When will this shit end?

[hodgey123]

Johnson now explicitly referring to case numbers as a metric to consider when loosening restrictions. Beforehand it had been the vaccine rollout, hospitalisations and deaths. He mentioned that restrictions can't be loosened with high case numbers as variants can thrive and new ones emerge, as well as higher chance of infecting vulnerable people (notwithstanding them being vaccinated as the vaccine is not 100%). 

I can see the logic behind the first reason but unsure if we should be delaying any loosening on the small chance that a vulnerable person that has already received a vaccine may be infected (as surely it is a much lower chance of initial infection and then an even smaller chance of serious disease/death). 

[Zoo Music Girl]

3 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Really want to upvote this.

[Ozanne]

6 minutes ago, ace56blaa said:

Someone got up on the arsehole side of the bed today. 

1. Yet again constantly singling out Ozanne for multiple post for no reason other than get a rise or reaction out of him. It's weird, it's like you're obsessed. 
2. By the end of March, over 50s will have their first shot, but everyone still needs to get the full protection before we can relax that many things.
3. Stop discounting the under fifty year olds, who do get severe symptoms or long covid, 

We should definitely relax some restrictions to get kids back to school, get some more businesses open, but every single time we have come out of lockdown too soon too hastily or relaxed too much, I'd rather casionos and arcades take a little longer to open than risk being back in lockdown because there's outbreaks in over 50s before they get the second vaccine shot. 

He’s not the only one that references me frequently but that’s ok.

I agree with everything you’ve put there, this should be the last lockdown and we can help make sure of that by coming out of this lockdown slowly. To be fair to the government the majority of leaks so far except one suggest they will go slowly which is encouraging.

There’s too many unknown to open up too quickly and there really isn’t any rush if government support to businesses and workers remain.

[xxialac]

5 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

If Ozanne is a Mark, then by implication does that make him a No Mark?

[eFestivals]

21 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

Read that yesterday and had a bit of a chuckle! It’s clutching at straws a bit. 

Just a bit? Lol

No one on the EU side is saying it, but articles like this make clear that the EU were in the wrong in their contract row with AZ.

[eFestivals]

18 minutes ago, hodgey123 said:

Johnson now explicitly referring to case numbers as a metric to consider when loosening restrictions. Beforehand it had been the vaccine rollout, hospitalisations and deaths. He mentioned that restrictions can't be loosened with high case numbers as variants can thrive and new ones emerge, as well as higher chance of infecting vulnerable people (notwithstanding them being vaccinated as the vaccine is not 100%). 

I can see the logic behind the first reason but unsure if we should be delaying any loosening on the small chance that a vulnerable person that has already received a vaccine may be infected (as surely it is a much lower chance of initial infection and then an even smaller chance of serious disease/death). 

Id say case numbers are important until everyone has had at least the first jab.

Cos if we can keep cases low until that point there's probably a decent chance of keeping them low beyond that point.

If they're still high-ish and lots of people unvaccinated when measures are removed, it's quite possibly the the case that they'll stay high and perhaps start to cause hospitalisations to rise again.

If we can keep mostly locked down until the weather improves so life restarts mostly outdoors, that would be best I reckon. That will help keep infections low while we get to the last groups vaccinated.

[Toilet Duck]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

Just a bit? Lol

No one on the EU side is saying it, but articles like this make clear that the EU were in the wrong in their contract row with AZ.

I think they messed up their contract (central procurement of Health products, not just this vaccine, is a thorny issue that the EU has yet to sort properly and most countries do their own deals with Pharma, stuff is much cheaper in Spain compared to Ireland for example), but I also think AZ over-promised. Thankfully it appears to have flipped a switch at the EU and the required infrastructure to make sure we aren’t still sitting here in a year’s time wondering where the doses are is being put in place! Discussions also appear to be happening between Dublin and London to accelerate the pace of roll out south of the border here (now that NI is way ahead on vaccinations they suddenly realise the porous border is a threat to their successful programme!). 

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, Toilet Duck said:

I think they messed up their contract (central procurement of Health products, not just this vaccine, is a thorny issue that the EU has yet to sort properly and most countries do their own deals with Pharma, stuff is much cheaper in Spain compared to Ireland for example), but I also think AZ over-promised. Thankfully it appears to have flipped a switch at the EU and the required infrastructure to make sure we aren’t still sitting here in a year’s time wondering where the doses are is being put in place! Discussions also appear to be happening between Dublin and London to accelerate the pace of roll out south of the border here (now that NI is way ahead on vaccinations they suddenly realise the porous border is a threat to their successful programme!). 

Oh, I'm sure there's lots of good the EU is doing or will do in the future.

But I'm amused by the guff coming from over the channel, in a very obvious 'nothing to see here, honest' sort of way, trying to pretend they didn't fuck up. 

(Hey, they're politicians. They'll try to  deflect the blame)

Is anyone actually falling for it within the EU?

[Chef]

Had some time away from the internet over the weekend - what have I missed? Saw most of the Sunday papers had some sort of 'exclusive' on lifting lockdown restrictions. Guess that's the government leaking test scenarios in advance of next weeks road map.

What's the general consensus - back in the pub by mid March? 😉

[Toilet Duck]

4 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Oh, I'm sure there's lots of good the EU is doing or will do in the future.

