Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[ToffeeTim]

To be honest, if people are stupid then further lockdowns will follow. It's in our hands here. Act sensibly and we can live a relatively normal life over winter. Act like knobs and we'll be back to being heavily restricted.

I barely drink and what time the bars close is fairly irrelevant to me. But I think its absolute madness if they think everyone just goes home. They are going to cause lots of house parties, the thing they say is worst for spreading the virus.

 

[ToffeeTim]

I'm also concerned at how many other illnesses and diseases are being missed with the health service being stretched by covid.

 

[Tubey]

They're two completely separate things. Tracking and tracing only comes into play once someone is infected, and is the preserve of government, but not getting infected, or indeed behaving properly when you are infected, is down to us. I mean if @COYBL25 's family wanted, they could get out and about, go shopping, generally be knobheads despite having a confirmed test. That's not the government's fault, that's their responsibility. If the people his family has been in contact with haven't been informed so they can get themselves tested, then that's down to the government.

Yes, but they're encouraging the former because they haven't done the latter, so that there's a more "obvious" and tangible thing to blame.

 

[orly]

It's just a complete and utter mess. We've basically stayed home for 6 months, staying home another 6 months won't makes much difference, but anyone with half a brain could see the big "back to the office to save Pret" push was going to fall on its arse

 

[Deleted member 48881]

I barely drink and what time the bars close is fairly irrelevant to me. But I think its absolute madness if they think everyone just goes home. They are going to cause lots of house parties, the thing they say is worst for spreading the virus.

Yeah, it's ON everywhere. Nobody can stop that either.

 

[JLW]

 

[Harryflashman]

I fully understand the need to moderate behaviour and although they’ve made a Complete mess of this it’s an unenviable position for any government but I can’t help but think in March plenty of us speculating when the lockdown was lifted wouldn’t it just come back again and it has . That was 6/7 months ago when many pointed out without effective track and trace it feels like almost a can kicking exercise with huge economic impact . So now we start again with the impending flu season , then what we lift it again for another two months in next March ?

I’m not someone looking to dismiss this seriousness and I honestly don’t know what we should do and I know doing nothing is in no way the answer but this feels like another ‘short term circuit break’ with a long term impact . I’m just someone struggling to see where we go with this .

 

[ForeverBlue92]

I fully understand the need to moderate behaviour and although they’ve made a Complete mess of this it’s an unenviable position for why government but I can’t help but think in March plenty of us speculating when the lockdown was lifted wouldn’t it just come back again and it has . That was March when many pointed out without effective track and trace it feels like almost a can kicking exercise with huge economic impact . So now we start again with the impending flu season , then what we lift it again for another two months in next March ?

I’m not someone looking to dismiss this seriousness and I honestly don’t know what we should do and I know doing nothing is in no way the answer but this feels like another ‘short term circuit break’ with a long term impact . I’m just someone struggling to see where we go with this .

Why I feel like they'll be riots on the streets soon - people are fed up with being locked away for months to be told if you're good you'll get 2 or 3 months of relative freedom before the next one (if you haven't lost your job or business by then).

Things become a farce.

 

[Toffee in Jandals]

To be honest, if people are stupid then further lockdowns will follow. It's in our hands here. Act sensibly and we can live a relatively normal life over winter. Act like knobs and we'll be back to being heavily restricted.

It's the 80/20 rule though isn't it - the majority will be sensible and follow the rules, however in any society anywhere in the world, if there are no controls (i.e. a hard lockdown) there will be a minority who will ruin it for the rest of us - and then you'd be back to square one.

Not sure what the answer is for the UK, unfortunately much like the US, a combination of a ridiculously inefficient government and poor leadership, coupled with mixed messaging, has led to where we are now.

 

[JLW]

I fully understand the need to moderate behaviour and although they’ve made a Complete mess of this it’s an unenviable position for any government but I can’t help but think in March plenty of us speculating when the lockdown was lifted wouldn’t it just come back again and it has . That was 6/7 months ago when many pointed out without effective track and trace it feels like almost a can kicking exercise with huge economic impact . So now we start again with the impending flu season , then what we lift it again for another two months in next March ?

I’m not someone looking to dismiss this seriousness and I honestly don’t know what we should do and I know doing nothing is in no way the answer but this feels like another ‘short term circuit break’ with a long term impact . I’m just someone struggling to see where we go with this .

