When will this shit end?

[xxialac]

Just now, st dan said:

Interesting - is that mainly being driven by the change in weather? Seen as the ‘restrictions’ don’t seem so harsh at all. 

Yes, I think that's a large part of it. The restrictions are light but there's a 10pm curfew and that seems to help. The maskwearing rules are also respected by everyone religiously. And life very much takes place outdoors, though gyms have just reopened and cinemas open all year.

 

[hillwalker]

50 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

It'll be interesting to see what the appetite for holidays abroad is this summer. If most places abroad are still employing some form of social distancing or lockdown. Would people want to go Spain if it means going back to masks, keeping distance from people, half empty restaurants, etc? Or holiday in the UK when you don't have to do that.

As someone who usually does city breaks in Europe, going to a city where half of it is shut isn't that appealing.

We had flights rolled over from Spain last summer to this one but took the decision a couple of weeks ago to book a couple of weeks away in the UK instead. When the flights for next year open we'll hopefully move them again. It was a combination of factors for us. The risk of going somewhere and then either being locked down there or on return. The fact that we didn't really fancy being somewhere quite hot and being in a situation where you have to wear masks on the beach. Also, we had a really nice time in the UK last year, went somewhere we probably would never have gone to. yes, this may have been because the previous 5 months were so terrible that any get away would have felt nice but I'm hoping not!

So, I think people will still get away and be ok, we just didn't want to take the chance.

[JoeyT]

 

[efcfanwirral]

 

11 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Yes, I think that's a large part of it. The restrictions are light but there's a 10pm curfew and that seems to help. The maskwearing rules are also respected by everyone religiously. And life very much takes place outdoors, though gyms have just reopened and cinemas open all year.

I guess thats the big thing - my friend is in Ibiza and essentially gets UK summer temperatures most of the winter. I imagine we'd have been in a better position overall if our weather patterns were better and socialising (even the prohibited rule breaking type) could comfortably take place outdoors 

[xxialac]

3 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

 

Spain for one are getting 400% more vaccines in Q2 than in Q1 so though they may not move faster than the UK they won't be so far behind to finish and they'll be 'catching up' during a time when cases everywhere are low.

The difference seems big but in the grand scheme of things won't be.

 

[Hannibal Schmitt]

I wonder if there is a curse in the relationship between the EU and AZ as today our paper "Der Standard" reported opposite to yesterdays news as there seems to have been misunderstandings (with Reuter) again:

Astra Zeneca wants to comply with a supply contract with the EU Vaccine manufacturer Astra Zeneca reiterated in a press release today that
"the latest Q2 forecast for delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine is aimed at compliance with the contract with the European Commission." Half of the expected volume should come from the EU supply chain, while the rest would come "from the international supply network". "As of this writing, AstraZeneca is working to increase productivity in its EU supply chain and continue to leverage its global capabilities to ensure delivery of 180 million cans to the EU in the second quarter," the statement said.

[dingbat2]

My missus had a letter from Norfolk County Council this morning telling her she has to shield until the end of March all of a sudden. She is a teacher, and has been week working from home for a week then working in school for a week, but now isnt allowed to go in at all

She is type 2 diabetic, and apparently NCC have extended their list of vulnerable people all of a sudden. People with a high BMI have also been added to the list. I suspect there will be a lot more people being asked to shield now

 

 

[Mellotr0n]

5 minutes ago, dingbat2 said:

My missus had a letter from Norfolk County Council this morning telling her she has to shield until the end of March all of a sudden. She is a teacher, and has been week working from home for a week then working in school for a week, but now isnt allowed to go in at all

She is type 2 diabetic, and apparently NCC have extended their list of vulnerable people all of a sudden. People with a high BMI have also been added to the list. I suspect there will be a lot more people being asked to shield now

 

 

It feels there has been an unspoken understanding until now that people who are more overweight are more at risk. When you saw photos of people who sadly passed away in earlier months, it was notable that a high % of younger people were on the larger side.

I don't know if it's due to not wanting to be seen as "fat-shaming" that this hasn't really been spoken about, but yes the recent alterations to the JCVI priority list seem to know include this.

[gizmoman]

56 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

 

Wasn't directed at me, but my answer to this would be "after the NHS is back to normal". That's the latest possible point I can see for any viable argument for restrictions. This will likely be a few months after everyone has had their second dose. At that point, other than the struggle with clearing the backlog that will have built up, the NHS should be at around the same capacity as it was before this started.

But no-one is being actively censored on the the internet. Sure, if you want to post up stuff on Facebook and Twitter that is outright dangerous lies, they'll remove it. But those are private companies. If I owned Facebook, I'd do the same. I'd feel a moral responsibility to do so. Would you not?

