misterdog
Not the canine kind
And where is Dianne Abbott when she is most needed ?
NHS Covid testing - has anyone managed to book one?
- Thread starter James Evans
- Start date
And where is Dianne Abbott when she is most needed ?
gavreid
Pretty Words...
The average is running at 4 days apparently
mandryka
pfm Member
Do you think what we’re witnessing, or part of it, is that testing and tracing just doesn’t work by itself? I don’t mean that the UK system doesn’t work, I mean that it’s not the sole central part of an effective strategy even when well implemented?
Have we seen that people’s behaviour is such that we’re bound to see second, third, fourth . . . waves, no matter how big or efficient the testing system is? People have parties, they go on holiday and shag lots of strangers and share joints, they come home and hug granny . . . No amount of testing and tracing is going to stop that.
And they don’t isolate when asked to.
Behavioural change is a really tall order, especially in groups which aren’t much effected by the disease.
Have we seen that people’s behaviour is such that we’re bound to see second, third, fourth . . . waves, no matter how big or efficient the testing system is? People have parties, they go on holiday and shag lots of strangers and share joints, they come home and hug granny . . . No amount of testing and tracing is going to stop that.
And they don’t isolate when asked to.
Behavioural change is a really tall order, especially in groups which aren’t much effected by the disease.
Caledon1297
pfm Member
tl;dr
Not sure if this has been posted already:
Not sure if this has been posted already:
Seanm
pfm Member
No. Compliance was excellent until it was deliberately discouraged, and even then it was enough to keep a lid on things. So, behavioural change is actually pretty easy, if you’re going with what people actually want, which, here, was to avoid wiping out the old and infirm.
We had a nice period of low infections and almost no hospitalisation as a result of people making considerable sacrifices, and it was squandered by a government who didn’t want or expect us to act this way. The government were supposed to spend that time putting effective testing infrastructure in place so that lockdowns could be highly targeted, and they didn’t. They also persuaded millions to hang out in restaurants, so as to avoid having to put a proper economic recovery plan in place, and began to withdraw people’s economic means of social distancing. They’ve actually had to work very hard to bring us the second wave.
You have to work quite hard yourself to look at what has happened over the last 6 months and conclude that the problem is that people are just selfish pricks. It flies in the face of the actual facts of the matter.
mandryka
pfm Member
Thanks Sean -- lots to think about there as always. Here's my first thoughts.
I'm sure you're right to think that the economic initiatives made it harder for people to social distance. However you also seem to be claiming that they're the main drivers of this growth in new cases. Do you have any evidence for this? Do you think that the behaviour of younger people is also a significant factor? I wonder how you explain the fact that the wave started with younger people.
Also I was intrigued by this phrase
What would a proper economic recovery plan be?
(But that second point opens up a big area, and dealing with it may be too much of a distraction from the first.)
I'm sure you're right to think that the economic initiatives made it harder for people to social distance. However you also seem to be claiming that they're the main drivers of this growth in new cases. Do you have any evidence for this? Do you think that the behaviour of younger people is also a significant factor? I wonder how you explain the fact that the wave started with younger people.
Also I was intrigued by this phrase
What would a proper economic recovery plan be?
(But that second point opens up a big area, and dealing with it may be too much of a distraction from the first.)
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Graham B
pfm Member
Further update on my son’s test - we received the results after 32 hours and it was negative as fully expected. Glad we can now come out of isolation and he’ll be back in school on Monday. The actual swab test itself is nothing but booking the thing in the first place was a nightmare. Given the kids are all back in school and college I fully expect to have to do this again at some point.
Seanm
pfm Member
Do you think young people’s behaviour might have been influenced by government telling them to get back to the office, back to school, back to university, and paying them to go out? There’s evidence that the meal deal has contributed to the second wave (as ever I’ll let you Google). Haven’t seen anything on the effect of illegal raves or whatever.
Bottom line: hard to blame people for taking a relaxed attitude when government is telling them to do just that, while lying and failing on every measure except blame shifting. I mean, that’s me personally. YMMV.
Regarding an economic plan, yes that’s a big one isn’t it. An opportunity to experiment with universal basic income? With re-building work patterns to accommodate caring duties? With supporting anchor institutions? I’m not an economist, but it seems like squandering a good R rate for an extremely short term boost to the hospitality industry that might have been delivered in an alternative manner was...not good value.
mandryka
pfm Member
Agreed. We were all encouraged to eat out and go back to the office. And eating out and the returning to the office didn’t lead to anything which couldn’t be controlled by local lockdowns.
The current growth in new cases started with infections rising in the under 25s. And it’s that which makes me think that it’s their distinctive behaviours which is at the root at this.
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