Main Coronavirus / Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[nicko31]

Its a reminder to those who can get vaccinated to do it now during the relative summer lull infections. No one knows how their body will react to Covid until they get it

Once we get schools back in September and more and more return to offices I'd be very surprised if we don't see a strong surge, cases number I should add are 30 times that of a year ago already.

Globally we're still in the middle of the pandemic, I wish this was over but it ain't...

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

This is going incredibly well. Opening up when they did is probably the best decision the government mate throughout the whole pandemic.

Note how the new cases have dropped - but now the trend has flattened but remained persistant. This is absolutely perfect, an ideal scenario. It means that there is a healthy flow of natural and reinforced immunities, whilst keeping the NHS safe and fatalities low.

Brilliant. Leading the world by some distance.

I do wonder what the lowest it will get and when the gov will decide to stop reporting daily

 

[dazzer6666]

This is going incredibly well. Opening up when they did is probably the best decision the government mate throughout the whole pandemic.

Note how the new cases have dropped - but now the trend has flattened but remained persistant. This is absolutely perfect, an ideal scenario. It means that there is a healthy flow of natural and reinforced immunities, whilst keeping the NHS safe and fatalities low.

Brilliant. Leading the world by some distance.

Will be interesting to see if infections stay round current levels and (in a couple of weeks) there is a bigger drop-off in deaths and hospitalisations (the latter are already falling). I imagine numbers for all three will be reported for a long time yet but it does feel as though we are very much moving into the ‘living with it’ phase, at least domestically.

 

[Weststander]

This is going incredibly well. Opening up when they did is probably the best decision the government mate throughout the whole pandemic.

Note how the new cases have dropped - but now the trend has flattened but remained persistant. This is absolutely perfect, an ideal scenario. It means that there is a healthy flow of natural and reinforced immunities, whilst keeping the NHS safe and fatalities low.

Brilliant. Leading the world by some distance.

Brighton seafront today, the Palace Pier, The Lanes was incredibly busy, despite the wind! Families and young folk on holiday or daytrippers.

On a par with a busy sunny Sunday, except the beach was clear.

Genuinely, I'm so pleased for all the traders and restauranteurs after the 16 months they endured.

 

[Randy McNob]

This is going incredibly well. Opening up when they did is probably the best decision the government mate throughout the whole pandemic.

Note how the new cases have dropped - but now the trend has flattened but remained persistant. This is absolutely perfect, an ideal scenario. It means that there is a healthy flow of natural and reinforced immunities, whilst keeping the NHS safe and fatalities low.

Brilliant. Leading the world by some distance.

I wish people would avoid the last sentence. Winning the war on Covid is not about being better than other countries, in fact its the opposite. This a global pandemic, it does not discriminate, we all catch it and spread it exactly the same way whoever and wherever we are and we only beat it if we all beat it together. Demagogues like Johnson and Trump used it as political capital to further their divide and rule agenda. saddened but not surprised people still buy into it....

 

[Fat Boy Fat]

There is no war on covid. The war was lost in March 2020 when we failed to contain it. Covid is the victor - and its reward is that it will exist amongst us for the rest of time.

You're right that it's not a competition with other countries - except maybe from an economic perspective - but we still can be relieved that we are leading the world in respect of living with covid.

Strange, I thought that was Sweden's title!

 

[dazzer6666]

Ferguson now blaming the Euros for his predictions being wildly inaccurate………..

Professor Neil Ferguson has admitted that his prediction that Britain would face 100,000 Covid cases per day once lockdown restrictions eased on July 19 was wrong.

The Imperial College professor, once known as Professor Lockdown for his support of strict Covid measures, has blamed the Euros 2020 for his predictions being incorrect.

He said that the football championship had created an "artificially inflated level of contact", which led to his predictions in July that the UK would hit such a high number of daily Covid cases following phase four of unlocking.

Professor Ferguson said that cases decreased after the tournament ended, and added that the pingdemic had a "reasonable effect" on making it harder for the virus to spread.

The former member of the Government’s Sage group also raised hopes that the pandemic will largely be under control in Britain by the autumn, due to the vaccines "dramatically" changing the relationship between cases and hospitalisation.

In an interview with the Times, he said that Covid was "going to transition quite quickly in a few months to be more something we live with and manage through vaccination rather than crisis measures".

