Main Coronavirus / Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[Kinky Gerbil]

I know someone in that grouping. Influenced by shite stirring anti vaxer, pandemic denying parents in Brighton and Lewes (the full bundle .... Icke’s a hero, the Gates’s are trying to murder us all, Clooney and the Clinton’s are child murderers, 5G, the vaccine is a microbot)

Thankfully, he’s changed his mind and will get the vax.

Effectively, the non vaccinated won’t be allowed in by most overseas holiday destinations. That certainly focuses minds

I have no time for them at all, I do enjoy a laugh watching the David Icke videos mind.

Stories today saying no holidays this year, whilst it’s not going to happen - it will put some of getting the jab and fuels the nutters.

 

[Weststander]

I have no time for them at all, I do enjoy a laugh watching the David Icke videos mind.

Stories today saying no holidays this year, whilst it’s not going to happen - it will put some of getting the jab and fuels the nutters.

I’ve known all about Icke’s fantasies for 30 years .... I worked with a disciple who believed every word and some. You wouldn’t believe some of the bullshit we heard.

Yep, as a piss taker, I loved it and still do. So much comic value.

But my joking attitude has caused fury. James O’Brien on LBC when he covers this subject (too rarely imo) is great value, he takes apart the arguments.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I’ve known all about Icke’s fantasies for 30 years .... I worked with a disciple who believed every word and some. You wouldn’t believe some of the bullshit we heard.

Yep, as a piss taker, I loved it and still do. So much comic value.

But my joking attitude has caused fury. James O’Brien on LBC when he covers this subject (too rarely imo) is great value, he takes apart the arguments.

It’s great, the mentalist lady whose book “called to him” and he met was based in Hassocks

Hassocks is finally on the map

 

[Solid at the back]

The situation in the UK is now described as 'perilous'. Massive drop in available vaccines for at least a month and a third tidal wave of infections on our doorstep in Europe which has previously ended up on our shores. We must redouble our efforts to keep up the hard work with social distancing and keeping non essential retail and hospitality closed for a while yet to prevent a third wave here.

You're an absolute disgrace. You come on here and hope to put the fear of God into people. Think what you are doing. You don't post any sources, I'm still waiting for the source of the information you came on here and said a week or so ago about the N501Y mutation and how if a variant has this mutation "it's extremely unlikely that vaccines will work" - pathetic, you need to grow up.

 

[nicko31]

The Guardian or Independent reported this week that 48% of French adults surveyed don’t trust the Pfizer vaccine, 80% OAZ. Apparently the French have a longstanding mistrust of vaccines per se.

I wonder how Macron and Castex can break that mindset?

People are sadly dying and others will follow them.

Yes the French need to get a grip unless they want to lose their summer

 

[nicko31]

Good thread of where the EU have stuffed up on their vaccine rollout so far. (a few different take from the toxic tabloid bilge on their shores)

Does seem they were pretty naive and relied on too much good faith from others....

https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1372897635577761803

 

[beorhthelm]

Good thread of where the EU have stuffed up on their vaccine rollout so far. (a few different take from the toxic tabloid bilge on their shores)

Does seem they were pretty naive and relied on too much good faith from others....

https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1372897635577761803

procurement problems doing a very good job of distracting from how poor the distribution of what they have.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Listening to some of the reports today about not opening up this year/schools shouldn’t be opening etc, do they not understand the damage they are doing?

If people think taking the vaccine wont make any difference to going back to normal it will hit the uptake.

The Zero covid mob are as dangerous as anti vax groups.

 

[Hilltop]

Listening to some of the reports today about not opening up this year/schools shouldn’t be opening etc, do they not understand the damage they are doing?

If people think taking the vaccine wont make any difference to going back to normal it will hit the uptake.

The Zero covid mob are as dangerous as anti vax groups.

When you say anti vax groups, are they people who are against all types of vaccinations?

Also, the zero covid mob, why are they dangerous and who is their leader?

Is there a mob for people who want to get back to normal because they're starving to death and putting their health in big danger, not because they've signed up to an organisation against either vaccinations or Covid?

