestly follow the procedure, and if positive will not sail.

[Stephen]

That was the other thing I asked. If you unfortunately contract Covid on board you now stay in your cabin. I believe she said that If you don’t have a balcony cabin you are moved to one.

So, no more off loading.

[Stephen]

Just spoken to P&O for 100% clarification.

Test can now be taken two days in advance of boarding
Can use either NHS of purchased lateral flow/antigen test kit
No proof of testing required at port


Which what Ray mentioned, makes it a pointless exercise really.

Its not pointless, the majority will still honestly follow the procedure, and if positive will not sail.

You really believe that John. I wish I shared your optimism.

[screwy]

One would like to think so John.

[towny44]

Just spoken to P&O for 100% clarification.

Test can now be taken two days in advance of boarding
Can use either NHS of purchased lateral flow/antigen test kit
No proof of testing required at port


Which what Ray mentioned, makes it a pointless exercise really.

Its not pointless, the majority will still honestly follow the procedure, and if positive will not sail.

You really believe that John. I wish I shared your optimism.

I am sure Ken could find us some statistics to support my view, if he wanted to. I think the vast majority of people are basically honest, but the dishonest ones create the vast majority of problems, which is why that's what we read about in the news, and that gives us an extremely biased view of society.

[Manoverboard]

There is honesty and there is selfishness ... just saying

[Onelife]

There is honesty and there is selfishness ... just saying

…and Society is becoming more selfish for sure.

[Kendhni]

Just spoken to P&O for 100% clarification.

Test can now be taken two days in advance of boarding
Can use either NHS of purchased lateral flow/antigen test kit
No proof of testing required at port


Which what Ray mentioned, makes it a pointless exercise really.

Thanks Stephen, that is useful to know

[Kendhni]

Its not pointless, the majority will still honestly follow the procedure, and if positive will not sail.

You really believe that John. I wish I shared your optimism.

I am sure Ken could find us some statistics to support my view, if he wanted to. I think the vast majority of people are basically honest, but the dishonest ones create the vast majority of problems, which is why that's what we read about in the news, and that gives us an extremely biased view of society.

We did cover this in the course and the general concensus was that most people are honest unless it detrimentally affects them. So for example a found £10 note will probably be handed in somewhere ... but missing out on a holiday i a different matter. In this instance there is a detrimental impact on the individual to being honest and no mechanism in place to verify that honesty ... and when people know they will get away with something they are more likely to be dishonest (in many cases, it is the fear of being caught and of repercussions that keep us honest).

I think we all know there will be 3 distinct groups turning up at check in ticking the 'yes I have received a negative test result in the past 48 hours'.
- those that took a test and got a negative result
- those that took a test and got a positive result
- those that don't even bother taking a test
I suspect that the latter 2 groups will contain a significant number of people.

[Onelife]

Ken...I know you take a lot of knocks on this forum but for the best part you talk a lot of sence. Just my opinion of course.

[Stephen]

Just spoken to P&O for 100% clarification.

Test can now be taken two days in advance of boarding
Can use either NHS of purchased lateral flow/antigen test kit
No proof of testing required at port


Which what Ray mentioned, makes it a pointless exercise really.

Thanks Stephen, that is useful to know

Like most things, subject to change.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Following the current update and Stephen's helpful interrogation of P&O unless things change again it looks as though we'll be using our stock of NHS tests ahead of our Iona trip in August.

However I had already downloaded and set up the Randox app and bought one test to do a trial run, so just in case things change ahead I did that trial run today.

Test of course just the same as the ones I've done before. As someone said before you need to hang on to your order number to upload it. Once uploaded it took 2 mins for the emailed certificate to arrive. So if things did go pear shaped no worries there then.

[LadyPCruiser]

It’s all steps towards normality which can only be a good thing -

[Mervyn and Trish]

It is, although cases still rising.

[Stephen]

Done our Randox testing early afternoon today Merv. Easy peasy.

Although not required, the negative certificates came back within ten minutes. Very efficient.

[towny44]

It is, although cases still rising.

However even the Biased Broadcasting Coropration did suggest it appeared to be slowing down and maybe plateauing out now, and could be nearing its peak.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The BBC can only broadcast the stats they are given. But yes the rate of rise is slowing but we're still far from normal. 1 in 17 this week. If we assumed only a third of those were asymptomatic that's still 100 boarding Iona tomorrow.

[towny44]

The BBC can only broadcast the stats they are given. But yes the rate of rise is slowing but we're still far from normal. 1 in 17 this week. If we assumed only a third of those were asymptomatic that's still 100 boarding Iona tomorrow.

They can slant them in the way they want though, and most often it's to the govts disadvantage. However now they have managed to topple Boris it seems they are being less anti govt than usual.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Sorry Towny you really are showing your bias if you seriously think the BBC toppled Boris. Only one person did that and it was Boris.

[Manoverboard]

The BBC can only broadcast the stats they are given. But yes the rate of rise is slowing but we're still far from normal. 1 in 17 this week. If we assumed only a third of those were asymptomatic that's still 100 boarding Iona tomorrow.

It is impossible to say the numbers are rising or falling because the vast majority of cases, including our own, were not reported to anybody.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The published figures are based on the ONS surveys which don't rely on anyone reporting but test a random sample of the population. So they're not 100% accurate but they are the best we've got and the week to week trend, which is what the media is reporting, is pretty reliable.

[Gill W]

The BBC can only broadcast the stats they are given. But yes the rate of rise is slowing but we're still far from normal. 1 in 17 this week. If we assumed only a third of those were asymptomatic that's still 100 boarding Iona tomorrow.

Zoe peaked on 12/07/2022, and the latest figure from ONS is from 13/7/2022. I think next weeks ONS figure should show a slight improvement.

But as you say, 1 in 17 is a huge amount of infected people.

I remember, probably 2 years ago, when the figure was 1 in 1000, or in other words the likelihood of 2 infected people getting on an Aurora sized ship. I thought that just the two would be able to seed an outbreak. Of course, that was a time before vaccines, but the original version of the virus was much less infectious.

The current variant is much more infectious and infection is much more prevalent, so large outbreaks on cruise ships are certain, and expected. I've seen it said in 3 separate reports that 500 infected people got off the most recent Arcadia cruise.

This appears to be 'living with Covid', but I don't think this is sustainable. Something will have to change, whether it's the virus or the people

[Manoverboard]

I guess I know a whole lot of people but not so many really really well, of the really really well group there are two who are experiencing ' Long Covid ' symptoms ... that is far more worrying to me than the number of cases published by ONS.

Does anybody have ONS type figures for ' LC ' ?

[towny44]

It was interesting listening to the virologist expert on BBC Breakfast saying that the virus can adjust how lethal it is and how infectious. Typically it want to infect as many people as possible, but doesn't want to be so lethal that it reduces its "foodbank".
Let's hope it successfully weakens itself to the point that we no longer need to bother if we get it or not.

[Gill W]

I guess I know a whole lot of people but not so many really really well, of the really really well group there are two who are experiencing ' Long Covid ' symptoms ... that is far more worrying to me than the number of cases published by ONS.

Does anybody have ONS type figures for ' LC ' ?

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... stinsights

According to this, 1 in 33 report long Covid after a first infection

The thought of Long Covid is a definite concern, plus the thought of other illness that can be triggered post covid infection, even from a 'mild' initial illness.

There's a school of thought that, the more times that you are infected with covid, it weakens your immune system, leaving you more susceptible to long covid after each new infection. Time will tell if this is true. But in the meantime, seems like a good idea to carry on avoiding infection as much as possible!