When will this shit end?

[Mr.Tease]

7 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

For a long time Long-COVID was kind of not kind as much attention but as time goes on and more information becomes available it sounds like a really horrible, debilitating condition. It needs to be looked into ASAP and those people suffering given full support to help them. 

I agree, it's what I was more fearful of- the idea of becoming severely diminished or struggling with ME type symptoms is something that always worries me.

[DeanoL]

The question of "do you trust the government to hold all that information on you" with regards to ID cards made me think... somewhat to my own shock and disgust I realised I do actually trust the current bunch of Tory arseholes with that data, but I don't trust the UK public to not, at some point during my lifetime, elect a properly right-wing authoritarian government who would absolutely abuse it.

[Hannibal Schmitt]

34 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

It does seem that countries in the EU are starting to pick up and improving their vaccination figures which is great to see. 

Here it is planned that the over 65 group should get their first jab in April, over 50 in May and all others until end of June.

They expect 2/3 of the population who want to have a jab, this would make 5 Mio here which is approx. the amount they have ordered until June.

[Ozanne]

4 minutes ago, Hannibal Schmitt said:

Here it is planned that the over 65 group should get their first jab in April, over 50 in May and all others until end of June.

They expect 2/3 of the population who want to have a jab, this would make 5 Mio here which is approx. the amount they have ordered until June.

That’s pretty good to be fair, after a slow start they are speeding up!

[eFestivals]

The suez is blocked there'll be some shit building up. 

[Hannibal Schmitt]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

Maybe give it to someone other than Astra Zeneca....

I think one of the problems here is that the PR/Marketing of Astra Zeneca in Europe has been horrendous. Highly likely its a good safe vaccine but there public relation has been a catastrophe.

I saw the Austrian represent of AZ some days ago on TV during a discussion about the AZ and to the EU-disput he said that its more a thing between countries. Also he claimed that they are a pharma company and are not used to make such big PR. But as said with all the european problems (deliveries, clots) they always kept very much silent.

[efcfanwirral]

13 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

It seems we are now stalled on putting vaccines into peoples arms more down to the fact a lot of over 50s are not coming forward for it.  I am seeing daily campaigns asking for the over 50s to either come forward or let them know they don't want it.

Are we starting to see a problem now we are moving into younger brackets with take up I wonder ?

I have just seen the available appointments for my local hospital and there are loads!

Its annoying when you really want it...  While understanding why they are having to make sure all over 50s are done first.  

To be fair at this point it could just be people who only read headlines or half listen to stories who may now believe we have no vaccines til the end of time, because that's how it sounded last week

[JoeyT]

 

[efcfanwirral]

Just now, Barry Fish said:

Lots of people wait for contact from their GPs etc as well.  They don't see to know they can just go online and book.  

Actually yes the girlfriend's mum did that - we told her when we realised thats why she was waiting but she didn't want to travel to the mass centre. 

Another thing is anyone who doesn't drive but wants to keep safe will need to do the same - getting public transport to go and get it in one of the hubs would be the riskiest thing many have done in a year so probably a good decision in those cases 

[jparx]

1 minute ago, JoeyT said:

 

Yep. Talk of ruling out all foreign travel for the summer is total nonsense. A) there’s no need to rule it NOW, and B) it would be daft to rule it out everywhere and not even try to look at some sort of corridors, airport testing etc.

[Hannibal Schmitt]

19 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

That’s pretty good to be fair, after a slow start they are speeding up!

Yeah, hopefully. Things are going down rapidly fast now. Vienna intensive stations seem to be on the brink rather soon. So they decided to make a hard lockdown until easter there. 
This is the vaccination plan, but it will be a stoney path until June I fear. But also Germany have said that will boost a vaccination "Turbo" from April on. So yeah, summer could be much much better and not far from normal but after those EU issues and the current situation people feel a bit pessimistic now. 

