ddfg

I think its negative tests on days 6 and 7 for an early release from isolation. I reach day 6 tomorrow but not really holding out much hope, was a bit fluey to start with but feeling totally fine today.

Interesting update below from Dr John Campbell on the number of deaths recorded where Covid was the only recorded cause of death. The data which has been supplied by the ONS in response to an FOI is only for England and Wales but it would not appear unreasonable to think that pro-rata the reductions in headline figures would be similar in Scotland. Every death is to be regretted however the difference in numbers is quite stark compared to the overall figures quoted on a daily basis and to a sceptic may be further evidence of a manipulation of the general public to have them comply with a fear driven agenda. https://youtu.be/9UHvwWWcjYw

I've not quite reached the drip, drip, drip stage but agree 100% that this is a total non story. Who actually has a bad experience in a cafe and decides to go to the newspapers over a £2.50 cup of coffee? Lifes too short for that kind of behaviour.

To me they are a crutch that will encourage people at no medical risk to cling on to an irrational fear and just prolong their return to normality. I know loads of people who have worked throughout and have gone out for dinner, went to the football, been abroad on holiday etc etc etc. and survived to tell the tale. This is the message that needs to be front and centre to encourage a return to normal for people not a plastic badge scheme. If people want to wear one that's their business but not for me thank you.

So you are saying someone's totally irrational fear of a relatively non harmful virus is worth placing unwarranted expectations on everyone else? This attitude is actually doing a huge disservice to those with genuine medical conditions. Maybe they should get Jason Leitch off the adverts every day and replace him with some positive messages of people doing activities under normal circumstances and try to encourage people that things aren't as dangerous as they think they are. Everyday things like packing your case for your holidays, picking your pal up to go to the football, going out with friends for a meal or meeting work colleagues for a drink. Surley that is a far more helpful message than constantly thanking everyone for being careful and telling them to keep testing just in case.

What is weird is the amount of totally unfounded fear that there would appear to be in circulation about a virus which in its current form is almost harmless.

My issue is that its not really voluntary when they keep adding extra vaccinations to the passport to keep it valid. As things stand if you want to travel or suffer the least interruption to day to day living you really do need to "volunteer" and keep getting done.

The whole self reporting of LFTs is a bit of a farce. Could come back positive and you can mark it as negative and carry on as normal, or of course you could test negative but if your job allows mark it as positive and get 10 days off. Or if you can't be bothered sticking a cotton bud up your nose you can just scan the QR code and make up a test result. Hardly robust.

I like your optimism but it's the 20th January hence in Scotland we are months from "the better weather" Nice sunny day here today, maybe I was just getting carried away with it still being light at 5 o'clock

Who cares if there are 100 or 100,000 positive tests a day, hospital numbers aren't dangerously high, infections aren't as serious any more and the better weather is just round the corner. If we can't bin restictions now we never will.

Depends on your vaccination status but if thats all done you don't need to isolate unless you test postive when you do your mandatory LFT. BBC News - Covid in Scotland: Pre-departure travel tests to be scrapped https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59901144

Soft yellow but giving Brown any chance to dive and cheat is just stupid.

Bassey having a bit of a nightmare looks very unsure of himself

Lovely white sand though

I'm sure she said we are still waiting to see the impact of schools going back.....its nearly February how care can she be.

This time last week we were all reading screenshots of the soon to be delivered speech which obviously angered the First Minister, has anyone heard if some offical or other has had their jotters on account of this leak? And secondly whats the realistic expecations for this afternoon?

As a middleish manager my attitude throughout has been that as long as everything that needs done by Friday night has been done I'm not really too fussed when it gets done. We all have key meetings to attend for our various roles but does it matter if the admin staff type up the minutes and action logs at 2pm on Tuesday or 3am on Wednesday. All that should matter is if they are accurate and shared on time.

I started a new job April 2020 so pretty much been working a home/office rotation since then. Maybe just to be safe we should keep working from home when everything else gets volleyed into the North Sea. The prospect of daily chats about Strictly, Married at 1st Sight or listening to Forth 1 has me considering my options if the laptops all get recalled and we get told its back to the office full time.

We were down at Braehead yesterday, 1600 allowed in Ikea but only 200 in the Arena. I'd love to hear the science behind that.

Hope the tests have come back negative and you get away on your holidays.

To me the key thing about this arguement is whether or not it is the virus or a poorly funded/managed NHS that has businesses still closed or working under restricted conditions and the rest of facing increased use of vaccine passports to go about our day to day business?

There may be some unwritten code of conduct for opposition MSP's and journalists to adhere to but the bulk of posters on here could do a vastly superior job when it comes to asking the difficult question of the SG and their advisors.

I didn't see the Jason Leitch Q&A but from what's on here about it he seems to have difficulty in understanding why people want to see more detail about who is in hospital for what reason. Is he so insular that he, and his employers, can't see that large swathes of the country simply don't believe anything that they say anymore? Last Friday I was expecting figures from every Health Board in Scotland showing data to exactly the same criteria. What we got was different information from two Health Boards and a suspicion that the rest didn't suit the agenda so it wasn't published. To be almost 2 years into a "public health crisis" and not be able to tell the public how much of a crisis they are in is really some failing.

Excuse my laziness but can anyone advise if the negative LFT in lieu of being boosted has to be recorded with the NHS to count towards admittance to events?

To me a Tsunami of cases would have led to significant structural damage to the health and economy of the country in an equivalent manner to the 2004 Indonesian disaster. What we have seen over the past month has been a big wave landing on Ayr beach and nothing worthy of the drama and scare mongering from people who really should know better than to be constantly pedalling fear and alarm.