Off Topic Coronavirus - 606 tales from the Inquiry

It will be good to have all our civil liberties restored on July 19th.
If that's what happens.

Freedom is the prize of the only victory we have won over the virus - mass vaccination.

The pandemic, and all restrictions related to it, should be declared over in England.
If the Health Department wishes to carry on holding briefings and showing slides and issuing guidance, that's up to them.
We can all use our common sense in matters where we have a choice; I for one won't ever get on a bus again, or a tube train unless it is virtually empty. I'm grateful my personal circumstances mean that I have that choice.
And I'll try never to go to a supermarket again during those times when it is busy.
(Though I was of that mind before the pandemic anyway).

We must be free to address all the problems that the pandemic has left behind.
And to thoroughly investigate how the pandemic was handled.
Because there will be another one.
Next time, we must do things better - and that means learning from mistakes made this time around.

When it happens again, those in power cannot claim they are in unknown territory.
Lessons must be learned.

 

The virus loves human complacency. Booze is its friend.

 

THIS is what the Government will use to tell lower league EFL Clubs they cannot have unlimited crowds back at their matches.

The Government KNEW this was going to happen.
But the EURO2020 matches were just giant adverts for England on global Sports TV.
Because L1 & L2 & Non-league games have no such value to Boris, we fans will be banned from going to games again.
Despicable.

Same reason there'll be a full house for the Wimbledon Finals at the end of next week.
Even though this news has been revealed.
Global advertising of England.
Money & politics before public safety.

 

Two steps forward, one step back here in Spain. The vaccination rate never reached UK levels but they are keeping at it and we are now doing 40 year olds.......

and 16 to 30 year olds. The reason? As the restrictions have come off (we can now go out in open spaces without a mask for the first time since last march) the younger set have been out in huge numbers at the weekends getting drunk in the streets with no masks and no social distancing. They call it a botellon (big bottle party) that sprang up in the credit crash when lots of people were too skint to go to bars so they got drinks in supermarkets and just got wasted in the city centres or on the beach. So we now have a general small rise in infection rates (around 100 for every 100,000 people) but if you go down to youngsters, it rises to a hige 600 per 100,000. A few schools had their traditional end of course party in Majorca, and provoked a huge spike there - a lot of them are stuck on the island as they can't leave til they shake the infection. So to try and cut this off at source, and realising probably rightly that it would be easier to teach greek to sheep than convince this minoroty to behave sensibly, they are now being encouraged to vaccinate, and to be fair, the take up is fairly high. Sensible pragmatic approach, but if we get another strain to deal with because of this, I hope they call it the young moron variant

 

Covid-19: Masks will become personal choice, says Robert Jenrick

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57710527

I'm no fan of this bloke, but he is right about masks.
Also, I like what I've been hearing from Sajid Javid so far in his new job as Health Secretary (not Covid sickness secretary).
Javid might end up as PM one day.

As for Scotland wanting masks to still be worn after their restriction easing in August... well that's up to them.
They have a devolved Parliament, they can make up their own rules. Personally I don't care.

If I'm given my freedom to choose back on July 19th, I'll be responsible;
I will only go supermarket shopping at quiet times, where a mask is clearly not needed.
But if it so happens I pull up in the car park and the shop is busy, I'll keep some masks in the glove box and use one if I really need to go inside.
And as for public transport - fortunately I don't have to use it.
But if I know in advance that (for some reason) I do need to use a tube or bus, I think I will wear a mask unless there are almost no other passengers at the time. And I'll carry some hand sanitiser with me.

These are not dreadful things to endure after July 19th.
And the full opening of the Economy again is absolutely vital to many aspects of our collective health as a nation.

Full opening also means UNLIMITED fans at football matches and other mass gatherings too.
The Government had better not pussy out on this point.