 

[e77]

I am certainly not antivacc and only want restrictions to remain as long as they are needed but the timing of getting vaccines out to the under 50s is going to be important in ensuring co-operation from the public. The young have made a lot of sacrifices in the last year which was necessary but any extended delay in getting them vaccinated and things opened up is likely to fuel growing resentment.

Until the working age population is vaccinated it becomes hard to see how the economy can fully open up again. Maybe more importantly people's lives have been put on hold.

The vaccination programme has done well so far. It has to finish the job though.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Good thread of where the EU have stuffed up on their vaccine rollout so far. (a few different take from the toxic tabloid bilge on their shores)

Does seem they were pretty naive and relied on too much good faith from others....

https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1372897635577761803

I'm not surprised you follow that Europhile and committed remainer! Some of that is good analysis but he couldn't help himself and slipped in some inevitable porkies/EU propoganda

 

[Poojah]

Listening to some of the reports today about not opening up this year/schools shouldn’t be opening etc, do they not understand the damage they are doing?

If people think taking the vaccine wont make any difference to going back to normal it will hit the uptake.

The Zero covid mob are as dangerous as anti vax groups.

These negative undertones are really starting to wind me up. This was one from earlier today, Masks and social distancing could last years, according to an apparently leading epidemiologist.

This was one particular quote: “people have got used to those lower-level restrictions now, and people can live with them, and the economy can still go on with those less severe restrictions in place”.

I think that massively misses the mark of where the public mindset is at. People have largely followed the rules, as painful as they have been, because doing otherwise meant catastrophe. We are fast approaching having 50% of the population vaccinated with at least one dose and are now moving well into the lower risk groups. Already we are at fewer than 50 deaths per day in a country of 65 million people and that figure is falling. I appreciate that's a number that can move up as well as down, but the data now seems to suggest that it is immunisation, not lockdown, which is having the most profound effect and whilst we might go onto see an increase in cases in the coming weeks, that shouldn't correlate with deaths as it has in the past. Once the death number starts to reach relatively inconsequential levels and settles there, no way will people support any unnecessary restriction of their freedoms.

Here's what life looks like in Israel right now. Yes, a couple of masks present amongst staff, but everything else about this footage is reflective of happy, normal living:

[tweet]1371814003715014656[/tweet]
Don't get me wrong, I am not an anti-lockdown nutjob - far from it. I have supported each lockdown every time a fresh one has had to be implemented, and I even felt that we should have acted earlier at the back end of last year. However, there needs to be an end in sight to all this - this is not a healthy way for people to live, physically or mentally. To casually suggest that we're going to be living like this for years to come, and that people will just be fine with it as we're all used to it now, is a dangerous miscalculation. If it's true, fine, then let's be transparent with the public and present the data and modelling that supports the argument - but don't just throw out dystopian soundbites to secure your five minutes of fame in the national media, which is precisely what I think is happening here.

Regardless of what happens from here on in, the public in general will remain scarred by the experience of the pandemic. I consider myself to be pretty mentally and emotionally robust, but I'd be lying if I said the last twelve months haven't left me feeling a little bumped and bruised. The more anxious people of society, or which there are probably a lot more now than there were 18 months ago, are naturally going to ruminate on negative headlines such as these. The media, and the talking heads feeding it, need to be more responsible in what they publish.

Rant over.

 

[beorhthelm]

These negative undertones are really starting to wind me up. This was one from earlier today, Masks and social distancing could last years, according to an apparently leading epidemiologist.

ah, a man from Public Health England says so. where was their planning and preparation in response to a pandemic? instead they spent their time telling us what we cant eat and drink. once the population is vaccinated, measures are pointless.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Good thread of where the EU have stuffed up on their vaccine rollout so far. (a few different take from the toxic tabloid bilge on their shores)

Does seem they were pretty naive and relied on too much good faith from others....

https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1372897635577761803

A very smart move by Hancock not to trust the orange tosser.

https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1372897647686782976?s=19

 

[dsr-burnley]

I am certainly not antivacc and only want restrictions to remain as long as they are needed but the timing of getting vaccines out to the under 50s is going to be important in ensuring co-operation from the public. The young have made a lot of sacrifices in the last year which was necessary but any extended delay in getting them vaccinated and things opened up is likely to fuel growing resentment.

