Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[davek]

Johnson didn't commit religion/race-based genocide and kick-start a world war that killed millions and millions of people.

What he and his government did do is fail to deal with a global pandemic – started in and covered up by China – with any sort of competency.

They're not the same, no, and should not at all be flippantly compared.

Their decisions have caused mass murder. They knew that not closing down the economy late-February/March last year would lead to thousands more deaths than would have happened. It was premeditated. They then went and dd the same late autumn. That wasn't an act of God, it was a conscious decision to sacrifice health to making money for commercial interests.

 

[LinekersLegs]

My parents in Spain aren’t allowed to travel outside their village, am hoping those sorts of measures bring down cases

 

[jonnyboy316]

My parents in Spain aren’t allowed to travel outside their village, am hoping those sorts of measures bring down cases

It is starting to look like what was feared the the U.K. variant is becoming dominant in other European countries. Spain running out of vaccine supply too

 

[jonnyboy316]

I've no idea to be honest Pete. As I said in the other thread, in Czech they're suggesting right now that the most vulnerable (80+ and healthcare workers) aren't likely to be vaccinated before the end of March, by which time you'd imagine we'll be a bit of the way down that list of vulnerabilities. As @Alan Whittle has said here today, this virus doesn't respect boundaries or nationalities, and we'll only get through this once all of humanity is protected from it. It's no good if the UK is all vaccinated and we've still got lots of folk across mainland Europe suffering from it. That's not a scenario in which things will get back to normal, and the bad blood from it would be monumental.

Given your circumstances I wouldn't begrudge you anything mate. As I said above to Pete, I don't reckon we'll be back to normal until Europe at the least has got this under control. We're so intertwined that we can't expect to be "non-plague island" while everyone else goes to pot. Couple that with the bad blood. You know? Some of my older in-laws are still bitter over Munich (understandably imo). I don't want us to be "Britain First".

I agree but at the same time have you seen they are having Rock concerts in New Zealand. By getting ahead and carefully controlling the borders we can achieve a much better domestic situation

 

[Rook]

Got my 1st vaccine 3 weeks ago, a little arm soreness, a bit of static. Honestly I couldn't make out anything. Yesterday I got the booster and holy @#$% its like Bill Gates is next to me 24/7.

 

[Brennan]

I agree but at the same time have you seen they are having Rock concerts in New Zealand. By getting ahead and carefully controlling the borders we can achieve a much better domestic situation

Indeed.

Rightly or wrongly from a moral perspective, having 50% of British people vaccinated will result in an infinitely more normal way of life for people living here than if those doses were spread among the whole of Europe.

 

[BlueToff]

Their decisions have caused mass murder. They knew that not closing down the economy late-February/March last year would lead to thousands more deaths than would have happened. It was premeditated. They then went and dd the same late autumn. That wasn't an act of God, it was a conscious decision to sacrifice health to making money for commercial interests.

Economy = livelihoods. You know that.

I don't disagree that they've cocked up. I do disagree with you comparing him to Hitler.

 

[BlueToff]

It is starting to look like what was feared the the U.K. variant is becoming dominant in other European countries. Spain running out of vaccine supply too

And it's because it's a strain that wasn't necessarily 'started' in the UK, simply discovered first here.

So i.e. there's no real way to control it.

Still, the vaccine seems to work as it should against it. Still no need for more panic (I know you're not doing that btw), just need to get as much vaccine out and keep doing that for the foreseable.

 

[LinekersLegs]

 

[Sassy Colombian]

Vaccine disparities already happening in the US

 

[Deleted member 48881]

Cash injection: could we cure all disease with a trillion dollars?

The long read: Could such a large amount of money end the Covid pandemic? Eradicate disease? Provide universal healthcare and fund vaccine research?

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I agree but at the same time have you seen they are having Rock concerts in New Zealand. By getting ahead and carefully controlling the borders we can achieve a much better domestic situation

With respect to New Zealand though, we're a very different nation. Heathrow alone is the busiest airport in the world. The straits of Dover is the busiest shipping channel in the world. We can't function by shutting ourselves off as that's not what the country is about. New Zealand also have no immediate neighbours to worry about, either in terms of trade or geography. We do. France, for instance, has been notably slow out of the blocks with their vaccine. If things get out of control there, do you think we could contain that and not let it get here too? Should we do so even if we could? I'd argue no to both.

 

[grandjoeblue]

I agree but at the same time have you seen they are having Rock concerts in New Zealand. By getting ahead and carefully controlling the borders we can achieve a much better domestic situation

Considering the amount of cases in the UK its almost impossible to get to the stage that New Zealand are at. We need to hope the vaccine is the answer, we would need 6 months of extremely hard lockdowns and then you have the problems of the truckers etc from Europe and people from the Republic mixing with Northern Ireland which would result in spread.

 

[jonnyboy316]

With respect to New Zealand though, we're a very different nation. Heathrow alone is the busiest airport in the world. The straits of Dover is the busiest shipping channel in the world. We can't function by shutting ourselves off as that's not what the country is about. New Zealand also have no immediate neighbours to worry about, either in terms of trade or geography. We do. France, for instance, has been notably slow out of the blocks with their vaccine. If things get out of control there, do you think we could contain that and not let it get here too? Should we do so even if we could? I'd argue no to both.

Agreed that zero Covid is not possible for us but if we were to have all over 18’s vaccinated by the summer I am not seeing why we would not have something resembling normality domestically but with strict border controls even if France are lagging

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

[

Vaccine disparities already happening in the US

Our UK elite supporting media are running the advertising for vaccine holidays for those who want and afford it. 21 day with villa and doses given as recommended, not the 3 month wait the rest of us have to put with. So you are not alone.