Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Jambomo]

4 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Aye, you have to get the miserable funeral people out before the wedding starts.

The wedding party are the miserable people

[strichener]

6 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

Meh

Churches are a tiny demographic, meeting once a week. 

Neither of these statements are true in  Peterhead.

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, madwullie said:

I hadn't thought of that tbh. 

In saying that, none of the funerals I've ever been to have actually been in a church though - even my gran who practically lived there was just at the crematorium. Do many people have them at the actual place of worship? I genuinely don't know

My parents both had a service at the church and then on to Buckie Crematorium.

I have only been to two funerals in NI that didn't have a church service first (and one of those had a service in the funeral parlour). All other funerals I have attended have been in a church/chapel.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I've said many times that there is nothing wrong with giving advice, so long as it's not mandatory and can be followed or ignored on a personal choice.
Masks - consider wearing a mask if you are ill and need to go out and about and be indoors. Fine.
Hands - was your hands regularly. Should be a given. Fine.
Social Distancing - keep away from people where possible. This happens naturally anyway. Again fine.
There is no puropse in forcing everyone to wear masks indoors and keep distant from everyone outwith your household throughout the winter and into 2022 "just in case" they pick up a mild illness, because it really does impact the ability for businesses to trade, for people to enjoy using said businesses, and generally are just a pain in the arse, particularly for staff, who are seemingly always forgotten about when talking about how much of an annoyance they are.
When these restrictions are lifted, the first person who moans in a busy bar that people are too close to them, that others on the train have sat in the seat next them and are not wearing a mask can get themselves squarely to f**k and mind their own business.

Washing your hands is not a restriction - what it might do though is for there to be better hand-cleaning facilities.

Lost track of the number of football grounds with no running water, freezing water, empty soap dispensers or no way to dry your hands.

It's like a throwback to the worst pubs in a bygone era.

[Sergeant Wilson]

10 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Washing your hands is not a restriction - what it might do though is for there to be better hand-cleaning facilities.

Lost track of the number of football grounds with no running water, freezing water, empty soap dispensers or no way to dry your hands.

It's like a throwback to the worst pubs in a bygone era.
 

It all went wrong when they started letting women in.

[tamthebam]

2 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

 

Preparing for Marching season.

Leitch is from Airdrie..

Do you think he's a flute or drum man?

[tamthebam]

When it was announced that 2 households could meet up outdoors again I reflected that my neighbours have been doing this for months and it's hardly a concession.

[Gaz]

3 hours ago, madwullie said:

I hadn't thought of that tbh. 

In saying that, none of the funerals I've ever been to have actually been in a church though - even my gran who practically lived there was just at the crematorium. Do many people have them at the actual place of worship? I genuinely don't know

All four of my grandparents and my dad have passed away in the last couple of years. Three of the funerals were at the crematorium, one was at a hotel. My gran's last year was an outdoor service only.

[ayrmad]

Gran Church, neice grave side, Mil Church, mum Church, Fil Church, uncle crematorium, wife funeral parlour, dad funeral parlour. That's been mine in recent years,some of the church ones were hard going as most attendees weren't churchgoers so the hymns were a drag. 

Edited March 10, 2021 by ayrmad

[Scary Bear]

7 hours ago, tamthebam said:

When it was announced that 2 households could meet up outdoors again I reflected that my neighbours have been doing this for months and it's hardly a concession.

I don’t think your neighbours are alone there. The parks and walks are rammed with people on the nice days. Groups are not uncommon.

I could do with a haircut. That would be a good concession.

 

[RandomGuy.]

Lockdown rules haven't been followed for months, and anyone who is following them to the letter is the tiny minority.

Sturgeon has completely fucked herself by acting as if shutting things down etc., is a fear tactic anymore, all she's doing is aggravating people who can see the light at the end of the tunnel and just want to run to it.

Edited March 10, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[TheScarf]

6 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Lockdown rules haven't been followed for months, and anyone who is following them to the letter is the tiny minority.

Sturgeon has completely fucked herself by acting as if shutting things down etc., is a fear tactic anymore, all she's doing is aggravating people who can see the light at the end of the tunnel and just want to run to it.

Indeed, and now I have Run To You by Bryan Adams in my head.

[PWL]

22 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Lockdown rules haven't been followed for months, and anyone who is following them to the letter is the tiny minority.

Sturgeon has completely fucked herself by acting as if shutting things down etc., is a fear tactic anymore, all she's doing is aggravating people who can see the light at the end of the tunnel and just want to run to it.

I had to go into the office yesterday to collect some paperwork.  Usual train at 7:30am which is often standing only had 2 folk in my carriage. The station car park had that's all but full by then had the total of 8 cars. Yes I am sad enough to have counted. 

