Off Topic Coronavirus

But it's triple the amount of tests they were doing when they last got 30 positive cases, so surely that would mean the prevelance of the virus is receding (up here at least).

 

Yes, it does suggest that. We don't know if the increase in positives in parts of England is similarly just down to more testing.

 

It's just common sense!

 

I don't want to get into all the old arguments mate, but I honestly think that they have an impossible task of trying to square a circle.
They couldn't keep the strict lockdown going any longer as the economy is ****ed as it is.
Trying to lift restrictions is, by definition, full of contradictions.
I fully accept that the government have generally performed badly, highlighting their inexperience in cabinet positions.
How,they are now in a position where they're dammed if they do and damned if they don't.

 

Exactly.

 

And there's the problem....what you, I or anybody would deem common sense varies differently

 

My common sense (and experience) tells me that being on a half-full train where everyone is wearing a mask and being distanced on a beach in the fresh air is perfectly safe for everyone.

 

Completely agree.
Unfortunately, in many places, that's not how it turns out.

 

An utterly hysterical report on the BBC website about Cornwall residents being scared to go out shopping because of the influx of visitors

Only right at the end of the article does it admit that there are actually fewer visit is than normal

The whole intent of the article is to accentuate the negative - why not talk to those traders who are grateful to have at least some business this summer season

But then that would be a slightly positive angle......

 

What’s the common sense view on whether you board the train or not having bought an advance ticket and then see it’s busy as it pulls into the platform?

 

Because many people only ask for tests when they have "sort of symptoms" or "been in contact with someone who might be" you cannot quite say that. We may have always been picking up the majority of positives from start.
It is when we start assaying populations (including those who are well, "assymptomatics") will we know for certain

But I do agree overall it looks as though we are getting through it.

 

The common sense position is to buy an open ticket which does not tie you down to a particular train, and not to make seat reservations. Your life and health are more important than the price of your ticket. It also depends on the length of the journey - even if all people are masked there will be some relaxation of that discipline over a longer journey eg. with people taking them off to eat etc. There is no problem keeping a mask on for a journey of 90 mins. or less, but longer than that it becomes difficult for most people.

 

I wore one at the airport and on a 2.5 hour flight and didn’t notice any hysteria from the other passengers.

People have to get trains for work. If there’s one an hour it’s not ideal to buy an open ticket at greater expense in the hope there’ll be one in time that meets some arbitrary capacity limit.

 

Virtually all long distance advance tickets are for a specific train and include a seat reservation

If I join the train and someone is sitting in my reserved seat I boot them out

Particularly if it is an opposing fan

 

But surely social distancing is easier without seat reservations. If you book tickets online with the Deutsche Bahn in Germany then you can see how full the train will be well in advance of actually getting on it.

 

You can’t know because the government stopped publishing the number of tests being done (in England at least) weeks ago, because the figures they were giving were plainly wrong, and they ran out of road pretending that they weren’t. So who knows how many tests are being done on individuals vs retests vs walk ins to get tested vs random community testing. Only the latter, on a large scale, will give us a sense of overall prevalence, as I think you alluded to earlier. Figures I saw earlier today showed a very low infection rate across the country, but with London double the next highest. But as these estimate were based on god knows what data, I can’t vouch for any type of accuracy.

No useful data in the public sphere. Let’s hope SAGE and the government do have some dependable stuff.

 

Indeed but for the people moaning about trains being busy, you’d have to insist on pre-booked tickets at a small % of capacity to ensure any real social distancing. It’s just not practical if you’re trying to get people back to work simultaneously just as it’s dumb to moan about people being at the beach when they’re actively encouraged to holiday in the UK.

 

If you are on Twitter this lady is a good follow, unfortunately it indicates cases are going up not because of more testing. Think the gov needs to reconsider more of its easing. I'd be closing pubs again for a start.

 

My point about crowded trains was to do with people packing them out because they just HAD to visit the beach on a sunny day.
It's a pandemic for ****'s sake.
Give crowded trains and beaches etc a miss.
If you have to use a train for work that's different although if I used a train to get to work, I'd do all I could to avoid those journeys. If that's unavoidable, then fair enough.