Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[mizfit]

The vaccine is definitely getting approved by Christmas Eve.

[anotherchance]

45 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

We are undoubtedly going to effectively be in full lock down for at least 4 months. 

I suspect no chance of anything close to normality for a year or more. 

 

 

Can’t see it being the case that the vaccines won’t work or that the rollout won’t proceed as planned - more chance of getting the disease in the meantime perhaps - but they’ll sort something out to get Pfizer over here and we can easily churn out Oxford domestically.

[Michael W]

If you produce scare stories about this new mutated strain of the virus, you can't be surprised at countries shutting their borders unless you are a genuine moron. France has gone a bit far banning unaccompanied freight as well, but I'd expect us to do the same and bar travel if needed (which we did with Denmark). 

The government has known about this strain since September, yet why were we only hearing these concerns in the last few days? Cynically it looks like a convenient excuse to "save face" with Christmas rules that the Government went ahead with anyway with The Science shaking its head and asking it be rethought. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Michael W

[welshbairn]

13 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

27 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

It's the UK, there will never be mass civil unrest !

In a worrying development tonight it looks like our position as the new world pariah will stop the vaccine supplies reaching the UK. This looks like an absolute clusterfuck brewing.

Maybe for Pfizer but the AZ vaccine is due to be approved imminently and is made in the UK in much greater volumes than the deliveries we get from Pfizer.

Not yet it's not, we have to get it from Belgium.

[Bairnardo]

9 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Seems to be a fair bit of gossip on Twitter that the rest of Europe closing their borders with the UK has taken the Tories by surprise, with hints they were somehow embellishing how serious the new strain is. I am not sure I buy that story but it speaks to how poorly trusted the UK is just now.

Might be enough to push the Tories down to 39% in the next opinion poll.

The were pushing out of date data for the last English lockdown weren't they, and got caught?

[Mark Connolly]

9 minutes ago, mizfit said:

The vaccine is definitely getting approved by Christmas Eve.

Liz to announce it at 3pm on Friday

[Richie]

1 hour ago, Bob Mahelp said:

We are undoubtedly going to effectively be in full lock down for at least 4 months. 

I suspect no chance of anything close to normality for a year or more. 

 

 

I guess that depends on how vaccinations go.

If roll-out goes as planned then those most likely to be hospitalised if they catch it will be protected, so by Summer/Q3 the risk of hospitals being overwhelmed should be lower.

Of course it doesn't help the ports are now closed and the Pfizer vaccine comes from Belgium.

As you say though, next couple of months seem pivotal now.

[Gaz]

37 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Seems to be a fair bit of gossip on Twitter that the rest of Europe closing their borders with the UK has taken the Tories by surprise, with hints they were somehow embellishing how serious the new strain is. I am not sure I buy that story but it speaks to how poorly trusted the UK is just now.

Might be enough to push the Tories down to 39% in the next opinion poll.

It could even mean they get a majority of 45 seats rather than 50.

[Gaz]

It's an absolute certainty that they realise how much they fucked up with the relaxation of restrictions for Christmas, and that they can't surely go much longer without admitting that schools are a massive driver, so they've embellished (to what degree is up for debate) the danger of this mutation to save face rather than admit they've fucked up. Hence why all the chat about how concerned they are about other countries closing travel - it's not something that even entered their heads.

[Bairnardo]

See if this resultsd in delays to vaccine deliveries, heads should be rolling for that. See if they have told porkies, folk should be going to jail

[Gaz]

2 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

See if this resultsd in delays to vaccine deliveries, heads should be rolling for that. See if they have told porkies, folk should be going to jail

There are countless examples of the government telling blatant lies. The response to that is England voting them in with an ever-increasing majority, and the WATP GSTQ FTP JIMMY CRANKIE brigade up here keeping us tethered to them.

[Bairnardo]

Just now, Gaz said:

There are countless examples of the government telling blatant lies. The response to that is England voting them in with an ever-increasing majority, and the WATP GSTQ FTP JIMMY CRANKIE brigade up here keeping us tethered to them.

I know. People who vote Tory are a mystery to me, but if they are found to be lying about this, and it results in delays to distribution of lifesaving vaccines surely there will be some sort of legal recourse to that? Fucking surely, even in Tory England they couldn't get away with the cost of lying over this?

[madwullie]

Would other countries not have access to actual data before shutting borders with the not insignificant damage that would do to themselves (much more to us though) rather than just take the uk's word for it? 

