Generic Virus Thread

[Seat68]

4 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Feel really **** down about this today. I never expected the vaccines to work quickly or be as easy to implement as suggested. But I kind of thought the second wave was passing and I could see my family when I finished this work I'm on. Then this new covid strain hit and everything is on lock down again.

 

Small price to pay. Stick to the rules, this will pass. You have this. Keep your chin up. 

[KenjiOgiwara]

I know, and I know others got it so much worse, but seriously **** this **** covid crap.

[Seat68]

4 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

I know, and I know others got it so much worse, but seriously **** this **** covid crap.

Its true and we should not measure by others, forget all that, focus on yourself and keep going. It really will be better one day. 

[choffer]

So sorry to hear your news @Xann . Truly horrible news to wake up to this morning. If there’s anything you need a hand with, just say the word. I’m sure you’re stacked with f&f but if you need anything, just shout.

Edited January 24, 2021 by choffer

[AVFCDAN]

13 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Small price to pay. Stick to the rules, this will pass. You have this. Keep your chin up. 

Not sure I agree that it’s a small price to pay, spending a year of your life in lockdown is actually a bloody massive sacrifice.

[Seat68]

9 minutes ago, AVFCDAN said:

Not sure I agree that it’s a small price to pay, spending a year of your life in lockdown is actually a bloody massive sacrifice.

Well on comparison it is. When faced with what the higher price could be. 

[chrisp65]

22 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

Well on comparison it is. When faced with what the higher price could be. 

Part of me, recently, has begun to dwell on my age and what that means when we have a year or 18 months of lockdowns and social restrictions.

Being realistic, a year on hold is potentially between 5 or 10% of my fully fit enjoyable years that I have left. That is a huge chunk of time when looked at that way. I don’t presume that I’ll be fit, mobile and financially able to socialise all around the country or travel to Europe in 15 or 20 years time. So taking a year or 18 months off that is a big deal, a huge restriction.

But as you say, what’s the alternative? To give up on the restrictions could jeopardise everything, could kill me, could kill others and could **** up what ‘socialising’ time I and everyone else ever has.

It’s the shit sandwich, instead of the shit meal.

[Genie]

My wife is really down, I think the somber nature of the last press conference really got to her. It’s her birthday next week and it’s hit home that she won’t be able to do anything with her mum, sister etc.

Shit times. We really need to start to see evidence that the vaccines are having the desired effect on the number of infected, hospitalisations and deaths.

[HanoiVillan]

I think that press conference was utterly irresponsible to be honest.

[chrisvilla4]

17 hours ago, Xann said:

Thanks All for the thoughts x

The reality is Dad was 84 and had no short term memory. He was rapidly heading toward complete dependence, literally nappies and shit.

He'd always said he'd smother Mum with a pillow and then top himself if they was put in a home? Fortunately he forgot that too, though we lived in fear of that memory coming back, even fleetingly.

It was a gentle exit for him. I actually thought he'd survive it. His breathing was regular and any discomfort was offset by a modest (ie non lethal) dose of opiates, then he'd sleep like a baby.

My Sister was conscious on her last day. That's the benchmark of horror for me, with the heart attack in second. Dad's exit was serenity compared with that.

Dad's death feels like the way of things, and I'm finding myself weirdly calm about it all today. Family and friends on on hand to help deal with legal aspects and it's a three week wait before we can get any type of service, which gives us time to find a couple of his old friends.

Mum's deep in dementia and so far completely unaware Dad has gone.

She's a pacer. After days of being in Covid sleep she wakes up on Thursday and it's business as usual.

I'm sat with Dad on Thursday night, in a darkened room, a large picture of my Sister in white next to his bed illuminated by the light in the corridor.

Every couple of minutes Mum walks past the open door, first one way, then the other without looking in.

I'm sat there thinking, what fresh hell is this? It was like some sort of psychological horror film.

 

Anyway, got a few days in spare room isolation to mull on it all.

Need a hug button for this mate. Take care.

[bickster]

Possible game changer

 

[darrenm]

13 minutes ago, bickster said:

Possible game changer

 

Brilliant if it works out. I'd like to understand how a single dose vaccine is any different to any other vaccine which is also a single dose given twice to improve efficacy. 

[chrisp65]

17 minutes ago, darrenm said:

Brilliant if it works out. I'd like to understand how a single dose vaccine is any different to any other vaccine which is also a single dose given twice to improve efficacy. 

Turns out, it’s basically bleach and a torch. Who knew!

