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Coronavirus - the new strain XI

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Downing St. warned by Whitty that controls will have to be increased including reinstatement of daily briefings from No.10. The very thing Johnson has just choked off Scottish Government from doing. He was looking too incompetent by comparison in every public opinion poll.
 
Tony L said:
For anyone with Facebook the ‘Humans of covid-19’ group is well worth a look. It was set up by some NHS doctors in That London and is a collection of reports from front-line medical staff across the country that really give some insight to what has happening on the ground, the issues they face, and the lengths they go to in order to support very sick or dying patients.
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What happening on the ground is usually of little interest to management.
 
I think the Accrington area ( Hyndburn ) is going to get a hammering. Last time I looked we had the second highest infection rate:( It might already have happened but I'm too depressed to read the updates.
 
Spreading to older people, hospitalisation up, black and poor people disproportionately affected. All predictable because it’s all happened before. You’d like to think it’s because they can’t learn from their mistakes, because the alternative is more disturbing. The appeal of QAnon isn’t that hard to fathom.

https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1307632903447248896?s=21

Meanwhile behavioural scientists seem pretty sure that the threat of fines is going to stop people from getting tested, and again, the best you can hope for is that the government is simply too thick to understand this, because the alternative...

https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1307632903447248896?s=21
 
Tony L said:
For anyone with Facebook the ‘Humans of covid-19’ group is well worth a look. It was set up by some NHS doctors in That London and is a collection of reports from front-line medical staff across the country that really give some insight to what has happening on the ground, the issues they face, and the lengths they go to in order to support very sick or dying patients.
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it’s a page I’ve liked, but I may have to drop it. I’m personally finding it hard to cope, simply too many existential questions. My kids have colds, I expect soon they’ll be sent home until they’ve had a test. I’m torn because they’re so much happier with school/cricket/gymnastics/football etc going on, and the isolation of lockdown is a killer. At least when it started we were all in it together. Now? It’s a shit-show. I need to work, I don’t have reserves of cash, it’s all well and good Sunak talking about not furloughing unsustainable jobs, but what will happen to those of us simply not allowed to work? Too old to reinvent ourselves again, and still with mortgages and bills to pay. I can’t work effectively from home, the arts are being hung out to dry. Sorry I’m probably ranting, but, I feel like I’m just acceptable collateral damage.
 
Seanm said:
You mean the clientele privatisation scheme. Indeed, very costly.
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The last labour govt won top marks for this, staggering incompetence witnessed first hand. They couldn’t buy sex in a brothel. Interesting how a private school can pay a decent price for something.
 
Ponty said:
The last labour govt won top marks for this, staggering incompetence witnessed first hand. They couldn’t buy sex in a brothel. Interesting how a private school can pay a decent price for something.
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“Interesting.”
 
lordsummit said:
it’s a page I’ve liked, but I may have to drop it. I’m personally finding it hard to cope, simply too many existential questions. My kids have colds, I expect soon they’ll be sent home until they’ve had a test. I’m torn because they’re so much happier with school/cricket/gymnastics/football etc going on, and the isolation of lockdown is a killer. At least when it started we were all in it together. Now? It’s a shit-show. I need to work, I don’t have reserves of cash, it’s all well and good Sunak talking about not furloughing unsustainable jobs, but what will happen to those of us simply not allowed to work? Too old to reinvent ourselves again, and still with mortgages and bills to pay. I can’t work effectively from home, the arts are being hung out to dry. Sorry I’m probably ranting, but, I feel like I’m just acceptable collateral damage.
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Like Andrew I totally empathise with your position. Half the problem was hearing the repeated messages about how we can beat this by Christmas etc. from our inept government. As Tony is so fond of saying the virus hasn't changed (it probably has slightly but I know what he means) and hence even if we managed to suppress it there was no way we could beat it. Lockdown (how I hate that term as its inaccurate) was about buying us time which of course the government and to an extent some of the public are now squandering. Ultimately we can't keep 'locking down' forever despite what certain people on here think... I for one would not be comfortable leaving that level of financial burden on the next generation and I don't even have kids so I am sure I am not alone in that. Ultimately we now have to accept we are going to need to find a way to live with the virus and balance risk versus reward in a common sense manner.