He also told the newspaper that lockdowns are “unlikely” to be needed to control the pandemic in the UK in future.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

The new lambda variant 'Potential threat to human society'

https://www.newsweek.com/lambda-covid-variant-potential-threat-society-researchers-1616556?amp=1

 

[beorhthelm]

...He said that the football championship had created an "artificially inflated level of contact", which led to his predictions in July that the UK would hit such a high number of daily Covid cases following phase four of unlocking.

Professor Ferguson said that cases decreased after the tournament ended, and added that the pingdemic had a "reasonable effect" on making it harder for the virus to spread.

wait, so the increased contacts led to lower spread? which everyone was saying led to increased cases? could just admit model was wrong.

 

[The Clamp]

The new lambda variant 'Potential threat to human society'

https://www.newsweek.com/lambda-covid-variant-potential-threat-society-researchers-1616556?amp=1

Boffins can't get enough of this virus. They love using scary terms like "threat to human society". It's the nerds' moment in the spotlight and they don't want to give it up.

 

[e77]

The new lambda variant 'Potential threat to human society'

https://www.newsweek.com/lambda-covid-variant-potential-threat-society-researchers-1616556?amp=1

I have been accused, possibly with some justification, of being a sourpuss on matters Covid but any variant that wipes out all in front of it isn't going to last long because we would all retreat indoors again.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Cases going up again - how much will they go up by?

 

[Billy the Fish]

Boffins can't get enough of this virus. They love using scary terms like "threat to human society". It's the nerds' moment in the spotlight and they don't want to give it up.

You have to choose the right boffins. This is a very good interview from someone practising real covid science

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...demic-has-created-a-market-for-gloom-and-doom

 

[dazzer6666]

Cases going up again - how much will they go up by?

Lower today than the previous 5 days but higher than reported last Monday……no real trend at the moment I would say…..?

 

[highflyer]

The new lambda variant 'Potential threat to human society'

https://www.newsweek.com/lambda-covid-variant-potential-threat-society-researchers-1616556?amp=1

I'm pretty cautious, and you can't dismiss any new variant threat lightly, but 'more resistant' can mean just a little bit less likely to stop you catching it, but still effective and still massively improving utcomes if you do catch it. So far where we've seen variants being 'more resistant' (and it seems inevitable they will move that way) it certainly doesn't mean 'resistant', and if it's less transmissable that other variants it's unlikely to dominate.
As I think has been noted elsewhere, the type of mutation required to be fully resistant to vaccines, would render the virus more or less untransmissable. Something to do with changes in spike proteins...I think.

Also, and very importantly, we are going to be reliant on regular booster jabs for some time to come, at least for those potentially more vulnerable, and these can be tweaked to address any future (significant) vaccine resistance.

 

[highflyer]

Lower today than the previous 5 days but higher than reported last Monday……no real trend at the moment I would say…..?

Trend in both government and Zoe app figures now definitely upward, but not dramatic and expected/inevitable (for most of us anyway) after the final stage of opening up.

Hopefully any rise will stay reasonably gentle and shouldn't cause a major problem or change in terms of restrictions, given that (by my reckoning) we are at a ratio of cases/death of about 1/750 compared to 1/100 pre-vaccine.

 

[Bozza]

Great work all round...

Anti-vaccine protesters storm BBC HQ – years after it moved out

Confused anti-vaccine protesters stormed what they thought was a major BBC building on Monday, apparently unaware the corporation largely moved out almost a decade ago.

Rather than target the BBC’s news operation, which they hold responsible for promoting Covid-19 vaccines, a handful of protesters gained access to Television Centre in west London, which is now predominantly rented by ITV to film its daytime shows such as Good Morning Britain and This Morning.

The Loose Women co-host Charlene White thanked the security team who kept protesters out of the studio while her ITV programme was on air on Monday afternoon.

“Not sure what protesters were hoping to achieve, but all they would’ve found was me, Jane, Nadia and Penny on Loose Women talking about the menopause,” she said.​

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...protesters-storm-bbc-hq-years-after-moved-out

 

[dazzer6666]

Trend in both government and Zoe app figures now definitely upward, but not dramatic and expected/inevitable (for most of us anyway) after the final stage of opening up.

Hopefully any rise will stay reasonably gentle and shouldn't cause a major problem or change in terms of restrictions, given that (by my reckoning) we are at a ratio of cases/death of about 1/750 compared to 1/100 pre-vaccine.

Not convinced yet. Today the lowest for several days and only marginally above last Tues........

Regardless, good news given the time passed since Freedom Day

 

[LamieRobertson]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58159573.amp

Some interesting points made by the Prof

 

[Swansman]

IMO the pandemic is pretty tiresome and should end.