Off Topic Coronavirus - 606 tales from the Inquiry

It seems vaccination has been more about making sure the NHS doesn't collapse than returning life to what it was before March 2020.

Vaccination was the way out, we were told.
Now - surprise surprise - they're saying it isn't enough.
Boris says now that we'll have to "learn to live with the virus".
What he really means is we'll have to learn to live with rules and restrictions.
There is no going back.

We will pay forever, for their lack of competence.
Everyone knows the quarantine rules are a bad joke.
A huge proportion of people flying in just disappear when they arrive.

But what the hell. It's only poor peoples livelihoods. The wealthy and powerful classes who run this country aren't affected.

 

Covid: PM insists July unlocking will go ahead in England

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57478760

Not if the 3rd wave is a full sized one (like the last two).
15,000 cases per day predicted by Monday next week.
Possibly 60,000 per day by the middle of July.

Nobody would unlock if those are the numbers.
We'll be closing all shops and staying at home again.

 

I don't see any need to even set a date when you have no clue where the numbers are going. When the infection rates drop to a point where it becomes safe to socially mix, you can unlock. Just airily saying july 17th is just a face saving exercise which will backfire again if it doesn't happen.

 

I know the Government is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't.

But Boris Johnson seems quite content to stand at his lectern and say all kinds of things with the full gravity of being Prime Minister in a time of national crisis - then doing something completely different a short time later, and making excuses that just don't wash anymore.

The Government was NOT following the science when it continued to allow flights from India weeks after the infection rate was terrifying there.
The Government was following some arbitrary rules it had set up for itself.
While Boris was planning to fly out to Delhi and sign a big trade deal.

When July 19th rolls around and we're still deep in the third wave, Boris will simply play the science card again.

 

MPs to vote on delaying England's lockdown easing by four weeks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57486224

I'm with Labour on this issue.
They have no choice but to vote with the Government now, as relaxing the rules on June 21st will do much more harm than good. Thousands of lives saved do have to come before the thousands of livelihoods wrecked and jobs lost.

But this whole situation was completely avoidable, and Labour are right to accuse the Government of letting the COVID19 Delta variant in through the front door.
I hope opposition MP's voice the full fury of the nation in Parliament.

 

News today that 58 people involved in the Copa America including 33 players, have tested positive for Covid. Maybe worth asking why holding the event in Brazil was such a good idea - the president of Brazil is effectively a flat earther when it comes to covid, and the health service there is reeling.

 

I'm right in the middle of the latest Covid hotspot, Cornwall, courtesy of the G9 summit. Another own goal.

 

Yes, I was surprised to see Cornwall listed as an area where the infection was spreading very fast.

Was that the Summit?
I would have thought that was too recent to be showing an effect yet.
I've heard domestic tourism to Cornwall has been very brisk for a few months. Sadly I think it could be that.

If Brent and Ealing in West London (around where I live) show a big spike in cases over the next week or two, that will be down to the crowds coming to Wembley. But there's no chance of those fans being stopped though, because the Euro 2020 games there are showcasing the UK on global sports media of course.

Once the tournament is over though, watch how quickly the Government tells EFL & Non-league football Clubs they won't be allowed to have fans back in August.

 

Dork of the Day... and indeed the Century: Dominic Cummings (aka: the Rat)

This little twerp will never be trusted again with a tweet or a whatsapp message from anybody.
I'd dearly love to see all the private messages buzzing around Government circles regarding his trip to Northumberland during the first lockdown.
Actually, no I wouldn't really.
It's just low grade dirty laundry, tittle-tattle that doesn't mean anything.
It's grubby, just like him.

Despite Cummings' delusion that he's dropping bombshells, each one of his "revelations" has about as much impact as a fart in a packed elevator.
He's a vindictive rat, who is only proving again and again that Boris Johnson's biggest mistake was ever to trust him.

This treacherous back-stabber sat in on SAGE meetings, even influenced what was said in those meetings.
Now he thinks anybody except the most radical Guardian readers cares what personal tweets he leaks?
I wouldn't be surprised if Cummings has got a webcam picture of Boris showing his todger that he'll share with us in a few weeks time.

The Rat also doesn't realise (because he's so self-obsessed) that his gobbets of bile are actually HELPING the Tories, and Boris in particular.

In about six months time people are going to be sick to death of Hancock's wittering, and pretty much all of the other current Cabinet as well.
Boris is shrewd enough to be well aware of this.
He's a bit like Dorian Gray, and his Cabinet ministers are his Picture.
So when the time is right Boris will have a huge Cabinet re-shuffle and declare a brand new Post-Pandemic start for Britain.
And (like it or loathe it) Boris has the personal charisma to pull it off.
Many people will buy it.
By attacking and undermining people like Hancock, Cummings is helping that process.

