Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[DeeTillEhDeh]

It quite clearly isn't, given that other GP practices in the same tier level are doing the exact same procedure for consultation as before instead.
A quite obvious logical fallacy then, but feel free to keep digging that enormous hole for yourself.

This is the advice from my own GP.

That clearly is a restriction.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

7 hours ago, djchapsticks said:

I could have put my foot through the telly with that shitey wishy-washy language by NS today.

A paper to outline what life will look like beyond level zero? - f**k off
I will never commit to an acceptance that we just have to live with the virus as that's disrespectful to the dead? - Pish, no it isn't.
Please don't put words in my mouth, I never said 10 more weeks - Well your medical advisor did so you want to have words.

The level of caution being exercised is absolutely pathetic and beyond needless now. I mentioned around a year ago that they are content to kick the can down the road indefinitely and be the very last place to open up fully if need be, just so they are seen to never be too hasty in what they are doing.

Nationally, we are ruled by varying levels of right-wing scumbags in London who will continually f**k us over to line their own pockets and locally, we're run by a team of snivelling, patronising shitebags who are increasingly taking steps that scream 'Nanny State'.

wishiest washiest shite ever said by any c**t ever, fuckin hell nicola 

death is a fact of life. should we not accept to living with cancer or diabetes or road traffic accidents as thats disrespectful ?  come oan tae f**k 

[Michael W]

8 hours ago, Elixir said:

You're forgetting the testing theatre is making some Government mates a sweet little earner! There's money to be made in making sure would be hypochondriacs get tested regularly!

Isn't it just. Four tests needed for amber list countries - prior to leaving, 72hrs prior to return, test by day 2 od arrival and the day 8 test. 

You can also if you want to pay for a private PCR test to release your quarantine. Get vaccinated and you can get back to normal, they said, except you still have to go through this shambles anyway. 

A complete and utter racket. 

[Jamie_B]

Guy at my work has just done a return trip to Finland, where he is from, and said he was about £400 for testing in total - and that was even with him not having to pay for a pre-departure test because he's double vaccinated.

As far as the GP stuff goes I had to go to my NHS Tayside GP at the height of lockdown in February/March - it was an on the day phone consultation and they then saw me in surgery two days later. I then had a referral to hospital about ten days later and test results back a week later. All very efficient but obviously the picture is different across the country.

It is a bit frustrating today seeing all these other countries/US states opening up on vaccine figures that are at/below what we've achieved already. The big question I have for the people in charge is what exactly is going to be better beyond, say, three weeks from now that will change things? Looking at the current numbers of vaccines and the trajectory they're on we'll be at about 90% of adults with at least one dose and probably in the region of 70% of adults double dosed by early-mid July. The 20% who are still to receive their second dose will be getting it fired into them at a rate of knots and will be the least vulnerable cohort in any event.

At that stage literally all we can do is encourage the last small group of people who haven't yet had the vaccine to get it - but ultimately you can't force it on them. If they make a choice not to have it then so be it. But once we  hit that level of vaccination - and knowing what we do so far about its impact on reducing illness on all known variants to date - what is going to happen beyond then that will protect us any more than we already are? From then on the restrictions either have to go completely or we'll be in a position of saying they're here for good.

Frankly, if we get two weeks from now and the hospital numbers haven't gone above 150/200 even with 1000 cases a day we should be taking that as proof of the vaccine doing its job and as a reason for relaxing further and giving an end point for all restrictions in the immediate future.

Edited June 16, 2021 by Jamie_Beatson

[gmca]

9 hours ago, parsforlife said:

There’s no evidence that vaccines effect pregnancies or your wishy washy ‘illness’. Anywhere there is evidence to not get the jag they won’t be offered it.

Those that are under the rader otherwise missed won’t be caught up by any mandatory scheme.  The first thing that would happen if you are found to be unvaccinated would be to try and get you vaccinated. 

I had a kidney transplant many years ago, and had to weigh up the benefit of being vaccinated against the fact my immune system might go into overdrive and affect my transplanted kidney.

Decided to get vaccinated, and have been struggling with infections from about a week after my first dose about 4 months ago. Infections can be dangerous for transplanted organs.

