Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[madwullie]

35 minutes ago, madwullie said:

That's not what she's saying though. 

I don't agree with her, but her point is it isn't flu, but if we treat it as such (seasonal, inevitable) then we will end up taking measures each year to counter it, whereas if we get rid of it now that won't need to be the case. 

It ignores the fact, though, that vaccination should mean it isn't as severe or as prevalent and therefore strict measures won't be required. 

 

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

"Zero Covid" idiot found.

An annual vaccination delivered at the same time as the flu jag is more likely, and acceptable, than continuing to give the "zero covid" fantasist airtime.

Not like you to cherry pick. 

Unless your searing take is that devi sridhar believes in zero covid, in which case you've resorted to stating the obvious to call something correctly. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by madwullie

[Todd_is_God]

2 minutes ago, madwullie said:

Not like you to cherry pick. 

Unless your searing take is that devi sridhar believes in zero covid, in which case you've resorted to stating the obvious to call something correctly. 

Aye tbf I've made a c**t of that.

[welshbairn]

7 minutes ago, madwullie said:

Any word on whether we can trust the Scot govt on being asked to withdraw that document yet? Has it been verified by an acceptable source? ie Toby Young, the fat emperor? 

Talking of unreliable sources.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/14/daily-telegraph-rebuked-over-toby-youngs-herd-immunity-covid-column

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by welshbairn

[Rugster]

5 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Aye tbf I've made a c**t of that.

You should put that in your signature. 

[realmadrid]

1 hour ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

Have we not mostly focused on care homes and staff first which take more time to administer? We've done 80% of residents and 55% of care home staff. I can't remember the stats for down south but it was definitely less.

There was comment to that effect on question time last night. 

Philippa Whitford stated the reason Scotland was falling being the others in percentage terms was the time it was taking in care homes and that sector could be completed in the next week and things would ramp up. She pointed out you can get through big numbers in a big hall but that was not practical with very elderly clients. 

Thats something that has been suggested on here before so lets hope thats the case and in around a week the numbers ramp up.

 

[MONKMAN]

All eligible care home residents in greater Glasgow and Clyde have been offered their first dose. Surely with the most time consuming demographic out the way, vaccination rates will increase.

[Michael W]

55 minutes ago, madwullie said:

That's not what she's saying though. 

I don't agree with her, but her point is it isn't flu, but if we treat it as such (seasonal, inevitable) then we will end up taking measures each year to counter it, whereas if we get rid of it now that won't need to be the case. 

It ignores the fact, though, that vaccination should mean it isn't as severe or as prevalent and therefore strict measures won't be required. 

I don't agree we're treating it like flu at all to be fair. I think it'll be exceptionally hard if not impossible to eradicate it entirely, but she's overlooking that there is actually an exit strategy to this. In fact, the vaccination strategy is the only one that might ever actually lead to zero covid. 

Ultimately it would be great ti get to the stage where we can eradicate it, but vaccine development might take a while to get there, if indeed it does. We have a great chance to totally take the sting out of it at the moment, though. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Michael W

[Honest Saints Fan]

 

 

[vikingTON]

2 minutes ago, realmadrid said:

There was comment to that effect on question time last night. 

Philippa Whitford stated the reason Scotland was falling being the others in percentage terms was the time it was taking in care homes and that sector could be completed in the next week and things would ramp up. She pointed out you can get through big numbers in a big hall but that was not practical with very elderly clients. 

Thats something that has been suggested on here before so lets hope thats the case and in around a week the numbers ramp up.

 

Pretty sure that care homes exist in the rest of the UK as well, and I suspect there'd be a significantly larger share of population in that group in Bournemouth than in Calton.

[renton]

1 hour ago, Big Fifer said:

What is it that the Scottish Government is saying is happening that will cause us to go from 16k vaccinations a day to hundreds of thousands a day? Aren't the doses already good to go? What's going to change to cause this huge increase in numbers?

Well, the plan on the document that was taken down reckons we will go to something like 36k a day sometime between January 23rd and 28th. Assuming a 7 day service that gets us to 1.1 million around February 14th.

Edited January 15, 2021 by renton

[vikingTON]

1 minute ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

 

 

Would like the BBC to make it clearer whether the payment applies specifically to the 'disease' category of claim or general business interruption, because at a glance they've conflated the two in that story.

