Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[No_Problemo]

9 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Listening to the Times daily podcast about children who haven’t returned to school post lockdown. Really sobering, apparently 100,000 children have dropped out of schooling during the pandemic.

There are several interviews with parents, one whose child was refusing to go back and another whose mother refused to send him back as she didn’t think it was safe. Very sad but the second example especially you could tell the mother was feeding the kids anxiety and probably contributing to their problems.

Some of the messaging has been disgraceful and has exacerbated this - for example kids living with Grandparents, and being told not to socialise in case they kill them! Actual adverts plastered across the television, adversely affecting the mental health of thousands of vulnerable children. 

[Ross.]

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

You can do it all online nowadays - I did mine from the Philippines and just had to send off my passport and got the new one (and the old one) back in maybe a month or so.  I think it was an extra £25 for the courier fee.  

At the time I was renewing I was back and forward relatively often, thanks to my old man having vascular dementia. We had no idea how that would develop, there was absolutely no chance I was leaving myself without a passport for any length of time.

Looking at this it will be easy enough to get it done online, though I'm sure we will pay a small fucking fortune for the translation of the documents into English.

[TheScarf]

Does anyone seriously think the SG care about the mental well being of youngsters when 84 year old Mary, 6 months away from death anyway, is lying in hospital with Covid?

[Lyle Lanley]

2 hours ago, pozbaird said:

Scottish numbers at ‘surging’ levels, ‘record high’ etc… and this WITH mandated facemasks. They couldn’t, surely they couldn’t, have the brass neck to stand up in Holyrood today and say March 21 is no longer ‘the day’? They surely couldn’t have the brass neck to say ‘just think how high the numbers would be if we hadn’t kept facemasks here’. Not even the Scottish Government could have the bare faced cheek to come out with that. The Scottish Government, surely to Christ, with war on NATOs border near Poland, with Ukraine invaded by a nuclear superpower, with massive, massive challenges for ordinary folk facing cost-of-living rises and domestic fuel and petrol prices….. with everything else going on….

They couldn’t stand up there today and tell a highly-vaccinated population after two years of their lives with this, ‘stick with it Scotland, we need you to keep wearing patterned polyester fake leopardskin shite from the stall that sells mobile phone skins slapped over your mouth for a bit longer’….

They couldn’t. Surely. Come on.

If they reverse any decisions today. Will we see a bigger backlash than what happened at Christmas time?

If the rest of the UK and most of Europe can remove restrictions there’s absolutely no reason for the SG to reverse any restrictions today. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by Lyle Lanley

[hk blues]

1 minute ago, Ross. said:

At the time I was renewing I was back and forward relatively often, thanks to my old man having vascular dementia. We had no idea how that would develop, there was absolutely no chance I was leaving myself without a passport for any length of time.

Looking at this it will be easy enough to get it done online, though I'm sure we will pay a small fucking fortune for the translation of the documents into English.

Aye, if you're back and forth it makes sense to do it when you're there if you can get an appointment.  That said, the online system is really efficient and for overseas applications it's actually quicker than for domestic applications - they also check the photo will be OK before you send off the old passport, Only downside is you need to be without your passport for a month or so while they process but I suppose you can plan around that.  

[The Master]

The Times has taken a more optimistic view than we're seeing elsewhere.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/relaxing-of-scottish-covid-rules-on-track-despite-case-data-7mdln5mkn?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1647277729

The Scottish Government need to understand the impact this has on mental health. Throughout this whole thing, they've announced planned easing of restrictions weeks in advance only on several occasions to pull back when the times comes to do it. Don't they realise how damaging that is to people? Hearing it justified by "making no excuses for keeping people safe" only rubs salt into the wounds because it lays bare that they think stopping people catching a relatively mild endemic virus is more important than the mental wellbeing of people who are desperate for normality to return.

I know that for the most part it's possible to choose not to wear a face mask and be done with it. That's not the point though. It's about knowing that the law still exists and that for as long as it does exist, normality is not here. And if normality can't be here now, with a huge percentage of the population triple-vaccinated (and the most vulnerable quadruple-vaccinated), when will it ever be?

[Dons_1988]

Think this has all just gone too far down a rabbit hole of micro “protections” that it’s all gotten a bit ridiculous. 

Someone needs to take a step back and say ‘is it right to impose punitive laws against people for not taking at best minimal and at worst completely redundant measures not to catch a mild virus?’. 

I don’t mean to be disrespectful to someone senior at the nhs but if you’re on the radio saying we need masks ‘to remind people of the pandemic’ then you can seriously f**k off with your patronising drivel. 

[Ron Aldo]

If they reverse any decisions today. Will we see a bigger backlash than what happened at Christmas time?
If the rest of the UK and most of Europe can remove restrictions there’s absolutely no reason for the SG to reverse any restrictions today. 