Millions of folk might be annoyed by Boris, and despair of his buffoonery.
But they'll take a buffoon over a rat every day of the week.

 

Gotta love Spain. I went for my second covid jab on wednesday. when I got to the door, there were two queue's, one each side, so I asked which one was the one for the vaccine, and was told 'they both are'. FFS. How hard is it to form a line outside a door? The best thing was that when the door opened and both queue's started inching forward (without a lot of arguing it has to be said) it took me five minutes to get to the door, by which time a couple of bright sparks had formed a third queue in the midle of the road, which provoked a bit of anger from the cars. Say what you like about the Brits, we could show most of the world how to wait patiently in line!

 

Plenty of big crowds in London yesterday.

Once Euro 2020 is over, watch how fast the Government cracks down on large gatherings.
Any hopes for proper numbers of fans inside football grounds come August are well and truly over.

Lift all restrictions on July 19th?
They're having a laugh.

The Notting Hill Carnival has been banned again.
It's not my cup of tea, but the ban is obviously as much about public order as it is about public safety.
If I believed in that kind of thing, I would suspect the authorities of wanting to bring an end to the street carnival era there in the UK. For people who want that, COVID19 is a Godsend.

 

Good news emerging in the Covid figures ?

Whilst new infections have been going up for the past 6 weeks, deaths and seriously ill have been holding pretty steady. Bearing in mind how much targeted testing we do as a nation, compared to other nations, I'm not sure how important new infection figures are at this stage of the pandemic. I think deaths and serious illness figures are more important and it looks like our vaccination program is holding them down. I think the next stage of the unlocking roadmap will happen on 19th July.

 

I'd imagine not having the ICU's saturated would help too. It's worrying that the delta variant is more resistant to vaccination, but the ongoing high levels of vaccination should keep the numbers from spiraling the way they have before.

 

Now plans must be made for millions of COVID19 booster injections in October / November...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57548796

And remember, the annual Flu jabs are for a fairly small proportion of the most vulnerable in society.
A COVID19 booster jab has to be for over 50 million people.
Scientists are already wondering when the protection given by vaccines rolled out during the Spring is going to fade.

There is a pattern forming here - a very bleak one.
Freedom day may never come.
We could be looking at social distancing, limited numbers gathering together, and mask wearing in supermarkets & on public transport forever.

Our pre-pandemic economy CANNOT survive under those conditions.
There will have to be a radical realignment along Soviet lines, with the State controlling every aspect of peoples' lives.
Work, shopping, leisure, holidays. All controlled centrally.
Freedom as we knew it cancelled indefinitely.
Some people have protested that this process has already begun. I don't think those people are sounding quite as crackpot and paranoid as they used to.

 

The government and a bunch of scientists are already making noises along the lines that Covid is here to stay. booster vaccines, some social distancing, and a rise in mortality every winter. A part of the problem is that a lot of people are backing away from the vaccine program. Russia is now going to make a lot of jobs carry a compulsory vaccine orders, and the US having had a great roll out is seeing a lot of people who see the job as done, and no need to vaccinate themselves. These pockets are quite possibly where the next variant will rise, and I guess eventually we will meet one that the vaccine only covers to a lesser degree. Sorry, not a happy post from me this morning, but a lot of what I'm hearing is that the new reality may not be as nice as we hoped.

 

Blimey, cheer up gents, it won't be as miserable as some are suggesting.

I predict we will reopen on 19/7 (21) and then with booster jabs we will learn to accept Covid as another disease that is there in the background and just hope that we are not one of the few unfortunate ones who fall to it. In time it will fade into the background and be out of our consciousness.

The deaths/serious illness figures compared to new cases indicates this is how it will go, as we seem to have broken the link between the two, due to the vaccines.

Maybe, one day in the future, a more vaccine resistant disease will come along and do natures work and reduce the worlds population back to a more manageable level, but lets not worry about that now. Just enjoy our freedoms as they return to normal and appreciate them all the more, having seen what its like to lose them.

 

"Rich people get richer during Pandemic" shocker

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57575077

Who'd have thought it.

 

Just when you thought it was safe to hug your granny, here comes... The Delta Plus variant

No, not a lost episode of the X Files, it's a new super-infectious variant of COVID that they've found in India, and it'll be here in a week or two (if it's not here already). Obviously no point trying to stop it getting here.
Kids being sent home from school because of bubble breaches is now very common again, but it's summer holidays in about 3 weeks so no worries there.

Freedom Day 26 and counting

 

Bad figures on new cases today - over 16,000

That’s not far off double the figure for this day last week and the worst Wednesday figure for 19 weeks. Deaths still relatively low though and rising much more slowly. I just pray we don’t see another steep climb in the death figures.

Don’t know what the answer is if we do