Coronavirus Thread

[st albans fox]

57 minutes ago, OrielCaziado said:

Just seen a video of Gerwyn Price who’s had to pull out the Premier League Darts due to a positive test. He’s just done a video claiming to have taken three home tests since and all three have returned negative. Is this what we’ve got to look forward to with unreliable tests preventing us doing things.  

Surely positive lateral flow tests for professional sportsmen have to be ratified via a PCR ??

[filbertway]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying it’s better for someone infectious to be driving a car full of people on a four hour journey who will then spend a few days mixing in a closely packed mass gathering than to know that they’re infectious and therefore not to put those four people and ultimately many others in any peril ??

 

The small percentage of false positives is a small price to pay for people to be mixing safely .....

 

What's the point in vaccinating people if were going to live in fear of people potentially having a virus that were vaccinating people against.

 

Just shut everything down, cancel peoples lives and let's have rations delivered by the army.

[String fellow]

18 minutes ago, Voll Blau said:

 

It's whataboutery like this that lets this clown get away with his horrific mismanagement of this crisis.

 

A Labour government would have been torn to shreds in the press for the restrictions that were implemented in most countries (let alone if they'd have fouled up so badly they had to introduce the restrictions we've had here over the past year) to the extent where they'd have probably been frit to death of actually doing most of what became necessary because of the fear of the public reaction. The British public seem a lot more relaxed about the Tories actually taking away their freedoms than than they do about Labour hypothetically doing it.

Tbh, the virus has made fools of country's leaders across the globe, due to its unpredictable nature. Germany under Merkel was supposedly handling their crisis well, but even her responses to it have been falling apart recently. Right now countries like Germany are looking at the UK's current situation with a certain amount of envy. So carry on knocking the PM if you like, but remember that it's mainly down to his government's efforts that we're in a far better place now than a lot of other countries. In Eastern Europe, South America and India, for example, things are getting really bad.  

[baylisslcfc]

34 minutes ago, Voll Blau said:

 

It's whataboutery like this that lets this clown get away with his horrific mismanagement of this crisis.

 

A Labour government would have been torn to shreds in the press for the restrictions that were implemented in most countries (let alone if they'd have fouled up so badly they had to introduce the restrictions we've had here over the past year) to the extent where they'd have probably been frit to death of actually doing most of what became necessary because of the fear of the public reaction. The British public seem a lot more relaxed about the Tories actually taking away their freedoms than than they do about Labour hypothetically doing it.

I’ve often thought about how the public would’ve reacted if Labour had won the election in 2019 and been the governing party.
 

Could you imagine the reaction if a Corbyn-led Labour government had introduced the furlough scheme and such similar measures?

 

[CosbehFox]

1 minute ago, String fellow said:

Tbh, the virus has made fools of country's leaders across the globe, due to its unpredictable nature. Germany under Merkel was supposedly handling their crisis well, but even her responses to it have been falling apart recently. Right now countries like Germany are looking at the UK's current situation with a certain amount of envy. So carry on knocking the PM if you like, but remember that it's mainly down to his government's efforts that we're in a far better place now than a lot of other countries. In Eastern Europe, South America and India, for example, things are getting really bad.  

Aye yeah 50k less deaths (77k compared 127k) and an economy with a five percentage reduction as opposed to UK’s 10% reduction 
 

Today daily cases of 6k and deaths of 59. Not too bad for a country with another 30 million in it 

[st albans fox]

5 minutes ago, filbertway said:

What's the point in vaccinating people if were going to live in fear of people potentially having a virus that were vaccinating people against.

 

Just shut everything down, cancel peoples lives and let's have rations delivered by the army.

I get your point but whilst we don’t understand so much about what’s going on and how the virus will respond to a highly vaccinated population, surely some further precautionary policies aren’t  unreasonable ........ they can always be reversed in they aren’t considered necessary when we get there ... 

[CosbehFox]

4 minutes ago, baylisslcfc said:

I’ve often thought about how the public would’ve reacted if Labour had won the election in 2019 and been the governing party.
 

Could you imagine the reaction if a Corbyn-led Labour government had introduced the furlough scheme and such similar measures?

 

Well we only have to look at the reaction (or lack of) to the recent increase in corporation tax for that 

[String fellow]

It's perhaps a good sign that in this country now, we're more worried about whether or not we'll be allowed to attend a football match next month than we are about whether we'll be ill with Covid-19 next month. In many parts of the world right now, that's not the case.  

[Paninistickers]

1 hour ago, Voll Blau said:

 

It's whataboutery like this that lets this clown get away with his horrific mismanagement of this crisis.

 

A Labour government would have been torn to shreds in the press for the restrictions that were implemented in most countries (let alone if they'd have fouled up so badly they had to introduce the restrictions we've had here over the past year) to the extent where they'd have probably been frit to death of actually doing most of what became necessary because of the fear of the public reaction. The British public seem a lot more relaxed about the Tories actually taking away their freedoms than than they do about Labour hypothetically doing it.

