Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[craigkillie]

6 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

When there's an actual factual storywith a relevant headline, I quite agree. What are these new freedoms, then?

The headline wasn't being discussed on this thread at all, just the underlying story.

[ayrmad]

35 minutes ago, Elixir said:

This is a once in a century event in terms of scale and clearly things like SARS, MERS, and bird/swine flu don't even come close. I'd certainly like to think this will never happen again...

We'll not know if it's once in a century until it happens again, weather cycles have certainly sped up in the last few decades so who knows what our ever expanding population and misuse of the planet will do for the severity of viruses etc. 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

2 hours ago, oaksoft said:

The world has not changed FOREVER.

Once all restrictions are removed in the next few months and everyone is vaccinated, things will be back to full normal in the blink of an eye. Make no mistake about that. There is nothing permanent about this whatsoever.

Of course it has - it changes every day, every hour, etc.

Even in the context we're looking at there, it's ridiculous to deny the changes over the last year. From the new language of wet markets, lateral flow, fomite transmission, and the rest, to the rise of the anti-vax movement and the apparent acceptance of its "logic"  by many on and off FaceBook, to the exploration of the deeper corners of online streaming series and forgotten/missed movies, to the realisation of a lot of us that some stuff, like shopping, can be done more conveniently from home, to the increase in people taking up exercise and generally working on their fitness, to the change in working practises as workers and boses realise that office working may not be the best way forward, the world around us, and our part in it, has changed massively - and while many of the changes which have happened will fade witrh a resumption of social interaction, most will remain to at least some extent.

Personally, I'll be happy enough if manky tw@s just continue with the handwashing/sanitising. I've no proof, but I feel that general awareness of hygiene has massively improved i the last twelvemonth.

[The Moonster]

Just now, WhiteRoseKillie said:

the rise of the anti-vax movement

What rise is this? 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

9 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

The headline wasn't being discussed on this thread at all, just the underlying story.

Bloody hell, mate, chill a wee bit - we got a result last night, so we should be a bit more upbeat, no?

I was the first responder to the CC-denier's post, so allow me to point out, again, that my issue is there are NO new freedoms coming down the line. This kind of renders the story underneath moot. What you have there is the standard Heil/Excess clickbait headline wiht no substance behind it. Shite media preaching to the converted. Just like the Mirror, Guardian, and Torygraph.

[G51]

1 minute ago, oaksoft said:

I agree.

There's absolutely no reason to think this will happen again on the scale we've seen.

Financially, I think we've shot our bolt on this one pandemic. Its already going to take decades to pay off this one.

Maybe this situation will remind rich people that they can't buy their way out of a pandemic and that they need to change their tax avoiding ways so we can afford a more sustainable way of life for everyone.

The next big thing bar none, is going to be climate change rather than the next pandemic.

It will cost us no time at all to pay off the pandemic. If we ever need to pay it back, we can simply print the money required.

Framing the pandemic as something that we have to pay for advances austerity narratives.

[Jamie_B]

Don’t know where the figures are coming from because there’s no briefing or whatever today, but according to various Twitter news accounts the figures look great today. Hospital numbers down below 100 and only 231 new cases (1.1% test positivity), three deaths and over 50,000 second doses delivered.

It seems like we’re pushing way, way ahead of the game with second doses - hopefully we can match it up with a lot more first doses next month...

[Honest_Man#1]

4 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

Bloody hell, mate, chill a wee bit - we got a result last night, so we should be a bit more upbeat, no?

Bit of a bizarre response, there wasn’t anything in Craig’s post that seemed even remotely annoyed/aggressive/not chilled out

If that’s how you respond to a post like that, god knows how you’ll respond to some genuinely angry posts!

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Are there likely to be any announcements on changes to the Tiers/Levels system or are we basically waiting until the 17th May now? 

[G51]

1 minute ago, oaksoft said:

You can't just print money with no consequences I'm afraid.

Zimbabwe tried that and they are not the only ones. How are they getting on?

Yes you can when you're a developed economy in the post-2008 world. The US and UK have been doing it for years, have been doing it throughout the pandemic and the base rate of 0.1% is still there.

The theory of printing money = Weimar Germany is completely ignorant of recent history.

[Honest_Man#1]

5 minutes ago, Jamie_Beatson said:

Don’t know where the figures are coming from because there’s no briefing or whatever today, but according to various Twitter news accounts the figures look great today. Hospital numbers down below 100 and only 231 new cases (1.1% test positivity), three deaths and over 50,000 second doses delivered.

It seems like we’re pushing way, way ahead of the game with second doses - hopefully we can match it up with a lot more first doses next month...

If they are correct, 93 in hospital and 12 in ICU is fucking sensational cigars out territory.

[NotThePars]

There's like a million reasons why the UK or any other developed country post-Covid isn't like Zimbabwe. If austerity occurs after Covid then it's because the government are eager to push it.