But I'm amused by the guff coming from over the channel, in a very obvious 'nothing to see here, honest' sort of way, trying to pretend they didn't fuck up. 

(Hey, they're politicians. They'll try to  deflect the blame)

Is anyone actually falling for it within the EU?

Nope! It’s pretty obvious they dropped the ball on working with the manufacturers to secure supply lines and capacity. It’s frustrating, but we’ll still get there (and thankfully, the roll out plans were pretty conservative here til the end of March, so we’re still on track)...

[zahidf]

 

 

 

 

 

[st dan]

6 minutes ago, zahidf said:

 

 

 

 

 

All seems sensible, and doesn’t appear to be a dramatic shift to suddenly opening up everything as soon as possible as some reports would suggest. Are Johnson and Co actually learning? Such a shame that it’s taken this long and so many deaths for them to do so. 

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/14/vaccine-rollout-caution-some-health-workers-england

"One of the most striking results in the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, came from an analysis of vaccination status by occupation. While uptake was highest – at 73% – in those in administrative and executive roles, doctors had the lowest rate of vaccination, at only 57%."

It would be fascinating to learn of the reasons for rejection from Dr's who I would assume are more informed than your average Joe Bloggs.

[xxialac]

1 minute ago, RobertProsineckisLighter said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/14/vaccine-rollout-caution-some-health-workers-england

"One of the most striking results in the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, came from an analysis of vaccination status by occupation. While uptake was highest – at 73% – in those in administrative and executive roles, doctors had the lowest rate of vaccination, at only 57%."

It would be fascinating to learn of the reasons for rejection from Dr's who I would assume are more informed than your average Joe Bloggs.

The next sentence provides the likely answer:

"The study notes that doctors are the only staff group at the NHS trust in which minority ethnic individuals form the majority"

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

1 minute ago, xxialac said:

The next sentence provides the likely answer:

"The study notes that doctors are the only staff group at the NHS trust in which minority ethnic individuals form the majority"

That is an explanation for the numbers, not their actual reasoning. That's the bit i'd interested in.

[eFestivals]

4 minutes ago, st dan said:

All seems sensible, and doesn’t appear to be a dramatic shift to suddenly opening up everything as soon as possible as some reports would suggest. Are Johnson and Co actually learning? Such a shame that it’s taken this long and so many deaths for them to do so. 

If they fuck up reopening then they'll lose the bounce they've had from the vaccine.

And with the population in general being cautiously-minded, he's on reasonably safe political ground despite the Covid Recovery Group's determination that we don't recover from covid this time round.

[eFestivals]

6 minutes ago, RobertProsineckisLighter said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/14/vaccine-rollout-caution-some-health-workers-england

"One of the most striking results in the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, came from an analysis of vaccination status by occupation. While uptake was highest – at 73% – in those in administrative and executive roles, doctors had the lowest rate of vaccination, at only 57%."

It would be fascinating to learn of the reasons for rejection from Dr's who I would assume are more informed than your average Joe Bloggs.

Doctors are also one of the biggest smoking groups (or used to be not that long ago)

I think doctoring might cause them to have a fatalistic attitude towards themselves.

[topmarksbri]

1 hour ago, st dan said:

Is there a Just Giving page to buy him his very own PowerPoint ‘clicker’ yet? I’ll happily donate to that. 

Have we ever found out why they don't control the slides themselves?

[xxialac]

5 minutes ago, RobertProsineckisLighter said:

That is an explanation for the numbers, not their actual reasoning. That's the bit i'd interested in.

Maybe I've misunderstood your point but I believe the reasoning from ethnic minorities is that they've had historic difficulties with access to services which has led to trust issues. Becomes a community-wide sentiment.

Although the people in the lower vaccination rates were doctors, they formed the highest % of ethnic minorities so the above played out in the numbers.

Edited February 15, 2021 by xxialac

[stuartbert two hats]

1 hour ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

If all over 50’s are done by the end of March then rules should be SIGNIFICANTLY relaxed. I don’t want them completely scrapped like the CRG but I’m thinking along the lines of:

 

- Indoor household mixing allowed in groups of 6

- All businesses open provided that 1m+ social distancing can be followed

- Outdoor mixing permitted in larger groups

- Keep mask mandates, hand washing etc 

Remember that protection from the AZ vaccine takes about 3 weeks to kick in.  Jab in arm doesn't immediately mean safe. 

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, topmarksbri said:

Have we ever found out why they don't control the slides themselves?

Top bods rarely do.

Friend of mine had a high level technical job at a very major software firm. One of his (just sometimes?) jobs was to do the slides for the big big boss.

[zahidf]

 

[Fuzzy Afro]

2 minutes ago, zahidf said:

 

Mark Drakeford sorry @Ozanne will be seething 

[xxialac]

2 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Top bods rarely do.

Friend of mine had a high level technical job at a very major software firm. One of his (just sometimes?) jobs was to do the slides for the big big boss.

I don't know.

I think it looks amateurish. All the highest profile presentations I have attended have their speaker (often the CEO) use a clicker.

Take back control! 

[Ozanne]

1 minute ago, xxialac said:

I don't know.

I think it looks amateurish. All the highest profile presentations I have attended have their speaker (often the CEO) use a clicker.

Take back control! 

Steve Jobs would never get someone else to do the clicking for him 😆