Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[davek]

I'm not suggesting we just crack on and I live in a T3 area. For the last eight weeks nothing round me has been open. I've done nothing but go to the shop and two days a week to an office and, in the last 2 weeks, go to my mum and dad's every few days.

It's got nothing to do with brainwashing, or neo-liberalism. I'm talking about people's lives, not a market.

You brought up that we're in the flu season. But the evidence is there that the flu numbers are down/that this dreaded overwhelming of the NHS - which is of course the concern - isn't happening.

It's crap, but the reason why is because those people that would have ended up in hospital with flu this year, have ended up in hospital with covid instead. It's grim, it doesn't make it right and they should get the vaccine asap but it's just common sense.

Another, three-month lockdown would ruin more people's lives in the long term than it would save in the short term.

We're barely into winter. Flu season in the UK is December-March.

 

[roydo]

We're barely into winter. Flu season in the UK is December-March.

They have vaccinated millions and millions more than normal this year. Well, offered a vax; no idea of the take up. I was jabbed the other week.

Time will tell.

 

[davek]

They have vaccinated millions and millions more than normal this year. Well, offered a vax; no idea of the take up. I was jabbed the other week.

Time will tell.

15M last year; 14M so far this year. I dont think the take up will be that much greater, tbh, not with the vaccines now being rolled out too.

 

[BlueToff]

The concern however is that this could still happen in January even without a spike in COVID related-admissions. With a spike in COVID cases, it's a real worry.

Yep and I get that. But that shouldn’t necessarily equate to a three month lockdown

 

[roydo]

15M last year; 14M so far this year. I dont think the take up will be that much greater, tbh, not with the vaccines now being rolled out too.

That seems odd. Not sure where you got the figures from, but in a normal year, they offer a vax to sommet like the over 68s, or some random age group. This year its everyone over 50, plus some school ages.

 

[tsubaki]

As much as you may be able to cope in your dystopian paradise of doom and gloom, not everybody will be able to survive in your hoped for future.

Terrifying amounts of suicides, debt, job losses, relationship breakdowns, countless mental health issues, massive needless non-covid related deaths re-missed cancer, Cardiovascular disease, etc... Then when it gets to Easter, well lets lock it all down again and aim for September, I'm alright Jack though yayyyy....

Covid is a shoite-sandwich no issues regarding that, but to close the world down and let everything else fail just isn't practical.
I often wonder how the people of this country got through the Blitz, Spanish Flu, WW1/2...The scaremongering and clickbaiting in the media isn't doing anybody any favours in that respect though

.

Sorry to do this to you, but this argument (and its repeated often on here and in the wider media) is quite frankly absolute rubbish.

COVID (like the flu but to a much greater extent) is, however it is handled once a country loses control of it, always going to result in greater numbers of suicides, countless mental health issues, breakdowns, massive numbers of non-covid related deaths re missed cancer, cardiovascular diseases etc. It is a global pandemic that can only be defended against by having a really good public health system that picks up cases early enough, isolates them and prevents them from infecting others.

If that doesn't happen - and it hasnt here - then what you end up with is hospitals filling up; this means more people dying from COVID and more people dying from a lack of treatment for other conditions that they would have been treated for if the pandemic wasnt going on.

This is obvious, and yet there are cretins in the media suggesting that if we didn't lockdown this would not happen; not only would it happen but it would happen far worse than it is now. Killing off so many people will ruin the lives of those left behind. So we are left with two choices - one very bad and one truly dreadful.

 

[Brennan]

That seems odd. Not sure where you got the figures from, but in a normal year, they offer a vax to sommet like the over 68s, or some random age group. This year its everyone over 50, plus some school ages.

Vaccine take up among over 65s in the UK is the highest ever this year.

 

[davek]

Vaccine take up among over 65s in the UK is the highest ever this year.

It's beeen going up each year for the last half decade.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

sometime between June and September for me lol

Will likely be longer than that.

I've already made peace that I'll get it at some point if I haven't already had it (was breathless with a tight chest for about 3 weeks back in Spring but wasn't eligible for the test at the time).

- I dont WFH
- Missus is a gym bunny, does a lot of swimming and works half at home half in office
- My lads primary school aged


No chance I'll avoid it for another year imo.