The key is to redraft society to allow us to at least have some kind of life while being mindful of the virus. For instance, we need people to work so we need to make it as safe as possible for them to do so, if a company is caught breaking the law in this regard those responsible need to be properly prosecuted not just given a slap on the wrist. The key is to minimise unnecessary contact with others so those that can work from home even if it's only half of the time should and this is for the long term. Where possible offices and other workplaces should aim to have a percentage of their staff off site to increase the space for others to work. Businesses where this is not possible need to take further precautions and ensure all their employees follow them (PPE, masks, work team bubbles etc.). The hospitality industry needs to find a new model and it will probably result in price increases, but the alternative is not viable for the foreseeable future. Yes there are going to be casualties and hardship for many, but eradicating the virus is impossible and people need to accept that now. We'd be far better off turning our attentions properly on to how to live with it, that is what we should be buying time with restrictions etc. to do, not squander in the vain hope of some miracle cure being round the corner.
 
tiggers said:
Ultimately we can't keep 'locking down' forever despite what certain people on here think...
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Unfortunately I think you are going to find yourself overtaken by events. There will need to be a significant tightening of restrictions to stop the current increases in cases running away. I think we're possibly 2 weeks away from being back in the middle of March in terms of hospital admissions - at that point the lockdown' was wholly necessary (read too late) and I don't know what could have been done differently after community testing became overwhelmed, as it has again.
 
gavreid said:
Unfortunately I think you are going to find yourself overtaken by events. There will need to be a significant tightening of restrictions to stop the current increases in cases running away. I think we're possibly 2 weeks away from being back in the middle of March in terms of hospital admissions - at that point the lockdown' was wholly necessary (read too late) and I don't know what could have been done differently after community testing became overwhelmed, as it has again.
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Completely agree that is what we need to do now, sorry if my post implied otherwise, but in the longer term we are going to have to find a way to live with it.
 
tiggers said:
Completely agree that is what we need to do now, sorry if my post implied otherwise, but in the longer term we are going to have to find a way to live with it.
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It's very hard for people to get a good sense of perspective I think. For example, the media has largely stopped reporting school outbreaks, but nearly every school around here is reporting partial shutdowns of one or more bubbles, while teachers have been told to start supporting children self-isolating at home. My two have just gone back today, still coughing...
 
We’ve got to hope for either a vaccine or effective treatment. It can’t be impossible, it has to happen. Until that point we need to be smart, i.e. lockdown all but absolutely essential business and services. Certainly re-close all pubs, restaurants, hairdressers as opening them was clearly a disaster. Schools & universities need to work in a totally different way with maybe something like a ‘one week out of three’ split of the population to reduce class numbers by two thirds boosted by Teams/Zoom tutorials, online coursework etc at home. Get human to human contact right down without removing the core functionality.

There clearly needs to be more support for people struggling financially, and I’ve no idea how best to implement that. Maybe a mortgage repayment freeze via banking legislation rather than just helicopter money, I don’t know. Certainly more means testing is needed so the money goes to those at most risk. I don’t see why teachers, social workers etc need be impacted as the core supply/demand remains, and if something such as I describe above was implemented I’d expect more rather than less work. It will be harder and more labour-intensive to work in this restrictive climate.

In other job/business roles anyone who can work from home needs to work from home, by law. There is absolutely zero excuse for going to an office to stare at a computer screen or talk to people on the phone or in meetings. That can clearly all be done from home. The people who are going to be the most exposed are small public-facing business owners; cafes, restaurants, pubs, clubs, hairdressers, fitness instructors, sport centres etc etc. Logically they just have to be very firmly in the ‘closed until there is a vaccine’ category. They need a lot of support.
 
Listening to some virologists yesterday, it seems likely that any vaccine is unlikely to be effective for everyone as the way Covid affects the different groups is so variable.

A (series of) vaccine(s) to contain this is a long way off, I fear.

Stephen
 
stephen bennett said:
Listening to some virologists yesterday, it seems likely that any vaccine is unlikely to be effective for everyone as the way Covid affects the different groups is so variable.

A (series of) vaccine(s) to contain this is a long way off, I fear.

Stephen
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Yes that's been the picture for a while. The big concern is reinfection, there is a corroborated case in the US after a matter of only weeks. So there are going to have be effective treatments too. All of this work could have been done after SARS but the work was never funded and most of the teams were disbanded - but I'm back to my postings from March now.
 
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