[sidcow]

33 minutes ago, bickster said:

Possible game changer

 

Fantastic.  Hadn't even been thinking about OTHER vaccines coming into the mix. 

It seems to be single does and stores in a normal fridge as well.... Double bubble. 

I think we start to get the Moderna one in Spring as well (what does that mean?  March?) 

If they can get all over 50s done by end of March, depending on the number of daily shots they can actually do, they could get the whole population done in just another couple of months maybe? 

I assume we will continue to get Pfizer and Oxford at the same rates which are enabling 500k a day, add Moderna and J&J into the mix and that's a flood of vaccines. 

How long should it take to train up someone to deliver vaccines? Surely they should be able to run a vaccine delivery training course inside a few weeks to enable more people to deliver them? 

[Davkaus]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

I think that press conference was utterly irresponsible to be honest.

In what way?

I'm not disagreeing, I'm so fatigued by the whole thing I've just stopped watching them and have only caught the headlines.

[mjmooney]

14 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

In what way?

I'm not disagreeing, I'm so fatigued by the whole thing I've just stopped watching them and have only caught the headlines.

But the BBC labels them as 'Bulletins Building Confidence'! 

[HanoiVillan]

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

In what way?

I'm not disagreeing, I'm so fatigued by the whole thing I've just stopped watching them and have only caught the headlines.

There's a positive story to tell. Last week, day-on-day infection numbers decreased, so the lockdown is unquestionably working. Rather than constantly blaming 'rule-breakers' and threatening tougher enforcement, they could emphasise the successes of this latest effort.

But they didn't do that - instead, they gave a press conference with a very sombre tone, largely around the threat posed by new strains. To be frank, it is not currently clear exactly how serious the new strains are, and a lot more data needs to be gathered before worrying people about them. Just to give one example:

On Friday, this strain was allegedly 30% more deadly. So has it become 20% less deadly in the last 48 hours, or do we actually just not have enough data to be doing big, solemn press conferences about how we're all screwed?

The big picture is it's January, everyone is feeling shit, the weather is bad, we've been in and out of lockdown for a year, there's a mental health crisis. They need to be extremely careful about how they communicate bad news, and they just aren't; instead, they're seizing on these new variants as a way to deflect blame from their December policy failures, at least in part.

There has been a noticeable uptick in people On Here saying they feel hopeless over the last week, and particularly since that press conference, and I have heard it from people offline as well.

[Genie]

Does the UK government have any orders for 1 shot vaccines? 

[sidcow]

13 minutes ago, Genie said:

Does the UK government have any orders for 1 shot vaccines? 

Yes, they have 52m of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine on order. 

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1380795/coronavirus-news-vaccine-johnson-johnson-pfizer-biontech-oxford-ont

 

A THIRD coronavirus jab - administered in a single-shot - could be approved in time to join the UK's vaccination rollout, it is claimed.

Edited January 24, 2021 by sidcow

[blandy]

47 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

There's a positive story to tell. Last week, day-on-day infection numbers decreased, so the lockdown is unquestionably working. Rather than constantly blaming 'rule-breakers' and threatening tougher enforcement, they could emphasise the successes of this latest effort.

But they didn't do that - instead, they gave a press conference with a very sombre tone, largely around the threat posed by new strains. To be frank, it is not currently clear exactly how serious the new strains are, and a lot more data needs to be gathered before worrying people about them. Just to give one example:

On Friday, this strain was allegedly 30% more deadly. So has it become 20% less deadly in the last 48 hours, or do we actually just not have enough data to be doing big, solemn press conferences about how we're all screwed?

The big picture is it's January, everyone is feeling shit, the weather is bad, we've been in and out of lockdown for a year, there's a mental health crisis. They need to be extremely careful about how they communicate bad news, and they just aren't; instead, they're seizing on these new variants as a way to deflect blame from their December policy failures, at least in part.

There has been a noticeable uptick in people On Here saying they feel hopeless over the last week, and particularly since that press conference, and I have heard it from people offline as well.

I look at it like the Gov't will grab at anything that they can use to make themselves look good, or paint a picture of positivity on some aspect of their actions in this whole clusterpork.

So they count a pair of gloves as 2 items of PPE, they count the number of first doses given as "people vaccinated", they count test kits in the post as Tests taken and so on. That's the whole modus operandi - what looks good/least bad about what we're doing. The flip side of course is that things outside their control they want to paint as bleak as possible, again so that they can look like they're doing a "good" thing. Hence this stuff about mutations being much more serious - justifying extending lockdown. They are not about competence, or honesty, or transparency, or truth, only imagery. They are utterly, utterly, criminally, incompetent.