Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[grandjoeblue]

Either people don't give a fig, or they do, I lean towards the former :

Brexit has made it so that millions of people support the tories regardless of the decisions and failures made. The amount of times I have seen Corbyn would have done worse, wish I had a pound for every time and I could retire.

How can you do worse than highest death count in the world alongside the most days spent under lockdown? Its horrendously bad and now Labour are currently a non entity who don't have any policies.

Sadly if there was an election tomorrow Johnson and the tories would win again.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Looks like I might be going Russian.

Strange the Russian one. They seem to be touting it out all over the world at $10 a shot, but their own vaccination program is pretty poor.

They're not known for their humanitarian values so maybe they desperately need the dollars.

A good vaccine by all accounts. I wonder who they stole it from. Don't think it's approved yet by EMA so Spain must be using emergency rules. What's the planned period between doses in Spain? I'm surprised more countries haven't followed suit with the UK

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Vaccine nationalism is the absolute worst of humanity.

And as the article says, ultimately self defeating.

Wont compute with me myself and I, its innate.

 

[PSB1]

The Beeb reported on Tuesday afternoon that mortality rates according to excess deaths saw U K sitting 16th in the top twenty. If the per 100k metric is used, it sees U K as sixth. Quite how those figures help anyone escapes me.

When it comes to blame, where will the enquiry start? I'm one who potters around supermarkets fairly frequently. Going by the trolleys I see, the art of cooking has died a death ... so many trolleys filled with nutritional rubbish that inevitably leads to weight issues. Should the government be blamed for sidelining thorough home economics teaching? Perhaps the producers of this rubbish should be 'in court' for making it? Or did they merely fill a need manufacturing junk to 'help' families who are working all the hours God sends - or adults who simply can't afford the good stuff? And what about the pressures on school sports?

That's just on the obesity problem, which U K suffers from more than most.

Multi generational households help the spread of the virus. Age plays a large part. Both incredibly difficult to come to terms with.

The commentariat (pandering to the need for easy, identifiable scapegoats), happily produce league tables and shouty messages of condemnation because they know their consumers won't be happy with complexity and yet, complex the whole affair certainly is.

 

[davek]

The Beeb reported on Tuesday afternoon that mortality rates according to excess deaths saw U K sitting 16th in the top twenty. If the per 100k metric is used, it sees U K as sixth. Quite how those figures help anyone escapes me.

When it comes to blame, where will the enquiry start? I'm one who potters around supermarkets fairly frequently. Going by the trolleys I see, the art of cooking has died a death ... so many trolleys filled with nutritional rubbish that inevitably leads to weight issues. Should the government be blamed for sidelining thorough home economics teaching? Perhaps the producers of this rubbish should be 'in court' for making it? Or did they merely fill a need manufacturing junk to 'help' families who are working all the hours God sends - or adults who simply can't afford the good stuff? And what about the pressures on school sports?

That's just on the obesity problem, which U K suffers from more than most.

Multi generational households help the spread of the virus. Age plays a large part. Both incredibly difficult to come to terms with.

The commentariat (pandering to the need for easy, identifiable scapegoats), happily produce league tables and shouty messages of condemnation because they know their consumers won't be happy with complexity and yet, complex the whole affair certainly is.

It really ISN'T that complex.

This Tory government locked down late - twice. That led to tens of thousands more people losing their lives than would have happened.

It's that simple.

Bringing stuff like diet and multi-generational households into the debate is chaff designed to deflect.

 

[PaulPowersTash]

The Beeb reported on Tuesday afternoon that mortality rates according to excess deaths saw U K sitting 16th in the top twenty. If the per 100k metric is used, it sees U K as sixth. Quite how those figures help anyone escapes me.

When it comes to blame, where will the enquiry start? I'm one who potters around supermarkets fairly frequently. Going by the trolleys I see, the art of cooking has died a death ... so many trolleys filled with nutritional rubbish that inevitably leads to weight issues. Should the government be blamed for sidelining thorough home economics teaching? Perhaps the producers of this rubbish should be 'in court' for making it? Or did they merely fill a need manufacturing junk to 'help' families who are working all the hours God sends - or adults who simply can't afford the good stuff? And what about the pressures on school sports?

That's just on the obesity problem, which U K suffers from more than most.

Multi generational households help the spread of the virus. Age plays a large part. Both incredibly difficult to come to terms with.

The commentariat (pandering to the need for easy, identifiable scapegoats), happily produce league tables and shouty messages of condemnation because they know their consumers won't be happy with complexity and yet, complex the whole affair certainly is.

Top Post!

 

[davids]

Strange the Russian one. They seem to be touting it out all over the world at $10 a shot, but their own vaccination program is pretty poor.

They're not known for their humanitarian values so maybe they desperately need the dollars.

A good vaccine by all accounts. I wonder who they stole it from. Don't think it's approved yet by EMA so Spain must be using emergency rules. What's the planned period between doses in Spain? I'm surprised more countries haven't followed suit with the UK

As you might expect from Spain they'll sort out the vaccine roll out properly, mañana.

 

[grandjoeblue]

Strange the Russian one. They seem to be touting it out all over the world at $10 a shot, but their own vaccination program is pretty poor.

They're not known for their humanitarian values so maybe they desperately need the dollars.