 

Freedom Day my ar5e, what a load of hype. Cases are rising. This clever little virus will be with us for years to come, using our complacency as an opening to get stuck in. I believe Sir Chris Whitty has said that masks will still be needed after July 19th, and I'd like to hear what Sir Patrick thinks. The Saj is listening to the same experts as Hancock was, so why the change in tone? I don't get it.

 

Just different interpretation and emphasis ? Cases are rising but hospitalisations and deaths remain very low despite the huge jump in cases. The vaccines are doing their job and the public have had enough of masks and restrictions. Restrictions were necessary but I’ve never been convinced by the arguments for masks. The disposable ones that most people wear along with the designer ones, are virtually useless at stopping viruses spreading. They are just not designed to do that. The higher grade masks are better, but are very very uncomfortable to wear and most of the public wouldn’t tolerate them. The virus will remain with us for a long time but WE MUST learn to live with it. 19/7 must be the end of masks and restrictions, so good on Jenrick and Javid if they are encouraging that.

 

We can continue to follow the science of course - right to economic ruin, national bankruptcy and an epidemic of mental breakdowns and suicides.

I'm sorry, but it's time to man up about Coronavirus.
This Government isn't going to protect us. The Third Wave proves that.
Only the vaccines have saved our future. But every day that half the economy remains closed we increase the mountain that has to be climbed.
We have to snap out of this.

China did.
Look at them go, the hard-nosed b*****ds. Double digit economic growth again.
Selling cheap masks to the rest of the world for a disease they foisted on it.

We can't hide under our beds forever.
This s now a sick society. But that doesn't mean we're finished. We have to get back on the horse, or we'll be saying goodbye to it.

 

Reports are that there is a disagreement over whether or not taxes should go up. Why not? We can't keep living on borrowed money. If Boris's much-vaunted plan for social care means either not spending money or borrowing even more that's daft. Maybe he never had a plan. OK nobody likes paying taxes, but I think under the circumstances people would accept it if it was explained honestly.

 

It's depressing to read of a row over tax rises.
That's like a couple of medics arguing over whether a patient who's just had open heart surgery should be given one paracetamol or two.

We need a massive programme of infrastructure projects, on the scale of what was done after WW2.
(not more HS2 nonsense - essential rebuilding).
We need new hospitals, health-care facilities of other kinds. New homes, and an end to stupidly high house prices. None of our essential service workers can afford to buy a home to live in. We need to pay key workers the wages they deserve.

This first pandemic has knocked all the stuffing out of our already over-stretched and under-funded health & social care systems.
Even the requirement now for a constantly developing mass vaccination system - a completely new branch of the NHS which simply did not exist 18 months ago - would never have been affordable under pre-pandemic conditions, let alone now.
But that mass vaccination system is now something we cannot afford NOT to have.

Millions of front line workers in the battle to save our services and society from COVID19 have been hoodwinked by the liars in Government.
There won't be any greater recognition of the essential work they've done.
Just lip service, and talk about their jobs being "a vocation" - which means they can be shat all over and treated as worthless, low-skilled dogs bodies.
What are the nurses going to get? A statue and 1%.
Most of the other plebs who actually had to get their hands dirty dealing with Coronavirus (Police, public transport staff, haulage drivers, supermarket staff, the list goes on and on) won't even get a statue or 1%. They will carry on being unable to afford to live in the gentrified cities they serve, and helped to save.

All the pompous bluster and claims that "we're all in this together" aren't going to wash when the next pandemic comes along.
Almost certainly before the end of this decade.
Next time, it's going to be every man for himself.

Unless there is monumental change.
A real new beginning like we had in 1945. Not ministers arguing about a few quid in tax rises here or there.
That is utterly ludicrous. Makes rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic look like an over-reaction.

 

Wouldn't it make sense to keep mask-wearing in crowded indoor places like tube trains? Standard masks may not give you much protection, but they do protect others if you are asymptomatic. The danger comes from mutations which evade the vaccine, and the more the virus circulates freely the easier it is for it to achieve its dream mutation. As I understand it.