Have since had my second dose and can't definitively say the infections were as a result of the AZ, but the timing suggests there's a good chance of a connection.

Having said that, it was almost a no brainer to me to be vaccinated. The potential comparative dangers of catching Covid or losing my kidney are almost night and day. Catch Covid and my chances of survival are pretty slim. Lose a kidney and there's a potential for a fairly normal life. However, can see why some people might make the opposite decision.

 

[Jan Vojáček]

8 hours ago, djchapsticks said:

DRoss at FMQs today asked a three of four pronged question and his final part was 'Will the FM accept that at some point, we will have to simply move forward and learn to live with this virus?'

The answer she fired back with included this statement but it seems to have been largely glossed over as the first parts of the answer she gave, picked up on things that were more of interest such as the denial of a 10 week period, cancer treatment backlogs and 'greater levels of normality beyond zero'.

I think to be more precise, her wording was that she wasn't a fan of terminology such as 'learning to live with the virus' as that comes off as dismissive of the situation to families who lost loved ones.

It's honestly fucking warped the levels of eggshells these people will avoid treading on instead of just speaking plainly, concisely and treating people like adults.

That really got to me. It was pathetic.

People die. People will die of Covid. More people will die of heart disease and cancer. I'll die one day. Not sure how or when. It could be today for all I know. Is it nice to think about and talk about? Not really. But there's no point hitting out with wishy-washy language about a fact of life. Sturgeon is clearly trying to appease the Lovejoys and 'LoNg cOViD KilLLs 2' brigade with wording like that.

The other thing that gets me is 'the race between vaccination and the virus'. Well, yesterday, Scotland did 26k vaccinations (apparently an undercount) and reported just under 1000 Covid cases. Even taking into account the fact not all Covid cases will be reported, I'd like to put a solid fiver on the vaccination winning that particular 'race'.

The 'adult conversation' she spoke about last summer feels like a very distant memory. 

[Rugster]

I really couldn't believe she said that to be honest. She thinks it's disrespectful to those who have died from Covid or to their families, so how is it any less disrespectful to people who have died from the flu, or cancer, or dementia or all the other diseases we "live with".

Of course we have to live with it going forward. It's not going away. And it's utterly shameful that she's said that and trying to insinuate otherwise.  

Definitely sensing an end of the tether reaction increasing (anecdotally) 

[Michael W]

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/politico-london-playbook-living-with-corona-work-from-home-long-term-perspex-screens-scrapped/

Some interesting stuff in here from a Cabinet Office document. 

The usual negative stuff like winter measures in place to prevent cases spiking, VaRiAnTs and face masks being needed in some settings long term. However, most interesting of all was the part stating that all that plastic crap that's prolifierated in shops, restaurants etc as an anti-Covid measure, doesn't make a difference and may in fact make things worse. 

Guidance on working from home doesn't lookike it's going to substantially change either. 

[Elixir]

The respect I have lost for Sturgeon and the SNP throughout this ordeal is quite sad. The behaviour of so many 'left leaning' people as well has just been a complete disgrace which will never be forgotten.

Also, there seems to be weight behind the idea that cascading vaccinations down via age groups as the UK has done is one of the reasons why we're seeing cases rise here but not in Europe or the US. Particularly now supply and actually getting jags in arms has slowed somewhat.

Essentially, we have very few people under 50 fully vaxxed, especially those aged 16-40, who are the biggest spreaders. It's a big pool left to be passing it about themselves, and there's not a huge number of people in this bracket where the immune response to a single dose will have built up yet either. As we know, fully vaxxed people are very unlikely to transmit, so the scatter gun approaches in Europe and the US might be working in their favour now. Israel were also so quick to fully vaxx in comparison.

[Left Back]

Another effective Covid treatment found.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57488150

[ICTChris]

Story today that studies have shown that the Perspex screens you see between desks or checkouts in shops actually increase transmission due to interrupting airflow. Government likely to require ventilation standards for businesses in the future for full reopening. 

[Elixir]

19 minutes ago, Michael W said:

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/politico-london-playbook-living-with-corona-work-from-home-long-term-perspex-screens-scrapped/

Some interesting stuff in here from a Cabinet Office document. 