City centre still dead. Basically only workies and Deliveroo guys about. Shops all closed as are a lot of the food places.  Masks been worn everywhere.  Based on that I'd say lock down where it was most effective is still effective 

Incidently, the office is on George Square and had received the treatment from the "Pee-pul".

[Left Back]

Public Accounts Committee getting stuck into Test & Trace

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56340831

[craigkillie]

When it was announced that 2 households could meet up outdoors again I reflected that my neighbours have been doing this for months and it's hardly a concession.

There are plenty of people out there following the rules exactly to the letter, and this change will bring a great relief to them. That's enough to make it worth doing.

You've got to remember that some folk will have been absolutely broken by this, genuinely terrified by the messaging that came out at the start and therefore being worried about even activities that most people have now accepted as being pretty safe (such as small outdoor meetings).

[mizfit]

I think it’ll take years for some people to fully recover from lockdown.

[superbigal]

Slightly disheartening news on infection rates.  England now has a lower rate per 100K than Scotland.

Also on a "Council" breakdown  Clackmannanshire is now the worst in the UK

My insider (From Dollar) tells me there was a huge "Rangers" party in Alva at the weekend so watch their figures quite closely. he also tells me that Alva has more than 1 "Church" giving out underwhelming message to it's followers.  Again with Churches opening up will be interesting to focus on this area.  Any Alva Church Going Rangers supporting insiders on P&B ?

In the UK charts Falkirk is at 10, Stirling at 12, West Lothian at 15 & Glasgow City at 16.

There are only 23 LAs now with rates above 100 in the UK.

Edited March 10, 2021 by superbigal

[Silvio Tattiescone]

My company sent the reps in England back on the road on Monday and we had a Teams meeting this morning for our Senior Management to get feedback. All of them reported the same thing - factories, construction sites, offices all paying lip service to Covid. The offices are slightly better - people behind screens, wearing masks etc but then making each other cups of tea and standing blethering at the water cooler kind of thing. Factories take temperatures at the door but inside there's no masks and no social distancing. Construction sites are just as bad, if not worse. All the hygiene stations set up last summer are neglected with the alcohol gel dispensers empty and the workers pile into tiny portacabins at break times. 

[ICTChris]

Sky News report on Vitamin D studies

Two studies 'debunk' theory of vitamin D benefits against COVID

There has been lots of talk, including in the media, about the supposed benefits of vitamin D for pretty much everything, but most recently in guarding against the severe effects of COVID.

Now we have two studies, neither peer reviewed, which suggest there is no real evidence to support this.

One study mined a database of hundreds of thousands of people with genetic markers that make them predisposed to vitamin D deficiencies to understand whether a supplement could decrease their probability of having symptomatic or severe COVID. 

The researchers said: "In this two-sample MR study, we did not observe evidence to support an association between 25OHD levels and COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, or hospitalisation. Hence, vitamin D supplementation as a means of protecting against worsened COVID-19 outcomes is not supported by genetic evidence. Other therapeutic or preventative avenues should be given higher priority for COVID-19 randomised controlled trials."

The second study compared the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in 24 European countries to coronavirus infections, recovery and mortality data.

Lead author, Dr Michael Chourdakis, from Aristotle University, Greece, said: "There is an overloading of information about vitamin D benefits… vitamin D has been praised for too many things even though we have very limited data for that."

All of this comes after a University of Barcelona study that suggested giving high-dose vitamin D to COVID patients in hospital could cut deaths by 60% - this was quoted by MP David Davis but The Lancet has since removed the paper from its server over concerns about the methodology.

[ICTChris]

19 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

There are plenty of people out there following the rules exactly to the letter, and this change will bring a great relief to them. That's enough to make it worth doing.

You've got to remember that some folk will have been absolutely broken by this, genuinely terrified by the messaging that came out at the start and therefore being worried about even activities that most people have now accepted as being pretty safe (such as small outdoor meetings).

 

11 minutes ago, mizfit said:

I think it’ll take years for some people to fully recover from lockdown.

I think it can be hard to write about this as you can come across as being a bit "wake up sheeple" and sneering at people who are more cautious (not to say that either of you are being like this of course).  There are a lot of people who, as you say, have been absolutely scunnered by this whole thing.  People who are in relatively poor health or have underlying conditions have had a year of their lives being completely defined by this and will struggle to reintegrate into normal life.  I appreciate that sounds a bit over the top but there are people I know who haven't left their house or garden, without being in the shielding category.

I think as well some of the hangover of all this could be damaging to people - stuff like compulsive hand washing, wiping everything down, carrying sanitiser about everywhere could become an unhealthy obsession.  From all available data anxiety is the fastest growing mental health condition and being told that dousing things in sanitiser will stop you getting ill and dying, for example, isn't going to help with that.