 

Pretty much how I see it. In Spain we still get to enjoy wearing masks in crowded places and anywhere enclosed. I'm not going to add that wearing a mask is hugely effective if they are not designed for viruses, but they do have a positive effect.
Sadly, we are now looking at a fifth wave here in Spain (Five FFS!!). Like the UK, the UCI's are not getting swamped as yet, and death rates are holding steady, as the vaccines are seemingly keeping the death rates down, but the walk in health centres are now swamped, to the extent they no longer offer testing to anyone unless they have symptoms - so much for track and trace. Here in Catalunya, the infection rate is up to a massive 1645 per 100,000 amongst 20-29 year olds. So we are now on a red list for travelers from Belgium and Holland, just when the government thought the travel industry could all go back to work. We never matched the terrible response and death rate that the UK suffered, but there is almost a hint that the Spanish government could have if they wanted to.

 

Personal Responsibility. We'll be hearing this a lot. I'm not sure how it ties in with mask-wearing, which protects others, but it seems to be the new soundbite,

 

I hear the NHS is going to get the George Cross now.

That's all well and good - and deserved.
But it shouldn't be seen as a substitute for th proper support it needs.

 

I just don't think that masks offer any significant protection. They are not air tight and they do not have any layers that completely capture or kill the Covid virus. The same air goes in and out of your nose and lungs whether you are wearing one or not and that air is not captured by the mask and is perfectly capable of carrying the virus to anyone nearby.

Granted they may capture some droplets if you are coughing and sneezing, but unless you then immediately remove the mask and hygienically clean or destroy it, then hygienically clean anything that has touched the mask and then hygienically clean your hands properly every time you touch the mask and then replace the mask with another mask and repeat this endlessly then they are useless and lets be honest, how many people do/would do this. Practically none, apart perhaps from intensive care workers and the like.

Then you have the issue of people just discarding used masks, potentially carrying the virus, on the floor or in the nearest public bin.

Add the fact that the vast majority of people that want to be vaccinated have been, plus the minute numbers of people that have been vaccinated that go on to be seriously ill without underlying conditions, then the benefits of masks are far lower than the disadvantages.

I've reluctantly worn a mask in all situations where the restrictions said I should, but that will end on 19/7 regardless of what the restrictions are from then on.

Enough is enough, its time to live with this bloody virus.

 

Very good news

I seriously believed football fans would be made to pay for infection rates rising and super-spreader events, once the International TV cameras had gone.
Guess I'm just an old cynic.
But I'll only truly believe unlimited crowds will be allowed back at football once the Government announces it...

 

Keir Starmer is jumping up and down calling the Government "reckless" for lifting restrictions soon.

I agree with him that this third wave is the Government's fault.
But we must change our view of COVID19.
With every passing day the vaccinations reduce it closer to the level of the Flu (in its effects on society).

How many Flu cases were there this week?
Frankly, nobody cares.
We must ensure that our Vaccine research facilities are properly supported, so they can continue to subdue Coronavirus to the level of Flu.
We must clamp down quickly on every new variant.
But as long as we do that, we can get on with our lives.

Johnson is showing his liberal colours (thank God).
99.9% of us are not frightened of catching Flu.
The same proportion must become just as casual regarding Coronavirus.

GET YOUR JABS / / / GET BACK TO WORK / / / F**K THE VIRUS

 

So far SAGE's models projecting how the virus will affect us have been pretty accurate. The latest ones will be released next week and should be interesting. I would have liked to see a clear distinction made between indoor and outdoor situations, reflecting transmission cases. According to The Lancet masks help control transmission, so keeping them on in The Underground seems common sense, with cases set to rise to 50,000 a day by Freedom Day. My local MP Gareth Bacon has written in the local rag that the lifting of restrictions is irreversible, let's hope he doesn't have to backtrack, I miss my live music.