Haven’t been to a pub but had my first draught lager last night at the squash club - very nice but bloody cold sitting outside !
Drakeford has just announced Wales is practically chucking out all it's COVID rules on May 3rd ... 3 days before the Welsh Elections You can trust Labour not to play politics with Coronavirus
Hope it's nothing too serious FHB. Glad you are COVID free. Thinking too much about the Super League has had a similar effect on a few million of us. Turned a lot of stomachs as well.
In India, 1 million people are being infected every 3 days. And that's just the official figure. In reality it's probably many times that. Oxygen has almost run out at every hospital in the affected regions. People are reportedly dying in the streets. And yet the IPL Cricket franchise tournament continues. Many players from many other countries including England who refused to go on tours earlier during the pandemic are still playing IPL cricket. They are still FLYING from cricket ground to cricket ground across the country. The behaviour of these players, and the people running the IPL, is motivated by PURE GREED. What they are doing is far worse than the ridiculous European Super League farce in football. This is all that matters to them. Coining in millions while thousands of people die in poverty and agony from COVID19 on their doorstep. Shame on them.
Blimey, this bunch of bleeding heart MP's obviously haven't been paying attention. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56890540 If this 'human rights' committee had been around in 1945 they'd be saying we should review all the battles fought by British troops against the Germans and the Japanese, in case we killed some of them unfairly Talk about missing the point. Haven't these MP's noticed we've just come through a Pandemic, and 127,000 people are dead? Idiot rule breakers deserved a lot more punishment than some fines.
The vaccine rollout is a great success, but the rest of the NHS is on its ar5e. You can't see your GP, telephone appointments are of limited value because your GP can't see you and you have to wait a week to get a blood test, whereas it used to be walk-in. Obviously the vaccine rollout is best for the common good, but it has taken huge resources away from the NHS's other functions. I also imagine a lot of NHS staff will be traumatised by what they have been through. So don't get ill.
100% right FHB. The NHS has been sacrificed in order to get the vaccine rolled out. That might seem like a price worth paying now, but it won't look that way a year from now. Or two years. Nobody is talking about it, but the plain fact is the NHS is now broken. Not just in the pre-pandemic sense of the word (not fit for purpose). It has actually ceased to function. I'm getting letters regarding appointments that don't even make any sense. I talk to people on the telephone, then I get other letters that are completely at odds with what I was told on the phone. Frankly I'm ready to give up. I'll just keep repeating my prescription until that breaks down too. Fortunately that part of things seems to be still working. I feel very sorry for all the NHS staff who are just doing their best. And the future, as we know, will probably mean another pandemic within 5 to 8 years.
An Olympics behind closed doors. The Japanese are obliged to stage it, or they have to pay massive money to the IOC, so I've heard anyway. The Japanses people don't want it. The event is just going ahead because of the big fat global TV coverage deals. It's going to be the worst Olympics ever. Never thought the 1936 Games would ever lose that title.
The UK Government was slow to add India to the 'red list' of countries, which means all incoming travellers would have to isolate in a hotel. This was seen by many as a political move - not a science led one - with reluctance to endanger trade deals a factor in the delay. Now we have over 500 cases on the 'India variant' COVID19 virus in this country, mostly centred around Bolton. And with a very high proportion of young people getting seriously ill - a characteristic of the India variant. And of course, our vaccination programme has not extended yet to anyone under 38 years of age. If it is true that politics delayed the imposition of travel security from India, that is an absolute disgrace. Boris himself warned of a third Coronavirus wave "washing up on our shores". Have his political interests now helped to cause a third wave?
It's the same story everywhere - here in Spain there has been a huge reluctance to look at how quickly this virus spreads, and how important it is to isolate quickly. I read today that the WHO have a report saying the pandemic was entirely avoidable, but the slow reaction everywhere allowed it to take hold. Regarding India, we now have isolation on arrival plus a 10 day quarentine, and there are no direct flights from India, but that was all put in place well after it was established that the India variant was a real problem. You tear your hair out with politicians sometimes!! Or all the time!
The WHO was very slow to declare it a pandemic. I heard yesterday that they waited for China's permission before they did, which is unbelievable. There are still countries like Brazil which are in denial altogether.
Not just India. We and several others have been too slow to pull up the drawbridge and ban people entering the country from highly infected areas. The far east, New Zealand and Australia have all shown what can be done with strict travel rules.