Until the working age population is vaccinated it becomes hard to see how the economy can fully open up again. Maybe more importantly people's lives have been put on hold.

The vaccination programme has done well so far. It has to finish the job though.

About 2,000 people under 50 have died with or of the virus in the past year. That includes the times when it was rampant and the hospitals were full. Now that the hospitals are not full and there is much less of the virus around, and deaths in healthy under 50's is likely to run at about 1 a week. Not enough to justify shutdowns.

 

[dsr-burnley]

I'm not surprised you follow that Europhile and committed remainer! Some of that is good analysis but he couldn't help himself and slipped in some inevitable porkies/EU propoganda

He does slip in a line about how the EU's fault was that it expected that countries would play be the rules of the free market, and the UK hasn't. Except - the UK funded research funding at Oxford University and AstraZeneca, the UK agreed to buy and pay for hundreds of millions of doses of AstraZeneca even if it didn't work, and the UK negotiated that as a result the UK would have first dibs on AstraZeneca's UK production. That is exactly playing by the rules of the free market.

 

[e77]

About 2,000 people under 50 have died with or of the virus in the past year. That includes the times when it was rampant and the hospitals were full. Now that the hospitals are not full and there is much less of the virus around, and deaths in healthy under 50's is likely to run at about 1 a week. Not enough to justify shutdowns.

If you take that argument to it's logical conclusion it isn't worth vaccinating the under 50s as it probably won't kill us. However we can still carry it, vaccines aren't 100% effective so the venerable can still get it and even if it doesn't kill us it a a nasty illness that can turn into long Covid, the effects of which are still unknown.

If this is just a pause in vaccinating to catch up on boosters than fine but anything more than that is breaking the covenant that we are all in this together.

 

[dsr-burnley]

If you take that argument to it's logical conclusion it isn't worth vaccinating the under 50s as it probably won't kill us. However we can still carry it, vaccines aren't 100% effective so the venerable can still get it and even if it doesn't kill us it a a nasty illness that can turn into long Covid, the effects of which are still unknown.

If this is just a pause in vaccinating to catch up on boosters than fine but anything more than that is breaking the covenant that we are all in this together.

My argument, to keep it simple, was meant to imply that the cost in lives and livelihoods if the economy remains shut down would be greater than the cost in lives and livelihoods if we open up and a number (many less than 2,000) of under-50s die.

There is no reasonable way you could take that argument to any conclusion that it isn't worth getting the vaccine. Do you genuinely think that arguing for an opening up of the economy is on the same track as arguing for stopping vaccination?

 

[nicko31]

I'm not surprised you follow that Europhile and committed remainer! Some of that is good analysis but he couldn't help himself and slipped in some inevitable porkies/EU propoganda

Almost all of the UK press has been consumed in tribalism and has failed to report the story properly. Anyway I thought it was a good thread albeit long thread.

The EU were naive and relied too much on the goodwill of others. Like the UK they should have gone with a local pharma partner, ie UK gov dismissed Merck (USA) and Oxford ended up partnering with AZ. Instead Biotech went with Pfzier

The USA is looking after itself and not assisting its neighbours, instead its the EU has been supplying Canada with Pfzier when they should be getting it from a factory just over the border. They exported 31m doses, maybe too generous at this stage in the game

 

[Chicken Run]

The situation in the UK is now described as 'perilous'. Massive drop in available vaccines for at least a month and a third tidal wave of infections on our doorstep in Europe which has previously ended up on our shores. We must redouble our efforts to keep up the hard work with social distancing and keeping non essential retail and hospitality closed for a while yet to prevent a third wave here.

Can I ask, do you work, are you on furlough?