The middle aged, comfortably off middle england plus the low / low to middle income, working suburban English  (certainly not british) seem to have some cult like worship of this appalling man. It's not a pro Tory thing. Theresa May or even Cameron would've been destroyed for this...

 

 

 

 

[Heathrow fox]

50 minutes ago, baylisslcfc said:

I’ve often thought about how the public would’ve reacted if Labour had won the election in 2019 and been the governing party.
 

Could you imagine the reaction if a Corbyn-led Labour government had introduced the furlough scheme and such similar measures?

 

I don’t think the reaction would have been any different.The furlough and SE schemes benefited voters across the political spectrum.Both employers and employees.Maybe they would have tried for a higher %?Anyway I don’t think even the Sun would have applauded ten million being chucked on the doll overnight 

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

All this passport stuff and the idea of masks and distancing for at least another year because the vaccine isn't good enough has me a bit riled up. Either the vaccine works or it doesn't, don't get it. 

[SpacedX]

2 hours ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

No that's obviously not what I'm saying (and you knew that but whatever), what I'm saying is these LFT quick tests bring with them a number of other issues, it's not like it'll just be implemented and all the issues will suddenly go away. They also provide a false negative a lot of the time which I've seen first hand.

 

 The small price to pay has been said for about 1000 things now, delayed cancer treatments, masks, social distancing, lack of GPs, vaccinations, at what point does the 100s of small prices to pay actual start to become a huge price to pay?

 

Pointless saying much more because I can't be arsed for another night of debating on here, **** it.

The benefit of the lateral flow test is that it can deliver a rapid result, in 30 minutes. It identifies positive cases with high levels of virus that are easy to transmit to others which helps to intercept and reduce further infections. It's very effective in cases of high viral load - 90% accuracy. It basically looks for antigens, proteins on the surface of the virus and is intended to help identify asymptomatic cases.

 

The problem with these tests is that they work a lot less well in...you guessed it, people that are asymptomatic and furthermore, the diagnostic tests vary wildly depending on the brands employed. The Innova test may miss as many as half of Covid-19 cases. 

 

I noticed today when Boris was saying that he conducted a test on himself whenever he had an engagement and Chris Whitty was quick to interject and point out that where it may tell you that you have the virus, it didn't necessary detect all cases. Ostensibly, Boris seemed genuinely unaware of this, but then he's so disingenuous, I have no doubt whatsoever that he's fully aware of the limitations of the scheme. 

 

 

[BenTheFox]

35 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

The middle aged, comfortably off middle england plus the low / low to middle income, working suburban English  (certainly not british) seem to have some cult like worship of this appalling man. It's not a pro Tory thing. Theresa May or even Cameron would've been destroyed for this...

 

 

 

 

Oh absolutely. People act like they know him personally and it's really weird. He has created this brand and people really buy into it. If you want to see evidence of it, all you have to do is see how many people call him by his first name. 

[baylisslcfc]

21 minutes ago, Heathrow fox said:

I don’t think the reaction would have been any different.The furlough and SE schemes benefited voters across the political spectrum.Both employers and employees.Maybe they would have tried for a higher %?Anyway I don’t think even the Sun would have applauded ten million being chucked on the doll overnight 

A Corbyn-led Labour government probably would have paid out at 100% instead of 80%. I do get the feeling that there would have been far more folk screaming about “Labour’s magic money tree” had it been them in power handing out large support payments. This isn’t to say that people haven’t been complaining anyway about the furlough and SE support. I just get the feeling that the objections would have been louder — especially from the press and portion of the population who had it in for Corbyn. All hypotheticals, but it’s just my two penn’orth. 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

18 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

People act like they know him personally and it's really weird.

He has created this brand and people really buy into it.

If you want to see evidence of it, all you have to do is see how many people call him by his first name. 

People warm to Boris - it's baffling for many of course but the brand does work.

Maybe Labour need to work on the 'first name brand' for their own leader as it's very easy to get wrong.

[Heathrow fox]

12 minutes ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

People warm to Boris - it's baffling for many of course but the brand does work.

Maybe Labour need to work on the 'first name brand' for their own leader as it's very easy to get wrong.

Well I know I would have jumped of the nearest cliff by now had May or Brown been addressing the nation this last 13 months.

[StanSP]

3 hours ago, DennisNedry said:

I think restrictions and lockdowns would have been more severe under Labour tbf. Not that that's a defence for BoJo of course.

 

Glad to hear this. Hope your recovery continues apace.

 

2 hours ago, Voll Blau said:

 

It's whataboutery like this that lets this clown get away with his horrific mismanagement of this crisis.

 

A Labour government would have been torn to shreds in the press for the restrictions that were implemented in most countries (let alone if they'd have fouled up so badly they had to introduce the restrictions we've had here over the past year) to the extent where they'd have probably been frit to death of actually doing most of what became necessary because of the fear of the public reaction. The British public seem a lot more relaxed about the Tories actually taking away their freedoms than than they do about Labour hypothetically doing it.