[stuie]

12 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

To be fair at this point it could just be people who only read headlines or half listen to stories who may now believe we have no vaccines til the end of time, because that's how it sounded last week

I’m not so sure about that. Here in Kent and Medway our 3 mass vaccination centres are being shuttered for the month of April.

https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2021/03/24/temporary-closure-of-mass-vaccination-centres-in-april-due-to-reduced-supplies/

[Hannibal Schmitt]

9 minutes ago, jparx said:

Yep. Talk of ruling out all foreign travel for the summer is total nonsense. A) there’s no need to rule it NOW, and B) it would be daft to rule it out everywhere and not even try to look at some sort of corridors, airport testing etc.

I think the talk is quite the same one as with festivals. there is talk about something which is in summer. Now the situation is shit but summer will be another situation. It`s like forecasting the weather for summer. Things can change hundred times. How much the situation will differ nobody can say. But probably it will be executed the same way as with festivals, giving it an earliest date when it can happen. But for me the UK talk doesn`t make much sense because I searched the internet for similar talks in Germany and didn`t find anything, only that health and travel experts think that probably holidays abroad will be on in summer but nobody can say that for sure.

[jparx]

Just now, Hannibal Schmitt said:

I think the talk is quite the same one as with festivals. there is talk about something which is in summer. Now the situation is shit but summer will be another situation. It`s like forecasting the weather for summer. Things can change hundred times. How much the situation will differ nobody can say. But probably it will be executed the same way as with festivals, giving it an earliest date when it can happen. But for me the UK talk doesn`t make much sense because I searched the internet for similar talks in Germany and didn`t find anything, only that health and travel experts think that probably holidays abroad will be on in summer but nobody can say that for sure.

Yeah you’re totally right. I’m equally baffled why there’s so much talk in the UK...

To be honest it’s an even better situation than with festivals, since they need so much preparation to go ahead while we can feasible resume international travel on fairly short notice and certainly don’t need to rule it out entirely now.

[zahidf]

6 minutes ago, Hannibal Schmitt said:

I think the talk is quite the same one as with festivals. there is talk about something which is in summer. Now the situation is shit but summer will be another situation. It`s like forecasting the weather for summer. Things can change hundred times. How much the situation will differ nobody can say. But probably it will be executed the same way as with festivals, giving it an earliest date when it can happen. But for me the UK talk doesn`t make much sense because I searched the internet for similar talks in Germany and didn`t find anything, only that health and travel experts think that probably holidays abroad will be on in summer but nobody can say that for sure.

At the moment Germans are allowed to go on holiday arent they?

[Homer]

Just received this press release (there's more of it, but you prob get the idea!):

 

Vaccine passport scheme unworkable, says UKHospitality

UKHospitality has warned against the use of a vaccine passport scheme as a condition of removing restrictions.

The trade body has cautioned that a voluntary scheme would create confusion and inequality among businesses, customers and staff and would act as a de-facto open ended delay to the reopening process.

UKH has also opposed the introduction of a mandatory passport scheme that would be unworkable, cause conflict and could be counter to equality rules.

UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: “It is crucial that visiting the pub and other parts of hospitality should not be subject to mandatory vaccination certification. It is simply unworkable, would cause conflict between staff and customers and almost certainty result in breaches of equality rules.

“Even introduced on a voluntary basis, vaccine passports have the potential to cause huge amounts of confusion among businesses, customers and staff. It could potentially give rise to a two-tier system of viability among businesses and a situation in which young staff members, due to be vaccinated last, are able to work in a pub, but not able to visit it socially."

...

[Hannibal Schmitt]

13 minutes ago, jparx said:

Yeah you’re totally right. I’m equally baffled why there’s so much talk in the UK...

To be honest it’s an even better situation than with festivals, since they need so much preparation to go ahead while we can feasible resume international travel on fairly short notice and certainly don’t need to rule it out entirely now.

yeah, that`s funny. when i search the UK internet you seem to get hundred opinions also from people you probably have never heard of on whether holidays abroad will be allowed or not. i think that the industry will simply need the summer. you are absolutely right, festivals are even more complex. But also the digital vaccination pass which the EU is doing for tourism countries is a complex matter - many people have to get a chance to get vaccinated, you have to get those scanners at every border-control and you have to develop a system for that (what I heard that there are problems with the Apple Software).

