When will covid end ? Please be nice and respectful to others

[JoeyT]

The rate of growth in cases is slowing and if the trend continues by the middle of next week cases could actually start falling.

I wonder what all those frothing at the mouth for extra restrictions / guidelines will have to say then?

[st dan]

To be fair to companies in regards to WFH, I do think they are looking to protect their staff from the commute into the office more than working in the office itself. Packed rush hour trains with no masks or social distancing and you’re asking for trouble when the rates are so high. 

[JoeyT]

1 minute ago, Barry Fish said:

I love WFH but I have a decent setup.  Some people are breaking all sorts of health safety rules and working off sofas and kitchen tables.  Will pile up even more problems for the NHS in the future.

It's a very valid point.

WFH is very much skewed towards those on higher salaries in this regard due to the general size of properties those on lower incomes have.

Those on lower incomes will tent to be the ones with no option but to work on a dining room table whilst sat at a dining room chair or otherwise inadequate workstation.

Both from a physical and mental health perspective that isn't ideal and in the long term throws up other problems.

[Fuzzy Afro]

2 hours ago, mcshed said:

I'm not really sure what for profit private companies add to the equation, you're saying everyone should pay £70 a month for private care unless they can't afford it, why not simply ask everyone to pay that same £70 a month more in tax?

Private sector is more efficient 

[steviewevie]

My WFH consists of sitting on the sofa with the tv on and having a couple of beers, peering at my laptop if I hear an email ping.

[mcshed]

Just now, Fuzzy Afro said:

Private sector is more efficient 

Evidence?

[BobWillis2]

23 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

The rate of growth in cases is slowing and if the trend continues by the middle of next week cases could actually start falling.

I wonder what all those frothing at the mouth for extra restrictions / guidelines will have to say then?

Probably why they’re so relentlessly desperate to try and force restrictions now. If cases start to fall it’s over for them, back to obscurity and whining on Twitter. 

[st dan]

28 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Why are you asking for trouble if you have had the vaccine?

Well that’s kind of irrelevant to the matter - it’s still not nice to catch covid and run the risk of becoming ill, even if you won’t die - although we know some still sadly will.
If there is a way to avoid making people cram into packed public transport (which WFH provides) then what’s the issue in that just over the rougher winter months? Especially if all other restrictions aren’t in force. 

[st dan]

34 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

My WFH consists of sitting on the sofa with the tv on and having a couple of beers, peering at my laptop if I hear an email ping.

Didn’t realise you were a GP. 

Edited October 22, 2021 by st dan

[steviewevie]

40 minutes ago, mcshed said:

Evidence?

Yeah, that's just crap. With NHS you get expertise in all fields within same system, you don't get that in private care.

[st dan]

5 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Its like the flu with the vaccine-  man the fuck up

Again - even before Covid, if I was on a train with lots of people squashed up right in my face with a good chance they may have flu .. I’d rather avoid and just work from home if that’s an option thanks. It doesn’t make you a hero you know to go around ‘manning up’. 

FYI I’m not asking for any restrictions to be reintroduced etc. Just don’t see the harm in employers giving people the option to WFH over the winter months. The work commute + Christmas shoppers and trains will quickly become stupidly busy again. 

[lost]

There are advantages and disadvantages for each system. The Germans did well on covid and testing and definitely have more capacity than we do.. Their healthcare is split roughly a third private sector, a third public and a third charitable trusts. We did well on vaccines as we had a centralised system that does it every year with flu.

Edited October 22, 2021 by lost

[efcfanwirral]

 

not a surprise - every 5 months forever presumably 

[IBee]

14 hours ago, Barry Fish said:

Apparently only accessible to snow flakes...

Says the man who wets his pants if he asked to wear a mask for five minutes.

[Fuzzy Afro]

1 hour ago, mcshed said:

Evidence?

I could ring up BUPA today, get a private GP appointment on Monday and be referred to see a specialist by the end of the week. Would be waiting months for that level of care on the useless NHS. 

[Fuzzy Afro]

8 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

 

not a surprise - every 5 months forever presumably 

I have read that the boosters are unlikely to wane anywhere near as quickly as the 2-dose regime (someone I read about had antibody levels in the 20’s after 1 dose, 100ish after the second and then like 15,000 after the booster)

 

 

Fauci is saying Pfizer is effectively a 3 dose regime 

[Fuzzy Afro]

It would actually be better for everyone if more middle class people had private health insurance.

 

 

The customers themselves not only get treated more quickly, but they reduce NHS waiting times for others by not clogging up resources.

 

 

I’m not arguing for a removal or even a scaling back of the NHS I just wish more people would choose to go private for certain things. 

[Fuzzy Afro]

5 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Its not that simple to be honest...

