When will this shit end?

[MEGABOWL]

8 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

 

This pleases me

[Mimo]

27 minutes ago, st dan said:

I know it’s been said numerous times before, but NZ is an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean with a population of less than 5m - which are major factors that has allowed them to aim for a zero Covid strategy pretty easily, backed by strong government leadership. 

Zero Covid is not, and can not, be an actual exit strategy for the vast majority of counties given the sheer scale of the initial outbreak - they’ve all been chasing their tails. However hopefully we can aim to manage and live with the virus in the years to come - are NZ going to be locking down for 6-8 weeks every year if/when cases crop up? That surely isn’t manageable or an effective strategy either long term. 

Surely for NZ once the world gets to a point whereby the pandemic is over with widely available effective vaccines and great treatments they’ll open up their borders again. Until then why on earth would they do anything different? Would be madness.

Don’t forget living with the virus approach has gone pretty uniformly badly thus far, as yet it isn’t a proven strategy anywhere. Could well lead to a perpetual lockdown and release cycle.

 

[mazola]

3 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

you didn't point any of this out, you just said he was virtue signalling.

I didn't think it needed further elaboration

[JoeyT]

1 minute ago, MEGABOWL said:

This pleases me

Data also shows hospitalizations start to fall sharply from Day 18 after people receive the first shot.

[MrBarry465]

40 minutes ago, st dan said:

I know it’s been said numerous times before, but NZ is an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean with a population of less than 5m - which are major factors that has allowed them to aim for a zero Covid strategy pretty easily, backed by strong government leadership. 

Zero Covid is not, and can not, be an actual exit strategy for the vast majority of counties given the sheer scale of the initial outbreak - they’ve all been chasing their tails. However hopefully we can aim to manage and live with the virus in the years to come - are NZ going to be locking down for 6-8 weeks every year if/when cases crop up? That surely isn’t manageable or an effective strategy either long term. 

Just to be clear NZ and Australia (I'm currently in Australia) do not have a 'zero covid policy'.They are maintianing a zero community transmission policy and as someone who has come from the UK and in Australia, the quality of life right now is night and day.

NZ and Australia will vaccinate the populations safely and then decide when they want to have people coming in and out of the countries and open up to the world. It's a methodical approach, but it's absolutely been the best one.

[MrBarry465]

1 minute ago, Mimo said:

Surely for NZ once the world gets to a point whereby the pandemic is over with widely available effective vaccines and great treatments they’ll open up their borders again. Until then why on earth would they do anything different? Would be madness.

Don’t forget living with the virus approach has gone pretty uniformly badly thus far, as yet it isn’t a proven strategy anywhere. Could well lead to a perpetual lockdown and release cycle.

 

100% correct. Very much fed up of 'live with the virus' as it's pretty clear that at the moment - thats simply not a viable strategy.

The US and the UK are now both moving toward stricter border control and Bidens team have been speaking to Australia closely over the last few months about the approach they took.

IMO we will see a global shift in strategy this year.

[fraybentos1]

2 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

Data also shows hospitalizations start to fall sharply from Day 18 after people receive the first shot.

In a few weeks we really should start to see some impact here too on over80s hospital figures.

[DeanoL]

20 hours ago, Toilet Duck said:

Technically ye were still in the transition period when the Pfizer shot got EUA from the MHRA. Every other EU country could have (and still can) use that route if they want (but all have agreed that the EMA approval route gives them more flexibility later on). It’s entirely possible the UK would have chosen this route anyway regardless of Brexit. 

I guess British exceptionalism works if it's something we're exceptional at. Maybe one factor is our attitude towards vaccines, with most people supporting them, it was always going to be the best way out for us, as we can easily hit herd immunity with them. So ordering loads makes sense. If you're France and there's a massive anti-vax movement, maybe it's not the same silver bullet for you, so you don't invest as heavily, thinking that control, track and trace would be more likely to be effective there. Whereas now we're learning that a vaccine is the only reasonable way out for anywhere.

1 hour ago, Paul ™ said:

You still need to allow for the vast numbers of people that are already out the country. It's not just about people who want to leave then return to the UK.

Can you provide some links to the story that the NZ/Aus government have said tough shit to their citizens? Not seen anything on that 

Who are the vast number of people out of the country at the moment? This was an issue for NS/Aus, as they closed borders early, but we've been in a global pandemic since March last year now. So either people have been out of the country since before then, in which case they should be able to hang on a few more months, get a visa extension etc. or they travelled abroad during a global pandemic, and now want to come back - when it was always clear that this sort of thing was on the table, if only because NS/Aus did it right away.

[Homer]

2 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

I guess British exceptionalism works if it's something we're exceptional at.

Well, we are world leading when it comes to music, entertainment and live touring bands so... oh yeah, hold on.

[fraybentos1]

2 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

I guess British exceptionalism works if it's something we're exceptional at. Maybe one factor is our attitude towards vaccines, with most people supporting them, it was always going to be the best way out for us, as we can easily hit herd immunity with them. So ordering loads makes sense. If you're France and there's a massive anti-vax movement, maybe it's not the same silver bullet for you, so you don't invest as heavily, thinking that control, track and trace would be more likely to be effective there. Whereas now we're learning that a vaccine is the only reasonable way out for anywhere.