But there's still absolutely nothing stopping anyone from buying some web hosting, registering a domain and putting their own views up on their own websites. Unless it's literally illegal (child pornography or selling drugs or such) no-one will take it down. 

(And for illegal stuff, there's a "dark web" that's trivially easy to access)

"normal" for the NHS is working at close to capacity for much of the year and at capacity over the winter, this year has seen many op's and treatments delayed so as you say it wlll take a while to get back to anything like a normal situation, there will be a surge in respiratory infections coming into winter, there always are, so we could well need " measures" to prevent overwhelming again, as long as people are prepared to accept the justifications for lockdowns etc. they can impose them. This could go on for years,. BTW I asked the question not to put shoptildrop on the spot, but because I'm in the same position with my daughters (i'm the mad dad of course!).

Re: censorship I was mainly referring to Youtube, who have banned or demonitised loads of accounts over the past year or so, leading to a chilling effect on free speech there, there are now other platforms of course but we saw with Parler how smaller operators can be removed.

[fraybentos1]

Once again, it appears the hysterical articles about new variants (posted here last night) were OTT and premature. WHo would have thought?
 

Shockingly irresponsible saying stuff like ''the devil is here'' I believe it said. Sensationalist bullshit.

Remember a few weeks ago there was a press conference here saying the new strain was a third more deadly? Nothing about it since. It's shocking imo, it is scary enough atm without extra nonsense.

[jparx]

1 minute ago, fraybentos1 said:

Once again, it appears the hysterical articles about new variants (posted here last night) were OTT and premature. WHo would have thought?
 

Shockingly irresponsible saying stuff like ''the devil is here'' I believe it said. Sensationalist bullshit.

Remember a few weeks ago there was a press conference here saying the new strain was a third more deadly? Nothing about it since. It's shocking imo, it is scary enough atm without extra nonsense.

“New strain” has obviously become a huge buzz term. Clickbaiters must be getting data on how effective the term is for a headline.

[gizmoman]

2 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

Once again, it appears the hysterical articles about new variants (posted here last night) were OTT and premature. WHo would have thought?
 

Shockingly irresponsible saying stuff like ''the devil is here'' I believe it said. Sensationalist bullshit.

Remember a few weeks ago there was a press conference here saying the new strain was a third more deadly? Nothing about it since. It's shocking imo, it is scary enough atm without extra nonsense.

They are just setting the narrative that the "new strains" are to be feared and that we need to take action as soon as they appear, this justifies more, even mandatory testing. Someone posted a LA memo a few pages back which was asking them to prepare for actions on not only "Variants of Concern" but "Variants of Interest", so any one of the thousands of variants can be determined to be of "interest" and trigger local measures.

[MEGABOWL]

1 hour ago, DeanoL said:

It'll be interesting to see what the appetite for holidays abroad is this summer. If most places abroad are still employing some form of social distancing or lockdown. Would people want to go Spain if it means going back to masks, keeping distance from people, half empty restaurants, etc? Or holiday in the UK when you don't have to do that.

As someone who usually does city breaks in Europe, going to a city where half of it is shut isn't that appealing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56161129

 

Now, they use percentage increases which may not actually mean numbers are that high but there’s definitely some demand there.

[Zoo Music Girl]

1 hour ago, Mellotr0n said:

One thing I reckon is gonna happen is we're all going to be surprised at how tiring we find mass social interaction again, after being so used to only interacting with a very small group of people for a year or so.

Don't get me wrong, will get over it and it'll be totally worth it, but the thought of doing, say - 3 different social interactions with 10+ differing people each time, all within a week - sounds absolutely knackering to me right now!

Anyone get where I'm coming from?

100%. We actually found this last year when we started seeing people again and it wasn't even that regularly. After being on our own since mid March, we both felt absolutely knackered after our first little trip to see people for a few hours in late June. I imagine it's going to be similar this time around. But worth it! 

[fraybentos1]

3 minutes ago, gizmoman said:

They are just setting the narrative that the "new strains" are to be feared and that we need to take action as soon as they appear, this justifies more, even mandatory testing. Someone posted a LA memo a few pages back which was asking them to prepare for actions on not only "Variants of Concern" but "Variants of Interest", so any one of the thousands of variants can be determined to be of "interest" and trigger local measures.

It's just bad, sensationalist reporting as far as I am concerned. The twitter thread clearly states that the mutation is not a lineage of concern.

[JoeyT]

 

[Mellotr0n]

16 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Isn't it a BMI 40 and over ?

I don’t know the exact, but that sounds roughly logical if right. 

[Zoo Music Girl]

57 minutes ago, Mellotr0n said:

The 5 seconds after you say bye on a Zoom meeting and are all fiddling around trying to press the Leave Meeting button while still half waving are excruciatingly socially awkward ha.

