Generic Virus Thread

[sharkyvilla]

2 hours ago, bickster said:

Before it reaches the press even.

Taxi Drivers to be included in the next round of jabs, now from a personal POV thats obviously great but you can pretty much guarantee that teachers, policemen, other transport workers and a whole host of others will also be included.

Possibly to be announced on Feb 15th

This news came from our Trade Association and to them from the DfT

My brother drives a taxi at Gatwick so hopefully he is included in that.  From a selfish point of view I've wondered whether people who have had to go in to work might get bumped up the list but I suspect bakers will be fairly low down the priority.  Anyway I think in the next couple of weeks we will at least get some positive news.  It really has been tough, I got round to watching something I recorded a while ago the other day and it had a Christmas advert on it, which took me back to how crap the whole festive period was last year.  Got a wee bit emotional about it.

[DCJonah]

Like others I've been having ups and downs. My life has some routine to it, my wife still goes to work, the kids go to school, I'm sometimes at work or working from home. In that respect I know I should consider myself luckier than others. 

The lack of time with my folks and brothers is the hardest part.

I'm still against opening up too soon. The NHS is absolutely broken and all the goodwill from last year is gone. It was only a few weeks back that ICU patients in Birmingham were being transferred to Newcastle as that was the closest free bed. 

My wife works on the mental health side of things and again, that's just broken at the moment. I had a bit of a moan at her the other day, because the amount of work she does and hours she does, she should be earning double what she does. She turned round and said that this is what its like, that the NHS has always worked on the goodwill of its employees going above and beyond. I'm not sure how much more we can ask of them. 

I know things are really shit and lockdown comes with its own problems but I don't want to cause new issues by opening up too much too soon. We **** things up multiple times, let's not do it again. 

 

[Mark Albrighton]

Normally during January and February, possibly even creeping into March, I wouldn’t be doing much anyway. Don’t generally socialise during those months and the weather’s always mostly rubbish. 

So really, for me, it’s not that much different this year. More home schooling and it doesn’t normally snow as often as it has done. Both of those have somewhat impeded my running, which has been my one constant outlet, mentally and physically.

So yes, the time of year is a bit of a downer, however I knew I was missing out on more stuff last summer than I currently am now. As has been said, the novelty of lockdown helped back then.

But as others have said, I think it’s a culmination of the past six months (I think it’s about that long since I’ve been out socially, which I guess is more recent than some). And this lingering sense that it’s going to be another 2-3 months at the earliest before we can ease things up - shops, pubs, seeing friends and family.

But hey, I’ve not lost anyone close to me, I’ve managed to avoid covid and I’ve saved a few quid that I would have otherwise pissed away on renting some beer. So I can’t complain too much, just try and remain upbeat until we’re allowed back out, it’s safe(r) and I can redistribute at least some of the pennies back into alcohol rental.

[AndyClarke]

They are really starting to push the narrative that we can't open things back up hard at the moment. From sensationalised mutation stories to Boris questioning if the data shows the vaccine to be working to bring down the numbers.

[bickster]

Sensational mutation stories... Worth a read

 

[HanoiVillan]

7 minutes ago, AndyClarke said:

They are really starting to push the narrative that we can't open things back up hard at the moment. From sensationalised mutation stories to Boris questioning if the data shows the vaccine to be working to bring down the numbers.

That's exactly right, and I don't understand why they're doing it. The actual news is nearly entirely good; we are running at 20%-30% week-on-week drops in case numbers, and the vaccination program is running as smoothly and quickly as it possibly could have done. Nobody's calling for panglossianism, but there are plenty of public health types who seem to enjoy doom-mongering for the sake of it.

[bannedfromHandV]

7 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

That's exactly right, and I don't understand why they're doing it. The actual news is nearly entirely good; we are running at 20%-30% week-on-week drops in case numbers, and the vaccination program is running as smoothly and quickly as it possibly could have done. Nobody's calling for panglossianism, but there are plenty of public health types who seem to enjoy doom-mongering for the sake of it.

Project Fear.

 

And you know what, it’s working. 

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

31 minutes ago, AndyClarke said:

They are really starting to push the narrative that we can't open things back up hard at the moment. From sensationalised mutation stories to Boris questioning if the data shows the vaccine to be working to bring down the numbers.

An insight about that is in the paper that I posted a page or two back.

The Government don’t want the 1000 deaths per day figure and opening up hard is the rapid way to cause a spike again. If, say, we gradually open up in April and then remove all controls by July/August then deaths could hit ~2500 (this is shown in one of the graphs in the paper).

The incompetent word removeds have **** it. We needed to do everything properly from the start and we’re still not doing things properly now.

Meanwhile people are crying cos they can’t have two weeks in Benidorm, but they shouldn’t worry - Boris likes to be popular, so people will get their wish followed by further infection spikes, variants and then additional cycles of lockdowns and other control measures.

I can’t see an end to this. 

[bannedfromHandV]

Astra Zeneca announce profits have doubled in the past 12 months......

[Genie]

12 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

That's exactly right, and I don't understand why they're doing it. The actual news is nearly entirely good; we are running at 20%-30% week-on-week drops in case numbers, and the vaccination program is running as smoothly and quickly as it possibly could have done. Nobody's calling for panglossianism, but there are plenty of public health types who seem to enjoy doom-mongering for the sake of it.

The problem with the drop in infection numbers whilst we vaccinate and lockdown in parallel, it’s not clear how much each are contributing and the government aren’t sharing the data.

To be honest, lockdown alone I thought the numbers would come down quicker, but then we e had the Kent variant that could be offsetting that. 

 

[Genie]

6 minutes ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

If, say, we gradually open up in April and then remove all controls by July/August then deaths could hit ~2500 (this is shown in one of the graphs in the paper).

