When will this shit end?

[MrBarry465]

1 minute ago, xxialac said:

And the price needs to fall as well.

More than £20 and not enough tickets will get sold for events that usually operate on small margins anyway

I suspect the accuracy will improve by the Summer and the cost will fall though.

Accuracy will be far from perfect but perhaps considered good enough.

Yeah good points.

I'm not convinced that nightclubs will be open this year, but maybe if they can get the accuracy of the tests up up - then potentially later summer they will be.

*If you are an open air event then you will have a significant advantage this summer.

Edited February 16, 2021 by MrBarry465

[zahidf]

1 minute ago, xxialac said:

And the price needs to fall as well.

More than £20 and not enough tickets will get sold for events that usually operate on small margins anyway

I suspect the accuracy will improve by the Summer and the cost will fall though.

Accuracy will be far from perfect but perhaps considered good enough.

If cases are low enough, doesn't need to to perfect. 

[zahidf]

KEEP THE SCHOOLS CLOSED

 

[zahidf]

Open air venue to open earlier?

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/open-air-theatres-pen-letter-to-culture-secretary-_53376.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=15February2021

[Chef]

6 hours ago, Toilet Duck said:

It’s actually interesting to see the difference in how cold remedies are advertised in the US versus over here. In the US, the same stuff that’s marketed to us as something that might make us feel a bit better (basically the paracetamol in them), in the US has you rock climbing and surfing later that day! Some things do actually work. Codeine is an excellent cough suppressant, but it’s bloody addictive so they took it out and replaced it with dextrometorphan which doesn’t work nearly as well, but doesn’t lead to people chugging bottles of cough mixture! The vitamin supplements do actually contain the amounts listed (unlike homeopathy which  is just water). However, it’s proven very difficult to show that they actually do much in many cases (vitamin C has been tested extensively to see if it does anything when you have a cold and it doesn’t seem to!). Replacing deficiency certainly has an impact and vitamin b injections have proven efficacy, but lots of the supplement market is based on correlations rather than proven efficacy. Even things like omega 3, which has great health benefits works much better in your diet rather than as a supplement (where it doesn’t work at all really). Fortified food is the best way to absorb supplements rather than tablets as our digestive process (and thus how we absorb nutrients) is completely different after we eat versus after we take a pill. Basically, if you get your vitamins in berocca, you pee most of it back out. I still do it though for some unknown reason!

Ah, dammit! I have had a berocca every morning for years.

Putting the point about fortified foods being the best way to absorb nutrients aside for a moment, if you were going to take supplements are some better than others? For example is their a difference between drinks (berocca)/ tablets/ those chewy sweet like things? What about Big Pharma vs. Own Brand?

[Fuzzy Afro]

27 minutes ago, MrBarry465 said:

Those tests are still only 40% accurate, they seriously need to get that ramped up in accuracy before allowing that. 

40% is fine given that:

 

- You don’t need to remove every case, you just want to cut the numbers 

 

- The remaining 60% likely have lower viral loads hence not contagious 

[xxialac]

4 minutes ago, MrBarry465 said:

Yeah good points.

I'm not convinced that nightclubs will be open this year, but maybe if they can get the accuracy of the tests up up - then potentially later summer they will be.

*If you are an open air event then you will have a significant advantage this summer.

Yeah, I agree with that and all your previous points.

'Expensive' events like festivals etc can demand a higher standard PCR test too. I expect the price of these to drop too. You can already get them for less than £50 now carried out at private clinics in Spain.

On subject of test prices, the UK govt is charging all travellers eyewatering £210 for 2 mandatory tests.

What makes the price so outrageous is that they're DIY tests.

Someone is making a huge profit from that. Who?

 

[MrBarry465]

1 minute ago, zahidf said:

Open air venue to open earlier?

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/open-air-theatres-pen-letter-to-culture-secretary-_53376.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=15February2021

You'd think with almost 100% certainty, venues with open areas are likely to open than those without. I do fear for indoor nightclubs, not sure how many of them will exist at the end of this. 

[squirrelarmy]

8 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

To be clear, I have started taking vitamin D supplements, but I certainly don't trust Dr C so much any more. He covered a hydroxychloroquine study that nobody else touched and our own @Toilet Duckwas unconvinced by.

When I first became ill the original doc I went to see put my symptoms down to vitamin D deficiency and poor lifestyle. Turns out he was very wrong however since then I’ve been taking 1000u of vitamin D every morning. 
 

No idea if it’s had any effect but might as well keep on taking them especially for the winter months. I do live a predominantly indoor life. 

[incident]

What I don't understand about the Hotel Quarantine thing.