Someone explained quite well a while back why we also often feel very flat the moment a Zoom meeting is over. It's so sudden.

When you say bye to friends at the end of a night out, it's often much more gradual and feels more natural - maybe there's 6 of you, and 2 split off leaving 4 of you, then 1 more goes leaving 3 of you walking home, etc etc. With Zoom it is brutal and clinical the way it throws you back into your room in silence.

Agree with this too. For me there is normally a transition period of travelling home after seeing friends. It is so sudden the way it cut off.

We are doing a lot less this time around. I find them exhausting in a whole different way, especially when no one has any news. We have one couple who we still have fun and chat shit for hours with but I find myself avoiding them otherwise. 

I also did a lot more livestreaming of music and comedy in the first lockdown, but I just can't be arsed right now. Feel like I would rather just wait for the real thing. The novelty has fully worn off.

[eFestivals]

6 minutes ago, gizmoman said:

They are just setting the narrative that the "new strains" are to be feared and that we need to take action as soon as they appear, this justifies more, even mandatory testing. Someone posted a LA memo a few pages back which was asking them to prepare for actions on not only "Variants of Concern" but "Variants of Interest", so any one of the thousands of variants can be determined to be of "interest" and trigger local measures.

Lol, clickbait is now a fascist plot to lock us down forever. 

[efcfanwirral]

 

4 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

It's just bad, sensationalist reporting as far as I am concerned. The twitter thread clearly states that the mutation is not a lineage of concern.

Could some of it be governments (local in the LA case) hyping up a new strain when they have high numbers to cover for them not doing enough to stop the virus? 

[zahidf]

End of the road festival has sold out now. So some demand out there..  

[MEGABOWL]

3 hours ago, Gregfc15 said:

Fair viewpoint, but the counterpoint is that if you are operating a policy that allows cases to circulate in the community, then the threat of a longer lockdown is also there indefinitely. We all miss travel, but at some point there needs to be an acceptance that its a high risk activity in a global pandemic. Is the want for it to return quickly (without mitigating risk through quarantine) worth the risk of torpedoing a functioning domestic economy and going back into lockdown? A number of countries have shown it is possible to have a somewhat domestic normality and a functioning economy

The Vaccines should (more likely will based on the early data) take away the threat. With such a great weapon, i'm not sure why you wouldn't use it with other tactics to finish the job and drive cases down as low as possible while you have the chance. You can't unscramble the egg.

Thanks, this was the initial article that the previous one responded to. Tl;dr, "we sort of tried, it didn't work, better not try again". No mention of a barely functioning track and trace system, lack of support for those needing to isolate, and a year of allowing people from High risk zones to continue to import cases whilst asking to population to give up everything in lockdown being the reason. 

 

 He asks "Zero COVID: At what Cost?" while the UK is in another lock-down, an economy in tatters, lives and Mental Health destroyed, 100k dead. At what cost indeed.  

 

Taking Travel as an example, first up lack of travel impacts peoples jobs and others seeing relatives so it’s not just leisure travel. Not being able to travel impacts the economy and will hit others hard in terms of mental health. Further, it’s a good example of a right that people have given up/had taken away from them. So there’s the downsides and they apply to almost any restriction.

To take that right away it has to be justified which it has been over the last few months due to the risk caused by the pressing Public Health Emergency. However as more people are vaccinated that risk gets reduced. 

Being practical, how long do we stop travel for? Until there’s no Covid anywhere in the world? That could take years. That may never happen.
Can you carry enough people with you to give up that right ‘just in case’ of a variant that may or may not set us back? 

And ethically how is that justifiable? The contract between Government and the people changed based on the risk to public health. If it doesn’t change back when that risk diminishes when does it? 

As for the last paragraph and what’s happened over the last year I agree it’s been very badly handled but we’re talking about the cost going forward. 

[zahidf]

the end of her session Prof Wendy Barclay, head of the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London, was asked what she thought the chances were of a variant emerging that was fully resistant to the vaccines.

She said she did not expect to see “complete escape” (ie, a variant emerging fully resistant to the vaccines). But she said that it was more likely that there would be a “gradual loss” of effectiveness. At some point a decision would then have to be taken about updating vaccines, she said.

[Fuzzy Afro]

Just now, Barry Fish said:

It feels pretty obvious at this point we are going to see a yearly campaign starting in late summer / early autumn.  

When you say a “campaign” are you talking about annual vaccine boosters or actual NPIs every year?

[gizmoman]

17 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Lol, clickbait is now a fascist plot to lock us down forever. 

Not forever, just long enough to condition people into accepting the "new normal" (ID passports, controls on travel etc.) and to start to "build back better". It's quite transparent if you understand the objectives.

Do you think news stories like this don't have an agenda?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56168723