Coronavirus

[TheHowieLama]

Which age group do you think has the most money?

Cuz this is about the economy right.

 

 

[Mudface]

2 minutes ago, Moo said:

It seems a nonsense suggestion doesn't it?  Especially considering that over 65s make up 18% of the UK population.  What if we factor in 60-65, would we be up to 25%? Plus 0-60 with underlying medical conditions including obesity?  We must now be pushing 40% or even more.  So we agressively protect a huge percentage of the population from the rest?  So okay we protect them, but who looks after them?  Who does their personal care? Who does their shopping?  Who looks after their mental health if they can't have visitors or socialise, or go to work and so on?

 

Edit - some people seem to think that the vulnerable are a small group in this country, they're not, they are everywhere.

The same's been said several times previously in the thread. It's simplistic and falls apart at the slightest scrutiny. If it was a good solution, it would have been tried somewhere, the fact that it hasn't shows it's completely impractical.

[Guest Alex_K]

33 minutes ago, Nelly-Torres said:

They'll no doubt be reversing their decision to end the furlough scheme in the coming weeks then... 

This is the crux of it. When you have millions and millions of the population who can essentially be given an Indian Summer with months more holiday at nigh on the same rate of pay (esp. when you start deducting non-lockdown life expenses like travel. etc), then why would the turkey vote for Christmas? Its practically unprecedented in the history of humanity. There is not a hope in hell that they can eradicate this virus via lockdowns or even control it in the medium-to-long term; their only hope is a silver bullet vaccine. Failing that, ploughing the country into even more debt (and not even debt that helps build our infrastracture after living under "austerity" measures for much of the past decade!) and creating the illusion that running for the hills & still living within similar financial means is a remotely viable solution is probably the very worst thing they can do. If they ever had any semblance of control in managing this situation before it is completely shot now.

[Megadrive Man]

37 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

 There is not a hope in hell that they can eradicate this virus via lockdowns or even control it in the medium-to-long term; their only hope is a silver bullet vaccine. 

If they had enforced a proper lock down in the first place we'd be in a much better position now. 

 

They've had 6 months to put things in place, and yet Johnson is talking about some crackpot £100 billion moon shot idea where some of the technology required hasn't been invented yet!

 

I still think a vaccine is very unlikely. 

[Guest Alex_K]

8 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

If they had enforced a proper lock down in the first place we'd be in a much better position now. 

 

They've had 6 months to put things in place, and yet Johnson is talking about some crackpot £100 billion moon shot idea where some of the technology required hasn't been invented yet!

 

I still think a vaccine is very unlikely. 

The quality of the leadership across the board -- from Johnson on one polar end through to Sturgeon on the other -- is enough to make one shiver & shudder. Woefully, woefully inadequate.

The overriding problem to my mind with the lockdown-approach is an assumption that the UK lives in an uninterrupted bubble. Testing arriving into the country is painfully inadequate. We started from a baseline position of no covid in the UK (it was after all not invented here) and got to where we are now; short of eradicating global travel there really is no confident way towards ensuring it does not go the same way again almost regardless of what we do on these shores. It is rampant at a global level.

I have no exposure to pharmaceuticals so no idea how viable the vaccine is -- there did seem to be a lot of positive sentiments up to a few weeks ago at least, but did see the AZ trial that was halted recently. It does seem to oscilate (good news conveniently comes out whenever markets tumble!). Its the only solution under the narrative authorities are currently spinning however.

[Bjornebye]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Predictable. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bruce Spanner]

45 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

If they had enforced a proper lock down in the first place we'd be in a much better position now. 

 

They've had 6 months to put things in place, and yet Johnson is talking about some crackpot £100 billion moon shot idea where some of the technology required hasn't been invented yet!

 

I still think a vaccine is very unlikely. 

The vaccine will happen, it’s in everybody’s interest, both humanitarian and financially, it’ll happen. 

The rest of what this government is doing is beyond contempt though and the mismanagement and outright dereliction of duty should see them face charges post inquiry.  

 

[Duff Man]

Meanwhile, the great mask debate rages on.

 

 

[Megadrive Man]

13 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:

The vaccine will happen, it’s in everybody’s interest, both humanitarian and financially, it’ll happen. 

The rest of what this government is doing is beyond contempt though and the mismanagement and outright dereliction of duty should see them face charges post inquiry.  

 

 

Its very very difficult to create a vaccine for a coronavirus. 

 

I'm not questioning the finance or the will of people to make one. I just think that its unlikely they will be able to create something that will work on the various different strains. The strains are mutating (generally making the virus weaker) but again that makes it more difficult. 

 

I'm gearing myself up for a really difficult winter.   

[Bjornebye]

 

 

[Bruce Spanner]

7 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

 

Its very very difficult to create a vaccine for a coronavirus. 

 

I'm not questioning the finance or the will of people to make one. I just think that its unlikely they will be able to create something that will work on the various different strains. The strains are mutating (generally making the virus weaker) but again that makes it more difficult. 

 

I'm gearing myself up for a really difficult winter.   

Oh, it’ll be a tough winter, but ‘they’ need the worker bees back at it come spring so everything will be thrown at this, probably at the expense of a lot of other things we’d like to think are essential to life and happiness.

[Baltar]

There'll be no vaccine. Our only hope is that China gives us the antidote to this thing!

[Bruce Spanner]

6 minutes ago, Baltar said:

There'll be no vaccine. Our only hope is that China gives us the antidote to this thing!

 

They not got plans to give it to themselves? 
 

Someone’s avoiding the dastardly ‘MSN’ here, right? 

[Mudface]

15 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

 

Its very very difficult to create a vaccine for a coronavirus. 