Have you not been paying attention? The reason will be that they care so much more than everywhere else.

[Michael W]

19 minutes ago, The Master said:

And if normality can't be here now, with a huge percentage of the population triple-vaccinated (and the most vulnerable quadruple-vaccinated), when will it ever be?

This is the thing. There is a fairly prevalent level of denialism in some - look at the amount of 'Covid hasn't gone away' type comments that crop up when dropping restrictions is mooted. 

The thing is this: Covid isn't going away. It is here until such times as a vaccine with sterilising immunity is created, and only then might we be able to eradicate it. In the meantime it is not going away and, unless pretty harsh restrictions are put in place permanently, it will circulate in high numbers. This might not be what people want to hear, but it's the reality. You will never hear the not now brigade admit the consequences of their wishes, which is almost certainly deliberate. In my view, a lot of them are fundamentally dishonest. 

There is no perfect time to lift restrictions. Trying to kick the can down the road repeatedly is not the answer: the same people saying now is not the time, there are x cases a day at the moment will do the same at the next review. If restrictions cannot be removed in a place with one of the world's highest vaccine rates and another round of boosters coming out for the most at-risk groups, then it'll never happen. 

 

[Detournement]

Tested positive this morning. The only symptoms I have are fatigue and sore muscles. Off work til next Friday which is nice. 

[Blue Brazil Forever]

3 hours ago, pozbaird said:

Scottish numbers at ‘surging’ levels, ‘record high’ etc… and this WITH mandated facemasks. They couldn’t, surely they couldn’t, have the brass neck to stand up in Holyrood today and say March 21 is no longer ‘the day’? They surely couldn’t have the brass neck to say ‘just think how high the numbers would be if we hadn’t kept facemasks here’. Not even the Scottish Government could have the bare faced cheek to come out with that. The Scottish Government, surely to Christ, with war on NATOs border near Poland, with Ukraine invaded by a nuclear superpower, with massive, massive challenges for ordinary folk facing cost-of-living rises and domestic fuel and petrol prices….. with everything else going on….

They couldn’t stand up there today and tell a highly-vaccinated population after two years of their lives with this, ‘stick with it Scotland, we need you to keep wearing patterned polyester fake leopardskin shite from the stall that sells mobile phone skins slapped over your mouth for a bit longer’….

They couldn’t. Surely. Come on.

Ah but;

because we care

because the science says so

because the NHS might still be overwhelmed

or because we can (or mibbe bacause I say so)

[D.V.T.]

Tested positive this morning. The only symptoms I have are fatigue and sore muscles. Off work til next Friday which is nice. 

Was gonna say, are the legal self isolation rules meant to be getting scrapped today or is that not the case.

[superbigal]

Very sad but the second example especially you could tell the mother was feeding the kids anxiety

Sure the kids would prefer a McDonalds

[Bairnardo]

I will genuinely be shocked if they don't do a U Turn today. Fingers crossed like, but I dont see masks going next week, or isolation, despite the fact that theres demonstrably little point in either. 

[Detournement]

3 minutes ago, D.V.T. said:

 

Was gonna say, are the legal self isolation rules meant to be getting scrapped today or is that not the case.

 

I don't know actually. I'll need to phone my boss and find out. 

[NorthernLights]

1 hour ago, Dons_1988 said:

Think this has all just gone too far down a rabbit hole of micro “protections” that it’s all gotten a bit ridiculous. 

Someone needs to take a step back and say ‘is it right to impose punitive laws against people for not taking at best minimal and at worst completely redundant measures not to catch a mild virus?’. 

I don’t mean to be disrespectful to someone senior at the nhs but if you’re on the radio saying we need masks ‘to remind people of the pandemic’ then you can seriously f**k off with your patronising drivel. 

If that is the point we've reached then we'd be as well slapping stickers on our foreheads saying "Careful Now".

 

[Lyle Lanley]

4 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I will genuinely be shocked if they don't do a U Turn today. Fingers crossed like, but I dont see masks going next week, or isolation, despite the fact that theres demonstrably little point in either. 

Surely they must see that more and more people are getting rid or not wearing masks completely every week. 

[ICTChris]

Me, watching the announcement today

[Elixir]

So they either shit the bed (again, nap) or they betray all the insufferable moral nonsense they have been pushing for two full years now.

An absolute fucking gang are in charge of us. Do they expect to be able to mandate what we do with our lives whenever sneeze tracking data is on the rise every winter? They need to rot.

[Elixir]

1 minute ago, oaksoft said:

My gut feeling here is that Sturgeon might well be done with wanting to force us to wear masks.

I think worse case she'll delay it for a few weeks to let the current peak settle down.

I honestly thought she'd never let go but after her surprising announcement last month, it's pretty clear she wants to move on from her covid obsession.

It's the only way they can get independence and a referendum back on the agenda. Not that they really want one, mind.