If it didn’t happen last summer, why would it happen this summer when we’ve vaccinated most of the population?

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

8 minutes ago, Genie said:

If it didn’t happen last summer, why would it happen this summer when we’ve vaccinated most of the population?

Because we didn’t remove all controls last summer.

It’s all in the paper. The vaccination isn’t 100% effective and some of the graphs show how deaths could spike depending on uptake and the % of infection blocking. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Morley_crosses_to_Withe

[HanoiVillan]

12 minutes ago, Genie said:

The problem with the drop in infection numbers whilst we vaccinate and lockdown in parallel, it’s not clear how much each are contributing and the government aren’t sharing the data.

To be honest, lockdown alone I thought the numbers would come down quicker, but then we e had the Kent variant that could be offsetting that. 

 

Yes, you would imagine that a slightly more successful strain is being offset by the effects of the vaccination program more or less, and so the decline in case numbers is essentially the same as last year.

18 minutes ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

Meanwhile people are crying cos they can’t have two weeks in Benidorm

That's rather trivialising what people are struggling with to be honest, but go off I guess.

[StefanAVFC]

Yeah wanted to quote and say similar. I see similarly silly comments like 'people moaning about their holidays in the midst of a global pandemic'.

I'd get that sentiment if we were talking about last summer, but this summer will be 18 months since the start, the vaccination program is running at a rapid pace, so why shouldn't healthy people, who likely will not be affected by the virus, and likely would never have been affected by it, have to keep putting their lives on hold for much longer? I said to my Mrs last night that I feel like we're completely wasting our best years.

Edited February 11, 2021 by StefanAVFC

[mjmooney]

13 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Yeah wanted to quote and say similar. I see similarly silly comments like 'people moaning about their holidays in the midst of a global pandemic'.

I'd get that sentiment if we were talking about last summer, but this summer will be 18 months since the start, the vaccination program is running at a rapid pace, so why shouldn't healthy people, who likely will not be affected by the virus, and likely would never have been affected by it, have to keep putting their lives on hold for much longer? I said to my Mrs last night that I feel like we're completely wasting our best years.

Yeah, but the war. 

[HanoiVillan]

11 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Yeah wanted to quote and say similar. I see similarly silly comments like 'people moaning about their holidays in the midst of a global pandemic'.

I'd get that sentiment if we were talking about last summer, but this summer will be 18 months since the start, the vaccination program is running at a rapid pace, so why shouldn't healthy people, who likely will not be affected by the virus, and likely would never have been affected by it, have to keep putting their lives on hold for much longer? I said to my Mrs last night that I feel like we're completely wasting our best years.

I don't think we are a particularly atypical family, and we're not unfortunate in the scheme of things, but so far being unable to travel has meant that my wife was unable to attend her grandmother's funeral, that she hasn't seen her parents for more than a year, and that we haven't met our niece who was born last year (and also that her parents have been unable to help with looking after said niece). Travel bans in no way only affect holidays.

That being said, what the **** is wrong with wanting to go on holiday? Living like this is depressing, of course people want to go on holiday. I haven't had a holiday outside my house since Christmas 2019, and I haven't had one that was not visiting family since spring 2019. Of course I want to **** go on holiday! I can't stand this hair-shirt-misery-is-virtue stuff.

The daft thing is, people could and did go on foreign holidays last summer, when vaccines were not available and there was less acquired immunity in the population. So I can't really see why it will be impossible by this summer, after millions and millions of the most vulnerable people have been vaccinated. I'm sure everyone accepts it might be a faff with negative tests and so on, but I can't really see why it would be impossible.

[StefanAVFC]

16 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I don't think we are a particularly atypical family, and we're not unfortunate in the scheme of things, but so far being unable to travel has meant that my wife was unable to attend her grandmother's funeral, that she hasn't seen her parents for more than a year, and that we haven't met our niece who was born last year (and also that her parents have been unable to help with looking after said niece). Travel bans in no way only affect holidays.

I sympathise with that position, really. I was lucky that my parents managed to get over here in September, if not then I wouldn't have seen them since last Jan. I have the additional complication of planning a wedding over here in September, and obviously without the people from the UK, it won't go ahead. Also stag do etc. I know it's selfish to be worrying about something so trival but Jesus Christ, I want to look forward not backwards.

16 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

So I can't really see why it will be impossible by this summer, after millions and millions of the most vulnerable people have been vaccinated. I'm sure everyone accepts it might be a faff with negative tests and so on, but I can't really see why it would be impossible.

100%.

Edited February 11, 2021 by StefanAVFC

[HanoiVillan]

Agree with your post @StefanAVFC, but your wedding and stag do are not 'trivial'. This is the stuff of life; what people actually live *for*. It's the opposite of trivial.

[a m ole]

the new narrative from the government is annoying as **** but it’s probably the first time they’ve actually been responsible in tempering expectations. at completely the wrong time of course but there you go.

[chrisp65]

This is not about any poster on here. Absolutely not. But it would be interesting to see the Venn Diagram of people desperate for a foreign holiday because they’ve been in their own house for so long, compared with people that think prison is easy. Similarly, those same people desperate for a holiday because their situation is getting them anxious and they are worried about their mental health, compared with people that think life is easy on benefits.

An opportunity for some throbbers to pause for thought. They won’t take the opportunity, but there it is right in front of them.

Anyway, separate to that. I’ve been on a conf call this morning but the structural engineer wasn’t on the call. He’s been delayed flying back from Portugal as its tricky getting here direct from Portugal so he’s had to ‘go around the houses’ and is currently still mid flight.

Good to see that fool proof system is fool proof.