I look at it like this.
If we abide by the new rules were we can’t visit anyone else’s house then some of us could possibly never see our parents again! They could pass away for various reasons that’s not COVID in the near future. Possibly in the next 6 months
Sorry but No goverment rule will ever stop me from going to see my parents or other family members whenever I want.
just think about that for second, some Tory wank stain is telling you you can’t go and see your parents, grandkids or grandparents!!! Hahahahaha ‘Koff

 

[davek]

But what happens when we get on top of it again? Its like groundhog day, this will keep happening. What is the end game for any country with regards to Covid? There is no sign a vaccine will be ready soon and even if it is, you have billions of people you need to vaccinate, how long is that going to take? What about all the anti vaxxers and people (myself included) who would be extremely wary injecting something into the body that we do not know what the long term effects on us may be? Whose to say the vaccine will be enough to immunize the majority of people that do take it?

I wouldn't want to be in politics and be making these decisions that's for sure, i just do not see though how keep locking down areas is the answer long term...

A series of lockdowns and openings up again is the only strategy. Yes, Sweden have gone a different way (with mixed results), but they are a different society to us. The extent of the lockdowns will be determined by the government's performance in rolling out testing and tracing...at present pathetic.

There is every reason to believe a vaccine will be available early next year that works for a period of time. That and better methods of treating the worst affected and then adapting the rhythm of economic activity to this new reality are the way forward.

 

[davek]

Confidence is not going to return just because a few people 'say what about us?' due to all these new restrictions. There haven't been a lot of people out (round here at least) since it blew up. With the R factor increasing the death rate will climb and less people will go out anyhow as it may be easy to ignore now but it won't be when hundreds/thousands start dying per day if left unchecked.

Of course it will help the businesses temporarily with cashflow if they had less controls but it's also true to say it will just speed up that outcome if everyone started going out more, leading to a quicker total shutdown. Make no mistake the business models are on its ass. Less and less people have disposable income, so they are not going to be flocking out which in turn will make more people redundant, which leads to less...and so on.

In that respect I know it's usually good to have balance in the news but it's another case of mixed messages, 'Look this person says it's fine to go out until 3am' etc. People shouldn't be taking in what these with vested interests say, just like Karen Brady's 'stadiums are safer than your living room' statement, but you can see some do.

We need some way of mothballing these industries and business that don't get enough footfall to survive with a decent basic income from the government and help from financial institutions in regard to landlords/mortgages so they can surive this winter and come out the otherside. That or we lockdown completely for a month and control our borders to stop it being reintroduced. You can't have the virus and keep the economy pushing on, the two don't go together without Joe public completely buying in and not just following the rules but going further than the rules to protect themselves and others. Any thinking otherwise leads to the 'please go back to work' and then a few weeks later 'please stay at home' reactions that further confuse the narrative.

Tldr summary: The hospitality industry is screwed and no amount of wishful thinking is going to help.

Spot on.

Johnson has failed us again with that announcement of nothing much last night. We either have a "circuit break" or we dont. Nothing short of a full shutdown of industries that operate through face to face contact with lots of social inter-action will do if we want to control this virus in the next few months.

But I fully expect this horrendous get to pander to the business community again and leave the economy fully open as he did with disastrous consequences back in February/March.

 

[zzr45]

A series of lockdowns and openings up again is the only strategy. Yes, Sweden have gone a different way (with mixed results), but they are a different society to us. The extent of the lockdowns will be determined by the government's performance in rolling out testing and tracing...at present pathetic.

There is every reason to believe a vaccine will be available early next year that works for a period of time. That and better methods of treating the worst affected and then adapting the rhythm of economic activity to this new reality are the way forward.

It’s odd because you lumped Sweden in with us at the start of all this because they didn’t lock everyone down and they were every bit as bad as Murder Inc.

Now they have a lower death rate because ‘it’s a different society’.

Another Davek flip flop.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Meeting people in the garden over winter is a great idea from the government though. Who comes up with these ingenious ideas?

 

[ToffeeTim]

3 months of lockdown didn't eradicate the virus, so what good is this 2 week "circuit breaker" idea going to do. Other than put a lot of people out of work of course.