A good vaccine by all accounts. I wonder who they stole it from. Don't think it's approved yet by EMA so Spain must be using emergency rules. What's the planned period between doses in Spain? I'm surprised more countries haven't followed suit with the UK

Russian people are great, the western propaganda tries to make them look bad. Just compare the wars started by USA vs wars started by Soviet Union/Russia.

The Russian vaccine has fantastic results.

 

[BlueToff]

It really ISN'T that complex.

This Tory government locked down late - twice. That led to tens of thousands more people losing their lives than would have happened.

It's that simple.

Bringing stuff like diet and multi-generational households into the debate is chaff designed to deflect.

They did lockdown too late and thousands of lives could have been saved.

But it would also be stupid to disregard

- Health
- Ageing population (is not mad that half of the UK adults have already received their first dose but bar key healthcare workers and the odd vulnerable person/carer, we haven't even done the under 50 groups yet?)
- Ethnicity (there's been such a devastating impact on the Asian population, for example - and unfortunately in some areas the uptake for the vaccine has been quite low in these groups too)
- Population (and the strain that has put on healthcare services in some areas compared to others)

It's all one big melting pot. This government didn't act quickly enough or decisively enough - we all know that. Yet it's not deflection tactics to see that there are also some underlying issues why the UK (and indeed Europe) have been badly hit.

Now, the above categories aren't really something we can change in terms of an ageing pop (unless younger people start popping out kids sharpish), or population or the ethnic groups - they're doing nothing wrong by having the grandma live in the same household. The one thing we can tackle is health. There has to be a push towards a healthier way of living. If that's one of the positives to come from lockdown - people being more self aware but maybe also using time they would have spent commuting to work (and that can obviously be extremely fatiguing day-in day-out) to exercise, then that's a good thing.

As a way of dealing with this thing, nearly every country banned exercise, yet didn't ban people from smoking - y'know, something which literally kills you from the inside and attacks your lungs. Bit mad, isn't it, when there's a severe respiratory illness knocking about.

I say all of the above while again reiterating the point that ultimately we can't have the biggest death toll in Europe and not blame the government. They are absolutely to blame for their haphazard approach. Yet, there's also other factors which must be taken into account too.

 

[BlueToff]

Russian people are great, the western propaganda tries to make them look bad. Just compare the wars started by USA vs wars started by Soviet Union/Russia.

The Russian vaccine has fantastic results.

Bloody hell alright Vladimir.

Don't think @Barnfred 55 was talking about 'Russian people'. He was referencing their government and how they probably don't give a flying f*** about their own people, as long as they look good around the world.

 

[BlueToff]

Brexit has made it so that millions of people support the tories regardless of the decisions and failures made. The amount of times I have seen Corbyn would have done worse, wish I had a pound for every time and I could retire.

How can you do worse than highest death count in the world alongside the most days spent under lockdown? Its horrendously bad and now Labour are currently a non entity who don't have any policies.

Sadly if there was an election tomorrow Johnson and the tories would win again.

Labour have been hopeless since 2017.

 

[mrb85]

It stands to reason to me that when the restrictions come to an end places where the virus has embedded itself will become generators for transmission that will quickly spread beyond those locations. We needed to have the whole adult population vaccinated before moving to end restrictions.

What do you mean by the virus having 'embedded itself'. Wouldn't its transmission in these places you refer to be creating natural immunity over time?
Now the old and the vulnerable are close to full vaccination there is little reason not to de-restrict and permit nature to do its job and raise protection via herd immunity? Particularly now that studies are confirming that having already had the virus provides for a longer period of protection than any current vaccination. But so far, large scale vaccination, far from leading us to normality, has somehow led on to even more restrictions and further curtailment of basic freedoms, as the government has become even more risk-averse and continues to test the acquiescence of the population. So much for Hancock's shouts of "freedom" when in December he publicly announced the arrival of vaccines.

 

[mrb85]

Theres not a single person this hasnt impacted in some way, we have all suffered, all made sacrifices, all lost things, whether thats money, holidays, going to Goodison, even visiting our friends and family, it all counts and it all matters.

We didn't do it for the old, the sick, the ill, the fat, I thought we did it cos thats what we should do as humans, protect other humans.

I know, a silly idea, but I would rather we clung on to the last thing that makes us human and not animals.

Not true. It's easy to identify those who will have suffered (and they are mainly lower income households already struggling with their lives and family responsibilities and who may already have lost their jobs). Also there are many for whom the impact has been negligible (from the purely financial angle I'm thinking of for instance public sector workers who remain on full pay and, for the time being at least, in jobs seemingly not under threat). But there will be many who have been doing very well out of it.

 

[PaulPowersTash]

Labour have been hopeless since 2017.

Labour have been hopeless since 1997.

 

[brieverton]

I truly feel for those people who have not been able to be with their loved ones when they died. It must be the most horrendous thing.

There needs to be extra funding to allow mental and community health services to reach out to people, particularly those unfortunate enough to be in this group.

I listened to a lady on the radio a few nights ago, describing the anguish of being unable to be with her sister in her final moments. She literally said she will have this burden for the reminder of her own life, and doesn't know how she will cope.

There really does need to be targeted and specialist counselling and bereavement support services for these people. The death toll amounts to at least hundreds of thousands of family and friends, who have been directly impacted in this way. Outside of the deaths and long-covid, the psychological impact of this trauma will impact huge numbers of people for a generation.