We don't really have a dedicated NHS doctors and Private Doctors (well we do but not to the level to make what you posted entirely true).  We just really have doctors (beyond the Junior level).  A lot of doctors will see a mixture of NHS and private patients and move between the two.  The guy you see at BUPA can be often the same guy you will see in the NHS - and sometimes you might even see the same guy in a NHS setting - just quicker - as the NHS allows something like 25% of its resources to be sold out to the private sector (not sure on the eact %).   its a good earner for the NHS.

Ive had private for quite a while until very recently.  It is really good - like a fast pass at a Theme Park 🙂.   The ballache for me is I had to referred via the GP to get anything done.

You want to go through one of the private insurers that have their own GPs 

[DeanoL]

2 hours ago, Barry Fish said:

I wonder what they think they are protecting against...  

Staff going off sick. It's a business decision. Most companies don't care if you're going to die or end up in hospital, or are stuck in bed if you catch it. They care if you'll be able to work or not. Especially when it's highly transmittable even with the vaccine. If productivity drops 10% when people WFH but having people in the office leads to more than 10% of people off sick you come out ahead. Plus the nightmare scenarios when large portions of teams all get ill at the same time.

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

It would actually be better for everyone if more middle class people had private health insurance.

 

 

The customers themselves not only get treated more quickly, but they reduce NHS waiting times for others by not clogging up resources.

 

 

I’m not arguing for a removal or even a scaling back of the NHS I just wish more people would choose to go private for certain things. 

they'd just resent paying taxes for something they don't use...which tory govt will happily fix for them...and you end up with an even more unequal country than we have. We just need a well funded national health service paid by a fair tax system.

Edited October 22, 2021 by steviewevie

[efcfanwirral]

1 hour ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

I have read that the boosters are unlikely to wane anywhere near as quickly as the 2-dose regime (someone I read about had antibody levels in the 20’s after 1 dose, 100ish after the second and then like 15,000 after the booster)

 

 

Fauci is saying Pfizer is effectively a 3 dose regime 

Considering Pfizer's only responsibility is to their shareholders I'd expect some sort of study to come out saying a 4th is required at some point! It'd be bad business not to...

[DeanoL]

1 hour ago, Barry Fish said:

We have an economy to fuel - it pretty clear the country is on its arse right now.  While company A might be fine to tell its empoyees to work from home - the knock on effects to company b , c and d is massive.  and just because you don't want to get a bit poorly...

This was all brought in the tackle a crisis with a new virus we didn't have a vaccine for - and now its all turning into quiet something else.

Well yeah, people have realised they can be productive working from home and that the commute isn't necessary every day.

Yeah some companies will be screwed by this, but that's life. Life changes. Things move on, society moves on. No-one told us we shouldn't use smartphones because it'll put the poor internet cafes out of business. 

1 hour ago, Barry Fish said:

Real men don't need face nappies mate

Real men don't need Pret 😄

42 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

You want to go through one of the private insurers that have their own GPs 

I think most of them do video call appointments in the first instance so may not work for Barry...

[DeanoL]

17 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

God knows how we coped pre-pandemic.  

Flu is loads less transmissible than COVID (even amongst a vaccinated population). But winter illness was an issue pre-COVID (large companies would all have had response plans for a severe flu outbreak in the office and high absence) but most assumed the status-quo was the best they could do, because home working was impossible or unproductive.

Now they've been forced to adapt, in most cases realised homeworking does work with minimal impacts, so they have homeworking in their pocket as something they can introduce. Then it just becomes a cost/benefits analysis. Someone will be doing numbers on a spreadsheet somewhere. Employees being encouraged to work at home over winter weeks if a few staff who've been in the office go off sick with something infectious at once, even if it is only flu.

[DeanoL]

3 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

The world I am living in right now isn't at all productive.  Delays and issues all over the show.  Granted some can be put down brexit but most the reasoning I hear is "because of covid"...

Most of that is supply chain issues rather than people working at home though? Or do you mean where you work specifically? Obviously if a company did homeworking and saw productivity plummet they're not going to want to continue it. But that (amongst office businesses) seems to be a minority. For most companies it's been far better than expected and it'll be a hard rabbit to put back in the hat.

[steviewevie]

2 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Well yeah, people have realised they can be productive working from home and that the commute isn't necessary every day.

Yeah some companies will be screwed by this, but that's life. Life changes. Things move on, society moves on. No-one told us we shouldn't use smartphones because it'll put the poor internet cafes out of business. 

 

Loads of people getting sick not so good for the economy either.

But...yeah, working from home definitely hurting some city centre business that rely on office workers, and there are definitely downsides to mass working from home as well as some upsides. Some people prefer it, some really don't. At moment looks like many people are moving to a hybrid where working from a few times a week, that's what I'm doing, but not sure that will last in the long term.