The usual negative stuff like winter measures in place to prevent cases spiking, VaRiAnTs and face masks being needed in some settings long term. However, most interesting of all was the part stating that all that plastic crap that's prolifierated in shops, restaurants etc as an anti-Covid measure, doesn't make a difference and may in fact make things worse. 

Guidance on working from home doesn't lookike it's going to substantially change either. 

Sounds like more wishy washy shite to appease the Lovejoy's that will safely be ignored by the rest of us, save any common sense things like not going into work if you're clearly coughing and spluttering.

The borders shite is very concerning. Hopefully it actually just means full vaccination and that's you. No testing nonsense. Masks also need to go from airports and aircraft. These places are properly ventilated so it is just utter theatre.

Edited June 16, 2021 by Elixir

[parsforlife]

4 minutes ago, Elixir said:

Essentially, we have very few people under 50 fully vaxxed, especially those aged 16-40, who are the biggest spreaders. It's a big pool left to be passing it about themselves, and there's not a huge number of people in this bracket where the immune response to a single dose will have built up yet either. As we know, fully vaxxed people are very unlikely to transmit, so the scatter gun approaches in Europe and the US might be working in their favour now. Israel were also so quick to fully vaxx in comparison.

What we are seeing is exactly what you would expect to happen with our targeted vaccination program.   The levels of spread between under 40's wasn't going to slow much compared too previously under level 1/2.  An increase in cases was inevitable under the current restrictions.  But guess what,  we chose to protect the most vulnerable first and as a result we are seeing very few hospital admissions or death.   This has been a massive success.  

 

[Elixir]

1 minute ago, parsforlife said:

What we are seeing is exactly what you would expect to happen with our targeted vaccination program.   The levels of spread between under 40's wasn't going to slow much compared too previously under level 1/2.  An increase in cases was inevitable under the current restrictions.  But guess what,  we chose to protect the most vulnerable first and as a result we are seeing very few hospital admissions or death.   This has been a massive success.  

It's been a massive success in protecting the vulnerable, less so about the recent bed wetting. Interrupting transmission by vaxxing younger groups will still have an indirect benefit rather than a direct benefit.

[Todd_is_God]

Not at all surprised to see that putting daft wee screens around the place is ineffective against an airborne virus. Just surprised it took so long to be acknowledged.

Masks next, please.

[Todd_is_God]

16 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

What we are seeing is exactly what you would expect to happen with our targeted vaccination program.   The levels of spread between under 40's wasn't going to slow much compared too previously under level 1/2.  An increase in cases was inevitable under the current restrictions.  But guess what,  we chose to protect the most vulnerable first and as a result we are seeing very few hospital admissions or death.   This has been a massive success.  

 

Correct. It could scarcely have been more of a success if it tried. Which makes it all the more frustrating we still don't have the prospect of removing all restrictions and getting back to normal anywhere on the horizon.

[scottsdad]

8 hours ago, PedroMoutinho said:

I also liked how aghast she was when someone dared to ask about Leitch’s 10 weeks delay comments as if they had come from someone off the street.

I personally have no idea how statements by the national clinical director who has been wheeled out daily as a government mouthpiece for the last 16 months could possibly be taken as Scot Gov policy.

There may be words about the 10 week thing

[Marshmallo]

8 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Not at all surprised to see that putting daft wee screens around the place is ineffective against an airborne virus. Just surprised it took so long to be acknowledged.

Masks next, please.

 

[scottsdad]

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Not at all surprised to see that putting daft wee screens around the place is ineffective against an airborne virus. Just surprised it took so long to be acknowledged.

Masks next, please.

I believe that masks are a requirement not to protect people from covid-laced breath, but rather to keep people reminded that there is a pandemic on. It's psychological, not medical. As long as mask wearing goes on, it is a self-reminder to everyone about what has been going on. 

Medical grade masks can help, but cloth masks, not so much study here - and even this study says that masks can make a difference but only in conjunction with other measures. So if you take away social distancing etc. but keep masks (as in New York), there is no real reason to do it. Makes no difference.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

16 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

 

i'm not a doctor either but my fitbaw forum numpty heid told me that there was no way cases were sky rocketing at the rate they were purely down to people touching door handles and then their face, especially when early outbreaks all came from crowded settings. what a rip roaring c**t of that they all made