Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[DukDukGoose]

1 minute ago, djchapsticks said:

It really gives me a huge amount of solace to see people actually taking a step back and not only considering these questions but be brave enough to voice these concerns without fear of being tarred with a certain brush. Too many folk are very quick to label you a 'covid-denier' or 'anti-lockdown' if you're seen to ask these questions but everything being asked is relevant and pertinent as the long-term implications of every further delay, every further additional measure is potentially significant and far-reaching.

Your last paragraph in particular was a question I first posed on here back at a point where 'just a bit longer' was being proposed and yet the vaccine was in development so only still theoretical. The question of 'what if there's no vaccine - what then?' was never once asked to those in power, especially at a time when there needed to be hard questions in relation to a potential plan B or plan C. Regardless of what happens and how it happens from here on in, we are now very much at the end game in terms of the public's understanding and sympathy with regards to lockdowns and restrictions because although for now they can use the vaccine programme as a common goal and definitive end-point, if that for whatever reason comes off the table, there's absolutely no chance of getting folk back onside from there.

If the vaccine cannot be rolled out effectively, if the efficacy is not as strong as studies suggest, if the virus mutating causes a drop in effectiveness, I genuinely believe there's no going back to a directive of 'stay indoors and wait it out whilst we see what we can do'. The risk assessment will need to be carried out and the awkward decisions of what poses an acceptable risk in terms of cases and deaths (as exists for literally every other endemic virus) will need to be made as people will simple want to get back to picking up the pieces of what will be left of their lives at that point.

I'm pretty certain we were told a vaccine wouldn't be delivered until Christmas. It was delivered a couple of weeks before.

It's fine to ask questions. Some are a lot more malicious than others when it comes to questioning the Government.

I'm told by some they are trying to control us. Control us to do what? You're already giving them any info they need posting on Facebook from your iPhone.

[Binos]

7 minutes ago, renton said:

The point being that there is well more than 100k who would fit the risk profile. 

According to Wikipedia there are 250,000 over 80 year olds in Scotland

No idea what the shielding number would be

A competent govt should be getting this done in the next couple of weeks, mandatory

[101]

Hopefully Dubai and the UK close their borders it would be a real shame if a certain team, with some of the best training facilities in Scotland got stuck training in a two bit training camp in the sun

[Todd_is_God]

1 minute ago, 101 said:

They will have a sick note that means that they don't have to attend work if employer's don't furlough them then it's madness on their part.

I agree. I just wasn't sure if their were eligibility exclusions.

I have contractual sick pay, so i'd be fine until the end of Jan anyway, but it's not great (only 4 weeks per year).

I'd much prefer to be furloughed until this is over, than use up my sick pay entitlement by the end of January. Never know what might happen later in the year.

[speckled tangerine]

17 minutes ago, Tynierose said:

You're being very kind, he is a bumbling fool in a long line of Labour bumbling fools.

His greatest moment for those of us of a certain age. Terrific entertainment.

[Steven W]

1 minute ago, Todd_is_God said:

I believe the definition of 'vulnerable' is rather loose, and includes everyone over the age of 50, as well as those with underlying health conditions.

In that regard, 2m is probably accurate.

That being the case (and if I've got my numbers right - quite possibly not), so we're saying 900k come the end of this month. And 2m come May. So won't that represent a downward shift in pace?

[NotThePars]

17 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Does he actually think after he sits down, I did well there, made my point, got the party line across and pointed out the flaws in theirs?

When I have to address a group I know when I fucked up. Labour would be better with nobody, just say they don't have a contribution.

What you're failing to understand here is that Labour don't have a party line to get across. A long rambling diatribe that doesn't say anything and just sounds like moaning for the sake of it is pretty much broadly where Scottish Labour are at these days.

[renton]

In other news it looks like Johnson is addressing "the nation" tonight. 

Presume that will he him U-turning into an English lockdown?

[Mark Connolly]

2 minutes ago, 101 said:

Hopefully Dubai and the UK close their borders it would be a real shame if a certain team, with some of the best training facilities in Scotland got stuck training in a two bit training camp in the sun

We'd still somehow lose to them.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

#Batons2Faces

[101]

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I agree. I just wasn't sure if their were eligibility exclusions.

I have contractual sick pay, so i'd be fine until the end of Jan anyway, but it's not great (only 4 weeks per year).

I'd much prefer to be furloughed until this is over, than use up my sick pay entitlement by the end of January. Never know what might happen later in the year.

It would make sense for your employer only to pay a top up and they won't have you available for work anyway. Hope this doesn't last long and you and everyone else in the shielding categories can resume some kind of normal life.