Edit: I mean Saudi have stopped all international travel completely due to the strain found here (and Denmark and Australia). Are they likely to do that based on Johnson's word? 

Edited December 20, 2020 by madwullie

[Archie McSquackle]

Not yet it's not, we have to get it from Belgium.

Do you mean the Pfizer vaccine? I've been told the AZ vaccine is imminent (slight delay due to working out the best dosage), is made at several sites across the UK and the volume available will far outweigh Pfizer supplies. There are already millions of doses manufactured and waiting to be distributed. Any distribution issues with the Pfizer vaccine will hopefully just be a blip.

[tamthebam]

33 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I know. People who vote Tory are a mystery to me, but if they are found to be lying about this, and it results in delays to distribution of lifesaving vaccines surely there will be some sort of legal recourse to that? Fucking surely, even in Tory England they couldn't get away with the cost of lying over this?

Nobody jailed the bankers and no-one will face the music for putting sub standard cladding on Grenfell Tower to save money 

 

[tamthebam]

Considering how badly the UK has fucked it up if I was in charge of a country I'd have banned entry from Western Europe's plague pit months ago 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

It's an absolute certainty that they realise how much they fucked up with the relaxation of restrictions for Christmas, and that they can't surely go much longer without admitting that schools are a massive driver, so they've embellished (to what degree is up for debate) the danger of this mutation to save face rather than admit they've fucked up. Hence why all the chat about how concerned they are about other countries closing travel - it's not something that even entered their heads.

    

 

 

If you produce scare stories about this new mutated strain of the virus, you can't be surprised at countries shutting their borders unless you are a genuine moron. France has gone a bit far banning unaccompanied freight as well, but I'd expect us to do the same and bar travel if needed (which we did with Denmark).  The government has known about this strain since September, yet why were we only hearing these concerns in the last few days? Cynically it looks like a convenient excuse to "save face" with Christmas rules that the Government went ahead with anyway with The Science shaking its head and asking it be rethought.    

 

 

So why not do it last Wednesday? 

 

Something happened (possibly in the data) between then and Saturday (that they are not telling us) that made them change their mind.

 

 

 

 

 

[welshbairn]

2 hours ago, Archie McSquackle said:

3 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Not yet it's not, we have to get it from Belgium.

Do you mean the Pfizer vaccine? I've been told the AZ vaccine is imminent (slight delay due to working out the best dosage), is made at several sites across the UK and the volume available will far outweigh Pfizer supplies. There are already millions of doses manufactured and waiting to be distributed. Any distribution issues with the Pfizer vaccine will hopefully just be a blip.

I heard AZ were having trouble getting production going at the plant in Wrexham where the vaccine is bottled up and packaged (or whatever you call it) in the UK. We have plenty of the vaccine, just no way of delivering it. They might have sorted that by now but they'll be behind schedule even if it's up and running. 

[SlipperyP]

On 20/12/2020 at 09:47, Lurkst said:

In fairness the New Zealanders were helped by being over 1000 miles from their nearest neighbour and not having the world's busiest international airport either.

 

Atlanta?

Anyway, Thailand are finally back in the game, moving up to 151st place in the ranking with a 576 cases reported yesterday.  Our policy of closing the borders and quarantining every person for 14 days to enter the country, by legal means. Unfortunately we are not an island and jungle crossing are rife (as usual). Myanmar workers seem to be the easy get out excuse at the moment.  Our biggest daily record before yesterday was 58, back in March.  When we got that figure, we canceled our 3 day New Year Festival (Songkran) in April and banned the sale of alcohol for 1 month.

Sitting here (Charlie) thinking, when should I buy my boxes of beer for the cancelled Hogmanay (which I'm off work for 6 days), which will happen very soon.  I have been wrong on many occasions, I hope I'm wrong again.  As a non Christian, I'm really jealous that the virus doesn't transmit to you during your festive day.

There is always the moonshine

 

   

Edited December 21, 2020 by SlipperyP

[dirty dingus]

2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

I heard AZ were having trouble getting production going at the plant in Wrexham where the vaccine is bottled up and packaged (or whatever you call it) in the UK. We have plenty of the vaccine, just no way of delivering it. They might have sorted that by now but they'll be behind schedule even if it's up and running. 

Being the UK the govt they probably have friends or family with shares in Hermes so we will be getting our vaccines thrown over a hedge near your home in the next 6 weeks between 6am and 10 pm.

Edited December 21, 2020 by dirty dingus