 

2 hours ago, String fellow said:

Tbh, the virus has made fools of country's leaders across the globe, due to its unpredictable nature. Germany under Merkel was supposedly handling their crisis well, but even her responses to it have been falling apart recently. Right now countries like Germany are looking at the UK's current situation with a certain amount of envy. So carry on knocking the PM if you like, but remember that it's mainly down to his government's efforts that we're in a far better place now than a lot of other countries. In Eastern Europe, South America and India, for example, things are getting really bad.  

To be fair, @Voll Blau was only making remarks in response to a very bizarre hypothetical scenario with no substance or basis at all and purely just deflects away from what Johnson has done badly.

 

I think it's fair for anyone to be able to never forget all the shit that this government is responsible for in the last 12 months (but sadly never will be made to show it by the looks of it) but also have some humility to recognise that they did get one thing right and that's the vaccination programme (with the help of the NHS of course; foolish to ignore that). 

 

It doesn't have to be one or the other or so divisive. I think it's fair game to 'knock the government/PM all you like' but at the same time recognise it has absolutely nothing to do with Starmer/Labour when they're the ones not in charge. The government have to step up when it comes to being partly responsible for the deaths of over 130,000 people. That fact should never escape anyone. 

[Heathrow fox]

1 hour ago, baylisslcfc said:

A Corbyn-led Labour government probably would have paid out at 100% instead of 80%. I do get the feeling that there would have been far more folk screaming about “Labour’s magic money tree” had it been them in power handing out large support payments. This isn’t to say that people haven’t been complaining anyway about the furlough and SE support. I just get the feeling that the objections would have been louder — especially from the press and portion of the population who had it in for Corbyn. All hypotheticals, but it’s just my two penn’orth. 

Fair enough.Tbf Corbyn would’ve been hammered from the get go.Covid or no Covid.Let’s not forget that the £28000 cut of point has affected a fair few higher earners.Many Tory voters amongst them. 

[bovril]

59 minutes ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

People warm to Boris - it's baffling for many of course but the brand does work.

Maybe Labour need to work on the 'first name brand' for their own leader as it's very easy to get wrong.

If a political party need to work on the 'first name brand' of their leader in order for them to get elected then you might as well just cancel the UK right now as we are clearly beyond help. 

[leicsmac]

7 hours ago, ALC Fox said:

I know of an admin of a local Leicestershire-based private Facebook group (that's essentially designed to be a noticeboard for people in a certain local area and which has several thousand members) who is using said group to spread disinformation and conspiracy about Covid and the vaccines.

 

People like that are held as minor influential figures in the community and vulnerable/gullible people listen to them.

 

It's incredibly sad and genuinely gives me a heavy heart to know that this is happening so close to home and will potentially affect people I know.

Unfortunately misinformation and conspiracy regarding all of this is not just limited to that local area, it would seem. This thread itself has thrown up more than a few examples, too. I'm no fan of the current UK government whatsoever but the one thing they have done right out of all of this is roll out the vaccine the way it was needed to and they need to continue to make every encouragement for people to take it.

 

It's not just limited to Covid, either, which is worrying in of itself. This certainly won't be the last crisis nature chooses to throw at us and I really want to believe that if the next one is nastier people will actually have more of a sense of unity and accept what's going on, rather than it all ending up playing out like the first fifteen minutes of a post-apoc movie (which it would).

[Super_horns]

The travel industry are complaining but with the current situation in Europe is it right the PM holds off giving a set date for International travel?
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56644058

Edited 6 April 2021 by Super_horns

[Blue-fox]

5 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

The travel industry are complaining but with the current situation in Europe is it right the PM holds off giving a set date for International travel?
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56644058

Yeah. Would be madness to open the borders. 

[Dahnsouff]

1 hour ago, Super_horns said:

The travel industry are complaining but with the current situation in Europe is it right the PM holds off giving a set date for International travel?
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56644058

How can the government give a date for opening borders to lands who’s pandemic management they do not control? It has to be a reactionary measure. Never will understand this date demand from people in these situations.

[st albans fox]

8 hours ago, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

All this passport stuff and the idea of masks and distancing for at least another year because the vaccine isn't good enough has me a bit riled up. Either the vaccine works or it doesn't, don't get it. 

I don’t think it’s that context .....personally, I just want to be able to hug my family (and see my mum before she really doesn’t know who I am ) and if the price of that is sticking a swab down my throat now and again/ having an app on my phone and wearing a bit of polyester in front of my mouth sometimes then quite frankly I don’t give a sh1t ....... too many are looking for mission creep. 
 

that same argument applies to everything else that I took for granted from going to the shops all the way up to long haul business travel. 

once it’s considered safe then there won’t be the need for the masks and tests ......if we had these tests available across the world twelve months ago then we wouldn’t still be in the midst of this. ITS THE WAY OUT OF IT !!

 

 

[CosbehFox]

Just read about Israel. It’s clear we are attempting to copy their processes. They are at a low number of deaths and cases. 60% vaccinated. They have introduced a ‘green app’. Masks are still supposed to be wore but that’s dropping off. Tough border measures too.