[Hannibal Schmitt]

14 minutes ago, zahidf said:

At the moment Germans are allowed to go on holiday arent they?

yes. funny enough. so they opened up Mallorca for the germans. the government let them travel to Spain but also said „Its an pandemic! don`t go if it isn`t absolutely necessary“. now cases are rising in Mallorca and the spanish are asking themselves if it was a good idea.

[zahidf]

Isnt just a supply problem in the EU...

"Frustration with the slow rollout of the vaccine remains high, with newspaper Tagesspiegel reporting that 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab remain in storage in Berlin after people failed to take up their appointments."

 

 

Denmark will extend its suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine for a further three weeks, Reuters reports.

 

 

[efcfanwirral]

 

20 minutes ago, Homer said:

Just received this press release (there's more of it, but you prob get the idea!):

 

Vaccine passport scheme unworkable, says UKHospitality

UKHospitality has warned against the use of a vaccine passport scheme as a condition of removing restrictions.

The trade body has cautioned that a voluntary scheme would create confusion and inequality among businesses, customers and staff and would act as a de-facto open ended delay to the reopening process.

UKH has also opposed the introduction of a mandatory passport scheme that would be unworkable, cause conflict and could be counter to equality rules.

UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: “It is crucial that visiting the pub and other parts of hospitality should not be subject to mandatory vaccination certification. It is simply unworkable, would cause conflict between staff and customers and almost certainty result in breaches of equality rules.

“Even introduced on a voluntary basis, vaccine passports have the potential to cause huge amounts of confusion among businesses, customers and staff. It could potentially give rise to a two-tier system of viability among businesses and a situation in which young staff members, due to be vaccinated last, are able to work in a pub, but not able to visit it socially."

...

Looks like its happening whatever people on the ground think or want- it'll be a choice between this and actually delaying the reopening. 

I still think this talk of "vaccine or test" is completely unrealistic- every single person under a certain age is going to want a test to allow them to do things - the queues at the centres will be mad and will we even have enough tests to do that every few days?

[Fuzzy Afro]

2 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

 

Looks like its happening whatever people on the ground think or want- it'll be a choice between this and actually delaying the reopening. 

I still think this talk of "vaccine or test" is completely unrealistic- every single person under a certain age is going to want a test to allow them to do things - the queues at the centres will be mad and will we even have enough tests to do that every few days?

LFT’s can be done at home.

 

Every teacher, healthcare worker, school child etc in the UK is being sent a supply of LFT kits to take them at home twice a week and upload their result. The only thing stopping this being rolled out to the entire unvaccinated population is supply and that can be ramped up. You don’t need staff, test centres or labs. 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Fuzzy Afro

[efcfanwirral]

4 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

LFT’s can be done at home.

 

Every teacher, healthcare worker, school child etc in the UK is being sent a supply of LFT kits to take them at home twice a week and upload their result. The only thing stopping this being rolled out to the entire unvaccinated population is supply and that can be ramped up. You don’t need staff, test centres or labs. 

Then it's pure theatre - how is there any proof that you actually tested negative? 

[Fuzzy Afro]

1 minute ago, efcfanwirral said:

Then it's pure theatre - how is there any proof that you actually tested negative? 

It’s not full proof. It’s not even designed to be full proof. 
 

 

The idea is to reduce the risk not to eliminate it entirely. Will you get a few arseholes who fudge it and go out anyway? Sure, but remember that covid rates are so low that probably 199 in every 200 people at any one time do not have the virus, so you wouldn’t expect these LFT’s to be screening out loads of cases. They’re just there as an extra line of security. 

[zahidf]

 

[Mellotr0n]

5 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

It’s not full proof. It’s not even designed to be full proof. 
 

 

The idea is to reduce the risk not to eliminate it entirely. Will you get a few arseholes who fudge it and go out anyway? Sure, but remember that covid rates are so low that probably 199 in every 200 people at any one time do not have the virus, so you wouldn’t expect these LFT’s to be screening out loads of cases. They’re just there as an extra line of security. 

I believe it's now meant to be something like only 1 in every 650 people has it. 👍