[Todd_is_God]

2 minutes ago, Steven W said:

That being the case (and if I've got my numbers right - quite possibly not), so we're saying 900k come the end of this month. And 2m come May. So won't that represent a downward shift in pace?

"Having access to" and "Administering" is not the same thing tbf.

You'd also have to remember that you have to fit in a second dose whilst doing the second lot.

[renton]

1 minute ago, Steven W said:

That being the case (and if I've got my numbers right - quite possibly not), so we're saying 900k come the end of this month. And 2m come May. So won't that represent a downward shift in pace?

Again, 12 weeks down the line and your number of doses starts to get used up on 2nd jabs instead of vaccinating new people.

Had we stuck to Pfizer's 3 week period, we'd only be looking at 450k possible vaccinations by the end of January.

[SlipperyP]

8 minutes ago, Tynierose said:

I'd like some guidance from SFA etc asap,  this professional sport exemption should not apply to the likes of junior teams and part time teams to be perfectly honest, especially when we are in the situation we are in.  How can clubs in tier 5, 6,7 some of who don't even pay players be termed professional sport.

I'm not overly comfortable driving up to Forfar on Saturday with the level of restrictions as they are.   I know it would be a pain in the arse for clubs but surely halting the season for a few weeks would be a decent shout instead of driving all over the country during lockdown for training and matches etc.

^^^ Shiting it already. 

You don't need to travel, you could just watch the humping on teletext like the rest of us.

[101]

1 minute ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

#Batons2Faces

LOL

[Alert Mongoose]

The fact that as a nation we have been sleepwalking into becoming a retirement home is really starting to show. It shows how getting dragged into the ‘no immigrants welcome here’ Brexit shitshow was such a disaster.  As a society we are also prioritising our own ‘enjoyment’ over the need to procreate (unlike every other species on the planet) which doesn’t help either.

[DukDukGoose]

1 minute ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

#Batons2Faces

I like the "educate, participate, peacefully' part but we all know it's not going to go anywhere near close to that.

[madwullie]

7 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I see those on the shielding list should now not attend work at all if they cannot work from home, superseeding the previous advice which was to only attend if it was covid secure.

Are shielding people eligible for furlough? It's been that long since it applied to me that I've lost track.

Unsure mate. I presume they should be if they're not just able to get full sick pay? 

I don't even think I should be shielding any more  as i'm no longer on treatment and still no evidence of disease for 18 months  

I do have a kiddy on lung disease that qualifies me, but I've never ever had any symptoms and it was only discovered by accident on an unrelated chest xray. 

I still get all the correspondence tho. I'd contact my gp in the first instance to check you are still considered shielding tbh

[101]

13 minutes ago, Tynierose said:

I'd like some guidance from SFA etc asap,  this professional sport exemption should not apply to the likes of junior teams and part time teams to be perfectly honest, especially when we are in the situation we are in.  How can clubs in tier 5, 6,7 some of who don't even pay players be termed professional sport.

I'm not overly comfortable driving up to Forfar on Saturday with the level of restrictions as they are.   I know it would be a pain in the arse for clubs but surely halting the season for a few weeks would be a decent shout instead of driving all over the country during lockdown for training and matches etc.

Zero chance the SFA will act quickly. It's crazy that they didn't have a press release ready to issue as soon as the national lockdown was announced, they must be the most flat footed organisation in the country.

Except from the Scottish Weak Arches society of course

Edited January 4, 2021 by 101

[djchapsticks]

Just now, Merkland Red said:

I'm pretty certain we were told a vaccine wouldn't be delivered until Christmas. It was delivered a couple of weeks before.

It's fine to ask questions. Some are a lot more malicious than others when it comes to questioning the Government.

I'm told by some they are trying to control us. Control us to do what? You're already giving them any info they need posting on Facebook from your iPhone.

Yeah, the timescales on a vaccine never changed but that wasn't my point. Even throughout vaccine development, most people were fully understanding and sympathetic of the reasons for locking down. My point though is that there was no guarantee of any of the vaccines in development at that point actually being viable and really, questions should have been asked in terms of what the plan would be if they weren't as in many eyes, the vaccine was the be all and end all with not cast-iron guarantee that it would work at that point in time.

Yet no-one seemed to ask the question 'what if' - that ties into Craig's question. What if there's a similar pandemic (very likely according to the WHO) where a vaccine can't be produced so quickly....what then would be the circumstances in which we'd live with it?

With regards to your last sentence, unfortunately, in an age where people have all the information needed at a few touches of a button, misinformation and confirmation bias has seemingly won through or at least, currently is winning. The 'they are trying to control us' mob's narrative is pish. If they were, I'm sure they wouldn't look at such fucking mainstream pieces of media as Nineteen Eighty-Four or V for vandetta and go 'yup, we'll get away with that, no-one will draw parallels'.