 

I'm not questioning the finance or the will of people to make one. I just think that its unlikely they will be able to create something that will work on the various different strains. The strains are mutating (generally making the virus weaker) but again that makes it more difficult. 

 

I'm gearing myself up for a really difficult winter.   

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/18/mutant-virus-should-we-be-worried-sars-cov-2-changing-covid

 

This might be a more reassuring article. There has been a major mutation- making the virus more transmissible and thus predominant- but it actually makes at least the Pfizer vaccine more effective.

[johnsusername]

4 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Yeah but let’s all get back out there and do the fandango 

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning very, very frightening me.
(Galileo) Galileo.
(Galileo) Galileo,
Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o.

 

Sorry, I couldn't help it. 

[johnsusername]

5 hours ago, Чемпионы said:

We should not be complacent at all, there isn't a one size fits all solution just some general quick fixes. My son wasn't as bad as you but he wasn't well and had lung damage when x-rayed a few weeks after, which hopefully has cleared. He recently tested negative to something that he felt was a similar illness but not as bad. 

 

 

Yeah my 6 year old had an x-ray (around May) and there was scarring on her lungs from a recent virus. She never got tested though. We think she had it at Easter. She's never sick, never ever, but this knocked the wind out her sails.

 

I worry about my 2 year old who has scarring on her lungs from having bronchiolitis when she was a few weeks old. 

[suzy]

This is all getting very worrying again. Like others have said this winter doesn’t look great.

If only people were a bit more sensible. I’ve been out twice for the help out to eat out. Both times I didn’t go and see my 80 year old parents afterwards for 2 weeks (I phone them every day) just in case.

 

I’ve never had my two week holiday as late as October - until this year. It’s my husband’s 60th and we should have been going on a cruise. Instead we’ve booked a cottage near the sea in Devon which looks lovely. I thought we’d have long walks and mostly eat in - just in nicer surroundings! However I can’t really look forward to it in case we have another lockdown. 
 

It’s going to be a long winter I think.

[chrisbonnie]

1 hour ago, suzy said:

This is all getting very worrying again. Like others have said this winter doesn’t look great.

If only people were a bit more sensible. I’ve been out twice for the help out to eat out. Both times I didn’t go and see my 80 year old parents afterwards for 2 weeks (I phone them every day) just in case.

 

I’ve never had my two week holiday as late as October - until this year. It’s my husband’s 60th and we should have been going on a cruise. Instead we’ve booked a cottage near the sea in Devon which looks lovely. I thought we’d have long walks and mostly eat in - just in nicer surroundings! However I can’t really look forward to it in case we have another lockdown. 
 

It’s going to be a long winter I think.

Don't forget spring as well. 

[suzy]

2 minutes ago, chrisbonnie said:

Don't forget spring as well. 

Hoping we may get a bit of sunshine then so at least we can go for our daily exercise!

[Karl_b]

Another point to add to the "only protecting the vulnerable" discussion - the figures also rise when you consider the vulnerable's partners/households. I'm on the extremely vulnerable list so would have to shield. Which is fine and I can work from home but my wife is a teacher and would also need to shield. That's what happened when we were in national lockdown but would need factoring in to the costs of any lockdown specifically for vulnerable people. Whether you think that's the right thing or not, the numbers affected are significant.

 

I'm still working from home, happily for the most part, but my wife is going to work where she's in a 'bubble' with 60 7/8 year olds and half a dozen staff. Me working from home limits my direct exposure and any potential to pass it on and I'm happy with that but this whole 'rule of 6' is horseshit, isn't it? My job won't continue to be doable from home forever, work will dry up and we'll run out of things to do - I've been fortunate so far but our business and industry is really suffering. Projections are worse than we imagined a few months ago. It's a horrible, horrible situation that needs some new ways of economic thinking to solve. I have no idea what that is.

[Karl_b]

It's also looking increasingly unlikely I'll get that week's break in Northumberland next month, isn't it? I'll be gutted if so - much like Suzy we just fancies a change of scenery, walks on the beach and spending some time together, nothing fancy. Right now I'd go and be happy but I suspect things will be worse in another month.

[A Red]

One of our holiday cottages sleeps 8, most of the forward bookings for the rest of the year are for 6 or less, but we have 1 booking for 7 in October. This is a booking that was moved from June which it looks like we or they will have to cancel or they will have to leave 1 person at home. I have no idea of their personal circumstances, it was booked through an agent, but it could be their only holiday of the year and very upsetting to miss out on.

 

They might just turn up with all 7 and then we're in a right shite situation.

[Barrington Womble]

This graph makes pretty depressing reading, again from the Zoe site. 

[Section_31]

"Johnson warns of inevitable second wave".

 

Well it wasn't really inevitable was it? 

 

Man with no front door warns of inevitable burglary.

[Chairman Meow]

2 hours ago, Karl_b said:

It's also looking increasingly unlikely I'll get that week's break in Northumberland next month, isn't it? I'll be gutted if so - much like Suzy we just fancies a change of scenery, walks on the beach and spending some time together, nothing fancy. Right now I'd go and be happy but I suspect things will be worse in another month.

If you want I can pop out for a drive and take some pictures for you? I do have quite a lot of pictures of Northumberland and the surrounding area already, but most of them have a rally car in the middle of them. 

 

The local lockdown seems mostly bollocks anyway up here. Just the rule of 6 bullshit and the pubs shutting early, everything else is still pretty normal. The term lockdown is anything but accurate.

 

A friend of mine owns a hotel in Cleveland and they're open, just doing stuff to take precautions and keep visitors separate etc. and aren't having any issues being able to keep open although it's made how they do things a bit of a strange setup.