The rule is that if you've been in one of the "red list" countries in the previous 10 days, then you need to pay £1,750 to be confined to a Hotel Room next to an Airport / Motorway for 10 days.

But given the huge and obvious hole in that rule, I don't quite understand why anyone would actually do it - most of Europe isn't on the "red list", and so it's well within the rules to fly to France or any other country with more relaxed lockdown / entry requirements, and wait out 10 days in a much nicer environment eating better food with more freedom for probably less money before returning to the UK.

So who's actually paying that money to inconvenience themselves?

[Fuzzy Afro]

4 minutes ago, zahidf said:

KEEP THE SCHOOLS CLOSED

 

Doesn’t matter if cases go up as long as it doesn’t translate into hospitalisations. Given that the most vulnerable have been vaccinated I think we are good to open schools

[Fuzzy Afro]

Just now, incident said:

What I don't understand about the Hotel Quarantine thing.

The rule is that if you've been in one of the "red list" countries in the previous 10 days, then you need to pay £1,750 to be confined to a Hotel Room next to an Airport / Motorway for 10 days.

But given the huge and obvious hole in that rule, I don't quite understand why anyone would actually do it - most of Europe isn't on the "red list", and so it's well within the rules to fly to France or any other country with more relaxed lockdown / entry requirements, and wait out 10 days in a much nicer environment eating better food with more freedom for probably less money before returning to the UK.

So who's actually paying that money to inconvenience themselves?

Well yeah but then you’d still need to self isolate at home for ANOTHER 10 days, so you need to have the gift of time to do that 

[MrBarry465]

1 minute ago, incident said:

What I don't understand about the Hotel Quarantine thing.

The rule is that if you've been in one of the "red list" countries in the previous 10 days, then you need to pay £1,750 to be confined to a Hotel Room next to an Airport / Motorway for 10 days.

But given the huge and obvious hole in that rule, I don't quite understand why anyone would actually do it - most of Europe isn't on the "red list", and so it's well within the rules to fly to France or any other country with more relaxed lockdown / entry requirements, and wait out 10 days in a much nicer environment eating better food with more freedom for probably less money before returning to the UK.

So who's actually paying that money to inconvenience themselves?

Personally I don't really understand why people have been flying in and out of the country in such large numbers anyway. 

 

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-passengers-arriving-in-uk-begin-1-750-10-day-quarantine-hotel-stay-12219291

For months I've been perplexed as to why people were still flying here in significant numbers. The international news hasn't been painting our situation in a good light, and if you're a tourist why would you come here when there's fuck all to do. I guessed people were coming back to be with family etc.

Reading these stories, it seems a lot of international travellers see it as business as usual and it would explain how variants are getting into the UK and spreading. The 'isolate when you get home' trust we put in people simply didn't work.

 

 

[incident]

Just now, Fuzzy Afro said:

Well yeah but then you’d still need to self isolate at home for ANOTHER 10 days, so you need to have the gift of time to do that 

True, but you'd do so without anyone checking up on you, and to my mind many of us are stuck at home regardless, the only difference it'd make to to a lot of people would not being able to go to Sainsburys.

[MrBarry465]

Just now, incident said:

True, but you'd do so without anyone checking up on you, and to my mind many of us are stuck at home regardless, the only difference it'd make to to a lot of people would not being able to go to Sainsburys.

Having done hotel quarantine for 14 days recently, it's absolutely shite - I would not want to do it again. Which is why I am perplexed that people are coming into the country, even given the above. 

[eFestivals]

43 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Having events go ahead but with LFT testing for those who have not been vaccinated is still a “restriction”

i agree, but that wasn't really my point. 

If it happens with testing it's a stepping stone to happening without testing.

[JoeyT]

5 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Doesn’t matter if cases go up as long as it doesn’t translate into hospitalisations. Given that the most vulnerable have been vaccinated I think we are good to open schools

This is true.

Also if they were that worried about serious illness / pressure on the NHS with schools reopening we would have seen teachers moved up the priority list.

There's obviously going to be an issue with R going up as things open up but the most important thing is that those most vulnerable are vaccinated to mitigate this issue which is what we are currently doing rapidly.

Where do people sit on schools? 

My Wife is a teacher and she has no issue with having her full class back in on 8th March. 

[eFestivals]

49 minutes ago, MrBarry465 said:

Somewhat hyperbolic here isn't it? Have you actually read the article? My whole point is that in order to make it politically sustainable the government don't want to take a backward step. You keep moving forward but are being driven by data and science at the same time. 

what's politically sustainable is the right balance of each of the factors, not just the one(s) you or Spaffer might prefer.