[realmadrid]

5 minutes ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

 

 

Dundee FC .. a small business

[Steven W]

1 hour ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

Have we not mostly focused on care homes and staff first which take more time to administer? We've done 80% of residents and 55% of care home staff. I can't remember the stats for down south but it was definitely less.

This is what I was hoping. I had heard anecdotadly that was the case in Scotland. 

So we should see that Scottish line really lift off before too long (We'd fkn better!)

[s_dog]

 

11 hours ago, WATTOO said:

This is my biggest fear, there seems to be a growing narrative about international travel spreading the virus  and causing lockdowns and it basically being the root of all evil.

Having said that, I'm sure there will be major pushback from the aviation, tourism and hospitality sectors soon enough.

I think if we can get to the summer with restrictions on travel being our main worry, we'll be doing well. But then I'm feeling hugely pessimistic about it all right now.

 

1 hour ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

Have we not mostly focused on care homes and staff first which take more time to administer? We've done 80% of residents and 55% of care home staff. I can't remember the stats for down south but it was definitely less.

We are definitely falling behind in our numbers, but it is definitely at least partly due to our focus on care homes (and staff) which will take much longer than any other vaccinations. In comparison to those figures of 80/55%, England have done something like just over 20% and 3% (probably out of date now). Also, in England they are asking some over 80's to travel to large vaccination hubs, whereas in Scotland they thought sending lots of the most vulnerable people to get vaccinated at hubs with lots of other people maybe isn't the best idea, so they're doing them via GP practices. That's why they've done so many over 80's in the community in England, while in Scotland the numbers are a good deal lower. There's probably an argument for both ways. Northern Ireland are doing better than anyone, no idea what they are doing compared to anyone else though?

Also as Paco posted earlier, there's some news stories in England now about there being a significant rise in care home infections (and talk of sending elderly from hospitals without needing a test, instead just a period of self-isolation), with them defending it because care homes are so time consuming to vaccinate. I'm heartened by the fact the albeit few over 80's I know, have all either had their vaccination or been contacted to arrange it within the next couple of weeks. Surprised to hear PWL saying their mid-70s parents have already been contacted though, but that's obviously great news. Some areas will do it quicker than others, I saw yesterday that NHS Fife said they had completed the first round of jags in all their care homes.
 

35 minutes ago, madwullie said:

Any word on whether we can trust the Scot govt on being asked to withdraw that document yet? Has it been verified by an acceptable source? ie Toby Young, the fat emperor? 

Is he still posting, I read that he's deleted his old tweets after he was reprimanded & the Telegraph told to print a correction for one of his articles about people who've had the cold being immune to Covid-19 and how herd immunity had probably been reached in London (in July). Oh wait, no he's saying he's deleted them all because he's worried about "Twitter's increasing intolerance of people who challenge liberal orthodoxies". Nothing to do with him being wrong.
 

Edited January 15, 2021 by s_dog

[Steven W]

8 minutes ago, Michael W said:

I don't agree we're treating it like flu at all to be fair. I think it'll be exceptionally hard if not impossible to eradicate it entirely, but she's overlooking that there is actually an exit strategy to this. In fact, the vaccination strategy is the only one that might ever actually lead to zero covid. 

Ultimately it would be great ti get to the stage where we can eradicate it, but vaccine development might take a while to get there, if indeed it does. We have a great chance to totally take the sting out of it at the moment, though. 

In fairness to P&B's arch rival Devi Sridhar, at least she's talking about a long term gameplan. Heard nothing on that front from SG or UKG

[s_dog]

I agree re Sridhar talking about a long term plan. She is not overlooking the vaccinations strategy, it will obviously help but she doesn't think that is an exit strategy (and there are others saying similar even if they disagree with Sridhar's zero-covid aim).

[G51]

 

 

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

3 minutes ago, G51 said:

 

 

This is one of the dangers of people listening to people who aren't qualified expressing wishful thinking and believing it over actual experts due to wishful thinking.

In the most surprising news of the year so far one of the two Brazil variants has been found in the UK today.  Who could have predicted allowing thousands of people to fly here from Brazil would cause this eh.

[Detournement]

4 minutes ago, G51 said:

 

 

The new variant is only more dangerous when the pubs are open.

No pubs and it just stays in and watches the telly.

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

27 minutes ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

 

 

I would imagine that's going to put a lot of insurers out of business