Anyway, my bold prediction today is the next pandemic will come just slightly after the Tories dismantle the last measures they put in place to prevent something like this happening again. So either 2023 or 2040 depending on how much public pressure and blowback they face for making an arse of everything until the vaccines dropped.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

6 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

What rise is this? 

Mostly social media-driven, imho, I hear talk of reluctance to vaccinate from many more people than I ever did when I was an active parent of young kids (a span of about fifteen years with four kids). There have always been the occasional nutters who would put their kids' lives at risk for the sake of a principle people who believe through diligent research that vaccines carry an inordinate risk, but they certainly appear to have more of a voice and are granted (again, imho) unwarranted levels of legitimacy

[RiffRaff]

3 hours ago, Snafu said:

News like that just picks you up.

My mother is currently receiving end of life care at the care home. Last week nil by mouth and looked like she had just a few days left, this week see is taking fluids and food such as soup, yoghurt and ice cream even though her medication has stopped including her tacrolimus which prevents her immune rejecting her liver. Its a losing battle, but her body keeps fighting back. She is so tough having been through so much in her life including surviving COVID.

I'm sitting at home waiting for the worst.

I am going through soemthing similar. My Mum wass in hospital two years ago and three times we got the "You had better get here before she dies" call and each time she pulled through.

When she was discharged from Hospital it was into a Care Home and all went well until recently. She has been plagued by UTIs and a lung infection, she is probably under five stone now, suffering from depression and the only thing she will eat is pots of Custard.

I have been told that the end is coming but she refuses to give in.

Like you I am just waiting for the call.

Not a great place to be.

All the best

[vikingTON]

Keeping significant spare capacity in the public health system instead of economising to treat ICU treatment like the just in time provision of vegetables to a supermarket should be one crucial change.

Beyond this, behavioural shifts like punishing illness martyrs traipsing into workplaces and the systematic persecution of fatties should do the rest of the job in preparing us better for any future pandemic. 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

1 minute ago, virginton said:

Keeping significant spare capacity in the public health system instead of economising to treat ICU treatment like the just in time provision of vegetables to a supermarket should be one crucial change.

Beyond this, behavioural shifts like punishing illness martyrs traipsing into workplaces and the systematic persecution of fatties should do the rest of the job in preparing us better for any future pandemic. 

och away yous and pipe doon, there's no way i'd sacrifice a f**k tonn of overtime, or a days planned leisure activities  just because I had a bit of sniffles or a sore throat, theres a reason why no one did before.

You have a fortnights holidays abroad booked,  a few days before the flight you start to feel cold symptoms which are unpleasant, but are otherwise able to go about your business do you A cancel your entire holiday for the sake of everyone else or B carry on as planned and hope you feel better by the time you've been at your destination a couple a couple days

Morton have reached the Scottish cup final and through extraordinary luck are playing raith rovers and are favourites to win, do you stay home because you don't feel great?

Behave yourselves

[The Moonster]

4 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

Mostly social media-driven, imho, I hear talk of reluctance to vaccinate from many more people than I ever did when I was an active parent of young kids (a span of about fifteen years with four kids). There have always been the occasional nutters who would put their kids' lives at risk for the sake of a principle people who believe through diligent research that vaccines carry an inordinate risk, but they certainly appear to have more of a voice and are granted (again, imho) unwarranted levels of legitimacy

Media have certainly shone a light on them far more than they deserve, but I don't actually see anything in the real world that suggests a growing anti-vax community. Social media is a bin fire and can't be used as a barometer for this stuff. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

11 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

Mostly social media-driven, imho, I hear talk of reluctance to vaccinate from many more people than I ever did when I was an active parent of young kids (a span of about fifteen years with four kids). There have always been the occasional nutters who would put their kids' lives at risk for the sake of a principle people who believe through diligent research that vaccines carry an inordinate risk, but they certainly appear to have more of a voice and are granted (again, imho) unwarranted levels of legitimacy

I haven't seen that tbh. Yeah a handful of anti-vax nutters on Facebook but they're generally ignored or deservedly ridiculed. 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

1 minute ago, The Moonster said:

Media have certainly shone a light on them far more than they deserve, but I don't actually see anything in the real world that suggests a growing anti-vax community. Social media is a bin fire and can't be used as a barometer for this stuff. 

Very true, but I have been in more than a few conversations at work with supposedly intelligent people* who are adamant that they won't be having any vacine, as it's too risky.

*Acouple of them in senior management positions, and therefore tasked with implementing PHE recommendations.

[Bairnardo]

Anti vaxx believers are a small niche. The vaccine uptake certainly shows that. But anti vaxx beliefs were pre emptively given a lot of "fact check" type mainstream publicity at the point of vaccine rollout.

It seems to have calmed down here at least as it is beggining to appear not to be a huge issue.