I'm merely pointing out that if 'normal' isn't achieved by the end of summer for outdoor crowds we can forget about (full-scale) normal until next spring/summer at earliest, because there's no way they'd relax measures further when heading towards 'the winter peak'.

And I simply don't believe that measures in place for more than another year is politically sustainable without at least trying (and perhaps failing) to hit normal before the end of the summer.

 

Quote

Have you got any concrete evidence/articles on those events? Not saying I don't believe you, I just have friends in the industry and they have not indicated this as yet. 

nothing concrete particularly, apart from leaks to the press naming some events and Spaffer saying nightclubs etc could open with testing.

Edited February 16, 2021 by eFestivals

[Ryan1984]

5 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

This is true.

Also if they were that worried about serious illness / pressure on the NHS with schools reopening we would have seen teachers moved up the priority list.

There's obviously going to be an issue with R going up as things open up but the most important thing is that those most vulnerable are vaccinated to mitigate this issue which is what we are currently doing rapidly.

Where do people sit on schools? 

My Wife is a teacher and she has no issue with having her full class back in on 8th March. 

My wife is a LSA and says the kids need to be in. Some of them are so behind.

Still wondering if they will split the years. Get Early Years and GCSE year students in before Easter and everyone else after the two-week break? Not sure how practical that would be though.

[xxialac]

17 minutes ago, incident said:

What I don't understand about the Hotel Quarantine thing.

The rule is that if you've been in one of the "red list" countries in the previous 10 days, then you need to pay £1,750 to be confined to a Hotel Room next to an Airport / Motorway for 10 days.

But given the huge and obvious hole in that rule, I don't quite understand why anyone would actually do it - most of Europe isn't on the "red list", and so it's well within the rules to fly to France or any other country with more relaxed lockdown / entry requirements, and wait out 10 days in a much nicer environment eating better food with more freedom for probably less money before returning to the UK.

So who's actually paying that money to inconvenience themselves?

That's a very good point.

I think the only people I can think of are people who:

- are flying from far away and cost of booking a new flight would be crippling

- are unable to quarantine for effectively 20 days as e.g. need to be at work

- don't understand the rules 

Probably mostly the last category!

[eFestivals]

49 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

I’m slightly worried that Johnson said ‘irreversible’ 

much the same as he said for ending lockdown one.

If we need another lockdown we'll be having another lockdown, no matter what Spaffer has said.

[Paul ™]

31 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Last night that policy was ditched. Now only direct international arrivals must quarantine in hotels. 

So anyone can get to Scotland just by flying to England first, in the process increasing contacts and travel.

Slow hand clap.

Are we surprised? No. I give it a few weeks and the whole thing will be scrapped.

19 minutes ago, incident said:

 wait out 10 days in a much nicer environment eating better food with more freedom for probably less money before returning to the UK.

Exactly what we are doing to avoid paying £2400.

15 minutes ago, incident said:

True, but you'd do so without anyone checking up on you, and to my mind many of us are stuck at home regardless, the only difference it'd make to to a lot of people would not being able to go to Sainsburys.

You can actually still go to the supermarket of you're not able to get it delivered or get someone to do it for you.

[MrBarry465]

Just now, Paul ™ said:

Are we surprised? No. I give it a few weeks and the whole thing will be scrapped.

 

Living in dreamland pal. The scale of it will be ramped up if proven to be effective. Most western countries now adopting a similar approach.

Now go and enjoy flying in and out of the country.

[zahidf]

10 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

what's politically sustainable is the right balance of each of the factors, not just the one(s) you or Spaffer might prefer.

I'm merely pointing out that if 'normal' isn't achieved by the end of summer for outdoor crowds we can forget about (full-scale) normal until next spring/summer at earliest, because there's no way they'd relax measures further when heading towards 'the winter peak'.

And I simply don't believe that measures in place for more than another year is politically sustainable without at least trying (and perhaps failing) to hit normal before the end of the summer.

 

nothing concrete particularly, apart from leaks to the press naming some events and Spaffer saying nightclubs etc could open with testing.

I also dont think it will be politically sustainable for lockdowns/restrictions once most people have a vaccine dose

[JoeyT]

Just now, Ryan1984 said:

My wife is a LSA and says the kids need to be in. Some of them are so behind.

Still wondering if they will split the years. Get Early Years and GCSE year students in before Easter and everyone else after the two-week break? Not sure how practical that would be though.

My Wife has said exactly this.

She teaches Year 1 and has lots of kids in her class who still can't write a sentence which she has said should be something they have learnt by June of their Reception year. I should caveat this by saying she said the difference between those that can / those that can't is the parents interest in home learning. Apparently the difference is very noticeable.

Based on that they are not far off 10 months behind in their education.