 

There was something posted here which suggested that the anti-vax sentiment is decreasing in France. Seems to be the more the vaccine is rolled out the less people are sceptical of it- which makes sense I suppose.

[Ozanne]

1 minute ago, DeanoL said:

Thanks for asking - as well as we can hope I think. It's still bizarre, we're having to contemplate whether to actually hold a funeral or not as it would just be the two of us there (there's a few other relatives but they're shielding so wouldn't be able to attend). Not a question we ever thought we'd be asking as in normal times you'd just have one and see if anyone turned up, whereas now it's sort of, why take the risk when we can just do something private ourselves.

I’m glad you are holding up ok, it must be a difficult and strange time. I’m sure you guys will make the right decision for you both and also for your Father-in-law too. 

[DeanoL]

Just now, fraybentos1 said:

There was something posted here which suggested that the anti-vax sentiment is decreasing in France. Seems to be the more the vaccine is rolled out the less people are sceptical of it- which makes sense I suppose.

Yeah, I think people are realising it's the only viable option now. But I think it explains to a degree why other nations didn't focus so much on vaccines. 

[JoeyT]

 

[Homer]

27 minutes ago, mazola said:

OK, I'll elaborate since a few people don't seem to like the term virtue signalling.

My comment was directed at someone who said they would be happy to wait for their vaccine so an 80 year old in Iraq could get theirs first. Just this one 80 year old Iraq? Or does this apply to everyone in the world in a more vulnerable position?

How long would you be prepared to wait for everyone the world in a more vulnerable category than you to get their vaccine. 1 year? 2 years?

It's easy to say you would knowing full well this is not a decision you have any control over. When it gets to your turn will you refuse the vaccine on moral grounds as there is someone in the world more in need of it? Of course not.

But because I've pointed this out, obviously I'm an unfeeling, unempathetic monster who would push old ladies out of the way so I can get my jab first.

To be fair, you said 'I'm sorry, but this is the biggest load of virtue signalling bollocks I've read in this thread, and that's saying something', so you comment wasn't as specific to one comment as that.

You could always pop over to the 'how do you feel?' thread - there are loads of people taking the time to be nice to people they've never even met in there! - and show them who's boss.

[mazola]

3 minutes ago, Homer said:

To be fair, you said 'I'm sorry, but this is the biggest load of virtue signalling bollocks I've read in this thread, and that's saying something', so you comment wasn't as specific to one comment as that.

You could always pop over to the 'how do you feel?' thread - there are loads of people taking the time to be nice to people they've never even met in there! - and show them who's boss.

OK, I'm a c**t, I get it

[Homer]

Just now, mazola said:

OK, I'm a c**t, I get it

Here, have an upvote and let's all be friends. (Big wobbly thumbs up emoji)

[Mimo]

I guess ‘zero covid’ and ‘living with virus’, should go hand in hand when you think about it.

Reduce the case level to as low as we possibly possibly can, at which point it’s far easier to control whatever might be left over. Combine this with vaccines and life can return to normal, albeit with the occasional scare. Then as the years pass we’ll worry about it less and less. 

[zahidf]

 

 

 

 

 

[MEGABOWL]

18 minutes ago, MrBarry465 said:

100% correct. Very much fed up of 'live with the virus' as it's pretty clear that at the moment - thats simply not a viable strategy.

The US and the UK are now both moving toward stricter border control and Bidens team have been speaking to Australia closely over the last few months about the approach they took.

IMO we will see a global shift in strategy this year.

We are going to have to live with it though. I don’t think anybody believes we can eradicate it anymore. It’s just about getting to a point where it isn’t overwhelming Health services.

[fraybentos1]

5 minutes ago, mazola said:

OK, I'm a c**t, I get it

You're entitled to your opinion. And for what it's worth I kinda agree with you. No one is really going to be prepared to sacrifice their jab for another person in a poorer country. It's completely hypothetical anyway of course.

[Ozanne]

 

[Punksnotdead]

24 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

You're entitled to your opinion. And for what it's worth I kinda agree with you. No one is really going to be prepared to sacrifice their jab for another person in a poorer country. It's completely hypothetical anyway of course.

Yeah, I want my jab & I want it a.s.a.p. I'm clinically vulnerable & I want to feel safe. I'll worry about others abroad once I've been jabbed. If that makes me selfish then so be it - I won't be losing any sleep over it!

[fraybentos1]

4 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

Yeah, I want my jab & I want it a.s.a.p. I'm clinically vulnerable & I want to feel safe. I'll worry about others abroad once I've been jabbed. If that makes me selfish then so be it - I won't be losing any sleep over it!

If you lost sleep over everything awful happening in various parts of the world then you'd never sleep.

[fraybentos1]

These Scottish vaccination figures are getting concerning, only around 11k done yesterday just announced. I know it is a Sunday but it's not picking up enough (quite the opposite)

[Ozanne]