Coronavirus outbreak

[nickyboy]

I agree.

And find it sad, but eminently predictable, that his thread which started out as a useful and informative source of Covid info and views has, like so many threads here and elsewhere, become predominantly a silo where a small group of folks who agree with each other exchange cynical self affirmatory messages of agreement and take an overtly cynical view of any and everything the government does. C'est la vie. C'est la cycle chat.

I used to come here for information and ideas, now I pop in occasionally when I'm bored. And am always disappointed.

Sadly you're right. I've stopped posting in this important thread for exactly that reason. Hell, I was even in on Page 1 saying this might be really serious and I tried to provide useful information for everyone. But when it descended into an opportunity to post self affirmative political stuff it became boring so I stopped posting
There are much bigger issues re Covid than whatever the government says today or tomorrow; what happens if we can't develop a vaccine? How is a vaccine distributed? How does the world pay for the national debt it's take on? What happens to our city centres in the long run?

These are the issues exercising my thoughts. Not whether you should be able to meet more than 6 in a pub

 

[tom73]

Local infection rates have rocketed again since schools gone back - looked at the figures last night and we've gone from 7 to over 40 per 100,000 in the space of days - our area is still one of the lowest in Greater Manchester, but this isn't going the right way.

Same here it's pushing towards 30 from 7 we just missed by a whisker lockdown last time. More down to it was early days of them and a lot of government feet dragging. Official we are at 1 school closed but it's more like 3 with a few other possibles. They won't have had time to feed into things so who know's what numbers will be by then.
The don't kill your granny thing falls to bits at school time they are the ones who often take and pick kids up. Not to counting childcare at other times.

 

[marinyork]

There are much bigger issues re Covid than whatever the government says today or tomorrow; what happens if we can't develop a vaccine? How is a vaccine distributed? How does the world pay for the national debt it's take on? What happens to our city centres in the long run?

These are the issues exercising my thoughts. Not whether you should be able to meet more than 6 in a pub

If a vaccine can't be developed, then groups of 6 is highly relevant stuff.

You've probably got a year to worry about vaccines and vaccine distribution.

I suspect you aren't interested in the thread for other reasons.

 

[Electric_Andy]

It is becoming more worrying, even though we were told there could be a winter spike. There are a great deal of divided opinions on the matter, and the wider matters regarding the economy. My Gran would rather get the virus and die, than not see her grand kids. I heard someone else say they are being forced back into a potentially lethal office environment for no other reason than "the coffee shops are struggling".

I think all we can do is prepare for a repeat of the last 5 months, which many of us have been following anyway, but there seems to be a greater attitute towards "go back to normal but don't go near vulnerable people".

 

[Electric_Andy]

The don't kill your granny thing falls to bits at school time

Exactly what I experienced at school on Monday. People crowding around the school gates for a chat (despite signs telling them not to). One ~50 year old who I assume was a grand parent, brought her puppy along and was letting 4 kids at a time all bend down and hug/pet it. Whilst I'm reminding my son not to touch the railings. Many more mums walking side by side having a natter and a catch-up not wearing masks. Brick wall and head come to mind.

 

[marinyork]

If you want testing to work, it has to be done very locally, so that means the tester going to the patient or the test location being within walking distance. It's no good giving out appointments at test locations miles away from where somewhere lives. Not everyone has a car, or can afford to use a tank of petrol getting there, or even has the time.
I know several people who are not going to get tested or isolate under any circumstances apart from if they get the virus and it makes them too unwell to physically be able to go about their normal routines. Some of these people get paid day rate in their jobs. If they don't go to work, they don't earn any money. They aren't going to take a whole day out travelling a hundred miles to a test centre and they aren't going to isolate and lose income unless they have got cast iron proof they are carrying the virus.

It is being done locally. The mobile units are mostly belting around hotspots in the north of England.

what you may want is unlikely to happen unless batch saliva testing comes into widespread use.

The current issues around capacity are very bad, but not indicative of the tests all the time.

 

[nickyboy]

If a vaccine can't be developed, then groups of 6 is highly relevant stuff.

You've probably got a year to worry about vaccines and vaccine distribution.

I suspect you aren't interested in the thread for other reasons.

In the overall worldwide Covid scheme of things criticising the government's nuancing of its restrictions is trivial. In reality it presents an easy target for those with a political rather than epidemiological agenda. But knock yourself out if that's what you want.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Sober and depressing figures from the FT on the acceleration. Worth reading the whole thread.


View: https://mobile.twitter.com/ChrisGiles_/status/1303571998707191808

 

[fossyant]

My wife is going to finally get to see her mum at the Nursing home, but isn't hopeful visits will be allowed much longer as the local rate spikes again. As you say @Electric_Andy she'd rather see family than not, and it's currently like prison, but costs over £4k a month. It's sad as MrsF and her sisters have thought about how they could get her home, but her care needs are too high - you'd need to live in and be on call 24/7.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

In the overall worldwide Covid scheme of things criticising the government's nuancing of its restrictions is trivial. In reality it presents an easy target for those with a political rather than epidemiological agenda. But knock yourself out if that's what you want.

The government's response to Covid has been objectively terrible, killing more people here than anywhere else on earth. A thread on Covid ignoring this would be very, very weird.

 

[marinyork]

In the overall worldwide Covid scheme of things criticising the government's nuancing of its restrictions is trivial. In reality it presents an easy target for those with a political rather than epidemiological agenda. But knock yourself out if that's what you want.

I agree with the restriction of six.

I am deeply bothered about how a vaccine plays out, but it's an area most aren't interested in.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Any guesses who Hancock will scapegoat now?

Aha, I didn't guess that it was the fault of too many well people.

''The reason we have constraint at the moment is not because capacity has gone down; far from it, capacity has gone up. It’s that we’ve suddenly seen this rise in demand from people who are not eligible. For instance, I’ve read stories of whole schools being told to go and get a test. That is not what the testing is there for. We need it for people who are symptomatic. ''

 

[mjr]

In the overall worldwide Covid scheme of things criticising the government's nuancing of its restrictions is trivial.

No-one even mentioned nuancing until you, I think. The criticism is that government advice disagrees with its legislation, WHO advice and even other bits of its own advice. It's an omnishambles with a death toll. If we can't criticise that, democracy dies

 

[classic33]

In the overall worldwide Covid scheme of things criticising the government's nuancing of its restrictions is trivial. In reality it presents an easy target for those with a political rather than epidemiological agenda. But knock yourself out if that's what you want.

Therein lies the biggest problem with this on this island. Right down to local level, they don't want to be seen working together to even try and sort things out.

After the initial twelve weeks, it became a point scoring game to a load of people.

 

[nickyboy]

I agree with the restriction of six.

I am deeply bothered about how a vaccine plays out, but it's an area most aren't interested in. Including you.

Knock yourself out, if your toxic masculinity isn't around that's cool by me.

I'm confused that you say I'm not bothered about a vaccine. Whether a vaccine is ultimately developed is probably the most important Covid-related issue and pretty well every policy decision going forward will be predicated on this. So, I am bothered, greatly.

What bothers me about this thread is that something so important as this doesn't even warrant a mention (similarly, what will have to change to allow government debt repayments etc) But we get pages of critique of UK government's detailed covid response. I'm not saying that this is totally trivial. But in the overall scheme of things, it's minor, very minor