 

[Billy Dean]

Will likely be longer than that.

I've already made peace that I'll get it at some point if I haven't already had it (was breathless with a tight chest for about 3 weeks back in Spring but wasn't eligible for the test at the time).

I dont WFH
Missus is a gym bunny, does a lot of swimming and works half at home half in office

No chance I'll avoid it for another year imo.

Fair enough. I'm doing my best to avoid it even if I have to wait till next autumn. I don't want to be one of the 10% that gets long covid. My hope is that more vaccines start getting approved in the coming months to reduce the waiting time.

 

[BlueDraka]

Covid is a terrible illness for a very small minority of people same as cancer, dementia etc.
For me this has been handled badly. The lockdowns are mostly a waste of time.
I Googled past epedemics. Do any of the the older guys remember Hong Kong flu around 1968. 4 million dead worldwide and about 80000 in the UK. No lockdowns,. Business carried on the same. Just some strong medical advice.
Think the 24 HR news and internet has caused panic about covid. The daily death toll,. What is that all about. Are they going to start daily death tolls for cancer,. Flu etc
I repeat covid is obviously a terrible illness for a minority of people like other illness but has it been worth trashing the economy. I believe it could hav been handled a lot better.
I do wonder if you said to Whitty and the others. Yes we will go into lockdown but you will be furloughed and lose yr employment will they have been so keen. Lots of eminent scientists have argured against lockdowns but are not any space to argue their point of view on the main news channels

 

[Nymzee]

Furlough is till April. There will be lockdowns.

 

[peteblue]

Covid is a terrible illness for a very small minority of people same as cancer, dementia etc.
For me this has been handled badly. The lockdowns are mostly a waste of time.
I Googled past epedemics. Do any of the the older guys remember Hong Kong flu around 1968. 4 million dead worldwide and about 80000 in the UK. No lockdowns,. Business carried on the same. Just some strong medical advice.
Think the 24 HR news and internet has caused panic about covid. The daily death toll,. What is that all about. Are they going to start daily death tolls for cancer,. Flu etc
I repeat covid is obviously a terrible illness for a minority of people like other illness but has it been worth trashing the economy. I believe it could hav been handled a lot better.
I do wonder if you said to Whitty and the others. Yes we will go into lockdown but you will be furloughed and lose yr employment will they have been so keen. Lots of eminent scientists have argured against lockdowns but are not any space to argue their point of view on the main news channels

It was a different age. Then, the government and NHS could get on with dealing with it without the hysteria of today’s internet and Twitter, which undoubtedly has panicked both scientists and politicians to do something. People were different as well though, most adults had lived through the war years and were not so easily frightened, so tended to shrug their shoulders and get on with life. I think Covid will end up taking as many if not more lives, but the effect upon the economy with these nonsensical and arbitrary rules and lockdowns (substantial meals, four nation approach etc etc) will eventually be viewed as collective madness.....

 

[grandjoeblue]

Furlough is till April. There will be lockdowns.

100% there will be more of these ineffective half arsed lockdowns which essentially involves closing just down hospitality and gyms. Allowing the covid factories (Schools/Unis) to continue is an absolute disgrace.

 

[Billy Dean]

Covid is a terrible illness for a very small minority of people same as cancer, dementia etc.
For me this has been handled badly. The lockdowns are mostly a waste of time.
I Googled past epedemics. Do any of the the older guys remember Hong Kong flu around 1968. 4 million dead worldwide and about 80000 in the UK. No lockdowns,. Business carried on the same. Just some strong medical advice.
Think the 24 HR news and internet has caused panic about covid. The daily death toll,. What is that all about. Are they going to start daily death tolls for cancer,. Flu etc
I repeat covid is obviously a terrible illness for a minority of people like other illness but has it been worth trashing the economy. I believe it could hav been handled a lot better.
I do wonder if you said to Whitty and the others. Yes we will go into lockdown but you will be furloughed and lose yr employment will they have been so keen. Lots of eminent scientists have argured against lockdowns but are not any space to argue their point of view on the main news channels

I think, as others have already posted, that the only way to avoid lockdowns is to have tracing systems that work properly. Unfortunately only a few Asian countries have managed it. No one in Europe has.